LINEAL ANCESTORS of RHODA (AXTELL) CORY, mother of Captain James Cory GENEALOGICAL HISTORICAL and BIOGRAPHICAL Volume II Part I Compiled from various xenealo.~ies and histories for private distribution among interested partics and libraries with no pecuniary solicitions whatever. 1937 DEDICATED TO OUR IMMIGRANT MOTHERS WHO BRAVED HARDSHIPS AND TRIALS IN CONJUNCTION WITH THEIR PIONEER HUSBANDS, SO THEIR POSTERITY MIGHT HAVE FULL FREEDOM IN THE NEW COUNTRY OF AMERICA, OF WHICH THEY COULD BUT LITTLE DREAM. RHODA(AXTELL) CORY (177 5-1865) ERRATA, Cory Geneal. (E7.C82) r. !I, 75. Maryl. Withington m. 'Ihomas~ Danforth .in New Eng. having emigrated in 1654. (See Danforth GeneLl.,-p.18) m.w.f. 1939 THE AXTELL LINEAGE THO MAS1 AXTELL was the third son in the family of William Axtell, born in Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, England. When a few months old he was baptized at St. Peter's Church there on January 26, 1619. As his father had died and was buried on May 23, 1638, he had not reached his majority. By his father's will he was remem­ bered by a bequest of ten shillings. While yet under age he mar­ ried his wife there, as indicated by the birth of his first child, the year being 1639. Their marriage is not recorded in the Hertfordshire parish register, which obliterates any attempt to discover the identity of his wife. His mother's Christain name was Thomasin, but unfortunately there is no record to tell whose daughter she was. He had brothers, John, baptized August 11, 1614; William, December 1, 1616; Dan­ iel, May 26, 1622; Samuel, December 15, 1624 and a sister Sarah, June 20, 1628. His brother Daniel who, as one of the regicides, took an active part against King Charles I., and during the King's trial held an office in the Parliament that condemned him to death. He also was a colonel in the army of Oliver Cromwell. After the restoratio~ of Charles II., in 1660, he was beheaded. ..., Their father was a burgomaster, as shown by a list of chief bur­ gesses of Berkhamstead in 1628, and was also a common clerk at the time of his death. The father had a brother Henry, as mentioned in his will, dated November 20, 1637, but nowhere does the name ap­ pear in the family of William Axtell and his wife Dorothy Symonds, as we supposed that they were their parents. The burgomaster, as he terms himself in his will probated on June 1, 1638, was probably the one in the family baptized on October 31, 1624. He names his wife Thomasin to assume charge of his estate as executrix. By an abstract of his will we find that he gave his wife: The house wherein I now dwell, and lands (specified), until my son William Axtell is 21 (years old), with reversion to (the) said William Axtell, on condition that he pay(s) to my daughter Sarah Axtell £60 when she is 18, and if she die(s) before the payment of the said sum (is made), then my son William Axtell (is) to pay (the sum of) £50 ( which is) to be equally divided between my two younger sons, Daniel and Samuel Axtell; ( to son William Axtell vari- 2 THE AXTELL LINEAGE ous household goods specified; to son Daniell Axtell) a tenement, where Richard Andrews now lives, with a backside and close ·called Spittletree Close, containing 3 acres, with (the) proviso that my wife Thomasin hold(s) them till he attain(s the age of) 24 years, (and also various household goods specified; to wife Thomasin), the tene­ ment where Thomas Adams now dwells, until my son Samuel at­ tain (s the age of) 24 years, (and the reversion is to the said Samuel £40 and various household goods specified; to daughter Sarah Axtell household goods specified; to eldest son John Axtell), 1 acre of land, which I bought from Nicholas Gosham, (and twenty pounds in money and various household goods specified, and to son Thomas Axtell ten shillings). Perhaps about a year after the birth of Thomas' second child, he brought his family with him to America and located in Sudbury, Mass.. In October of 1643, he bought a small tract of land. It is apparent that he possessed some means more than his father's will called for. It may account for th,e fact that there was no need for an adequate provision made for him in the will. One writer identifies him, in Hotten' s ''Original Lists of Emi­ grants to America," with ''Tho. Axtell, aged 35,'' whose name ap­ pears in the list of passengers on the Globe of London, which was clear­ ed· at London on August 7, 1635. The age itself obviously refutes the identification, as our Thomas was much younger. 1'he older Thomas was among one hundred and sixty-one passengers bound for Virginia, who had, before leaving, taken the "Oaths of Alleg(iance) and Supremacie." He probably belonged in one of the families at Middlessex county, near London, and possibly was a kin of the younger Thomas. There was a Nathaniel Axtell who had lived in New Haven, but left in 1640 with the intention of going back home to London. However, death overtook him before he could take ship at Boston for England. In his will, dated August 17, 1639, he mentions him­ self as a citizen, "late of t~e parish of St. Peter's, ne(a)re the Bur­ rough of St. Albans, in the county of Hertford,'' and · names two brothers Thomas and Daniel, and three sisters Joan, Ann and Sarah. It seems to indicate that he and Thomas were closely related-per­ haps brothers. By an examination of the old records in the county of Hertford it does not establish that Thomas' father had such daugh­ ters as Joan and Ann in his family. Nathaniel may be a kin of Na­ thaniel Axtell, of Shenley, Hertfordshire, who died in 1625, as in both their wills the name of Thomas Buckingham appears. Mr. Buckingham was a witness, as appears in the will of elder Nathaniel, and was a beneficiary in the younger -Nathaniel's will by receiving from him, ten pounds. CORRECTION for.Cory Geneal. (E7.C82) II, 5-6. See errata inserted in N.Eng. register, LIII, 227 and in Utah Genetl. Mag. XX, 110-1. m.w.f. 1959. THE AXTELL LINEAGE 3 Knowing that some of rI'homas' hometown people had settled in Sudbury, he brought his family there so as to feel at home among them. Here in 1644 a daughter came to increase his family. He took the oath of fidelity on July 9, 1645. He probably was not constitutionally strong as, in the next year, at the age of twenty­ seven, he went the way of his fathers on the eighth of March. Recognizing that his days were being numbered: He expressed (his desire) that Mary, his wife, should have all his estate (in order) to bring up his children, (as) Testified by Edmund Rice, uppon Oath, the 6, 3, (May), 1646, before the Governor & deputy &c., & Increase Nowel, Secret (ary ). Of the five present cemeteries within the town limits the one in East Sudbury, now Wayland, is the first burying place. It is on the site of the first Meeting-house, which was built before 1645, and near this house the burial place was soon started. ~_hether Thomas was buried there, or just over the hill to the north where tradition states was an ancient Indian graveyard, there in no record to inform us. The Inventory of the goods of Thomas Axtell, of Sudbury, late­ (ly) Deceased, (was probated). - lmprimis, his land and house ( were) appraised at £8: 10; cattle (at) £8: 10; wearing apparell and bedding, with his Armes, (at) £10, (and) Brasse and Pewter (at) £5. It may appear strange that his real estate and two or more of his cattle should be valued at the same rate. In those days a cow was very valuable, therefore being rated very high. It seems that his homestead, consisting of six acres and a dwelling house, was in the southern part of the town. Soon after the inven­ tory it was bought by Edmund Rice who had known Thomas and came there ahead of him from the same town-Berkhamstead. He also bought a house and nine-acre land adjacent to the "Axtell place." According to Savage and others, it seems that Thomas' widow kept her fatherless children together until her widowhood was termi­ nated by her marriage ten years later to John Goodenow, but in the light of further data collected by a U rah family compiler, she '"'·as married to John Maynard on June 14, 1646. Besides her own chil­ dren by T"homas Axtell, she became the mother of Maynard's chil­ dren-a son and three daughters. By this union they beca1ne the ancestors of the famous President Brigham Young, of the Utah Mor­ mons. It was her oldest Axtell daughter Mary who was married to John Goodenow, at Sudbury, Mass., on September 19, 1656. Edmund Rice, who is mentioned as having taken charge of the es­ tate of Thomas in behalf of the latter's wife and children, came from 4 THE AXTELL LINEAGE Berkhamstead. He had also lived in Stanstead, Suffolk, England, before going there about 1627. Because of his administrating the es­ tate, there is an iota of suspicion that he was the father of Thomas' wife. Of the children in his family he had Mary, who was his oldest child, baptized in Stanstead, August 23, 1619.