"At first I only did research on the American branch of the family. There were four of us that were doing research together on the Missouri Trask branch. We operated in somewhat of a vacuum. Over the years I began to shift my research from the genealogy of the Trask family to the history of the family. Researching the history of the family is somewhat different from studying the genealogy. Most of my research on the history of the family uses different resources than that of genealogical research. The type of resources I have researched for the early history of the family, are located in good University libraries. I had spent years as a graduate student doing research in University research libraries and I just changed my focus to studying the origin of the Trask family. At first I was just stumbling in the dark, but as I worked, I began to see ways to find a research path to follow. I never run across genealogists in my research, only graduate students and professors inhabit the musty stacks of a University research library.
Doing research on the middle ages is a very unique area to research. There are many problems to over come. One of the biggest stumbling blocks I ran up against, was the information blackout caused by the Black Plague in the mid 14th century. It took me several years to find a way to resolve that issue and I still find it a research block for the 14th and 15th centuries.
The possibility of the de Thresk family being of Norman origin is one of the main hypothesis that I considered. In recent years that has been a persistent rumor in the family. I think the primary basis for this rumor is the prefix de with the Thresk name. I kept this in mind during my research.
The surname of our family has undergone many changes through the years. Sometime in the 14th century the "de" was dropped. During the 15th and 16th centuries it evidently evolved from Thresk into Traske. The "e" was dropped off the name some time after the family came to the Bay Plantation. The family in England also dropped the "e" off Traske at some point. I don't remember ever seeing anyone spelling the name Traske today. I think there was a practice of ending many English names with an "e" until a couple of centuries ago.
Christian Trask has good point about what an unusual name Osmund is and how it might be a marker. I have seen Osmond's names spelled several ways in the records. Osmond, Osmund, Osmand, and Osman are some of the variations I have run across. The word osmund is from Middle English and is derived from Old French. It refers in modern English to a species of ferns that have fibrous roots and is sometimes used as a potting medium for cultivated plants. The use of Osmund as a christian name within the Traske family at East Coker was common during the 16th and 17th centuries.
By the way, my research is still in progress. My paper is only a work in progress that I wrote to let my family know what I had found so far in my research. I doubt that I will finish my research in my lifetime. I began my research on the Trask family in the early 1970's - "Origin Of The Trask Family".
After years of consideration I lean toward the theory that the origin of the de Thresk name is the result of the family coming from Thirsk. The name of the town of Thirsk appears to be of Danish (Viking) origin. It is well known that the region was a Viking stronghold for many centuries before the Norman invasion.
Thirsk is a part of England that was controlled by the Danes (Vikings) and Saxons during the last of the first millennium and the first of the second millennium. After William the Norman's defeat of the English King at the Battle of Hastings, the region was given to William's Norman supporters. The Danes and Saxons who had occupied the region for several centuries were made landless by William. I suspect that the predecessors of the de Thresk family were Danes who were left landless by the seizure of Yorkshire by the Norman's. My conclusion is that if the de Thresks had been Norman's, they would have held a higher position in the social structure of Norman Yorkshire. They appear to have held a lower status than the Norman's of 12th century Yorkshire. The reason for choosing a Viking background for the de Thresks rather than a Saxon heritage is the long held idea within the English branch of the family, that the Traske family's origin was Viking. Thanks for that information, Lawrie!
My most likely scenario for the rise of the Traske (de Thresk) family is that the family overcame the Norman suppression of non Norman families by becoming deeply involved in the Catholic Church. There were two sources of power in the middle ages, hereditary and ecclestaical. The common thread that I have found from the 12th century on for the de Thresk family is ecclesiastical. We were church people. The families of hereditary background often despised the church people because they saw the church as a threat to their hereditary wealth and power. Of course people of hereditary background also became church people."
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"1. Origin. Some have supposed that this church owes its origin to the labors of John James who was martyred October 19, 1661. President Daland goes back as far as about 1580. In 1617 (or 1616) John Trask came to London from Salisbury and held revival meetings. One of his disciples, named Hamlet Jackson, was the means of bringing Trask and many, if not all, of his congregation to the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath in about 1617, and Elder William M. Jones says that this Traskite congregation was the origin of the Mill Yard Church. All the records of this church, prior to 1673, were destroyed in the fire of 1790; the `Old Church Book,' dating from 1673 to 1840, refers to an older record. The `New Church Book' dates from 1840 to the present time.--
"2. Place of worship. From the beginning until 1654 they worshiped `near Whitechapel'; in 1661 their meeting place was in `Bull Stake Alley, ' and in 1680 they were at East Smithfield -- for from here they addressed a letter to the New Port (R.I.) Church, dated East Smithfield, London, Dec. 21, 1680. From 1691 to 1785 they worshipped in Mill Yard Goodman's Fields, County of Middlesex, a part of London, now in the heart of Metropolis. Their chapel there was burned in 1790, and in September of the same year the first stone of a new edifice was laid by John, Joseph and William Slater, the only trustees for some years.
Christian Trask said that according to a book "Passages of the Planters" (The title may not be exact--notes and sources have become disorganized after 4 or 5 moves). There is a record of a Capt. William Traske as a passanger upon the ship "The Sea Lion" which departed Delft, Holland during June of 1624 to New England. According to the historians Will and Ariel Durant, in "The Age of Exploration", Capt. Traske and Woodbury, Connaut, Balch, and Palfrey (The Old Planters) were confronted by Miles Standish and company while they were operating a fishing station, at Cape Ann, during the year 1624. This paved the way for the Salem settlement. I think it is vey likely that William Traske made several trans-Atlantic journies during the 1620's.
Juel Trask stated he was sure that William made at least two trips between England and New England. That is the reason for the confusion over when he came over. His arrival in 1628 with Governor Endicott was probably his last arrival. The fishing station at Cape Anne was a business venture of the Dorchester Company out of Dorsetshire. They wanted to catch and dry fish to take back to England. Several of the East Coker families were involved in the fishing station. Juel has written additional information in his "paper" {The Traske's of Massachusetts Bay}.
Gloucester History:
The first Europeans to land on Cape Ann were the French. Samuel de Champlain led an expedition in 1605 and anchored briefly. The next year, Champlain led a second expedition, entering Gloucester harbor and calling it "le beau port," or "beautiful harbor." The party stayed about two weeks, making maps of the area. When they ran into 200 Indians and thought them hostile, they quickly left the area. Captain John Smith sailed by Cape Ann in 1614, and named it "Cape Tragabigzanda". Prince Charles of England finally coined the name "Cape Ann" in 1684 for his mother Queen Anne
The Dorchester Company sent out a group of fishermen from England in 1623. At Stage Point they set up stages to dry the fish before it was sent back to England. The same location was later a fort. Cannons were set up in the hills to protect Gloucester's fishing fleet from invading pirates and enemy warships during the war of 1812.
The following individuals are reported to be the newest inhabitants of New England.Among the very first Puritan settlers of Cape Anne and Naumkeag between 1623-1627): Allen, Balch, Conant, Cushman, Gardner, Gray, Jeffrey, Knight, Lyford, Norman, Oldham, Palfrey, Patch, Pickryn, Winslow, Woodbury.
Those settled by Gorges, 1623, and other very early settlers: Blaxton, Burslin, Hilton, Jeffrey, Hennens, Maverick, Pierce, Pratt, Sanders, Thomson, Walford.
[Note; There were at least two individuals with the name Gorges.
Captain Robert Gorges set out from Horton in Somersetshire in 1621 to Wessegusset, now called Weymouth, MA. John Balch was a member of this colony and went to Naumkeag when the settlement was abondoned two years later.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges (1566?-1647), English soldier, mariner, and colonizer, born in Long Ashton, Somersetshire. He founded two Plymouth companies (1606 and 1620) for acquiring and colonizing lands in New England. In 1629 he received the land between the Kennebec and Piscataqua rivers, and in 1639 King Charles I granted him a charter constituting him proprietor of the province of Maine. Gorges later called it New Somersetshire, after his place of birth. His son neglected the province, which finally placed itself under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay Colony.]
Among those who arrived with Endecott on the ship "Abigail" at Naumkeag in 1628: Brackenbury, Brown, Davenport, Elford, Endecott, Gott, Laskin, Leach, Maurie/Morey, Puchett, Scruggs and Captain Traske.
Among those who arrived with the Higginson fleet to Salem, 1629: Archer, Beard, Brand, Brown, Brude, Claydon, Craddock, Dixy, Dodge, Edes, Edmonds, Ewstead, Farr, Graves, Hanscombe, Haughton, Haward, Herrick, Higginson, Holgrave, Ingersoll, Malbon, Massie, Miller, Moulton, Rickman, Ryall, Sharpe, Sibly, Skelton, Sprague, Stileman, Tillie, Waterman, Webb, Wilson
The following men were transported in 1631 (from the London Rolls Office) probably aboard the "William and Francis": Gamlin, Harris, Hart, Hayward, Hill, Levins, Mannering, Norton, Olliver, Perkins, Smallie, Thomas, Whetson, Woodford, Winslow.
Others in Salem by 1633: Auger, Bennet, Clark, Dike, Huson, Johnson, Leavit, Manning, Noddle, Norton, Peach, Sweet, Wincoll.
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The Dorchester Company had established a fishing settlement on Cape Anne during the winter of 1623-24 under a charter with England. It was located at Stage Point, now Gloucester, Essex County, Massachusetts.
In the late autumn of 1625, Roger Conant was invited by the Rev. John White and other members of the Dorchester Company to move to their fishing settlement on Cape Ann and serve as their governor ";for the management and government of all their affairs at Cape Ann"..
Roger Conant was born in the parish of East Budleigh, Devonshire, England in 1592, the youngest of eight children. In 1623 he emigrated to Plymouth with his wife, Sarah, and son, Caleb. However, he was uncomfortable with the strict Pilgrim society in Plymouth and moved his family to Nantasket in 1624.
Roger accepted the offer as governor at Stage Point. After a year's residence, he became convinced of the need for a more permanent settlement and found an ideal site at the mouth of the Naumkeag River in 1626. There the settlement grew by farming as well as fishing.
In 1627 a patent was solicited from England and it was obtained by a group, which included William Traske, led by John Endicott. They arrived at Naumkeag in 1628. Endicott and the other settlers of the New England Company now owned the rights to Naumkeag. Fortunately for the peaceful continuity of the settlement, Conant remained in Naumkeag and, despite what must have been a disappointment for him, acceded to Endicott's authority as the new governor.
When Governor Endicott arrived in 1628, he incorporated Conant and his men into the new government. Known as the "Old Planters", Conant and his followers lent continuity to the new settlement and can be considered the founding fathers of Naumkeag, renamed Salem for "Shalom" or Peace on June 29, 1629. Roger Conant died on November 19, 1679 considering himself ";...an instrument, though a weak one, of foundering and furthering this colony...";
Note; On the 25th January, 1635, the town of Salem granted to Peter Palfry, John Balch, William Traske, John Woodberry and Roger Conant, 200 acres each, the whole being 124 rods by about 1,290. These grantees were all settlers before Endicott's arrival, and hence were called "Old Planters". RWT
The "Dorchester Company" went into bankruptcy in 1627 and became "The Massachusetts Bay Colony" in 1629 under charter from England.
My sister, Pat, lives on Planters' Marsh, in Salem, MA. I state "lives on" because, Dr. William Bentley wrote, on March 17, 1801, that while moving soil to Planters' Marsh, from east of Hortons' Point (North River side), they found the foundations of The Dorchester Company's settlement. According to Frances Rose-Troup this is where William Traske, John Woodbery etc. endured their first couple of years living in New England. Perley states, Mr. Conant and his companions removed to the territory called (by the Indians) Naumkeag from Cape Anne in the autumn of 1626. A map drawn by Captain John Smith after 1620 names the spot of the old planters settlement as Bristow (Bristol) - because the inhabitants were from the west of England. In one of the nineteen thatched roofed cottages, which were gone by 1661, was born the first white child of the region - Roger Conant Jr..
One of the laws in England, during the 1500 - 1600's, stated that Witchcraft was a capital offense, punishable by death. In New England prior to "the penomenon" 79 persons were accused, 33 tried and 15 hung for witchcraft between 1647 and 1663.
The problems that occurred in Salem Village (now Danvers, MA) during the years 1692 and 1693 all seemed to have begun at the home of Reverend Samuel Parris in Salem Village. They involved his servant, Tituba, and a small group of young girls under the age of twenty. Tituba was from Barbados where voodoo and the belief in the occult was part of the culture there.
Reverend Parris's daughter Betty and niece Abigail Williams, later joined by Susannah Sheldon, Elizabeth and Alice Booth, Mary Walcott, Elizabeth Hubbard, Mary Warren, Sarah Churchill, Mercy Lewis (Putnam's servant) and Ann Putnam were fascinated with the stories, magic tricks and fortune telling by Tituba.
Ann Putnam, born in Salem Village on October 18, 1679, was the daughter of Sergent Thomas Putnam and Ann Carr. She has been confused with Ann Putnam the first wife of William Trask, son of Captain William Trask. William's wife, Ann Putnam, born in Salem Village on June 7, 1668, was the daughter of Lieutenant Thomas Putnam and his first wife Ann Holyoke. Lieutenant Thomas Putnam was Sergent Thomas Putnam's father. According to the "Putnam Lineage," by E. Putnam, The Putnam Family was very involved with the Witchcraft Trials - in one instance putting brother against brother.
During months of January and February of 1692, nine of the girls started acting very bizarre and were taken before Dr. Griggs for an examination. Dr. Griggs could not medically determine why they were all acting so strangely and believed they were all under the influence of the supernatural.
In March 1692, Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin and Reverend Parris intensely pressured, tricked and questioned the girls, at Lt. Ingersoll's Ordinary in Salem Village, into naming the persons responsible for their fits. By May of 1692 some 200 people were publicly accused by the afflicted girls and hysterical people from the surrounding area.
Governor William Phips, enroute to Salem after James the II was overthrown by William of Orange, arrived in Salem, MA on May 14th, 1692. The Governor set up a special "Court of Oyer and Terminer" composed of seven judges to try the witchcraft cases. The appointed judges were; Lieutenant Governor William Stoughon, Nathaniel Saltonstall, Bartholomew Gedney, Peter Sergeant, Samuel Sewall, Wait Still Winthrop, John Richards, John Hathorne, and Jonathan Corwin.
There were at least 160 people confined in the Essex and Middlesex County jails. Most of which were in chains to prevent the "spectres" from leaving their bodies while they awaited trial. Attorney General Thomas Newton began the first trial on June 2nd, 1692.
From: The Salem Home Page
There are pictures of the grave stones of all the victims and a time line of the events of 1692 and 1693.
The results of the trails were as follows;
guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death - hanged, June 10, 1692
Bridget Bishop
guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death - hanged, July 19, 1692
Sarah Good, Sarah Wildes, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin and Rebecca Nurse
guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death - hanged, August 19, 1692
George Burroughs, Martha Carrier, George Jacobs, John Proctor and John Willard.
Elizabeth Proctor was temporarily reprieved due to her pregnancy.
Giles Corey was pressed to death for refusing a trial on September 19, 1692.
guilty of witchcraft and condemned to death - hanged, September 22, 1692
Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Mary Parker, John Willard, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd,
Margaret Scott and Samuel Wardwell
Lydia Dustin, from Redding, was jailed May 2nd in Boston and died there March 10th, 1693.
Sarah Warren Prince Osborne, died in a Boston jail while awaiting trial May 10th, 1692.
Reverend Increase Mather, President of Harvard College, addressed the court during the trial of Sarah Cole on October 3rd. He stating that the use of spectral evidence should not be sufficient proof for any conviction. Some of the afflicted girls' testimonies, over the period of 10 months, had become inconsistent - the educated public was having doubts. Nathanial Putnam Sr. and 39 other prominent citizens from Salem Village signed a petition denouncing the acquisitions against Rebecca Nurse. Nathaniel Saltonstall resigned from the court in June stating he was dissatisfied with its proceedings. Thomas Brattle, Treasurer of Harvard, wrote a letter to the Governor stating he was against the use of spectral evidence and criticized the witchcraft trials. Governor Phips declare that intangible evidence could no longer be admissible in the trials. On October 29th further imprisonment's were forbidden and the "Court of Oyer and Terminer" was dissolved.
By May 9th of 1693, all the cases had been heard by Superior Courts or special courts of judicature, the remaining accused were either acquitted or pardoned - no one was convicted.
Samuel Sewall, a Judge at the trials, confessed in 1697 to making an error in convicting the accused. Ann Putnam, in 1706, wrote a public apology. By 1710 the families of the accused were seeking recourse from the state for damages and their losses.
The history of the village shows conclusive proof, that, if the matter had been left to the people there, it would never have reached the point to which it was carried. It was the influence of the magistracy and the government of the colony and public sentiment prevalent elce where, overruling that of the immediate locality, that drove on the storm.
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An account of the events leading up to the suicide of Christian Woodbury can be found in the following sworn statement made by John Hale on May 20, 1692 in regards to the matter John Hale v. Bridget Bishop. From the book " What Happened in Salem?", by David Levin.
Christian Woodbury or Woodberrie married John Trask, first son of Osmond Traske, on 4-9-1679 in Beverly, MA.
"John Hale of Beverly aged about 56 years testifieth and saith that about 5 or 6 years ago Christina the wife of John Trask (living in Salem bounds boardering on the above said Beverly) being in full communion in our church came to me to desire that Goodwife Bishop her neighbor wife of Edward Bishop [formerly wife of old Goodman Oliver]... might not be permitted to receive the Lord's Supper in our church till she had given her the said Trask satisfaction for some offences that were aggainst her: viz: because the said Bishop did entertain certain people in her house at unseasonable hours in the night to keep drinking and playing at shovelboard whereby discord did arise in other families and young people were in danger to be corrupted and that the said Trask knew these things and once gone into the house and finding some at Shovelboard had taken the pieces they played with and thrown them into the fire and had reproved that said Bishop for promoting such disorders But received no satisfaction from her about it.
I gave the said Christina Trask direction how to proceed farther in this matter if it were clearly proved And indeed by the information I have had other wise I do fear that if a stop had not been put to those disorders Edward Bishop's house would have been a house of great profaneness and iniquity.
But as to Christina Trask the next news I heard of her was that she was distracted and asking her husband Trask when she was so taken, he told me she was distracted that night after she came from my house when she complained against Goody Bishop.
She continued some time distracted we Sought the Lord by fasting and prayer and the Lord was pleased to restore the said Trask to the use of her reason again I was with her often in her distraction (and took it then to be only distraction yet fearing somethimes somewhat worse) but since I have seen the fits of those bewitched at Salem village I call to mind some of hers to be much like some of theirs.
The said Trask when recovered (as I understood it) did manifest strong suspicion that she had been bewitched by said Bishop's wife and showed so much aversences from any converse **** her that I was then troubled **** as hoping better of Goody Bishop at the time ******* At lenght said Christina Trask *** was *** again in a ditracted fit on a Sabbath day in the forenoon at the public meeting to a public disturbance and so continued sometimes better sometimes worse unto her death manifesting that she was under temptation to kill herself or somebody elce.
I inquired of Margaret Ring who kept at or nigh the house, what she had observed of said Trask before this last distraction she told me, Trask was much given to reading and search the prophecies of scripture.
The day before she made the disturbance in the meeting house she came home and said she had been with Goody Bishop and that they two were now friends or to that effect.
I was off praying with and conseling of Trask before her death and not many days before her end being ther seemed more rational and earnestly desired Edw Bishop might be sent for that she might make friends with him. I asked her if she wronged Edw Bishop she said not that she knew of unless it were in taking his shovelboard pieces when people were playing with them and throwing them into the fire and if she did evil in it she was sorry for it and desired he would be friends with her or forgive her. this was the very day before she died or a few days before.
Her distraction (for [or] bewitching) continued about a month and in those intervals wherin she was better she earnestly desired prayers, and the Sabbath before she deid I received a note for prayers on her behalf which her husband said she was written by herself and I judge was her own hand writing being well acquainted with her hand.
As to the wounds she died of I observed 3 deadly ones; a piece of her wind pipe cut out. and another wound above that through the wind pipe and Gulle[t] to the vein they call jugular,, So that I then judged and still do apprehend it impossible for her with so short a pair of scissors to mangle herself so without some extraordinary work of the devil or witchcraft.
Signed 20. May 1692. by John Hale.
To several parts of this testimony new witnesses Major Gedney Mr Parris Joseph Herrick junr and his wife Thomas Raiment and his wife John Trask Margaret King Hannah wife of Colonel Baker Miles and others.
As also about the said Goody Bishop Capt William Raiment his son Wm Raiment about creatures strangely dying. James Kettle and the above said Jos. Herrick and Tho. Raiment about Sundry actions that have the appearance of witchcraft."
Christian (Woodbury or Woodberrie) Trask, wife of John, mother of 4 surviving children; Edward (4), Elizabeth (2), Hannah (2) and William (5/12) died as a result of her self inflicted wounds on 6-3-1689.
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"The original inhabitants of the land, which was to be called "New England", tell of lives ending... as a result of our beginings... A small preview of a much larger tragedy soon to be forth coming". - R.W.T.
Gloucester's most famous landmark, this bronze statue was sculpted by Leonard Craske (1882-1950) for Gloucester's tercentenary in 1923. It is located on Stacey Boulevard, overlooking Gloucester Harbor. The statue of a Gloucester fisherman, dressed in oilskins and standing at the wheel of his schooner was designed in heroic size: 1 ½ scale. It was dedicated on August 23, 1925 to the over 10,000 Gloucester fishermen lost at sea since the early 1600's. The base of the statue quotes Psalm 107, "They that go down to the sea in ships". A tablet with a list of those Gloucester Fishermen will be dedicated on Sunday, September 3, 2000. The final list of names as they will appear on the Memorial will include; 1790 Isaac Trask [4-2. Isaac Trask] 1800 _____ Trask, died at sea; son of Ebenezer [4-2. Ebenezer, 4-3. William or 4-6. Moses Trask] 1837 _____ Trask, Schooner Fair America, lost in the gale of August, 1837 1868 Charles A. Trask [6-2. Capt. Charles Allen Trask] Out of Gloucester by R. Sheedy © This excellant web site has additional information and links. |
 "Fisherman at the Wheel" |
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1. Lydia Jackson married Joseph Fuller 2. * Elizabeth Fuller married Josiah Bond 3. Anna Bond married Samuel Trask 4. Susanna Trask married Jonathan Holman 5. Susan Trask Holman married Asa Waters, Jr. 6. Susan Holman Waters married Samuel Davenport Torrey 7. Louisa Maria Torrey married Alphonso Taft 8. William Howard Taft, The 27th President of The United States |
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rwtrask@rcn.com