Thomas Cornell

Thomas Cornell on wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cornell_(settler)

Thomas Cornell Sr (c. 1595 – c. 1655) was one of the earliest settlers of Boston (1638), Rhode Island (1643) and the Bronx and a contemporary of Roger Williams and the family of Anne Hutchinson. He is the ancestor of a number of Americans prominent in business, politics, and education, as well as a Prime Minister of Canada.

ID: I28018

• Name: Thomas Cornell
• Sex: M
• Birth: ABT 1594 in Hertford, Hertfordshire Co., England
• Death: 1656 in Portsmouth, Newport Co., Rhode Island
• Father: George Cornwell b: ABT 1530 in England ???
• Mother: Susan Casse b: ABT 1570 in England ???

Marriage 1 Rebecca Briggs

• b: 25 OCT 1600 in St. James Parish - Clerkenwell, London, England

Children

• 1. Sarah Cornell b: 30 MAR 1623 in England
• 2. Ann Cornell b: ABT 1624 in England
• 3. William Cornell b: 4 APR 1625 in Saffron Walden, Essex Co., England
• 4. Thomas Cornell , Jr. b: 21 OCT 1627 in Hertford, Hertfordshire Co., England
• 5. Richard Cornell b: ABT SEP 1628 in Headcorn, Kent Co., England
• 6. Rebecca Cornell b: 31 JAN 1629/30 in Saffron Walden, Essex Co., England
• 7. Elizabeth Cornell b: 1 MAY 1631 in Saffron Walden, Essex Co., England
• 8. Kelame Cornell b: BEF 19 OCT 1632 in Saffron Walden, Essex Co., England
• 9. William Cornell b: 9 DEC 1632 in Saffron Walden, Essex Co., England
• 10. John Cornell b: 6 JUN 1634 in Saffron Walden, Essex Co., England
• 11. Elizabeth Cornell b: 15 JAN 1636/37 in Saffron Walden, Essex Co., England
• 12. Samuel Cornell b: ABT 1639
• 13. Joshua Cornell b: ABT 1642
• 14. Mary Cornell b: ABT 1643 in New England

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Disputed Origins

http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/15595/who-were-the-parents-of-thomas-co... 'm trying to merge the large number of duplicate profiles for Thomas Cornell (1594-1656); and of course you can't merge profile pages when there are duplicate parent pages as well. In Thomas's case, there are not only duplicate parent pages, but *conflicting* parents:

1. Richard Cornell and Mary Unknown (some say she was Mary Terry)

2. George Cornell and Susan (one says Joan) Casse

From the initial review of the published research, it appears that the most recent and significant research was published by Prentiss Glazier in "The English Origins of the Cornwell/Cornell Family" in The American Genealogist, volume 51 (Jan 1975), p115 and an unfortunately unpublished manuscript by the same author later in 1975, "Thomas Cornell (or Cornwell) (1594-1655/6) of Mass., N.Y. and R.I."

Glazier admits both possibilities above (without naming a spouse of William), but leans towards George Cornell and Susan Casse because their son had a full brother named Joshua, and Thomas of Rhode Island named a son Joshua.

I have not seen the actual unpublished manuscript, only read about it as written by others, specifically Jean E. Mack and Clair Cornell's "Unravelling one Massachusetts-to-Iowa Cornell Line," in The American Genealogist, 58 (Jan 1982):7

Family

Thomas CORNELL (Richard , George ) was born in 1593 in Hertford, England. He died in 1656 in Cornell Homestead, Portsmouth, Ri.

Thomas married Rebecca BRIGGS, daughter of William BRIGGS and Sarah GORE. Rebecca was born on 25 Oct 1600 in Middlesex, Eng. She died on 8 Feb 1673 in Portsmouth, Ri.

They had the following children:

• 1. + 15 M i Thomas CORNELL
• 2. 16 M ii Kelame CORNELL was born after 1623. He died in 1632.
• 3. 17 F iii Ann CORNELL
• 4. 18 F iv Rebecca CORNELL
• 5. + 19 F v Elizabeth CORNELL
• 6. + 20 M vi John CORNELL
• 7. 21 M vii Samuel CORNELL
• 8. 22 M viii Joshua CORNELL
• 9. 23 F ix Mary CORNELL
• 10. 24 M x William CORNELL
• 11. 25 M xi Thomas CORNELL
• 12. 26 F xii Ann CORNELL
• 13. + 27 F xiii Sarah CORNELL
• 14. 28 F xiv Rebecca CORNELL

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ID: I01100

• Name: Thomas CORNELL
• Sex: M
• Birth: 24 MAR 1592 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• Death: 8 FEB 1655 in Portsmouth, Newport Co, RI
• Occupation: BET 17 MAR 1642 AND 1644 Ensign in Portsmouth 1
• Occupation: 1653 Representative in Portsmouth

Note:

• A Thomas Cornell was a Inn Holder in Boston 1638.
• Moved to Portsmouth 1641.
• Throgg's Neck, NY in 1643, where some of his family was killed by Indians.
• Back to Portsmouth by 1646, when he was granted about two hundred acres of land.
• In 1646 he also received a land grant in Westchester Co, NY, known to this day as "Cornell's Neck."

THOMAS CORNELL, arrived in Boston, with wife and family in 1638. In 1641 he removed to Portsmouth, R. I., and from there, in 1643, to Throgg's Neck, N. Y., where, after a brief period, as Governor Winthrop records:

"The Indians set upon the English that dwelt under the Dutch and killed such of Mr. Throckmorton's and Mr. Cornhill's families as were at home. These people," he adds, "have cast off ordinances and churches and for larger accommodations had subjected themselves to the Dutch and dwelt scattering near a mile apart."

Among those who escaped was Thomas Cornell, who, with the remainder of his household, went back to Portsmouth, where, in 1646, he was granted about two hundred acres of land. The same year he received a grant of land in Westchester County, N. Y., known to this day as "Cornell's Neck." He died in 1673, having been closely associated with Roger Williams in his colonization of Rhode Island, and having held many positions of trust, among others that of Commissioner, 1643. The place at Portsmouth is still owned by the family. The old house was burnt in 1889. From the windows of the modern house, built in colonial style, can be seen the old burying-ground of the family, where Thomas Cornell, the first of his name in this country, was interred. He married Rebecca Briggs, of Portsmouth, R. I., a sister of the Hon. John Briggs.

(Ancestral Records and Portraits vol 1, page 309-310)

Father: Richard CORNELL b: 1565 in Bumstead Tower, Essex, England

Mother: Mary

Marriage 1 *Rebecca BRIGGS b: BEF 25 OCT 1600 in London, Middlesex, England

• Married: 9 JUN 1620 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England

Children

• 1. Has No Children Sarah CORNELL b: 30 MAR 1623 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• 2. Has No Children Richard CORNELL b: 8 JUL 1624 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• 3. Has No Children William CORNELL b: 4 APR 1625 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• 4. Has No Children Thomas CORNELL b: 21 OCT 1627 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• 5. Has No Children Rebecca CORNELL b: 13 JAN 1629 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• 6. Has No Children Kelame CORNELL b: 1631 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• 7. Has No Children Elizabeth CORNELL b: 1 MAY 1631 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• 8. Has No Children William CORNELL b: 1 DEC 1632 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• 9. Has No Children John CORNELL b: 6 JUN 1634 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• 10. Has No Children Anne CORNELL b: 2 AUG 1635 in Saffron, Walden, Essex, England
• 11. Has Children *Elizabeth CORNELL b: 15 JAN 1637 in Saffron Walden, Essex, England
• 12. Has No Children Joshua CORNELL b: 1642
• 13. Has No Children Ken CORNELL b: 1643 in Dartmouth, Bristol Co, MA
• 14. Has No Children Samuel CORNELL b: 1644 in Dartmouth, Bristol Co, MA
• 15. Has No Children Mary CORNELL b: 1644 in Dartmouth, Bristol Co, MA

Sources:

• 1. Title: Peirce's Colonial Lists, Page: 143
• 2. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&d...

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Thomas and Rebecca came to Boston about 1638 with their children. They bought William Baulstone's house on Washington Street between Summer and Milk.

He was a supporter of the Antimonians but was not exiled with them. He joined them in Rhode Island in 1640, two years later, as an admitted freeman.

Thomas Cornell

Operated an Inn 1638, was a constable for Portsmouth in 1641 and an ensign in the Portsmouth Militia 1642-44.

History of Portsmouth 1638-1936: By: Edward H West pp 37-38.

Thomas Cornell was licensed to keep an Inn in Boston in 1638 and came to Portsmouth about 1641. He served as Commissioner for one yer and died in 1657. He had a small tract on Common Fence Point, another on the East Road, south of Richard Borden's, but his large tract was south of Wading River, part of it being what we now call Lawton's Valley, a piece of which is still owned by a descendant. His widow was granted land north of Union Street. Quakers were expelled from Mass settled in RI with a land grant.They resided first in Boston, MA, then in Portsmouth, RI, then in Cornell's Neck, New Amsterdam (now Westchester Co., NY), then back in Portsmouth, RI.

" Thomas Cornell came to America about 1638, with his wife and most, if not all, of his children. He is first found in Boston, where by a vote of the Town Meeting, August 20,1638, he is permitted to buy William Baulstone's house, yard, and garden, backside of Mr. Coddington, and to become an inhabitant. This property was situated in Washington Street, between Summer and Milk Streets (see map). He sold it in 1643 to Edward Tyng, who had a warehouse and brew house, and constructed a deal there September 6, 1638. Thomas Cornhill was licensed upon tryal to keepe an inn in the room of Will Baulstone till the next General Court June 4, 1639'; he was fined £30 for several offenses selling wine without license and (18) beare at 2d a quart. (General Court held at Newtone, 2.9 m. in 1637. It shall not be lawful for any person that shall keepe any such inn or common victualling house to sell or have in their houses any wine or strong waters, nor any beare or other drinke other than such as may and shall be souled for 1d the quart at the most. This law was repealed May 23, 1639. Thomas Litchfield's note book contains a copy of Thomas Cornell, setting forth that in the winter time, he had much less by his small beare which he was at cost to preserve from the frost, by fire, that he was ignorant of the law, is sorry for his offenses, and that he hath not been heretofore accustomed to such housekeeping, wherefore he prays for a remission of his fine.

Two days later he was abated £10 of his fine and allowed a month to sell off his ware which is upon his hand and then to cease keeping intertainment and the town to furnish another.

"The Antionomians were great disturbers of the religious peace of the people of Boston, and in 1637 Ann Hutchinson and her adherents were expelled from the Colony. Among them we do not find the name of Thomas Cornell, whose vocation as an innkeeper perhaps saved him from doctrinal errors, but among the obnoxious ones were his neighbors, Baulstone and Coddington, and his brother-in-law, John Briggs. By the advice of Roger Williams, then settled at Providence, the exiles purchased, March 28, 1638, from the Indians Cannonicus and Miantonomi, the island on which Newport now stands, and on the north end of that island on which they began a settlement to which they gave the name of Portsmouth. Thomas Cornell arrived two years later and was admitted freeman of Portsmouth August 6, 1640. February 4, 1641 a piece of meadow' was granted him to be fenced in at his own cost. The same year he was made constable, and the following year ensign (name spelt Cornill). At the same time,Richard Morris was elected captain and Mrs. Baulstone lieutenant. Some suppose this last office to have been held by his son Thomas, as the father may have been in New Amsterdam at that time.

In the autumn, 1642, he went to New Amsterdam, and it has been supposed that Roger Williams and John Trockmorton went with him, and for this reason: the fugitives from Boston, who joined Roger Williams had formed a sort of colony in Rhode Island, but it was only a self-created government or squatter sovereignity that they had, and it was thought best by them in 1646, that Roger Williams should go to England and obtain a royal charter for his colony. He could not sail (19) from Boston(which would be the nearest port) because he was banished from Massachusetts, so he went to New Amsterdam for that purpose as the Dutch were more tolerant. There was not (as today) many steamers departing every week for England from that port and he did not embark until June 1643.

We know, moreover, that he went to England then, and obtained a charter for his colony and returned. Roger Williams, Throckmorton and Cornell seem to have been much associated together and friends, and this has led to the supposition that they may have come from England in the same ship; at nay rate we know Roger Williams and Throckmorton did.* About a year after Thomas Cornell's arrival in New Amsterdam, Governor Winthrop reports *Mr. Throckmorton and Mr. Cornell' established with buildings, etc., on neighboring plantations under the Dutch. On October 2, 1642, the local Dutch government granted him permission with his associated (thirty-five families) to settle within the limits of the jurisdiction of their mightinesses to reside there in peace (this was eleven miles from New Amsterdam).

After this general license to settle, Cornell and Throckmorton made examination of the territory, procured a survey and map, and on July 6, 1643 Governor Kieft granted to John Throckmorton for himself and his associates, a tract of land in what is now the town of Westchester (see map).

A serious Indian war, though of short duration, was caused by Governor Kieft's unwise attack upon two neighboring camps of Indians on the night between February 25 and 26, 1643, and in retaliation the Indians within the following month or two destroyed many of the white settlers outside of the city; and many others, who escaped fled panic stricken to New Amsterdam. Roger Williams says: Mine eyes saw the flames of these towns, the flights and hurrying of men, women, and children and the present removal (20) of all that could to Holland.' Governor Winthrop says By the mediation of Mr. Williams who was then there to go in a Dutch ship to England the Indians were pacified and peace reestablished between the Dutch and them.' Cornell and Throckmorton who were probably in New Amsterdam City limits at that time, escaped, but Mrs. Hutchinson, whose residence was near Throckmorton's, was killed.

For, says Governor Winthrop of this event, under the date of September 1645, The Indians set upon the English who dwelt under the Dutch. They came to Mrs. Hutchinson in way of friendly neighborhood, as they had been accustomed to, and taking their opportunity, they killed her and Mr. Colvin, her son-in- law, and all of her family and such of Mr. Throckmorton's and Mr. Cornell's families as were at home, in all sixteen, and put their cattle into their barns and burned them'. he also adds 'These people had cast off ordinances and churches, and now at last their own people, and for larger accomodation had subjected themselves to the Dutch, and dwelt acatteringly near a mile asunder.' Some that escaped the Indian attack went back to Rhode Island. Thomas Cornell it appears during these troubleous times, returned to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and secured a grant of land from that town, August 29,1644, in company with Mr. Brenton and Mr. Baulstone. Butting on Mr. Porter's round meadow', and on Febraury 4, 1646, a grant of 100 acres was made to Thomas Cornell by the town of Portsmouth on the south side of the Wading River and so as to run from the river towards the land that was laid out to Edward Hutchinson' (a son of Ann Hutchinson). This may be considered the original Homestead of the Cornell family.

Previous grants were made to him in company with other parties and as we will see the grant of Cornell's Neck was later. This land or the [part on which the house and burial plot are situated has never been out of the family. In September, 1894, Rev. John Cornell (the writer of this) purchased from Mrs. Ellen Grinnell (Cornell) Smith and others about 80 acres of this grant, and in 1902, 45 acres more; a house has been erected in colonial style on the site of the one that was destroyed by fire, December 21, 1889, and somewhat on its old plan, (21) that is, the plan which it is understood to have had before it was modernized about 50 years before its destruction.

After the restoration of peace in New Netherlands, brought about by the mediation of Roger Williams, Thomas Cornell returned to the Dutch Colony, but not, it seems, to restore and rebuild what had been destroyed of his property on Throgg's Neck. But he asked for a tract adjacent, fronting on the south and west of that of Throckmorton, from which it was separated on the shore by the mouth of Westchester Creek, and extending thence about two miles on the Long Island Sound to the Bronx,Bronx Co., NY River and extending back two miles or more from the Sound to the westerly edge of the present village of Westchester, formerly and even now known as Cornell's Neck; this estate was granted by Governor William Kieft to Thomas Cornell by patent, dated July 25, 1646 (see appendix and map). This was only the third private grant of land of which there is any record in Westchester County. Jonas Bronck in 1637, and Throckmorton in 1642, being previous, and possibly Adrian Van der Donk in 1642. Thus he was there four years prior to Adrian Van der Donk at Yonkers in 1646. Thirty-five years before Col. Stephanus Van Cortland, in 1677, obtained from Governor Andros permission to make his first purchase of lands from the Indians, in Westchester County, nearly forty years earlier than the first acquisition of Westchester lands by Frederick Phillipse within the present towns of Greenburgh and Mt. Pleasant in 1681 and thirty years before his first interest in Yonkers, 1672, and fifteen years before the great grandfather of the illustrious George Washington first settled in Virginia in 1657.

"Cornell's Neck was within the limits of Greater New York. After the death of Mr.Cornell, Thomas Pell set up a counter claim to the land and litigation issued between him and Sarah Bridges, in the course of which it appeared in evidence that Thomas Cornell had been at considerable charge in building, manuring and planting, that he was after several years driven off by the barbarous violence of the Indians, who burned his (22) house and destroyed his cattle, that the widow Cornell, sole executrix of the last will and testament of her husband (although neither the will nor a copy was produced), conveyed the land to Sarah Bridges and her sister. The litigation established the validity of the Cornell title and Sarah Bridges was put in possession of the land. A new patent was issued April 15, 1667, for Cornell's Neck' setting forth the fact that Thomas Cornell's interest devolved long since on Sarah Bridges, one of the daughters of Thomas Cornell deceased, and that said Sarah had conveyed her interest by deed to William Willett, her eldest son, to whom the new patent was issued (see appendix). The history of this grant and of the litigation respecting it is given at length with the documents in Bolton's History of Westcheser County. Thus we infer that after several years residence in Cornell's Neck, perhaps nine years, Thomas Cornell was again driven by the Indians from his property in New Netherlands, and returned to his homestead at Portsmouth, where he lived and died, and was buried. For we find a record of him as serving on a coroner's jury in 1653, and in 1654 Thomas Cornell was one of the commissioners of Ye foure-towns upon ye re-writing of ye Colonie of Providence Plantations.' He probably died the following year.

"As an old memorandum made by Stephen B. Cornell of Portsmouth about the beginning of the last century, and still preserved in the family, states that Thomas Cornell, by will dated December 5, 1651, gave to his wife Rebecca all his real estate, also that Rebecca, by will dated September 2, 1664 gave to her son Thomas all her land lying on the west side of Rhode Island and lying between the farms of Thomas Hazard and John Coggeshall. Neither of these wills is known to be now in existence nor any copy of them. The records of the Society of Friends at Portsmouth, Rhode Island have numerous entries respecting Thomas and Rebecca Cornell and their descendants.

"As some of the preceding statements with regard to Thomas' two residences in New Amsterdam have been questioned, it has seemed best to give here a letter written by Roger Williams which may be considered authority and throw some light on the subject.

"Letter of Roger Williams to the General Court of Massachusetts, October 5, 1654.

Published recently in the Newport Daily News.---

Not having liberty of taking step in your jurisdiction I was forced to repair unto the dutch, when mine eyes did see the first breaking forth of that Indian war, which the Dutch began, upon the slaughter of some Dutch by the Indians; peace which some offered to mediate, was foolish and odious to them. But before we weighed another their boundaries were flames. Dutch and English were slain. Mine eyes saw their flames at the town, and the flights and hurries of men, women and children, the present removal of all that could for Holland and after vast expenses and mutual slaughter of Dutch, English and Indians about four years, the Dutch were forced, to save their plantations from ruin, to make up a most worthy and dishonorable peace with the Indians.

It was in this war, in September, 1643 that Ann Hutchinson and 16 of her family were murdered by the Sewanoy Indians. Her daughter Susan, then eight years old, was carried into captivity, and four years afterwards was redeemed by the Dutch and returned to Rhode Island. The place were Mrs. Hutchinson was killed was long after known at Manhattan as Ann Hook's Neck,' since known as Pelham Manor. Nearby, at that time, there was a more numerous settlement of Rhode Islanders. John Throckmorton, who had been found worthy of excommunication with Roger Williams from the Salem Church, and who had accompanied Williams to Providence, had obtained a grant of half a league of land at what is now known as Throg's Neck'and he, with Thomas Cornell from Rhode Island, John Updike, afterwards changed to Opdyke,' and others, sought to establish a colony in the same neighborhood, but they were driven off by the Indians and went to Long Island, from whence, some of them seeing Mrs. Hutchinson's house on fire, crossed over in a boat to make an effort for her rescue. They succeeded in rescuing some persons, not of the Hutchinson family, but at the expense of the lives of two of their number. Throckmorton returned to Rhode Island, Opdyke went to New Jersey; while Cornell remained in New York, and the descendants of each of these persons have among them names which have attained to an enviable distinction.'

"1657 Dec 10 Rebecca Cornell, widow was granted 10 acres in lieu of 10 acres granted her husband. 1659 Rebecca Cornell deeded these 10 acres to her son and daughter Kent. 1661, April 30 Rebecca Cornell, widow and executrix of Thomas Cornell, sold Richard Hart for ?30, two parcels of land, containing 8 acres with house, fruit trees, etc. Confirmed by her son Thomas, 1663. 1663, October 25 Rebecca conveys to her son Joshua one sixth of a share of land at Coshena and Acookset (part of Dartmouth) in Plymouth Jurisdiction. This he conveyed November 21, 1664 to his brother Samuel, also 20 acres of land he bought of William Earle. July 27 she deeded (24) to eldest son Thomas, all her housing, orchard and fencing in Portsmouth. At her death she held Thomas' bond for ?100. 1669 she conveys to son Samuel land in Dartmouth, one sixth of a share (see No. 10). (It appears Rebecca had three-sixth (1/2) of a share; she conveyed to Samuel one-sixth, to Joshua, one-sixth and perhaps one-sixth to John, who lived in Dartmouth. Thomas she gave land in Portsmouth. Richard, her other son, had gone to Long Island 1656, and had probably received his patrimony.)

1673, February 8 Friends Records state Rebecca Cornell, widow, was killed strangely at Portsmouth in her own dwelling house, was twice viewed by the Coroner's Inquest and buried again by her husband's grave in their own land'.

May 25, her son Thomas was charged with murder, and after a trial that now reads like a farce, was convicted and executed. Among the witnesses of this rial were John Briggs (brother of Rebecca), Mary, wife of John Cornell (her son), Thomas Stephen, Edward and John, sons of Thomas (2), Rebecca Woolsey (her daughter), etc.

It appears that the old lady, having been sitting by the fire smoking a pipe, a coal had fallen from the fire on her pipe, and that she was burned to death. But on the strength of a vision which her brother John Briggs had, in which she appeared to him after her death, she said See how I was burned with fire.' It was inferred she was set fire to, and that her son who was last with her did it; and principally on this evidence Thomas Cornell was tried, convicted and hung for her murder. Durfee in his Legal Tracts of Rhode Island comments on the strangeness of this trial and the injustice of the execution. The writer of this remarked to a leading lawyer of Newport (who knows much of the history of Rhode Island) that there seemed very little evidence to convict this Thomas Cornell, the lawyer's answer was simply There was no evidence.'"

New York Genealogical and Biographical Record XXXI (1900): 180-181. By: Rev John Cornell A Cornell Corner. "The following are some inscriptions copied from the tombstones now standing in the Cornell Homestead Burial Plot at Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

"As will be seen, the oldest monument is 1740, and the inscription is still very distinct. The stone is of slate, which though seemingly the most perishable, is really the most enduring, remaining when the stone, marble and even granite perish in (181) this climate. There are stumps and remains of other tombstones in this family burial plot, and some still standing on which the inscriptions are entirely effaced. We have good reason to suppose that the Emigrant was buried in this place, for the Quaker Records state that Rebecca, his wife, was buried by her husband in their own ground'. This Cornell homestead was a grant to Thomas Cornell, February 4, 1646 and earlier than that of Cornell's Neck in Westchester County by Governor Kieft, which was dated July 14, 1646. This Thomas does not seem to have remained there long for he was driven away by the Indians, and returned to his former home in Portsmouth, where he lived, died and was buried. It may be of interest to know that he came from Essex County, England, to Boston about 1636, and in 1640 to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, closely following Roger Williams and Ann Hutchinson', a son of Ann Hutchinson. This Cornell homestead, which is about six miles from Newport, has been in the family ever since, and is now owned by the Rev. John Cornell, eighth in descent from Thomas."

History of the County of Westchester --- 1848. II:152-156. Cornell's Neck, New York. By: Robert Bolton

"The second grantee under the Dutch (in this town) was Thomas Cornhill or Cornell, who obtained the following grond brief' or grant in 1646.

We, William Kieft, Director-General, and the Council on behalf of the High and Mighty Lords, the States General of the United Netherlands, the Prince of Orange and the noble Lords, the Managers of the incorporated West India Company in New Netherlands residing, by these presents do publish and declare that we, on this day the date underwritten, have given and granted unto Thomas Cornell a certain piece of land lying on the East River, beginning from the Kill of Bronck's land, east south east along the river, extending a bout a half a Dutch mile from the river till to a little creek over the valley (marsh) which runds back round this land; with the express condition and terms that the said Thomas Cornell, or they who to his action hereafter may succeed, the Noble Lords the Managers aforesaid, shall acknowledge as their Lords and Patrons under the sovereignty of the High and Mighty Lords, the States General and until their Director and Council here shall in all things be confirmed as all good citizens are in duty bound, provided also that he shall be furthermore subject to all such burdens and imposts as by their noble Lords already have been anacted, or such as hereafter may yet be enacted constituting over the same the aforesaid Thomas Cornell in our stead in the real and actual possession of the aforesaid piece of land, giving him by these presents the full might, authority and special license, the aforesaid and piece to enter, cultivate, inhabit and occupy in like manner as he may lawfully do with other his patrimonial lands and effects, without our the grantors in the quality as aforesaid thereunto any longer having, receiving or saving any part, action or control whatever, but to the behoof as aforesaid for all destiny, for this time and forevermore, promising furthermore this their transport firmly, inviolably and irrevocably to maintain, fulfill and execute, and furthermore to do all that in equity we are bound to do without fraud or deceit, these presents only as undersigned and confirmed with our seal of red wax here underneath suspended.

Done in the Fort Amsterdam in New Netherlands, this 26th of July, 1649 undersigned William Kieft'

"Upon the death of Thomas Cornell, the neck became vested in his widow who conveyed the same to her eldest daughter, Sarah, the wife of Charles Bridges. (Most of pages 153-155 concerns details of Charles Bridges and Sarah, his wife, as plaintiffs against Thomas Pell defendant. The Bridges won.)

"In 1709 Col. Thomas Willett of Flushing, Long Island, conveyed to his eldest son, William Willett, all that certain parcel of land contained within (6 Col. Thomas Willett was the son of the Hon. Thomas Willett, first mayor of the city of New York, in 1665.) a neck, commonly called and known by the name of Cornell's Neck, bounded on the west by a certain rivulet that runds to the black rock and so into Bronx,Bronx Co., NY's river.

From William Willett, the neck passed to his brother Thomas Willett, who conveyed the same to his son William Willett.

The latter was father of Isaac Willett Esq., high sheriff of this county in 1738. Cornell's neck is now (1848) owned by the family of Ludlow, Clason and Beach." (Sarah Cornell who m. (2) Charles Bridges, m. (1) Thomas Willett hence the Willett's interest in Cornell's Neck.)

Left England to come to Boston with the second Winthrop Expedition (and his wife) in 1636. With his family, had immigrated to America several years before from the Shire of Essex in England. They had acquired from the Indians a tract lying just east of the Bronx River. Here he established a plantation, which with those of his neighbors, Jonas Bronck and Edward Jessup, formed the outposts of civilization, near New Amersterdam along the East River. Thomas Cornell's tract soon took the name of Cornell's Neck, and his farmhouse was situated nearly two miles southeast of the present village of West Farms.

source - http://www.scribd.com/doc/300853/Willett-Family-History?query2=the%20willett's%20in%20england, p. 2 last paragraph

A. Cornell, Rev. John Genealogy of the Cornell Family.

FIRST GENERATION

"Thomas Cornell, born about 1595 in Co Essex, England*, (*He was from Essex as his daughter Sarah is so described in her marriage record.) married Rebecca Briggs (sister of John Briggs); died about 1655; she was born 1600; February 8, 1673 died aged about 73 years. Children:

• 1. Thomas, died May 23, 1673; married (1) ---; (2) Sarah Earle.
• 2. Sarah, married (1) 1 Sep 1643, Thomas Willett; (2) 5 Nov 1647 Charles Bridges; (3) John Lawrence, Jr., Marriage license 20 Nov 1682.
• 3. Rebecca, buried February 5, 1713; aged 91 (Onderdonck say aged 93); married 9 Dec 1647, George Woolsey.
• 4. Ann married Thomas Kent.
• 5. Richard, died 1694; married Elizabeth.
• 6. John, died 1704; married Mary Russell; lived at Cow Neck, Long Island.
• 7. Joshua. His mother conveyed to him, 21 Oct 1664, land in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which he conveyed, 21 Nov 1664 to Samuel Cornell. No further account of him.
• 8. Elizabeth, married Christopher Almy of Newport, Rhode Island.
• 9. Samuel, died 1715 (will proved).

"Thomas Cornell came to America about 1638, with his wife and most, if not all, of his children. He is first found in Boston, where by a vote of the Town Meeting, 20 Aug 1638, he is permitted to buy 'William Baulstone's house, yard, and garden, backside of Mr. Coddington, and to become an inhabitant.' This property was situated in Washington Street, between Summer and Milk Streets (see map). He sold it in 1643 to Edward Tyng, who had a warehouse and brew house, and constructed a deal there 6 Sep 1638.

'Thomas Cornhill ws licensed upon tryal to keepe an inn in the room of Will Baulstone till the next General Court 4 Jun 1639'; he 'was fined £30 for several offenses selling wine without license and (18) beare at 2d a quart.'

(*General Court held at Newtone, 2.9 m. in 1637. It shall not be lawful for any person that shall keepe any such inn or common victualling house to sell or have in their houses any wine or strong waters, nor any beare or other drinke other than such as may and shall be souled for 1d the quart at the most.' This law was repealed 23 May 1639. Thomas Litchfield's note book contains a copy of Thomas Cornell, setting forth that in the winter time, he had much less by his small beare which he was at cost to preserve from the frost, by fire, that he was ignorant of the law, is sorry for his offenses, and that he hath not been heretofore accustomed to such housekeeping, wherefore he prays for a remission of his fine.)

Two days later he was abated £10 of his fine and allowed a month to sell off his ware which is upon his hand and then to cease keeping intertainment and the town to furnish another.'

"The Antionomians were great disturbers of the religious peace of the people of Boston, and in 1637 Ann Hutchinson and her adherents were expelled from the Colony. Among them we do not find the name of Thomas Cornell, whose vocation as an innkeeper perhaps saved him from doctrinal errors, but among the obnoxious ones were his neighbors, Baulstone and Coddington, and his brother-in-law, John Briggs. By the advice of Roger Williams, then settled at Providence, the exiles purchased, March 28, 1638, from the Indians Cannonicus and Miantonomi, the island on which Newport now stands, and on the north end of that island on which they began a settlement to which they gave the name of Portsmouth. Thomas Cornell arrived two years later and was admitted freeman of Portsmouth 6 Aug 1640. 4 Feb 1641 a piece of meadow' was granted him to be fenced in at his own cost. The same year he was made constable, and the following year ensign (name spelt Cornill). At the same time, Richard Morris was elected captain and Mrs. Baulstone lieutenant. Some suppose this last office to have been held by his son Thomas, as the father may have been in New Amsterdam at that time.

In the autumn, 1642, he went to New Amsterdam, and it has been supposed that Roger Williams and John Trockmorton went with him, and for this reason: the fugitives from Boston, who joined Roger Williams had formed a sort of colony in Rhode Island, but it was only a self-created government or squatter sovereignity that they had, and it was thought best by them in 1646, that Roger Williams should go to England and obtain a royal charter for his colony.

He could not sail (19) from Boston (which would be the nearest port) because he was banished from Massachusetts, so he went to New Amsterdam for that purpose as the Dutch were more tolerant. There was not (as today) many steamers departing every week for England from that port and he did not embark until June 1643.

We know, moreover, that he went to England then, and obtained a charter for his colony and returned. Roger Williams, Throckmorton and Cornell seem to have been much associated together and friends, and this has led to the supposition that they may have come from England in the same ship; at nay rate we know Roger Williams and Throckmorton did.* About a year after Thomas Cornell's arrival in New Amsterdam, Governor Winthrop reports *Mr. Throckmorton and Mr. Cornell' established with buildings, etc., on neighboring plantations under the Dutch. On 2 Oct 1642, the local Dutch government granted him permission with his associated (thirty-five families) to settle 'within the limits of the jurisdiction of their mightinesses to reside there in peace' (this was eleven miles from New Amsterdam).

After this general license to settle, Cornell and Throckmorton made examination of the territory, procured a survey and map, and on 6 Jul 1643 Governor Kieft granted to John Throckmorton for himself and his associates, a tract of land in what is now the town of Westchester (see map).

A serious Indian war, though of short duration, was caused by Governor Kieft's unwise attack upon two neighboring camps of Indians on the night between 25 and 26 Feb 1643, and in retaliation the Indians within the following month or two destroyed many of the white settlers outside of the city; and many others, who escaped fled panic stricken to New Amsterdam. Roger Williams says: Mine eyes saw the flames of these towns, the flights and hurrying of men, women, and children and the present removal (20) of all that could to Holland.'

Governor Winthrop says By the mediation of Mr. Williams who was then there to go in a Dutch ship to England the Indians were pacified and peace reestablished between the Dutch and them.' Cornell and Throckmorton who were probably in New Amsterdam City limits at that time, escaped, but Mrs. Hutchinson, whose residence was near Throckmorton's, was killed. For, says Governor Winthrop of this event, under the date of September 1645, The Indians set upon the English who dwelt under the Dutch. They came to Mrs. Hutchinson in way of friendly neighborhood, as they had been accustomed to, and taking their opportunity, they killed her and Mr. Colvin, her son-in-law, and all of her family and such of Mr. Throckmorton's and Mr. Cornell's families as were at home, in all sixteen, and put their cattle into their barns and burned them'. He also adds 'These people had cast off ordinances and churches, and now at last their own people, and for larger accomodation had subjected themselves to the Dutch, and dwelt acatteringly near a mile asunder.' Some that escaped the Indian attack went back to Rhode Island.

Thomas Cornell it appears during these troubleous times, returned to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and secured a grant of land from that town, 29 Aug 1644, in company with Mr. Brenton and Mr. Baulstone. Butting on Mr. Porter's round meadow', and on 4 Feb 1646, a grant of 100 acres was made to Thomas Cornell by the town of Portsmouth on the south side of the Wading River and so as to run from the river towards the land that was laid out to Edward Hutchinson' (a son of Ann Hutchinson). This may be considered the original Homestead of the Cornell family. Previous grants were made to him in company with other parties and as we will see the grant of Cornell's Neck was later. This land or the part on which the house and burial plot are situated has never been out of the family.

In September, 1894, Rev. John Cornell (the writer of this) purchased from Mrs. Ellen Grinnell (Cornell) Smith and others about 80 acres of this grant, and in 1902, 45 acres more; a house has been erected in colonial style on the site of the one that was destroyed by fire, 21 Dec 1889, and somewhat on its old plan, (21) that is, the plan which it is understood to have had before it was modernized about 50 years before its destruction.

After the restoration of peace in New Netherlands, brought about by the mediation of Roger Williams, Thomas Cornell returned to the Dutch Colony, but not, it seems, to restore and rebuild what had been destroyed of his property on Throgg's Neck. But he asked for a tract adjacent, fronting on the south and west of that of Throckmorton, from which it was separated on the shore by the mouth of Westchester Creek, and extending thence about wo miles on the Long Island Sound to the Bronx River and extending back two miles or more from the Sound to the westerly edge of the present village of Westchester, formerly and even now known as Cornell's Neck; this estate was granted by Governor William Kieft to Thomas Cornell by patent, dated July 25, 1646 (see appendix and map). This was only the third private grant of land of which there is any record in Westchester County.

Jonas Bronck in 1637, and Throckmorton in 1642, being previous, and possibly Adrian Van der Donk in 1642. Thus he was there four years prior to Adrian Van der Donk at Yonkers in 1646. Thirty-five years before Col. Stephanus Van Cortland, in 1677, obtained from Governor Andros permission to make his first purchase of lands from the Indians, in Westchester County, nearly forty years earlier than the first acquisition of Westchester lands by Frederick Phillipse within the present towns of Greenburgh and Mt. Pleasant in 1681 and thirty years before his first interest in Yonkers, 1672, and fifteen years before the great grandfather of the illustrious George Washington first settled in Virginia in 1657.

"Cornell's Neck was within the limits of Greater New York. After the death of Mr. Cornell, Thomas Pell set up a counter claim to the land and litigation issued between him and Sarah Bridges, in the course of which it appeared in evidence that Thomas Cornell had been at considerable charge in building, manuring and planting, that he was after several years driven off by the barbarous violence of the Indians, who burned his (22) house and destroyed his cattle, that the widow Cornell, sole executrix of the last will and testament of her husband (although neither the will nor a copy was produced), conveyed the land to Sarah Bridges and her sister. The litigatin established the validity of the Cornell title and Sarah Bridges was put in possession of the land. A new patent was issued April 15, 1667, for Cornell's Neck' setting forth the fact that Thomas Cornell's interest devolved long since on Sarah Bridges, one of the daughters of Thomas Cornell deceased, and that said Sarah had conveyed her interest by heed to William Willett, her eldest son, to whom the new patent was issued (see appendix).

The history of this grant and of the litigation respecting it is given at ength with the documents in Bolton's History of Westcheser County. Thus we infer that after several years residence in Cornell's Neck, perhaps nine years, Thomas Cornell was again driven by the Indians from his property in New Netherlands, and returned to his homestead at Portsmouth, where he lived and died, and was buried. For we find a record of him as serving on a coroner's jury in 1653, and in 1654 Thomas Cornell was one of the commissioners of Ye foure-towns upon ye re-writing of ye Colonie of Providence Plantations.' He probably died the following year.

"As an old memorandum made by Stephen B. Cornell of Portsmouth about the beginning of the last century, and still preserved in the family, states that Thomas Cornell, by will dated December 5, 1651, gave to his wife Rebecca all his real estate, also that Rebecca, by will dated September 2, 1664 gave to her son Thomas all her land lying on the west side of Rhode Island and lying between the farms of Thomas Hazard and John Coggeshall. Neither of these wills is known to be now in existence nor any copy of them. The records of the Society of Friends at Portsmouth, Rhode Island have numerous entries respecting Thomas and Rebecca Cornell and their descendants.

"As some of the preceding statements with regard to Thomas' two residences in New Amsterdam have been questioned, it has seemed best to give here a letter written by Roger Williams which may be considered authority and throw some light on the subject.

"Letter of Roger Williams to the General Court of Massachusetts,

October 5, 1654. Published recently in the Newport Daily News.---

Not having liberty of taking step in your jurisdiction I was forced to repair unto the dutch, when mine eyes did see the first breaking forth of that Indian war, which the Dutch began, upon the slaughter of some Dutch by the Indians; peace which some offered to mediate, was foolish and odious to them. But before we weighed another their boundaries were flames. Dutch and English were slain. Mine eyes saw their flames at the town, and the flights and hurries of men, women and children, the present removal of all that could for Holland and after vast expenses and mutual slaughter of Dutch, English and Indians about four years, the Dutch were forced, to save their plantations from ruin, to make up a most worthy and dishonorable peace with the Indians'.

It was in this war, in September, 1643 that Ann Hutchinson and 16 of her family were murdered by the Sewanoy Indians. Her daughter Susan, then eight years old, was carried into captivity, and four years afterwards was redeemed by the Dutch and returned to Rhode Island. The place were Mrs. Hutchinson ws killed was long after known at Manhattan as Ann Hook's Neck,' since known as Pelham Manor. Nearby, at that time, there was a more numerous settlement of Rhode Islanders. John Throckmorton, who had been found worthy of excommunication with Roger Williams from the Salem Church, and who had accompanied Williams to Providence, had obtained a grant of half a league of land at what is now known as Throg's Neck' and he, with Thomas Cornell from Rhode Island, John Updike, afterwards changed to Opdyke,' and others, sought to establish a colony in the same neighborhood, but they were driven off by the Indians and went to Long Island, from whence, some of them seeing Mrs. Hutchinson's house on fire, crossed over in a boat to make an effort for her rescue. They succeeded in rescuing some persons, not of the Hutchinson family, but at the expense of the lives of two of their number. Throckmorton returned to Rhode Island, Opdyke went to New Jersey; while Cornell remained in New York, and the descendants of each of these persons have among them names which have attained to an enviable distinction.'

"1657 Dec 10 Rebecca Cornell, widow was granted 10 acres in lieu of 10 acres granted her husband. 1659 Rebecca Cornell deeded these 10 acres to her son and daughter Kent. 1661, April 30 Rebecca Cornell, widow and executrix of Thomas Cornell, sold Richard Hart for £30, two parcels of land, containing 8 acres with house, fruit trees, etc. Confirmed by her son Thomas, 1663.

1663 Oct 25 Rebecca conveys to her son Joshua one sixth of a share of land at Coshena and Acookset (part of Dartmouth) in Plymouth Jurisdiction. This he conveyed 21 Nov 1664 to his brother Samuel, also 20 acres of land he bought of William Earle. July 27 she deeded (24) to eldest son Thomas, all her housing, orchard and fencing in Portsmouth. At her death she held Thomas' bond for £100. 1669 she conveys to son Samuel land in Dartmouth, one sixth of a share* (see No. 10). (*It appears Rebecca had three-sixth (1/2) of a share; she conveyed to Samnuel one-sixth, to Joshua, one-sixth and perhaps one-sixth to John, who lived in Dartmouth. Thomas she gave land in Portsmouth. Richard, her other son, had gone to Long Island 1656, and had probably received his patrimony.)

1673 Feb 8 Friends Records state Rebecca Cornell, widow, was killed strangely at Portsmouth in her own dwelling house, was twice viewed by the Coroner's Inquest and buried again by her husband's grave in their own land'. May 25, her son Thomas ws charged with murder, and after a trial that now reads like a farce, was convicted and executed. Among the witnesses of this rial were John Briggs (brother of Rebecca), Mary, wife of John Cornell (her son), Thomas Stephen, Edward and John, sons of Thomas2, Rebecca Woolsey (her daughter), etc.

It appears that the old lady, having been sitting by the fire smoking a pipe, a coal had fallen from the fire on her pipe, and that she was burned to death. But on the strength of a vision which her brother John Briggs had, in which she appeared to him after her death, she said See how I was burned with fire.' It was inferred she was set fire to, and that her son who was last with her did it; and principally on this evidence Thomas Cornell was tried, convicted and hung for her murder. Durfee in his Legal Tracts of Rhode Island comments on the strangeness of this trial and the injustice of the execution.

The writer of this remarked to a leading lawyer of Newport (who knows much of the history of Rhode Island) that there seemed very little evidence to convict this Thomas Cornell, the lawyer's answer was simply There was no evidence.'"

He and Rebecca Briggs immigrated circa 1638 to Boston, MA. He resided in 1638 at Boston, MA. He resided in 1640 at Portsmouth, RI. He resided in 1642 at New Amsterdam. He resided in 1644 at Portsmouth, RI. He resided in 1646 at Cornell's Neck, NY.

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~marshall/esmd296.htm

Genealogy of the Cornell Family.

By: T.A. Wright, New York, 1902, 468 pp (17-24)

Thomas Cornell

The Cornell Emigrant of England

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

B. Cornell, Rev. John. New York Genealogical and Biographical Record XXXI (1900): 180-181. A Cornell Corner.

"The following are some inscriptions copied from the tombstones now standing in the Cornell Homestead Burial Plot at Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

--- (11 individuals omitted)

"As will be seen, the oldest monument is 1740, and the inscription is still very distinct. The stone is of slate, which though seemingly the most perishable, is really the most enduring, remaining when the stone, marble and even granite perish in (181) this climate. There are stumps and remains of other tombstnes in this family burial plot, and some still standing on which the inscriptions are entirely effaced.

We have good reason to suppose that the Emigrant was burined in this place, for the Quaker Records state that Rebecca, his wife, was buried by her husband in their own ground'. This Cornell homestead was a grant to Thomas Cornell, 4 Feb 1646 and earlier than that of Cornell's Neck in Westchester County by Governor Kieft, which was dated 14 Jul 1646.

This Thomas does not seem to have remained there long for he was driven away by the Indians, and returned to his former home in Portsmouth, where he lived, died and was buried. It may be of interest to know that he came from Essex County, England, to Boston about 1636, and in 1640 to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, closely following Roger Williams and Ann Hutchinson', a son of Ann Hutchinson. This Cornell homestead, which is about six miles from Newport, has been in the family ever since, and is now owned by the Rev. John Cornell, eighth in descent from Thomas."

C. Bolton, Robert. History of the County of Westchester --- 1848. II:152-156. Cornell's Neck, New York.

"The second grantee under the Dutch (in this town) was Thomas Cornhill or Cornell, who obtained the following grond brief' or grant in 1646.

We, William Kieft, Director-General, and the Council on behalf of the High and Mighty Lords, the States General of the United Netherlands, the Prince of Orange and the noble Lords, the Managers of the incorporated West India Company in New Netherlands residing, by these presents do publish and declare that we, on this day the date underwritten, have given and granted unto Thomas Cornell a certain piece of land lying on the East River, beginning from the Kill of Bronck's land, east south east along the river, extending a bout a half a Dutch mile from the river till to a little creek over the valley (marsh) which runds back round this land; with the express condition and terms tha tthe said Thomas Cornell, or they who to his action hereafter may succeed, the Noble Lords the Managers aforesaid, shall acknowledge as their Lords and Patrons under the sovereigbnty of the High and Mighty Lords, the States General and until their Director and Council here shall in all things be confirmed as all good citizens are in duty bound, provided also that he shall be furthermore subject to all such burdens and imposts as by their noble Lords already have been anacted, or such as hereafter may yet be enacted constituting over the same the aforesaid Thomas Cornell in our stead in the real and actual possession of the aforesaid piece of land, giving him by these presents the full might, authority and special license, the aforesaid and piece to enter, cultivate, inhabit and occupy in like manner as he may lawfully do with other his patrimonial lands and effects, without our the grantors in the quality as aforesaid thereunto any longer having, receiving or saving any part, action or control whatever, but to the behoof as aforesaid for all destiny, for this time and forevermore, promising furthermore this their transport firmly, inviolably and irevocably to maintain, fulfill and execute, and furthermore to do all that in equity we are gound to do without fraud or deceit, these presents only as undersigned and confirmed with our seal of red wax here underneath suspended.

Done in the Fort Amsterdam in New Netherlands, this 26th of July, 1649 undersigned --- William Kieft'

"Upon the death of Thomas Cornell, the neck became vested in his widow who conveyed the same to her eldest daughter, Sarah, the wife of Charles Bridges.

(Most of pages 153-155 concerns details of Charles Bridges and Sarah, his wife, as plaintiffs against Thomas Pell defendant. The Bridges won.)

"In 1709 Col. Thomas Wilett6 of Flushing, Long Island, conveyed to his eldest son, William Willet1, all that certain parcel of land contained within (6 Col. Thomas Willett was the son of the Hon. Thomas Willett, first mayor of the city of New York, in 1665.) a neck, commonly called and known by the name of Cornell's Neck, bounded on the west by a certain rivulet that runds to the black rock and so into Bronx's river. From William Willett, the neck passed to his brother Thomas Willett, who conveyed the same to his son William Willett. The latter was father of Isaac Willett Esq., high sheriff of this county in 1738. Cornell's neck is now (1848) owned by the family of Ludlow, Clason and Beach."

(Sarah Cornell who m. (2) Charles Bridges, m. (1) Thomas Willett hence the Willett's interest in Cornell's Neck.)

D. West, Edward H. History of Portsmouth 1638-1936: 37-38.

Thomas Cornell was licensed to keep an Inn in Boston in 1638 and came to Portsmouth about 1641. He served as Commissioner for one yer and died in 1657.

He had a small tract on Common Fence Point, another on the East Road, south of Richard Borden's, but his large tract was south of Wading River, part of it being what we now call Lawton's Valley, a piece of which is still owned by a descendant. His widow was granted land north of Union Street.

E. Savage, J. Genealogical Dictionary of First Settlers of New England. Boston, 1860, Vol. I:458.

We feel that his note is uncalled for by Savage.

"Thomas, Boston 1639 rem. to Portsmouth, Rhode Island 1654, or earlier, was freeman there 1655, perhaps had Thomas Jr. of wh. perhaps that he was hang for murder of his mo., is all that is now wish. to be kn."

F. Bowen, R.L. Early Rehoboth. Rehoboth, Mass., 1948, III:136, 138.

"John Throckmorton of Providence excommunicated with Roger Williams from the Salem Church, had obtained from the Dutch a grant for Throckmortons Neck (in Westchester) and, with Ensign Thomas Cornell from Portsmouth, John Updike and others sought to establish a plantation." Ann Hutchinson also banished from Massachusetts Bay also adjoined Throckmorton. All three more or less adjoined.

Rebecca Briggs

Rebecca Briggs m. Thomas1 Cornell

G. West, Edward H. History of Portsmouth 1638-1936: The Government: 17, 18.

We should not forget the case of Rebecca Cornell, who was burned to death in 1673. Her son, Thomas Cornell [see Thomas's Testimony], ws found guilty of murdering his mother, principally on the testimony of John Briggs, brother of Rebecca, who claimed that his sister had appeared to him in a dream, shown him her burns and accused her son Thomas of causing her death. As all testimony is in the Court records, no one believes, on reading it, that Thomas was guilty, but that his mother had set herself on fire with her pipe. However, the Court found him guilty and Thomas Cornell was hanged.

H. Arnold, J.N. Vital Record of Rhode Island 1636-1850, Vol VII Friends and Ministers: 96.

Deaths

"Cornell, Rebecca, widow, Portsmouth, killed strangely at her own house, 8 Feb 1672."

John Briggs

Notwithstanding John Briggs came to have a prominent place in his community, his testimony against his nephew Thomas2 Cornell, husband of his sister Rebecca, eliminates him from extended attention. He lived in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and had six children, - John, Thomas, William, Susanna, Job and Enoch. Some of them lived in Portsmouth, Tiverton, Little Compton, Rhode Island and Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

In John Osborne Austin's The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, Albany, 1887, we have this note: "February 20 he testified calling himself sixty-four years or thereabouts in the trial of Thomas Cornell. He had a dream and saw a woman at his bedside "whereat he was much affrighted and cryed out, in the name of God, what art thou!" The apparation answered I am your sister Cornell' and twice said see how I was burnt with fire!'

To mention sentencing any man to be hanged on dream evidence would cause any lawyer of any subsequent period in U.S.A. to express amazing horror and unbelief of its happening. We therefore dismiss John Briggs.

From http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bobwolfe/gen/mn/m5037x5040.htm :

Thomas Cornell came to America about 1638 with his wife and most, if not all, of his children. Boston, 1638, bought property on Washington Street between Sumer and Milk Streets. Admitted freeman of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 6 Aug 1640. Constable, 1641. Went to New Amsterdam in autumn, 1642, likely with Roger Williams and John Throckmorton. Returned to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1644, received grant of land on the south side of the Wading River, running from the river towards the land that was laid out to Edward Hutchinson, son of the late Ann Hutchinson. Returned to New Netherland, granted estate "Cornell's Neck" by Gov. William Kieft, 25 Jul 1646, on Long Island Sound in Westchester Co, now New York. Returned to Portsmouth, Rhode Island by 1653. Thomas resided at Boston, Massachusetts, then in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, then in Cornell's Neck, New Amsterdam (now Westchester County, New York), then Portsmouth again. [1]

1638 August 20 "It was voted at town meeting in Boston that Thomas Cornell be permitted 'to buy William Baulstone's house, yard and garden, backside of Mr. Coddington, and to become an inhabitant.'" [2]

1638 September 6 "Thomas Cornell 'was licensed upon tryal to keepe an inn in the room of Will Baulston till the next general court.'" [3]

1639 June 4 Thomas "was fined £30 'for several offences, selling wine without license and beer at two pence a quart.' Thomas explained that 'in the winter time he had much loss by his small beer which he was at cost to preserve from frost by fire,' which was the reason presumably why he put more alcohol in it and sold it at double the lawful price. He also pleaded ignorance of the law, said he was sorry for his offences, and asked for a remission of the fine. He was, two days later, abated £10 of his fine and given a month to close up his business and 'cease from keeping entertainment.' [His house] was located on the east side of Washington Street, about half way between Summer Street and Milk Street. [His neighbor William] Coddington, who was a distinguished and highly respected leader in the earlier days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was one of the central figures of the dramatic history of the [Antinomianism] controversy. Baulstone, who was Thomas Cornell's predecessor as an innkeeper, was also an obnoxious person to the orthodox church. Cornell's brother in law, John Briggs ... was a somewhat prominent Hutchinsonite. Anne Hutchinson ... was indicted, solemnly tried, excommunicated and exiled... She and her followers applied to the Plymouth authorities for a place of refuge, but were refused. It was Roger Williams who suggested that they come to Rhode Island. Mr. Coddington and other prominent members of the Antinomians purchased in 1637 from Canonicus and Miantonomi, Indian chiefs, the island of Aquidneck. The consideration paid was forty fathoms of white peag (wampum) and ten coats and twenty hoes. On this island was started the settlement called Portsmouth ... The compact which served as a basis of their future government was signed March 7, 1638, probably in Boston." [4]

1640 "Whether Thomas Cornell went with the exiles from Massachusetts at their first removal is not clear. He was living in Portsmouth in 1640, and in that year admitted as a freeman. It was not until three years later that he sold his Boston house. It is probable that his experience in being practically driven from his home was similar to that of his friend William Coddington, who left his 'brick house,' the first brick house ever built in Boston, and went into the wilderness. Coddington wrote to John Winthrop 'what myself and wife and family did endure in that removal I wish neither you nor yours may ever be put unto.'" [5]

1640 "At a town meeting, the 26tli of Aprill, for ye town of Portsmouth, held at Mr. Marlbourn's." ... "Mr. Cornell, [will lend] one goat." [6]

1640 "At a meeting, the 4th of the 12th month, 1640." ... "It is ordered, that Mr. Balston, Mr. Cornell, and [have] a piece of meddow in the common fence on the south side of ... . they fence it in at their own cost." [7]

1641 "Thomas Cornell with his family probably lived for a year or two near the newly started settlement of Portsmouth, at the upper end of the island. In 1641, 'a piece of meadow' was granted him there. He acted as Constable during the same year, and also as 'Ensign.' He was doubtless one of those who were visited by a delegation of the Boston Church to require them to explain 'their unwarrantable practice in communicating with excommunicated persons,' meaning ... Anne Hutchinson." [8]

1641 "The Court Roll of Freemen, with the officers, as they were Elected on the 16th of March, 1641." ... [list] "Mr. Cornell, Cons' t," "Thomas Cornell are chosen constables of Portsmouth" [9]

1642 "There can be no question that he was loyal to the distinguished exile, since after the death of her husband in 1642 he and his family went with her to Manhattan and there again attempted to start a settlement. It was in the autumn of 1642 that Anne Hutchinson, Thomas Cornell, John Throckmorton, and others with their families, removed to Manhattan 'neare a place called by seamen Hell Gate,' a designation which seemed most appropriate to the Boston divines. Governor Winthrop was evidently interested in following their fortunes since in 1642 he notes, 'Mr. Throckmorton and Mr. Cornell, established with buildings, etc., in neighboring plantations under the Dutch.' The Dutch government, in fact, granted Thomas Cornell and his associates some thirty-five families in all, permission to settle 'within the limits of the jurisdiction of their High Mightinesses to reside there in peace.' In 1643, Cornell and Throckmorton procured a survey and map of the country they had taken up which was about eleven miles from New Amsterdam. This new settlement was rudely shattered by the Indians during the same year. Governor Winthrop writes, June, 1643, 'The Indians set upon the English who dwelt under the Dutch. They came to Mrs. Hutchinson in a way of friendly neighborhood as they had been accustomed, and taking their opportunity, killed her and Mr. Collins, her son in law, and all of her family and such of Mr. Throckmorton's and Mr. Cornell's families as were at home, in all sixteen, and put their cattle into their barns and burned them." [10]

1644 "The terrible experience of this Indian massacre, and the death of Mrs. Hutchinson very naturally caused some of her co-settlers to return to Rhode Island. Thomas Cornell was one of these. He went back to Portsmouth. In 1644, he secured a grant of land from the town 'butting on Mr. Porter's round meadow.' In 1646 he received a grant of one hundred acres on the Narragansett Bay side of the island, near the farm occupied in later years by the illustrious Ward McAllister of the 'four hundred.' This tract has always been in the possession of the Cornell family and is now the property of the Rev. John Cornell, to whose admirably prepared genealogical notes on the Cornell family I am indebted for much of the information which I here set down." [11]

1644 "at a towne meeting this 29th of August, 1644." ... "It is further ordered, that Mr. Brenton, Mr. Baulston, Mr. Cornell, have [a certain] parsell of lande butting upon Mr. Porter's round meadow" [12]

1646 "At a meeting, February the 4th, 1646." ... "it is granted to Mr. Thomas Cornell a hundred acres of lande at the further syde of Wading river ; and so rune from the river towards that lande that was layed out to Edward Hutchinson." [13]

1646 "Notwithstanding this grant of a hundred acres in Portsmouth, in 1646 Thomas Cornell returned to New Amsterdam. He did not attempt to rebuild his property on Throgg's Neck, near Hell Gate, which the Indians had burned, but procured a grant near his friend Throckmorton, at a place which has since been called Cornell's Neck. Here he settled, and several of his descendants 'sat down' at Rockaway and other places in Long Island and in Westchester County, and were the ancestors of the many Cornells who have helped in the upbuilding of the state of New York, among whom is Ezra Cornell, the founder of Cornell University." [14]

1654 An agreement about government of Rhode Island was signed: "In confirmation hereof, we, ye commissioners above premised, have sett to our hands, namely :" [list] Portsmouth, Thomas Cornell. [15]

1654 "The Court of Commissioners and election held at Warwicke if 12th of September, 1654." [list] Portsmouth. Thomas Cornell. [16]

1656 "Thomas Cornell, when he came back to Portsmouth the second time, took up the life of a public spirited citizen, his name appearing upon the records of Portsmouth as serving in various capacities. He died, about the year 1656, at the age of sixty." [17]

Footnotes

• [1] John Cornell, Genealogy of the Cornell Family, (New York: 1902), 17-24
• [2] Henry Howland Crapo, Certain Comeoverers, 2 vol. (New Bedford, Mass., 1912), 1:235-241
• [3] Henry Howland Crapo, Certain Comeoverers, 2 vol. (New Bedford, Mass., 1912), 1:235-241
• [4] Henry Howland Crapo, Certain Comeoverers, 2 vol. (New Bedford, Mass., 1912), 1:235-241
• [5] Henry Howland Crapo, Certain Comeoverers, 2 vol. (New Bedford, Mass., 1912), 1:235-241
• [6] John Russell Bartlett. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, Vol 1, 1636-1663 (1856), 75
• [7] John Russell Bartlett. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, Vol 1, 1636-1663 (1856), 76
• [8] Henry Howland Crapo, Certain Comeoverers, 2 vol. (New Bedford, Mass., 1912), 1:235-241
• [9] John Russell Bartlett. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, Vol 1, 1636-1663 (1856), 110,112
• [10] Henry Howland Crapo, Certain Comeoverers, 2 vol. (New Bedford, Mass., 1912), 1:235-241
• [11] Henry Howland Crapo, Certain Comeoverers, 2 vol. (New Bedford, Mass., 1912), 1:235-241
• [12] John Russell Bartlett. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, Vol 1, 1636-1663 (1856), 81
• [13] John Russell Bartlett. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, Vol 1, 1636-1663 (1856), 84
• [14] Henry Howland Crapo, Certain Comeoverers, 2 vol. (New Bedford, Mass., 1912), 1:235-241
• [15] John Russell Bartlett. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, Vol 1, 1636-1663 (1856), 277
• [16] John Russell Bartlett. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, Vol 1, 1636-1663 (1856), 281
• [17] Henry Howland Crapo, Certain Comeoverers, 2 vol. (New Bedford, Mass., 1912), 1:235-241

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Thomas was a son of Mary and Richard Cornell. His siblings were: Daniel, Samuel and Sarah.

According to several biographical records and genealogical records, Thomas Cornell came to the Americas around 1636 with his wife, Rebecca Briggs, and many of their children. There are many discrepancies about the number and names of the children. I have tried to access LDS records for this data. They settled first in Boston, then Portsmouth, New Amsterdam, and back to Portsmouth. Thomas was an Innkeeper and was charged, at least once, with selling wine without a license. His wife's brother was one of the Antinomian followers, led by Ann Hutchinson, and were run out of Boston during the time. Thomas moved along with his family to RI where they started the settlement of Portsmouth for religious freedom.

One son, gained notoriety through an infamous murder mystery. He was found guilty of murdering his mother and was hanged for it. However, the murder was never really solved. You can read about it all in the book "Killed strangely: The story of Rebecca Cornell, by Elaine Forham Crane. A local record of the account, "Rebecca Cornell, widow, was killed strangely at Portsmouth in her own dwelling house, and twice viewed by the Coroner's Inquest, digged up and buried again by her husband's grave in their own land.' On May 23 her son Thomas was charged with murder. John Cornell, in his Genealogy of the Cornell Family, wrote that the trial "reads like a farce. It appears that the old lady having been sitting by the fire smoking a pipe, a coal had fallen from the fire or her pipe, and that she was burned to death. But on the strength of a vision which her brother John Briggs had, in which she appeared to him after her death and said: ‘See how I was burned with fire.' It was inferred that she was set fire to, and that her son who was last with her did it, and principally on this evidence Thomas Cornell was tried, convicted and hung for her murder...."

One of the descendents of this Cornell line? Lizzie Borden.

Her will mentions their children: Thomas, Richard, William, John, Samuel, Joshua, Sarah, Ann, Rebecca, elizabeth and Mary.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=44277078&ref=wvr Birth: 1595 Death: 1655

Rev. John Cornell["A Cornell Corner"1900] relates:"We have good reason to suppose that the Emigrant(Thomas) was buried in this place". Emigrated from County Essex, England about 1638. He and Rebecca had nine children.

birth & death years are estim.

Burial: Thomas Cornell Lot Portsmouth Newport County Rhode Island, USA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cornell_%28settler%29 Bronx and a contemporary of Roger Williams and the family of Anne Hutchinson. He is the ancestor of a number of Americans prominent in business, politics, and education.

Thomas Cornell born about 1595 in Essex, England and died in Portsmouth, RI in 1655. He married Rebecca Briggs, born in 1600, in about 1620. Their eldest son also named Thomas Cornell (Jr.) was born October, 1627 in Saffron Walden, Essex, England. Thomas Cornell and his family immigrated from England to Boston in 1638 when their eldest son Thomas Cornell (Jr.) would have been age 11.

Thomas Cornell was an innkeeper in Boston who was part of the Peripheral Group in the Antinomian Controversy, a religious and political conflict in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638.[1] Cornell sold his inn in 1643 and left for Rhode Island, where others from the Antinomian Controversy had settled in 1638 after being ordered to leave the Massachusetts Bay Colony.[2]

Cornell became friends with Roger Williams and co-founded the village of Westchester north of New Amsterdam (later New York City) in 1643. He returned to Rhode Island in 1644 and obtained a land grant for 100 acres in Portsmouth, RI on Aquidneck Island that became the Cornell homestead. His neighbor was Edward Hutchison, a son of Anne Hutchison from the Antinomian Controversy.[2]

In 1646, Cornell was granted a patent on an area of about four square miles that later became part of the Bronx. It was bounded by Westchester Creek, Bronx River, village of Westchester and East River and was called Cornell's Neck. The area is now known as Clason Point.[2]

Thomas Cornell is an ancestor to a number of prominent and notorious Americans, including Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University, Bill Gates, Presidents Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon, Senator Bob Graham, Daniel Webster, Secretary of State John Kerry, Amelia Earhardt and axe murderer Lizzie Borden by way of Thomas Cornell (Jr.)'s daughter, Innocent, born after his death to his second wife Sarah Earle Cornell.[5]

Thomas Cornell (Jr.) fourth-great-grandson donated the original endowment for Cornell University, which is named after that descendant of Thomas. That man was Ezra Cornell (1807-1874), son of Elijah b. 1771, son of Elijah b. 1730, son of Stephen who m. Ruth Pierce, son of Stephen b. 1656, son of Thomas-the-executed and his first wife, Elizabeth Fiscock. [6]

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http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/15595/who-were-the-parents-of-thomas-co... 'm trying to merge the large number of duplicate profiles for Thomas Cornell (1594-1656); and of course you can't merge profile pages when there are duplicate parent pages as well. In Thomas's case, there are not only duplicate parent pages, but *conflicting* parents:

1. Richard Cornell and Mary Unknown (some say she was Mary Terry)

2. George Cornell and Susan (one says Joan) Casse

From the initial review of the published research, it appears that the most recent and significant research was published by Prentiss Glazier in "The English Origins of the Cornwell/Cornell Family" in The American Genealogist, volume 51 (Jan 1975), p115 and an unfortunately unpublished manuscript by the same author later in 1975, "Thomas Cornell (or Cornwell) (1594-1655/6) of Mass., N.Y. and R.I."

Glazier admits both possibilities above (without naming a spouse of William), but leans towards George Cornell and Susan Casse because their son had a full brother named Joshua, and Thomas of Rhode Island named a son Joshua.

I have not seen the actual unpublished manuscript, only read about it as written by others, specifically Jean E. Mack and Clair Cornell's "Unravelling one Massachusetts-to-Iowa Cornell Line," in The American Genealogist, 58 (Jan 1982):77 _________________________________

Cornell Family Tree http://swcornell.com/roots/roots.htm My thanks to Tom Cornell and Richard Cornell, two relatives who I met on the Wide World Web for expanding my knowledge of our roots. Our ancestors appear to have come from Essex County, England to America in about 1638, initially settling in New York.

George Cornell b. 1516, Saffron, Walden, Essex, England, Married Margaret Dagnet, d. 1563, Saffron, Walden, Essex, England

George Cornell b. 1539, Saffron, Walden, Essex, England, Married Susan Casse, d. 1616, Stanton, Harcourt, Oxfordshire, England

Richard Cornell b. 1565, Bumstead Tower, Essex, England, Married Mary Terry, d. June 22, 1631, Bumstead Tower, Essex, England

At least three Children

Thomas Cornell b. March 24, 1593/94, Fairstead Manor, Essex, England, Married Rebecca Briggs, d. 1655, Portsmouth, Newport, R.I.

When the Cornells arrived in the New World in the late 1636, they landed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. But like a lot of others who came after the initial Pilgrim settlers they discovered the Puritans were, well, a little too Puritan from a religious point of view. In 1638 the family packed up and followed a woman named Ann Hutchinson and other dissenters to the area that became Rhode Island. The Cornells helped establish Portsmouth, Rhode Island, the second town in the colony. On Sept. 6, 1630 Thomas Cornell Sr., was grated a license to operate an inn in Portsmouth.

When Thomas Cornell Sr. died about 1655, the family continued to run a boarding house. Rebbeca lived there with son Thomas and his family. Thomas Jr. was well known in the community and a deputy to the Rhode Island General Assembly.

On February 8, 1673, Rebecca Cornell was found burned to death in her room. The coroner initially ruled her demise as "an unhappie accident," possibly caused by the careless smoking of her pipe.

On the February 12, 1673, John Briggs, Rebecca Cornell's brother, who also lived in Portsmouth, had a dream. The next day he went to authorities and said the ghost of his sister had come to him and showed him a wound in her stomach that didn't match up with the accidental death verdict. In those days, dreams carried more weight as evidence than they do today. So authorities dug up Rebecca's body. Sure enough, there was a stomach wound that had been overlooked.

A new investigation began. It was learned that Thomas didn't always treat his mother kindly. She had told others she planned to sell the property and move in with another son in the spring. If she had done that, Thomas and his rather large family would have been out of a place to live. So Thomas was brought to trial for the murder of his mother. Although the evidence was primarily based on heresay and a brother-in-law's bad dream, Thomas was found guilty. On May 23, 1673 he was hanged in front of the Colony House in Newport, Rhode Island.

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Thomas Cornell BIRTH 24 Mar 1593 Essex, England DEATH 7 Feb 1655 (aged 61) Portsmouth, Newport County, Rhode Island, USA BURIAL Captain Clark Cornell Lot Portsmouth, Newport County, Rhode Island, USA Add to Map MEMORIAL ID 9252760 · View Source

Pictures added by Roger & Kathleen Hawkins

Thomas was a son of Mary and Richard Cornell. His siblings were: Daniel, Samuel and Sarah.

According to several biographical records and genealogical records, Thomas Cornell came to the Americas around 1636 with the 2nd Winthrop Expedition along with his wife, Rebecca Briggs and many of their children. There are many discrepancies about the number and names of the children. I have tried to access LDS records for this data. They settled first in Boston, then Portsmouth, New Amsterdam, and back to Portsmouth. Thomas was an Innkeeper while in Boston and was charged, at least once, with selling wine without a license. His wife's brother was one of the Antinomian followers, led by Ann Hutchinson, and were run out of Boston during the time. Thomas moved along with his family to RI in February 1646, where they started the settlement of Portsmouth for religious freedom.

One son, gained notoriety through an infamous murder mystery. He was found guilty of murdering his mother and was hanged for it. However, the murder was never really solved. You can read about it all in the book "Killed strangely: The story of Rebecca Cornell, by Elaine Forham Crane. A local record of the account, "Rebecca Cornell, widow, was killed strangely at Portsmouth in her own dwelling house, and twice viewed by the Coroner's Inquest, digged up and buried again by her husband's grave in their own land.' On May 23 her son Thomas was charged with murder. John Cornell, in his Genealogy of the Cornell Family, wrote that the trial "reads like a farce. It appears that the old lady having been sitting by the fire smoking a pipe, a coal had fallen from the fire or her pipe, and that she was burned to death. But on the strength of a vision which her brother John Briggs had, in which she appeared to him after her death and said: ‘See how I was burned with fire.' It was inferred that she was set fire to, and that her son who was last with her did it, and principally on this evidence Thomas Cornell was tried, convicted and hung for her murder...."

One of the descendents of this Cornell line? Lizzie Borden.

Her will mentions their children: Thomas, Richard, William, John, Samuel, Joshua, Sarah, Ann, Rebecca, elizabeth and Mary.

Spouse Rebecca Briggs Cornell, 1600–1673

Children Ann Cornell Kent, unknown–1719 Sarah Cornell Briggs, 1623–1703 Richard Cornell, 1624–1694 Thomas Cornell, 1627–1673 Richard Cornell, 1628–1694 Rebecca Cornell Woolsey, 1629–1713 Elizabeth Cornell Almy, 1637–1714

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9252760/thomas-cornell

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Emigrated from County Essex, England about 1638.
Rev. John Cornell["A Cornell Corner"1900] relates:"We have good reason to suppose that the Emigrant(Thomas) was buried in this place".
Thomas and Rebecca had nine children.
[birth & death years are estim.]
Primary research for early Cornell/Cornwell ancestors:
Google- "Genealogy of the Cornell Family" by Rev. John Cornell, 1902.
See also: Thomas Cornell Memorial # 9252760 by Jo Bohony & Sue Williams∼Thomas was a son of Mary and Richard Cornell. His siblings were: Daniel, Samuel and Sarah.

According to several biographical records and genealogical records, Thomas Cornell came to the Americas around 1636 with the 2nd Winthrop Expedition along with his wife, Rebecca and many of their children. There are many discrepancies about the number and names of the children. I have tried to access LDS records for this data. They settled first in Boston, then Portsmouth, New Amsterdam, and back to Portsmouth. Thomas was an Innkeeper while in Boston and was charged, at least once, with selling wine without a license. His wife's brother was one of the Antinomian followers, led by Ann Hutchinson, and were run out of Boston during the time. Thomas moved along with his family to RI in February 1646, where they started the settlement of Portsmouth for religious freedom.

One son, gained notoriety through an infamous murder mystery. He was found guilty of murdering his mother and was hanged for it. However, the murder was never really solved. You can read about it all in the book "Killed strangely: The story of Rebecca Cornell, by Elaine Forham Crane. A local record of the account,
"Rebecca Cornell, widow, was killed strangely at Portsmouth in her own dwelling house, and twice viewed by the Coroner's Inquest, digged up and buried again by her husband's grave in their own land.' On May 23 her son Thomas was charged with murder. John Cornell, in his Genealogy of the Cornell Family, wrote that the trial "reads like a farce. It appears that the old lady having been sitting by the fire smoking a pipe, a coal had fallen from the fire or her pipe, and that she was burned to death. But on the strength of a vision which her brother John Briggs had, in which she appeared to him after her death and said: ‘See how I was burned with fire.' It was inferred that she was set fire to, and that her son who was last with her did it, and principally on this evidence Thomas Cornell was tried, convicted and hung for her murder...."

One of the descendents of this Cornell line? Lizzie Borden.

Her will mentions their children: Thomas, Richard, William, John, Samuel, Joshua, Sarah, Ann, Rebecca, elizabeth and Mary.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44277078/thomas-cornell