Esther/Hester COWLES

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Daughter of Samuel Cowles of Kensington

Esther/Hester married Thomas STANLEY on 2 Jan 1718. Thomas (son of Thomas STANLEY and Anna PECK) was born on 31 Oct 1696 in Farmington, Connecticut; died on 13 Oct 1755. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Timothy STANLEY was born on 13 Aug 1727 in Farmington, Connecticut; died on 28 Apr 1817.
2. Col. Gad STANLEY was born on 21 Mar 1734/5 in Farmington, Connecticut; died on 10 Jan 1815 in New Britain, Connecticut.

Notes:

Name:
He resided on the southerly side of the old homestead at Farmington; removed to Kensington, 1716; was Deacon of the church there. He inherited the Pitkin place in Farmington subsequently known as the Dr. Carrington place, which he gave to his son, Thomas. He is said to have been a rather small size, spare, brown eyes, light hair, reserved in conversation, steady in mind, of mild disposition, not easily provoked.

Samuel married Rachel PORTER on 17 Nov 1685. Rachel (daughter of Deacon Thomas PORTER and Sarah HART) was christened on 26 Dec 1658; died on 4 Oct 1743. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Dau. of Deacon Thomas Porter and Sarah Hart

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:

Name:
He settled in Hartford but early removed to Farmington and with his wife joined the Church there, July 19, 1653. Their names stand sixth in the list of members in full communion, which was dated March 1, 1679/80, and which seems to be graded according to rank or dignity, His was a family of Deacons. A Deacon himself, he married a Deacon's daughter; his two sons, Thomas and Samuel were both Deacons. Thomas left but one son, Deacon Timothy, who married Susannah, daughter of Deacon Thomas Bull. Deacon Samuel left two sons, both of whom were Deacons; Deacon Samuel in Farmington and Deacon Joseph in Kensington.

He lived on the lot adjacent to the Deacon Hart, his father-in-law, and which remained in the family and was occupied in 1844 by Timothy Porter, his descendant.

Thomas married Sarah HART on 20 Nov 1644 in Hartford, Connecticut. Sarah (daughter of Deacon Stephen HART and ? UNKNOWN) was born in England; died after 1697. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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.)

Notes:

Name:
Savage says he was perhaps a brother of John and Edmund of Cambridge. HIs first wife's name is not known. He m. (2) Margaret, widow of Arthur Smith; is mentioned as "my cousin", (nephew), in the will of Judith Morris, widow, of Dedham in Essex, England, dated Jan. 25, 1645. (For will, see N.E. Reg., 48, pp. 118, 119.) He is supposed to have come from Braintree, England with the company that settled at Braintree, Mass., then to Newtown (now Cambridge), and constituted the church of Rev. Thomas Hooker. He was of Cambridge 1632; "of the original church formed by Thomas Hooker in 1633.....Steven hart was a deacon." (Porter's Hist. Address at Farmington in 1840, Note g, p. 63.) On May 14 1634, he with John Steele, Hooker and Stone were made Freemen at Cambridge. He went with Hooker's party to Hartford 1636; and was an original proprietor there. His house lot was on the west side of the present Front Street near where Morgan St. crosses it. Andrews says there is a tradition that Hartford was first called from him, "Hart's Ford"; others say it was so named in honor of Mr. Stone's birthplace in England. (Walker's Life of Hooker, p. 97.) About 1640, he with others moved to the present site of Farmington. His house lot on Main St. opposite the meeting house, was four or five times larger than any other; he was a leading citizen of farmington and first Deacon of the church there. He with Mr. Newton, John Cowles, Thomas Thomson and Thomas Judd and two others were the "seven pillars" of the church. He was the first Representative from Farmington and served 30 sessions from May, 1647 to March, 1655 inclusive; was a farmer and land owner and served in the Pequot War.

Deacon Stephen Hart in his will mentions his thee sons, John, Stephen, Thomas; daughters, Sarah Porter and Mary Lee, Mehitable who married John Cole was probably dead. He also mentions grandchildren, Thomas Porter and Dorothy Porter, John Lee and John Hart. His wife is mentioned but not named.

Stephen married ? UNKNOWN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]