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The 'Vill of Ellis '^ook of
I\ev^ Haven, 1916,
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?oiithjjiipton,LoTi^c I sland . ( d . IG V9 ) '^j, ^
Albert 3.Gook,ed,
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Gift of
Prof. Albert S. Cook
191t

The Will of Ellis Cook
Of Southampton, Long Island
(d. 1679)

, ,; EDITED BY
AlJ^ElBif STANBUREOUGH COOK
Professor of the EnglisK Langiulge and Literature
in Yale University

PRIVATELY PRINTED
NEW HAVEN
1916

The Will of Ellis Cook
Of Southampton, Long Island
(d. 1679)

EDITED BY
ALBERT STANBURROUGH COOK
Professor of the English Language and Literature
in Yale University

PRIVATELY PRINTED
NEW HAVEN
1916

ABBREVIATIONS
ff. = George Rogers Howell, Early History of Southampton, L. I.,
New York, 2d ed., Albany, 1887.
Notes = [George H. Cook,] Notes for a Genealogy of the Family of Ellis
Cook, of So-uthampton, L. I., N. Y. [no date or place].
R.^ = The First Book of Records of the Town of Southampton, Sag
Harbor, N. Y„ 1874.
R.' = The Second ditto. 1877.

INTRODUCTION
My particular interest in printing the will of
Ellis Cook, who was settled at Southampton, Long
Island, by 1644, lies in the fact that I am seventh in
lineal descent from him. His youngest child, Abiel,^
had a son, Abiel,^ who died in 1740, and whose eldest
son, Ellis,' was born in 1703, and died in 1756. This
Ellis removed to New Jersey, and acquired a farm
at Hanover, Morris County, in 1747. The youngest
of Ellis' five sons was John,^ whose son, Silas,^
From his copy of Tucker's Blackstotte, Vol. 4,
settled at Montville, Morris County, died August
28, 1852, in the 84th year of his age, and is buried
in the graveyard of the Presbyterian Church, of
which he was a member, at Parsippany, in the same
county. One of the sons of Silas was Frederick
Weissenfels^ (May 26, 1802-Oct. 28, 1874), who, by
his second wife, Sarah Barmore (Jan. 23, 1824- July
7, 1896), had three children,' of whom I am the
eldest. 5

INTRODUCTION
My great-great-grandfather, Ellis,' of Hanover,
had a son, EUis* (1732-1797), who had a son, Zeb-
ulon,6 (1755-1810), who had a son, John« (1786-
1863), whose son was George Hammell' (1818-1889),
State Geologist of New Jersey, and Vice-President
of Rutgers College. His eldest son, PauP (born
Sept. 13, 1847), lives at Lansingburgh, New York,
and is a trustee of Rutgers College. The details
may be read in Notes.
Another son of Ellis* (Colonel Ellis, who served
under General Philip Schuyler in the Revolution)
was George Whitfield,^ who had a son, Benjamin
Ely,^ who had a son, Francis Augustus' (born May
10, 1843), who was in command of the cruiser
Brooklyn in the engagement of Santiago de Cuba,
July 3, 1898, was advanced five numbers in rank
'for eminent and conspicuous conduct in battle,'
and is now a rear-admiral of the United States navy.
The record is one, for the most part, of small
farmers, living honorable and peaceful lives, and
bequeathing their ancestral acres to their children.
On the side of Ellis, the founder, it has not been
traced to a definite source in England; on that of his
wife and her father, it can be traced to the Olney
which was afterwards to become celebrated through
John Newton and the poet Cowper. It is an in
teresting, though not significant, fact, that the
family-name of the poet was originally Cooper, like
that of the immigrant from Olney, and was so pro
nounced by the poet himself.
Much might be learned regarding the conditions
of life in eastern Long Island during the middle
6

INTRODUCTION
years of the seventeenth century by a detailed study
of Howell's History and of the two volumes of town
records. From the introduction to the first volume
of the latter, written by W. S. Pelletreau, I sub
join a few of the more notable passages {R.^ III-XI) :
Although the land was honorably purchased of
its aboriginal owners [cf. H. 164 ff., 450], yet the
settlers never saw a moment's rest, for fear of their
dreaded neighbors. In the field a guard. was kept;
at night none knew at what hour the alarm would
sound; to meeting on the Lord's day they went as
men prepared for instant war; every male from six
teen years of age to sixty was a soldier enrolled in
the ranks [cf. H. 137; iJ.i 27, 63, 67, 89, 152-3]; and
in proportion to its population the town could boast
of a larger standing army, armed and equipped,
than any nation on the surface of the globe.
Those who believe that the settlement was
formed entirely of Godfearing and virtuous men will
find in these pages much that will fail to support
their views. . . . The truth is that, while there
was here one class that may have been sufferers for
conscience' sake, and men of whom the world was
not worthy, there were also among them those who
came to this country simply to better their condi
tion, and others still who evidently belonged to
those who 'leave their country for their country's
good.' But we think no unprejudiced mind can
read these records without being convinced that
the bone and sinew of the new settlement were men
who, from their sound judgment and constant ap
preciation of the duties they owed to God and man,
are worthy of all the respect and admiration that
posterity can bestow.
At the very first stage of the enterprise, our
fathers saw the need of established law. Magis
trates were elected (generally three in number), who
were looked upon with a degree of veneration that
the modern occupants of the office can scarcely
hope to obtain.
One peculiarity of our ancestors may deserve a
passing notice — the high value they placed on office

INTRODUCTION
and its honors. If a man was so fortunate as to
become a justice of the peace, or a captain in the
militia company, he was sure to make use of the
title upon all possible occasions while living, and it
would be placed with pious care upon his tomb
stone, after he was done with this world and its
glories. It would seem like one of the strange in
consistencies of human nature that a class of men
who are supposed to be dead to worldly fame, and
careless of earthly greatness, should be almost in
fatuated after such little titles as 'IMr.', 'Captain,'
and 'Esquire.' A little thought, however, will per
haps explain the discrepancy. Love of power may
be considered one of the inherent qualities of human
nature; and, in their own country, the men whose
labors are here recorded were of a class who could
never expect to be known to fame, or attain to
dignity. Stars and orders were not for them; the
insignia of nobility were far beyond their reach;
and men can easily aflect to despise what they can
never hope to possess. But in the land of his adop
tion, a change awaited him. The man who in his
native land was looked upon as a schismatic by the
Church, and a revolutionist by the State, suddenly
found himself transformed into a peer of a new
realm, one of the inhabitants of a social world so
small that his presence or absence was a thing of
the utmost importance to the rest of the body
politic; the highest offices of the little common
wealth were within his reach. To be a magistrate
of the infant colony was relatively as high as the
loftiest judicial position in the gift of the English
Crown; and the captaincy of its little band of sol
diers was a post as important as a major-generalship
in the British army.
As the town was founded by men who had
suffered from religious persecution, it may readily
be supposed that the formation of a church would
be one of the first things to which they would turn.
To erect a house for worship seems to have been
one of the first public labors undertaken by the
community. The peculiarities of Puritan belief and
practice have furnished an inexhaustible theme for
the pen of the essayist and historian; and certainly
8

INTRODUCTION
no class of men ever lived whose thoughts and acts
were more influenced by considerations connected
with the eternal world. In such a state of society
the preacher of the Gospel would naturally hold a
very important position; but his social influence
was based upon the fact that he was the only ed
ucated person in the community. In a place where
only one man can read and write, that man is an
oracle; but where all can boast of these accomplish
ments, no one can claim any precedence from the
possession of them. Any boy who now attends an
academy with any desire to learn can obtain, with
out leaving his native town, an education that the
graduates of Cambridge or Yale could not gain at
the time those institutions were founded.
The belief of our ancestors was the strictest
Calvinism, and this creed is still the faith of most
of their descendants. That all things that are were
foreordained from the beginning of the world, and
that every act of man was a link in an endless
chain, planned by Eternal Wisdom, was something
that to them admitted of no doubt. Their belief
in the divinity of our Lord was not to be shaken.
To them Christ was something more than 'the best
of all good men'; something more than a teacher
sent from God; something more than an impostor
who betrayed the confidence, and worked upon the
credulity, of his followers.
We have reason to believe that a school was es
tablished in Southampton at a very early date [cf.
H. 137]. . . . Almost all required of the school
master was that he should be a fair penman, and
possess a tolerable knowledge of arithmetic. Geog
raphy, grammar, and other branches now considered
essentia] , were not taught at all ; books were not easily
obtained, and the instruction was mostly oral. . . .
With the year 1660 the era of the settlement
may be said to end; the new enterprise was no
longer an experiment, but established upon a firm
and sure foundation. The Indian tribe that had
been a source of constant alarm were no longer re
garded with that dread that made every house a
castle, and every man a soldier. The brief period
of Dutch government only bound them faster to
9

INTRODUCTION
the mother-country, to which they were united by
the ties of blood. The day of their probation was
ended; and it will be well for ourselves, and those
who may come after us, if in the hour of peril
Heaven shall grant us hearts as bold, and hands as
strong, as those with which the fathers met all the
storms of fate.

10

WILL OF ELLIS COOK
The Last Will^ & Testament of
Ellis Cooke of Southampton
Deceased Recorded July 7 1679
In the Name of God Amen, I Ellis Cooke^ of South
ampton being by Gods providence sicke & weake of
body, but in perfect memory, doe make this my
Last Will & Testament as flFoUoweth.
1'' I Comitt my soule into the hands of AUmighty God
that gave it &c.
2 I Give & bequeath vnto my son John Cooke' one
Feather bedd & furniture there vnto, my owne wear
ing Apparell, my Carpenters tooles, one mare, &
two Cowes, all to bee deliuered vnto him when hee
is at the Age of Twenty one yeares. And if hee
behaue himselfe well to his mother, & live civilly in
Conversation in the Judgment of my friends whome
I make overseers of this my will, then I give to him
more, either my Housing & land at maycocks or my
Housing and Accomodation at the towne afores"*
which may bee most meet, in the Judgment of my
Wife, with this Proviso, that what Land shall bee
soe disposed of vnto him my said son, hee shall not
make sale thereof, nor any parte thereof without the
consent of the said Overseers or some whome they
shall Appoint & Authorize in their stead.
11

WILL OF ELLIS COOK
3 I Give and bequeath to my Daughter Martha* thirty
pounds & one feather bedd with furniture thereto.
4 I bequeath vnto my son Ellis^ the other pt of my
Land or Accomodations which shall bee vndisposed
of by the Abouesaid, to enjoy the same after my
wife her decease if hee bee at the age of twenty one
yeares But hee shall not dispose of any part thereof
without consent of the s** overseers or those they
shall Appoint in their stead, Also I give vnto him
fifty poundes in money to be payd vnto hime when
hee is twenty one yeares old,
5 I Give & bequeath vnto my Daughter Elizabeth^
thirty pounds & one feather bedd with furniture
6 therevnto; I Give & bequeath vnto my daughter
Mary' thirty pounds, & also I give vnto her one
feather bedd (if my wife can spare it, if not then ten
pounds in stead theirof. All my said daughters to
haue their said portions paid vnto them when they
marry or at the Age of twenty one yeares, pticularly
which shall bee first. And if any of my said Chil
dren dy before they receiue their said portions, my
will is that then my wife dispose that vnto the rest
that survive as shee shall see occasion; Moreover if
7 my wife bee with Child* & that it live I doe give
and bequeath vnto it forty pounds to bee paid as
vnto my other Children in respect of manner & time
8 as aforesaid; I Give vnto my servant Thomas Ste
vens one Heifer of about one yeare old to bee de
livered vnto him at the Expiration of his Appren-
12

WILL OF ELLIS COOK
ticeship, provided hee carry himselfe as hee ought in
his place during his time of service &c. I doe make
9 my wife Martha' my LawfuU Executrix of this my
will & Testament, And my Brothers John Cooper &
Thomas Cooperi" overseers thereof, and soe I Comitt
my Body (in gods Appointed time) to bee decently
buried in the Earth from which it was first taken;
Wittnes my Hand this 5 of September Anno 1663.
In Presence of vs EUis ^ Cooke
Henry Peirson his marke^^
Thomas Dimmon
George G. Harris
his X marke.

13

INVENTORY

An Inventory'^ of y* Estate of y' Late deceased,
Ellis Cooke of Southampton Apprized this
26 of Febuary 167| as ffoUoweth,

Impis. The Old House & Home Closse
about Twenty Acres & the Housing
vpon it
The Little Closse next Arthur HoweUs
The two former divisions about 45 Acres
The Hundred and fifty pound Comon-
age with twenty Acres allready Layd
outThe Land at the Towne, y' Home Lott
with the Land in the plaines, & the
meadow therto
It 4 old Oxen and 4 younger
It 11 Cowes
It 6 three yeares old & a Calfe & Bull
It 8 Two yeares old
It 11 yearlings
It 30 younge Swine & Shoats
It Two Ryding Horses^'
It 13 Horse kinde Old & younge
It 1 yd of Broadcloth
It 15 yds of Curtaine stuff e
It 13 yds of Callico
It 6 yds of Holand"
It 3 Remnants of Linnin 14

d.

230,00,00
£021,00,00£020,00,00
£080,00,00

100,00,00
£054,00,00
£047,00,00£022,00,00 £018,00,00
£016,10,00£030,00,00£010,00,00 £036,00,00£001,06,00£002,10,00
£001,01,08£002,08,00 £000,13,00

£002,10,00

£00,13,06

INVENTORY L. s. d.
It 18 yds & H of Dowlas £003,14,00
It pt of a ps of Camblett £005,10,00
It 22 yds of Serge £006,12,00
It 20 yds of Kersey £007,00,00
It 5 yds of Corse halfe thicke £001,02,06
It 20 yds of Blew Linnen £002,10,00
It 5 yds of Swanskine £001,05,00
It 3 yds of Strayning Cloth £000,03,00
It a Remnant of Cambrick & one of
Silke
It 5 grosse of gimpe Buttons & some 1 £^02,03,06
being all J
It a ParseU of Silk & Gallone £01,07,00
It a Parcell of CuUud thredd & 2 ps
of fiUiting
It 3 Hatts & a ps of manchester £01,04,00
It 1 pre of wosted Stockings £00,08,00
It 2 Cushions £00,08,00
It 4 paire Sheets £04,10,00
It 8 Paire of Sheets £12,00,00
It 2 doz. of napking & 3 Table
Cloathes
It 12 paire of PUlowbears £03,00,00
It a Bedd & furniture £08,10,00
It a Bedd & furniture £09,00,00
It 8 deale planks £01,00,00
It a Little Table & 2 Deale planks £01,05,00
It a Bed & Furniture £09,05,00
It one Ditto £09,00,00
It Two Ditto £11,15,00
It 55 lbs of Pewter £07,06,08
It 32 pofingers £04,00,00
15

£04,12,00

INVENTORY
It 2 drinking potts & a Saltseller
It a flagon, driping pan & old pewter
& a new Lanthorne
It a psell of brasse Kettles & some
Tallow
It 7 small Iron Potts
It 4 BarreUs of beef & one of porke
It a new warpe^^ & Hand warpe
It 2 BarreUs & Yi of MuUases
It 1 Caske of Nailes
It 8 Deare Skins
It 1 ffurkine of Butter & psell of
cheese
It 43 lbs of Cotton wooU
It a Chest & a psell of Glasse
It a psell of wine
It a psell of Spanish Iron 249 lbs
It a Castor Hatt
It a psell of Deale boards
It a psell of flax
It a psell of Lime & bricke
It 5 Bushells of Salt
It 5 Chests
It 7 yds of Duffells & a psell of yearn
It 2 Chaines & Iron Implements
It Axes Augers & other Implemants
It Sawes & a Cutting Knife
It 4 Sackes, Sadies & pylion & bridles
It wearing Cloathes
It 49 Sheepe
It a Gun, warming pan & other Iron
necessarys 16

L. s. d.
£00,15,00
£001,09,00 016,10,00
£07,00,00£11,00,00 £05,00,00£06,05,00£07,00,00£01,14,00 £05,05,00£02,13,00 £03,14,00£01,10,00£06,04,06£01,15,00 £01,10,00£01,10,00£01,02,00 £01,00,00£02,00,00£03,08,00 £02,05,00£03,10,00£01,05,00£01,15,00 £05,00,00£20,00,00£03,00,00

INVENTORY
L. s. d.
It 3 Syths, frying pan, a Lampe &c £01,00,00
It a Cart, Tackling, a plough & Irons £02,00,00
It a pseU of Suger & a Jar of Oyle £03,00,00
It 150 Bushells of wheate & 60
Bushells of Indian & the Hay
It Shingles & other Lumber £05,16,00
It Powder & Shott & 3 Pailes £01,14,06
It in Debts £62,00,00
It a bedd Bolster & furniture £08,00,00

£62,00,00

Apprizers John Howell
John Jesup
Thomas Topping
Edmond Howell

1184.10.10

17

ADMINISTRATION Administration Granted to Martha
the Widdow & Relict of Ellis Cooke
of Southt'on July 8"' 1679.
S" Edmond Andross Kn' &c,
WTiereas Ellis Cooke of Southt'mi in the East Ryding
of yorkeshire vpon Long Island deceased, did in
His Last Will & Testament nominate & appoint
Martha his wife, to bee his Executrix, & his Brothers
John & Thomas Cooper to bee overseers of his said
Will, And proofe having beene made thereof at the
Court of Sessions held at Southton in March Last
for the East Riding, where shee the said Martha was
admitted Executrix, & her Brother Thomas Cooper
& Job Sayre
the surviving overseer to bee overseers & security
taken by the said Court accordingly These presents
may Certify & declare that the above, martha Wid
dow & Relict of the said Ellis Cooke, is Admitted &
Confirmed to all Intents & purposes Executrix of
the last Will & Testament of Her s** Husband & the
& Job Sayre
aforenamed Thomas Cooper Overseers of the same,
shee the said martha hauing hereby full power &
Lawful Authority to enter into or keepe possession
of the pmisses & to dispose thereof as in the said will
is Required, & as an Executrix According to Law.
Given vnder my Hand & Scale this 8 day of July
1679. Past the Office E. Andross.
M. N. seer. 18

NOTES
' Recorded in Vol. 1, pp. 343 ff. of the old wills of the Surrogate's
Office in New York City, and copied into the new series. Vol. I, pp. 207-
211. With this will may be compared those transcribed in R.^ 8, 22, 25, 42.
^ The name of Ellis (EUice, H. 460) Cook(e) first appears in a list
of men, dated March 7, 1644, who are to have charge of the division of
any whale cast up on the shore. For this purpose, eleven men are se
lected from each of four wards, and the name of Ellis Cooke is under
the third of these wards {H. 183; R.^ 32; cf. H. 84, 170, 181-5; fl.' 41,
44, 71, 92, 126, 173; R.^ VI, X, 27, 28, 34-5, 52, 55-60, 71-2, 80, 219, 246).
Oct. 7, 1648, his house-lot is mentioned (iJ.' 54); March 8, 1649, he is
recorded as a townsman {H. 31; cf. 32, 33; fl.' 56); Sept. 10, 1650, he
receives 3 shillings a day (B.' 69); Oct. 21, 1650, he is mentioned as
having a bam (B.' 65); March 5, 1651, he has a £100 allotment at Little
Plains, where he has lot No. 26 {H. 143; iJ.i 142, 143). At dates un
determined he is mentioned as keeping his oxen in the common ox-
pasture (iJ.' 144), as having 20 acres at his house at Me(a)cox, and 10
acres at Calf Creek (fl.' 149), as having a close (iJ.' 150), and as having
a house and cow-yard {R.^ 151); the site of his house is pointed out
{H. 152) — where the Herrick house now stands. Under March 20,
1651, he is mentioned in a document which is here transcribed in full
(fl.174): It was ordered by the saide General Court that Richard Post &
EUis Cook shall be freed from their bargin of building a meet-[ing]
howse for the towne, which agreement they made with the five
men upon this condition that the said Ellis Cook and Richard Post
shall sett vp a [word gone] for a meeting house for the towne, the
said Richard Post and Ellis Cook is to haue at two days notice given
by either of the two said carpenters either carpenters or laborers
to help about the ^ame, & they to have two shillings apiece pr day
each man that is to say Richard Post and Ellis Cooke, and the
other carpenters, the length of the house is to be 30 foot, the breadth
24 foote, the postes to be set in the ground and to be 8 foot and a
halfe long in the [word gone] from ye ground to the plate, the la
borers are to haue 2s pr day, the pay to be in merchantable wampum
strung or unstrung [cf. H. 127, 136-7; R.' 206].
Sept. 22, 1651, he is mentioned {R.^ 75). Oct. 6, 1651, we have
this record: 'At the saide generall court were chosen five men for
19

NOTES
goveminge of town affairs, William Rogers Henry Pierson Ellis Cooke
Thomas Sayre Richard Barrett who had by the saide Courte the same
power giuen vnto them, as those which bore the said office the yeare
1650' (B.I 76).
March 1, 1652, he serves as a juryman (B.' 89); February 10,
1653, his 2 acres on Farrington Neck are mentioned {R.'- 134); March
8, 1653, he is third in the third squadron for the cutting up of whales
(jR.i 92; B. 183); Febmary, 1664, he has a £100 allotment at Seaponack
(B.1 101; cf. Feb. I, 1655, H. 33), and on Oct. 6 he is chosen constable
and marshal (cf. fi.' 23, 27, 39, 61, 64, 66, 75, 85, 88, 93, 154, 159, 160;
fi.2 2, 31, 50, 55, 61, 66-7, 72, 74, 85, 93-6, 102, 106, 108, 123, 125, 128,
131, 133, 147-8, 202, 211, 221, 226, 239, 266, 270, 279, 295, 313, 353; in
an ordinance of May 6, 1647, afterwards repealed, the constable, with
magistrate, minister, and clerk, is exempted (B.' 46) from the necessity
of bearing arms on Sundays), and is sworn in (B.' 105); October 30,
1655, he serves on a jury (B.' 110); Feb. 26 and March II, 1657, he is
defendant at the suit of John Scott (B.' 119, 128), and on April 30 re
ceives, with others, half a poimd of powder from the magazine (B.^ 154) ;
the same year he is of the 'eastern men' of the town {H. 32); probably
soon after 1657, his name occurs in a list, according to residence, of
men charged with the division of whales {H. 184); Feb. 20, 1659, his
name occurs in an allotment {R.^ 203) .
May 25, 1659, he buys land at Me(a)cox and the house-lot, etc., of
John 0(u)ldfield (B.' 138), and, while retaining his homestead in South
ampton, seems to have removed to Me(a)cox and resided there (ff. 212;
cf. B.M2). Oct. 6, 1659, he is plaintifiE in a suit against Isaac Willman (fl.'
139); about this time his name occurs in an allotment of fence and
meadow (B.' 140; cf. 143); March 1, 1663, he buys land at Me(a)cox (B.2
228); Jan. 16, 1665, he is described as having a rate to pay at Quaqua-
nantuck (B.^ 251), and on June 5 he enters a mark [earmark] which he
bought of Humphrey Hughes {R.' 235) ; September 5, 1663, his will is
dated; Dec. 18, 1665, he claims land at Quaquanantuck, or Quogue
(B.i 151); March 30, 1666, he is named (B.^ 49); March 23, 1667, he is
named third in the third squadron for the division of whales (ff . 184) ;
April 9, I67I, he is named (B.^ 59); May 29, 1673, he has an allotment
(B.^ 254); Nov. 1, 1676, he is one ot the patentees in a patent of Gov
ernor-General Edmimd Andros, ratifying the grant of Southampton
to the freeholders and inhabitants, the tenure to be according to the
customs of the manor of East Greenwich, in the county of Kent, Eng
land, 'in free and common soccage and by fealty only' (ff. 459, cf. 460;
B.2 348); Nov. 15, 1676, he has an allotment (B.^ 258, 259); May II,
1677, his land is mentioned (B.^ 261, 263), and December 26, his allot
ment (B.' 264). Cf. B.2 312.
20

NOTES
Feb, 26, 167|^, the inventory of his estate is made.
July 8, 1679, letters of administration are granted to his widow,
Martha. The year of Ellis' birth is a matter of conjecture. As he was a
townsman in 1644, he must have been 21 in that year, one supposes,
and may easily have been several years older (six men examined in
1646 ranged from 22 to 28, according to ff. 18). Seven years later he
was apparently a master carpenter, which points in the direction of an
age greater than 28, and in the same year he was one of the 'five men'
appointed to rule the town for the year, which again suggests a greater
age than 28. By 1663 he is reminded of his mortality, and makes his
will; if he were only 21 in 1644, he would in 1663 be 40. On the whole,
one is inclined to think that he must have been at least five years older
at each of these dates. If he were born in 1618, he would have been no
more than 60 when he died, an age none too great to have enabled him
to accumulate the property which his will and the inventory show him
to have possessed. On that supposition, he would have been 12 years
older than his wife, in itself not at all improbable. I should therefore
place the date of his birth not later than 1618, and perhaps rather
earlier. The date of his marriage must be equally conjectural. Since his
wife was bom in 1630, she would have been 18 years old in 1648. By
1663 they had five children, and seem to have been expectant of another.
A marriage in or about 1648 would not only accord with this fact, but
would allow sufficient time for the eldest son, John, to display a dis
position which evidently gave the father some uneasiness, since the will
provides that he is not to have any real estate unless he behave himself
well to his mother, and live civilly in conversation. With the date of
marriage suggested, the son would have been no more than 14 in 1663,
and he would hardly have excited such serious apprehensions in his
father at an earlier age. As girls then often married early, this date of
1648 might even be pushed back a year or so. Had he married in 1646,
his wife would have been 16 years old, and he (say) 28. On that sup
position, John would have been 16 years old, or less, in 1663, the date
of the will. Howell gives Johu Cook's dates as ca. 1656-1719 (p. 212).
George H. Cook {Notes, p. 2) merely infers, from the occurrence pf his
name in a rate-list of 1683, that he must then have been of age. This
date for his birth can be corrected by a comparison with statements
made concerning Ellis Cook, the third child, and Elizabeth, the fourth.
The former is said to have died Nov. 10, 1706 (ff. 190; cf. 212, note),
aged 44; but he must have been born before 1662, seeing that in 1663
he had two younger sisters. Moreover, Elizabeth, the next younger
child, was married to Thomas Stevens Oct. 26, 1675 (B.^ 243). Now if
she were 20 when married, she would have been born in 1655; if 18, in
21

NOTES
1657; and if only 16, in 1659. Hence Ellis, the next older child, can
not have been born in 1662; nor can John, the first child, as she was the
fourth, well have been born in 1656, as Howell conjectures.
' The children of Ellis and Martha Cook were, as appears from the
will, John, Martha, Ellis, Elizabeth, and Mary; one son, Abiel (written
Abial), was born subsequently. Lists of their descendants are given in
Notes, with which compare ff. 212 ff.
John Cook, as we have seen above (p. 20), was probably born
about 1650. On Sept. 6, 1716, he wills to his wife, Elizabeth, among
other things — rents of buildings, etc. — his negro, Kitty, and £30; to
his daughter, Martha, his slave, Abby; and to his four sons substantial
bequests. He died in 1719 (ff. 212). He has the honorary title 'Mr.'
in 1695, and again in 1712 (B.^ 133, 148). References to him occur in
ff. 39, 181, 198; B.^ 86, 91, 118, 126, 133-6, 142-3, 147, 149, 152, 154,
158, 247, 271, 305, 320, 339, 344, 346, 363.
* Of Martha, this daughter, nothing further seems to be known.
^Howell gives the following account of Ellis' wooing (ff. 217):
'EUis Cook, s. of Ellis the first, when a young man, cleared up a place,
buUt a house on it, and then (maidens, it is said, being scarce in South
ampton) went over to Connecticut for a wife. After staying there for
some time, and having found a young lady to suit him, her father asked
a friend one day what young Cook's business was that detained him so
long iu that neighborhood. He was told that the young man was court
ing his daughter. "Why don't he ask me, then.?" said the father. And
seeing Cook shortly afterward, he repeated the question to him. "That
is just what I was about to do," said Ellis; and thereupon the following
dialogue ensued: "Where do you live?" "In Southampton, L. I."
"Have you a church there?" [meaning a church-organization.] "Yes.''
"A minister?" "Yes." "A meeting-house?" "Yes." "Have you got
a house to live in?" "Yes." "Well, then, young man, you may have
my daughter," and, the maiden assenting, the marriage soon followed,
and Ellis led his bride to her new home in the forests of Southampton.'
On a stone in Me(a)cox burying-ground is, or was, the following
inscription (ff. 190): 'Here Lyeth the Body of Ellis Cook who de
parted this life November the lOth Anno 1706 aetatis 44.' His age is
wrongly given, as we have seen above (p. 20). In 1716 his brother
John bequeaths a house and barn formerly owned by Ellis (ff. 212).
See also B." 118, 123, 278.
' EUzabeth Cook, as we saw above, was married to Thomas Stevens
Oct. 26, 1675 (B.2 243). Howell says (ff. 390-1): 'The town records
mention that Thomas Stephens, when a lad of 16 years of age, in 1663,
had lost his parents, and had some property left him, and that he went
to live with Ellis Cook, who then occupied as his homestead the present
homestead of Capt. James M. Herrick. Thomas subsequently married
22

NOTES
a daughter of EUis Cook, and lived in Water Mill. In 1670 [misprint
for 1690; see ff. 212] he exchanged homesteads with Martha, wid. of
EUis Cook, and in 1807 another Thomas Stephens sold this place to
Micaiah Herrick.'
Under date of March 14, 1663 (R.^ 40), the town records say:
'Thomas Steevens aged about 16 yeares, his parents being deceased,
and something being left unto him by them, hee the said Thomas doth
this day before the Authority of this towne make choice of his loving
friend John Cooper to bee his guardian, to act on his behalf in respect
of the premises. And with what hee doth therein for his use, or shall
doe, or cause to bee done, by himself or assigns, hee the said Thomas
acknouledgeth to bee, & shall bee satisfyed.' If he was 16 in 1663, he
was bom in 1647; if he died in I70I, aged 51 (ff. 391), he was bom in
1650. The tombstones of the period appear not to be very trustworthy
witnesses, and we may suppose 1647 to be more nearly correct, since he
is hardly likely to have been called 16 in 1663, if he was only 13. See
the closing paragraph of the will, and B.^ 127.
' Of Mary nothing more is known.
' This was Abiel (Abial), bom, according to Howell (ff. 214), in
1663; at all events, his son, Abiel, had a son EUis, born in 1703 (ib.).
It is from the latter, who moved to New Jersey in 1747, that I trace my
descent (see p. 5). Cf. R." 363.
' Martha Cook, wife of Ellis (ff. 218), was born in England in 1630
(ff. 217), and was still known as Widow Cook in 1690 (ff. 212; cf. 391).
Her father, John Cooper, was bom in 1594, and came to Massachusetts
from Olney, in Buckinghamshire, in 1635, in the ship Hopewell. He
was made a freeman (cf. ff. 89) at Boston, Dec. 6, 1636 (ff. 15), was
one of the elders of the church when it was organized at Lynn, and in
1638 is recorded as owning 200 acres of land in that town. He was one
of the twenty heads of families who formed the association for the set
tlement of Southampton in 1639. In 1644 he was fined five shillings
for some passionate expressions (B.' 34). He had seven children, of
whom Martha was the fourth, being the second of five daughters (see
his will, B.' 25-6, where he makes bequests to her and her children).
Like her husband, she seems to have been unable to write her name, or
to have written it with difficulty (B.^ 270; cf. note II). Like her brothers,
John and Thomas (cf. B.' 97, 103, 110, 112, 113, 122, 127; B.^ 18, 19,
31, 84, etc.), she was perhaps of a litigious disposition, as would appear
from the foUowmg (B." 270; cf. 268-9, and 85-6): 'Whereas there hath
been several controversies and contentions between the towne of South
ampton, and Mrs. Martha Cooke concerning severall parcells of laud,'
etc. This was in 1681, when she was 51 years of age, two years after
her husband's death. For various references to her, see ff. 39, 44,
217, 218, 391 ; B.^ 76, 78, 91, 93, 105, 266.
23

NOTES
'» See Note 9.
" Both the father and mother of John Harvard likewise signed their
wills with marks, the one in 1625, and the other in 1635 (Waters, Gene
alogical Gleanings in England 1. 120, 126); and in 1579, when their son
William was 15 years of age, the parents of Shakespeare signed a deed
with their marks, though in 1568 the father had attained 'the most dis
tinguished official position in the town' of Stratford (HaUiwell-Phillips,
Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, 5th ed., pp. 34, 36; cf. Sidney Lee,
Life of Shakespeare, 1st ed., p. 5). Such, too, was the signature of
Judith Shakespeare, the poet's daughter (HaUiwell-Phillips, p. 144).
12 For other inventories, see B.' 67, [120]; R.' 10, 23, 26, 44, 46; cf.
B.' 77; B.2 IX, 2, 13, 30. No one of these foots up to so large a sum as
this. The comparison of articles and prices is interesting.
" For travel on horseback, see ff. 179.
" Por this aud other kinds of cloth, see New Eng. Diet.
'* According to the Cent. Did., a towing-line. See R.' 72

The general aspect of the country near Southampton is described
by a writer in the Boston Herald of June 26, 1916. He supposes a
traveler journeying eastward by the Long Island Railroad, and arriving
at the neck of land between Great Peconic and Shinnecock bays : ' The
flat, sandy barrens, covered with scrub oak and jack pine, which have
shut in his view on either hand, unexpectedly give place to rolling hills
of considerable elevation, carpeted with low shrubs and gay with wild
flowers, while to the south Ue the sparkling blue waters of Shinnecock
Bay and the ocean, and to the north picturesque headlands jutting out
into the broad expanse of the Little Peconic.
' For six mUes the train crosses these wonderfully beautiful Suffolk
Downs, as they are called, and then passes into a landscape of still an
other type — a rich farming country which seems to have been trans
ported bodily from New England. The broad, gently rising plain,
extending from the beach to the line of thickly wooded hills, is dotted
over with comfortable white farmhouses, each embowered in its clumps
of old trees, set out, in many cases, by the hands of the early settlers
250 years ago, for here on the "east end" were planted the first English
villages in the state of New York.'

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