George Abell and Frances Cotton

Cheshire Select Bishop's Transcripts

Name:    George Abell
Gender:    Male
Marriage Date:    1 May 1594
Marriage Place:    Wrenbury, Cheshire, England
Spouse:    Francis Cotton
FHL Film Number:    1836384

Source: Ancestry.com. Cheshire, England, Select Bishop's Transcripts, 1576-1933 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: England, Cheshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1576-1933. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.

England Select Deaths and Burials

Name:    George Abell
Gender:    Male
Burial Date:    13 Sep 1630
Burial Place:    Lockington, Leicester, England
FHL Film Number:    819694

Source: Ancestry.com. England, Select Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.

Massachusetts Town and Vital Records

Name:    Robert Abell
Event Type:    Death
Death Date:    20 Jun 1663
Death Place:    Rehoboth, Massachusetts

Source: Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook).

Connecticut Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index

Name:    Robert Abell
State:    MA
County:    Massachusetts Colony
Township:    Freeman 19 Oct
Year:    1630
Database:    MA Early Census Index

Source: Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1790-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999. Original data: Jackson, Ronald V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp.. Connecticut Census, 1790-1890. Compiled and digitized by Mr. Jackson and AIS from microfilmed schedules of the U.S. Federal Decennial Census, territorial/state censuses, and/or census substitutes.

One Branch of the Booth Family

The first mention of a member of the Abell family, of which we have any record, is Robert Abell, of Weymouth, who probably came in the fleet with Winthrop in 1630. He removed to Rehoboth in 1643, and died there June 20, 1663, leaving a widow, Joanna, and seven children; Mary, who was born April 11, 1642, was one of them, and Lieut. Preserved Abell, of Rehoboth, was doubtless another. It seems to the writer reasonable to suppose that Caleb Abell, who appears at Norwich in 1668, was also a son of Robert's. The petition addressed to the General Court, which was drawn up at Dedham in 1665, shows that Caleb's name was fourth among about seventy signers, and as social rank and precedence were as closely observed in early colonial days as they had been in England, it is very unlikely that a youth who was only eighteen would be allowed to put his signature so near the head of the list unless he was the son of a man who was well-known and highly esteemed in the community. In the Hyde Genealogy it is stated that nothing is known of William Hyde's wife, but that she probably died in Hartford or Saybrook, and there is no mention of a second one, but on page 3 of Arnold's Vital Records of Rehoboth, under the heading Marriages and Intentions, we find the following entry, "Joanna Abell and William Hyde, of New Norwich, June 4, 1667," which seems to show that William Hyde married Robert Abell's widow as his second wife. When Caleb Abell appears at Norwich in 1668, he was barely of age, but he was at once made welcome and received into the families of the original proprietors, (Caulkins' Norwich, page 209), and permitted to marry into one of them within a year. In view of the manners and customs of those days it is difficult to explain this, unless we accept the theory that his mother was already there as the wife of one who was prominent among the original proprietors. After the father had died, it would be quite natural for the three unmarried sons, Caleb, Benjamin and Joshua, and the daughter Experience, to follow their mother as they seem to have done. Preserved Abell had received the house and land as his share of his father's estate, and had married Martha Redaway, in Rehoboth, Sept. 27, 1667, thus establishing home ties which would keep him in Rehoboth. The writer, in his efforts to establish this supposed relationship between Robert and Caleb Abell, has had the aid of Mr. George S. Porter, of Norwich, and Mr. James N. Arnold, of Providence, both of whom are authorities in their respective fields, but neither one was able to find anything in the Norwich or Rehoboth records which would throw any light upon the subject. In both places the records are very imperfect, and in Rehoboth the Church records, previous to 1720, are lost. In view of the fact, however, that Robert was the only emigrant settler of that name of which we have any knowledge, added to the fact that there is no evidence against the theory, the probability that Caleb, Benjamin and Joshua were sons of Robert seems very strong. Experience Abell, who married Dea. John Baldwin, was also, probably, his daughter. The Register of Probate in Plymoth, in answer to my inquiry regarding the settlement of Robert Abell’s estate, wrote me as follows : “His widow, Joanna Abell, administered on the estate and gave bond as such administratrix in 1664. An interesting seal with a coat of arms is attached to the bond at the right of her name, but whether it belonged to her family or not, I cannot say.”

Source: Booth, Charles Edwin, One Branch of the Booth Family, New York: privately printed, 1910, pgs. 21-23.