Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Ancestors of James Grover Thurber

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Ancestors of James Grover Thurber

Generation No. 11

      1280. Rev. Joseph Hull He married 1281. Joanna.

      1281. Joanna

Notes for Rev. Joseph Hull:
REV. JOSEPH HULL, 1595-1665, colonist, and founder of what in later years became known as the Mariner-Quaker branch of the Hull family in America, was the son of Thomas and Joane Peson Hull, of Crewkerne, Somersetshire, England. He was educated at St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, from which he received his degree of B. A. at graduation Nov. 14, 1614. During the five years immediately following, he studied theology, serving meantime as a teacher and curate under his elder brother William Hull, vicar of Colyton in Devonshire. On Apr. 14, 1621, having been ordained a clergyman of the Church of England, he was duly instituted rector of Northleigh, diocese of Exeter, which was the scene of his labours for eleven years. At the end of that period he evidently found himself out of accord with those in ecclesiastical authority over him, and, as shown by the records, voluntarily resigned his rectorship. Leaving Northleigh he moved with his family to the vicinity of his ancestral home at Crewkerne, and there gathered a company of 106 souls, who, on March 20, 1635, set sail with him from the harbor of Weymouth, bound for New England.

For 235 years the shipping list containing the names, occupations and ages of this goodly company of intelligent adventurers, known in New England history as "Hull's Colony," was lost sight of, and its existence was generally doubted by interested historians and genealogists, but in 1870 a copy of it appeared in The New England Genealogical Antiquarian Register, accompanied by the following explanatory note:--

London, Sept. 1870.
My Dear Mr. Appleton:--

Amongst a bundle of miscellaneous manuscripts just turned up in the Public Records Office,
I find with other documents relating to New England, the following list of passengers, which
I have the pleasure of sending to you for publication in the Register.

I remain yours very truly

H. G. Somerby.

This so long sought Shipping List contains 104 names and is headed by the name of our Rev. Joseph, with the names of his family as follows:

Waymouth ye 20th March 1635.

1. Joseph Hull, of Somerset, a minister, aged 40 years.
2. Agnes Hull, his wife, aged 25 years.
3. Joane Hull, his daughter, aged 15 years.
4. Joseph Hull, his sonne, aged 13 years.
5. Tristram Hull, his sonne, aged 11 years.
6. Temperance Hull, his daughter, aged 9 years.
7. Elizabeth Hull, his daughter, aged 7 years.
8. Grissell Hull, his daughter, aged 5 years.
9. Dorothy Hull, his daughter, aged 3 years.
10. Judith French, his servant, aged 20 years.
11. John Wood, his servant, aged 20 years.
12. Robert Dobyn, his servant, aged 28 years.

John Porter, Deputy Clerk to
Edw. Thoroughgood.

Hull's Colony reached Boston, May 6, 1635, and Governor Winthrop's Official Journal, under date of July 8th of that year, contains the following entry:

At this court Wessaguscus was made a plantation and Mr. Hull, a minister of England, and twenty-one families with him allowed to sit down there.

The arrival of Hull's Colony at Wessaguscus doubled its population, and the plantation was soon created a full-fledged town, invested with municipal rights, rechristened Waymouth and allowed representation in the General Court.

"Mr. Hull," (so writes his accomplished descendant and biographer, the late Colonel R. B. Hull), "was a magistrate and member of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony, as well as minister at Weymouth. He, however, was in antagonism to the Boston Puritanical Party, retaining his attachment for the old establishment. He was the political and religious opponent of Governor Winthrop, being more than suspected of Prelacy. Mr. Hull moved in 1639 to the Old Colony of Plymouth, and there founded the present town of Barnstable, at a place called by the Indians, Mattakeese. The rock still stands in the middle of the highway, from which he preached, surrounded by his armed parishioners.

"Plymouth Colony was, however, not much more congenial for a man of his political and religious sentiments than the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Separatist party increased, the opening of the civil war in England checked immigration in 1639, and Mr. Hull and his political friends were left in a hopeless minority. He soon after removed to the Episcopal Colony of Sir Ferdinando Gorges in Maine, and under his patronage was minister at Accomenticus (now York, Maine), and had the Isles of Shoals also under his charge. There he remained until 1653, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony subjected the provinces of Maine to their jurisdiction, and Mr. Hull again felt the power of his old enemies on the Bay. A sound Puritan preacher, Mr. Brock, was sent to supersede him, and shortly afterward, we find, Mr. Hull returned to England and was Rector of St. Burien in Cornwall, near Lands End.

"The children of Mr. Hull remained in this country, married here and settled. He again returned and was minister at Oyster River for a short period, and then recovered his old parish at Accomenticus, (York, Maine) where he died in 1665.

"Reviewing all, it is concluded that in England Mr. Hull was a conformist, and remained within the pale
of the church obedient to authority, that in New England he still endeavored to hold to a middle course, as a latitudinarian or low churchman, but that failing in this, after repeated attempts, he finally withdrew to a province where he was free to practice and profess as best suited his conscience. No whisper has reached us that he was unortho dox or weak in his theology, and of his moral nature we catch glimpses of but three traits; that in habit he was scholarly, in temperament religious, and in spirit contentious."

It is stated in Narragansett Historical Register, Vol. I., page 145, that the first wife of Rev. Joseph Hull was named Joanna and that she died in England, but no positive dates are given. Neither have any records been discovered giving the date of his marriage to his second wife Agnes. It is evident that his wife Joanna died shortly after giving birth to her daughter Dorothy in 1632, and that he was married to his second wife Agnes previous to the year 1635. [Source: The Hull Family in America]


Children of Joseph Hull and Joanna are:

	i.	Joanna Hull, born 1620.
	ii.	Joseph Hull, born 1622.
640	iii.	Tristram Hull, born 1624; died 22 February 1666/67; married Blanche 1643.
	iv.	Temperence Hull, born 1626.
	v.	Elizabeth Hull, born 1628.
	vi.	Griselda Hull, born 1630.
	vii.	Dorothy Hull, born 1632.

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