Thomas William Powell Sr. (abt. 1641 - abt. 1701)

Born about Oct 1641 in Dinsdale, Brunswick County, Virginia

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Place) Powell — married 30 Sep 1666 in Rappahannock County, Virginia, British Colonial America

Descendants

Died about 10 Apr 1701 at about age 59 in Sittenburn Parish, Essex County, Virginia

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This profile is part of the Powell Name Study.

Biography

Thomas William Powell was born 1630-1641 in Essex County, Virginia ^{[1] [2]} and was the son of Elizabeth and William Powell.

In 1665 he purchased 50 acres of land at Tignor, Virginia.

Thomas William Powell married on 30 September 1667 in Essex County, Virginia to Mary Place. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

In 1668 he purchased more land.

He died on 10 April 1701 in Sittenburn Parish, Essex County, Virginia. ^[7]

New York Background

Founded by a group of Separatists and Anglicans, who together later came to be known as the Pilgrims, Plymouth Colony (in Massachusetts) was founded in 1620 by those who sailed aboard the Mayflower. The colony was one of the earliest successful colonies to be founded by the English in North America, and the first sizeable permanent English settlement in what is now the New England region. Soon other colonies were established in New England.

A Puritan minister named John Davenport led his flock from exile in the Netherlands back to England and finally to America in the spring of 1637. The group arrived on the ship "Hector" on 26 June 1637 in Boston, Massachusetts, but decided to strike out on their own, based on their impression that the Massachusetts Bay Colony was lax in its religious observances.

In April 1638, the main party of five hundred Puritans left Massachusetts under the leadership of Davenport and the London merchant Theophilus Eaton, and sailed into their new haven. The Quinnipiac Indians, who were under attack by neighboring Pequots, had sold their land to Eaton and the settlers in return for protection. These settlers established the New Haven Colony. In 1662, the colony merged with the Connecticut Colony.

The English Civil War took place from 1642 to 1651, and England was without a monarch until 1660. Quakerism was founded by George Fox (1624 – 1691) in England in the late 1640s. The first Quaker missionaries arrived on America in Boston in 1656, and 1657 on Long Island. Quakers were officially persecuted in England under the Quaker Act (1662) and the Conventicle Act 1664. This was relaxed after the Declaration of Indulgence (1687-1688) and stopped under the Act of Toleration 1689. Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Director-General of New Netherland, had also banned Quaker worship despite the 1657 Flushing Remonstrance. Many Quakers settled further east in Oyster Bay, which was near the boundary between Dutch and British land. George Fox later visited Oyster Bay in 1672. ^[8]

New York Life

Thomas Powell was born in August or October 1641. [Some sources say the 8th month is August but others cite Old Style calendar as October]. Sources disagree on whether Powell was born in Wales ^{[9] [10] [11]} or in Connecticut. ^{[12] [13]}

His parents are sometimes given as Puritans Thomas Powell (1616–1681) and gus wfe, Priscilla Whitson. ^[12] Some sources say that Powell's father was a Captain involved with the sack and rum trade. ^[12] and that his parents were associated with the Reverend John Davenport, ^[12] who led a group of Puritans to settle in the New Haven Colony in present-day New Haven, Connecticut.

Court records from 1662 for the Town of Huntington, New York, indicate that Powell became either an indentured servant or an apprentice to Captain Thomas Matthews of Flushing, New York about 1653 at about the age of 12. After almost nine years of service to Matthews, as his clerk, Powell gave written testimony for Matthews against the estate of Jonas Halifax Wood of Hempstead regarding an unpaid debt for rum and wine following Wood's death. ^[12]

Records from 1666 show Powell acting as attorney for Matthews in the sale of lands in Oyster Bay. ^[12] Some sources say Powell married Wood's daughter in 1663; ^[13] while others list Powell's first wife's name as unknown. ^{[12] [10]}

After completing his service [It was commonplace that terms of indentured servitude would be for 7 years, or until a young person became 21, so about 1662] Powell lived for several years in Huntington. Powell filled positions within the administration of Huntington, including recorder, constable, surveyor, overseer, and trustee. In 1682, Powell declined to serve again as constable, because the job required the officer to swear to levy and collect rates for the Church of England, and he had, by then, become a Quaker. ^[10]

Until 1664, Long Island was split, roughly at the present border between Suffolk County and Nassau County (formed 1899 from Queens County), New York, between the Dutch in the west and Connecticut claiming the east. The Dutch did grant an English settlement in Hempstead (now in Nassau), but drove settlers from Oyster Bay as part of a boundary dispute. In 1664, all of Long Island became part of the Province of New York within the Shire of York. Present-day Suffolk County was the East Riding of Yorkshire, while present-day Queens and Nassau were just part of the larger North Riding. In 1683, Yorkshire was dissolved and Suffolk County and Queens County were established.

Thomas Powell (b: 1641; d: 1721/22) was a land owner in the middle section of Long Island in the Province of New York during the colonial period of American history. He secured the land transaction known as the Bethpage Purchase with local native tribes on Long Island. ^[14]

In 1686 Governor Thomas Dongan of New York urged the Town of Huntington to complete the purchase from the local Indians of any lands not already purchased. Powell, who had substantial holdings of land in Huntington, was chosen by the town to offer to buy more lands from the Indians. ^[15]

The Bethpage Purchase was a 1687 land transaction in which Powell bought more than 15 square miles (39 km2) (about 10,000 acres) in central Long Island, New York for £140 (English pounds sterling) from local Indian tribes, including the Marsapeque, Matinecoc, and Sacatogue. It is approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) east to west and 5 miles (8.0 km) north to south. This land covers both sides of the present-day border between Nassau and Suffolk counties - all or parts of present-day Bethpage, Farmingdale, Old Bethpage, Plainedge, Plainview, and South Farmingdale (all in Nassau), and East Farmingdale and Melville (both in Suffolk). Nassau County was not a separate county until 1899, and was, at the time of the purchase, part of Queens County. Most of the Bethpage Purchase is in the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau. The portions in Suffolk were all then within the Town of Huntington. In 1872, the Town of Huntington was subdivided, and East Farmingdale became part of the Town of Babylon.

Powell and his first wife had eight children, including another Thomas Powell (1665–1731), the fourth Thomas Powell. ^[10]

His first wife died before 1688 in Westbury New York, after which Powell married on 09 February 1690 in Westbury, New York to Elizabeth Phillips, of Jericho, Long Island. They had seven children. ^[10]

Most sources, when mentioning where Powell himself resided, state Westbury, New York. Powell sold pieces of Bethphage to other Quaker farmers. His sons did live in the Bethpage Purchase. ^[10]

On 18 October 1695 Mawmee (alias Serewanos), William Chepy, Seurushung, and Wamussum made their marks on the sheepskin deed for the land purchase. The deed, which recognizes Powell had already been in possession of part of the land for more than seven years, was recorded in the Queens County Clerks office, and in it, the Indians reserved the right to pick berries and hunt on the property sold. ^{[16] [17]}

Powell called the land he purchased "Bethphage", because it was situated between two other places on Long Island, Jericho and Jerusalem, just as the biblical town of Bethphage (meaning "house of figs") was situated between Jericho and Jerusalem in Israel. Today, the Long Island place formerly called "Jerusalem" is known as Wantagh and Island Trees, while the placename Jericho, also a Quaker settlement at that time, still has that name. Over time, the second "H" was dropped from the name, to spell "Bethpage".

In 1699 Powell made a second purchase, called the "Rim of the Woods Purchase", ^[18] for land west of the original Bethpage Purchase; including most of present-day Bethpage and all the land in the northern section of present-day Plainedge (Boundary Avenue, north to Old Motor Parkway, and Hicksville Road east to Cedar Drive). ^[19]

By 1700 very little of Long Island had not been purchased from the native Indians by the English colonists, and townships controlled whatever land had not already been distributed. ^[20]

One of two houses Powell built in the area (c1700) still stands on Merritts Road in Farmingdale, just north of the Bethpage-Hempstead Turnpike.

Powell died 28 February 1722 [O.S. 28 February 1721] ^[21] in Westbury, New York, another Quaker settlement. ^{[11] [13]} His remaining property was split among his children and their heirs, in accordance with his will. ^{[22] [23] [14]}

As a result, several farming communities developed. Three separate communities within the original Bethpage Purchase have, at one time or another, been named Bethpage. The first community was centered in present-day Farmingdale around Merritts Road, just north of the Hempstead-Bethpage Turnpike; the second was present-day Old Bethpage; and the latest is present-day Bethpage.

Will: Mar 1699/00 Land In three Parts, one each to place Powell and Honorias Powell, the third to Will after Er decease of wife. Half of female cattle to William, half to wife.

Research Notes

Some researchers have him as William instead of Thomas. His first name is Thomas, his middle is William. His father also has these issues among researchers with public data, but his father's name is William Thomas. That's William for the first name, Thomas for the second. William Thomas has a son named William Thomas, but that is not the same person as Thomas William; William Thomas Jr. and Thomas William are brothers.

Sources

1. ↑ Family Data Collection - Individual Records compiled by Edmund West on ancestry.com
2. ↑ Family Data Collection - Births compiled by Edmund West on ancestry.com; including ...

   b: 1640 VA

   b: 1640 Dinsdale, Brunswick County, Virginia

   b: 1648 Old Rappahannock Co, VA

3. ↑ Essex County, Virginia, Marriage Index 1655-1900 on ancestry.com; Book: D&W 10,; p75&192; Richmond & Essex
4. ↑ Virginia, Marriages of the Northern Neck of Virginia 1649-1800 on ancestry.com; file @M4246@
5. ↑ U.S. and International Marriage Records 1560-1900 by Yates Publishing on ancestry.com; citing source#438; code: LBH; & source#7613.000; code: WAY
6. ↑ Family Data Collection - Marriages compiled by Edmund West on ancestry.com
7. ↑ Family Data Collection - Deaths compiled by Edmund West on ancestry.com
8. ↑ New York State Education Department historic marker, dedicated 1939
9. ↑ U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index 1500s-1900s on ancestry.com; p370; arrival: 1659 Maryland
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5} "Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs IV" edited by Cuyler Reynolds (1911); Lewis Historical Publishing Company; p1688–1689; retrieved 2012-04-20
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1} Purchase: from Dorset to New York Person p16; nextech.de; retrieved 2012-04-20
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6} "Powell History and Genealogy in America". retrieved 2012-04-22 ...

    In 1638 a company of English landed at Boston under the leadership of Davenport and Eaton. Almost immediately they went by boat to settle at New Haven, CT. Among them there was a Thomas Powell and his wife, Priscilla. He was born in England in 1616 and died in New Haven in 1681 ... A daughter, Hannah (born 1641 died 1710) she married Thomas Tuttle. There is no evidence of any other descendants of this New Haven family. This source has two men named Thomas Powell with years of 1616–1681. The first has a wife named Priscilla, but no son named Thomas, and no involvement with the rum trade. Further down the page is a Capt. Thomas Powell involved in the wine and rum trade and whose wife's name is unknown. This source lists the second as father of Thomas Powell, born August 1641, the same year Hannah (daughter of the other Thomas Powell) was born. Some sources say the two fathers were the same man and surmise that Thomas & Hannah were twins and that Thomas was disowned by his parents (no reason given).

13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1 13.2} Geni,com family tree by Susan Cameron in 2011; for Thomas Powell, Sr. (1640-1721) retrieved 2012-04-20
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1} Wikipedia for Thomas Powell of Long Island (1641-1722)
15. ↑ "Huntington Town Records" including Babylon; 1887
16. ↑ Encyclopedia of the Unincorporated Village of Bethpage; for "Bethpage Purchase"; archived from original on 2008-10-12; retrieved 2012-04-20
17. ↑ "History of Long Island" by Benjamin F. Thompson & Walt Whitman (1843) edition#2; Gould, Banks & Co. of NY; OCLC#1484958; p506; retrieved 2012-04-20; Bethpage is an old though scattered settlement, near the east line of the town [Town of Oyster Bay], and through which the Long Island Rail Road now passes. The new village of Farmingdale is in its immediate neighborhood, and promises to become a place of considerable consequence. A friends' meeting house was built at Bethpage more than sixty years ago, and the methodists have just completed another at Farmingdale
18. ↑ "Isle of shells: Long Island" by George Lewis Weeks & Buy Bros. of Islip, NY in 1965; OCLC 2784976; (snippet view) p304; retrieved 2012-04-20; Before 1695, Thomas Powell is mentioned in the Huntington Town records as holding various offices. In 1695, he purchased a large tract of land from the Indians; known as the "Bethpage Purchase". In 1699 he made his second purchase from the Indians, whose names appear on the deeds recorded in Jamaica, as ...
19. ↑ "Harking Back - An Account of the Bethpage Purchase and Sundry Long Island Events, Persons, and Places" by Alonzo & Iris Gibbs; edition#2 by Kinsman Publications in 1984; p297
20. ↑ "Old Bethpage Village Restoration" retrieved 2012-04-22
21. ↑ Old Style calendar was in use at that time. Sources say he died on the 28th day of the 12th month in 1721. In Old Style dating, New Year's Day was March 25. Thus, February would be the 12th month and would still be in the "previous" year
22. ↑ "Last will and testament of Thomas Powell Sen late of Bethpage now of Westbury in the limits of Hempstead in Queens County on Nassau Island in the Colony of New York". 1719/20. Retrieved 2012-10-15. Check date values in: |date= (help) Children mentioned in the will are Thomas, Abigail Willets, John, Jonas, Caleb, Wait, Elisha, Solomon, Elizabeth Titus, Sarah, Amey, Mercy, Hannah Willis, Phebe Willis, and Rachel Willets
23. ↑ "Friends' intelligencer" v92 issues#27-52 (1935) "... descendants of Thomas Powell (1641-1721) who purchased from the Indians on Long Island the Bethpage tract (named from Bethpage which was on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem) were strongly identified with Swarthmore College."

• https://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I031865&tree=Tree1

• "Our predecessors and their descendants" by Robert Ludlow Fowler (1888); Higginson Book Co. p34

• "Long Island Genealogies" by Mary Powell Bunker (2009); Genealogical Publishing Co.

• Descendants of Charles I (Charlemagne), Emperor Holy Roman Empire Carolingian; Generation#31 p16

• Isle of Wight - Thomas Powell / Mary Place; on Rootsweb Powell DNA discussion in 2019

• Family Data Collection - Marriages: Author- Edmund West, comp. m: 30 Sep 1667 VA

• U.S. and International Marriage Records 1560-1900 source#7613; code: WAY

• Farmingdale Master Plan for 2035; p1-4

• Family Histories on MyKindred.com

• http://www.beecherfamilytree.com/rootspersona-tree/william-powell-5/

• http://www.coffey.ws/FamilyTree/Docs/POWELLFamily(C).htm

• Millennium File by Heritage Consulting on ancestry.com

• http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=17913036&pid=692959154 Ancestry Family Tree submitted by ancestry.com member

• http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=23851984&pid=258 Public Member Tree on ancestry.com