Did I Finally Find a Death Record for My 5th Great Grandfather, Benjamin Porter (b 1772)?

One of the benefits of being a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS/American Ancestors) is that you get access to some of their external databases, including the Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers database (Infotrac/Gale).

My mother's paternal grandmother Letta Estella Porter is a descendant of Benjamin Porter and Lydia Wilcox.

I haven't compared it to the holdings of my current newspaper subscriptions to GenealogyBank, NewspaperArchive, and Newspapers, but I thought I'd try it to see if I could find Benjamin Porter, my 5th great grandfather who seemed to disappear from record after appearing in the 1820 Census living in Alstead, Cheshire, New Hampshire.  Since Benjamin's wife Lydia married Henry Scovil in October 1821 in Walpole, Cheshire, New Hampshire, I had tentatively put his death at about 1820.  But that is an unsatisfactory death date!

The right age, and the right previous location.  "Deaths," Dover Gazette and Strafford (Dover, NH), Tuesday, 11 Aug 1829, page 3, col 2; Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers (via NEHGS/American Ancestors) (American Ancestors  : 22 Aug 2016).

I searched for "Benjamin Porter" before 1830, and was pleased to immediately discover a death notice for a Benjamin Porter in Charlestown (Boston), (then Middlesex county), Massachusetts.  What jumped out at me was his former residence in Lyme, Grafton, New Hampshire.  Although I have no direct evidence that Benjamin Porter ever lived in Lyme, I do know that his parents (William Porter d 1778 and Esther Carpenter d 1827) both lived and died in Lyme.

My speculation is that sometime in 1820/1821 Benjamin and Lydia separated or divorced, and that Benjamin went to live in the same town as his mother Esther (more records to research, and divorce proceedings in that time period should be interesting).

Then I think some time after that he moved to Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts, probably not long before his death in August 1829, and thus didn't appear in the 1830 Census.

Partial snapshot of Benjamin Porter's probate record.  This doesn't show all the names associated with this record, which I will have to look up and follow up on.  The entire front and back page of this document citation: Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Probate court, Benjamin Porter, 10 Nov 1829, 72; digital image, [image 497-498],Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991, Middlesex County, Probate Records, V. 216-218, 1826-1830, Ancestry (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=9069 : 22 Aug 2016).

Benjamin seemed to moved around a lot in his life, from being born in Coventry, CT, to likely living with his parents in Lyme, NH, before moving on and marrying Lydia in Surry, Cheshire, New Hampshire.  I don't know what he did for a living.

Their son William Porter (1796-1868) was born in Sheffield, VT, but then it appears they moved back to Surry where their other children were born.  William was a silversmith earlier in his life, and likely would have apprenticed to a silversmith in the 1810's (although I have a growing suspicion that he might have had access to that apprenticeship through his mother's Wilcox relations, which I'll cover in a different post).

If I have the right Benjamin Porter, I wonder what he was doing in Charlestown, MA?

He certainly seemed to spend the bulk of his life somewhere along the Connecticut River.

This all definitely opens up more questions than it answers.


Edited to add: I found a specific date from the Columbian Centinel (Boston, Massachusetts), Saturday, August 8, 1829, page 3 (GenealogyBank):
"In Charlestown, Mass. on Sunday morning last, Benjamin Porter, aged 57 years, formerly of Lyme, N.H." So he died 2 August 1829.




© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: William Wilcockson (1601 - 1652), Linen Weaver, Farmer

One April 2, 1635, three people were enrolled as passengers on the ship Planter in London bound for Massachusetts Bay. They were my eighth great grandfather 24-year-old William Wilcockson,* his wife Margaret (Harvey), who was 24, and their two-year-old John. The Planter left England eight days later and landed in Boston on June 7th.

Because the couple produced the required certificate attesting to their conformity with the Church of England** signed by the Vicar of St. Albans, it used to be believed that they were residents of Hertfordshire. However, more recent research hasn't found any record of them in that county and now it's thought they came from Derbyshire, perhaps because of William's occupation as a linen weaver.*** Once he arrived in Massachusetts, he appears to have become a farmer.

[Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae Tabula. Published by Willem Janszoon Blaeu, Amsterdam-1630.

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

[Detail of above map showing Derbyshire, St. Albans and London.]

These two couples, taken from the right margin of the 1630 map above, show an artist's conception of how the English dressed in the city and country. William and Margaret probably wore similar clothes.












Their first residence was in Concord, Massachusetts, where William became a freeman on December 7, 1636, which meant he had to have been admitted as a member of the church before that date.

However, William and Margaret didn't remain in Massachusetts, removing to Stratford, Connecticut, by 1639. And that's where my direct ancestor Obediah, the seventh of their ten children, was born about 1645.

[Detail of A Map of New England and New York, 1676, showing locations of Boston and Stratford. Sold by Tho. Basset in Fleet Street and Richard Chiswell in St. Paul's Church Yard. Source: Wikimedia Commons]

In 1647 William acted as the Deputy for Stratford to the Connecticut General Court (he served on petit juries there) so he had some standing in the community.

His will was signed on May 29, 1651. It was damaged in a fire and the top part of the page was lost but he desired his younger children to live with their mother who was to give each one a cow along with their property when they reached adulthood. The inventory of his estate is dated June 16, 1652, suffered a similar loss. William's total estate was valued at £322 13s. 3d. most of which appears to have been land but included "arms" worth £3 and "books" valued at £3 14s. He left £30 to the Concord Church which he had been a member of many years earlier.

William Wilcockson is buried in the Old Congregational Burying Ground in Stratford. His widow Margaret married William Hayden some time between May 1656 and December 22, 1657, when John Winthrop, Jr. treated "Heiden William his wife 47 years old" at Windsor, Connecticut, and several of her children in later years.

William's entry in volume VII of The Great Migration is five pages long and is my source for most of what I've written here (via the New England Historic Genealogical Society's website).

*Alternate spellings of the surname include Willcoxson and Wilcoxon. Several generations later it was shortened to Willcox.
**You can read more about what government requirements were for prospective travelers to the New World here.
***Hertfordshire was known for its silk weavers. According to the Great Migration Project, the case for his father being William Wilcockson of Biggin-by-Hulland in Derbyshire is "suggested but not proven."

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Lydia Willcox (1775 - 1869)

The daughter of Obediah and Sarah (Talcott) Willcox, this paternal fourth great grandmother spent her whole life in New Hampshire. She was born on November 22, 1775, in the town of Surry in Cheshire County.

[Ancestry.com. New Hampshire, Birth Records, 1659-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations. Inc., 2013. Original data: “New Hampshire, Birth Records, through 1900.” Online index and digital images. New England Historical Genealogical Society. Citing New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Records, Concord, New Hampshire.]

[The American Atlas: Or, A Geographical Description Of The Whole Continent Of America ... Engraved On Forty-Eight Copper Plates, By The Late Mr. Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to the King, and Others. London, Printed and Sold by R. Sayer and J. Bennett, Map and Print Sellers, No. 53, Fleet-Street. MDCCLXXVI. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

There are more records I will share with you from Lydia's 94-year lifetime, but I have run out of time here in France where it's after midnight and time for bed. Adieu for now.

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Obediah Willcox (1724 - 1810), Town Clerk, Selectman, Justice of the Peace, Rebel

This paternal fifth great grandfather left his native Connecticut for Gilsum in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, in 1764,  fifteen years after his marriage to Sarah Talcott.* That same year he acted as clerk to the Proprietors and later supported the incorporation of the town of Surry**, signing his name to a petition for the creation of the new town to the west of Gilsum dated July 4, 1768. He was Surry's first town clerk, first town treasurer, served as a selectman for a number of years between 1769 and 1788. He was also a Justice of the Peace for Cheshire County in 1776.

[History of the town of Surry, Cheshire County, New Hampshire : from date of severance from Gilsum and Westmoreland, 1769-1922, with a genealogical register and map of the town by Frank Burnside Kingsbury. Published 1925.

Internet Archive, original source: University of New Hampshire Library]

In the Spring of 1776, 52-year old Obediah was one of the signers of the Association Test which called on all males over the age of 21 residing in New Hampshire to declare their willingness to take up arms against "the Hostile Attempts of the British Fleets and Armies." We don't know if he ever served in a military unit but his signature on that document alone is enough to qualify my daughter and me for membership in the Daughters of the Revolution, if we were so inclined.

[Sample of the Association Test]

Obediah continued to live in Surry--his name appears as head of household in the 1790 and 1800 U.S. Census records. He died there*** on February 20, 1810, and is buried in the Surry Village Cemetery next to his wife Sarah, who had died the year before.

The inventory of his estate is still in existence and among his possessions are listed a number of books, mostly medical tomes, and "one Set of Instruments to pull teeth." There is no evidence that Obediah ever formally trained as a doctor but it looks as if he may have practiced medicine and dentistry in Surry.

["New Hampshire, County Probate Estate Files, 1769-1936," images, FamilySearch ( https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-32658-23447-44?cc=2040042&wc=M7M1-KM9:383109201,384131401 : accessed 27 Apr 2014),

Cheshire > Case no W194-W264 1808-1814 > image 1010 of 1554.]

*Obediah and Sarah's daughter Lydia Willcox married Benjamin Porter whose great great granddaughter Letta Estella Porter Warren Williams is my paternal grandmother.
**The petition was granted and Surry was incorporated in 1769.
***Without having made a will.
© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.