[This is an ongoing Facebook project that I've decided to share here as well,
slightly revised and expanded, with additional photos and links.
Check back for updates through 4 July 2026.]
As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, it gives me a chance to share some stories of my family's history and how it intersects with our country's. Once a week until Independence Day, I'll add to this dual timeline.
1610 First up is the first of my ancestors to land on this soil: Stephen Hopkins, an 11x great-grandfather. He arrived here in 1610 as part of a rescue mission to the struggling Jamestown colony, after himself surviving a shipwreck that stranded him for a time in the Caribbean. His exploits are believed to have inspired the character Stephano in Shakespeare's The Tempest.
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Stephano, center.
By Johann Heinrich Ramberg - Cornell University, Public Domain |
After a few years at Jamestown, Hopkins returned to England, but soon after was recruited in London to join the Mayflower's voyage, because of his firsthand experience of the New World. His knowledge ended up being crucial for the Mayflower passengers during their earliest years. There is a terrific book about Hopkins if you want to learn more about his fascinating life: A Stranger Among Saints: Stephen Hopkins, the Man Who Survived Jamestown and Saved Plymouth, by Jonathan Mack.
1620 After sixty-six days at sea, 102 people arrived at modern-day Cape Cod on the Mayflower, Stephen Hopkins, his wife Elizabeth (Fisher), and three Hopkins children among them. Four passengers had already died at sea, while another fifty or so did not survive the first winter, including the Hopkins' infant son Oceanus, so named because he was born at sea during the voyage.
In addition to Hopkins and Fisher, I am descended from eleven more of the survivors, a mix of Puritan separatists, servants, and recruits from the London Merchant Adventurers. 11x great-grandparents are Edward Doty, Peter Browne, John Tilley, Joan Hurst, Isaac Allerton, Mary Norris, Francis Cooke, and Constance Hopkins (daughter of Stephen and his first wife); and these 10x ggs: John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley and Mary Allerton.
A few years back during a trip to New England, we visited the Plimoth Patuxet Museums, a wonderful recreation of both the “pilgrim” homes and those of the native Wampanoag people, with amazing, historically accurate buildings and skilled reenactors inviting you to learn, participate, and maybe even share a meal. I can’t recommend it enough.
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from left: Mr Allerton, an interior, some Wampanoag
photos courtesy your humble blogger, 2019 |
A friend once accused me of being smugly proud of having historic (rather than merely historical) ancestors. I’m really not; “fascinated” would be a better descriptor. I certainly can’t claim any of their achievements–all I did was discover I was related to them. And you might be too! It’s believed that up to 10% of Americans have Mayflower forebears.
Whether it’s a new country or just a new ancestor, remember: they’re already there, just waiting to be discovered. The rest is up to you.
1640 The Great Migration had begun. By 1640, nearly 20,000 people--mostly English--had emigrated to the colonies. A couple dozen of those brave voyagers were ancestors of mine. Despite many struggles, these years were a time of great opportunity and rapid change. Six additional future New England states had been established as colonies, joining Virginia and Massachusetts: New Hampshire in 1623, New York in 1624 (by the Dutch), Maryland in 1634, Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1636, and Delaware in 1638.
Along with these new colonies and towns came new political philosophies. The earliest and most important was the Portsmouth Compact, from 1638, which defined an independent colony that would be Christian in character but non-sectarian in governance. A 12x gg of mine, John Coggeshall, was one of the Compact’s signers. He was later the first President of the Colony of Rhode Island.
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The Portsmouth Compact,
in the Archives of the State of Rhode Island.
Grandpa John's signature is the fourth from the top.
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Another town established in 1638 was Providence RI. John Greene, 11x gg, was one of its twelve original proprietors. His son John’s next door neighbor was Benedict Arnold, son of another proprietor.
1639 added more new settlements, and I have ancestors among those founders, including:
* Guilford CT by Thomas Norton and Francis Bushnell, both 11x gg.
* Newbury CT by Edward Woodman 9xgg and Percival Lowell 10x gg.
* Hartford CT by Thomas Hungerford 10x gg.
* Milford CT by Robert Treat 11x gg and Edmund Tapp 12x gg.
* Newport RI by John Coggeshall--again--along with Jeremiah Clarke 12x gg and Nicholas Easton 11x gg.
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Sites around Newbury, including (left to right), the First Landing Place,
a memorial headstone for Edward Woodman,
and Lowell's and Woodman's names on a memorial plaque.
Interestingly, the names that appear are an incomplete list;
if descendants did not make a contribution, their ancestor's name did not appear.
Photos courtesy of your humble blogger, 2019. |
And in 1642, John Greene [idem] and Samuel Gorton, 11x gg, founded Warwick RI.
Along with John Coggeshall, mentioned above, grandpops Clarke, Easton, and Gorton also served as (respectively) the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Presidents of the Rhode Island colony. Young Benedict Arnold–no relation–was 10th, for what it’s worth.
Needless to say, their wives were there as well, but with women not allowed to own land or hold office–yet!--their contributions, alas, are not recognized, beyond appearing in surviving marriage and birth records, and if lucky, a will.
Percival Lowell, mentioned above, is one of my “Gateway Ancestors.” They are folks who arrived here during the Great Migration and whose verifiable roots connect them back to English royalty and aristocracy. If you’ve got any New England ancestry, you might discover a Gateway Ancestor too! You can read more about how I made that discovery on here.
1650s Despite seemingly unending promise, the New World still suffered from many of the old problems. Slavery and indenture, as well as religious persecution were common.
Although I have no slaves in my family tree, there are at least two indentured servants, Daniel Cone 9x gg, and James Claghorn 10x gg. Both were Scottish prisoners of war captured after the Battle of Durham, involuntarily dispatched here in 1650, arriving on the ship Unity.
Cone was sold to John Gifford, of "The Company of Undertakers of the Iron Works of Lynn,” and subsequently worked in the harsh conditions of one of Massachusetts’ ironworks for six years. We’ll meet him again in a future post.
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A memorial to the Scottish Prisoner of War
at Saugus Ironworks National Park.
photo courtesy of your humble blogger, 2019. |
Claghorn was indentured as well, but three years later married his master’s daughter, Abigail Lombard, who was eight months pregnant at the time. They clearly weren’t Puritans.
You can read more about Claghorn and Cone in a previous post here.
More pious ancestors of mine, Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick (née Burnell), 11x ggs, were early Quakers. In 1657, while living in Salem MA, they were fined and briefly jailed for their beliefs, then a year later they were jailed again for almost five months along with son Josiah, 10x gg. Two of their other children were sentenced to slavery in Barbados for being Quakers, but were spared. (Almost two hundred years later, that incident inspired John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “The Ballad of Cassandra Southwick.”) Instead, the extended family left for Shelter Island NY, where Lawrence and Cassandra died of starvation and exposure in 1660. (We’ll hear more about Salem in a future post as well.)
The modern uproar about things like Christian nationalism, or statues and memorials–among so much else–is nothing new. You can read about a controversy that took place over one hundred years ago regarding a proposed memorial to the Southwicks here.
1660s & early 1670s The 1660s and early 1670s continued to build on established Colonial foundations. The first generation of American-born colonists were now making their mark, continuing to expand their dominion by founding more cities, and establishing new laws and traditions.
Daniel Cone, having worked off his indenture, married, and no doubt wishing to distance himself from the iron works, removed himself from Lynn MA in 1662 to become one of the founders of Haddam CT, along with his wife, Mehitabel Spencer, 9x gg. Her name does not appear on the commemorative plaque, of course. She was the daughter of founder Gerard Spencer, 10x gg, and his wife Hannah about whom we know so little that her maiden name has not been discovered. Happily, the settlers purchased the land from the Wangunk tribe.
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| photo courtesy of your humble blogger, 2019 |
A few years later, Mr and Mrs Cone would move again, to be among the founders of East Haddam. Daniel's name appears on a similar plaque there as well, along with two of his Spencer brothers-in-law (and presumably, their wives), and Thomas Hungerford Jr, a 9x gg whose father has been mentioned already.
During our New England Road Trip I got to see a lovely old book, The Old Chimney Stacks of East Haddam... by Hosford B Niles. There was a chapter on the Cones, including this evocative passage, mentioning Daniel's son (and my 8x gg) Stephen Cone, who married Mary Hungerford, 8x gg, daughter of the aforementioned Thomas Hungerford Jr.
Stephen used to interest his grandchildren by relating how the family often sat on the back door-step and listened to the howling of the wolves as they were driven from the forest.
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photo courtesy of your humble blogger, 2019
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In 1663 another seminal document was signed, the Rhode Island Royal Charter. It is notable because it was the first to acknowledge that the indigenous peoples owned their land, and that Rhode Island could establish its own laws and elect its own leaders, as long as they did not conflict with English laws. Two ancestors already mentioned, Nicholas Easton and Samuel Gorton, appear as "primary purchasers and free inhabitants" in the document. Among those named as deputies are John Coggeshall [idem] and two more first generation colonist relations, 11x great-uncle John Coggeshall Jr and 10x uncle John Greene. The ubiquitous Benedict Arnold pops up again as Governor.
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A detail of the original Charter, on display
at the Rhode Island Statehouse.
photo courtesy of the NPS |
Another ubiquitous figure is Robert Treat [idem]. In 1666, leading a group of Puritans from Connecticut, he founded the town of Newark NJ. Captain Treat negotiated with the Lenni Lenape tribe for the desirable land along the Passaic River. He wanted to call it Milford, after the Connecticut town he had founded then departed (itself named after the village in England from whence many of its first inhabitants hailed). Another of the founders, Abraham Pierson, was a former preacher in Newark-on-Trent in England, and thought their new home should be called "New Ark of the Covenant." Pierson won out, although the name soon became shortened to Newark. I expect Treat did not mind, as he still had much to accomplish, as we'll soon see.
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"Robert Treat Directing Landing of Founders of Newark,"
poster by Adolph Treidler, 1915.
courtesy of the Library of Congress |
Late 1670s & 1680s Not every ancestor can be illustrious, of course. Most often they remain anonymous, every genealogist’s frustration. Some have deep flaws, or are merely products of their time. You only need to look around your own Thanksgiving table, perhaps, to see what I mean. But as Gertrude Stein–no relation, but a favorite author–once wrote: “Let us repeat what history teaches history teaches.” Although it is easy to focus only on the good, it is essential we also fully acknowledge the difficult parts of our past.
I’ve already written that 11xgg Robert Treat founded towns and championed religious freedom. But not all his actions were as admirable. In the mid-1670s, throughout the Colonies, relationships with the indigenous peoples were often strained, if not outright hostile. Tensions escalated between the groups, attacks were made, culminating in what is now known as King Philip’s War. “King Philip” was the English name of the Wampanoag sachem, or leader, Metacomet, who pushed back on what he saw as the colonists’ overreach and breach of treaties. There was soon violence on both sides.
Treat participated in the Great Swamp Massacre–as bad as it sounds–in 1675, as Commander-in-Chief of the Connecticut Colony forces, and served in that role through the duration of the war, which finally ended in 1678. To this day, King Philip’s War remains the bloodiest battle per capita in US history with an estimated 10% or more of the English population slaughtered; the percentage of the Narragansett and other tribes was even higher.
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The Great Swamp Battle Monument,
Kingstown Rhode Island
photo courtesy Society of Colonial Wars, Rhode Island Chapter |
During that same period, Treat was appointed to the Connecticut Governor’s council, serving until he was elected Governor himself in 1683. In 1687 an unsuccessful challenge was made to Connecticut’s sovereignty, resulting in the perhaps apocryphal tale of the Colony’s Charter being hidden in a nearby oak tree. Treat’s name is often associated with the tale. At any rate, he was re-elected each year as Governor until 1698.
My ancestors are not all Yankee, however, and of course not all paternal. The earliest immigrant name I’ve discovered on my mother’s side is 9xgg Henry Connelly. He arrived in 1689 from County Armagh, Ireland, along with some brothers (accounts vary as to how many and what names), at Old Albemarle Point, now known as Charles Towne Landing in South Carolina. (The Connelly branch is also unique in that it is the only wholly Irish part of my ancestry. Later forebears–in fact, also from County Armagh!–were Scots-Irish. But more on them later….)
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Charles Towne Landing State Park,
South Carolina. |
Henry and his family did well. Below is an excerpt--typically titled for its era--from William Elsey Connelly's 1910 book THE FOUNDING OF HARMAN'S STATION, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE INDIAN CAPTIVITY OF MRS. JENNIE WILEY AND THE EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT OF THE BIG SANDY VALLEY IN THE VIRGINIAS AND KENTUCKY, TO WHICH IS AFFIXED A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE CONNELLY FAMILY AND SOME OF ITS COLLATERAL AND RELATED FAMILIES IN AMERICA
These brothers were men of fortune and affairs, and they obtained large grants of land from the proprietors of the colonies, one such grant embracing, it is said, a portion of the present site of the city of Charleston. It is said, too, that they never parted with the title to this tract. They engaged in town building and the purchase, subdivision and sale of large tracts of land in various colonies, but principally in Virginia and the Carolinas.
So I guess we’re back to town foundings once more.
You can find a good overview of King Philip’s War here.
1690s Fear, accusations, falsehoods, hysteria, violence, innocent people killed…. It is happening even now, but we should not be surprised; this pattern has recurred throughout our country’s history. Far too many “good people” seem to believe that we best achieve E Pluribus Unum through a process of elimination, not assimilation, by othering and dehumanizing people or individuals through name calling, false binaries, exploiting differences.... And always, unsubstantiated, often ridiculous accusations.
One of the earliest–and certainly most notorious–examples is the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and early 1693. In that brief time, over 200 people were accused, with 30 found guilty. At an exhibit in the Essex National Heritage Area in Salem, a trick question is asked: “How many witches were executed in the trials in Salem in 1692?” The answer: “No witches were executed in Salem in 1692, but 19 innocents were falsely convicted and executed, while one falsely accused victim was tortured to death.” By April 1693, the mania had run its course, and the Governor pardoned anyone still in custody, no doubt in part because his own wife had become one of the accused.
One of my 9x ggs, Edward Farrington, was tried on two counts and found guilty in early 1693. One of the witnesses was Ann Putnam, whom Arthur Miller used as the main antagonist in The Crucible. At the time, Farrington was just thirty years old, only recently married, with one child. Happily, after his release from prison he lived another fifty years, fathered five more children, and led an uneventful life.
You can read more about Edward and the Witch Trials here.
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| One of Edward Farrington's indictments. |
Not everyone was swept up in that brief but dangerous madness. Caleb Seward and Lydia Bushnell, 9x great-grandparents, married in Guilford CT in 1686. Since grandparents of the happy couple were among Guilford’s founders, it’s not surprising the families were close. So close, in fact, that two of Caleb’s brothers married sisters of Lydia. Even the officiant at their wedding was a son of a town founder.
Perhaps tired of being surrounded by nothing but founding fathers (and mothers) and their descendants, in 1698, at age thirty-six Caleb headed off to an area near the Coginchaug River known as "The Great Swamp," that was used as a hunting ground for the native Mattabesset people. (This Great Swamp, by the way, is not the site of the massacre mentioned previously. Apparently there were a lot of swamps.) Seward found enough dry ground to build a log house, then brought his wife and six children, thereby founding a town of his own, Durham CT. He’s there still, buried in Old Durham Cemetery, where his headstone reads: Here lieth Mr. Caleb Seaward who died Aug. 2, 1728 in the 63rd year of his age, Being the First inhabitant of Durham.
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Caleb Seward's headstone, Old Durham Cemetery.
Photo courtesy of Find a Grave member David Malloy. |
I recently received a nice pin from the Durham Historical Association with the America 250 logo on it. Perhaps our country’s upcoming 250th anniversary will be something that can bring us all together. But based on our checkered history, I have my doubts.
#America250
