b.abt.1596 England; parents ukn
d.June 26, 1682 York, ME
CHILDREN included: (possibly)
NOTE: From The Pioneers of Maine and New Hampshire by POPE page 46: COUSINS, COSSONS, COSENS, John, sailor, Casco, mentioned in record of Maine Court Apr. 4, 1637. Accounts with Winter in 1639. Testified 18 Sept. 1640, as to the name of Casco river which he had known for 14 years. Deputy to Ligonia Assembly in 1658. [York Deeds I] He deposed 26 June 1682, ae. abt.86 yrs. [York de. III]
NOTE: From Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire by Noyes, Libby & Davis, p.165: COUSINS, 3- John, Casco Bay 1626, sailor, ±85 1682-3, ±87 1683, ±88 1684; dep. in 1640 that he had kn. Casco river for ab. 14 yrs. Assemblyman 1648, Dep. to Lygonia Assembly 1658, jury 1640, 1667. Lists 10, 21, 211. Had gr. from Richard Vines of two islands, totaling 500 a., (one of them still called Cousin's), and liv. thereon, deeding ½ of each to Richard Bray and Sabella, his w., in 1651-2. Retiring to York in the war, he liv. with Mrs. Mary Sayward, to whom he gave all of his est. by deed made 1679 and ack. 1682, for past and future care and maintenance.
NOTES: From Ancient North Yarmouth and Yarmouth, Maine 1636-1936--A History, by W.H. Rowe; page 13-- "Second only to William Royall in importance as a pioneer was John Cousins. Cousins was a man highly esteemed in the early settlements for his integrity and diligence. He was born in England in 1596 and is mentioned by an order of the Gorges court as an inhabitant of Casco Bay as early as 1637. The exact date of his coming to Wescustogo we do not know but it is certain that lived for a few years on the neck of high land which divides the eastern and western branches of Cousins River, where he owned some three hundred acres of land, his farm extending back into the country about a mile, as far as the northern branch of the western or main branch of the river. Here he built a good-sized house and barn.
On the sixth of April, 1645, he purchased of Richard Vines the two beautiful islands at the mouth of Royall's River, one of which bears his surname, an the other, Littlejohn's, if we may venture an opinion, his given name. Three years later he served as one of the general associated in Cleeve's government of Lygonia and his name appears under his mark, an anchor, on the decree in favor of Robert Jordan in the matter of the Trelawney estate.
In 1650 he sold a part of his larger island to Bray. After living in his Wescustogo estate for upwards of thirty years he was obliged to leave at the outbreak of the first Indian war, receiving at that time a severe wound in his hand that he was compelled to go to York that it might be suitably treated. While here he lived with Mary Saywood to whom he later deeded his real estate in Casco Bay. His death, the date of which is uncertain, di not occur until he had at least reached the age of eighty-seven. He seems to have had no descendant nor did he, after the restoration of peace, return to Wescusogo."
page 16: "...the first notice we have of them [Thomas Reddin and his wife Eleanor] on Cousins River, is in 1666 when John Cousins as the constable of Wescustogo, complained of Eleanor Redding for abusing her neighbor Ann Lane..."
Page 18-19: "...A few cases appear in the records of the court held in Casco in 1666/67 which it may be interesting to note. Sabbath breaking in various forms seems the most serious charge. William Haines was complained by John Cousins as a common liar and retaliated by charging Cousins with playing cards on the Lord's day, but both failed to prove the truth of their allegations to the satisfaction of the court."
History of Saco and Biddeford, by Folsom; page 51--'April 4, 1637: It is ordered that every planter or inhabitant shall doe his best endeavor to apprehend, execute or kill any Indian that hath binne known to murder any Inglish, kill their cattle or any way spoyle their goods, doe them violance, and will not make them satisfaction; if it shall be proved that any planter or inhabitant hath benne negligent therein, he shall be fined at the discretion of the bench.' Arthur Browne and Arthur Mackworth are empowered to make John Cousins pay satisfaction to an Indian for the wrong he hath done him. [No other explaination of specifically what he did.]
From Directory of the Ancestral Heads of New England Families 1620-1700 by Holmes: John b.Eng., 1596, was at what is now North Yarmouth, Maine, 1645; removed to York, Maine, 1675.
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b.abt.1613 Marlborough, Wilshire, England; presumed s/o John Cousins
chr.Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
d.July 23, 1702 Boston, MA
m.(1)abt.1643/6 Elizabeth _______
b.ca.1625; parents ukn
d.Oct. 14, 1656 in Boston
m.(2)July 1657 Boston, MA; Ann (Hunt) Edwards, widow of John Edwards
b.abt.1613 of Boston, MA
d.Oct. 14, 1656 prob. Boston, MA
m.(poss.#3)bef.1660 Rebecca _______ [W.G. Davis believes this may be a clerical error, repeating the child's name "Rebecca", to the mother]
m.(poss.#4)by 1677, Martha (Stanbury) Priest
CHILDREN of Isaac and Elizabeth:
Isaac Cousins emigrated before 1643 from Marlborough, Wiltshire Co., England. An expert gunsmith and locksmith, and rolling stone, living in Rowley in 1647, Boston and Dorchester, besides negotiating for settlement with New London, Connecticut in 1651, Haverhill in 1652, Ipswich in 1656, Portsmouth, where he was received as a tradesman in 1659, and a connection with North Yarmouth, Maine in 1678.
He was warned out of Dorchester (a method of getting rid of undesirables and dissenters) in 1691 "having a long time bin an inhabitant of Boston and now being aged", and died in the Boston poorhouse, 23 July 1702. He filed a suit against Richard Priest of Boston in 1696 for withholding household goods where in the house where Isaac and Martha his late wife had lived.
Sources: Genealogical Dictionary of New England, Ancestry of Lydia Harmon by W. Goodwin Davis, pages 47-53; Encyclopedia of Biography Vol 47, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire page 658, History of Haverhill by George Wingate Chase.; Maassachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis Vol. 1
From Directory of the Ancestral Heads of New England Families 1620-1700 by Holmes: Isaac from Marlborough, Wiltshire, Eng., arrived at Rowley, Mass., 1650.
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b.about 1649, Rowley, MA; s/o Isaac Cousins and Elizabeth _______
d.May 18, 1690 at Wells, ME
m.abt.1675 Wells, ME Hannah Ward
b.abt.1650/56 Wells, ME
CHILDREN included:
Thomas was living in Wells in 1666. Thomas doubtless living in his boyhood with his sister Elizabeth Barrett in Wells. He took an oath of fidelity, July 7, 1670. In 1675 he served in King Philip's War and was accused (and acquitted) of perjury for his evidence at Scottow's trial for not sending aid from the Black Point garrison to hard pressed soldiers. He was convicted of "presumptuous and reproachful expressions" against the Captain, doubtless for the purpose of satisfying that important personage whose conduct during the critical days of 1675 and 1676 was subject to severe criticism. [Early Records of Maine, Maine Historical Society Copy, Vol. III, p.399, and Vol. IV p.76.]
In 1684, Thomas received a grant of 100 acres west of the river which forms boundary between Wells and Kennebunk, ME and southeast of the post road, which was obtained from town of Wells, ME. He was driven away with other settlers by Indians in 1690 and may have been slain during the warfare as there is no further record of him, and his farm was in the possession of his children in 1717.
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b.1688, s/o Thomas Cousins and Hannah (Ward)
d.before April 3, 1764 at Wells, ME
m.July 26, 1714 Ruth Cole
b.Nov. 15, 1694 Kennebunk, ME, d/o Thomas Cole and Abigail ______
d.before Nov. 23, 1768 at Wells, ME
CHILDREN of Ichabod and Ruth:
Ruth Cole's parents were killed by Indians June 24, 1696 while traveling between York and Wells, ME. From History of Wells and Kennebunk, Maine, by E.E. Bourne, 1875, pg. 221: "But during the next year (1696)...Thomas Cole and his wife Abigail, and two other men and their wives, who had been on a visit to York, on their return were waylaid by them [Indians]. Cole and his wife were shot dead...Cole was the son of Nicholas Cole. We presume that he left no descendants. He had twins, but they died in infancy."
From History of Kennebunk, by Daniel Remich, 1911, pg. 359-360:"Nicholas Cole's grant, next below that of Edmund Littlefield, was conveyed by Ichabod Cousens and his wife Ruth (Cole) Cousens, to Storer, May 10, 1745, "containing one hundred acres of upland, made to our grandfather, Nicholas Cole, May 7, 1681, by the town of Wells."
"1734. Laid out for Richard Stimpson and Ichabod Cousens, heirs of Thomas Cole, under grant to said Cole (1693), one hundred acres...", History of Kennebunk, pg. 86.
"1717, October 13. Laid out for Ichabod Cousens, under grant to his father, Thomas Cousens, one hundred acres on southwest side of, bounded by Mousem path, Nicholas Cole, etc., etc."
During the Indian warfare on the coast, Ichabod Cousins' house was surrounded by flankers.
In a deposition, dated July 6, 1714, Ichabod Cousins stated he had known of the Joseph Littlefield farm ever since he could remember. He purchased the shares of his farm in Wells, ME in 1717 and 1726; and the town confirmed his title in the right of his father.
Ichabod Cousins served as a sergeant in Col. John Storer's company; and "he was a soldier in the old French war[1755] and died with the smallpox contracted while in the service. At what period the ancestors came to Wells, no record informs us."--pg. 773, History of Wells and Kennebunk, Maine
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b.Nov. 20, 1735 Wells, ME son of Ichabod Cousins and Ruth Cole
bapt.July 11, 1736 Wells, ME
d.Jan. 18, 1816 Hull's Cove, ME
m.Dec. 3,1758 Bathsheba Hamor
b.May/March 1 or 11, 1742 Sheepscot, ME; d/o John Hamor and Sarah Huff
d.March 23, 1830 Hull's Cove, ME
CHILDREN of Elisha and Bathsheba:
Elisha Cousins was born in Wells, ME. When he was about 20 years of age he went to the adjoining town of Kennebunkport where he became acquainted with the Hamor family. Bathsheba Hamor was then 13 years old. Three-and-a-half years later, when she was 16-and-a half and he was 23, he married her. They lived in Kennebunkport for ten years before moving to Harpswell.
Elisha was a very prominent and influential citizen and took a very active part in the public business of the plantation and town of Mount Desert and also of Eden after its incorporation and held many responsible offices under each organization. At a meeting of the town of Mount Desert held April 7, 1794 the following vote was passed "4th Voted that Mr. Elisha Cousins go to the General Court and git the towns Land Confirmed to the Town.--In the records of an adjourned town meeting of Mount Desert on April 6, 1795, I find the following: "Mr. Elisha Cousins protests against the Precedings of the aforesaid meeting." Attest, James Richardson, Town Clerk. At the annual town meeting of Eden April 24, 1796 Mr. Cousins was chosen Moderator and Chairman of the board of Selectmen. He was a Blacksmith. He and his wife were the founders of the Cousins family of Eden, Trenton, and Lamoine.
John Hamor II, brother of Bathsheba, married Mary Rodick, a sister of Daniel Rodick, at Kennebunkport and had five children. Their oldest boy, David, was eleven years old when, in 1768, John Hamor II took his family in a little vessel to Hull's Cove, Mt. Desert Island, and built a house. John Hamor was the first settler on the Frenchman's Bay side of the island. The next spring or summer he started in his vessel for his old home, Kennebunkport, and was never seen again. His wife was left with five children. We don't know how many long days, weeks, or months she looked in vain for her husband's return. One day a vessel came with John's two sisters, Bathsheba and Betty, and their husbands Elisha Cousins and Daniel Rodick, and their children.
Daniel Rodick settled on Bar Island; in 1769 Elisha Cousins became the second family to settle on Hull's Cove. John Hamor's widow brought up the five children and lived until May 31, 1814 when she was killed by an accident. What part her brother-in-law, Elisha Cousins, had in helping her we do not know.
Elisha Cousins served in the Rev. War as a sergeant in Capt. Daniel Sullivan's company of volunteers, from July 28 to Sept. 28, 1779. This company served on an expedition against Majorbagaduce (Castine). Elisha Cousins was a moderator, town clerk, selectman, committee member, and a surveyor of boards in Eden (Bar Harbor).
From History of Kennebunkport by Bradbury, page 235: Cousins, Samuel and Elisha, lived in Arundel in 1764, as they paid a poll tax that year. samuel m.Susan Watson and moved to Cape Menan; Elisha m.Bashaba Hamer and moved to Harpswell. They probably live on Cousins' Point, near Turbat's Creek.
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b.May or March 23, 1773 Hull's Cove, s.o Elisha Cousins, Sr. and Bathsheba Hamor
d.Sept. 25, 1850
m.Thankful (Hopkins) Wasgatt
b.July 28, 1772, d/o Joseph Hopkins and Mary Higgins
d.Jan. 23, 1852
Thankful had two children, William and Eleanor, by her first husband, William Wasgatt.
Elisha and Thankful had 8 children, all born at Hull's Cove:
Elisha Jr. was admitted with his wife to the First Church, Mt. Desert, in 1823
In 1836 Elisha Jr. and his son Nahum had a blacksmith shop on the road to Eden about a mile from the "Narrows" after his mother's death in 1830, and before 1836, he had sold his father's house and land at Hull's Cove and acquired another with a lot of mixed land and salt marsh on the "Western Bay". He was now about 60 or 63 years of age and had spent a considerable part of this life in the care of the old people. His sons, Joseph, Charles, Zacheus, and Samuel all having resorted to the sea.
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b.Dec. 22, 1801 Hulls Cove, ME; s/o Elisha Cousins, Jr. and Thankful Hopkins
m.(1)Dec. 8, 1830 Trenton, Maine, Joanna Anderson
b.1812 Trenton, Maine
d.July 27, 1848; bur. Trenton, ME in Capt. Thomas Anderson Cemetery
m.(2)Mrs. Lydia Smith
m.(3)Hannah Walls
CHILDREN of Joseph and Joan/Joanne:
Captain Joseph Cousins married Sarah Anderson. He built a house for his bride on the road just above his father's home. His wife did not like this location, so he hauled the house by ox team down to low water mark, and when the tide came in he floated it across the bay and hauled it about a half mile up the road next to the home of his sister, Mary Murch. After a short stay here, he removed to Long Island Plantation. Following his wife's death, he took the boys on his fishing vessel where they practically grew up. Later in life he settled in Deer Isle.
W.E. Cousins, grandson to Joseph Cousins, believes it is a mistake to say that his grandfather came to Deer Isle--unless possibly for a brief sojourn--but spent his last days on outer Long Island, just east of Swans Island, and thinks he died there and possibly is buried there.
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b.September 2, 1843 Oak Point (Trenton),ME; s/o Joseph Cousins and Joanna Anderson
d.March 1908 Stonington, ME; buried in Woodlawn Cemetery
m.(1)May 12, 1870 Elizabeth Ann Robbins Stinson (Lizzie)
b.1844; d/o Otis Stinson and Martha Dow
d.1876 Green's Landing (now Stonington); buried in Woodlawn Cemetery
m.(2)Dec. 17, 1876 Melissa Elwood (Colby) Davis Holden; Charles was Melissa's third husband.
b.May 27, 1844 Webb's Cove, Stonington, ME; d/o Oliver Lane Colby and Abigail Knowlton
d.Oct. 13, 1920 Stonington, ME bur. Woodlawn Cemetery
Melissa m.(1)Dec. 4, 1860 Joseph Davis, s/o Joseph Davis of Brooksville
Melissa m.(2)Amasa "Samuel" E. Holden, her former teacher
CHILDREN of Charles and Elizabeth Ann:
CHILDREN OF Charles and Melissa:
CHILDREN of Ethel and Stephen:
NOTES: Charles was named for his Uncle Charles Cousins, hence the Charles Cousins Cousins moniker.
Before coming to Deer Isle, Charles had erected the frame of a house at Oak Point, Trenton. He had been coasting but shifted to a fishing vessel that put in at So. Deer Isle. It was when mackerelling was at its top notch and So. Deer Isle enjoyed the distinction of being one of the thriftiest hamlets on the Maine coast. Together with being well impressed with the outlook and the acquaintance of Otis Stinson's daughter, Lizzie Ann, the Oak Point house was never finished but razed for other uses of lumber instead.
Charles married Lizzie Ann on March 27, 1869. They moved into the house of John Robbins in So. Deer Isle. They then moved into what has been termed "the Cole House" on Mill Hill. It stood where there is now a cleared field, threatened with alders, etc., between "Lovers Lane" and the old road on the summit of Mill Hill. In 1872 they moved from there to Stonington where he purchased about an acre of land.
Lizzie Ann died in 1876 with TB, and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. Charles married the widow Melissa Elwood (Colby) Davis Holden, to whom he was published in D.I. Nov. 29, 1876.
See Marion Dixon's Story about her grandparents.
Charles established a trucking business on [the] Island--particularly Stonington--with the aid of his husky son, Charles Lyman, and the help of Percy, and the business was then handed down to the youngest son, Robert (who operated it until his death in 1930)--except the many horses, once trotting down the street, [were] replaced by motor trucks.
Melissa filled out the remainder of Samuel E. Holden's commission as Keeper of Mark Island Light after his death.
See Picture of Mark Island Light ca.1910.
Another news story of Melissa on Mark Island can be found at Colby Family homepage.
See Melissa's Obituary
See Melissa's Picture
See BLN Bio of Amasa: Here
See Amasa's Stories
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b.May 21, 1870, son of Charles C. Cousins and Elizabeth Ann Stinson
d.Dec. 27, 1936 Stonington ME; buried in Woodlawn Cemetary in Stonington
m.June 1, 1895 Sarah Lydia Bray
b.Feb. 5, 1875, dau. of Thomas Cole Bray and Percinia Fifield
d.Mar. 22, 1942
CHILDREN of Willie and Sarah:
BLN Notes: ...Willie in his younger days, went with his father in the packet and freighting vessel but soon changed to the quarry fad where he ran a hoisting engine on Crotch Island. His feet giving out from excessive straining of arches in holding brake levers, he turned his attention to lighter work in April 1905, so took up restaurant duties with Sadie as cook, in a small store house building he purchased from his father on his dock adjoinging Russ. He prospered here and hen raised the upper story of the house so as to make a commodious suite of rooms which well serve him as home.
Entertaining, honest and of temperate habits, he is esteemed as one of Stonington's best citizens. He was a good patron the Masonic and Pythian fraternities until his duties confined him strictly at home.
During the World War, business in Bath had an extreme inflation due to war vessel contracts, so that he opened a stand there until the boom was over and upon returning to Stonington has adhered steadily to his old stand. Religiouly, he is an extreme liberalist or rationalist and politically a Democrat.
After his mother's death his step-mother, Melissa, loved and cared for him as she did her own.
Virgie Lisheness Cousins (wife of Percy) retired from teaching, mandatory on her 70th birthday, March 18, 1966. Upon her retirement she lived with Claris and Louie in Willards, Md during the winter months and in Maine during the summer, until 1980 then lived with Claris and Louie year-round.
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b.Oct. 4, 1879 Deer Isle, son of Charles C.Cousins and Melissa E. Colby
d.1914 Deer Isle
m.Susie Fifield
b.Mar. 28, 1883, dau. of John Fifield and Mary Hosmer
d.Jan. 7, 1950
See Aunt Susie's Cake Recipe
CHILDREN of Charles Lyman and Susie:
BLN Notes: He acquired the old [Cookins?] house and lot adjoining the southern border of the High School lot where he built a nice residence, in which lives his widow today. ...just across the street, he erected a store and [?]overhead where he first set up housekeeping and did a smart grocery business with, for a clerk, the present Clayton Gilley of Rockland, who was succeeded by Leon [Hart?] (son of Walter) now (1928) of Boston. Lyman contracted rheumatic fever which so ruined his health by involvement of the heart that he d.March 18, 1914 at noon from cardiac failure and Bright's disease in the residence where now lives the widow, aged 55-5-14.
Susie m.(2) Robert Knowlton Cousins, a younger brother of Lyman. [soon divorced]
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b.July 31, 1883/4, son of Charles C. Cousins and Melissa E. Colby
d.1930 (drowned off Barter's Wharf in Stonington)
m.(1)Jan. 1, 1908 Agatha Cole Grindle
b.July 6, 1882 Brooksville, dau. of Elwood Grindle and Emma Limeburner
d.Sept. 16, 1920 (drowned in a well in Stonington)
m.(2)Susie (Fifield) Cousins--his brother's widow(divorced)
m.(3)Martha "Belle" Darling Hamblen
See: Robert's and Aggie's wedding invitation.
See: Aggie's photo
See: Bob Cousins' Picture
See: Rebecca Cousins Knight's Obituary.
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