The name of Comfort Starr's wife does not appear in the parish records of St. Mary's, Ashford, where nine of Comfort's children were baptized. Nor is it known when and where they were married, or where Dr. Comfort Starr had his training as a physician and surgeon. The records of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at London do not go back to that period. If he had his training under the famous Dr. William Harvey (1578-1657), a native of Kent, there is no proof of it.
The earliest record of Dr. Comfort Starr as a "chirurgeon" (surgeon) is found in a certificate dated 27 July 1613 where he was surety for a marriage. For 20 years he practiced his profession at Ashford. In 1631 he was a warden of St. Mary's Church, Ashford, and in 1632 the wardens voted "that Comfort Starr should lend to Jon Langford the sum of twelve pounds on security of his house, it being copy-hold." In 1634 Dr. Comfort Starr was one of a "committie to make repairs on St. Mary's Church."
The Starr family owned real estate not only at Eshitisford (Ashford), but in the nearby village of Willsborough, county Kent. Aside from his real estate in New England, Dr. Comfort Starr always retained possession of his old homestead at Ashford, county Kent, England, where he lived before 1635.
Brother Comfort Starr of Boston in New England received land in Kent for his life by the will of Jehosaphat Starr of Canterbury dated 2 February 1659.
From the records of Sandwich, county Kent, England:
Yearbooks C&D, 1608-1642. "A list of all such persons as imbarqued themselves in the good shipp called the Hercules of Sandwich of the burthen of 200 tonnes or thereabouts whereof next under God John Witherley was master and therein transported from this town and port of Sandwich to the plantacon called New England in America together with a brief note of the certificates from the ministers where they have dwelt of their conversation & Conformity to the orders and discipline of the Church, and that they had taken the oath of Allegeance & Supremacy according to an order of the Lds of his Mata Most Noble privie counsell of the last of December 1634. Videlt ... Cert: Edm Hayes Vicar of Ashford in Kent 21 Mc, John Honnywood, Thos Godfrey Justices: Comfort Starre of Ashford in Kent Chirurgeon. children: Thomas/Comfort/Mary. servants: Saml Dunkin/John Turkey/Truth shall prevail Starre."
In the early summer of 1635 the ship Hercules reached Boston and sailed up the Charles River to the town wharf at Newtowne (later Cambridge). Soon after his arrival in New England, Dr. Comfort Starr "of Newtowne in Mattachusetts Bay," brought suit against William Hatch of Scituate for a debt of £39; the General Court of Plymouth Colony on 3 January 1636/1637 found for Dr. Comfort Starr in the sum of £26 9s 3d damages and costs of court. He also sued Nathaniel Tilden of Scituate; that issue was "referred to arbitration."
In the town records of Cambridge (Newtowne) of 8 February 1635/1636, Mr. Comfort Starr, with 3 parcels of real estate, is fifth on the list, between the names of Thomas Hooker and James Olmstead. He appears to have bought the original home from William Pantry. Dr. Comfort Starr relied on unrecorded deeds for his titles in England, and none of his purchases and sales of real estate in Massachusetts Bay Colony are recorded in town or county records.
Dr. Comfort Starr was not "of the congregation" at Newtowne. Formerly a churchwarden of the Established Church at Ashford, both he and his eldest son, Dr. Thomas Starr, were more Cavaliers than Puritans. Ballou presumes dislike of the theocratic oligarchy of Massachusetts Bay Colony prompted the family's move to the southern part of Duxbury in Plymouth colony. Later they returned to the Bay.
On 19 June 1638 Dr. Comfort Starr bought from Jonathan Brewster (son of Elder William Brewster) for £150 sterling, his large homestead at South Duxbury in Plymouth Colony. The estate extended about a mile along Kingston Bay. In the deed, Brewster modestly described it as his "dwelling house." Seventeen years later when Dr. Comfort Starr's son, John Starr, sold it to Christopher Wadsworth, he described it as his "mantion house".
When the new College (Harvard), the first in New England, was established at Newtowne, it may have been in the house which Dr. Comfort Starr owned and occupied. It is believed that the first master of the College, Nathaniel Eaton (younger brother of Theophilus Eaton), moved from Charlestown to the Pantry-Starr home about 9 June 1638; instruction in the new college began there September 1638.
On the list of men between the ages of 16 and 60, able to bear arms in the town of Duxbury in August 1643, appears the name of Mr. Comfort Starr, his son John Starr, and Dr. Comfort Starr's two sons-in-law, John Maynard and John Ferniside (Farniseide). Soon after, both Maynard and Ferniside appear in the Boston town records.
No record is found to show when Dr. Comfort Starr conveyed his Duxbury homestead to his youngest son, John Starr; probably it was between 1643 and 1645, for in 1645 the grant of the original township of Bridgewater to the "inhabitants of Duxbury" was made to 54 persons, and John Starr appears as an original grantee, but not Dr. Comfort Starr. In a deed of gift 27 October 1647 Dr. Comfort Starr gave to his son-in-law John Maynard 22 acres lying in Duxbury.
Dr. Starr continued his practice of medicine in Plymouth Colony. In 1657 the doctor filed a court suit, and received payment from John Williams "for severall journies, attendance, phisicks and surgery care, and skill in the applying of medcens externally ... his wife being greiviously afflicted with a desperate dangerouse sore on her left thigh or hipp which had been some years in breeding..." Dr. Starr also maintained a Boston residence during his later years and died there 2 Jan 1659 when he was probably about 70 years old.
Dr. Comfort Starr and wife Elizabeth lived in the section of the North End of Boston extending along the highway (then unnamed) from the Cove to the Charlestown Ferry on the northerly border of the Mill Pond. Several of his children also lived there, including John and Mary (Starr) Maynard with their five daughters, John and Elizabeth (Starr) Ferniside with their children, John and Martha (Bunker) Starr, Symon and Lydia (Starr) Eyre, and Joseph and Ruth (Starr) Moore.
The will of Dr. Comfort Starr of Boston is dated 22 April 1659. On 2 February 1659/1660 Richard Taylor and William Reade deposed before the Court as witnesses. Inventory amounted to £363.05.08. His oldest surviving son, Rev. Comfort Starr was settled at Carlisle, county Cumberland, in England, so the younger brother, John of Boston, was named executor of his father's will. Besides bequests to John and his three children, he gives to five daughters of daughter Maynard deceased £10 each at age 16; children of son Thomas deceased £10 at age 18, and an additional legacy to the four youngest of them; grandchild Simon Eyre £6 per annum until age 18 to "help him to learning in the tongues"; to daughter Elizabeth Ferniside, wife of John, a bequest to be divided between her three children; to daughter Hannah, if she come to New England, a piece of plate; all his debts in Old England and £50 out of his rents in Ashford (he spelled it Eshitisford) to son Comfort and his heirs, plus the house and land at Ashford; to daughter Elizabeth the land on which her present house is built, from the highway back to the mill pond; to daughter-in-law, widow of Thomas.
A tablet in St. Dunstan's church, Cranbrook reads: A.M.D.G. / IHS / In Memory of / Dr. Comfort Starr / Baptized in Cranbrook Church, 6th July, 1589 / A Warden of St. Marys, Ashford, Kent, 1631 & 1632 / Sailed from Sandwich for New England, 1635 / One of the Earliest Benefactors of / Harvard, the First College in America, 1638 / of which His Son Comfort was One of 7 incorporators, 1650 / Died at Boston, New England, 2d January, 1659 / A Distinguished Surgeon Eminent for Christian Character / Erected by His American Descendants / 1909.
Dr. Comfort Starr and his wife Elizabeth were buried in King's Chapel burial ground, Boston, and there a memorial stone, of antique design, was dedicated 24 August 1905.
Children
1. Mary Starr b: Bef 16 Apr 1620 in Ashford, Kent, England
2. Elizabeth Starr b: 1621 in Ashford, Kent, England c: 3 Jun 1622 in Ashford, Kent, England
3. Judith Starr b: Bef 11 Jan 1617 in Ashford, Kent, England
4. Thomas Starr b: 31 Dec 1615 in Ashford, Kent, England
5. Comfort Starr c: 11 Apr 1624 in Ashford, Kent, England
6. John Starr c: 25 Oct 1626 in Ashford, Kent, England
7. Samuel Starr b: in Ashford, Kent, England c: 2 Mar 1629 in Ashford, Kent, England
8. Hannah Starr c: 22 Jul 1632 in Ashford, Kent, England
9. Lydia Starr c: 22 Mar 1634 in Ashford (St. Mary's Church), County Kent, England
10. Ruth Starr b: Abt 1637 in Newtown (now Cambridge), Massachusetts Bay Colony
Comfort Starr 
