Oliver
Hull was born on 16 March 1731/32 at Jamestown, Newport Co., RI.
5 He was the son of
John Hull and
Damaris Cary. Oliver Hull married
Penelope Fones, daughter of
Joseph Fones and
Penelope Remington, on 19 May 1751 at Jamestown, Newport Co., RI.
1,6 Oliver Hull died on 1 August 1803 at age 71.
7 He served in the Revolutionary War; An extract from the book, Hulls in the American Revolution 1775-1783, comp. by Phyllis J. Pankonin Hughes, Privately Published 1997, follows: "Patriotic Service, NY. Elder in Society of Friends; cooked provisions for prisoners in the Provost and Sugar House in NYC. On Society of Friends committee for furnishing troops with stockings, mittens, etc. On Friends City Watch committee. Res.: Conanicut Island, Newport Co., RI; New York City, NY. Note: An Oliver Hull, residing in NYC, NY, has also been identified as a Loyalist according to Ref. 6S" [Kelby, William, Oderly Book of the Three Battalions of Loyalists Commanded by Brigadier-General Oliver De Lancy, 1776-1778. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1972, p. 122]. "Though a Friend, Oliver Hull, the son of John and Damaris (Cary) Hull, took an active, if quiet, part in the Revolution. He married Penelope Ffones (Fones), whose great-grandfather had been one of the most important men of the Colony, and with her he moved to New York a few years before the war. She has been especially honored because of her great kindness to the prisoners during the Revolution. The late Robert Hull, in his pamphlet of the Hull family, gives a very interesting account of the efforts the Quakers made to mitigate the suffering of the American prisoners during the time the British had possession of New York. 'Among the most active of these was Oliver Hull, Robert Murray and his son John. The Long Island Quakers furnished the beef, vegetables, etc., and in the garden of Oliver Hull's house, corner of Beekman and William Streets, these were put into a huge caldron and under Mrs. Hull's directions speedily converted into soup, was soon brought to the famishing prisoners. One day Mrs. Hull, with her daughter Penelope, was passing the old Sugar House in Liberty Street when a prisoner called out from a grated window, 'I hope you won't be discouraged, dear ladies; the rebels are not discouraged; they'll never give up.' When the British took possession of the town, several people were billeted at Oliver Hull's house, one a young officer, Count Saint Leger, of whom they became exceedingly fond, who presented Mr. Hull at parting with a tall staff made of some curious wood and mounted in gold, as a souvenir of his gratitude and friendship. . . .' The son of Oliver and Penelope (Fones) Hull was John Hull III. 314. OLIVER HULL, 1732-1803, of New York City, son of (95) Capt. John and Damaris Cary Hull, was married first May 19, 1751 to Penelope Fones (d.1795), daughter of Joseph Fones and his wife Penelope of Jamestown, R. I. His second wife was Hannah Field, whom he married at Purchase, N. Y., November 16, 1796. Oliver Hull was born and married at Jamestown, but before 1770 became a resident of New York City, and was there engaged with his brother Joseph in commercial pursuits. Oliver Hull was an Elder in the Society of Friends. The 'Book of the Hulls' by his grandson, the late Oliver Hull of New York City, gives some account of his religious life, his trials during the Revolution, and the philanthropic efforts put forth by him and his brother for the relief of the patriots then held as prisoners in the Provost and the Middle Dutch and Sugar House prisons. After the war he and his son John Hull were engaged in business as Importers and Wholesale Druggists under the firm name of Oliver Hull and Son. It is a matter of record that Thomas Fones, apothecary at the Three Fawns, Old Bailey, London, married Anna Winthrop, the sister of John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. They had a son Samuel, who was the father of John Fones, gentleman, who came to New England and settled at Kingston in 1669, was Clerk of his Majesty's Commission, Recorder of Narragansett Province, a Captain in the forces, and his Majesty's Justice of the Peace in 1683.
This John Fones, gentleman, had a son Jeremiah, who was the father of Joseph Fones, whose daughter Penelope became the wife of Oliver Hull and the mother of his six CHILDREN 628. Abigail Hull, b. Feb. 7, 1752; m. Solomon Lockwood. 629. Joseph Hull, b. Nov. 8, 1753; d. Sept. 30, 1781, unmarried. 630. Henrietta Hull, b. Aug. 1, 1755; m. Thomas Burling. 631. Katherine Hull, b. Feb. 19, 1759; m. Thomas Clark. 632. John Hull, b. Aug. 11, 1762; d. Aug. 11, 1840; m. (1st) 1781, Mary Avery, (2nd) 1803, Amy Cornell. 633. Penelope Hull, b. May 29, 1764; d. Sept. 16, 1848, unmarried."
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