On the 8th day, God created Marblehead...

(Or so every tale about Marblehead is said to be prefaced...)
Fifteen years after the Mayflower landed and 140 years before the United States was even thought of, my earliest known ancestors, the GATCHELLs, settled on Marblehead Neck, a spit of land across from Marblehead proper.

Most history books gloss over (or ignore altogether) the next 50 or 60 years of American history, a time the Gatchells lived among Puritans on Marblehead and in Salem. Then in 1692 came the Salem Witch Trials, which would touch two generations of Gatchells.

But they knew none of that in 1635 on a glorious May day in Dorset, or what the future had in store for them after they boarded the Hopewell. Nor did they know when they sailed into the sunset to the New World that they'd never see England again. Or never again set foot inside St. Augustine's, the parish church in West Monkton, Somerset. St. Augustine's, of course, was part of the Church of England, so it's no surprise the Gatchells didn't get along with their Puritan neighbors in Massachusetts.

Naturally, the Gatchells were involved in the Salem Witch Trials...not once but twice. First in 1684 when John, Wibera and son Thomas were charged as accessories in the theft of £500 from Capt George Corwin, father of future witch trials judge Jonathan Corwin and grandfather of George, sheriff during the trials.

The second time was when when daughter-in-law Elizabeth "Gettchill" (my ancestress and wife of Jeremiah) attested to the good character of Mary Bradbury, accused of witchcraft but thankfully found innocent.

All this notoriety was apparently too much for Jeremiah, who left Elizabeth in Massachusetts and moved to Philadelphia. Their son Elisha followed his father to Pennsylvania, married a Quakeress, converted to Quakerism, and became rather notorious himself as a respected elected official.

Let the journey begin...

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It's 1635 and a glorious May day in Dorset....

Imagine you're 24, and there's no future in the Somersetshire village where you grew up and where your family has lived for at least a hundred years. You, your bride, and your younger brother Samuel have decided to seek your fortune in the New World. The journey will begin at Weymouth on the coast of Dorset, which borders Somerset.

As the coach at last crests the hill above Weymouth, you gaze upon the natural harbour bracketed in the distance by white chalk cliffs. From here, you can't tell which ship bobbing at anchor is the Hopewell, but you can't board her until morning anyway. Deferring to your wife's comfort, the two of you will pass your last night in England at an inn rumored to be a favorite of pirates who find the hidden coves around Weymouth Bay convenient for off-loading ill-gotten treasures. Samuel hasn't decided yet where he'll rest his head.

You'll try not to remember that you'll never see your beloved England again. You push aside thoughts of the perils of a month at sea. At least the Hopewell's passengers won't suffer the same fate as those of the Mayflower did fifteen years earlier. There have been reports that the Indians haven't totally accepted their new English neighbors, but there's now some semblance of civilization on the shores of Massachusetts Bay.

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Into the sunset to a new life in a new land...

John GATCHELL, wife "Wibera" (true spelling unknown), and brother Samuel sailed from Weymouth on the Hopewell in May 1635 for Massachusetts Bay, where John and Wibera settled on Marblehead Neck near present-day Salem. They "lived in that part of Salem which was incorporated as Marblehead in 1648" (History of Salem, MA: Vol. I (1626-1637), Heresy, p. 444).

John was born about 1609 in Somersetshire, England, and christened at St. Augustine's, the parish church in West Monkton. His younger brother Samuel was also christened there. Wibera's birthplace is unknown. [There's also evidence a third brother, Richard, also briefly joined John and Samuel in Salem, then returned to Somersetshire, where he died around 1669.]

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Inside St. Augustine's...

Charles Edward "C.E." Banks implies in his Topographical Dictionary of 2885 English Emigrants to New England, 1620-1650 that John and Samuel were born in the West Monkton area of Somerset, where there was a significant Gatchell family presence at the correct time. A fire in the West Monkton parsonage destroyed the parish's records, therefore no definitive birth records exist proving the birth locality or parentage of John or Samuel. Consequently, their presumed births in the West Monkton area is based largely on circumstantial evidence.

High on a wall inside St. Augustine's (left) in West Monkton is a Gatchell family monument. Its location denotes they were prominent members of the community, although not titled.

In fact, the monument is so high on the wall that on my visit there in 2003, I couldn't make out what it said, even by (shhh...don't tell anyone) standing on the back of a pew.

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"Gatchells were evidently not of puritan strain...."

Apparently not. The following always makes me laugh:

In July 1879, Henry F. Waters wrote in the New England Historical and Genealogical Review: The Gatchell family were evidently not of puritan strain, as shown by the following extract from Salem records: "[at] a Towne meeting this 21th of the 6th month 1637"... "John Gatshell is fyend [fined] tenn shillings for building upon the Towne ground wth out leave [permission], and in case he shall cutt of [off] his lonng har of his head in to sevill [civil] frame in the mean time, shall have abated five shillings, his fien to be paid in to the Towne meeting w'thin too [two] monthes from this time and have leave to go on in his belding [building] in the meane time."

And this....

From History and Traditions of Marblehead, chapter 2, p. 13: The prejudice of the Puritans against the habit of wearing long hair is well known, and it seems that they were willing to enter into any compromise with Mr. Gatchell in order to remove the obnoxious habit. It appears, however, that he was not a man to submit to any such interference with his personal appearance, and, it is said, "continued the custom to his dying day, in spite of popular opinion and all the formal denunciation of Church and State."

And thus begins a long line of rebellion against "acceptable behavior".

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Black Sheep Sunday: The Great Corwin Burglary

To encourage members to write about nefarious ancestors, GeneaBloggers sponsors something called "Black Sheep Sunday".

Two categories that can qualify an ancestor for black sheep status are armed robbery and involvement in the witchcraft trials.

In early 1684, the Gatchells were involved in the Great Corwin Burglary, which wasn't an armed robbery, but considering the column inches devoted to it in histories of Salem, one would think so.

It also qualifies as "involvement in witchcraft trials" on a technicality. The Corwin who was robbed was the father of witch trials judge Jonathan Corwin and grandfather of namesake Essex County Sheriff George Corwin, who arrested the accused and served as executioner of those found guilty.

According to Sidney Perley's History of Salem, Massachusetts, Vol III, pp 184-, Elizabeth Godsoe, a servant in the home of the elder George Corwin, told her husband and some of his associates that Capt. Corwin, a wealthy Salem sea captain, kept large amounts of money in a closet to which she had a key, and also in the cellar.

The husband, William, in turn told his friend John Collier about the money, after which Collier hounded Godsoe about stealing it.

On the night of 6 March 1683/84, a party consisting of William Godsoe, John Collier, Nathaniel Pickman, and David, a negro belonging to John English, went to Capt. Corwin's home at 214 Essex St, and by use of a borrowed ladder, stole several bags of English, New England, and Spanish coins worth a total value of £500.

The miscreants were soon discovered and went to trial the following June. In all, sixteen people were charged in connection with "burglary in breaking open a dwelling house in the night-time":
the Godsoes, Pickman, and Collier,
David, "Mr. Pilgrim's negro" who was leaving for Barbadoes when the theft was discovered,
Jane and William Lord, Sr. (possibly Eliz. Godsoe's parents),
Reuben and Abigail Guppy,
Deborah Winter,
Richard Harris,
Thomas Russell,
John and Wibra Gatchell,
their son Thomas Gatchell,
and Bethiah Gatchell, most likely Thomas's wife.

I don't know what the Gatchells' connection to these people was before the burglary, but am guessing from accounts of it that Thomas Gatchell and Nathaniel Pickman were friends.

William and Elizabeth Godsoe were sentenced to be branded with a "B" on the forehead, whipped 39 times or pay £10. They left Salem and were never heard from again.

As accessories, John Guppy, John Gatchell and son Thomas, Nath'l Pickman, and John Collier each were ordered to pay treble damages, be severely whipped 39 times or pay £10.

Capt. Corwin died five months after the trial, the excitement of it possibly hastening his death.

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Salem's Witch House

At left, the house known as "the Witch's House" due to Jonathan Corwin and son George's involvement in the witch trials.

According to Historic Salem, Inc., it was built in 1672 by Capt. Nathaniel Davenport of Boston, then purchased only partially completed in 1675 by Jonathan Corwin for himself and his family.

In 1944, it was saved from demolition by the formation of Historic Salem, Inc. and "moved west" from its original location at 312 Essex to 310 1/2 Essex, the NW corner of Essex and North streets.

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