The more I read about this ancestor,the latest entry in my Icon series, the more interesting I find her. Her maiden name was Tacy Cooper and she is my 10th great-grandmother, born around 1609 in England. Little is known of her parentage or when exactly she came to America but she is known to have lived in Dorchester, near Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 1630’s.
At the time, the Colony was strictly ruled by the Congregational Church and its precepts. Very puritanical, of course. Many of the settlers who were coming into the colony sought more religious freedom than was being offered and under the influence of Roger Williams, set out in 1634 to leave the Colony and establish a new community outside its boundaries. They sent out a party of scouts who chose a site on the Connecticut River below present day Hartford. Soon after, a group of about 100 people set out by foot for this location. Among them was Tacy Cooper and her future husband, Samuel Hubbard. They met during this journey and Samuel later wrote that Tacy was the lone bright spot in the whole undertaking.
Although the heavy goods for the community had been shipped by boats from Boston up the river, it was a harsh trek. Many of their provisions had also been shipped and their trip was ill-timed. By the time of their arrival, a bitter winter had set in on them and the boats had not arrived nor would they arrive in the future. Without those provisions, a number of this group died that winter and those who remained survived on acorns, malt and grain that had brought along as seed for future crops. To make things worse, the Pequot Indians were attacking as they tried to stem the spread of the settlers into their territory.
But they persevered and in 1636, Tacy and Samuel were married. However, the religious freedom they sought did not come to bear in this new community. Samuel spoke up in protest to the role of the Church Elders in the local government and was driven from the community along with several other families who were in agreement with him. They fled south, settling in the area now known as Springfield, Massachusetts. They thought they were outside the boundaries of the Massachusetts Colony but in subsequent years, the provisions of the settlement of the Pequot Wars brought that location back into its realm. In protest, Samuel and Tacy became Baptists.
In the following years, Baptists were banished from the Colony and, after many threats, they fled once more, this time to Rhode Island where they were reunited with Roger Williams. They lived peacefully there for many years as members of the Baptist Church but it didn’t end there.
In the mid 1600’s, a movement had began in England– the Seventh Day Baptists. While they were almost exactly the same in their beliefs as traditonal Baptists, they observed their sabbath on the seventh day, Saturday. In 1665, Stephen Mumford moved from England to Rhode Island, bringing this new sect with him. He spoke of this beliefs to Tacy and Samuel and a few other members of the First Baptist Church of Newport.
It was Tacy alone who first chose to join with Mumford in observing a seventh day sabbath. Soon after Samuel and four other joined them and they formed the first Seventh Day Baptist church in America. Tacy is considered the first American founder of the church. The Seventh Day Baptists exist to this day and were a big part of my mother’s line for almost two hundred years and six generation, although I am pretty sure she would have not been aware of this fact.
While I am not a religious person in any organized sense of the word, I still find it fascinating in the way religion has shaped much of my( and just about everybody else’s) past. I am pleased that Tacy was such a strong woman. She was the one who stood and answered the Church Elders when she and the others were made to account for their desire to break from the Baptist Church. She went before the congregation and with “great clearness and force” outlined their reasons for departing. I can’t help but think that this must have been a rare moment in early America– a woman speaking to power.
This may not be the best painting of the Icons but it moves me in the same way. I always hope to find something in these stories that I can take for my own life and I can only hope to one day have Tacy’s strength and conviction.
Redtree Times 
Wonderful painting, fascinating history, as always! !:-)
Thank you again, Jackie!
When I first looked at her portrait, I felt as though she was thinking, “Get me out of here.” Once I raed her history, that didn’t seem so off-base.
I’ve never heard of Seventh-Day Baptists: only the Seventh-Day Adventists. But I suspect there are plenty of people who don’t know about the Wisconsin Synod Lutherans, either.
Actually, the Seventh Day Adventists in their early 19th century beginnings were influenced somewhat by the Seventh Day Baptists. I, too, was not aware of them until a few years ago.
Doesn’t everybody know about those Wisconsin Synod Lutherans?
On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 8:49 AM, Redtree Times wrote:
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I am also really interested in my family’s past. I have learned that I am also related to Tacy and Samuel Cooper they are either my 10th or 11th great grandparents. Although I cannot be for certain thou because their is a missing link out thier. I know Robert and Ruth Burdick’s got married in 1655 and had 12 children and I know I’m related to Daniel Burdick born in 1778 in Vermont but who his father was and to his greatgranfather it has been a mystery to so many. I am trying to figure it out for all the Burdick’s future generations. I seen you were related and I was hoping you might know any information on Daniel Burdick born 1778 in Vermont. I have already been on Burdickfamily.org and the information was blank their as well. I also want to say that the paintings are just fascinating and beautiful I hope they are around for many more generations to come.
Hi, Jennifer– Thanks for taking a look at Tacy. I am sorry but I do not have any info on your Daniel Burdick. But I would assume that any Burdick in New England at that time was related to Robert and Ruth Burdick. Just keep looking. New records are uncovered all the time and there must be a record somewhere with Daniel’s parentage. Good luck!
Message to Jennifer Foster from above comment: Look for a library that has a copy of The Descendants of Robert Burdick of Rhode Island by Nellie Johnson. Check at Worldcat.org It was printed in 1937 but is considered valid documentation for any lineage society membership.
Thank you for the thoughts and history of our shared 10th Great Grandmother (my path: straight down the Burdick line to Potter). The research we’ve done on our Potter tree has turned up much of the same – a strong Seventh Day Baptist history, more reverends and deacons than we can shake a stick at, and more than a few strong and outspoken women. GG Cooper sounds like a real firecracker!
Yes, she sure sounds like she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind! I like her feistiness and hope even a little bit of it seeped down that family tree. Like you, I am proud to have her in my line.
Hello I was just wondering where your information came from on Tacy Cooper as she is also an ancestor of mine as well (Burdick line).
The information came from a number of sources online, including a history of the Seventh Day Baptists.
Thank you for getting back to me. I’ve read several accounts but loved reading your words when referring to Tacy speaking out.
Also love some of landscape paintings … so calming.
I was wondering where your information on Tacy Cooper came from. Like you and others who posted comments I am also a descendant through the Burdick line.
I love the paintings by the way.
Thanks for the kind words. I found most of the info from online sources, including a couple of accounts of the history of the Seventh Day Baptists that mentions her stand in defending her choice to break from the regular Baptist church.
Thank you so much for your reflection, in words and icon, on Tacy. I, too, am descended from her — through the Clarke line; her daughter, Bethia(h) Hubbard (1646-1707) married the Rev’d Joseph Clarke II (1642-1726). In our family, the SDB affiliation remained robust through my grandfather Willard Russell Clarke’s early years. With SDBs scant in Boston, upon marriage to my grandmother he embraced her Presbyterianism. I’ve done quite a bit of genealogical research, but Tacy and another ancestor (monumental Anne Hutchinson) stand out for their courage, tenacity, and pioneering theological work. Anne merits the headlines for sure, but Tacy’s challenge to gender norms and witness to religious liberty should be recognized as well. Thanks again.
Yes, Anne Hutchinson is in my line, as well. I have plans for an Ixon painting of her later this year. Thanks for getting in touch!
Bethia Hubbard is also my line. Bethia’s granddaughter, also Bethia, married Samuel Babcock who are my 6th great grandparents. My records indicate that we are descendants of King Edward III through Tacy Cooper.
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