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Subject: [LDR] Bowen-Purnell
Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1999 11:24:03 EST


Rob:

Let me do my best to confuse you.

You wrote:....have you run across a Matthew Purnell, listed as next of kin to
William Bowin Sr? William's daughter Martha married John Purnell. William
also had a son named Littleton, who may be the origin of the name Littleton
for Elijah Bowen's son. My interest stems from his daughter Elizabeth who
married Isaiah Briddell/Bredell; and who may be the mother of my David (or
not)....

I'm going to get confused without dates because these families duplicated
names; but I'll try and I make NO guarantees on what's to follow, as I've
only been pouring over Bowens for a couple days

William Bowen d. 1728 Wor., wife Mary Hammond:
Littleton Bowen d.c. 1767
Rhoda Bowen
Luke Bowen d.c. 1767 m. Comfort
John Bowen d. 1767 m. Elizabeth, m. Comfort Truitt
Priscilla Bowen b.c. 1684 m. ___ BREDELL
Ann Bowen d. 1773 m. Jarvis Ballard
George Bowen d. 1739
Joyce Bowen
Martha Bowen m. John Purnell, m. William Selby
William Bowen d. 1754 m. Rhoda Fassitt

About the Matthews Purnell:
Matthew Purnell c. 1700-1761 s/o Thomas Purnell & Elizabeth (Hammond), m.
Martha McClemmy - Martha Bowen would have been his aunt by marriage to his
uncle, John Purnell. Not immediate or named family, he could have been "next
of kin" to his great uncle (by marriage) William Bowen d. 1727

Matthew Purnell d. 1786 s/o Jeptha Purnell & Mary Fassit - Jeptha was brother
of the above Matthew d. 1761, so this Matthew would have been great great
nephew by marriage of William Bowen d. 1727 - don't know if he would have
been old enough in 1727 to be "next of kin"

Any other Matthews probably weren't born or old enough if the William Bowen
Sr. if you mean is the one who died in 1727

The Elizabeth Bowen who married Isaiah Briddell: I don't have an Elizabeth as
dtr. of William Bowen d. 1728. I have an Elizabeth d/o Littleton Bowen, who
was s/o William Bowen d. 1728 but have nothing further on her. --this in no
ways means there wasn't a dtr. named Elizabeth for William Bowen d. 1728!

Littleton Bowen d. abt. 1767 s/o William Bowen d. 1728. He left "Sturbridge"
to his son, Purnell. I'd personally like to know the connection to name a son
Purnell!
This Littleton also had children: Littleton Jr., Luke, Priscilla, Nanney,
Martha, Elizabeth and Rhoda. I'd guess Purnell, Littleton, etc. were born
1710 +/-
Worcester also had a Dr. Littleton P. Bowen and a Littleton Bowen d. 1864 s/o
Elijah Bowen d. 1805 running around -

An entry in F.Edward Wright's MD Eastern Shore Bk 5 shows Littleton Bowen s/o
Elijah's middle initial as "D" and Littleton's Bible shows he died in
1864....he may or may not be the same as Dr. Littleton "P" and someone had
trouble with the middle initial; only this is the book would have been
published 20 years after his death (which strikes me as odd; so there were
probably four Littleton Bowens: Littleton "D" Bowen married Charlotte Hammond
in 1813; a Littleton (Dr.??) married Mary Purnell in 1832 - both these appear
to be too young to be Littleton Jr.)
Dr. Littleton P. Bowen, who was raised in the crossroads community, wrote of
Snow Hill of the 1820's as "a little village of scattered houses." "Early in
the effort of academic research was Dr. Littleton P. Bowen's "Days of
Makemie" published in 1885, which focused on early Presbyterianism in the
region." (Paul Touart, Along the Seaboard Side)

Unfortunately, Elijah Bowen only named two of his children, Littleton and
Eliza, but he used the term "other children" in his will...don't know their
names.

I'm not having any luck finding Elijah Bowen's father, but Elijah's will was
witnessed by Rila Bowen, Isaac Bowen and Jeptha Bowen (Riley & Jeptha were
brothers, of Jethro) and Riley married Hetty Wright, a Purnell descendant).
I've definitely linked Elijah's daughter, Eliza, to the Purnell descendants
of Northampton Marshalls.
I've got a loose David Bowen d. 1847 who bought "Bowens Safety" from Cornelia
Bowen Marshall (wife of Zadock) & Rebecca Bowen, dtrs of James Bowen d. 1836
who named a son Esma P. Bowen and know there's a link there somewhere!

When you start looking at some of these Bowen given names, shades of Robins
and Rackliffe also pop up.

Is this enough to chew on for a while -

Judy

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