Holbrook line: John Trumbull, Immigrant 1612-1657

John Trumbull seems to be more of a mystery than I had thought.  I have his birth information, and his parentage back for three generations.  Or so I thought.  Robert Charles Anderson, of "The Great Migration" series, seems to think that there were two John Trumble or Trumbulls, one in Cambridge-Charlestown, and one who went to Rowley.  Our target is the man who went to Rowley. 

So, we don't know who John's parents are, or where they were from, although the majority of the England births in the supposed time period for James that I could find were from either Yorkshire or Northumberland counties in England. The James Trumble who is frequent given as John's father was a kielsman, or someone who worked on freighters and lighters, small ships that worked around the docks.  It was a low status, low paying job, and it seems to some that he would not have had the means to send his son to school for several years. 

Our John Trumbull or Trumble surely had some education, for he was the first school teacher in Rowley, Massachusetts, where he was situated by 1639.  His wife was Ellen or Elinor Chandler, believed to be the daughter of John Chandler and Ann Swan, and they married July 7, 1635 at Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England. She emigrated with her husband John and their first son John, but we don't know exactly when.  

As indicated, John was a school teacher.  He was made a freeman May 13, 1640.  He was also town clerk from 1654-1656, (meaning, among other things, that his penmanship was decent) and a selectman from 1652 to 1654.  By trade he was a cooper.  He was also a deacon in the church.  

John and Elinor had six children together.  Elinor died before August of 1650, when John married Ann, the widow of Michael Hopkinson, and they had two more children, besides at least three of Ann's.  It would have been a bustling household!

John's estate is rather interesting. There seems to have not been a will, so the court decided how the money should be divided.   It shows that Ann's children, and Ann and John's children, mostly received more money than John and Elinor's children did.  For instance, Jonathan Hopkinson received 25 pounds, while John, the firstborn of John and Elinor, received 15 pounds.  The other children from that marriage received 8 pounds each.  55 pounds was allowed to the widow.  It would be interesting to understand the reasoning process in deciding who got what, for typically a wife would receive one third of the estate, particularly if she still had children to raise.  Ann got about one quarter of the estate's value.   

The estate was valued at almost 226 pounds, minus debts of about five pounds.  He had at least eight plots of land, including house, garden and orchards, several farm animals, over a pounds worth of books, a halberd, two swords, and a pair of bandoliers, a fowling piece, but just one bed with some additional bedding.  The weapons were likely a requirement of all able bodied men.  We don't know how able bodied John was toward the end of his life.  If he was born about 1612, then he died about 45 years old, on March 16, 1657.  I wonder what else he had hoped to accomplish with his life. 

So we have some idea of John's life in New England, but almost none of his life in England.  Perhaps someone is working right now to determine which John Trumbull is likely to be ours.  It would be nice to know!

Our line of descent is:

John Trumbull-Elinor Chandler
Joseph Trumbull-Hannah Smith
John Trumbull-Elizabeth Winchell
Hannah Trumbull-Medad Pomeroy
Medad Pomeroy-Eunice Southwell
Eunice Pomeroy-Libbeus Stanard
Libbeus Stanard-Luceba Fay
Hiram Stanard-Susan Eddy
Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants

Holbrook line: Philip Phetteplace 1621-March 22, 1698 Immigrant

I'm writing this blog post on the theory that writing even one paragraph about an ancestor is better than ignoring him completely  I don't put the odds of finding more information very high, since the distinguished genealogist Donald Lines Jacobus tried in 1969, and found only a couple of comments in the records about Philip.  We know more about his family background than we do about other of our ancestors, but less about his life.  That dash between 1621 and 1698 is just not very full.

Philip was born or baptized April 14, 1621 in Ringwood, Hampshire, England, to Walter and Parnell Cole Phetteplace (Fetteplace, and other spellings, of course).  Jacobus traces this family back to about ..1210 A.D., and others have said the family came over from Normandy with William the Conqueror.  Regardless, the family had been in the area of Ringwood for probably 200 years before Philip was born.  Ringwood is located just north of the south coast of England, on the border with Dorset county.  It has a currently population of about 14,000 people but was probably smaller when Philip was a child.

We don't know when Philip married but speculation is that it was later in life.  We also don't know when he came to the Colonies, or when he arrived in Rhode Island.  We don't even know when he married.  We know that he asked for admittance as a freeman to the town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island on September 22, 1671, and he was granted that status on October 14.  In 161, he witnessed the will of Philip Sherman, and acknowledged his signature when the will was admitted to probate in 1687.

His four known children, who may have been born in Rhode Island, were Sarah, Walter, Philip, and Samuel.  His namesake, Philip, was a Quaker but we have no indication of our subject's religion.   Portsmouth was the home of Anne Hutchinson for a time, and was later referred to as a town full of New Light Baptists.  Perhaps he was some kind of religious dissident, and perhaps not.  The other observation we can make is that he was able to sign his name, based on the will testimony.  Whether he had more education that that, we don't know.

Philip died at Portsmouth March 22, 1698 but I haven't located a will or inventory. 

It's frustrating to know so little about a man.  He had dreams, he had a vision of a better life in America, he had values he would have wanted to implant in his children.  What were they?   What were his views on slavery?  How did King Philip's War affect him, if at all?  This dash, the one between 1621 and 1698, if just frustratingly thin.

The line of descent is:

Philip Phetteplace-unknown
Walter Phetteplace-Joanna Mowry
Sarah Phetteplace-Elisha Eddy
Enos Eddy-Sarah Brown
Enos Eddy-Deborah Paine
Joseph Eddy-Susan Lamphire
Susan Eddy-Hiram Stanard
Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants

Holbrook line: Moses Cleveland 1620-1703, Immigrant

There is more information about Moses Cleveland than is sometimes available,because he left more records than some immigrants, and because he is the ancestor of Grover Cleveland and thus has been pretty thoroughly researched.  Still, I haven't seen documentation for his birth and there are varying guesses as to his parents. 

My favorite candidate for his parents would be Isaac Cleveland and Alice, last name unknown.  They were in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, which is generally given as Moses' birthplace, and they were of the right age to be his parents. In addition, there is the Biblical name tradition, as it appears.  Other suggestions I have seen were for a Samuel Cleveland, but I don't think he was from Ipswich.

There is an absolutely fascinating story about Moses's voyage to America, but it may well be just that-a story.  Still, on the off chance that it's correct, the story goes that when Moses came to America, he had thought it would be Virginia rather than New England.  The story goes that when they landed at Jamestown, the group after a short time decided there was too much trouble with the native Americans, and boarded the ship to go to Massachusetts instead.  There is much that is suspicious about this story but it could have happened.

At any rate, young Moses, no more than fifteen, arrived at Plym.  outh or Boston in 1635.  He was a ship's carpenter apprentice when he arrived,  He seems to have stayed in Boston for about three years, then in 1638 he settled in Charlsetown. 

He was still serving a master, probably Edward Winn, when he went to Woburn in 1640 or 1641, but was admitted a freeman in 1643,  He was granted land in 1649, and on February 3,1648/1649 was appointed by a committee to lay out his own land.  He married Ann Winn, daughter of Edward Winn, in 1648 and the couple had at least eleven children.  The first is listed with a birthdate of 1651 so it's possible there were miscarriages or still born children in the early years of their marriage. 

Moses was a joiner, or basically a finish carpenter, and worked both on ships and on homes.  This gave him an income sufficient to support his large family.  He is listed on the militia roll in 1663.  A later listing for Moses Cleveland during King Philip's War is more likely his son Moses.  He became a tithing man for the church in 1680, so he was a Puritan.  He died in Woburn on January 8, 1702, having lived there for 60 or more years, and having survived his wife by about 20 years.  It isn't often that our ancestors stayed in one place for a long time so I would like to thank Moses for doing just that! 

The line of descent is:

Moses Cleveland-Ann Winn
Enoch Cleveland-Elizabeth Counts
Sarah Cleveland-Israel Joslin
Sarah Joslin-Edward Fay
David Fay-Mary or Mercy Perrin
Luceba or Euzebia Fay-Libbeus Stanard
Hiram Stanard-Susan Eddy
Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants