Tenth Generation

930. Thomas CORNELL was born on 21 October 1627 in Saffron Walden, Essex, England. He was born on 21 October 1627 in Saffron Walden, Essex, England. He died on 23 May 1673 at the age of 45 in Newport, Newport Co., RI. Born ca. 1621 in Essex, England. Thomas was baptized in Saffron-Walden, Essex, Eng. on 21 Oct 1627. Thomas died on 23 May 1673 in Portsmouth, RI.

On 17 Mar 1655 Thomas was chosen with three others to prize land and buildings of John Wood, deceased. He had a grant of ten acres 10 Dec 1657. On 4 May 1670 he and three others were appointed to audit colonies' accounts.His bill to Assembly for futher encouragement of a troop of horse was referred on 7 Jun 1671 to the next Assembly. At the same meeting it was ordered that Thomas Cornell be desired to be a messenger from the court to carry a letter to the Governor of Plymouth, and that he be supplied with 20 shillings in silver by the treasurer towards bearing his charge.

On 23 May 1673 Thomas was executed for the murder of his mother. On 7 Mar 1674 "ordered by the Assembly, whereas, Thomas Cornell of Portsmouth, who was lately executed for murthering his mother, Mrs. Rebecca Cornell, whereupon according to law, this court of Tryalls have made seizure of his estate. This Assembly (in consideration of the matter, and for the supply of the wife and children of the said Thomas), do see cause to release the said seizure and empowere the council of the towne of Portsmouth to take care and order that the estate of the said Thomas be soe secured and improved that just debts and other charges be first paid and discharged, and that then his wife and children be supplyed and relieved and to that end to order and appoint an executor or executors for the true performance thereof, and that this said Towne Council doe make a will according to law, divide the estate to this wife and children of the said Thomas."

On 8 Feb 1673 Friend's Records state "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. Durfee in his Legal Tracts of Rhode Island, comments on the strangeness of this trial and the injustice of the execution. The writer of this remarked to a leading lawyer of Newport (who knows much of the history of Rhode Island), that there seemed very little evidence to convict this Thomas Cornell, the lawyer's answer was simply: 'There was no evidence."
Sarah EARLE and Thomas CORNELL were married after 1650 in Portsmouth, Newport Co., RI.

931. Sarah EARLE was born about 1637 in Portsmouth, Newport Co., RI. She died in 1690 at the age of 53 in Tiverton, RI.

Children were: