ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS
ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS
A SKETCH BY A FRIEND
BOSTON
PRIVATELY PRINTED
1920
The Merrymount Press · Boston
ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS
Alice Cogswell Bemis came from a long line of good British stock. Shewas in the eighth generation from John Cogswell, who was born atWestbury Leigh, Wiltshire, in 1592. He was a man of standing and ofconsiderable inherited property. Among the latter were "The Mylls,"called "Ripond," situated in the parish of Fromen, Selwood, togetherwith the homestead and certain personal property. He married ElizabethThompson, a daughter of the Vicar of Westbury parish. After twenty yearsof married life, during which they had lived in the family homestead andhe had carried on his father's prosperous business, he decided toemigrate to America, and on May 23, 1625, leaving one married daughterin England, they embarked with their eight other children on the famousship, The Angel Gabriel. We find no mention of a special reason fortheir leaving England, but it was probably the same that led many othersof their type to begin life afresh in the new world; here thepossibilities of the country to be developed were limitless, and[Pg 2]doubtless these offered a better outlook for their children, whosewelfare must have been uppermost in their thoughts and plans.
The voyage of The Angel Gabriel and its wreck off Pemaquid, on thecoast of Maine, in the frightful gale of August 15, 1625, are told inthe graphic story of the Rev. Richard Mather, who was a passenger on theship James, which sailed from England on the same day. The James layat anchor off the Isles of Shoals while The Angel Gabriel was offPemaquid. She was torn from her anchors and obliged to put to sea, butafter two days' terrible battling with storm and wave, reached Bostonharbor with "her sails rent in sunder, and split in pieces, as if theyhad been rotten rags." Of The Angel Gabriel, he says: "It was burst inpieces and cast away." Strong winds from the northeast and great tidalwaves made it a total wreck. John Cogswell and all his family werewashed ashore from the broken decks of their ship, but several otherslost their lives. Some of the many valuable possessions they had broughtwith them never came to shore, but among the articles saved was a tent[Pg 3]which gave good service at once; this Mr. Cogswell pitched for atemporary abiding place. As soon as possible he took passage for Boston,where he made a contract with the captain of a small bark to sail forPemaquid and transport his family to Ipswich, Massachusetts, then anewly settled town.
The settlers of Ipswich at once appreciated these newcomers, and themunicipal records show that liberal grants of land were made to JohnCogswell. Among them was one spoken of as "Three hundred acres of landat the further Chebokoe," which later was incorporated as a part ofEssex. Here in 1636 their permanent home was built, and here, covering aperiod of over two hundred and fifty years, their descendants cultivatedthe land. The Cogswells had brought with them several farm and householdservants, as well as valuable furniture, farming implements, a