William Hoskins (bef. 1611 - 1695)

Born before 1611 in Aghadown, Cork, Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Cushman) Hoskins — married 2 Nov 1636 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony

Husband of Ann (Hinds) Hoskins — married 21 Dec 1638 (to about 1665) in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony

Husband of Elizabeth (Unknown) Hoskins — married after 1674 in Plymouth Colony

Descendants

Died 7 Sep 1695 after age 84 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Province of Massachusetts Bay

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Richard Draper [send private message], Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message], Linda James [send private message], and John Putnam [send private message]

William Hoskins migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Great Migration (Series 2), by R. C. Anderson, vol. 3, p. 414) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

William Hoskins was born by about 1611 (freeman in 1634/5, married in 1636),^[1] presumably at Aghadown, Cork, Ireland. He was the son of Henry Hoskins and Anne Winthrop as shown by a letter Anne (Winthrop) Hoskins wrote to her cousin John Winthrop (the younger) in 1638 specifically requesting to know how her son William Hoskins was doing.^[2]

In the list of Freemen incorporating Plymouth in 1633, he is named among those who were "admitted afterwards,"^[3] and was formally admitted 1 January 1634/5.^[4] He also appears in other lists of Plymouth Colony freemen: 7 March 1636/7,^[5] in 1639,^[6] 1658,^[7] and 29 May 1670^[8].

On 2 March 1635/6, in the first of many juries, he served on a coroner's jury to inquire as to the death of John Deacon.^[9] From 7 March 1636/7 through 6 June 1682, he would serve on five grand juries, and at least 25 petit juries.^[1]

On October 2, 1637, he was granted seven acres of land "upon the north side of Winslow's walk toward the cedar swamp where Mr. Atwood and Mr. Done have land."^[10]

As "Willm Hoskine" he was listed with those in Plymouth able to bear arms in August of 1643.^[11]

William was on a list of those granted two tracts of land, "as being the first borne children of this government."^[12] Certainly William did not qualify on his own merits, being born in Ireland. Eugene Stratton refers back to the original act which defines those children as "such children as are heer borne & next unto them such as are heer brought up under their parents, are … be provided for…before any that either come from England or elsewhere," and that William was on the list because he had married a "first born" child., Sarah Cushman.^[13][14] This begs the question: If Sarah was the first-born child, who were her parents? A forthcoming research note on her profile will attempt to answer this.

On 2 March 1679/80, the Court ordered four pounds paid to him "in regard of his low condition having lost all hee had in the late warr and being growne old and unable to labor."^[15]

He was of Taunton on 7 October 1690 when he and his wife Elizabeth (acknowledged) sold land to Samuel Waterman in Plymouth, but apparently had returned to Plymouth by 1692 when he was asked to live at Lakingham.^[1]

Marriages and Children

William married three times. First, to Sarah Cushman at Plymouth, 2 November 1636, recorded as "William Hodgekins" and "Sara Cushman".^[16] They had one child, and the mother died not long after.

1. Sarah, born 16 September 1637; married Benjamin Eaton, at Plymouth, 4 December 1660.^[17]

On 18 January 1643/4, "William Hoskine of Plymouth hath put Sarah, his daughter, to Thomas Whitney and Winefride, his wife" until she is twenty years old, they to be to her as father and mother, "she being 6 years old the 16 of Sept. last past."^[18]

He married second, Anne Hinds at Plymouth, 21 December 1638.^[19] They had at least five children, and possibly two more:

1. Mary Hoskins b say 1640; m (1) Edward Cobb, (2) Samuel Phillips, poss. (3) Richard Godfrey Sr.^[1]
2. Rebecca Hoskins b say 1642; m Richard Briggs.^[1]
3. Elizabeth Hoskins b say 1645; m Ephraim Tilson.^[1]
4. William Hoskins b 30 Nov 1647; m Sarah Caswell.^[1]
5. possibly. John Hoskins b say 1650; m (1) Elizabeth ___ , (2) Amee ___.^[1]
6. Samuel Hoskins b Aug 8, 1654; m (1) Abigail Stacey, (2) Mary Austin, (3) Rebecca Brooks, (4) Hannah Penniman.^[1]
7. possibly. Richard Hoskins b say 1661; m (1) Jane Fluster, (2) Mary Tisdale.^[1]

Please see the research note below about a previously attached (but undocumented) child, Thomas Hoskins.

He married third, Elizabeth (____) Knapp, widow of Aaron Knapp, after 29 October 1674 when she presented Knapp's inventory.^[20] They had no issue.^[1]

Death

"William Hoskins Senior deceased on the 7th day of September 1695" as recorded in the vital records of Plymouth.^[21][22]

Research Notes

Origins

The 1638 letter from Anne Hoskins to John Winthrop^[2] provides the only known connection linking William Hoskins to his origin. Anderson only includes a single William Hoskins in New England by 1635. Anne's letter also states that her husband died about three years ago, suggesting her son William had left before then. If this William was not her son, then her son would have had to have died or left New England seemingly without leaving a record.

Pequot War

William is said to have served in the Pequot War in 1637,^[23] but he is not on the list of men who volunteered.^[24] In any event, no one from Plymouth participtated in the war as the Pequots were vanquished before the Plymouth men deployed.^[25]

Thomas Hoskins

Another would-be child, Thomas Hoskins, appears to have been added by a GEDCOM upload, 7 April 2011. There is no evidence on his profile to support his existence, let alone a relationship to William Hoskins.

Multiple Contemporary William Hoskins

There were at least 5 William Hoskins living in New England in the late 1600s^[23]

1. William of unsavory memory at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.^[26]
2. William of Ipswich who was tried and convicted 1681-2 for aiding Edward Randolph the King's Revenue Officer to break certain laws of the Provincial Court.
3. William of Lyn who died in 1662 leaving a son William.
4. William of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1643, most of whose descendants took on the name of Hotchkiss.
5. William of Plymouth (the William in this profile).

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10} Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, 6 vols. (Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1996-2011), 3: 414-420, American Ancestors.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Worthington C. Ford, et al., eds, Winthrop Papers, 6 vols. (Massachusetts Historical Society, 1929-1992) 4: 7-8 "Ann Hoskins to John Winthrop, Jr."HathiTrust.
   Transcript also located in: "Winthrop Family Papers", Massachusetts Historical Society (accessed 29 July 2023).
3. ↑ Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet & Pulsifer, David. Records of the colony of New Plymouth, in New England 12 vols. (AMS Press: New York, 1855-1861), 1: 4, Internet Archive.
4. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 1: 32.
5. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 1: 53.
6. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 8: 174, Internet Archive.
7. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 8:197.
8. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 5: 274, Internet Archive.
9. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 1: 39.
10. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 1: 66.
11. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 8: 188.
12. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 4: 19, Internet Archive.
13. ↑ Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History & People, 1620-1691 (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1986), 287-288, Internet Archive.
14. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 11: 16, Internet Archive.
15. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 6: 32, Internet Archive.
16. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 1: 45.
17. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 8: 22.
18. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 2: 67-68, Internet Archive.
19. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 1: 107.
20. ↑ Alfred Averill Knapp, Aaron Knapp of Taunton, Mass. in 1638 and some of his descendants (Winter Park, Florida: Knapp, 1953), 3, Internet Archive.
21. ↑ Plymouth Town Clerk, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Vital Records, FamilySearch Library microfilm #416334, img 305, vol 1: 202 (original book), FamilySearch Image: 33S7-9RSB-YMD; img 134, vol 1A: 249 (copy) FamilySearch Image: 33SQ-GRSB-Y9Q.
22. ↑ Lee D. van Antwerp, Vital Records of Plymouth, Massachusetts to the year 1850 (Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1993), 135, Internet Archive.
23. ↑ ^{23.0 23.1} Boston Evening Transcript, Genealogy Column, July 27, 1908, p. 12, Google Newspapers
24. ↑ Plymouth Colony Records, 1: 60-62.
25. ↑ Stratton, Plymouth Colony, 55-56.
26. ↑ Sybil Noyes, et al. (eds.), Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, 5 vols. (Southward Press, Portland, Maine, 1928), 3: 317, FamilySearch.

See also:

• Donald Lines Jacobus, compiler, The Granberry Family and Allied Families (Hartford, Conn.: E. F. Waterman, 1945), 240-245.
• Find-a-Grave Memorial - William Hoskins [Claims burial in Boston, Granary Burying Ground, Tomb No 14 under Kings List. No photo or source] Same William Hoskins?

Acknowledgement

Thank you to all who have contributed to this profile. Click the Changes tab to see those previous edits.