Independent, Determined, and Puritan

Ralph Shepard (1603-1693) Bell Rock Cemetery, Malden, Massachusetts

On April 24, 1634, my ancestor, Ralph Shepard (1603-1693), a tailor from Limehouse, Stepney Parish, London, England, was summoned before the Court of High Commissions, an ecclesiastical court , established for the purpose of reforming and correcting persons engaged in "heresies, schisms, abuses, offences,  contempts,  and enormities" against the Church.  The result is unknown, but on June 30, 1635, Ralph, his wife ThankesLord, and his two-year old daughter Sarah, sailed for the American colonies aboard the ship Abigail.  They eventually settled in the Massachusetts communities of Dedham, Weymouth, Malden , and Concord.

Ralph and ThankesLord were Puritans.  The communities that they established were not tolerant nor multi-cultural.  The covenant that Ralph signed at Dedham pledged, "that we shall by all means labour to keep from us all such as are contrary-minded".

Ralph's daughter Trial married Walter Power(s) (1640-1708), probably an indentured servant taken from the streets of Ireland at an early age (14) and contracted for six years of service to his sponsor. Unfortunately for Trial and Walter, they got a little ahead of themselves and were cited for unlawful intimacy prior to marriage, resulting in a sentence of public flogging.  Ralph paid his daughter's fine and she escaped the punishment, but apparently Walter took the fifteen stripes by the constable.

A few generations later, Walter and Trial's ggrandson, Jeremiah Powers, Jr. (1733-1801), living at Greenwich, Massachusetts, married Elizabeth Cooley (1734-1823), gggranddaughter of Benjamin Cooley, who gave evidence at the trial of Hugh and Mary Parsons for practicing witchcraft in 1650.

Elizabeth's brother, Gideon Cooley, founded Pittsford, Vermont, spending the winter of 1767 at the site, guarding it against Yorkers, who also claimed the Vermont area.  Another brother, Benjamin Cooley III, was with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, when they captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1775.  Jeremiah and Elizabeth eventually moved to Pittsford, Vermont, along with other family members.  

Vermont became the fourteenth state in 1791.  Whether it was carved out of New York or joined as an independent republic (Republic of  Vermont, 1777-1791) is a matter of historical interpretation.

Additionally, Elizabeth's sister Eunice married Benjamin Garfield in 1752.  They lived at Northfield, Massachusetts, in a blockhouse for protection against the Natives.  However, in an attack by the Natives in 1755, Benjamin drowned attempting to escape across a river, Eunice was taken captive and forced to walk to Canada, where she was sold as a slave to French-Canadians.  She eventually persuaded the family to free her (for a price) and returned to Massachusetts.  Happily, she remarried and lived a long life.

Some of Jeremiah and Elizabeth's grandchildren, Hosea (my ggggrandfather), Mary, and Justus Franklin Powers moved to Missouri in the 1840's, establishing a presence there which continues.