• Donald Lines Jacobus, M. A., "TAG: Thomas Ford of Dorchester, England and Dorchester, Mass." (The American Genealogist, Vol. 16, pp 41-43).

• Category: Research

• Author: Donald Lines Jacobus, M. A.
• Publisher: The American Genealogist, Vol. 16, pp 41-43

Prepared by DONALD LINES JACOBUS, M.A., of New Haven, Conn., from information obtained and contributed by CLARENCE ALMON TORREY, Ph.B.. of Dorchester, Mass.

• Text: In an article [ante, vol. 11, pp. 179-180) contributed by Mr. Torrey, entitled "English Origin of Major Aaron Cooke," it was disclosed that Major Aaron Cooke was a son of Aaron Cooke and Elizabeth Charde who were married at Thornecombe, co. Dorset, England, 2 Sept. 1610; that Aaron Cooke died and was buried (28 Dec. 1615) at Bridport, co. Dorset; and that the widow, Elizabeth (Charde) Cooke married Thomas Ford at Bridport, 19 June 1616.
  
      The baptisms of two children of Thomas Ford by this marriage have appeared in several printed sources. These baptisms are entered in the Bridport parish registers:
  
          Joan, 8 June 1617
          Abigail, 8 Oct. 1619
  
      The above Joan Ford married at Dorchester, Mass., 6 Nov. 1633, (Captain) Roger Clapp, and Abigail Ford became about 1635 the second wife of (Elder) John Strong. Thomas Ford had also a daughter Hephzibah who married first, Richard Lyman, of Northampton, Mass., and second, 7 Oct. 1664, John Marsh, of Hadley, Mass. It is believed that her baptism has not appeared in print heretofore.
  
      The registers of Holy Trinity Church, Dorchester, co. Dorset, England, contain the baptisms of the following children of Thomas Ford:
  
          Thomas, baptized 21 Sept. 1623; buried 6 Oct. 1623
          Hephzibah, baptized 15 May 1625
          Hannah, baptized 1 Feb. 1628/9; buried 28 Mar. 1629
  
      Many records have been searched in the hope of ascertaining the earlier history and the parentage of Thomas Ford. Bridport is fifteen and a half miles west of Dorchester. At Powerstock, six miles northeast of Bridport, a numerous Ford family lived, some members of which were known as "Ford alias Symes." The early registers of Powerstock are unsatisfactory, because in baptismal entries the name of but one parent is stated (neither parent in the earlier records), and in burial entries only the bare name, without description, of the deceased person is stated. Since there was more than one Thomas Ford who had children baptized at the crucial period, it is difficult to tell which Thomas was the father of specific children, and in burials there is nothing to indicate whether the deceased was an adult, a single or married woman, or a child.
  
      For the benefit of future investigators, it will be sufficient to state merely that at Powerstock one Thomas Ford married, 29 Jan. 1607/8, Julian Dun, and that another Thomas Ford married, 13 Dec. 1610, Joane Way. To the first Thomas belong almost certainly Florence (1608), Thomas (1610) and Julian (1615). Within a period of a few months in 1612-13, children were baptized to two Thomas Fords: Mary on 18 Aug. 1612, and Sarah on 6 Jan. 1612/13. One of these may be placed as a child of Thomas and Julian (Dun) Ford, the other as daughter of Thomas and Joane (Way) Ford. The Thomas who married Joane Way may be the emigrant. The burial of a "Joane Forde' was entered on 10 May 1615. After 1613, apparently only one Thomas Ford had children baptized.
  
      It is tempting to believe that Thomas Ford the emigrant was widower when he married the young widow, Elizabeth (Charde) Cooke, in 1616, and that the marriage to Joane Way in 1610 and the burial of Joane in 1615 pertain to his first wife. If that is true, he had a daughter, whose name was Mary or Sarah, by his first wife. It is perhaps significant that the first child of Thomas and Elizabeth Ford was named Joan, a compliment often paid to a deceased wife. In "The Planters of the Commonwealth," page 88, the late Col. Charles E. Banks included a daughter, Mary, in the family of Thomas Ford which came over on the Mary and John. However, his passenger list is synthetic and partly hypothetical, and the inclusion of Mary may simply reflect the then current belief that Aaron Cooke's first wife was Mary Ford. That belief has been shaken by Mr. Torrey's discovery that Aaron Cooke was Thomas Ford's stepson. That fact of itself made Cooke Ford's son-in-law” in the terminology employed in their own day.*
  
      The writer is inclined to place more emphasis on the will of Thomas Forde of Dorchester, co. Dorset, merchant [Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 45 Wood], which was dated 20 Jan. 1610/11 and proved 8 May 1611, and which contains the following items. To be buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's in Dorchester. To the said St. Peter's, 10s., and to the churches of Holy Trinity and All Saints in Dorchester, 5s. each. To the poor of Dorchester, 30s., and to the alms people of Dorchester, 10s. To sister Syssell [?Cecily] Bishope of Blandford, £10 to her and her children now living. To sister Edith Tapp and her children now living, £10 between them. To sister Joan Pennyes and her children now living, £10 between them. To brother John Ford, £6 and all my clothes. To the widow Comfrye and her daughter Ann, 30s. each. To her daughter-in-law Ann Comfrey, 10 s., and to her daughter "Tarterye' and her son Robert, 10s. each. To god-daughter, Agnes Hayne, 20s. To god-son, Thomas Evered, 5s. To Walter Goulde and William Jolyff, 20s. each. Residuary legatee and executor, Thomas, son of my brother John Forde. Overseers, Walter Goulde and William Jolyff. Witnesses, Robert Foye and William Jolyff.
  
      It is not unlikely that the emigrant was the nephew Thomas Ford named in the above will as residuary legatee; and his removal to Dorchester some years before he emigrated may have been motivated by the ownership of inherited property in that city.
  
  * The name of the first wife of Major Aaron Cooke has been stated in some sources as Miriam instead of Mary. Her name has not been seen in colonial records. A Mary Cooke became a member of the church at Dorchester, Mass., 9 June 1640. It is possible that she was Aaron's wife; and it is also possible that he married a step-sister. It has been shown that Thomas Ford may have had a daughter Mary by a former marriage.
  However, Aaron Cooke and his family had moved from Dorchester before 1640, hence it is unlikely that the above Mary Cooke was the wife of Aaron, and presumably she was a member of some other Cooke family.