Shadow Echo Me

By Joyce Elaine Wiggin-Robbins

Shadow Echo Me
The Life and Times of Thomas Wiggin, 16011666
The Making of American Values
by Joyce Wiggin-Robbins

Thomas Wiggin, captain and governor in Colonial New Hampshire, was an accumulation of moral values, religious principals, political and European conflicts, and all the desires typical for a man of his era. With a heritage as a son of the clergy, being well educated, with a history of advantageous networking, Thomas would become the example of the discipline and strength needed to establish a home in the New England wilderness of the seventeenth century. Turning his back to a cultured, established, and predictable life in England, he chose to bring a wife and carve a life out of the wilderness and bring up his children in a place of wide-open opportunity and freedoms. It was men like Thomas Wiggin who became the backbone of the future United States of America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514476963

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Copyright © 2016 by Joyce Elaine Wiggin-Robbins.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016904515

ISBN:      Hardcover   978-1-5144-7698-7

                Softcover     978-1-5144-7697-0

                eBook           978-1-5144-7696-3

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Rev. date: 03/28/2016

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

First Planting of New Hampshire Piscataqua Patents

The Box and The Wall

Preface

Why He Came

Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness

Author's Introduction Section I

Family Group Sheet Bishop's Itchington, Warwickshire, England

Wiggin Bible

Mayhem and Intrigue

Warwickshire

Connections

Early Associates on the Piscataqua 1627--32

The Lords

Surname and Given Name Origins

Early Given Name Conventions

Pedigrees and Family Trees

Wedding Rings

The Vicar William Wiggin

Descendants of Vicar William Wiggin and Ann Gybbes Residing in Bishop's Itchington, Warwickshire

The Admiralty

Bristol

Bristol Merchant Venturers

Letters of Marque and Bristol Merchants

Barnstaple

Letters of Marque and Barnstaple, Devon

The First English Conquest of Canada

North American Staple Trades

Shrewsbury Men

Privateers and The Smuggling Trade

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Section II

Section II Introduction

Time Line Regression Back to the Future 1633 Back To 1616

Time Line Of Historical Events for Captain Thomas Wiggin

Clothes Make The Man

Education

London 1615--1627

1627 Letter of Marque And Reprisal

Wheelwright Deed, 17 May 1629

Bloody Point

The Caribbean

Sea Business

Setting the Stage

Why He Came

Why Not Saco or Casco

Casco

The Piscataqua River

Captain Thomas Wiggin's Choices

Squamscott House The Farm

Native Americans on Great Bay and the Piscataqua River

1632 Letters

Devon Colic

Postscript

Dedications

To the memory of my parents

Arthur J. Wiggin and Vera K. Babb

The love of my children

Arthur Ralph Mullis

Katherine Lee (Mullis) Van Leuven

The future of my grandchildren

Kailey Ryan (Van Leuven) Tanner

Krystin Rae (Van Leuven) Miner

And the generations to come, beginning with

Madisyn Elise Tanner

Savannah Krystin Tanner

Charlotte Sterling Tanner

40memorialrock.jpg

T he Wiggin Memorial Stone ¹---as it's affectionately known in Stratham, New Hampshire---is found in the family burial plot at Sandy Point and was placed there by a descendant in the early twentieth century, probably before 1920. The dates indicate the years Captain Thomas Wiggin was a resident on the Squamscott ² Patent, Dover, until 1638, and then on Squamscott to his death in 1666. His death date is off by a year---an innocent mistake by the engraver. The stone does not signify the location of his grave.

The settlement of Squamscott was founded in 1638 and was incorporated as a formal township named Stratham in 1716. It celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2016.

Acknowledgments

W ithout one ancestor who came before us---who walked in the shadows , listened to the echoes, and became the me they were meant to be---there would be no us . (J. Robbins)

We are not islands unto ourselves, and this book would never have come to be without the generosity of so many people. Some of these people I have worked with for years, and they have never let me down.

Shadow began as a result of over forty years of research and wondering what to do with all the data. In the beginning, computers were in their fledgling stages and were not a very safe place to store data, so the file cabinets and bookshelves grew to unbelievable sizes. By 1990, my children installed a computer in my home as a way to fight my boredom of being housebound and caring for aging parents. My daughter remarked to her Papaw (my husband, Robby), There, Papaw, you'll never have to buy her another thing. She has it all. After two decades, he's still laughing about that one as I begin to wear out my fifth computer. At one point, before tabs, I had four of them humming all at once.

My admiration, love, and gratitude go to so many:

• William (Robby) Thomas Robbins, my husband, without whose support I would never have started this project.

• My son, Arthur R. Mullis, has been my traveling partner and photographer in England and America as he continues to win awards for his eye through the camera lens.

• My daughter, Katherine L. Van Leuven, my editor and formatting authority who also designed the cover for this book. She deserves more credit than I can give here. Katherine has a degree in mass communications/advertising and is a real bonus for any writer.

• Peter Ernest Wiggin of Stratham, New Hampshire. Shadow is also the result of encouragement by Peter to record all my research, including what we call my Devine interventions along that research trail. Peter---who is the same age as my son, Arthur---has been my right hand as we became genealogy detectives bouncing off brick walls, digging up bones, and developing a personal history for Captain Wiggin built on solid evidence. Peter was always ready with his camera, as a tour guide, with arranging for a riverboat (piloted by his brother Bruce) for a day on the river, advice, and so much more.

• Bill Wiggin (William David Wiggin, son of Sir Jerry Wiggin), member of Parliament, London, who so graciously gave of his time whenever I needed it. In 2007, when I fell in Westminster Palace, shattering my left arm, Bill sat with me and my son, Arthur, in the hospital. Our visit was cut short, but the friendship has endured. Bill has become a cousin in many ways.

• Carlos Wiggen, Switzerland, e-mailed his way right into my life. Carlos is an author of some renown in Europe who has done a lot of research on the surname Wiggen (and variants), and he so graciously shared his manuscript findings and translations with me. To this day, we remain fast friends.

• My unending thanks go to Rev. Dr. Anthony V. Upton and his wife, Dr. Penny Upton, of Warwickshire for their time and efforts with my search of the English clergy databases. Accomplished writers, lecturers, and researchers in their own right, both have been so helpful with the religious records that were foreign to my American brain. Dr. Penny Upton has contributed to this work through her thesis on the fabric of Warwickshire churches. The mystery of Captain Wiggin's father, Vicar William Wigan, was unraveled due in part to the assistance of this husband-and-wife team.

• To Wendy Goldman-Rohm, a teacher with a New York Times Best-Selling background who taught me the value of a matrix with a hook. Wendy (Rohm Literary Agency) has spent a lot of agonizing hours online with me, teaching me to channel my characters' conversations based on historical fact---to breathe life into them. Don't ever let anyone tell you putting conversation into the mouths of seventeenth-century people is easy. Watch for a sequel to this book titled Shadow Echo Me:The Man in the Scarlet Suit.

• My professional researcher, Mike Day (Mayday Genealogy, Twickenham, England), has been so accurate in finding original documents in London. One of Mike's finds opened a whole new knowledge base on who my ancestor was.

• To all those individual researchers who have contributed to my knowledge and notes, I was so blessed to have you even if for a short time.

• My father, Arthur J. Wiggin (1912--2005), who set me off on this journey in 1990 with a handwritten genealogy and notes on our ancestors, was a giant in my life. Even death, at age 93 in 2005, did not take him from me. Today, he's still pointing the way.

• My mother, Vera K. Babb Wiggin (1915--1991), never knew about this work as her progression into the depths of dementia robbed her of cognizance. She became one of the main characters in Shadow Echo Me: The Man in the Scarlet Suit as we struggled to cope with her daily needs as well as her decline.

• My two granddaughters, who have grown into such lovely young ladies, were so loved by my parents. When she could not understand anything else, Mother always related to her two young great-granddaughters. Kailey earned her degree in education, has married, and has three daughters of her own. Krystin, the younger granddaughter, was a history major in college. She has earned her masters degree and has recently married. I have no doubt that Krystin will become the next historian of this family.

It is for the children that I undertook this work. I loved my grandparents with all my being, and I wanted the children to remember not only their Papaw and me, but my parents as well. One ancestor just led to another.

My thanks to archivists all over England, some of whom still live in my computer:

• Margaret, Archivists Bristol Record Office

Bristol, Gloucestershire, England

• Patrick Denney, Secretary, Society Merchant Ventures

Bristol, Gloucestershire, England

• Eve McLaughlin, Author of the McLaughlin Guides for Family Historians

Secretary, Bucks Genealogical Society, England

• Naomi Herbert, Librarian's Assistant

St. John's College, Cambridge, England

• Mithra Tonking, Lichfield Diocesan Archivists, England

• Mark Twissell, City Services

St. Mary's Guildhall, Coventry, United Kingdom

• Robin Whittaker, Archives Manager and Diocesan Archivists

Worcestershire Record Office, England

• Nick Fry, Record Office, Archives and Local Studies, United Kingdom

• Paul Newman, Senior Archivists, Cheshire Record Office

• Di Cooper, Archivists Lichfield Cathedral

And to the private researchers who have given me so much of their time:

• Louise Bouchard, a cousin whose generosity goes beyond description and whose encouragements with this book are unsurpassed. Her expertise with reading Old English was to be called upon many times. Her trips to the Massachusetts archives were endless, and I owe her so much.

• Linda Scriven, whose home we invaded for editing sessions and a bottle of wine. You are a tolerant lady who has taught me a lot on our trips to Salt Lake City to do research. Thanks for being my traveling companion for so many years.

• Debbie Wilson, a cousin who has become like a sister to me and whose friendship shall last a lifetime. She's ten times over a Wiggin.

• Judy Lester, for her expertise on her hometown of London, England.

• Ann Allen, a private Gibbs researcher.

• Jimmy Scammon of Stratham, New Hampshire, private researcher and historian.

• The Stratham New Hampshire Historical Society members who have given me their ears and eyes for so long; you are cherished.

• To my cousins (Linda Hoban, Elaine Chase, Sharon Morrill, Brian Wiggin) and my aunts (Frances Hackett and Marion David) who shared information whenever I asked for it. I'm blessed by you.

Introduction

M y involvement with Joyce's quest began over a decade ago, when we crossed paths in a world as new to us then as New England was to Thomas Wiggin in 1630. We crossed paths digitally in a cyberspace world of which without we would have transitioned from this earthly realm never having known each other. When we first met Joyce, she was living in Florida, busy with the care of her aging parents, and I was in New Hampshire busy with work and raising a daughter.

In the beginning, our orbits brought us in close proximity many times, but we never chanced upon each other. It wasn't until a friend and client of mine happened to notice a posting on the Internet and mentioned it to me, and I looked into it, that I sent off a brief e-mail introducing myself and my interest. Her response was immediate and is as fresh in my mind today as it was then. Peter, she said, I've always known you were out there but just didn't know how to reach you. It was then, at that moment, that the cyber-affair began in our quest to more clearly understand this ancestor of ours and the life and times in which he lived. Captain Thomas Wiggin would become the basis of this extended family relationship that would bring two geno-orphans back together after almost four hundred years. It can truly be said of us that it was the enigma of a man, Captain Thomas Wiggin, which brought us together.

Throughout this odyssey of ours, we have ping-ponged countless ideas, thoughts, feelings, and facts off each other. Joyce's being those of a tenacious, professional genealogical researcher and mine being those of an avocational historian with a passion for anything seventeenth century. The commonalities we share were immediately recognized in this four-hundred-year-old blood-tie relationship and extreme passion for history. In our quest to explore, discover, and define just exactly who this enigma named Thomas Wiggin was, we would discover who we were.

Joyce's visit to New Hampshire in 2012 was as carefully and meticulously planned by her as the research that she has done. During her visit, we were fortunate to be able to spend a day on the very body of water that Captain Thomas would have sailed, the bays and Piscataqua River. With my brother Bruce piloting his twenty-four-foot Eastern, we spent an entire day retracing Thomas Wiggin's trips on this water highway. Bruce's boat is comparable in size to one the Captain would have used to navigate the lengthy, shallow inland waterways reaching the site of Quamscott House, the location of Captain Thomas's first recorded farm and dwelling house.

This daylong trip from Portsmouth (the lower plantation) up to today's Dover and Stratham (the upper plantation) allowed us the luxury of experiencing firsthand the size, scope, length, and breadth of the geography that surrounded Thomas Wiggin in the seventeenth century. Little of the geography has changed since then, although the shoreline is now dotted with many more dwelling houses, and bridges link many of the opposite shores. But other than that, it remains almost identical.

Perhaps the greatest benefit realized through these forthcoming books is that any individual with unbridled focused passion, which allows them to think outside the box, and a network of others in place to collaborate with, can result in a work which becomes not only a benchmark but a stepping-off point for further study.

It is my sincere hope that the creation of Shadow Echo Me: The Life and Times of Captain Thomas Wiggin, 1601--1666, will inspire others. It has been an honor for me as an avocational historian to have been a participant in this process---a unique process resulting in what I consider to be one of, if not the most focused, well-researched topic of our time.

Hopefully, others---through their mere passion of the subject and utilization of today's technological resources---may find the courage to put either their thoughts into words or collaborate with others who do. The ability now to reside in the comfort of one's home and reach out---not only across an eastern seaboard, but across the globe in search of information which substantiates formerly vague facts---is an infectious incentive for the nonprofessional. Once begun, it becomes infinitely easier for an author to make the time to do even more. The reinforcement of these remote creative passions can only be a benefit to any profession or study.

No longer is written history or any other subject relegated to only those with lengthy professional credentials, those who win, those who survive, or those who rule the day. Through tenacious research made easier by utilizing today's technologies, which is everywhere at our fingertips, spurred on by a passion for a subject, great works can be created. Works that will cause others to think more openly about established norms.

Regards,

Peter E. Wiggin

Stratham, NH

March 2015

*The following two maps are the works of Peter Wiggin, who has so graciously given them for insertion in this book to help the reader pinpoint where the early grants were located.

Hilton 1629³

37hilton1629.jpg

Wiggin Plantation⁴

38wigginplantationbypeter.jpg

First Planting of New Hampshire Piscataqua Patents⁵

I t is not my intent here to champion anyone's cause in determining the boundaries of these controversial patents/grants nor the date of those grants. John S. Jenness ⁶ took the controversy a step further towards understanding the patents by drawing and coloring these two maps. Because I had such a time finding them I want to preserve them by including them in this book. For the new student of Wiggin genealogy, the Bloody Point land was claimed by Hilton settlers early on and became contested as not being a part of the original Hilton Grant. The incident at Bloody Point between Captain Thomas Wiggin and Captain Walter Neale was over who had title to that land. These two maps are an attempt by Jenness to point out the locations of the various grants. A student of the early grants, patents or plantations would do well to study the Avalon Project archives. ⁷

The following two maps are referred to in numerous documents. It took a decade to find the maps themselves. The maps are in color so for purposes of this book, which is printed in black and white, I have labeled each section so I can identify them for readers.

43SketchMapofPascatwaysic.jpg

Sections comprising the Squamscott Patent⁸

Key to original colors:

1. Yellow: The Shrewsbury Men

2. Blue: Known as the 'second division' to Captain Thomas Wiggin and partners

3. and 5 Green: 'third division' Grant to Gardiner, Lake and partners

4. Red: Known as 'first division' Granted to Dover and confirmed to that township in 1641 by law of the Massachusetts General Court when the Hilton Patent was put under their jurisdiction

44SketchMapofPascatwaysic.jpg

Section comprising the Piscataway Patent⁹

The Piscataway Patent is shown in Green. Granted on 3 November 1631 to Sr. Firrdinado Gorges & Captain Mason & Others. This grant on a comparison of Hilton's Patent with it shows that there is not the slightest conflict between them. The Piscataway Grant expressly mentions and locates the Hilton Plantation and carefully excludes it from the conveyance.¹⁰ Jenness maintains the settlers of Hilton's Patent usurped the land, across the water from Dover Point, known as Bloody Point. He says they needed pasture and this section of land fit the bill. He says, We may be morally certain that these patents did not conflict at all with each other...

Key to original colors:

1. Red: Hilton's Patent dated 1629,

2. Green: Piscataqua Patent. To Gorges and Mason (and others) dated 1631

The Box and The Wall

Y ou will see me writing about the box, and I want to get across to you one huge step forward in your research. Get out of those boxes, especially where dates and names are concerned. Accept that as you go back in time, just from one generation to the next, names and dates will change. Vowels come and go, pronunciations change with regional dialects, and dates are easily confused.

Calendars

• 45 BC: Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar. He introduced a leap year every four years.

• 1582: The Gregorian (Pope Gregory XIII) calendar took effect and is used worldwide today. It too has a leap year every four years for adjustment purposes.

• From 1087 to 1155, the English year began on 1 January.

• From 1155 to 1751, the English year began on 25 March.

• From 1752 to present, it began on 1 January.

Dates are not nearly as confusing as vowels. Vowels are subject to area dialect, education of the scribe, and a host of other reasons. This is why we find the name Wiggin spelled in so many different ways. I can't count the number of times I've heard, Oh, but our surname didn't have an 's' on it. If someone can't accept that final s as being a mobile version of the surname, how are you going to explain the vowels bouncing all over the place? I stopped counting after logging twenty-seven variations of the surname Wiggin. You will find a will in the seventeenth century spelled differently by the scribe than by the person signing it. A good example is Vicar William Wiggin's will, which is filed in the probate records as Wigan even though he signed it Wiggin. The same goes for his wife, Elen Sambrooke Wiggin, whose name goes through so many changes, it's hard to follow. She is found as Helen, Ellen, and Elen, while Sambrooke is listed as Sambroke and Sambrook. She signs her will as Ellen Wiggen.

Another box to jump right out of is the family stories and legends. I'm fairly confident in assuming you have all heard the old family story of two brothers who came over to America, one going north and one south, and not liking each other very much, the southern brother put an s on his name. You will find this legend in nearly every surname you research. Keep in mind that in decades past, hundreds of years past, there was no TV or movies and storytelling was a form of entertainment. Those stories persist even down to today. Laugh at those stories and then throw them away. You will deny yourself a lot of correct data on your ancestor by latching onto these stories.

Next, watch out for the box labeled birth dates, marriage dates, death dates, and so forth. That one will trap you in the worst way possible. Accept that most dates are given by someone other than the person they relate to. Allow that it may be way off. Death dates and records are given by anyone from a neighbor, a preacher, the local sheriff, or a surviving family member no matter how distant. The same goes for old census reports. The census taker might have gotten his data from a neighbor, clerk of the court, sheriff, postmaster, or who knows.

One of the things I found I had to stick to was accumulating at least three different sources on any date to just begin to trust it. Christening dates don't hint at a birth date; maybe he was an adult before he was christened. Birth dates and christening dates are seldom the same. Remember too that a date on a will signifies nothing other than the person was alive on that date. Even a probate date does not signify the death date. Sometimes you have to make an educated guess or use the about or between variable.

Names often take such unrelated forms that we find them difficult to follow. As an example, the place Captain Thomas Wiggin chose to settle in was called Quamskooke by the native Indians, and the Captain called it Quamscott. Andrew, his son, called it Squamscott. Place names were an evolution based on dialect, just like surnames.

Walls are not nearly as difficult to scale as that box is to climb out of. Most walls will crumble with time. You will create more walls by being in a box than you ever dreamed of. Once you find out how to avoid boxes, then walls will never rear their ugly heights.

If you read something that's hard to grasp, perhaps a theory you've never considered before, throw aside your mental block regarding it and keep reading. Give a new idea time to ferment and see how well it sets after time.

I hope I have listed all the variables for you, but if you should know of one I didn't list, go with it too.

Preface

WHO HE WAS

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head,

And I see him jump before me when I jump into my bed.

---Robert Lewis Stevenson

P eople moving into New England in the seventeenth century were representatives of a restless nature that would go on until the American Revolution. There is nothing mysterious about these immigrants. New England was not a place to find refuge from a secret past, nor did they; if they had a troubled past in England, it soon caught up to them in New England.

Dream ships sailed into a prosperous future on a handful of promises that, for many, would never come true. Everyone was welcomed somewhere in New England, and there were soon no strangers among them.

Money was important as a measure of wealth, along with breeding, but land was even more important in New England. There was so much of it to be taken and tamed. With the Native American population decimated by acquired European diseases the English had little resistance to claiming whatever land they wanted.

Many of New England's settlers go unaccounted for prior to their arrival on these shores just because they were men doing their chosen jobs and not rocking any boat. They do not appear in court cases, government records, and in most cases, don't even appear in deeds of land transfers in England. Even church records of births, marriages, and deaths may not provide answers because of the commonality of given names and surnames. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English families were not very original when it came to naming their issue, using the same naming pattern for generations down every branch of the tree.

The vast majority of people calling themselves researchers today simply look on the computer to see what someone else has found. Thus, erroneous data goes around and around, likely never corrected without herculean effort. As an example, you will find Captain/Governor Thomas Wiggin, described as a sea captain and as a common folk, farmer, Puritan, and so forth without any source references simply to make a story fit. I call it cutting off the toes to make a shoe fit.

Shadow Echo Me began as a result of decades of research and wondering what to do with all the data I had accumulated. In the beginning, computers were in their fledgling stages and not a very safe place to store data, so the file cabinets and bookshelves grew to unbelievable sizes. By the early 1990s, my children installed a computer in my home as a way to fight my boredom of being housebound while caring for aging parents¹¹. Before the invention of additional screen tabs allowing more than one page on a computer screen, I'd have four computers humming all at the same time.

Shadow is also the result of encouragement by Peter Wiggin of Stratham, New Hampshire, to record all my research, including what we call my Devine interventions. Peter---who is the same age as my son, Arthur---has been my right hand as we became genealogy detectives bouncing off brick walls, digging up bones, and developing a personal history for Captain Wiggin built on solid evidence.

So why did it take me over thirty years to be comfortable enough with my research to declare which of the dozens of men named Thomas Wiggin was Captain Thomas Wiggin of New Hampshire? I found 154 men with that name, all over England, covering a twenty-year period of birth dates. Systematically I worked through every single man named Thomas Wiggin to narrow down the possibilities.

Talk about herculean tasks. Every single Thomas Wiggin had to eliminate himself with ongoing church records of birth, death, and marriage; the ones left after that had to be researched in records of apprenticeship, education, occupation, family wills, and so much more for elimination.

The Thomases left on the short list were then researched according to pedigrees, opportunity, and criteria supporting