Elizabeth (Gasesett) Corey (1661 - aft. 1713)

Born 1661 in Rhode Island

Wife of John Corey Sr. — married about 1679 in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island [uncertain]

Descendants

Died after Dec 1713 after age 52 in Rhode Island

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Ellen Corey [send private message], Beverly Bryant [send private message], and Native Americans Project WikiTree [send private message]

Elizabeth (Gasesett) Corey is currently protected by the Native Americans Project for reasons described below. Join: Native Americans Project Discuss: native_americans

Due to long held family tradition that she was a Native American, this profile is protected, tracked and co-managed by Wikitree's Native Americans project.

Disputed Origins

A previous version of this profile claimed she was daughter of Sachem Minnetinka and an Unknown spouse. Lacking any evidence for these parents or any Native origins, these parents have been detached and her name simplified.

"The Cory Family Society genealogists have handwritten notes from circa 1900 from an Edwin Francis Cory who was at that time compiling a family genealogy. Edwin recalls that in his family's possession some 60 years earlier (i.e. circa 1840) there was a written history giving Elizabeth's identity as a native American. See the April 2000 Cory Family Society newsletter for a copy of Edwin Francis Cory's account and the 1993 Reunion transcript (p20-22) for more context." -- Travis Fisher, Attached G2G thread, 16 Oct 2019

Biography

Elizabeth, some say Gasesett, was born about 1661 in Washington County, Rhode Island. Austin provides no maiden name for her.^[1]

She died after 1735 in North Kingston, Rhode Island.

She was still living 15 Dec 1713 when she gave consent to son Thomas to be apprenticed to Christopher Lindsay of Newport, house Carpenter.

After John's death in 1712. Elizabeth quitclaimed all right in the second division purchased of Colonial Agents. In 1722, she deeded land to son Thomas. 31 Jan 1726 Elizabeth Corey of Kingstown, residing in Newport, widow of John Corey, deceased of Kingstown, for love etc. conveyed land in East Greenwich to her son Thomas Corey of Newport. Finally, 25 Jan 1735, Elizabeth Corey, resident of Newport, widow and executrix of John Corey late of North Kingstown, conveyed to sons John Corey of North Kingstown and joseph Corey of East Greenwich, lands in East Greenwich, according to the directions of her husbands 1712 will.^[2]

She married about 1676 in Portsmouth, Newport Co., RI John Corey by who. She had:

1. Joseph Corey
2. William Corey
3. Elisha Corey
4. John Corey
5. Thomas Corey

Unsupported Biography

Narragansett Indian Woman, Minnetinka, was a Narragansett Indian Princess Daughter of Gasesett Chief of the Narragansetts. Here is a story that I composed for my granddaughters. There is some fact, but a lot of fiction for the benifit of young girls. -- Nels Tyring

Dear Natalia:

I know that you are one of the greatest movie fans that I have ever met. I understand that there is a new Disney movie called Pocahontas about an Indian Princess who lived in Virginia about three hundred and fifty years ago. In tracing our family's ancestors I found that you have an Indian Princess for a great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandmother who lived at about the same time as Pocahontas. I thought that you might like to know about her.

A very long time ago, there was an Narragansett Indian girl named Minnetinka. She was the daughter of the Chief of the American Indian Nation of the Narragansetts. His name was King Gasesett, and he lived in what is now called Washington County, Rhode Island. If you remember where we went for your Mom and Dad's wedding last summer, that place was a part of his kingdom. He was a very important man, who had responsibility for all the people in his tribe. His kingdom was large, and very rich. It had forests full of game, a long seashore, and many lakes and rivers with lots of fish, and good land to grow corn to be made into the fat corn cakes that our ancestors called Johnnycakes.

This was at a time about fifty years after the Pilgrims landed and settled at Plymouth Massachusetts. At first the Indians and the white people lived together and helped each other. In fact, the Pilgrim settlement would probably not survived it's first winter without the help of the Indians who lived nearby. But as more and more white settlers came they needed more and more land on which to live. The Indians believed that everyone in their Nations owned all of the land in the Nation and that anyone, in the tribe, could use any part of that land. The Settlers believed that the land that they lived on belonged to them and that they were the only ones who could use it. Because of these two ideas about the use of land there were a great many misunderstandings between the Indians and the Settlers.

In that fifty years, a great deal of Indian Nations lands in Massachusetts had been taken from the Indians by the Settlers for their own use. The people of the Indian Nations had been forced to move away from these settlements again and again. Since the Indians didn't understand the way the Settlers thought about land there were many disagreements between the two groups. In the Massachusetts Colony the Indians were being treated in a worse way every year. Their were dying of Europian diseases, their lands and homes were taken, their children were captured and sold as slaves, and they had to obey laws that they didn't understand and didn't make sense the Indians. Because of this behavior in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and because they wanted more religious freedom, some Settlers who didn't agree with the way things were going in the Puritan Settlements moved to the area around Newport, Rhode Island. This Colony was headed by a man named Roger Williams. Williams believed in respect for all men and freedom of religion. There, the Indians were treated as good neighbors and their rights and customs were respected.

One of the settlers who moved from Salem Massachusetts was William Corey who came to Portsmouth, Rhode Island in about 1650. He indentured himself (promised to work part time for the settlement for five years) and was given eight acres of land on which to build a home and a farm. In about 1655 he married Mary Earle and in 1658 they had a son who they named John after his grandfather in Bristol, England. William was a farmer, a carpenter,(like your Dad) and a he ran a mill that ground the grain he and his neighbors grew on their farms. He was respected and active in the settlement's affairs. In his later years he served in the General Assembly which governed the Colony.

His son John grew up to be handsome and tall, and a good citizen, with respect for his Indian neighbors. As he got older he frequently visited the Narragansett Indian Nation across the bay to hunt and fish and became a friend of several of the young men in the tribe. He noticed a beautiful Indian girl named Minnetinka who also seemed to notice him, but he was told that he should not hope to become friendly with her because her father was the King. But the more he visited the people across the bay and the more he noticed Minnetinka the more he wanted to know her and the more she wanted to know him. So, after a while they began to meet and to talk and after a longer while they began to fall in love. After some more time they knew that they had to be together and so they gathered up their courage and went to the King. They told the King that they loved each other very much and that they wanted to marry and raise a family. The King thought about this long and hard, but after a while decided that since John was a good friend of the Narragansett Nation and that his father, William was a member of the Colony across the bay that had treated the Narragansetts with respect, that he would allow them to Marry.

He gave them some land for a house and a farm, because by then he understood that was the Settlers way, in the town of North Kingston. After a while they had a son that they called John, who had a son called John, who had a son called Paris, who had a son called John, who had a son called John, who had a son called John, who had a daughter called Edith, who had a son called Nels, who married a girl called Joan, who had a daughter called Kristen, who has a beautiful daughter called Natalia, who has a brother called Colin and a Daddy called Smitty. And as near as I can tell they all have lived happily ever after and continue to right up to this day

Love

Grandpa.

Sources

1. ↑ Austin, John Osborne. Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island: Comprising Three Generations of Settlers Who Came Before 1690 : With Many Families Carried to the Fourth Generation. (Albany: J. Munsell Sons, 1887) p 56
2. ↑ "Corrections and Additions Cory. Rhode Island Roots. 19:62. (1993) [https://www.americanancestors.org/DB487/i/13653/62/27734279 Link at AmericanAncestors ($)]