Ens. Benjamin Cooley

Important to note the following with respect to extensive research on the origins of Benjamin Cooley: http://cooleyfamilyassociation.com/the-old-word-origin-of-immigrant...

If anyone has concrete evidence, we would be happy to hear more about it.

Thanks, David Cooley President, Cooley Family Association of America

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Burial record:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/57503162/benjamin-cooley

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http://www.familytreelegends.com/trees/hewitt74/4/data/361274

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~thechosenpeople/i1075.htm

http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=adgedge&...

Benjamin is buried in the Springfield Cemetery in Springfield Massachusetts. The original burial grounds where at the river front behind the Old First Church. In 1849 to make way for the railroad 2024 bodies were moved to the cemetery on the hill. They were placed in a mass grave. The main entrance to the cemetery is on Maple St. but the graves are at the Pine Street entrance. Most of this information is found in the Cooley genealogy book by Mortimer E. Cooley published in 1941.

Do you know about the Cooley Family Association? You can find them at www.coooleyfamilyassocation.com

They have a genealogist who might be able to help your search.

from Genealogy of Early Settlers in Trenton and Ewing :

At what period Benjamin Cooley (1), the earliest known American ancestor of Dr. Eli F. Cooley, emigrated to this country, is not known. He was born 1620 '; was a resident of Springfield, Mass., which was settled in 1636, of which town he was one of the three selectmen, in 1646. He afterward moved across the river Connecticut to Longmeadow, of which he was one of the earliest settlers. He was one of the committee to lay out the town of Suffield, in 1670. He was a man of wealth, and left large landed estates in Springfield and Longmeadow, besides other property. He died 1684, six days before his wife, Sarah, by whom he had issue:

1. Bethia, born January, 1644, married Henry Chapin;
2. Obadiah (2), born 1647;
3. Eliakim (3), born 1649;
4. Daniel (our line) (4), born 1651;
5. Sarah, born 1654;
6. Benjamin, born 1656;
7. Mary, born 1659; and
8. Joseph, born 1662, married and died, leaving children. The Cooleys of East and West Springfield, Longmeadow, and Hartford, are of this family.

Few dividends slipped away from Benjamin Cooley, except as he made exchanges for property more useful and convenient to him. In 1647 he was taxed for 40 1/2 acres, while the inventory of his estate in 1684 included 527 acres exclusive of the "land that Obadiah Cooley occupieth." This latter tract, at Main and York streets in Springfield, comprised perhaps ten acres, giving as a total, 537 acres acquired during Benjamin Cooley's forty years as an inhabitant of Springfield.

Origins

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cooley-69

A strong case for Benjamin Cooley's origins was made in an unpublished paper by Eleanore L. Cooley Rue, "Did Benjamin Cooley's sister Phebe Marry Richard Sikes of Springfield, Massachusetts, Proving Both Born Tring, Hertford, England?" (October 2000), with the following points:[1]

• Benjamin Cooley of Tring had a sister, Phebe Cooley of the right age to be the Phebe who marries Richard Sikes
• Benjamin Cooley made reference in his will to his COUSIN SIKES ("cousin" being used at that time to refer to any close, but not sibling or parent relationship).
• Sikes moved into the Springfield house owned by Benjamin Cooley before Sikes bought it from Cooley.
• The long, close relationship (of Sikes and Cooleys), continued through descendants.
• Benjamin Cooley of Springfield was a weaver, and weaving was a primary trade in Tring.
• Benjamin Cooley of Springfield stated his age as 52 in a 1669 deposition, placing his birth about 1617; a Benjamin Cooley was baptized in Tring in 1616.
• There is no evidence of either Benjamin or Phebe in Tring or anywhere nearby in England after their baptisms.

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Source: found at Genforum, for Benj. & Sarah Cooley of Springfield, MA

Posted by: Jo Ann Sherwood Date: August 30, 1999 at 07:36:18

In Reply to: Benj. & Sarah Cooley of Springfield, MA by Skip Cooley of 720

Dear Skip: I enjoyed your articles on the dress codes. In return I thought you might like a copy of the Indian deed "selling" Springfield.

February 4, 1678. The indians above named viz Wawapana and Wawaba and Wecombo the true and proper owners of all the lands abovementioned did set and by sale forever pass away all the land above mentioned to Mr. Elizaber Holyoke, George Colton, Benjamin Cooley, Samuel Marshfield and Anthony Dorchester for the use and behoofe of the town of Springfield the bargain being meade in my presence and as I remember it was in the year 1674 or thereabout I was offered in treaty about it which at last came to a conclusion to be as abovementioned the payment also for the land as above expressed passing through my hands to the indians which they gladly accepted and did willingly own the sale to me after this deed was they comeing particulary one at a tyme to me to subscribe it when I told them they must came altogether the want of which was the onely obstruction for they often severally acknowledged the sale and the writing to be according to their minde and meaning also testifying their readiness to come all together and subscribe which as they promised no doubt they would have done but that the indian wars happening in the year 1675 they with other indians we drove away before which time they made the abovesaid purchase and sale and I do declare they did come personally and owne and acknowledge the conveyhance and sale of the land abovementioned as aboveexpressed. This then done and by ye Indians Wequanquan and Wawapaw and Wecomobo owned and acknowledged. John Pynchon, Attestant. This entred these records for the county of Hampshire July 12 1679 as attested. John Holyoke (Source: Hampshire County Massachusetts Deeds, Book AB, page 24, Film 844486.

The Cooley name is of Norman origin from Culey or Cuilly near Falaise, Normandy: while the family is English. At what date Benjamin Cooley b. 1620 (the earliest known American ancestor) emigrated to this country is not known. He was a resident of Springfield, Mass., in 1646; was one of the Selectmen, which office he held eighteen years: he moved across the Connecticut river to Long Meadow (originally a part of Springfield) and then (1642) received his first allotment of land, upon a portion of which he settled and which he gave to his eldest son, Obadiah, and is in the possession of his descendants at this time: he m. 1642 Sarah —, and d. 1684. His fourth son, Daniel b. 1651, also a Selectman, m. Elizabeth Walcott: the eldest son of this couple, Benjamin b. 1681 m. Margaret, dau. of Samuel and Sarah Bliss. Benjamin Cooley was in Major Hawks' Company in the Expedition to Canada, 1758. He and a son signed the Statement of Grievances in 1722, was assessor and Selectman: moved to Briarfield, where he died.

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About Benjamin Cooley http://hausegenealogy.com/cooley.html

The Cooley surname is Irish, and was first found in Ulster where they held a family seat from very ancient times. One of the earliest references to the name is spelled Cualnge, and appears in the 7th century when the great Celtic epic, Tain Bo Cualnge, or The Cattle-raid of Cooley (County Louth), was first written. A few hundred years later, in 1085, William the Norman conducted a census of 54, 813 landowners in Great Britain (as chronicled in Domesday Book), and among the lists is the name Culege (pronounced "Cooley" with the "g" being silent, as in Burleigh). After the introduction of "w" and "y" into the language, the name underwent many spelling variations, including: Cooley, Cooling, Cowley, Cully, Colly, McCooley, Coaley, Coolyng, Couley, Colley, McCowley, Cooleng, McCoolay, Coolay, Collay, Cullay, Cowleigh, Culleigh and many more. The coats of arms features an ermine shield a black chevron on which there are three gold leopards, faces jellopped. The Crest over the helmet displays another Leopard's face, jellopped. Our ancestor BENJAMIN COOLEY (1617 - 1684) was the village weaver of Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts. He came to America in 1640, probably by way of Holland, as no British vessels from the time list him as a passenger. He married a woman named SARAH (Savage, Tremaine or Colton). Benjamin died on August 17, 1684 in a part of Springfield that is now called Longmeadow. His wife died a week later, on August 23. They had three daughters and five sons:

1. BETHIA COOLEY, born on 16 Sep 1643, in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts. She married HENRY CHAPIN, SR.
2. OBADIAH COOPER, born on 27 Jan 1646/7 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts.
3. ELIAKIM COOPER, born on 08 Jan 1648/8 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts.
4. DANIEL COOPER, born 02 May 1651 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts.
5. SARAH COOPER, born 27 Feb1653/4 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts. On 15 Jan 1679, she married BURT JONATHAN MORGAN. Family listed below.
6. BENJAMIN COOLEY II was born on 01 Sep 1656 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts. He had no children (at least no males chronicled by any genealogists).
7. MARY COOLEY was born on 22 Jun 1659 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts.
8. JOSEPH COOLEY was born on 06 Mar, 1661/2 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/23654364/person/13021646035/media/2?...

Benjamin Cooley (1615 - 1684)
Benjamin Cooley
Born 25 Feb 1615 in Tring Parish, Hertfordshire , Englandmap
ANCESTORS ancestors
Son of William Cooley and Joan (Arnott) Cooley
Brother of Lidia Cooley, William Cooley [half], Phoebe Cooley, Jonathan Cooley, Joseph Cooley, Joyce Cooley and Ann Cooley [half]
Husband of Sarah (UNKNOWN) Cooley — married about 1642 in Springfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colonymap [uncertain]
DESCENDANTS descendants
Father of Bethia (Cooley) Chapin, Obadiah Cooley I, Eliakim Cooley I, Daniel Cooley I, Sarah (Cooley) Morgan, Benjamin Cooley, Mary (Cooley) Terry and Joseph Cooley
Died 17 Aug 1684 at age 69 in Longmeadow, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colonymap
Profile managers: Jillaine Smith private message [send private message], Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree private message [send private message], John Putnam private message [send private message], and Steven Barcomb private message [send private message]
Profile last modified 16 Dec 2020 | Created 14 Sep 2010
This page has been accessed 6,250 times.
The Puritan Great Migration.
Benjamin Cooley migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1620-1640).
Join: Puritan Great Migration Project
Discuss: PGM
Contents
[hide]
1 Origins
2 Biography
2.1 Life in New England
2.2 Legacy
3 Sources
Origins
A strong case for Benjamin Cooley's origins was made in an unpublished paper by Eleanore L. Cooley Rue, "Did Benjamin Cooley's sister Phebe Marry Richard Sikes of Springfield, Massachusetts, Proving Both Born Tring, Hertford, England?" (October 2000), with the following points:[1]

Benjamin Cooley of Tring had a sister, Phebe Cooley of the right age to be the Phebe who marries Richard Sikes
Benjamin Cooley made reference in his will to his COUSIN SIKES ("cousin" being used at that time to refer to any close, but not sibling or parent relationship).
Sikes moved into the Springfield house owned by Benjamin Cooley before Sikes bought it from Cooley.
The long, close relationship (of Sikes and Cooleys), continued through descendants.
Benjamin Cooley of Springfield was a weaver, and weaving was a primary trade in Tring.
Benjamin Cooley of Springfield stated his age as 52 in a 1669 deposition, placing his birth about 1617; a Benjamin Cooley was baptized in Tring in 1616.
There is no evidence of either Benjamin or Phebe in Tring or anywhere nearby in England after their baptisms.
Biography
Life in New England
We do not know when Cooley crossed the Atlantic or where he settled initially. We do know that he was in Springfield, Massachusetts by the 16 Sept 1643 birth of his daughter, Bethiah.[2]

Springfield was designed from the start to be an industrial, self-supporting community and its founders sought to attract builders, carpenters, brick masons, tailors and weavers most often secured from England as indentured servants (to Pynchon), only those who could contribute something of value were admitted to the community.

Ample evidence exists that Cooley was skilled with both flax and wool. He took on an apprentice in 1650 to teach linen weaving and his estate's inventory included a lot of weaving materials, including two looms.

With the group arriving about 1643 came also George Colton who during the subsequent forty years was the inseparable companion of Benjamin Cooley. In 1649 they took the oath of fidelity together. [Many more instances of evidence that they were closely aligned…] Such a combination of circumstances could hardly have been merely coincidences. [It is from this close friendship that some researchers believe that Benjamin Cooley's wife was a sister to George Colton, but no documentation exists to support this.]

The second record of Cooley in Springfield was February 8, 1643/44 when he was called for jury duty. On September 23, 1645, a reference to fences indicates that he was then established on his property and that he was then the most southerly lot occupant, his later neighbors on the south not then having arrived. From then on the records are replete with references to his public services. In1667, with Deacon Samuel Chapin and George Colton, he was in charge of the first local "Community Chest" for the distribution of "four or five pounds to help a little against the want of some families." He not only had the confidence of the community but he seems to have endeared himself to all classes.

The first recorded mentions of a house in the long-meadow owned by Benjamin Cooley:

[August 27, 1660] Thomas Gilbert hath liberty granted him for building and dwelling on his land which he hath bought of Benjamin Cooley at the Longmeadow Gate.
[December 31, 1660] George Colton desiring liberty to build on his land at the Long meadow, had liberty granted him for erecting a building or dwelling place there.
[March 13, 1660/61] granted to Benjamin Cooley, thirty acres on the east side of the swamp over against his house at the long meadow which land lies between two dingles and to run from the brow of the hill backward into the woods eastward till thirty acres be made up.
At a General Court held in Boston, 28th May, 1679--In answer to the petition of Benjamin Cooley, ensign to the Foot Company at Springfield, humbly desiring the favor of this Court, to lay down his place, being aged ("62 or thereabouts") and deaf, -- the Court grants his request. …

Legacy
August 17, 1684, Benjamin Cooley died at the age of sixty-seven. Six days later Sarah, his wife and the mother of his eight children, also died.

Eleanor Cooley Rue suggests that both Benjamin and Sarah died from a contagious illness.
At his death he owned 524 acres. He had houses and barns to meet his own needs and those of his eldest sons.

The inventory of Cooley's estate, taken after his death in 1684, includes:

Two looms, slayds (weavers' reeds) and warping bars
Serge, kersy, say, penistone and linen cloth
Cotton wool and sheep's wool
Crop of flax
Linsey-woolsey, yarns, spinning wheels, tube (dye vats)
There was also a stock of finished cloths alone priced at about $1000 in present day values.

As were all their contemporaries, Benjamin Cooley and his wife were interred in the ancient "burying place" by the riverside in Springfield, west of the church that he had helped to build. No stones marked their graves for no lasting stone was then to be had in the community... There remains a stone that marked the grave of Mary Holyoke who died in 1657, but the workmanship suggests that the stone is actually of a much later date.

There Benjamin and Sarah rested until the coming of the railroad. In 1849, to make room for the tracks, the remains of 2404 bodies and 517 markers were removed to the Springfield Cemetery on the hill that had been opened in 1841. Dr. Joseph C. Pynchon, who then had charge of the removal of the Pynchon bodies, said thirty-six years later:

"...The few remains were gathered, which soon crumbled to dust on exposure to the air, and with the surrounding earth, deposited in the new cemetery."
Nothing is known of the Cooley bodies, which in common with many others undoubtedly had wholly disintegrated, leaving not a trace. Such a condition indicates that the bodies were then not buried clothed, as today, otherwise some evidence might have remained. Pilfered shoe-buckles and buttons are frequently found in Indian graves as old as those, though it is of course true that the place of interment chosen by the natives would have been in a soil having far greater preservative qualities than the damp soil by the river bank. Clothing was then far too valuable to have been disposed of in such a way. … The absolute lack of identifying articles in the graves of the old cemetery indicates that the bodies were laid to rest, wrapped in a winding-sheet or shroud.

Death seems to have come suddenly to Benjamin Cooley for though he attempted to make a will, he did not live to complete it. However, it was carried far enough to indicate some of his wishes, and with a sense of justice worthy of such a father and with a consideration for the needs of each other the heirs divided the estate and carried on.

Origins

https://cooleyfamilyassociation.com/the-old-word-origin-of-immigran...

The following 6 baptisms are found in the parish records:

Children of William Cooley and Joan Arnett baptisms:

1. 7 Feb 1607/8 Ledia dau of William Colley (by 1st wife, Joan (unknown)
2. 10 Nov 1609 Pheobe dau of William Coolye
3. 18 Apr 1613 Jonathan son of William Collye
4. 25 Feb 1615/6 Bengimen son of William Coley
5. 11 Oct 1618 Joseph son of William Colley
6. 5 Dec 1619 Anne and Joyce daus of William Coley

Sources

1. Hardcopy in possession of Jillaine Smith
2. Cooley, Mortimer Elwyn. Cooley Genealogy: The Descendants of Ensign Benjamin Cooley: an Early Settler of Springfield and Longmeadow, Massachusetts and other members of the family in America. (Rutland, VT: The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., 1941), Chapter 4, Questionable quality. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ma/county/hampden/hist/hist.html
3. Stott, Clifford L. Vital Records of Springfield, Massachusetts to 1850. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2002), 66. Ensign Benjamin Cooley was sick & died Aug: 17: 1684.
4. Harry Andrew Wright, “Early Springfield & Longmeadow History," with special reference to Benjamin Cooley, Pioneer, chapter IV. Wright references his sources very well.
5. John Alden of Ashfield, Mass., and Chautauqua County, New York. His Alden ancestors and his descendants. Comp. by Frank Wesley Alden, Delaware, Ohio. Published 1909 by Printed for private circulation
6. Find A Grave: Memorial #57503162
7. Cooley, Mortimer. The Cooley Genealogy: The Descendants of Ensign Benjamin Cooley (Rutland, VT., 1941) Page 195