Week 25 – Fast

 

Mario Andretti or Dale Earnhardt do not reside in my family tree (although a couple of family members could give them a run for their money). I have no one that rode the Pony Express, or ran a foot race, other than the “legend”, as in many families, where a great (however many) grandfather ran a race for the hand of an Indian Princess. While I don’t have an ancestor that did anything exceptionally fast, I do have an ancestor, that when times got tough she was fast afoot…(and maybe a little loose)

My ninth great-grandfather was Peter Tallman who was born between 1616 and 1623 in Hamburg, Germany.  He left Germany in 1647 for Barbados in the West Indies. He married a few years after landing in Barbados, to Ann Hill, daughter of Phillip Hill and his wife, Anne. They married at Christ Church Parish on 2 January 1649. Peter quickly became a well-to-do shipping magnate and relocated, setting up his base of operation in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He took with him his wife, his mother-in-law, and brother-in-law, Robert Hill. He was one of the earliest purchasers of land on Martha’s Vineyard. He also had property in Connecticut and Long Island. I descend from their first-born daughter, Mary, who married John Pearce. Peter and Ann had six children together.

The name Peter Tallman appears often in the early records of New England. Many of them indicate, at least to me, that he was pretty much a jerk. I know there’s two sides to every story, and I’ll let you decide for yourself. All that aside, he was apparently a leader, as in 1661 he was General Solicitor for the Colony of Rhode Island.  He did, however, have a number of run-ins with the courts. As early as 1656, a complaint was filed against him for removing tobacco that was attached to a court order in Flushing, New York. He was imprisoned in Massachusetts for breaking a law prohibiting the receipt of land from Indians by deed of gift. He relinquished the deeds in order to obtain his freedom. He filed suit against a woman named Rebecca Sadler, wife of Thomas, for breach of peace and threatening his family (I’ve been unable to find the full story, or the outcome, of this one). A man named Lot Strange filed a complaint to the town that Peter would not maintain a divisional fence. The town sided with Mr. Strange and advised him to sue. Peter was indicted for failure to maintain the fence. In 1673, there is a statement recorded that he was “behind in rates.” In Nieuw Amsterdam (New York) there are a number of cases “vs Pieter Taelman for debt,” but just as many where he was suing others. It seems he must have spent quite a bit of time before a magistrate.

The most shocking of all his court appearances, at least to me, happened on 3 May 1665 when Peter filed suit for divorce against his pregnant wife Ann citing adultery. When asked if this was true, the court recorded, “She did in open Court confesse, that it was the truth that the child was none of his begetting, and that it was begotten by another man.”  Whereby the court replied by sentencing her to “whipping and fines.” She was to receive fifteen “stripes” at Portsmouth, and a week later, fifteen more at Newport and to pay a ten pound fine. The first phase of her punishment was to have occurred at Portsmouth on May 22^nd. Ann petitioned the court for mercy, but her plea was denied. Being the “fast” woman that she was, she managed to escape the jail and flee. I’ve not found a written record on exactly how this was pulled off, but she left the borders of the colony with the aid of her brother.

For two years, Ann Tallman remained away, but on 1 May 1667 she returned. Hearing of this, a general warrant was issued by the assembly. Anthony Emory, a constable of the town of Portsmouth, apprehended her. When he produced her in court he was “payed for his paines and travill therein” by the public coffers for his expenses in regards to her capture. As two years had elapsed, her original sentence was modified to read “one halfe of her punishment shall be remitted.”  The divorce from Peter having been granted, Ann did marry the man with whom she had the affair. His name was Thomas Durfee. Allegations regarding the two continued on and the next year Thomas Durfee was charged with fornication and sentenced to be “whipt with fifteen stripes in the Towne of Portsmouth or pay a fine of forty shills….” I don’t know why it took an entire year before the charges were ever filed against Thomas and there is no record of if/when either punishment was ever carried out.

If Peter Tallman was a jerk, as I suspect, this might lend a reason for his wife to have strayed. There was, apparently, quite a bit more to this story than was brought out in court. On the very day that Peter was granted a divorce from Ann, he filed a pre-nuptial agreement (see photo) between himself and a woman named Joan Briggs. He married Joan two months later.  Although I’ve not seen a record in proof, a number of family historians cite the birth of Peter and Joan’s first child only four months after their marriage. Of further interest is that the pre-nuptial agreement between Peter and Joan, gives her almost the whole of his estate, eliminating anything for his children born of Ann, unless Joan failed to provide him a child. 

Just like Nathaniel Hawthorne's fictional version, my ancestor Ann Hill lived her life with a Scarlet Letter. She and Thomas Durfee must have found some happiness as they went on to have a total of six children together. Ann died sometime before 1687. Peter outlived Joan by more than twenty years which voided their pre-nuptial agreement. When Peter died in 1708, he did so without a will. As was the law at the time, his estate was probated and divided amongst all his children, including Ann's first six.

Whenever we look back at the history of our family occasionally we find stories that aren't all sunshine and roses. For me, this is one of those. While I did make light of the story of Peter and Ann, I'm glad she did apparently find love with Thomas Durfee. By the way, I have a friend who is a direct descendants of Ann and Thomas. We discovered this when I was helping her with her application for a lineage society. Just as I mentioned a few weeks ago - you never know if your next-door neighbor might be your relative.