Capt. John Almy

Biography

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/204992667/john-almy

John Almy was chosen as a lieutenant of a troop of horse on 24 Jul 1667. He served as a captain during King Philip's War and died during that conflict. His residence was located on the eastern shore of Portsmouth, near Fogland Point.

He married Mary Cole, but had no children. His father, William Almy, would later direct in his will that he be buried beside the grave of his son, John Almy.

Supporting data

• COLE, Mary
• b. 1639 Plymouth, Plymouth, Mass.
• Parents:
• Father: COLE, James
• Mother: LOBEL, Mary [SIC]
• Family:
• Marriage: 1 OCT 1676 Portsmouth, Newport, RI.
• Spouse: ALMY, John
• Family:
• Marriage: 28 JUN 1677
• Spouse: POCOCK, John
• b. ABT 1650
• Children:
  • POCOCK, Bridget
• From: http://www.genealogyofnewengland.com/f_146.htm#62 __________
• William Almy
• Birth: 1601 Dunton Bassett, Harborough District, Leicestershire, England
• Death: Apr. 23, 1677 Tiverton, Newport County, Rhode Island, USA
• William Almy came to America prior to 1631 without his family. Found first in Lynn, MA records in 1631, he was fined for taking a canoe without permission. In about 1634, he returned to England and in 1635, was found on the passenger list of the ship, ABIGAIL, along with this wife, Audrey, and children, Anne, 8, and Christopher, 3.
• The family was living in Lynn, MA until the spring of 1637 when he was one of nine others who founded Sandwich in Plymouth Colony. He removed to Portsmouth, RI where he held several civil offices for the community.
• He bequeathed property to sons, Christopher & Job, as well as daughters, Anna & Catherine, and £20 to grandson, Bartholomew West at 21 yrs.
• The children of William & Audrey Almy:
  • 1. ANNE AGNES ALMY b. 1627 in England, d. May 17, 1709, married JOHN GREENE, of Warwick, RI.
  • 2. Christopher Almy b. 1632 in England, d. May, 1709 married Elizabeth Cornell.
  • 3. John Almy b. about 1634-1637, d. Oct., 1676, married Mary Cole.
  • 4. Catherine Almy b 1635, married Bartholomew West.
  • 5. Joseph Almy b. 1635/6, d. 1637
  • 6. Job Almy b. about 1636/7, d. Oct, 1676.
• Family links:
• Parents:
• Christopher Allmy (____ - 1624)
• Spouse:
• Audrey Barlow Almy (1603 - 1677)
• Children:
  • Ann Agnes Almy Greene (1627 - 1709)*
  • Christopher Almy (1632 - 1713)*
• Note: Buried here -- no tombstone
• Burial: Hillside Cemetery, Tiverton, Newport County, Rhode Island, USA
• Plot: Lot # 87
• Find A Grave Memorial# 47153536
• From: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=47153536 _________________
• The early genealogies of the Cole families in America. (Including Coles and Cowles). With some account of the descendants of James, by Hartford, Connecticut, 1635-1652, and of Thomas Cole, of Salem, Mass., 1649-1672
• https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Early_Genealogies_of_the_C...
• https://archive.org/details/earlygenealogie00colegoog
• https://archive.org/stream/earlygenealogie00colegoog#page/n87/mode/1up
• Pg.53
• JAMES COLE. One of the families that came from England to Plymouth was that of James Cole. I have not been able to find anything concerning him previous to 1634, but he probably had a family with him when he came to the settlement. He was the first settler on the eminence known as "Burial Hill." The first mention of him in the Plymouth Colony Records is in the list of freemen of 1633, where the name is spelled Coale ("Ply. Col. Rec. 1-4.) .... etc.
• https://archive.org/stream/earlygenealogie00colegoog#page/n89/mode/1up
• .... Savage says that he was living in 1688, very aged.
• His wife was Mary —— , she was living in March, 1660. Children :
  • 2. i. James, b. about 1625 d. —
  • 3. ii. Hugh, b. about 1627, d. —
  • 4. iii. John, b. — d. 1677.
  • iv. Mary, b. — m. John Almy, he was a son of William Almy of Plymouth, 1643. After his marriage to Mary Cole he moved to Portsmouth, R. I. He was Capt. in King Phillip's war, and died in 1676.
• .... etc. _____________________

b sandwich ma about 1637; d.s.p. 1 oct 1676 m mary cole dau of james and mary cole.he was a merchant. on 24 jul 1667 he was made lieutenant of troop of horse and in 1676 he served as captain in king philip's war. mary cole was the granddaugter of james cole, the former owner of the famous cole hill in plymouth, ma and reputed son of sir william of england who was able to obtain a royal grant of land for the cole family in plymouth colony.

King Philip's War Introduction; New England Confederation | King Philip's War Edmund Andros | Puritan Laws and Character Also see: New England Colonization

The relations of the colonists to the Indians were threefold: they traded with the Indians, they fought with them, and they preached the gospel to them. The early settlers carried on trade with the natives, because it was profitable, and because it was often necessary, in keeping the colonists from starvation. They sought from pure and honest motives to convert the red men to Christianity.

The people of Massachusetts were foremost in this laudable ambition. The Reverend John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, labored for many years to give them the gospel, and translated the Bible into their language.1 Eliot was assisted by many others, and many of the dusky inhabitants of the forest learned to bow down to the Christian's God.

Nevertheless, conflict between the white men and the Indians was at times inevitable. The Indian could not understand the perpetual obligations of a treaty, nor could he discriminate between the honest settler who sought only to do him good, and the conscienceless trader who defrauded him. Hence the two races were embroiled in wars from time to time, until the stronger race finally triumphed over the weaker, and took sole possession of the land. No other result, indeed, was possible. The two races were so unlike in their aspirations and their capacity for civilization that they could not dwell together, and barbarism fell before the onmarch of civilization.

Philip was the son of Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, who had made a treaty of friendship with the Pilgrims of Plymouth soon after their landing. This treaty had been faithfully kept for fifty years, but soon after the death of the aged chief, Philip and his tribe became estranged from the white settlers and began to prepare for war. No particular cause for the war that ensured is known. It was apparently a spontaneous outburst, rather than the result of a conspiracy of the Indians. It is supposed that the Indians, seeing the gradual encroachment of the white men upon the lands of their fathers, determined to drive the intruders from the country.

The war began with an Indian attack on the town of Swansea, in which several men, women, and children were killed. The cry of alarm instantly spread throughout the colonies and the effect was immediate. Three hours after the messenger had reached Boston a body of men was on the march from that city toward the Indian country. Other towns responded with equal vigor, and ere many days the New England forest range with the crack of the musket and the war whoop of the savage. Had the Indians met their civilized foe in open battle they would soon have been annihilated; but their method was to attack the lonely farmhouse, the unprotected settlement, or to creep by stealth at dead of night upon the sleeping hamlet and with fiendish yells to fall upon their victims with the tomahawk.

Philip was a bold and powerful leader. He succeeded in enlisting the aid of the Narragansetts; but many of the Indians, especially those converted by Eliot, assisted the colonies. In the summer of 1675 the towns of Brookfield, Deerfield, and Northfield were burned by the savages, and many of the inhabitants perished. A band of soldiers led by Captain Beers was ambushed near Deerfield and almost all were killed. The Indians then attacked Hadley, and while the villagers were fighting desperately it is said that an aged man with flowing white hair and beard appeared and took command of the battle, and the savages were soon driven off. Many thought him an angel sent from heaven for their deliverance. It proved to be Goffe, the regicide, who had long been hiding in the town.2

The following winter a thousand of the best men of New England marched against the savage foe; they surprised the Narragansett fort and put to death probably seven hundred people in a night. By the spring of 1676 the Indians were on the defensive. Philip became a fugitive and escaped his pursuers from place to place. At length he was overtaken in a swamp in Rhode Island by Captain Ben Church of Plymouth and was shot dead by one of his own race.

The war soon ended; the Indians had lost three thousand men, their power was utterly broken, and never again was there a war of the races in southern New England. But the cost to the colonies was terrible. Thirteen towns had been laid in ashes; the wilderness was marked on every side with desolate farms and ruined homes. A thousand of the brave young men had fallen, and there was scarcely a fireside that was not a place of mourning. The public debt had risen to an enormous figure, falling most heavily on Plymouth, in proportion to population. In this colony alone the debt reached was £15,000, more, it was said, than the entire property valuation of the colony -- but this debt was paid to the last shilling.

Footnotes

1This translation is now a great literary curiosity. No man can read it, the language having perished with the people that used it.[return]

2Goffe and his father-in-law, Whalley, had signed the death warrant of King Charles I, and after the Restoration they fled to America and lived in hiding till their death.[return]

Source: "History of the United States of America," by Henry William Elson, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1904. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh.

Introduction; New England Confederation | King Philip's War Edmund Andros | Puritan Laws and Character Also see: New England Colonization History of the United States of America

WILLIAM ALMY

ORIGIN: South Kilworth, Leicestershire

MIGRATION: 1635 on the Abigail

FIRST RESIDENCE: Lynn

REMOVES: Sandwich 1637, Portsmouth 1642

OCCUPATION: Planter.

FREEMAN: Oath of fidelity at Sandwich, 1639 [ PCR 8:184]. In Portsmouth section of 1655 Rhode Island list of freemen [ RICR 1:299].

EDUCATION: Signed his deed of 22 June 1642. Signed his will.

OFFICES: Deputy for Portsmouth to Rhode Island General Court, 16 May 1648, 23 May 1650, 11 March 1655/6, 17 March 165[5/]6, 19 May 1657, 14 October 1663, 24 November 1663 [RICR 1:210, 326, 327, 354, 504, 508; PoTR 44, 75]. Rhode Island petit jury, 16 July 1650, 11 March 1655/6, 2 March 1660/1, 1 October 1661, 25 April 1666, 7 May 1666, 28 April 1668 [PoTR 46, 69, 102, 108, 133, 140; RICR 1:326; RICT 2:43, 48-49]. Grand jury, 28 February 1662/3, 13 October 1663, 13 October 1665, 9 May 1670 [PoTR 116, 130; RICT 2:19, 91]. Committee to "agitate and bring in their result of four bills delivered to them," 19 May 1657 [RICR 1:355-56]. Colony assessor for Portsmouth, 19 October 1663 [RICR 1:507]. Portsmouth delegate to "join with Newport in the purchase of Cunnuniquut Island ... and Dutch Island with it" [PoTR 66]. Portsmouth town meeting moderator, 7 March 1659/60 [PoTR 91]. Portsmouth assessor, 15 September 1659 [PoTR 91]. Portsmouth deputy warden, 4 June 1660 [PoTR 93].

ESTATE: On 3 April 1637, "Will[ia]m Almey" was one of the "ten men of Saugust" who "shall have liberty to view a place to sit down & have sufficient lands for three score families," thus establishing the town of Sandwich [PCR 1:57]. On 16 April 1640, "Mr. Almey" received eight and a half acres in the division of meadow at Sandwich [PCR 1:149]. On 22 June 1642, "Will[ia]m Almy late of Sandwich" sold to "Edmond Freeman of Sandwich the younger ... one dwelling house in Sandwich aforesaid with all appurtenances together with all the lands whatsoever to me belonging lying within the bounds of Sandwich aforesaid and also all such lands or moneys which either now do belong or hereafter shall accrue to me the said Will[ia]m Almy by way of satisfaction for sundry charges by me disbursed in my undertakership for the laying out of the lands in Sandwich aforesaid" [ PCLR 1:84].

On 28 November 1643, "Mr. Almy" received eight acres of planting ground in Portsmouth [PoTR 23]. On 5 January 1656[/7?], "William Almy ... of Portsmouth" sold to Richard Bulgar of Portsmouth "a grant of eight acres of land granted to me the said William Almy within the common fence" [PoTR 342-43].

On 14 November 1644, William Almy was one of three men "to have land at the wading river" at Portsmouth [RICR 1:82]. On 29 April 1650, "[i]t is granted unto Mr. Will[iam] Almy to have that land that lyeth at the head of his farm to come to the same height that Phillip Shearman his land now runneth viz: to leave two rod between Newport path and the said land" [PoTR 45, 65].

On 17 October 1659, "William Almy ... of Portsmouth ... plant[er]" deeded to "my son John Almy dwelling ... with me a part of my farm whereon I now dwell, on the south side thereof ... the said land being about fifty acres" [PoTR 372].

In his will, dated "the last of February 1676" [i.e., 28 February 1676/7] and proved 23 April 1677, "William Almy" ordered "my body to be buried by my son John if I die here upon my farm"; "if my wife outlive me she shall have all during her natural life and after her death Christopher shall have half my farm ... which is next to the land which I gave to my son John Almy," the malthouse to be shared between Christopher and John; "the other half of my farm ... to my son Job Almy with my dwelling house and two orchards"; "for my cattle and the moveables what is remaining at our deaths I give to my daughter An and my daughter Catharen each of them two parts and to my son Christopher Almy and my son Job Almy each of them one part"; to "my grandchild Bartholomew West" £20 when he comes of age; "my two sons Christopher Almy and Job Almy" to be executors [ PoLE 1:144].

BIRTH: About 1601 (aged 34 in 1635 [ Hotten 93]), son of Christopher and _____ (Clarke) Almy of South Kilworth, Leicestershire [ NEHGR 71:320].

DEATH: Between 28 February 1676/7 (date of will) and 23 April 1677 (probate of will).

MARRIAGE: By license dated 17 July 1626 Audrey Barlow ("Williamus Almie de South Kilworth," gent., "etatis 26 annorum," and "Audream Barlowe de Lutterworth ... etatis 26 annorum," with the consent of Stafford Barlowe of Lutterworth, gent., father of the said Audrey [Archdeaconry of Leicester Marriage Licenses, 1621-1632, folio 28v; NEHGR 71:318]. She died after 28 February 1676/7, when she was named in her husband's

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