McKay/Scramlin
The families on this page include the German and Scottish descendants of the Scramlins who settled in New York and the English descendants of the Cooks who settled in New England, primarily in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
See all links in Scramlin Family TreeScramlin Family
To follow the early settlements of the Scramlin family, it's useful to know a little New York geography. The Mohawk River in upstate New York flows east to the Hudson which then meets the Atlantic at New York City. The headwaters of the Susquehanna are not far to the south at Otsego Lake but the river flows west and south to meet the Atlantic near Washington, D.C. There is a Scrambling Avenue in Oneonta, New York. The family name has gone from Schremling to Schrembling to Scrambling to Schramlin to Scramlin. The first Scramlin immigrant came to the US from what is today's Rhineland-Palatinate region in southwest Germany bordered by France, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Charlotte Scramlin married Ambrose McKay in Lamont, Michigan on October 21, 1877. Charlotte seemed to be concerned about aging. Her grandson, David, reported that Charlotte never told her exact age. He also reported that she would wash her face each day with milk to keep it young looking. Determining Charlotte's birth date turned out to be an interesting exercise. Using Census data it varied anywhere from 1841 to 1851. For instance the 1850 census showed birth about 1841, in 1860 it was about 1842, but in 1870 it was 1848 (she had only aged 4 years in the ten years between census surveys), the 1880 Census listed her birth year as 1851, in 1900 her birth year was 1850, in 1910 it was 1851 and by 1920 it was back to 1849. For sure she was born before 1850 because the 1850 census showed that the family was living in Pennsylvania and all records indicate that she was born in New York. My theory is that there was some vanity at play here. In 1877 she married Ambrose McKay who was born in 1849 and I'm guessing that she told him that she was younger than he was. It would seem that the earliest census was probably the most accurate. This makes her 81 when she died.
She relates that she was born in Otsego, NY but moved to Erie County Pennsylvania when she was four years old. She got her full education at Lockport, Pennsylvania Grade School (east of Pittsburgh) after her father bought ten acres near there. When she was 15 she became a teaching assistant in nearby Fairfield Village. Her mother died when she was 19 and the family moved to Lamont, Michigan. Charlotte and her sister Jennie taught school there.
When Charlotte was 22 she went to Chicago to take a job as a private teacher for her uncle’s children. But when she arrived she found that he had remarried and didn’t need her. She had only $2.35, and the train ticket back to her home in Michigan cost $5. So she bought a newspaper and saw an ad for a millinery wholesale house needing girls to sew braid and straw hats. So according to her letter, she was “making hats before noon.”
She boarded with a Methodist minister in Chicago and the McKay family were Methodists for three generations afterwards. She met a widower at the boarding house named Harry Merlin who had a ten-month-old child. Six months later she married him but he died the next year. She eventually moved back to Lamont where she married Ambrose. The first two of their four sons died in infancy. Despite her hardships, she was known for being a fine artist who painted in oils. She died in 1922.
********David Scramlin married Hannah Cook on March 27, 1832 in Oneonta, New York. David was a farmer who moved west from New York first to Erie, Pennsylvania then to Michigan. By 1880 he was living with his daughter Jane north of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He lived to be 77 and his official cause of death was "Old Age." He was educated at Oneonta Academy and was described by his daughter, Charlotte, as a regular "bookworm."
********George Schramlin married Nancy McDougall. Family tradition says that George's father, also named George, was killed by Indians at his home on the Mohawk about 1775 and his sons, David and George, were taken prisoner to Canada for two years. I have no independent verification of this event.
George Jr. entered military service in 1778 or 79 as a private with New York troops and the re-enlisted. His regiment covered forts on the frontier along the Mohawk River. After the expiration of the second term of his enlistment he served as a Scout and was in that service at the close of the war. His company was engaged in an action at Johnstown in Montgomery County with a party of British and Indians who were defeated and dispersed. He went on an expedition against the Fort at Oswego in the winter near the close of the war, with an Indian guide who lost his way by which means the expedition failed, that by reason of the extreme cold weather many suffered much from freezing their feet.
Click to access full size image
He continued to reside in the County of Montgomery until sometime after the war, when he and his brothers Henry and David moved to the town of Otsego, New York where he resided until 1833. This report of the Otego, NY tax rolls for 1799 shows just how prominent the Schremling presence was in the area.
*********
George Schrembling married Catherina Young in 1746 in Minden, New York. Both were born in New York, but their roots go back hundreds of years in the German Palatine region. George married Johann Young’s sister and Johann married George’s sister so they became Catherina (Young) Schrembling and Catherina (Schrembling) Young.
Family tradition says that George Schrembling was killed by Indians at his home on the Mohawk about 1775 and his sons David and George were taken prisoner to Canada for two years.[1]
********
German connection
Hendrick Schremling married Maria Landgraff in 1714 in Canajoharie, New York. Hendrick had arrived in New York City in 1709 probably with his father and mother from the Palatine region of Germany. They came up the Hudson Valley and settled in Old Schoharie, New York, forty miles west of Albany. Later Hendrick moved the family to the Mohawk Valley and bought a farm before relocating again to Canajoharie Creek. His son George inherited the old homestead.
Maria had arrived in New York with her mother, father George Landgraff, and sister in 1710 from Germany.
Henrick bought 1000 acres of land along the Susquehanna River from Sir William Johnson, the largest landowner and also the most influential individual in Mohawk Valley history. Johnson had acquired more than 200,000 acres, most of them located in the Mohawk Valley, and encouraged settlers to migrate to the New World to settle in the community.
McKay/Scramlin/Jung
Jung Family
The Jung family were Palatine German famers who joined the exodus to America in the early 1700s. They settled west of Albany, New York.
German connection
Catherina Young/Jung married George Schrembling. This union cemented a relationship with the two families that were major land owners in the Schoharie River Valley.
********
Access full size image
Johann Theobald Jung married Maria Schneider around 1713 probably in Schoharie, New York. Theobald immigrated to America from the Palatine region of Germany in 1709 and moved to the Hudson Valley and soon married Maria Catharina Schneider. The first residence of Theobald and Maria was in the “tar camps”, above Germantown within the Livingston Manor on the Hudson River. In exchange for free passage across the Atlantic Ocean on British ships, the 2,400 Palatines were expected to engage in harvesting pine trees near the Hudson River in order to make tar and pitch for the Royal Navy.
Many of the Palatines were dissatisfied with their situation so in 1712 moved west to the Schoharie River Valley, west of Albany. In about 1722 these Jung family migrated from Schoharie to the Maquas (Mohawks) country, with many others from Schoharie. They apparently took up residence in the vicinity of Canajoharie. It appears that Theobald's occupation might be termed farmer, and land speculator. Theobald and his sons soon became major land owners in the area including a 1752 patent for 14,00 acres on the south side of the Mohawk River. Later in life Theobald went by the name of David Young.
McKay/Scramlin/McDougall
McDougall Family
Daniel McDougall was fairly typical of ancestors who arrived in America just before 1776 and soon found themselves fighting for independence.
Nancy McDougall married George Schramlin.
********
Scottish connection
Daniel McDougall married Eva Sommer on January 12, 1776 in Schoharie, New York. Daniel probably arrived in New York from Scotland in 1768. He served as a private in the Tryon County, New York militia 2nd regiment during the Revolutionary War. Daniel disappeared about 1785 while en route to Montreal on horseback. He was transacting business with his brothers. Daniel's horse was found but he, or his body, was not and it was assumed that he was murdered.
McKay/Scramlin/McDougall /Sommer
Sommer Family
When we think of immigration to America for religious reasons we usually think of escaping religious persecution in a person's home country. Peter Sommer came to America to be a pastor to the German community already established in New York.
Eva Sommer married Daniel McDougall on January 12, 1776. After Daniel's death in 1786, Eva married Henry Schramlin, the brother of George who was Nancy McDougall's husband. That makes Eva both George's sister-in-law and mother-in-law.
********
German connection
Peter Sommer married Maria Keyser on May 16, 1744 in Athens, New York. He was a theological student at the University of Jena. He served as a catechist in the orphan asylum of Hamburg from 1737-1741 and received a call to become the Pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in the Palatine settlement of Schoharie, New York, arriving in 1743 and giving his first sermon on May 29, 1743.
In 1768, when he was 59 years old, he lost his sight. Records indicate that his eyesight had been restored in 1789. He was awakened on a Sunday morning and was able to see. When he held the service that day, he astounded his congregation by kneeling down at the pulpit and thanking God for his restored sight.
Maria and Peter's parsonage built in 1743 is still standing in Schoharie and is now a museum.
Maria was the mother of 13 (including two sets of twins). Buried with her husband in the Sommer family plot. She was an integral part of internal mechanisms of the church. Maria's father Johannes Keyser, an immigrant from Bavaria, served in the French and Indian Wars.
McKay/Scramlin/Cook
Cook Family
The Cook family arrived in America during the Great Migration and stayed in Rhode Island for six generations before Hannah and her husband moved to New York.
Hannah Cook married David Scramlin in Oneonta, New York on March 27, 1832.
********Benjamin Cooke married Marian Rouse in 1809. Born in Rhode Island, Benjamin moved with his family to Erie County Pennsylvania in the 1830s where he was a farmer.
Nothing is known about Marian's family (see Most Wanted section)********
John Jay Cook married Thankful Tripp in Coventry, Rhode Island on August 20, 1780. John fought in the Revolutionary war and was wounded in the battle of Newport in 1778. Around 1795, John Cook arrived alone in Laurens, New York about 80 miles west of Albany. John spent a year clearing the land and building his cabin before returning back to Rhode Island for his family. He was known for being more of a hunter than a farmer.
*******Samuel Cooke married Sarah Benedict in Warwick, Rhode Island on August 29, 1740.
********Samuel Cooke, Sr. married Enfield Greene on March 25, 1719 in Warwick, Rhode Island.
********Robert Cook married Thamar Tyler in Portsmouth, Rhode Island on December 5, 1678.
Thamar is the daughter of John Tyler (Tiler) of Bristol, Rhode Island and Sarah Havens. They had five children. Sarah Havens survived her husband by at least eighteen years.
Sarah is the daughter of William Havens. There is some dispute about whether William comes from the country of Wales or the village of Wales in South Yorkshire, England. In any event the first record of him is in 1638 and he is listed as a resident of Pocasset, later renamed Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Pocasset was founded in 1638 by people from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who supported religious freedom. On April 30, 1639, with 28 men, he signed the Compact with King Charles I of England that established Rhode Island. In 1638 he was an original proprietor of Aquidneck Island where Portsmouth and Newport are located. He supported himself as a carpenter.
********
English connection
Little to nothing is known about Robert's father, John Cooke, who was born in 1618, emmigrated from England, and died in the colonies in 1655.
McKay/Scramlin/Cook /Tripp
Tripp Family
The Tripp family arrived during the Great Migration but soon relocated to Rhode Island where there was greater religious tolerance.
Thankful Tripp married John Jay Cook in Coventry, Rhode Island on August 20, 1780.
********Israel Tripp married Elizabeth Bentley in Warwick, Rhode Island on September 2, 1744.
*********James Tripp married Elizabeth Cudworth on August 12, 1702 at Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Elizabeth was James' third wife. In 1689 he was given the rank of ensign.
********
English connection
John Tripp married Mary Paine in 1639 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. John was born in Horkstow Parish, in northern Lincolnshire, England in 1611, the oldest of twelve children. At about age 14, John was apprenticed to a ship carpenter for seven years. John came to Boston around 1635 or 36.
John Tripp found life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony quite intolerant of beliefs that differed from the Puritan dogma. So John spent very little time in Boston before moving on to the more tolerant lands of what was to become Rhode Island. In 1638, he left with a group who were banished from Boston because of their belief in religious freedom. They are known to history as the Ann Hutchison group. It is not clear if John was one of the group or if he followed along as a servant. Perhaps being with this group meant that John also believed in religious freedom but none of the group were Quakers.
Quakerism didn’t come into being until 1647 when it was founded by George Fox. It wasn’t until nine years later that the first Quakers landed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They were not well received and in 1657 they sent emissaries in the form of missionaries to Rhode Island. By 1670 many people in Rhode Island had become members of the Society of Friends and by 1690 about half the population of the colony followed the Quaker faith. Nothing has been found to confirm or deny his membership in the Society of Friends. However, it is well documented that later Tripp family were members of the Society of Friends.
John was admitted to Portsmouth, Rhode Island as an inhabitant in 1638 at the time of founding. Being an inhabitant allowed you to own land, but it did not allow you to vote or hold office as did the status of freeman. In 1638/9, John may have paid off his indenture to Randall Holden and may have been in a probationary period, usually one to two years, before being admitted as a freeman.[1]
John Tripp during his life had a great variety of experiences: carpenter, farmer, judge, deputy of court, ferry operator, public office holder, and husbandman. In 1657, a consortium of about 100 buyers purchased Conanicut, Dutch, and Gould Islands. They divided Conanicut into roughly a dozen large plots and reserved Dutch Island and parts of Conanicut for common use. John Tripp was one of the signers of the agreement. So was Benedict Arnold and he became governor of the colony of Rhode Island the same year. (Arnold was the great-grandfather of the Revolutionary War traitor.) In 1662, he purchased a quarter share of the Dartmouth Purchase from John Alden and then divided and conveyed this interest to his sons in 1665.
President Warren Harding is the 7 x great grandson of John Tripp, Jr.
Mary Paine was the daughter of Anthony Paine, one of the founders of Portsmouth, Rhode Island and Alice Potter. Mary had the unique experience, for a young woman of that time, of owning a piece of land. Mary had purchased the land before her marriage to John Tripp, giving in payment a small quantity of wine. Although the man who conveyed the land, neglected to give her a deed, the colony confirmed her title more than twenty-five years later. She received a license in 1679 to sell food, drink and entertainment. In his will her father said "I Anthony Paine in my perfect memory doe manifest my minde and Last will is to give & bequeath unto my daughter Alice one Cow shee or hur husband painge unto my daughter Mary tripp so his much as ye Cow is Judged to be more worth, then the heffer, and to be made up Equall out of ye Cow."
McKay/Scramlin/Cook /Tripp/Bentley
Bentley Family
Like the Tripps, the Bentley family moved to Rhode Island where there was greater religious freedom.
Elizabeth Bentley married Israel Tripp in Warwick, Rhode Island on September 2, 1744.
*********Benjamin Bentley married Patience Rathbone. Benjamin followed his father's trade of Currier and was left property by his father. His father-in-law, Thomas Rathbone had an interest in the Nine Partners patent along with another McKay ancestor Richard Sacket.
********William Bentley married Sarah Eldredge (or Eldred) in Rhode Island on December 25, 1675. William arrived on the ship Arabelle in May 1671. He was a currier, a leather worker and a resident of Narragansett, Rhode Island. He served as a soldier in King Philip's War. The Bentleys were Baptists and the religiously tolerant atmosphere in Rhode Island was undoubtedly part of the reason William settled here.
McKay/Scramlin/Cook /Tripp/Bentley/Rathbone
Rathbone Family
The Rathbone/Rathbun family were northern slave owners and among the early settlers on Block Island, Rhode Island.
Patience Rathbone married Benjamin Bentley in 1715 in Rhode Island..
*********Thomas Rathbone (Rathbun) married Mary Dickens on August 21, 1685 in New Shoreham, Rhode Island. He was a slave owner. Inventory of his possessions at the time of death included: 4 oxen, 9 cows, 180 sheep, 30 lambs, one silver tankard, one Negro Mingo f60, one negro woman f40, one Negro boy Quomig f80, and "negro wenches" f200. He was an active member of the militia. He was a sergeant in 1685, a lieutenant in 1699 and a captain by 1704. He was called Captain Rathbun the rest of his life. In 1707, he was awarded by the town council to build an animal pound. On May 31, 1699 he bought land in Poughkeepsie, New York that later would be in the possession of his daughters.
Mary was the daughter of Nathaniel Dickens. He resided in Providence for a time, and then moved to Newport, where he became town treasurer. In 1676 he sold part of his land to Jewish merchants in Newport for a cemetery and it still remains and is called the Touro Synagogue Cemetery. The synagogue is the oldest surviving synagogue building in the United States, and the cemetery is the second oldest Jewish cemetery in the country. In 1679 he went to Block Island and settled on a large tract of land he had acquired on the southwestern part of the island.********
John Rathbone married Margaret Acres in 1654 in County Lancashire, England. It would appear that after being left a small sum of money from his father's, a shoemaker, estate in 1654 he left England with his bride and settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts where others from County Lancashire had settled. John was one of the first purchasers/settlers of Block Island, Rhode Island in 1661. Block Island was invaded by a French privateer in July of 1698. The invaders asked some of the islanders who had money and they directed them to John Rathbun. At the Rathbun home, the invaders seized John, Jr. who they tied, stripped to the waist and whipped. John Sr. was baptized in the Anglican Church in England. He may have been a Quaker in Newport as his son's birth is registered in Quaker records there. He was a slave owner as he left a slave to his son, Thomas, at his death.
McKay/Scramlin/Cook /Tripp/Cudworth
Cudworth Family
The Cudworth family and its progenitor James were important in early Plymouth history.
Elizabeth Cudworth married James Tripp on August 12, 1702 at Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
********James Cudworth married Mary Howland in 1664. As was not unusual for the Puritan times , he was fined £5 "for committing carnal copulation with his wife before marriage." They had ten children, all born in Scituate. James received a good family education. He at an early age joined the militia, and in 1652 at the age of 17 was a captain.
Mary Howland was the daughter of another McKay ancestor Henry Howland and Mary Newland.********
James Cudworth married Mary Parker. James sailed to America in 1632 on the ship "Charles". One of the most important and interesting men in Plymouth Colony, James Cudworth served as a deputy, Assistant, commander of the colony's armed forces in King Philip's War, and deputy governor. He sympathized with the Quakers and was deposed from office in consequence but was later reinstated. In 1681 he travelled back to England as the colony's Commissioner to the English government where he died of small pox in May of 1682.
McKay/Scramlin/Cook /Benedict
Benedict Family
The Benedict family were English Puritans who settled first in New York, then in Connecticut and finally in Rhode Island.
Sarah Benedict married Samuel Cooke in Warwick, Rhode Island on August 29, 1740.
********Thomas Benedict married Abigail Hoyt on May 10, 1724 in Danbury, Connecticut. Thomas was a member of the House of Representatives of the Colony of Connecticut from Norwalk in the sessions of May 1737, October 1740, and October 1744. He held a military position for most of his life, and was named a captain in 1746. He had a notable physical characteristic: it is said that his voice could be heard and understood at the distance of more than a mile.
********James Benedict married Sarah Gregory on May 10, 1676 in Danbury, Connecticut. In the fall of 1684 and the spring of 1685, he moved from Norwalk Connecticut to become one of the first eight settlers of Danbury Connecticut on land bought from the Indians. He, his brother Samuel, the husband of his sister (Sarah) and his brother in law (Judah Gregory) made up half of the families in that new settlement.
Sarah was the daughter of John Gregory, a founder of Norwalk, Connecticut. John probably came with his parents to New England in the early 1630's. He is in the records of New Haven Colony by 1639. His occupation was shoemaker.
********
English connection
Thomas Benedict married Mary Bridgum probably in Salem, Massachusetts around 1640. Mary was Thomas' second wife's daughter by her first marriage (his step-sister). Thomas was born in Nottingham, England and lived in Southold, Huntington and Jamaica New York, and in 1665 moved to Norwalk, Connecticut. He had sailed to America on the "Mary & Anne" arriving at Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637.
with identification of the 1688 lot owners
Access full size image
According to the memories of Mary Brighum Benedict, the wife of Thomas Benedict, as told to and recorded by her grandson, Deacon James Benedict of Ridgefield, Conn.in 1755: "Thomas was put out an apprentice to a weaver, who afterwards, in the 21st year of his age, came over into New-England, together with his sister-in-law, Mary Bridgum. Afterwards said Thomas was joined in marriage with Mary Bridgum. After they had lived sometime in the Bay parts, they removed to Southhold on Long Island, where were born unto them five sons and four daughters, whose names were Thomas, John, Samuel, James, Daniel, Betty, Mary, Sarah and Rebeccah. From thence they removed to a farm belonging to the town, called Hassamamac, where they lived some time. From thence they removed to Huntingtown (Long Island), where they lived some years. Then they removed to Jamaica on said Island... And last of all, they removed to Norwalk, in Fairfield county, Connecticut, with all their family, where they were all married... James took to wife Sarah Gregory, sister of (brother John's wife) Phebe."[2]
Thomas was a member of the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut from Norwalk in the sessions of May 1670, and May 1675. He held a military position for most of his life, and was named a captain in 1746. It is recorded that his voice could be heard and understood at the distance of more than a mile.
Thomas Benedict was a man of many talents and has been described as an "Educated man" ("Thomas Benndyck" signed his name as a witness to a bill of sale.), a "Lieutenant" (On Dec. 3, 1663, "Goodman Benedick" was elected Lieutenant of the town of Jamaica, L. I. [Note: "Goodman" is an old English title to denote a farmer] ), a "Puritan Immigrant" (he was part of the Great Migration 1630-1640), an "Arbitrator to the Indians" (In 1650, he along with three others were commissioned by the court to examine the complaints of Uncas, Sachem of the Mohegan Indians, and act as arbitrators.), a "Mill owner" (he and two other men had the first mill on the east side of Tom's (named after Thomas) Creek in Hashamommock, the first recorded English mill in America.), a "Deacon (one of the founders of the first Presbyterian church erected in America at Jamaica, Long Island), and a "Magistrate to the Dutch Governor" (Trusted and respected by the Dutch, on March 20, 1663, he was appointed to be a magistrate for the Dutch Governor, Peter Stuyvesant.).
When New York was finally taken over completely by the English, Thomas Benedict, whose real allegiance was to New Haven Colony, decided to leave Long Island and migrate to Norwalk along with all of his children and their families in 1665. Thomas died in late Feb 1689.
McKay/Scramlin/Cook /Benedict/Hoyt
Hoyt Family
The Hoyt, Lindall and St. John families were early settlers in Connecticut. The Hoyt surname has also gone by Haight, Hait, Hayte, and Hyatt.
Abigail Hoyt married Thomas Benedict on May 10, 1724 in Danbury, Connecticut.
********John Hoyt married Hannah Drake on May 10, 1699 in Simsbury, Connecticut. John lived and died in Danbury, Connecticut.
********John Hoyt married Mary Lindall at Norwalk, Connecticut on September 14, 1666. John settled first in Fairfield, Connecticut before relocating to Norwalk and then to Danbury.
Mary was the daughter of Henry Lindall, Deacon of the New Haven Church, and his wife Rosamond (last name uncertain, possibly Street). Henry is first mentioned in New Haven town records in 1651. He was appointed "Ensign of New Haven" in 1660.********
Walter Hoyt married Elizabeth St. John. Walter's name first appears in Windsor, Connecticut in 1640. He became one of the early settlers in Norwalk, Connecticut in about 1653. In 1670 he was chosen to beat the drum on all occasions required. In those times this signal probably took the place of an alarm bell or a call for general meetings.
Elizabeth's father, Mathias Saint John Sr. (aka Matthias Sention), was one of the first settlers of Norwalk, Connecticut. In the early records his name was spelled Sension, Sention, or Senchon (a French derivative of St. John - even though the family has been shown to NOT be of French origin). In about 1640, the family removed from Dorchester to Windsor in the Colony of Connecticut. He, along with his sons, Mathias Jr. and Matthew Sention, were on the list of the first settlers of Norwalk in 1655.********
Immigrant Simon Hoyt married Jane Stoodlie on November 4, 1617 at Marshwood, Dorset, England. Jane may have died before Simon came to colonies or soon after their arrival. Simon may have been on the so-called Higginson Fleet of ships which sailed in the spring and summer of 1629, sent by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was among those who were those who were the first to live in Charlestown in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Simon appears on the first list of “Names of such as tooke the Oath of Freemen” of the colony, dated May 18, 1631, and is presumed to have been in Dorchester. He was appointed a fenceviewer. Simon and his family moved to Scituate, Massachusetts, by the time he and his wife (a second wife whose name is unknown) joined the church there in 1635. The time of Simon’s removal to Windsor, Connecticut, is not known, but speculated to have been between 1636 and 1639, when groups of settlers from Massachusetts Bay went there.
McKay/Scramlin/Cook /Benedict/Hoyt/Drake
Drake Family
The Drake, Moore, Rockwell, and Rogers families are all associated with early Connecticut settlement .
Hannah Drake married John Hoyt on May 10, 1699 in Simsbury, Connecticut. They were the parents of at least 6 sons and 5 daughters.
********John Drake married Mary Watson on March 20, 1671 in Hartford, Connecticut.
********Mary was the daughter of Robert Watson and Mary Rockwell who married in Windsor, Connecticut on December 10, 1647. Robert was a bell founder, a person who casts metal bells, from London.
Mary Rockwell's father, John Rockwell, is listed along with his family as passengers on the Hopewell, which sailed from Weymouth, England, on 8 May, 1635, bound for Massachusetts.
John Drake married Hannah Moore on November 30, 1648 in Windsor, Connecticut. He immigrated with his parents in about 1638. John and Hannah raised a family of eleven children in Windsor. John died of some sort of epidemic that also caused the death of all three brothers, two of their wives and a brother-in-law.
********Hannah was the daughter of John Moore who emigrated in 1630, settling initially in Dorchester, Massachusetts, but removing to Windsor, Connecticut by 1638. He married June 16, 1639, Abigail, whose surname is not known. Hannah was most likely the daughter of an earlier wife. John was a woodworker; he was master of the "Foliated Vine Group." The name refers to furniture decorated with vines and blossoms carved in shallow relief with flat surfaces.
In January of 1670, Hannah, along with two other women, had crossed the Connecticut River on a neighborly errand. On their way back across the river, their canoe was hit by an ice floe, and all three were cast into the freezing river. All three were miraculously rescued by Nathaniel Bissell and an Indian, who were in another canoe on the river. The story of the rescue was written by Increase Mather, and titled "Remarkable Providences".
John Drake married Elizabeth Rogers on November 24, 1623 in Hampton in Arden, Warwickshire, England. He may have arrived on one of the ships that left Weymouth, England in Apr 1637. John was one of the original proprietors of Taunton, Massachusetts in 1638. He is found in 1641 in Windsor, Connecticut.
Elizabeth's death record reads, "Old Widow Drake in her: 100th year of age Dyed, oct 7th 81." Her year of birth is estimated from this record, however it's possible her age might have been exaggerated out of respect for her advanced years. The first record of Elizabeth was at Hampton in Arden, Warwickshire, England on January 9, 1624/5. The event was the christening of her daughter, Elizabeth Drake.
This is an account of John's accidental death in 1659. "John Drake, Senior dyed accidentaly, as he was driving a cart loaded with corn, to carry from his house to his son Jacob's the Cattle being two oxen and his mare, in the high way against John Griffin's something scar'd the Cattle, and they set a running, and he labouring to stop them by taking hold on the mare, was thrown down on his face, and cart wheels went over him: brake one of his legs and bruised his body, so that he was taken up dead, being carried into his daughter's house and life come again, but dyed in a short time."
John's first wife was Lettice Shakespeare who died in 1623. She was the daughter of Henry Shakespeare, the uncle of William Shakespeare.
McKay/Scramlin/Cook /Greene
Greene Family
The Greene family is a source of some confusion because there were at least two and probably three John Greene families in Rhode Island at the same time. The sequence below is my best guess for he Greene ancestry.
Enfield Greene married Samuel Cooke, Sr. on March 25, 1719 in Rhode Island.
********John Greene married Abigail Wardwell. John is believed to have served in King Philip's War where he earned the title of Lieutenant. In Coventry, Rhode Island he built and ran a sawmill. Here he also purchased a large tract of land which he divided into many farms.
Abigail's parents were Uzal Wardwell and Mary Kinsman. Uzal lived in Ipswich, Massachusetts, Where was employed as a carpenter. He was the son of William Wardwell and Alice Pyce. William and Alice were both followers of Anne Hutchinson and went to Exeter, New Hampshire as followers of Rev. John Wheelwright and later to Wells, Maine. He later returned to Boston where, after a second marriage, he ran an inn.
Mary Kinsman was the daughter of Robert Kinsman. He had sailed from South Hampton, England in March 1634 and arrived in Boston, Massachusetts May 1634 on the Mary and John. From Boston he went to Agawan, which later became Ipswich where he received a land grant of an one acre.
McKay-Stevens Connection
Mary's sister, Sarah, is a direct ancestor of the Francis side of the Petersen family.
********John Greene married Joan Beggarly on one of his business trips to Massachusetts in 1642. He is sometimes referred to as "John Greene of Quidnesset" to distinguish him from another contemporary John Greene. John emigrated from England in the ship, Matthew in 1635. Two years later he settled in Aquidnessett (Quidnesset), Rhode Island, first stopping in the West Indies and Massachusetts. John lived with Richard Smith, Sr., who built a trading post near the present village of Wickford, in northern Kingstown, Rhode Island. The settlement was several miles from even the most remote white settlement. Trade was with the local Indians.
He appeared before the Rhode Island court in May of 1664 after his arrest concerning disputed property rights. Greene had bought property in Rhode Island from the Indians instead of Rhode Island authorities. He argued his case so fiercely that he offended the court. Upon his apology, he won his case and was allowed to keep his property.
Genealogical Note
There is a dispute about whether John Greene who married Abigail is actually the son of John of Quidnesset.
General History
Relations with Native Americans
History
Migration
Schleswig-Holstein immigration
Details