By Lester Warren Fish
12 THE FISH FAMILY
68 ROBERT2 FISH d. Dec 20, 1639, at the early age of 46 years,
and was buried at Great Bowden, and probably through his
death or through business reversals the young family was thrown
upon its own resources and broken up. The older sons, Thomas
and John, are accounted for as (72) Thomas3 of Portsmouth,
R.I. (See p.31), and (73) John3 of Connecticut (who d. at
Mystic in 1689) (See p.252). Joseph3 may have been of Stam-
ford, Conn, in 1651.
Children (all but four bapt. at Market Harborough):
+ 72 Thomas3, bapt. Jan 1, 1618/19, Great Bowden; d. 1687; m. Mary
Soule (?)
+ 73 John, bapt. Jan 21, 1620/21; d.1687 (?); m. Mary Ireland(?) or
Eland; m(2) Martha Stark (?); m(3) Hannah Steery.
74 Ruth, bapt. Sep 1, 1622
75 Mary, bapt. Jan 24, 1623/24 at Great Bowden; d. May 14, 1624
76 Mary, bapt. Apr 24, 1625
+ 77 Joseph, bapt. Sep 17, 1626
78 Nathan, bapt. Mar 7, 1629/30; d.Oct 4, 1631
79 Tabitha, bapt. May 8, 1630; d. Mar 23, 1657/58
80 Chrustian, bapt. Dec 10, 1637 at Great Bowden
81 Benjamin, bapt. Aug 11, 1639 at Great Bowden
THOMAS3, the eldest son, bapt. at Great Bowden Jan 1, 1618-19,
age about 25 left his home in England and settled in the newly
formed Providence Plantations in New England, where he be-
came the progenitor of the Rhode Island, Massachusetts and
Vermont branches of the family (See p.31).
JOHN3, the second son, bapt. at Market Harborough Jan. 21,
1620/21 (the year the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth), also left his
native soil and settled in the New World, just when, we cannot
say. His name is first mentioned in the records of Wethersfield
or Stratford, Conn., in 1651, although Little states that he and
Thomas were at Portsmouthas late as 1655. He became the
ancestor of John Dean10 Fish, of Hempstead, L.I., N.Y., late
correspondent for the N.Y. Genealog. and Biograph. Record,
who contributed all this material on the early life of the family
in England, also the genealogy of his ancestor John3 Fish, of
Mystic, Conn.
A younger brother of Thomas and John may have been the
Joseph Fish of the Great Swamp Fight, of Kingston, R.I., in
1676. Nothing further is known concerning the other sons and
daughters of (68) Robert2 and (12) Alice2 Fish.
EARLY FISH FAMILIES IN ENGLAND 13
OTHERS OF THE NAME IN ENGLAND
There were other large and well-to-do families in England
bearing the name of Fish which, as far as have been traced, were
not closely connected to the Great Bowden Family. One of
these was in the counties of Hertford and Bedford, and another
in Sussex and Kent. Another family, perhaps more nearly re-
lated, lived in Northamptonshire, and they seem to have been
mostly a seafaring folk. Many from these various families ap-
peared in London and other large towns, led there by a mer-
cantile calling.
it will be seen from these records that the names John and
Thomas were very common among the English Fishes in each
generation. John and Margaret of Great Bowden had six
grandsons bearing the plain name John Fish, three Thomas
and three Joseph. As these were contemporaries, extreme care
must be taken in identifying them in order to avoid confusion
and give each one his proper place, record and history.
83 SIMON FISH, theologian and pamphleteer, of London (d.
1531) was a member of the Univ. of Oxford. He entered
Gray's Inn about 1525, which is the first date that can be ap-
proximately fixed in his life. In London he was one of a circle
of young men who gave expression to the popular dislike of
Wolsey and denounced the riches of the church. One of their
boldest undertakings was the production of an interlude, written
by one Mater Roo (a member of Queen's College, Cambridge),
the object of which was to hold up Wolsey to ridicule. Fish
acted a part in this interlude, and fearing the wrath of Wolsey
fled into the Low Countries, where he consorted with other
English exiles, chief of whom were Tyndale and Roy, and from
them it would seem that he learned the principles of Protestant-
ism. but Wolsey's wrath against him soon passed away and he
returned to London, where he turned his energies to the pro-
motion of the reformation in England, and acted as an agent
for the sale of Tyndale's "New Testament." He lived in a house
by the White Friars. One Necton confessed that he bought
from him copies of Tyndale's prohibited book, "now five, now
ten, to the number of twenty or thirty" (Necton's confession in
"Strype, Memorials," I App. No. 22). Such conduct drew sus-
picion on him, and he again fled to the Low Countries, probably
about the end of 1527. There he wrote his famous "Supplication
of the Beggars."
So far it is possible to adapt Foxe's Narrative ("Act and
Monuments," ed. 1837, IV. 656) to other known facts about
14 THE FISH FAMILY Simon Fish. About the date of the "Supplication" and its in- fluence in England Foxe gives two contradictory accounts with- out seeing that they are contradictory: 1, He tells us that Fish foudn means to send a copy of the "Supplication" to Anne Boleyn early in 1528, and that Anne was advised by her brother to show it to Henry VIII, who was much amused by it and kept the copy. On hearing this Mrs. Fish made suit to the king for the return of her husband, but apparently received no answer. However, on Wolsey's fall, in Oct. 1529, Fish ventured to re- turn, and had a private interview with Henry VIII, who "em- braced him with a loving countenance," and gave him his signet ring as a protection against Sir Thomas More in case the new chancellor should continue the grudge of his predecessor. 2, Foxe also tells us that the book was brought to the king by two London merchants, who read it aloud and when they had done the king said: "If a man should pull down an old stone wall and begin at the lower part, the upper part therof might chance to fall upon his head," meaning that Fish's exhortation to deal with the monks and friars was hazardous advice until the royal supremacy had been established. After saying this the king took the book and put it away, commanding the merchants to kep their inter- view the secret. Of these accounts the first is very improbable in itself, and makes Fish out a much more important person than he was. Moreover, Foxe evidently thought Wolsey was Fish's personal enemy and did not know of Fish's return to London and of his second flight. The second account, of Henry VIII's interview with the London merchants is quite credible in itself, and the king's remark is so characteristic both of the man abd of the times as to make the story extremely probable. If this be accepted, Fish's "Supplication" was written in 1528, was brought secretly to London at the end of that year, and was pre- sented to Henry VIII early in 1529. Henry VIII, who was feeling his way towards an ecclesiastical revolution, appreciated the advantage of winning popular sup- port. Fish's pamphlet was admirably fitted to impress men's minds, and just before the assembly of Parliament in November London was flooded with copies of it, in a way which suggests the convenience of some one in authority. The "Supplication of the Beggars" was exactly suited to express in a humorous form the prevalent discontent. It purported to be a petition from the class of beggars, complaining that they were robbed of their alms by the extortions of the begging friars; then the momks and the clergy generally were confounded with the friars, and were denounced as impoverishing the nation and living in idleness.
EARLY FISH FAMILIES IN ENGLAND 15
Statistics were given in an exaggerated form; England was said
to contain 50,000 parish churches (the writer was counting every
hamlet as a parish), and on that basis clerical revenues were
computed, with the results that one-third of the national revenue
was shown to be in the hands of the church. The pamphlet was
judged by Sir Thomas More to be of sufficient importance to
need an answer, the "Supplication of Poor Soules in Purgatory,"
which is fairly open to criticism in that it makes the penitents
in purgatory express themselves in very inchastened language
about events on earth.
It was at the end of 1529 that Fish returned to England; but
though Henry VIII may have been ready to use Fish's spirited
attack upon the church, he was not prepared to avow this fact,
or to stand between him and the enemies he had raised up. It is
not surprising that Fish was suspected of heresy, that his book
was condemned by Archbishop Warham ("Wilkins, Concilia,"
III,737) and that he was in great difficulties. Whether the press-
ure of his difficulties overcame him, or he underwent a change
of opinion, we cannot tell; but Sir Thomas More wrote: "This
good zele had, ye wote well, Symon Fysh when he made the
Supplication of Beggars, but God gave him such grace after-
wards that he was sorry for that good zele and repented himself
and came into the church again, and forswore and forsook all
the whole hill of those heresies out of which the fountain of
that same good zele sprang. ("Works":ed. 1557, p.881). Per-
haps More overestimated the result of his answer to Fish. At
all events, Fish's perplexities were ended by his death of the
plague early in 1531. Very soon after his wife married James
Bainham (q.v.), who was burned as a heretic in April 1532.
Fish's "Supplication" was remarkable for its vigorous style
and its immediate influence, and was the model for a series of
pamphlets couched in the same form. It was first printed in
England in 1546, and was embodied in Foxe's "Acts and Mon-
uments" (Vol. V, p.660, ed. 1837). It has also been edited, with
three successors in the same style, in "Four Supplicants" for
the Early England Text Society, by Furnival & Cooper, 1871.
Besides the work Foxe also ascribes to Fish "A Summe of Scrip-
ture done out of Dutch," of which a unique copy exists in a vol-
ume of pamphlets in the British Museum (C. 37a), where it was
first identified by Mr. Arber in his introduction to a "Proper
Dialogue" in "Rede Me and be not Wroth" (Eng. reprints, 1871).
Also assigned to Fish are "The Boke of Merchants Rightly
Necessary to all Folks, Newly Made by the Lord Pantopole,
London, 1547, and "Spiritual Nosegay," 1548.
16 THE FISH FAMILY
84 WILLIAM FISH, a musician, was b. in Norwich, England, in
1775. He commenced his musical career as violinist (Grove) in
the orchestra of the theatre, and after studying under Sharp,
the oboist, and Bond, the pianist and organist, was fitted to take
part in various capacities in the important local concerts and
cathedral festivals. He was organist of St. Andrews, Norwich,
opened a music warehouse, and became well known in the neigh-
borhood as a teacher. He d. 15 March, 1866, a later date than
that suggested by musical dictionaries. Fish's "Opus I," a
sonata in the Moartean manner, was followes by a number of
less interesting pianaforte pieces, some ballads (words and music
by the composer) among which the "Morning Star" may be
singled out, an oboe concert, and some fantasias for the harp.
His unpublished works are said to have included a manuscript
cantata to words by Mrs. Opie, and some pieces (presumably
for band) played at the Norwich Theatre.
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It is said that the Mother-Goose Rhymes were written by a
punster, (85) Simon Fish, of London.
86 CHARLES FISH, Greatest Life-Saver of All Time, was cox-
swain of the Ramsgate Lifeboat, Ramsgate, England, for twenty-
six years, from 1870 to 1896. During that time he made 591
rescues, saved 77 vessels and 877 lives.*
* See also The Ramsgate Lifeboat Site for more about Charles Fish.
(the site includes a photo of Charles Fish) Apparently Charles "... was
one of the most courageous coxswains in the history of the RNLI and was
awarded two gold medals and one silver medal." Thanks to C. Lawford,
webmaster of that site. --2001 Ed. Note