Joseph COWLES

Notes:

Name:
Joseph Cowles resided in East Hartford. He was collector for the Ecclesiastical Society in 1728 and deputy sheriff of Hartford County in 1725. His will, dated Aug. 14, 1770, was probated at Hartford, Conn., March 18, 1775; left lands in East Hartford and new Hartford.

Family/Spouse: Mary GOODWIN. Mary (daughter of Deacon John GOODWIN and Sarah ?) was christened on 18 Jan 1701/2; died after 14 Aug 1770. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Eleazer COWLES was born in 1728 in East Hartford, Connecticut; died on 19 Mar 1801.
2. Elisha COWLES was born about 1745 in East Hartford, Connecticut; died on 19 Sep 1786 in East Hartland, Connecticut.

Notes:

Name:
Timothy m. January 1, 1689/90, Hannah, born 1666 or 1667' d. 1737; daughter of Hon. William and Hannah (Goodwin) Pitkin of East Hartford, Conn. Hannah Goodwin was daughter of Ozias Goodwin, one of the first settlers in East Hartford. Hon. William Pitkin was one of the original settlers and large landholders in East Hartford; principal attorney of the colony; treasurer 1676; assistant 1690, until his death Dec. 16, 1694. His grandson, William Pitkin, son of William and Elizabeth (Stanley) Pitkin, was a great grandson of John Cowles. he was judge of the Superior Court; Deputy or Lieutenant Governor, 1754-1766, and governor of the Colony of Connecticut, 1766-1769, the date of his death. After his marriage Timothy Cowles removed to East Hartford, where he first appears in the records in 1695. He owned a three mile lot east and west from the conn. River easterly, part of which was taken in the highway laid out from Richard Gilman's north of Gilman's Brook easterly in 1734. He lived jut south of Gilman's Brook on the East side of Main street before 1700, on the site occupied in 1879 by Mr. I. Carney.

On Dec. 27, 1687 the town of Farmington granted to Timothy Cowles a four-acre lot, lying on the south side of Samuel Cowles senior's four acre lot "provided that he do come and inhabit in the town," from which it appears that he was not then a resident of Farmington.

He was a collector of the 3rd Ecclesiastical Society of Hartford in 1701, and deacon in 1718. Chosen at a Town Meeting, Hartford, Dec. 25, 1701, surveyor for the East Side; Dec. 17, 1706, constable for the year ensuing; constable, Dec. 18, 1711; grand jury man, Dec. 15, 1713; selectman, Dec. 18, 1716, for the year ensuing. In his will on file in the State Library at Hartford, dated march 31, 1728, his wife is not mentioned, indicating that she was not then living. They were admitted to full communion in the First Church at Hartford, Aug. 11, 1695.

Timothy married Hannah PITKIN on 1 Jan 1689/90. Hannah (daughter of William PITKIN and Hannah GOODWIN) was born in 1666; died in 1737. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Son of John and Hannah Cowles of Hartford, Conn.

Notes:

Name:
He was one of the eighty-four proprietors of Farmington in 1672; inherited his father's estate there and became one of the leading citizens. He was a man of energy, enterprise and possessed what passed for wealth at that time. Joined the church with his wife in 1690; was the progenitor of the Connecticut branch of the Cowles family as his brother John was of the Massachusetts branch.

Samuel married Abigail STANLEY on 14 Jan 1660/1. Abigail (daughter of Timothy STANLEY and Elizabeth ?) was born in Hartford, Connecticut; died in 1736 in Farmington, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Dau. of Timothy and Elizabeth Stanley of Hartford, Conn.

Notes:

Excerpt from "Pitkin Genealogy":

William Pitkin, the progenitor of the family in America, who came from England in 1659, was possessed of great ability and tenacity of purpose. Endowed with a discerning mind, coupled with an excellent English education, coming into the Colony after its early settlement, he soon gained the full confidence of the Connecticut colonists. He was admitted a freeman, October 9, 1662, and was appointed the same year by the General Assembly, Prosecutor for the Colony. His marked ability gave him, in1664, the appointment of Attorney-General, by the King. From 1675 to 1690, a period of fifteen years, he annually represented Hartford in the Colonial Assembly. In 1676 he was chosen Treasurer of the Colony. He was often appointed Commissioner by the Colony to the United Colonies. In 1676 he was appointed with Major Talcott to negotiate peace with the Narragansett and other Indian tribes. In 1690 he was elected a member of the Colonial Council, and so remained till is death. In 1693 he was sent by the Colony to Governor Fletcher of New York, to negotiate terms respecting the militia until Governor Winthrop's return from England, whither he had gone on the same business (see Hollister's "Connecticut", p. 340). In 1693 "Mr. William Pitkin, Mr. Sanuel Chester, and Captain William Whiting were appointed by the General Court to run the division line between the Connecticut and Massachusetts colonies" (see Trumbull's History, p. 410; also see Col. Rec., Vol. I, p. 363-413, Vol. II, p. 426, Vol. III, p. 19). Aside from his profession, he was also one of the principal planters of the town, having purchased a large tract of land on the east side of the river, on which his sons all settled. It embraced a portion of East Hartford Center. He owned one-third interest in a saw-mill and a grist-mill at "Pitkin Falls", so called from the number of dams and mills erected there, by the Pitkin family. He was also appointed with Mr. John Crow, to lay out the first Main and other streets on the east side of the river.

William married Hannah GOODWIN in 1661. Hannah (daughter of Ozias GOODWIN and Mary WOODWARD) was born in 1637; died on 12 Feb 1724. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Daughter Of Ozias and (Mary Woodward) Goodwin

Notes:

Name:
He is said to have been born in the west of England; was among the early settlers at Hartford and not long after 1640, located at Farmington, where he served as Townsman and in 1652, was one of those who organized the church there, being one of the "Seven Pillars." His land was on the corner at the north end of Farmington Village. Selling this property, he bought three lots just south of the present meeting house and built his house there. He was a farmer; was Deputy to the General Assembly from Farmington at the October and November sessions of 1653 and the May session of 1654. It has been erroneously said that he was one of the "signers" who started the settlement at Hadley, (Judd's Hadley, 1905 edition, p. 11.) He was one of the twenty-five "engagers" in Hadley to establish themselves at Hatfield, "cross the River" before March 25, 1661, and his record there begins in January, 1660/1; Freeman 1666. He was Townsman of Hadley, 1667. It is said that he spelled his name "Cowles" to distinguish himself from another man in the place named cole, but this seems doubtful. He may have been a brother of James of Hartford.

He probably came from Gloucestershire, where the Cowles family were more numerous than in any other part of England at that time, but a limited search of the records there and elsewhere in England by the College of Arms and a search by the compiler of the printed English records available, have failed to locate the place from whence he came or to trace his ancestry.

His name appears as Coll, Colles, Cole, Coles, Coal, Coale, Coales and Coalles in the earl record and for the first time as Cowles in the record of a court held at Hartford in 1659, at which he was a juror and again in two similar records and as appraiser of an estate in 1662-3. It appears as Cowles in his own will and that of his wife Hannah, in Farmington land records in 1666, in the record of his son John's marriage in 1668 and in that of his own death at Hatfield, Mass., Sept. 1675. It was the common belief of the genealogists of the last century that he changed his name from Cole to Cowles in order to distinguish his family from that o another John Cole of the same town, and some went so far as to say that he originated the name Cowles and that all who bore it were his descendants. But none of this is true for the reason that he signed his name by mark and could not have changed its spelling, that the name Cowles is an ancient one in England, antedating 1553, and that there are several Cowles families inAmerica who are not his descendants. However there is good reason to believe that the name Cowles was derived from that of Cole at some time prior to 1553 when it first appears of record in several counties in England almost simultaneously. If all of these families were descended from the same Cowles ancestor he must have lived at a much earlier period, but the probabilities are that each family derived its name independently from that of Cole. In the early records the Cowles family usually appears in the same neighborhood as the Cole family and sometimes the name of the same person is spelt first one way and then the other.

John Cowles was a farmer and doubtless had but little spare time or inclination for public office; yet as a good citizen he served in the various capacities noted in his record. After raising and educating a large family of children he left comparatively good estate, and his children all married into some of the most prominent families in New England.

John married Hannah ?. Hannah was born about 1613; died on 16 Mar 1683/4 in Hartford, Hartford Co., Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Timothy married Elizabeth ?England. Elizabeth was born about 1603; died on 23 Feb 1679 in Hartford, Hartford Co., Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Mrs. Stanley m. (2) Andrew Bacon, who removed to Hadley but she returned to Hartford after his death in 1669 and lived with her son, Caleb. The author of the Stanley Family History says: "It has been intimated, we know not on what authority, that her maiden name was Morrice." (the Stanley Families, p. 229.)

? married Unknown ?. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ozias married Mary WOODWARD. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]