♀Ruth Cook

Ruth Cook was the wife of Preserved Fish of Portsmouth, in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations^W, and the mother of eight children born there between 1699 and 1716, two of whose great-grandchildren later married each other. She was the sixth great-grandmother of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007) by two separate lines of descent, through her son Thomas Fish (1703–1786) and her daughter Amy Fish (1705–1745).

Life

Ruth was probably born about 1683 at Punkatest, in Tiverton, the daughter of John Cook, a yeoman of Tiverton, and his wife, also Ruth, who is said to have been born Ruth Shaw. No record of her birth has been found.

She married Preserved Fish at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, on 30 May 1699, by Giles Slocum, assistant justice. The couple lived at Portsmouth, where the town register lists their eight children together as the children of “Preserved and Ruth”: Grizzel, Ruth, Thomas, Amey, Sarah, John, Preserved and Benjamin, born between 1699 and 1716. She died at Portsmouth before 10 April 1775, when her will, dated 22 June 1762, was proved before the town council.

Her father died before 7 August 1737, when his will was proved. He left his widow, Ruth, his enslaved woman Phillis, and an annuity of forty pounds a year for her lifetime, to be paid by his four daughters, ten pounds each. Ruth was named first, followed by Mary Howland, Deborah Howland and Ann Tripp. Her husband, Preserved Fish of Portsmouth, was one of the executors.

Lines of descent

Two of her children carried separate lines to the Curtis family. Her eldest son, Thomas, born on 1 December 1703, married Mercy Coggeshall and settled at Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where their daughter Elizabeth Fish (1736–1814) was born; Elizabeth’s daughter was Waite Allen (1766–1850). Her daughter Amy, born on 8 January 1705/06, married James Akin of Dartmouth; their daughter was Ruth Akin (1731–1821), whose son was Batchelder Sherman (1761–1828).

Batchelder Sherman and Waite Allen, second cousins and both great-grandchildren of Ruth Cook and Preserved Fish, married each other. The two lines meet again in their daughter Salena Sherman (1806–1842), through whom both descend to Frederic Roger Curtis.

Notes

A later Ruth Cook in the family is a different woman: the wills of Henry Shearman and his wife Ruth Akin leave bequests to their daughter Ruth under the name Ruth Cook, making her a great-granddaughter of this Ruth.

Parents and the will

The will is known from the register copy of the 1737 probate entry for John Cook, as its text is reproduced in FamilySearch’s online collection of Bristol County, Massachusetts, probate records. It leaves his wife Ruth “my Negro woman called Phillis”, and gives an annuity of forty pounds a year to be paid by his daughters, beginning with “my Daughter Ruth Fish”, then Mary Howland, Deborah Howland and Ann Tripp. Small legacies go to the sons, five shillings each to John Cook and Thomas Cook. The probate papers are addressed to Preserved Fish of Portsmouth, yeoman, with John Howland and James Howland of Dartmouth.

American Family Antiquity (1880–81) gives John Cook’s death as about 20 July 1737 and his will’s proving on 7 August 1737. The same account gives Ruth’s birth at Punketest, Rhode Island, about 1683 and names a brother-in-law of John Cook, Israel Shaw of Little Compton.

The mother’s maiden name, Shaw, comes from two family genealogies: Lester Warren Fish, The Fish Family in England and America (1948), which gives her as Ruth (Shaw) Cook of Tiverton, and American Family Antiquity. The will does not give her maiden name. A Coggeshall genealogy of 1930 also names her as Ruth (Cook) Fish. These are family histories rather than original records.

Marriage date

The printed Portsmouth marriage register in Arnold’s Vital Record of Rhode Island, volume 4, gives the marriage as 30 May 1690. That year cannot be right: Preserved Fish was born on 12 August 1679, so he would have been eleven years old. The printed year is probably a misprint. The marriage is entered on 30 May 1699, by Giles Slocum, assistant justice, and Fish 1948 gives the same date.

Death and will

The will, dated 22 June 1762, was proved before the Portsmouth Town Council on 10 April 1775 (Council and Probate Records, volume 6, pages 234–235), and her death is placed before that date. Lester Warren Fish’s 1948 history gives her death as 13 April 1775, at age 93; the probate date rules that out.