| John Tripp Jr. migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 341) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm |
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John Tripp lived in Portsmouth for 39 years and was one of the town’s founders. His name occurs in the list of freemen of Portsmouth drawn up in 1655. He was a ship carpenter but like most workmen of his day he probably supported his family primarily as a farmer. John held various offices in the town and was for many years a member of the town council. He was deputy for Portsmouth in the General Court (legislature) thirteen times between 1648 and 1675 and in 1656 he served for Providence. He was chosen assistant in 1670, 1673, 1674 and 1675.[1]
John appears to have owned considerable land. At some time he bought a tract of land in Dartmouth, Plymouth Colony from John Alden. On 8 September 1665, he deeded one-fourth of this tract to his son Peleg and on 3 May 1671, one-fourth to his son Joseph.[1]
John Tripp may have been a Quaker:
The Relation of John the Founder allowed for the discovery and subsequent publishing of the English ancestry of this Tripp family.[3] In this document, John Tripp himself gives details of his family and immigration to New England. This research corrects and supersedes much incorrect speculation from the past.[4]
John Tripp, son of John Tripp and Isabel Moses, was baptized 8 September 1611 at Horkstow Parish, Horkstow, Lincolnshire.[3][4] He was the oldest of 12 children of John Tripp and Isabel Moses.[5][6][7]
John Tripp was not born in Northumberland County, England, as many researchers have previously accepted. Nor was he born in Skirback, Lincoln, England.[8]
Prior to emigration, John Tripp had a 7-year apprenticeship as ship carpenter in Thoresby, Lincolnshire under John Baats (Bates?). He then (c. 1634) "bound" himself to Frances East for four years at 4 pounds/year. After 1.5 years (c. 1635/6), East sold the contract to Robert Jafra "then living in Boston". The records do not make it clear whether John emigrated at the commencement of the contract with East (c.1634), or at the time his contract was sold to Jafra of Boston (c.1636).[3]
According to records found in the “Tripp House” in Scranton, PA, built in 1778, John Tripp emigrated to New England 10 June 1635 on the ‘’Truelove”. The passenger list does include a “Trippatt, Jo”. However, his age is 17 and John Tripp would have been 23.[9]
John Tripp is believed by some to have emigrated in the same ship as William Hall, or Haule, in 1635. The year agrees with the immigration date of 1635 cited by Dr. Carolyn Syron Valentine in Trip Wills, Deeds and Ways, 1932. Tripp and Hall are both listed in the town records of Portsmouth, and two of William Hall’s children married John Tripp’s children.
John Tripp married about 1639 Mary Paine, probably in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island.[10] She was the daughter of Anthony Paine and Rose Potter. John Tripp and Mary Paine had the following children: [1]
Note: Sylvanus Tripp of Maine (b abt 1662, and who may also have been of Lincolnshire) was not one of John’s children.
Shortly after arrival in Boston, John’s apprenticeship to Jafra was sold when Jafra and his "sickly" wife departed Boston due to persecution of "some to the offending of others". According to his own testimony, John went to Rhode Island with him and his wife.[3]
John Tripp may have travelled from Boston to Portsmouth, Rhode Island on a boat with William Hall. Of interest is two of William Hall’s children married John Tripp’s children — William Hall [Jr] married Alice Tripp, Deliverance Hall married Abiel Tripp.
Portsmouth Compact
The Portsmouth Compact is a document signed on 7 March 1638 that established the settlement of Portsmouth, now a town in the state of Rhode Island. The Portsmouth Compact not only established the Aquidneck Island town, but also set a precedent. It was the first document to establish political and religious independence from England.
On 30 April 1639 John Tripp (spelled Trippe) signed a Compact of Loyalty with twenty-eight others as follows:
On 1 August 1639, John Tripp was admitted as an inhabitant of the island of Aquidneck.
John was granted three acres of land in Portsmouth on 1 March 1643[1] next to Thomas Gorton. He owned land in Portsmouth, Narragansett and Westerly in Rhode Island, and in Dartmouth in Plymouth Colony.[11]
In December 1647, John Tripp signed (with others) the Aquidneck Covenant and the following covenant, a politico-human document that read:
John Tripp served as a juror in 1649, 1650 and 1653 and as clerk of weights and measures in 1651. He was Deputy to the Rhode Island Assembly from 1648 to 1672, and was Assistant from 1670 to 1675. He also served as a member of the Portsmouth Town Council for many years.
On 18 March 1650, a receipt signed by John Tripp and Mary Tripp, his wife, expressed full satisfaction for whatsoever legacy was received from Rose Weeden (mother of John's wife Mary), executrix to Anthony Paine, deceased, either by the last will or the first covenant. The receipt was signed by John Tripp and Mary Tripp (by mark), and witnessed by Richard Hart and James Weden.[13]
On 27 April 1651, John Tripp of Portsmouth, with the consent of his wife Mary, sold land in Portsmouth to Mathew Grenell of Portsmouth. The land was 27 acres lying within Portsmouth, bounded eastward partly by land sold William Havens and partly by land of Rose Paine, southward with the highway to the sea, westward with land of Rose Paine and northward with the Mill River. The land was that John Tripp had in part of the legacy given to my wife.[14]
In the same year he made an agreement with Ralph Earle concerning a line fence. This precise paper fills one and one half pages of the records, as printed. It was signed in the presence of four witnesses, one of whom was Benedict Arnold. The meat of it was that each signer should play fair with the other, as to reciprocity on stones and in the work of building the stone fence; a chief object being to "make there said lands several to each of their private uses." John was between two fires, in that Ralph Earl's land joined him on both the north and the south sides. One point of the agreement read thus: "From year to year, so long as those said lots lie open together, Earl's to Tripp's aforenamed, that they will not on either of these said lots damnify each other by Cattell there put by their order." This agreement was considered so important that the heirs of both signers are included in its terms, and a forfeit of twenty pounds sterling is laid on the failure; to be "payed by the Ptie defective, unto the other Ptie engaged therein." Formal seals completed the document, when signed. It was a wise move to block trouble with bounding neighbors.
30 November 1657: John Tripp was granted land on Hog Island for seven years.[15]
1654-1658 Having served his town freely and well whenever needed, John Tripp came to the honor of being chosen Committeeman for the General Court. This was an important term, for this committee was authorised to meet with those of the other towns, "at the day Nuport neighbors shall apoint, with as full power to act as if the town were present." The same "Meeting of the Inhabitants of Portsmouth" that chose John Tripp as representative, voted also, "that Assamequin shall have his coat paid him forthwith for his rent of the meadows on the main land, on the north side of Road Island."
On 6 February 1660, he testified that he was about forty-nine years old and that he had heard his uncle Robert Potter say that he (Potter) had sold a certain house and land to John Anthony.[16]
1661-1664: Serving frequently on the Town Council, John was chosen also in 1661, with five others, to serve as a "Court of Comitioners" at Portsmouth. The following year he was chosen to serve on the next General court of Commissioners to be held at Warwick. The report of the town meeting for February, 1663 notes that four "Comitioners or deputies" were chosen to serve at a General Court to be held at Newport. Of these, was Mr. John Tripp. Another was his brother in law Mr. Lott Stange; who had married Alice Paine, sister to John Tripp's wife Mary. In the meantime, John's family is increasing and maturing.[16]
On 8 September 1665, John Tripp Senior in Portsmouth granted land to his second son Peleg Tripp. The land was a fourth part of a shared lot lying at the place called Acassett within the town of Dartmouth in the jurisdiction of New Plymouth. He provided that if Peleg Tripp was to sell this land it would be sold to himself or his heirs.[17]
In 1666 he served on the Grand Jury and also as rate making. He also continued in the post of Surveyor of Cattle, and was again chosen deputy to the General Assembly. He served on the Town Council seventeen years as deputy to the General Assembly and four years as assistant from Portsmouth.
8 December 1666: Court made good a sale which Mary, wife of John, had bought from Richard Searle twenty-five years previously from then-unmarried Mary, for a pint of wine:
1666 to 1669: deposed R.I. Gen. Assembly.[16]
1667: town chose him to serve (with others) to prevent "the destruction of wood and timber of this township” with Albro, Cooke, Aly, William Hall and Sanford.
In June of 1667, John Tripp was once more chosen as one of the four Portsmouth "deputies for ye next General Court, as deputy."
In 1669, he served again in the General Assembly, held at Newport in May of that year.
From 1670 to 1675 he was assistant to or member of Governor's Council.[16]
On 3 May 1671, he sold his son Joseph 1/2 interest in Plymouth land formerly bought of John Alden.
In 1672 he served in the April and October Assembly and as moderator of the Portsmouth meeting, in which capacity he served through 1675.
John Tripp died in 1678[1] at the age of 67, and was buried 28 October 1678 at Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island. He may have been buried, without a gravestone, at the Society of Friends (Quaker) cemetery.[18]
The Will of John Tripp is dated 6 December 1677, and proved in Portsmouth, Rhode Island on 28 October 1678, his wife Mary, executrix.[19]
On 15 January 1685, Stephen Manchester and his wife Elizabeth gave receipt for L10, legacy from will of John Tripp to his granddaughter Elizabeth Wodell, who Stephen had married; the said John Tripp's widow and executrix Mary, having married second Benjamin Engell; these two last named having delivered the L10, to Peleg Tripp, uncle to Elizabeth, for her use. Receipt was now given for same by Elizabeth, to both her uncle Peleg and Benjamin Engell and Mary.[20][21]
The Relation of John The Founder was discovered in the New Bedford library in 1990 by Paul L. Tripp.[3]
“The Relation of John ye said John Tripp concerning the plases of his aboad First I was born in Horstow in Lincolne Sheire 3 miles from Barton Humber and my father name was John Tripp and my mother name was Isabel Moses before she was married my father when she was a maid and they had about 12 children and much kindred we had and when I grew in years I was put an apprentice to a sheipt carpendist carpenter whose name was John Baats of Thorsbe 3 miles of from Alford in Lincoln Shire afore said where I served 7 years and sometime after wrought with him and after that I bound myself to one Frances East for 4 pounds a year for 4 years who sold me after I had served him and his assign for about a year and a half he sold me to Robert Jafra then living in Boston and Boston Church members persecuting some to the offending of others my master came to Rhode Island with the said persecuted people and I with him and his wife being sickly and they could not get their maid to come to Rhode Island with them because Boston members cried out against Rhode Island people whom the said members had expelled from them therefore my master was forced to sell me to Randal Houlding of Portsmouth one Rhode Island and I served a xxxx while and after bought out the rest of time of him and after a while I married a wife whose maiden name was Mary Paine I being about thirty or twenty eight years old or thereabouts and the Lord hath given us Eleven Children of which one is dead the eldest is 29 years old and upward this 17 of Feb 1670 praised be our Rock who hath been help and unto us at all times gives what thou pleases it is mercy from the to receive anything for the Earth and See is all thine and the fullness thereof."
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Not sure I agree with abbreviating months. This is an international site and abbreviations may trip up people who are not native English-speaking.
I also think we can remove my 2014 editing notes. We don't need that anymore. I'll do that.
The non-cited bullet points under sources could be reviewed. If they repeat the inline citations, they can be removed. Those that remain should be placed under a "See also:"