Killed Strangely: Thomas, Rebecca and Innocent Cornell

An innkeeper who ran afoul of Boston’s authorities, a widow whose death became a murder investigation, and a son condemned after testimony that included an encounter with a ghost: the Cornell family story takes some unexpected turns. Several of our ancestors appear in it—as family members, witnesses, and neighbors.

Thomas Cornell, Sr (ca.1594-1654) was baptized in Fairstead Manor, but moved to the nearby market town of Saffron Walden, Essex, as a young man. He married Rebecca in 1620 and together they had a family of thirteen children. There were relatively older, Thomas about forty four and Rebecca about thirty eight, when they undertook the crossing.  

Thomas arrived in Boston in 1638 with wife Rebecca (1600-1673), traditionally identified as Rebecca Briggs, and eight children ranging in age from infant to fifteen. One child had died in Safroon Walden. They had another five to six children after arrival in the colonies.

The first legal record of Thomas Cornell in the colonies was 20 August 1638 when the Boston Town Meeting  voted to permit Thomas Cornell to buy "William Baulstone's house, yard, and garden" and legally become an inhabitant of the town.

Thomas operated an inn in Boston, but, ran into trouble. After being fined for selling wine without a license, he was ordered to stop his “entertainment” business. He also had connections with the religious dissenters associated with Anne Hutchinson. He pulled up stakes in 1640 and went to Portsmouth, on Aquidneck Island and there, almost immediately, he was accepted as a freeman and given a bit of land.

Thomas was one of the older colonists, but overall financially well off.  Even so, around 1642 the family elected to accompany Anne Hutchinson and other English settlers to move into Dutch-controlled New Netherland, the Mespath area north of New Amsterdam, where Anne settled after her husband died.  

In late August 1643, Indians set fire to the Cornell house and barn - basically leveled the settlement - but the forewarned Cornell family were able to escape.  Anne and six of her children were scalped and killed in the massacre. 

With few remaining resources, Thomas returned to Portsmouth and managed to acquire land and build a substantial house on a hundred-acre grant at the western side of the island.  He was back and forth between Portsmouth and New Amsterdam, accumulating land in the process in both places as well as at Dartmouth, MA.  

Together with Roger Williams he co-founded the village of Westchester north of what is now New York City.  An area bordering Westchester known as Cornell’s Neck later became part of the Bronx.

When Thomas made his will in 1651, he took an unusual measure of leaving his estate to Rebecca and none to his children.  The girls were already married, but why not anything to his sons?  He died in 1655 and lies buried in the Cornell Cemetery Lot behind the original homestead.

Cornell Cemetery Lot, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, designated as a historic cemetery

Rebecca’s brother, John Briggs, was a first settler at Portsmouth and signer of the 1639 Compact of Loyalty.  Quakers arrived in Portsmouth in 1657 after Thomas Sr’s death and Rebecca became Quaker.  She burned to death in a bizarre incident at the house and is buried with Thomas Sr. in the Cornell Cemetery behind the family house.  The original house burned in the late 1800’s and another built on the site operates as The Valley Inn.

Thomas Cornell, Jr (1627-1673), was about eleven when the family arrived in Boston and moved with the family from Boston to Portsmouth to New Amsterdam.

Thomas married twice; his first wife’s identity is unknown but their children included four sons. By 1668, he had married Sarah Earle, daughter of our ancestor Ralph Earle. Thomas, Sarah, and children, moved into the homestead owned by his widowed mother, Rebecca Cornell.

The family returned to Portsmouth just before his first wife died and they moved into the homestead owned by his widowed mother, Rebecca Briggs Cornell. After the wife's death in 1658 he married secondly to Sarah Earle, daughter of our Ralph Earle, in 1660.  

Rebecca’s late husband, Thomas Sr., had  deeded all his land to Rebecca and she in turn parceled out the land to the siblings - except Thomas Jr.  Thomas was to receive the homestead after Rebecca died, but amazingly she lived another 18 years after Thomas Sr’s death, all the while Thomas is farming and caring for the property which he expected to inherit. Thomas Jr, wife Sarah, a number of his children, his man servant and Rebecca were living in the two story house.

Cornell House, destroyed by fire 1889.  Rebecca's room was on first floor just left of entry.

Rebuilt house, now operating as The Valley Inn, photo taken 2013 

On the evening of February 8, 1673, Rebecca remained in her bedchamber while the family ate supper. She had complained earlier of not feeling well and refused to join the family after complaining of not feeling well. Rebecca sat in front of the fire smoking her pipe while the family had dinner. After eating, one of the grandsons went to her room to inquire whether she would like some milk and found his grandmother in flames, so unrecognizable the family thought it to be a drunken Indian.

An ember from the hearth or ashes from her pipe might have ignited her clothing, but precisely how she died is unknown.

The first inquest ruled at the death accidental. Elizabeth Parsons and Mary Walker Earle, two of our ancestors, helped prepare the body for burial. 

Two nights after burial, John Briggs, who referred to Rebecca as his sister, said Rebecca’s ghost appeared to him during the night. According to his testimony, the apparition told him“see how I am burnt by fire!” 

As Briggs was an upstanding citizen - indeed signer of the Compact of Loyalty - and supernatural apparitions could be treated as meaningful evidence, his account raised suspicious about the death.

Rebecca’s body was exhumed and a second examination reportedly found a wound in her abdomen. A second inquest declared her death a homicide.  

White Horse Tavern

Thomas Jr.  was felt to have motive as he had been waiting years for his inheritance of the family homestead. Witnesses described quarrels, resentment, and treatment of Rebecca that today would raise concerns about elder neglect or abuse.

Another of our ancestors, John Pearce, gave a damaging statement that Thomas had said 

"his Mother in her life time had a desire to have a good fire and that he thought God had answered her ends, for now she had it."  

The trial opened in Newport at the White Horse Tavern - now National Register of Historic Places - in May 1673. He pleaded not guilty, but the jury convicted him of murdering his mother. He was hanged on nearby Miantonomi Hill where now sits a World War I Memorial.

His request to the court to be buried beside his mother was denied, but the family was allowed to bury him somewhere on the property, just not within 20 yards of Rebecca.  Thomas Sr. and Rebecca are buried in the Cornell Lot in Portsmouth. 

At the time of Thomas Jr.’s execution Sarah was pregnant. Convinced of her husband’s innocence, the child was named Innocent Cornell (1673-1720). Among her descendants was Lizzie Borden, who would herself be accused of killing members of her family nearly two centuries later.

See Sarah Earle above and Innocent Cornell in previous posts. 

Thomas Sr. is our 10th great grandfather, Thomas Jr. our 9th, and Innocent our 8th great grandmother. Ezra Cornell who co-founded Cornell University in 1865 is a direct descendant of Thomas Cornell, Sr.

Source:  Elaine Forman Crane, Killed Strangely: The Death of Rebecca Cornell, (Cornell University Press, 2002)