Sue Codamonk

Appears in Records From 1696 — 1700

Sue Codamonk was a Sakonnet woman who inherited one quarter of a “neck” of land in Acoaxet from her brother Jannootus in 1696. In 1700, Sue acquired even more land when she purchased a twenty-acre lot near Adamsville from the town’s English Proprietors. Sue paid £30, a sizeable amount of money for the parcel. This deed was not recorded until 1734, which may have been around the time of Sue’s death.

Sue’s land ownership is important because it occurred at a time when it was rare for English women to own land and far more common for Native people to sell land than to buy it. At her death, Sue passed the property she inherited from Jannootus onto the children of Suncanawash. His descendants, who used the surname Suckanush, appear in local records well into the 1800s.

Memories of the Codamonks, imperfect as they might be, live on in the stories told by the Manchester/Peckham family of Acoaxet. Lucy and Sam Codamonk are believed to be buried on their property, and Westport’s Codimonk Nursery School is named in their honor.

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