Matthias Sention Sr.

Matthias Sention Sr. (also spelled Sangins, Sension, Senchion, and later as St. John) (August 9, 1601 – October 19, 1669) was a founding settler of Dorchester, Massachusetts, of Windsor, Connecticut, of Wethersfield, Connecticut and of Norwalk, Connecticut.^[1]

Matthias was the son of Christopher St. John (c. 1581 – June 19, 1629) and Joane (Nee?) St. John. He was the grandson of Thomas St. John, Esquire (1564–1625) and Jane Mathew and great-nephew to Sir William St. John, Knight of Highlight and his wife Eleanor (de Port-St. John) St. John of Lydiard Tregoze. He was the great-grandson of Christopher St. John, Esquire (1547–1616), Lord of Uchel-olau until his death, and his wife Elizabeth Bawdrip.

This St. John family came from a small, now abandoned, feudal village called Uchel-olau (High-light in English), Glamorganshire, Wales. Thomas St. John, Esquire removed to London after he was admitted to Gray's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court in 1577. Mathias' father, Christopher St. John was raised in London no later than 1584 and married about 1600. Matthias appears to be his first born child.

Sir William St. John, Knight his great uncle was a member of the Virginia Company of London and recorded in the early census records of Virginia. Sir William was back and forth between London and Colonial America until Matthias and his uncle Matthew came to America permanently. Sir William was a Vice Admiral in the English Royal Navy and had his own ships. Matthias' occupation as a chandler likely refers to ship chandler a service he probably provided for his great uncle, lord of Uchel-olau. Matthias and his uncle Matthew have been merged into 1 person in the 1907 St. John Genealogy book.