sacrificed for their religion

Ezra Shattuck b. 1751

/ Kirstin Miller

Ezra Shattuck husband of Rebecca Connable, 5th great aunt on RootsMagic tree

Ezra Shattuck was born August 5, 1751 in Petersham, Worcester, Massachusetts. Ezra was in Leyden, Massachusetts, 20 miles northwest, where he built a mill. He married Rebecca Connable on January 22, 1778 in Leyden. Bernardston, Deerfield and Leyden are all in Franklin County, Massachusetts, within 5 miles. Ezra and Rebecca with other Connable families lived in this area. Ezra was a shoemaker … for the Dorrellites.
William Dorrell was a 6 foot, 300 pound religious leader, founder of the Dorrellites. His religion “spread from neighborhood to neighborhood, respectable people … cast in their lot with their humanitarian leader”. Dorrell preached against killing living things, and didn’t use animal materials for food, clothing, housewares, anything. The majority of his followers wore wooden shoes made by one of their number, Ezra Shattuck.” My sister and nephew, on a visit to Deerfield, Massachusetts saw these shoes and shared this photo. The shoes are at Memorial Hall in Deerfield, MA.

Shoes of the Dorrellites at Memorial Hall Museum‘s

Ezra and Rebecca had 10 children, 2 daughters married Dorrell brothers. Ezra died August 8, 1816, Rebecca died in March, 1816. Both are buried at Beaver Meadow Cemetery in Leyden, MA. Ezra’s son Rufus was in charge of his dad’s estate and putting together an inventory. Ezra’s inventory included boots & shoes, 8 earthen plates, an earthen tea set, 4 large and 6 small spoons, 2 flannel shirts, a brown coat and great coat, blankets and an hour glass.

Sources

Zachariah Rhodes b. 1603

/ Kirstin Miller

Zachariah Rhodes 10th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree.

Zachariah was born in 1603 in Lancashire, England and was in America before 1644. In Rehoboth, Massachusetts on July 3, 1644 Zachariah with others in Rehoboth signed a compact “to order the prudential affairs of the plantation”, then land lots were assigned.


The history of Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, compact

Zachariah married Joanna Arnold in March 1646, they had 9 children. Zachariah didn’t stay long in Massachusetts and may have been in a Boston jail, he refused Massachusetts religious laws, “the courts have naught to do with matters of religion”. The Rhodes family followed Roger Williams to Providence, Rhode Island. In both Providence and Rehoboth, Zachariah was a commissioner, constable, treasurer, deputy and more.

Zachariah died on October 11, 1665, “drowned on the Pawtucket shore”. He was 64 years old. He wrote his will April 28, 1662. Zachariah named widow Joanna as overseer of the estate, left lands and money to his children and gave Joanna permission to change the will if needed, “if any Shall Marry or Match themselves with any Contrarey to ye Mind of their Mother or of my two friends my will is then that it shall be in their Mothers liberty what to give them, whether anything or No”.

Sources

Harm Roos b. 1824

/ Kirstin Miller

Harm Roos 2nd great uncle on RootsMagic tree

Harm Janssen Roos was born on December 12, 1824  in East Fresia, Ostfriesland, Germany. His parents were Jan Roos and Meenke Schroder. Harm had seven siblings his brother Garbrand  is the great grandpa of Stanley Roose. Harm married Maarje Tellinghuisen in  1849 in Germany. They came to America in the 1860s and went straight to Ogle County, Illinois. Already set up there was a big German American community from the Ostfriesland area.  

U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 at Ancestry

Harm was a farmer. He and Maarje had 4 sons and 3 daughters. Maarje died in 1896, Harm married Lammechien Takens on July 14, 1898, they had no kids. A 1893 land map shows Harm owned about 300 acres of land, his bother Andrew owned land nearby. Harm , his family and friends were Lutherans . In a history of Ebenezer Reformed Church in Ogle, Illinois, “Starting around 1849, immigrants began settling. After 1855 German immigrants increased, many from Ostfriesland. Families from the Ostfriesland area were invited into the home of Harm Roos for a time of worship and singing. After some time, the group grew so large they could no longer fit in the log cabin home.” The church group bought an unused school building and set up an official church. Harm lived to age 80 and is buried in Ebenezer Cemetery in Oregon, Ogle County, Illinois. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21 is inscribed on his grave, in German.

A snapshot of Harm and Johann Roos, cousins via FamilySearch

Harm’s oldest son John Roos was about the same age as his cousin Johann Roos youngest son of Garbrand, great grandpa of Stanley Roose. John and Johann grew up together in Ogle, Illinois. When Johann was 15 he and his family moved to Grundy County, Iowa, near Aplington,  200 miles west. It’s likely that John and Johann stayed in touch, maybe their wives traded letters and maybe the 2 Roos cousins got together in Iowa or Illinois in the 1860s, middle aged men with families.

Sources

  • Ebenezer Reformed Church History online
  • Illinois county marriages 1810-1940 database at FamilySearch
  • U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 at Ancestry
  • Find a grave memorial 28532306 photo “Added by:  Tombstone Tourist on 17 Jul 2018”
  • Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1971 at Ancestry.

Joanna b. 1618

/ Kirstin Miller

Joanna 9th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Joanna was born around 1618. There’s no information on her last name, parents and arrival in America. She probably came from England in the 1630s when King Charles 1 had dissolved Parliament, imprisoned 9 members and was cracking down on “non-conformist preachers” and believers. English Protestants and Puritans, broke away from the Pope & Catholic Church, and left for America.

In America Joanna married Isaac Willey around 1638 in Boston and their first son, Isaac Jr., was baptized at the First Church in Boston. The church was created on July 30, 1630 by John Winthrop of the Winthrop Fleet, “their first official act, even before drawing up a charter for the city, was to create by themselves, and sign, a Covenant for the First Church in Boston. In this document we find these words: [Wee] solemnly, and religiously Promise, and bind ourselves, to walke in all our ways in mutuall love, and respect each to other.”

In 1646 with John Winthrop, the Willey family were original settlers of New London, Connecticut- on the south edge of Connecticut 20 miles north of Long Island, New York. “1. John Winthrop, Esq., whose home-lot was undoubtedly selected by himself before all others. The next five were probably John Gager, Cary Latham, Samuel Lothrop, John Stebbins, and Isaac Willey, whose home steads lay northwest of Mr. Winthrop’s, on the upper part of what are now Willams Street and Main Street.”

In New London, Joanna and Isaac had 5 more children. In 1667 Joanna was written up in the court records, 2nd on the list, she had failed to bring herself and her children to church and was fined 5 shillings. “Minutes of cases, chiefly before the County Court … Goodwife Willey presented for not attending public worship and bringing her children thither; fined 5s”.

Joanna’s death date isn’t known, it was before 1670 when widowed Isaac married again.

History of New London, Connecticut, Joanna fined

Sources

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

Sources

Enno Frerichs b. 1865

/ Kirstin Miller

Enno Henry Frerichs, my 2nd great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

Enno Frerichs was born January 6, 1865 in East Frisia, Lower Saxony, Germany. Enno was 18 years old when he sailed to America in October, 1883 with his family: dad Casjen, mom Kunna, brother Gerd, sisters Entje and Hilka and older sister Yevkea and her husband Joost Reents. The shipped was named America, it left from Bremen, Germany and landed in Baltimore, Maryland. The passenger list shows their destination was Iowa. Yevkea and Joost had one piece of luggage, the Frerichs family had 4.

Frerichs arrival 1883

Arrival in Baltimore. Iowa was their destination.

Probably through a network of German immigrants and friendly strangers, Enno and family made their way from Baltimore to Butler County, Iowa- 1000 miles total. Imagine that journey. The Frerichs family set up their home in Jefferson Township, between Allison and Parkersburg, Iowa. They cleared land, built houses, barns, fences, planted gardens and fields and their community of German Americans built a church, Ebenezer Lutheran Church.

Frerichs, Enno and Annie

Enno and Annie Hinrichs Frerichs

Enno married Annie Henrichs on May 26, 1890 in the Ebenezer Lutheran Church. 50 years into the future on May 30, 1940 Annie and Enno celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with family and friends. Enno and Annie’s 10 kids attended, all were in the area, furthest away was daughter Martina, married to Hobart Vance,  they lived in Dallas County, Iowa.

Enno died in 1944 and is buried in Butler Center Cemetery, very near where Ebenezer Lutheran Church used to be.

Sources

John Jones b. 1594

/ Kirstin Miller

John Jones 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

John Jones was born in 1594, in England. A minster, on December 19, 1613 he was ordained as Deacon of Peterboro and by 1619 he was the minster at Abbot’s Ripton in Cambridgeshire, England. In 1630 the courts removed John for not following rites and rituals of the Church of England. In 1635 John and family left England for America. They sailed with another minister Peter Bulkeley- also a Miller ancestor, John and Peter’s children married in Connecticut in 1640.Jones, John suspended

Jones and BulkeleyOn 6 April 1637 the church of Concord ‘kept a day of humiliation, chose Mr Bulkeley teacher and Mr. Jones pastor’. In August 1637 John and other minsters held an Ecclesiastical Council- they worked on their new religion: beliefs, requirements, practices in the new world. In 1644 another council was held and this time Peter Bulkeley and John Jones split- they couldn’t agree so John Jones and family left Concord and went to Fairfield Connecticut where John was the 1st pastor of the Congregational Church of Fairfield. John and Peter’s kids were married by this time, Peter’s son Thomas, married to Sarah Jones, Thomas and Sarah Jones Bulkeley went with John, to Fairfield.

John Jones as minister in Fairfield is shown in a book, Prime Ancient Society of Fairfield, Connecticut, summarized: ‘It is Lord’s Day. Sabbath hush pervades the air. At nine o’clock the drum summons the people, the meeting-house is a plain low structure, as people enter the men go to one side women go to the other. The children are put under the care of the tithing-man. Mr. Jones begins the service with a long prayer, then a longer sermon, a short prayer and the benediction. A brief intermission at noon then the afternoon service. At close of service people walked home and devoted their hours to the reading of the Bible and religious conversation in the family. The minister was expected to be vigilant, observant, energetic in respect to the innumerable details of town affairs. He had a sort of censorship in respect to matters of public import. His influences were far reaching’.

John Jones died and was buried in 1664. His burial place is in Old Burying Ground Cemetery in Fairfield, CT, about 10 miles north of the Long Island sound. His original headstone is long gone, there’s a monument added in recent times.

Sources

Samuel Newcomb b. 1794

/ Kirstin Miller

Samuel Newcomb 1st cousin 6 generations away or 6 times removed on RootsMagic tree. Samuel was also the adoptive dad of William Newcomb Gaines, great grandpa of Faber Miller.

Samuel was born January 8, 1794 in Bernardston, Massachusetts to William and Elizabeth Connable Newcomb. The Connable and Newcomb families were pioneers, long time residents of Berndardston. At age 18 Samuel fought in the War of 1812 and received a pension and 160 acres of land as payment. After the war he had a farm next to his brother Obadiah. Samuel married Jemima Hunting on Oct 13, 1822. Samuel and Jemima had a son William, who died before age one.

In 1826 Samuel adopted William N Gaines, son of Samuel’s cousin Leydia Connable Gaines. Samuel joined the Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), even though ‘he believed Brigham Young was an imposter’. In 1832 in Onondaga, NY Orson Pratt, an early LDS Church leader baptized Samuel and Jemima. Samuel, his wife and adopted son William moved to Kirtland, Ohio the early home of the Latter Day Saints and home of the first Mormon temple.

A sketch of Salt Lake city in 1860By 1850 Samuel and his family were in Great Salt Lake, Utah Territory. Samuel was a widow in 1851. He wrote his will in 1855 leaving all to “William Newcomb Gaines my adopted son”. Samuel lived to age 85, he died in Janesville, Iowa and was living with William and family in his later years. “He was treated kindly in his old age by Mr. and Mrs. Gaines, and he died at their home”. Samuel is buried in Oakland Cemetery near Janesville, Iowa with William Gaines and his family.

Sources

  • “History of Orson Pratt,” Deseret News, 9 June 1858, 65. John Tanner or the Bolton Branch mentioned in December 20, 1832 and February 2, 1833 entries shared on FamilySearch
  • Will in Iowa, Wills and Probate Records, 1758-1997 at Ancestry
  • Early members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Volume 4 page 592 image 594 of 920
  • At Wikipedia ‘Utah’ page, may be from Richard F. Burton’s City of the Saints, Public Domain
  • Bernardston Births, Marriages and Death image 40 of 233 handwritten, right page Samuel and Jemima 2nd on list. “Samuel Newcomb Gaines and Jemima Hunting both of this town October 13, 1822”

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”.

Sources

Joan Hurst b. 1568

/ Kirstin Miller

Joan Hurst 11th great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Joan Hurst was baptized March 13, 1568 at St Mary’s Parish in Henlow, Bedfordshire, England. Her first husband was Thomas Rogers who died around 1595. Her 2nd husband was John Tilley. They married September 20, 1596 in the same St Mary’s Parish. They had 5 children, Elizabeth Tilley was the youngest she was baptized in the same church as her mom. In 1620 Joan 52, John 48 and Elizabeth 13 were on the Mayflower and in America by November. Joan’s husband John was in the exploring party on December 6 noted for the first contact with American Indians. By January 1621 the exploring parties found a location to set up their colony, an abandoned Wampanoag village. The men built shelters, with each man responsible for his own family, ‘by that course men would make more haste than working in common’. In February this group had homes, food and water sources and supplies unpacked form the Mayflower.

Tilley, John 1620 Mayflower exploring party

1620 Mayflower exploring party

By March the number of passengers and crew, was down from 102 to 47 souls. In Bradford’s History. “Of these hundred persons which came first over in this first ship together, the greater half died in the general mortality, and most of them in two or three months’ time.”

Joan Hurst, her husband John Tilley, John’s brother Edward Tilley and Ann, his wife, they died the first winter and were buried in Coles Hill Burial Ground. Joan and John’s daughter Elizabeth was left an orphan and eventually married another passenger John Howland. Elizabeth and John had 10 kids who all survived so today this couple has more than 2 million Mayflower diverse descendants. I’m working on getting this Mayflower connection officially verified, the 400th anniversary was November 2020, greatly hampered by the global pandemic.

Sources