It is rare to find a letter from an ancestor from 1635, and even rarer to find one by a woman! (Found in the Trelawney Papers, Volume III of Maine Historical Society, Second Series. Portland, Maine, 1884)
"Nottells Island in Massachusetts Bay the 20th of November, 1635
Good Sir:-
I kindly salute you in the Lord. I am given to understand by divers that my father is verie much incensed againsts me, but by what meanes I know not, and that he hath offered to make sale of his land, notwithstanding he conveyed it to me by his deed (which I doubt not but will prove sufficient,) and had of me fifty pounds in consideration of it, that so the land might remaine to me & my children after my ffathers decease. And now I am enformed that my ffather would fayne dispose of the land & repay this fifty pounds. Now my humble request unto your worship is, that as you loved my first husband, so you would be pleased to doe that favor for me and my ffatherless children as to speake to my father concerning this thing, for I am perswaded your good word to him in our behalfe will much prevaile, and whereas my father (as I am told) would dispose of the land and have mee to take the fifty pounds againe, I shall desire you to intreate him that it may remaine with him, for my children, & that he would not goe about to put the land from us contrary to his deeds and promises. As for the house which I lived in, my father gave it me presently in marriage, and I have left it wholy to his disposeing since I came thence, without haveing any benefitt of it, only to give my father content. And thus craveing pardon for my greate boldnes, not doubting but that you will be pleased to doe me this favour, wherein both I and mine shall ever rest obliged unto you, and thus with my best respects to your selfe & your loveing wife, I humby take my leave, and remaine, your ffriend.
AMIAS MAVERICKE
I shall intreate you to remember me kindly to Mr. Clemett.
To the worshipfull and my much respected ffriend, Mr. Robert Trelawney, merchant, give these, in Plymouth. Per the way of Bristoll."
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Amyes Colle (abt. 1592 – 1649) was born in Plymouth, England and married Samuel Maverick. She is my 9x Great Grandmother (along with her first husband, David Thomson (1592 – 1628)) and lived on Noddles Island in Boston Harbor, which is now Boston’s Logan Airport. In this part of Boston, known as East Boston, there is still a neighborhood called Maverick, with a subway station named Maverick. There was an article written about this letter in the 1893 NEHGS Register, Volume 47 “The Widow of David Thompson” by Frank W. Hackett. At this time, the author did not know that Amyes was the widow of David Thomson. He thought that the letter was sealed with a G, not a C., which was her father’s seal.
The Great Migration Begins by Robert Charles Anderson, Volume II, pages 1241-43 covers John Maverick, Samuel Maverick, Amias/Amyes Cole, and David Thomson in great detail, straightening out the marriages, dates and stories. Also I found this connection in the book Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume 17: Isaac Allerton, by Robert S. Wakefield and Margaret Harris Stover (Plymouth, MA; General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1998) where I first read that Maverick’s son, Moses, married Mayflower passenger Allerton’s daughter, Remember Allerton, my 10 x Great Grandmother. Yes, I have a Thomson line as well as a totally separate Maverick lineage!
Another good book on the Maverick Family:
The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrant to the American Colonies of the United States, Who Were Themselves Notable or Left Descendants Notable in American History, by Gary Boyd Roberts (Baltimore, MD, Genealogical Publishing Co, 2004) page 377.
Other sources for David Thomson / Thompson:
Great Migration Begins, Volume III, pages 1807 -9.
New Hampshire Genealogical Record, by the New Hampshire Genealogical Society, Volume 9, pages 110 -116.
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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
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