Richard FOXWELL

                   " The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants To New England 1620-1633"


RICHARD FOXWELL


ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1630
FIRST RESIDENCE: Boston
REMOVES: Piscataqua, Scarborough
RETURN TRIPS: To England in 1632 and return to New England in 1633
OCCUPATION: Trader.
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Richard Foxwell paid £1 in the minister's rate, 7 September 1636 [MPCR 1:lxii].
FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 (as "_____ Foxwell") and admitted 18 May 1631 (as "Rich: Foxewell") [MBCR1:80, 366]. He signed the oath to Massachusetts Bay, 13 July1658 [MPCR 2:71].
EDUCATION: At the very least a good scribe, he was several times clerk of the writs for Scarborough.
OFFICES: Grand jury, 25 June 1640, 21 October 1645, 1 July 1662 [MPCR 1:43, 87, 2:118]. Jury, 8 September 1640, 21 October 1645 [MPCR 1:61, 64, 67, 70-71, 73, 85-86]. Clerk of the writs for Scarborough, 12 July 1658, 18 July 1665, 29 May 1668 [MPCR 1:225, 2:69, 165]. Commissioner for Falmouth and Scarborough, 5 July 1664, 29 May 1668, 5 July 1670 [MPCR 2:156, 163, 194].
ESTATE: On 5 February 1663[/4] Richard Foxwell sold to Christopher Pickett one hundred acres in Scarborough [YLR 2:53].
     On 2 July 1664 Richard Foxwell of Black Point alias Scarborough, and John Foxwell "his son," carpenter, mortgaged to George Foxwell of "Exon [Exeter]," Devon, England, merchant, "one moiety or half of the plantation and land which the said Richard Foxwell is & hath been a long time possessed of on the western side of Black Point River, containing five hundred acres of upland & meadow ... with the one half of the woods, rivers, etc., they to bear equal charges in the improvemenet thereof until a division" be made, also three hundred acres of upland meadow in land made by deed of gift by Capt. Richard Bonighton to his daughters Elizabeth & Susanna, also one moiety of his cattle [YLR 1:152-53].
     On 14 November 1668 Richard Foxwell mortgaged a meadow in Scarborough to Isaac Walker [YLR 2:52].
     Administration of the estate of Mr. Richard Foxwell, deceased, was originally granted to his son Philip Foxwell, but he failing to give bond, George Norton "son-in-law to Mr. Foxwell" was appointed joint administrator with Philip, 6 November 1677 [MPCR 2:341].
     The revised inventory of the "estate of Mr. Richard Foxwell of Blew Poynt lately deceased" was sworn 6 November 1677 and totalled £158 14s. 6d., of which £125 was real estate: "two hundred acres of upland," £50; and "fifty acres of meadow," £75 [MPCR 2:336-37]. This limited inventory was supplemented on 1 January 1729 at a valuation of £1519 consisting exclusively of real estate: "farm at Blue Point," five hundred acres, £515; "the lower Checker on Lewis & Benighton's Patent," one thousand one hundred acres of land and one hundred seventy eight of marsh, £788; and "upper Check of land," one thousand two hundred eighty acres, £216 [Maine PR 4/68].
     In answer at court 30 June 1680 to John Harmon's petition referring to the "settling of Mr. Richard Foxwell's estate, deceased, to the children of his eldest son, John Foxwell, & others, to whom it of right belongs, this court doth order that at the next court of Sessions, Phillip Foxwell, one of the administrators ... should be called to account for his administration, and that Deborah Foxwell the woman, alias Deborah Harmon, have her thirds set out, and a double portion for his eldest son, that guardians being chosen for the children, and a bond taken of them for their faithful discharge of their trust" [MPCR 3:55].
     The estate defied settlement, and three reliable men were asked to issue a decision at court 25 May 1686, and on 25 March 1714 George Norton and Sarah Curtis asked that Mr. Richard Rodgers and Joseph Curtis administer [MPCR 3:133; Maine PR 2/142].
     A division was finally made two generations later, 29 March 1732, as follows: to the "heirs of Susanna Austin one of the daughters of said Richard Foxwell," land at Blue point, part of the homestead and salt marsh; to "the heirs of Easter Rogers, one of the daughters of said Richard Foxwell," land which is her part of the homestead and twenty-three acres of marsh; to the "heirs of Sarah Curtice, deceased, one of the daughters of said Richard Foxwell, land being her part of the homestead and marsh"; to "Joseph Curtice, as representative of Mary Norton deceased, one of the daughters of said Richard Foxwell," land, being her part of the homestead, and marsh; to the "heirs of Lucretia Robinson, wife of James Robinson, one of the daughters of said Richard Foxwell," land being her part of the homestead and marsh; to "William Pepperrell, Jr., Esqr., representative of Deborah Corbain, only daughter of Nathaniel Foxwell, deceased, son of the eldest son of Richard Foxwell, deceased, in behalf of her father," his part of the homestead and seventeen acres of salt marsh; to Paul Thompson three hundred eighty acres of upland and twenty acres of marsh "for those which were sold by Joseph Curtice and Richard Rogers to defray costs of administration ... Additional grants were made to each of the heirs in dividing the patent Marsh at Little River and the Upper and Lower Checkers of the commons" [Maine PR 4/214].
BIRTH: About 1604 (deposed 5 July 1676 aged seventy-two years [MPCR 2:310]).
DEATH: By 6 November 1677 (when administration was taken on his estate [MPCR 2:234]).
MARRIAGE: Before 12 February 1635/6 Susanna Bonython, daughter of Richard Bonython (when Francis Johnson added "pray remember my love to your wife" to the end of a letter [EQC 2:24]); she was baptized St. Breage, Cornwall, 5 February 1614/5.
CHILDREN:
      i   RICHARD,   b. say 1635; d. by 4 June 1664 (inventory of the goods of "Richard Foxwell Junior deceased" taken that date [MPCR 1:331]; no evidence of marriage.

      ii   ESTHER, b. say 1637; m. July 1657 Thomas Rogers (heirs of "Easter Rogers" named in her father's division) [GDMNH 594].

      iii   JOHN, b. about 1639 (deposed aged thirty in 1669 [MA Arch 10:93]) (eldest son after brother Richard's death) m. Deborah Johnson. She m. (2) before 21 June 1680 John Harmon [MPCR 3:55].

      iv   LUCRETIA, b. about 1644 (aged about 24 in 1668 [GDMNH 591, citing an unidentified source]); m. by 1668 James Robinson (heirs of "Lucretia Robinson, wife of James Robinson," named in her father's division).

      v   SUSANNA, b. say 1646; m. say 1666 as his second wife John Ashton (heirs of "Susanna Austin" in the division of her father's estate) [GDMNH 67].

      vi   PHILIP, b. about 1651 (age 17 in 1668, aged 32 in 1684 [GDMNH 243, citing an unidentified source]; m. by 1694 Eleanor Brackett [GDMNH 103].

      vii   MARY, b. say 1656; m. by 1677 George Norton, son of Henry Norton (called "son-in-law" when appointed co-administrator of Richard Foxwell's estate).

      viii   SARAH, b. say 1658; 1673 witness [YLR 4:41]; m. Kittery September 1678 Joseph Curtis, son of Thomas Curtis [KitVR 28].

ASSOCIATIONS: Richard Foxwell's nephew, George Foxwell, died in Virginia, and came from Exeter in Devonshire [YLR 1:152-55; NEHGR 39:343].
COMMENTS: There were two men by the name of Richard Foxwell in early New England, and they are often confused. In addition to the man who settled in Maine, discussed in this sketch, there was another who lived in Scituate and Barnstable [Otis 1:365-67]. We know that the Richard Foxwell of Maine was in New England at least as early as 1632 (see extract from William Hilton letter below) and this is very likely the same man who had ordered trading goods in London in 1629 [GDMNH 243].
     If on this basis we assign the request for freemanship of 1630 and the admission to freemanship of 1631 to this Richard Foxwell (and this is the position taken in GDMNH), then there is no record of the Scituate man until 1634 [NEHGR 9:279]. This conclusion remains debatable, and both Richard Foxwells may have been in New England by 1630, but we can be sure of only one, and only he will be treated in this volume.
     In a letter dated "Pacaqua April 18th 1633" William Hilton told John Winthrop Jr.
There arrived a fishing ship at Pascataque about the 15th of this present month wherein is one Richard Foxwell who hath formerly lived in the country. He bringeth news that there were two ships making ready at Barstaple who are to bring passengers and cattle for to plant in the Bay. He hath letters for Mr. Wearom and diver others at Dorchester which he intends to bring in to the Bay so soon as possible he can. Likewise he heard from Mr. Alerton who was making ready at Bristol for to come for this country. Other news he bringeth not that I can hear of only Mr. Borowes purposeth to come for this country from London [WP 3:119].
     In a suit against Capt. Thomas Cammock at York Court 25 June 1640, "Richard Foxill" declared that "he hath for these four years or thereabouts lived at Black Point in the right of Capt. Richard Bonython his father-in-law, who settled him there and gave him as much freedom and privilege as by virtue of his patent he could, either for planting, fishing, fowling, or the like, which was the main cause of his settling there" but that Cammock forbade fishing for bass and lobsters in the river at Black Point; the jury found for Foxwell [MPCR 1:44]. Cammock tried to bring him back to court several times, but the case does not seem to have been heard [MPCR 1:48, 58]. George Lewis deposed that "Capt. Cammock had three parts of a hundred of corn spoiled by the crows ... by reason of fish scattered by Mr. Richard Foxill and others" [MPCR 1:80]. Nothing seems to have come of this either. Cammock soon died.
     At court 29 June 1654, Mr. Richard Foxwell and Mr. Comings sued Mr. John Bonighton for "pulling down their house and laying claim to their lands" [MPCR 2:24].
     Richard Foxwell and John Bonighton Senior, gentlemen, stood a bond of £10 that they would prosecute their appeal as the law required, in the case against John Jackson for building on and using their land, 5 July 1670 [MPCR 2:191]. When John Bonighton Senior had many contemptuous things to say about Massachusetts Bay, Richard Foxwell was among the men who stood bond for him, 5 July 1670 [MPCR 2:196].
     In May of 1672 the two sons-in-law of Richard Bonython took their complaint to the General Court at Boston:
The petition of Richard Foxwell & Richard Comings in the behalf of themselves & their posterity. Humbly sheweth that whereas your petitioners' father-in-law Capt. Richard Robinson [recte Bonython] came over to New England about forty-one years since unto Saco, who had an interest with Mr. Thomas Lewes in a certain tract of land in those parts granted unto them by patent from the Council in Plimoth in the County of Devon in the Kingdom of England, and your petitioners' father-in-law was at great cost as is sufficiently known in the transportation of himself and his family into those parts being possessed of a part of said land ... at Black Point River ... which lands your petitioners' father-in-law sold and made over unto his two daughters Elisabeth and Susanna, wives unto your said petitioners and to their heirs forever, for and in consideration of two hundred marks ... left as a legacy to the said Elisabeth and Susanna by their grandmother ... and your petitoners have enjoyed their said proper rights under the two former governments vizt Gorges & Rigbyes ... for the space of thirty-seven years ... but of late ... have been much disturbed ... by one John Jackson and Andrew Augur ... and ... particularly by Henry Williams one of the selectmen for the Town of Scarborough, who came upon the said land ... [of] Richard Foxwell where his son Phillip Foxwell (and another) was at work did strike twice at him with an axe saying he would cleave his brains, and further said that if the said land was not laid out in lots blood would be spilt [NEHGR 39:341-42].
     Mr. Richard Foxwell and Henry Watts had a difference of opinion over marshlands at court 21 October 1645 [MPCR 1:90]. Foxwell witnessed and proved the will of Gyles Roberts of Black Point at court 13 November 1666 [MPCR 1:323]. He was appointed one of the administrators of the estate of Phillip Griffin 1 October 1667 [MPCR 1:337].
     Mr. Richard Foxwell and Joseph Phippeny had to make £100 bonds "for preventing any further trouble between" them, 5 July 1658 [MPCR 2:64]. Phippeny had twice attacked Foxwell "drawing blood" claiming that Mr. Bellingham had said that he should "beat the said Foxwell & manacle him, & carry him down to his door in a rope" [MPCR 2:63]. At court 4 July 1659 the commissioners claimed for "want of evidence" they were incapable of making a decision in the case and referred the mattere to three reliable men [MPCR 2:77].
     Richard Foxwell was in court over debt and land boundaries more than the ordinary man and his business did not flourish [MPCR 2:251, 298, 376, 496, 501, etc.]. He encountered the usual "contemptuous speeches" from his neighbors when he filled the position of Commissioner, but generally few were willing to impugn his character [MPCR 2:407].
     He was part of the cause of the drawn-out Essex County suit described by FRANCIS JOHNSON about 1657:
About twenty-four or twenty-five hears ago there was a co-partnership between Mr. Roger Conant, Peter Palfrey, Anthony Dike, and himself for a trade to the eastward, to be managed by him, both buying and selling. At end of three years he sold to Mr. Richard Foxwell all the interest in the house with debts due from the Indians, and with swine, boat, skiff, canoe, household stuff and trading goods, for which he took two bills of debt. He later sold Foxwell a small parcel of goods, making three bills due. Sometime after this, Foxwell making no payment, the partners had an accounting and found that twenty-three pounds were due to each partner. For twenty years said Johnson had endeavored to collect the money, but Foxwell either remained silent or affirmed that he was poor and that they could have his two or three children, as he had nothing else. Foxwell came into these parts a year ago, and the partners attached him [EQC 2:23].
     Further in this case, Richard Collicutt deposed on 21 March 1655/6 that
about January last he heard Mr. Richard Foxwell say that many years since he bought a plantation and trading house at the eastward of Mr. Francis Johnson of Marblehead ... and having no confirmation from the government which Johnson had promised him, the French had dispossessed him of said house and lands [EQC 2:25].
     In the manuscript journal of Capt. John Scottow regarding events at Black Point during King Philip's War we are told that on October 26 and 27th [1676] there was "no disturbance. I went and viewed the fortifications at the several garrisons, and discharged Mr. Foxwell from his charge at Bluepoint, being a quarrelling, discontented person" [Bodge 329].


History of Saco and Biddeford, with Notices of Other Early Settlements, and of the Proprietary Governments, in Maine, Including the Provinces of New Somersetshire and Lygonia ME, George Folsom.


   "A small number only of the planters settled on the eastern side of the river, now so much more populous than the other. Beside the patentees with their families, Foxwell , Watts , Warwick , perhaps Greenway , are all of those named in the book of rates, who appear to have pitched on this side. The two former were located at Blue-point , near the eastern limit of the patent, and when the line was accurately run, they were found to be without this limit. The right of Foxwell to his extensive farm at that place, is recited in an action brought by him against Capt. Cammock 1640 ; he declares, "that he hath for these four years or thereabouts lived at Black-point in the right of Capt. R. Bonython , his father in law, who settled him there and gave him as much freedom and privilege as by virtue of his patent he could, either for planting, fishing, fowling, or the like, which was the main cause of his settling there." Blue-point is near the mouth of Scarboro' river, on the south-western side, opposite Black-point or Prout's Neck . The plantations on both sides of the stream were embr