General Notes

From Rev. John Cornell's Genealogy of the Cornell Family (Newberry Library, call no. E  7  C809):


"Thomas Cornell came to America about 1638, with his wife and most, if not all. of his children. He is first found in Boston, where by a vote of the Town Meetings, Aug. 20, 1638, he is permitted to buy 'William Baulstone's house, yard, and garden, backside of Mr. Coddington, and to become an inhabitant This property was situated in Washington Street, between Summer and Milk Streets. He sold it in 1643 to Edward Tyng, who had a warehouse and brew house, and constructed a dial there. Sept.. 6, 1638, 'Thomas Cornhill was licensed upon tryal to keepe an inn in the room of Will Baulstone till the next General Court June 4, 1639, he 'was fined  30 Pounds for several offences selling wine without license and beare at 2d. a quart Two days later he was abated 10 Pounds of his fine, and allowed a month 'to sell off his ware which is upon his hand, and then to cease from keeping intertainment, and the town to furnish another.

"The Antinomians were great disturbers of the religious peace of the people of Boston, and in 1637 Ann Hutchinson and her adherents were expelled from the Colony. Among them we do not find the name of Thomas Cornell, whose vocation as an innkeeper perhaps saved him from doctrinal errors, but among the obnoxious ones were his neighbors, Baulstone and Coddington, and his brother-in-law John Briggs. By the advice of Roger Williams, then settled at Providence, the exiles purchased, March 28, 1638, from the Indians Canonicus and Miantonomi, the island on which Newport now stands, and on the north end of that island they began a settlement to which they gave the name of Portsmouth. Thomas Cornell arrived two years later and was admitted freeman of Portsmouth, Aug. 6, 1640. Feb. 4, 1641, 'a piece of meadow,' was granted him to be fenced in at his own cost. The same year he was made constable, and the following year ensign (name spelt Cornhill). At the same time Richard Morris was elected captain, and Mr.. Baulstone lieutenant. Some suppose this last office to have been held by his son Thomas, as the father may have been in New Amsterdam at that time. (Note-would have been only about 17 at the time)

"In the autumn, 1642, he went to New Amsterdam, and it has been supposed that Roger Williams and John Throckmorton went with him, and for this reason: the fugitives from Boston, who joined Roger Williams, had formed a sort of colony in Rhode Island, but it was only a self-created government, or squatter sovereignty that they had, and it was thought best by them in 1642, that Roger Wiliams should go to England to obtain a royal charter for his colony. He could not sail from Boston (which would be the nearest port) because he was banished from Massachusetts, so he went to New Amsterdam for that purpose, as the Dutch were more tolerant. There was not (as today) many steamers departing every week for England from that port, and he did not embark until June, 1643. We know, moreover, that he went to England then, and obtained a charter for his colony and returned. Roger Williams, Throckmorton and Cornell seem to have been much associated together and friends, and this has led to the supposition that they may have come from England in the same ship; at any rate, we know that Roger Williams and Throckmorton did. (Footnote: Ship Lyon, departed Briston Dec. 1, 1630, arrived Nantasket, Feb 5, 1630 with Williams, his wife, Throckmorton and about 18 others.) About a year after Thomas Cornell's' arrival in New Amsterdam, Governor Winthrop reports, 'Mr. Throckmorton and Mr. Cornell' established, with buildings, etc., on neighboring plantations under the Dutch. (See also Thomas C. Cornell's Adam and Ann Mott). On Oct. 2, 1642, the local Dutch government granted him permission with his associates (thirty-five families), to settle 'within the limits of the jurisdiction of their High Mightiness to reside there in peace.' (this was about eleven miles from New Amsterdam). After this general license to settle, Cornell and Throckmorton made examination of the territory, procured a survey and map, and on July 6, 1643, Gov. Kieft granted to John Throckmorton, for himself and his associated, a tract of land is what is now the town of Westchester. A serious Indian war, though of short duration, was caused by Gov. Kieft's unwise attack upon the two neighboring camps of Indians on the night between Feb 25 and 26, 1643, and in retaliation the Indians, within the following month or two destroyed many of the white settlers outside the city; and many others, who escaped fled panic stricken to New Amsterdam (se also Thomas C. Cornell) Roger Williams says,'Mine eyes saw the flames of these towns, the flights and hurrying of men, women and children, and the present removal of all that could to Holland.' (Quoted from Winthrop, R.I. Hist. Coll III, 156, New England, II, 117). Gov. Winthrop says: 'By the mediation of Mr. Williams who was then there to go in a Dutch ship to England, the Indians were pacified and peace re-established between the Dutch and them.' Cornell and Throckmorton and who were probably in New Amsterdam City at that time escaped, but Mrs. Hutchinson whose residence was near Throckmorton's was killed. For, days Gov. Winthrop of this event, under the date of Sept., 1643, 'The Indians set upon the English who dwelt among the Dutch They came to Mrs. Hutchinson in way of friendly neighborhood as they had been accustomed to, and taking their opportunity they killed her and Mr. Collins her son-in-law, and all of her family and such of Mr. Throckmorton's and Mr. Cornell's families as were at home, in all sixteen, and put their cattle into their barns and burned them;' then he also adds, 'These people had cast off ordinances and churches, and now at last their own people, and for larger accommodation had subjected themselves to the Dutch and dwelt scatteringly near a mile asunder. Some that escaped the Indian attack went back to Rhode Island. Thomas Cornell it appears during these troublous times, returned to Portsmouth, R. I., and secured a grant of land from that town, Aug. 29, 1644, in company with Mr. Brenton and Mr. Baulstone, 'Butting on Mr. Porter's round meadow,' and on Feb 4, 1646, a grant of 100 acres was made to Thomas Cornell by the town of Portsmouth, 'on the south side of the Wading River and so as to run from the river towards the land that was laid out to Edward Hutchinson' (a son of Ann Hutchinson). This may be considered the original Homestead of the Cornell family. Previous grants were made to him in company with other parties and as we will see the grant of Cornell's Neck was later. This land or the part on which the house and burial plot are situated has never been out of the family."

"After the restoration of peace in New Netherland, brought about by the mediation of Roger Williams, Thomas Cornell returned to the Dutch Colony, but not, it seems, to restore and rebuild what had been destroyed of his property on Throgg's Neck. But he asked for a tract adjacent, fronting on the south and west of that of Throckmorton, from which it was separated on the shore by the mouth of Westchester Creek, and extending thence about two miles on the Long Island Sound to the Bronx River and extending back two miles or more from the sound to the westerly edge of the present village of Westchester, formerly and even now known as Cornell's Neck; this estate was granted by Governor William Kieft to Thomas Cornell by patent, dated July 25, 1646. This was only the third private grant of land of which there is any record in Westchester County. Jonas Bronck in 1637, and Throckmorton in 1642, being previous, and possibly Adrian Van der Donk in 1646, and this grant of Cornell; Neck was four years after Thomas Cornell's first settlement in Westchester Co., in 1642. Thus he was there four years prior to Adrian Van der Dock in 1646. Thirty-five years before Governor Andros permission to make his first purchase of lands from the Indians in Westchester Co., nearly forty years earlier than the first acquisition of Westchester lands by Frederick Phillips within the present towns of Greenburgh and Mt. Pleasant in 1681, and thirty years before his first interest in Yonkers, in 1672, and fifteen years before the great-grand-father of the illustrious George Washington first settled in Virginia in 1657.

"Cornell's Neck was within the limits of Greater New York. After the death of Mr. Cornell, Thomas Pell set up a counter claim to the land, and litigation ensued between him and Sarah Bridges, in the course of which it appeared in evidence that Thomas Cornell had been at considerable charge in building, manuring and planting, that he was after several years driven off by the barbarous violence of the Indians, who burned his house and destroyed his cattle, that the widow Cornell, sole executrix of the last will and testament of her husband (although neither the will nor a copy was produced), conveyed the land to Sarah Bridges and her sister. The litigation established the validity of the Cornell title and Sarah Bridges was put in possession of the land. A new patent was issued April 15, 1667, for Cornell's Neck, setting forth the fact that Thomas Cornell's interest devolved long since on Sarah Bridges, one of the daughters of Thomas Cornell, deceased, and that said Sarah had conveyed her interest by deed to William Willett, her eldest son, to whom the new patent  was issued. (Taken from the history of the grant and the litigation in Bolton's History of Westchester County)."

"Thus we infer that after several years residence at 'Cornell's Neck,' perhaps nine years, Thomas Cornell was again driven by the Indians from his property in New Netherland, and returned to his homestead at Portsmouth, where he lived, and died, and was buried...a record of him serving on a coroner's jury in 1653, and in 1654...one of the commissioners on 'ye foure-towns upon ye re-uniting of ye Colonie of Providence Plantations' He probably died the following year.

An old memorandum made by Stephen B. Cornell of Portsmouth about the beginning of the last century, and still preserved by the family, states that Thomas Cornell, by will dated De. 5, 1651, gave to his wife Rebecca all his real estate; also that Rebecca, by will dated Sept. 2, 1664, gave to her son Thomas all her land lying on the west side of Rhode Island, and lying between the farms of Thomas Hazard and John Coggeshall. Neither of these wills is known to be now in existence, nor any copy of them. The records of the Society of Friends at Portsmouth, R.I., have numerous entries respecting Thomas and Rebecca Cornell and their descendants."