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Laurie Stacey has posted on the web at WorldConnect an English genealogy for the Twining family. The spelling, of course, varies, including Twenynge. Her sources seem to be exclusively from Mormon records, mostly available on CD and via the web. These records are a compilation of what has been copied and submitted by individuals, and there is no guarantee of their accuracy. I have not yet been able to check this data myself, so it is offered here merely as a starting point, a possibility of our ancestors. As I am able to do more research, and verify or correct data, the citations in the footnotes will be updated.
Stacey begins with ThomasBTwenynge who married Elsabeth POWNE. They had at least four children, WilliamA, Margaret, Joane, and Thomas.[1]
WilliamA Twenynge, son of Thomas and Elsabeth, was christened 10 February 1561/2 in Painswick, Gloucestershire. [See an explanation of Old Style dates.] The parish of Painswick, in the union of Stroud, Eastern Division of Gloucestershire is six and a half miles south southeast from Gloucester. In the Domesday Book it was called Wiche, and was the property of Roger de Lacy. A later owner, Pain Fitz-John gave it its present name. The town is in a hollow in Spoonbed Hill. It marks the intersection of the road from Stroud to Gloucester with the road from Cheltenham to Bath. There was a weekly market on Tuesdays. In addition there was a sheep market on the first Tuesday after All Saints Day, and cattle and sheep fairs on Whit-Tuesday and September 19. It is a little hard to say what the church would have looked like in the sixteenth century, as Lewis describes it having "incongruous styles built over time". By the nineteenth century it was spacious, with a very high spire, and a peel of twelve bells. On the summit of Spoonbed Hill there is a double-trenched archaeological site of about three acres that was probably built by the ancient Britons, then used by the Romans. Earl Godwin fortified it in 1052 against Edward the Confessor. During the Civil War the royalist forces of Charles I had a camp there[2]William married 3 March 1593/4 Mabel NEWCOMBE. They had at least three children:[3]
i. Mary1,
ii. Thomas,
iii. William1, d. 1659; m. Anne DOANE; emigrated to New England. See below.
Immigrant Generation
William1 Twenynge, or Twining, the son of William and Mabel (Newcombe), was born 20 May 1599 in Painswick.[4] William died 15 April 1659 in Eastham, Plymouth Colony (now in Massachusetts).
William is said to have married Anne DOANE as his second wife, his first (unknown) wife married in England. There are difficulties with this. Anne was said to have been born 17 August 1600 or in 1591 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, the daughter of John and Lydia Doane of Devonshire. But the John Doane assumed to be her father, who came to Plymouth Colony, was born ca. 1590 and called himself about 88 years in his will, dated 16 May 1678. He died 21 February 1685/6 (when others called him "about a hundred"a common exaggeration in those days). The inventory of his estate was taken 21 May 1686, sworn to eight days later by Abigail Doane. A 1648 deed listed John's wife as Ann, while one in 1659 listed Lydia. Abigail was probably his daughter, who later married Samuel LOTHROP. There are only five known children, none of whom was named Anne.[5] However, there was another "John Done", aged 16 who came on the True Love in 1635.[6] There are two other Doanes in early Massachusetts records that may or may not be connected to our family. Henry Doane was in Watertown in 1643, and Deacon John Doane came from England to Plymouth in 1630. He removed to Eastham in 1644, and died 15 April 1659. It has been suggested that Deacon John Doane's sister Anne Doane was the second wife of William Twining.[7] During the pastorate of Mr. Treat in Eastham in the 1670s, three DOANEs were deacons: John, Daniel, and Joseph.[8] Is it possible that any of these men could have been a brother of our Anne? In any event, our Anne Twining (whose maiden name, and natal family, appear to be hiding behind a brick wall) died 27 February 1679/80.
The Twining family were Puritans who emigrated to New England about 1640 and settled first at Yarmouth, on Cape Cod. Settlement began in 1637 by emigrants who came directly from England and Wales.[9] This was right at the end of the decade of heavy Puritan emigration as those who hoped to purify the Anglican church of all traces of Roman Catholicism were in despair as Charles II and his Archbishop Laud seemed to be moving in the opposite direction. Then when civil war broke out between Royalist and Parliamentary factions, most Puritans chose to remain in England to support the cause. A fair number even returned from New England to join the struggle.
With the British government too distracted to supervise its colonies, the New England colonies united under a constitution of their own making on 19 May 1643. One of its provisions was that each colony's commissioners would make a list of all men from the ages of 16 to 60 who were able to bear arms. William Twining1 was on the list for Yarmouth in 1643.[10] Yarmouth had been incorporated in 1639, the third settlement in the Plymouth Colony, after Plymouth itself and Sandwich. Yarmouth is in the mid-part of Cape Cod. Its geology was mainly formed by glaciers during the last Ice Age. The low round hills on the north edge of town were caused by the leading edge of the glacier as it pushed up the land before it. The flat sandy southern part of town is the apron of sediment washed out of the glacial ice.[11]
Generally the soils of Plymouth are sandy and relatively poor. This may have been a major motive in 1644 for the directors of the Plymouth Colony to send seven men to scout Eastham (originally Nauset or Nawsett), farther up Cape Cod, as a potential site for the center of government. In the end they decided not to move, but the seven men took their families and settled the town on 3 March 1644/5. There were cultural reasons why Massachusetts developed a lot of relatively small towns rather than increasing the size of the original ones. These involved the desire to limit land holdings and keep settlements compact. When the population got too large, lots laid out on the edges of town were deemed too far away. Also, older planters were unwilling to share commonage and other public property with newcomers. So new towns were established rather than enlarging the old ones.[12] William Twining removed to what became Eastham in 1645. It was incorporated in 1646. The name was changed to Eastham in June 1651. The next year on June 3 William was admitted as a freeman.[13]
The new settlers were probably attracted by Eastham's several harbors and abundant shellfish. There were good stands of oak and pine, with salt marsh and sand being the remaining features of the terrain.[14] A deed was drawn up and signed with the mark of the local First Nation sachem (probably one named Quason) that he had received "all and every particular thing and things that I was to have for all and every part and parcel of lands".[15] With the differences in understanding of "ownership" of land, it is doubtful that the two parties of the agreement fully understood one another. The local Natives remained on generally good terms with the colonists, however, and the colonists soon sided with their local Natives against the latter's traditional enemies, the Narragansetts. In 1645 William was sent as a soldier against the Narragansett Indians.[16] More on relations with the First Nations.
It is said that William took an active part in the affairs of the Puritan colony. He was elected constable June 5, 1651. In 1655 he was a freeman of Eastham. He also acquired more land. On May 13, 1654 he was granted two acres of meadow "lying at the head of Great Namshaket." Several tracts of land were granted to him at Rock Harbor, Poche, and a few other places on the Cape.[17]
William died 15 April 1659 in Eastham.[18] Anne died 27 February 1679/80.
Children of William and Anne (__) Twining (perhaps incomplete):
i. Isabel Twining, b. 1615 in St. Albans, Hertfordshire; d. 16 May 1706 in Yarmouth, Barnstable Co., Mass.; m. 17 June 1641 Francis BAKER in Yarmouth; 10 children.[19] On 8 June 1655 John HALL of Yarmouth complained on behalf of his son, Samuel, who was a servant of Francis Baker, that the latter was abusing the boy by kicking him and "unreasonably" striking him. The court removed Samuel from Baker, while ruling that John Hall had to pay Baker £8 for Samuel's remaining time.[20]ii. Elizabeth Twining, b. in St. Albans;
iii. William Twining2, b. 25 Oct. 1619 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire; d. 1703; m. Elizabeth DEANE; they became Friends.
iv. Stephen Twining
Second Generation
William Twining2, Jr. was the son of William and Anne (___) Twining, born 25 October 1619 in Gloucestershire, and died 4 November 1703 in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He married in 1652 Elizabeth DEANE, daughter of Stephen and Elizabeth (RING) Deane. Stephen had arrived in the Plymouth Colony in November 1621 on the Fortune, the second ship to bring colonists to Plymouth after the Mayflower.[21]
As a widow, Elizabeth (Ring) Deane had married 1 September 13 Josiah COOKE. They had moved to Nauset [Eastham] about 1645, the same time the Twinings moved there. In his will, dated 22 September 1673 and proved 29 October that year, Josiah named his [step] son-in-law William Twining and [step] grandson Stephen Twining.[22]
William owned land at Easton Harbor, and had an interest in drift-whales at the end of the Cape. He and his son William were listed among the freemen of Eastham as late as 1695.[22a]
William was a deacon of Eastham Church in 1677. In this office he was to "receive the offerings of the Church, gifts given to the Church and to keep the treasury of the Church and therewith to serve the tables . . . as the Lord’s table, the table of ministers and of such as are in necessity to whom they are to distribute." It was specified that deacons should not be "double-tongued, nor given much to wine, not given to filthy lucre."[23]
As loyal and active members of the established Puritan church, I have found no record of the Twinings' attitude toward the Quakers who first arrived in Boston as early as July 1656. Ann AUSTIN and Mary FISHER were immediately clapped into the Boston jail and kept under close guard until they could be deported five weeks later. Two days after the authorities had thought themselves rid of this menace, eight more Friends arrived on 7 August in the Speedwell. They spent eleven weeks in jail. On 14 October 1656 the Massachusetts General Court published its first anti-Quaker law. Nicholas UPSALL, innkeeper of the Red Lyon, bribed the jailor to allow him to take food and drink to the prisoners. He became their first (and only) convert. Nicholas got permission to move to Sandwich in the somewhat more tolerant Plymouth Colony during the harsh winter, but was ordered to leave the colony by 1 March. While in Sandwich he, along with Richard KIRBY and his daughter Sarah; Jane, the wife of William LAUNDER; the (unnamed) wife of John NEWLAND; and William ALLEN apparently met for worship at Allen's home.[24] It is unknown if the Twinings met Nicholas while he was there. He moved on (voluntarily or not) to the safety of Rhode Island.
The early history of Friends in Massachusetts is one of the clergy and governor trying through increasingly fierce and barbarous means to crush these challenges to their theological and political supremacy. Although Plymouth was slightly less harsh than the Bay Colony, it seemed to have the same motivation of attempting by any means to keep itself pure from what was seen as heretical corruption. But not all Plymouth officials toed the official line. Especially in Scituate, where Capt. James CUDWORTH and Isaac ROBINSON, son of the beloved pastor of the Separatists during their sojourn in Leiden, werewhile not completely in agreement with Friendswere willing to listen to them and definitely unwilling to persecute them. Occasionally the court in Plymouth would relieve Friends, or sympathizers of Friends, of obvious abuses of power by the over-zealous marshal, George BARLOW. The savage beatings, ear croppings, and executions (four were killed, many more were condemned and ready for the gallows) in the Bay Colony were curtailed with the change of government in England. With the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in 1660, political expediency required a change of policy in New England. On 2 October 1660 the Plymouth General Court ordered that there no longer be fines for those absent from the established church services. In June 1661 the Bay Colony's Cart and Whip Act (aimed mostly at Quakers) was repealed. But when the British Parliament, seeking revenge against those who had executed the king and established the Commonwealth, passed the Clarendon Code in 1661/2, Massachusetts felt free to reenact the Cart and Whip Act in October 1662. Persecution brought great suffering to Friends until Governor ENDICOTT's death in March 1665. The result of the sufferings was to arouse widespread sympathy for Friends and to increase the number of people drawn to their Religious Society.[25]
A renewed burst of Quaker activity occurred in the 1670s. One catalyst was the visit by George FOX to the colonies in 1672. Starting in Barbadoes he and his companions crossed to Virginia, spent time on the shores of the Chesapeake, and travelled north through the wilderness to New York and on to arrive in Newport on 30 May 1672. Friends held a regional gathering with Fox, which eventually became New England Yearly Meeting. John BURNYEAT, a "gentle spirit and powerful preacher" who had visited Massachusetts in 1666 and 1671, made another visit after that General Meeting. He held a large public meeting in Boston in June that was quite effective in convincing people of the Truth Friends preached. William EDMUNDSON, who had done so much to spread Quaker faith and practice in Ireland, visited what is now Massachusetts in 1672 and 1675. In the Plymouth Colony the towns of Dartmouth and Saconnet (later called Little Compton) became centers of Quaker and Baptist activity, while neither had a Congregational church. Under the more lenient rule of Bay Colony Governors Richard BELLINGHAM (1665-1672) and John LEVERETT (1672-16__) persecution lessened. During the war against the Native Americans, called King Philip's War (1674-75), the Cart and Whip Act was again passed, but not vigorously enforced. In 1677 a new challenge arose for Friends when the General Court passed a law demanding an oath of allegiance, although this had been a tool used against Friends in Plymouth since 4 June 1661.[26] 1677 was the year William Twining was a deacon in the established church in Eastham. Young Mr. Treat was the minister, and during his pastorate the deacons included John Doane, Samuel FREEMAN, Josiah COOKE, Daniel DOANE, William TWINING, John PAINE, and Joseph DOANE. At some point after that William and Elizabeth Twining became Friends.[27]
A chronicler wrote the following opinion nearly a century ago about the Twining's conversion: "The apostasy of Mr. Twining while holding the office of deacon, and his removal with a portion of his respectable family to the banks of the Delaware, in Pennsylvania, to join the Society of Friends and become the exponent of the peculiar views of George Fox, must have given rise to much comment in the puritanical town. What led to his apostasy, and to his removal to the far-off Quaker settlement, in his old age, when there were others of his belief in Mr. Treat's parish, is, at this distance of time, past conjecture."[28] With a bit more understanding and sympathy for Quaker faith, it is a lot easier to hypothesize why the Twinings might want to leave a place that was full of gossip and ill will.
The Glorious Revolution of 1689 by which William of Orange and Mary Stuart replaced James II on the British throne included a general Act of Toleration. Friends began to leave Boston and Massachusetts to settle in the more congenial cities of Newport, Rhode Island, and Philadelphia.[29] In 1695 the Twinings removed to the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania, to Newtown, in Bucks County. On Third Month (May) 1699 William was added to the 5 Eleventh Month 1687 list of those agreeing not to sell rum to the Indians.[30]
William's will was filed in Philadelphia. His remains were buried 4 Eleventh Month 1703. Elizabeth died 28 December 1708.
Children of William and Elizabeth (Deane) Twining (may be incomplete):[31]
i. Elizabeth Twining3, m. John ROGERS, of Eastham, son of Joseph and Hannah. Joseph and his father Thomas had arrived on the Mayflower in 1620.[32] ii. Susanna Twining, b. 25 Jan. 1652/3 or 28 Feb. 1653/4.
iii. William Twining, b. 28 Feb. 1653/4; d. 23 Jan. 1733/4; said to have m. Ruth COLE. However, Ruth (Cole) Young is listed as the third wife of Jonathan Bangs.[33] This needs further research.
iv. Anne Twining, b. 1654; m. Oct. 3, 1672 Thomas BILLS. It appears that Thomas Bill[s] was the second husband of Elizabeth SARGENT, daughter of William.[34] Presumably after her death Thomas went on to marry the Twining sisters, Anne and Joanna, one after the other.
v. Joanna Twining, b. 30 May 1657; d. 4 Jun 1723 in Shrewsbury, Monmouth Co., New Jersey; m. her sister’s widower, Thomas BILLS.
vi. Stephen Twining, b. 6 Feb. 1658/9 in Eastham, Mass.; d. 18 Apr. 1720 in Newtown, Bucks Co., Penna.; m. Abigail YOUNG; see below.
vii. Mehitabel Twining, b. 8 Mar. 1660/1; d. 8 Jul 1743 in Newtown, Bucks Co., Penna.; m. Daniel DOANE; settled in Bucks Co., Penna.
Third Generation
Stephen Twining3 was born 6 February 1659 in Eastham, Massachusetts[35], and died 18 April 1720 in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He married 13 January 1682/3 Abigail YOUNG, presumably in New England. Abigail was the daughter of John and Abigail Young. A John Yeonge was one of the men on the 1643 Able to Bear Arms List for Plymouth, but whether or not he was Stephen's father-in-law remains to be proved.[36]
Stephen was named in his step-grandfather, Josiah COOKE's will, dated 22 September 1673, proved 29 October 1673. But I have not seen the document to know what he was bequeathed.[37]
The couple accompanied Stephen's parents to Pennsylvania in 1695, where Stephen eventually became a large landowner. The first purchase for Stephen (identified as a husbandman from Newtown) in the Bucks County records was acknowledged on 10 Tenth Month (December) 1695 for 222 acres in Newtown and 26 acres constituting "one piece of meadow land lying by land of Thomas CONSTABLE." It was witnessed by Jonathan SCAIFE, William CROSDEL [sic], and Enoch YARDLEY. Glimpses of the economic fabric of the settlement appear in these court records. There were no banks, so those engaged in financial transactions had to make their own arrangements. For example, Stephen's purchase in December 1695 of the two parcels totalling 248 acres cost £160 current money. However, Stephen didn't have that amount of cash. So on the 13 of Second Month (April) 1696 he bound himself to Job BUNTING for £60. "The condition of this obligation is that Stephen Furning [sic] to pay £30 of the money received from wheat taken to the mill of Samuel Carpenter before the 25th da, 2nd mo, 1697." An extension was needed so the same arrangements were made, taking the "good, clean wheat" to Daniel CARPENTER's mill by 25 First Month (March) 1698. Apparently Stephen was able to pay the debt, because Job, of Nottingham, Burlington County, New Jersey, "quit claim" Stephen of "all obligating debts", 16 Third Month 1698.[38]
A few years later Stephen was able to buy 250 acres for £80 from Stephen WILSON of Burlington County. It was part of the original 500 acres granted to Thomas ROWLAND, who then had deeded it to his brother John. A third purchase came on 2 Third Month 1707 when Stephen (now upgraded to yeoman) paid £100 for 200 acres in Newtown "adjoining the line of Thomas REVELL's land".[39]
Stephen was illiterate. He signed the legal papers mentioned above with his mark, that resembled a capital "E". Why he was taught that sign, as opposed to an "S" or a "T", I do not know.
The Twinings were among the original members of Wrightstown Meeting, which frequently met in their home before a meeting house was built. Abigail served on three marriage clearness committees. It is said Stephen was appointed an Overseer May 7, 1713, and an Elder on April 12, 1715.[40]
Abigail died 9 April 1715. Stephen died in Newtown, 8 April 1720, and was buried on the 11th.[41] Stephen made his will when he was "indisposed of body, but of sound disclosing mind and memory" on 20 Twelfth Month (February) 1719/20. In it he left carefully described real estate to his sons, Stephen, Eleazer, Nathaniel, and John, with Stephen and Nathaniel as executors. Daughter Rachel who was unmarried at the time, received one complete bed and a large Bible, while both she and her married sister Mercy were to be paid £30 Pennsylvania currency. Each grandchild was to be given five shillings. The will was proved 7 June 1723.[42]
I, STEPHEN TWINING, of Newtown in the County of Bucks in the province of Penssilvania. Being indisposed of body, but of sound disclosing mind and memory, praysed be God for the same, and calling to mind the uncertainty of this life, I do make and ordaine this my present Last Will and Testament in manner and forme following (viz) x x x x x
First, my will and mind is that all my just debts and funerall charges be payd and discharged.
Item: I give and bequeth unto my son John Twining the moiety or one-halfe of a tract of land lying in Newtown aforsd purchased from John Ward, the Southwest side thereof adjoyning unto land that was formerly Michael Houghs; with all the priviledges and appurtenances their unto belonging to hold to him his heirs and assignes forever; the other halfe of the said tract being before conveyd to my son Stephen Twining; and also I give unto my said John Twining all my lands or tenaments left to me in the government of New England with the appurtenances to him, his heirs and assignes forever.
Item: Whear as I have allready conveyd one hundred and fifty acres (part of the tract of land in Newtown aforsaid whear on I now dwell) unto my son Eleaser Twining to give and bequeth unto my son Nathaniel Twining two hundred and fifty acres of the tract of land I now live upon. He to have the Northeast part adjoyning unto William Buckmans land and to extend Southward downe Newtown Creek untill it come to fifteen pole or pearch on the Northside of the house whearin Joseph LUPTON did formerly live and thence such a course or courses as will make two hundred and thirty acres and the other twenty remaining of the two hundred and fifty acres I give unto the sd Nathaniel out of my low lands and meadow leying by {Neshansberry?} Creek which is now improved (comonly caled the lower meadows) with all the buldings orchards and improvments to hold the sd premises with the appurtanances to him and his heirs and assignes forever;
Item: I give unto my two sons Stephen Twining and John Twining one hundred acres of land out of the remaining part of the tract of land which I now live upon to be eaqualy divided betwinet them to hold to them their heirs and assignes forever.
Item: I give and bequeath unto my thre sons Stephen Twining Nathaniel Twining and John Twining all the remaining part of my land rights and privilidges which is not before bequeathed and given and conveyd to be eaqualy divided between them to hold to them, their heirs and assignes forever.
Item: I give unto daughter Rachell Twining one feather bed with bed cloathes and courtains and furniture and one larg Bible.
Item: I give unto my two daughters Mercy Lupton and Rachell Twining each of them thirty pounds current lawfull money of the province of Pensilvania to be payd by my executors hear after to be mentioned out of my parsonal estate.
Item: I give unto my grandchildren each of them five shilings to be payd by my executors out of my personal estate.
Item: All the rest and residue of my personal estate goods chattles rights and credets whatsoever, I give and bequeath unto my thre sons Stephen Twining Nathaniel Twining and John Twining to be enjoyd by them their heirs and assignes forever and to be eaqualy divided amongst thme.
And lastly I do hear by constitute nominate and appoynt my two sons Stephen Twining and Nathaniel Twining joynt executors of this my Last Will and Testament and I do hear by revoke disanull and make void all former Wills and Testaments by me hear tofore made;
In Witness whear of I the said Stephen Twining to this my Last Will and Testament above and within written having left my hand and seale the twentieth day of the twelth month anno domini one thousand seven hundred and ninteen or twenty 1719/20
Note it is interlined; (unto my son Eleazer Twining) bfor signed
Sealed signed published and
Declared by the sd Stephen Stephen Twining (L.S.)
Twining to be his Last Will
and Testament in presence ofChildren of Stephen and Abigail (Young) Twining:[43]:
i. Stephen Twining4, b. 30 Dec. 1684 in Mass.; d. 28/6m/1772 in Newtown, Pa., in his 88th year; m. 1704 or 1709 Margaret MITCHELL. She was b. 21/11m/1686 in Marsden’s Lane, Lancashire, Eng., the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (FOULDS) Mitchell; Margaret d. /7m/1784 in her 99th year in Newtown, Bucks Co.; 7 children; res. Wrightstown. Before Wrightstown was set off from Middletown Monthly Meeting, Margaret’s name appears fairly frequently in the Middletown Women's minutes on various committees, as an overseer, and as a representative attending Quarterly Meeting.[44] ii. Eleazer Twining, b. 26 Nov. 1686; d. 17/12m/1716; m. 10m/1716 Jane NAYLER; [45]. The references to Eleazer in his father's will of 1720 are a little cryptic, but it is quite possible that Eleazer had died in 1716 two months after he married.
iii. Nathaniel Twining, b. 27 Mar. 1689 in Newtown; d. 1753; m. 10m/1719 Joan PENQUITE; or m ca. 1723 Sarah KIRK and had 4 children. [46] It is quite possible he had two consecutive wives; more research is needed. It seems likely that it was Sarah (Kirk) Twining who witnessed the will of Nathaniel DONHAM 28 Mar. 1732. Nathaniel and his wife, and his sister Mercy and brother-in-law Joseph Lupton, removed from Middletown Monthly Meeting to Buckingham Monthly Meeting where their certificates of removal were read and accepted in December 1725.
iv. Mercy Twining, b. 8 Ninth Month 1690; d. 25 May 1726; m. 10 July 1713 Joseph LUPTON.[47]
v. John Twining, b. 5 Mar. 1692/3 in Newtown; d. 21 Aug. 1775; m. Nov. 1718 Elizabeth KIRK She was b. 9/3m/1696, d. 8/11m/1774. They had 9 children: John (b. 20/8/1719), Joseph (b. 1/11m/1720), David (b. 17/6m/1722), Elieazer (b. 8/6m/1724), William (b. 25/1/1726), Thomas (b. 28/6/1728), Jacob (b. 25/10/1730), Rachel (b. 11/11/1732), Stephen (b. 5/4m/1733). Wrightstown Friends frequently met for meeting for worship in John's house before the meeting house was built.[48]
vi. Rachel Twining, b. 1692 (perhaps John's twin?); d. 28 Twelfth month (Dec.) 1779; m. 7 First Month (Mar.)1720/1 John PENQUITE (he d. 28 Sixth Month (Aug.) 1750; 4 children: Jane Penquite (b. 25/9/1723), Abigail Penquite (b. 25/1/1726), Mercey Penquite (b. 19/6/1730), Sarah Penquite (b. 1/10m/1732). Rachel was bequeathed by her father "one feather bed with bed cloathes and courtains and furniture and one larg Bible" as well as £30.[49]
vii. Joseph Twining, b. 18/1m [Mar.] 1696/7; d. 12 Sept. 1719; bur. 9/12m/1719. [I suspect this is a reversal of day and month and confusion as to death and burial.]
viii. David Twining, b. 1700; d. 23/7m/1711.
ix. William Twining, b. 1704; bur. 9/9m or Dec. 1706 or 1716.
Fourth Generation
Mercy Twining4 was born 8 Ninth Month [November] 1690, the daughter of Stephen and Abigail (Young) Twining. She died 25 Fifth Month [July] 1726. Mercy and Joseph LUPTON brought their first intentions to be married to Middletown Monthly Meeting on 6 Sixth Month (August) 1713. A clearness committee was named, as usual, that reported back the following month that the couple were clear to marry.[50] They were married 10 Seventh Month (September) 1713.[51] However, unbeknownst to the clearness committee, the young couple had engaged in "unchaste actions before marriage". When their first child was born less than nine months after the wedding, the overseers spoke to the couple. Mercy and Joseph brought in a paper condemning their fault. It was read, accepted, ordered read the next First Day after meeting for worship, and recorded in the Men’s minute book.[52] See Lupton line.
Mercy inherited from her father £30 Pennsylvania currency. In his will her father mentioned as a landmark, the "house wherein Joseph Lupton did formerly live" to the south of Stephen's plantation.[53]
Mercy died 25 Fifth Month [July] 1726. There is apparently an old family legend that they returned to England where Mercy died. Although Joseph's name does not appear in the Buckingham Meeting minutes from Tenth Month (December) 1725 to Sixth Month 1730, there seems to be no certificate of removal or travel minute for either of them.[54]
Joseph married for a second time, Mary (SCARBOROUGH) PICKERING, the widow of Samuel. On 6 Second Month (April) 1741 Joseph requested a certificate of removal for himself and his family. At the following monthly meeting, 4 Third Month Friends approved a certificate for Joseph and his son Joseph to Hopewell Meeting. Joseph was accompanied by his second wife, three young children by that marriage (Ann, Mercy, and Jonathan), and his two younger sons by the first marriage, Joseph Lupton III and John Lupton.
Joseph's will was dated 8 January 1757 and proved 5 September 1758 in Frederick County, Virginia. Mary died in Opeckan, Frederick County, Virginia, on 10 January 1787.[55]
Children of Joseph and Mercy (Twining) Lupton:[56]:
i. William Lupton, b. 4/1m [Mar.] 1714; d. 4/11m/1783, Apple Pie Ridge, Frederick Co., Virginia. ii. Sarah Lupton, b. 22/6m [Aug.] 1716; d. 27 May 1778 in Solebury, Bucks Co., Penna.; m. 1738 Isaac PICKERING.
iii. Joseph Lupton, b. 5/1m [Mar.] 1718; d. 9 Nov. 1791, Apple Pie Ridge, Frederick Co., Virginia; m. Rachel BULL, daughter of Richard of Chester Co. on 17/8m/1750 at Opeckan.
iv. Elizabeth Lupton, b. 30/2m [April] 1722; d. 1 Aug. 1801 in Solebury.
v. John Lupton, b. 4 Mar. 1725; d. 25 Dec. 1804 in Winchester, Frederick Co., Va.; m. 26/6m/1755 Sarah FROST, daughter of John, at Opeckan.
To continue the story of this family, go to the Lupton family web page.
--------------
See all the notes and citations for this Twiningpage.
Go to the index of Collateral Lines to see what other families are included in this web site.
See the Paxson family genealogy.
NOTE: this page is still under construction.
If you have corrections or additions, please contact me at
This page was updated on 3m/3/2021.
Insights into relations between the English invaders and
the First Nation inhabitantsIn 1614, John Smith explored the whole coast from Penobscot to the Cape, and made a map of the country, which he named New England. Prince Charles, afterwards King Charles I, changed the name of the peninsula to Cape James; but the royal caprice could not efface the homely Cape Cod, "which name," said Cotton Mather, "I suppose it will never lose till shoals of codfish be seen swimming on its highest hills."
Most unfortunately, Smith re-embarked for England, leaving his vessel under the command of Thomas Hunt, to load with fish. When the ship was laden and ready to sail, Hunt enticed sundry Indians of Nauset and other places on board, under the pretense of trade, and perfidiously and most unwisely carried them off - twenty-seven in number - to Malaga, in Spain, where he sold the most of them for twenty pounds a man. This cruel and treacherous deed was never forgotten by their countrymen; and the first hostile passage between the Pilgrims and the Indians was at Nauset, ever known in the Plymouth annals as the "First Encounter."
Barnstable County Historical Sketch, prepared for the 1880 Atlas of Barnstable County, by John B. D.Cogswell [transcribed by Ray Sears [email protected]] ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ma/barnstable/BarnstHistSketch.txt [See also, Albert Bushnell Hart, ed. Commonwealth History of Massachusetts Colony, Province, and State in 5 vols. [orig. pub. 1927] (New York: Russell & Russell, 1966), Vol. 1: Colony of Massachusetts Bay (1605-1689), 533-4. A more recent, and therefore perhaps slightly less unconsciously biased account is Benjamin W. Labaree, Colonial Massachusetts: A History (Millwood, NY: KTO Press, 1979), 3-13, 45-6, 49, and 96-105.]
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Although the Nauset would usually abandon their villages and retreat inland at the approach of a European ship, they continued to be victimized by sailors of all nationalities. In 1614 Captain Thomas Hunt captured seven Nauset and twenty Patuxet (one of whom was Squanto who later gained fame as a friend of the Pilgrims in Plymouth) and later sold them as slaves in Spain. Kidnapping and enslaving 27 of their people was a minor offense compared to the other thing Thomas Hunt did to the New England Algonquin. It appears there was a terrible sickness among Hunt's crew that was inadvertently passed to the Nauset and Wampanoag in the course of his raid. Spreading quickly through the native population in three waves, it killed 75% of the original residents of New England and the Canadian maritimes between 1614 and 1617.
[Compare this with the worst of the Black Death in 1348 in Europe which at its most virulent took at most 50% of the population. Or look at recent studies of survivors of the twentieth century epidemics among the Alaska natives to get some idea of the tremendous impact such massive deaths had on the rapidly shredding social fabric.]
Six years later, the Mayflower brought the first English settlers to New England. The destination was supposed to be the mouth of the Hudson River, but battered by storms and running out of supplies, they anchored off Cape Cod in November, 1620. A landing party was sent ashore to search for food and stumbled across a Nauset burial site filled with the recent victims of the epidemics - although it is doubtful the Nauset at this time had made the association between Europeans and their diseases. Finding corn which had been left beside the graves, they began digging around for more. When the Nauset discovered the desecration in progress, angry warriors sent the Pilgrims running for their lives. In retrospect it would have been better for the Nauset if they had fed the English, given them all the corn they needed, and sent them on their way south. Instead, the Mayflower sailed across Cape Cod Bay and deposited its cargo of colonists at Plymouth. The English had come to New England to stay!
This experience made the Pilgrims suspicious of the Nauset, but through the intercession of the Wampanoag sachem, Massasoit, relations improved. Early in 1621 a young boy wandered off into the woods from Plymouth and became lost. Found by a Nauset hunting party, he was taken to their head sachem Aspinet at his village near Truro. Upon learning Aspinet had the boy, the English arranged a meeting through Iyanough, the Cummaquid sachem. Relations were still tense, but after an exchange of apologies and payment for the corn taken in November, Aspinet returned the boy. A warm friendship developed between the Pilgrims and Nauset, and during the winter of 1622, Aspinet are believed to have brought food to Plymouth which saved many from starvation. In the beginning, English settlements did not intrude into the Nauset homeland on Cape Cod. The exception being the small community started at Wessgussett in 1622. Unfortunately, this was probably the source of an epidemic which swept through the Nauset in 1623 killing both Aspinet and Iyanough.
Otherwise, the English presence at Plymouth was close enough for trade and provided some protection from slave raids by other Europeans. Despite the epidemic, there was little friction in the years which followed, and the Nauset maintained good relations with the colonists throughout the colonial period. Beginning about 1640, the missionary efforts of John Elliot succeeded in converting most of the Nauset to Christianity by the time of King Philip's War (1675-76). Unlike many of the "Praying Indians," the Nauset did not join the Wampanoag in the uprising and remained loyal to the English. Although the colonists were inclined to suspect all natives, Christian or traditional, the Nauset were already isolated on Cape Cod, and the English found it "necessary" to relocate them to "plantations of confinement." During the last year of the war, many Nauset warriors volunteered their services to the English army as scouts.
http://www.dickshovel.com/nau.html (Lee Sultzman)
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The Puritans, especially those who arrived in the 1630s, viewed the natural world through a Calvinist lens. They considered "nature" as wild and savage, and therefore ruled by Satan. They did not glorify God for the beauty and fecundity of the forest; they viewed the wilderness with suspicion and fear. So not only were the resources to be expropriated, the native people were to be feared, fought, and eventually exterminated. Very few EnglishmenJohn Elliott is almost the only shining exampletried to "Christianize" the Indians. Most settlers scorned and avoided those they called "praying Indians"not quite able to see them as fellow Christians. [Benjamin W. Labaree, Colonial Massachusetts: A History (Millwood, NY: KTO Press, 1979), 45-6.]