Lawrence Southwick

  General Notes:

The Southwicks owned the first glass factory in Massachusetts bay colonies. This was in Salem, about thirty or forty years before the witch trials. They also own a small farm. As Quakers, they had their own meetings and and did not go to church. The parents were arrested and jailed for "not attending church". After a year in jail, their glass factory, home and farm were all sold at auction for "back taxes". When the auction did not raise enough to cover even one year's taxes, the two oldest children were ordered to be sold at auction, too! The 15 year old girl, was given many lashes for being mouthy. Both kids were sold to a ship bound for the Caribean, but after a week the ship couldn't get a wind to take it out of the harbor. The sailors said it was cause God was protecting the children. So they let the children off, and the she and brother walked to New York in the middle of winter. (No roads even existed). At Pitt's urging, the King told Massachusetts to go easier on the Quakers. So her parents were given a "Christmas Day Amnesty" that is, they were put in an open boat and told never to return to Massachuesetts. They managed to make it to Shelter Island, New York (at the end of Long Island), and they died of exposure. A large stone monument is there.

Lawrence married Cassandra Burnell. (Cassandra Burnell was born in 1598 in England and died in 1660 in Shelter Island, Long Island, NY.)