Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1782

Last week I posted the 2009 Annual Thanksgiving Proclamation for the State of New Hampshire, signed this year by our Governor John Lynch. Here is a transcription of the 1782 Proclamation, originating with the New Hampshire Committee of Safety....

STATE OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
IN COMMITTEE of SAFETY,
EXETER, November 1, 1782.
ORDERED,
THAT the following Proclamation for a general THANKSGIVING on the twenty-eighth day of November [instant?], received from the honorable Continental Congress, be forthwith printed, and sent to the several worshipping Assemblies in this State, to whom it is recommended religiously to observe said day, and to abstain from all servile labour thereon.
M. WEARE, President.
By the United States in Congress assembled.

PROCLAMATION.

IT being the indispensable duty of all Nations, not only to offer up their supplications to ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf: Therefore the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States, in the course of the important conflict in which they have been so long engaged; the present happy and promising state of public affairs; and the events of the war, in the course of the year now drawing to a close; particularly the harmony of the public Councils, which is so necessary to the success of the public cause; the perfect union and good understanding which has hitherto subsisted between them and their Allies, notwithstanding the artful and unwearied attempts of the common enemy to divide them; the success of the arms of the United States, and those of their Allies, and the acknowledgment of their independence by another European power, whose friendship and commerce must be of great and lasting advantage to these States:----- Do hereby recommend to the inhabitants of these States in general, to observe, and request the several States to interpose their authority in appointing and commanding the observation of THURSDAY the twenty-eight day of NOVEMBER next, as a day of solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience of his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.
Done in Congress, at Philadelphia, the eleventh day of October, in the year of our LORD one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two, and of our Sovereignty and Independence, the seventh.
JOHN HANSON, President.
Charles Thomson, Secretary.
PRINTED AT EXETER.

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 5

The Shipwreck of the “Angel Gabriel”

The Great migration was an exodus of Puritans from England to New England between 1620 and 1640. During this time John Winthrop sailed on the “Arabella” and wrote his famous sermon about the “City on a Hill” during the voyage. Most of my ancestors arrived in this period, on many ships, mostly unrecorded by passenger lists. One ship carried the most ancestors (besides the Mayflower), and that was the galleon “Angel Gabriel.”

She was a galleon built for Sir Walter Raleigh, and carried him on his last trip to the New World in 1617. For eighteen years she carried passengers to America, but in 1635 she was shipwrecked in Maine. I’m descended of two of the families who survived: Andrews and Cogswell. “Angel Gabriel” had been blown off course by a hurricane, and came ashore at Pemaquid Point, Maine, which was a fortified military outpost. When the passengers disembarked for the night, the ship was caught at anchor in the harbor by another hurricane and disappeared. Although many have searched for her wreck, none have found any evidence of the “Angel Gabriel.”

The survivors were stranded at Maine for a short time, eventually made their way to Boston, Massachusetts and left a large number of descendants. Today there is a museum at the recreated fortress near the harbor, and plaques commemorating the shipwreck of the “Angel Gabriel” by the lighthouse. The gift shop maintains several three ring binders where many descendants have deposited family trees and genealogical information. Several of these families have associations with newsletters and annual reunions.

We visited Pemaquid Point a few years ago, to see the harbor and wooden stockade fortress. You will recognize Pemaquid lighthouse from the Maine state quarter that began circulation in 2003. It was a beautiful summer day, and the view from the top of the lighthouse was spectacular. But I’m sure that my ancestors didn’t appreciate the view as I did (well, there was no lighthouse in 1635 either!) Several ships were lost in this storm, and the “Angel Gabriel’s” companion ship “James” was blown to the Isles of Shoals. The passengers lost all their possessions (the Cogswells were reported to have lost five thousand pounds of money and much property) and valuable time in getting to their destination. Thankfully, only three or four of the passengers and crew, and most of the cattle, lost their lives since the passengers had all disembarked for the night.

There is no official passenger list that has survived the wreck. According to a book written in 2001, this is the recreated list of passengers. The possible list of passengers should be much larger, since the “James” had at least 100 passengers.

• Capt. Robert Andrews, Ship’s Master,Ipswich, Massachusetts
• John Bailey, Sr., Newbury, Massachusetts
• John Bailey, Jr. b. 1613
• Johanna Bailey (possibly came on a later ship)
• Henry Beck
• Ralph Blaisdell of Lancashire, settled in York, Maine
• Mrs. Elizabeth Blaisdell
• Henry Blaisdell
• William Furber
• John Cogswell, age 43, settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts
• Elizabeth, (Thompson) Cogswell about age 41,
• Mary Cogswell, about age 18,
• William Cogswell, about age 16,
• John Cogswell, about age 13,
• Hannah Cogswell, about age 11,
• Abigail Cogswell, about age 9,
• Edward Cogswell, about age 6,
• Sarah Cogswell, about age 3,
• Elizabeth Cogswell, infant
• Samuel Haines, about age 24, Greenland, New Hampshire
• William Hook
• Henry Simpson

Highlighted passengers are some of my ancestors!

For more information see:

“Angel Gabriel: The Elusive English Galleon” by Warren C. Riess, published by 1797 House, 2001

The Journal of the Reverend Richard Mather (who was aboard the “James”) published 1850

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Cite/Link to this post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 5", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 20, 2009,  ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-voyage-5.html: accessed [access date]).

The Kreative Blogger Award

Thanks to Bill West at www.westinnewengland.blogspot.com for passing me the Kreativ Blogger Award. He is one of the other genealogy bloggers from New England I have “met” online. I’ve enjoyed his blogging ideas, such as the Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge, which has helped expand my ideas, since I’m a new blogger. It’s nice to know that someone out there besides Mom is reading my blog!

As part of the award, I’ve been challenged to reveal seven things about myself that I haven’t blogged about to the genealogy community. And I need to pass along the award to seven other bloggers.

Me Trivia:

1. I took seven years of French classes and then married a Spaniard. Go figure!

2. I had to wear a foot brace for the last few years, yet recently I’ve been trying to get along without it and its working (so far!) Keep your fingers crossed…

3. When I retire I’d love to live in a college community and take advantage of classes, activities, clubs and libraries. We’ve looked into condos at MIT and several other Boston Universities. Very cool!

4. My favorite movie is “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” It has nothing to do with history or genealogy, and I still laugh at all the jokes all the way through no matter how often I see it.

5. I’m very math-phobic, but I married an MIT rocket scientist so it all works out. He went to school outside of the USA and never took American History.

6. My favorite food is Chinese. Chinese anything. Breakfast, lunch or dinner.

7. Oops! I was told there was no math involved!

There are too many good genealogy and history based blogs out there to choose amongst, but I’ll pass the gavel to….

1. James Tanner at “Genealogy’s Star” http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/

2. Caitlin Hopkins at “Vast Public Indifference” http://vastpublicindifference.blogspot.com/

3. J. L. Bell at “Boston 1775”
http://boston1775.blogspot.com/

4. Maggiemac at “History of American Women” http://womenhistory.blogspot.com/

5. Sandy at “Remembering Danvers” http://rememberingdanvers.blogspot.com/

6. N. L. Taylor at “A Genealogist’s Sketchbook” http://nltaylor.net/sketchbook/

7. Robin C. Mason at “Boston Genealogy Examiner” http://www.examiner.com/x-9553-Boston-Genealogy-Examiner

Tag! You’re it! The rules of the award are as follows:
1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
2. Copy the logo and place it in your blog.
3. Link the person who nominated you.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.
5. Nominate seven 'Kreativ Bloggers.'

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 4

The Hessian Soldier who stayed in the New World


Part four in my Thanksgiving series about ancestors who DIDN’T arrive in the New World on the Mayflower. My 4x great grandfather Johann Daniel Bollman was a surgeon from Hammersleben in Saxony, Germany. He came to North America with Baron de Riedesel’s Brunswick Regiment of Hessian Soldiers in 1776. The Duke of Brunswick had contracted with England to send 3,964 foot soldiers and cavalry to America. They arrived in Quebec and their military objective was to cut off New England from the other colonies by driving troops down to Albany. They lost the battle at Bennington, Vermont when 200 Germans were killed and another 700 were captured. Again, at Saratoga, the Americans trapped them and took the Germans as prisoners of war for the duration.

Fortunately, as an officer and a surgeon, Johann Daniel Bollman was a valuable prisoner. He was also wounded at Saratoga, and while being held he tended to the other sick and wounded. He was exchanged as a prisoner of war, and sent to Halifax. Eventually he settled as a permanent resident of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, the home of many German speaking settlers.

Dr. Bollman was not only a physician, he also became active in politics and served as a member of the House of Assembly representing Lunenburg Township between 1793 to 1809. In 1782 he married Jane Bremner, daughter of Scots settlers and widow of Phillip Knaut, an original Lunenburg grantee. His granddaughter removed to Massachusetts in the 1870s and joined the family tree in the United States.

Bollman Family Tree:

Generation 1: Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman, born about 1751 in Hammersleben, Magdeburg, Saxony, Germany, died 17 September 1833 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada; married on 14 February 1782 in Lunenburg to Jane Bremner, daughter of Robert Bremner and Margaret Stewart, born about 1764 and died on 6 March 1829 in Lunenburg. Eleven children including two sons who were surgeons…

Generation 2: Dr. Bremner Frederick Bollman, born 25 February 1802 in Lunenburg, died on 15 December 1838 in Lunenburg; married to Sarah Elizabeth Lennox, daughter of John Lennox and Ann Margaretha Schupp, born 16 February 1805 in Lunenburg. Three children…

Generation 3: Ann Margaret Bollman, born 11 September 1835 in Lunenburg and died 1923 in Salem, Massachusetts; married on 7 June 1858 in Lunenburg to Caleb Rand Bill, son of the Reverend Ingraham Ebenezer Bill and Isabella Lyons. He was born on 30 May 1833 in Billtown, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, and died on 30 December 1902 in Salem, Massachusetts. See my blog posting on October 4, 2009 “Bill Family Reunion” for a continuation of this lineage.

Sources:

“The Diary of Adolphus Gaetz” describes life in early Lunenburg, Nova Scotia between 1855 and 1873. Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/

“Johnny Bluenose at the Polls” by Brian Cuthbertson, Formac Publishing, Halifax, 1994

“Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor: A History of Medicine and Social Conditions in Nova Scotia, 1749-1799”, by Allan Everett Marble, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal

Johannes Schwalm Historical Association http://www.jsha.org/ website of Hessian Soldiers and their Descendants in the New World

The records of Saint John's Anglican Church, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 4", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 19, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-part-4.html: accessed [access date]).

Thanksgiving Proclamation 2009

At the Statehouse Concord, New Hampshire

As a member of an Hispanic family I need to remind everyone that the first recorded North American Thanksgiving was not in Plymouth, although we are celebrating the Separatist's Harvest feast, nor was it held in Jamestown (as some Virginians claim), it was actually held on 30 April 1598 by Spaniard Don Juan de Oñate and his followers near today’s El Paso, Texas. As a member of the Mayflower Society I remind you that tradition holds that we do venerate and celebrate the history of the 1621 harvest feast in Plymouth on the third Thursday of November every year as the American holiday of Thanksgiving.

And so, this morning, at the New Hampshire Statehouse in Concord, our Governor Lynch signed the annual Thanksgiving Proclamation. The New Hampshire Mayflower Society Governor Dean Dexter drew up the wording, and Deputy Governor John Payzant of New Castle, and yours truly, Captain Heather Rojo of Londonderry were there for the photo opportunity and handshake. The Mayflower Society’s role is to honor the memory of our Plymouth ancestors and to fulfill this mission through genealogical research and promoting our colonial history.

All this so you can enjoy your day off next week, and officially have your turkey dinner!

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WHEREAS, In the autumn of 1621, the Pilgrims held a three-day feast to celebrate the plentiful harvest they reaped following their first winter in North America, and

WHEREAS, the first national Thanksgiving Day, proclaimed by President George Washington, was November, 26, 1789, and President Abraham Lincoln, proclaimed the first annual national holiday in 1863, establishing as the date the last Thursday of November at the behest of nationally celebrated editor and author, and daughter of New Hampshire, Sarah Josepha Hale; and

WHEREAS, on Thanksgiving Day, New Hampshire citizens and all Americans come together to enjoy the fellowship of family and friends with a feast that symbolizes the many blessings in our lives; and

WHEREAS, while Thanksgiving is a time to gather in a spirit of gratitude with family, friends, and neighbors, it is also an opportunity to serve others and to share our blessings with those in need; and

WHEREAS, as citizens we pause to consider our good fortune as residents of this Great State, we are especially mindful of the heroic men and women serving in our Armed Forces, especially those serving abroad;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, John Lynch, Governor of the State of New Hampshire, do recognize and celebrate November 26, 2009 as

THANKSGIVING DAY

and encourage the people of New Hampshire to pray or reflect on their own and give thanks for the rich blessings of our State and our Nation.

In WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of New Hampshire

John Lynch
G O V E R NO R

DONE at the Capitol in Concord in the Executive Chambers on this Eighteenth day of November in the year Two Thousand and Nine.

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Sources:

www.nmg.org/art1stThanks.htm The New Mexico Genealogical Society “First Thanksgiving”

“The Last Conquistador: Juan de Oñate and the Settling of the Far Southwest” by Marc Simmons. University of Oklahoma Press, 1991, pp. 97-101.

“History of Plymouth Plantation”, by William Bradford, circa 1650
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painting of the "Acion de Gracias" and Juan de Oñate

Copyright 2009, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 3

Prisoner of War aboard the ship “John and Sara” From Scotland to Boston, 1651 

 This is part three of my miniseries of Thanksgiving blogs on the immigration of certain ancestors to America, during the week when our thoughts usually rest with our Mayflower passenger ancestors. 

 My 7x great grandfather William Munroe arrived in Massachusetts a little more than thirty years after the Pilgrims settled in Plymouth. His immigration was forced as a prisoner of war and indentured servant, similar to the stories of thousands of other European arrivals, yet not nearly as infamous as the story of the arrival of the hundreds of thousands who arrived in America as slaves. 

 William Munroe was a Scots warrior, from a long line of warriors in the Clan Munro who had fought in battles such as Halidon Hill and Bannockburn. During the English Civil War three brothers, William, Robert, and George Munroe all fought for the crown at the Battle of Worcester. The Puritan side won, and the Scots prisoners of war were marched to London, and on 11 November 1651 the Munroe brothers were listed as chattel aboard the “John and Sara.” The ship landed in Boston, and the 272 prisoners of war sold off as indentured servants by Thomas Kemble of Charlestown. William served his time as an indentured servant at a mill in Menotomy (now Arlington, Massachusetts) and was on his own by 1657 when he was referred to in the Cambridge, Massachusetts records for being fined for not having a ring in the nose of his pig. By 1660 he settled in Cambridge Farms, now known as Lexington. He was a freeman in 1690 and in 1699 received communion into the church. 

The Scots were not welcome as neighbors to the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but one by one they began to integrate into society. William Munroe was married three times. The first wife was Martha George, married about 1665, who died young leaving him with four children, including my ancestor George Munroe born about 1672. His second wife gave him ten more children, and so began a huge line of descendants that went on to fight in the Battle of Lexington, the Revolutionary War and contributed to many other further events in Massachusetts and the United States. The line of Munroe Scots warriors continued to serve in the Civil War, Spanish American War, and both World Wars. Thus, a reluctant arrival in America directly influenced American History. Of the militia members at the Lexington Green on the morning of April 19th, 1775, at least half were Munroes or near kin.

 

Munroe Tavern in Lexington, Massachusetts 

On Thanksgiving week we must remember that there were also several servants and indentured servants aboard the Mayflower, including the four More children (all under the age of eight!) and my own ancestors Ned Doty, George Soule, and John Howland. All the Mayflower passengers were also indebted to the Plymouth Company to pay back their passage to the New World with goods to be returned to England in trade. For more about the Munroe Lineage see my blog on November 5, 2009 "Google Your Way to a Quilt". 

For more information about the social history of forced emigration see: 

“Emigrants in Chains: A Social History of Forced Emigration to the Americas of Felons, Destitute Children, Political and Religious Non-Conformists, Vagabonds, Beggars and other Undesirables, 1607 -1776” by Peter Wilson Coldham, published by the Genealogical Publishing Company 

 “The Dictionary of Scottish Immigrants to the U. S. A.” by Donald Whyte, Magna Carta Book Company, Baltimore 1972 

 “Colonists for Sale: The Story of Indentured Servants in America” by Clifford Lindsey Alderman, Macmillan Publishing, New York, 1975 

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 3", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 18, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-voyage-3.html: accessed [access date]). 

The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 2

From Rotterdam to Salem, Massachusetts

 

This is part two of a series of Thanksgiving blogs for my ancestors who DIDN’T come on the Mayflower. Today I’m thinking about my 3x great grandfather Peter Hoogerzeil. We don’t know the name of the ship he took to arrive in America, and we don’t know the date, but the other details of his immigration are so interesting my cousin wants to write them into a historical romance. I’ll let you be the judge! The Hoogerzeil family not only has an interesting surname, but the origins of the name are interesting, too. In the Netherland, this family tree goes back to the 1500’s with names that are patronymics. Arijen Bruynen, born in 1631 had a son named Bruin Arijens, born in 1661, and his son should have been named Ocker Bruins, but instead he took the name “Hoogersijl” which means “High Sails” because he was a sea captain. From that moment on he created the Hoogerzeil family tree. Everyone in the world with the name Hoogerzeil or Hogerseil or its variations is a cousin. There is a long line of sea captains in this family, and in my lineage they were whaling sea captains. In Europe, the whaling center was the Netherlands, like New England, especially New Bedford, for the United States. They fished for the whales off Greenland, and I have some fascinating journals and ships logs of their adventures off the coast of Europe I’ll have to save for another blog. In this lineage, Captain Simon Hogerseijl of Nieuwpoort, Holland had a son named Peter, born in 1803. Being the younger son, for some reason he was unsatisfied with life in the Netherlands, and in the 1820s he stowed aboard a ship full of hemp out of Rotterdam, bound for the rope works in Salem, Massachusetts. Either Peter was very lucky, or very charismatic, however he was not punished for being a stowaway on board Captain Josiah Stone’s ship. Of all things, he ended up marrying Captain Stone’s youngest daughter, Eunice, on 30 December 1828 in Beverly, Massachusetts! Peter is listed as a caulker and engraver on the early census records, and on his children’s birth records he is also listed as a mariner. At the Phillip’s Library in Salem I found him under the ship’s registers of the brig “Pioneer” in 1826 bound for Havana, the brig “Jones” in 1828 bound for Matanazas, and aboard the ship “Clay” in 1829 for the Pacific Ocean. I know the family also visited Holland on and off over the next fifty years, and many letters survived from both sides. Like my Mayflower ancestors, the Hoogerzeil family thrived in Massachusetts. Peter and Eunice had six children, who all married and left many, many descendants. In this family there have been factory workers, inventors, teachers, musicians and draftsmen- a full range of occupations across the board, just like the people I meet at Mayflower meetings. And like the Mayflower passengers, they left Holland and found their place in America, starting in Massachusetts. Happy Thanksgiving! See my blog posting on 2 September 2009 "The Value of Posting Brick Walls on Genealogical Bulletin Boards" for more on the Hoogerzeil family. 

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 2", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 17, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-voyage-2.html: accessed [access date]). 

The Other Mayflowers Series

Lockheed Constellation- Madrid to New York City

Vincent's parents arrived in America via Air France

The Newlyweds 1960 Madrid, Spain 1960 

This week before Thanksgiving will be dedicated to blogging about my other family members and ancestors who came to the New World, not just my Mayflower ancestors. There are a lot to choose from, but I’m going to start with my mother and father-in-law, who arrived in New York City in 1960 aboard an Air France airlines Lockheed Constellation prop plane from Madrid, Spain. It was 340 years after my ancestors came to Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the most recent of any immigrants in our combined family trees.

My father-in-law had been working at the United Nations for a few years, and went home that Christmas to be married and bring his bride back to the United States. They left their families, and Spain under Franco, to come immediately to New York City. My mother-in-law found herself soon as a new bride, pregnant later that year, in a strange new country. They were married in January (yes, a fiftieth anniversary is coming up soon!) and my husband was born in Manhattan in November of that same year. (Yes, count the months, it works out OK!)

The Lockheed Constellation was a four engine airliner that won fame for its service in the Berlin Airlift. The Constellation had one of the first pressurized cabins, and was used by TWA, Pan Am, and Eastern Airlines in the USA. It was also President Eisenhower’s presidential aircraft named Columbine II and Columbine III. By 1967 it was no longer being used by airlines, and new jet airlines such as the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8 made their debut. There is a Super Constellation on display at the National Air and Space Museum Center at Dulles Airport in Virginia, and three years ago our family saw it there. It was sort of like visiting Plymouth and seeing the Mayflower for the Rojo family!

Flying in a pressurized cabin across the Atlantic as an immigrant to America seems pretty posh compared to some of the horrid shipboard conditions earlier immigrants to America had to endure. However, anyone who had the pluck and bravery to start out a new life in a new country gets my applause. Especially a move where new customs, language and traditions are involved. Most of my own ancestors from my own side of the family tree removed from England to English speaking Massachusetts, which was difficult enough in the 1600’s and early 1700s, but at least the culture remained very similar. From 1960 Spain under Franco to New York City in the United States was a very brave voyage.

For more about the Rojo lineage, and the Spanish Civil War, see my blog post on September 3, 2009 "Mass Grave at Monte Costajan"

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Other Mayflowers Series", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 16, 2020, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-series.html: accessed [access date]).