Priscilla Hull (bef. 1651 - abt. 1652)

Joseph Hull served as the minister at St. Mary Magdalene in Launceston from 1648 to 1656 [1]. Two sources about his work there describe the parish record. Writing for "Baptist Quarterly" (1952), Kenneth Hyde uses the record to chart the shifting theological views of the church's ministers.[2]. He writes that "a later hand has tampered with the name of his son born in 1651." Hyde cites this as evidence that Hull was a Puritan because "other entries directed against Puritans" appear "in the same hand."

Writing for the "Western Antiquary" in 1890, noted English biographer and journalist Sir Alfred Robbins also describes the parish record.[3] Like Hyde, he writes that the "first mention" of Hull "is the entry, under date 1648-9, 'January. The 23th was Bap. Rubin sonne of Joseph Hull Clarke," adding (again like Hyde) that "[f]rom that time such entries for some years are frequent, the most curious being that of March, 1650-1, 'The 25th was Bap. Cuckold sonne of Mr Joseph Hull Clarke,' the entry clearly showing that the Christian name of the child as originally entered had been partially obliterated, and the insulting word written over it in a different hand and blacker ink" (p 161).

"Great Migration" identifies the Hull child baptized in March 1651 as daughter Priscilla, but the identification isn't based on the original source. It cites "Ancestral Lines" 318-22 for her baptism on 30 March 1651 and gives her burial as 1652 from GDMNH 358, noting the source was "apparently citing Launceston parish register." To further complicate the matter, GM gives 30 March 1651 as the date Hull baptized his daughter, while Robbins gives 25 March 1651 as the date Hull baptized a son.

I haven't had luck finding the complete parish record for St. Mary Magdalene in Launceston online. Maybe someone else has had better luck or already knows what's what and who's who.

Side note: Sources identify Hull as St. Mary Magdalene's only minister between 1648-56. I'm not sure why he uses the title of "clerk" in the register. Photos back up the claim that "St. Mary Magdalene in Launceston is the most impressive and beautiful late medieval church in Cornwall, featuring superb carved detail on the exterior and a wealth of historic memorials and woodwork inside." It was completed only 25 years before Hull became its pastor. Cornwall's oldest clock was affixed to its 14th-century tower by 1431: "The heavy iron mechanism had just one hand, and a single dial. The clock hand was regulated with a set of very heavy weights." Sadly, the clock was a killer. Hull must've performed the 1654 funeral of Julian Gliddon, who "'was slain with apease [a piece] of the great clock.'"[4]

Kenneth Anderson does not list a Sarah among Joseph's children. You could change her to one of the children who doesn't have a profile, perhaps Priscilla Hull bp. Launceston 30 March 1651 and bur there in 1652. Src. Anderson Great Migration