1652 - 1719
Massachusetts - Rhode Island
Sources: (1) a family group sheet, provided by Phyllis Hughes, official Hull Family Genealogist, and (2)The Hull Family in America (compiled by Col. Weygant, published by the Hull Family Association). It is known to contain errors, and does not have much documentation, but it is what I've got to start with.
Joseph Hull, 4th child, 1st son, of Captain Tristram and Blanche Hull, was born June, 1652 in Barnstable, Barnstable, MA. His father was a sea-captain, and also a leading local citizen (member of the Board of Selectmen for the last 6 years of his life). He died when Joseph was about 14 years old, leaving fairly large estate, of which Joseph got the home farm plus an additional 6 acres, plus an equal share in what was left after the other bequests were fulfilled. His mother remarried shortly after the death of his father, but she left her new husband shortly after that, so - I guess young Joseph was the man of the family.
Joseph was a merchant and shipper (but apparently not a sea-going man himself), as well as a planter and a cooper. And although his grandfather was a Church of England clergyman, young Joseph, his namesake, became a Quaker, "doubtless" says the Hull Family in America "previous to his marriage in October, 1676, to his Quaker wife, Experience Harper. . . ."
Experience (born Nov 1657) was the daughter of Robert and Deborah Perry Harper of Sandwich, MA. Her parents were prominent Quakers in Boston: in March 1661, Robert "stood under the scaffold and caught in his arms the body of his friend William Leddra, the martyr preacher . . . ." For this, he and his wife were banished - which actually was not the worst punishment in the world, no? [Leddra, however, was the last Quaker to be hanged by the Puritans; shortly after his death, King Charles II, newly on the throne, put an end to the executions.] [Mary Dyer, another ancestor of ours, was another Quaker hanged in Boston - she died on 1 June 1660.]
Joseph and Experience had "a large family of children" (according to HFAm) but we have names of only six:
1. Tristram, our next ancestor, born October 08, 1677; died 1718.
2. Joseph, born ~1679. He married (1) Ann Gardner, (2) Susanna Green.
3. Mary, born ~1681. She married John Hoxie.
4. John, born ~1685. He married Jean/Jane Canada July 11, 1709.
5. Alice. She married John Sager/Segar March 01, 1706/07.
6. Reuben, died June 23, 1720.
Reuben is not listed in the Hull Family of America, possibly because he was actually executed, for killing Freelove Dollware. Hull Family of America contains a "twisted" account of this case, saying instead that a newlywed daughter of Joseph Hull was murdered by a rejected suitor. [Note on the Family Group Sheet, provided by Phyllis Hughes, official Hull Family Genealogist.]
"At about the time that Joseph Hull and Experience Harper were married, the magistrates of Masachusetts undertook without due process of law to release bondservants and cancel articles of apprenticeship, where the masters were Quakers. In the execution of some such ex-party order the sheriff was soundly thrashed by Joseph Hull, who, for so doing was fined seven pounds. This fine, for some unstated reason, was abated at a subsequent session of the court." [HFAm p. 260] Soon after this, he sold the land inherited from his father Capt. Tristram (to John Lathrop), and moved to Little Harbor, South Kingston, RI.
A partial chronology for him:
1678 - bought more land
1685 - (with father-in-law Robert Harper) granted authority to take up additional tracts in the eastern section of town.
1699 May 3 - elected Assistant in the Government of RI - sort of like a State Senator.
1699 - Narragansett Monthly Meeting established. Joseph had now become a speaker or preacher, and the meetings were held in his house, until the next year, when the Meeting House was completed.
1701 May 6 - re-elected
1709 March 22 - at a General Assembly, he was voted 16 pounds, 10 shillings as a gratuity for his good service to the colony
built one of the first and largest houses at Tower Hill (became South Kingston)
There are many land records from Washington County, Rhode Island which I have yet to copy into the computer. The HFAm says he died in 1709 or 1719; probably 1719 is the correct date - he was involved in various land transactions up to and including that year.
That's it.
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Page last updated 6 Oct 2006