Hi Hatte,
Here is the information I have regarding Elizabeth Torrey as the wife of John Randall. This is from a family member who does a lot of work on geology. The first part is an email to family members explaining the deduction and the 2nd part is the "text" from a letter that was sent. I hope this information helps.
From: David Randall
Sun, Jun 30, 2013 at 4:41 PM
Hello everyone,
Several people have recently asked me to explain how I came to the conclusion that John Randall was married to Elizabeth Torrey and not to Elizabeth Morton as has been so staunchly proclaimed over the last 150 years or so. Rather than reply to each inquiry independently, I figure the question holds enough general interest to respond to with group message.
To begin with, the ancient parish church records of England do tell us that, in 1658, a John Randall did marry an Elizabeth Morton, at St. Brides Church on Fleet Street, in the City of London. Upon further investigation, however, it becomes clear that this was not our John Randall, as early historians long believed. Rather this John Randall was a cousin of our John Randall. This John, son of Robert and grandson of Mayor Matthew of Bath, was a “silk throwster” (basically a thread maker) in the city of London, where he and Elizabeth lived their entire married lives. Thus, they could not possibly have been our John and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Morton did have a brother named William (not “Sir” William) who settled in New Haven, Connecticut. When he died there without children, in 1695, Elizabeth’s son Nathaniel mad a visit to America to settle his deceased uncle’s estate. It appears that somehow, about a century and a half ago, some family historian with limited access to oversees historical records, innocently confused this couple’s story with that of our own John and Elizabeth, and the erroneous story has been embedded in family lore ever since.
Determining that Elizabeth Morton was not John’s wife was actually the easy part. The greater challenge has been determining the identity of John’s actual wife. We know that her name was Elizabeth, based on the records of the Newport Baptist Church. Determining her family name and origins, however, has been rather complicated and is still open to some debate, as nowhere have I yet found any direct documentation specifically telling us who she was. Be that as it may, in recent years, with the invaluable help of a small team of family historians, archivists, and librarians, I have reached what I believe to be a very viable hypothesis.
Our greatest clue comes from a letter written in 1676 by Samuel Hubbard, the Rhode Island Sabbatarian Church leader, to his colleague, Dr. Samuel Stennett of London. According to Hubbard, early in King Philip’s War, Lt. Joseph Torrey sent a boat from Newport to Westerly in order to rescue his only daughter, her husband, and their children from an eminent Indian uprising (See attachment). Several years ago, family historian Thomas E.P. Randall conducted an exhaustive examination of the Westerly inhabitants of the time, and came to the conclusion that Joseph Torrey’s daughter had to be Elizabeth Randall, as she was the only wife of a Westerly inhabitant who could not otherwise be identified. This, combined with other compelling factors (i.e. John and Elizabeth’s ages, early contacts between John Randall and Joseph Torrey in Newport, and the couple’s apparent relocation from Westerly to Newport during the War), has led me to believe almost beyond doubt that Elizabeth Torrey was the wife of John Randall.
Joseph Torrey, by the way, came to America as a single man, with his brothers, settling in Newport, Rhode Island. He was prominent in the founding of the Newport Baptist Church and served briefly as Attorney General of the Rhode Island Colony under Governor Benedict Arnold, grandfather of the traitorous general. The name of his wife is uncertain, but his children were clearly born at Newport. John is known to have been at Newport and was aquatinted with Joseph Torrey before moving to Westerly. He most certainly married Elizabeth at the Newport Church, and in turn, John Randall, Jr. would have have been born at Newport as well.
I reiterate that much of this based purely on hypothesis, but I believe the evidence supporting it is very strong if not definitive. None-the-less, I welcome any thoughts others might have.... It summarizes much of what I know about my branch of the family, with more about what I’ve uncovered about John, his father, Rev. Matthew Randall, and his grandfather, Mayor Matthew Randall of Bath. Although I have not included it on my site, upon request I am happy to provide my rationale and source materials for anything that is posted there, and I always welcome questions, feedback, and even direct challenges of my information.
Looking forward to hearing more from each of you,
David Randall
Letter of Samuel Hubbard to Dr. Edward Stennet
November 1676
During the war, the Rhode-Islanders were mostly obliged to retire to Aquidneck for safety. The following extract of a letter from Samuel Hubbard of Newport, to Dr. Stennet of London; dated Nov. 29, 1676, relates to these circumstances. [Backus, 1.419,433.]
"And for the other side, over against us on the main, which once was ours, and is, I judge, by charter, many are killed by the Indians; the rest came to us with what they could bring. Connecticut army, Plymouth and Bay armies, being there, wasted very much; when they loft it, the Indians burnt near all that was left. In the beginning of these troubles of the wars, Lieut. Joseph Torrey, Elder of Mr. Clarke's Church, having hut one daughter living at Squamicut, and his wife being there, he said unto me, come let us send a boat to Squamicut, my all is there and part of yours. We sent a boat, so as his wife and daughter and son-in-law and all their children, and my two daughters and their children (one had eight, the other three, with an apprentice boy) nil came and brother John Crandal and his family, with as many others as could possibly come. My son Clarke came afterwards, before winter, and my other daughter's husband came in the spring, and they have all been at my house to this day."
[Potter, Elisha Reynolds. The Early History of Narragansett with an Appendix of Original Documents, (Providence, RI: Marshall, Brown & Co., 1835). p.92-93.]
