Phineas Hull was born in about 1647, in York, Maine. Though some have suggested he was the son of Joseph Hull, Jr., most researchers now believe he was the 15th child of Rev. Joseph Hull, the man who organized a group of 106 people in 1635 to cross from England to the new American settlements/. Phineas was the child of Joseph’s second wife, Agnes Hunt.
When Phineas was young, his parents went back to England, leaving their children in Maine. We are not aware of any records as to which of the younger children stayed with which of the older ones, but it seems likely that almost all of the children born in America would have needed to stay with their older half-siblings, some of whom were old enough to have their own children.
While we don’t know about Phineas’ childhood, we do know that he was in Maine as an adult, just a few miles from where his parents had left him. Rev. Joseph Hull, had served a congregation, in what is now York, Maine, from 1643 until his departure for England in 1648. So, this was the place of Phineas’ nativity and perhaps his childhood.
In 1681, we find Phineas receiving land from Thomas Williams along the Saco River in Saco, Maine, about 25 miles north of York. Thomas was the grandfather of Jerusha Hitchcock, and, based on this record, she and Phineas were married. They were probably by this time the parents of a young daughter named Dorcas Hull. Dorcas would later inherit this land and travel back to Maine to sell it in 1731.
From this point forward, the life of Phineas Hull and his family are filled with uncertainties. Resources appear to be in disagreement, or are just unclear. Many have made assumptions that do not appear to be based on facts.
We can have some certainty that Phineas married Jerusha Hitchcock, based on the record mentioned above, and we know it was prior to 1681. Dorcas, their daughter, was married in Somerset County, New Jersey, in 1702. Dorcas ended up with the Bible of Jerusha Hitchcock, so we can have some comfort in accepting Jerusha as her mother. The marriage date would suggest a birth date by about the time Phineas got the land from Thomas Williams in 1681.
Beyond that, things get fuzzy. One record from New England says that Phineas had a second wife named Mary Rishworth who had been married twice previously. It suggests a marriage date after 1689. However, this is not an original record, and there is no source that confirms it. (See additional notes below that question the legitimacy of the record.)
According to “Proceedings of the Massachusetts Society,” Volume 14, 1876, Page 126, Phineas and his wife were confronted by Native Americans on the route between York and Kittery, Maine, on August 22, 1690, along with a person named Robert Young. Young was killed, Phineas’ wife was taken, and Phineas escaped. A footnote states that Phineas’ wife was returned a year later. The footnote references “Magnalia” apparently “Magnalia Christi Americana,” Volume 2, written by Cotton Mather and published in 1702. Page 529 of that book states that during negotiations for a truce at Wells, Maine, in 1691, “Mrs. Hull, whom the Indians were very loath to part withal, because being able to write well, they made her serve them in the quality of a Secretary…” While the reference is timely in terms of what happened in 1691, it does not state the given name of Mrs. Hull. Neither does the reference to 1689 help us in this regard.
The problem for us is to understand whether this is Jerusha Hull, some other Mrs. Hull, or, perhaps Phineas’ possible second wife, Mary Rishworth. There are those who argue this was Jerusha while others believe it was Mary Rishworth. Phineas is said to have been killed by Native Americans between 1691 and 1693. If Jerusha is still alive in 1691, it makes the second marriage unlikely.
Whatever may be true as to which wife of Phineas Hull was captured, history suggests that the family chose to stay in the area during a dangerous time. According to “Vital Records of Saco and Biddeford, Maine,” Page 123, “With the beginning of the Indian troubles in 1688, the town was practically abandoned, and for nearly 30 years no records of meetings for transaction of town affairs are found.” Yet, Phineas appears to have remained, suffering through harrowing events and, eventually, supposedly dying as part of the trouble somewhere between 1691 and 1693. However, the fact that there are no records for the town leaves us open to conjecture.
We know Dorcas was living in New Jersey by 1702. Did she go there because her parents had died? Why was she not captured in 1689? Did she go to New Jersey because her father thought it was too dangerous for her in Saco, even though he stayed? Did Phineas send her to New Jersey soon after her mother was kidnapped? Why didn’t she inherit the land in Saco earlier than 1731 if her parents had died in the 1690s?
Our answers will be guesses. One narrative is that Jerusha was kidnapped by Native Americans in 1690 and released in 1691. Phineas died prior to April 5, 1693, when James Emery, Jr. (a nephew by way of Jerusha’s sister)was named the administrator of his estate. Since Jerusha was not named administrator, we might assume that both she and Phineas had died at that point.
A second narrative is that Jerusha died prior to 1690, and Phineas married Mary Rishworth White Sayward by early in 1690. In this scenario, Mary is the person who was kidnapped by Native Americans. However, Mary is listed as Mary Plaisted when she is captured a second time in 1692, so Phineas would have died prior to that time. Both of these stories have problems when trying to apply various records.
For this record, we will say that it is not possible at this time to confirm whether Phineas was married a second time. Either way, it was an unsettled and dangerous time around York, Maine. Dorcas likely went to New Jersey to live with extended family while her father sought to preserve his stake to the land in York. Interestingly, Dorcas inherited a family Bible that contained the name of Jerusha Hitchcock. Could it be that Jerusha survived the struggle and eventually lived with Dorcas in New Jersey, perhaps living until 1730, as the owner of the land? The search for that answer will have to continue.
The name of Phineas was passed down to future generations among Dorcas’ descendants. With that said, we know little about his personality or character. It is good to know, though, that Dorcas held his name in high esteem.
Phineas Hull and Mary Rishworth?
Did Phineas marry Mary Rishworth? Many have said so. There are records that Mary Rishworth White Sayward used the Hull surname in about 1690-91, and Phineas would be the most likely candidate to be her husband. There is, however, no proof of that marriage. Trying to work out a timeline that brings together combinations of births of children, kidnappings at two different times, surnames as recorded in records and stories, and the like is made more difficult by the fact that people were inconsistently using old style vs. new style calendar dates. Many stories have been told, but they often conflict with each other, and there is a danger that dates have been used that best fit the desired narrative.
The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 31, 1877, Pages 218-219 (https://books.google.com/books?id=4ZHHdjDYyyYC&pg=PA219&lpg=PA219&dq=Mary+Rishworth+White+Hul+Sayward&source=bl&ots=fOnBsIyBKY&sig=ACfU3U362aEmDuBU82RD4f5ZiH1FwQCLdw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjgi5Cn4fzoAhUNQK0KHedHBLkQ6AEwBHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Mary%20Rishworth%20White%20Hul%20Sayward&f=false) offers some illustrative documentation.
It appears Mary Rishworth was born around 1660. She is named as the widow of John Sayward in 1689, when she is given 50 acres of land in York, Maine, that had been granted to her father, Edward Rishworth, in 1671-72. In about 1698, James Plaisted lists the names of his children, the last two with his surname, and five children born earlier with the surname of Sayward. The children born as Saywards were born between 1681 and January 1690. The two children with the name Plaisted were born in 1696 and 1698. Two of the Sayward children have birth month and years that coincide with daughters who were captured with Mary by Native Americans in January of 1692. There is am early record showing Mary as the granddaughter of Rev. John Wheelwright and naming her as the daughter of Edward Rishworth, his son-in-law. However, she has a surname of White, suggesting she was briefly married prior to marrying John Sayward. This is in 1679 when she would still be a teenager. (Keep in mind that these dates may be off by a year depending on whether the person who first used them was using old style or new style calendar dates.)
Based on the above information, Mary was born in 1660, married a person named White prior to 1679, was married to John Sayward in 1681, had children with him through January of 1690, was captured by Native Americans in 1692, and had her first child with James Plaisted in 1696. Cotton Mather, in the book, Magnalia, said Mary was captured in about 1692, just after having given birth to a son. (Magnalia Christi Americana, Volume II, Book 7 Page 520) The child was killed by her captors. In this account, Mather calls her Mary Plaisted, wife of Mr. James Plaisted. However, it is not clear whether he means she was married to Plaisted at the time of her capture or whether he means that was her name at the time that he wrote. There is no mention in these records suggesting she was married to Phineas Hull, and there would have been a very small window of opportunity. However, there is a transcription of a record in about 1690-91 with an inventory of Edward Rishworth’s estate that is said to call her Mary Hull.
In “History of York, Maine, Volume 1, Page 305,” we are told, “Plaisted, Mary (Rishworth), wife of James, of Kittery, and daughter of Edward Rishworth. At the time of her capture, she was living with him, (as her fourth husband) and in her family were two elder Sayward children by another marriage. She was only thirty-two years old at this date and resided at Cider Hill. She was taken to Montreal and baptized there on December 8, 1693, under the names Mary Madeline….She was redeemed in 1695 and probably outlived most of her companions in captivity, as in 1754 she was still on the tax lists.” This reference does not list the four husbands, so it is not clear whether Phineas Hull is assumed as one of the four. However, the reference includes a signature by Mary at her Baptism showing her name to be Plaisted. If accurate, it is clear that the infant child that was killed was a son of James Plaisted, and they were married by at least 1692.
Having reviewed several documents, the one thing that seems clear is that anyone who declares with certainty that Phineas Hull either did or did not marry Mary Rishworth is making some assumptions and ignoring conflicting information. We have evidence that Phineas died prior to April 5, 1693. We have evidence that he was married to Jerusha Hitchcock. We have evidence that the Hull, Hitchcock, and Rishworth families were all well known to each other. We have evidence that there was significant strife for those living in Maine during the 1690’s. It was a strife that led to people dying or disappearing, leaving those who remained to watch closely over each other. It could easily have led to survivors marrying quickly for protection. We have evidence that Mary Rishworth used the surname Hull in the early 1690’s. Yet, we can’t confirm a marriage between Phineas and Mary.
What we can say is that a marriage between Phineas Hull and Mary Rishworth would have been very brief and of no real genealogical consequence.