[Ancestral Link: Harold William Miller, son of Edward Emerson Miller, son of Anna Hull (Miller), daughter of William Hull, son of Anna Hyde (Hull), daughter of Uriah Hyde, son of Elizabeth Leffingwell (Hyde), daughter of Sarah Abell (Leffingwell), daughter of Joshua Abell, son of Joanne or Johanna Hyde (Abell).]
Robert Abell's Estate "ESTATE: In the inventory of Weymouth landholding compiled about 1643, there is no entry for Robert Abell, but references to him in the entries for John Fussell, James Snook and John Staple indicate that he had earlier been granted "one acre of salt marsh at the Back River" and at least six acres "in the plain". Three acres of meadow in the North Purchase were granted to Robert Abell on 28 March 1653. On 3 June 1657, Plymouth court confirmed to Robert Abell an earlier grant of three acres of meadow made by Rehoboth purchasers, presumably the land granted in 1653. Robert Abell also drew for meadow lots on 18 February 1646 and 22 June 1658. On 26 May 1668, after Robert Abell's death and his widow's remarriage to William Hyde, lots were drawn for meadow in the North Purchase, with Lot 5 going to Goody Hide, Lot 6 the Children's Land (presumably the minor children of Robert Abell), and Lot 8 to Preserved Abell. The inventory of the estate of Robert Abell was taken 9 August 1663, and amounted to £354 17s. 9d., of which "an house and land" accounted for £130. Distribution of the estate was made on 3 March 1663/4; aside from some minor expenses, the major items were "the house and land taken out as the eldest son's," £130; "to Mary Abell given by her father as her full part in a cow and feather bed," £8; "due to the widow as her thirds," £66 19s. 6d.; and "to the other five children, each of them," £26 16s. Letters of administration were granted to the widow "Joannah Abell," 1 March 1663/4. In a Plymouth Colony account of 6 June 1667, "Widow Abell" was owed £11 4s., for unstated reasons ; this account was dated two days after Joanna Abell's remarriage to William Hyde."
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Robert Abell sketch from The Great Migration Begins ROBERT ABELL
ORIGIN: London
MIGRATION: 1630
FIRST RESIDENCE: Weymouth
REMOVES: Rehoboth 1643
OCCUPATION: Innkeeper. 3 July 1656: "Robert Abell is allowed by the Court to keep an ordinary at Rehoboth" [PCR 3:104].
FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 and admitted 18 May 1631 [MBCR 1:80, 366]. First in a list of Rehoboth men who took the oath of fidelity in 1657 [PCR 8:178].
EDUCATION: The inventory included "four books," 18s.
OFFICES: Plymouth grand jury, 3 June 1657 [PCR 3:115]; petit jury, 4 June 1657 [PCR 7:83]; coroner's jury, 10 June 1661 and 22 April 1662 [PCR 3:222; 4:13].
ESTATE: In the inventory of Weymouth landholding compiled about 1643, there is no entry for Robert Abell, but references to him in the entries for John Fussell, James Snook and John Staple indicate that he had earlier been granted "one acre of salt marsh at the Back River" and at least six acres "in the plain" [Weymouth Hist 188, 191, 195].Three acres of meadow in the North Purchase were granted to Robert Abell on 28 March 1653 [Abell Gen 44]. On 3 June 1657, Plymouth court confirmed to Robert Abell an earlier grant of three acres of meadow made by Rehoboth purchasers [PCR 3:120], presumably the land granted in 1653. Robert Abell also drew for meadow lots on 18 February 1646 and 22 June 1658 [Abell Gen 44]. On 26 May 1668, after Robert Abell's death and his widow's remarriage to William Hyde, lots were drawn for meadow in the North Purchase, with Lot 5 going to Goody Hide, Lot 6 the Children's Land (presumably the minor children of Robert Abell), and Lot 8 to Preserved Abell [Abell Gen 45].The inventory of the estate of Robert Abell was taken 9 August 1663, and amounted to £354 17s. 9d., of which "an house and land" accounted for £130. Distribution of the estate was made on 3 March 1663/4; aside from some minor expenses, the major items were "the house and land taken out as the eldest son's," £130; "to Mary Abell given by her father as her full part in a cow and feather bed," £8; "due to the widow as her thirds," £66 19s. 6d.; and "to the other five children, each of them," £26 16s. [PCPR 2(2):14-15; MD 15:239]. Letters of administration were granted to the widow "Joannah Abell," 1 March 1663/4 [PCR 4:46, 54].In a Plymouth Colony account of 6 June 1667, "Widow Abell" was owed £11 4s., for unstated reasons [PCR 8:120]; this account was dated two days after Joanna Abell's remarriage to William Hyde.
BIRTH: Born about 1605, probably at Stapenhill, Derbyshire, son of George and Frances (Cotton) Abell [TG 5:162]. In his will of 8 September 1630, George Abell of Hemington, Leicestershire, made a small bequest to his second son Robert Abell "in regard of the charges I have been at in placing him in a good trade in London which he hath made no use of and since in furnishing him for New England where I hope he now is" [Abell Gen 42, citing PCC 10 St. John].
DEATH: Rehoboth 20 June 1663 [ReVR 789, citing original 1:50].
MARRIAGE: Joanna _____. The given name of Robert Abell's wife is first seen after his death, during the probate of his estate; there is no indication that Robert had any other wife, and his three eldest children named daughters Joanna, so he was probably married to Joanna by 1639. She married second at Rehoboth 4 June 1667 William Hyde of "New Norwich" [ReVR 3, citing original 1:44]; she removed to Norwich with her new husband, and outlived him as well.
CHILDREN:
i ABRAHAM, buried Weymouth 14 November 1639 [WeVR 8:348].
ii MARY, born Weymouth 11 April 1642 [WeVR 8:348]; married by 1663 Rev. Samuel Luther of Rehoboth [Abell Gen 46]. Many secondary sources report this marriage, but without providing the evidence; Torrey placed a question mark next to this entry in his compilation, indicating that he did not find the evidence.
iii PRESERVED, born Rehoboth say 1644; married (1) Rehoboth 27 September 1667 Martha Redway [ReVR 3, citing original 1:45; Early Rehoboth 1:133-35]. (See Abell Gen 47 for Preserved's second and third marriages.)
iv CALEB, born Rehoboth about 1647; married Norwich, Connecticut, __ July 1669 Margaret Post [NoVR 18]; he died Norwich 7 August 1731 "in his 85th year" [Norwich Cem 32].
v JOSHUA, born Rehoboth say 1649; married (1) Norwich, Connecticut, 1 November 1677 Mehitabel Smith [NoVR 30], who died Norwich 14 March 1684/5 [NoVR 30]; married (2) Norwich __ November 1685 Bethiah Gadger [NoVR 30].
vi BENJAMIN, born Rehoboth say 1651; married by 1679 Hannah _____ [Abell Gen 54].
vii EXPERIENCE, born Rehoboth say 1660; married Norwich 1680 (no day or month given) John Baldwin [NoVR 55].
viii Child (based on distribution of estate, which referred to "the eldest son," Mary Abell, and "the other five children"). Analysis of the names given to children of the known children of Robert Abell suggests two possibilities for this child: Mehitable (used by Mary, Preserved, Joshua, Benjamin and Experience) and Martha (used by Mary, Preserved, Caleb and Joshua). Martha was not used in any of these families prior to the marriage of Preserved Abell to Martha Redway, whereas Mehitable was used twice (by Mary and Preserved) before the marriage of Joshua Abell to Mehitable Smith [Abell Gen 47-56].
COMMENTS: After his request for and admission to freemanship in the winter of 1630-1 (which tells us nothing about where he might have been residing in Massachusetts Bay at the time), Robert Abell disappeared from the records until 4 December 1638, when he appeared before the General Court [MBCR 1:247], where his record immediately precedes two others relating to Weymouth. Where was Robert Abell during these seven-and-a-half years? Would an adult of substantial social status have resided in Weymouth for this entire period without creating a single record? Did he perhaps return to England for part of this time? Further evidence for this period of Robert Abell's life would be welcome.One record which may be relevant here comes from the records of the Providence Island Company. On 6 April 1638 "John Arrat, his wife and child, Robert Abell, John Clerke, Edmund Fole and Peter Talbot, sawyer, who were going to New England, say they are willing to go to Providence" [Coldham 194]. If this is the Robert Abell of Weymouth it is consistent with his reappearance in New England records late in 1638, but it still leaves unexplained the gap from 1631 to 1638.Since there is no separate entry for Robert Abell in the Weymouth land inventory of about 1643, where all references are for land which he had already relinquished, we assume that he had already by this date departed for Rehoboth, which was settled in that year.The data on the marriages of the children of Robert Abell are not always satisfactory; in part this is due to the deficiencies of the Norwich vital records, but the lack of evidence for the claimed marriage of daughter Mary is more serious.On 10 June 1661 the Plymouth court summoned "Robert Able and his wife" to give evidence about a marriage performed under false pretenses [PCR 3:220].
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: A sound presentation of the descendants of Robert Abell is given in The Abell Family in America by Horace A. Abell and Lewis P. Abell (Rutland VT 1940), cited above as Abell Gen, including the discussion of a number of controversial points. (The information on Robert Abell's landholding in Rehoboth is taken from this volume, which includes many extracts from original records.) This volume also provides three generations of Abells in England ancestral to the immigrant. More recently, Neil D. Thompson has reexamined and strengthened the previously noted royal descent for Robert Abell's mother ["Abell-Cotton-Mainwaring: Maternal Ancestry of Robert Abell of Weymouth and Rehoboth, Mass.," TG 5 (1984):158-71].
Source: The Great Migration Begins Sketches PRESERVED PURITAN
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