Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

James Bowtell

Male


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  • Name James Bowtell 
    Born of Little Saling, Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Person ID I263  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Family Sarah White,   c. 8/08 Mar 1585/6, Shalford, Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft May 1617  (Age ~ 31 years) 
    Married Bef 1614  of Shalford, Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F234  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. NEHGS Register, Vol. 55, pages 22-31, 1901, see notes of Robert White for full transcript of article from which the following partial excerpt is taken:
      "The children of Robert White of Messing, Co. Essex, England, Who Settled in Hartford and Windsor. By a Descendant.
      Robert White of Messing, yeoman, died in 1617. He was a rich man. He seems to have lived in Shalford in Essex most of the time from June 24th, 1585, the date of his marriage to Bridget Allgar, until a few months before his death. The baptisms of nearly all his children are there recorded, and also the marriage of his daughters - Mary in 1614 and Elizabeth in 1616. It was the home of his wife, where she was baptized March 11, 1562, and where her father, William Allgar the elder, was buried Aug. 2, 1575. Shalford is about two miles south of Wethersfield...
      According to his will, hereinafter given, he left surviving a wife Bridget; three sons - Daniel, Nathaniel and John who was his youngest Child; three married daughters - Sarah, Mary and Elizabeth; and two unmarried daughters-Bridget and Anna. As he makes his son Daniel joint executor with his wife, it may be inferred he was his eldest son, and possibly by a former wife. His wife Bridget was the mother of his other children, of whom Sarah, wife of James Bowtell of Little Sailinge in Essex, was the first born.
      There was a James Bowtell of Salem and Lynn, 1635, freeman 14 March, 1639. His will, dated 22 August, proved 26 November, 1651, mentions wife Alice, sons James and John and daughter Sarah. See Essex Ins. Hist. Coll., Vol. I, page 9, for abstract of this will. No connection has been discovered between this testator and Robert Whites's son-in-law, James Bowtell...
      Extracts from Parish Registers of Shalford and Messing, Co. Essex, transcribed by Mr. Frank Farnsworth Starr.
      From Parish Register of Shalford...
      Baptisms...
      1614, Nov. 15, Matthew Bowtell son of James Bowtell.
      1616, Feby. 25, James Bowtell son of James and Sara Bowtell.
      1618, Jan. 1, Nathaniel Bowtell son of James and Sara Bowtell.
      1620, Jan. 2, Stephen Bowtell son of James and Sara Bowtell.
      Burials...
      1615, May 29, Matthew Bowtell son of James Bowtell.
      1617, Sept. 30, John Bowtell son of James and Sara.
      1626, Aug. 15, Sara Bowtell dau. of James and Sara.
      From the Parish Register of Messing...
      Burials...
      1616, July 26, James Bowtle child and son of ___ Bowtle of Shalford."

      2. The book "Colonial Ancestors. Four lineal genealogies of eastern Connecticut families…," by Bernice Andrews (Livingston) Rieg (Camden, Maine; Penobscot Press, 1991), pp. 183-87 [Note: I neglected to copy the source list.]:
      "Some productive inquiries into the English origins of John White were made by one of his descendants around the year 1900. John is understood to be the youngest child of ROBERTA WHITE, yeoman, well-to-do, born possibly in Messing, county Essex; he died there in 1617. Robert married in Shalford, county Essex, 24 Jun 1585, BRIDGET ALLGAR, where also she had been baptized on 11 Mch 1562, the daughter of William Allgar. Robert and Bridget seem to have lived in her native town or parish, Shalford, most of their married life.[1]
      Robert White was buried at Messing, 17 Jun 1617, less than three weeks after making his will, which provided for daughters Sarah (called the eldest; mar. James Bowtell), Mary (mar. Joseph Loomis), Elizabeth (mar. William Goodwin), Bridget White and Anna White, in that order; he then names sons Nathaniel and John, the latter being a minor and believed to be the youngest child; finally, he names his wife, Bridget, and his son, Daniel as joint executors.[2]
      Subsequently, Anna White married at Messing, 18 Oct 1620, John Porter; and John White married at the same place, 26 Dec 1622, Mary (Lev).[3]
      A sizeable portion of the White family moved from the Old World to New England in the Great Migration, and stayed near to one another in the new land.[4] Moreover, there clearly existed within the family, and with its in-laws, a sense of closeness, mutual support, and common interest. This is apparent from the respect and trust implied in assigned responsibilities, as illustrated in several legal instruments in which members of the family partook. For example, Robert White, wishing to assure sensible marriages for his children, Bridget, Anna and John, by his will conditioned receipt of their full inheritance upon approval of the intended spouse not only by his wife Bridget, but also by his "sonnes in law" Joseph Loomis and William Goodwin.[5] The father's high opinion of these two young men was well substantiated by their later careers as leaders in Windsor and Hartford in Connecticut.
      In the same vein, it is worth noting that the White children tried to stay together when they settled across the Altantic: when Joseph Loomis and John Porter occupied adjacent home lots in Windsor in 1639, their wives, Mary (White) Loomis and Anna (White) Porter, became next door neighbors.[6]
      The English shire of Essex was one of the prime centers for nonconformist preachers, and of course most of those who came to New England in the two decades after Robert White's death were following their inspiring preachers, often making the move as congregations. It's not surprising, then, to find in Robert White's will an early bequest for "...Mr. Richard Rogers preacher of gods word at Withersfield in Essex...,"[7] and study of the ecclesiastical jurisdictions of Essex discloses that the parish of Wethersfield adjoins that of Shalford, in the north central part of Essex. For Robert White to attend a lecture by Mr. Rogers, he may have had to travel no more than ten miles.
      Out of this moderately wealthy English family, comfortably settled in the shire of Essex, but imbued with nonconformist fervor, came the hard working, well liked and increasingly respected man who was to become an early, founding settler of no less than three new towns: Newtown (later Cambridge, Mass.), Hartford, and Hadley."