Reider-Underwood Genealogy

ORIGIN: Broadway, Somersetshire [TAG 68:149].

MIGRATION: 1635 (on 20 March 1634/5, "Joseph Hall of Somerset, a minis ter, aged 40 years, Agnis Hall his wife aged 25 years, Joane Hall hi s daughter aged 15 years, Joseph Hall his son aged 13 years, Tristra m his son aged 11 years, Elizabeth Hall his daughter aged 7 years, Tem perance his daughter aged 9 years, Grissell Hull his daughter aged 5 y ears, Dorothy Hall his daughter aged 3 years, Judeth French his servan t aged 20 years, John Wood his servant aged 20 years, [and] Rob[er]t D abyn his servant aged 28 years" were enrolled at Weymouth as passenger s for New England on the Marygould [Hotten 283; GMN 7:9]).

FIRST RESIDENCE: Weymouth.

REMOVES: Hingham by 1638, Barnstable 1639, Yarmouth 1641, York 1643, O yster River, Isles of Shoals.

RETURN TRIPS: Returned to England by 1648 (baptism of son at Launcesto n, Cornwall on 23 January 1648/9 [M&JCH 17:96]) and back to New Englan d soon after 1662 (ejected from St Buryan, Cornwall [Calamy 1:349]).

OCCUPATION: Minister. Rector of Northleigh, Devonshire, 1621-32 [Foste r 2:765]; curate of Broadway, Somersetshire, 1633-34 [TAG 68:149].

On 5 May 1639, "Mr. Hull gave his farewell sermon" at Hingham [NEHGR 1 21:11]. On 11 December 1639, a day of thanksgiving was held "at Mr. Hu ll's house, for God's exceeding mercy in bringing us hither [Barnstabl e] safely keeping us healthy & well in our weak beginnings & in our ch urch estate" [NEHGR 10:39].

On 7 March 1642/3, it "is ordered, that a warrant shall be directed t o the constable of Yarmouth, to apprehend Mr. Joseph Hull (if he do ei ther exercise the ministry amongst them or administer the seals), to b ring him before the next magistrate, to find sufficient sureties for h is appearance the next General Court, to answer his doings (being an e xcommunicant)" [PCR 2:53].

When Roger Garde died at Agamenticus early in 1645, "Mr. Hull offerre d to preach yet his funeral sermon and did and the people all solemnl y interred him there with arms" [WP 5:38].

He resided at Launceston, Cornwall, at least from 1648 to 1652, and wa s presumably minister there, and was rector at St Buryan, Cornwall, i n 1662 when he was ejected from that living [Calamy 1:349].

The largest single item in his inventory, dated 5 December 1665, was " the Islands [Isles of Shoals] indebted to my husband for his ministry, " ?20 [MPCR 1:270].

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to Weymouth church prior to 2 September 1 635 implied by freemanship [GMN 5:29].

On 1 May 1641, "Mr. Hull excommunicated for his willful breaking of co mmunion with us, & joining himself a member with a company at Yarmout h to be their pastor, contrary to the advice and counsel of our Church " [NEHGR 10:41]. On 11 March 1642[/3?], "[o]ur sister Hull renewed he r covenant with us, renouncing her joining with the [church] at Jarmou th confessing her evil in so doing with sorrow" [NEHGR 10:39]. On 10 A ugust 1643, "Mr. Hull, in the acknowledging of his sin, & renewing hi s covenant was received again into fellowship with us" [NEHGR 10:41].

FREEMAN: 2 September 1635 (first in a sequence of six Weymouth men) [M BCR 1:371].

OFFICES: Deputy for Hingham to Massachusetts Bay General Court, 6 Sept ember 1638, 13 March 1638/9 [MBCR 1:235, 250]. Committee on wages an d prices, 12 March 1637/8 [MBCR 1:223]. Commissioner to end small caus es at Hingham, 6 September 1638 [MBCR 1:239]. Committee to set a colon y tax rate, 6 September 1638 [MBCR 1:242].

Deputy for Barnstable to Plymouth General Court, 3 December 1639 [PC R 1:126, 137].

EDUCATION: Matriculated at Oxford from St Mary Hall on 22 May 1612, ag ed 17; BA 14 November 1614 [Foster 2:765]. His inventory included "hi s books" valued at ?10 [MPCR 1:270].

ESTATE: In 1636 two parcels of land were "granted unto Mr. Joseph Hul l by the town of Hingham": "for a houselot five acres of land"; and "f or a great lot and for a planting lot lying together five and forty ac res" [HiBOP 97v].

On 7 September 1642, in "the controversy betwixt Samuell Hinckley an d Mr. Joseph Hull, about the lands the said Hinckley bought of the sai d Hull in Barnestable, it is ordered, by the consent of both parties a nd by the town of Barnestable, being referred to the bench, that the s aid Mr. Hull, according to his own proffer, shall abate forty shilling s of that the said Samuell Hinckley should have paid him for the sai d land, and that the town of Barnestable shall return the one half o f the lands they took away from the said Samuell Hunckley to him again , and so a final end to be of all suits & controversies about the same " [PCR 2:44, 7:30, 31].

On 6 July 1646, Edward Godfrey successfully sued "Joseph Hull, ministe r, … for a parcel of marsh" [MPCR 1:93].

On 12 June 1666, "letters of administration are to be granted unto Mis tress Agnis Hull of the estate of Mr. Joseph Hull her husband lately d eceased" [MPCR 1:261]. The inventory of "the goods of Mr. Joseph Hul l who departed this life the 19th of November 1665," taken 5 Decembe r 1665, totalled ?52 5s. 5d. [MPCR 1:269-270].

BIRTH: Baptized Crewkerne, Somersetshire, 24 April 1596, son of Thoma s and Joan (Pyssing) Hull [Evans Festschrift 50].

DEATH: 19 November 1665 (from inventory [MPCR 1:269]).

MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1620 _____ _____.

(2) By 1635 Agnes _____. She was living on 5 December 1666.

CHILDREN:

With first wife

i JOANNA HULL, b. about 1620 (aged 15 in 1635 [Hotten 283]); m. ( 1) Sandwich about 28 November 1639 JOHN BURSLEY {1623, Weymouth} [NEHG R 9:286; GMB 1:280-83]; m. (2) on an unknown date DOLOR DAVIS {1634, C ambridge} [GM 2:2:292-97].

ii JOSEPH HULL, b. about 1622 (aged 13 in 1635 [Hotten 283]); liv ing in November 1644 (assuming that he was the son of Rev. Joseph Hul l who was involved in the death of Richard Cornish) [WJ 2:258]; no fur ther record.

iii TRISTRAM HULL, b. about 1624 (aged 11 in 1635 [Hotten 283]) ; m. by 1645 Blanche _____ (eldest known child b. Barnstable "the latt er end of September, 1645" [PCR 8:45]; in his will of 20 December 1666 , "Mr. Thristrum Hull of Barnstable" named "his wife Blanch Hull" [M D 17:23-24, citing PCPR 2:2:41-42]).

iv TEMPERANCE HULL, bp. Northleigh, Devonshire, 20 March 1625/6 [ TAG 68:149]; m. by about 1650 John Bickford [GDMNH 91; Durham Hist 2:2 22].

v ELIZABETH HULL, b. about 1628 (aged 7 in 1635 [Hotten 283]); m . by 1643 John Heard [GDMNH 322].

vi GRISELDA HULL, b. about 1630 (aged 5 in 1635 [Hotten 283]); sa iled to New England with family in 1635 [Hotten 283]; no further recor d. (James Warren of Kittery named a daughter Grizel [GDMNH 721], and o n this basis the suggestion has been made that his wife was Griselda H ull [ONGQ 12:92, 137]; but in all records his wife is named Margaret , and this usage of the name for his daughter appears to be nothing mo re than a coincidence.)

vii DOROTHY HULL, b. about 1632 (aged 3 in 1635 [Hotten 283]); m . (1) by about 1660 Oliver Kent [GDMNH 398]; m. (2) after 28 June 167 0 Benjamin Mathews [GDMNH 467-68; Durham Hist 2:222-24].

With second wife

viii HOPEWELL HULL, b. say 1636; m. by 1669 Mary Martin, daughte r of John Martin [NJArch 22:lxxix].

ix BENJAMIN HULL, bp. Hingham 24 March 1638/9 [NEHGR 121:11]; m . by 1669 Rachel York (eldest known child b. 5 May 1669 [Monnette 235] ), daughter of Richard York (in his will of 23 April 1672, "Ritchard Y orke" included a bequest to "my daughter Ratchell Halle [sic]" [NHPP 3 1:134]).

x NAOMI HULL, bp. Barnstable 23 March 1639/40 [NEHGR 9:282]; on 1 5 June 1661, "Naomi Hull, aged twenty years and upwards," testified a s to events in the household of "her master [Samuel] Symonds" of Ipswi ch [EQC 2:296-97]; on 17 September 1667, "Amy Hull [was] presented fo r committing fornication, sentence to be whipped to the number of 15 s tripes & fees" [NHPP 40:229]; m. by an unknown date Davy Daniel [GDMN H 182; Durham Hist 2:222-24].

xi RUTH HULL, bp. Barnstable 9 May 1641 (the first of two baptis ms on the same day, annotated "Both these from Yarmouth, the parents o f the first being yet members with us") [NEHGR 9:282]; no further reco rd. (The Ruth Hull who married William Raymond was daughter of Isaac H ull of Beverly [Dawes-Gates 2:467-68].)

xii DODOVAH HULL, b. say 1643 (granted land at York on 21 Septemb er 1667 [YLR 11:14]); m. about 1680 Mary Seward, daughter of Richard S eward (Mary Seward was b. in 1658 and their only known child was m. i n 1700 [GDMNH 237, 621]).

xiii SAMUEL HULL, b. say 1645; m. (1) Piscataway, New Jersey, 1 6 November 1677 Mary Manning [Monnette 227]; m. (2) by 1702 Margaret _ ____ (eldest known child b. Piscataway, New Jersey, 5 December 1702 [M onnette 235]).

xiv (possibly) PHINEAS HULL, b. about 1647 (deposed 24 August 167 4 "aged 27 years or thereabouts" [MPCR 2:492]); m. (1) by about 1675 J erusha Hitchcock, daughter of RICHARD HITCHCOCK {1634, Massachusetts B ay} [GM 2:3:339-42]; m. (2) after 1689 Mary (Rishworth) (White) Saywar d, daughter of EDWARD RISHWORTH {1638, Exeter} [GDMNH 588] and widow o f (William?) White [GDMNH 749] and John Sayward [GDMNH 611].

xv REUBEN HULL, bp. Launceston, Cornwall, 23 January 1648/9 [M&JC H 17:96] (aged about 20 in June 1669 [GDMNH, citing an unidentified so urce]); m. by 1673 Hannah Ferniside (eldest known child b. Boston 9 Se ptember 1673 [BVR 128]), daughter of John Ferniside (in his will of 2 3 December 1689, "Reuben Hull of Portsmouth" included bequests to "m y well beloved wife Hannah Hull" and "my sister Sarah Fermiside" [NHP P 31:332-33; NEHGR 94:174-75]).

xvi EPHRAIM HULL, bp. Launceston, Cornwall, 13 February 1649/50 [ M&JCH 17:96; Ancestral Lines 318-22]; no further record.

xvii PRISCILLA HULL, bp. Launceston, Cornwall, 30 March 1651 [Anc estral Lines 318-22]; bur. there in 1652 [GDMNH 358, apparently citin g Launceston parish register].

ASSOCIATIONS: Rev. Joseph Hull was brother of GEORGE HULL {1632, Dorch ester} [GMB 2:1040-43; Evans Festschrift 44-51].

COMMENTS: Most of the passengers who came to New England in 1635 on th e Marygould whose English origins have been identified came from eithe r Broadway or Batcomb in Somersetshire [Hotten 283-86]. With the disco very that Rev. Joseph Hull was curate at Broadway in 1633 and 1634, th e conclusion that he was the organizer and leader of at least a part o f this shipload of passengers is greatly reinforced. A further reflect ion of this connection to Broadway is seen in a deed of 20 February 16 39[/40], wherein "Richard Standerweek, of Broadway, in the county of S omerset, in old England, clothier," sold to "Nicholas Nurton, of Waimo uth, in New England, … all the cattle … whatsoever I have with Mr. Hul l in New England" [PCR 1:159-60, 7:16].

On 8 July 1635, Gov. John Winthrop reported that "[a]t this Court, Wes saguscus was made a plantation & Mr. Hull, a minister in England, & 2 1 families with him allowed to set down there" [WJ 1:194]. On 8 July 1 635, "[t]here is leave granted to 21 families to sit down at Wessagusc us, viz: [blank]" [MBCR 1:149].

On 10 May 1643, in his discussion of the formation of the New Englan d Confederation, Gov. John Winthrop noted that "[t]hose of Sir Ferdina ndo Gorge his province, beyond Pascataquack, were not received nor cal led into the confederation, because they ran a different course from u s both in their ministry and civil administration; for they had latel y made Acomenticus (a poor village) a corporation, and had made a tail or their mayor, and had entertained one Hull, an excommunicated perso n and very contentious, for their minister" [WJ 2:121]. In November 16 44, as part of the inquiry into the suspicious death of RICHARD CORNIS H {1634, Weymouth} at Agamenticus, "something was discovered against t he son of Mr. Hull, their minister," which caused the case to be reope ned [WJ 2:258; GM 2:2:213-14].

In the 1635 passenger list, Agnes Hull, wife of Rev. Joseph, is said t o be twenty-five years old, and on this basis she cannot have been th e mother of his older children. All published accounts assume that sh e married Hull just before the passenger list was compiled, and that h is first seven children are by an earlier wife. This is certainly poss ible, but there is no reason why she could not have been mother of som e of the younger children on the passenger list. As she was apparentl y still bearing children as late as 1652, we cannot propose that she w as the mother of all the children if we were able to adjust her age o n the passenger list to thirty-five, as this would put her into her ea rly fifties when the last children were born. So, in the absence of fu rther evidence, we postulate two wives. There is no evidence that th e first wife was named Joan.

We next have to address the problem of the evidence for placing all th ese children in the family of Rev. Joseph Hull. The first seven are pr oved by the passenger list, and the ninth, tenth, eleventh, fifteenth , sixteenth and seventeenth by baptismal records

This leaves four sons for whom there is no equivalent evidence: Hopewe ll, Dodovah, Samuel and Phineas, the last three all apparently born i n the mid to late 1640s, when Rev. Joseph Hull and his family were liv ing in York. In his will of 26 March 1693, Hopewell Hull named "brothe r Benjamin Hull" as overseer, and Samuel Hull is seen in association w ith these families [NJArch 21:108, 194]. Reuben Hull named a son Dodov ah Hull [GDMNH 358], so these two men would seem to be brothers. The e vidence is most tenuous for Phineas, although he did reside late in hi s life in York [GDMNH 358]. Firmer evidence for or against placing hi m in this family would be welcome.

The evidence for the residence and vital events in Launceston, Cornwal l, has been pieced together from three sources. The baptisms for Reube n and Ephraim were published by Burton Spear [M&JCH 17:96], the baptis ms for Ephraim and Priscilla by Carl Boyer [Ancestral Lines, 3rd editi on (Santa Clarita, California, 1998), cited above as Ancestral Lines , pp. 318-22], and the incomplete burial record for Priscilla by Noyes , Libby and Davis [GDMNH 358]. These three sets of records are all pre sumably derived from the same source, the Launceston parish register , and are consistent with one another. However, since each person wh o examined this register obtained a different result, further examinat ion of the register should be undertaken.

From the three baptisms at Hingham and Barnstable and the two at Launc eston, we see a regular interval of almost exactly a year, implying th at the family employed a wetnurse. Under these circumstances, we hav e considerably more leeway in arranging the birth order of the childre n, and, in particular, might just as well place Hopewell in the mid-16 40s.

Evidence for the marriages of three of the daughters (Temperance, Doro thy and Naomi) is also slight, and is best summarized by Stackpole an d Meserve [Durham Hist 2:222-24]. The evidence for the marriage of Joh n Heard and Elizabeth Hull is onomastic, inasmuch as they named sons J oseph and Tristram [GDMNH 322].

Most compiled treatments of the family of Rev. Joseph Hull include a d aughter Sarah who died in 1647 [GDMNH 358; Hull Gen 249; Durham Hist 2 :225]. This child was actually a daughter of Tristram Hull, son of Jos eph. In the register of Yarmouth vital events for 1647, submitted to t he Plymouth Colony Court, is the birth on 18 October of that year of " Sara Hull, the daughter of Trustrum Hull" [PCR 8:3]. Six entries later , in a portion of the same document that has been damaged, is "Sara Hu ll, the [damaged] died [damaged]" [PCR 8:4]. Many years later, after T ristram Hull had moved to Barnstable, he entered in the records of tha t town a list of the births of five children, the first of whom was "h is daughter Mary, born the latter end of September, 1645," and the sec ond of whom was "Sarah, the latter end of March, 1650" [PCR 8:45]. Th e gap between 1645 and 1650 accommodates the daughter Sarah who was bo rn and died that year, and for whom the next daughter born to this fam ily was named. Some genealogist of the past misappropriated this deat h record of 1647, placing it in the family of Rev. Joseph Hull rathe r than in its proper place. The further claim that this non-existent d aughter Sarah was born in 1636 must have arisen from an attempt, onc e her existence was believed, to find an appropriate place for her i n the list of children.

Col. Weygant believed that the son Joseph married and had four sons [H ull Gen 251], but there is no evidence that Joseph had a family, and t hese four alleged sons belong elsewhere, either as sons of the immigra nt, or totally unconnected, or non-existent.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1909 and 1910 Orra Eugene Monnette publishe d a lengthy study of the New Jersey branches of the descendants of Rev . Joseph Hull [ONGQ 12:86-92, 134-42, 13:26-35]. The presentation an d argumentation in this article are of a better quality than other wor k compiled by Monnette.

In 1913 Everett S. Stackpole and Winthrop S. Meserve published a brie f account of the family of Rev. Joseph Hull that included an excellen t discussion of the evidence in favor of the marriages made by Hull' s daughters [Durham Hist 2:221-25]. Also in 1913 Col. Weygant publishe d The Hull Family in America (cited above as Hull Gen), which containe d many errors.