Gabriel Dowsett

  Noted events in his life were:

• Will. ⁶⁷¹
The Will of Gabriel Doucet of Harlow, Essex, miller, dated 14 Dec ____.
"To my son Thomas my copyhold tenement near Harlow Market, to the tenure of George Chapman. To my daughter Tomazen Douset £90. To my son Thomas three roods of freehold land in Harlow March on condition that he pay to my daughter Tomazen £10 more. To my grandson Thomas Freeman 10s, at the age of five years. To my daughter Joan, 5s. To my wife Mercy and my son Thomas jointly, the care of the mill and all other chattels, and they are to be executors."
Witnesses: Ed Spranger, John Jocelyn
Proved: Jan 1627/28
[Archdeaconry of Middlesex for Essex and Herts [Somerset House], Register Browne, fo. 176]

Administration of the estate of Mercie Dowsett of Watton-at-Stone, widow was granted to her daughter Thomasine, wife of Thomas Hale, and bond was filed 25 June 1635. [Archdeaconry of Huntingdon for Herts (Somerset House), Act Book 5, fo. 8.]

• Background Information. ⁶⁷⁰
Gabriel Dowsett was born at Harlow, Essex, about 1568 and died late in 1627. He married Mercy______, who died at Watton-on-Stone, Hertforshire, probably in June 1653. He was the miller of Harlow. Harlow Mill was on the river Stort; the remnant of the last mill structure, perhaps late 18th century, was a restaurant in 1987.

Gabriel is mentioned in Essex court records. In 1597, he was on a jury of inquest into the death of the illegitimate baby of Alice Pike. The child had been born 8 June 1597, and she suffocated it two days later. She was indicted and after conviction was sentenced to be hanged.

At Midsummer Quarter Session in 1616, on presentment of the Hundred Jury, "Gabriel Dowsett, the miller of Harlow mill, [was accused] for that his peck weight and toll dish are not according to the stature." A note was added, "Too much toll, all too big."

After his death, his widow Mercy, went to live with her daughter Thomasine at Watton-on-Stone in Hertfordshire. Administration of her estate was granted to Thomasine 5 June 1635.
Known children of Gabriel and Mercy Dowsett were:
• Thomas, most likely the eldest son
• Thomasine, d. at Newbury, Massachusetts, 30 Jan 1682/83; m. in London at St. Helen's Bishopsgate, 11 Dec 1632, Thomas Hale Jr. of Watton-on-Stone, Hertfor, England. He was bap. there, 15 Jun 1606, d. Newbury Mass, 21 Dec 1682.
• Joan, m. _____Freeman
~NEHGR, Vol. 141, pgs. 131-132

• Background Information for Mercy Dowsett. ⁶⁷⁰

After the death of her husband Gabriel, she went to live with her daughter Thomasine at Watton-on-Stone in Hertfordshire. Mercy died before 5 June 1653, and administration of her estate was granted to her daughter Thomasine 5 June 1635.
~NEHGR, vol. 141, pg. 131

Gabriel married Mercy. (Mercy died before 5 Jun 1653 in Watton-on-Stone, Hertford, England ⁶⁷⁰.)