Stormy Weather - 52 Ancestors #10

Surf at Pemaquid - 2014 

I've written before about the hurricane that struck in 1635 and destroyed the Angel Gabriel off the coast of Pemaquid, Maine. For this week's prompt regarding stormy weather, I thought I would highlight another family who was on the same ship and add a bit more information. 

Surf at Pemaquid 2014

An interesting tidbit is that the Angel Gabriel was commissioned by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1617 for a voyage to Guiana. Five ships set out from England. The three were headed to Newfoundland were smaller and faster and landed before the hurricane struck. The James and the Angel Gabriel traveled together were caught by the storm. The James weathered the storm off the Isle of Shoals on the Maine-New Hampshire border and the Angel Gabriel stopped to ride out the storm at Pemaquid. When the ship was dashed against the rocks and destroyed, it was fortunate that only a few people lost their lives. Most of the passengers and crew escaped with their lives although they lost their possessions.

Surf at Pemaquid - 2014

John Bailey was a weaver. He settled with his son, also named John, in Salisbury and had a fishing grant in the Powwow River. When he and John sailed for New England, they left behind the rest of the family assuming they would return and fetch them later. However, the violence of the storm scared him enough that he would never agree to make the ocean crossing again. His wife and other children were also too afraid to make the crossing to join him. 




Couples were not supposed to live apart in Puritan society and the court had ordered him to reunite with his wife. Finally in 1649, the court decided that he "having used sufficient means to procure his wife over from England, and she utterly refusing to come," should not be required to go back to England. However, he was expected to continue to try to persuade her to come live with him. 

When he died in 1651, he left money for his wife and children in England but they would only get the full amount if they came to New England. The executor was to pay for the passage of those who would come to New England. His legacy to his wife was 6 pounds per year, to his son, Robert, 15 pounds, to his daughters, 10 pounds each. However, if they stayed in England, they would only receive 5 shillings each. We only know the name of one of his daughters, Joanna, who married William Huntington, came to New England. 

Surviving A Hurricane

Pemaquid Museum

John Bailey - my 11th great-grandfather

John Bailey, Jr. 

Sarah Bailey

Eleanor Cheney

John Safford

Ruth Safford

Martha Haskell

Mary "Sally" Houghton

Florilla Dunham

Nina K. Ellingwood

Annie Florilla Gibbs

Fern Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother