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- If you use any portion of these notes, please give credit to me, Lois Sorensen, and to all other sources as noted herein:
The following notes are adapted from "Genealogies of RI Families," Vol. II, Some Notes on Eighteenth Century Block Island, pp. 354 & 355:
Rev. Joseph Hull was born in Crewkerne, County Somerset, England, to Thomas & Joanna (Peson) Hull. On 22 May 1612 he started at St. Mary's, Oxford, as a 17-year-old. After graduation from Oxford he was teacher and curate at Colyton, County Devon, and later rector of Northleigh, Exeter, from 1621 to 1632. As an Episcopalian with moderate Puritan views, he decided to emigrate to New England, where he came with his family in 1635. He was admitted a Freeman of Massachusetts Bay in 1635, and became a minister at Weymouth, MA. Because of his Episcopalian leanings, in 1639 he moved to the more tolerant Plymouth Colony, but left there and moved to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, ME. He preached at York, ME, for several years, but finally returned to England, leaving his family in Maine. From 1652 to 1662 he was a minister in Cornwall, England; he then returned to New England and preached at Durham, NH, where he died in 1665. Several of his sons became Quakers, including Hopewell and Samuel, who settled in New Jersey, and Tristram, who returned to Yarmouth and Barnstable, MA. There Tristram was a prominant citizen and a sea captain. By his wife Blanche he had several children, including John who became Captain John Hull of Jamestown, RI, a well-known sea captain in his own right.
According to Charles H. Weygant, writing in "The Hull Family in America," (Hull Family Association, 1913), Rev. Joseph Hull came in March 1635 with his second wife, 7 children, and three servants, along with about 90 other people. When he relocated to Plymouth Colony he founded the present town of Barnstable, MA.
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