Re: Abram WORDELL- Hannah THURSTON
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In reply to:
Abram WORDELL- Hannah THURSTON
Marjorie Perry 6/05/03
Hi, Marge:
My great-great-great grandmother was Sarah "Sally" Wordell, a sister of Abram, so we would be fifth cousins, give or take. Their parents were Gershom6(Gershom5-2, William1) Wordell and Peace6(Elijah5, Joseph4-3, John2, Richard1) Borden.
Sally married Weston6(John5, Benjamin4, Stephen3, Robert2, William1) Gifford. They lived on Blossom Road, just over the Westport line into Fall River, and are buried in the Wordell Cemetery at the corner of Sanford and Old Bedford Roads in Westport. There is a large farmhouse at the corner of Old Bedford Road and Blossom Road that was built by either Gershom6 or Gershom7 Wordell, I'm not sure which.
William1 Wordell, as a number of other of our shared ancestors, was a follower of the Antinomian preacher Anne Hutchinson in Boston who were banished in 1637 and founded Portsmouth, RI in 1638. Through the Bordens we are distant cousins of Fall River's most famous resident, Lizzie Borden of 40 whacks fame.
My great-great grandparents were Leonard Gifford, son of Weston and Sally, and Lovina Freelove. She was the daughter of another family you asked about, Thomas5(Thomas4, Joseph3, Samuel2, Morris1) Freelove and Betsey6(Nathaniel Starbuck5, Edward4-3, Thomas2, Edward1) Thurston.
Betsey Thurston was a descendant of Mayflower passengers Francis Cooke, John Cooke and Richard Warren, through her paternal grandmother Parnell/Parnold (Mott)(Sawdy) Thurston. Betsey was also a distant cousin of the 19th century feminist Lucretia Coffin Mott (Abram Wordell would be a distant cousin to another famous feminist, Susan Brownell Anthony). As reflected in her father's middle name, Betsey Thurston was a descendant of the Starbucks, a noted whaling family of Nantucket (like their Nantucket cousins the Folgers and Chases --- as in Chase & Sanborn --- the Starbucks are better known today for their coffee than their whaling).
I grew up in Little Compton, RI and vaguely knew a few descendants of Abram Wordell (through the line of Gardiner K.8., Clarence G.9). Most of the Wordells of LC, and there are quite a few, are descended through Abram and Sally's nephew Gideon8(Gershom7).
Most of these families (Wordell, Thurston, Gifford, Borden, Starbuck, Coffin, Mott) were predominantly Quakers in the 1700s.