Born ‎1 Jan 1601 at Aylesford, Kent, England, died ‎15 Apr 1686 at Bridgewater, Plymouth Co. MA‎, 85 years
He came to America on the ship Hercules of Sandwich whose captain was John Witherley in the year 1635. source "Thomas Hayward of Bridgewater" US?CAN 929.273H335ha,

Ref: AFN: 8J4G-WC
Ref: New England Families Genealogical and Memorial: Third Series, Vol.III
The Progenitor of this family in America, came form England in the Same vessel with John Ames, and was of Duxbury, Massachusetts, before 1638, where he was made a freeman in 1646.
Thomas was one of the orginal proprietors and among the earliest settlers of the ancient town of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, where he died in 1681.
Ref; Dunham Genealogy English and American Branches of the Dunahm Family

Ref; Mayflower Descendants and their Marriages for two Generations After The Landing.
Parish records indicate Thomas as the son of John Hayward and Elizabeth.

Reference to came to America on the ship "Hercules" in 1635, from, Sandwich, County Kent, England. with five children and three brothers. >From John Howard and His Descendants, Pg. 5.

Ref; Savage, Vol. 2 Dict First Settlers of NE, pg. 219

Ref; Found William Howard- possibile father, Br. abt 1570, England, Died, Aylesford, Kent, England ?

Thomas Hayward was born about 1597 and died Abt. 1678 of Bridgewater.
Thomas Hayward came to Boston in the William and Francis on June 5, 1632. He then returned to Aylesford, England and returned later with his wife and children. (About Towne, Vol. XXII No. 2 June 2002)

"Thomas HAYWARD, tailor, of Aylesford, England, with wife Susannah and 5 children (Thomas, John, Elizabeth, Martha and Susan) on the ship Hercules March 14, 1634. Settled at Cambridge; proprietor 1635-6. Rem. to Duxbury, propr. and purchased 5 Nov 1638. In court 1644. From. 1 Jun 1647. Rem. to Bridgewater. Will dated 29 Jun 1678; yeoman, Sen.; beq. to sons Elisha and Joseph and gr. ch. Joseph." ( Pope, Pioneers of Massachusetts, p. 224)

Thomas Hayward came from England in the same vessel with John Ames and settled in Duxbury before 1638: was an original proprietor, and among the earliest and eldest of the settlers of Bridgewater; he d. 1781: his will dated 1678: no wife living." (Mitchell, Hist. of Bridgewater, MA p 176.) The LDS ancestral file indicates that he m. Susannah, daughter of William Towne but there is a question of any evidence that Susannah Towne was ever in New England. Walter Goodwin Davis has stated that Susannah Towne died without issue.
"Susanna (Towne) Hayward was not a daughter of William and Joanna (Blessing) Towne of
Topsfield. She is incorrectly listed as such on several genealogical websites based on what I
can only surmise to be careless assumption. William and Joanna did have a daughter named
Susan(nah) Towne who was baptized 26 Oct 1625 at the St. Nicholas parish church in Great
Yarmouth, Co. Norfolk, England, however she was very likely the Susannah Towne, "a girl," who
was buried there 29 Jul 1630. Furthermore, there is no mention of William and Joanna's daughter
Susanna after the family immigrated from England to Massachusetts and she is not named among
the heirs of William Towne in the division of his estate.

The Susanna Towne who married Thomas Hayward was born about 1601 in England and was a sister of
the William Towne who was a resident of Cambridge, MA in 1635 (this William Towne was not the
same man as the William Towne of Topsfield). She was possibly the daughter of Peter Towne of
Aylesford, England. In about 1622 Susanna married Thomas Hayward in Aylesford, Co. Kent,
England. Susanna's relationship to the William Towne of Cambridge is substantiated by the fact
that Peter Towne, only son of William Towne of Cambridge, MA, died childless in 1705 and left
his estate to his first cousins who were the five living children of Susanna (Towne) Hayward as
of that date."

The Susannah Towne who married Thomas Hayward was, therefore, a distinctly separate individual
from the Susannah Towne who was the daughter of William and Joanna (Blessing) Towne.
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Thomas Hayward, a Kentish tailor, eventually settled in the new town of Bridgewater, where he became an original proprietor and began to call himself a yeoman ....

Thomas Hayward of Bridgewater possessed (and presumably studied) "Mr. Sheppards book upon the parable of the ten virgins & Mr. Sheppard upon the sincere Convert, Mr. Ralph Allen of the riches of the covenant of grace, also his victory over the world: & doctor pressons of gods alsufficiency & severall other sermons Annexed there unto & Mr. Dod upon the Commandements & Mr Coopers book of Jacobs wrestling with God[,] Mr. Byfield his marrow & his principles," along with a bible and "some other smale books" -- an impressive library indeed for a farmer of modest means.