Mathew/Matthias Curwen/Corwin--Part 2

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Mathew/Matthias Curwen/Corwin--Part 2

Legg inn av BarBara » 22 apr 2005 20:03:30

(See Part 1 for the first part of this article.)

Parentage of Matthew/Matthias Curwen/Corwin of Sibbertoft, Northants,
England and Southold, Long Island, New York -- Part 2

Weis says Thomas (Line 37-39) was b. 1608 and George was b. 1610. At the
time of John’s death in 1631, Elizabeth was unmarried, thus probably 16 or
younger and b. 1615 or later. Jane was also unmarried in 1631, thus probably
14 or younger and b. 1617 or later. (Or they could both be somewhat older
and unmarried for some other reason.) Then there’s Mathew’s daughter, Mary.

Mary was under 12 in 1631, so she was age 1 to 11 and thus b. 1620-1630.
Mathew (married or not) could have fathered her probably not younger than
age 16, and thus would have been 17 when she was born and probably 18 when
she was 1 year old. If Mary was 1 (b. 1630), then Mathew would have been 18
(b. 1613) AT THE YOUNGEST. If she's 11 (b. 1620), then Mathew would have
been 28 (b. 1603).

BUT

Thomas was b. in 1608 and George was b. 1610, so the earliest Mathew could
have been born is ca 1612, so the oldest he can be in 1631 is 21, which
makes Mary between 1 and 4 (b. 1626-30). But Matthew/Matthias the immigrant
had already married Margaret Shatswell by 1627.

There's an outside chance that Mathew was the first born of John's
children and deceased in 1631, but it doesn’t seem likely. It's more
probable he was born third, fourth, or fifth -- i.e., ca 1612 or later.

Those who are pushing the Matthew son-of-John theory fail to take into
account the following:

(1) John’s son, Mathew, had a daughter, Mary, under age 12 in 1631. There’s
no record of such a daughter for Matthias the immigrant, whose children were
named John, Martha and Theophilus. I have no firm birth dates for any of
them.

(2) Mathew (if indeed alive in 1631) was left out of his father’s will. If
he was the immigrant, where did he get the money for the trip and purchase
of land -- and what happened to Mary?

(3) Margaret Shatswell was b. ca 1597/8 (proof of her age is indicated in
the chancery suit). If Mathew was the third son of John (and thus born after
George (b. 1610)), he’d be way too young to be her husband. If he was the
second son, he’d have to be 10-15 years older than George, and so Thomas
would be older still. But Thomas was reportedly born in 1608, so the
supposition for an earlier birth for Mathew is untenable, because, if Mathew
was feisty enough to bring suit on behalf of his wife, he would certainly
have raised a fuss were he first born and left out of the will!

Thomas is the co-executor of John’s will, so he’s either the eldest or
Mathew was the eldest and was deceased at the time of his father’s death.
Also, a third son who was that young and was not left anything in his
father's will and furthermore had a small daughter could not be considered
likely to have enough money to pay his way to America and buy land on his
arrival.

A reasonable scenario is that Matthias/ Matthew went to America with the
Shatswells in 1633 and wrote back to his nephew, George (also a second son),
telling him of the opportunity to be had in this new land and persuading him
to emigrate -- which he did in 1638. Later, George returned the favor by
buying Matthias’s land when the latter removed to Southold, Long Island, New
York, in 1640.

Matthias d. in Southold in 1658, which would make him at least 66 or more
when he died, which seems reasonable for those times.

Though some of this is supposition and conjecture, it seems more plausible
that Matthew/Matthias the son of Henry, rather than that Mathew the son of
John and father of Mary, was the immigrant. The facts seem to bear out the
supposition for two Matthews -- the younger the father of Mary who remained
in England and may have died by 1631 and the elder who married Margaret
Shatswell and came to America in 1633 and was the uncle of Thomas and George
in Weis’ Line 37-39.

To prove the latter descent, knowing the answers to the following would be
helpful:

(1) Did Henry Curwen of Sibbertoft really die in 1592?

(2) Was Henry the only Curwen in the area who could be the father of John
and Matthew?

(3) Did Henry indeed have sons named John and Matthew? (No will of his has
been found.)

(4) Was Thomas really born in 1608 as Weis says?

(5) Was there a Matthew in the Sibbertoft area AFTER 1633 (which would at
least prove the existence of two Matthews)?

(6) Is there any death record for a Mathew Curwen before 1631 (which might
explain why he was left out of his father’s will)?

(7) Can birth dates of Matthew/Matthias the immigrant’s children be
determined? (If any of them were born before 1631 and not mentioned in their
supposed grandfather’s will, then that might possibly clinch the argument
that John (d. 1631) wasn’t their grandfather.)

(8) Do any Northants families have records of daughters marrying Curwens in
this time period?

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