b. 1600

Deborah Angell b. 1639

/ Kirstin Miller

Deborah Angell 8th great aunt on RootsMagic tree.

Deborah was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1639. Her dad Thomas Angell and mom Alice Ashton were ‘banished’ from Massachusetts and left for Rhode Island with Roger Williams then in 1636 founded Providence, RI. The census of 1636 shows 10 families, 25 households in Providence. Elizabeth Speedy and her ancestors are related to 4 of those 10 families: Angell, Arnold, Smith and Williams.

Angell, Deborah marriageDeborah Angell married Stephen Sabeere on November 7, 1668. Deborah and Stephen lived in Providence all their lives and had at least 3 children. Deborah Sabeere is in her mom and dad’s wills. Her dad leaves her shillings, her mom leaves her clothing, woolens and linens, a chamber pot and some wooden trays.

Angell, Thomas and Alice wills

Just like us in modern times, our ancestors argued, disagreed, fought then compromised, made-up and worked together for the good of the cause. In November of 1672 Stephen Sabeere and neighbor Henry Palmer traded insults: Stephen Sebeere called Henry Palmer’s wife a witch, Henry called Stephen a French dog and rouge. Both men were in court on November 19, 1672 and each had to acknowledge their error in judgment.

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Elizabeth Bulkeley b. 1637

/ Kirstin Miller

Elizabeth Bulkeley my first cousin 10x removed on RootsMagic tree

Elizabeth Bulkeley was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1637. Her grandpa, Reverend Peter Bulkeley migrated from England and founded Concord in 1635. Peter was the first pastor of First Parish Church in Concord. Elizabeth’s dad Edward was the 3rd pastor. Elizabeth married a pastor, Joseph Emerson who also migrated to America from England.

Elizabeth and Joseph married in Concord and had 6 kids all born there. One son Edward Emerson married Rebecca Waldo, whose 3rd great grandson was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson wrote a poem Hamatreya mentioning his 5th great grandpa Peter Bulkeley, a few lines, worth reading the full poem:

“Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm.
Saying, T’is mine, my children’s and my name’s.
Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds. 
Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys.
Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
Mine and yours; Mine, not yours.
Earth endures Stars abide -.

In 1680, Elizabeth was a widow and married John Browne. Elizabeth died in 1693, she and John Browne are both buried at Old Burying Ground in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Elizabeth and John’s gravestones are art, chiseled from stone with winged skulls, grapes, vines. John’s is more decayed than Elizabeth’s. A sign at John Browne’s Find a Grave memorial, “The gravestones in this semi-circle were originally located in the town’s first Burying Ground, near the present site of the Bandstand. These stones represent some of the oldest expressions of Puritan gravestone art in New England”.

Bulkeley, Elizabeth headstone
Elizabeth Bulkeley Emerson Browne gravestone via Lucius Beebe Memorial Library Digital Heritage collection.

Inscription: Memento Mori “remember you will die” Fugue Hora “the hour flees” Here lyes ye body of Mrs. Elizabeth Browne wife to Cap’n John Brown Esq and former wife of ye Reverend Mr Joseph Emerson of Mendon who deceased Septemb’r ye 4th 1693 in ye 56 year of her age.

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Edward Bulkeley b. 1614

/ Kirstin Miller

Edward Bulkeley 8th great uncle on RootsMagic tree

Edward was born June 17, 1614 in Odell, England to Peter and Jane Allen Bulkeley, the oldest child of 9. Edward’s dad Peter was a Puritan pastor in Odell and was harassed by Archbishop Laud, so looking to leave England. The Buckeleys sailed to America in 1634 or 1635, secretly, “No doubt the long drawn out enrollments and lack of effort to standardize spelling of the names were reflections of the family’s attempt to board the ship without being apprehended. Son Edward preceded the rest of the family, becoming a member of Boston church on 22 March 1634/5”. Archbishop Laud’s story didn’t end well, He was sent to the Tower of London, then executed in 1645. King Charles would regret putting ’too much trust in Laud’.

Bulkeley, Edward house 1967Once they were in America the Bulkeleys lived in Concord where Edward was a freeman on May 6 1635. He married Lucien, last name unknown, in 1640 and they had 6 children. Around 1660 Edward built a house in Concord, on Main Street. “А deed referring to the property, with a dwelling on it, records the 1663 transfer of 10 acres of land located on today’s Main Street to Edward Bulkeley by his mother, widow of one of Concord’s founders and its first minister, Peter Bulkeley.” Today this home is at 92 Sudbury Road in Concord, a private residence, the house was moved in the 1800s. Edward died in 1696, his wife Lucien died in 1690. They are both probably buried at Old Hill Burying Ground in Concord, no headstones remain.

Edward, like his dad, was a Puritan pastor and was known for his ‘fiery’ sermons. When his dad died, Edward followed as pastor of the First Parish Church in Concord. This church is also still there in Concord, Massachusetts, now a Unitarian Universalist church. Each Sunday the congregation ends their service with this benediction:

Go out into the world in peace

Have courage

Hold on to what is good

Return to no person evil for evil

Strengthen the fainthearted

Support the weak

Help the suffering

Honor all beings

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Mary Barnard b. 1609

/ Kirstin Miller

Mary Barnard 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Mary was born September 1609 in Nottinghamshire, England. Mary was a ladies maid to an acquaintance of Roger Williams. Mary and Roger married December 15, 1629 in High Laver, Essex England at All Saint Parish, still there. Their marriage record, “is recorded in the parish register of High Lever, Co. Essex, as follows: 1629 Roger Williams and Mary Barnard were married the 15th day of Decern: anno dom 1629”.

Williams Roger, Mary Barnard children screenshot

Mary and Roger Williams, children

Mary and Roger left England in December of 1631. They had 6 kids, all born in America: Mary, Freeborn, Providence, Mercy, Daniel and Joseph. Mary and family were living in Salem where Roger was a minister until he was banished, asked to leave. He had issues with the church, was a friend to the Indians, critical of the colonies taking land with no payment, Roger and family had to leave the area. With a small group Roger founded Rhode Island in 1636. A census on September 1, 1636 shows 25 people including Mary and her family.  John Winthrop, governor of Plymouth visited Providence and left a gold coin with Mary during his visit, “Governor Winslow, of Plymouth. The guest was touched by the hardship and poverty which his old friends were enduring, and at his departure put into the hands of Mrs. Williams a piece of gold for her relief. Williams acknowledges with respect and gratitude the welcome gift”.

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Elizabeth b. 1614

/ Kirstin Miller

Elizabeth 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Elizabeth was born in about 1614, her last name isn’t known. In 1630 she married Thomas Judd. The birth and marriage places of Elizabeth and Thomas aren’t known. The Judds were part of the 1620-1640 ’Great Migration’ documented by genealogist Robert Charles Anderson, he’s written volumes. Elizabeth and family left England for America in 1634, this is shown in a land grant in Cambridge on August 4, 1634, “lots granted in Westend, To Tho: Judd 4 Ackrs”. Elizabeth and family stayed in the Massachusetts colony for awhile, then with Reverend Thomas Hooker, left to start a new settlement in the Connecticut Colony, fort called New Towne then called Hartford. Elizabeth and Thomas had 9 children, 3 daughters and 6 sons. Two daughters married Loomis brothers. two sons and one daughter married a Steele sibling, one son married Mary Howkins. One son, Benjamin married Mary Lewis, their 7th great grandson was Faber Miller.

1636 Hartford map

At Kenyon Street AngelFire website, an annotated map.

The single available record with Elizabeth’s name is Dr John Winthrop’s medical notebook, “8 July 1669, John Winthrop Jr. treated -Jud Elis[abeth] above 60 years wife of [blank] Jud Senior of Farmington-“. Elizabeth lived until about 1678. Her burial place is unknown.

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Rebecca Gaines b. 1688

/ Kirstin Miller

Rebecca Gaines 8th great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Rebecca was born in Connecticut in 1688 or so, one of 10 children of Samuel and Anna Burnham Gaines. On August 1, 1704 Rebecca married Samuel Risley in Hartford, Connecticut where they set up a home. Around 1710 Rebecca’s mom deeded land to Rebecca’s husband, “Anna Gaines of Hartford, widow, for 30 shillings, conveys to her son-in-law, Samuel Risley of Hartford, all her right and interest in land formerly sold to her father, Thomas Burnham, late of Hartford, by the Indian sachem Totonimo, which lands are undivided among the children of Thomas Burnham, [Signed] Anna Gaines, her mark..

Rebecca was a widow in 1752. In her husband’s will, “I give and bequeath to my Beloved Wife Rebecca one hundred and fifty pounds out of my moveable Estate old Tennor and also ye free use and improvement of ye one half of my dwelling house and cellar and three acres of land by said house as long as she shall Remain my widow.”

There’s no date, no record for Rebecca’s death and her burial place is unknown. She was a widow at 68, probably died fairly soon after her husband. He has a headstone at Old Eastbury Cemetery in Glastonbury. Rebecca is probably right by him.

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Ann Borodell b. 1615

/ Kirstin Miller

Ann Borodell 9th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Ann was born in Cork, Ireland on May 20, 1615. Her dad John Borodell was a land owner, her mom is unknown. Ann married George Denison of England in abut 1645. There is a story of how George and Ann met, published in several sources. George had sailed to America with his family at age 11, met and married his first wife, she died within a few years, he was heartbroken, returned to England to fight in the English Civil War, was injured in the Battle of Naseby, on June 14, 1645 and sent to John Borodell’s home to recover. John’s daughter Ann nursed George back to health, they fell in love, married and sailed to America. George and Ann lived in Stonington then Mystic, Connecticut and were described as “remarkable for magnificent personal appearance, and for force of mind and character”.

  • Ann Borodell image at FindaGrave memorial

Ann was a widow in 1695. From her husband’s will, “First I give and bequeath unto my dear and loving wife Ann Denison, my new mansion place, to wit the house we live in, the barns and buildings, the orchards, and the whole tract of land, and improvements thereon, as far as Mistuxet, eastward, and as it is bounded upon record South, West and North, … all the household stuff that was, and is, properly belonging unto us … to be wholly at her disposal, to bequeath to whom she pleaseth, at her death”.

There’s a Denison Homestead Museum and a Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center on the grounds in Mystic, CT. The house is not the 1663 original that George and Ann built. That house burned down, another was built on the land and was in the Denison family for generations.

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William Holdridge b. 1610

/ Kirstin Miller

William Holdridge 11th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

William Holdred or Holdridge was born in London, England in 1610. In 1635 he sailed on the Elizabeth to America. He lived in Ipswich until 1640 when he married Isabelle, last name unknown, and they moved to Salisbury, Massachusetts. He was in Haverhill, MA in 1650, and Exeter, New Hampshire by 1671. William was a tanner, he turned animal skins into leather. He was also a planter, landowner, farmer. He and Isabelle had 9 children. His life story is big with lots of movement, land deeds, purchases and sales, appearances in court for different reasons some good some not so good.

  • 1635 Wm Holdred age 25, a tanner


Most fascinating is his parish in London, St Alphage, built in the 1100s. The parish was built right on the London Wall, a defensive wall built by Romans between 190 and 225 in Roman Britain. Through the centuries St Alphage changed names, was built up and torn down, damaged in WW1 and WW2 and now the remaining ruins are in between two modern concrete, steel and glass office buildings. In 2018 the ruins were opened to the public with new garden areas and walkways: St Alphage Garden.

  • St Alphage Garden

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Rebecca Brown b. 1676

/ Kirstin Miller

Rebecca Brown 7th great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Rebecca Brown was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1676 the youngest of 7 kids. Her mom’s dad and both grandpas were pastors who founded churches in Concord, Massachusetts- Peter Bulkeley and New Haven- John Jones. In 1703 Rebecca married Benjamin English.

Brown, Eleazer and Sarah Bulkeley, children

Eleazer Brown, Sarah Bulkeley, their children

Benjamin was a widow from Salem. He and his cousin William Punchard arrived in New Haven in 1701 or so and they married sisters: Benjamin married Rebecca Brown and William married Hannah Brown. Rebecca and Benjamin stayed in New Haven and had 8 children. One daughter, Mary English, had a son John Connable who had a daughter Lydia Connable. Lydia married Obed Gaines and in the 1850s journeyed about 1,245 miles to Iowa where in 1878 the Mary Ella Gaines and James Miller married and had a son William Miller who had a son Faber Miller who married Gladys Cable.

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Martha Bliss b. 1622

/ Kirstin Miller

Martha Bliss 9th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Martha was born in Daventry, England December of 1622. Her dad was Thomas, her mom Dorothy Wheatley Bliss. The Bliss family went to America around 1640, they lived in Plymouth Colony. In 1646 Martha married Nicholas Ide -this marriage is probable, has been and is debated. There’s no record of the marriage or even a record of the last name of Nicholas’s wife, but it’s probable and likely that these 2 married and had at least 10 children. Martha was called to testify in court when Elizabeth Walker, a child, was found drowned in a river by 2 boys who ran to tell Martha. All involved had to testify in court and the child’s drowning was judged an accident. The Ide and Walker families were close, husbands served on committees, children probably played together.

Court record: Rehoboth, the seauenth of August, 1664. Wee, whose names are subscribed heerto, doe heerby signify to all psons whom it may conserne, that Elizabeth Walker, the daughter of Phillip Walker, of the towne of Rehoboth, was accedentally drowned ; shee, being sent to scoole, was found alsoe accedentally in the riuer first by two youthes and they makeing knowne the same to two wemen, the wife of Nicholas Jyde and the wife of Roger Annadowne, and then to Wiliam Sabine, whoe forth with came and drew her out of the water, as hee saith. From the testimony of the afor specifyed psons, together with other concurring cercomstances, wee, the subscribers, conceiue that the child, which was two yeares and an halfe old, before specifyed, came accedentally to her end.

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