Notes |
- The following is a study presented on the Internet and duplicated here regarding the feasibility that Samuel's wife was/was not Anne Tucker.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~katy/comstk/b290.html
[A marriage in RI is very doubtful for the date seen as about 1652 (I suspect the marriage was at least two years later); if it took place in CT - the marriage records for New London are lost for this time period. There is no proof for Anne's surname as "Tucker" that I have been able to locate - I believe I have found proof it was certainly not Tucker - see later. The marriage may have taken place in New Amsterdam.]
(snip)
In the fall of September 1654, a Samuel Cromstock and Anna Tchuys were arrested and convicted in New Amsterdam, for adultery. The original records are in Dutch but have been translated. At the NEHGS library in Boston I found the manuscript collection of Samuel W. Comstock who had furnished much of the information to John A. Comstock for his book on the Comstock family. Samuel W. did not interpret the following in the same way and somehow Anna, or Anne's, name became "Tucker". Whether or not this man can be the same as Samuel Comstock of Providence, it seems certain the lady was not his wife - unless she left her husband following the incident. And Samuel "Cromstock" was already married himself.
New York Historical Manuscripts Dutch, Vol. V, Council Minutes, 1652-1654, Translated & Edited by Charles T. Gehring, Genelogical Publishing Co, Inc., Baltimore, 1983.
p.172 "Fiscal Cornelis van Thiehooven brought to the session Samuel Cromstock, presently a prisoner, who confesses and admits that he was found between the 28th and 29th of August at night along the Heere Wech near Jan Vinje's house against the clapboards or fence lying upon Anna Tchuys [wife of Nathaniel Tchuys]; she had her clothes pulled up and her body bared and he Samuel Cromstock, had his pants undone. He was taken away from there by the provost marshal, Arent van Vlieringen. The case is postposed until the next session. Thus done at the seesion of the honorable director-general and high council held in New Amsterdam, 28 August 1654 in New Netherland." At this time New York City was still called New Amsterdam and the state, New Netherlands.
p.173 "Cornelis van Thienhooven, fiscal, plaintiff against Anna Tchuys, presently a prisoner. The fiscal charges that she was found between the 28th and 29th of August at night along the Heere Wech near the house of Jan Vinje lying on her back against the clapboards with her skirts pulled up and her body bared; on top of her was Samuel Cromstock with his pants undone. Anna Tchuys falls on her knees and begs for mercy, claiming that Cromstock had done no more. She is ordered to be taken away until the next session."
p.180 "The honorable director-general and high council of New Netherland have seen the charge of the fiscal against Anna Tchuys, being a married woman and presently a prisoner for having committed adultery with Samuel Cromstock, being a married man, along the Heeren Street under the naked sky between the 28th and 29th of August, last past, at night around 12 o'clock, which the fiscal had confirmed with three witnesses at the session; whereupon, according to form, Anna Tchuys was heard in full session by the director-general and council, and after she had heard and seen the depositions, voluntarily and without pain and bonds, confessed that she had committed adultery with the afroesaid Samuel Cromstock, which crime, being confessed, demands punishment according to the form and custom of our fatherland. Therefore, the honorable direct-general and council of New Netherland, in the name and on behalf of the honorable High Mightinesses, the lords States-General of the United Netherlands and the honorable lords-directors of the General Chartered West India Company, lords and patroons of this province, having judged the aforesaid Anna Tchuys, have condemned, as the aforesaid director-general and council, do hereby condemn her to be brought to the place where justice is customarily carried out, and there, together with Samuel Cromstock, to be placed in the pillory; and, in addition, to pay a fine according to the ordinance, as an example to others; and with failure to pay, they shall be beaten with rods. Thus done at the session held in New Amsterdam, 2 Sept 1654; present the honorable director-general and all the councillors."
On the same day, the case against Samuel Cromstock "being a married man and presently a prisoner for having committed adultery with Anna Tchuys" was judged. Samuel also confessed and the same punishment was meted out.
Not only did Samuel W. Comstock apparently misunderstand the marital status of the couple above, he also seems to have the wrong year and misunderstood the punishment. When he wrote to John A. Comstock for the Comstock Family in Anerica" book he said this:
"Samuel Comstock in 1653 was arrested in New Amsterdam [New York City] for a misdemeanor with Ann, and tried, and both ordered a number of lashes or be married."
and a note on the back of the John A. Comstock's worksheet, also in the handwriting of Samuel W. Comstock was:
"Samuel 2 The chances are he married Ann Tuches [I prob. Have not spelled it correctly - I think Dutch and means another name in English, the New York records if I remember give both - Samuel Crumstock in 1653 was arrested in New Amsterdam [my city] for a mistermenior (sic- he meant misdemeanor) with Ann, and tried and both ordered a number of lashes or be married, I have a Photostat of the case, 4 large pages, the above is a substance of it anyway"
Samuel W. Comstock's handwriting is very small and cramped, but I had no trouble reading the name as "Tuches" which is fairly close to the "Tchuys" in the translated record. However an archivist at NEHGS made nearly the same mistake as John A. Comstock in interpreting SWC's handwriting and said it was "Tucher".
On the same page, John A Comstock, wrote the lady's name as Ann ?Tucker.
It cannot be said with certainty that the incident above did involve this Samuel Comstock of Providence. Particularly if he was part of the Block Island incident in 1653, he could easily have been in New Amsterdam in 1654. The date of his son Daniel's birth is known to be 12 May 1656 [or 57] from the records of his indenture in 1662, and it has been assumed the son Samuel was born first [ca 1654 or earlier] since by about 1657-58, Samuel of Providence had died. It is doubtful that the married lady involved was Anne, wife of Samuel of Providence, that married John Smith following Samuel's death. In 1654 she may have been pregnant or already had a young baby. The lady in New Amsterdam was presumably Dutch and Samuel's wife Anne apparently had no difficulties speaking English when she came before the town council in Providence and she well understood the government of the town. Also the lady in New Amsterdam was already married in August of 1654 to Nathaniel Tchuys, or at least claimed to be. Her name was definitely not Tucker. It is possible that the Samuel Comstock, or Cromstock, involved in both incidents with the Dutch was not this same man of Providence at all. However, given the climate of the times it is possible this is Samuel and Ann. Rhode Island was something of a mecca for pirates and smugglers; obviously the "Swallow" was not simply a merchant ship. Samuel & Anne may well have been caught in a compromising situation and were not totally truthful about their martial status. There would certainly have been a language barrier and the Dutch law somewhat different.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~katy/comstk/b290.html
Note from ss/ With all the above said, it is of interest to note that in Oct 1664, after Ann was widowed by John Smith, she (or at least "a" Ann Smith is named when Thomas Walling, a neighbor of this Ann's son Samuel,
was fined 40 shillings for fornication with a woman named Ann Smith."
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