joshua bates cowing and deborah cushing

According to Weymouth Vital Records, my fourth great-grandparents, Joshua Bates Cowing and Deborah Cushing, marry on March 7, 1832 in Weymouth at the Union Church of Weymouth and Braintree. The Union Church has an interesting history as told by the Braintree Fire Fighters Association, Local 920 on their website. The Union Church was originally the Hollis Street Church in Boston until it was moved to Quincy Ave. in Braintree, MA. Paul Revere then created a new bell for the church tower, and this new Union Church had its first service in November of 1810. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the church on June 19, 1897. Pictures are included on the Fire Fighters website, this is one before the fire.


The US Federal censuses from 1850 - 1880 show that Joshua and Deborah Cowing lived in Weymouth throughout their life where they had 7 children. Joshua is listed as a bootmaker and a shoemaker in the 1850 and 1860 Census, which is not surprising as Weymouth had a very large shoe industry at this time. In the 1870 and 1880 Cenus, and on his death record of 1888, Joshua is listed as a farmer.

I took a look at the Historic Land Ownership and Reference Atlases on the ancestry.com and found a map for Weymouth for 1876. JB Cowing is listed accross the street from his brother FH Cowing on Commercial Street in Weymouth, right next to the railroad tracks. Near his home are many shoe manufacturing buildings and stores. I am sure Joshua worked for one of these close to his home. You can also see Joshua's land that he farmed in his later years. I am not sure what type of farmer he was, but he does not seem to have a considerable amount of land.




There are a couple of interesting things about the map above. As you can see from the arrows (click on the pitcure to make image bigger), I have pointed out where JB Cowing's land is. I also included another arrow, pointing to the street I grew up on, just under 1/2 mile from each other.


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The other interesting thing about Joshua Bates Cowing's property is that he did not seem to inherit it from his father Balch Cowing, who had a substantial amount of land on Commercial Street, further up the road in Weymouth Landing, near Braintree. Joshua was Balch's first son. During this time period, fathers would usually hand down their property to their first son, but Balch seems to have given his land to Susan, his daughter, who remained single throughout her life. Susan actually lived with one of Joshua's son's, Francis H. Cowing in 1880, after Balch dies. In 1860 and 1870, Francis lives with his grandfather Balch. The map for Weymouth Landing has FH Cowing listed as property owner for a substantial amount of land, I assume this was part of Balch's estate. I have not seen a reference to a probate record for Balch, but I assume there should be one since he seemed to have had so much land. It would be interesting to obtain if found. Balch's wife, Cynthia Bates, does have a probate record for Norfolk County, but she died before her husband Balch.

to do list:
1. find probate for Balch - unable to find a reference to one
2. obtain probate for Balch's wife Cynthia

links of interest :
1. Massachusetts Historical Society - has holdings of church documents for the First Church of Weymouth part of the parish broke off to form the Union Church of Weymouth and Braintree

Weymouth Female Anti-Slavery Society

I went back to reading the article in Family Tree magazine on the top 101 websites, and decided to try out genealogybank.com this time. I did not have much hope in finding much, as I have searched newspaper archives in the past and have not found any interesting information.

Since I have been working on my tree for some years now, I knew which family would probably make the news back then. The Cowings. According to the 1870 census, my 5th great grandfather, Balch Cowing, had a personal estate valuing much more than his neighbors. He also married Cynthia Bates, the sister of Joshua Bates, first benefactor of the Boston Public Library. (Side note: I also found an interesting association to the above mentioned Joshua Bates from Wikipedia - his great granddaughter is supposedly Sylvia Brett, the last Rani of Sarawak - apparently a very dramatic woman.)

Getting back to genealogybank, I did a general search on the Cowing last name in any newspapers in Massachusetts with the keyword of Weymouth. It turns out that many articles came up, mostly on Balch's children. One was about the 90th birthday party of his son Francis H. Cowing. Most of the articles were on the following children who belonged to anti-slavery societies in Weymouth: Henry, Lucretia, Sarah and Susan; acting as either treasurers or secretaries to the societies in the 1830s through the 1850s. One of the more interesting articles in the newspaper (April 23d, 1844 (Letters) Date: 1844-05-10; Paper: The Liberator) was a letter written by Anne Weston and Cowing (probably Sarah) of the Anti Slavery Society to Mr. Perkins, their minister, asking why they would not permit a Mr. Quincy to lecture at the meeting house on anti-slavery. In response to their letter, it seems Mr. Perkins and the assessors of the meeting house give the following reason, "we refuse the use of the house, not because we wish to close the ears of a whole parish to the cries of outraged humanity, but because we object to the sentiments of the individual whom you wish to give the lecture." The response goes on to say the Mr. Quincy attacks Christianity, the Sabbath, the government, etc.

I can only imagine the courage it took for these women to stand up to their minister and question a decision that he made. I can picture them sitting at a table for hours laboring over every word before they published the letter. The meetings and discussions they had over these issues must have been most interesting. It is also interesting to note that Lucretia, Susan and Sarah never married, unusual for that time period. Perhaps they were so dedicated to the anti-slavery cause that there was no time for marriage.

I am not sure who Mr. Quincy is in this letter, but he certainly has peaked my interest.

Here is a small excerpt that mentions Maria (Cowing) Willey, from The New England Magazine. Boston: [New England Magazine Co, 1887. Vol. 34.





To Do:
1. Find out more about Mr. Quincy - I think they are referring to Edmund Quincy after preliminary research. He seems to be in association with William Lloyd Garrison - publisher of The Liberator. Also, Maria Weston Chapman and her sisters referred to in blog entry are friends with William Lloyd Garrison. This group was somewhat controversial, not all abolitionists agreed with them. The Weston sisters were known to attend different churches to get a sense of the church's views on slavery. Maria stopped attending the Federal Street Church in Boston as she did not agree with the minister's sermons and views.
2. Find the members of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society - formed in 1834 by the Weston sisters, were any of the Cowings members?
3. Search on genealogybank.com for Bates family.

Links On Topic
1. Annual Reports of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society from Internet Archive.