1627 - 1673 (45 years)
-
| Name |
CORNELL, Thomas |
| Suffix |
Jr. |
| Birth |
21 Oct 1627 |
Saffron Walden, Essex, England  |
| Gender |
Male |
| _COLOR |
2 |
| Death |
23 May 1673 |
Portsmouth, RI |
| Cause: hanged for the murder of his mother |
| Person ID |
I21401 |
Puffers |
| Last Modified |
25 Apr 2017 |
| Father |
CORNELL, Thomas, b. 24 Mar 1594, Manor, Essex, England d. 7 Feb 1655, Portsmouth, RI (Age 60 years) |
| Mother |
BRIGGS, Rebecca, b. 25 Oct 1600, London, London, England d. 8 Feb 1672, Newport, RI (Age 71 years) |
| Family ID |
F9307 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
FISCOCK, Elizabeth, b. 1625, England d. 1658, Portsmouth, RI (Age 33 years) |
| Marriage |
2 Nov 1642 |
Portsmouth, RI |
| Children |
| | 1. CORNELL, Thomas, b. 1653, Portsmouth, RI d. 14 Oct 1714, Portsmouth, RI (Age 61 years) |
| | 2. CORNELL, Stephen, b. CA 1656 d. Bef 1723 (Age < 66 years) |
| | 3. CORNELL, John, b. 1658, RI d. Yes, date unknown |
| | 4. CORNELL, Edward, b. CA 1665, RI d. Yes, date unknown |
|
| Family ID |
F4051 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
14 Apr 2024 |
-
| Notes |
- He was found guilty of murdering his mother and was hanged for it. However, the murder was never really solved. You can read about it all in the book "Killed strangely: The story of Rebecca Cornell, by Elaine Forham Crane. A local record of the account, "Rebecca Cornell, widow, was killed strangely at Portsmouth in her own dwelling house, and twice viewed by the Coroner's Inquest, digged up and buried again by her husband's grave in their own land.' On May 23 her son Thomas was charged with murder. John Cornell, in his Genealogy of the Cornell Family, wrote that the trial "reads like a farce. It appears that the old lady having been sitting by the fire smoking a pipe, a coal had fallen from the fire or her pipe, and that she was burned to death. But on the strength of a vision which her brother John Briggs had, in which she appeared to him after her death and said: ‘See how I was burned with fire.' It was inferred that she was set fire to, and that her son who was last with her did it, and principally on this evidence Thomas Cornell was tried, convicted and hung for her murder...."
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Puffer Genealogy