52 Ancestors: Week 44 The ghost of Robert the Scot

 

The ghost of Robert the Scot, alleged manservant of Matthew Fuller of Plymouth Colony, is said to roam the marshes of Sandwich on Cape Cod near Scorton Hill. Having been falsely accused of stealing the jewels, he died of grief and starvation. He is still searching for the jewels to clear his name. In his grief, his moans and his droning bagpipes have been heard during the night. The spectre of Robert the Scot’s ghost was invoked to scare naughty children. Or so the tale has been told, probably since 1678. 

 

In Week 43 of 52 Ancestors https://grmgenes.blogspot.com/2020/10/52-ancestors-week-43-matthew-fuller.html), Matthew Fuller (my 9^th g.grandfather) of Plymouth Colony and Barnstable was described as an eccentric, but respected and honored member of Plymouth Colony.

Matthew Fuller died in Barnstable between 20 July 1678, when his will was made, and 26 October 1678 when his inventory was approved (his estate proved on 30 Oct 1678.) [1].  Matthew died a wealthy man and he provided for his wife, Frances, and his children, as well as Robert Marshall, “the Scotsman.” In his will, Matthew states:

“I Give and bequeath unto Robert Marshall the Scotsman a peece of Cloth Intended to make mee a suite; off;”

 

Among his inventory was this item: 

“Item pearle presciousstones and Diamonds att a Gesse £200”

 

Amos Otis in his Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families, published in 1888, mentions the tale of Matthew Fuller’s precious stones in a note [2]:

 

“In connection with this box of jewels a marvelous tale is told. Soon after Capt. Fuller’s death it was missing. Robert, the Scotch servant, was charged with having stolen it. There was no proof against him – he was simply suspected. This charge so affected him that he took no food, and finally died of grief and starvation. He was buried in a grove of wood, on the north-eastern declivity of Scorton Hill. He died in the winter when a deep now laid on the ground. The neighbors carried his body to this place – the deep snow preventing them from proceeding farther, and there he was buried. Cat. Oliver Chase has recently placed two stones, one at the head and the other at the foot of poor Richard’s [sic] grave. For nearly two centuries the plow has not desecrated his grave, and we hope no sacrilegious hands will hereafter remove the simple monuments now erected to his memory. To this day his grave is pointed out, and some timorous people dare not pass it after nightfall. Many fearful stories are told of the appearance of the Scotchman’s ghost; and for years many a wayward child was frightened into obedience by threatening to call the Scotchman’s ghost, to aid the authority of the weak mother.”

 

Apparently Amos Otis knew of the location of the gravesite of “Robert the Scot,” as he was later called, but since the time his work was published (1888) it has been forgotten, though many have tried to look for it in the area of Scorton Hill in what is now Sandwich, Barnstable County on Cape Cod.

 

Who was “Robert the Scot?” Matthew Fuller, in his will,  mentions a Robert Marshall, “the Scotsman,” though it is not at all clear that this man is the ghost "Robert the Scot" in the ghost tale.  There is no known record of a servant to Matthew Fuller or that Robert Marshall was that servant. There was more than one Robert Marshall living in Plymouth Colony at the time according to the Plymouth Colony Records (PCR).  However, there is no record in the PCR of Robert Marshall or Robert the Scot being accused of a theft of Matthew Fuller's jewels. Nevertheless, there certainly was an oral tradition and ghost tale, probably since the death of Matthew Fuller for Amos Otis to have taken the time to mention it and for Oliver Chase to place gravestones at the site.

 

The ghost story of Robert the Scot grew over time. The most descriptive (and fanciful) legend is told in Elizabeth Reynard’s “The Narrow Land.” [3].

Reynard describes Robert the Scot as “a North County madman with naked knees and a chess-checker petticoat” and that Robert was Matthew Fuller’s “chemist and personal servant.” Reynard seems to be describing a short kilt, hence the “naked knees,” but the short kilt was not worn by Scotsmen until the mid-1800’s. If he had a kilt at all, it would have been a great kilt, which would have completely covered him.

 

Reynard’s story, which was either handed in oral traditions or embellished from the tale in Otis, was that Robert was entrusted with the box of gems after Matthew Fuller died and that the jewels were missing when “lawful heirs required it.”  She also claims that “Governor Hinckley” summoned Robert to Court and accused Robert of theft.  However nothing in the Plymouth Colony Records mentions any such event. Hinckley was not governor until 1680, two years after the death of Matthew Fuller.

 

Reynard then describes, as Otis does, but with far more eloquent embellishment, that Robert was so overcome with grief as to the accusation that he could not eat and died of starvation.  He died in winter and his “great-boned corpse” could not be carried in the deep snow, so he was buried on the northeastern slope of Scorton Hill where Reynard eloquently says “Unhallowed earth covered him, a hard couch for such as he who had been grimly devout; and ever since then his spirit has refused to await quietly Gabriel’s summons. Before the dead rise from their tombs, before the sleep and the goats are divided.”

 

The old ghostly folktale is told that when one passes Scorton Hill at night, the bagpipes and a man’s tragic sobs can be heard. That the tale of Robert was known even two hundred years after his death is evident as when Amos Otis mentions that Oliver Chase placed stones on the grave “that their heft might weigh Robert down a little.”

 

Reynard concludes the tale saying that “Robert will walk in the moon’s pallor or the sea’s green twilight, and pipe and search the whole night through…bent is he on finding the Pearls, precious stones and Diamonds, at a guess £200.”

 

Happy Halloween!

 

 

[1] George Ernest Bowman, “Capt. Matthew Fuller’s Will and Inventory: Transcribed from the Original Records,” Mayflower Descendant 13 (1911) 7-13. Original: Plymouth Colony Wills and Inventories, Vol. III, Part II, pp. 127-129; available at FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2018320).

 

[2] C.F. Swift, revised. Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families, Being a Reprint of the Amos Otis Papers, Originally Published in The Barnstable Patriot. Volume 1, (Barnstable, Mass.: F.B.&F.P. Goss], 1888.

 

[3] Elizabeth Reynard, The Narrow Land: Folk Chronicles of Old Cape Cod, 3^rd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1978) 294-297.

 

52 Ancestors: Week 43 “Matthew Fuller - Quite the Character”

 

Matthew Fuller was eccentric. He often argued with his neighbors and brought them to court. He spoke openly and indiscreetly about the elders, the magistrates, and religious leaders. He was fined for his indulgences. He even was sued by Thomas Hinckley, the Assistant Governor at the time, for defamation. Yet, he was bestowed with honors, held military leadership roles and Plymouth Colony offices.  That he did not receive more harsh punishment other than minor fines and a slap on the wrist is not surprising.  After all, he was the only physician in the Colony and even held the post of Surgeon-General. He was well known and tolerated for his curmudgeonly nature.

 

Matthew Fuller, son of Mayflower passenger, Edward Fuller, came to Plymouth Colony about 1640/1 [1]. He died in 1678 in Barnstable, Mass.  He had many honors [2]:

·      He was admitted a freeman of the Colony on 7 June 1653 and Miles Standish chose him to be a sergeant and was later named a deputy to the Colony Court.

·      On 20 June 1654 he was appointed Lieutenant under Capt. Miles Standish and on 2 Oct 1658 was elected to the council of war, became its chairman in 1671 and also a magistrate of the Colony.

·      In addition to his martial abilities, he was also appointed Surgeon-General to the Colony on 17 Dec 1673 and served as Captain during the King Phillip War.

 

 

                                           

                                            [William Hubbard's "Map of New-England," 1677. It may have been "commissioned by Hubbard for                                             his volume The History of the Indian Wars New England that was published in London and Boston                                                in 1677. It is described by Samuel G. Drake, editor of Hubbard's Indian Wars (1865), as                                                               'the curious Woodcut Map.]" - The Plymouth Colony Archive Project                                                                                                (http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/1677map.html)]

 

At the general Court of Plymouth on 2 October 1658, he first ran into serious trouble with the elders.  The elders of Plymouth Colony passed a law for a tithe for the maintenance of ministers, which applied to non-church members as well. Then Lieutenant Matthew Fuller vehemently objected. He had Quaker neighbors and friends (though he himself was not a Quaker) and stood on their behalf. His language to the elders was indiscreet and not at all respectful:

“Lieutenant Fuller, being presented for speaking reproachfully of the Court, and saying the law enacted about minnesters maintainence was a wicked and a divillish law, and that the divill satt att the sterne when it was enacted, the words being proved, hee referring himselfe to the Bench, the sesure to bee fined fifty shillings.” [3]

 

For an official to slander the Court should have gotten Matthew Fuller into more trouble, but instead they still bestowed honor and trust onto him - they nominated him to the War Council that very same day.

 

He died about October 1678 a wealthy man by the standards of the day. He had a considerable amount of “Pearls, precious stones, and Diamonds.” The box of gems went missing after his death and blame for the theft went to his manservant, Robert Marshall, “the Scotchman.” 

 

Therein, lies a spooky tale to be told for Halloween!

 

 

[1] Bruce Campbell MacGunnigle, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Volume 4 – Edward Fuller (Boston: General Society of Mayflower Descendants), 1990.

 

[2] C.F. Swift, revised. Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families, Being a Reprint of the Amos Otis Papers, Originally Published in The Barnstable Patriot. Volume 1, (Barnstable, Mass.: F.B.&F.P. Goss], 1888.

 

[3] Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, ed. Records of the New Colony of Plymouth in New England, Court Orders, Volume III 1651-1661, p. 150 (orig. page 143).

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week #39. Should Be a Movie

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week #39. Should Be a Movie

 

There should be a movie of the colorful life Captain George Denison.  Adventurer, soldier in Cromwell’s army, public official, soldier in King Phillip’s War, founder of Stonington, and my 9^th g.grandfather. His is a story of heartbreak, war, love and success. The life and genealogy of George Denison is told in many articles and books; the most up-to-date and fully documented sketch is found in the New England Historic and Genealogical Society online database: Early New England Families, 1641-1700 [1].  There are many fanciful stories of Captain George Denison and many claim Capt. Dension as an ancestor.

 

George Denison was born in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, 10 December 1620 to William Dension and Margaret (Chandler) Monk (or Monck), about the same time the Pilgrim’s were settling into Plymouth for that first hard winter.

He left England in 1631 with his brothers and parents and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony where he married his first wife Bridget Thompson about 1640. They had one two children (Sarah and Hannah) before Bridget died in 1643 of “feaver & consumption.” That he was deeply in love with Bridget is attested to by a poem allegedly written by George during their courtship and recorded in the Denison genealogy.

 

Upon his wife’s death in 1643, a distraught George Denison left New England and his two daughters and returned to England.

He enlisted in in Oliver Cromwell’s army and fought at the Battle of Marston Moor (or Battle of York) where he was taken prisoner and escaped. His service in Cromwell’s army was verified by his brother Daniel Denison, but other stories have Capt. Denison also at the Battle of Naseby a year later.  

 

                                                            The Battle of Marston Moor, John Barker
 

The story is told that he was wounded at Naseby and was in the care of a wealthy Irish leather merchant then living in England, John Borodell and his beautiful daughter, Ann Borodell, who was nursing George. George fell in love with Ann. There are many stories about this courtship of Ann (some have him making his way to Cork, Ireland, where John Borodell had property; some have him remain in England) and returned to New England in 1645 with his new wife. That Ann Borodell was well-born is undeniable as she had a considerable dowry and property in Dublin. The stories certainly would be fodder for a movie as embellishment of his life.

George and his wife Ann lived in Roxbury for a while until he had a run-in with the local church and in 1647, the Rev. Eliot of Roxbury wrote: “This winter we had a gracious p’vidence of God befell two brothers Edward & Georg Dennison, who had been proude incendiarys of some troble among us, & full of distempr, and disaffection. But the Lord left them to open and shamefull drunkennesse at Boston: especy edward.”

 

That got George excommunicated, but was taken in again. In 1647 the young men of  Roxbury wanted to choose George Denison “a young soldier come lately out of the wars in England.” However, the elders wanted someone else, noting that George was not a Freeman and was tainted by his service in Cromwell’s army.

Apparently George had enough of Roxbury and left to settle in New London in 1651, where he served as Deputy to the General Court. He also served on the War Commission for New London.

He was granted land in Mystic in 1652 and in Stonington in 1654. He was later granted land in what was Pequot territory in 1660, where he built his manor at Pequotsepos. The original house is gone, but the Denison homestead from 1717 exists on the same plot and is a museum operated by the Denison Society. He is listed as one of the founders of the town of Stonington, Connecticut, where he again served as Deputy to the General Court at various times between 1671 and 1694.

 

 

George Denison, having been rebuked for the military by the elders in Roxbury, was selected as a Captain in the King Phillp’s War in 1676 in command of New London County troops against the Pequot.  He fought at the “great swamp fight” in Rhode Island in 1675 and as Provost Marshall was responsible for raising forces against Narragansett and Wampanaug Indians. He was credited with the capture the Chief Canonchet, the Narragansett chief in April 1676.

 

 

                  Canonchet Memorial, Rhode Island. https://www.visitrhodeisland.com/listing/canonchet-memorial/8291/
 

George and his wife Ann Borodell were “both remarkable for magnificent personal appearance, and for force of mind and character. She was always called ‘Lady Ann’....He has been described as ‘the Miles Standish of the settlement’ [Stonington]; but he was a greater and more brilliant soldier than Miles Standish. He had no equal in any of the colonies, for conducting a war against the Indians, except perhaps Capt. John Mason.”

 

[1] Alicia Crane Williams, Early New England Families Project, 1641-1700. Database and sketch of George Denison online at https://www.americanancestors.org/browse/publications/ongoing-study-projects/Early-New-England-Families,-1641--1700.

 

Some References

John Denison Baldwin and William Clift. A Record of the Descendants of Capt. George Denison of Stonington, Conn. (Worcester: Tyler & Seagrave, 1881).

 

E. Glenn Denison, Josephine Middleton Peck, and Donald L. Jacobus. Denison Genealogy: Ancestors and descendants of Captain George Denison (Stonington, Pequot Press, 1963). A revision of the 1881 work by Baldwin.

 

Katherine Dimancescu, Denizens: A Narrative of Captain George Denison and his New England Contemporaries (Katherine Dimancescu, 2017).

 

“The Will of George Denison, 1683.” New England Historic and Genealogical Register, 13, (1859), 73-77.

 

Daniel Denison, “Autobiography of Major-General Daniel Denison,” New England Historic and Genealogical Register, 46, (1892) 127-133. This letter from George Denison’s brother provides a detailed first hand account of the life of George Denison and his brothers and parents.

 

The Denison Homestead, The Denison Society, Mystic, Connecticut. https://www.denisonhomestead.org/

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks- Week #38: On the Map. John McDonagh of Gorteen townland, County Longford, Ireland

 

John McDonagh of Gorteen townland, County Longford, Ireland

My maternal g.grandfather John McDonagh occupied a tiny plot of land in Gorteen townland, just south of the village of Ballinalee (formally St. Johnstown) in Clonbroney Parish, County Longford.

 

 

 

 

In the Griffith’s Valuation of 1854, John McDonagh leased his plot of land from Robert Grier, a landowner in County Longford.  [1] Actually, his leased property was just a house, valued at a whopping 10 shillings.  There were only four other plots in Gorteen, all owned or leased by Robert Grier.  John McDonagh occupied lot 2b.

 

The Gorteen House Book from FindMyPast, dated 23 December 1853 values the property at 16 shillings. [2]

 

The great web site at Ask About Ireland allows you to actually see the property on the map from the time of Griffith’s.

Amazingly, in a comparison with a satellite map from Google Earth, the small plot of land known as 2b is still there,  off the main road leading to Ballinalee.

 

 

 

It looks like a house is on that plot, but from the Google image it’s difficult to tell if it dates from John McDonagh’s time.  A trip to Ireland is in order!

 

John McDonagh died on 16 July 1895 in Balinalee at age 76. [3] He married Eliza Brady (probably late 1840s) and they had six children, although only four are recorded in the Clonbroney Parish records (two of them identified Gorteen as the townland of birth).

i.                John McDonagh (1845?-1905) died in Brooklyn, NY

ii.              Eliza (1851-1894) died in Greenwich, CT

iii.             James (1854-1905) died in Greenwich, CT

iv.             Patrick (1857-1910) died in Drumeel, Co. Longford

v.              Annie (1859-1935) died in Greenwich, CT

vi.             Frank (1864? – 1937) died in Greenwich, CT

 

 

[1] Griffith’s Valuation, 21 December 1854, p.46; Townland of Gorteen, Parish of Clonbroney, Co. Longford. http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/.

[2] Ireland Valuation Office Book, 23 December 1853, p. 54: Townland of Gorteen, Parish of Clonbroney, Co. Longford. https://search.findmypast.com/search-ireland-records-in-census-land-and-substitutes/and_land-and-estates.

[3] Ireland Civil Registration Deaths Registered in the District of Ballinalee, Union of Granard, Co. Longford.  John McDonagh,16 July 1895. #04681347.  Item #354. Age 76, Laborer.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks- Week #36: Labor. John McGlynn, Lamplighter

 

John McGlynn, Lamplighter

John McGlynn was a lamplighter in the ritzy Belle Haven area on the Greenwich, Connecticut waterfront in the early 1900s.

 

John McGlynn was the husband of my first cousin, 3x removed (1C3R), Mary Duffy. He was born about 1856 in Ireland, spent time in Scotland as a coal miner, and died in Greenwich, Connecticut on 18 April 1935, where his obituary stated that he had been a resident of Belle Haven, for 35 years. [1]

 

When John McGlynn came to America in 1896, he settled in Greenwich, Connecticut, where many of his and Mary's relatives resided. Belle Haven, in the early part of the 20^th century, was an area of the rich and famous along the Greenwich waterfront. John McGlynn was not.

 

According to the book “A History of the Greenwich Waterfront (CT) by Karen Jewell, “John McGlynn used to be the neighborhood lamplighter. It would take McGlynn the better part of three hours to light all of Belle Haven.” [2]

 

What does a lamplighter do? According to Wikipedia, “a lamplighter is a person employed to light and maintain candle or, later, gas street lights." [3] A lamplighter usually carried around a ladder and gas lamps were lit using a wick on a long pole.  

 

                                                                                     

                                            Credit: 11 jobs that no longer exist today                                  

                                                                                   https://imgur.com/gallery/S 3lOX

In the early 20^th century, gas was transported through pipes to the gas lamps and lamps were placed on the posts. Lamplighters lit them in the evening and put them out in the morning. Gas lamps started in Europe and then spread to America. The first gas lamp in America was installed Feb. 7, 1817, at the northwest corner of Baltimore and Holliday streets in Baltimore, Maryland. A replica of the original, with appropriate plaque, adorns the spot today [4] as a reminder of this long-forgotten, but important, occupation.

 

                                                                            Credit: American Oil and Gas Historical Society

                                                                            https://www.aoghs.org/technology/manufactured-gas/

 

 

[1] “John McGlynn Dies At Home Today,”

The Greenwich News & Graphic, Greenwich, Connecticut, 18 April 1935, clipping from Greenwich Library

[2] Karen Jewell, A History of the Greenwich Waterfront: Tod’s Point, Great Captain Island and the Greenwich Shoreline (Charleston: The History Press, 2011, 71.

[3] Wikipedia, “Lamplighter,” 4 September 2020 [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamplighter]

[4] The History of Lighting. http://www.historyoflighting.net/lighting-history/history-of-gas-lighting/: 2020