Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of Lawrence Southwick

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Descendants of Lawrence Southwick

Generation No. 2

2. PROVIDED² SOUTHWICK (LAWRENCE¹) was born December 06, 1641 in Salem, Essex, MA, and died December 04, 1727 in Salem, Essex, MA. She married SAMUEL GASKILL December 30, 1662 in Salem, Essex, MASS, son of EDWARD GASKILL and SARAH (UNK). He was born June 07, 1639 in Salem, Essex, MASS, and died October 06, 1720 in Salem, Essex, MASS.

Notes for PROVIDED SOUTHWICK:
She and her brother Daniel were condemned to be sold into slavery in the Barbados or Virginia in default of the payment of fines for absence from the established Puritan church. they had ceased attendance as they had become Quakers. A succession of unfavorable winds kept all the ships in harbor until the superstitious captains refused to take Provided or Daniel on board, fearing that the hand of God was against them. This event was the subject of John Greenleaf Whittier's "Ballad of Cassandra Southwick" in which he used her mother's name probably for its more poetic value.

Notes for SAMUEL GASKILL:
Samuel shared with his wife Provided, and at least four other members of the Southwick family stories of the sadistic brutality of the Puritan lash. This apparently solidified their determination to follow Quaker beliefs.

Samuel was a yeoman farmer. In 1666 they were given the house and a 1 1/2 acre plot by his father, Edward, who had acquired the property from Ralph Tompkins about 1658. The house was occupied by Samuel and Provided throughout their lives. I t was then given to their son, Samuel Jr. and family. Samuel Jr. willed the place to his sons, Samuel III and jonathan. The brothers sold it when they moved to Mendon, mass. in the 1730's thus ending nearly 100 years of Gaskill presence in the town of Salem.

With the abeyance of Quaker persecution Samuel became active in civic affairs. An indication of the official change in attitude towards Quakers in Salem was a vote in 1667 by a town meeting to exempt them from an assessment to raise 200 pounds for the minister of First Church of Salem, from which they had withdrawn. Samuel and other Quakers began receiving appointments as highway and fence surveyors in the Northfield and glasshouse field areas. He bought and sold land and joined other owners to protedt their right to ownership of common land. Samuel was a pillar in the Quaker organization. In 1690 he and Daniel and Josiah Southwick were trustees for the Salem Monthly Meeting in conveyance of the first Quaker Meeting House on the six acre tract in Salem on Essex Street.

In 1718 at age 79 he was one of the surviving grantees who deeded the property back to the builder, Thomas Maule, when they moved into the new Meeting House. Joining in the transaction were Daniel Southwick, Samue Gascoyne, Caleb Buffum, and Samuel Collins.

Samuel Jr. drafted a will on September 1, 1725 assuring care to his aged Mother, Provided Gaskill.

The original volume of Salem Monthly meeting records is in the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

More About SAMUEL GASKILL:
Christening: June 07, 1639, 1st Congregation, Salem, Bay Colony, MASS
Fact 2: HIS PARENTS MOVED FROM ENGLAND
Fact 3: TO MASSACHUSETTS

Marriage Notes for PROVIDED SOUTHWICK and SAMUEL GASKILL:
This marriage is recorded in the minutes of the Salem Friends published in the Vitla Statistics as occuring on October (December?) 3, 1662. Tthe book "New England Marriages Prior to 1790" by Clarence Almon Torrey, p. 296 lists December 30, 1662.

Children of PROVIDED SOUTHWICK and SAMUEL GASKILL are:

3.	i.	EDWARD³ GASKILL II, b. October 23, 1667, Salem, Essex, MA; d. 1748, NorthamptonTwp. Burlington Co., NJ.
	ii.	SAMUEL GASKILL, b. November 23, 1663.
	iii.	PROVIDED GASKILL, b. April 22, 1672, Salem , Essex, Mass; d. December 04, 1727, Salem , Essex, Mass; m. NATHANIEL ALLEN, March 02, 1725, Nantucket Island, Nanticket Co., Mass..
	iv.	HANNAH GASKILL, b. January 02, 1669.
	v.	SARAH GASKILL, b. September 06, 1674, Salem, MASS; d. August 03, 1689, Salem , Essex, Mass.

Notes for SARAH GASKILL:
Sarah died at the age of 14 and her death is described in the minutes of the Friends Monthly Meeting at Lynn, Mass: Sarah ye daughter of Samuel and Provided Gaskill departed this life ye 3rd day of ye 6th month 1689, & in ye time of her sickness her harte was much rendered and her soul breathed toward ye Lord, and panted after devine Consolation, & cryd to her father and Mother and said my dear father pray to ye Lord for me that I may be made willing to dye & desired her Mother to send for me & when I came to her she said to me deear James, pray to ye Lord for me Even with ye Lord Jesus in his Kingdom of rest and peace, this is my testimony for this deear Child, who was young in years but dyed in ye Lord and rests with him in Glory: Signed James Goodridge.

More About SARAH GASKILL:
Christening: November 06, 1676

4.	vi.		MARY GASKILL, b. August 01, 1676, Salem, MASS; d. March 28, 1708, Salem, MASS.
5.	vii.		JOSIAH GASKILL, b. July 11, 1678, Salem, Essex, MASS; d. September 15, 1761, NorthamptonTwp. Burlington Co., NJ.

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