The Project Gutenberg EBook of Alice Cogswell Bemis, by Anonymous

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Title: Alice Cogswell Bemis
A Sketch by a Friend

Author: Anonymous

Release Date: September 12, 2010 [EBook #33713]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS_

ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS

_A SKETCH BY A FRIEND_

[Illustration]

_BOSTON_
PRIVATELY PRINTED
1920

_The Merrymount Press . Boston_

[Illustration]

ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS

Alice Cogswell Bemis came from a long line of good British stock. She
was in the eighth generation from John Cogswell, who was born at
Westbury Leigh, Wiltshire, in 1592. He was a man of standing and of
considerable inherited property. Among the latter were "The Mylls,"
called "Ripond," situated in the parish of Fromen, Selwood, together
with the homestead and certain personal property. He married Elizabeth
Thompson, a daughter of the Vicar of Westbury parish. After twenty years
of married life, during which they had lived in the family homestead and
he had carried on his father's prosperous business, he decided to
emigrate to America, and on May 23, 1625, leaving one married daughter
in England, they embarked with their eight other children on the famous
ship, _The Angel Gabriel_. We find no mention of a special reason for
their leaving England, but it was probably the same that led many others
of their type to begin life afresh in the new world; here the
possibilities of the country to be developed were limitless, and
doubtless these offered a better outlook for their children, whose
welfare must have been uppermost in their thoughts and plans.

The voyage of _The Angel Gabriel_ and its wreck off Pemaquid, on the
coast of Maine, in the frightful gale of August 15, 1625, are told in
the graphic story of the Rev. Richard Mather, who was a passenger on the
ship _James_, which sailed from England on the same day. The _James_ lay
at anchor off t