Moooore Cows in the family tree!

Searching the family tree for more cow stories, I began to notice cows in wills and other legal records. Obviously, a cow was important to a colonial era family, and so cows were lovingly given to family members, and often called by their pet name in legal documents.

A typical document can be summarized like this:
Isaac Allen is on the 1799-1800 tax list in Essex, Massachusetts assessed for 1 poll, $60 in buildings, 1 cow-right of $40, 1 cow $10, 1 swine $3.33, and $37.50 for stock in trade. (A cow right is like having a piece of stock in a common pasture, for the privileges of grazing)

Or the story of Henry Haggett , who lived in Salem and Wenham. The historian John Brooks Threfall writes in "Fifty Great Migration Colonists to New England and their Origins" (1990) that Henry Haggett, servant to John Ludwell, left Southampton, England, in late April, 1638, aboard the 200-ton ship Confidence and was next reported in 1642 at Wenham where he was the town cowkeeper.

Or this very typical sort of mention about cows in the will of Thomas Emerson of Ipswich, who died on 1 May 1666 (with the original spelling and lack of punctuation):

“Item/ my will is that Elisabeth Emerson my wife shall Injoye the yearely rent of the farme with six head of cattell wintering at the sayd farme and if they doe not winter soe many to make it up as is agreed as alsoe the house wherein I dwell with the upland and meddow and marsh bought of my sonne Joseph Joseph with all aptenances belonging thereunto and alsoe all my household goods and all my cattell I shall leave both oxen and cowes and all other young cattell whasoeuer to injoy them freely without let or disturbance of any person whatsoeuer dureing the tyme that she doth continue my widdow provided allways and it is my will and meaneing that if the sayd Elisabeth my wife doth marry that then she shall have only the yearley Rent of the aforesayd farme dureing the tyme of hir naturall life and the wintering of the aforesayd six head of cattell alsoe to have the little featherbed and one boulster and two payre of sheets and two cowes The rest of the cattell and household stufe to be disposed of as in this my will exprsst”

My favorite cow record is from the Pilgrim Steven Hopkins, of the Mayflower. He wrote this will in June 1644:

“…by this will to my sonn Giles Hokins my great Bull wch is now in the hands of Mris Warren. Also I do give to Stephen Hopkins by sonn Giles his sonne twenty shillings in Mris Warrens hands for the hire of the said Bull… also I give unto my daughter Deborah Hopkins the brodhorned black cowe and her calf and half the Cowe called Motley Also I give and bequeath unto my daughter Damaris Hopkins the Cowe called Darmaris heifer and the white faced calf and half the cowe called Mottley Also I give to my daughter Ruth the Cowe called Red Cole and her calfe and a Bull at Yarmouth wch is in the keeping of Giles Hopkins wch is an yeare and advantage old and half the curld Cowe Also I give to my daughter Elizabeth the Cowe called Smykins and her calf and thither half of the Curld Cowe wth Ruth and an yearelinge heifer wth out a tayle in the keeping of Gyles Hopkins at Yarmouth…”

I hope they sorted all the right cows to the correct heirs!

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Click these links for a few more cow stories from New England history:

Cow Story #1 Have a Cow, Win a Wife!

Cow Story #2 Another Cow, a Salmon and Sam Adams

Cow Story #4 Daisy the Cow   

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Moooore Cows in the Family Tree", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 15, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/01/moooore-cows-in-family-tree.html: accessed [access date]).

Leach Library Genealogical Resources

Our town public library is the Leach Library, located at 268 Mammoth Road next to the schools, town hall, police and fire station. Just up the street from the Londonderry town common. Inside the library there is a Historical Collections room, also known as the genealogy room. You will need to ask for the key at the reference desk, but it is well worth the extra trouble. You can also contact the reference librarian at 603-432-1132 or by email at reference@londonderrynh.org . The library also has a subscription to Ancestry.com and to other online databases (Heritage Quest, Newsbank) and downloadable audios. The card catalog is not on line.

In the Historical Collections room you can find the oldest books in the library, as well as records of town history ranging from an 1813 family bible to a book about the new playground in town “Funway Park Playground: Build Day, May 31, 2008”. Among the interesting things on the shelves are: annual reports from town meetings dating back to colonial times, a record of dog licenses (1903-1914) (1897-1900), Mayflower Grange records, Eagle scout projects, and various scrapbooks. I find the cemetery surveys very important when I’m working on RAOGK, and there is a three ring binder for each of the cemeteries in town, with inscriptions and maps.

All the Londonderry town history books, such as Reverend Edward L. Parker’s “History of Londonderry”, and George Waldo Browne’s “Early records of Londonderry, Windham and Derry” are in this collection. To see a master list of the Historical Collection, go to the website http://www.londonderrynh.org/library/library.htm and click on the “Historical Collection.”

Among the gems here are:

HIS REF 929.5b LON Thompson, Ruth Abbe. Small cemetery on the property of W.T. Boyd. Nashua, NH, [1937].

HIS REF 929.3b LON Annis, Daniel Gage. Vital records of Londonderry New Hampshire : A full and accurate transcript of the births, marriage intentions, marriages, and deaths in the town from the earliest date to 1910. Manchester, NH: Granite State Pub, [1914].

HIS REF 920 STA Genealogical notes on the family of General John Stark and allied families, copied from three manuscript books.[194?].

HIS REF 929.2 ALDRICH FILE Aldrich genealogy.

HIS REF 929.2 BOY FILE 1 Boyd genealogy.
(Other family files include Nesmith, Morison, Munsey, Patton, Peabody, Pillsbury, Plummer, Montgomery, McAllister, MacLean, Fisher, Kimball, Holland, Haines, Gregg, Goodwin, Doak, Dickey, Cargill, Blodgett, Blair, Bailey, Noyes, Reynolds, Sampson, Sargent, Stewart, Thornton, Wallace, Wilson, etc.) Please consider donating your own copy of a file of your Londonderry family genealogy.

There are standard works of genealogy such as Robert Charles Anderson’s “The Great Migration Begins”, 1995 and Savage’s “Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire”. There are also books on the town histories of Londonderry, Nova Scotia and other places where original Nutfield settlers moved on. There are also town histories of nearby towns such as Chester, Bedford, Auburn, Manchester, Nashua, etc. Regimental histories of various NH volunteer units are also valuable, and many are available here.

On the table in the Historical Collection room there is also a three ring binder with queries and letters sent to the library and historical society by people all over the US searching for their Nutfield roots. It is interesting to peruse this book, to see if perhaps a distant cousin is researching a family you have in common.

Nearby genealogical resources for Londonderry (formerly Nutfield):

Other public libraries in Derry, Hudson, Windham, Nashua and Manchester
The Londonderry Historical Society www.londonderryhistory.org
Derry History Museum, 29 West Broadway, Derry www.derrymuseum.org
The American Canadian Genealogical Society, 4 Elm Street, Manchester, NH www.acgs.org
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Family History Centers in Nashua and Exeter
Bureau of Vital Records (New Hampshire) 71 South Fruit Street, Concord
The NH Historical Society Library, 30 Park Street, Concord www.nhhistory.org
The NH State Library, 20 Park Street, Concord http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/
The Portsmouth Athenaeum, 9 Market Square, Portsmouth www.portsmouthathenaeum.org

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Next week I’ll blog about Derry Public Library….among their holdings they also have on microfilm all the “Derry News” newspapers, an invaluable source for obituaries in this area.

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Another Cow, a Salmon, and Sam Adams

Yesterday I blogged about a cow, so I thought I’d try another cow story from the family tree…

Sam Adams, the revolutionary firebrand, and John Hancock (no wallflower, himself) were in Lexington, Massachusetts the night Paul Revere rode into town to warn them that the British regulars were approaching. They were at the home of the Reverend Jonas Clarke of Lexington when they heard the British regulars were on the march. So Sgt. William Munroe led the group from Lexington to Capt. James Reed’s house on the Burlington line (it stood on the south side of where the Burlington Mall parking lot is now). They were all just sitting down to a dinner of “a fine salmon” when they heard the warning, so a servant led them to safety to the Amos Wyman House. According to the “History of Woburn” by the Reverend Samuel Sewall:

“Mr. Marrett next conducted Mrs. Jones' illustrious visitors to the house of Mr. Amos Wyman, situate in an obscure corner of Bedford, Billerica and Woburn Precinct, where were collected the women and children of several of the neighboring families, who had flex thither for safety; fearing that if they remained at home, "the regulars" might come, and murder them, or carry them off. And now, as soon as Messrs. Hancock and Adams had had time to become calm after their flight, they besought Mrs. Wyman to give them a little food; saying they had had neither breakfast nor dinner that day. Their good natured hostess, in ready compliance with their request, took down from a shelf a wooden tray, containing some cold boiled salt pork, and also (it is believed) some cold boiled potatoes unpeeled, and brown bread; and upon this plain, course fare, they made a hearty meal. Upon their return to Mrs. Jones' the next day, they learned that the enemy had not come there in pursuit of them. Either they never intended it, or else, being closely pursued from Concord by their exasperated and hourly increasing Yankee foes, they thought it best to take a prudent care for their own safety, rather than to digress in their march, into the neighboring towns, in pursuit of Hancock and Adams. Not many years since, it was a current report in Lexington, that Hancock, in gratitude to Mrs. Wyman for her kindness to him and Adams at her house, in their flight for fear of the British, made a present to her of a cow.”

Mrs. Wyman’s cow has become quite a well known story in Middlesex County, and it is retold in many history books and websites. She gave these upper crust people all she had to eat, and just like the biblical widow of Zarephath, who fed Elijah, she was given her reward. The Wymans and the Munroes are all from my family tree.



The Amos Wyman home stood on the current Francis Wyman Road, just down the street from the historic Francis Wyman House. Amos was a descendant of the Francis Wyman who lived in the original home, the oldest house in Burlington (then part of Woburn) built in 1666. The Amos Wyman cellar hole is in Billerica, marked by a plaque on a nearby rock.  I'm a descendant of Francis Wyman, and cousin to all the Wymans in Middlesex County.

For a previous blog story about the Francis Wyman house, click here.

For More Information:

The History of Woburn by Samuel Sewell, Boston, Wiggin and Lunt Publishers, 1868 (page 366 has the story about Hancock, Adams and the cow)

The drawing is a mural at the Burlington Historical Museum painted in 1973 by Don Grovette and Jeff Weaver. It shows Mrs. Jones, Rev. Marrett, John Hancock, Cuff Trot, Sam Adams and his fiancé Dorothy Quincy sitting down to eat that “fine salmon.”

The old photo is from page 59 of the book Beneath the Old Roof Trees by Abram English Brown, Boston, Lee & Shepard, 1896, showing the path Hancock and Adams took from the parsonage in Lexington.

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Looking for more Cow stories?
Cow Story #1 Have a Cow, Win a Wife!
Cow Story #3 Mooore Cows in the Family Tree
Cow Story #4 Daisy the Cow

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Another Cow, a Salmon, and Sam Adams", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 4, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/01/another-cow-salmon-and-sam-adams.html: accessed [access date]).

Have a cow? Win a wife!

This is a cute story from my family tree…

“William Cogswell, when a lad, was out from home by the highway, where some men were trying in vain to relieve a cow who had become choked with a potato. There stood by, also, a young girl, eight or ten years old, who watched with interest every effort made. When all experiments failed, and it was suggested that only by someone thrusting his hand down the cow's throat would the cow be saved, she at once said, "My arm is small; I can do it best; you hold her mouth." They did so, and she drew out the potato, to the great relief of the poor cow and all present. The young lad said to himself, "That young miss, by and by, shall be my wife." Her name was Martha Emerson; and thus the name of Emerson came into the Cogswell family.”

The William Cogswell mentioned in the story is nephew of my ancestor John Cogswell, who was born about 1622 in England and lived in the Chebacco Parish of Ipswich, Massachusetts. He arrived in the New World aboard the “Angel Gabriel”, which shipwrecked in Maine. William Cogswell, the nephew, was born in 1659, and he finally married little Martha Emerson in 1685.

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My Cogswell lineage:

Generation 1: John Cogswell, born about 1592 in Westbury Leigh, Wiltshire, England, died on 29 December 1669 in Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts; married on 10 September 1615 in Westbury Leigh to Elizabeth Thompson, the daughter of William Thompson and Phillis (maiden name unknown). He arrived in New England in 1635 aboard the Angel Gabriel.

Generation 2: John Cogswell, born about 1622 in England, died on 27 September 1653 on a ship returning to America; married to unknown. His wife died young, leaving him with three children who he put into guardianship with his brother William, father of the William in the story above. He left for England and died on the return trip to America.

Generation 3: John Cogswell, born 1650 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, died in 1724; married on 22 July 1674 in Ipswich to Margaret Gifford, daughter of John Gifford and Margaret (maiden name unknown) born about 1653 in Ipswich,

Generation 4: John Cogswell: born 6 September 1683 in Ipswich, died on 3 May 1719 in Ipswich; married in 1708 to Sarah Brown, daughter of John Brown, and she died 15 July 1753.

Generation 5: Martha Cogswell, born on 1 Jan 1718/19 in Chebacco Parish, Ipswich, died 23 December 1809 in Ipswich; married on 1 March 1747/8 in Ipswich to John Andrews, son of John Andrews and Elizabeth Wallis, born 1717 in Ipswich, died on 3 May 1779 in Ipswich.

From here my line switches to the Andrews family of Chebacco Parish/Essex, Massachusetts for the next three generations.

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For more information:

This except is from "The Cogswells in America" book originally published in 1884 by the Rev. E. O. Jameson and long out of print. This book was updated with the new book “Descendants of John Cogswell 1635- 1996” by Donald J. Cogswell, Family Line Publications, 1998.

See my blog posting on November 20, 2009 “The Other Mayflowers, Voyage 5: The Shipwreck of the ‘Angel Gabriel’” for the story of the wreck of the Angel Gabriel in Pemaquid Maine.

https://www.historicnewengland.org/property/cogswells-grant/ The Historic New England webpage for the 1728 Cogswell’s Grant home at 60 Spring Street, Essex, Massachusetts. It is on the National Registry of Historic Places, and was deeded to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

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Looking for more cow stories?

Cow Story #2 Another Cow, a Salmon and Sam Adams

Cow Story #3 Mooooore Cows in the Family Tree

Cow Story #4 Daisy the Cow

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Have a cow? Win a wife!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 3, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/01/have-cow-win-wife.html: accessed [access date]). 

Colonial American History and San Juan, Puerto Rico

It’s always fun to combine family reunions, history and vacations. We’ve traveled to most of the interesting places on the map that pertain to Colonial American History, and I’ve always found a genealogical connection. We’ve gone to Williamsburg, Jamestown, Quebec City, Plymouth, Bermuda, Boston, and Louisburg, Nova Scotia. However, San Juan, Puerto Rico is the ultimate colonial city in the United States, being the oldest city under the US flag, founded in 1521. It is second only to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic for a European established city in the Americas. It is well worth the trip for anyone who enjoys American history.

In December we went to San Juan, Puerto Rico to meet up with my in-laws from Spain and to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They had lived for many years in San Juan, and still have a residence near the Condado beach section of the city. It was a chance for my daughter to see where my husband spent his teen years, and where he went to high school. And it was a chance to walk the city streets that were built in the 1500s.

The famous explorer Juan Ponce de Leon founded the original colony in 1508, just west of present day San Juan. In 1509 the settlement was moved to the harbor and called Puerto Rico, Spanish for “Rich Port.” In 1521 the town was called San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico, for John the Baptist, which was the name Christopher Columbus originally called the island.

San Juan is a fortified city, with most of its walls still intact today. There are a ring of fortresses around the walls, to protect the harbor. The first attack was by the French in 1528. Attacks on the city were lead by Sir Frances Drake in 1595, the Dutch in 1625, the English again in 1797, and so on until the Spanish American war in 1898. Pirates and pirateers were also a concern, as the gold and silver laden Spanish ships would stop in San Juan to resupply before crossing the Atlantic to return home with their booty.

In Colonial times the city was quite large, including the Fortresses of San Felipe del Morro, San Cristobal and the fortified Palacio de Santa Catalina (now the governor’s home). There were large palatial homes such as the Casa Blanca, home to the Ponce de Leon family. Many churches, including the Cathedral which was began in the 1520s, were already built before the pilgrims even landed in Massachusetts. During our Christmas Mass last week the priest announced the 500th anniversary of the Catholic Church on the island of Puerto Rico. All this happened before the English had a foothold in the Americas. By 1530 San Juan had a university, a hospital and a library.

My father-in-law was born in Spain, yet he grew up in the care of the Jesuit fathers in the new world when he was a young man. After serving for over ten years in the United Nations and becoming an American citizen, he decided to remove to San Juan, Puerto Rico. My husband attended prep school in San Juan, and then came to Massachusetts for college and never lived in Puerto Rico again. If you looked at the vital records of the family, no was born, married or died in Puerto Rico, yet the family lived there for 30 years. I imagine that in the future, a genealogist tracing the family might not know they even lived in San Juan.

My father-in-law was professor in Puerto Rico, and he taught about the colonial beginnings of the Spanish in the New World. I’m a history buff, descended of Mayflower passengers and many colonial figures from New England. However, a trip to Puerto Rico makes the history of New England seem like current events! Even the explorations of John Cabot, John Smith and Bartholomew Gosnold along the New England coast seem like afterthoughts to what was happening in Puerto Rico and other Spanish settlements in North America.

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Happy New Year! - Double Dating Explained

No, not the double dating you did in high school when you didn’t have a date for the dance, this is the double dating that shows up in history books and genealogies. If you use a good genealogy data base like Family Tree Maker, your software may actually change or challenge any dates you put in pre- 1752 between January and March 24. Or you may have tried to figure out how to calculate a date during this time period, only to notice that you were off by three months somehow when you finally find the correct vital records. What is going on here?

The date 10/21 February 1750/51 is an example of double dating. It appears to have too many numbers, or it appears to be a guess to some readers, such as an approximate date. However, this is a real date on the calendar, along with an interesting story…

In 1752 there was a calendar change between the Julian and Gregorian calendar systems. The Julian Calendar had been invented during Roman times, and on the advice of his astronomer Julius Caesar started this new system in 45 B. C. It is officially known as the Old Style calendar. Under this calendar, New Year’s Day was on March 25th, and the last day of the year was March. This was considered the first month of the year.

Sometime in the medieval period, the astronomers noticed that the calendar year was not accurately measuring the solar year. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII, reformed the calendar, which is called the New Style Calendar (Gregorian). It was first adopted in catholic countries and later by the Protestant countries. In order to make the adjustment, ten days were removed, so that 4 October 1582 was followed by 15 October 1582. England and the colonies adopted the new calendar in 1752, and removed eleven days from the calendar again, so on 2 September 1752 was followed by 14 September 1752.

Double dating was used in Colonial America for the dates between 1 January and 24 March on the years between 1582 and 1752. You will see this in old records, especially in civil records. Some church records used the old system, especially the Quakers, who used “First Month” for March, etc. In Quaker records “3rd Month” is used for May. For example the Quaker record 3/12/1719 will become 12 May 1719. This was to avoid using the Roman names January (the god Janus) or August (Augustus) which were pagan names.

If a date is given in double dating, it is correct to leave it as such, and not to try to calculate the date. Check to see which style was used in the original primary source. The date should be written 20 January 1745 OS (if it was Old Style) or as 20 January 1745/6.

"Most people find dates repulsive enough without encountering them disguised as fractions" by Historian Garrett Mattingly, from his book “The Defeat of the Spanish Armada” in which he opted just to use Gregorian dates (Wikipedia)

For more information:

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=3358 An article from Ancestry’s Magazine Nov/Dec 2000, Volume 18, No. 6

“Marking Time: The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendar” by Duncan Steel, J. Wiley Publisher, 2000

"Double Dating" from Vita Brevis, the NEHGS blog http://vita-brevis.org/2015/01/double-dating/

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

San Juan Cemetery, Puerto Rico

For the past two weeks we've been on vacation visiting Puerto Rico. It's the perfect place to explore early American Colonial History. San Juan was founded in 1521, and the explorer Ponce de Leon was one of it's early governors. You can visit the walled city, its half dozen fortresses, and even Ponce de Leon's house. The narrow streets of Old San Juan are perfect for exploring by foot, and there is even a "Duck Tour" so you can have a guided trip inside the city and view the walls from the harbor.

This photo is in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the little cemetery outside the walls of the El Morro fortress, part of the U.S. National Park system. At the left you can see the walls of the fortress, and the guy in the blue shirt is a tourist exploring El Morro. The cemetery is outside the walls of the city, and the National Park service did not advice visitors to explore it, and the gates were locked anyways. The guys in green shirts were a cleaning crew raking the grounds.

El Morro is a Spanish Colonial era fortress built between 1539 and the mid 19th century. The Santa Barbara Bastion (an old tower) was first built in 1539, and the rest followed. There is also a gun turret on top that dates from the Spanish American War, and a lookout from WWI or WWII added by the Americans. A lighthouse was also added to the top of El Morro in 1908, so it is very much a working fortress, and part of lots of Puerto Rican History.

I noticed that most of the cemeteries in greater San Juan seemed to be locked, which is unusual for me. Here in New England the only cemetery I can recall being locked from visitors is the Hawes Burial Ground in South Boston. I would have loved to explore the headstones and the area. You can see the ocean just beyond the walls of the city. Most cruise tourists don’t notice this cemetery as they pass the El Morro fortress at the entrance to San Juan Harbor.

You can see a few graves from this cemetery at www.findagrave under "Cementerio Antiguo de San Juan" It seems that quite a few heroes and popular Puerto Rican figures are buried here.

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

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