According to the book; Thomas Tupper and His Descendants, he didn't come over on the Abigail. I share this interesting piece of history in the interest of accuracy; "Little is known of his life for the next decade or two after leaving the service of Thomas Hampton. It is presumed that he remained in London the greater part of that period, engaged at his trade of leather-working. It was about this time the British East India Company was formed and the London and Plymouth Companies organized; friends of Thomas Hampton were actively engaged in building ships for foreign mercantile ventures, and through them Thomas Tupper became acquainted with the Planckes, Henry Groves, Matthew Cradock and other prominent London merchants who sponsored the first settling of what is now New England. In this way his first departure from England came about in 1621, when he was one of the crew with Captain William Pierce for the West Indies for Browne and Cradock of London, during which voyage he learned the craft of carpentry to add to his trade of shoemaking. Again in 1624 he sailed for North America in a ship owned by Matthew Cradock and commanded by Captain L. Griffin, remaining in New England more than a year, and returning to the port of Gravesend with a cargo of fur and rare woods. His third voyage was in 1631, when with Captain John Pierce he went from London to Cape Ann. It is not known when he returned to England from this cruise. In these sailings Thomas Tupper was listed as one of the crew, worked at his trade, received wages and a part of the profits. Through these engagements he became closely associated with Thomas Mayhew, merchant and employee of Matthew Cradock from 1623, and also Edmund Freeman who during this period was connected with the Planckes and John Beauchamp, London merchants, as a bookkeeper. He formed lasting friendships as well with Mr. Henry Feake, goldsmith of London, and John Carman, master mariner, both of whom with himself became proprietors of the town of Sandwich in 1637, and from whose life histories the foregoing facts have been learned. Thomas Tupper, from all data obtainable, did not marry until forty-four years of age. Certain facts with relation to his known associations with the families of Geere, Launder and Nye hint at an earlier marriage, but nothing has been found on record to substantiate it. There is evidence, however, that he married twice in England, losing both spouses by death before 1635. By the first of them, Katherine Gator, daughter of John Gator of county Sussex, whom he married 29 April 1622 in the parish of Chelmsford, county Essex, he had several children, among whom was a son Robert whose death is recorded in 1630, and a daughter Katherine, born 31 January 1623. By his marriage to Susan Turner, a widow, 25 January 1628, he had a son Thomas who died in infancy, another son Robert, christened 3 Nov. 1633, who was with him later in New England, and other children who died young. This wife's maiden name has not been traced. From the death of his wife Susan it is evident that in 1634 Thomas Tupper was a widower with a girl of twelve and a boy of two. Although no record of their passage has been found, these children must have come to New England soon after the death of Susan, either accompanying their father on one of his unrecorded voyages or in the care of some friend, as is indicated in Geere correspondence. At all events they were in Sandwich in 1637 with their father and stepmother. The last named was his third wife, a widow by the name of Anne Hodgson or Hudson it is believed, whose marriage to "Thomas Topper" 21 December 1634 at Ipswich, Colony of Massachusetts Bay, is a matter of record. That this Topper can be identified as Thomas Tupper there seems little question, as there is evidence that he was residing in that part of the colony at about that time, and elsewhere we find his name sometimes misspelled Topper. This third wife was the mother of his son Thomas, born at Sandwich in 1638. It has long been a belief that Thomas Tupper took passage on the ship Abigail which sailed from Plymouth, England, 1 August 1635, with 220 persons on board, and arrived at Boston, in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 8 October 1635; and that this was his first voyage to America. That these beliefs are founded on error is now apparent; it has been shown that he was in the country earlier, had made at least three voyages, and finally his name does not appear on the passenger list of the Abigail on her voyage of 1635, which has been published in full (Banks: "Planters of the Commonwealth" 1930). The docking of the ship Abigail at the port of Boston that October day was of some historical importance, so much so, in fact, that the roster of her passengers and other persons on board has been checked most carefully by many historians whose findings are on record, accounting for all but possibly six persons none of whom could have been of much importance, whose names are fragmentary and conjectural. This scrutiny was due to the presence on board the vessel of Sir Henry Vane, the son and heir of Sir Henry Vane, Comptroller of the King's Household, and his retinue; of John Winthrop the younger, his young second wife, his son Deane by his first wife, and his several servants; of the Reverend Hugh Peter, pastor of the English Church at Rotterdam, Holland, who was to succeed Roger Williams as pastor of the church at Salem; and of the Reverend John Wilson, who was returning to Boston with his wife, her first appearance in New England. Among other arriving families, two were of special importance to Thomas Tupper. The head of one, Edmund Freeman, became the promoter and leader of the company of ten men who founded the town of Sandwich on Cape Cod, and the other was Dennis Geere, grandson of Thomas' father's old friend William Geere, a young man just entering his thirties, his wife and two small children. The Abigail was held in port several days on her arrival, on account of an outbreak of smallpox among her passengers, and Dennis Geere was one of the unfortunate victims of the disease, death taking him within a few weeks after his arrival in Lynn. His wife also contracted it and survived him only a few days. Realizing that his illness would probably be fatal, Geere made a will, a remarkable document preserved for posterity in the Probate Registry at London, in which, after providing for relatives, he named five residuary legatees, to be paid specifically from his estate in New England, as follows: To Thomas Topper, five pounds To Thomas Braines, three pounds To Thomas Launder, three pounds To Benjamin Nye, thirty shillings To Thomas Grenvil, ten shillings No explanation was given for allocating such specific amounts to these individuals, so they may have been merely amounts owing to them for services. "Thomas Topper" was unquestionably Thomas Tupper, a fact corroborated by contemporaneous circumstances, as all five men were later identified with the settlement of Sandwich. The important link to this history is the evidence it bears that Thomas Tupper was in America prior to the arrival of the Abigail. Records can be traced showing that he eventually received his legacy in the form of land in the townsite of Sandwich. Benjamin Nye, as the beneficiary of 30 shillings is so mentioned in the Nye Genealogy published 1907, and with his marriage later to Thomas Tupper's daughter Katherine became the progenitor of the Nye family of America." |