Three of my direct ancestral couples married during the first week of December: 6X great grandparents Jonathan Palmer and Mercy Manwaring were united in Stonington, Connecticut, on December 1, 1706; 8X great grandparents John West and Renew Carpenter married in Rehoboth, Massachusetts on December 4, 1703; and 7X great grandparents Jonathan Aldrich and Mary Wilson wed on December 4, 1740 in Smithfield, Rhode Island.
The first paragraph of Old-Time Marriage Customs in New England by Alice Morse Earle published in The Journal of American Folklore in 1893 sets the stage for a wedding:
This excerpt from Pamela McArthur Cole's article on New England Marriages,* gives us an idea of the traditional setting for weddings.*
Also my 7X great grandmother Sarah Nutting, left widowed by my ancestor Jonathan Farnsworth five years earlier, married John Stone on December 7, 1698, in Concord, Massachusetts.
*These two articles were originally published one after the other in the same issue of The Journal of American Folklore. Both are worth reading although I don't think either would meet modern standards of scholarship.
© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
Showing posts with label Wilson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wilson. Show all posts
Friday, December 21, 2018
New England Weddings in my Ancestral Line: December 1st through 7th
Labels:
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Alice Morse Earle,
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Wilson
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Working on Wednesday: William Lofton (? - 1704) Transported Criminal or Indentured Servant?
Lately I've been looking at the upline of my maternal Slater/Wilson ancestors and this hint for William Lofton of Maryland, one of my eighth great grandfathers, caught my attention.
Since very few of the people whose lives are traced were convicts and my ancestor was among the minority who went on to establish families, own land and leave a will it seems unlikely he came as a prisoner.
A quick search on WorldCat informed me that the nearest copy of the source book Colonial Families of Maryland, Bound and Determined to Succeed is in the Los Angeles Public Library (112 miles away). However I was able to purchase an digital copy from Google Books for $15.12.
In his introduction Robert W. Barnes explains that he made a study of 549 transported individuals after their terms of service ended, 17 of whom were convicts.* This book details the lives of 102 of those people including William Lofton.
According to his research my ancestor was transported in 1673; no mention is made of where he departed from, any skill or trade he came with or how old he was when he arrived. However, William must have completed his service by 1690 when he married a woman we know only as Elizabeth and the couple went on to have five children.
William's name appeared as a head of household in Spes Utij Hundred in Baltimore County, Maryland, beginning in 1695 and continuing until 1703. Here's a transcript of the list from 1699 (his name-misspelled-is the last one on the second page):
No date of death is given but he was buried April 13, 1704, and his estate was inventoried in July of that year. The year of his wife's death is uncertain--October 20, 1703 or 1704.
*Here's my descent from him:
*In fact very few convicts were sent to Maryland until 1718 when Parliament passed the Transportation Act.
© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
Since very few of the people whose lives are traced were convicts and my ancestor was among the minority who went on to establish families, own land and leave a will it seems unlikely he came as a prisoner.
A quick search on WorldCat informed me that the nearest copy of the source book Colonial Families of Maryland, Bound and Determined to Succeed is in the Los Angeles Public Library (112 miles away). However I was able to purchase an digital copy from Google Books for $15.12.
In his introduction Robert W. Barnes explains that he made a study of 549 transported individuals after their terms of service ended, 17 of whom were convicts.* This book details the lives of 102 of those people including William Lofton.
According to his research my ancestor was transported in 1673; no mention is made of where he departed from, any skill or trade he came with or how old he was when he arrived. However, William must have completed his service by 1690 when he married a woman we know only as Elizabeth and the couple went on to have five children.
William's name appeared as a head of household in Spes Utij Hundred in Baltimore County, Maryland, beginning in 1695 and continuing until 1703. Here's a transcript of the list from 1699 (his name-misspelled-is the last one on the second page):
[Maryland historical magazine by Browne, William Hand, 1828-1912;
Dielman, Louis Henry, 1864-1959; Maryland Historical Society. Source: Archive.org]
No date of death is given but he was buried April 13, 1704, and his estate was inventoried in July of that year. The year of his wife's death is uncertain--October 20, 1703 or 1704.
*Here's my descent from him:
[Ancestry.com]
*In fact very few convicts were sent to Maryland until 1718 when Parliament passed the Transportation Act.
© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Where Were My Ancestors About 1796? Abraham Bradley's Map of the United States: Part 2
This is a continuation of my post earlier this week using Abraham Bradley's postal map of 1796. This is just an exercise to get a handle on where all of my American ancestors were during the Federalist Era. I can already see the fatal flaw of adding ancestors by going up and down my tree as opposed to grouping by location--for instance, I actually have a lot of people who were in the western Pennsylvania area, but there will be separate maps for the family groups in this iteration because they are on different branches of my tree. I will put together a more concise version at a later date.
In Bertie County, North Carolina, possibly in the Salmon Creek area, John H Hardy, 23, was married to his first wife, Jamima Wilson, and they had a toddler Etheldred. Jamima would die in the next year. John's mother Sarah Sowell, 63, had been widowed 3 years before when her husband William Hardy died, and she would be listed in the 1800 Federal Census as head of household in Bertie County, North Carolina. John's future second wife, Elizabeth Ward, 21, daughter of Thomas Ward (who had died the year before at about age 60) and Pheraby Sowell, about 47. John Hardy and Elizabeth Ward were distant cousins--their mothers were both descendants of Richard Sowell (born c. 1659).
John Chappell, 33, had moved to Georgia probably in the mid to late 1780's from Sussex County, Virginia, likely with his parents, Revolutionary veteran John C Chappell, 58, and Nancy "Nannie" Harrison, 55. Like Jesse Warren Sr he was in the area that would become Hancock County, Georgia. John and his wife, Sarah "Sallie" P Heath, 25, had several small children by the time the map was made. Sallie was the daughter of Valley Forge veteran Abraham Heath, 56, and Winnifred "Winny" (??), 50, who had moved from Surry County, Virginia to Burke/Warren County, Georgia 10 years earlier.
Josiah Freeman, 33, was likely in Oglethorpe County, Georgia with his first wife, Susannah Hawkins, and at least 5 small children. He had likely moved to Georgia sometime between 1786 and 1790. He was originally from Virginia, possibly Sussex or Surry counties. His parents William Freeman, 58, and Sarah Williams(??), about 56, were in Surry County, North Carolina, and may have originally been from Surry County, Virginia. All these Surry counties!! It gets confusing. Elizabeth Jordan, Josiah's second wife, was only about 9 in 1796. I have not yet figured out who Elizabeth's parents were. Elizabeth was born in either Georgia or possibly South Carolina.
Richard Turner, 17, had been born in Cascade, Pittsylvania, Virginia, and had moved with his family to Wilkes County, Georgia (part of which became Lincoln County) when he was about 5. His parents, Shadrack Turner and Margaret Hill, were both about 45. Mary Henderson, 15, would marry Richard about 3 years later in Wilkes or Lincoln County. She had Virginia as place of birth on the 1850 and 1860 Censuses, but I have not yet been able to determine who her parents were, although there were numerous Henderson families in Elbert County (neighbor county to both Wilkes and Lincoln) at the time she would have married Richard.
William Porter was born in May 1796 in Sheffield, Caledonia, Vermont, to Benjamin Porter, 24, and Lydia Wilcox, 21. It is not clear why they were there, as they had married in Surry, Cheshire, New Hampshire the year before, and were back there by the 1800 federal census. Benjamin's widowed mother Esther Carpenter, 57, allegedly didn't die until 1827 in Lyme, Grafton, NH, but apparently didn't head a household in the censuses and probably lived with one of her adult children. Lydia's parents, physician Obediah Willcox, 72, and Sarah Talcott, 61, were likely living in Surry, Cheshire, New Hampshire.
Joshua Shepard, 43, and Lucia "Lucy" Farnsworth, 34, were living in Alstead, Cheshire, New Hampshire. Joshua's parents, Jonathan Shepard, 87, and Love Palmer, 79, had divorced 32 years earlier (about 1764), and had both subsequently remarried. Love had married a Mr. Heard or Herrick (date unknown), and she died 23 July 1796 in Alstead, Cheshire, New Hampshire. Jonathan had married Mary Underwood in 1765 and lived in Windsor, Windsor, Vermont, where he died 2 years after this map was made (26 March 1798). Lucy's parents, Thomas Farnsworth, 65, and Elizabeth Davis, 68, also lived in Alstead (they had moved there sometime between 1776 and 1790).
© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
In Bertie County, North Carolina, possibly in the Salmon Creek area, John H Hardy, 23, was married to his first wife, Jamima Wilson, and they had a toddler Etheldred. Jamima would die in the next year. John's mother Sarah Sowell, 63, had been widowed 3 years before when her husband William Hardy died, and she would be listed in the 1800 Federal Census as head of household in Bertie County, North Carolina. John's future second wife, Elizabeth Ward, 21, daughter of Thomas Ward (who had died the year before at about age 60) and Pheraby Sowell, about 47. John Hardy and Elizabeth Ward were distant cousins--their mothers were both descendants of Richard Sowell (born c. 1659).
John Chappell, 33, had moved to Georgia probably in the mid to late 1780's from Sussex County, Virginia, likely with his parents, Revolutionary veteran John C Chappell, 58, and Nancy "Nannie" Harrison, 55. Like Jesse Warren Sr he was in the area that would become Hancock County, Georgia. John and his wife, Sarah "Sallie" P Heath, 25, had several small children by the time the map was made. Sallie was the daughter of Valley Forge veteran Abraham Heath, 56, and Winnifred "Winny" (??), 50, who had moved from Surry County, Virginia to Burke/Warren County, Georgia 10 years earlier.
Josiah Freeman, 33, was likely in Oglethorpe County, Georgia with his first wife, Susannah Hawkins, and at least 5 small children. He had likely moved to Georgia sometime between 1786 and 1790. He was originally from Virginia, possibly Sussex or Surry counties. His parents William Freeman, 58, and Sarah Williams(??), about 56, were in Surry County, North Carolina, and may have originally been from Surry County, Virginia. All these Surry counties!! It gets confusing. Elizabeth Jordan, Josiah's second wife, was only about 9 in 1796. I have not yet figured out who Elizabeth's parents were. Elizabeth was born in either Georgia or possibly South Carolina.
Richard Turner, 17, had been born in Cascade, Pittsylvania, Virginia, and had moved with his family to Wilkes County, Georgia (part of which became Lincoln County) when he was about 5. His parents, Shadrack Turner and Margaret Hill, were both about 45. Mary Henderson, 15, would marry Richard about 3 years later in Wilkes or Lincoln County. She had Virginia as place of birth on the 1850 and 1860 Censuses, but I have not yet been able to determine who her parents were, although there were numerous Henderson families in Elbert County (neighbor county to both Wilkes and Lincoln) at the time she would have married Richard.
William Porter was born in May 1796 in Sheffield, Caledonia, Vermont, to Benjamin Porter, 24, and Lydia Wilcox, 21. It is not clear why they were there, as they had married in Surry, Cheshire, New Hampshire the year before, and were back there by the 1800 federal census. Benjamin's widowed mother Esther Carpenter, 57, allegedly didn't die until 1827 in Lyme, Grafton, NH, but apparently didn't head a household in the censuses and probably lived with one of her adult children. Lydia's parents, physician Obediah Willcox, 72, and Sarah Talcott, 61, were likely living in Surry, Cheshire, New Hampshire.
Joshua Shepard, 43, and Lucia "Lucy" Farnsworth, 34, were living in Alstead, Cheshire, New Hampshire. Joshua's parents, Jonathan Shepard, 87, and Love Palmer, 79, had divorced 32 years earlier (about 1764), and had both subsequently remarried. Love had married a Mr. Heard or Herrick (date unknown), and she died 23 July 1796 in Alstead, Cheshire, New Hampshire. Jonathan had married Mary Underwood in 1765 and lived in Windsor, Windsor, Vermont, where he died 2 years after this map was made (26 March 1798). Lucy's parents, Thomas Farnsworth, 65, and Elizabeth Davis, 68, also lived in Alstead (they had moved there sometime between 1776 and 1790).
© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Working on Wednesday: William T. Slater (About 1790? - 1847), Deserter, Farmer, Justice of the Peace
Up until 1818 when William Slater applied for naturalization in Jefferson County, Indiana, all the information we have about this maternal 3rd great grandfather comes from family stories that I haven't been able to verify.*
According to Slater family lore, William first arrived in the United States on a ship that was part of the British invasion fleet that attacked New Orleans in 1814-15, and at some point he went over the side of the ship and never looked back.
It's been presumed that William was a sailor in the Royal Navy but I think it's possible that he could have been a marine or a soldier in the British Army.**
We can't find him in the 1820 U.S. Census but on July 20th of that year he married (Emily) Jane Wilson in Crawford County, Indiana, and the couple's eight oldest children were born in that state. By 1830, they were living in farther west in Pike County.
But their ninth child, my great great grandfather George W. Slater (1832-1899), was born in Illinois, signalling the family's move to Lawrence County*** where they remained through 1840. (Their last two children were born there also.)

By 1843 the Slaters had moved again, this time in the northeastern corner of South Audubon Township in Montgomery County, Illinois. Three years later William was elected the first Justice of the Peace so he must have been a respected citizen.
William T. Slater died in 1847; his place of burial is unknown.
Family tradition has one more bit of information about William, asserting that he was born in Yorkshire. Unfortunately there are a lot of Slaters in Yorkshire so that hasn't helped locate a birth record for him. As this 1880 U.S. Census record shows, his children list his place of birth as "England."
*Yet. (But not for lack of trying.) And we're assuming that he didn't change his name after his unauthorized departure from the Royal Navy.
**I didn't grow up as a Slater and I've only heard this story once, from my cousin Susan. If the belief that William was a sailor is based on his desertion by "going over the side" that doesn't take into account the fact that all Royal Navy ships had marines on board or that the British Army troops had all arrived by ship too.
***Where William's father-in-law John Wilson had bought land in 1825.
© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
According to Slater family lore, William first arrived in the United States on a ship that was part of the British invasion fleet that attacked New Orleans in 1814-15, and at some point he went over the side of the ship and never looked back.
It's been presumed that William was a sailor in the Royal Navy but I think it's possible that he could have been a marine or a soldier in the British Army.**
[Painting depicting the Naval Battle of Lake Borgne, Louisiana, between U.K. and U.S. forces in the War of 1812, by Thomas L. Hornbrook (active 1836-1844). (Image Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, Maryland.) Found on Naval History Blog. ]
We can't find him in the 1820 U.S. Census but on July 20th of that year he married (Emily) Jane Wilson in Crawford County, Indiana, and the couple's eight oldest children were born in that state. By 1830, they were living in farther west in Pike County.
[1830; Census Place: Jefferson, Pike, Indiana; Series: M19; Roll: 26; Page: 373; Family History Library Film: 0007715. Ancestry.com. 1830 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fifth Census of the United States, 1830. (NARA microfilm publication M19, 201 rolls).
Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]
But their ninth child, my great great grandfather George W. Slater (1832-1899), was born in Illinois, signalling the family's move to Lawrence County*** where they remained through 1840. (Their last two children were born there also.)

[Year: 1840; Census Place: Lawrence, Illinois; Roll: 63; Page: 171; Image: 345; Family History Library Film: 0007643. Ancestry.com. 1840 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Sixth Census of the United States, 1840. (NARA microfilm publication M704, 580 rolls).
Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]
By 1843 the Slaters had moved again, this time in the northeastern corner of South Audubon Township in Montgomery County, Illinois. Three years later William was elected the first Justice of the Peace so he must have been a respected citizen.
[History of Montgomery County, Illinois, Illustrated Atlas Map Of Montgomery County, Ill. Carefully Compiled from Personal Examinations and Surveys. 1874. Published by Brink, McCormick & Co., of Illinois. Duval & Hunter, Lithographers, Philada, Pa.
Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]
William T. Slater died in 1847; his place of burial is unknown.
Family tradition has one more bit of information about William, asserting that he was born in Yorkshire. Unfortunately there are a lot of Slaters in Yorkshire so that hasn't helped locate a birth record for him. As this 1880 U.S. Census record shows, his children list his place of birth as "England."
[Year: 1880; Census Place: Harvel, Montgomery, Illinois; Roll: 237; Family History Film: 1254237; Page: 283D; Enumeration District: 149; Image: 0567. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]
*Yet. (But not for lack of trying.) And we're assuming that he didn't change his name after his unauthorized departure from the Royal Navy.
**I didn't grow up as a Slater and I've only heard this story once, from my cousin Susan. If the belief that William was a sailor is based on his desertion by "going over the side" that doesn't take into account the fact that all Royal Navy ships had marines on board or that the British Army troops had all arrived by ship too.
***Where William's father-in-law John Wilson had bought land in 1825.
© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Monday Is for Mothers: Emily Jane Wilson (About 1800 - Before 1850)
Another female ancestor who is represented in very few records is Emily Jane Wilson, my maternal 3rd great grandmother, who was born in either Barren or Jefferson County, Kentucky, in about 1800. She was the third child and second daughter of Ruth (Welborn) and John Wilson who were both natives of Rowan County, North Carolina.
By 1820 the Wilson family had moved on to Crawford County, in southern Indiana, where Emily Jane married William T. Slater on July 30th of that year.
By the 1830 U.S. Census the Slater family were living in Pike County, Indiana, west of Crawford County and two years later they had moved on to Illinois, first to Lawrence County in the eastern part of the state and finally to Montgomery County, to the south of the state capitol in Springfield.
William and Emily Jane had eleven children and my descent is from their youngest boy, George W. Slater (1832-1899).
William died in 1847 in Coffeen, Montgomery County, Illinois. We assume that Emily Jane died before 1850 because there's no census record for her in that enumeration. There's no record of where she's buried.
And we have a presidential connection through Emily Jane's older sister Christina (1798-about 1834) whose great great granddaughter Madelyn Lee Payne (1922-2008) was Barack Hussein Obama's beloved maternal grandmother.
© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
[A Map of The Western Part of the Territories belonging to the United States of America. Drawn from the best Authorities. Engraved for Imlay's Topographical Description of that Country. T. Conder Sculpt. Published June 1st 1795, by J. Debrett, Picadilly, London.
Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]
By 1820 the Wilson family had moved on to Crawford County, in southern Indiana, where Emily Jane married William T. Slater on July 30th of that year.
[Indiana. Drawn and Published by F. Lucas Jr., Baltimore. (1822). Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]
By the 1830 U.S. Census the Slater family were living in Pike County, Indiana, west of Crawford County and two years later they had moved on to Illinois, first to Lawrence County in the eastern part of the state and finally to Montgomery County, to the south of the state capitol in Springfield.
[Illinois By David H. Burr New York. Engd by Illman & Pilbrow. Entered ... 1834 by Illman & Pilbrow ... New York.
Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]
William and Emily Jane had eleven children and my descent is from their youngest boy, George W. Slater (1832-1899).
William died in 1847 in Coffeen, Montgomery County, Illinois. We assume that Emily Jane died before 1850 because there's no census record for her in that enumeration. There's no record of where she's buried.
And we have a presidential connection through Emily Jane's older sister Christina (1798-about 1834) whose great great granddaughter Madelyn Lee Payne (1922-2008) was Barack Hussein Obama's beloved maternal grandmother.
© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.
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