• General Notes

  [1279-louise_burns.FTW]
  
  At age 23, John Cogswell succeeded to his father's business and settled down in the old homestead.  His parents died soon after his marriage, and he received his inheritance, "The Mylls called Ripond, situate within the Parish of Frome
  Selwood," together with the home place and certain personal property.  Like his father, he was a manufacturer of wollen fabrics, largely broadcloths and kerseymeres.  The superior quality of these manufacturers gave his "mylls" a favorable
  reputation, which appears to have been retained to the present day.  There are factories occupying much the same locations and still owned by the Cogswells, which continue to put on the market wollen cloths that in Vienna and elsewhere have
  commanded the first premium in the world exhibitions of our times (1880's?).
  
  
  
  John Cogswell doubtless found, in London, a market for his manufactures.  He may have had a commission house in that city, which would account for his being called, as he sometimes has been, a London merchant.
  
  
  
  John and Phillis Cogswell emigrated to America in 1635 aboard the ship "Angel Gabriel" which was wrecked off the coast of Maine.  The passengers were washed ashore at Pemaquid on August 15, 1635.  The Cogswells settled at Ipswitch, now Essex,
  where he was admitted as a freeman on March 3, 1636.  He was a farmer, but maintained manufacturing interests in England, principally woolen mills in Newbury.
  
  
  
  John Cogswell and his wife Elizabeth settled at Ipswich, and had lands granted him there as appears from the records; under the date of 1635, is this entry:
  
  
  
  "Granted to Mr. John Cogswell three hundred acres of land at the further Chebacco, Having the river on the southeast, the land of Will White on ye Northwest & a Creek Coming out of the river towards Will Whites farme on the Northeast. Bounded
  also on the west with a creek & a little brooke. Also there was granted to him a percell of ground containing eight acres, upon part whereof the said John Coggswell hath Built an house, it being in ye corner lott in Bridge Streete and has
  goodman Bradstreet houselott on ye s.e. The was also granted to him six acres of Ground late Mr. John Spencers. Butting upon the river on the southeast having a lott of Edmund Gardners on the Northeast & a lott of Edmund Saywords on the
  Southwest wch six acres of ground the sd John Coggswell hath sold to John Perkins teh younger his heirs and assigns."
  
  
  
  The fact that he was designated "Mr." at that date, and the considerable amount of land granted him indicate that he was a man  of good social standing in society.
  
  
  
  The records of about that date further show that Cornelius Waldo was Mr. Coggswell's farmer.
  
  
  
  The Cogswells were also involved in an attempt to prevent the execution of Goodwife Proctor in the Salem witch trials.  According to "Ipswich In The Massachusetts Bay Colony," 290-291, by Thomas Franklin Waters, The Ipswich Historical Socity,
  1905: "Five members of the Cogswell family were among the twenty prominent people who signed the petition drawn up by the Rev. John Wise on behalf of Goodwife Proctor, who stood accused of witchcraft.  Mary Warren alleged that she had been
  threatened and abused by Goodwife Proctor, and that she had seen apparitions of people who had long since been murdered by the wife of John Proctor.  This evidence prevailed and the good woman was sentenced to death."

Details of John's family with Elizabeth Thompson