James Cole of Plymouth

Although no Mayflower Ancestor has been found in the family, there is an early Plymouth Colonist -- James Cole, who was in Plymouth by 1633.  James Cole is a direct ancestor in our Hatfield Wilson family lines.  Below is a photo of the James Cole memorial marker on Cole's Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  Cole's Hill is directly across the street from Plymouth Rock.

James Cole memorial marker on Cole's Hill
Plymouth, Massachusetts

Below is the James Cole fact sheet from the Plimoth Plantation.

James Cole Fact Sheet

Recently while doing research at the GSMD (General Society of Mayflower Descendants) Library in Plymouth, MA, I was excited to find a new book published in 2017 by Susan E Roser about our Pilgrim ancestor James Cole and his early descendants.

Since the GSMD Library did not have the book for sale, I ordered one as soon as I returned home. The author has a website: www.friendsofthepilgrims.com.  The book arrived just before Thanksgiving, so I was able to spend Thanksgiving weekend reading about my Pilgrim ancestor, James Cole.

Pilgrims at Plymouth - loc.gov

Information about James Cole of Plymouth can be found in many places online.  The best is the New England Historic Genealogical Society's website,  www.NewEnglandAncestor.org  which has a profile of James Cole in their Great Migrations Study Project.  Much can also be found on Ancestry.com, especially in their public family trees -- just be careful because there is a lot of "junk" posted there also. James Cole also has a profile on both FamilySearch and Find-a-Grave.  I will post another article on James Cole once I sift through all the information.😊

View from James Cole Memorial Marker
on Cole's Hill (see above). 
Down the hill and across the street is the
Plymouth Rock Memorial.
 

Related Posts:

Our 'First Families' in America
Nathan Cole - Patriot
Nathan Cole's Revolutionary War Button

Plymouth Colony and Plimoth Plantation

Last month while on a visit to Cape Cod, I was able to visit Plymouth and Plimoth Plantation.

Plymouth Colony was home to the Mayflower colonists who landed in 1620.  Although I do not have Mayflower ancestry, my children and grandchildren do.  Their ancestors who arrived on the Mayflower were John Alden and Priscilla Mullins.  John Alden came as a single man and was the ship's cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels.  Priscilla Mullins came with her family, although her father, William Mullins, step-mother, and brother all died that first winter.  John and Priscilla married on 12 May 1622 and were the parents of 10 children.  My children descend through their eldest daughter, Elizabeth Alden, who married William Pabodie.

John Alden and Priscilla Mullins Info

Plymouth Rock is known as the point where the Mayflower passengers first set foot on their new homeland.  Plymouth Rock is much smaller than I imagined.  Supposedly, over time pieces of the rock were chipped off as souvenirs. So, when the Pilgrims landed almost 400 years ago the rock was somewhat larger than it is now.

Plymouth Rock

Plimoth Plantation was our next stop.   "Plimoth" is an old-fashioned spelling of the word Plymouth used by Governor William Bradford in his history of the colony.  Plimoth Plantation is a living history museum located in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  

Plimoth Plantation

John Alden Home at Plimoth Plantation

Guess who got to meet his ancestor "John Alden"?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about the romance between Priscilla Mullins and John Alden called The Courtship of Miles Standish.  The poem focuses on the love triangle between Priscilla Mullins, John Alden, and fellow Mayflower passenger Miles Standish.  Both Alden and Standish vied for Priscilla's affection, but in the end Priscilla chose John Alden to marry.  

Priscilla Mullins, Illustration from The Courtship of Miles Standish, 1903 printing

Descendants can find their Mayflower ancestors on the big world family tree at FamilySearch.  First find great-grandma Dawn.  From her parents follow the ancestry back: Hazel > Cynthia McClellan > Juliette Chase > Ezra Chase > Timothy Chase > Jonathan Simmons > Joseph Simmons > William Simmons > Mercy Pabodie > Elizabeth Alden > John Alden & Priscilla Mullins.

Edward Winslow, the brother of another direct ancestor Kenelm Winslow, was also a Mayflower passenger.  It is thought that ancestor Kenelm Winslow came to America on the second Mayflower in 1629.  Kenelm Winslow lived in Plymouth Colony once he arrived.

James Cole, an ancestor from grandma's side of the family, also lived in Plymouth.  To read about his story, click here.

Our 'First Families' in America

'First Families' are considered those who have high social status, or those of descent from the first settlers of a place.  Our family fits into the second category: first settlers of a place.  I have joined several 'First Families' groups/organizations representing states, regions, or counties within the United States.  For the purposes of this blog post, our 'First Families' will be those ancestors who were our family's first immigrants to America.

I have written about a few of our immigrant families, but to tell the truth I don't know a large majority of them.  Most of our ancestors are still stuck in South Carolina or Virginia in the early 1700's, Northwest Territory in the late 1700's, or east Tennessee in the early 1800's.😞
This list of 'First Families' will hopefully grow as more of our immigrant ancestors are found.

Coming to America
Harbor at Charles-Town, South Carolina, ca 1770  (loc.gov)

The 'First Families' will be separated into my four grandparent lines.  Both husband and wife will be listed, even if they immigrated together as a family.  If a direct line ancestor came over as a child, that ancestor will be listed along with his/her parents.

If an ancestor's story is in this blog, their name will be the link.

The list will give name, country of origin, date of immigration (or about date of immigration), and first place of residence in America.

'First Families' of the Martin-Weiss family lines:
Johann Mathias Martin: Germany 1847, Wisconsin
Catherina Kastner: Germany 1849, Wisconsin
John Stephan Martin: Germany, Came as child with mother, 1849, Wisconsin
Philip Jacob Weiss: Germany 1848, died shortly after arriving
Maria Barbara Maendle: Germany 1848, Illinois
Johann Michael Weiss: Germany 1852, Illinois
Anna Maria Heim: Germany 1852, Illinois

'First Families' of the Wilson-Hatfield family lines:
James Cole: England, 1633, Massachusetts
Mary Tibbs: England, 1633, Massachusetts
Captain John Luther: England, abt 1634, Massachusetts
Elizabeth Turner: England, abt 1632, Massachusetts
Henry Lake: England, abt 1635, Massachusetts
Alice Lake: England, abt 1635, Massachusetts
Thomas Cornell: England, 1631, Massachusetts
Rebecca Briggs: England, 1631, Massachusetts
Richard Foxwell: England, 1631, Massachusetts
Edward Gray: England, 1643, Massachusetts
Dorothy Lettice: England, 1935, Massachusetts
Robert Abell: England, 1631, Massachusetts
Thomas Butts: England, 1660, Massachusetts
Anthony Chamness: England, 1724, Maryland
John Coddington: England, 1635, Massachusetts
Philip Hoggatt: England, abt 1700?, North Carolina
Henry Reynolds: England, abt 1670, New Jersey
Thomas Goble: England, abt 1630, Massachusetts
Alice Mousall: England, abt 1630, Massachusetts
Nathaniel Colburn: England, 1630, Massachusetts
Priscilla Clarke: England, Massachusetts
Stephen Cawood: England, 1670, Maryland

'First Families' of the Baldwin-Stewart family lines:
James Lindley: Ireland, 1713, Pennsylvania
Eleanore Parke:  Ireland, 1713, Pennsylvania
Thomas Lindley: Ireland, Came as a child with parents 1713, Pennsylvania
Ruth Hadley: Ireland, Came as a child with parents 1715, Delaware/Pennsylvania
Simon Hadley: Ireland, 1715, Delaware/Pennsylvania
Ruth Keran Miller: Ireland, 1715, Delaware/Pennsylvania
Robert Parke: Ireland, 1713, Pennsylvania
Nicholas Pyle: England, 1683, Pennsylvania
Abigail Bushell: England, abt 1683, Pennsylvania
John Whitley: England, 1650, Virginia

'First Families' of the Leffel-Box family lines:
Balzar Leffel: Germany, 1750, Pennsylvania
Reinhold Abendschon: Germany, 1749, Pennsylvania

Other Family Lines:

John Alden, 1620 on Mayflower, Plymouth 

Priscilla Mullins, 1620 on Mayflower, Plymouth 

A Witch in the Family

Alice Lake is my 10th great-grandmother on the Wilson-Hatfield family line, through the Cole family.  In 1651, Alice Lake was convicted of being a witch and executed by hanging in Dorchester Massachusetts. 

Alice Lake Hanged

Alice's Story

Alice Lake was born in England, and immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony at some point, and settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She was the mother of at least five children, all presumably fathered by her only known husband, Henry Lake. In 1651, those children would have been a girl about ten, a boy about seven, a boy about five, a child about three who likely was a boy, and an infant.

In 1651, Alice Lake's baby died. Later, she told people that she saw the baby. Maybe she did. Or, maybe she grieved so much that her mind allowed her to imagine that she saw her baby to ease her grief. As painful as the death of a loved one is, a mother's loss of a child is the most difficult.

The Puritan belief was that the devil was coming to her in the form of her deceased child, and because of that, she was accused of being a witch and brought to trial. Like most of the women accused of witchcraft, Alice was poor. And like most of the accused, she denied being a witch. The records of her trial are lost, but she was apparently found guilty of witchcraft.

A book entitled A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, written in 1702 by John Hale, makes the following reference to the Lake incident:
"Another [Alice Lake] that suffered on that account some time after, was a Dorchester woman. And upon the day of her execution Mr. Thompson minister at Braintree, and J.P. Her former master took pains with her to bring her to repentance. And she utterly denied her guilt of witchcraft; yet justified God for bringing her to that punishment: for she had when a single woman played the harlot, and being with child used means to destroy the fruit of her body to conceal her sin and shame, and although she did not effect it, yet she was a murderer in the sight of God for her endeavors, and showed great penitency for that sin; but owned nothing of the crime laid to her charge."

As indicated in the above 1702 account, Alice was given the opportunity to recant her story on the day of her execution, which might have saved her life. Instead, she said that God was punishing her because she had engaged in premarital sex, had become pregnant, and had attempted an abortion. She had apparently carried the Puritanical guilt throughout her lifetime for trying to cause the death of her oldest child.

Alice faced death at the gallows, and still she insisted that she had seen her dead baby. Perhaps admitting her child had died was more than she could bear, though her only hope of living was to admit that she knew her baby was dead.

Alice Lake was hanged in 1651 in Dorchester Massachusetts.

Salem Witch Hangings

From Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England, 1982, Oxford University Press:

Alice LAKE, convicted and executed at Dorchester in about 1650. Her husband Henry moved away at once; his name appears regularly in the records of Portsmouth, RI, beginning in April 1651.  Meanwhile the four LAKE children, all less than ten years old, remained in Dorchester.  One, probably the youngest, was 'bound out' by the town meeting to a local family for a 'consideration' of 26 pounds--and was dead within two years. The other three were also placed in separate Dorchester households. At this point their trail becomes badly obscured.  One was living as a servant to an uncle--still in Dorchester--in 1659.  Later, having reached adulthood, the same three were found in Rhode Island--and then in Plymouth Colony, where their father had removed by 1673.  It appears, therefore, that the family was eventually reunited, some two decades after the event that had broken it apart.

Alice Lake is an approved ancestor for National Society of THE ASSOCIATED DAUGHTERS OF EARLY AMERICAN WITCHES.  If you are interested in joining, contact me - I have good sources and documentation up to her descendant and our ancestor, Nathan Cole 1760-1826.  Website for THE ASSOCIATED DAUGHTERS OF EARLY AMERICAN WITCHES: www.adeaw.us

Note: The above images and stories are easily found online by doing a Google search.  Also, one can actually purchase T-shirts online with the image at the top of the blog post.:)

Plymouth & the Pilgrims

Happy Thanksgiving!

Although no Mayflower ancestors have been found, we do have an ancestor who lived in early Plymouth -- James Cole.  James Cole is on our Wilson Family line and it is through his descendant, Nathan Cole, that we can join the DAR.

According to historians, James Cole, came to America in about 1632 - twelve years after the Mayflower. In 1633, James Cole was admitted as a freeman in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The following is taken from the book 'The Descendants of James Cole of Plymouth 1633' by Ernest Byron Cole (1908, Grafton Press), page 21-22

"His name appears upon the tax list of Plymouth in 1634; Jan. 2, 1636, he had a grant of ten acres of land; Jan. 2, 1637, the court deeded him seven acres of land to belong to his dwelling house... His dwelling stood on the lot next below the Baptist Church. He was the first settler of and lived upon what is still known as "Cole's Hill," the first burial ground of the Pilgrims. This land probably included the ground upon which rests Plymouth Rock... He was surveyor of highways in the years, 1641, 42, 51, and 52; was constable in 1641 and 1644. In 1637 his name appears upon a list of volunteers against the Pequot Indians.

Soon after his arrival at Plymouth he opened the first inn or public house of Plymouth, and one of if not the first, public house in New England."

The children of James Cole were: James, Hugh, John & Mary.

Here are some Pilgrim websites:

http://www.plimoth.org/ and their kids page: http://www.plimoth.org/kids/

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mosmd/

http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/plymouth/

http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/index.php