Monday Is for Mothers: Elisabeth Alcott (About 1720 - 1749)

As far as I can tell this maternal 6th great grandmother lived her whole life in Burlington County, New Jersey.

[New England, New York, New Jersey and Pensilvania. By H. Moll, Geographer. (Printed and sold by Tho: Bowles next ye Chapter House in St. Pauls Church Yard, & Ino: Bowles at ye Black Horse in Cornhill, 1736?). Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

As you can see in these details from the 1736 map of the region, Burlington was on the regular post route between Philadelphia and New York.

I've written about her father William Alcott in the past, but we know very little about Elisabeth except that the 1745 license for her marriage to James Rossell survives.

[Northampton Township, Burlington Co., New Jersey added to his Ancestry.com tree by dwcustard.]

Licence of Marriage was Granted by his Excellency Lewis
Morris Esq. Governour of New Jersey etc on the 24th day of Aprill
1745 unto James Rosele of the Township of Northampton &
County of Burlington wheelwright of the one part & Elisabeth
Alcott of the same place Spinster of the other party.
                                                Chal Read Secry


 Elisabeth died four year later, having given birth to three children (the oldest of which is my direct ancestor Hope Rossell). Here's how I descend from her.

[Ancestry.com]

   


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: William Alcott (About 1690 - 1748), Carpenter or Cooper?

William Alcott was the father of Elizabeth Alcott and therefore my maternal seventh great grandfather. We don't know where or when he was born or who his parents were, nor do we know the surname of his wife Anne.

The first record we have of him appears in Burlington, New Jersey, legal records* in 1705 when the court was called on to rule on the term of William's apprenticeship. He was originally bound to Thomas Emley to "Learne the Trade of a Carpenter" and being "Assigned to William Budd Junr. who is no Carpenter", therefore the court modified the apprenticeship, ordering Budd that "When the Said William Alcot has Served Seven Years and three Months of the Tearme Abovesaid Shall have his Choice Either for his Apprenticeship to Expire then or to Serve the whole Tearm and Have the Trade of A Cooper or receive Ten Pounds Now current money without A Trade." But the record doesn't tell us what William's choice was.

However, the 1748/49 inventory of his estate lists "To A gunn[,] carpenters tools & other things" and there's no mention of the tools a cooper would use. Did William become a carpenter after all, or were his tools merely what a prudent farmer would keep on hand for repairs?

[Source: familysearch.org; New Jersey, Probate Records, 1678-1980 Burlington Wills 1688-1900 no 3579C-4600C]

*Transcription found in The Burlington court book : a record of Quaker jurisprudence in west New Jersey, 1680-1709 [pdf] pages 312-313

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: James Rossell (About 1727 - After 1780), Wheelwright

As far as we know from the few existing records we have, this maternal sixth great grandfather lived his whole life in Northampton Township in Burlington County, West New Jersey.

[New England, New York, New Jersey and Pensilvania. By H. Moll, Geographer. (Printed and sold by Tho: Bowles next ye Chapter House in St. Pauls Church Yard, & Ino: Bowles at ye Black Horse in Cornhill, 1736?) Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

His occupation is listed on the marriage license granted on April 24, 1745, by Charles Read, secretary to Governor Lewis Morris which named "James Rosell of the Township of Northampton County of Burlington Wheelwright of the one part & Elizabeth Alcott of the same place Spinster of the other party."

[Original data: New Jersey State Archives.]

Now a casual glance at the record above might lead a modern person to see his occupation as Whoolwright. That's because it was written in the old fashioned Secretary's Hand in which the o's and e's look very alike when written in a word.

[Society of Genealogists. The National Family History Centre.]

Here's a video of the wheelwright's shop in Colonial Williamsburg and to learn more about the craft the Colonial American Digressions blog has a very informative post about it here.

James and Elizabeth's daughter Hope Rossell married Caleb Gaskill whose granddaughter Catherine Gaskill married Jessie Tomlinson.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.