Thomas Pope was born in England and at the age of 22 came to Plymouth Colony in 1630. He was single and somewhat of a rebel rouser as he has many accounts of having to pay fines(post bonds) for his behavior.
July 28, 1637 He married Anne Fallowell and had a daughter Hannah in 1639. Anne Fallowell died in 1640.
June 4, 1645 he was chosen as one of two constables. It seems that it was thought he would cause less problems if he had such position. Unfortunately that did not curb his behavior enough and he will be eventually kicked out of Plymouth and settle to the south in the Dartmouth area.
May 29, 1646 marries Sarah Jenny (his second wife).
Thomas served many times in different positions usually by appointment.
Jan 13, 1648 Seth is the first child born to Thomas and Sarah. Thomas has 3 more boys and 3 girls (not sure if this count involves Hannah from his first wife). I have that his 3rd boy - John, and 4th Issac. No idea who the 2nd boy is. First girl is Hannah (so probably Anne's daughter) and 2nd is Sussanah. No idea who the 3rd is.
1668 - he achieved the label of "Freeman" which meant that he had property, money, and recommendations.
June 1670 - He was fined 10 shillings "for villifying the ministry". Freedom of speech and action for him must be found elsewhere, so he turned his face to the setting sun, and came to Dartmouth.
Aug 1683 he died.
I have read that many Puritan's were known for their propensity to make sure their rights were not being infringed upon. They often had erruptions of temper and displays of negative behavior. At one point Thomas got in an argument with a neighbor(Gyles) and he started wrestling him. In the process he (accidentally) hit Gyles wife. He left after that and on his way out took all the cut wood on the front porch. Then Gyles took him to court. He paid a minimal fine and was required to return the cut wood.
According to Thomas Leonard Pope(he wrote a biography of Thomas), speaking of Thomas, “His promptness in resenting a real or fancied injury, and his independent expressions of personal opinion, more than once caused him to be arraigned before the magistrates of New Plymouth." Reading the old records, one discovers that this was true of many of the Puritans. They were independent and fought for what they believed was right or rightfully theirs.
Thank you so much for writing this! I don't really know a lot about genealogy but my mom does and so while she was looking through her ancestors I was looking through some charts from my dad's mom's side. Way, way back I saw the name Thomas Pope and it interested me and I wondered what would come up if I googled it. So I googled "Thomas Pope 1608" and I found your blog. It was a very interesting read :)
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How fun! I have researched it enough to know that Thomas was real and the fact check out. The stories I have copied from other people (through Ancestry.com) I tried to copy their sources if they had them listed.
ReplyDeleteI have recently published a book, Trail to Gold, the Pend Oreille Route, based on the journals of Seth Luen Pope (1837-1912) found in Portland, OR. From the information I obtained Seth Luen was a son of Captain Seth Pope (1803-1886) and also related to Thomas Pope (1608-1683) from Fairhaven, MA.
ReplyDeleteSeth Luen was born in Fairhaven and followed his father to Oregon in 1854. He moved to The Dalles, OR in 1862 which is where my story picks up. Seth became the purser on the first steamboat built in northern Idaho Territory and wrote about his time on Lake Pend Oreille which is where I live.
Thomas Pope's children are Hannah, Seth, Susannah, Thomas, Sarah, John, Joanna, and Isaac. Most lived happy lives and were blessed with many children.John and his sister Susannah, a long with her husband, were killed in July 1675 by King Phillip's warriors while fleeing to the Dartmouth garrison.
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