Monday, March 30, 2015

An Interesting bit of family serendipity about Cobbett’s Pond, Windham, New Hampshire

Cobbett's Pond, Windham, New Hampshire

The other night I watched WMUR TV’s Chronicle.  My favorite part of this show is when Fritz Wetherbee gives a few minutes of fun trivia about New Hampshire history.  Are you surprised?

Fritz was standing in the frozen parking lot of the community beach at Cobbett’s Pond, next to a mound of snow.  I recognized this spot from the Mystery Tour I had taken with the Windham Historical Society two years ago.  He mentioned that the pond was named for Reverend Thomas Cobbett (1608 – 1685) of Ipswich, Massachusetts.  I also remembered that bit of trivia from the Mystery Tour.  Click HERE to see my blog post about this. 

Then he mentioned a few other things about Reverend Cobbett that sent me running to my family tree data base.  Yes, it was true.  Reverend Thomas Cobbett was in my family tree.  Not as a family member really, but by marriage.  Reverend Cobbett’s daughter, Mary, had married my 8th great uncle, Reverend Samuel Belcher (1639 – 1713/4).  

The life of  Thomas Cobbett in a timeline:

1608 born in Newbury, Berkshire, England

12 Oct 1627 matriculated at Trinity College at Oxford University, didn’t graduate because of the plague so he went home to Newbury to be taught by a Dr. Twiss

26 June 1637 arrived in Massachusetts

1637 – 1655 Religious Teacher at Lynn, MA with Rev. Samuel Whiting (who had replaced Rev. Stephen Bachiler (1561 - 1656, my 11th great grandfather in another lineage)

1653 author of The Civil Magistrates Power in matters of Religious Modesty Debated, and other books.  He was a prolific author. 

1655 – 1685 Minister at Ipswich, MA, replaced Rev. Nathaniel Rogers

1662 Given the grant of land now Windham, and where Cobbett’s pond now lies. 
Died 5 Nov 1685 in Ipswich, MA and Rev. Cotton Mather wrote his epitaph.  At his funeral “there were consumed one barrel of wine and two barrels of cider; and as it was cold, there were ‘some spice and ginger for the cider.’ “  

Six Children?  (I haven’t been able to verify some of these):
1.  Deacon Samuel Cobbett, b. 1645. m. Sarah Unknown
2.  Mary Cobbett m. about 1668 to Rev. Samuel Belcher
3.  John
4.  Thomas, captured by Indians and ransomed for a coat
5. Elizabeth, d. 23 August 1661, Ipswich
6. Eliezer, d. 27 Nov 1657, Ipswich

And what was that epitaph that was written by Rev. Cotton Mather?  I finally found it by Googling in the History of Essex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches, Volume 1, page 582
“Stay, passenger, for here lies a treasure,
Thomas Cobbett, of whose availing prayer and most approved manners,
You, if an inhabitant of New England, need not be told.
If you cultivate piety, admire him;
If you wish for happiness, follow him.”

Rev. Cobbett's gravestone does not appear to have survived the ages. It is not listed in any cemetery listing in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Felt’s History of Ipswich “The land allowed to Mr. Cobbett was laid out at Methuen, [Massachusetts], and was included by New Hampshire in 1741, when his grandchildren, Nathaniel and Ann Cobbet, petitioned the General Court for an equivalent.  They were allowed 1,500 acres near Charlemont.  This farm was in Windham, and upon the south line from a swamp that joyns upon Haverhill bounds, so ranging by west and by north joint until you come to a great rock upon the north side of a long pond.”   This pond is now known as Cobbett’s Pond, Windham, New Hampshire.

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http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/03/an-interesting-bit-of-family.html
Copyright © 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

1 comment:

  1. I sensed Ipswich was profoundly affected by the death of 'Reverend Mr. Cobbitt.' Selectmen gathered 6 Nov 1685 to plan his funeral. More than a dozen townspeople were pressed into action: nearly £18 was laid out. Thomas Franklin Waters, in ‘Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony’ (1939), p. 83, provides a list of disbursements, and elsewhere makes much of tanner Nathaniel Rust preparing four dozen pairs of funeral gloves on short order. Deakon Goodhue provided “one barrill of wine, and half a hundred weight of sugar.” Nathaniel Lord was paid 8s. for making a coffin: Ensign Simon Stacy was to see that effectual care was taken “with the Corps,” that it “be wrapt up in the Coffin in Tarr with Canvass.” Other Puritans were “appointed to look to the burning of the wine and heating of the syder, against the time appointed for funerall next Monday at one of the clock & such as will be carefull in the distribution ...”

    You might appreciate Abraham Perkins (c1640-1722, nephew of your Jacob Perkins, 1624-1700) was compensated 3s. for “goeing to Nubury to inform John Cobbit of his Father's death.” 3s., 6p. went to John Sparks, for wheat: a year earlier Sparks’ daughter Elizabeth had married Jacob’s son Jacob … likely with Rev. Cobbett presiding.

    Waters, p. 285, also reports Cobbett brought charges in 1681 against Elizabeth (Jacques) Perkins (1669-1690), wife of Luke Perkins (c1649-c1695, brother of Abraham) … for many "most opprobrious and scandalous words of an high nature agst Mr. Cobbitt.” She was fined £3 in lieu of severe whipping on her naked body, and ordered to sit at next meeting with paper pinned on her head, where in capital letters, notice of punishment “for reproaching ministers, parents & relations” was made clear.

    It is on Cobbett we rely, for interview with Quartermaster John Perkins, Jr. (1609-1686), brother of your Jacob, father of Abraham and Luke. Cobbett’s 1677 letter to Increase Mather contains probably the earlier surviving account of John Perkins’ leadership in militant c1633 ejection of Tarratine or Abenaki braves … on behalf of his Agawam allies at Ipswich.

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