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AMY SMITH LINTON

The Colonies (Part 2 of 2)

11/25/2016

3 Comments

 
Some genealogy people shake their tree for an Indian princess or a French baron, or whatnot.

Some are looking for any family at all.  

​Me, I'd just like to know the stories. The begats are all well and good, but what 
else happened to these people?

On a wide-ranging tangent recently, I zoomed into early New England as its history exists on the internet.

Transcribed letters (my favorite is this long one
 here), journals, official documents, state histories, recollections, maps, and all.
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Picture
It started with my great-grandfather Charles's grandma, who sports the lovely New-Englandy name of Pamelia Carrington Riggs (1791-1884). 
 
Her grandfather was Levinius Carrington born in the New Haven Colony in 1712, died 1770.

His great-grandfather was Benjamin Wilmot (1589-1669), who probably came over to the New World with the Winthrop fleet.

​Under the leadership of John Winthrop, these eleven boats brought one thousand Puritans away from England in 1630. F
or some, it's a point of pride to have been among this first wave of English settlers.  
As if a person gets the choice.

But anyway, Benjamin Wilmot, born in 1589 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire and his wife Ann Ladd (b 1593) are my 8th great-grandparents.
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Once they crossed the ocean blue, they settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and then moved to the newly formed New Haven Colony, probably to be closer to their son and his family. Benjamin is recorded as taking an oath of fidelity there 2 May 1646.   

It's not necessarily the upright citizens whose stories appeal to me. Instead, an unhappy marriage in this distant and alien time is the thing that caught my imagination. 

​One of Benjamin and Ann's kids, my great-something Aunt Ann, married a man named William Bunnell in Watertown, Massachusetts Colony. 

Although he stood for jury duty in September of 1630, William doesn't look like a successful addition to the Colony.  He didn't build on the land given him, and he couldn't seem to make ends meet.

These early Colonies included a stout social safety net: an allowance was paid out in support of William Bunnell's three children when William fell on hard times.  And then, in 1646, he asked the authorities for a shot in the arm so that he could have a new set of threads when he returned alone to England. They agreed to give him 30 shillings or some such as he left.

The safety net also ended up being a bit of a cage: The Massachusetts Colony needed for Aunt Ann and the children –– left without means –– to be claimed by a responsible man. Someone like her father Benjamin Wilmot over in New Haven Colony.  
So, as has happened since immemorial, the daughter moved back in with her folks.

Signs of that time: two of the kids (Ben, aged 10, and six-year-old Lydia) were sent into indentured servitude. 

Fast forward three years, and William Bunnell returned to North America, following his wife to New Haven.

​He petitioned the town of New Haven (the Town) for tax relief as he was "old and infirm."

​...But not so infirm that he couldn't reconcile with Aunt Ann and have a new baby (Mary), whose birth he neglected to properly register with the authorities. And was fined 4 shillings for the transgression.

Within a few months, William was back in court with a dispute about rent not being paid. He tried unsuccessfully to get his children out of their indentures, but he still needed a handout from the Town to keep food on the table.
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New Haven included about fifty households (1,000 or so people) by 1640-ish, and I imagine each one of those households knew all about old William and poor Ann. The government was small, personal, and specifically religious. Morality was not a private affair.

​Imagine how claustrophobic that cozy little town might have been for a family on the down side of luck.

​
The second Bunnell son, Nathaniel, who had not been sent in to servitude, "who now for want of due nurture growes rude and offensive,"* caught the attention of the authorities.

One of the neighbors offered William a cow in exchange for indenture of the boy.  William refused the deal, and so the Town stopped his allowance.


William and Aunt Ann had another child, Ebenezer, who, along with poor Ann, died in 1653.  Poor things.

William shortly thereafter decided to return once more to England.


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​According to the town records, this decision "which, if it could be attained, might free the Towne from some charge, though they made some present disbursement for his passage and other necessaries for him, and understanding a vessel at Milford is bound for Newfoundland ordered that the Townsmen and Treasurer should treate with them for his passage thither, and Agreed of some course how he may be sent from thence to old England where he saith he hath some friends to take care of him." *

Here's your hat and what's your hurry...and William Bunnell fades from the pages of history. His children (cousins of my ancestors) went on to multiply and (mostly) prosper. 





*Lazy scholarship, I quote this passage from the Ancient Records Series of the New Haven Historical Society 1649- 1662, edited by Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Volume 1 and the Vital Records of New Haven as cited by William R. Austin in his profile of William Bunnell/Bonnell from The Bunnell/Bonnel Newsletter, Vol 1, No 1, January 1 1987, p 3-5. Here's the weblink. 

More resources:

http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/way-more-than-the-scarlet-letter-puritan-punishments/
teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/2003/2/03.02.04.x.html
3 Comments

The Colonies (Part 1 of 2)

11/22/2016

6 Comments

 
I remember making construction-paper feather headdresses and tall capotain hats to commemorate Thanksgiving, but I have always been a little fuzzy on the hows and whens of the English colonization of the US.

The Mayflower landed on Plymouth Rock, but then what?  And that was not 1492, but pretty soon afterwards, right? 


And what do I know from Pilgrims?  
​

Which is the kind of direction research will take a person, whether she meant to or not. Especially when researching the first of her European-American ancestors.

So, England....
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Picture

So first: the WABAC machine.

Or binge-watch T
he Tudors.

In the early 1600s, Shakespeare was still alive. Queen Elizabeth's long reign was ending. When I say religious diversity was not welcome, it's helpful to know that King Edward had ejected Jews from England in 1290. Also, Elizabeth's dad, Henry the 8th, had made Roman Catholicism more or less illegal in 1534.  

Your option was Church of England or nothing, and being an agnostic or atheist was heretical. Heretics were all too regularly burned at the stake.

So when a group of folks wanted to "purify" the Church of England by focusing on reading the Bible and doing good rather than supporting a centralized church, they had limited choices.  They could try to reform from inside the church (and keep their heads down!) or they could leave England.  
​

​About 100 or so of these  "Separatists" went first to Holland in 1608. Like many another, the Separatists were shocked –– shocked! –– by the cosmopolitan and hedonistic lifestyle of the Netherlanders.

Having lost a few of their faithful to the fleshpots of Holland, they decided it was time to high-tail it out of there. They went back to England and then set sail for the New World in 1620 aboard the 
Mayflower.  
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​I was taught that the Pilgrims moved to the New World in search of religious tolerance.

​But no, t
hey came so that they could practice their religion without persecution. Big difference.
Fun fact: Nobody called themselves Pilgrims in Colonial America.
Separatists called themselves "Saints" (everyone else was "Strangers" to them). The reform-from-the-inside people were known as "Puritans."
Puritans established a society built on their own religion. The Bible didn't have trial by jury? Well then, neither would New Haven Colony. A sea-captain came home from sea after a few months and greeted his wife with a kiss –– and the Colony government (known as "The Town") stuck them both into stocks for their shameful display of fleshy affection.

The Puritans forbade religious diversity. The Massachusetts Bay Colony put Quakers to death. Quakers! Tortured and hanged, including the Quaker martyr Mary Dyer. Puritans even banned the celebration of Christmas.

To be fair, I should note that some Colonies were formed with the spirit of tolerance built right in, like the Rhode Island Colony. Founder Roger Williams not only believed in religious freedom (with no tax dollars!) and he felt that taking land from the Natives without paying for it was not quite morally right. Heartening news, that.

So meanwhile, back in Merry Olde England, the religious conflict deepened and developed into the English Civil War, 1642-1652. Oliver "Bad Haircut" Cromwell lead the Roundheads against the Royalists of King Charles I. 

Cromwell won; Charles was beheaded. There was a short-lived British Republic.  

​Republican rule in England meant that fewer Puritans felt the need to move West. Some early Colonial settlers even shipped back to England in the 1640's and 1650's.

Then Cromwell died (kidney trouble) and Charles' son, Charles the Second*  was restored to the throne in 1660. This is why the following time is known as the Restoration Era –– a small piece of information that surprised me. Did I simply nap through that part of history class?


All this data is place-setting for a tiny slice of family pie that I learned about. 

Which I shall serve another day. Thankfully.
  


 
•(He of King Charles Cavalier Spaniel fame)

via GIPHY

Here are a few of the resources I used in researching this blog:


www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/anne-hutchinson/
www.history.com/news/when-massachusetts-banned-christmas
esoterx.com/2015/03/05/the-great-ship-of-new-haven-phantoms-puritan-hippies-and-the-reformation/
​dunhamwilcox.net/ct/new_haven1.htm
winthropsociety.com/doc_higgin.php
winthropsociety.com
www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/oliver-cromwell/
www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/charles_ii_king.shtml
bcw-project.org/timelines/
www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=2&smtID=4
avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/mayflower.asp
www.catholic.com/tracts/the-inquisition
thehistoricpresent.com/2008/07/02/why-the-puritans-persecuted-quakers/
www.history.com/topics/mayflower
www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/history/350.shtml
http://www.history.com/topics/mayflower
www.history.com/news/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-pilgrims
www.historytoday.com/blog/news-blog/geoffrey-robertson/remembering-regicides-350-years
6 Comments

Spawn of Frankenscot: Foiling!

11/14/2016

12 Comments

 
Over the past few months, the dreaming team of OH and Mr. Linton have been working on the next step in the evolution of Spawn, the 21-foot Rodgers Tampa Bay Adventure boat.

That includes new power (sails), including a fresh and shiny jib from Sail Technologies, and various splash-reducing deck rails. Plus (the evolution part) foils! 

OH Rodgers has been designing and building foils for A-Class catamarans, and in keeping with the budget-conscious program, the team repurposed a pair of A-cat asymmetrical dagger-boards and rudders to lift the bow of Spawn.  

They have no plans to make the boat rise entirely from the water in the dramatic way of recent America's Cup catamarans.  Short reason why not: the shallow, rocky crossing of Florida Bay.

​But still, it's pretty nifty:
Spawn of Frankenscot
So there are presently two foils extending from the sides of the boat. They resemble the tipped wings of some airplanes. 
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​
To put them in, the fellas first cut a pair of holes in the sides of the boat and then fitted them with daggerboard trunks from an A-Cat. 

Why yes, it does seem ironic to cut holes into the hull of a boat that was a good floater. But progress is not made without some revolutionary thinking.

When the team chooses not to use the foils, they can seal off these slots with a strip of tape. Good old duct tape would do, though they are more likely to use Insignia sail tape.

A few test-runs (thanks to guest test-pilots Bill Wingrove, John Paulson, Ben Givens, and Dave Clement) to adjust the angle of attack, and poof! The bow lifts to reduce wetted surface and make Spawn a more stable creature. 

The team will take to the water this coming weekend for a longish trial. Crossing fingers for good sailing weather. 
​​​
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Resquiat in Pace, Leonard

11/11/2016

0 Comments

 
Holding my blogging blah blah in the interest of NaNoWriMo (don't ask, my word-count is pathetic, but I am churning along...).

Instead, to mark my mourning of the loss of this national treasure, a couple of the songs that might not get played from this guy. 
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Fiction Prompt for Busy People

11/4/2016

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Because I'm some thousand words deep into NaNoWriMo, and in lieu of writing practice, I give you...Russell Crowe. Gaze into his eyes and I believe a story will write itself. 

via GIPHY

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Sliding into Month Eleven of the Year

11/1/2016

2 Comments

 
The "fun size" candies start coming home as early as mid-September.

​I'm a sucker for a good deal, and it's appealing to load up on the cornucopian selection of kid-sized chocolate bars in the grocery store. Probably a signifier for an under-served childhood.  

And without fail, the supply fails to meet the trick-or-treating demand. Somehow, we find ourselves in a darkened house with only three or four dejected-looking candies lurking at the bottom of orange plastic jack-o-lantern when the sun sets.  
It's like the Halloween miracle: the feast of the ever-dimininishing supply of caramel-peanut-goodness.

On the other hand, the Viking outfits turned out well.

If not for the football game, we might have entertained ourselves by roaming the neighborhood, thumping our battle axes against our sheilds.  

Solidifying our reputation as the local oddballs.​
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And with this annual candy ritual complete, we mark the halfway point of the football season. Followed rapidly by the slightly panicky realization that the Earth has nearly completed its annual circuit.
Although it's random (Is the solar system really a Capricorn? Dour and humorless? Seething with ambition?), the closing of the calendar brings NaNoWriMo. Whoohoo! 

The National Novel Writing Month is (I guess) a bit like running a marathon: it's ridiculous and miserable and neato and difficult.

​Competitors/participants have 30 days to write a 50,000-word novel.  That's a short novel, but even more –– it's a tiny chunk of time for a mountain of words.  The math says 1,667 words each day.  

With time taken out for Thanksgiving and various sailing and traveling days, my average would need to jump up to 2,273 words a day.  Gah!

Not saying I am going to finish, but...


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The sword is mightier than the battle-axe. And that battle-axe HAS a battle-axe.
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