The Southwick Saga

Heather Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy has a nice post about my Southwicks—specifically, Provided and her father Lawrence.

Provided Southwick, my 7x great-grandmother, was born in 1641, married Samuel Gaskill in 1662, and died in 1727, all in Salem, MA. John Greenleaf Whittier’s The Ballad of Cassandra Southwick, although using her mother’s name, is about an incident in Provided’s life: she and her brother Daniel were sentenced to be sold into slavery for failure to pay fines incurred for not attending the Salem Church recognized by the Puritans.

Her father, Lawrence Southwick, was born 1594 in Staffordshire, England and was married in 1623, to Cassandra Burnell of Lancashire.  He left England for America with most of his family around 1636-37.  Once in Salem, he was a glassmaker by profession.  He died 1660 at Shelter Island, NY.

The Southwick story is filled with persecution by the Puritans for first supporting Quakers and, later, for being Quakers. Lawrence and Cassandra were eventually banished in 1659 under threat of death and went to live on Shelter Island where they endured a harsh life until their deaths from deprivation and exposure the following year.

The more research I do on my ancestors of this era, the more difficult it is to think about Thanksgiving without acknowledging what the Puritans were really about.

A Whitman Sampler

I’ve discovered that I enjoy researching more recent generations than older ones.  There are certainly some interesting historical connections in Colonial America, but I like researching the 19^th century better.  Maybe because there are fewer people laying claim to those more recent ancestors—they’re more mine.  Also, there’s just less to research because I’m only tracing back to the first immigrant.  Looks like my future posts will be short until I trace as far as I can and essentially start over by going back to the beginning to try to uncover new information.

So, short and sweet:

Another one of my 7x great-grandmother is Susanna Whitman, who was married to James Ballou, was born in Providence, RI in 1657-58 to Valentine Whitman (also Wightman) and Mary (Unknown).  She appears in her father’s will.

Valentine was the son of John Wightman, born about 1626 and emigrated in 1654 with his father and brothers (his mother is thought to have died in England) and settled in Rhode Island.  For a period of time Valentine worked as an Indian interpreter.  Records indicate he was made a freeman in Warwick in 1658 and died in Providence in 1700.

John Wightman was the son of Edward Wightman, the last heretic to be burned at the stake in England.  Little is known about John.  Undocumented sources indicate he was born in England in 1599 and died in 1663.