Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume II, Part 27

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry S. (Henry Sweetser), 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 736

USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume II > Part 27

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American Tract Society, with Mr. Blakeslee as depository, and served in this capacity till May, 1870. He then resumed business for himself. In 1872 he joined the firm of Brough- ton & Wyman in New York in the same busi- ness. The next year Mr. Broughton retired and the firm became Warren & Wyman. Se- vere financial depression coming on, the firm made assignment and discontinued business in November, 1875. In October, 1875, Dr. War- ren was appointed editor of the Christian Mir- ror, and moved to Lewiston, Maine. April I, 1877, he purchased the paper and removed it and his family back to Portland, and was its owner and publisher. In addition to the hooks above enumerated he later wrote and published "Parousia"; "Chauncy Judd," 314 pages ; "Three Judges," 303 pages; "Our Father," 355 pages, and "The Stanley Family of Amer- ica," and "Revelation," 352 pages. He was a man of great energy and activity, and was all his active life one of the foremost of his profession in good works. His labors made a deep and lasting impression upon those con- gregations to which he ministered. He was married (first), August 21, 1841, to Jane Stan- ley Stow, of Cromwell, by Rev. Zebulon

Crocker. She was the daughter of Captain Thomas. and Phœbe Stow ; was born Decem- ber 13. 1811, died February 26, 1881. He married (second), January 2, 1882, Mrs. Sar- ah Lewis Cushman, of Portland, Maine, who died November 26, 1885. Married (third), October 6, 1886, Juliet Marion Stanley, of Winthrop, Maine. The last wife was for some time assistant editor of the Christian Mirror, and after Dr. Warren's death its editor for a considerable time. The children of Rev. Dr. I. P. and Jane Stanley ( Stow ) Warren were : Jane Lenora, Stanley Perkins and Lillie Jane. Annie Margaret was an adopted daughter.

The records of the Stow family are very extensive. They contain not only the history of the parent family for many centuries in England, but also that of its numerous de- scendants in America. Like many of those other purely English families, it includes the names and deeds of those who have been prominent in the civil and political history of the two countries, and of those other families, equally distinguished, with which it is con- nected by marriage. From these records, so far as they may relate to that branch from which the late Mrs. Jane Stanley ( Stow) War- ren was descended, the following is condensed :

Stowe or Stow, for the name is spelled in both ways, is a very ancient name in England. It is found particularly in Middlesex and Lin-

colnshire. Some of the facts which have been collected in regard to the family, previous to the settlement in this country, are herewith given.

In 1285 King Richard II presented John de Stowe, of London, to the living of Rotherfield. In 1297 Henry Stowe, draper of London, bought of Sir John Abel a lot of land on the Thames, in All Hallows ad Foenum, where goods were landed. Two centuries after this Thomas Stowe, tallow chandler, dwelt in St. Michael's parish, Cornhill, London. He died in 1526, and his will, which is recorded in the register of the bishop of London, is as follows :

"In the name of God, Amen. In the year of our Lord, 1526, the last of September, I Thomas Stowe, Citizen and tallow-chandler of London, in good and hole mynd, thanks to our Lord Jesu, make this my present testament.

"First, I bequeath my soul to Jesu Christ, and to our blessed lady, Seynt Mary, the vir- gin, etc. My body to be buried in the little grene churchyard of Seynt Mychel, Cornhill, between the crosse and the churchwall, nigh the wall as may be, by my father and mother, and sisters and brothers, also my children.

"Also I bequayth to the hygh altar of the foresayd church for my tythes forgotton, 12d. Item, to Jesu's Brotherhedde, 12d. I give to Christopher and St George, 12d. Also to the seven sltars in the church aforesaid in worship of the seven sacrements, every year, during three years, 20d.

"Item. 5 shillings to have on every altar a washyng candel burning from 6 of the clock till it be past 7 in the worship of the seven sacrements. And this candel shall begin to burn, and to be set upon the altar from All- halloween day until it be Candelmassday fol- lowing ; and it shall be washing candel, of 7 in the Ib.

"Also I give to the brotherhedde of clerks to drink, 20d. Also I give to them that bayre me to church, every man, 4d. Also I give to a pore man or woman every Sunday in each year, Id, to say five paternosters and aves and a credo for my soul. Also I give for the sep- aration of pales, 8d.

"Also I will have six new torches, and eleven torches of St. Mychel and St. Anne, and eleven of St. Christopher, and eleven of Jesu of the best toryches.

"Also I bequaith to Thomas Stowe, my son, 20 lbs. in stuff of household, as here followeth, that is to say, my great melting panne with all the instruments that longeth thereto.

"Also I bequaith to my sonne Thomas, 61b,

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13s, 5d, as hereafter followeth. Item, a nest of silver and gilt, 55s. Item, a pounced piece weighing 6 ozs, and more 40s. Item, a mass of a pynt, 26s, 8d. Item a lyttle maser, 135, 4d.

"Item. Of this my present Testament I make Elizabeth, my wife, executrix, and Thomas Stowe, my son, my overseer, and Mr Tyndal as a solicitor with my son Thomas, and he to have for his labor, Ios."

Thomas Jr., being thus enriched with his father's "great melting panne and all the in- struments belonging thereto," pursued his tal- low-chandler's trade with such success that, be- sides his city house in Cornhill, for his pleas- ure and diversion he rented a garden and cot- tage in the country, situated on the bankside of Throckmorton street in Broad street near to the place where Draper's hill now stands. This garden, which was five and forty feet in length, he rented of Sir Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII's great minister and secre- tary of state, for the yearly sum of six shillings and eight pence. This Stowe died in 1599, and was buried in St. Michael's, Cornhill. His will is not to be found. His widow, Margaret, however, left a will, bearing date June 29, 1568, which affords many graphic illustrations of the times. She bequeathed her body to be buried by her husband in the cloister, and 3os. to bury her decently, and ios. for her children and friends to drink withal after her funeral. To the poor 5s. worth of bread, to the company of tallow-chandlers 6s. and to follow her corpse to the church.

A comparison of her will with that of her father-in-law, above recited, shows the progress which the ideas of the Reformation had al- ready begun to make among the common peo- ple. She writes, "I bequeath my soul to Al- mighty God, my maker and Creator, and to his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, my only Saviour and Redemer, with the Holy Ghost and into the fellowship of the Holy Host of Heaven." She makes no provision for altar candles, aves and paters. Her father-in-law had left five shillings for altar candles and one penny a year for some poor person to say aves and paters for his soul; but she leaves ten shillings for her friends and children to have a drink withal, after her funeral, and five shillings to buy bread for the poor without either aves and paters in return.

John Stowe, the famous chronicler of the kings of England, and surveyor of the city of London, a painstaking and voluminous writer, was the oldest son of Thomas and Margaret.

He belonged to the honorable company of merchant tailors, a company which has now the most splendid and well conducted school in the Old City of London. He endeavored to make his living as a draper and tailor, but by his enthusiastic devotion to the study of antiquities, he exposed himself to many sus- picions and persecutions, was all his life plagued with poverty, and after a long life spent in hard labor died in the depths of pov- erty, leaving little behind him except piles of Alss., to which posterity has paid all desirable honor. His first trouble was, that in the reign of that capricious tyrant, Henry VIII, he was accused by a priest of disaffection to the gov- ernment, and inclination to Lutheranism, and brought to trial. He defended himself so well, however, that he was not only acquitted, but his accuser was condemned to stand in the pillory, and to have the letters "F. A." ( false accuser) branded into his cheek with a hot iron.

Stowe neglected his trade and studied with great assiduity the antiquities of England. He went on foot from cathedral to cathedral throughout the kingdom and especially in Lon- don, in which pursuit he was greatly animated by the praises of Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, and Dr. Parker, archbishop of Can- terbury, who gave him good words and flatter- ing commendations, but very little of material aid. Living much in his solitary chamber and collecting great quantities of curious old pub- lications and Mss., his neighbors, not know- ing how else to account for his conduct, thought he must be secretly in favor of popery, and a worshiper of popish books. According- ly he was denounced to Queen Elizabeth's council as a suspected person, and Grindal, bishop of London, sent three commissioners to arrest Stowe, the tailor, and search the premises. He had been in danger of dying for suspicion of Lutheranism in King Henry's time, and was now being persecuted for popery in the reign of Elizabeth. To Stowe's great vexation the three commissioners entered his house without ceremony, tumbled over his pre- cious collection of parchments and Mss., dearer to him than his heart's blood, ransacked his closets, eviscerated his bundle of papers, and reported to the bishop, "That they found books in defense of the Papistry which showed him to be a great favorer of that religion." His friends, the earl of Leicester and Archbishop Parker, did him good service and interposed for his acquittal. A discarded servant, how- ever, again accused him before the archbishop,

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and drew up charges in one hundred and forty articles ; but the learned prelate still stood by him, and he was again declared innocent.

After publishing several large books he be- came so poor and needy that he petitioned the lord mayor and aldermen of London for help. He tells them that he is of the age of three score and four; that he has for the space of about thirty years last past, beside his Chron- icle dedicated to the earl of Leicester, set forth divers works to the honor of the city of Lon- don. He therefore petitioned them to bestow upon him some yearly pension, whereby he might reap somewhat toward his great charges. This seems not to have been very liberally responded to, for he was soon found at his tailor's board again, and that too in cir- cumstances which exposed him to great an- noyance from his illiterate neighbors. They were somewhat envious; they disliked it that one of their own rank in life should have the presumption to write and publish folios, and number among his friends earls and arch- bishops, especially one who had no more sense than to spend all his earnings in buying old books and now in his old age have nothing to live upon. So many were the insults and abuses that came upon his harmless old head, that he was fain to petition the magistrates for pro- tection. This was in the reign of Elizabeth, and probably no attention was given it. Once long before the poverty of Stowe was antici- pated, or the despicable meanness and shame- ful heartlessness of King James was estab- lished beyond dispute by his own sign manual, Ben Johnson told his friend Drummond, of Hawthornden, that he and Stowe when walk- ing together met two lame beggars, and Stowe, as if with some half presentiment of how he was to end his days, gaily asked them, "what they would have to take him to their order." Speaking of his great literary labor, Stowe says, "It hath cost me many a weary mile's travel, many a hard-earned penny and pound, and many a cold winter night's study." In writing to the Rev. Dr. Warren the late Pro- fessor C. E. Stowe, of Andover Theological Seminary, said, "I have visited London three times and have always made a pilgrimage to the old church of St. Andrews at Landaff, where John Stowe is buried. His monument is preserved with the greatest care, and my wife and all my friends who have seen it say that there is a strong family resemblance to me and mine. The old lady who takes care of this church calls him her "quiet old gentle- man," and always puts a fresh bouquet of flowers in his hand every Christmas. On his

monument his name is spelled "Stowe." It occurs several times as the name of a place (the word in Saxon means Place), and there I think it is always spelled Stowe. This I be- lieve was the old Saxon orthography, "\Val- tham Stowe, Stowe in the Wold," etc.

(1) The first member of the Stowe family in America, of which there are records, was John Stowe, who brought over his wife, Eliza- beth (Bigg) Stowe, and their six children in the ship "Elizabeth" in 1634. He came from Hawkhurst, Kent, "a parish partly in the hun- dred of Henhurst, rape of Hastings, Co. of Sussex, but chiefly in the eastern division of the hundred of Barnfield, lathe of Scray, Co. of Kent, five miles S. S. W. from Cranbrooke." Ile came over in one of the Winthrop compa- nies, settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and took the freeman's oath September 3, 1634. He was a member of the Ancient and Hon- orable Artillery Company, which was insti- tuted in 1638, and was a representative of Roxbury, 1639. In the same year he owned two hundred and twenty-five acres of land, and had twenty-one persons in his family, and also owned "twenty goats and eight kids." In the History of Roxbury he is called, "an old Kentish man." His children were: Thomas, Elizabeth, John, Nathaniel, Samuel and Thankful.

John Pierpont, who married Thankful, youngest daughter of John Stowe, had a son James, called in an old agreement, "a student of ve liberall artes," who was a preacher and settled in New Haven, Connecticut. Rev, James Pierpont's daughter, Sarah, married Jonathan Edwards. His eldest daughter, Esther, married Aaron Burr, president of New Jersey College, and father of Aaron Burr, vice-president of the United States. His daughter, Mary, married Timothy Dwight, and was mother of Timothy Dwight, late presi- dent of Yale University.

(2) Thomas, of Middleton, son of John Stow, was born in England, and died in 1664. He married Mary Griggs, of Roxbury, who died in 1680. Their children were: Samuel, Thomas, Nathaniel, John, Mary, Elizabeth and Thankful. Thomas Stow removed to Concord, Massachusetts, in 1639, in the first company who settled there. He then owned two houses in Roxbury, which he sold to John Pierpont in 1648 for fro. When a meeting of the military company attempted to settle disputes about divisions of lands, Thomas Stow was dissatisfied and moved to Connecti- cut. His estate was valued at £42, 5s., 6d. He was schoolmaster before 1650, and gave three

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acres of land for a schoolhouse. Thomas and his brother Samuel Stow owned jointly six hundred acres of land between Fairhaven and the Sudbury line.

(3) Thomas, son of Thomas Stow, of Mid- dleton, was born in 1651, married Bethia Stocking in 1675, who died in 1732, aged sev- enty-five. He died in 1729-30, aged seventy- nine. Their children were: Bethia, Samuel, Bethia, Mary, Thomas, Hannah and Joseph.

(4) Joseph, of Middletown, Connecticut, son of Thomas Stow, was born August, 1703, married Sarah Buckley, March 14, 1734-35. He died November 1, 1776, in the seventy- fourth year of his age. Their children were: Rebeckah, Sarah, Joseph, Dorothy, Joseph and Zebulon. His will was probated April 14, 1777, in which he gives his wife, Sarah, the improvement of one-half of the whole es- tate while remaining his widow; to his son Joseph his dwelling house and two and one- half acres at Furneck ; to his son Zebulon one acre where his new house stands ; also legacies to his daughters, Sarah Savage and Dorothy Frary, and to his granddaughter, Lydia Rus- sell, one red cloak and after his wife's decease all the estate that belonged to Catherine Rus- sell. He appointed his sons, Joseph and Zebu- lon. executors.

(5) Zebulon, son of Joseph Stow, was a sea-captain, who did a large business, and traded in vessels, etc. He lived in Cromwell, Connecticut, in a house standing on the cor- ner where in 1855 the Baptist church was lo- cated. He married (first ) Rosetta Riley, April, 1773, who died January 7, 1792 ; (sec- ond) Hannah Warner, October 24, 1792, who died June 10, 1831. His will was probated April 24, 1809, and the inventory was $8,- 371.42. Their children were: Zebulon, Will- iam, Thomas, Edward, Rosetta and Russell.

(6) Thomas, son of Zebulon Stow, of Crom- well (now Middletown), Connecticut, born May 12, 1777, died August 14, 1845. He married Phicbe Stanley, September 18, 1800, who died September 27, 1857. Their children were: Caroline Rosetta, Thomas, Jane Stan- ley and Anna North. Thomas Stow, on his marriage, built a house in Cromwell, which he occupied until his father's death, when he removed to the house of the latter, where his children were born and where he died. He first learned the trade of a printer, but never pursued it. He was a merchant in Cromwell, of the firm of Dewey & Stow, Dewey being his wife's brother. His health failing him, he went to sea as a supercargo for his father, and afterward pursued a seafaring life as a

captain. He made many voyages to the West Indies, England, Ireland, France, Spain, etc., suffered several shipwrecks, and once nearly starved to death in a calm. He was for sev- eral years the captain of the steamer "Oliver Ellsworth," on the Connecticut river, and was captain of a tugboat on the Hudson. He was also captain of a vessel employed by the gov- ernment for the removal of the Seminole In- dians from Florida. His last sea voyage was to Malaga, Spain. in 1839, after which he retired from active life and resided at home in Cromwell. Captain Stow united with the church in Cromwell, August 5, 1827, when about fifty years old, and in the latter part of his life was a devoted Christian. He was a man of rather more than medium stature, quiet of temper and movement, exceedingly kind and tender in his feelings, devotedly at- tached to his family, an esteemed citizen and a good man. He had not been fortunate in his business pursuits, and therefore left but a small property consisting only of his home- stead and furniture, which he left by will to his widow, to be divided at her death equally between his daughters, Jane and Anna.

(7) Jane Stanley Stow, second daughter of Thomas Stow, was born in Cromwell, Con- necticut, December 13, 181 1 ; married Rev. Dr. Israel Perkins Warren, August 25, 1841 ; died in Portland, Maine, February 26, 1881. aged sixty-nine years. The following record of Mrs. Warren is taken from "The Stanley Families," and prepared by her husband, Rev. Dr. Warren :

"Mrs. Jane Stanley Warren inherited in an eminent degree the sterling qualities of her New England ancestry. She became interest- ed in religion at about the age of fifteen, and united with the Congregational church in her native village in June, 1827. Her piety was characterized by active benevolence. Her care was to do good, live for others, her family, her friends, her associates in the church and all who needed sympathy and help. In the various fields opened to her as a pastor's wife, in efforts for the poor and sick, in missionary circles and institutions of all sorts she was ever most active. She was one of the found- ers, and for many years the corresponding sec- retary of the Union Maternal Association of Boston. During the civil war she was one of the foremost in that circle of ladies in the Mount Vernon church, Boston, so distin- guislied for their efforts in behalf of our sol- diers in the field and in hospitals. In anti- slavery and temperance work her heart was never weary. The cause of missions was es-

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pecially dear to her. Her inind was well stored with general literature, especially in the line of her husband's profession. Before her marriage she went through a systematic course of theological reading, transcribing, in her beautiful handwriting, two large quarto vol- umes of nearly twelve hundred pages, the en- tire lectures of the theological department of Yale College. During her husband's connec- tion with the Tract Society she rendered him much valuable assistance with her pen, chiefly in the department of juvenile publications. One of her books, the history of the missionary vessel, the "Morning Star," passed through many editions. She had all her life been sub- ject to much bodily suffering. When a child she received a kick from a vicious horse, from which she lay many weeks near to death, and the mark of which upon her face she bore through all her life. Nervous pain and dis- ease lavished upon her their multiplied woes. Her last and fatal illness resulted from senile gangrene, and was attended with severe and protracted suffering, but her Christian forti- tude and patience never failed her. The last conscious hours were more than peaceful ; they were full of hope and joy."

(IX) Stanley Perkins, second child and only son of Rev. Dr. Israel P. and Jane Stanley (Stow) Warren, was born in Mount Carmel (Hamden), Connecticut, September 15, 1846. When about three years of age he was taken by his parents on their removal to Plymouth, where he resided until they went to New York city in 1856. He attended the grammar school department of the old University of New York and the Sixth avenue public school, and during the summer of 1859 was at Munson Academy in Munson, Massachusetts. The family began residence in 1859 in Boston, Massachusetts, and he entered the Boston Latin school that fall. In 1863 he left that school to enter Phil- lips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in the class of 1865. En- tering Yale University as a freshman the same year he graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1869. The first of July following he moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, and engaged in business as agent of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, and filled that place until 1873, when he resigned. He began the study of medicine in February, 1872, under the preceptorship of Robert Hubbard, M. D., of Bridgeport. He took his first course of medi- cal lectures at the Yale Medical School dur- ing the session of 1872-73, and his second course at the College of Physicians and Sur- geons (now the medical department of Co-

lumbia University), during 1873-74, receiving the degree of M. D. from Yale University in 1874. Practicing his profession in Bridge- port, Connecticut, until 1876, he then removed to Farmington, Maine, where he was active in his profession until October, 1879, when he removed to Portland, where he has since con- tinuously resided and practiced for almost thirty years. He has made a specialty of obstetrics, and is the author of "Principles of Obstetrics," published by Wood & Company, New York, 1903. He is now obstetrician to the Maine General Hospital and consulting physician to the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary of Portland. He is medical examiner and nominator for several insurance companies, member of the American Medical Association, the Maine Medical Association, several private medical societies, the Maine Historical Society, the Portland Club, and the Portland Board of Trade. In politics he is a Republican. He was a member of the board of supervisors of Port- land schools 1896-98, and was re-elected in 1903, serving continuously till the present time, his term of office expiring in 1909. He became a member of the Congregational church at Bridgeport, Connecticut, was a mem- ber of the same church at Farmington, Maine, and since he began his residence in Portland has been a member of the State Street Congre- gational Church. He was superintendent of Sunday school in Bridgeport, and has held other church positions.

He married, in New Haven, Connecticut, September 15, 1869, Sarah Elizabeth North, born February 22, 1848, second daughter and child of Jolin Goodrich and Betsy (Dickinson) North, of New Haven. Mr. North was al- ways engaged in life and fire insurance in New Haven, and prominent in Sunday school work and in the Congregational church, a philan- thropist, and a leading citizen of the city. John Goodrich North, 1823-1892, was the son of Lemuel North, 1786-1875, and Rebecca Good- rich : son of David North, 1761-1823; son of Jedediah North. 1734-1816, and Sarah Wilcox, 1739-1775. These Norths were direct de- scendants of John North, the original settler who came to New England in the ship. "Susan and Ellen," and settled in Farmington, Con- necticut, in 1630. He was probably a descend- ant of the great family of the English Norths, though there is no documentary proof of the same. John Goodrich North married Betsy Dickinson, of New Haven, who was born 1821 and is still living. She was daughter of Raphael Dickinson, of New Haven, and Nancy McNeil. He was son of Oliver Dickin-

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Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume II, Part 27

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry S. (Henry Sweetser), 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe Publication date: 1909 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 736

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry S. (Henry Sweetser), 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 736