John and his wife Jane are said to have left London in April 1632 in the ship James and to have reached Lynn, Massachusetts, some eight weeks later where they settled. John died there five years later and in the Lynn records there is an entry noting that in 1638 100 acres of land were granted to widow Bancroft.

The English records of John's and Jane's emigration spell their surname "Barcrofte", a name which is to be found in English records of the period but not, according to James Savage, in those of New England. Savage does, however, quote one occasion when he came across that spelling, this involved a John Barcrofte entering into recognisances of £40, with a Samuel Maverick giving surety of £20, on condition that Jane, his wife, should be of good behaviour. Savage adds that the index to the records where this surety is noted, spell John's surname Bancrofte, so Bancroft or Bancrofte was probably the recognised form of spelling when the index was compiled. In passing, it is interesting to speculate what Jane had been doing to offend puritanical sensibilities that required her husband to guarantee her good behaviour in such a way!

There is no firm evidence of John's English descent but the family held the belief in the C19th that John's family had come from Durham. There is also a theory that he may have been descended from Thomas Bancroft of Swarston or Swarkestone, a village near Derby on the River Trent. ⁴

John married Jane.

  Marriage Notes:

19th century compilers of data about the early settlers in America differ about the number of children that John and Jane had. James Savage names two sons: John and Thomas; Royal Hinman states that they had three sons: John, Thomas and Ebenezer.

Furthermore, whether the John Bancroft who married Hannah Draper was their son or one of their grandsons has not been established. Hinman says "perhaps son of John of Lynn"; Savage makes no connection. However, for the purposes of this family history, John Bancroft of Windsor has been assumed to be the son of John and Jane — certainly, his dates make that possible. ^{2 5}