John COWLES

1600 - 1675  (75 years)

• Name	John COWLES  [1, 2]
  	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. [1] 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. [2]
  Birth	Between 1598-1600	England   [1, 2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	Between 11-15 Sep 1675	Hatfield, Massachusetts   [1, 2]
  Person ID	I675	Main Tree
  Last Modified	28 Sep 2020

  
  

  Family	Hannah ?,   b. Abt 1613   d. 16 Mar 1683/4, Hartford, Hartford Co., Connecticut (Age 71 years)
  Children	+ 1. Samuel COWLES,   b. 1639, prob. Hartford, Connecticut d. 17 Apr 1691, Farmington, Connecticut (Age 52 years)  [Birth] + 2. John COWLES,   b. Feb 1641/2, prob. Farmington, Connecticut d. 12 May 1711, Hatfield, Massachusetts (Age 69 years)  [Birth] + 3. Hannah COWLES,   b. Feb 1644, Farmington, Connecticut d. 4 Feb 1689/90, Hartford, Hartford Co., Connecticut (Age 46 years)  [Birth] + 4. Sarah COWLES,   b. Abt 1646, Farmington, Connecticut d. 8 May 1676 (Age 30 years)  [Birth]   5. Esther COWLES,   b. 1649, Farmington, Connecticut d. 17 Apr 1691, Farmington, Connecticut (Age 42 years)  [Birth] + 6. Elizabeth COWLES,   b. 1651, Farmington, Connectocut d. Aft 1696 (Age 46 years)  [Birth] + 7. Mary COWLES,   b. 24 Jun 1654, Farmington, Connecticut  [Birth]
  Family ID	F33978	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	11 Mar 2016

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - Between 1598-1600 - England Death - Between 11-15 Sep 1675 - Hatfield, Massachusetts  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Sources

  [S3597] Ernest Flagg, "Genealogical Notes on the Founding of New England" My Ancestors Part in that Undertaking. [S12064] Colonel Calvin Duvall Cowles, Genealogy of the Cowles Families in America Vol.I .