Our Portsmouth Bailey Family, and Then There Were Ñone

Twelve ancestor families settled this land virginal to Europeans, and started an American experiment of religious freedom and separation of church and state. By 1712, second and third generations had left the island for the mainland or relinquished their surnames by marriage into another family line.* They left behind a few from the elder generations who died in Portsmouth, including John Borden (died 1716), Mary Earle Corey (died 1717), George Brownell and Mary Walker Earle (died 1718), and the last remaining grandparent ancestor on the island, Susanna Pearce Brownell who died in 1743. From the time of the first colonists in 1638 until then, they had greatly multiplied, accumulated property and wealth, built farms, lived through Indian Wars, and experienced tragedies. 

The last of our Aquidneck Island families to immigrate who came to roost in Rhode Island in the early 1650’s - the Bailey family.  

The Bailey Family

William Bailey, Sr. is shrouded in mystery and misinformation, though he is mentioned by various sources as the head of the family that came to Rhode Island.  Family tradition says he was a silk ribbon weaver in London.  The 1894 Records of the Bailey family, descendants of William Bailey of Newport, RI, states William Bailey, Sr., bought land in Newport in 1655 “partly bounded by the sea” and sold 20 acres in 1656 to a man from Portsmouth.  Otherwise, there are no records of this man.  This same book, however, lists him as married to our Grace Parsons who is actually the wife of a younger William Bailey, our tenth great-grandfather. The confusion comes about as the records clearly state a William Bailey, Sr., bought the Newport land in 1655 implying there was a Jr. there at the same time.

It is more probable that the William Bailey Sr. who bought the land and our tenth GGF William Bailey - referred to in Ancestry as William Bailey, Jr. - are one and the same.  There is no crumb trail of immigration ship, birth, marriage or death records telling us when this family may have arrived or where they were living before coming to Portsmouth/Newport.  A number of English Bailey immigrants arrived in New England in the 1630’s and 40’s, but none have been tied with certainty to our William. Further, there are no other Baileys in early Portsmouth/Newport colonial history which would be expected if a Bailey family arrived in those early times.

Generation One

William Bailey (abt 1631- abt 1670) arrived at the Colonies as a single young man about age 22, with or without a William Sr., and married our Grace Parsons in Portsmouth around 1653. He and Grace resided in the Middletown area of Aquidneck with property bounding on the Parsons and Thomas Lawton farms. 

William died at about age 39 leaving five minor children and no will which might indicate his death was unexpected.  His burial is unknown.

William and Grace had five sons:

• John Bailey (1653-1736) married a Miss Sutton and remained on the family land in Portsmouth.
• Hugh (1654-1724), sixteen years old when his father died in 1670, was taken into the custody of his grandfather, Hugh Parsons.  The elder Parsons left Hugh all of his land, house, belongs, a bequest that left his mother Grace without means of support and likely led to her situation as a reluctant wife in her second marriage.  Hugh married twice with 8 children from his first marriage and died soon after his second marriage in East Greenwich on land given to him by his grandfather Parsons. He is buried in the Hugh Bailey Lot on his land.  Hugh also died without a will leaving  young children who were appointed guardians by the town.
• Stephen Bailey (1665-1724) married Susanna, both buried in Newport Cemetery.
• Joseph Bailey, lived in Newport, no other information.
• Edward Bailey ( -1712), married, had 4 children and lived in Newport and Tiverton.

Generation Two

John Bailey (1653-1736) was born and raised in Portsmouth.  At about 28, he married a woman with last name Sutton (1660-1709).  The rest of her name and from which Sutton family are unknown.  Indeed, her first name was possibly Sutton. Her grave stone is marked only with “Sutton.”  

John owned lands in Newport, Middletown and Tiverton. Remember Middleton is the middle of Aquidneck Island, with Portsmouth town in the north and Newport the south side of the island.  He moved to Middletown about 1682 when he purchased 50 acres and a building. His will indicates property that would be used on a dairy farm. John and wife Sutton had 12 children over a span of 20 years. He died at age 83, she at 69, and they are buried on his farm in the Old Bailey Cemetery, Berkeley Ave. in Middletown, RI.  

John’s will in 1733 indicates he was considerably well-to-do with substantial agricultural land holdings in the Newport-Portsmouth area and Little Compton which he distributed to sons and grandsons, even those under age. His will left two 18 acres lots in Little Compton to each of his grandsons as well as his eldest son, William Sr. The remainder of the Little Compton lands went to his son Thomas who was already working the farms there, described as “uplands, salt meadows, and ledges.” The Newport farm went to the eldest son, John Jr. Son, Samuel, received half of his land in Portsmouth he had purchased from Thomas Cornell, another of our ancestor grandfathers. Reflective of the time, his two youngest daughters received only £5 each and some household goods.

The opening of his will was beyond the usual “being of sound mind and body”:

 In The Name of God Amen, I John Bailey of Newport in ye Collony of Rhoad Island and Providence Plantations In New England yeoman Being in Good health of Body and of a Perfect Sound Diposing mind memory and understanding Praised Be the Lord Therefore Considering Ye Uncertainty of this my Naturall Life and the Necessity of Settling this my Temporal Estate In Order to my Great Change when It shall please the Lord to Call me hence Do make and ordain this my Last Will and Testament (That is to Say) Principally and first of all I give and Recommend my Soul unto the Hands of My Creator hopeing for the Sake and upon the account of the Sole merits of Jesus Christ my only Saviour & Redeemer to Be Everlastingly Saved and my Body I Commit to the Earth therein to Be Decently Buried at the Discretion of My Executor Herein after nominated. And As to that Temporal Estate it Hath Pleased the Lord to Bless me with in this Life after all my Just Debts and funerall Expences are Honestly paid and Discharged I Give Devise and Dispose of the Same as followeth.

The will also reached beyond the grave anticipating squabbles among the children over his estate:

I Give all the Remaining Part of Personall Estate undisposed of unto my Son Thomas Bailey and for the Preventing all Differences which may happen to arise amongst my Children or Grand Children Concerning my Estate or ye Estate by my Daughter Ruth Late Deceased Do therefore further Declare my Mind and It Is my Will that If any of the Legatees Herein Before named, Children or Grand Children will not Conform to and Rest Satisfied with my manner of Disposeing, ordering or Giving the Same that then & In Such Case the Portion of Legacy of Him, Her or they that shall move any Suit In Law or Disturbance Shall Revert to my Executor to Enable Him the Better to Defend ye other Part of my Estate against Such Suit or Disturbance.

Generation Three

Being several sons down the line for inheritance, Lt. Thomas Bailey (1690-1740) went to his father’s land in Little Compton across the Sakonnet River and just south of Fall River and Tiverton. Little Compton belonged to Massachusetts until incorporated into Rhode Island in 1747. His older brother, William, had already settled onto farmland nearby. Thomas was living in Little Compton by 1712, age 22 - and perhaps earlier - when he married Mary Wood (1691-1745). Hers was the John and Mary Wood family who lost 6 children within 8 days in 1712. She is our Richard Warren Mayflower descendant link.

Mary and Thomas had ten children between 1713 and 1733, all born in Little Compton. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, Little Compton was a modest, sparsely settled agricultural community with a population of just over 600. Little Compton Families says Thomas was the richest man in town at the time. The Thomas and Mary family lived in an early 1700’s home built in the center chimney style, still standing at 14 Grinnell Road.

Thomas Bailey House in Little Compton
Built about 1700, now in an exclusive neighborhood

Thomas died in 1740 at age 50 and Mary in 1745, age 54. Both are buried in the historic Little Compton Old Commons Ground behind the Congregational Church. In his will, he gave his wife and daughter, both named Mary, each half of the household goods and use of the best room in the house.  The sons received various amounts of money, land, cows, horses.  He had lands at Freetown with saw, grist, and fulling mills that he gave to a son, Oliver.

Lt. Thomas Bailey Headstone
Old Commons Burying Ground, Little Compton, RI

The Bailey Brook Farm in East Greenwich, RI was founded in 1677, likely by his his brother, Hugh. Listed on the National Historic Register, the property is still operated by the Bailey family as a dairy farm, 2068 South County Trail, East Greenwich, RI, 4 miles out of Providence.  

Another Bailey Farm is located on the island at 373 Wyatt Road, Middletown, RI, owned by the Bailey family until the 19th century. The farm has been reduced from more than 100 acres to about 45 acres, and the Old Bailey Lot Cemetery is nearby, likely once on the original farm.

The Historic Bailey Farm, Middletown, RI

William Bailey is our tenth and Lt. Thomas Bailey our ninth great-grandfather.

Lt Thomas’ son, Thomas Bailey, Jr. is a Revolution patriot, held prisoner in 1776 on the English prison ship, “Lord Sandwich” in New York. Another generation down the line in Little Compton, an 8th great-grand mother married into the Hathaway family. More to come on these families when we look at our Little Compton families.

Migration map:  Portsmouth/Newport, Fall River, Tiverton, Little Compton, Freetown

*Last death or immigration of the Aquidneck families

Bailey

Lt. Thomas Bailey moved to Little Compton by 1712

Borden

Richard Borden moved to Fall River before 1694

John died in Portsmouth in 1716

Joseph moved to Freetown in 1712

Brownell

George Brownell died in Portsmouth in 1718

Sarah Brownell Borden moved to Freetown between 1709 and 1712

Cornell

Innocent Brownell Borden moved to Tiverton before 1694

Cooke

Thomas Cooke moved to Tiverton by 1698

Corey

Mary Corey Cooke moved to Tiverton by 1698

Earle

Mary Earle Corey died in Portsmouth in 1717

Martha Earle Wood died in Portsmouth in 1696

Sarah Earle Cornell moved to Tiverton by 1681

Parsons

Grace Parsons Bailey Lawton died in Newport in 1677

Pearce

Susannah Pearce Brownell died in Portsmouth in 1743

Shearman

Philipa Shearman Chase moved to Freetown in 1672

Walker

Mary Walker Earle died in Portsmouth in 1718

Wood

William Wood moved to Dartmouth in 1667

Lt. John Wood moved to Little Compton by 1681

The Portsmouth Parsons Family: A Reluctant Wife, or was she?

The two decades of the Great Migration (1620-1640) had passed when England was in the midst of their English Civil War (1642-1651), a clash between the Royalists who supported Charles I and the Parliamentarians, when the last of our Portsmouth families crossed the Pond. The Parsons and Baileys were in Rhode Island by 1653 when Hugh Parson's daughter, Grace, married William Bailey, Jr.

11th great-grandfather Hugh Parsons (1613-1684) has no direct evidence for origin or birth, but he was likely born in England around 1613. Nor does he have a definitive immigration record. Three contemporary Hugh Parsons were in the New England area at the time, one of whom was tried in Boston for witchcraft in 1652.

Although the Parsons were in Aquidneck by Grace's marriage in 1653, Hugh first showed up in Portsmouth records in 1658 when he was on jury duty, and later in 1662 as constable, 1663 as a freeman, 1667 enlisting in a troop of horse, and 1673 testifying in the Thomas Cornell murder trial. 

There is a great deal of confusion around when Hugh married his first wife with whom he had daughters, 10th great-grandmother Grace and her sister Hannah.  

The usually reliable Torrey New England Marriages for the Portsmouth Hugh Parsons lists Hugh’s marriage to Elizabeth England, widow of Wm, about 1635-1640 or after 1641, Portsmouth, but no note what the Portsmouth location means. Hugh was likely not in Portsmouth this early or he would have shown up in some town records. His marriage to Elizabeth, origins unknown, was before the 1635 birth of Grace.

By 1662, Hugh married second wife, also Elizabeth (1613-after 1684), widow of John Wood living on land adjoining Hugh’s in Portsmouth. John Wood died in 1655, so it makes sense that the widower Hugh married the widow Elizabeth, and that Hugh’s two daughters, Grace and Hannah, were born to a previous wife. Second wife Elizabeth helped prepare the corpse of Rebecca Briggs Cornell (the Killed Strangely) for burial. Both she and Hugh testified at the Thomas Cornell’s murder trial in 1673. 

Hugh died in 1684 at about age 70. His burial is unknown, likely on his land. With only two daughters, this was the end of the Portsmouth male Parsons line. Hugh's will left his land and buildings to his grandson Hugh Bailey, son of Grace.

Daughter Hannah married first Henry Matteson in 1670  and they had two children, Henry and Hannah - that had to be confusing around the dinner table. Her second marriage to Charles Hazleton of Kings  Town, RI, in 1693 produced no children. She died the year after her father, Hugh.

Grace Parsons (c.1634-1677) was most likely born in England before the family immigrated; her birth estimate is based on her marriage year in 1653. She married William Bailey, Jr. (1634-1670) from an adjoining Portsmouth farm in about 1653 and they had five children, all sons. 

In 1661, husband William and a neighbor, Thomas Lawton, agreed that William would have 60 acres of Lawton’s farm in a hunting swamp lying on one side of the farm on which Hugh Parsons lived. We know, then, that Parsons, Lawton, and Bailey were all in the same neighborhood. The agreement goes on to say that William would have the land for his lifetime and, if Grace kept herself a widow after William's death, then she was also to have it for the full term of Thomas Lawton’s life and three years afterward. It appears to be an odd arrangement in which Lawton sells the land to Bailey, but with conditions which also included upkeep of the property and that William was not allowed to resell the land, so this wasn’t just a lease. More of this in a minute.

Grace was about 35 years old when husband William died in 1670 and she married, secondly, Thomas Lawton from an adjoining farm who had sold/leased land to William. Thomas was about the same age as Grace’s father, around 60 years old.  

George Lawton Farmstead in Lawton's Valley, Portsmouth

Thomas Lawton and his brother George were signers of the Portsmouth Compact in 1638 and early settlers in Portsmouth so they both had substantial land from grants. Thomas and George had land adjoining each other in Portsmouth, now known as Lawton’s Valley, and George's original historic farm house is still standing. George was an overseer of Hugh's will in 1684. 

Was Grace forced into an arrangement with the elderly Thomas Lawton in order to save the property for which first husband William made conditional arrangements in 1661? Were Lawton and Grace's father, Hugh, complicit in the arrangement?

Things were clearly not going well for Grace at this point. 

In June 1674 Thomas Lawton drew up his will which starts out with “I do hereby declare that although Grace have not behaved herself towards me as a wife ought to do towards a husband, yet for the manifestation of my care of her, I do hereby give, bequeath unto her all the goods that are yet remaining in my custody of those that were hers when I married her and also one good feather bed and bolster; also 12 pounds per annum for life in lieu of all right she has.”

In June 1676, town records show that Grace “having presented her many grievances to the town often, and to the Assembly several times, for due and sufficient maintenance, she being much neglected in her husband’s absence; it was therefore ordered by the Assembly that 6 shillings per week in silver be paid her or her order during her life, or until her said husband Thomas Lawton shall come himself, or maintain her. During his absence or neglect, the said sum of 6 shillings per week shall be paid by his agent Daniel Lawton (Thomas’ 22 year-old son), and an Inventory of moveable goods in her custody be taken, which inventory Daniel Lawton shall have. Grace to have the privilege of chamber she is now possessed of, and use of necessary movables, and the rights of her or any of her children now or in the future to any estate are not cut off.

In April 1677, town records show Thomas Lawton made agreement with 23 year-old stepson John Bailey whereby Grace, “the present wife of Thomas Lawton,” should receive 10 pounds per year from John Bailey, and Elizabeth Shearman, daughter of Thomas Lawton, should have 3 pounds/year. In consideration of these, John Bailey was to have lease of the dwelling house, land, and orchard for term of time Grace lived without changing her name by marriage. The term of tenancy not to expire until one year after death or marriage of Grace. On the same date, he sold John Bailey all his household goods except a bedstead, chairs, etc.

Grace died the same year at age 42. We can only speculate on the cause of death. Her burial is unknown.

Grace and William’s second son, John Bailey (1653-1736), continued our ancestry in the Bailey line.

Addendum: The following was kindly added by a commenter:

Acquitals rooted in legal technicalities appear in five other Rhode Island sexual misconduct trials. Grace Bailey Lawton committed adultery in 1670 with Thomas Lawton, while still married to William Bailey. Bailey appears to have then divorced his wife as Grace married Lawton while Bailey was still alive, although therre is no record of the divorce. Grace married Thomas early in 1671 and was tried for adultery on October 18, 1671. Circumstanial evidence did not play in Grace's favor, particularly since she was now married to the man with whom she was accused of having an adulterous affair. Unsurprisingly, both jury and justices found her guilty. However, her attorney "declar[ed] that there was a failer in the Testimony" and the court ordered her acquitted. The other four trials were all fornication trials. . . . None of the Rhode Island court records preserve the details of these trials and it is impossible to know exactly how these acquitals were accomplished.

The Pearce Family: Sorting Fact and Fiction

Richard Pearce’s brother, Captain William Pearce, was Master of the ship Desire that brought our grandparent ancestors Richard (1590-1666) and Martha (1593-1662), and at least some of their children from England to Boston in 1638. William, a celebrated mariner, was killed by the Spanish while transporting settlers in 1641 as they approached Providence Island in the Bahamas. He had already been sailing to and from the colonies for several years before bringing Richard’s family to Boston.  William was Master of the Anne that brought families of the first Pilgrims to Plymouth Colony in 1623.

No good evidence exists for the popular myth that our Pearces were from the powerful Northumberland Percy family involved in the Gunpowder Plot in 1604, although origins of our Pearces may have been connected to the Northumberland Percys at some point in time. The family had multitudinous ways to spell the name - Piers, Peirse, Percy, Pearcy, etc...

Our Pearce family had an annoying habit of naming the first born sons Richard. Not only that, but the siblings of our Richards would have a Richard offspring - they loved the name Richard. One wonders whether the Pearce/Percy family genealogy lineage might be valid when it says our immigrant Richard Pearce is the great grandson of the Peter Percy of Northumberland, standard bearer to Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 during the War of the Roses. This Peter Percy named a son Richard, and every generation thereafter had a Richard.

A confused genealogy of the Pearce family written in 1888, though, makes connections without documented substance, and we can’t be sure of much of the information on the early Pearces before Portsmouth.  For example, the book claims the Pearces came over in 1638 on the ship Lyon, ignoring the fact the Lyon, albeit captained by William Pearce, hit a reef and sunk in 1632. This 19th century genealogy draws conclusions about Pearce-Percy lineage that simply may not be true - or they may. 

We don’t know for sure where our Pearces were until they show up in Portsmouth records in the 1650’s, but they may have been in Salem, MA. A Richard Piers mentioned in Portsmouth town records in 1651 is likely one of our Richards, and the name Richard Pearce begins to show with some regularity in 1657. No record exists in Portsmouth for wife Martha, and she may have died before the family moved here.

It appears most of Richard and Martha’s adult children remained in the Salem/Boston area. We know that Richard Sr., Richard Jr., younger Richard’s wife Susannah, and her father George Wright, came to the Portsmouth/Newport area. Oldest son, John, died in Boston in 1661. There are no records in Portsmouth of the other six children.

Richard Pearce, Jr. (1615-1678) married Susannah Wright (1627- before 1678 ) from Waltham Abbey. There is conflicting information whether Richard married Susannah in Waltham Abbey, Salem, or Newport, RI in 1642. More likely, Richard Jr. came with the rest of the family in 1638, already married or he married Susannah in the Salem/Boston area. Susannah is believed to be daughter of George Wright of Newport who also previously lived in Salem. 

Richard, Jr. stabbed a Walter Lettice in Newport in 1649, but we have no information on what happened as a result. Clearly, he wasn’t hanged so perhaps it was self defense.

Richard, Jr. named freeman of Portsmouth in 1669 may have been actually a Richard Pearce III.

Faithfully following the guide of primogeniture, Richard Jr.'s will left the house, land, fencings, orchard and swamps, oxen, cart, etc... to his oldest son, also named Richard, and to the other 10 children he left ONE SHILLING EACH! Was he cash poor, or were only those named Richard deserving?

Richard and Susannah had 11 children. Eldest son Richard, moved to Bristol, RI; Giles became a grantee in East Greenwich, RI, in 1678; George moved his family across the bay to Little Compton; John bought land and was one of the incorporators of Tiverton, RI. Daughter Martha, married Mahershalalhashbaz Dyer. That’s right, Mahershalalhashbaz. Evidently, these families sometimes got carried away with Biblical names, and this one comes from Isaiah - "Moreover the Lord said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hashbaz.” Martha lived to be almost 100 years old, quite a feat in those times.

The burial site for Richard and Susannah is unknown.

Susannah Pearce (1652-1743), daughter of Richard Jr., was born in Portsmouth in the middle of the sibling pack. She married George Brownell in 1673; her sister Mary married George’s brother, Thomas Brownell, Jr.  Susannah and George had eight children and she remained in Portsmouth until her death at age 90, surviving her husband by twenty five years. They are buried in the George Brownell Lot in Portsmouth.

George Brownell Cemetery Lot, Portsmouth, RI

Richard, Sr. is our 10th great-grandfather and Susannah our 8th great-grandmother.

Our Cooke Family: Smugglers, Shoemakers and Patriots

Immigrant Thomas Cooke alias Butcher (1600-1677) from the small village of Netherbury, Dorset, England, his wife Mary and three children sailed to Dorcester, Massachusetts, in 1637 on the ship Speedwell.  They traveled with a number of others from Netherbury, less likely for religious reasons than due to a prolonged drought in their area.   

St. Mary's Church in Netherbury, like so many in English villages we walked

Baptismal records for Thomas and other Cookes were found in Netherbury parish records.  The family most likely attended St. Mary’s Church which was begun in the late 1300’s and a Norman tower added in the 1400’s.  Check out the wonderful buttresses on the tower.

Using an “alias,” i.e. Butcher, as did the Cooke family was not unusual for this part of England.  Butcher was not a reflection of their occupation; the name was also spelled Bowcher, Bocher, and Boocher, perhaps a derivation of the Norman surname Bourchier.  Why were aliases more common in Dorset than elsewhere in England?  Evidently, smuggling was a big time occupation for Dorseters given their location on the southern coast of England, and smugglers used aliases.  Our Grandma Alice, proper New Englander she was, would turn over in her grave if she knew she might be descended from smugglers.

In any event, the connection of our Thomas Cooke as a Netherbury immigrant was made from Thomas being found in the Dorset parish records as Thomas the Butcher and likewise listed on a 1660 Portsmouth deed as Thomas the Butcher. 

The Cooke family had only a 15-20 mile jaunt from Netherbury to Weymouth to catch the Speedewell
From Thomas Cooke of Rhode Island

The year after arrival in the Colonies, Thomas purchased land in Taunton from Tetiquet Indians.  Even though a proprietor of Taunton and he took an oath of fidelity for the town, Thomas moved to Portsmouth by 1647.  He was illiterate, signing documents with his mark.  Evidence indicates he was Baptist, by this time a popular denomination in the area after residents built one of the first two Baptist churches in America in Newport.  

Wife Mary, mother of his four children, died in 1670 and Thomas, age 72, remarried to a second much younger Mary, last name unknown.  Besides Mary #1, numerous family members died in the same year, including a son, the son’s wife and three children, and a son-in-law, presumably due to the 1670-71 influenza epidemic.

John Cooke alias Butcher (1630-1691) was seven years old when he accompanied his family on the Speedewell and 18 years old when he was admitted as a freeman in Portsmouth  in 1648.  The Cookes, Shearmans, and Bordens had farms in close proximity, so it’s no surprise John married 20 year old Mary Borden (1632-1690), daughter of our Richard and Joan, in 1652 and they had ten children.  John's father deeded him 60 acres in Portsmouth and he acquired land in Pocasset (now Tiverton/Little Compton) and Barnstable.  

John Cook Lot, burial ground for he and Mary on his farm

John's will indicates he owned Negro slaves and had Indian servants.  John and Mary Borden Cooke are buried in a small unmarked plot in an open field on Glen Farm in Portsmouth, once John's land, beside a stone wall on the south side of Glen Road, 0.3 miles east of East Main Road.

Thomas Cooke (1667-1726), seventh child of John and Mary, married Mary Corey (1662-1743), daughter of William Corey and Mary Earle, sometime between 1692 and 1697 and inherited land near Barnstable, MA, and in Tiverton.  He and Mary settled in Tiverton by 1698 when he registered his cow ear mark there.  As well as owning land and cattle, he was a cordswainer, i.e., a shoemaker who makes new shoes rather than a cobbler who repairs.  Their burial is unknown, but most likely on their land in Tiverton.

Joseph Cooke (1667-1727), the oldest son, was born in Portsmouth just before the family moved to Tiverton.  He married Patience (last name unknown) in Tiverton in 1721 and they had four children,  all born in Tiverton and baptized at Trinity Church in Newport.  He inherited half the family farm in Tiverton, the other half going to a brother, but died at age 30 - a year after his father - and never claimed it.  The last record of Patience was her baptism along with eight year old son, William, in 1730 at the Newport Trinity Church.

Daughter Hope Cooke (1726-1791) was one year old when her father died.  She married Richard Borden (1722-1795), grandson of Richard Borden and Innocent Cornell, in Tiverton.  Husband Richard and son Thomas are recognized by the DAR as patriots of the American Revolution related to the Battle of Fall River.  That's a story for another day.  Hope and Richard are buried in the Fall River North Old Burial Ground.  We brought all our cousins to the old burial ground during the 2013 Cousins Reunion in Fall River and showed the mini-cousins their ancestor graves.  Just so they know.

Inscription:  Sacred to the Memory of
Mr. Richard Borden who departed this life
July 4, 1795
Aged 74 years

Inscription:  Sacred to the Memory of
Mrs. Hope Borden, wife of
Mr. Richard Borden who departed this life
March 1791
Aged about 70 years.

Thomas  the Butcher was our 10th great-grandfather and Hope, who married Richard Borden, our sixth great-grandmother.  Thus, our colonial Cookes passed through five generations before linking in to the Bordens.

Source:  Thomas Cooke of Rhode Island, Jane Fletcher Fiske.

Our Portsmouth Brownell Family, Macho Has A Down Side

Thomas Brownell (1608-1664) came from Ryecroft Parish of Rawmarsh in West Riding, Yorkshire, a bit farther north than our usual English immigrant.  He married Anne Bourne (1607-1666) at St. Peter’s Wharf in London in 1637.  Anne hailed from Cranfield in Bedfordshire, England, notably south of Thomas’ northern England Yorkshire.  Thomas and his brother George had moved to London to work for an uncle who was a fabric merchant, doubtless as young men, perhaps about 18-20 years old.  Did he meet Anne there?  Was she Austin-like staying with an aunt to meet London society?  She was 30 when they married - almost elderly for an unmarried woman in those days.

Thomas and Anne sailed to Boston on the ship Whale in 1638.  They settled on six acres in Braintree, MA, worked the small farm - perhaps Thomas also found some work in the fabric business here - and had one child before selling their house in Braintree to move to Portsmouth in 1640.  Was the Braintree-Portsmouth connection William Coddington, a key Antonimian/banned from Boston guy who was given land grants in Braintree between 1635 and 1637?  Did the Brownells find the Puritan government of Braintree less to their liking than separation of church and state in Portsmouth?

The first town record of Thomas in Portsmouth was in 1647 when he witnessed John Walker’s will.  Thomas held several public offices - as expected for a freeman - and had a 40 acre farm on the west side of the northwest end of the island extending down to Narragansett Bay.  These days, Brownell Lane runs through this location.

In 1664, 56 year old Thomas was killed in an equestrian accident racing 21 year old Daniel Lawton while returning from Daniel’s dad’s farm back into Portsmouth.  Young Daniel in the lead saw a riderless horse headed into the swamp when he looked back. Backtracking, he found the lifeless Thomas and a great deal of blood, hair and blood stuck to a tree, and brains spilling out as described in detail by Daniel at the inquest. 

Thomas and Anne had nine children, and 55 grandchildren!  How does one ever find enough names?  Given his sudden death, Thomas left no will and the Town Council divided the estate using the custom of primogeniture.  The bulk of the estate went to the oldest son, George, then age 19.  Anne retained the use, benefit and profit of the house and lands, but she died a year later.  The other sons received 20 pounds when they reached 21; the daughters were given 10 shillings until they were married.  They would then receive their 20 pounds.  Heaven forbid young women be given money to manage on their own!  What if the daughter didn’t remarry, like his youngest Susanna who died never married at about age 74?  She was pretty much up a creek, so to speak.  Well, we ladies got some help in this area a couple + centuries later.  Ever hear of Susan B. Anthony?  It’s Susan Brownell Anthony, for your information - not a direct descendant but named after a paternal aunt.

George Brownell Lot, Portsmouth

Thomas and Anne are buried in the historical George Brownell Lot in Portsmouth located 104 feet west of West Shore Road at telephone pole #11.

George Brownell (1647-1718) inherited his father’s lands and house at a young age and so worked the Portsmouth farm his entire life, likely lived in the town house, and held various positions in Portsmouth town.  He married 21 year old Susannah Pearce (1652-1743) in 1673 and they had eight children, all born in Portsmouth.  Several of George’s siblings spread out to Freetown and Little Compton.  Brother, Thomas Jr., married Susannah’s sister, Mary Pearce, in 1678.

George and Susannah are also buried in the George Brownell Lot in Portsmouth.

Daughter, Sarah Brownell (1681-1715) married Joseph Borden (1680-1715) in Portsmouth in 1703, another link into our Borden family.  They had 4 children, spaced apart about every two to three years, and died relatively young at ages 35 and 34 respectively.  See Sarah Brownell in the Borden post.

Plaque at Oak Grove Cemetery, Fall River
Here are interred the remains of Stephen Borden, his wife, and fifteen of their immediate relatives removed from the family burying ground on Central Street, April 12, 1909.

Sarah and Joseph were the first Bordens buried in downtown Fall River where Central Street now runs between Durfee and Harbor Street.  All 23 graves from the Stephen Borden family burying ground were disinterred in 1909 and reburied in Oak Grove Cemetery, a beautiful Gothic arched cemetery which opened in 1855.  The automobile was coming into vogue in 1909, so I suspect a lot of other city cemeteries on the East Coast were being dug up to make way for street building.  

We have a 1909 newspaper photo of our great grandfather Joseph Nute riding in a “motor truck” purchased by the Fall River Gas Works Company.  According to the article, “it had coil springs in the rear - what we call “knee action” today - was chain driven and had solid rubber tires.”  The photo was taken at the “Narrows,” exactly the area where would have been the Borden cemetery.  Did Joseph Nute know his wife’s ancestors’ bones were dug up that year to make way for his motor truck?

Thomas Brownell is our 9th great grandfather, George our 8th, and Sarah our 7th great grandmother.

The Portsmouth Corey Family

William Corey (1634-1682) immigrated from Bristol, Somerset, England with his widowed father John Corey, grandmother Agnes Wauker (1582-1670), and step-grandfather John Roome. William’s father may have settled in Portsmouth. The only mention of a John in Portsmouth records was a suspicion of felony in Newport in 1643. No further action was taken so it's unclear whether William’s father died soon thereafter or had to leave town as his charge was slandering William Coddington, one of the head guys. In any event, William was raised mostly by his grandparents.

The family’s immigration date to Boston is unknown, but certainly by 1637.  John Roome signed the Portsmouth Compact in Boston in 1638, along with grandparent ancestors Philip Shearman and John Walker, and moved the family to Portsmouth with the original Hutchinson. A house carpenter and miller, John Roome would have brought skills needed in the new colony and William followed in his footsteps.

The first mention of William is 1657 at age 23 when he was granted eight acres from his step-grandfather and given freeman status by the town. As a journeyman carpenter, he could have built himself a pretty nice house. He was also granted a license to operate a “videling house,” or mom and pop kitchen in the 1660’s. Evidently, town meetings were held in his great room and attendees could get their dinner at the same time. According to online information, anyone descended from a colonial innkeeper is eligible to join the Flagens Trenchers Association of Colonial Tavernkeepers. 

William held several community offices and was a lieutenant and captain in the local militia.  He and buddy William Earle built a windmill for Portsmouth in 1668.  In 1676, he and three others moved a barrel of gunpowder and set up cannons to defend the island, one of them on John Borden's land.

In 1667, the two Williams traveled together back to England to claim deeds from the estate of John Roome.  These deeds conveyed title to two mansion houses in Bristol that had been passed on to William by grandmother Agnes.  The letter he carried from Agnes acknowledged him as the son of John Corey, deceased of Bristol, so his dad had certainly died by this time.

Along with all the close buddy stuff the two Williams did, Corey married Earle’s sister, Mary Earle (1631-1717) in 1657.  In 1670, William Earle bought 2000 acres in Dartmouth, MA, and sold a third of it to our William Corey.  Remember William Earle married Mary Walker, so these four grandparent ancestors - two Williams and Marys - were best buddies and had land next to each other in Dartmouth/Tiverton. 

William and Mary Corey had 10 children together. The first eight were born in Portsmouth, and the birthplace for the last two was Tiverton. William had purchased land in Tiverton just a few years before he died, and it is possible they lived on the land for a while. Their oldest son, John, married the daughter of a Narragansett Indian chief.  Her native name was Minnetinka, and she went by the English name Elizabeth.  One of the younger sons, Caleb, settled on the Dartmouth land.  Sons William and Thomas took over the Tiverton land and purchased substantial additional land there.

William was indeed a jack-of-all trades - builder, landowner, farmer, tavern keeper, militia man - but he, his wife and likely his children were illiterate.

William died in 1682 at age 47 in Portsmouth.  A fourteen year-old daughter died the same year. Mary, widowed at 51, married a second husband, Joseph Timberlake, the following year and lived to the age of 86.  Their burial sites and those of Agnes and John are unknown.

William and Mary’s fifth child, Mary Corey (1662-1743) grew up in Tiverton after age eight and married Thomas Cooke (1667-1726) some time between 1692-1697.  At 30, this was considered a late age for a woman to marry in those days.  She, nevertheless, bore six children.  Her husband Thomas died at age 58; Mary lived to the age of 81 without remarriage.  With this union, the Corey line joins the Cooke line.

William Corey was our 9th great-grandfather and Mary our 8th great-grandmother. Agnes Wauker is our 11th great-grandmother.

Our Portsmouth Bordens

We have more Bordens in our family than you can shake a stick at, from the first Borden who came to Boston in 1635 to the last male Borden, Civil War veteran Stephen  Bailey Borden (1838-1901).  Our beloved Aunt Nettie was Nettie Borden Studley and her hometown, Fall River, was studded with Bordens.

This is the story of only those Bordens born in Portsmouth.  We'll address the others later.  Here is a cheat sheet to keep them straight.  It doesn't help that families all named their kids after themselves, their parents, their grandparents, their siblings, and their best friend when they ran out of names.  In fact, family historians would rather see best friend namesakes than five Richards in a row.

Most researchers believe the Bordens came to England from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066.

Richard's parents were Matthew Borden (1583-1620) and Matthew's second wife Joan Glover (1583-1620) of Headcorn, Kent, England. The Borden Coat of Arms is on record the Herald's office in London, However, while Matthew owned lands across Headcorn, Smarden, and Bletchenden, and served as a churchwarden, he was not an armigerous gentleman and never registered a coat of arms.

Richard Borden (1595-1671) and his wife Joan Fowle  (1604-1688) were not spring chickens when they crossed the pond from Headcorn, Kent, England to Boston in 1635. He was 40 and she 31 years old.  One child had died in infancy; the other three came to the colonies with their parents, including sons Thomas, 8, Francis, 7, and daughter Mary, 3.  Three years in Boston and a dissenter in the Antinomian Controversy, Richard took his family to Portsmouth with the first group of settlers.   

Altogether, Richard and Joan had 11 children, eight boys and three girls, born between Joan’s ages of 22 and 48 years.  Son Matthew was the first child of English descent born on Aquidneck in May 1638.  Three sons, Francis, Samuel and Benjamin settled in New Jersey where the family had extensive land holdings. Richard and Joan’s illustrious offspring include Marilyn Monroe, Gail Borden of Borden Milk, Robert Laird Borden, prime minister of Canada during WWI; notorious offspring includes Lizzie Borden.

Richard was prominent in the governance of the Rhode Island Colony.  As a surveyor, he acquired substantial land in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.  He was one of the founders of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Portsmouth.  His will indicated he had a Negro man and woman and 3 Negro children.  Joan and Richard are buried in the Friends Churchyard in Portsmouth.

Generation Two

Two of Richard and Joan’s children are our grandparent ancestors:

• Mary Borden (1632-1690), born in Cranbrook, Kent, England, fourth child of Richard and Joan.  She was three years old when the family arrived in Boston and 6 years old when they moved to the Portsmouth settlement.  As the oldest girl with seven younger siblings, Mary’s time was likely consumed with helping her mother.  She married John Cooke (1630-1691) at age 20 and had nine children of her own.  She lived her entire life in Portsmouth, died at age 58, and was unusually fortunate that none of her children preceded her in death.  She is buried in the John Cooke Lot in Portsmouth, a small burial ground in an open field on Glen Farm in Portsmouth, beside a stone wall on the south side of Glen Road, 0.3 mile east of East Main Road that was John's land.

• John Borden (1640-1716), the 5th son of Richard and Joan, was born in Portsmouth in 1640. Two older brothers, Thomas and Francis, moved to New Jersey to look after the family land holdings when John was about 25, while John and his two year older brother, Matthew, stayed in Portsmouth and were considered pillars of the community.  On Christmas Day 1670 - he married 16 year old Mary Walker Earle (1654-1734), fourteen years his junior.  John inherited substantial land from his father who died the following year.  He continued to acquire property, publicly saying “if any man has land to sell at a fair price, I am ready to buy and have money ready at my house to pay for it.”  He bought Hog Island, for grazing cattle as well as lands at Bristol Ferry, Swansea, Tiverton, and Freetown.  He operated the ferry service between Portsmouth and the mainland in 1660 when only 20 years old.

John Borden (1640-1716)

John and Mary had nine children; all born in Portsmouth and all but one moved off the island:

• Richard m. Innocent Cornell  settled in Fall River
• Joseph m. Sarah Brownell  and moved to Fall River
• John Jr. settled on his father’s land in Swansea, later part of Scuitate, and set up a forge to make wrought iron
• Amey married Benjamin Chase and settled in Tiverton
• Thomas remained in the family home in Portsmouth
• Mary moved to her father's land holdings in Pennsylvania with her husband, progenitor of the Potts family in that area
• Hope married into the Almy family in Tiverton 
• William went into the ship building business in Newport and eventually moved to North Carolina where he had a shipyard and named the local river Newport 
• Benjamin joined his uncles in New Jersey and Virginia where he accumulated thousands of acres.  He made two trips to England to recruit hundreds of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians to farm the land.

A close friend to King Philip of King Philip’s War, John was sent to negotiate in an effort to head off the impending Indian war.

John was a devout Quaker and involved in erecting the Friends Meetinghouses in Newport and Portsmouth.  No slaves were mentioned in his will.  Both John and Mary lived well into their 70’s and were buried in the Portsmouth Friends Churchyard.

Portsmouth Friends Churchyard behind the Meeting house

Generation Three

Two of John and Mary’s children are our Fall River and Freetown grandparent ancestors :

• Richard Borden (1671-1732), born, raised and married in Portsmouth at age 21 to Innocent Cornell (1673-1720), first located his home after marriage on a 14 acre family farmstead in what is now Fall River, sold timber for ship masts in Newport and became an original proprietor in Tiverton, RI.  He and his brother, Joseph, bought a mill lot in Fall River from Benjamin Church of our Little Compton Church family.  Joseph soon became mortally ill and turned over his share to Richard.  At the time of Richard’s death at age 60, he was the largest landowner in Fall River.  

Richard and Innocent had seven children, 4 boys and 3 girls.  Their second son, Thomas (1697-1740), born in Tiverton, married Mary Gifford, to continue our family line in Fall River.  Thomas' son, Richard, was a legend in Fall River for his defiance of the British during the American Revolution.  Richard and Innocent's third son, Joseph Fuller, was killed instantly in a tragic accident at the mill at age 34.  Richard and Innocent are buried at the Portsmouth Friends Churchyard.

• Joseph Borden (1680-1715), born and raised in Portsmouth, married Sarah Brownell (1681-1715) - he age 22 and she 21 - and settled on family land in Swansea between the birth of their third child in 1709 and fourth in 1712.  Their deaths at a young age within 5 months of each other in 1715 suggest the possibility of tuberculosis or other chronic infectious disease.  Or, perhaps Sarah was despondent from Joseph’s death and killed herself, the kind of thing that would not be mentioned in history.  They left 4 young children in the care of her sister and a complaint was filed in 1750 that the aunt did not give them their due inheritance.

Generation Four

William Borden (1707-1756), son of Joseph and Sarah Brownell, was born in Portsmouth but moved with his family to Swansea, MA, by age 4 and to Freetown by age 8 where his parents died within 5 months of each other that year.  William, his wife and 15 immediate relatives were removed from the family burial ground on Central Street, Fall River, likely the farmstead at the time, to Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River.

Home on original Borden Portsmouth farmstead, built in mid-1800's, on National Register of Historic Places.  Photo by John Phelan.

And so, all but one of John Borden’s progeny left the island by 1712, including our grandparent ancestors.  Only Thomas from our line remained in the family home on the farmstead.

Richard Borden (1671-1732) and Innocent Cornell are our 8th great grandparents.

Historical and Genealogical Record of the Descendants, as far as known, of Richard and Joan Borden, who settled in Portsmouth Rhode Island, May 1638, Weld.