52 Ancestors #51 - Thomas Bull & the Pequot War

Thomas Bull came from England on the Hopewell and settled in Hartford, Connecticut with the followers of Thomas Hooker. He spent much of his time as a soldier. In the Pequot War of 1637, his exploits are found among the notes of Governor John Winthrop. 

Winthrop wrote:
Bull of Hartford Church filled with faith in entering the Pequot fort, he put off his arms, he was attacked by 3: Indians he laid hold of one of their arrows &c. & cut the other 2: bowstrings, & cleft one of their heads, & broke his sword, & by that occasion rescued a wounded man out of the fire, & used his sword, his piece of hard cheese received an arrow he killed 22.

In 1639, Thomas Bull testified in the colonial courts "that a musket with 2 letters I W was taken up at Pequannocke in pursuit of the Pequatts which was conceived to be Jno. Woods which was killed at the river's mouth." 

Author of this image is unknown - Source: Wikipedia

The Pequot War was the first major conflict with the Native Americans in New England. One of the most brutal aspects was the massacre of 400-700 men, women and children in the Pequot fortification at Mystic, Connecticut. The attack was over quickly and the death toll so high, in part, because the colonists set fire to the village. A few years ago a documentary was made about the conflict. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a place to view this film but the trailer makes it look pretty amazing. The website for that film has this to say:

"It is a moonlit pre-dawn in May 1637. English Puritans from Massachusetts Bay Colony and Connecticut Colony, with Mohegan and Narragansett allies, surround a fortified Pequot village at a place called Missituck (Mystic). In the village, the Pequots sleep. Suddenly, a dog barks. The awakened Pequots shout Owanux! Owanux! (Englishmen! Englishmen!) and mount a valiant defense. But within an hour, the village is burned and 400-700 men, women, and children are killed.

Captain John Underhill, one of the English commanders, documents the event in his journal, Newes from America :

Down fell men, women, and children. Those that 'scaped us, fell into the hands of the Indians that were in the rear of us. Not above five of them 'scaped out of our hands. Our Indians came us and greatly admired the manner of Englishmen's fight, but cried "Mach it, mach it!" - that is, "It is naught, it is naught, because it is too furious, and slays too many men." Great and doleful was the bloody sight to the view of young soldiers that never had been in war, to see so many souls lie gasping on the ground, so thick, in some places, that you could hardly pass along.

The massacre at Mystic is over in less than an hour. The battle cuts the heart from the Pequot people and scatters them across what is now southern New England, Long Island, and Upstate New York. Over the next few months, remaining resistors are either tracked down and killed or enslaved. The name "Pequot" is outlawed by the English. The Puritan justification for the action is simply stated by Captain Underhill:

It may be demanded, Why should you be so furious? Should not Christians have more mercy and compassion? Sometimes the Scripture declareth women and children must perish with their parents. Sometimes the case alters, but we will not dispute it now. We had sufficient light from the word of God for our proceedings."

Thomas Bull was married to a woman named Susanna. She died at Hartford on August 12, 1680. Thomas died between April 20 and October 24, 1684. 

The eight children of Thomas & Susanna Bull were:

1. Mary, born about 1639, no further record.
2. Joseph, born about 1641, married first about 1671 Sarah Manning and married second Hannah Humphrey about 1697. 
3. Ruth, born about 1643, married Andrew Bordman on October 15, 1669. 
4. Susanah, born about 1645, married Thomas Bunce. 
5. Thomas, born about 1647, married first Esther Cowles on April 29, 1669 in Farmington, CT and married second Mary (Cheever) Lewis on January 13, 1692 in Farmington, CT. 
6. Jonathan, baptized March 25, 1649, married Sarah Whiting on March 19, 1684/5. 
7. David, baptized February 9, 1650/1, married Hannah Chapman on December 27, 1677 in Saybrook, CT. 
8. Abigail, born about 1653, married in Salem, MA, Rev. Thomas Barnard on April 28, 1696. 

My line is:
Thomas Bull
Joseph Bull
Nathaniel Bull
Tabitha Bull
Samuel Ackley
William Ackley
Sarah Ackley
Mary Jane Abbott
Fannie May Capen
Thomas Richard Carter - my grandfather

This week was interesting for me. Between the revision of the DNA matches on Ancestry.com and the deep discount that allowed me to place my DNA on Family Tree DNA, I am finally getting matches that are meaningful. This week I connected with a man who grew up on Maine but now lives in Florida. He is also a descendant of Thomas Bull. We share the line through Samuel Ackley, making us 5th cousins, once removed. We discovered some other common ancestors too. 

Additional Source:
Great Migration 1634-1635, A-B (online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.)

Surname Saturday - Ackley of Boston

On March 20, 1760, a great fire swept through the city of Boston. According to this site, the 1760 fire was called the "Second" Great Fire of Boston. It destroyed 349 buildings and left 220 families homeless. Many businesses were lost and the Quaker Meeting House on Congress Street was consumed by the flames. It even destroyed some ships in the harbor. My 6X great-grandfather, Francis Ackley was among those who unsuccessfully petitioned the House of Commons for relief after the fire.

Francis Ackley participated in the Boston Tea Party. There are several online accounts that say Francis Ackley was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill but I have not seen enough proof to elevate this story out of the realm of folklore. If anyone has a source for this information, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Francis married Tabitha Bull on June 8, 1751. They are the parents of Samuel Ackley. He was born on July 17, 1763.

Samuel Ackley served three years in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He enlisted in Boston on the day he turned eighteen and joined his regiment at West Point and served until the army was disbanded and he was discharged, again at West Point. His pension was filed while he was living in Halifax, Vermont but in 1830, he moved to Rumford, Maine and was still living in 1855, aged 93. Samuel married Elizabeth Moody on November 18, 1791. They were the parents of William Ackley. 

William Ackley married Deborah Capen on March 4, 1814. They were the parents of Sarah Ackley. 

Ancestry.com. Rumford, Oxford County, Maine: Town History [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001. 

Sarah Ackley married John Abbott and they were the parents of Mary Jane Abbott. Mary Jane married Edward Abbott Capen and they were the parents of Fannie May Capen - my great-grandmother. Fannie married Edward Mellen Carter and they were the parents of my grandfather, Thomas Richard Carter.

The Real Tea Party

On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists participated in one of the most significant protests in American history. They dressed up like Indians and dumped 342 crates of tea belonging to the British East India Co. into Boston harbor. Contrary to what many believe (including those who have co-opted the name of this event to label their political philosophy), this was not a protest over taxes. It was protesting a British Law, the Tea Act, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea for less than the colonial smugglers. This would help save the company from ruin because few colonists were buying tea from this company when they could buy it cheaper from colonial merchants. The company's investors were not happy with all the unsold tea piling up in warehouses. This is the aspect of the revolution that is rarely discussed. The real issue was not the taxes. Most of the the taxes, such as the tax on sugar, were significantly reduced after the French & Indian War. The issue was freedom of trade and the restrictions placed on the colonies under the mercantile system. For decades the British had turned a blind eye to enforcing their laws but the debt from the war with France ended this period of salutary neglect. This Tea Party movement was protesting a law that gave tax cuts to the wealthy and big businesses and hurt the average working-class family by raising the prices on the goods they needed. Hmmm....

http://ushistoryimages.com/boston-tea-party.shtm

Back to the Boston Tea party...fearing punishment, many of the participants fled to avoid arrest and their families tried to keep their involvement a secret. According to this web site, 116 have been identified. The first name on the list is that of my 6th great-grandfather, Francis Ackley. He was captured and imprisoned but at some point he escaped and found his way back to Boston. He fought and died in the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 19, 1775. That's quite a story. I'm still trying to find more details and to track down any connections I have to other names on the list of participants.

http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/participants-in-the-boston-tea-party

Francis Ackley & Tabitha Bull
Samuel Ackley & Elizabeth Moody
William Ackley & Deborah Capen
Sarah Ackley & John Abbott
Mary Jane Abbott & Edward Abbott Capen
Fannie May Capen & Edward Mellen Carter
Thomas Richard Carter - my grandfather

"A Keen Sense of Justice & a Sharp Tongue"

Martha Carrier is one of the most well-known of those executed for witchcraft in Salem. She was born Martha Allen - my first cousin 11 times removed. 

An outspoken old woman makes an easy target for accusations

In 1674, Martha became pregnant by a young Welsh servant, Thomas Carrier and they married. They left Andover, Massachusetts and moved to Billerica, probably to get away from the gossip. In the 1680s, they returned to Andover, still poor and with more mouths to feed. Martha was disliked for freely speaking her mind and not knowing her place. She is described in Historical Sketches of Andover, "Martha Carrier was, too, a woman of a disposition not unlikely to make enemies; plain and outspoken in speech, of remarkable strength of mind, a keen sense of justice and a sharp tongue." 

The second major misfortune came in 1690 when a smallpox epidemic erupted and although her own family suffered greatly, the community blamed Martha for the outbreak. Her family accounted for 7 of the 13 deaths in town...apparently no one considered that it would be unlikely that she would afflict her own family. 

When the Salem girls accused her of witchcraft, her neighbors were quick to come forward with tales of wounds that would not heal and sick or dead livestock. These included Benjamin & Sarah (Farnum) Abbott, my 9th great-grandparents. Martha's response was "it is a shamefull thing that you should mind these folks that are out of their wits."

New accusations were aimed at her children. Sons Richard, 18, and Andrew, 15, were tied "neck to heels until blood was ready to come out of their noses." Daughter, Sarah, age 7, and son, Thomas, Jr., age 10 testified against their mother and admitted to being witches themselves. 

Martha never confessed despite all that was done to her and her family. This was very unusual among those accused. Martha was hanged on August 19, 1692. 

Enders Robinson, in his book Salem Witchcraft, proposed that there was a conspiracy by assistant minister, Thomas Barnard to discredit the senior minister, Rev. Francis Dane. Robinson's evidence is the number of accused who were either related to Dane or to the powerful founding families in the town. Rev. Francis Dane is my 10th great-grandfather and Thomas Barnard was married to Abigail Bull, my 9th great-aunt. 

Historical Sketches of Andover describes how she never gave in to the pressure, even when she was taken to the gallows.

"In the examinations of the accused which preceded the regular trial, most made confession and thus averted the extreme penalty. Martha Carrier was the only one of all, male or female, who did not at some time or other make an admission or confession. From the first moment to the last, under all the persuasions and exhortations of friends, under denunciations and threats of the magistrates and examiners, she held firm, denying all charges, and neither overborne in mind nor shaken in nerve, met death with heroic courage...The prisoner [Martha Carrier] was hanged August 19, 1692, along with four men, among them the Rev. George Burroughs. they were carried in a cart through the streets of Salem, crowds thronging to see the sight. Even from the scaffold, Martha Carrier's voice was heard asseverating her innocence. Her dead body was rudely treated, then thrust into the ground in the same hole or grave with the bodies of Mr. Burroughs and John Willard...in the year 1711, her [Martha's] name occurs on a list of sufferers, whose legal representatives received money for losses sustained by the imprisonment and death of their relations. Seven pounds six shillings was allowed to the representatives of Martha Carrier." 

Given what we know today about the psychology behind false confessions, it is remarkable that Martha refused to be broken. 

I have connections through three of my grandparents - though the Yates connection is only a half-cousin. 

Martha (Allen) Carrier - First cousin 11 times removed - granddaughter of Edmund Ingalls - my 11th great-grandfather through Fern Lyndell Cotton
Abigail Bull - daughter of Thomas Bull - my 10th great-grandfather through T. Richard Carter. 
Benjamin & Sarah (Farnum) Abbott - my 9th great-grandparents through Fern Lyndell Cotton, Benjamin is also my 7th great-uncle through T. Richard Carter. Sarah is also my 2nd cousin 8 times removed through Fern Lyndell Cotton and my half-2nd cousin 10 times removed through Linona Alica Yates
Rev. Francis Dane - my 10th great-grandfather through Fern Lyndell Cotton and one of his wives, Hannah Chandler, is my 8th great-grandmother through T. Richard Carter

http://archive.org/details/historicalsketc01bailgoog
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon-salem/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=salem/texts/bios.xml&style=salem/xsl/dynaxml.xsl&chunk.id=b4&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes

Blacksheep Sunday - Frequent & Abominable Drunkenness!

John Barnes is my 10th great-grandfather. He came to Plymouth in 1632 and was a yeoman and merchant. John Barnes shows up frequently in the court records; often engaged in some practices which the General Court deemed illegal or at least unfair. He was also in court a few times for slandering his neighbors and also for his drunkenness. It got so bad that he was disenfranchised (his right to vote was revoked) for "frequent and abominable drunkenness." Finally in 1661 the court ordered that "ordinary keepers of the town of Plymouth are hereby prohibited to let John Barnes have any liquors, wine, or strong drink at any time" under penalty of 50s. fine. An ordinary is a tavern. 

Plymouth court records show that on 5 March 1671/2 a coroner's jury viewed "the corpes of Mr. John Barnes" and stated that "being before his barn door, in the street, standing stroking or feeling of his bull, the said bull suddenly turned upon him and give him a great wound with his horn on his right thigh, near eight inches long, in which his flesh was torn both broad and deep, as we judge, of which would together with his wrench of his neck or pain thereof (of which he complained) he immediately languished, after about 32 hours he died."

I have to wonder if he was drunk when he was gored by the bull.

DO NOT PET THE BULL!

In 2007, cousin Bill West put his spin on the story and adds some details.

John Barnes & Mary Plummer
Jonathan Barnes & Elizabeth Hedge
Mary Barnes & John Carver
Mary Carver & Moses Barrows
Moses Barrows & Deborah Totman
Asa Alden Barrows & Content Benson
Rachel Barrows & John Ellingwood, Jr.
Asa Freeman Ellingwood & Florilla Dunham
Nina King Ellingwood & George Gibbs
Annie Florilla Gibbs & Ray Everett Cotton
Fern Lyndell Cotton

Sources:
http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/BARNES2.htm
http://www.plimoth.org/media/pdf/barnes_john.pdf