How Sudbury got help (1676) from Mr. Edward Cowell

More about the Sudbury MA battle between Colonials and Indians...HERE .

But my question that I posed back then, was which Edward Cowell led the forces that tried to come to the aid of Sudbury, a town being attacked by Indians in King Phillips War in 1676.  Edward Cowell Sr.(1617-1677) would have been in his 50s or 60s, (since his birth date is unknown.)  His son, Edward Jr.(1644-1691) was the right age to be involved in a battle, and I would imagine he was among the company as well.  But it would have been more likely that the elder would be considered a leader.

Youngest Cowell, Edward III was born in 1672. so was obviously too young.

But geography is also in question.

Edward Cowell is described as coming to the aid of Sudbury FROM Brookfield MA by way of Marlborough.

"Mr. Edward Cowell, with a body of eighteen mounted men, coming from {Brookfield}* by way of Marlborough, and by a different way from that taken by Capt. Wadsworth, (of Connecticut) became sharply engaged with an outlying party of the enemy, and lost four men killed, one wounded, and had five of his horses disabled.

I contested at the time I posted that quote back in May that Brookfield had been destroyed in the preceding August 1675, when my ancestor Captain John Ayers was killed by Indians of King Phillips War (which now extended to Sudbury).

But he could have been Mr. Cowell Sr. OF BROOKFIELD if he'd lived there.  But he didn't actually.  He lived in Portsmouth New Hampshire, where he was a sailor by trade.  Had he tried to relocate with other colonists in the shift to western frontier of Quaboag in the 1650s?  I think not.

He had arrived in Boston, in 1640, and in 1645, where he married in 1655. He had his first son, Edward in Boston in 1644.  From there he took the family to Portsmouth NH, and had 3 more children.  Since he was a sailor, he is also recorded as arriving in Boston in 1655.  But his probate following his death was in Portsmouth NH in 1677.

So a descendant made a memorial for him for fighting in King Phillips War in 1676, the year before he died.  I still wonder how he arrived at the scene of the battle in Sudbury MA coming from Brookfield MA, when his home had been all the way in Portsmouth NH.   The clue is that he was coming from the much closer town of Marlborough, just to the west of Sudbury.  It's much more likely that any call for help had gone out to that area, and whoever had any military experience (which was very rare among the early colonists according to what I've read)...would have been pressed into assistance.

Since there were also other colonists who came to aid Sudbury from Connecticut, apparently there was a general call for assistance.  And perhaps Edward Jr. had some interest in Marlborough.

Geographically I don't know more than that Sudbury MA is 22 miles outside of Boston MA and a good 70 miles from Portsmouth, NH.  Sudbury is even 50 miles east of Brookfield MA but only 20 miles from Marlborough.  I don't know where the soldiers (i.e. colonists, with maybe a bit of military training) from Connecticut began, but that's pretty far away as well.  So when the Indians of King Phillips war attacked Sudbury, and the colonists received help, it was probably several days before it arrived from that far away...especially since someone had to ride (or sail) for the help in the first place.

It was the wild frontier then.  And the war with the Indians only lasted a couple of years, at that time.

Here's one description of the wars the European colonists had with Native Americans.  It's pretty amazing to me, since these conflicts are downplayed so much in the American History books.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Wars

Further information: European colonization of the Americas

The colonization of North America by the English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Swedish was resisted by some Indian tribes and assisted by other tribes. Wars and other armed conflicts in the 17th and 18th centuries included:

• Beaver Wars (1609–1701) between the Iroquois and the French, who allied with the Algonquians (What states?)
• Anglo-Powhatan Wars (1610–14, 1622–32, 1644–46), including the 1622 Jamestown Massacre, between English colonists and the Powhatan Confederacy in the Colony of Virginia
• Pequot War of 1636–38 between the Pequot tribe and English colonists in Massachusetts and Connecticut
• Kieft's War (1643–45) in the Dutch territory of New Netherland (New Jersey and New York) between Dutch colonists and the Lenape people
• Peach Tree War (1655), the large-scale attack by the Susquehannocks and allied tribes on several New Netherland settlements along the Hudson River
• Esopus Wars (1659–1663), conflicts between the Esopus tribe of Lenape Indians and colonial New Netherlanders in Ulster County, New York
• King Philip's War (1675–78) in New England between colonists and the Narragansett people
• Tuscarora War (1711–15) in the English Province of North Carolina
• Yamasee War (1715–17) in the English Province of South Carolina
• Dummer's War (1722–25) in northern New England and French Acadia (New Brunswick and Nova Scotia)
• Pontiac's War (1763–66) in the Great Lakes region
• Lord Dunmore's War (1774) in western Virginia (Kentucky and West Virginia)

In several instances, warfare in North America was a reflection of European rivalries, with American Indian tribes splitting their alliances among the powers, siding with their trading partners. Various tribes fought on each side in King William's War, Queen Anne's War, Dummer's War, King George's War, and the French and Indian War, allying with British or French colonists according to their own self interests.

Similarly, in the American Revolution and the War of 1812, Indian tribes in the territories of conflict differed in their alliances. The Cherokees supported the British in the Revolution and raided frontier American settlements in the hope of driving out the settlers. Other tribes fought for the American Patriots, such as the Oneida people and Tuscarora people of the Iroquois Confederacy in New York.^[1]

 

In honor of Lt. Spencer Clack's death July 9, 1832

I recently saw a post on one of my more famous (there aren't that many!) ancestors, Spencer Clack of Sevierville, TN.  The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) chapter is named after him there.  So Lieutenant Clack must have been pretty important in that area.  Anyway, the new post had a document about a "Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files Page 10 - Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant."

 Original marker standing (broken) and Revolutionary soldier honorary marker for Spencer Clack

Carved likeness of Spencer Clack on his grave marker. before it was broken.

Recently added document

But it was completely illegible.  I copied the photo, cropped it, enlarged it, enhanced the contrast and brightness, but it was all gibberish. So I was glad that the original source, Page 10, was cited, and when I went back there, I could read about John Alvey's pension request by his widow, Francis, or maybe her survivors as to whether she could have received pensions for the last days of her life, written in 1857.  Who is he? Who is she?

The Ancestry tree I have doesn't have any John Alvey, or even Francis Alvey on it, especially related to Spencer Clack.  I wonder who they were? And how they are related to Lt. Spencer Clack.  When I asked, the person who's tree it was added to said he/she hadn't been working on that part of her/his tree lately, and didn't know who it referred to either.

Here's the best I was able to do with my limited photo skills.  More will be coming I'm sure.

I located a pretty good summary of Spencer Clack's life, HERE. 
I'm copying it below, in case you want to know more about him.

Spencer Clack (1746-1832) 

by Miss Tommie Clack, Abilene, Texas; and J. A. Sharp, Sevierville, Tenn.

Spencer Clack, Revolutionary soldier, settled in Sevier County, Tennessee, in 1788 or 1789. Little is known of his military service except that he was a lieutenant of a Virginia (Henry County) militia company in 1782-83; Captain Tully Choice was company commander. He was born, March 28,1746. His obituary gave his birthplace as Loudoun County, Virginia, but this could not be accurate for Loudoun County was not partitioned from Fairfax County until 1757, and no Clack records, as early as Spencer's birth, were found in either of these counties. 

Spencer Clack did, however, live in Loudoun County, and witnessed there, in 1770, the will of Thomas Beavers; also, Loudoun County was probably where he married Mary Beavers about 1766. He sold his lands in Loudoun County in 1777 and moved southward to Henry County, Virginia about 1778, when he purchased land in the latter county. In 1786, when Franklin County, Virginia, was formed from parts of Henry and Bedford Counties, he became one of the first justices of the new county, and in 1787 he sold his Franklin County lands, just before his westward trek to Sevier County, Tennessee. 

No conclusive proof of the parentage of Spencer Clack has been offered, although various attempts to do so have been made by descendents and genealogists. It does seem certain, however, that he descended from Rev. James Clack, English-born rector of Ware Parish, Gloucester County, Virginia, from 1679 to 1723. 

The Spencer Clack home in Sevier County was located on the right bank of Little Pigeon River, immediately below the junction of the East Fork and West Fork of that river. Here, in 1808, Spencer obtained an occupant grant from Tennessee for 442 acres; most of this land was on the north bank of East Fork directly opposite to the town of Sevierville, or the Forks-of-Little Pigeon, as this frontier settlement was known. The Chandlers and Walkers, Clack descendents, later owned the same place and the old Clack home was located on the same site as the later Chandler-Walker home. Near his home Spencer operated one of Sevierville's first mills, also a cotton gin and wool-carding machine. 

Spencer Clack was prominent in the affairs of the Forks-of-Little Pigeon (Sevierville) Baptist Church from the time of its formation in 1789 until his death. For many years he served as church clerk. In addition to his church activities he was interested in education and politics. He was an early trustee of Nancy Academy, Sevier County's first school and gave money for its support. He was one of the five Sevier County delegates to the Knoxville convention of 1796, which drafted and adopted Tennessee's first constitution and he was a signer of that document. He also represented Sevier County in the lower house of the first three Tennessee legislatures, 1796-1802, and in 1801 he served on the legislative committee "to prepare a device and motto" for the Great Seal of Tennessee. 

Neither the Spence Clack Bible record nor the Spence Clack will have been found; therefore, the writers will list only those who were unquestionably children of Spencer and Mary Beavers Clack. Perhaps, in this way, the confusion and error of other Clack descendents and genealogists may be avoided. Good proof exists for the following Clack children: Martha, Rawleigh (Rolly) (b. 1772), Rhoda (b. 1776), Catherine (b. 1778), Frances (b. c1783), Mary (b. 1785) and Malvina. 

Martha Clack's marriage to Josiah Rogers occurred in Franklin County, Virginia, in 1786; they apparently came to Sevier County with the Clacks. Rawleigh Clack was married (1) to Mary Randles in 1791, and after her death he was married (2) to Martha Kerr in 1816; this marriage took place in Sevier County. Sixteen children resulted and about 1820 Rawleigh and family moved down the Tennessee River to Rhea County, Tennessee, where he died in 1842. Rhoda Clack married James Randles in 1791; they raised a family of twelve on Boyd's Creek in Sevier County. Randles died in 1816, while on a trip to Virginia for salt, and was buried somewhere in Washington County, Virginia. Catherine Clack was married, in 1794, to Rev. Elijah Rogers, early and well known Baptist minister in East Tennessee; they raised five sons and five daughters at their Sevier County home near the mouth of the Little Pigeon, on the French Broad River. Mary Clack married William Miller; they left Sevier County at an early date and settled in Meigs County, Tennessee, where she died in 1860. Frances Clack was married (1) to Mordecai Gist; after his death she married (2) John Mynatt of Knox County, Tennessee. Malvina Clack married Major Beavers; they left Sevier County for Talladega County, Alabama, soon after the War of 1812. 

There were doubtless other Clack children, but the writers do not believe that Spencer Clack, Jr. John Clack and Nancy Clack were children of Spencer and Mary Beavers Clack, as some published accounts claim. However, there is a well established tradition that there was a son, Micajah Clack, who was "killed by lighting." And there may have been a daughter named Rebecca Clack, but again we must rely only upon tradition for proof. Also, in 1789, one Sarah Clack (b. c1773) married William Henderson in the "Forks of Little Pigeon," as shown by bounty land papers in the National Archives; they migrated to St. Louis County, Missouri, about 1840. We believe that this Sarah Clack, heretofore unknown to present generations of Clack descendents, was another daughter of Spencer and Mary. 

Spencer Clack's death occurred, July 9, 1832 and he was buried in the old Baptist Cemetery at Sevierville; the original flat limestone rock with the unique carving of Spencer's face and the initials, "S.C.", still marks his grave. Mary Beavers Clack died, August 14, 1840, and was buried by the side of her husband. At the time of his death a contemporary described Spencer Clack as a "pious… worthy Christian, kind and affectionate. . .an excellent neighbor, remarkably even and unruffled in temper."

I highlighted Catherine Clack and Rev. Elijah Rogers, my great times 4 grandparents.

If you know who the Alvey's were, please leave a comment below! Thanks.

Those lamps on a wooden arm.

They may have no electricity, but there are photographs framed and hanging on the wall behind the lantern.  Indeed, a photograph was being taken which used a bright light flash, (maybe one of those where some chemical was poured along a shallow tray then lit somehow when the shutter was opened.)  The flash cast a shadow, not only of the lamps from right to left, but of the man with the hat on.

And I notice the great swing arm of wood that the lamps hang from.  Someone was really a genius to have done that.  Come on over to Sepia Saturday to see what other creative people have come up with as triggered by this theme!

When my sister joined many other folks (lots from Florida) who wanted to go "back to living on the land" in the 1970s she moved into an old cabin (logs of course) in the mountains of Tennessee.  It was up a sort of dirt and rock road which had been scraped out by tractors.  They had a stream for water (not too close to the house) and no electricity.  She learned how to cook on a wood stove also.  The outhouse was the opposite direction from the stream, of course.  They later took a tractor and made a dam to provide a pond for livestock, mainly.

I visited her and was glad they had a really nice Aladdin Lamp over the dining table.  It reminded me of these oil lamps in the photo from Sepia Saturday.

Aladdin Lamps have a mantle rather than a wick, so can give off much more light, and are of course hotter than a wick fire is.  Since I was visiting in summer, I was glad that we turned in early, and didn't heat up the house with the lamp for very long.

These lamps have a long chimney also, which helps draw the fire.  They are apparently still in business today, and there weren't any hanging models on the site I looked at.
--------------------

Aladdin Mantle Lamp Company
681 International Blvd.
Clarksville, TN 37040, USA
Tel: 800-457-5267 FAX: 931-647-4517 
www.alalddinlamps.com
E-mail: sales@aladdinlamps.com

Enlarged View Model 23 Wick Clip.

Lighting The World, Since 1908

ALADDIN and LOX-ON are registered trademarks of Aladdin Industries, LLC-----------------------

I'm sorry I couldn't get this to copy with the text and the pictures in line. 

Source: http://aladdinlamps.com

Other lamps use kerosene oil or lamp oil, and a cotton wick.

An antique"Mansfield" Saloon Hanging Lamp - Antique Brass 21" w/shade (selling for $119)

I used to always have 2 glass mantle "hurricane lamps" (that sat on a table) in case the electricity was out. 

 Have you ever camped out with a Coleman lantern?  They require the gas to be pumped up, I think.  And they also have a very hot light with a mantle rather than a wick.  If I remember right, the mantles were very fragile cotton, and I usually had to have a couple of spares for when they broke.

I found it one of those cosmic coincidences that a newsletter from Mother Nature Network talked about the back to the land movement this week as well.  HERE...mentioning Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth Catalogs.  The only problem with the article is the misnomer for those who work on computers from being nerds to being hackers.  I think that is definitely not a correct definition of the computer lovers...as many nerds love their computers and their communities (though they do live in isolation) while hackers are seen as anti-establishment and even lurkers.  What do you think?

I must be a bit insane...

Today's quote:
When have you really just had enough of a problem that you're ready to do whatever it takes, no matter how radical, to get rid of it? I live with several chronic medical conditions, and wish that I could just change one (or more) thing in my life to have them diminish, or go away completely.  But I also find that my comfortable routines keep me a long ways away from actually confronting some of the things that make these conditions worse.  I think, "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results." (ME)

Amy Cowell and mother Agnes Harvey Cowell Snell

I want to look a bit further into the ancestry of the Ayers family.

Amy Cowell's mother was written about a few years ago, when I was tracing the oldest matriarchs I could find.  Look HERE for that post including Agnes Harvey Cowell Snell (1617-1681). I can't find any real records that tie her to the Thomas Harvey who also lived in Portsmouth, apparently in the same neighborhood, which is recorded in The descendants of Charles Glidden of Portsmouth and Exeter, New Hampshire. This is apparently a publication from 2005 by Ancestry.com. (And the source of it was - Original data: Chamberlain, George Walter,. The descendants of Charles Glidden of Portsmouth and Exeter, New Hampshire. Boston: unknown, 1925.)  It says on page 44, under Gliddens, that...

Mr. Thomas Harvey was settled at Portsmouth as early as 1664 having married a daughter of David Kelley of Boston. Mrs. Agnes Cowell was the widow of Edward Cowell whose home on the water front stood about thirty feet from Charles Gliddens "shop." ...the neighborhood in which Charles Glidden resided in Portsmouth from about 1662 to 1668, contained the most prominent men in New Hampshire..."

Since Agnes Harvey had married Edward Cowell in 1640, and they raised their 4 children in Portsmouth, this quote above only substantiates a bit of their life that took place on the waterfront until Edward's death in 1677. So though Mr. Gliddens left around 1668, Agnes wasn't a widow until 1677....thus whoever wrote the information given above wasn't very particular about her married status at the time.

These dates are based on probate records.  The people in Portsmouth apparently wanted to keep track of the property of the Cowells, which then went to Amy Cowell Sherburne Ferber Ayers.  Incidentally I just read the original record of an inventory of Agnes Snell's estate which was taken in Dec. of 1681, and in May of 1682 was witnessed by Jethro Ferber (the son-in-law of Agnes Snell.)

Don't you wonder if the property might have had some influence in how widow Agnes Cowell married at age 64 just before she died that year, in 1681, and then her new husband apparently died that year as well?  We'll never know probably, but I'm pretty sure a widow could keep her own property if it was willed to her by her husband.

And now I'm very curious about this Charles Gliddens and what was his "shop?" Time to go searching...

Ah, I've found the original edition of that source which confused Mrs. Edward (Agnes) Cowell as being a widow in 1640.  It seems that citation came first from Brewster's Rambles about Portsmouth, 1859.

So I'm including these 2 pages of this wonderful find.  At least to me it's wonderful to see how people were interested in these documents, and thus preserved that information over the centuries...it was also published in 1925.

I haven't got much to connect Agnes to Thomas Harvey, who at least was a neighbor in Portsmouth.  So until I find who her parents REALLY were, I'm going to see if there's anything to suggest that she was really Agnes Harvey before marrying Edward Cowell.

Well, that didn't work, because he apparently was born the same year as  Agnes, 1617.  Oh well.

Not very patriotic these days!

I love what this country was founded on...not the way it's being run these days.

So to remember why we started a republic!

The United States Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The Declaration announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain would regard themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states no longer under British rule. With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America. The declaration was signed by representatives from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The Declaration was passed on July 2 with no opposing votes. A committee of five had drafted it to be ready when Congress voted on independence. John Adams, a leader in pushing for independence, had persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document,^[2]which Congress edited to produce the final version. The Declaration was a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, "The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America"^[3] – although Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 4, the date that the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved.

After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. The source copy used for this printing has been lost and may have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson's hand.^[4]Jefferson's original draft is preserved at the Library of Congress, complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, as well as Jefferson's notes of changes made by Congress. The best-known version of the Declaration is a signed copy that is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and which is popularly regarded as the official document. This engrossed copy was ordered by Congress on July 19 and signed primarily on August 2.^[5][6]

The sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing colonial grievances against King George III and by asserting certain natural and legal rights, including a right of revolution. Having served its original purpose in announcing independence, references to the text of the Declaration were few in the following years. Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his policies and his rhetoric, as in the Gettysburg Address of 1863. Since then, it has become a well-known statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language",^[7] containing "the most potent and consequential words in American history".^[8] The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive. This view was notably promoted by Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy and argued that it is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted.^[9]

The U.S. Declaration of Independence inspired many similar documents in other countries, the first being the 1789 Declaration of Flanders issued during the Brabant Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). It also served as the primary model for numerous declarations of independence in Europe and Latin America, as well as Africa (Liberia) and Oceania (New Zealand) during the first half of the 19th century.^[10]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence

That is an extensive article about the Declaration over on Wikipedia.

------------------

Notes:

1.  Becker, Declaration of Independence, 5.
2. ^ Jump up to: ^a b "Declaring Independence", Revolutionary War, Digital History, University of Houston. From Adams' notes: "Why will you not? You ought to do it." "I will not." "Why?" "Reasons enough." "What can be your reasons?" "Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can." "Well," said Jefferson, "if you are decided, I will do as well as I can." "Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting."
3. Jump up ^ Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776
4. Jump up ^ Boyd (1976), The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original, p. 438.
5. Jump up ^ "Did You Know...Independence Day Should Actually Be July 2?"(Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. June 1, 2005. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
6. Jump up ^ The Declaration of Independence: A History, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
7. Jump up ^ Stephen E. Lucas, "Justifying America: The Declaration of Independence as a Rhetorical Document", in Thomas W. Benson, ed., American Rhetoric: Context and Criticism, Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989, p. 85.
8. Jump up ^ Ellis, American Creation, 55–56.
9. ^ Jump up to: ^a b McPherson, Second American Revolution, 126.
10. Jump up ^ Armitage, David (2007). The Declaration of Independence: A Global History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 113–126. ISBN 0-674-02282-3.

Amy Ayers married who?

Well, Amy (Annie) Cowell had a sister, Mary Cowell, according to my Ancestry Tree.  But there's a bit of a problem.
They both have the birthday of 22 January 1657.  So maybe they were twins.  But they aren't both listed as born the same time from same parents where their birthdays are listed.  They just have the Ancestry trees in a confusion.
But they both have the same death day,  31 March 1736.

So I started looking around.
Especially since they both married a man named Sherburne, one to Joseph, one to John.

Annie (Amy) married a Joseph Sherburne (1656-1669) on 19 Oct 1678.  It's understandable that she married again, (since Joseph apparently died the next year)...to Jethro Ferber (1648-1682) on 19 Oct 1678.  Same marriage date to two different men?

And before I'm completely bald from pulling my hair out, her sister Mary married a man named John Sherburn.  BUT...

he was listed as married to another Mary, with surname of Jackson.  And the John Sherburne on my tree with all the other Sherburnes had been born in 1647, while the one on this new family tree (hear Twilight Zone music here) was supposedly born in 1650.  Same town of Portsmouth NH, but of course different parents so listed as 2 different men.

So this post is going out now, and I have no resolution on the conundrum, and it just keeps getting worse.  My poor little computer screen is just a mixed up as me.

The bottom line is that someone who made those lists of marriages (and births) got the Sherburnes mixed up.  There were so many it's possible that 2 Captain John Sherburnes were walking around town, both married to a different woman named Mary Sherburne.  And then there were all the children of John and Mary Jackson Sherburne...the first of which was born when she was 3 years old!!!  That does seem a bit of a problem.

Yep, never say genealogy is a dull subject.  But oh, it doth try one's patience!

Anyway, I do know the Ferber marriage of Amy (Annie) Cowell Sherburne Ferber produced just one son, who was included in some documents so there's record of that marriage beyond that list.  And I've already posted about how her next husband (my ancestor) Nathaniel Ayers, helped with the Ferber estate.  HERE.

The further back I go with these families of New England, the more I distrust the records that are listed.  If I can see a photocopy of the originals, I'll take that as fact.

In the meantime, I pull my hair out bit by bit, because I can be showing this mixed up mess of data to other Tree searchers, as if it is fact.  So to solve that problem (and whatever reputation I might have) I'm going to delete the relationships which are most "iffy".  Nah, I just wish I could.  There's obviously a sister, who may have been confused as to dates of birth, death, and marriage.  Not to mention who her husband might have been...or the children. 

So Mary will not have the same birth and death date.  And Amy (Annie) will not marry 2 different men on the same day.  Whoever wrote those records must have had a headache...because I refuse to get one on this business.

Heym Family History

Happy 79th birthday Doug Heym.

A belated posting of this blog, which I wrote a few years ago...
Well this 75 year old me Barbara Rogers Heym, divorced all of 48 years from Doug Heym, remembered someone was named Faxon, (about 3 years ago now) and wasn't he/she on the family tree which I've been putting together for my Heym sons...over on Ancestry.

So I did some playing, and Gertrude E. Shultz Hillyer didn't have a maiden name, so I put in Faxon for a trial, and sure enough, that's who she was from early census reports.  AND that gave her Faxon parents into the tree as well.

Today's search (3 years ago) was only 15 min. but I added about 6-7 facts, changing a birth year when I got a complete birth date here, and adding a lot of cousins there...but it would have gone on and on, so I know it's time to quit.

I wish I had the Heym Family photos with Rick's comments together, but somehow I've got original sheets from the photo albums, and I wanted to use one that has a tractor from the Faxon farm in Clinton MI...which is why I started today's search.  Got it.

"A Bit of History and The Heym Family Photo Album (by Rick Heym, 2012)
"This album collects the photos kept by our grandmother, Gertrude (Gammie - gah-mee) Faxon Hillyer and those maintained by our mother, Mary Margaret Edtha Hillyer Heym, and father, Norman Francis Heym: the first relates to early history of the family farm and their friends and also includes images of the Heym family as it grew;
the second chronicles the Heym family and our lives, first in the midwest up until 1945 and then in Connecticut.

"The Hillyer farm was purchased by Francis Faxon in 1831 according to a deed authorized by President Martin Van Buren and was passed from Francis to his son John and thus to his daughter. Gertrude Faxon was raised in nearby Owosso, MI where she studied art and music. This lead her to Boston, MA to study at the New England Conservatory of Music. At some point she met Louis Schultz and toured in vaudeville for a number of years. The name Schultz did not play well in theater, so Louis chose to use his mother’s maiden name, Hillyer, which seemed more acceptable. They were married in 1906. Our mother, Mary, was born in New York City, NY in 1907; it was
not until at least two years later that the couple left the theater to relocate to the family farm.

"Our mother was first educated in a one-room schoolhouse near the farm (see map next page, corner of Ohlson farm) [not included] and then in Owosso where she also studied dance, then for two years at Michigan State University where she studied Interior Design and taught dance before heading to NYC for work in the theatre and to dance professionally. After some time she returned to Michigan and took a job at the Hudson department store where she was working when she met our father, Norman. They married in 1932 and moved after my birth in 1934 to Cleveland, OH, where my sister was born in 1936; they moved to Owosso shortly afterward. Our brother, Doug, was born there in 1939.

"The farm was sold upon the death of Louis in 1954, after which Gertrude returned to Owosso, where she died in 1959. We have had a recent photo of the house at 6494 East Colony Road in Elsie, so the family homestead, ‘The Maples’ still exists although much modernized and without the outbuildings. See inside back cover for photo. [not included here] Our father had four brothers who appear in the album on various pages - Earle, Hal, Ray and Carl - and I will try to give bits of their history as I move through the album.I am sending a CD of this album to the broader family in case anyone wants to make a copy of their own."

The photos of album pages look like this before I spend a while cropping and saving each individual photo digitally.  I haven't don't many yet.

2018 June: Since I wrote the earlier part of this blog a couple of years ago, I've updated my Ancestry family tree which I've made for my Heym sons.  It is visible to other Ancestry members, and Doug asked to have the background for their connection to the Mayflower from it.  I was pleased to include him as an editor of the tree, after all it's his family.  So he's been doing a little with it.  And I only am doing my other families research at this time.  Thus I'll go ahead and share this to my blog, rather than keeping it in draft form like I have for all this time.

More of the Ayers next generation - 7 children of Susanna and Mark

Here's a re-quote of the determination that Captain John Ayers (killed by Indians in 1675) wasn't related to the person of the same name from Haverhill:

Captain John Ayres of Ipswich and Brookfield was not the son of John Ayres of Haverhill. I have carefully examined the deeds of Salem, and have careful copies  of the town records of Ipswich and Haverhill, and these show that the mistake had been made by confounding two persons of the same name”. And so we are left without any definite leads as to the place of origin of the family prior to the immigration to New England. The first concrete fact we were able to associate with the family, is the appearance of the name of John Ayres in the early records of Ipswich. This appears in the year 1643, which indicates the approximate date of coming to Ipswich, but not necessarily exactly, since grants were frequently recorded sometime after they had been made. He was also listed as an inhabitant of Ipswich in 1648, and married Susanna, daughter of Mark Symonds of who’s (Mark Symonds) estate he was appointed administrator. In such capacity, on November 24, 1659, he sold a house and a three acre lot to another son-in-law of the deceased, Edward Chapman (Ipswich Deed 3:351). He was allowed the privilege of commonage in February 1667, and admitted a commoner at Ipswich in March of the same year. Captain John, as he was known at Ipswich, came to Quaboag Plantation before May 1667.

Source:West Brookfield Historical Commission: Meet the Planters - AYRES http://westbrookfield.org/historical-sites/quaboag-plantation/qp-ayres-john-12-49-37-am-2/ Researcher: Terry Owens

Continuing to look at the Susanna and Captain John Ayers children:
1) John Ayers III
2) Thomas Ayers,
3) Joseph
4) Susanna
5) Edward
6) Samuel
7) Mark
9) Nathaniel, my 7 times great grandfather

Modern day photo of site of Captain John Ayers' tavern, Quaboag (Brookfield) MA where the Indians burned the town

1.) John Ayers III (1648-1711) was listed as farmer on one record. I just tore my hair out (figuratively) because this John and his young wife were listed as parents of John's 3 younger siblings, making his wife give birth at age 3...and the other thing on Ancestry trees was that they married 20 years after she died!  That's another 20 minutes of my life I won't get back!

OK, he did remarry and have children of his own, at appropriate ages!
First wife was Abigail Hovey Ayers, who died at 27 years and is buried in Boston, in the Ayers family plot.  John and Abigail Ayers may have sheltered his younger siblings after fleeing the burned town of Quaboag, but who knows why they are still listed as his own!

His second wife was Mary Woodham Ayers (1648-1711) and they had 2 sons and 2 daughters.  One daughter died the same year as her birth.  Again there are records that confuse my genealogy, because there were other John Ayers in the line from Haverhill as well, where the one I  am descended from didn't have clear lineage beyond his arrival at Ipswich, MA.

2.) Thomas Ayers (1652-1722)  He married Hannah Errington in 1677, and they had 7 children of the records I've checked quickly, 5 girls and 2 boys.  When I say I checked records quickly, I mean I noticed two were born in the same year, and only one of those had an exact date, so at this point I've not included the other one.  I also see that most of them only have a birth date, and no death date given.

3.) Joseph John Ayers (1655-1740) He died in Brookfield (formerly Quaboag) MA, which tells us that he must have succeeded in reclaiming his father's land.  He married Sarah Caldwell Ayers in 1677, she was one of 9 children.  They had 6 children. When his wife died in 1710 he remarried to Hannah Lovell Ayers.

4) Susanna Ayers Waite (1656-1683) born and died in Ipswich.  The only daughter of Captain John and Susanna, she died in her 20s, close to the same time her mother died.  Actually one record gives her marriage the year after she died.  (Here goes my hair again, tear tear tear) At least I found a hand written record of her marriage  "Thomas Waite in 1677 to Susan Ayers in Ipswich."  I do note that Susan isn't the same as Susanna, but so many women's names got garbled by scribes.  Her husband pre-deceased her.  We have no information about him, and there don't appear to have been any children, at least no records of any.

5.) Edward Ayers (1657- 1717 [or after 1720 and before 1723]) He also died in Portsmouth, NH, where his older brother, Thomas had died as well. The probate documents in 1723 indicate he was also a blacksmith (same as my ancestor, his youngest brother, Nathaniel). Edward's sons, John Ayers and John Cutt provided the inventory of his estate for the probate.  However, the date of his death might have been closer to the probate documents.  There's also a marriage in 1720 that might indicate he was still alive!

His first wife was Alice Elise Shapleigh Ayers.  They may have had 8 children (as listed among duplicates on Ancestry). Alice may have been just 15 to his 20 years when they married.  This is rather different than his older brothers who waited until they were in their mid 20s to marry.  But the times may have been such that 1677 was a good year to marry.  Alice did die in 1717, and there is a headstone in Point of Graves, Portsmouth, NH, and a broken one beside hers that is assumed to be Edward's. His second wife was Margaret Williams Ayers, who lived till 1734 and died in Ipswich.

6.) Samuel Ayers (1658-1713)  I've noticed as I do this research that the birthdates seem pretty flexible for many of these cousins.  So I'm not sure who was older than whom.  When I originally started, both Edward and Samuel were listed as being born in 1658, but nothing indicated they were twins. And since then, a source gave me a birthdate for Edward in 1657. But I also now have Samuel noted as being born in 1657.  Oh dear.

Samuel married also in 1677, to Abigail Fellows Ayers (1644-1714) who was quite a bit older than Samuel, if her birthdate is correct. One record gives her death date as 1723 rather than 1714. No one has been able to locate a grave for Samuel.

How many children they had is really debatable, and not something I'm willing to invest my time in today.  It looks as if the first birth was twins, which included the only girl.  Then there were 8 more possible births, according to Ancestry.    Samuel's death was in Rowley, Essex County, MA, and his probate was in Nov. of 1713, so his death was sometime just before that.

7.) Mark Ayers (1661-1727 Mark married either in 1684 or 86 to Sarah Williams Ayers (1666-1728).  They had a son named Mark Jr. born in 1682, then 3 more sons.  No information came up on the first son, but the other 3 were born in Portsmouth, Rockingham County, New Hampshire.  In 1689 Mark Sr. was listed as a Petitioner for Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  I'm not really sure what that meant, but Ancestry lists it as a census data.  Sarah lived a year after Mark, both of them also dying in Portsmouth.  At least 2 of their sons were living beyond them.

8). Nathaniel Ayers (1664-1731) I already posted about Nathaniel and his wife, Amy Cowell Ferber Ayers (1657-1736)  HERE.

Inscription: Here lyes buried ye body of Mr Nathaniel Ayres aged 67 years & 6 mo dec'd December ye 4th 1731 Burial: Copps Hill Burying Ground Boston Suffolk County Massachusetts, USA Edit Virtual Cemetery info [?] Created by: Thomas A Hawkins Record added: Feb 24, 2004 Find A Grave Memorial# 8434381

 There are quite a few Ayers graves here.
,
Again there was a son born (Capt. Edward Ayers, 1685-1745) before the record of the marriage in 1686.  Their second child (no others are listed at Ancestry) was Ami (Annie) Ayers Swasey born in 1687 (or perhaps 1683 or 1685)..who married Samuel Swasey.

 This family also resided in Portsmouth NH, but Nathaniel was buried in Boston as the headstone attests, in Copp's Hill Burying Ground.