Rachel Braley

Rachel Braley Cole


Generation One
Roger Braley
Emigrant Ancestor


 Roger Braley, according to early records in Portsmouth, RI, is believed to be the progenitor of the American family. His name was sometimes spelled "Brailey."

Tradition says that  three Welshmen, who were brothers, were "pressed" into service on a British vessel. These men were of the Quaker faith. The tenets of their religion forbade participation in war, and accordingly, they availed themselves of the first opportunity to escape.

The legend relates that because of destitution, they ate the soles of their shoes for food, and to conceal their identity, they changed the spelling of their last name to Braley.

Of the three brothers, one is thought to have returned to Wales. Nothing is known of the other two.

Perhaps one of these three was an ancestor of Roger Braley.

There is very little known of this first Roger, the exception being that on
 July 6, 1696, he was a witness in a drowning inquest. He was recorded as being a weaver in a land sale.

He and his wife Alice had several children whose births are recorded in Portsmouth, RI.

Elizabeth          June 25, 1697
Roger               November 15, 1698
Alice                 March 28, 1700
Ambrose          December 4, 1701
John *               March 26, 1703
Grace               February 22, 1704/05
Sarah               March  25, 1707


Generation Two
 John Braley and  Joanna Alger
1703-1788

John Braley, son of Roger Braley, the founder of the American branch of the family, was born in Portsmouth, RI on March 26, 1703.

John remained with his family in Portsmouth at least until 1707.
He married  Joanna Alger, the daughter of John Alger and his wife Joanna [King} Alger sometime before 1740.

Their first child, John,  was born on June 19, 1740.
In later years this John moved to Freetown, MA, and served in Capt. Rounceville's unit which marched from Freetown on April 19, 1775. He was a Minute Man in the American Revolution.
He and his family later settled in Vermont.

James, their second son was born in Warren, RI on May 1, 1744.

By 1747 the  family was living in Barrington, RI where Joannah was born on March 26, 1747.

Five more children were born between 1747-1765. They were Rachel, our ancestor, Russell, Nathaniel, Hannah and William.

Russell married Rebecca  Greenwood.  He was a cooper on the sloop "Success" in 1781.

Nathaniel was born in Rehoboth, MA on May 5, 1755. At the age of eleven he went as a cabin boy on a ship  and followed the sea until he was thirty three. For many years he commanded a vessel, running to the East Indies and China. He served as First Lieutenant on the Brigantine "Reprisal".
During the Revolutionary War he was captured and kept on one of the terrible hulks used as British prison ships in the harbor of New York . He suffered many hardships. He was sent to England, perhaps to Dartmoor Prison. With the aid of friends he soon escaped, and reached France. Upon his return to Rehoboth, he and his wife Cynthia, the daughter of Elisha Carpenter, settled on the land given them by his father in law which was in Savoy, MA. In 1801 they again moved to Palmyra, NY. On June 25, 1802, Nathaniel died. Cynthia died on March 18, 1841. The wallet which Nathaniel carried during the War of Rebellion is still in the possession of his descendants  in New York.

William Braley also served in the Revolution.

Rachel was our ancestor. Her story can be found with that of her husband Joseph Cole.

Rachel came from a family dedicated to the cause of freedom.

Rachel's father John died on August 1, 1788. At that time he was a citizen of Freetown, MA. The death record of his wife Joanna has not been found.

Generation Three

Rachel Braley

     Rachel was the daughter of John and Joanna [Alger] Braley. She was born in Rehoboth, MA on April 14, 1747.

     Three months before the Revolutionary War, Rachel wed Joseph Cole, also of Rehoboth. She was twenty nine. Her husband volunteered for service in the American militia as did two of Rachel’s brothers.

     They had seven children, four sons and three daughters. Her first born son, Russell died in 1779 at age three. Several of these Cole children married into the Daggett family. Our ancestor, Joseph married Hannah Daggett.

     Rachel died in September of 1831. She is buried with her husband Corporal Joseph Cole in the Newman cemetery in Rumford, RI.