vital records sources

Gowen's mark in the Scituate proprietor's records

It's supposed that the "Gawen Whitt" baptized on 23 May 1606 at West Quantoxhead, Somerset, England, son of Thomas and Joan (Cooksley) White, was the same person as the immigrant to New England. The baptism record doesn't give parents names, but the 1637 will of Joan (Cooksey) White of West Quantoxhead (who married Thomas in 1596) leaves little doubt of the relationship, as she names Gowen and the other "Whitt" children found in the parish register (excepting those who died young) between 1599 and 1616.2 She bequeaths to Gowen "if he were living." This apparently led to the assumption that this was the Gowen who would have been in New England at the time. While this may be, there is no other significant evidence to connect the two Gowens other than a plausible baptism date and the relatively uncommon first name.
     Another assumption that has no obvious supportive evidence is that Gowen was a servant to Timothy Hatherly of Scituate. Walter Goodwin Davis refers to Gowen's marriage to a Hatherly servant and says "very probably White had also [been a servant of Hatherly's]" with no reason given to think so. He published his work on New England families over many years starting in 1916 (compiled and published again in 1996), but it's likely he was the origin of this theory and it has been repeated since. An article published in 1940 says Elizabeth Ward was "like himself [Gowen] a servant of Mr. Timothy Hatherly," again with no source citations.3 The fact that Gowen had a son name Timothy may have fed this speculation. It's plausible, instead, that Gowen emigrated directly from Somerset (rather than London, where Hatherly lived) and settled in Scituate on his own.
     Gowen White first appears in the records of Plymouth Colony when he married in 1638. The record appears twice, in the Scituate church records ("Goeing White and Elizabeth, Servaunt to Mr. Hatherlye...marryed here att Situate by Maister Ginings [Jennings] Octob. 15 1638")4 and in the General Court records for Plymouth Colony ("Gowen White, of Scituate, & Elizabeth Ward, were marryed the xvth of October, 1638").5

Children of Gowen White and Elizabeth Ward:

i. Elizabeth, b. abt. 1641
ii. Timothy (a son based on his being one of the sureties when William Cudworth was appointed administrator of Gowen's estate)
iii. Joseph (a son based on his being one of the sureties when William Cudworth was appointed administrator of Gowen's estate)
iv. prob. Sarah, who m. 25 January 1672/3 Scituate

vital records sources:

1.
2. Walter Goodwin Davis, Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davisi>, vol. 3 (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing, 1996), 607.
3. G. Andrews Moriarty, "The Parentage of William White," The American Genealogist, vol. 17 (New Haven, CT: 1941), 198.
4. "Scituate and Barnstable Church Records," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 9 (Boston, MA: 1855), 286.
5. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, also called Records of Plymouth Colony, vol. 1, Court Orders, 1633-1640 (Boston: 1855), 100.
Suffolk Co., MA, probate file 22555 ½.