I can’t count the times that I’ve made the statement, “Don’t poke the bear.” in the course of my genealogical research. If you don’t want to know, don’t go searching. I, however, want to know, so I proceed with a very sharp stick!
Whether you think of them as rascals, black sheep, rogues, scoundrels, or reprobates, these colorful folks bring life and a bit of flavor to every family’s story. Such is the case of my 7th great-grandfather, Thomas Walling I.
Thomas was born in 1627 in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. In 1650, Thomas and his friends stole a boat and helped two women run away from their husbands. There was more trouble over the theft of the boat than over the runaway wives. Stealing a boat in a fishing village in New England was a serious offense.
In 1651, when he was 24, Thomas married Mary Abbott, Daniel Abbott Senior’s spinster daughter. In a letter from Roger Williams, of Narragansett, to the town of Providence, he alludes to Thomas and Mary, “I understand that one of the orphans of our dear friend Daniel Abbott is likely (as she herself told me) to be disposed of in marriage. ‘Tis true she has now come to some years, but who knows not what needs the poor maid hath of your fatherly care, counsel and direction. I would not disparage the young man (for I hear he hath been laborious),” Williams desired that the town have some assurance that the young man [Walling] will “forsake his former courses.”
For a time, it appeared that he had settled down. They started a family, and Thomas served as a public official in various capacities. That illusion of maturity and responsibility was soon shattered when Mary filed a petition for relief in Providence County, Rhode Island. Thomas had abandoned his wife and family and run off with a neighbor woman. His estate was seized “for the reliefe of the wife and child.”
Good ‘ole Tom mended fences with Mary because, by 1664, they had three more children. In October of that year, Thomas was indicted by the Grand Jury and convicted of fornication with a woman named Ann Smith. Thomas confessed his guilt and was sentenced to pay a fine of 40 shillings or be whipped. He paid the fine.
Once again, he mended things with Mary, and in February 1666, their youngest son was born. Thomas ran off with his married neighbor, Margaret (White) Colwell, who had two small children herself. In October of that year, Thomas and Margaret had their hands full with their legal woes. Margaret was fined and publicly whipped, and Thomas was indicted, tried, and found guilty of the charge “that he did Asault beate and Wound Robert Colwell (Margaret’s husband).” He paid a bond of £20 (pounds), which he forfeited by not appearing at the next court session in May 1667. The £20 was given to Mary and her children “for her relief.”
Thomas and Margaret had run away together, again.
Margaret’s husband, Robert, divorced her in July 1667. In May 1668, Mary’s brother, Daniel Abbott, Junior, brought charges against Thomas for fornication, his second offense. Thomas was sentenced to be whipped (15 stripes) and pay court costs.
By June 1669, the long-suffering Mary (Abbott) Walling had died, leaving five small children ages three to sixteen. Thomas wasted no time marrying the now-divorced Margaret Colwell, with whom he had three more children before his death five years later in 1674.
In December 1678, Daniel Abbott, Junior, a 46-year-old bachelor and brother-in-law of the late Thomas Walling, married Margaret (White) Colwell Walling in an attempt to recover his late sister, Mary’s dower share of Thomas’ estate. He and Margaret must have gotten along well enough; they had two children before Daniel died in 1700.
I’ve not found a will for Daniel Abbott. Presumably, Margaret ended up with everything he had.
There was quite a bit of drama and scandal in the 1600s. One thing that I’ve learned through genealogy is that people are the same, no matter when they lived. You have “saints and sinners,” good and evil; it all comes down to human nature.
The moral of the story could be, if you don’t want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly – Don’t poke the bear! Oh, but what will you miss out on if you don’t?