It was surprising for me to see how many historians and genealogists have written about my 9th great grandmother, Phebe Browne. A Google search for her name returns nearly 50,000 results—a staggering number for a woman who lived in the 1600s.
It was while I was researching Anna Plumb, my 4th great grandmother and the wife of Louis J. Houlette my French immigrant ancestor, that I “found” Phebe.
I first learned that Anna Plumb descended from Green Plumb and Mary Hempstead.
The name Hempstead is a well known name among genealogists and historians for the diaries kept by Joshua Hempstead. Needless to say, I was immediately curious to know if I was related to THAT Joshua.
The surviving part of the Joshua Hempstead Diary covers 47 years, from September of 1711 through early November of 1758. Because of its thoroughness and the daily nature of its entries, it is one of the most important sources of information about colonial life in Connecticut that we have.
The introduction to the Diary includes a Hempstead family tree. From this I learned Joshua, the writer of the diaries, was the son of Joshua Hempstead and Elizabeth Larrabee and that he was the brother of my Mary Hempstead.
Joshua included notes about members of his family in the Diary, so I set out to see what I might find.
With this entry, Joshua had just introduced me to his grandmother Phebe Brown, my 9th great grandmother.
From this I was able to construct this tree extending back from Anna Plumb:
I was now ready to learn Phebe’s story.
Phebe’s Story
Phebe was born in October 1620 in Rusper, Sussex, England, the fourth child and second daughter of William Browne, the local schoolmaster, and his wife the former Jane Burgis.
Rusper, both the parish and the village, is located on the northern boundary between West Sussex and Surrey. The village had but 77 adult males in 1642. It lies a short distance southwest of London’s Gatwick Airport and is 25 miles north of the resort town of Brighton on the English Channel.
The village grew up around a 12th-century Benedictine priory. The priory was disbanded in 1537, leaving only the priory church, which has served as the parish church for generations. Of this building only the tower is medieval, the rest was rebuilt in the Victorian period.
By Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
It was in this very church on 1 October 1620 that Joseph Browne, the church Rector, baptized his granddaughter Phebe.
Nineteen years later on 28 September 1639 Phebe married Thomas Lee in this church. Her grandfather Joseph had passed away some years prior so unfortunately he was not there to bless their union.
Today, Rusper is quite idyllic looking. However, this was not always the case.
For much of the 17th century, England was in a state of persistent crisis. Between religious conflicts, civil war, plague and crop failures, the mid-1600s were a difficult period. This prompted many to leave England to seek a better life in the American colonies.
I’m sure these conditions contributed to the reasons why Phebe’s family, the Lees, and her father and Phebe’s siblings, the Brownes, chose to leave. I believe they had other reasons for making to move however.
Their Destination
Records of ship departures from England are sparse for the 1640s and no record of the Browne/Lee families has been found in those that do exist. It’s likely they would have sailed from London as that was the nearest port city.
Some theorize that the Browne/Lee families were bound for Boston or Providence. Based on my research, however, I’ve come to a different conclusion.
Phebe’s cousins, John and Thomas Fenner, had moved to the New Haven Colony around 1639. They were the sons of Willam’s sister and brother-in-law, Sarah (Browne) and Arthur Fenner. Although I’ve yet to find any mention of the Fenner’s in the writings about the Browne family in America, I believe it’s likely that the Browne/Lee families intended to join their Fenner family members in New Haven when they set sail in 1645.
Whenever the topic turns to Colonial America, I tend to think of the Thirteen Original Colonies as they appeared at the time of the American Revolution. That is not what the colonies looked like earlier in our country’s past. In 1645, the country was made up of many small colonies and plantations that hugged the coastline. Here’s a link to a very nice MAP of the New England colonies from 1652.
The New Haven Colony had been founded in 1638 by a group led by John Davenport, a Puritan minister, and Theophilus Eaton, a wealthy merchant. It was separate and apart from the Connecticut Colony and the Saybrook Colony. The vast yellow area was uninhabited by white settlers. The colonies only had settlements where there is a dot.
By No machine-readable author provided. Kmusser assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 2.5, Link
Their Journey
Ships captains in the 1600s had no way of knowing where on earth they were, really... as they only had a compass and a sextant to navigate. With these, they could only tell which direction the ship was pointed and with the sextant, they could tell how far from the equator they were (Latitude). But the method for determining their East-West position (Longitude) had not yet been discovered.
Thus the voyage for our intrepid Browne/Lee families may have taken as little as 6 to 8 weeks or it may have taken much longer. It all depended on weather conditions and the skill of the ships captain and crew.
William was a man of some means which may have allowed him to pay for their passage. This might have afforded them with more comfort than most immigrants would have enjoyed.
Members of the Browne/Lee families on the journey were:
William Brown, age c. 60 and his wife Jane, age 49
their unmarried children:
John, age 30
Mary, age 23, and
Henry, age 19
their married daughter Phebe, age 25 and her husband Thomas Lee, age 35
the Lee children:
Jane, age 5
Phebe, age 3. and
Thomas, infant.
I’m hopeful the family grew accustomed to the constant rolling and rocking of the ship and didn’t suffer greatly with seasickness.
I’m hopeful, too, that they had sufficient food and water for the long journey.
I wish I could say their journey was uneventful however such was not the case.
Sadly, they suffered…horribly.
Someone it seems brought smallpox…an extremely contagious and deadly virus for which there is no known cure…into their midst.
The fear they must have felt as the disease spread is unimaginable. There was nowhere for them to go to escape its reach.
Phebe must have been terrified as she sought to protect her children.
Sadly, somewhere in the middle of the cold Atlantic Ocean, William lost his wife Jane and Phebe lost her mother. With a prayer for her soul, Jane’s body was relinquished into the sea.
And sadly, somewhere in the middle of the cold Atlantic Ocean, William lost his eldest son John and Phebe lost her brother. With a prayer for his soul, John’s body was relinquished into the sea.
And then sadly, somewhere in middle of the cold Atlantic Ocean, Phebe lost her husband Thomas. With a prayer for his soul, Thomas’ body was relinquished into the sea.
Three deaths while so far from home, unable to bury their loved ones in the churchyard where their ancestors had been laid to rest for centuries…the pain must have been crushing. Such sorrow, such heartache.
New Beginnings
If their ship made it to New Haven, it must have been refused landing for being a "sick ship” for it was Saybrook where they were permitted to land.
In recounting the arrival of the Browne/Lee families, Harriet Chapman Chesebrough in Glimpses of Saybrook in Colonial Days writes, “Their afflicted and distressed condition commended to the sympathies of those at the fort (Saybrook Fort)…”
Here, through the kindness of strangers, they regained their health. It is written that they were cared for by members of the Griswold family who were among the early settlers of the colony.
The Saybrook Colony was situated on both sides of the Connecticut River at its confluence with the Black Hall River and where the river flowed into Long Island Sound. The Colony had merged into the larger Connecticut Colony in 1644.
As soon as he was able, Phebe’s brother Henry moved 75 miles northeast to the larger and more well established Providence Plantation. There, in 1646, he took up a collection to help build a house for his father William and the rest of the family. When it became clear that other family members would not be moving to Providence, the house was sold.
In 1647, two years after her arrival in Saybrook, married Greenfield Larrabee, a mariner and long time resident of the colony.
Greenfield owned a house and land in Saybrook. However, perhaps because he would be at sea for long periods of time, he moved his new family into a house on land provided to him by the Griswolds. The house was located in Black Hall on the eastern side of the Connecticut River facing Long Island Sound.(a)
Descendants of the Griswold family still live on a portion of the land that’s been in their family since the early 1600s. The property, which is a Christmas tree farm named Judge’s Farm, is located to the west of the golf course and south of the turn in Highway 156. The original 10,000 acres owned by the family extended from the Connecticut River eastward along Long Island Sound.
Shortly after attending Phebe’s wedding, her father William joined other residents of Saybrook in sailing across Long Island Sound to establish a settlement at “The Forks” on Long Island in what is now the town of Southold.
The following year, in 1648 Phebe’s sister Mary married Robert Marvin in Saybrook. They, too, soon left Saybrook and moved to Southold.
In this map you are able to see New Haven on the upper left hand, Old Saybrook/Old Lyme on the upper right and Southold across Long Island Sound from Old Saybrook.
In this map you are able to see New Haven on the upper left hand, Old Saybrook/Old Lyme on the upper right and Southold across Long Island Sound from Old Saybrook.
The next several years would be filled with joy as Phebe and Greenfield welcomed five children. They would also celebrate the marriages of Phebe’s two daughters with Thomas Lee. Sadly, her life would also be touched by its share of sorrow.
Joy
On 20 April 1648, Phebe and Greenfield welcomed their first child, a son they named Greenfield.
Ten months later, on 23 February 1649 Phebe gave birth to a second son who they named John in memory of her brother who had died at sea.
Their third child, a daughter named Elizabeth, was born 20 April 1652. Elizabeth is my 8th great grandmother,
Their fourth child, a son named Joseph, was born in May 1655.
Their fifth child, a daughter named Sarah, was born 3 March 1658.
Celebration
The year 1659 was a year of celebration as Phebe’s eldest daughters both married.
The wedding banns would have been announced three times in the meeting house, at either a town meeting or a Sunday service. The couple’s names and their intention to wed would have been read by a magistrate or a minister and a notice of the same would have been placed on the meeting house door, or on a "publishing post.”
It was against the law for the ceremony to be performed by a minister so it was generally performed by a magistrate or a sea captain. Thus, Greenfield likely performed the ceremonies for each of the step-daughters he’d helped to raise.
In June 1659 Jane Lee married Samuel Hyde, a native of Hartford. The newlyweds and some other residents from Saybrook left shortly after the ceremony to found a new settlement further up the Connecticut River in what is known today as Norwich, Connecticut.
In November 1659, Phebe Lee married John Large, a local resident. The newlyweds soon moved across Long Island Sound to Southold.
Sorrow
In the 17th century, death was ever present. It was customary that upon learning of a death, kindly assistance was at once given at the house of mourning. Women flocked to do the household work and to prepare the funeral feast. Men brought gifts of food, or household necessities, and rendered any help that was needed. A gathering was traditionally held the night before the funeral.
The burial itself was considered to be a civil matter. Thomas Lechford writes in “Plaine Dealing, or Newes from New England:”
“At Burials, nothing is read nor any Funeral Sermon made, but all the neighborhood, or a good company of them, come together by tolling of the bell, and carry the dead solemnly to his grave, and there stand by him while he is buried. The Ministers are most commonly present.”
Caskets were simple oblong boxes and gravestones were humble slabs of stones with an inscription thought there might not be any gravestone at all. After the interment the whole party may have returned to the house to again toast the dearly departed.
Phebe’s father must have known his time on earth was growing short when he moved in with his daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Robert Marvin. It was in their home on 2 July 1650 that William Browne died. William, who did not own any property, left an estate valued at £160 or roughly $26,000 in todays dollars.
Greenfield surely would have seen to it that Phebe was at her sister’s house for the gathering in remembrance of their father.
Sadly, their lives would again be touched by loss when their little son Joseph died in 1667 at the age of two.
And then, tragically Greenfield, her husband of 14 years, died unexpectedly in 1661 leaving Phebe once again a widow. In his will, Greenfield left To the eldest son Greenfield Laraby £5-00-00; to John, £12-00-00; to Elizabeth and Sarah each 20 Nobles (gold coins). The remainder of his estate was left to Phebe.
The Final Chapter
There was no legal requirement in colonial New England that any person had to wait any specific time after a spouse’s death to remarry – nor was there a requirement that a widow or widower had to remarry at all.
Widowers and widows with young children were more likely to hasten to wed again—widowers to have a woman who could care for their children, cook and keep house, widows to have someone to provide for her and her children, and to plant and harvest the crops.
It’s likely Phebe knew James Cornish, a widower who had emigrated from Dorset, England, who came to Saybrook to teach school. In 1660 and 1661 document his purchase of a house and land.
I’m sure it came as no surprise to anyone in the community when the two wed in 1662, a year after Greenfield’s death.
Phebe and James welcomed their first child, a son they named James, in 1663.
A year later, on a day that should have been filled with joy at the birth of their second child, there was instead much sorrow.
On 2 December 1664, at the age of 44, Phebe died giving birth to a stillborn baby.
Epilogue
James Cornish continued to teach school throughout the Connecticut Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony after Phebe’s death. He moved to Westfield, Massachusetts around 1667 where he was hired as Town Clerk and school teacher. His house and part of the town burned down in 1675 during a war with the Indians. James moved in with his, and Phebe’s, son Deacon James Cornish in Simsbury, Connecticut Colony in 1695. He died there in 1698 without having ever remarried.
Phebe’s children would go on to marry and have children of their own. These children have led to the thousands of Lee/Larrabee/Cornish descendants who count Phebe as their ancestor.
Phebe’s children with Thomas Lee:
Jane Lee married Samuel Hyde with whom she had 8 children; she married 2nd John Birchard.
Phebe Lee married John Large. Phebe died childless in 1664 around the same time as her mother.
Thomas Lee married 1st Sarah Kirtland with whom he had 5 children. He married 2nd Mary DeWolf with whom he had 9 children.
Phebe’s children with Greenfield Larrabee:
Greenfield Larrabee II married Alice Parke with whom he had 8 children.
Elizabeth Larrabee, my 8th great grandmother, married Joshua Hempstead with whom she had 8 children.
John Larrabee married Sarah Morgan with whom he had 5 children.
Sarah married John Fox. She died childless in 1688.
Phebe’s child with James Cornish:
James Cornish II married Hannah Hillard with whom he had 10 children.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Allyn, Adeline Bartlett. Black Hall Traditions and Reminiscences. Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1908.
Customs and Fashions in Old New England: Chapter 2. http://www.kellscraft.com/CustomsFashionsNewEngland/CustomsFashionsNewEnglandCh02.html. Accessed 27 Feb. 2019.
England, Sussex, Parish Registers, 1538-1910. West Sussex County Record Office, Chichester, 2019, http://FamilySearch.org.
Hempstead, Joshua. Diary of Joshua Hempstead of New London, Connecticut, Covering a Period of Forty-Seven Years, from September 1711, to November, 1758... New London, Conn., The New London County Historical Society, 1901. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/diaryofjoshuahem1901hemp.
“History.” Rusper Church, https://rusperchurch.org.uk/history/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2019.
History of Norwich, Connecticut : From Its Possession by the Indians to the Year 1866. https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=14692. Accessed 28 Feb. 2019.
Howell, George Rogers. The Early History of Southampton, L. I., New York. Albany : Weed, Parsons and company, 1887. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/cu31924096849553.
Lechford, Thomas, and J. Hammond (James Hammond) Trumbull. Plain Dealing, or, News from New England. Boston : J.K. Wiggin & W.P. Lunt, 1867. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/plaindealingorne00lechrich.
Post, William J., et al. Records of the Town of Southhampton: With Other Ancient Documents of Historic Value ... J. H. Hunt, printer, 1874.
Rusper | British History Online. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol6/pt3/pp109-112#anchorn51. Accessed 28 Feb. 2019.
“Rusper, West Sussex - History, Travel, and Accommodation Information.” Britain Express, https://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=3199. Accessed 13 Feb. 2019.
Savage, James, et al. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer’s Register. Boston, Little, Brown and company, 1860. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/genealogicaldic03savarich.
SAYBROOK LAND RECORDS, BOOK 1, PAGES 1-20. http://dunhamwilcox.net/ct/saybrook1.htm. Accessed 28 Feb. 2019.
“Seven Generations of Lees.” The 400 Year Story of an American Family, 29 Apr. 2015, https://a400yearstory.wordpress.com/seven-generations-of-lees/.
Society (Conn.), New London County Historical. Records and Papers of the New London County Historical Society. The Society., 1906.
Southold | Southold, NY - Official Website. http://southoldtownny.gov/250/Southold. Accessed 28 Feb. 2019.
The Joshua Hempstead Diary: A Window into Colonial Connecticut | ConnecticutHistory.Org. https://connecticuthistory.org/joshua-hempstead-diary-a-window-into-colonial-connecticut/. Accessed 15 Feb. 2019.
The Lee Family. https://eastlymehistoricalsociety.org/index_files/Page337.htm. Accessed 22 Feb. 2019.
WILLIAM (1585) & JANE (MILLS BURGESS) BROWN, BIO ITEMS. https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/17988188?p=6770702&returnLabel=William%20Brown%20(LK55-CNN)&returnUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.familysearch.org%2Ftree%2Fperson%2Fdetails%2FLK55-CNN. Accessed 18 Feb. 2019.
Williams, Alicia Crane. “Remarriage.” Vita Brevis, 5 Oct. 2017, https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2017/10/remarriage/.
PHOTO CREDITS
(a) Allyn, Adeline Bartlett. Black Hall Traditions and Reminiscences. Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1908.
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How we’re related:
Greenfield Larrabee/Phoebe Browne
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Elizabeth Larrabee/Joshua Hempstead
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Mary Hempstead/Green Plumb
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Samuel Plumb/Ana Roe
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Justus Plumb/Margaret Sammis
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Anna Plumb/Louis J. Houlette
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James Dale Houlette/Agnes Smith Clarke
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Anna Margaret Houlette/Levi Slinker
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Agnes Emeline Slinker/Peter Alexander Creger
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James Iver Creger/Gertrude Ethel Blayden
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Helen Paule Creger/John Robert Nielsen
|
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