The Legend of Abiel Twitchell
*Abiel/Abigail/Abiah was born on 1 November 1663 in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts and died on 15 April 1744 at age 80 in Woodstock, Massachusetts Bay Colony. Abiel and her husband, *John Bugbee, Jr. were part of the first thirty-nine landowners in Woodstock, then Massachusetts, now Connecticut. Abiel and John were married on 10 July 1696 according to Clarence Bowen’s The History of Woodstock, CT, Genealogy of Woodstock Families. In this book, Bowen states that Abiel first married Robert Corbit/Corbett who died on 18 September 1695.
In February 1681 when Abiel was 17, she gave birth to a son out of wedlock whom she named Benoni Twitchell. Abiel refused to name the father. Benoni died sometime after 1749. Josiah Rockett, who was married to Abiel’s sister, Mary, took her in. The town fathers forbade him to shelter Abiel and “warned her out of the town.” Defying the town order, Josiah and Mary, not wanting to leave Abiel and her child homeless, continued to let Abiel live with them. Josiah was fined 20 shillings “for breach of town order in entertaining Abiel Twitchell.” Abiel married Robert Corbit, Josiah’s brother-in-law, in about 1690. Abiel and Robert had two children, Damaris, born in 1691 and Elder Daniel Corbett, Sr. on 29 December 1693. After Robert’s death in 1695, Abiel married *John Bugbee in 1696.
Holmes Bugbee speaks of a family legend relating to Abiel who, having a legacy coming to her, rode to Roxbury on horseback and collected her inheritance in Spanish dollars. While riding back to Woodstock over the Connecticut Path she was overtaken by a robber who demanded her money. She parleyed and maneuvered to get the robber’s horse as well as her own headed in the right direction. Then when she handed her bag of money to the robber, she purposely dropped it. When the robber dismounted to pick up the money, Abiel whipped both horses and the robber’s horse followed hers. When she finally came to a cabin by the side of the road, she discovered that the saddle bags on the robber’s horse carried more dollars than she had lost. So, with this money and the robber’s horse, [the brave girl] returned safely to Woodstock. (From a letter dated Putnam, 30 November 1896, from E. Holmes Bugbee, owned by Lucian Willis Bugbee, Jr.)