Person:Mary Closson (3)

Mary Closson was the fourth of the eight children of Josiah Closson and Mary Williamson. In 1707, when she was twenty, Mary wed John Bull. Interestingly, both Mary and John were born in Jamestown, Rhode Island but moved to other locations in the colony about 40 miles apart while quite young, she to Little Compton and he to Providence.

John Bull's father Isaac had immigrated to America from Donnington Warwickshire, England. He landed in Boston where he met and married Sarah Parker of that city. Their first child was born there. Shortly thereafter they moved to Jamestown for a time, where John and a sister were born, before moving again to Providence, where the last two of their four children completed the family.

After their marriage, John and Mary Bull moved back to the village of their mutual births. They became the parents of eight children, seven boys and one girl -- the latter being a late addition born after the couple had joined one of their sons in Dutchess County, New York.

Jamestown, where John and Mary originally set up housekeeping, is on the southerly end of narrow eight-mile-long Conanicut Island in the wide estuary of Narragansett Bay. It is just west of the larger Rhode Island, the island that gave the state its name. (It was also known as Aquidneck Island). Giovanni da Verazanno explored the bay in 1524 and reportedly named the island when he wrote that it resembled the Island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean Sea. Other historians say that the Dutch navigator Adriaen Block called it Roodt Eylandt (Red Island) because of the red clay along its shore. These islands in the Bay were attractive for the relatively moderate climate engendered by the proximity of the ocean.

The mainland towns of the state were known as the Providence Plantations in colonial times. As a result, the state's official name is "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations"; thus, the smalles state has the longest name.

The Bull family probably enjoyed the period of great prosperity that began in Rhode Island during the early 1700's. The fertile coastal regions and the islands in Narragansett Bay made excellent farm and grazing land and the area produced great quantities of crops and livestock. This produce was sold through Newport merchants who owned large fleets of ships used in the export trade to other English colonies and the West Indies. These same merchants also conducted an active trade in bringing slaves to the southern colonies and to the West Indies where they exchanged them for cargoes of rum.

1. ↑ Frank J, Doherty. The Settlers of the Beekman Patent, Volume 2, Dutchess County, New York.. (18th Century Settlers in the Patent).
2. ↑ Mary Lynch Young. Descendants of Josiah Bull Jr., of Dutchess County, New York. (Gateway Press, Baltimore, MD, 1992).
3. ↑ Little Compton - Births and Deaths, in Arnold, James N. Vital Record of Rhode Island, 1636–1850: First series, births, marriages and deaths. A family register for the people. (Narragansett Hist. Publ. Co., 1891)
   106.

   CLOSSON, Mary, of Josiah, [born] Jan. 5, 1687.