Monday Is for Mothers: Orinda "Rinda" Lippett (1762 - After 1820)

By 1767 when Rinda was about five years old, the Lippett family left their home in Scituate, Providence County, Rhode Island, and moved to Berkshire County in western Massachusetts. Her father John and his brother Hezekiah opened the first general store in North Adams.

Several years later Peter Worden joined the community as the Elder of the Baptist Church in New Providence (later changed to Cheshire) and his large family included his 11-year-old son Richmond.

Elder Peter Worden strongly supported the Revolution and probably encouraged Richmond's original three-month enlistment in the local militia in January of 1776 and subsequent periods of active duty.* At the end of 1780 Richmond received his final discharge in Vermont and lived there for several years. Sometime around 1782 Rinda and Richmond were married, probably in Cheshire; their first child, a son named Welcome, was born the following year.

[Berkshire County, detail of Map of Massachusetts Proper Compiled from Actual Surveys, made by Order of the General Court, and under the inspection of Agents of their appointment, By Osgood Carleton. Engraved by Joseph Callender and Samuel Hill, Boston, 1801. Vignette Drawn by G. Graham. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

From Richmond's 1832 and 1833 pension applications we know where and when Richmond, Rinda and their children moved over the years and we can follow them through census records, although since only the head of household is named, Rinda is accounted for only in the appropriate column for her age group in each census. 

"That he lived in Shaftsbury [Vermont] Two Years, moved back to Cheshire Massachusetts lived there about thirteen Years, then moved to Schuyler Herkimer County where he lived thirteen Years, he then moved to Cayuga and lived in the Town of Brutus in said county Twelve Years, when he removed to his present place of residence where he has resided ever since..."**

So we find them in Schuyler Township in Herkimer County, New York, in the 1800 U.S. Census.

[Year: 1800; Census Place: Frankfort, Herkimer, New York; Series: M32; Roll: 21; Page: 416,417; Image: 415; Family History Library Film: 193709. Ancestry.com. 1800 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Second Census of the United States, 1800. NARA microfilm publication M32 (52 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

And in the 1810 U.S. Census the Wordens were in Aurelius, Cayuga County in New York.

[Ancestry.com. 1810 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Third Census of the United States, 1810. (NARA microfilm publication M252, 71 rolls). Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

In the 1820 U.S. Census enumeration the Worden household is in the Township of Oswego in Oswego County, New York.

[1820 U S Census; Census Place: Oswego, Oswego, New York; Page: 10; NARA Roll: M33_79; Image: 21. Ancestry.com. 1820 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourth Census of the United States, 1820. (NARA microfilm publication M33, 142 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Orinda and Richmond had at least nine children, including twin boys Lippett and Lymond*** who were born in 1791.

Unfortunately when Richmond didn't mention his wife or children in his pension applications. He stated that he was still living in Oswego but there's no census record in his name in 1830 so we don't know when Orinda died. She's undoubtedly buried in Oswego County but the location of her grave is unknown.

* You can read about Richmond Worden's military service here.
**The direct quotes above is a  transcription I made of a document in his file at the National Archives and viewed through fold3.com.
***Lymond is my fourth great grandfather.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Mercy Moone (1723 - 1805)

I've been waiting for the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) to add the genealogical sketch of Elder Peter Worden, Sr., my maternal sixth great grandfather, to their database Western Massachusetts Families in 1790. It finally happened just before Christmas and had information that's new to me, including some about his wife Mercy* Moone.

Mercy, the daughter of Ebenezer Moon(e) and his wife Elizabeth, was born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, possibly on November 10, 1723 (apparently her birth record was partially destroyed in a fire in the 1890s so the year is uncertain).

[Detail from A map of the colonies in Connecticut and Rhode Island, divided by counties & townships, from best authorities. Thomas Kitchin, London, 1758. Source: Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C.]

She married Peter Worden on August 18, 1749, in Coventry, northwest of her home town. Since Peter was born in 1728, his new wife could have been as much as five years older than he.

Peter served as Elder of the Baptist Church in Coventry and part of Warwick but by the 1760s falling church attendance and their growing family put strains on Peter's resources so when the chance to relocate to western Massachusetts arose in about 1770, the couple readily agreed to the move. They settled in New Providence, now known as Cheshire, in Berkshire County.

[Detail from Massachusetts, D.F. Sotzmann, Carl Ernst. Bohn, Paulus Schmidt (Engraver), Hamburg, Germany, 1796.

Source: Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C.]

Other than two lists of church members, there is no mention of Mercy in public records but when Elder Peter made his will on April 18, 1804, in it he called on their son Peter, whom he named executor, to take care of Mercy because she "is reduced in her rational and animal powers." 

Elder Peter survived Mercy who died on December 6, 1805. Her age at death is given as 80 but that could be the result of rounding.

I descend from this couple through their son Richmond Worden and his wife Orinda Lippett whose son Lyman married Elizabeth Brown--and the next generation is represented by my three times great grandparents, Porter Worden and Hannah Leonard, the earliest of my ancestors that we have a photograph of.


*There is some confusion about what her given name was--both Mary and Mercy appear in records. The sketch considers Mercy to be "probably correct" and spells her surname with a final "e".

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: John Lippitt (About 1740 - 1823), Storekeeper and Rebel

Not only does history give us a choice of how to spell this maternal sixth great grandfather (Lipit, Lippit, Lippett), since both his father and one of his sons were also named John* it can get pretty confusing sorting out exactly which John Lippett is being referred to in records.

]

[Maps from Carey's American Pocket Atlas; Containing The Following Maps... With A Concise Description Of Each State. Philadelphia: Printed For Mathew Carey, By Lang and Ustick, 1796. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

We think John was born about 1740 in Scituate, Providence County, Rhode Island and was around 27 when he joined other Rhode Islanders who moved to Berkshire County in western Massachusetts around 1767, by which time he had married Mary Aldrich (1741-1820) and the couple had at least two daughters including my direct ancestor Orinda** born in 1762. (John and Mary eventually had six children that we know of.)

[A history of the county of Berkshire, Massachusetts, in two parts, the first being a general view of the county, the second, an account of the several townsy Field, David D. (David Dudley), 1781-1867; Dewey, Chester, 1784-1867; Berkshire association of Congregational ministers (Berkshire County, Mass.) 1829. Source: Internet Archive, original source: Allen County Public Library]

The next information we have about John comes from a September 9, 1959, article in the North Adams Transcript from which we learn that the house that he built in 1767 was still standing at that date.***

[Ancestry.com. North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: North Adams Transcript. North Adams, MA, USA. Database created from microfilm copies of the newspaper.]

Our ancestor served only nine days according to published records. Another of our ancestors Peter Worden also served at the same time, so there must have been an emergency which called men out for such a short period.

[Massachusetts soldiers and sailors of the Revolutionary War, Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State, Wright and Potter Printing Co., State Printers, 1902. Source: Google Books .]

In the first Federal Census in 1790, the list is in alphabetical order so we don't know who John's neighbors were.

[Ancestry.com. 1790 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: First Census of the United States, 1790 (NARA microfilm publication M637, 12 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

The 1800 U.S. Census appears to be enumerated household by household and you can see that Peter Worden lives fairly close by.

[Ancestry.com. 1800 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Second Census of the United States, 1800. NARA microfilm publication M32 (52 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. ]

With the 1810 U.S. Census, we're back to seeing records that are alphabetized. We don't know if the only John Lippitt listed as the head of household is the father or the son.

John doesn't appear in the 1820 U.S. Census, perhaps because Mary died early in that year and he may have been living with a married daughter. He died on November 15, 1823 and is buried in a cemetery near Adams in Berkshire County.

*There's also reason to believe that his grandfather and great grandfather (and possibly several more generations) were John Lippetts too.
**In 1782 Orinda married Richmond Worden, the son of the local Baptist minister.
***The house is described in a 1938 article in the same paper as "a large square structure, now considerably changed."

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.