The Naughty Wife - 52 Ancestors #49

Frances, the wife of immigrant William Hilton, had a fiery streak. She appeared in court in a number of times. Her relationships with her husbands and her neighbors seem especially tumultuous.

Frances first shows up in court in October 1649 when she was admonished for fighting and abusing her neighbors with her tongue. William Hilton was also in trouble for violating the Sabbath by carrying wood from the woods and also for failing to have food and drink on hand for strangers and inhabitants.

June 28, 1655: Frances was found guilty of "railing at her husband and saying he went with John his bastard to his three halfe penny whores and that he carried a cloak of profession for his knavery." Her accusation and language resulted in her sentence to be whipped - "twenty lashes upon the bare skin." This would be set aside if she remained on good behavior until the next country court and no more complaints were brought against her. However, if she had other complaints against her, the authorities would carry out the original sentence. Her husband died within the next year.

After William Hilton died, Frances married Richard White. Richard was the administrator of the estate of William Hilton. Richard and Frances had some conflict with Rice Jones. In 1656, Richard sued Jones for slandering Frances. Jones countersued Frances White for "causelessly abusing" the wife of Rice Jones with "opprobrious and disgraceful speeches." In 1657, Joan Andrews was presented for "threatening Goody White (Frances) at York in a profane manner saying that she would swear herself to the devil but she would be avenged of her."

This might have to do with the accusations of adultery leveled against Frances. Magdalene (Hilton) Wiggin was presented to the court for saying that she saw "William Moore and her mother Frances White" in an act of adultery. Magdalene was either the oldest daughter of Frances or perhaps the youngest daughter of William Hilton and his first wife.




In 1658, Richard & Frances White were back in court because they were fighting with one another. Then in 1660, they were in trouble for allowing men to be drunk in their home on the Sabbath and for not attending public meeting. They were also accused of "common lying and backbiting of their neighbors and slandering them and for their great disorder in falling out and fighting one with another and for beating company in their house and for beating Mistress Gunnison and Joseph Davesse, his servants and Richard White for being drunk several times." Richard White paid a fine for this case and they seem to stay out of court records for a long time. In 1675, they were once again in trouble for not attending public meeting.

William & Frances Hilton
William Hilton, Jr. - two lines from him

Mainwaring Hilton - brother of Hannah (below)
Ebenezer Hilton
Ebenezer Hilton, Jr.
Samuel Hilton
Catherine (Hilton) Churchill
Loann (Churchill) Rowe
Anna (Rowe) Hayes
Eva D. (Hayes) Yates
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

Hannah (Hilton) Shepard - sister of Mainwaring (above)
Thomas Shepard
Robert Shepard
David Shepard
Sarah (Shepard) Emmons
Laura (Emmons) Yates
Estes G. Yates
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

Not Far Enough - 52 Ancestors #6

I'm going to stretch the meaning of the prompt again this week to tell the tale of a bad man who tried to outrun his past but it caught up with him anyway! 

The bad man in this case was the Rev. John Lyford and he wasn't my ancestor but connected to my ancestor's family (I'll explain later). 

On the surface, Rev. John Lyford appeared to be a Godly man who traveled to the Plymouth Colony to minister to the Pilgrims in that community. However, the colonial leaders soon discovered that he was allied with the Church of England and maligning the Separatists in his letters to England. Once Governor Bradford found out, Rev. Lyford apologized. A little while later, it became evident that he hadn't changed his ways and he was banished. 

But that was just the start of Lyford's secrets. His wife, Sarah, came forward to tell of his infidelity, even fathering a child out of wedlock with another woman before she married him. She couldn't keep any maids because of his sexual harassment and molestation of them. 




Eventually, the BIG secret was revealed. The reason Rev. John Lyford had to leave his previous ministry in Ireland and come to the colony was that he had raped a girl in the parish while she attended pre-marital counseling with him! The woman's husband "tooke some godly friends with him, to deale with Liford for this evill" (Bradford's Journal). He had to leave in fear of even greater punishment. 

After leaving Plymouth, Lyford bounced around from Nantasket (Hull, MA) and Cape Ann to Virginia, where he died in 1638. He was a truly evil and despicable man! He could run but he could not go far enough to outrun his bad behavior! 

So what's my connection to this scoundrel? His wife, Sarah, married as his second wife, my 11th great-grandfather, Edmund Hobart. 

Edmund Hobart & Margery Dewey (first wife)

Line 1:
Nazareth Hobart - daughter of Edmund & Margaret (Dewey) Hobart
Martha Beals
Samuel Dunham
Ebenezer Dunham
John Dunham
James Dunham
James Dunham 
Florilla Dunham
Nina King Ellingwood
Annie Florilla Gibbs
Fern Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother

Line 2:
Rev. Peter Hobart - son of Edmund & Margaret (Dewey) Hobart
Elizabeth Hobart
Joshua Ripley
Hezediah Ripley
Joshua Ripley
Joshua Ripley
Nancy Ripley
Galen Blake
Charles Galen Blake
Harriet May Blake
Clayton Leonard Blake - my grandfather

NEHGR 1848
Wikipedia
http://minerdescent.com/2012/01/19/17th-century-premarital-sex/

Divorce Court - Adultery with Certain Lewd Women

Last weekend, I wrote about my 2X great-grandmother who was married 4 times. Chris Dunham of the Maine Genealogy Network sent me a link to this record of the divorce of Lizzie M. Philbrick from Francis Llewellyn Cotton. Interestingly, my grandmother always claimed her father, Ray Everett Cotton (referred to as the child, Everett R, in this proceeding), was quite the ladies man and not a faithful husband. I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree. 

No. 205

Lizzie M. Cotton

Lbt.

vs.

Francis L. Cotton

Lizzie M. Cotton of Farmington within our 

County of Franklin Libellant

versus

Francis L. Cotton of Norway in the County of 

Oxford, Libellee

In a plea of divorce from the bonds of

matrimony as herein set forth, viz:

To the Honorable Justices of the Supreme

Judicial Court next to be holden at Farmington

within and for the County of Frankin, State 

of Maine, on the first Tuesday of March A.D. 1893.

Lizzie M. Cotton of Farmington in the 

County of Franklin and State of Maine, re-

spectfully libels and gives this Honorable Court 

to be informed that her maiden name was

Lizzie M. Philbrick; that on the twenty first day

of September A.D. 1887, at Norway in the County 

of Oxford in the State of Maine, she was law-

fully married to Francis L. Cotton (whose legal

wife she now is) by Caroline Angell, a minis-

ter of the gospel duly authorized to solemnize

marriages, that she has one  child as the re-

sult of said marriage, named Everett R. Cotton, 

aged four years. That ever since said intermar-

riage your libellant has always considered her-

self as a faithful, chaste, and affectionate wife

toward her said husband, yet the said Fran-

cis L. Cotton, wholly regardless of his marriage

covenant and duty on the first day of July

A.D. 1889, and on divers other days and times 

between that day and the date of this libel

committed the crime of adultery with certain lewd

women to your libellant unknown. 

Wherefore she prays that the bonds of mat-

rimony between her and her said husband may                Mar. 5, 1893

be dissolved, and that the care and custody of

her said Child, Everett R. Cotton may be de-

creed to her.

Dated this twenty sixth day of January A.D. 1893

Lizzie M. Cotton

This libel was inserted in a writ of attach-

ment and served on the libellee as appears by

the following return of service thereon:

“Oxford as. February 2, 1893.

I attached a chip as the property of the within de-

fendant and I have this day summoned the

within named defendant for his appearance at 

Court by giving him a summons writ in hand, 

and also a true and attested copy of the within

libel for his appearance at Court. 

Jonathan Blake

Deputy Sheriff”

This libel was entered in this Court at the

present term when and where the defendant 

failed to appear and although solemnly called

made default; and on the seventh day of the term

after a full hearing it was adjudged and decreed

that the said Lizzie M. Cotton be granted a divorce

from Francis L. Cotton for the cause of adultery; 

and it was further decreed that the custody of the

minor child be given to the mother. 

Attest

E. E. Richardson  Clerk

Murder In Agamenticus

Catherine Cornish and possibly Thomas Footman and/or John Hull, Jr. murdered Richard Cornish, Catherine's husband. He was found in the river with a head wound and a pole stuck in his side. His canoe had been filled with clay and sunk. He bled to death. My 12th great-grandfather, Roger Garde, presided over he trial. Thomas Footman is my 10th great-grandfather and her suspected lover. (See disclaimers below)

Catherine was indicted, tried, and hanged for her husband's murder. Catherine had been in trouble with the law before this incident. In 1634 she was brought before the court and then in 1638, she was charged with "incontinency." That's indulging in lust or having an uncontrolled sexual appetite. Catherine accused two men of committing adultery with her. The first, Edward Johnson, confessed. The second, Roger Garde, was a the mayor of Agamenticus (Old York, Maine) and she accused him after he presided over her trial and found her guilty. He denied it although John Winthrop still suspected him.

563-4 (10/4/1644):  "One Cornishe dwelling sometyme in weymouthe removed to Accomenticus, for more outward accommodation, & in the month last was taken up in the river, his head brused & a pole stickinge in his side, & his Canoe laden with Claye fonde sunke: his wife (beinge a leud woman & suspected to have fellowshippe with one Footman) comminge to her husbande, he bledd abundantly, & so he did also, when footman was brought to him: but no evidence could be fonde against him: then somethinge was discovered against the sone of mr Hull their minister & the woman was arrayned before the maior mr Roger Garde, & other of the Province of maine, & stronge presumptions came in against her whereupon she was condemned & executed:  she persisted in the denyall of the murder to the deathe, but confessed to have lived in Adulterye with diverse, she charged 2: specially: the said Gard the maior, & one Ed: Johnson [had been licensed by JW as an Indian trader in Aug. 1632, had lived in York since the early 1630s] , who confessed it openly at the type of her execution: but the maior denyed it: & it gave some likelyhood, that he was not guilty, because he had carried himselfe very zealously & impartially in discovery of the murder, but there might be skill in that, & he was but a Carnall man, & had no wife in the Contrye: & some wittnesse came in against him, of his acknowledgment to the woman &c:  (JW is John Winthrop)

Part of the evidence of her guilt is based on an old superstition that if the body of a murder victim was visited by the murderer, it would bleed profusely. 

The book, The Early Background of the Gard Family in America, says that the last days of Roger Gard's life "were made intolerable by the slanderous statements of his enemies." He died not long after the trial but "in despair" and suffering from a "broken heart." 

Old York Gaol - this one wasn't built until 1719 but no images of the original gaol exist and this one can still be visited if you're into old historical buildings like I am.

My preliminary research indicates that Roger Garde is my 12th great-grandfather. But it's a good story even if the documentation doesn't hold up to closer scrutiny in the future. 

Mary Garde & Arthur Bragdon

Arthur Bragdon, Jr & Lydia Twisden

Lydia Bragdon & Philip Babb

Joshua Babb & Deborah Bickford

Alice Babb & John Waterhouse

Lydia Waterhouse & Richard Garland

Alice Garland & Isaac Hayes

Richard Hayes & Rebecca ? 

Sydney Hayes & Aphia Delphina Cole

George H. Hayes & Anna Rowe

Eva Delphinia Hayes & Estes Yates

Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

Thomas Footman - also based on preliminary research

Abigail Footman & Benjamin York

Elizabeth York & Job Judkins

Josiah Judkins & Hannah Huntoon

Philip Judkins & Miram Hunt

Moses Judkins & Aphia Perry

Betsy Judkins & Calvin Cole

Aphia Delphina Cole - see above for the rest of the line

Who's Your Daddy?

I found this story while looking for information on my ancestor, William Pinson. While some online trees have Edward and Sarah (Dexter) Pinson as the parents of William, I have been unable to find any documentation to back up that claim. Still, it's a good story so I thought I would share.

Edward Pinson was a "seafaring man" according to his burial record. He was the son of William and Mary Pinson and from this record it appears that he was buried 17 March 1701 in St. Martin, Ludgate, London.

Sailors have a reputation of being risk-takers of questionable morality and Edward seems to have lived up to that stereotype. Sarah Dexter was engaged or expected to marry Obadiah Bridges when Edward came into her life. It is likely that Sarah was enticed by Edward's money and the promise of a life in London. Sarah's father, Richard Dexter, warned Edward to stay away from her but the determined couple put up marriage banns which were later torn down. Then while her parents were at Sunday meeting, Edward and Sarah eloped. When they returned four days later as a married couple, Richard called Edward a "rogue, bastard dogg and son of a whore" and Sarah's mother, Bridget, beat her out of the house. It was later revealed that the couple used a forged letter of parental consent to convince the magistrate in Lynn to conduct the marriage. All that seems scandalous enough but...

Edward was not Sarah's first sailor lover...she had "lost her virginitie being overcome in Boston by a man who promiseth her marriage but afterwards went off to sea and since she heard he had a wife in England." Sarah, it turns out, was pregnant when she married Edward...with this other man's child....


Sources:
Sex in Middlesex: Popular Mores in a Massachusetts County, 1649-1699 by Roger Thompson, pages 60-61.