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Family of William (Rev) THOMPSON and Abigail SKELLECORNE

William (Rev) THOMPSON b. 1598⁸⁴¹ at Lancashire, England⁸⁴¹. d. 1666 Dec 10⁸⁴¹ at Braintree, MA⁸⁴¹. bd. Hancock Cem, Quincy, MA⁸⁴¹.
Abigail SKELLECORNE b. at prob England⁴⁹⁴⁰. d. 1642/3 Jan 1⁸⁵⁹ at Braintree, MA⁸⁵⁹.

Married⁴⁹⁴⁰.

Rev William Tompson (spelling of last name varies in records) came to New England before 1638. He was admitted to (28 Jan 1619) and graduated from (Jan 28, 1620/1, aged 21 yrs) Oxford, and he had preached in Winwick, England. His admission date is the source for the estimate of his birth year. Sprague⁸⁴¹ has 1598. His wife Abigail (her second marriage) emigrated to New England with him. They had six children. Rev William married second ~1647 Anna (Brigham) Crosby, the widow of Simon Crosby of Cambridge. Sprague provides much information on Tompson, though his conclusion that Thompson's first wife was Abigail (Collins) Bedle appears to be an error.

Ralph J. Coffman and Mary F. Rhinelander, in an extensive article⁴⁹⁴⁰ in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, v140(1986), st. p. 3, detail information in a recently (1984) discovered document in William Thompson's own hand. In a transcribed copy of "The Testament" (p 16), are the lines "The one marryinge with the Skellecornes and so allyd with the Keskethes & Holcroft, the oth[e]r to the Holts: & so allyed to the Holts at Geislhurste." As it is established elsewhere[2] that Rev. Richard Mather married Katharine Holt, the authors conclude (p 13) "Thompson first married a Skellecorne," providing Abigail's surname.

Many genealogies, including Sprague⁸⁴¹, have William Thompson's wife as Abigail (Collins) (Bedle) Thompson, the daughter⁸⁴¹ of John and Grace (Wagger) Collins and the widow of Samuel Bedle of Wolverstone, Suffolk. However, in an extensive article⁴⁹⁴¹ by Winifred Lovering Holman, regarding the ancestry of Edward Collins in England, Holman retracts an earlier conclusion (NEHGR, vol 89, pp 73-79, that Abigail Collins, the wife of Samuel Bedle, married second, Rev William Thompson. Holman's conclusion that Thompson's wife Abigail was not Abigail (Collins) Bedle was based on Daniel Collins (bapt. 1583) stated that his mother, "Abigail Rose," was the third wife of his fater, John Collins, and that Abigail Collins (bapt. 1591) was therefore too young to be the mother of Nathaniel Bedle. Further, the will of Daniel Collins mentions his mother's burial at Braintree; Daniel's brother, Samuel Collins, was Vicar of Braintree and their mother presumably died at the home of her son Samuel; if their mother was the first wife of John Collins, she would have died when Daniel and Samuel were quite young.

Children of William (Rev) THOMPSON and Abigail SKELLECORNE: