Reynor - The Whipping of the Quaker Women

The Dover Public Library has a nice section of historical information on their website.  In the essay, The Whipping of the Quaker Women, I found a few genealogical connections. This incident took place in 1662.

My first connection is to "Dover's powerful Congregational minister John Reynor." The three Quaker women who had come from England to minister to the people of Dover, NH were in frequent conflict with Rev. Reynor and challenged his authority.

After petitioning the local magistrate, Capt. Richard Walderne (Waldron), local constables were ordered to remove "these vagabond Quakers, Ann Coleman, Mary Tompkins, and Alice Ambrose" from their towns. The punishment was to be painful and humiliating: "make them fast to the cart's tail, and driving the cart through your several towns, to whip their naked backs, not exceeding ten stripes apiece on each of them, in each town; and so to convey them from constable to constable, till they are out of this jurisdiction." This trip was made in winter and over a distance of eighty miles.

My next connection is to John and Thomas Roberts, constables of Dover, who were responsible for arresting the women.

After they were whipped and tied to the cart in Dover, the women were delivered to Hampton and the constable there carried out the order, next it was on to Salisbury, where Sergeant Major Robert Pike refused to carry out the order.

Dr. Walter Barefoot treated the women's torn backs and the women were then taken to the Maine side of the Piscataqua River and stayed at the home of Major Nicholas Shapleigh of Kittery.

Rev. John Reynor (9th great-grandfather), Anna Reynor, Anna Lane, Jemima Foster, Joseph Spurr, Enoch Spurr, Roxanna Spurr, Mary Frances Stanley, Edward M. Carter, T. Richard Carter - my grandfather.

Thomas Roberts (11th great-grandfather), constable, Anna Roberts, James Philbrick, Ebenezer Philbrick, Ruth Philbrick, Philemon Rand, Lydia Rand, Tryphenia Lunt, John Henry Cotton, Francis Llewellyn Cotton, Ray Everett Cotton, F. Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother.

John Roberts (11th great-granduncle), constable

Standing Up to Persecution - 52 Ancestors #2 Thomas Spencer

The theme of the second week of the 52 Ancestors Challenge is "King." This can be interpreted in a couple of ways, including an ancestor who reminds you of Martin Luther King, Jr. I decided to write about a Quaker (or at least a Quaker sympathizer) ancestor who stood up in the face of persecution and lost a basic civil right (the right to vote) for holding firm to his beliefs. African Americans were also disenfranchised and the victims of violence, intimidation, and even lynching for standing up for their rights. There is a difference in that the persecution was based on skin color in one case and based on religion in the other but both groups faced intense hatred and persecution by certain elements of society. 

Thomas Spencer was my 10th great-grandfather and an early immigrant to the Piscataqua region. He was married to Patience Chadbourne, daughter of William, before 1629. Thomas was born in England about 1596 and died in York County, Maine (probably Berwick) in 1681. Thomas first came to Piscataqua in July of 1630 but he returned the England three years later and came back to settle in 1634. He was on the ship, the Pied Cow in 1634. It is unclear whether Patience came with him in 1630 or came later in 1634. Like many immigrants, he had a variety of occupations, from planter to lumberman to tavernkeeper. 

Thomas and Patience lived in Strawberry Bank (Portsmouth), Piscataqua (Kittery Point), and finally in Newichawannock (South Berwick). They also lived for awhile in Saco but ended their lives in Berwick. Patience died on November 7, 1683. 

The Quaker religion, or the Society of Friends, was established around 1647 by a man named George Fox. Quakers did not practice baptism, formal prayer, and had no ordained ministry. This quickly put the Quakers in conflict with the Puritan clergy in New England. Quakers were put in stocks and lashed with whips, some even had their ears cut off. In 1658, a law was passed in Massachusetts (which had authority over the province of Maine), that banished Quakers from the colony and instituted death by hanging for those who were found in violation of the law. In 1659, three Quakers were arrested and sentenced to hang. They were William Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson, and Mary Dyer. The two men were hanged first and Mary was given a reprieve. Mary Dyer refused to be deterred from her evangelism and returned to Massachusetts the next year and she too was then hanged. I wrote about her death and my ancestor, Humphrey Atherton in this post. 

In 1659, Thomas lost his right to vote for entertaining Quakers. He was part of a larger group of Quakers and Quaker sympathizers who lived in the Berwick area. At one time, they gave shelter to three Quaker women who were driven out of Dover, New Hampshire after being stripped to the waist and whipped until bloody. 

The couple was frequently in trouble with the courts regarding their religious practices. In 1663, they were presented for "neglecting to come to the publique meeteing on the Lords day to heare the word preached for about the space of 3 Moenths." In July 1675, they were presented for the same offense. Thomas and Patience are not listed as being Quakers but they lived in an area with a large Quaker population, were obviously not interested in the local church, and were willing to sacrifice their own rights and comforts for the Quakers. 

Children of Thomas & Patience (Chadbourne) Spencer:

1. William b. abt 1630
2. Margaret b. abt 1632
3. Susanna b. abt 1636
4. Humphrey b. abt. 1638
5. Elizabeth b. abt 1640
6. Moses b. abt 1642

My Line: 
Thomas Spencer
Margaret Spencer
Elizabeth Goodwin
Elizabeth Emery
Benjamin Tarbox
Jedidiah Tarbox
Patience Smith
Sarah Shepard
Laura E. Emmons
Estes Gilbert Yates
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

Sources: 
Chadbourne.org

Sarah - Who Are You? - Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Randy Seaver challenged geneabloggers to explore their ancestors named Sarah LNU (or last name unknown) as part of his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun series.

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music):

1)  I have many females in my family tree database without a last name.  One of those female first names is "Sarah."  Do you have situations like this, where you don't know the surname of some females? [I call them LNU persons - Last Name Unknown.]

I have over 50 females named Sarah for whom I do not know their surname. I gave up counting after fifty. 
2) How many "Sarah" persons without a surname do you have in your genealogy database?  How many of them are your ancestor?  

I was only counting ancestors so...probably over 100 Sarahs total and over 50 related to me! Many are second wives of many times great-grandfathers, wives of uncles, etc. so they are not direct line ancestors. 
3)  If you have one that is your ancestor, have you looked recently to determine if there are more records online that might lead you to her surname?  Go look for one - you might be surprised!

4)  Tell us about your Sarah LNU ancestors with no surname.  Perhaps someone will read it and help you out!
Can you help me solve these??  

I'm going to try to solve 2 Sarah mysteries in this post. I'd love it if someone has information on these two Sarahs. 

1. Sarah married to Richard Pope (?-1694). This is an early Maine family and records are hard to find. No luck with records on FamilySearch and limited, unhelpful hints on Ancestry. My data originally came from the book, Old Kittery and her Families, available on archive.org. 

2. Sarah married Eleazer Higgins (1697-1743). They lived in Eastham, Massachusetts. A search on Ancestry reveals a tree where she is called Sarah Rush but has no sources for this fact. The rest of the tree is fairly well-sourced compared to many trees on the site. I couldn't find anything on FamilySearch. This is my original source for the basic information. 

26. “Richard Higgins, a resident and pioneer settler at Plymouth and Eastham, Massachusetts and at Piscataway, New Jersey, and his descendants,” Katharine Elizabeth Chapin Higgins, Worcester, Massachusetts: Higgins, 1918.

5)  Share your information in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook or Google+.

6)  NOTE:  If you don't have any "Sarah" persons without a surname, then pick another female first name.

Well, I sure didn't have that problem! 

52 Ancestors #8 - James Gibbons

James Gibbons is my 9th great-grandfather on my father's mother's side. He came from London in 1635 on the Increase and settled at Saco. He later moved to Kittery. He was a yeoman farmer and was made a freeman on July 5, 1653. Based on his listed age of 21 in the ship's passenger list, James Gibbons was born about 1614. He died sometime after July 17, 1690. James Gibbons and Judith Lewis were married about 1648. He was associated with another ancestor, Samuel Andrews. They came on the same ship, both lived in Saco, and both had a notation beside their name that they were "sent away" by Robert Cordell, goldsmith, of Lombard Street. 

Judith Lewis was from a wealthy family and deeds indicate her consent on records regarding the selling lands that James acquired from her inheritance. Since she was the only member of her immediate family to remain in Maine, she inherited all of her father's land in the area. 

Children

1. James Gibbons was born on March 19, 1648/9 in Saco and married Dorcas Seeley (Cilley) in December 1668. 
2. Elizabeth Gibbons was born on April 23, 1652 in Saco and married John Sharp on November 14, 1667 in Saco.
3. Thomas Gibbons was born on November 23, 1654 in Saco and apparently never married. 
4. Rebecca Gibbons was born on January 30, 1656/7 in Saco and died on January 3, 1658/9. 
5. Charity Gibbons was born on January 5, 1658/9 and there are no further records for her. 
6. Rachel Gibbons was born on October 23, 1660 in Saco and married Robert Edgecomb (Edgecome) on May 30, 1682. Robert Edgecomb was the son of Nicholas and Wilmot (Randall) Edgecomb. They lived in Marblehead from 1690 to 1718 after losing a son to Indian attack. However, they returned to Saco after the Second Indian War. Rachel (Gibbons) Edgecomb died on January 13, 1724 and Robert Edgecomb died on June 1, 1730. They are buried in the Rendezvous Point Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Saco. According to Maine Provincial Court records the couple were presented on May 30, 1682 for "committing fornication." 
   
7. Esther Gibbons was born on August 16, 1664 in Saco and there are no further records for her. 
8. Anthony Gibbons was born on October 14, 1666 in Saco and there are no further records for him. 
9. Hannah Gibbons was born about 1668 and married twice. Her first husband was named ____ Hibbert and her second husband was Robert Mace. She married Robert Mace about 1700. 

James Gibbons
Rachel Gibbons
Thomas Edgecomb
Gibbins Edgecomb
Thomas Edgecomb
Mary Edgecomb
Benjamin Perley Philbrick
Lizzie Philbrick
Ray Everett Cotton
Fern Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother

Ancestry.com. The ancestry of Charity Haley, 1755-1800 : wife of Major Nicholas Davis of Limington, Maine [database on-line]. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.

Original data: Davis, Walter Goodwin,. The ancestry of Charity Haley, 1755-1800 : wife of Major Nicholas Davis of Limington, Maine. Boston, Mass.: Stanhope Press, 1916.

Ancestry.com. New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data: Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3; The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-6. Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1996-2011.