Monday Is for Mothers: Mehitable Leonard (1747 - 1808)

Mehitable was about 13 when her father Captain Samuel Leonard died in 1760 and her name appears in probate records on a list of his named children. Her oldest brother, also named Samuel, had to be appointed as administrator of the estate by the Court of Probate of Norwich, Connecticut, because his father had not made a will.*

[Notes : Probate Packets, Leffingwell, Christopher-Lester, Lucy, 1748-1880. Ancestry.com.

Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Connecticut County, District and Probate Courts.]

In the division of her father's property in Preston,** Mehitable's share included both a 14-acre lot and a selection of goods from her father's personal estate valued at over £49.***

 

[Notes : Probate Packets, Leffingwell, Christopher-Lester, Lucy, 1748-1880. Ancestry.com.

Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Original data: Connecticut County, District and Probate Courts.]

In 1771 Mehitable married Aaron Baldwin from neighboring Canterbury**** where the couple had seven children that we know of, including my fourth great grandmother Olive Baldwin (1778-1843)*****

[Book 4; Ancestry.com. Early Connecticut Marriages [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

Original data: Bailey, Frederic W. Early Connecticut Marriages as Found on Ancient Church Records Prior to 1800. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1997.]

There are several Aaron Baldwin's in Connecticut at this time and I'm unsure of my ancestor's date of death. Mehitable died on April 6, 1808, and is buried in the Joseph Rood Farm Cemetery in Plainfield.

As you can see from the map below, Mehitable almost certainly never traveled far from her birthplace in eastern Connecticut.

[Detail from Connecticut From the best Authorities. B. Tanner, del. & sculpt. Engraved for the American Edition of Winterbotham's History of America, Published by John Reid, 1796. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

*It appears that her mother Lydia Stanton died at about the same time so perhaps the younger children found a home with Samuel Jr. and his wife Mary Freeman.
**You can visit Preston Historical Society's facebook page here.
***Captain Samuel's estate was was appraised at over £700 in the inventory completed on April 24, 1760.
****Of course Canterbury Historical Society has its own facebook page.
*****Olive's marriage to Joseph Gates (1776-1854) was one of Christine's most exciting finds last year.


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