♀Mary Borden

Mary Borden (died before 1691) was the wife of John Cook, a butcher of Portsmouth, in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations^W, and the mother of their eleven children. She was the eighth great-grandmother of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007) by two separate lines of descent, through her son John Cook (1656–1737).

Early life

She was probably the Mary Borden christened at Cranbrook, in Kent, England, on 13 January 1632/33, a daughter of Richard Borden and Joan Fowle, who had married at Headcorn in 1625. She was the fifth of six children of theirs christened at Headcorn and Cranbrook between 1626 and 1634. The family crossed to New England while she was still a child and settled at Portsmouth, where her younger brothers and sisters were born from 1638.

Marriage and family

John Cook married Mary Borden, daughter of Richard Borden and Joan Fowle of Portsmouth, probably in the early 1650s; their daughter Elizabeth was born in 1653. They had eleven children, seven daughters and four sons: Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, John, Hannah, Joseph, Martha, Deborah, Thomas, Amey and Samuel.

Her husband, like his father, was a butcher, and the family lived at Portsmouth, with land across the water at Pocasset and Punkatest. All seven of her daughters married. Mary died before her husband: his will of 15 May 1691 does not name her.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through their son John Cook (1656–1737) and his daughter Ruth Cook, who married Preserved Fish. Two of Ruth’s children carried them on: her son Thomas Fish (1703–1786), whose granddaughter was Waite Allen (1766–1850), and her daughter Amy Fish (1705–1745), whose grandson was Batchelder Sherman (1761–1828). Waite and Batchelder married each other, and the two lines meet again in their daughter Salena Sherman (1806–1842), through whom both descend to Roger.

Notes

Christening and parents

The Cranbrook christening is known from a FamilySearch index of English christenings, which gives it as 13 January 1632; in the Old Style calendar the year began on 25 March, so the date is 13 January 1632/33. The same indexes give her parents’ marriage at Headcorn on 28 September 1625 (one entry has 28 October 1625) and the christenings of Richard (1626) and Thomas (1627) at Headcorn, and of Francis (1628), Jane (1630/31), Mary and Elizabeth (1634) at Cranbrook. Births of younger children of Richard and Joan Borden, from Joseph in January 1642/43 onward, are indexed from Rhode Island records.

John Osborne Austin’s Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island (1887) names her as the wife of John Cook: “m. MARY BORDEN, d. 1691 (-) of Richard & Joan ( ) Borden.” Weld’s Borden genealogy (1899) agrees that “She married John Cook, son of Thomas Cook of Providence”, and lists the same eleven children.

Death

Austin’s “d. 1691 (-)” places her death before 1691, and her husband’s will, made on 15 May 1691, does not mention a wife. Weld gives only “died 1691”.

The daughters’ marriages

Austin gives the daughters’ husbands, and the will names all seven as wives: Mary married William Manchester, Elizabeth married William Briggs in 1680, Sarah married Thomas Wait, Hannah married Daniel Wilcox and later Enoch Briggs, Martha married William Cory, Deborah married William Almy, and Amey married David Clayton.