Simon Willard was born at Horsmonden, County Kent, England, in 1605; he was baptized in this same town on April 7, 1605. He died at an age of 71 years on April 24, 1676, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He moved from England to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1634. At the time he was a Major in the British Army. Simon Willard is considered a key historical figure in the history of Concord, Massachusetts.[1] [2][3]
He was one of the thirteen heads of families of Concord, MA that signed a petition drafted by Reverend Peter Bulkeley and sent to Governor John Endecott in 1643 in support of Ambrose Martin.
One of his seventeen children was the Puritan divine, Reverend Samuel Willard (1640-1707), a Colonial clergyman who was the minister at Boston's Third Church and acting president of Harvard College[4]
One of Simon Willard's descendants was the celebrated U.S. clockmaker Simon Willard.