Joseph Hull and Joanna (Joane) Coffin were married about 1619 in Crewkerne, Som.
Their children born/baptized in Crewkerne, Som.
Joanna Hull born about 1620.
Elizabeth Hull born about 1622.
Tristram Hull born about 1624.
Temperance Hull baptized March 20, 1626.
Joseph Hull born about 1628.
Griselda Hull born about 1630.
Dorothy Hull born about 1632.
My opinion, The lack of proof is not proof at all but pure speculation. For many years Joanna was considered to be a Coffin, but know, with no new records to learn from, we have a new interpretation. Robert DeVowe.
You will have to make up your own mind until DNA evidence can be found.
Have you yourself actually looked at the parish records for this? As far as I know, the first c. 1619 marriage to Joanna UKN has not been found (could be wrong). I do know that the Coffin birth name has been discredited. Children seem to have been born in Northleigh, Devon where JH was vicar after 1621 not Crewkerne.
Unless you have a record of burial, there is no reason to think she was buried at Crewkerne.
Linda Lyons
Joanna Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: Joanna Coffin is CONCLUSIVELY not Hull's wife.
1. Genealogist Phyllis Hughes wrote "The Myth of Joanna Coffin." She was able to trace the theory to an early 20th-century book about the family, where the writer speculates that Hull's unnamed 1st wife might be Joanna Coffin because 1) her oldest child was named Joanna and 2) a Coffin family lived near the Hulls.
Hughes searched English parish records and found the daughter of Peter Coffin, Joanna, was baptized 29 Dec 1616 in Brixton, Devon, England. "Immediately, I saw that the date of her baptism would not support the conclusion that she had married the Rev. Joseph Hull for she was much too young." Joanna Coffin was likely only 3 years old when Hull married for the first time."
Hughes, Phyllis J. "The Myth of Joanna Coffin, Given as First Wife of the Rev. Joseph Hull, 1635 Immigrant." Hull Family Association Journal, vol 12, no. 1 (spring 2001): p 23. https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/back_issues_recent.shtml
2. Professional genealogist Phyllis Hughes also published "Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line": "Rev. Joseph Hull did not marry Joanna Coffin, as his first wife. There is also no proven evidence that Rev. Joseph even married a Joanna. It is well documented that the given name of his second wife was Agnes, but her surname is unknown; there is absolutely no evidence that she was Agnes Coffin."
Hughes, Phyllis J. “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.”
https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml
3. "Great Migration" identifies Hull's 1st wife as "Unknown Unknown."
"The Great Migration Project, on review of documents related to Joseph, declares that the only evidence that Joseph even had a first wife is the age of his wife Agnes in 1635 (25) and the fact that she was still bearing children in 1652. There is no evidence that she was named Joan, and no evidence that she was Joane Coffin, as often listed."
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-253829
www.werelate.org/wiki/Family:Joseph_Hull_and_Unknown_%281%29
4. Find-a-Grave entry for Joseph Hull identifies his 1st wife as unknown (Memorial 73100242).
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73100242/joseph-hull
5. "Hull Family in America" (1913) assumes Hull's first wife was named Joanna because their oldest child was named Joanna, but it does NOT identify her surname (p 247).
Full text online (648 pages) https://archive.org/stream/hullfamilyinamer00weyg#page/485/mode/2up
6. geni.com LOCKED Joseph Hull's entry in 2014 to prevent people from adding Joanna Coffin as a wife.
"Rev. Joseph Hull was not married to Joanna Coffin! The name comes from some inventive and quite persuasive speculation by an eary Hull researcher, Orra Eugene Monnette. He based his speculation on the usual genealogical suspects: names of children, locations of possible relatives, etc. However, Phyllis Hughes found that the Joanna Coffin under consideration - daughter of Peter and Joanna (Thember) Coffin - was roughly 3 years old when she supposedly married, so that marriage is clearly wrong. You still see the name in various published genealogies, because other researchers copied Monnette, and still others copied them - but it is quite wrong."
www.geni.com/people/Rev-Joseph-Hull/6000000002175438989
It would be a HUGE HUGE HUGE help to get this fixed. I spend hours & know others who do, too, correcting the Hull family entries on Family Search (free to anyone, but please don't change Hull's first wife from Officially Unknown.)
Contributor: Jill Piggott
December 10, 2020
Make up your own mind
Robert DeVowe December 10, 2020
Suggested Edit
Find a Grave contributor, Jill Piggott has made the following suggested edits.
Joanna Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: HULL'S FIRST WIFE DIED IN NORTHLEIGH. SHE WAS NOT NAMED JOANNA COFFIN.
1. Joseph Hull's unnamed first wife died in 1632 in Northleigh, Devon, not in Crewkerne. The Clergy of the Church of England Database shows Joseph Hull served as Northleigh's rector from 28 March 1622 to 14 March 1633 [1]. He married his second wife on 13 March 1633 [2].
2. "Joanna Coffin Hull" never existed. As I noted in an earlier fact check that went ignored by Find-a-Grave, one writer more than one hundred years ago floated the idea that Hull married Joanna Coffin. This was debunked 2 decades ago by Phyllis J. Hughes, the professional genealogist hired by the Hull Family Association. She searched English parish records for the name of Hull's first wife. She came up empty on the wife's name, but she was able to conclusively eliminate "Joanna Coffin" because she was a CHILD OF 2 OR 3 when Hull married. (See sources 3-7 below).
Find-a-Grave is not a reliable source of information if its writers fail to cite the sources of their information or, worse, shrug off factchecks. Volunteers at Family Search, Geni, and Wikitree waste a lot of time correcting the Hull entry precisely because sites like Find-a-Grave can't be bothered to keep their entries accurate.
Find-a-Grave has TWO entries for Hull's first wife. One is correct [7]. This one is not. I certainly hope someone will take this factcheck seriously and correct the entry.
References:
1. Clergy of the Church of England Database. Joseph Hull ID 57456. theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?PersonID=57456
2. Marriage of Joseph Hull and Agnes. Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531-1812.
Original: www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/LRQS-P26
Record: search.ancestry.com/collections/60856/records/900975822.
3. Hughes, Phyllis J. "The Myth of Joanna Coffin, Given as First Wife of the Rev. Joseph Hull, 1635 Immigrant." Hull Family Association Journal, vol 12, no. 1 (spring 2001): p 23.
www.hullfamilyassociation.org/back_issues_recent.shtml
4. Hughes, Phyllis J. “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.”
www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml
5. Joseph Hull and unknown first wife.
www.geni.com/people/Rev-Joseph-Hull/6000000002175438989
6. "Great Migration" entry for "Unknown Unknown" (Hull's first wife). Quoted by Wikitree.
www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-253829
7. Joseph Hull and unknown first wife.*
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/36891179/1st_wife-hull
* "1st Wife Hull" is Find-a-Grave's accurate entry on Joseph Hull's first wife.
Contributor: Jill Piggott Jan 27, 2021∼Rev. Joseph Hull married (1) By about 1620 _____ _____.
She died before he came from Broadway, Somersetshire to Massachusetts Bay in 1635 with their children & his second wife. (On 20 March 1634/5, "Joseph Hall of Somerset, a minister, aged 40 years, Agnis Hall his wife aged 25 years, Joane Hall his daughter aged 15 years, Joseph Hall his son aged 13 years, Tristram his son aged 11 years, Elizabeth Hall his daughter aged 7 years, Temperance his daughter aged 9 years, Grissell Hull his daughter aged 5 years, Dorothy Hall his daughter aged 3 years, Judeth French his servant aged 20 years, John Wood his servant aged 20 years, [and] Rob[er]t Dabyn his servant aged 28 years" were enrolled at Weymouth as passengers for New England on the Marygould). The family first settled in Weymouth; then moved to Hingham by 1638, Barnstable in 1639, Yarmouth in 1641, York in 1643, and finally Oyster River, Isles of Shoals.
They had 7 children: Joanna BURSLEY DAVIS, Joseph, Tristram, Temperance Bickford, Elizabeth Heard, Griselda, & Dorothy Kent.
On 8 July 1635, Gov. John Winthrop reported that "[a]t this Court, Wessaguscus was made a plantation & Mr. Hull, a minister in England, & 21 families with him allowed to set down there." On 8 July 1635, "[t]here is leave granted to 21 families to sit down at Wessaguscus, viz: [blank]."
Source:Anderson's Great Migration Study Project
1st wife Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: Joseph Hull's first wife is unknown and CONCLUSIVELY not Joanna, daughter of Peter Coffin, who was no more than 3 when Hull married.
In her article, “The Myth of Joanna Coffin,” genealogist Phyllis J. Hughes conclusively debunked this persistent mistake. The source of the error is a book by Orra Eugene Monnette written more than a century ago. He hypothesized that Hull’s unknown first wife might be Joanna Coffin, daughter of Peter, because some Hulls and Coffins shared the same first names and because the Coffins lived in Devonshire, as did Hull. Researcher Hughes found the original parish record, showing Peter’s daughter was baptized 29 Dec 1616, making her 3 at most when Hull married [1].
Monnette’s writing is now considered unreliable precisely because it contains multiple assumptions based on little information. The internet keeps the error alive, and Joanna Coffin Hull, her evil twin Agnes Coffin Hull, and her alter ego Joanna Agnes Coffin Hull have proven to be genealogical vampires. Each time I think I’ve killed them off with footnotes, they rise from the dead.
Here's research I hope will put a nail in the Coffin. The article “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line" published by the Hull Family Association reiterates this point: "Rev. Joseph Hull did not marry Joanna Coffin, as his first wife. There is also no proven evidence that Rev. Joseph even married a Joanna. It is well documented that the given name of his second wife was Agnes, but her surname is unknown; there is absolutely no evidence that she was Agnes Coffin" [2].
The authoritative Great Migration Project reviewed documents related to Joseph Hull’s first wife and found “no evidence that she was named Joan, and no evidence that she was Joane Coffin, as often listed" [3].
Joseph Hull's oldest child, Joanna, was born in about 1620, based on her age as given on the "Hull Company" 1635 passenger list [4]. That puts Hull's marriage during the 8 years he worked as an assistant to his older brother William, the vicar of Colyton. People generally assume Hull married a woman from his hometown, but Hull left Crewkerne at 16 when he went to Oxford and didn't return until after his first wife's death at age 37 [5]. It's thus entirely possible that his first wife was a member of his brother William's parish, and since there are no primary sources to establish her birthplace, no birthplace should be given.
The Hulls moved from Colyton to Northleigh when he was appointed St. Giles's rector on 28 March 1622 [6]. From the passenger list, we know the couple had 7 children, each 2 years apart in age. Hull's first wife died in Northleigh during or soon after giving birth to her 7th child. Hull married Agnes (surname unknown) in Crewkerne on 13 March 1633 [7]. His resignation at Crewkerne was effective the following day, 14 March 1633.
Of First Wife Hull, we know 3 things:
1) She married Joseph Hull in about 1619.
2) She had 7 children, 6 of whom were born in Northleigh.
3) She died in Northleigh during or soon after having her 7th child, Dorothy.
All additional information about her should be deleted from her profile.
MANY thanks for correcting this. The (free) Family Search entries for the Hulls and the Coffins are continually corrupted. Geni.com took the rare step of locking Rev Joseph’s profile to prevent the addition of Joanna Coffin as his wife. It's a maddingly persistent error.
1. Phyllis J. Hughes, "The Myth of Joanna Coffin,” Hull Family Association Journal 12.1 (spring 2001): p 23.
2. Phyllis J. Hughes, “Common Errors on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.” [https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml]
3. Robert Charles Anderson, et al. “Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634-35," p 452.
4. Passengers Bound for New England [Hull Company Passenger List], Debates in American History and Government, Vol. 1, 1493–1865, ed Sarah Morgan Smith (2019): p 31-33. [https://teachingamericanhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Docs-and-Debates-Vol-1_online.pdf]
5. Joseph Hull timeline, Mount-Royal Genealogy.
[https://mount-royal.ca/heritage/getperson.php?personID=I3638&tree=godbout]
6. Joseph Hull was ordained on 23 May 1619 in the Parish Church, Silverton. He served as rector of St. Giles, Northleigh from 28 March 1622 to 14 March 1633. Rev Joseph Hull, ID 57456, Clergy of the Church of England Database.
[https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?PersonID=57456]
7. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900.
Contributor: Jill Piggott
Feb 15, 2021
Their children born/baptized in Crewkerne, Som.
Joanna Hull born about 1620.
Elizabeth Hull born about 1622.
Tristram Hull born about 1624.
Temperance Hull baptized March 20, 1626.
Joseph Hull born about 1628.
Griselda Hull born about 1630.
Dorothy Hull born about 1632.
My opinion, The lack of proof is not proof at all but pure speculation. For many years Joanna was considered to be a Coffin, but know, with no new records to learn from, we have a new interpretation. Robert DeVowe.
You will have to make up your own mind until DNA evidence can be found.
Have you yourself actually looked at the parish records for this? As far as I know, the first c. 1619 marriage to Joanna UKN has not been found (could be wrong). I do know that the Coffin birth name has been discredited. Children seem to have been born in Northleigh, Devon where JH was vicar after 1621 not Crewkerne.
Unless you have a record of burial, there is no reason to think she was buried at Crewkerne.
Linda Lyons
Joanna Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: Joanna Coffin is CONCLUSIVELY not Hull's wife.
1. Genealogist Phyllis Hughes wrote "The Myth of Joanna Coffin." She was able to trace the theory to an early 20th-century book about the family, where the writer speculates that Hull's unnamed 1st wife might be Joanna Coffin because 1) her oldest child was named Joanna and 2) a Coffin family lived near the Hulls.
Hughes searched English parish records and found the daughter of Peter Coffin, Joanna, was baptized 29 Dec 1616 in Brixton, Devon, England. "Immediately, I saw that the date of her baptism would not support the conclusion that she had married the Rev. Joseph Hull for she was much too young." Joanna Coffin was likely only 3 years old when Hull married for the first time."
Hughes, Phyllis J. "The Myth of Joanna Coffin, Given as First Wife of the Rev. Joseph Hull, 1635 Immigrant." Hull Family Association Journal, vol 12, no. 1 (spring 2001): p 23. https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/back_issues_recent.shtml
2. Professional genealogist Phyllis Hughes also published "Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line": "Rev. Joseph Hull did not marry Joanna Coffin, as his first wife. There is also no proven evidence that Rev. Joseph even married a Joanna. It is well documented that the given name of his second wife was Agnes, but her surname is unknown; there is absolutely no evidence that she was Agnes Coffin."
Hughes, Phyllis J. “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.”
https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml
3. "Great Migration" identifies Hull's 1st wife as "Unknown Unknown."
"The Great Migration Project, on review of documents related to Joseph, declares that the only evidence that Joseph even had a first wife is the age of his wife Agnes in 1635 (25) and the fact that she was still bearing children in 1652. There is no evidence that she was named Joan, and no evidence that she was Joane Coffin, as often listed."
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-253829
www.werelate.org/wiki/Family:Joseph_Hull_and_Unknown_%281%29
4. Find-a-Grave entry for Joseph Hull identifies his 1st wife as unknown (Memorial 73100242).
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73100242/joseph-hull
5. "Hull Family in America" (1913) assumes Hull's first wife was named Joanna because their oldest child was named Joanna, but it does NOT identify her surname (p 247).
Full text online (648 pages) https://archive.org/stream/hullfamilyinamer00weyg#page/485/mode/2up
6. geni.com LOCKED Joseph Hull's entry in 2014 to prevent people from adding Joanna Coffin as a wife.
"Rev. Joseph Hull was not married to Joanna Coffin! The name comes from some inventive and quite persuasive speculation by an eary Hull researcher, Orra Eugene Monnette. He based his speculation on the usual genealogical suspects: names of children, locations of possible relatives, etc. However, Phyllis Hughes found that the Joanna Coffin under consideration - daughter of Peter and Joanna (Thember) Coffin - was roughly 3 years old when she supposedly married, so that marriage is clearly wrong. You still see the name in various published genealogies, because other researchers copied Monnette, and still others copied them - but it is quite wrong."
www.geni.com/people/Rev-Joseph-Hull/6000000002175438989
It would be a HUGE HUGE HUGE help to get this fixed. I spend hours & know others who do, too, correcting the Hull family entries on Family Search (free to anyone, but please don't change Hull's first wife from Officially Unknown.)
Contributor: Jill Piggott
December 10, 2020
Make up your own mind
Robert DeVowe December 10, 2020
Suggested Edit
Find a Grave contributor, Jill Piggott has made the following suggested edits.
Joanna Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: HULL'S FIRST WIFE DIED IN NORTHLEIGH. SHE WAS NOT NAMED JOANNA COFFIN.
1. Joseph Hull's unnamed first wife died in 1632 in Northleigh, Devon, not in Crewkerne. The Clergy of the Church of England Database shows Joseph Hull served as Northleigh's rector from 28 March 1622 to 14 March 1633 [1]. He married his second wife on 13 March 1633 [2].
2. "Joanna Coffin Hull" never existed. As I noted in an earlier fact check that went ignored by Find-a-Grave, one writer more than one hundred years ago floated the idea that Hull married Joanna Coffin. This was debunked 2 decades ago by Phyllis J. Hughes, the professional genealogist hired by the Hull Family Association. She searched English parish records for the name of Hull's first wife. She came up empty on the wife's name, but she was able to conclusively eliminate "Joanna Coffin" because she was a CHILD OF 2 OR 3 when Hull married. (See sources 3-7 below).
Find-a-Grave is not a reliable source of information if its writers fail to cite the sources of their information or, worse, shrug off factchecks. Volunteers at Family Search, Geni, and Wikitree waste a lot of time correcting the Hull entry precisely because sites like Find-a-Grave can't be bothered to keep their entries accurate.
Find-a-Grave has TWO entries for Hull's first wife. One is correct [7]. This one is not. I certainly hope someone will take this factcheck seriously and correct the entry.
References:
1. Clergy of the Church of England Database. Joseph Hull ID 57456. theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?PersonID=57456
2. Marriage of Joseph Hull and Agnes. Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531-1812.
Original: www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/LRQS-P26
Record: search.ancestry.com/collections/60856/records/900975822.
3. Hughes, Phyllis J. "The Myth of Joanna Coffin, Given as First Wife of the Rev. Joseph Hull, 1635 Immigrant." Hull Family Association Journal, vol 12, no. 1 (spring 2001): p 23.
www.hullfamilyassociation.org/back_issues_recent.shtml
4. Hughes, Phyllis J. “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.”
www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml
5. Joseph Hull and unknown first wife.
www.geni.com/people/Rev-Joseph-Hull/6000000002175438989
6. "Great Migration" entry for "Unknown Unknown" (Hull's first wife). Quoted by Wikitree.
www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-253829
7. Joseph Hull and unknown first wife.*
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/36891179/1st_wife-hull
* "1st Wife Hull" is Find-a-Grave's accurate entry on Joseph Hull's first wife.
Contributor: Jill Piggott Jan 27, 2021∼Rev. Joseph Hull married (1) By about 1620 _____ _____.
She died before he came from Broadway, Somersetshire to Massachusetts Bay in 1635 with their children & his second wife. (On 20 March 1634/5, "Joseph Hall of Somerset, a minister, aged 40 years, Agnis Hall his wife aged 25 years, Joane Hall his daughter aged 15 years, Joseph Hall his son aged 13 years, Tristram his son aged 11 years, Elizabeth Hall his daughter aged 7 years, Temperance his daughter aged 9 years, Grissell Hull his daughter aged 5 years, Dorothy Hall his daughter aged 3 years, Judeth French his servant aged 20 years, John Wood his servant aged 20 years, [and] Rob[er]t Dabyn his servant aged 28 years" were enrolled at Weymouth as passengers for New England on the Marygould). The family first settled in Weymouth; then moved to Hingham by 1638, Barnstable in 1639, Yarmouth in 1641, York in 1643, and finally Oyster River, Isles of Shoals.
They had 7 children: Joanna BURSLEY DAVIS, Joseph, Tristram, Temperance Bickford, Elizabeth Heard, Griselda, & Dorothy Kent.
On 8 July 1635, Gov. John Winthrop reported that "[a]t this Court, Wessaguscus was made a plantation & Mr. Hull, a minister in England, & 21 families with him allowed to set down there." On 8 July 1635, "[t]here is leave granted to 21 families to sit down at Wessaguscus, viz: [blank]."
Source:Anderson's Great Migration Study Project
1st wife Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: Joseph Hull's first wife is unknown and CONCLUSIVELY not Joanna, daughter of Peter Coffin, who was no more than 3 when Hull married.
In her article, “The Myth of Joanna Coffin,” genealogist Phyllis J. Hughes conclusively debunked this persistent mistake. The source of the error is a book by Orra Eugene Monnette written more than a century ago. He hypothesized that Hull’s unknown first wife might be Joanna Coffin, daughter of Peter, because some Hulls and Coffins shared the same first names and because the Coffins lived in Devonshire, as did Hull. Researcher Hughes found the original parish record, showing Peter’s daughter was baptized 29 Dec 1616, making her 3 at most when Hull married [1].
Monnette’s writing is now considered unreliable precisely because it contains multiple assumptions based on little information. The internet keeps the error alive, and Joanna Coffin Hull, her evil twin Agnes Coffin Hull, and her alter ego Joanna Agnes Coffin Hull have proven to be genealogical vampires. Each time I think I’ve killed them off with footnotes, they rise from the dead.
Here's research I hope will put a nail in the Coffin. The article “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line" published by the Hull Family Association reiterates this point: "Rev. Joseph Hull did not marry Joanna Coffin, as his first wife. There is also no proven evidence that Rev. Joseph even married a Joanna. It is well documented that the given name of his second wife was Agnes, but her surname is unknown; there is absolutely no evidence that she was Agnes Coffin" [2].
The authoritative Great Migration Project reviewed documents related to Joseph Hull’s first wife and found “no evidence that she was named Joan, and no evidence that she was Joane Coffin, as often listed" [3].
Joseph Hull's oldest child, Joanna, was born in about 1620, based on her age as given on the "Hull Company" 1635 passenger list [4]. That puts Hull's marriage during the 8 years he worked as an assistant to his older brother William, the vicar of Colyton. People generally assume Hull married a woman from his hometown, but Hull left Crewkerne at 16 when he went to Oxford and didn't return until after his first wife's death at age 37 [5]. It's thus entirely possible that his first wife was a member of his brother William's parish, and since there are no primary sources to establish her birthplace, no birthplace should be given.
The Hulls moved from Colyton to Northleigh when he was appointed St. Giles's rector on 28 March 1622 [6]. From the passenger list, we know the couple had 7 children, each 2 years apart in age. Hull's first wife died in Northleigh during or soon after giving birth to her 7th child. Hull married Agnes (surname unknown) in Crewkerne on 13 March 1633 [7]. His resignation at Crewkerne was effective the following day, 14 March 1633.
Of First Wife Hull, we know 3 things:
1) She married Joseph Hull in about 1619.
2) She had 7 children, 6 of whom were born in Northleigh.
3) She died in Northleigh during or soon after having her 7th child, Dorothy.
All additional information about her should be deleted from her profile.
MANY thanks for correcting this. The (free) Family Search entries for the Hulls and the Coffins are continually corrupted. Geni.com took the rare step of locking Rev Joseph’s profile to prevent the addition of Joanna Coffin as his wife. It's a maddingly persistent error.
1. Phyllis J. Hughes, "The Myth of Joanna Coffin,” Hull Family Association Journal 12.1 (spring 2001): p 23.
2. Phyllis J. Hughes, “Common Errors on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.” [https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml]
3. Robert Charles Anderson, et al. “Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634-35," p 452.
4. Passengers Bound for New England [Hull Company Passenger List], Debates in American History and Government, Vol. 1, 1493–1865, ed Sarah Morgan Smith (2019): p 31-33. [https://teachingamericanhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Docs-and-Debates-Vol-1_online.pdf]
5. Joseph Hull timeline, Mount-Royal Genealogy.
[https://mount-royal.ca/heritage/getperson.php?personID=I3638&tree=godbout]
6. Joseph Hull was ordained on 23 May 1619 in the Parish Church, Silverton. He served as rector of St. Giles, Northleigh from 28 March 1622 to 14 March 1633. Rev Joseph Hull, ID 57456, Clergy of the Church of England Database.
[https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?PersonID=57456]
7. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900.
Contributor: Jill Piggott
Feb 15, 2021
Joseph Hull and Joanna (Joane) Coffin were married about 1619 in Crewkerne, Som.
Their children born/baptized in Crewkerne, Som.
Joanna Hull born about 1620.
Elizabeth Hull born about 1622.
Tristram Hull born about 1624.
Temperance Hull baptized March 20, 1626.
Joseph Hull born about 1628.
Griselda Hull born about 1630.
Dorothy Hull born about 1632.
My opinion, The lack of proof is not proof at all but pure speculation. For many years Joanna was considered to be a Coffin, but know, with no new records to learn from, we have a new interpretation. Robert DeVowe.
You will have to make up your own mind until DNA evidence can be found.
Have you yourself actually looked at the parish records for this? As far as I know, the first c. 1619 marriage to Joanna UKN has not been found (could be wrong). I do know that the Coffin birth name has been discredited. Children seem to have been born in Northleigh, Devon where JH was vicar after 1621 not Crewkerne.
Unless you have a record of burial, there is no reason to think she was buried at Crewkerne.
Linda Lyons
Joanna Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: Joanna Coffin is CONCLUSIVELY not Hull's wife.
1. Genealogist Phyllis Hughes wrote "The Myth of Joanna Coffin." She was able to trace the theory to an early 20th-century book about the family, where the writer speculates that Hull's unnamed 1st wife might be Joanna Coffin because 1) her oldest child was named Joanna and 2) a Coffin family lived near the Hulls.
Hughes searched English parish records and found the daughter of Peter Coffin, Joanna, was baptized 29 Dec 1616 in Brixton, Devon, England. "Immediately, I saw that the date of her baptism would not support the conclusion that she had married the Rev. Joseph Hull for she was much too young." Joanna Coffin was likely only 3 years old when Hull married for the first time."
Hughes, Phyllis J. "The Myth of Joanna Coffin, Given as First Wife of the Rev. Joseph Hull, 1635 Immigrant." Hull Family Association Journal, vol 12, no. 1 (spring 2001): p 23. https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/back_issues_recent.shtml
2. Professional genealogist Phyllis Hughes also published "Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line": "Rev. Joseph Hull did not marry Joanna Coffin, as his first wife. There is also no proven evidence that Rev. Joseph even married a Joanna. It is well documented that the given name of his second wife was Agnes, but her surname is unknown; there is absolutely no evidence that she was Agnes Coffin."
Hughes, Phyllis J. “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.”
https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml
3. "Great Migration" identifies Hull's 1st wife as "Unknown Unknown."
"The Great Migration Project, on review of documents related to Joseph, declares that the only evidence that Joseph even had a first wife is the age of his wife Agnes in 1635 (25) and the fact that she was still bearing children in 1652. There is no evidence that she was named Joan, and no evidence that she was Joane Coffin, as often listed."
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-253829
www.werelate.org/wiki/Family:Joseph_Hull_and_Unknown_%281%29
4. Find-a-Grave entry for Joseph Hull identifies his 1st wife as unknown (Memorial 73100242).
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73100242/joseph-hull
5. "Hull Family in America" (1913) assumes Hull's first wife was named Joanna because their oldest child was named Joanna, but it does NOT identify her surname (p 247).
Full text online (648 pages) https://archive.org/stream/hullfamilyinamer00weyg#page/485/mode/2up
6. geni.com LOCKED Joseph Hull's entry in 2014 to prevent people from adding Joanna Coffin as a wife.
"Rev. Joseph Hull was not married to Joanna Coffin! The name comes from some inventive and quite persuasive speculation by an eary Hull researcher, Orra Eugene Monnette. He based his speculation on the usual genealogical suspects: names of children, locations of possible relatives, etc. However, Phyllis Hughes found that the Joanna Coffin under consideration - daughter of Peter and Joanna (Thember) Coffin - was roughly 3 years old when she supposedly married, so that marriage is clearly wrong. You still see the name in various published genealogies, because other researchers copied Monnette, and still others copied them - but it is quite wrong."
www.geni.com/people/Rev-Joseph-Hull/6000000002175438989
It would be a HUGE HUGE HUGE help to get this fixed. I spend hours & know others who do, too, correcting the Hull family entries on Family Search (free to anyone, but please don't change Hull's first wife from Officially Unknown.)
Contributor: Jill Piggott
December 10, 2020
Make up your own mind
Robert DeVowe December 10, 2020
Suggested Edit
Find a Grave contributor, Jill Piggott has made the following suggested edits.
Joanna Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: HULL'S FIRST WIFE DIED IN NORTHLEIGH. SHE WAS NOT NAMED JOANNA COFFIN.
1. Joseph Hull's unnamed first wife died in 1632 in Northleigh, Devon, not in Crewkerne. The Clergy of the Church of England Database shows Joseph Hull served as Northleigh's rector from 28 March 1622 to 14 March 1633 [1]. He married his second wife on 13 March 1633 [2].
2. "Joanna Coffin Hull" never existed. As I noted in an earlier fact check that went ignored by Find-a-Grave, one writer more than one hundred years ago floated the idea that Hull married Joanna Coffin. This was debunked 2 decades ago by Phyllis J. Hughes, the professional genealogist hired by the Hull Family Association. She searched English parish records for the name of Hull's first wife. She came up empty on the wife's name, but she was able to conclusively eliminate "Joanna Coffin" because she was a CHILD OF 2 OR 3 when Hull married. (See sources 3-7 below).
Find-a-Grave is not a reliable source of information if its writers fail to cite the sources of their information or, worse, shrug off factchecks. Volunteers at Family Search, Geni, and Wikitree waste a lot of time correcting the Hull entry precisely because sites like Find-a-Grave can't be bothered to keep their entries accurate.
Find-a-Grave has TWO entries for Hull's first wife. One is correct [7]. This one is not. I certainly hope someone will take this factcheck seriously and correct the entry.
References:
1. Clergy of the Church of England Database. Joseph Hull ID 57456. theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?PersonID=57456
2. Marriage of Joseph Hull and Agnes. Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531-1812.
Original: www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/LRQS-P26
Record: search.ancestry.com/collections/60856/records/900975822.
3. Hughes, Phyllis J. "The Myth of Joanna Coffin, Given as First Wife of the Rev. Joseph Hull, 1635 Immigrant." Hull Family Association Journal, vol 12, no. 1 (spring 2001): p 23.
www.hullfamilyassociation.org/back_issues_recent.shtml
4. Hughes, Phyllis J. “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.”
www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml
5. Joseph Hull and unknown first wife.
www.geni.com/people/Rev-Joseph-Hull/6000000002175438989
6. "Great Migration" entry for "Unknown Unknown" (Hull's first wife). Quoted by Wikitree.
www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-253829
7. Joseph Hull and unknown first wife.*
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/36891179/1st_wife-hull
* "1st Wife Hull" is Find-a-Grave's accurate entry on Joseph Hull's first wife.
Contributor: Jill Piggott Jan 27, 2021∼Rev. Joseph Hull married (1) By about 1620 _____ _____.
She died before he came from Broadway, Somersetshire to Massachusetts Bay in 1635 with their children & his second wife. (On 20 March 1634/5, "Joseph Hall of Somerset, a minister, aged 40 years, Agnis Hall his wife aged 25 years, Joane Hall his daughter aged 15 years, Joseph Hall his son aged 13 years, Tristram his son aged 11 years, Elizabeth Hall his daughter aged 7 years, Temperance his daughter aged 9 years, Grissell Hull his daughter aged 5 years, Dorothy Hall his daughter aged 3 years, Judeth French his servant aged 20 years, John Wood his servant aged 20 years, [and] Rob[er]t Dabyn his servant aged 28 years" were enrolled at Weymouth as passengers for New England on the Marygould). The family first settled in Weymouth; then moved to Hingham by 1638, Barnstable in 1639, Yarmouth in 1641, York in 1643, and finally Oyster River, Isles of Shoals.
They had 7 children: Joanna BURSLEY DAVIS, Joseph, Tristram, Temperance Bickford, Elizabeth Heard, Griselda, & Dorothy Kent.
On 8 July 1635, Gov. John Winthrop reported that "[a]t this Court, Wessaguscus was made a plantation & Mr. Hull, a minister in England, & 21 families with him allowed to set down there." On 8 July 1635, "[t]here is leave granted to 21 families to sit down at Wessaguscus, viz: [blank]."
Source:Anderson's Great Migration Study Project
1st wife Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: Joseph Hull's first wife is unknown and CONCLUSIVELY not Joanna, daughter of Peter Coffin, who was no more than 3 when Hull married.
In her article, “The Myth of Joanna Coffin,” genealogist Phyllis J. Hughes conclusively debunked this persistent mistake. The source of the error is a book by Orra Eugene Monnette written more than a century ago. He hypothesized that Hull’s unknown first wife might be Joanna Coffin, daughter of Peter, because some Hulls and Coffins shared the same first names and because the Coffins lived in Devonshire, as did Hull. Researcher Hughes found the original parish record, showing Peter’s daughter was baptized 29 Dec 1616, making her 3 at most when Hull married [1].
Monnette’s writing is now considered unreliable precisely because it contains multiple assumptions based on little information. The internet keeps the error alive, and Joanna Coffin Hull, her evil twin Agnes Coffin Hull, and her alter ego Joanna Agnes Coffin Hull have proven to be genealogical vampires. Each time I think I’ve killed them off with footnotes, they rise from the dead.
Here's research I hope will put a nail in the Coffin. The article “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line" published by the Hull Family Association reiterates this point: "Rev. Joseph Hull did not marry Joanna Coffin, as his first wife. There is also no proven evidence that Rev. Joseph even married a Joanna. It is well documented that the given name of his second wife was Agnes, but her surname is unknown; there is absolutely no evidence that she was Agnes Coffin" [2].
The authoritative Great Migration Project reviewed documents related to Joseph Hull’s first wife and found “no evidence that she was named Joan, and no evidence that she was Joane Coffin, as often listed" [3].
Joseph Hull's oldest child, Joanna, was born in about 1620, based on her age as given on the "Hull Company" 1635 passenger list [4]. That puts Hull's marriage during the 8 years he worked as an assistant to his older brother William, the vicar of Colyton. People generally assume Hull married a woman from his hometown, but Hull left Crewkerne at 16 when he went to Oxford and didn't return until after his first wife's death at age 37 [5]. It's thus entirely possible that his first wife was a member of his brother William's parish, and since there are no primary sources to establish her birthplace, no birthplace should be given.
The Hulls moved from Colyton to Northleigh when he was appointed St. Giles's rector on 28 March 1622 [6]. From the passenger list, we know the couple had 7 children, each 2 years apart in age. Hull's first wife died in Northleigh during or soon after giving birth to her 7th child. Hull married Agnes (surname unknown) in Crewkerne on 13 March 1633 [7]. His resignation at Crewkerne was effective the following day, 14 March 1633.
Of First Wife Hull, we know 3 things:
1) She married Joseph Hull in about 1619.
2) She had 7 children, 6 of whom were born in Northleigh.
3) She died in Northleigh during or soon after having her 7th child, Dorothy.
All additional information about her should be deleted from her profile.
MANY thanks for correcting this. The (free) Family Search entries for the Hulls and the Coffins are continually corrupted. Geni.com took the rare step of locking Rev Joseph’s profile to prevent the addition of Joanna Coffin as his wife. It's a maddingly persistent error.
1. Phyllis J. Hughes, "The Myth of Joanna Coffin,” Hull Family Association Journal 12.1 (spring 2001): p 23.
2. Phyllis J. Hughes, “Common Errors on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.” [https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml]
3. Robert Charles Anderson, et al. “Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634-35," p 452.
4. Passengers Bound for New England [Hull Company Passenger List], Debates in American History and Government, Vol. 1, 1493–1865, ed Sarah Morgan Smith (2019): p 31-33. [https://teachingamericanhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Docs-and-Debates-Vol-1_online.pdf]
5. Joseph Hull timeline, Mount-Royal Genealogy.
[https://mount-royal.ca/heritage/getperson.php?personID=I3638&tree=godbout]
6. Joseph Hull was ordained on 23 May 1619 in the Parish Church, Silverton. He served as rector of St. Giles, Northleigh from 28 March 1622 to 14 March 1633. Rev Joseph Hull, ID 57456, Clergy of the Church of England Database.
[https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?PersonID=57456]
7. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900.
Contributor: Jill Piggott
Feb 15, 2021
Their children born/baptized in Crewkerne, Som.
Joanna Hull born about 1620.
Elizabeth Hull born about 1622.
Tristram Hull born about 1624.
Temperance Hull baptized March 20, 1626.
Joseph Hull born about 1628.
Griselda Hull born about 1630.
Dorothy Hull born about 1632.
My opinion, The lack of proof is not proof at all but pure speculation. For many years Joanna was considered to be a Coffin, but know, with no new records to learn from, we have a new interpretation. Robert DeVowe.
You will have to make up your own mind until DNA evidence can be found.
Have you yourself actually looked at the parish records for this? As far as I know, the first c. 1619 marriage to Joanna UKN has not been found (could be wrong). I do know that the Coffin birth name has been discredited. Children seem to have been born in Northleigh, Devon where JH was vicar after 1621 not Crewkerne.
Unless you have a record of burial, there is no reason to think she was buried at Crewkerne.
Linda Lyons
Joanna Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: Joanna Coffin is CONCLUSIVELY not Hull's wife.
1. Genealogist Phyllis Hughes wrote "The Myth of Joanna Coffin." She was able to trace the theory to an early 20th-century book about the family, where the writer speculates that Hull's unnamed 1st wife might be Joanna Coffin because 1) her oldest child was named Joanna and 2) a Coffin family lived near the Hulls.
Hughes searched English parish records and found the daughter of Peter Coffin, Joanna, was baptized 29 Dec 1616 in Brixton, Devon, England. "Immediately, I saw that the date of her baptism would not support the conclusion that she had married the Rev. Joseph Hull for she was much too young." Joanna Coffin was likely only 3 years old when Hull married for the first time."
Hughes, Phyllis J. "The Myth of Joanna Coffin, Given as First Wife of the Rev. Joseph Hull, 1635 Immigrant." Hull Family Association Journal, vol 12, no. 1 (spring 2001): p 23. https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/back_issues_recent.shtml
2. Professional genealogist Phyllis Hughes also published "Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line": "Rev. Joseph Hull did not marry Joanna Coffin, as his first wife. There is also no proven evidence that Rev. Joseph even married a Joanna. It is well documented that the given name of his second wife was Agnes, but her surname is unknown; there is absolutely no evidence that she was Agnes Coffin."
Hughes, Phyllis J. “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.”
https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml
3. "Great Migration" identifies Hull's 1st wife as "Unknown Unknown."
"The Great Migration Project, on review of documents related to Joseph, declares that the only evidence that Joseph even had a first wife is the age of his wife Agnes in 1635 (25) and the fact that she was still bearing children in 1652. There is no evidence that she was named Joan, and no evidence that she was Joane Coffin, as often listed."
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-253829
www.werelate.org/wiki/Family:Joseph_Hull_and_Unknown_%281%29
4. Find-a-Grave entry for Joseph Hull identifies his 1st wife as unknown (Memorial 73100242).
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73100242/joseph-hull
5. "Hull Family in America" (1913) assumes Hull's first wife was named Joanna because their oldest child was named Joanna, but it does NOT identify her surname (p 247).
Full text online (648 pages) https://archive.org/stream/hullfamilyinamer00weyg#page/485/mode/2up
6. geni.com LOCKED Joseph Hull's entry in 2014 to prevent people from adding Joanna Coffin as a wife.
"Rev. Joseph Hull was not married to Joanna Coffin! The name comes from some inventive and quite persuasive speculation by an eary Hull researcher, Orra Eugene Monnette. He based his speculation on the usual genealogical suspects: names of children, locations of possible relatives, etc. However, Phyllis Hughes found that the Joanna Coffin under consideration - daughter of Peter and Joanna (Thember) Coffin - was roughly 3 years old when she supposedly married, so that marriage is clearly wrong. You still see the name in various published genealogies, because other researchers copied Monnette, and still others copied them - but it is quite wrong."
www.geni.com/people/Rev-Joseph-Hull/6000000002175438989
It would be a HUGE HUGE HUGE help to get this fixed. I spend hours & know others who do, too, correcting the Hull family entries on Family Search (free to anyone, but please don't change Hull's first wife from Officially Unknown.)
Contributor: Jill Piggott
December 10, 2020
Make up your own mind
Robert DeVowe December 10, 2020
Suggested Edit
Find a Grave contributor, Jill Piggott has made the following suggested edits.
Joanna Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: HULL'S FIRST WIFE DIED IN NORTHLEIGH. SHE WAS NOT NAMED JOANNA COFFIN.
1. Joseph Hull's unnamed first wife died in 1632 in Northleigh, Devon, not in Crewkerne. The Clergy of the Church of England Database shows Joseph Hull served as Northleigh's rector from 28 March 1622 to 14 March 1633 [1]. He married his second wife on 13 March 1633 [2].
2. "Joanna Coffin Hull" never existed. As I noted in an earlier fact check that went ignored by Find-a-Grave, one writer more than one hundred years ago floated the idea that Hull married Joanna Coffin. This was debunked 2 decades ago by Phyllis J. Hughes, the professional genealogist hired by the Hull Family Association. She searched English parish records for the name of Hull's first wife. She came up empty on the wife's name, but she was able to conclusively eliminate "Joanna Coffin" because she was a CHILD OF 2 OR 3 when Hull married. (See sources 3-7 below).
Find-a-Grave is not a reliable source of information if its writers fail to cite the sources of their information or, worse, shrug off factchecks. Volunteers at Family Search, Geni, and Wikitree waste a lot of time correcting the Hull entry precisely because sites like Find-a-Grave can't be bothered to keep their entries accurate.
Find-a-Grave has TWO entries for Hull's first wife. One is correct [7]. This one is not. I certainly hope someone will take this factcheck seriously and correct the entry.
References:
1. Clergy of the Church of England Database. Joseph Hull ID 57456. theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?PersonID=57456
2. Marriage of Joseph Hull and Agnes. Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531-1812.
Original: www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/LRQS-P26
Record: search.ancestry.com/collections/60856/records/900975822.
3. Hughes, Phyllis J. "The Myth of Joanna Coffin, Given as First Wife of the Rev. Joseph Hull, 1635 Immigrant." Hull Family Association Journal, vol 12, no. 1 (spring 2001): p 23.
www.hullfamilyassociation.org/back_issues_recent.shtml
4. Hughes, Phyllis J. “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.”
www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml
5. Joseph Hull and unknown first wife.
www.geni.com/people/Rev-Joseph-Hull/6000000002175438989
6. "Great Migration" entry for "Unknown Unknown" (Hull's first wife). Quoted by Wikitree.
www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-253829
7. Joseph Hull and unknown first wife.*
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/36891179/1st_wife-hull
* "1st Wife Hull" is Find-a-Grave's accurate entry on Joseph Hull's first wife.
Contributor: Jill Piggott Jan 27, 2021∼Rev. Joseph Hull married (1) By about 1620 _____ _____.
She died before he came from Broadway, Somersetshire to Massachusetts Bay in 1635 with their children & his second wife. (On 20 March 1634/5, "Joseph Hall of Somerset, a minister, aged 40 years, Agnis Hall his wife aged 25 years, Joane Hall his daughter aged 15 years, Joseph Hall his son aged 13 years, Tristram his son aged 11 years, Elizabeth Hall his daughter aged 7 years, Temperance his daughter aged 9 years, Grissell Hull his daughter aged 5 years, Dorothy Hall his daughter aged 3 years, Judeth French his servant aged 20 years, John Wood his servant aged 20 years, [and] Rob[er]t Dabyn his servant aged 28 years" were enrolled at Weymouth as passengers for New England on the Marygould). The family first settled in Weymouth; then moved to Hingham by 1638, Barnstable in 1639, Yarmouth in 1641, York in 1643, and finally Oyster River, Isles of Shoals.
They had 7 children: Joanna BURSLEY DAVIS, Joseph, Tristram, Temperance Bickford, Elizabeth Heard, Griselda, & Dorothy Kent.
On 8 July 1635, Gov. John Winthrop reported that "[a]t this Court, Wessaguscus was made a plantation & Mr. Hull, a minister in England, & 21 families with him allowed to set down there." On 8 July 1635, "[t]here is leave granted to 21 families to sit down at Wessaguscus, viz: [blank]."
Source:Anderson's Great Migration Study Project
1st wife Hull (126576409)
Suggested edit: Joseph Hull's first wife is unknown and CONCLUSIVELY not Joanna, daughter of Peter Coffin, who was no more than 3 when Hull married.
In her article, “The Myth of Joanna Coffin,” genealogist Phyllis J. Hughes conclusively debunked this persistent mistake. The source of the error is a book by Orra Eugene Monnette written more than a century ago. He hypothesized that Hull’s unknown first wife might be Joanna Coffin, daughter of Peter, because some Hulls and Coffins shared the same first names and because the Coffins lived in Devonshire, as did Hull. Researcher Hughes found the original parish record, showing Peter’s daughter was baptized 29 Dec 1616, making her 3 at most when Hull married [1].
Monnette’s writing is now considered unreliable precisely because it contains multiple assumptions based on little information. The internet keeps the error alive, and Joanna Coffin Hull, her evil twin Agnes Coffin Hull, and her alter ego Joanna Agnes Coffin Hull have proven to be genealogical vampires. Each time I think I’ve killed them off with footnotes, they rise from the dead.
Here's research I hope will put a nail in the Coffin. The article “Common Errors in the Joseph Hull Line" published by the Hull Family Association reiterates this point: "Rev. Joseph Hull did not marry Joanna Coffin, as his first wife. There is also no proven evidence that Rev. Joseph even married a Joanna. It is well documented that the given name of his second wife was Agnes, but her surname is unknown; there is absolutely no evidence that she was Agnes Coffin" [2].
The authoritative Great Migration Project reviewed documents related to Joseph Hull’s first wife and found “no evidence that she was named Joan, and no evidence that she was Joane Coffin, as often listed" [3].
Joseph Hull's oldest child, Joanna, was born in about 1620, based on her age as given on the "Hull Company" 1635 passenger list [4]. That puts Hull's marriage during the 8 years he worked as an assistant to his older brother William, the vicar of Colyton. People generally assume Hull married a woman from his hometown, but Hull left Crewkerne at 16 when he went to Oxford and didn't return until after his first wife's death at age 37 [5]. It's thus entirely possible that his first wife was a member of his brother William's parish, and since there are no primary sources to establish her birthplace, no birthplace should be given.
The Hulls moved from Colyton to Northleigh when he was appointed St. Giles's rector on 28 March 1622 [6]. From the passenger list, we know the couple had 7 children, each 2 years apart in age. Hull's first wife died in Northleigh during or soon after giving birth to her 7th child. Hull married Agnes (surname unknown) in Crewkerne on 13 March 1633 [7]. His resignation at Crewkerne was effective the following day, 14 March 1633.
Of First Wife Hull, we know 3 things:
1) She married Joseph Hull in about 1619.
2) She had 7 children, 6 of whom were born in Northleigh.
3) She died in Northleigh during or soon after having her 7th child, Dorothy.
All additional information about her should be deleted from her profile.
MANY thanks for correcting this. The (free) Family Search entries for the Hulls and the Coffins are continually corrupted. Geni.com took the rare step of locking Rev Joseph’s profile to prevent the addition of Joanna Coffin as his wife. It's a maddingly persistent error.
1. Phyllis J. Hughes, "The Myth of Joanna Coffin,” Hull Family Association Journal 12.1 (spring 2001): p 23.
2. Phyllis J. Hughes, “Common Errors on the Internet, ‘The Hull Family in America’ (pub 1913), and in Other Published Records.” [https://www.hullfamilyassociation.org/genealogist_errors_joseph.shtml]
3. Robert Charles Anderson, et al. “Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634-35," p 452.
4. Passengers Bound for New England [Hull Company Passenger List], Debates in American History and Government, Vol. 1, 1493–1865, ed Sarah Morgan Smith (2019): p 31-33. [https://teachingamericanhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Docs-and-Debates-Vol-1_online.pdf]
5. Joseph Hull timeline, Mount-Royal Genealogy.
[https://mount-royal.ca/heritage/getperson.php?personID=I3638&tree=godbout]
6. Joseph Hull was ordained on 23 May 1619 in the Parish Church, Silverton. He served as rector of St. Giles, Northleigh from 28 March 1622 to 14 March 1633. Rev Joseph Hull, ID 57456, Clergy of the Church of England Database.
[https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?PersonID=57456]
7. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900.
Contributor: Jill Piggott
Feb 15, 2021
Family Members
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