Amy Cowell Sherburne Ferber Ayers

NOTE: a repost from my other blog...gathering the more recent blog posts into one place for access and organization!

I want to look a bit further into the ancestry of the Ayers family.

Amy Cowell's mother was written about a few years ago, when I was tracing the oldest matriarchs I could find.  Look HERE for that post including Agnes Harvey Cowell Snell (1617-1681). I can't find any real records that tie her to the Thomas Harvey who also lived in Portsmouth NH, apparently in the same neighborhood, which is recorded in The descendants of Charles Glidden of Portsmouth and Exeter, New Hampshire. This is apparently a publication from 2005 by Ancestry.com. (And the source of it was - Original data: Chamberlain, George Walter,. The descendants of Charles Glidden of Portsmouth and Exeter, New Hampshire. Boston: unknown, 1925.)  It says on page 44, under Gliddens, that...

Mr. Thomas Harvey was settled at Portsmouth as early as 1664 having married a daughter of David Kelley of Boston. Mrs. Agnes Cowell was the widow of Edward Cowell whose home on the water front stood about thirty feet from Charles Gliddens "shop." ...the neighborhood in which Charles Glidden resided in Portsmouth from about 1662 to 1668, contained the most prominent men in New Hampshire..."

Since Agnes Harvey had married Edward Cowell in 1640, (or possibly 1645) probably in Suffolk MA, and they raised their 4 children in Portsmouth, this quote above only substantiates a bit of their life that took place on the waterfront until Edward's death in 1677. So though Mr. Gliddens left around 1668, Agnes wasn't a widow until 1677....thus whoever wrote the information given above wasn't very particular about her married status at the time he described, but relied upon his knowledge that she became widowed.

These dates are based on probate records.  The people in Portsmouth apparently wanted to keep track of the property of the Cowells, which then went to Amy Cowell Sherburne Ferber Ayers.  Incidentally I just read the original record of an inventory of Agnes Snell's estate which was taken in Dec. of 1681, and in May of 1682 was witnessed by Jethro Ferber (the son-in-law of Agnes Snell.)

Don't you wonder if the property might have had some influence in how widow Agnes Cowell married at age 64 just before she died that year, in 1681, and then her new husband apparently died that year as well?  We'll never know probably, but I'm pretty sure a widow could keep her own property if it was willed to her by her husband.

And now I'm very curious about this Charles Gliddens and what was his "shop?" Time to go searching... (blacksmith, it says in the below document.) Don't miss the footnote which speaks of
Thomas Harvey.

Ah, I've found the original edition of that source which confused Mrs. Edward (Agnes) Cowell as being a widow in 1640.  It seems that citation came first from Brewster's Rambles about Portsmouth, 1859. 

So I'm including these 2 pages of this wonderful find.  At least to me it's wonderful to see how people were interested in these documents, and thus preserved that information over the centuries...it was also again published in 1925.  Pg. 44 (below) is where he speaks of Agnes Cowell.

I haven't got much to connect Agnes to Thomas Harvey, who at least was a neighbor in Portsmouth.  So until I find who her parents REALLY were, I'm going to see if there's anything to suggest that she was really Agnes Harvey before marrying Edward Cowell.

However, my Ancestry chart information says her father. Thomas Harvey was born before 1595 in England and died after 1650.  The Glidden document says he married a daughter of David Kelly of Boston, and settled in Portsmouth in 1664.  This would put him closer to Agnes' age than that of her father.

Since Agnes had died before her husband's (Cowell) estate was probated, in 1682, her daughter Amy and then husband Jethro Ferber were to care for her youngest son, by order of the court.  The inventory of the estate had been provided at Edward Cowell's death in 1677, but upon Agnes' death in 1681, the courts did a probate, though she also had left a will. They said Amy and Jethro Ferber were to care for and educate Amy's youngest brother, Samuel Cowell until he was 14. This was decided in April of 1682.

Why didn't Edward Cowell, Jr. the oldest son have this responsibility? He had married and moved to the Boston area by the time his youngest brother Samuel was born.  The court had no jurisdiction in Boston, is my guess...but there are numerous reasons possible. One might have been that Amy and Jethro Furber/Ferber were there and wanted to raise her brother.  They also had their own baby in 1682.  And then Jethro died that year.  Or maybe not.  One source gives that as his death year.

Another source doesn't have a year, and is questionable.  But I don't think I'll go into it now.  It gave him different parents' names and was written in 1905 by a clerk of the same name as the supposed mother of Jethro.  Only 200 some years later.

Amy remarried within a couple of years and had 2 more children, one of which became my great times 6 grandmother.

Portsmouth's Strawbery Banke museum

Located on the site of the town’s original seaport, known as Puddle Dock, Strawbery Banke (the original 1600s name for the settlement, it’s not a typo for “Strawberry Bank”) is an indoor-outdoor living history museum depicting local life from the late 1600s until the 1950s.

Strawbery Banke museum

Strawbery Banke Museum map of Portsmouth, NH

Strawbery Bank museum.  That's the earliest home built and still standing (center, dark) by Henry's son John Sherburne in 1695. Portsmouth, NH.

 The Shapley Drisco house was brought to the site, and refurbished in its more modern style of apartments of the 1950s on one side, but back to the 1790's on the other side!

 Sherburne House exterior

Sherburne House interior

Sherburne House (c.1695-1703), is dedicated to teaching. It's the sole existing building from that time period remaining at the Puddle Dock site. Built at a time when the influence of late 16th century English architectural style was being blended with new American innovations, it sticks out with its Salem-esque tiny windows.

Inside, you’ll find information, diagrams, and actual examples of the architectural bones required to build houses like these. Source: New England TOday

There is also an old cemetery somewhere in the original area of Prescot Park in Portsmouth, called Point of Graves where at least one cousin ancestor is buried (who I'll be talking about in a few days.)

An ancestor who was a descendant of Charlemagne

Henry Sherburne was born in Odium, Hampshire, England in 1611. He arrived in New England in 1631-2.  He married Rebecca Gibbons in Portsmouth New Hampshire in 1637.

High Street, Odium, England.The 18th century frontage of The George Hotel hides an older building originally licensed in 1547. It forms part of the elegant village centre. Source: Wikipedia

 His listing under "Find a Grave" says his grave is unknown. But there is this biography:

Baptized: Odiham, Hampshire, 28 March 1611, son of Joseph Sherburne (deposed 25 June 1662 aged about forty-eight years; deposed 9 October 1665 "aged about fifty-three years." A tavernkeeper and ferryman who came from Odiham, Hampshire to Massachusetts Bay in 1632 on the "James," & settled in Piscataqua NH.

Died by 7 December 1680 (when he failed to appear in court to prosecute his case against Edward Bickford's children). (His daughter Mary said "[m]y father Henry Sherborne died about the year '80 or '83. His death we was not sensible of."

MARRIAGE: (1) 13 November 1637 Rebecca Gibbons, daughter of AMBROSE GIBBONS; she died 3 June 1667 ("My mother, Rebekah Sherborne, died the 3d June 1667 about noon, and was buried by four of her children."

(2) By 30 June 1668 Sarah (_____) Abbott, widow of Walter Abbott (when "Mr. Hen: Sherburne & Sarah his wife executrix to the estate of Walter Abbet" appeared in court

And while looking through other various details of his life, I discovered he was one of the original settlers from England to the New England shores.  And there he is in a book about descendants of Charlemagne.

It is also interesting that he was given the duty of being a ferryman between Portsmouth NH and other nearby sites, including Maine.  And he also was delegated the job of providing a shelter for travelers, and food, becoming a "tavernkeeper". 

Warf at Strawberry Banke, Portsmouth, NH (Piscataqua River, 21st Century) with Maine on opposite shore.
 
I am thrilled that many records exist of various legal encounters with him...and can only copy a few of them here.

It looks like he had 11 children, with his first wife, Rebecca and then married Sarah Abbott a year after Rebecca died.. His youngest daughter would have been 8 years old at the time.  His daughter Rebecca (1654-1696) was reported to be needing care, being "deaf and dumb."  He designated his oldest son and his wife, Samuel and Love Sherburne, to care for Rebecca's needs by deeding land to them, and "their taking into custody & Christian keeping of...Rebecca Sherburne (who is both dumb & wanting of understanding.)" 3 Sept. 1674 (NHPLR 3:97a-b)

Overview of Strawberry Banke gardens, Portsmouth, NH (21st century)

He is mentioned in many court cases, including being a fighter...towards his wife, and others, and receiving blows from his wife as well.

I'm not sure of the original source, but it's posted on Ancestry as New England and the Great Migration, Vol. 3.  This would have been his second wife, Sarah (widow )Abbot, who he was living "disorderly with and fighting."

I'll share more photos from the Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth tomorrow! I'd love to go spend a week there!

One of those shipping captains, John Samuel Sherburne

More about the Sherburnes, since I just got those big portrait paintings added to my family tree over on Ancestry (see earlier post HERE.)  Of course they are really pretty far removed cousins, or aunts and uncles. But their portraits are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY, and I quite honestly don't think anyone else on my tree is! (And a quick editorial note, my computer or blogger wants to spell Sherburne as Sherborne, and so if you see it spelled that way, it is unintentional.  Of course there are also Sherbournes who spelled it That way!)

But I do like finding out about some of our leading citizens,so let's look at Captain John Sherburne of Portsmouth, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, (before it became a state.)

John Samuel Sherburne, Capt.

1647-1698

Actually historians know a lot about him, and his home is still standing, as a museum in Portsmouth.  

The John Sherburne house at Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth, NH, built around 1695, which is why a British flag is flying in front of it, because this was a British colony at the time.

John's wife was Mary Cowell Sherburne (1657-1736.)  Her parents (Edward and Agnes Cowell) are my 8th great grandparents.  I was surprised, because I had thought her great granddaughter Mary Sherborne Bowers (1735-1799) who married Jerathmel Bowers would be the connection to the Swasey line.  Nope.  Jerathmel's sister married a Swasey, but that made him just an uncle, a few times great.

The Cowells are more direct, and Mary Cowell Sherburne's little sister Amy (Annie) (1657-1736) married into the Ayers family.  (I blogged about her and her husbands here, and some of the history of the Ayers and Cowell families HERE.)  Nathaniel and Amy Cowell Ayers' daughter Amy Ayers Swasey, (1687-1783) married Samuel Swasey, and they became my great times 6 grandparents on my grandmother Ada Swasey Rogers branch of our tree.


Here is more information about the Sherburne home and museum in Portsmouth NH.

I'm glad someone over on Ancestry visited the Sherburne home, and took photos...though not all were in focus.  We'll skip those.

One of the reasons that the Sherburnes did so well started with John Samuel's father, Henry.  I'll give more details about him soon.

 Law enforcement in Colonial America...

Some American colonials who weren't very happy about their taxation.

I'm sharing this with Sepia Saturday, where we look at our history through photographs.  This week are some interesting looking men in uniforms over there.  

SEPIA SATURDAY 423 : SATURDAY 16 JUNE 2018

Archives of the East Riding Of Yorkshire

Hull City Police Uniformed Officers  1875

POLICE  :  UNIFORMS : GROUPS

"When constabulary duty's to be done (to be done) / A policeman's lot is not a happy one (happy one)"