b. 1696 Dartmouth, MA
d. 4/25/1767 Swansea, MA
m. 6/18/1719 at Swansea, MA

(????)

"...Stephen Cornell and Ruth Pierce, daughter of John Pierce of Swansea, Mass. Stephen Cornell was the son of Stephen Cornell of Dartmouth, Mass. and Hannah Mosher, daughter of Hugh Mosher of Dartmouth, Mass., and grandson of Thomas Cornell of Portsmouth, R.I., who was the eldest son of Thomas Cornell who came to America about 1638, settled at Portsmouth, R.I., where he died in 1655, and who was for some years an inhabitant of the Dutch colony of Manhattan and received from Governor Kieft a patent to a grant of land on the East River since known as Cornell's Neck." [pg. 66⁷]

"In February, 1673, Thomas Cornell was living on his Portsmouth farm with his family, consisting of himself, his wife, his two sons, his mother--a widow seventy-three years old--and two laborers. On February 8th the mother was found dead on the floor of her room, her clothes burnt and her body scorched. A coroner's jury returned a verdict of death by accident of fire. Later, however, a wound was discovered in the stomach of the victim, and suspicion of foul play fastened upon the son Thomas. The latter accordingly was arrested, bound over to the Court of Trials, and at the May session tried. The theory advanced by the prosecution was that the accused, who confessed to have spent an hour and a half with his mother late in the afternoon of the day of her death, had killed her and then set fire to her clothing; a motive for the deed being discovered in the fact that there had been trouble between mother and son over a debt due by the son to the mother. The theory necessitated the belief that Cornell, in order to disarm suspicion, had been content to hazard the burning of his house, for it was in evidence that when the body was found the clothing was still on fire. On the other hand, the theory of the defence was that the mother's clothing had ignited from a coal from her pipe as she sat smoking in her chair, and hence her death. It was all a matter of circumstantial evidence, but the verdict was against the accused, and he was hanged Friday, May 23, 1673." [pgs. 132-133⁶]

(1595-1655)
b. abt. 1595 Essex Co., ENG; m. Rebecca BRIGGS (b. abt. 1600; d. 2/8/1673, sister of John). Emigrated to the colonies with wife & children 1638, settling in Boston (in the area of present-day Washington St., between Summer & Milk Streets). The family moved to RI. Thomas was admitted as freeman in Portsmouth on 8/6/1640, and settled on the Cornell farm abt. 1646 [pg. 366¹].

Thomas Cornell arrived in Boston, with wife and family in 1638. In 1641 he removed to Portsmouth, RI, then in 1643 to Throgg's Neck, NY, where after 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 have cast off ordinances and churches and for larger accomodations 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 200 acres of land. The same year he received a grant of land in Westchester County, NY, known to this day as Cornell's Neck. He died in 1655, 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. Buried on the property. [pgs. 308-310²].

Thomas was a Puritan, who came to America in 1638. Later he became a follower of Roger Williams & Ann Hutchinson, drifting into Quakerism, the religion of most of his family [pg. 63³].

In what year Thomas Cornell came from England is not known. It would seem that he lived in Essex County in the old country and came over with his wife, Rebecca Briggs, and several of his children prior to 1638. On August 20, 1638, 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;" and on September 6 of the same year Thomas Cornell was "licensed upon tryal to keepe an inn in the room of Will Bauldston till the next General Court." Evidently he did not prove satisfactory upon trial, since on June 4, 1639, he was fined L30 "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 [pg. 237⁴].

"The early English name was written Cornewell, and two generations before Thomas, 'Richard Cornewell Citizen and Skynner of London'--as it stands written in his will--who died in 1585, left a portion of the wealth he had made in hides to fund and endow 'a free grammar schole in New Woodstock, the town where I was born,' and the school stands there yet near the handsome church of Woodstock in Oxfordshire. The lineage of the whole family traces up through the Barons of Burford to Richard de Cornewall, son of Richard Earl of Cornewall, second son of King John, younger brother of Richard Coeur de Lion." [pg. 33⁵]

Ruth PIERCE
[AF]
b. 9/6/1689 Scituate, MA
d. bef. 1767