Corser, Hercules

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Battle:Battle of Dunbar in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland
Ship/Arrival:Unity, Dec 1650
Prisoner and List:
Name Variations:
Residences:
Other SPOW Associations:
Every attempt has been made to ensure accuracy; please independently verify all data.

Published: 03 Dec 2014
Updated: 03 Mar 2020
Researchers: Dr. Andrew Millard, Teresa Rust
Editor: Teresa Rust

Hercules Corser, #11 on George S. Stewart’s Captured at Dunbar list

Name variations: Corser, Cosser, Courser

IMPORTANT UPDATE! (Jul 2018)
According to, Christopher Gerrard, Pam Graves, Andrew Millard, Richard Annis, and Anwen Caffell, Lost Lives, New Voices: Unlocking the Stories of the Scottish Soldiers at the Battle of Dunbar 1650, (England: Oxbow Books, 2018), on page 249, Hercules is categorized as:

Probable [that he is a Dunbar prisoner transported on the Unity]

Corser/Cosser, Hercules. Residences: Charlestown MA. Appears: 1657. D.aft.1679. Member of SCS 1659. [DR; SPOWS; Ch.7 & 8]

For explanations of the category, abbreviations and references see List of Dunbar prisoners from Lost Lives, New Voices.

First Generation in the New World

1.HERCULES¹ CORSER, was born presumably in Scotland and died in Massachusetts after 1679.

Biographical Notes:
Could Hercules actually be Archelaus Courser who married Rachel Roper and lived in Boston and Lancaster, MA. Archelas Coursor wrote his will at Boston, MA on 30 Oct 1679. Children are listed as: John Coursor and Rachel Coursor. Friends are James English [SPOW?] and Thomas Duor [Dewer], related to David Dewer who knew James English?. 1 Died: Archelaus Courser in Boston, 1679.2

Genealogical Guide to the Early Settlers of America: With a Brief History of …
By Henry Whittemore

Timeline:
1657/58:
“Lot 202, Hercules Corser, 4 wooded acres, 1 in Commons, 01 March 1657/58.“
From Charlestown Land Records, page 81.

1658:
“Charlestown Tax List: 16 November 1658
Alex Bow 1 0-3-4 (fellow Scot)
Her Courser 1 0-2-0
Figures after names presumably refer to number of dwellings. “
SEE: Thompson, Roger, From Deference to Defiance, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1629-1692, (Boston, Mass.: NHGS, 2012), 50.

1659:
Scots’ Charitable Society member “Hercules Cosser”

A genealogical dictionary of the first settlers of New England, Volume 1
By James Savage

1678/79:
“Ye 10th of 1st Mo 1678/79” “Hercules Corser” is in list of men wanting to retain Mr. Myles as their pastor.
SEE: Wood, Nathan, The History of the First Baptist Church of Boston (1665-1899), (Boston, Massachusetts: American Baptist Publications Society, 1899), 132.

29 Oct 1678/9:
Hercules Courser took the Oath of Allegiance on 21 Apr 1679 in Boston. 3

Find his descendants and researchers here.

NOTES:

Suffolk Deeds, Volume 5
By Suffolk County (Mass.), 03 Oct 1666
The Pioneers of Massachusetts: A Descriptive List, Drawn from Records of the …
By Charles Henry Pope
Continued from above.
Social and Economic Networks in Early Massachusetts: Atlantic Connections
By Marsha L. Hamilton
  1. Suffolk County, MA: Probate File Papers.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2017-2019. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized mages provided by FamilySearch.org) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB2735/i/48697/1130-co3/69449705 [↩]
  2. Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/13320/20/238394980 [↩]
  3. At a County Court held at Boston 29o Octobr 1678. Records of the Suffolk County Court: 1671-1680, Vol. XXX, (Boston: The Society, 1933), 968. https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/318 [↩]