GENERATION 12

GENERATION 11

Biography

ANTHONY ANNABLE was born in Kent County, England, in the year 1599. He is reported to have been the son of John Annable of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk County, England, whose paternal ancestor, William Annable of Dunstable, first used the Annable arms in 1396.

He was likely born into a middle or lower middle class family, and as such would have received only a superficial education. In his later years in Plymouth, Scituate and Barnstable, he was never addressed as "Master" or "Mister", prefixes reserved for the upper class. He was occasionally referred to as "Goodman Annable", denoting one of a somewhat humble postion in the community. It is even thought that he could not sign his name. Any such defieciency in education was remedied in later years, as he became one of the leading lawmakers in Scituate, and his signature appears on countless deeds.

ANTHONY ANNABLE came to America in 1623 with his wife, JANE MOMFORD, and daughter SARAH, on the ship Anne, the third of the Pilgrim ships. They lived first in Plymouth, Plymouth, MA, but removed to Scituate, Plymouth, MA, in 1633. The settlers there were mostly from Kent County, England, and were called the "Men of Kent."

As Pilgrim developments sprang up north of Plymouth, there was more demand for the food that was being produced at Plymouth. The colonists began looking elsewhere for land to produce crops. One such site was Scituate. And in 1633, the more liberal outpost of Scituate was established by ANTHONY ANNABLE and and other Kentishmen. ANTHONY was chosen constable for the ward of Scituate at a meeting of the Plymouth General Court, Jan. 1, 1633.

The village at the harbor was laid out in 1633, the principal avenue extending southerly from a point near Satuit brook and was called Kent Street. It was intersected by a street at right angles near Satuit brook and by another street further south called Meeting-house Lane. Lots were laid out on Kent Street. Only four acres, eight rods front and extending back "80 rods up into the woodes," were allowed to each person, the object being to form a compact settlement for mutual defense.

The second lot north from the Meeting-house Lane was assigned to ANTHONY ANNABLE. He also had land at Green harbor which was on Kent Street extending southeasterly. He probably lived on the Green harbor property when his eighteen-year-old daughter was married to HENRY EWELL.

On Sep. 18, 1634, the Reverend John Lothrop, and some thirty of his congregation from Egerton in Kent County, England, arrived in Boston on the ship Griffin and settled in Scituate. Scituate became a compact little settlement of twenty-seven householders. On Jan. 8, 1635, ANTHONY headed a group which organized and built the first church at the corner of Kent Street and Meeting House Lane. The town of Scituate was incorporated on Oct. 4-5, 1636.

Rev. Lothrop was not without controversy. He had, in his past stormy career, serve two years in prison in London, over religious issues. This time, in Scituate, the trouble brewed over the question of whether baptism should be by total immersion or the mere laying of hands, as was Rev. Lothrop's belief. The issue was so contentuous that it resulted in a split of the parishioners. The exodus to a new place, Barnstable, Plymouth, MA, on Cape Cod, must have been difficult for ANTHONY ANNABLE and his family. They had been an important part of the evolution of Scituate from a pioneer settlement to a town of comfort. It was a community of superior individuals.

ANTHONY remained in Barnstable the rest of his life and served the town in many capacities. It was here that JANE died, Dec. 13, 1643. Here too he married second, Ann Clark on Mar. 3, 1645. From 1643 to 1658 he represented Barnstable in the General Court at Plymouth, and continued to be involved in public affairs and to occupy a position of trust.

He opposed, along with Rev. Lothrop, the harsh measures and cruel laws enacted and enforced against the Quakers and Anti-Baptists in the Massachusetts Colony. These laws were never enforced in Barnstable by its representatives on the General Court. The colonists of Barnstable followed the doctrine taught by Rev. Lothrop, who accepted all who professed faith in God and promised to keep the Ten Commandments.

ANTHONY died at Barnstable, in 1674, aged 75 years, and his remains are reported to have been interred in an unmarked grave in what was then and still is known as the Cow Pasture in that town. His second wife, Ann, administered his quite sizeable estate and was still living in 1686. In 1678, she was referred to locally as "the aged Widow Annibal", one of the first of many corruptions of the family name.

A recreation of the Pilgrim Village of 1627 exists at the Plimoth Plantation on Route 3A in Plymouth, MA. The house of ANTHONY ANNABLE is one of the dozen-or-so homes built to replicate the village as it was in 1627. A WEB site about the home can be found at www.plimoth.org/Museum/Pilgrim_Village/annable.htm.

In the town of Falmouth, MA, not far from Barnstable, the names of ANTHONY ANNABLE and Jonathan Hatch, father-in-law of ANTHONY's daughter Susanna, appear on a bronze tablet erected in 1930 to commemorate the names of the thirteen founders of "Succanessett" in 1661, the Indian name for the area.