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Quaker Genes: The Quakening, Part 1: Founding the Friends, featuring George Fox and Mary Fisher
As with many political movements, the reformers become the tyrants once they reach a certain level of power. Even in the fledgling days of the United States of America, men who had filled Boston Harbor full of tea to protest a tax on tea, and fought a war to free themselves from the “tyranny of…
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Cowboy Genes: Not Since You Got Hit By That There Train: James Sherman Smith
So a few years ago I was contacted by a descendant of Ora Alice May. She was confused that my James Sherman Smith and her James Sherman Smith seemed to be the same. The problem was, her James Sherman Smith was “killed by a train” in 1885. Ora Alice May was the daughter of John…
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New England Genes: Anne Marbury Hutchinson Part 5: The Founding of Newport and Massacre in the Bronx, featuring John Throckmorton
Anne Hutchinson was very ill after her incarceration in the Weld house. Yet, the likes of Winthrop and Dudley had little compassion for her. The harsh winter was coming to an end. People wanted to get out of their houses, so it was time for a show trial. Most of Anne’s family were gone to…
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New England Genes: Anne Marbury Hutchinson Part 4: If You Can’t Join ’em, Beat ’em: The Founding of Portsmouth, featuring John Coggeshall
As a Magistrate of Boston, William Coddington was forced to take part in the trial of Anne Hutchinson. He defended her as best he could, but Coddington could see the writing was already on the wall, so he tried shaming Anne’s accusers. Shaming the court was a dangerous tactic, and ineffective, but perhaps Coddington knew…
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New England Genes: Anne Marbury Hutchinson Part 3: William Coddington, a Powerful Ally
William Coddington was only eighteen when his father died. He was to inherit his father’s wealth and his mother’s land in Marston, but Coddington’s separatist leanings led him to Boston, Lincolnshire, where he joined the House of Burgesses. Coddington soon found himself in league with other men of import from Lincolnshire who made a stand…
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New England Genes: Roger Williams, Banned in Boston Part 2
Continued from Part 1 It seemed banishment was unlikely to stop the pugnacious Roger Williams, so a scheme was hatched to kidnap him and place him on a ship back to England where he would surely be imprisoned, if not executed, once they explained his crimes to the King. His old friend John Winthrop, who…
Anne Hutchinson Boston Bridget Dryden Bronx Catherine Marbury Christopher Holder Friends genealogy George Fox Griffin Henry Howland Crapo Henry Vane history John Clarke John Coggeshall John Cotton John Endecott John Throckmorton John Wheelwright John Winthrop Joseph Weld King Charles Mary Dyer Mary Scott Massachusetts Bay Company Mayflower New England Newport Portsmouth Providence Providence Plantations Puritans Quaker Quakers Rhode Island Richard Nixon Richard Scott Robert Fowler Robert J. Allison Roger Williams Salem Wampage William Coddington William Dyer William Hutchinson