John TOMSON

Notes:

Excerpt from "Mayflower Families In Progress - Francis Cooke": The will of John Tomson of Middleboro dated 19 Oct. 1724, sworn 23 Dec. 1725, names wife Mary; eldest son John; sons Ephraim and Jacob; daughters Mary, Martha and Sarah Tomson; sons Shubaal, Thomas, Peter, Ebenezer and Frances; "my eleven children."

John married Mary TINKHAM about 1680. Mary (daughter of Ephraim TINKHAM and Mary BROWN) was born on 05 Aug 1661 in Plymouth, Massachusetts; died in 1731 in Middleboro, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Thomas TOMSON was born on 29 Jul 1688 in Middleboro, Massachusetts; died between 07 Jul 1759 and 07 Apr 1760 in Halifax, Massachusetts.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: John Tomson
• Name: John Thompson

Notes:

Excerpt from Mayflower Increasing: Epitah reads: "Death is a debt to nature due/Which I have paid and so must you."

Excerpt from "Mayflower Families in Progress: Francis Cooke": The will of John Tomson senr of "Middlebury" dated 23 April 1696, swon 8 July 1696;, names wife Mary Tomson; sons John, Jacob, Thomas and Peter; dau. Mary Tabor; dau. Esther Tomson; dau. Lidia Soul; dau. Mercy Tomson. An Agreement dated 19 June 1696 about the estate is signed by John Tomson, Elizaabeth Swife (mark), Jacob Tomson, Sarah Tomson, Thomas Tomson, James Soule, Peter Tomson, Thomas Tabor, Marcy Tomson (mark) and William Read.

John married Mary COOKE on 26 Dec 1645 in Plymouth, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts. Mary (daughter of Francis COOKE and Hester MAHIEU) was born between Mar 1624 and 22 May 1627; died on 21 Mar 1714 in Middleboro, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: Abt 1626, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: Abt 1583, England

Notes:

In 1620, Francis and son John embarked on the Mayflower, leaving behind his wife and younger children (who would come later when the Colony was more settled).

Excerpt from "Certain Comeoverers": Francis Cooke was born about 1583 in Blythe, Yorkshire. Blythe adjoins Austerfield and doubtless Francis Cooke knew the young lad William Bradford and had as neighbors the band of yeomen who formed the church of Scrooby some years after he, himself, had gone to foreign parts and settled in Leyden. What took him to Leyden we may not know. He was certainly there in 1603, six years before the Pilgrims came thither, since the record of his marriage in Leyden was entered in June, 1603. It reads "Francis Cooke, woolcomber, unmarried, from England, accompanied by Philip de Vean and Raphael Roelandt, his acquaintances, and Hester Mahieu, her mother, and Jeannie Mahieu, her sister," were married by the civil magistrates. That his sponsors were Dutchmen and that he married a Walloon would indicate that Francis Cooke was without compatriots in Leyden. When his old neighbors surreptitiously left England in 1608 their plan was to settle in Amsterdam where a non-conformist English church was already established. They went to Amsterdam, but becoming dissatisfied with the conduct of the church sought a new place of refuge. That they went to Leyden may have been at Francis Cooke's suggestion.
Governor Winslow, in his Hypocrisies Unmasked says, "also the wife of Francis Cooke being a Walloon holds communion with the Church at Plymouth as she came from the French." It may be that she had been a member of the Huguenot Walloon church at Canterbury in England, the name Mahieu being a common name in that parish. She did not cross on the Mayflower with her husband and eldest son, coming two years later on the Ann with her younger children in company with Mistress Warren and her children.
Francis Cooke was one of the sterling characters among the notable band of Pilgrims who signed the famous Compact in Cape Cod Harbor on November 11, 1620. He was among those who were sent out to seek a suitable landing place, and in the cruises of discovery there were found several places with which his name has since been associated. Soon after the landing was made at Plymouth, it is recorded that Francis Cooke was at work with Myles Standish in the woods "and coming back to the settlement for something to eat they left their tooles behind them but before they returned their tooles were taken away by the savages." This was the first evidence of the existence of Indians in the neighborhood of Plymouth which the Mayflower Pilgrims experienced. Through the kindly services of Samoset the tools were subsequently returned. Francis Cooke and his son John at once began to clear a lot of land on the main street of the village, which was called Leyden Street, between Edward Winslow's and Isaac Allerton's, and there built a log cabin for the reception of the rest of the family awaiting in Leyden a summons to cross the seas. Afterward Francis Cooke lived at "Cook's Hollow" on the Jones River, a place later known as Rocky Nook, within the present confines of Kingston.
One of the most interesting of the earlier records of Plymouth concerns the division of cattle in June, 1627. The entire population of the little community, even to the last baby of only a few months of age, is listed and divided into groups of thirteen persons each, and to each group is allotted some one or more animals. Francis Cooke, his wife Hester, and his son John, assigned to them "one lot, the least of the four black heyfers came in the Jacob and two shee goats." It is to be hoped that the heifer proved to be a good milker in time, and that meanwhile sustenance of their thirteen owners. It seems probable that Franics had acquired a somewhat larger herd of livestock by 1634, since in that year he "presented" certain persons for "abusing his cattle." In 1633 he was made a freeman, and paid a tax of eighteen shillings. He acted as surveyor of highways and in other minor arbitrator or ref3ree. There are occasional references to Francis Cooke in the records until about 1648 when he appears to have ceased to be publicly active. William Bradford writes in 1650" "Francis Cooke is still living, a very old man and hath seen his children's children have children; after his wife came over (with other of his children) he hath three still living by her, all married, and have five children; so their increase is eight. And his son John which came over with him is married, and hath four children living." Bradford gives rather an exaggerated statement of the age of Francis Cooke, since he was under seventy at the time. He lived for fifteen years after the above memorandum was written by Bradford, and died April 7, 1665.

Francis married Hester MAHIEU about 20 Jul 1603. Hester died between 08 Jun 1666 and 18 Dec 1675 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]