Category: New England Genealogy
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Florida Genes: Florida Settlers with Pilgrim Ancestry? Edward Church Howland
Like most Gen Xers, I had a job after school. Minimum wage was only $3.25, so it was very cost effective to hire teenagers back then. Good for small businesses and good for teens if you ask me, but I digress. I took a job working at a grocery/hardware store and lumber yard called Howland’s.…
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The Quakening, Part 6: The Martyrdom of Mary Dyer
Christopher Holder and his would-be savior Samuel Shattuck (my 10th GGF) were imprisoned and interrogated in Boston after the Salem incident (see our previous blog post). Also imprisoned were Holder’s companions Richard Doudney, who had accompanied Holder on the Woodhouse, and another named John Copeland. We have yet to mention Copeland, but be assured he…
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The Quakening, Part 5: The Mutilation of Christopher Holder, featuring Samuel Shattuck
Christopher Holder began teaching the tenets of George Fox from nearly the moment he stepped off the Woodhouse in Newport. He found resistance from some, including the Rev. Roger Williams, who was now Governor Williams. Introduced to Catherine Marbury Scott and her husband Richard Scott, Holder was to make his first converts. Catherine Scott was…
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Quaker Genes: The Quakening, Part 4, featuring Daniel Gould
Mary Dyer disembarked from the Woodhouse to find things much changed in Newport. There was new construction everywhere, including the mooring dock on which she stood. Word of their arrival electrified Newport Town, and before long Mary could see her husband striding towards her, trying his very best not to break into a run. BTW,…
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Quaker Genes: The Quakening, Part 3 featuring Robert Fowler, Mary Dyer, and the Monster
My 9th Great-grandfather Rev. Christopher Fowler was born in 1611. He was a minister of the Church of England and a fellow at Eton College, but he was removed from both for “scandalous” behavior. He was said to have “used odd gestures and antic behavior from the pulpit” (Chalmers’ General Biographical Dictionary Vol. 15, p.…
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Quaker Genes: The Quakening, Part 2, featuring Richard Scott and Christopher Holder
Roger Williams is famously given credit for establishing the first English settlement in Rhode Island. But, according to the 1906 book Richard Scott and His Wife Catharine Marbury by Stephen F. Peckham, it was Scott who created the first settlement in what is now Lonsdale, Rhode Island, on the Blackstone River. Rev. William Blackstone (see…
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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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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…