Cornelius BROWN Jr. (1667 – 1743) was Alex’s 8th Great Grandfather; one of 512  in this generation of the Miller line.

Cornelius Brown Jr. was born 3 Jun 1667 in Reading, Middlesex, Mass. His parents were Cornelius BROWN Sr. and Sarah LAMSON. He married Susanna STORY 1688 in Lynn, Essex, Mass. Cornelius died 4 Jul 1743 in Ipswich, Essex, Mass.

Susanna Story was born 4 Mar 1664 in Ipswich, Essex, Mass. Her parents were William STORY and Sarah FOSTER. She first married 13 Jul 1681 in Lynn, Essex, Mass to John Clark. Susanna died 9 Jan 1734 in Boxford, Essex, Mass

John Clark was born 2 Nov 1658 in Lynn, Essex, Mass. His parents were William Clark and [__?__], John died 18 Dec 1685 in Lynn, Essex, Mass.

Children of Cornelius and Susanna:

In 1925 the Brown-Pearl House was acquired by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and dismantled.  The living area was reconstructed as an exhibit hall – an example of colonial architecture and early domestic life.  It was taken down and stored 10 or 11 years ago when the museum began construction of the new Art of the Americas Wing.

Another relative’s house was also reconstructed in a museum.  The New York Dutch Room  in the New York Metropolitan Museum comes from a house built in 1751 in Bethlehem, New York, for Peter WINNE’s son Daniel Pieter Winne (1720–1800)..

On Nov. 20th, 2010, the new wing was opened to the public and the Brown–Pearl Hall is again on display as a gallery in the lowest level of the new wing.

Brown Pearl Hall in Boston Museum of Fine Art

The woodwork in this room came from a house built by Cornelius Brown, a farmer, and his wife Susannah in Boxford, a small town in Essex County, north of Boston before the American Revolution. In 1738, the house passed to Richard Pearl and descended in his family until it was dismantled. The heavy oak framework, pine sheathing (or wall boards), and large fireplace are characteristic of houses of its day.

This would have been the central living space of the house, called the “hall.” Here, the family would conduct important matters of cooking, eating, and sleeping. It is clear from the imported pottery on the table that this house belonged to a well-to-do family. Imported items signal the shift in Puritan culture towards material prosperity. As New England seaport towns grew and prospered before the Revolution, successful citizens called upon the arts to express and enhance their new mode of life.

A little bit of history as excerpted from Norton Lee Bretz’ “Family Tree of John Pearl” (with additional comments in italics):

“John Pearl’s youngest son Richard  purchased the house, barn, and land from Cornelius Brown in 1737.   Mention was made in the deed of 175 acres of this land previously purchased by Richard.  Mr. Brown was allowed to live in the house until May 20 of that year.  It was on a narrow winding road near West Boxford.  Near the time of its purchase, Richard built a grist mill in the rear of the house, the first in the parish.  Major additions were put on the house in 1725 and in 1843 when an abandoned parish church was patched onto the building.

In 1925, the house was bought by the MFA.  It had been abandoned as a dwelling for some years and was rapidly deteriorating.  The structure was made of massive hewn, red oak beams, 12 by 14 inches, hand-fit at the supports.  The fireplace was over seven feet wide with a lintel made of oak.  The architecture was typical of the seventeenth century and one of the best remaining examples of colonial craftsmanship.  The living room, which the family knew as the foreroom, is what is now on display at the museum.  The original room was 19×19 feet and has an 8 foot ceiling.”

We also have this information from the “History of the Pearl Family” by Marian Arlene Pearl:

“John and his wife Elizabeth Pearl undoubtedly spent the remainder of their life on the Pearl Homestead at Boxford as the youngest son, Richard, was said to have been brought there in a bread trough when an infant.  This house stood on a 200 (acre) tract of land laid out originally to John Sandys in 1667.  The acreage passed into the hands of Joseph Dowding a Boston merchant who sold it Sept. 10, 1703 to Cornelius Brown of Reading for seventy pounds.

Mr. Brown built the house of solid hewn oak timber and it stood true and plumb throughout the years.  Alice Heath Fairbank Dow in her Pearl history of Richard’s line states that ‘one of the timbers measures 18 inches and between the inside and outside finish are bricks, larger than modern bricks, solidly laid in mortar and there are two or three wooden latches with the latch string in the house and the one on the south door is very large’  There were no highways when this home was erected and it faced south fronting a field.,  The road when eventually constructed was laid out at the rear of the house.  The Browns lived there many years, the wife Susannah died in 1734 at age 74.  The Pearl family occupied one side of it, and during this period it was known as the Brown-Pearl house.”

The house was built around 1704 and in this room the home’s occupants cooked, ate and slept, illustrating New England domestic life in the first years of the 1700’s.  Furnishings in the room as now displayed in the Museum are from other early homes and illustrate the multipurpose nature of a 17th and early 18th century hall.

Children

1. Susanna Brown

Susanna’s husband Samuel Cole was born 27 Dec 1687 in Lynn, Essex, Mass. His parents were John Cole and Sarah Alsbee. Samuel died 20 Jan 1765 in Boxford, Essex, Mass

2. Jemima Brown

Jemima’s husband Daniel Boynton was born 26 May 1692 in Rowley, Essex, Mass. His parents were Samuel Boynton and Hannah Switcher. His grandparents were John BOYNTON and Elinor PELL. Daniel died in 1756 in Groton, Middlesex, Mass.

4. Moses Brown

Moses’ wife Martha Emmons was born in Lynn, Essex, Massa

5. Aaron Brown

Aaron’s wife Susanna Hovey was born 25 JUL 1699 Topsfield, Essex, Mass.  Her parents were Luke Hovey and Susana Pillsbury.  After Aaron died, she married 25 NOV 1731 Boxford, Essex, Mass. To William Lakeman (b. 1710 Ipswich, Essex, Mass. – d. 14 MAR 1780 Boxford, Essex, Mass.) Susanna died 10 JUN 1782 Boxford, Essex, Mass.

6. Caleb BROWN (See his page)

Sources:

http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=40631485&st=1

http://educators.mfa.org/galleries/slideshow/3984

http://thepearlsofhampton.org/tag/brown-pearl-hall/

http://www.wickedlocal.com/boxford/news/x1868079297/Brown-Pearl-House-is-back-on-display-at-MFA-in-Boston#axzz1rONgJ5qU