NICHOLAS KELLOGG <1>, the first Kellogg whose name is found in the public records of England, was born about 1488, as is shown in his 1548 deposition below.

m. Florence Hall, dau. of William Hall, of Debden, Essex Co., England.

He was buried in Debden, 17 May 1558.

She was buried there, 8 Nov. 1571.

Where he came from, or if his ancestors had lived for many generations in Essex Co., is not known. He was in Debden, and was a witness to the will of William Hall ^[1] (whose daughter he married), 4 Oct. 1515.

In 1525, he and William Kellogg were taxed in the earliest Subsidy Returns for Debden now found. From this time until his death in 1558, his name appears at various times in the tax rolls. The names of all of his children are not known as he did not mention them in his will, and the earliest entries in the parish register are in the year of his death. The Manorial Court Rolls indicate that he had at least two sons, William and Thomas. From the frequency of the name in the registers of Debden, it would seem to have been the home of several Kellogg families, and the similarity of Christian names of Kelloggs in neighboring parishes a generation later, indicates that all were descended from the Debden family.

In searching for Kellogg data there was also brought to light in the Court of Requests (a court of equity for poor persons), in London, a suit against our Nicholas Kellogg, which is interesting from the picture it presents of the customs of the period and shows the first Kellogg we have record of in a not unfavorable light. In the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Henry VIII (1546), Thomas Colain, or Coleman, complains that Nicholas Kellogg, Robert Write and William Gardiner, without either right, or color of title, with force and arms, entered the church house in Debden, which he had occupied for twenty years, and expelled him therefrom, and took certain goods and chattels to the value of £20, and would not allow him to occupy the said messuage, nor deliver to him the said goods and chattels "to the utter impoverishment of said complainant forever, unless your Highness moved with pity, make some order herein." He prays process of Privy Seal against said Kellogg, Write and Gardiner, as "your orater is a very poor man, and not of 'habeylyte' to pursue any suit against them, commanding them to appear in your Grace's Whythall at Westminster, there to make answer to the premises."

This is one side of the case.  In their answer, the defendants say that the said bill of complaint is "most untruly fayned and imagined by the compleynaunt by sinister ayde and maintenance of certain persons" whereof defendants pray to have remedy and advantage. That the messuage mentioned in the bill is the property of the church and that they, as church wardens, did demise and lease 1 June, 38 Henry VIII (1546) for seven years to farm the said messuage to the said Nicholas Kellogg, to hold from the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, then following.  They deny that they took any of the complainant's goods and chattels and say that the said Nicholas Kellogg, at the time of his entry, found divers goods of the complainant, whereof said Kellogg "in the presence of divers of his honest neighbors caused an inventory to be made," and that the said complainant might, and may take and have them without interruption of said defendants or either of them.

And, as a witness that they told the truth, Thomas Nutlake, parson of the parish church, in his deposition, quaintly says: "Forasmuche as it is a dede of charity to testifye the treuth in matters of variances whereby all dowghts and Ambyguytes the reyther may be removyed and the right trowth more playnlye may apere and be knowen, I Thomas Nutlake, parson of the parish churche of Depden … rede a certen copy in wryting of the ordre or decre made in the Kings honorable Curt of his Whithall the last Trinite term in his secunde yere of his most gracious reigne which was upon a Sundaye immediately after hye masse whereas I dyd calle Wyllyam Gardyner and Nycholas Kellogge to here the said wryting redde. … And the said partys answeryd thay would delyver the sayd goods and the twysdaye next after they desired me to go with them and to meet said Coleman and to deliver said goods, and that day said Coleman did not come while I was there."

And to completely demolish Colman's case we have the testimony of our first Kellogg: "Xvi die Novembris l'I Anno 2 Edward VI (A. D. 1548), Nicholas Kelhoge of age of three score saith upon his othe that he was ready at the coming of Colman and would have delyvered the goods demanded but he could get no rowme to put theym notwithstandyng that he requyred the parson ther to have had a rowme to put the goodes but the parson sayd that he was a besy (mischief maker) he shuld have noo house ther.”

The descent of property from William Hall to the son and great grandson of Nicholas Kellogg may be traced by the wills of William and Alice Kellogg and the rolls of the Manorial Court of Debden.

Children:

WILLIAM <1.2a>, eldest son, b. ---; m. Alice ---.

THOMAS <1.2b>, probably younger son, b.---; m. ---; resided in Debden.