Rev. Ranna Cossitt (1744–1815), my 5th-great-grandfather

René Cossitt, variant form Ranna (see below), is the name of three generations from my 7th- to 5th-great-grandfather, the youngest of who is the father of Phebe (née Cossitt) Hill.

There are also variant spellings of the surname, such as Cossette, Cossit, and Cosset.

Generations

René¹

René Cossitt (1686-10-05 NS – 1752-08-11)⁠^{⟮1⟯This is a rare case where someone’s birth was recorded in the Gregorian calendar, and death in the Julian calendar.} was my 7th-great-grandfather who immigrated to Connecticut. There are varying stories of why he came to America, some saying that it was involuntary.

Tradition has him born around 1690 in Paris, specifically Place Vendôme, and educated at the University of Paris. However, evidence published in 2013, including from DNA,⁠^⟮2⟯ suggests that he was born in Quebec in 1686⁠^{⟮3⟯FamilySearch}, the son of Jean Cosset and Marguerite Héloy dit Auby, where Jean was an immigrant from Saint-Étienne-des-Loges (now Saint-Hilaire-des-Loges), Vendée, France.

René eventually settled in Granby, Connecticut. He married Ruth Elizabeth Porter (1692–1770) and had ten children.

In 1977, a descendant Thomas C. Cossitt (1923–2015), a Canadian MP, erected a stone in his memory in Granby.⁠^{⟮4⟯Find a Grave memorial for René (1)}

René²

René Cossitt (1722-09-03 – 1810-03-21) was my 6th-great-grandfather and a Revolutionary War soldier (on the American side). He is sometimes called René Jr.

During the Revolution, he served in Capt. Bates’s company, 18th Regiment of Militia, commanded by Colonel Phelps.⁠^⟮5⟯

He married three times. First was to Phebe Hillyer (1720-12-17 – 1786-01-22), by who he had all of his nine children. Second was to the widow Martha Holcombe (née Griffin). Third was to the widow Martha Barber in 1798, who however in 1807 stole his valuables, ran up debts in his name, and fled with two children from her previous marriage.⁠^{⟮6⟯Find a Grave memorial for Ranna}

He lived his whole life in Granby.

Rev. Ranna³

René or Ranna Cossitt (1744-12-29 – 1815-03-13) was my 5th-great-grandfather, a prominent Episcopal clergyman, and a politician. There are conflicting claims as to whether the variant name Ranna was his own invention, more likely; or also used by his father.

Ranna was born in Granby and studied at Rhode Island College, and then travelled to England to study theology and was ordained there in 1773. He then returned to America, settling in Claremont, New Hampshire, and later that year became the first rector of the new Union Church in Claremont.⁠^⟮7⟯ His affinity for England, however, brought him into conflict with the Revolutionaries, and he refused to sign a statement for independence, but he nevertheless remained in Claremont throughout the war.

In 1786 he accepted a job offer in Sydney, Nova Scotia, to oversee the ministry in the newly formed Cape Breton colony. He became involved in local political squabbles, and in 1798 spent three months in jail over an alleged debt to a political opponent’s son. In 1807 he took a new position as rector in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and there he lived until he died in 1815.

Ranna married Thankful Brooks (1756-03-15 – 1802-10-11) in Claremont in 1774, and with her had ten children. Their first child was named René, but he never married nor had children.

Ranna and Thankful’s daughter Phebe married James Hill, and they were my 4th-great-grandparents. See James and Phebe Hill.

Misinfo

The Find a Grave pages for René² and others⁠^{⟮6⟯Find a Grave memorial for Ranna} contain a lot of wrong information (as of 2023-06-08), including mixing facts of his life up with his son, and also mixing up details of his last two wives.

DNA

There is a Cossitt DNA project with ten visible testees as of 2026.⁠^⟮8⟯⁠^⟮9⟯ Eight match each other, and two match each other but not the others. The matches include members of the Cossette family of Quebec and even a Corsette, which had not been known to be related, a discovery which led to considering that René came from Quebec rather than France.

Descents are provided for six testees, and two are from René² with none from Rev. Ranna. So these matches only confirm descent for these earlier generations, and for example don’t show that Ranna is René’s son.

Although there is a fair selection of STR results, only one testee took a SNP test, and all it showed was being in R1b. If there were negative results, the project does not show them. Curiously, the inferred haplogroups were more specific, as R1b-M269.

However, I personally have an autosomal DNA match to a male surnamed Cossitt who has had shallow (23andMe) Y chromosome testing, which shows him to be in group R1b-L51; this is consistent with the above data. This is still not that specific, and so is only weak evidence connecting me all the way to the French Cossets.

I have several autosomal matches to descendants of the Cossitt family, providing corroboration for my descent from them. However, due to the interrelatedness of Cape Breton families, in most cases I have other documented relations to these people, so this evidence is not as definitive as I would like.

An alleged matrilineal second cousin, 7 times removed of Ranna tested as mtDNA haplogroup H3v2.⁠^⟮10⟯ However, one generation in this connection may be uncertain.

Ancestry of Ranna

See

• The Cossitt Family book at archive.org.
• The Cossitt Family Association.
  • Descendants page that includes “Emily Frances Gessner”.
• Rev. Ranna Cossit in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, which has considerably more detail.
• Cossitt DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA.

Footnotes

1. ↑ This is a rare case where someone’s birth was recorded in the Gregorian calendar, and death in the Julian calendar.
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20240227064834/https://cossitt.org/family%20stories/family%20story%2022.htm
3. ↑ FamilySearch
4. ↑ Find a Grave memorial for René (1)
5. ↑ https://services.dar.org/public/dar_research/search_adb/?action=full&p_id=A026333
6. ↑ ↑ Find a Grave memorial for Ranna
7. ↑ http://www.crjc.org/heritage/N07-3.htm
8. ↑ https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Cossitt?iframe=ydna-results-overview
9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20240227074039/https://cossitt.org/DNA%20research/DNA%20results.htm
10. ↑ https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Allen-20425