Sunday, February 25, 2024

Bad Puritans: Samuel Gorton, Robert Coles, and the Founding of Rhode Island (Part 2)

A painting by artist Jean Blackburn depicting the town of Providence in about 1650.

In my last post, I wrote about my 9th great-grandfather Samuel Gorton, the religious leader and firebrand who founded Warwick, Rhode Island. While Gorton butted heads with nearly everyone he encountered, he was secure in his faith, his education, and in his commitment to a high moral standard. None of this can be said for my 9th great-grandfather Robert Coles. Robert was also a founding father of Rhode Island, and he was the father-in-law of Samuel Gorton's daughter Mahashalalhasbaz, but his route to Rhode Island took a very different path.

Robert Coles was born about 1605 in Sudbury, Suffolk, England. Nothing is known of his early years. His parents have not been conclusively identified, nor is there any indication of what Robert's trade may have been in England. In about 1629, Robert married a woman named Mary whose surname is unknown. In 1630, they emigrated to the British colonies in America. The place Robert lived undoubtedly influenced his decision to leave England.

Sudbury, England was a hotbed of Puritan sentiment during much of the 17th century. It was among the towns labelled "notorious wasps' nests of dissent." During the decade of the 1630s, many Sudbury families departed for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. [Source: Great Migration Study Project, Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to N.E. 1620-1633, Vols I-III.]

One of these Puritan areas was the Stour River Valley, on the border between Essex and Suffolk. This valley, where John Winthrop lived, became known as a godly kingdom. John Cotton, who became vicar of St. Botolph’s parish in Boston in 1612, also advanced a Puritan agenda. His preaching drew many godly men and women (likely including Anne Hutchinson) from surrounding towns to hear him preach. [Source: Partnership of Historic Bostons]
Sudbury's location, northeast of London, is shown with a red pin

John Winthrop, a leader in the Puritan movement, and the future first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, had a lot of influence in Suffolk. While the details of their association are not known, Robert Coles apparently subscribed to Winthrop's doctrine and his growing belief that Puritans must physically separate themselves from the seemingly corrupt Church of England.

As a young man, Winthrop became convinced that England was in trouble: Inflation coupled with population growth had led men to pursue wealth at the cost of their souls. Efforts to reform the Church of England had faltered. Zealous bishops hounded religious dissenters who resisted obeying the rules. Puritans like Winthrop were persecuted. As he worried about his future, Winthrop became intrigued by a new venture, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a commercial enterprise that offered the chance for religious freedom in the New World.

Winthrop struggled with the decision to abandon his homeland. He was keenly aware that hardships had claimed the lives of half the Pilgrims who had settled in Plymouth 10 years earlier. He had no illusions about the difficulties that lay ahead -- a hostile climate, bad food, sickness and isolation. When he survived a bad accident with his horse, he took this as a divine signal: God was calling him to create a holy community in the wilderness of New England. [Source: PBS]
Portrait of John Winthrop by an unknown artist

Winthrop signed on with the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629 and spent the following year encouraging others to join him in emigrating to the new colonies. In 1630, he led a group of eleven ships that sailed from Yarmouth to Salem, the first five of which departed on April 8, and the rest in May. This group, called the Winthrop Fleet, included my 9th great-grandfather Robert Coles. After arriving at Salem in 1630, Robert and his wife Mary moved on to Roxbury, Massachusetts, where their first child, John Coles was born.

An illustration depicting the Winthrop Fleet arriving in Boston Harbor

Coles arrived in New England in the summer of 1630 as a passenger in the Winthrop Fleet, and was among the first settlers of the town of Roxbury. In October of that year he petitioned the Massachusetts Bay Colony's General Court in Boston to become a freeman and in 1631 he took the freeman's oath. He was a founding member of the First Church of Roxbury, which was a non-separating Congregationalist church established in 1631, and in 1632 he was one of two townsmen elected to represent Roxbury in the General Court. During his term, Massachusetts Bay became the first colony to adopt formal arbitration laws.

In 1633, Coles was in the first company, led by John Winthrop the Younger, that went to Agawam where he was granted a large home lot on the Ipswich River at present-day East and Cogswell Streets and 200 acres—a property now called Greenwood Farm—on the neck of land north of town. He moved to Salem in 1635 where he received a home lot in town and 300 acres of farmland south of Felton Hill "in the place where his cattle are by Brooksby. [Source: Wikipedia]

Robert and Mary had three children together:

  1. John Coles (b. 1630; d. 1676; m. Ann)
  2. Deliverance Coles (b. 1632; d. 1663; m. Richard Townsend)
  3. Ann Coles (b. 1634; d. 1695; m. Henry Townsend)
If you were to just read the details above, it would be easy to assume Robert was a typical Puritan, involved in the work of settling new communities, filling civic and religious leadership roles, and parenting young children. However, the court records of the time tell a different story. Robert Coles was a notorious drunk, and between 1631 and 1634, his behavior escalated to the point that it placed him firmly outside the confines of what was acceptable to the Puritans. The Puritans, for all their rigidity and righteousness, were not inherently opposed to alcohol. The drinking of alcohol and its use for medicinal purposes were a commonplace part of early colonial life. What was unacceptable was public drunkenness and drinking on the Sabbath when one was meant to be in church. We don't know if Robert had a problem with alcohol prior to his arrival in New England, but once there, his tendencies landed him in hot water immediately.

In 1631, Coles was fined five marks (about £3 then and US$850 in 2022) for drunkenness aboard the Friendship and at Winnissimet, now Chelsea. The Friendship was carrying two hogsheads (more than 120 gallons) of flavored mead called metheglin. Coles's fellow carousers—who were not pious Puritans—included Edward Gibbons, a former polytheist "who chose rather to Dance about a May pole...than to hear a good Sermon" and Samuel Maverick, a wealthy Anglican "very ready to entertain strangers." In 1632, Coles was again fined for drunkenness, this time in Charlestown. In addition to his fine of £1 he was required to appear before the General Court and the Court of Assistants to publicly confess.

Coles was charged a third time for drunkenness in 1633, along with fellow settler John Shatswell, at Agawam. Shatswell was fined £2, but Coles was fined £10 (about US$2900 in 2022) for multiple offenses: drunkenness, encouraging Shatswell's wife to drink, and "intiseing her to incontinency and other misdemeanor." Coles was also sentenced "to stand with a whte sheete of pap on his back wherein a drunkard shalbe written in great letters, & stand therewith soe longe as the Court thinks meete...." [Source: Wikipedia

The Puritans were big fans of public punishment. They used shame as a tool to keep their communities in line. What was more shameful than being made to stand in a town square and be disciplined and chastised in front of ones neighbors? Puritan courts sentenced offenders to be restrained in bilboes, "a long heavy bolt or bar of iron having two sliding shackles, something like handcuffs, and a lock. In these shackles were thrust the legs of offenders or criminals, who were then locked in with a padlock. Sometimes a chain at one end of the bilboes attached both bilboes and prisoner to the floor or wall." [Source: Alice Morse Earle, "Curious Punishments of Bygone Days"]. Those convicted of crimes might be publicly whipped, branded, or made to stand in a visible place with a cleft stick secured to their tongue. Colonial law enforcers also liked to hang signs on sinners advertising their crimes, and then make them stand in town squares for some length of time wearing their signs. When that castigation proved insufficient, words or letters might be sewn onto their clothes, and the guilty party forced to wear it for a longer period. There are a number of instances of this kind of punishment in colonial records, including the following:

  • In 1636, William Bacon was sentenced to stand in stocks wearing a large letter "D" for drunkenness.
  • In 1639, Margaret Henderson of Boston was fined and sentenced to stand in the town center wearing a paper that declared her “ill behavior.”
  • In 1656, a woman from Taunton and Plymouth was whipped, fined, and sentenced to wear a red "B" on her clothing to indicate the crime of blasphemy.
  • In 1673, Widow Bradley of New London was sentenced to wear a paper pinned to her cap to advertise her shame.
  • In the 1600s, a Massachusetts court legislated that if someone twice interrupted a preacher during worship, they had to pay a fine of five pounds and stand on a 4-foot block wearing a sign that read, ‘WANTON GOSPELLER.’
One of the most famous of these punishments was the one given to my 9th great-grandfather Robert Coles. After many previous convictions, and apparently no change in his behavior, in 1634, a court in Roxbury delivered a severe verdict.
The court orders that Coles, for drunkenness by him committed at Roxbury shall be disfranchized, weare about his necke & soe to hange upon his outward garment a D made of redd clothe & sett upon white, to contynue this for a yeare & not to leave it off at any tyme when hee comes amongst company.... [Source: Records of the Court of Assistants of the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, 1630–1692. Vol. 2. Boston: Suffolk County]
An illustration showing various forms of Puritan punishment, which includes a man, perhaps Robert Cole, wearing a scarlet "D" [source]

Robert was stripped of his right to vote, and for a year, he had to wear a large red "D" sewn onto a white background on his clothes, as a symbol of his persistent drunkenness. If this sounds familiar, it is because this punishment was an inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous novel, The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne based the sanctions imposed upon his heroine, Hester Prynne, on several historical sources, including that of an English man named William Prynne, whose face was branded with the letters "S" and "L" after he criticized an archbishop. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne gave Hester a sentence more like those handed down in colonial America, where convicts were made to wear signs, and specifically the one given to Robert Coles, who was sentenced to wear a scarlet letter emblazoned on his clothes.

From 1634 to 1635, Robert wore his scarlet "D." After living for some time in Roxbury and Agawam (later Ipswich), in 1635 Robert took up residence in Salem. In December 1635, Robert was granted 300 acres of land just west of central Salem. With his holdings across three Massachusetts communities, Robert now owned a considerable amount of land. He made enough money farming those lands and with milling operations that he prospered despite his many convictions.

Another notable resident in Salem in 1635 was Roger Williams. Williams would shortly become one of the founding fathers of Rhode Island, as discussed in my previous post about Samuel Gorton. Williams believed in the separation of church and state, something the Puritans vehemently opposed. Their whole raison d'ĂȘtre in the colonies was to create a pure society based on their religious beliefs, and they considered Williams' teachings dangerous and heretical. Williams was forced out of Salem during a blizzard in 1636, and he fled southward, establishing the Providence Plantation in Spring of that year. It is not known whether Williams and Coles interacted during their overlapping time in Salem, or whether Coles was, at that time, drawn to Williams' religious persuasions, but it seems likely. Robert Coles followed Roger Williams to Providence in 1637.

An illustration depicting Roger Williams welcoming settlers to Providence

Between his final known conviction in 1634, and his departure for Providence in 1637, life was rocky for Robert Coles. He may have stopped drinking to excess, for he was not in court on such charges after 1634. However, it seems that his wife, Mary, may have followed in his footsteps. In 1634, Robert and Mary were excommunicated from their church in Roxbury, and the parish noted in its records that Mary "did too much favor his ways, yet not as to incur any just blame, she lived an aflicted life, by reason of his vnsetlednesse [unsettledness] & removing fro place to place." [Source: Boston Registry Department (1884). Records relating to the early history of Boston. Vol. 6]. It is not clear when Mary died, but it was likely sometime between her daughter Ann's birth in 1634 and Robert's move to Salem in 1635. Mary would have been young at the time of her death, probably in her late 20s. She left behind three children under the age of five.

In about 1637, before departing Salem for Providence, Robert married again. His second wife, Mary Hawxhurst, was the daughter of Sampson Hawxhurst, the vicar of Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England, and his wife Elizabeth. Mary also emigrated to the colonies with the Winthrop Fleet in 1630, traveling with her brother, Christopher Hawxhurst. Robert and Mary had five children together.

  1. Daniel Coles (b. 1637; d. 1692; m. Mahahshalalhasbaz Gorton)
  2. Elizabeth Coles (b. 1639; m. John Townsend)
  3. Nathaniel Coles (b. 1642; d. 1678, m. (1) Martha Jackson (2) Deborah Wright)
  4. Sarah Coles (b. 1646; d. 1692; m. Thomas Townsend)
  5. Robert Coles (b. 1648; d. 1715; m. Mercy Wright)

    You may notice that all four of Robert Coles' daughters married men with the surname Townsend. Three of these men, John, Henry, and Richard Townsend, were known to be brothers. However, Thomas Townsend, who married Sarah Coles, is not believed to be closely related to them. 

    You may also notice that Robert's two youngest sons married women with the surname Wright. Deborah and Mercy Wright were sisters, the daughters of Nicholas Wright and his wife Ann. Their brother, John Wright, married Mary Townsend, the daughter of Ann Coles. So, three Townsend siblings married three Coles siblings, and three Wright siblings married two Coles siblings and a child of a sibling.

    Daniel Coles was one of the two Coles siblings who did not marry a Wright or a Townsend. He married Mahahshalalhasbaz Gorton, daughter of Samuel Gorton. I descend from their son Samuel Coles. However, I also descend from Daniel's sister Ann Coles, via her daughter, Susannah Townsend. This means Robert Coles is my 9th great-grandfather on two different lines of my family tree.

    A chart showing how I descend from my 9th great-grandfathers, Robert Coles and Samuel Gorton,
    ending with my second great-grandfather, John Thorne Griffin.

    In 1637, Robert left Salem and followed Roger Williams to Providence. He brought with him his wife, Mary, and his four small children. The youngest, Daniel, was born not long before the move. 

    In 1638, Robert was recorded as a founding member of the church in Providence, the first Baptist church in the colonies. The minister, Ezekiel Holliman, baptized Roger Williams, Robert Coles, and about a dozen other men at the first gathering of church members. In this small group of men was William Carpenter, who is also my 9th great-grandfather on a different (but connected) family line.

    William Carpenter's great-grandson, Timothy Carpenter, married Phebe Coles,
    great-granddaughter of Robert Coles.

    Robert Coles was one of the first 13 settlers of Providence.
    Each of the original proprietors received a narrow, five- or six-acre, river-front home lot that stretched eastward from Towne Street, now Main Street, to "a highway," now Hope Street in present-day College Hill, Providence, and they received shares of upland and meadow on the south side of town. Robert Coles's home lot was on the Great Salt Cove between the lots of Thomas Olney and William Carpenter and along the ancient "highway" called the Wampanoag trail, now Meeting Street. The land granted to him south of town laid east of Mashapaug Pond. [Source: Wikipedia]
    The plan showing the original division of home lots in Providence.
    Robert Coles' lot is 20th from the top, right next to William Carpenter.

    In fall of 1638, Robert also built a home on the Pawtuxet River in what is now Pawtuxet Village. In 1640, he signed the Plantation Agreement at Providence, an accord that amended the 1637 Providence Agreement. This agreement was one of the first compacts regarding governance in the colonies, and was a precursor to the United States Constitution. Notably, among the 39 signers of the agreement were two women, a radical statement during a time in which women were not included in government and were not permitted to vote. As mentioned in my post about Samuel Gorton, the founders of Rhode Island were ahead of their time in favoring rights for women and honest dealings with their Native American neighbors.
    In addition to being one of the first political compacts, the Providence Agreement also contains the first expression in the new world of the separation of church and state—achieved by limiting the town meeting to “civil things.” [Source: Charles Evans, “Oaths of Allegiance in Colonial New England"]
    By 1648, Robert had moved to Warwick, Rhode Island, the town founded by my 9th great-grandfather, Samuel Gorton. Robert operated a mill in Warwick and lived there until his death in 1654.

    The early years of Robert's life in the New England colonies are so strikingly different than his later years. He grew from a repeat offender, in and out of court, censured for his drunkenness to the point that his punishment inspired a major work of American literature, to an upstanding founding father of the capital of Rhode Island. Sometime between 1634 and 1637, Robert, "seems to have reformed... and there is certainly nothing in the Providence town records or those of Warwick, where he afterwards resided, to indicate that he did not lead a perfectly correct life in both places." [Source: The MacDonough-Hackstaff Ancestry, Rodney MacDonough]. At the time of Robert's death, he was a major landowner in Rhode Island. He left an estate valued at more than £500, a large amount in those times. Not enough has been written about Robert's personal and religious convictions, and what may have inspired him to turn his life around, but by the time he arrived in Rhode Island, he was clearly a changed man.

    After Robert's death, his wife Mary married Matthias Harvye. In 1661, they moved to Oyster Bay, on Long Island, in New York. All of her children went with them, either in 1661 or in the years that followed. Three of Mary and Robert's sons founded the community of Musketa Cove, now Glen Cove. In Oyster Bay, Musketa Cove, and in Flushing, Queens, where some of the family later moved, several really fascinating branches of my family converge. The Townsend, Feakes, and Bowne families were Quakers, considered radical and unlawful, and persecuted for their beliefs. Continuing the legacy of their forbearers in Rhode Island, these families fought fiercely for their right to practice religion as they saw fit, enduing imprisonment, banishment, and myriad other challenges. I'll talk about them in future posts.

    According to Wikipedia, some of Robert Coles' notable descendants include the following:
    This concludes the series on my "bad Puritan" ancestors, Samuel Gorton and Robert Coles. Neither one fit into Puritan society, whether due to their unconventional religious beliefs, or their inability to abide by Puritanical law. Gorton, Coles, and many others like them, ended up in Rhode Island, a safe haven for those who found themselves outside the strict and rigid communities established in Massachusetts. The cities founded in Rhode Island by religious dissidents, notably Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Samuel Gorton, paved the path for a future America, one that endeavored to separate government from religion and truly allow its citizens freedom of worship. The fulfillment of that promise was a long way off, and some may say we're still working on it today, but the early Rhode Island communities firmly set a stake in the ground for those ideals.

    Monday, January 29, 2024

    Bad Puritans: Samuel Gorton, Robert Coles, and the Founding of Rhode Island (Part 1)

    Samuel Gorton (artist unknown)

    In Colonial America, clashing loyalties and disparate religious beliefs often resulted in breakaway groups of colonists departing to form new settlements.

    The earliest English immigrants to the British colonies were typically separatists; Puritans so extreme that they had to cross an ocean and start a new civilization in order to adequately distance themselves from an English church they viewed as ungodly and corrupt. In history class, we learn that the Puritans came to America seeking religious freedom, and this is partially correct, but that freedom only extended to those who worshipped like they did. They were incredibly intolerant of those who practiced other forms of Christianity. Anglicans, Quakers, and Antinomians were not welcome in Puritan societies. Any behavior that deviated from the strict, scripture-based laws of these new colonies was punished harshly and publicly. As the 1600s progressed, and more people started arriving from England, inevitably not all of them fit into the world the separatists had created, leading to increased conflict.

    Another issue that festered in the background during these first decades in America was the issue of ultimate authority. Early voyages to America had been organized by religious groups or leaders, with the support of a benefactor, but these organizations did not necessarily communicate with each other or have the foresight to work together. Colonists sometimes arrived to create a community in a particular location, only to find it already taken. There were competing interests, both in England and the colonies, and companies sponsoring immigrants morphed, dissolved, or merged in ways that made governance challenging for those living in disputed areas. The colonies were not one big country with different cities and states, as New England is now. It was essentially a patchwork of small countries, governed by different parties in England, with rules enforced by local leaders, and not necessarily welcoming to new settlers. In short, everyone could not just get along. It was complicated.

    Map of New England printed by John Seller John in 1675 CE, based on William Reed's original survey of 1665 CE.

    When my 9th great-grandfather, Samuel Gorton, arrived in Massachusetts in 1637, the settlements there were reeling from the Antinomian Controversy. This controversy set the followers of radical minister John Cotton, namely the strident Anne Hutchinson and her brother-in-law John Wheelwright, against traditional Puritans, like Massachusetts Bay Company Governor John Winthrop. I discussed this moment in history in my post about my 11th great-grandfather Robert Moulton, who was disarmed in Salem for supporting Anne Hutchinson's right to worship as she desired. Cotton, Wheelwright, and Hutchinson were gathering followers as they evangelized, teaching that strict obedience was unnecessary for salvation, and that faith alone was the answer. The Puritans thought they were heretics and chased them out of Massachusetts. The animosity their proselytizing created was a true crisis for this young colony.

    To further set the stage, in the 1630s, Rhode Island did not yet exist. Scattered communities had been established, largely as outposts for those not welcome in Massachusetts, but there was not yet connective thread between them.

    Although the Puritan British theologian Roger Williams is often given the sole role of founder of Rhode Island, the colony was in fact settled by five independent and combative sets of people between 1636 and 1642. They were all English, and most of them began their colonial experiences in Massachusetts Bay colony but were banished for various reasons. Roger Williams' group was the earliest: In 1636, he settled in what would become Providence on the north end of Narragansett Bay, after he was kicked out of the Massachusetts Bay colony. [source: ThoughtCo]

    The early Rhode Island settlements included Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, and Warwick.

    The settlement at Providence along the Narragansett Bay, established by Williams and his followers in 1636, soon became a haven for religious dissidents. In 1644 Williams obtained a patent for the colony of Providence Plantations, later Rhode Island. [source: Library of Congress]

    Meanwhile, another community was taking shape on an island off the coast, founded by William Coddington.

    In 1637 he [Coddington] supported the controversial antinomian religious tenets of Anne Hutchinson, and as a result he and his followers were obliged to leave Massachusetts for the island of Aquidneck (Rhode Island) in Narragansett Bay. Coddington established a government based on Old Testament precepts in a settlement that he led at Pocasset (Portsmouth) on the northern part of Aquidneck. Anne Hutchinson had also settled in Portsmouth after she was banished from Massachusetts, but Coddington became embroiled in a dispute with her and moved his settlement to Newport in 1639. Although Portsmouth and Newport were united the next year, with Coddington elected governor, his hopes to maintain the island of Aquidneck as a separate colony were thwarted in 1644, when the English colonist Roger Williams obtained a patent uniting his Providence plantations with Aquidneck. [source: Brittanica]
    For more information on this fascinating period in early America, I recommend listening to The Other States of America History Podcast's episode Rhode Island Versus Providence Plantations: Shawomet, Portsmouth, Newport and Providence (1643-1663).

    A painting by artist Jean Blackburn depicting the town of Providence about 1650.

    Warwick, the last of the early Rhode Island communities, was founded in 1642 by Samuel Gorton. But let's back up a moment and properly meet Samuel. I'll start this by saying that it has been a thrill to learn of my connection to Samuel Gorton. Ancestors like this, who bucked every convention and blazed their own trail, are my very favorites. Samuel Gorton was smart, driven, and absolutely unwilling to compromise his beliefs or acquiesce to the prevailing rules of the American colonies. Essentially, he helped found Rhode Island after making himself unwelcome anywhere else.

    Samuel was born in 1593 in Lancashire, England and baptized in Manchester. His parents are not conclusively known, but they appear to have been affluent, for young Samuel was afforded private tutors and had an excellent education, including training in law. By the late 1620s, he had moved to London where he worked as a "clothier," likely owning a clothing shop. He seems to have done well for himself, as he was able to marry a young woman from a prosperous London family.
    Samuel Gorton was married before January 11, 1629/30 to Mary Mayplet, the daughter of haberdasher John Mayplet. Mary was the granddaughter of the Reverend John Mayplet, Rector of Great Leighs Parish in Essex, Vicar of Northolt in Middlesex, and a writer on the topics of natural history and astrology. Her brother was Dr. John Mayplet, physician to King Charles II. [source: Wikipedia]

    Mary was also educated and could both read and write, skills that were not typically prioritized for women during that time. Samuel and Mary had nine children together, the eldest two born in England.

    1. Samuel Gorton (b. 1630; d. 1723; m. Susanna Burton)
    2. Mary Gorton (b. 1631; d. 1688; m. (1) Peter Greene (2) John Sanford)
    3. Sarah Gorton (b. 1638; m. William Mace (or Mayes))
    4. John Gorton (b. 1640; d. 1714; m. Margaret Wheaton)
    5. Elizabeth Gorton (b. 1641; d. 1704; m. John Crandall)
    6. Mahashalalhasbaz* Gorton (b. 1642; d. 1692; m. Daniel Coles)
    7. Anna Gorton (b. 1644; d. 1734; m. Daniel Warner)
    8. Susanna Gorton (b. 1649; d. 1734; m. Benjamin Barton)
    9. Benjamin Gorton (b. 1650; d. 1699; m. Sarah Carder)
    *Mahashalalhasbaz is a Bibilical name. Maher Shalal Hash Baz was a child of Isaiah and his wife, the prophetess. The name was a prophecy given by God, literally meaning "In making speed to the spoil he hastens the prey."

    Samuel's life would come to be defined by his particular religious beliefs, which did not align with any of the prevailing forms of Christianity at the time. In comparing his orthodoxy to other religions, it was perhaps most similar to Quakerism, but definitely unique to Gorton. 

    [Gorton] rejected any partnership between religion and the civil authorities and any outward trappings of worship, denied the Trinity, accepted the divinity of Christ, rejected a “hireling ministry” (i.e., a paid clergy), and asserted that he was the mere instrument by which the Holy Spirit spoke to his followers. [source: RIHeritageHallofFame
    Gorton also sponsored one of the first laws for the emancipation of slaves. He believed in freedom of worship and even was willing to grant that right to Quakers. He felt that immortality depended on the total character. He opposed rituals and denied the doctrine of the Trinity. Gorton was a compelling lay preacher and a brilliant scholar and dubbed himself ‘professor of the mysteries of Christ.' [source: Robert F. Huber, “Gorton Gets the Boot,” The Howland Quarterly, Vol. 65, No. 4, (December, 2000).]

    Samuel had strong religious beliefs but sometimes little patience for his neighbors. Perhaps due to his high level of education and success in business, and likely owing to his absolute certainty about the divine, he repeatedly engaged in conflicts with those he found ignorant, unlawful, or disrespectful. While these sorts of incidents were not documented until he arrived in Massachusetts, it's fairly certain they occurred before he departed for the colonies, as well. The English did not appreciate the fervor of the Puritans, and they likely felt the same about Samuel Gorton and his proselytizing. Given Samuel's financial security in London, his departure for the colonies seems to have based in a quest for religious freedom, and the opportunity to gather like-minded supporters.

    A depiction of the type of ship that would have brought the Gortons to the colonies

    In late 1636 or early 1637, Samuel, Mary, and their two children sailed from London to Boston. Samuel arrived in Massachusetts with out-of-the-box religious persuasions and a personality that was an acquired taste. Neither went down well with the Bostonians.

    Perhaps my favorite publication about Samuel Gorton is the New England Historical Society's article, Samuel Gorton Insults the Puritans, Goes to Jail, Founds Warwick, R.I., with the tagline, "He believed in equality for all, but he was obnoxious about it." The URL for this article includes, "Samuel Gorton and His Gortonites Create a Church Amongst the Jack an Apes." It is hilarious, and makes light of the many years in which Samuel engaged in rather outrageous conflicts with neighbors, the Massachusetts Bay Company, Roger Williams, and anyone who got in his way. However, recent history has reconsidered the longstanding view of Gorton as the ultimate antagonist in early New England. 

    The "cantankerous", "contumacious" and "obnoxious" Samuel Gorton has been subject to misrepresentation by the historians of four centuries. He is most commonly described as "bewitching and bemadding" not only Providence but the whole of southern New England. Edward Winslow's contemporaneous Hypocrisie Unmasked is the usual starting point for those seeking an introduction to Samuel Gorton, appearing as it does to consist of testimony from several sources, including John Winthrop, of Gorton's "mutinous ...seditious ...uncivil ....riotous" and "licentious" behaviour. But Hypocrisie Unmasked was composed at the specific request of the government of Massachusetts with the expressed purpose of discrediting Gorton before the English government. Gorton's own testimony in Simplicities Defence and elsewhere tells a different story, which whilst not contradicted in his lifetime, or since, has not been thoroughly researched in its own right. Far from being the "dangerous" and "crazed thinker" of tradition Samuel Gorton was in fact a "strenuous beneficent force", whose importance to the independence of the colony of Rhode Island, and his courage in securing it, was matched only by Roger Williams. [source: G. J. Gadman, "A strenuous beneficent force": The Case for Revision of the Career of Samuel Gorton, Rhode Island Radical']

    Samuel and his family landed in Boston and soon moved to Plymouth Colony. There, in addition to attending the local church, Samuel began to gather with others in his home to share his own personal theology. These meetings were open to those frequently marginalized in Puritan churches, including women. Having just expelled Anne Hutchinson, Massachusetts religious and civil authorities were wary of another charismatic leader preaching a belief system that differed from theirs. They asked Samuel's landlord to evict him. At the same time, Samuel was testifying in court in defense of his household's maid, who was being threatened with banishment for smiling in church. Since he was there, local officials took the opportunity to enforce his eviction. Samuel "challenged the court for abusing procedure and appealed to the people to 'stand for your liberty'. For this he was accused of "sedition" and "mutiny", fined £20 and banished." [Source: FamousAmericans] Samuel and two of his supporters, John Wickes and Thomas Wickes, were given 14 days to leave Massachusetts entirely. Unfortunately, this eviction occurred during a terrible winter blizzard, and while the men were able to entice neighbors to take in their wives and children, Samuel, John, and Thomas were forced out into extreme weather to find shelter in unsettled wilderness.

    Samuel headed to the colony at Portsmouth that had been founded in 1638 by religious dissenters from Massachusetts Bay Colony, including John Clarke, William Coddington, and the infamous Anne Hutchinson. Samuel and his family settled on some land there, but soon ran into trouble again. Samuel immediately got involved in a simmering feud regarding the separation of Portsmouth and Newport, making no friends in the process. Also, there was apparently a bit of a racket going in Portsmouth, where farmers would cut the fences of other farmers, allowing their neighbors' cattle to roam freely. Then, they would complain that the cows had damaged their property and demand compensation. When this happened to Samuel, did he pay the fine and move on? Of course not. This was exactly the kind of dishonest and unlawful behavior that Samuel hated with a passion (and frankly, this sentiment still runs in the family). He went to court over the matter, made indignant and passionate speeches in his defense, refused to back down, and when the court fined him, Samuel called them "asses." He called his neighbors "jack-an-apes" and "saucy boys." He was not having any of it. For his trouble, he was whipped and banished.

    William Coddington sits as judge in the trial of Samuel Gorton in colonial Rhode Island
    (artwork created in 1876)

    Samuel moved on to Providence, founded by Roger Williams, but once there, he refused to accept the authority of the colonial government, as he believed that only England and the King had jurisdiction. Roger Williams refused to grant him freeman status because he would not submit to colonial authority or denounce his behavior in Portsmouth. Tensions grew between Gorton's supporters, who numbered quite a large group at this point, and Providence authorities. It erupted into a street riot in November 1641, at which point Gorton fled south for Pawtuxet, rightly fearing retribution.

    Another rendering of Gorton in court, by Granger

    Pawtuxet wanted nothing to do with Samuel, whose reputation preceded him. Despite being well outside the boundaries of Massachusetts, Pawtuxet officials appealed to the Massachusetts Bay Company to come and get Samuel, offering to allow them jurisdiction in Pawtuxet. Samuel got the message and split, but where was a radical religious leader and his band of followers to go, having been exiled from the entirety of Massachusetts and three separate communities in the future Rhode Island?

    Samuel found a refuge at Shawomet (later Warwick), which was five miles south of Pawtuxet and thirty miles beyond the Massachusetts border, thus theoretically safe from threats. He and his supporters purchased land from the native Narragansett people living nearby, and hoped to set up a permanent refuge, living in harmony with their Narragansett neighbors. However, the officials in Pawtuxet felt Samuel was still too close for comfort. They enticed two Narragansett sachems to complain to the Massachusetts Bay Company that their lands had been stolen, not purchased. Gorton was summoned to Boston to respond to the accusation, but because Samuel did not recognize colonial governments, he refused to go. In September 1643, Massachusetts sent forty soldiers to Shawomet, where they attacked the village, causing panic and the deaths of two women. After a standoff, Samuel and several supporters were arrested and marched back to Boston. "The attack by Massachusetts soldiers on the Gortonists in Shawomet in 1643 has been called one of the greatest crimes of the colonial period." [source: Warwick Beacon]

    Attack on Shawomet by soldiers from Massachusetts in 1643 (Scribner's Popular History of the United States, 1898, by William Cullen Bryant, Sydney Howard Gay, Noah Brooks)

    In Boston, Samuel was tried and quickly convicted. The magistrates were divided on whether he should get a death sentence, so instead he was shipped to Charlestown, put in irons, and sentenced to work. However, Gorton could not keep quiet. Even as a prisoner, he was still allowed to go to church, and he regaled everyone he encountered there with tales of his mistreatment and the corrupt Massachusetts court. The magistrates were not about to let this spiral into an uprising, so they released Gorton and again gave him 14 days to get out of Massachusetts, but declared he could not return to Providence or Shawomet. And then they changed the amount of time he had to vacate the colony to two hours. 

    The colonial leaders in Boston also took this moment to shore up their power in Rhode Island by turning Native American groups against each other in order to weaken their influence.

    The Boston authorities, seeking to make their claim even more secure by dividing the Indians, decided to eliminate Miantonomi [leader of the Narragansett people] as well. They prevailed upon Uncas, chief sachem of the Mohegans, to make war on the Narragansetts, and promised him help and money. Miantonomi and his warriors were led into a trap and Miantonomi was captured. The Mohegan sachem Uncas, seeking to curry even more favor with the English, beheaded Miantonomi, and sent the grisly trophy to Boston. This proved to be Boston’s undoing in Shawomet, for when Samuel Gorton returned to get his belongings, he was greeted by sadder but wiser groups. Indians, angered at the Massachusetts authorities for the part they played in the disgraceful treatment of Miantonomi, felt that any treaties with the Massachusetts authorities were no longer binding on them. Because Gorton was freed, they believed he had more power than the Massachusetts authorities. Gorton easily persuaded the Narragansetts to sign a treaty placing themselves under the protection of the King of England, and to confirm his claims to Shawomet. [source: Warwick Beacon]

    Samuel temporarily returned to Portsmouth, where William Coddington gave him refuge, despite their past conflicts. However, it became clear that Coddington could not truly protect Samuel from his many enemies, and Portsmouth would be no safe haven. Samuel decided his only option was to sail to England, along with several of his followers, and attempt to garner support from someone of importance there.

    In the four years he spent in England, away from his family and followers, who remained at Shawomet, Gorton was productive. He wrote extensively about his faith and his experiences in the colonies, including, in 1646, a tract titled Simplicity's Defence Against Seven Headed Policy, which dealt specifically with the injustices inflicted upon the settlers at Shawomet. Working his connections, Samuel was able to garner support for Shawomet from Robert Rich, the second Earl of Warwick, who wrote him a letter authorizing safe passage back to Shawomet, and endorsed his quest to receive a royal charter for the settlement. In 1648, bearing this letter, Samuel sailed boldly into Boston Harbor. He was immediately arrested.

    Artwork depicting the moment Gorton gave Warwick's letter to Massachusetts authorities 

    Once the Massachusetts Bay Colony authorities saw Gorton's official order of protection for Shawomet, signed by the Earl of Warwick, they had no choice but to release him and allow him to continue to Shawomet. Samuel returned to Shawomet victorious. He was greeted as a hero by his supporters, and they promptly renamed Shawomet in honor of the Earl who gave them legitimacy and protection, Warwick.

    Gorton's views on the role of government had transformed markedly during his time in England. He became actively involved in roles that he had previously criticized, now that his settlement of Warwick was secured by royal decree. The separate settlements of Providence Plantations, Portsmouth, Newport, and now Warwick all came together under a fragile government, choosing John Coggeshall as its first President in 1647 and calling itself the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. With his success in England, Gorton was seen as a leader in the colony and he was chosen as the Warwick assistant (magistrate) in 1649 under colonial President John Smith, also from Warwick. Both Gorton and Smith declined their positions but were fined for doing so; they both ultimately served and their fines were remitted. [Source: Wikipedia]

    Samuel Gorton spent the rest of his life in Warwick, engaging in a number of leadership and regional government roles. In 1651, he was chosen as President of the Rhode Island colony. During this time, he wrote a bold statute that was ahead of its time, an act calling for the emancipation of slaves.

    As early as 1652, Warwick’s founder, Samuel Gorton, then president of the colony, called for a general assembly that ordered that “no slave, black or white, could be held in servitude for more than ten years.” This was one of the first laws in English colonies to provide for emancipation. After a great deal of deliberation and discussion in the press, Rhode Island called for freedom for “all children born of slave mothers” after the first of March 1784. [Source: Cranston Herald]

    In the spring of 1677, Warwick was destroyed during King Philip's War. The townspeople, who fled ahead of the violence, returned to a community that had been burned to the ground and had to be completely rebuilt.

    The grave of Samuel Gorton

    Samuel Gorton died in late 1677, after having returned to Warwick and supported rebuilding efforts. He was about 84 years old. It is not known precisely when his wife Mary died, but she was still alive in April 1670, when her brother John mentioned her in his will. They left nine children, including my 9th great-grandmother, Mahashalalhasbaz Gorton Coles, and numerous grandchildren, including my 8th great-grandfather, Samuel Coles.

    Early Rhode Island historian Samuel G. Arnold would write of Samuel Gorton, “He was one of the most remarkable men that ever lived. His career furnishes an apt illustration of radicalism in action, which may spring from ultra-conservatism in theory. The turbulence of his earlier history was the result of a disregard for existing law, because it was not based upon what he held to be the only legitimate source of power—the assent of the supreme authority in England. He denied the right of a people to self-government, and contended for his views with the vigor of an unrivalled intellect and the strength of an ungoverned passion. But when this point was conceded, by the securing of a Patent, no man was more submissive to delegated law. His astuteness of mind and his Biblical learning made him a formidable opponent of the Puritan hierarchy, while his ardent love of liberty, when it was once guaranteed, caused him to embrace with fervor the principles that gave origin to Rhode Island.” [source: Small State Big History

    I'm also related to another notable figure in the history of Rhode Island, Robert Coles. My 9th great grandfather will be the subject of my next post. In addition to his role in the founding of Rhode Island, Robert was the inspiration for a work of classic American literature.

    (Continue to Part 2 of this story here)

    Monday, January 15, 2024

    The Capen Family of Dorchester

    Modern day Dorchester, England

    I spent much of last year studying my immigrant ancestors who arrived in Colonial America in the early 1600s. Included in this group are Bernard Capen, my 11th great-grandfather, Joan Purchase Capen, my 11th great-grandmother, and their son John Capen, my 10th great-grandfather. They emigrated from England to America together in 1633. 

    The Capens lived in Dorchester, which is in Dorset in southwest England. Dorchester has existed since Roman times, and in the late 1500s there might have been about a thousand people living in and around the town. It served primarily as a market town, where surrounding communities would gather to buy and sell goods. These days, Dorchester is admired for its beautiful coastline, and known for being the birthplace of author Thomas Hardy.

    Map of Dorchester & Fordington in Dorset England by John Speed, dated 1611

    Bernard and Joan Capen and Their Children
    Bernard and Joan were married in Dorchester in May 1596. Bernard's origins are not known, but by the time of his marriage, he was established as a a shoemaker in Dorchester. Joan was the daughter of Oliver Purchase and his wife Thomasin Harris, both of Dorchester. Bernard and Joan had nine children together:
    1. Bernard Capen (b. 1597; d. 1661; m. Christiane)
    2. James Capen (b. abt. 1599; d. 1628)
    3. Ruth Capen (b. 1600; d. 1646)
    4. Dorothy Capen (b. abt. 1602; d. 1675; m. Nicholas Upsall)
    5. Susannah Capen (b. abt. 1602; d. 1666; m. (1) William Rockwell (2) Matthew Grant
    6. Hannah Capen (b. abt. 1607; d. 1670; m. Robert Gifford)
    7. Elizabeth (b. abt. 1611; d. 1678; m. Thomas Swift)
    8. John Capen (b. 1613; d. 1692; m. (1) Redegon Clapp (2) Mary Bass
    9. Honor Capen (b. 1616; d. 1680; m. William Hannum)
    The Puritans in Dorchester
    Of the eleven members of the Capen family, seven would ultimately leave England for America in the 1630s. They were not alone in this migration. In the early 1600s, Dorchester was an epicenter of Puritanical fervor, and many residents decided to emigrate to America to create a more godly society. Whole families often departed together and restarted their lives in the colonies.
    Puritans were English Protestants who were committed to "purifying" the Church of England by eliminating all aspects of Catholicism from religious practices. [source: Khan Academy]

    The religious atmosphere in England in the early 1600s was complex. Seventy years earlier, determined to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII had broken with the Catholic Church. Parliament made this separation official in 1534 by passing the Act of Supremacy, which established Henry VIII as the head of a new Church of England. Over the century that followed, the English people and clergy battled over competing belief systems, a difficult period known as the English Reformation. By the 1600s, most had renounced Catholicism and were committed to the Church of England, but tensions remained. The Puritans felt not enough had been done to totally eradicate Catholicism in England. There were also different degrees of Puritanical belief, with separatists being at the extreme end of the spectrum. Separatists believed that they must separate themselves from government-run churches and gather only in community-based churches. That led to groups of Separatists leaving England and temporarily resettling in Holland, with many later moving on to the American colonies. The dissatisfaction of the Puritans with the Church of England's status quo, and their growing belief that they were called to create a society founded upon God's law, culminated in mass emigration to the new American colonies.

    The fate of the Capen family seems to have been largely shaped by Reverend John White, the rector of Holy Trinity and St. Peter's churches in Dorchester.
    John White was Rector of Holy Trinity and St Peter's churches from 1606 to 1648. He was at the centre of the group that took control of the town after the great fire of 1613 and ran it with a vision of a godly community in which power was to be exercised according to religious commitment rather than wealth or rank. Dorchester became briefly a place which could boast a system of education and assistance to the sick and needy nearly three hundred years ahead of its time. White and his parishioners established the Napper's Mite almshouses and a brewery to help maintain them. Work was found for all the fit poor of the parish, and the profits of the brewery looked after the poor and disabled. He sympathised with the struggles of the Puritans for freedom of worship and was involved with the group that sailed on the Mayflower. In 1623 he personally organised a group that established a small trading post at Cape Anne. He worked hard, making many trips to London, not easy in those days, to get a charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company, and to create an alliance between wealthy London merchants and West Country seamen. This enabled a fleet of ships to sail in March 1630 with the first large party of English people to settle in New England. The first ship to sail was the Mary and John, which carried people from Dorset, Somerset and Devon personally recruited by White. In June 1630 they landed and founded the settlement of Dorchester Massachusetts. [source: Dorchester Anglican]
    Rev. John White

    Susannah and Dorothy Capen Leave England
    The Capens were among those in Dorchester who became devotees of White's theology. In 1630, White organized a ship to take believers to the new world. At that time, sisters Dorothy and Susannah Capen were married women living with their husbands and children in Dorchester. They and their families signed on to White's voyage, making them the first Capen family members to emigrate. The Mary & John departed Dorset on March 20, 1630, and arrived at Nantasket Point, which is now the city of Dorchester, Massachusetts on May 30. This was two weeks before the arrival of the Winthrop Fleet, which carried a number of my other immigrant ancestors from Yarmouth, England to Salem, Massachusetts.

     

    An illustration of the Mary & John in 1630


    The Remaining Capen Siblings
    There were three Capen sons, Bernard Jr., James, and John. Each had a very different fate. James died in 1628, at the age of 29, before anyone in his family emigrated to America. John, the youngest, went with his parents when they departed England. Eldest son Bernard took over the family shoemaking business in Dorchester from his father, and did not move with his parents and siblings to the colonies. Bernard and his sisters Ruth and Hannah were the only living Capen family members that did not emigrate. 

    I looked to see if any of Bernard Jr.'s children followed their grandparents, aunts and uncles to America in later years, and found a very sad story. Bernard and his wife, Christiane, had six children in Dorchester. In 1646, when those children would still have been young, five of them perished within weeks of each other, presumably from a disease that swept through the family. Only one son survived, along with his parents. It's not known for certain what illness took those young Capens, but Smallpox, being extremely infectious and particularly deadly to children, may have been the culprit.

    Interestingly, Ruth Capen, one of the other siblings that stayed in England, also died in 1646, possibly felled by the same disease. There seems to be little information about Ruth, and it's not known if she married or had children. Hannah, however, became a well-loved school teacher in Dorchester. She married Robert Gifford and they had at least six children together.

    A rendition of the Elizabeth Bonaventure, a famous warship once commanded by Sir Francis Drake

    A Second Group of Capens Leaves England
    In 1633, Bernard, his wife Joan, and their two youngest children, Honor and John, departed Weymouth, England, bound for America. They left behind Elizabeth Capen, who had married Thomas Swift in 1630 and settled in Dorchester. I have read competing claims as to what ship the group sailed on, but it might have been the Elizabeth Bonaventure or the Recovery of London. Traveling with Bernard, Joan, John, and Honor were members of Joan's family, including her brother, Aquila Purchase, his wife, and their three children. George Way, Joan's widower brother-in-law, also made the journey to America. In fact, it is believed that up to 10% of the boat's passengers were related to Bernard and Joan. Unfortunately, the voyage was not an easy one.
    The ship they sailed on sprang a leak, which forced them to stay three weeks in the 'Western Islands' (known now as Azores) for repairs. The Portuguese islanders treated them well, but the extreme heat and rain brought disease upon them, and one of the ship's company died. (It is known that Aquila Purchase, brother in law of Bernard, died on the voyage, so it may have been Aquila who died in the Western Islands). They may have been on Flores Island, a sub-tropical location where highs of 85 degrees Fahrenheit in July have been recorded. Coming from cool and temperate England, they would not have been dressed for the weather they could have found there in mid-summer. [source: Reconstructing a Passenger List, Great Migration Newsletter Vol 3, page 9]
    The Capens in the American Colonies
    The Capens arrived in Massachusetts on July 24, 1633 and settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, where Dorothy and Susannah Capen had been living since departing England three years earlier. Elizabeth Capen and her husband Thomas Swift joined them in 1634, sailing on the Discovery to reunite with their family in Massachusetts. Five of the eight living Capen siblings were now in the new world with their parents, Bernard and Joan.
    He [Bernard Capen] is named among the first settlers of Dorchester, Mass. He was granted land in Dorchester 5 Aug. 1633 which is the date of the first appearance of his name on the records of Dorchester. He died there 8 d. 9 mo. 1638 aged 76, which makes his birth about 1562. He built a house, which is still in existence (1928) and considered by many the oldest house in New England. The original house, which was built probably in 1633, had a large addition made to it about a hundred years later and for upwards of three hundred years stood on the original site. In 1909 it was moved to Milton and set up on a hill in what is much like its original setting. [source: The Capen Family by Rev. Charles Albert Hayden and revised by Jessie Hale Tuttle]
    The Capen House in Milton

    Sadly, in 2006, a new owner decided to have the Capen House dismantled in order to build a modern home on the lot. The city of Milton had not designated the home as a historic property, although it was the oldest house in Milton, and was powerless to stop the demolition. Pieces of the house still exist in storage, but there is currently no plan to reassemble them.
    The first mention of Barnard in the Dorchester records is Aug. 5, 1633 regarding a grant of four acres of land to both he and son-in-law Nicholas Upsall. His homestead was on what is now Washington Street, near Wheatland Avenue. The last land granted him was at South Boston in 1637. He was admitted freeman 25 May 1636 in Dorchester. [source: Wikitree]
    Dorchester, Massachusetts in the 1600s
    When Susannah and Dorothy Capen arrived on the land that would be renamed Dorchester in 1630, the area was inhabited by the Neponset people, led by their chief, Chickatabot. Chickatabot died of Smallpox brought to America by English colonists in 1633, the year the Bernard and Joan arrived in Dorchester with two of their children. Chickatabot was succeeded by his brother, Cutshumaquin, but he was not the strong leader that Chickatabot had been.
    This chief (Cutshumaquin) appears to have been a mere tool in the hands of the colonial government, used for the purpose of deeding away Indian lands, and acting as a spy upon the movements of neighboring Indians. [source: History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts (Clapp)]
    The group of colonists that arrived in 1630 aboard the Mary & John toiled to settle the land that became Dorchester, but by 1633, when the rest of the Capen family arrived, it had developed into a prosperous town. In 1633, two members of a visiting delegation described Dorchester as follows:
    The following is Wood's description of Dorchester in 1633. "Dorchester is the greatest town in New England, but I am informed that others equal it since I came away; well wooded and watered, very good arable grounds and hay ground; fair corn-fields and pleasant gardens, with kitchen gardens. In this plantation is a great many cattle, as kine, goats, and swine. This plantation hath a reasonable harbour for ships. Here is no alewife river, which is a great inconvenience. The inhabitants of this town were the first that set upon fishing in the bay, who received so much fruit of their labours, that they encouraged others to the same undertakings."

    The following is Josselyn's description of the town: "Six miles beyond Braintree lyeth Dorchester, a frontire Town pleasantly seated, and of large extent into the main land, well watered with two small Rivers, her body and wings filled somewhat thick with houses to the number of two hundred and more, beautified with fair Orchards and Gardens, having also plenty of Corn-land, and store of Cattle, counted the greatest Town heretofore in New England, but now gives way to Boston; it hath a Harbour to the North for ships." 
    [source: History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts (Clapp)]
    The Deaths of Bernard and Joan Capen
    Bernard Capen died five years after his arrival in Dorchester, on November 8, 1638, at the age of 76. He is buried in the Dorchester North Burying Ground. Joan lived another fifteen years. She died on March 26, 1653 at the age of 75.  She is buried with Bernard.

    The grave marker for Bernard and Joan Capen [Source: FindAGrave]

    John Capen and His Children
    My 10th great-grandfather, John Capen, worked as a church deacon in Dorchester, and spent fifty years in the militia, much of that time serving as captain. John also acted as a Selectman in Dorchester for sixteen years (1666-81), and was repeatedly named Deputy to the General Court and Town Recorder. He was elected as a Representative in 1671 and again from 1673-1678.

    On October 20, 1637, at the age of 24, John married Radegon Clapp. Radegon was born in Sidbury, Devon, England in 1609. Her parentage is not confirmed, but it is possible that she was the daughter of Nicholas Clapp and his wife Elizabeth Young. Elizabeth died in England in 1631, and Nicholas died in 1632. Their seven presumed children, including Radegon, all died in Massachusetts, so they likely emigrated as a group, or in several smaller groups, in the years immediately following their parents' deaths. 

    Regarding Radegon's name, I have seen it alternately spelled Redegon, Radigon, Redigan, and Radigan. This is not a common English given name, and I had never actually heard it prior to discovering this ancestor. I was immediately skeptical that it was correct, especially given that her presumed siblings have very traditional names: Jane, Prudence, Barbara, Thomas, Nicholas, and John. However, this marriage and this name are documented in multiple places, including Early New England Families, 1641-1700 (Williams), A Sketch from the Early New England Families Study Project: John Capen in American Ancestors Magazine, Volume 14.2, and Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to N.E. 1620-1633, Vols. I-III (Anderson). There is a St. Radegund who is the patron saint of a handful of English churches, and Radegund appears to have had some popularity as a name in Cornwall, as a result. Cornwall is also in the southwest of England, so it's possible the Capens would have met others who gave their daughters this name. However, I'm having difficulty imagining the Capens, staunch Puritans, naming a child after a Catholic saint. This continues to be a mystery.

    John and Radegon had two children together. Joanna Capen was born in October 1638 and died six weeks later. John Capen, my 9th great-grandfather, was born on October 21, 1639. He survived, and would go on to marry Susannah Barsham and father nine children, including my 8th great-grandmother, Susannah Capen.

    Radegon died in 1645 at the age of 26. It's not clear whether she and John did not have any more children, or if they did and those children did not survive, but at the time of Radegon's death, John Capen, Jr. was her only living child.

    The grave of Samuel Bass in Quincy, Massachusetts

    In 1647, John, now aged 34, remarried Mary Bass. She was the daughter of Samuel Bass, the first church deacon of Braintree, Massachusetts, and his wife Ann. Mary was born in 1628 in Saffron Walden, Essex, England, and emigrated to Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1632 with her parents and several siblings. John and Mary were married for 45 years, until John's death in 1692. They had nine children together.

    Joseph Capen
    John and Mary's youngest son, Joseph Capen, was born in 1658. In 1682, at the age of 24, he moved from Dorchester to Topsfield, Massachusetts to become the minister of the Topsfield town church. He's a well-known historical figure in Topsfield to this day. His home in Topsfield, now known as the Parson Capen House, was built in 1683 and still stands. Fortunately, it has been preserved by the Topsfield Historical Society. 

    Joseph Capen was involved in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, when his former parishioners Mary Eastey and her sister Sarah Cloyce, who had moved to Salem, were accused of witchcraft, along with their sister, Rebecca Nurse. In a petition to the court, Mary and Sarah wrote that Joseph Capen was willing to testify on their behalf, as he "had the longest and best knowledge of us being persons of good report." It is not clear that Joseph was given the opportunity to testify, however. Mary and her sister Rebecca were convicted and executed. Sarah was convicted and kept in prison for months, until the governor put a stop to further trials and executions. A number of other Topsfield residents were involved in the witchcraft trials, both as accusers and accused, and Joseph Capen tried valiantly to mediate disputes and ease hysteria. He "appears to have been a calm and reasonable voice during the dramatic and tragic events. He was a contributor to Cotton Mather’s Return of Several Ministers written in June of 1692, written after Governor Phipps consulted the congregational ministers for their input on their legal view of witchcraft under the new charter. The contributing ministers cautioned against the use of spectral evidence and folk tests as proof of guilt." [source] In 1703, Joseph Capen, along with a number of other ministers, signed an address to the general court that requested that those accused of witchcraft be formally cleared of the accusation. More information about Joseph Capen and his involvement in the events of 1692 can be found at SalemWitchMuseum.com.

    The Parson Capen House in Topsfield, Massachusetts

    The Capen Legacy
    John Capen died on April 4, 1692, at the age of 80. Upon his death the Dorchester church entered in its record: “4th of April 1692 Deacon John Capen a military officer 50 years at length a Capt: & Deacon of ye church 34 years in His fourscoreth Year Rested from His Labors & Slept in ye Lord.” Mary lived another twelve years, dying on June 29, 1704, at the age of 72.

    Given that five Capen siblings settled in Dorchester, and all had many children, the number of Capen descendants at this point in history is vast. Susannah, Dorothy, Elizabeth, John, and Honor Capen are the ancestors of a number of well-known people. Descendants of Elizabeth Capen and Thomas Swift include writer Tennessee Williams (8th great-grandson). Descendants of John Capen and Mary Bass include U.S. President Calvin Coolidge (8th great-grandson). Susannah Capen and William Rockwell win the trophy, though, as their descendants include Admiral George Dewey (5th great-grandson), writer Edgar Rice Burroughs (7th great-grandson), actor Henry Fonda (8th great-grandson), painter Norman Rockwell (8th great-grandson), and actor Rainn Wilson, of The Office fame (11th great-grandson).

    I descend from John's granddaughter, Susannah Capen. Susannah married Andrew Hall. Four generations later, their Hall descendant married into my Smith line. 

    It's been fascinating to learn about another family in my tree with such an interesting immigration story.