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1. JOHN Cogswell (Immigrant) was born in 1592 in Westbury Leigh, Wiltshire, England. John COGSWELL, son of Edward and Alice Cogwell, grandson of Robert and Alicea Cogswell, came to America in 1635 aboard the Angel Gabriel from Bristol, England, with sons William, John, and Edward. Shep was wrecked by a storm while at anchor off Pemaquid (ME).
John Cogswell was the immigrant ancestor in this Cogswell line. He was born in 1592 in Westbury Leigh, Wiltshire, England. He was baptized on April 7, 1592. He died on Nov. 29, 1669 at Ipswich, Mass. He is buried in Old North Graveyard, Ipswich, Mass. On Sept. 10, 1615 in Westbury Leigh, Wilts, John married Elizabeth THOMPSON. She was born circa 1594 in Westbury Leigh, Wiltshire, England. She died on June 2, 1676 at Ipswich, Mass. She is also buried in Old North Graveyard, Ipswich, Mass. At age 23, he succeeded to his fathers' business and settled down in the old homestead. His parents died soon after his marriage, and he received his inheritance, "The Mylls called Ripond, situate within the Parish of Frome Selwood," together with the home place and certain personal property. Like his father, he was a manufacturer of wollen fabrics, largely broadcloths and kerseymeres. The superior quality of these manufacturers gave his "mylls" a favorable reputation, which appears to have been retained to the present day. There are factories occupying much the same locations and still owned by the Cogswells, which continue to put on the market wollen cloths that in Vienna and elsewhere have commanded the first premium in the world exhibitions of our times (1880s?). John Cogswell doubtless found, in London, a market for his manufactures. He may have had a commission house in that city, which would account for his being called, as he sometimes has been, a London merchant.
Mrs. Cogswells' mother was Phillis--- and her father was the Rev. William Thompson, vicar of Westbury from 1603 to his death in 1623. About twenty years after their marriage, with a family of nine children about them, and having the accumulations of a prosperous business, Mr. and Mrs. Cogswell determined to emigrate to America. The particular reasons which led them to leave England may have been much the same that influenced others in their times. It appears that early in 1635, Mr. Cogswell made sale of his "mylls" and other real estate, and soon after, with his wife, eight children, and all their personal effects, embarked at Bristol, May 23, 1635, for New England. Their passage was long and disastrous. Their arrival in America was after a most unexpected fashion. Having reached the shores of New England, they were landed unceremoniously at a place called Pemaquid, in Maine, being washed ashore from the broken decks of their ship "Angel Gabriel " which went to pieces in the frightful gale of August 15, 1635, when such a "sudden dismal storm of wind and rain came as had never been known before by white man or Indian." Traces of this storm remained for years. John Cogswell and his wife Elizabeth settled at Ipswich, and had lands granted him there as appears from the records; under the date of 1635, is this entry:
"Granted to Mr. John Cogswell three hundred acres of land at the further Chebacco, Having the river on the southeast, the land of Will White on ye Northwest & a Creek Coming out of the river towards Will Whites farme on the Northeast. Bounded also on the west with a creek & a little brooke. Also there was granted to him a percell of ground containing eight acres, upon part whereof the said John Coggswell hath Built an house, it being in ye corner lott in Bridge Streete and has goodman Bradstreet houselott on ye s.e. The was also granted to him six acres of Ground late mr. John Spencers. Butting upon the river on the southeast having a lott of Edmund Gardners' on the Northeast & a lott of Edmund Saywords on the Southwest wch six acres of ground teh sd John Coggswell hath sold to John Perkins teh younger his heirs and assigns." The fact that he was designated "Mr." at that date, and the considerable amount of land granted him indicate that he was a man of good social standing in society. The records of about that date further show that Cornelius Waldo was Mr. Coggswell's farmer. The Cogswells were also involved in an attempt to prevent the execution of Goodwife Proctor in the Salem witch trials. According to Ipswich In The Massachusetts Bay Colony, 290-291, by Thomas Franklin Waters, The Ipswich Historical Society, 1905: "Five members of the Cogswell family were among the twenty prominent people who signed the petition drawn up by the Rev. John Wise on behalf of Goodwife Proctor, who stood accused of witchcraft. Mary Warren alleged that she had been threatened and abused by Goodwife proctor, and that she had seen apparitions of people who had long since been murdered by the wife of John Proctor. This evidence prevailed and the good woman was sentenced to death."
Mrs. Cogswell survived her husband but a few years. She was a woman of sterling qualities and dearly loved by all who knew her. Side by side in the old churchyard in Ipswich have slept for more than three hundred years, the mortal remains of this godly pair, whose childhood was passed near the banks of the river Avon; who leaving behind the tender associations of the Old World, came with their children to aid in rearing on these shores a pure Christian state. They did greater work than they knew, died in the faith of the Gospel, and while their graves are unmarked by monument of stone, their souls are safe in heaven, their memory blessed, and their names honored by a posterity in numbers second only to that of Abraham. JOHN Cogswell (Immigrant) and ELIZABETH Thompson (Immigrant) were married on 10 September 1615. ELIZABETH Thompson (Immigrant) was born (date unknown). JOHN Cogswell (Immigrant) and ELIZABETH Thompson (Immigrant) had the following children: |