The time…1673
The Place…a 100 acre farm in Portsmouth , RI (currently the site of The Valley Inn, pictured on the left.)
The situation…Thomas Cornell, a farmer aged 46, had a lot of hungry mouths to feed. He was the father of four sons from his first marriage, two children (with a third on the way) from his second marriage to Sarah, plus his widowed mother Rebecca, age 73. All nine people lived under one very tiny roof. And, while Thomas did all the work, Rebecca owned the farm and thus controlled things.