The family of Nahum Holbrook 1781-1844

 Researching Nahum Holbrook's family has been a challenge.  I found no readily available list of his children with documentation, and only a couple of trees that listed his children without documentation.  I've also found some of his information mixed up with at least one other Nahum Holbrook.  So it's been fun, but this post is also not in as much depth as I would like.  It's just a start, for family members who would like to use this as a bare outline.  

Nahum was the son of Amariah and Molly Wright Holbrook and was born April 2, 1781 in Bellingham, Massachusetts, like all of his siblings and most of his many cousins.  He married Susannah Rockwood, daughter of Levi and Deborah Lazell Rockwood, in Bellingham on February 3, 1802.  Sometime between his marriage and 1810 he, like several of his siblings (Amariah, for one, and Susannah's father Levi Rockwood) had moved on to Hartford, Washington County, New York. Nahum was a lieutenant in the War of 1812 and was at the Battle of Plattsburg, defending our country against the British invaders.  This would have left Susannah at home with several small children.

Nahum and Susannah had at least 7 children, and tracing them has been interesting, to say the least.  

Amariah Wright Holbrook was born in 1804, supposedly in Bellingham but his name is not on their vital records, so I'm wondering if he was actually born in New York, or perhaps while his parents were en route there.  He married Polly Dixon, who may or may not have been the daughter of John Dixon of Hartford, NY (he is the only Dixon in 1820 in Hartford, but much more research would have to be done to confirm this potential relationship).  Their known children were Oscar, Orville, Martha, Polly, Amariah, John D, Joseph R, Dallas, and Deborah.  Amariah and Polly moved to Kosciusko County, Indiana and died there.  

Their first daughter, Lucinda (or Lucina), was born in 1803 and married Mason Slade, the son of Obediah and Sarah Lee Slade.  They had at least three children: William, Susan and Mason.  They stayed in Hartford, NY.  

Deborah was the next child, born in 1806.  I am not sure that she ever married.  She died in 1875, and her name is on a gravestone in Stephenson County, Illinois, along with her sister Mary, with "Holley" on the base of the stone.  Mary's story will come later in this post.  

Nahum, the second son, was born in 1809 but lived for just three years, dying in 1812.  We don't know the cause of death, but if it was a communicable disease the family was fortunate to lose just one of the children.

Susan was born in 1812, and she married her cousin, Levi Rockwood Jr, son of Levi and Deborah Lazell Rockwood.  Close relatives frequently married in those days, and there were not a lot of options in a town the size of Hartford (about 2200 in 1820).  They had a large family: Emeline, Martin, Nathan, Joseph, Cynthia, John, George, Mildred, and Byron.  After Levi died Susan married John Rice, but there were no children from this marriage.  

Their last son, Joseph Rockwood, was born January 4, 1814.  He married Mary Elizabeth Whittemore, daughter of Josiah and Betsy Foster Whittemore, and we will follow that family in a future post.  They were a pioneer family of Homewood, Cook County, Illinois, and they had seven children.

Finally, the last daughter, Mary, was born in 1818.  She married Benjamin J. Holley and they went to Stephenson County, Illinois.  They seem to have had just two children, Alice and George.  I haven't had any success in identifying Benjamin further, although the tombstone says that they-meaning Mary and Deborah Holbrook as well as, presumably, Benjamin- all came from "Old Adamsville", a hamlet on the edge of Hartford.  

The mystery this presents is all on the tombstone.  Why was Deborah also included on this stone?  She died about 22 years before Mary.  Was she a first wife of Benjamin, or was she perhaps a spinster who lived with her youngest sister after the death of their parents?  Did she have a physical or mental challenge that meant she needed help?  If I live long enough after writing these sketches about the families of our ancestors, that is something I would like to research.  

One thing that I've noticed about this family is that just as several of Nahum's siblings moved to New York, several of his children moved substantially further west.  With Mary and Deborah in Stephenson County, Joseph in Cook County, and Amariah in Kosciusko County, Indiana, were they ever able to gather for a family reunion of sorts, perhaps at Joseph's home, which was midway between the other two locations?  It would be nice to think that happened.

Holbrook line: Introducing John Cary, Carey, or Carew

 When I learned that Josiah Standish most assuredly did not marry Sarah Doty, I had to delete a lot, and I mean a lot, of people from my tree.  In place of those 1500 or so people, I can add back two, plus 12 children.  It's not a very fair trade, losing a Mayflower passenger and all his kin, for someone of whom so little is known.  But it is what it is, and finding more will be fun, if and when it happens.

So who did Josiah Standish (1670-1753, grandson of the famous Myles Standish) marry?  It turns out that her name was Sarah Cary.  She was the daughter of John and Elizabeth Godfrey Cary.  We know about Elizabeth's father, Francis Godfrey, because Elizabeth was the aunt of Alice Godfrey who married Peter Holbrook.  If you are reading my current posts about the Holbrook family and how they intertwined with so many early residents of southeastern Massachusetts, you'll not be at all surprised by this.

As usual, there are several men by the name of John Cary, Carey, or Carew to shift through.  We can easily eliminate John Cary, a merchant in Boston, as there are records for him after our John Cary died.  Our John's son, John, ended up in Bristol, Rhode Island but was in his father's location long enough to make things a little confusing.  

John's background is not well-known, neither his parents nor his location.  A family historian says that he came from a family wealthy enough to send him to France for a year of his schooling, but I've not found any documentation for that.  We know he was educated enough to be town clerk for 25 years, and the gentleman (Seth Cary) who reported the French education also says he was the first teacher of Latin in New England.  This may or may not be accurate.  

Also in the field of speculation, some claim that he was a member of the Carew family in Somersetshire, England, who were apparently part of the nobility, with castles in Somersetshire and in Pembrokeshire, Wales.  One of the Carew family made mention in a will of John Carew, who had left the area when the will was written, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he is talking about our John, who came to America about 1638 or 1639.  It is said that the English pronounced the name "Carew" as "Carey" and that is how the name was changed, but take that with a grain of salt until you find substantiating evidence.

His arrival in Plymouth Colony, and his settling first in Duxbury (where our ancestors William Brewster and Myles Standish had also settled, some years earlier) is the first solid information we have about John.  I have seen several birth dates for him, mostly in the 1610-1612 range, which would mean he was in his late 20's when he crossed the ocean.  He married Elizabeth Godfrey of Duxbury in June of 1644, and moved on to Bridgewater.  54 men were original proprietors of Bridgewater in 1646, but only about one third of them actually took up residence there.  John was one of them.  He was made a freeman of the town and served as constable and held other town offices also.

John and Elizabeth had 12 children, six sons and six daughters.  All of them grew to adulthood and it was said that there "wasn't a Judas among them", meaning they were all seen as upright people. (I plan to write more about the family in a future post.)  Bridgewater was attacked during King Philip's War and at least some buildings were burned by the natives, but I don't know yet know how the Cary family fared, or whether they left town, went to a garrison house, or stayed in their own home.  Several of the Cary sons were old enough to serve as soldiers but John was over 60 and so likely was not serving in the militia.  

Elizabeth died in 1680, after 36 years of marriage and twelve children.  John died the following year.  His son John was appointed the administrator of the estate but I have not yet located those records.  Perhaps an inventory would give us clues about his educational level, and other items could indicate whether he had treasured heirlooms from England, which would be another clue as to his origin.  

We may not yet know enough about John to write a full "This Is Your Life", but we do know enough to welcome him to the family!

The line of descent is:

John Cary-Elizabeth Godfrey

Sarah Cary-Josiah Standish

Hannah Standish-Nathan Foster

Nathan Foster-Elizabeth Lansford

Jude Foster-Lydia M

Betsy Foster-Josiah Whittemore

Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph Holbrook

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants

The family of Amariah Holbrook 1756-1797

 This post is the beginning of an attempt to trace the family of Amariah Holbrook.  He was born in Bellingham, Massachusetts on June 6, 1756 and died there July 7, 1797.  He was the son of Jesse and Abigail Thayer Holbrook.  Like his father, he was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, and that may or may not have contributed to his early death.  His parents, grandparents, and great grandparents had all lived their lives in the same area, although the earliest of these show Mendon as locations of death.  Bellingham was formed from land originally part of Mendon, so it may well have been the same land.  (Some of the great grandparents had Weymouth roots, which is about 45 miles from Bellingham.)

Amariah married Molly Wright May 13, 1779 in Bellingham.  She was the daughter of Jonathan and Rebecca Wilson Wright.  Their first child, Tryphena, was born January 17, 1779.  She appears to have had a cherished relationship with her parents, and with her grandfather Jesse, despite being born before the marriage.  Amariah made a point in his will of calling her his natural daughter, and Jesse in his will gave her the portion due his own children, perhaps because Amariah was already deceased at that point.  

My first thought was that Tryphena may have had some mental or physical challenge, but she married at about the age she would have been expected to marry, when she was 22,  Her spouse was Levi Rockwood, the son of Levi and Deborah Lazell Rockwood.  We will meet Levi and Deborah in a later paragraph, as they are our ancestors also.  Their known children were John, Amos, Levi, Orrin, and Lyman.  

Abigail was born May 12, 1780, and died June 24, 1780.  Amariah and Molly (seen in many records as Moley) had had an eventful first year of their marriage, with an infant daughter and then the birth and sad death of another daughter within a few weeks of their first anniversary.  

Their first son, Nahum, was born April 2, 1781.  He is our ancestor and I will write more of him in a future post, but he was married to Susannah Rockwood, the daughter of Levi and Deborah Lazell Rockwood.   They had at least seven children-Amariah, Susan, Mary, Nahum, Lucinda, Deborah, and Joseph.  

Next born was Amos, on April 27, 1873.  He married Lucretia Burr, daughter of Elisha and Lucretia Bates Burr.  The Burr line traces back to John and Mary Warren Burr, who are our ancestors on another line.  Their known children were Whitman, Lucretia, Amos Harrison, Almira, and Olive Metcalf.  (I suspect there was a line in Lucretia's tree that may have gone back to our Metcalf ancestors, but I have not traced it.)  

Their son Amariah was born January 23, 1785.  He married Lovina (seen as Vina) Holbrook, the daughter of Timothy and Ruth (unknown) Holbrook.  She was a distant cousin, as her ancestors included Peter and Alice Godfrey Holbrook, whose family I have written of earlier.  She was born in Vermont and I haven't quite figured out how they met, but it happened.  Lovina appears to also have descended from Elder John Strong of Northampton, Massachusetts, who is also our ancestor.    Their children were Amariah Wright, Peter, Martha, and another Amariah.

Joel Holbrook was born February 2, 1787.  He married Fear Stewart, who was likely the daughter of Fear Stewart.  Their known children were Jesse T. and Sally Ann.  Fear died after about 8 years of marriage.

I should pause here to say that several of the children I am briefly sketching here left Bellingham and moved to Hartford, Washington County, New York, mostly in the early 1800s.  I have been unable to locate readily available birth records for that time and place, so it is probable that some of these couples have more children than I have been able to find.  

Abigail Holbrook (the second of that name) was born June 2, 1789.  She married Amos Adams, the son of Amos and Abigail Thayer Adams.  (Abigail Thayer leads us back to Ferdinando and Hulda Hayward Thayer, Samuel and Mehitable Thompson Hayward, Walter and Experience Cook, John and Joanna Ford Rocket or Rockwood, and possibly a Staples line that matches ours.) Abigail and Amos had Tryphenia, Seneca, Samuel, and Emeline.  

Asa Holbrook was born May 18, 1792.  He married twice.  His first wife was Mercy New, not traced, and their children were Abigail, Anna, Asa, Charles, Elethina, and Elnathan.  After Mercy's death, he married Anna Smith, and their children were Willard and Angeline. Most of these children were born in Medway, so Asa had moved just a ways from the Holbrook lands of Bellingham.

Nathan Holbrook was born April 8, 1794.  I found very little about him, but I did find a will for a Nathan (not sure if he is this Nathan or not) who was a yeoman of Bellingham, and who wrote his will June 18, 1828.  It was probated June 16, 1846.  In it, he mentions his wife, Sarah, and children Dennis, Ellie, and Sarah.  I do not know for sure whether he belongs in this sketch or not. There also seems to be record of Nathan who married Ruth Albee and had no children, but I've not found a date for this marriage so I don't know if it could be the same man or not. 

Amariah and Molly's last child was Lyman, born February 26, 1797, just a few months before Amariah's death.  He married Hypsa or Hypsia Freeman, daughter of Ralph and Betty Legg Freeman.  Their known children were Adaline, Nahum, and Sylvia.  

This possibly incomplete list shows at least 38 grandchildren for Amariah and Molly, not including the possibility of the three mentioned in the will of Nathan Holbrook.  Amariah and Molly may well have had more children had his life not been cut short.  They continued a long line of Holbrooks and are two of my favorite ancestors, Amariah because of his long service in the Revolutionary War and Molly because she never remarried, but raised the children on her own, probably with the help of her Holbrook family.  (Her own parents had died prior to Amariah's death.) 

Oh dear: Corrections to be made

 Well, I did it again.  Somewhere in my early days of genealogy, I trusted an untrustworthy second hand source.  I've now found better information, with good citations, done by trusted genealogists, and need to demote some people from "ancestor" to "former ancestor".  In other words, they need to be deleted from my tree, and blog posts need to be updated to note the error.  I will leave the posts up because I believe the information to be basically correct, except for the father of, son of, aspect of it.  

Sadly, I need to delete Edward Doty, who came on the Mayflower and was certainly an interesting character.  I'm sort of glad he is not our interesting character, though.  Samuel Doty is no longer in our tree.  Thurston Clarke is no longer in our tree.  James Harmon is no longer in our tree.  And Josiah Standish was not married to Sarah Doty; he was married to Sarah Cary or Carey, the daughter of John Cary.  

The good news is that now I have a few more names to research, such as John Cary.  And that means another ancestor post at some point.

I will be posting on the occasional Tuesday, I guess, when I find that a post I've done is incorrect, and when I find new ancestors.  My Friday posts will continue to put our ancestors in their context as heads of families, and show connections to other ancestors when I find them.

I am very sorry that I published incorrect information, but I was happy to research these men who are now "former ancestors".  I learned things I wouldn't otherwise have known, and that is always a good thing. 

The family of Jesse Holbrook 1729-1815

I've written earlier about Jesse Holbrook, a man whom I admire, based on the facts I've uncovered.  However, he seems to have let me down in one way.  I don't have 10 or 12 children to write about, so this will be a shorter post.  

Jesse was the youngest son of Joseph and Mary Cook Holbrook.  He was born July 21, 1729 and died April 17, 1815, both in Bellingham, Massachusetts.  He married Abigail Thayer, daughter of Ebenezer and Mary Wheelock Thayer, on March 28, 1753.  Abigail goes back on two different lines to Ferdinando Thayer, so here is another Thayer connection to the Holbrook family.

Jesse and Abigail seem to have had just five children, which was low for the Holbrook line.  We don't know whether there may have been unsuccessful pregnancies.  Of the five children, just two married and had children of their own.  Huldah was born in 1754 and died in 1775, unmarried.  Hannah was born in 1758 and died in 1776, unmarried.  Lucretia was born in 1766 and died in 1790, unmarried.  They were aged 18 to 24 when they died, which must have grieved Jesse and Abigail terribly.  (I have seen lists that include Triphena and Abigail as their daughters, but the Bellingham birth records don't mention either daughter. Perhaps they died at birth.)

However, two sons did live, marry, and have children.  Amariah was born June 6, 1756.  He married Molly (Molley) Wright, daughter of Jonathan and Rebecca Wilson Wright.  They had at least seven children, and I will mention them in my next post since Amariah is our ancestor.  

Jesse Holbrook Junior was born October 7, 1764 and married Clara or Clarissa Hixson, daughter of Ezra and Esther Fisher Hixson (Hixon).  She was a descendant of Samuel Morse, who is our ancestor on another line, but that was the only connection to our other family members that I located.  Jesse and Clarissa's family included Ursula, Lucretia, Willard, Ezra, another Willard, and Hannah.  

One thing I wonder about the two Jesses: Did they get along?  Jesse Jr moved to Connecticut shortly after his marriage, and then on to New York.  None of the family, other than Ezra, seem to be named for family members, and only Ezra and Hannah were Biblical names, which were used by most of the family for generations.  These are the kinds of questions that names and lists can't tell us. 

The family of Joseph Holbrook 1683-1750

Joseph Holbrook is in the fourth generation of Holbrooks in Massachusetts, which also included his father, Peter, his grandfather, Thomas Junior, and his great grandfather, Thomas Holbrook the immigrant.  I've written about him earlier, but basically said little about his family.  Joseph may have lived his entire life on the same property, although he was born in Mendon, Massachusetts and died in Bellingham, Massachusetts.  Bellingham broke off from Mendon and was formed as a town in 1721.  

Joseph married Mary Cook, the daughter of Nicholas and Joanna Rockwood Cook.  on December 10, 1710.  The birth date of their daughter Alice is shown on some sites as February 14, 1710 and on some as February 14, 1711.  Either way, it appears that she arrived "early".  

Alice married Samuel Hayward, the son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Warfield Hayward.  He was likely a descendant of Samuel and Mehitable Thompson Hayward, who are our ancestors through another line. Alice and Samuel had at least seven children together: Martha, Warfield, Jesse, Lucy, Ebenezer, Alice, and Abijah.  

Their next child was Joanna, who married Abijah French, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Belcher French. We have several Thomas French men in our lines, and some Elizabeth Belchers, too, but at this time I'm not able to say for sure whether these are our relatives or not.  Joanna and Abijah appear to have had several children, including two sons named Abijah (sometimes Habijah) who died young, plus Joanna, Lois, David, Samuel, Sarah, and Unice.  Several of these births are recorded in Milford rather than Mendon, but Mendon and Milford are located just a few miles apart.    

Joseph was their first born son.  He married Grace Thayer, daughter of Jonathan Jr and Bethia Chapin Thayer.  Grace was the great granddaughter of our ancestors Ferdinando and Hulda Hayward Thayer, and also of our ancestors on our paternal side, Samuel and Cicely Penny Chapin.  They had at least seven children together: Esther, Bethia, Phebe, Jonathan, Joseph, Seth, and Meletiah.  

Daughter Rachel married Jonathan Thayer, a sister to Grace who married Joseph Holbrook (above paragraph).  They had at least five children together: Asahel, Paul, Lucy, Jonathan, and a second Paul, as the first one died at the age of 12.  

Their second son, Asahel, married Anna Puffer, the daughter of Richard and Anna Hawes Puffer.  When I look at Anna's tree, I see several more of our ancestors-Hawes, Lombard, Newell, Curtis, and Eliot, and possibly more.  (These interconnections are really starting to blow my mind!) Asahel and Anna had at least 10 children: Nathan, Mary, Anna, Ezekiel, Abijah, Elijah, Anne, two Esthers, one of whom died as an infant or toddler, and Moses.  

Joseph and Mary's next son was David.  He married Mary Hayden, the daughter of Ebenezer and Mary Hollis Hayden.  Mary Hayden was actually born in Braintree, so I thought maybe we would be getting new names into the family.  However, her ancestors include surnames of Pray, Valliance, and Thayer, all of which are also ancestors.  Joseph and Mary continued the Holbrook tradition of having many children.  Their even dozen included Mary, Hannah, Sarah, David, Lydia, Jonathan, James, Mehitable, Bethia, Ruth, Moses, and Caleb.    

Their daughter Mary married Daniel Corbett Jr, son of Daniel and Sarah Jones Corbett.  As far as I can tell, Daniel had no known ancestors who are also our ancestors.  Their children were: Nathaniel, Priscilla, Robert, Daniel, Peter, Joseph, Eldad, Mary who died young, Mary again, Hepzibah, Beulah, and John.  After 20 years of marriage, Daniel died, and Mary later married Josiah Chapin, who was the widower of Rachel Albee, of the same Albee family we descend from.  And yes, Josiah was a descendant of Samuel and Cicely Penny Chapin also.  Josiah had eleven children, so if there was a joint family get together, it would have been quite a large one.

Their final son was Jesse.  He married Abigail Thayer, the daughter of Ebenezer and Mary Wheelock Thayer.  Jesse and Abigail are our ancestral grandparents.  Abigail goes back to Ferdinando Thayer at least twice, so here we go again.  I've written about Jesse earlier.  Their children were: Huldah, Amariah, Hannah, Jesse, Lucretia, Triphena, and Abigail.  

In addition, Joseph and Mary had two daughters named Martha.  One died at the age of five years and one at the age of seven.  

By my count, this makes at least 68 grandchildren for Joseph and Mary.  This isn't the largest of the Holbrook families, but nevertheless it's surprising to our generation.  I don't know if there were family reunions, but surely there were gatherings from time to time.  Almost all of these families lived in Bellingham or Milford, so the children would all have known their cousins.