William Throope, founder of this family, emigrated from England to Barnstable, Massachusetts, in the first half of the seventeenth century, and died in Bristol, Rhode Island, of which he was one of the original settlers, December 4. 1704. He was grand-juryman at Barnstable in 1680, and the same year went to Bristol, being the first of the settlers to travel thither, overland, a team transporting his family in an ox cart. He was surveyor of highways at Bristol in 1683, selectman in 1689, grand-juryman in 1690, and representative of the town in 1691. He married, in Barnstable, May 4, 1666, Mary, daughter of Ralph and Lydia (Willis or Welles) Chapman, of Marshfield, Massachusetts, who was born October 31, 1643, and died in Bristol, in June, 1732. Her father emigrated in the “Elizabeth” from London, in 1635, aged twenty years, a “shipcarpenter from Southwark in Surrey.” He married, November 23, 1642, and died about 1672. His daughter Sarah married William Norcutt; his son Isaac married Sarah, daughter of James Leonard; his son Ralph, who settled at Newport, Rhode Island, married (third) Mary, daughter of Governor Clarke of that colony. This family should not be confounded with the Chapmans of Saybrook, Connecticut, with whom they have no connection. Children of William and Mary (Chapman) Throope : 1. Mary, born April 6, 1667, married, November 4, 1686, John Barney. 2. Elizabeth, born about 1669, died June 14, 1729; married, March 31, 1695, Jonathan Peck. 3. Daniel, referred to elsewhere. 4. John, born about 1676, died January 25, 1772; married (first) November 25, 1697, Rebecca Smith, and (second) in October.. 1732, Susannah Taylor. 5. William, born about 1678-79, married, March 20, 1698-99. Martha Colyn or Colye. 6. Thomas, born about 1681, died September 18, 1756; married (first) November 18, 1702, Abigail Ware. and (second) in April, 1742, Zipporah, daughter or widow of Samuel Mann. 7. Mercy. 8. Lidiah, born July 15, 1686.
