Daniel Gookin
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PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK PEOPLE OF A WEEK AND WALDEN: DANIEL GOOKIN “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY People of A Week and Walden “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” HDT WHAT? INDEX PEOPLE OF A WEEK AND WALDEN:DANIEL GOOKIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1612 December 6, Sunday (Old Style): Daniel Gookin had been born, perhaps in County Cork, Ireland, in the latter part of this year, as the 3d son of Daniel Gookin of County Kent and County Cork and Mary (or Mariam) Byrd (or Birde) Gookin of Saffron Walden in Essex, a couple that had been married in Canterbury Cathedral because of the fact that the bride’s father, the Reverend Richard Byrd, DD, was one of the Canons of that Cathedral. On this day the newborn was baptized at the church of St. Augustine-the-Less (which is to say, this was not the Cathedral Church of St Augustine at College Green on the south side of Bristol) in Bristol, Northbourne, County Kent. Daniel and Mary (Byrd) Gookin had five sons. Richard, the eldest, was born about 1609 and named after his grandfather, Dr. Byrd. At the time of his father’s death he was apparently still a member of the paternal household, being described in the administrator’s bond as “Richard Gookin of St. Finn Barre, Cork, Gent.,” but as he did not serve as one of the administrators it may be that he was engaged in some occupation that made it impracticable. Nothing has been learned about his career, though it is certain that he died before 1655, and fair to presume that he married, since he alone of all the members of the family could have been the father of “John Gookin of St. Dunstan’s in the East, London, mariner,” concerning whom also nothing is known except that on November 21, 1665, being then a “bachelor aged HDT WHAT? INDEX PEOPLE OF A WEEK AND WALDEN:DANIEL GOOKIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK about 28,” he married “Mrs Francis Pitt of Stepney, widow, aged about 23.” Edward, the second son, who was baptized at Ripple in 1611, died young. Next came Daniel, born toward the end of 1612; then John, who was perhaps the twin brother of Daniel; then a second Edward, probably born in 1615, as he was old enough in April, 1633, to be constituted one of the administrators of his father’s estate, yet still a minor, for his mother was appointed his guardian on the same day that the letters of administration were issued. He died, unmarried, before 1655. It may be that there was also a daughter Mary, born about 1617, for, on July 2, 1635, a marriage license bond for the marriage of “Marie Gowkine” to “Hugh Bullock of London, gentleman” was filed in the City of Cork. It seems more likely, however, that “Mary Gowkine” was Daniel Gookin’s widow. If so, the marriage did not take place, for about three weeks later Mary, who appears to have gone to visit the family of her brother-in-law Sir Vincent Gookin, then living at Bitton in Gloucestershire, died and was buried there on July 27, 1635. Daniel and John, the third and fourth sons of Daniel Gookin, were probably away from home at the time of their father’s death. We know that Daniel was at the Marie’s Mount plantation as early as 1631, when he was only eighteen, and not unlikely John may have been there with him. John’s career was a short one. On October 17, 1636, he was granted 500 acres of land on the Nansemond River in Virginia for transporting ten persons to the colony, and in the course of the next five years he had three additional grants aggregating 1490 acres more. In 1637 or 1638 he was appointed one of the Commissioners for keeping monthly courts in Lower Norfolk, and in 1639 was a burgess for Upper Norfolk and attended the Grand Assembly that met in James City on January 6. A few days prior to February 4, 1640/1 he married Sarah the relict of Captain Adam Thorowgood of Lynn Haven, Lower Norfolk county. Captain Thorowgood was one of the principal men of the colony. His wife Sarah was the fifth daughter of Robert Offley, Turkey merchant of Grace street, London, whose wife Ann was the daughter of Sir Edward Osborne, Knt., Lord Mayor of London, 1583, by his wife Ann, daughter and sole heir of William Hewitt, Lord Mayor of London, 1559, “a merchant of great repute.” Sarah Offley was baptized at St. Benet’s April 16, 16O9, and was married to Adam Thorowgood at St. Anne’s, Blackfriars, July 18, 1627. She bore him a son and three daughters, who were living at the time of her marriage to John Gookin. By her second husband she had one daughter, Mary Gookin, born in 1641 or 1642, who was married about 1660 to Captain William Moseley of Rolleston, Lower Norfolk, and after his death in 1671, became the second wife of Lieut. Colonel Anthony Lawson. In 1642 John Gookin had the title of Captain, and on March 29, 1643, he was Commander at a court held for Lower Norfolk. He died on November 2, 1643, being then only about thirty years of age. Four years later his widow was married to her third husband, HDT WHAT? INDEX PEOPLE OF A WEEK AND WALDEN:DANIEL GOOKIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN Colonel Francis Yardley, son of Governor Sir George Yardley. She died in August, 1657, and was buried beside John Gookin, at Church Point, Lynn Haven. The tombstone erected to their memory is the only one now readable of those formerly in the church- yard there, the others having been submerged or destroyed by the incursion of the sea. It bears the inscription: Here lieth ye body of Capt John Gooking and also ye body of Mrs Sarah Yardley, who was wife to Capt. Adam Thorowgood first, Capt John Gooking & Collonell Francis Yardley, who deceased August 1657. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT People of A Week and Walden “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” HDT WHAT? INDEX PEOPLE OF A WEEK AND WALDEN:DANIEL GOOKIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 1616 By this year the Gookin family was living in Carrigaline, Ireland, where Daniel Gookin presumably would spend his childhood before being sent to be educated in England. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. People of A Week and Walden “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” HDT WHAT? INDEX PEOPLE OF A WEEK AND WALDEN:DANIEL GOOKIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1620 November 13, Monday (Old Style): Master Gookin contracted with the Virginia Company for “transportac~on” of “fayr and lardge Cattle and of our English breed” “outt of Ireland into Virginia” at a rate of “eleven pounds the Heiffer.” The vessel that would be chartered for this expedition was named The Flyinge Harte. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT People of A Week and Walden “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” HDT WHAT? INDEX PEOPLE OF A WEEK AND WALDEN:DANIEL GOOKIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 1621 Fall: According to John Smith’s THE GENERALL HISTORIE OF VIRGINIA, NEW-ENGLAND, AND THE SUMMER ISLES, during this season Daniel Gookin, accompanied by his son Daniel Gookin, sailed from Ireland “with fifty men of his owne and thirty passengers” to establish themselves at Newport News on the Virginia coast. HDT WHAT? INDEX PEOPLE OF A WEEK AND WALDEN:DANIEL GOOKIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN November 22, Thursday (Old Style): On the Virginia coast “arrived Master Gookin out of Ireland, with fiftie men of his owne and thirtie Passengers, exceedingly well furnished with all sorts of Provision and cattle and planted himself at Nupors-Newes. The cotton in a yeare grew so thick as one’s arme, and so high as a man: here anything that is planted doth prosper so well as in no place better.” The Flyinge Harte’s 40 younge Cattle would be well and safely landed. The contracted rate of “eleven pounds the Heiffer” seemed to be enough to generate a profit. CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT People of A Week and Walden “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” HDT WHAT? INDEX PEOPLE OF A WEEK AND WALDEN:DANIEL GOOKIN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 1622 March 22, Friday (1621, Old Style): During an Indian onslaught in Virginia (out of a total of about 4,000 white men, 347 were massacred), Daniel Gookin and his son Daniel Gookin, with barely 35 men, were able to hold out at their plantation: “Only Master Gookins at Nuport’s-news would not obey the Commissioners’ command in that, though he scarce had five and thirty of all sorts with him, yet he thought himself sufficient against what would happen, and so did, to his great credit, and the content of his Adventurers.” Tisquantum (Squanto) plotted against Ousamequin Yellow Feather (the Massasoit) and the plot was exposed by Hobomok.1 The English arrived at Wessaguscusset (Weymouth MA) but soon after settling there, they antagonized the local Massachuseuck by stealing their maize. Late April or Early May: Daniel Gookin and his son Daniel Gookin returned in the Sea Flower from their plantation in Virginia to the Virginia Company headquarters in London, and then Ireland. November: By this point Daniel Gookin (the elder) was in possession of the castle and lands of Carrigaline, Ireland.