This week’s 52 Ancestors prompt is “Twelve,” and instead of highlighting a relative with twelve children or an ancestor with twelve siblings, I decided to trace my family tree back twelve generations to one of my 10th great-grandparents. If you follow my paternal line of Cook ancestors–winding from my great-grandmother Fern through a handful of Methodist circuit riders, past Betsy Mariah Penfield and Tristram Blish–you’ll find Tristram Hull, a captain from Yarmouth and Barnstable, Massachusetts whose grandson married a descendant of the Mayflower Fullers. His story is a unique one–full of seafaring voyages and protests against the community’s laws–and it’s a story I should have researched and shared long ago.
Tristram Hull was born in 1624 in Massachusetts to Reverend Joseph Hull, a magistrate in the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as well as a minister in Weymouth and Barnstable, and Joanna Hull (about whom much less is known). “Tristram” is a name of Welsh origin meaning “noise” or “tumult,” but some have interpreted this translation as “bold;” the first record of Tristram in the colonies after his birth definitely lives up to this interpretation. By 1643, at the age of 20, he was living in Yarmouth and had been mustered into Myles Standish’s militia in Plymouth Colony. Standish acted as the military advisor to the colony and traveled with the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower in 1620; while the militia was well-known for its courage and strength, it was also known for its brutality toward Native Americans living in the area, an inexcusable part of the colony’s and Hull’s history.
Tristram married Blanche Hull in 1643, and the couple had moved to nearby Barnstable, Massachusetts by 1648. According to one source, he was “evidently bred to a sea-faring career,” and it was in Barnstable that he purchased two ships–The Catch and Hopewell–and frequently made long sea voyages, trading throughout the West Indies. When on shore, Tristram took a “lively interest” in local affairs and “unhesitatingly performed the multifarious duties expected in those days of prominent and spirited citizens.” He served on the town’s juries on multiple occasions, was one of the town dignitaries appointed to wait upon the Assembly Committee, was appointed to a constable position for one year and was a leading member of the town board of selectmen for the last six years of his life. But my favorite account is from The Hull Family in America:
In the government’s fanatical and inhuman persecution of the Quakers his sympathies were with the latter, and he boldly rendered them assistance and succor whenever and wherever occasion offered. For this he was subjected to much annoyance and heavy fines, but there is nothing to indicate that this made him change his course. In spite of the government’s unjust and cruel attitude toward the Quakers, or rather we should doubtless say because of it, several of his children and many of their descendants publicly espoused the Quaker faith, and some of them became prominent leaders in the denomination.
Tristram and Blanche had six children together–Mary (b. 1645), Sarah (b. 1647), Sarah (b. 1650), Joseph (b. 1652), John (b. 1654) and Hannah (b. 1656)–and he died in 1667 in Barnstable. It seems he amassed a small fortune throughout his life: in the inventory of his estate (in addition to the ships in his possession), there were 36 cattle assessed at 118 pounds, 105 pounds in cash and an estate worth 300 pounds. He left his homestead to his son, Joseph; 150 pounds to his wife, Blanche; 100 pounds each to his daughters, Mary, Sarah and Hannah; and 30 pounds and a “certain lot” to his son, John. Tristram, it seems, lived up to his name: he lived boldly, unafraid to sail the seas or stand up for what he believed in. And I’m very grateful that he paved the way for so many of my Quaker ancestors to come.
The Quaker connection was particularly interesting!
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Thank you! I love all the Quaker connections–especially since we had NO IDEA of any of it. There are a few family legends I’ve disproved over the years, and we weren’t expecting to find Quaker roots instead.
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I knew that with our ancestors residing in the same colonial areas and with our shared Quaker ancestry, that you and I were bound to have one or more kindred connections, Jamie. This is one of our shared ancestors. Tristram Hull was my 11th great-grandfather: https://kindredconnection.wordpress.com/2019/02/22/tristram-hull/
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Cool!
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Your story is fantastic; I really think it’s my favorite, and I love how you leaned on all of the complaints and court documents. I’m going to start searching for my colonial ancestors’ names on your site before publishing now, ha!
Which of Tristram’s children do you descend from? Hannah was my 9th great-grandmother, and her son married into the Fuller family (my connection to the Mayflower). I can’t remember if you were a descendant of the Fullers too–let me know!
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Thank you so much, Jamie, for the compliment! Tristram certainly lived a full and often contrary life, didn’t he?
I descend from his daughter, Mary, who married Joseph Holway.
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Nice spin on the 12-theme! I too have Quaker ancestry…I’ll have to poke around your previous posts and see if I can recognize any connections.
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It’s mostly the Hawkins, Roberts and Bond families; they lived in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina and Indiana. It’d be cool if we were related–let us know what you dig up!
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Sounds like he did some things right!
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Agreed! His life seems really exciting, so I hope it was a good pick for the week. “12” was a tough prompt!
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Yeah, I just went literal with a photo of twelve people. 🙂
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Also a good idea!
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Jamie – Interestingly, I have Tristram Hull and his family in my family tree as well. He is distantly related to me as “father-in-law of 2nd cousin, 10x removed.” His daughter Sarah married Joseph Allen, who is related to my mother Barbara Allen. SMALL WORLD.
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Haha, this is great! Any other colonial connections from around there? I have Blish, Fuller, Young, Pinson and Day in my tree.
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I’ve got Fuller and Young in my tree as well.
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It’s hard wrapping our heads around how small the houses were back then….but you know it had to be a house of love. Definitely easier to heat in the winter. And I love the hero’s that do what they can for those that are unjustly persecuted.
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I love the visuals you used, particularly the dwelling! A great take on “12,” this one stumped me a bit. Your writing style is so engaging & informative!
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Thank you–your blog has some pretty amazing stories too! It was tough to wrap my mind around this one since it happened such a long time ago, but finding photos of that recreated town helped. 12 really was difficult–10 was difficult too last year.
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