Michael Cowes - Grace Stacey Family Group

What We Know About This Family

An Overview of Their Lives

Michael Cowes (spelled at least five different ways including Coes, Coaze, Coas, and Coos) was the great grandson of Thomas and Elizabeth Cowes, who had two sons, William and Bennett, who each had a son named Michael. The timing was so close that it's not possible to separate the offspring of the two Michaels, so our Michael was either the son of William's son, Michael and his wife. Joan Peter. or he was the son of Bennett's son, Michael, and his wife, Grace Andrew. What we do know is that he was baptized 4 Aug 1639 in Stockeinteinghead, a village in Devon, England. The first record of him in America came from Maine in 1668 where a man held an unexpired lease held in the name of Michael Coes. In 1670 he was a constable of the town. By 1677, he deposed at age 40 in Marblehead, about the same year he married Grace Stacey, and he was in a fishing partnership from at least 1685 to 1700 with his father-in-law, Deacon John Stacey.

Not much more can be discovered of the family besides their vital statistics. Ant additional information is included below:

About the Children

• Michael Coes and his wife Rachel Short were married in Boston by the Reverend Cotton Mather. Rachel was the proprietor of a Marblehead shop that appeared to have been very profitable judging from the value of the possessions she left for her children. She outlived her husband by 17 years.


• Grace Coes lived with her grandmother, Eleanor Pitman Stacey, who conveyed part of her lot to her granddaughter in 1680. Grace married-Thomas Pousland in 1699 as "Stasey alias Coaze, "and was a widow when she inherited part of her father's property in 1715 along with her other siblings, who then released their part to the possession of their mother in 1720.


• Agnes Coes and her husband, Samuel Nicholson, had both died before 19 Nov 1724 when their son, Samuel, at 19 accepted the guardianship of his uncle by marriage Thomas Peach (husband of Mary Cowes). I could find no record for his older sibling, Elizabeth. Agnes's share of her father's estate was left to her husband and "children" on 1715, so it appears that Elizabeth was living at that time.


• Mary Cowes and her husband, Thomas Peach, were our direct ancestors and have their own family group page.

Proof of Relationship

The vital records, genealogical records, and wills are our best proof of relationship for our direct ancestors in this family.

What Else We Need to Learn

The goal of this project is to trace every line of ancestry to the arrival of its first immigrant to America. The basic information of each couple is considered complete when we know the dates of birth, marriage, and death for both spouses. their parents' names (or whether they were the immigrant), and the child or children in our ancestry line.

The research on this family is complete.