Pioneers of St. Clair County, Michigan - Person Sheet
Pioneers of St. Clair County, Michigan - Person Sheet
NameInnocent CORNELL 
Birth1673, Portsmouth?, Newport, Rhode Island
Deathaft 12 Jul 1732 Age: 59
FatherThomas CORNELL (-1673)
MotherSarah EARLE (~1636-1690)
Individual Notes
• Note that the year 1673 appears three times in connection with the Cornells. Rebecca was murdered. Her son Thomas was hung for the murder. Sarah was pregnant at the time. She named her daughter Innocent - she didn't believe he was guilty.737
• Perhaps named as a protest against [her] father’s unjust execution.707
• A further search among those interested in Cornell genealogy made clear the fact that no other marriage has ever been ascribed to this Innocent. One correspondent, in declaring his assent to the identification of Innocent Cornell with Innocent Borden, ventured the interesting conjecture that Innocent, whose birth must have been near 1673, may have been a posthumous child, and that her name may have been her mother’s indignant protest at the cruel judicial murder of the father of the babe. Certainly no man would in these days be executed on such evidence as the records contain in this case.124
• Perhaps named as a protest against [her] father’s unjust execution.707
• A further search among those interested in Cornell genealogy made clear the fact that no other marriage has ever been ascribed to this Innocent. One correspondent, in declaring his assent to the identification of Innocent Cornell with Innocent Borden, ventured the interesting conjecture that Innocent, whose birth must have been near 1673, may have been a posthumous child, and that her name may have been her mother’s indignant protest at the cruel judicial murder of the father of the babe. Certainly no man would in these days be executed on such evidence as the records contain in this case.124