The family of John Starr 1743-1824

 If you've been following my blog posts about our branch of the Starr family, you know that this family was in Connecticut for at least four generations, first in New London and then in Groton, but this John Starr was the first of our direct ancestors to leave the area.  And boy, did he leave.  When England won the French and Indian War, John first went to Nova Scotia where he settled, married, and intended to raise his family.  However, when the Revolutionary War broke out, John was on the side of the American patriots, which was not a popular position in Nova Scotia.  After facing military defeat there, John and Mary returned to Groton.

"Mary" was Mary Sharp, the daughter of Matthew Sharp and his wife, who was likely named Margaret and whose maiden name may have been Smith.  I say "may" because I've not yet found documentation for this.  Matthew died about 1771 in Nova Scotia, and Margaret stayed there rather than traveling with her daughter to Connecticut.  She died in 1811, but by that time John and Mary had moved again, this time to Franklin County, Ohio, where John was granted land in recompense for having his property seized in Nova Scotia.  By that time, John and Mary's children were mostly grown.

Their children were

John, who was born August 20, 1774 and who married Betsy Chester Havens.  Their children were Betsey, John Havens, Lorinda, Sophronia, Lorinda, Joseph, Lucinda, Simeon Chester, William, Emily, Calvin, and Mary Jane.  There may have been an infant son and an infant daughter also.  I will write about this family next week.

Joseph was born in August of 1776 and lived for just about a year, dying in 1777.  

There is then a seven year gap in known births, which may be when the infant son and infant daughter were born.  

Mary was born in 1783 and married first Henry Warner.  They had a son, Henry Dore Warner in 1814, who livedd to the age of 20.  Mary's second husband was James Woods.  Their sad story was that James was planning to build a new home for the two of them on Mary's land (left to her by her husband? her father? not yet researched!) but in 1833 they both were victims of the cholera epidemic, dying within an hour of each other.  Son Henry died the following year but I don't know the cause of death.  Mary and James were relative newly weds and had no children.

Daughter Hannah was born in 1785 and died in 1815, never having married.  I don't know whether there was a physical or mental challenge here, or whether she simply was not eager to take on another household.  

Rachel was born in 1787 and died in 1856.  In 1822 she married John Matthew and they had at least two children, John and Joseph.  Joseph died as an infant.  There may be more children but I have yet to find record of them.  

The last daughter, Eunice, was born in 1791 and died in 1831.  She married Joseph Hunter, the son of Joseph and Margaret McGaughey Hunter.  They had a large family.  Children were Mandelbert, Return, Orville, Lorinda, Wilson, John, Eunice and Andrew, the last two being twins.  

Some trees list two additional children for this couple, Betsey and another John Havens.  These names do not appear to be correct, as their birthdates coincide with those of John Havens, the first child of our John and Mary, and of Betsy Chester, his wife.  Mary was past child bearing age by the time these two were born.  

John and Mary's children were born in Nova Scotia and in Groton, and they all traveled west with the elder Starrs, and died there.  They must have been a close knit family, and for the ones I've been able to determine, were Presbyterians in religion.   

The family of Thomas Starr 1711-1759

 Looking again at the families of our ancestors, instead of just concentrating on the ancestor only, is quite interesting.  I started this project because I wanted to see what other families were connected in one way or another to ours, and it's been eye opening.  Thomas Starr born 1711 is the third generation of Starrs who lived in Groton, Connecticut, and by now, I am seeing many familiar families tied into the Starrs.  

As an aside, by looking at the ancestors as part of a continuing line, I am seeing things that are raising my eyebrows a bit.  For instance, in the Starr family line, the immigrant Comfort Starr lived to a comfortable old age.  But the next four generations did not fare so well, none reaching their 50th birthday.  I don't know the cause of death for Thomas, Samuel, Thomas, and Thomas, but it sure would be interesting to know whether there was a family weakness, such as heart problems, or whether some were accidental deaths, or what was going on in this family.  Fortunately, after this Thomas, the one I'm looking more closely at today, Starr men seem to have recovered from whatever might have been ailing them.

This Thomas is the son of Thomas and Mary Morgan Starr.  He was born the same year his father died, and was the baby of the family.  Mary remarried in 1717 so the only father he knew was William Pabodie or Peabody.  Nevertheless, he was a Starr.  Thomas married Jerusha Street, daughter of Nicholas and Jerusha Morgan Street, so Thomas and his wife were first cousins, with their maternal grandparents being James and Mary Vine Morgan.  Although this might make our head swim a bit, marriage of first cousins was not that unusual, especially in a town as small as Groton was at that time.

Thomas and Jerusha had 8 children together:  

Son Thomas was the first born, and he married Zipporah Street, daughter of James and Keziah Haynes Street.  There are trees online saying that James Street was the son of Nicholas and Jerusha Morgan Street, which would be another cousin marriage, but I have not found convincing evidence that this is correct.  However, the odds seem fairly strong that he was a relation to Nicholas Street, at the least.  Their children were Betsey, John, Thomas, Jerusha, Nancy, Catherine, Sally, and Mary.

Jerusha Starr died at the age of 25, but not before she had married Benajah Chester, son of John and Mary Starr Chester.  Mary Starr Chester was the daughter of Thomas and Mary Morgan Starr, so here is another cousin marriage.  They had three children, Michael, Jerusha, and Starr.  

Daughter Mary was born in 1740 and died in 1741.  

Son John was next.  He married Mary Sharp, daughter of Matthew and Margaret Sharp, in Nova Scotia, before moving back to Groton at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.  Their children were John, Joseph, Mary, Hannah, Rachel, and Eunice.  I will write more of this family in my next post.

Son William married Freelove Bailey, who was the daughter of Benjamin and Freelove Avery Bailey.  So far as I have been able to determine, these two weren't closely related.  They had Lucinda, William, Jabez (Jarez, perhaps), Frelove, Elisha, Thomas, Perez, and Dudley.  

Daughter Hannah Starr married Nicholas Starr, who was the son of Vine and Mary Street Starr.  They were cousins through Vine Starr and Mary Street also, but I think they were second cousins once removed, if I have this figured correctly.  If not, it's enough to know they were also closely related. Their children were Nicholas, Joseph, James, and Benjamin.

I haven't been able to learn much about James Starr.  His wife was possibly Hannah, but that is a maybe and I haven't found documentation. He died in 1777 at the age of 26, but I've been unable to determine whether or not he might have died in the Revolutionary War.

Finally there was Rachel, who was born in 1755 and died November 12, 1778, apparently unmarried.  

The Starr family has been thoroughly researched but there are still mysteries about them.  Many of the names in this post are those that are familiar to those who have researched the Battle of Groton Heights, as there were Avery, Chester, and Starr men in that battle, and possibly others.  

Thomas and Jerusha had at least 29 grandchildren, but Thomas would not have lived to see all of them.  This is the last generation of Starr ancestors who mostly lived and died in Groton, and they must have had a considerable impact on their community.

 

The family of Thomas Starr 1668-1711

 We're now in the fourth generation of Starrs who immigrated to and then settled in New England.  The great grandfather of Thomas was Comfort Starr, his grandfather was Thomas Starr, his father was Samuel Starr and his mother was Hannah Brewster.  Thomas was born in New London, Connecticut and settled, along with many of his siblings and his children, in Groton.  This generation is interesting because here is where we start to see the intertwining of families again.  It looks like somehow this family is connected to many of the families in Groton, and if you trace them a few more generations down (not the focus of this post or of my research), these surnames are seen in soldiers and sailors of the Revolutionary War, repeatedly.  

Thomas married Mary Morgan, sometimes seen as Mercy.  She was the daughter of James and Mary Vine Morgan, and I briefly mentioned their children in my post about Samuel Starr's family.  Here I will go into a bit more detail about their eight children.

Mary was the first born, and she married Captain John Chester, who was the son of Captain Samuel and Hannah Chester.  Their children were John, Thomas, Benajah, James, Joseph, Simeon, and Katherine.  (It's a bit odd that there was not a son named Samuel, but perhaps there was an unsuccessful pregnancy or early infant death.  Or maybe they just didn't like the name Samuel.

Hannah married Joseph Buttolph (lots of fun spellings to that name!) and they had three children: William, Mary, and Jonathan.

Samuel was the first born son, born in 1665.  He was baptized along with his brother Thomas in 1701.  Thomas died that same year and perhaps Samuel also had an early death, as I can find no further mention of him.  Thomas was born in 1700.  It's possible that an epidemic of some sort was the impetus for the baptisms, and that whatever it was took both of these young children, but that is speculation on my part.  

Jerusha married William Pabodie or Peabody III, son of William and Judith Tilden Peabody.  There children were Rachel, Thomas, Hannah (who married a Chester, William, Lydia (who married a Morgan), Samuel, Lemuel, James, and Mary.   

Rachel first married Daniel Denison, the son of George and Mary Wetherell Denison.  Mary's ancestry traces back to William Brewster, so Daniel and Rachel were some kind of cousin.  Their children were Mary, Daniel, Thomas, Rachel, Samuel, Hannah, Ann, Phebe, James and Elizabeth.  After about eleven years of widowhood, Rachel married Ebenezer Avery, the father-in-law of her son Daniel.  He had twelve children of his own and between the two families, they were related to absolutely everyone, or so it seems.

James Starr is a mystery.  He married someone named Hannah, whose name appears in his probate papers, but we don't know when and we don't know whether there were any children born to them. He died in 1787.  (Note: It was a different James Starr who married Anna Kent, as nearly as I can tell.)

Finally, there was a second son named Thomas, who was born in 1711 and who never knew his father.  Thomas married Jerusha Street, the daughter of Nicholas and Jerusha Morgan Street.  Their children were Mary, Rachel, Thomas, Jerusha, John, William, Hannah, and James.  I will write more of this family in my next planned blog post.  

After Thomas Starr died in 1711, Mary Morgan Starr married in 1717 William Peabody, who may be the father in law of her daughter Jerusha, who had married William Peabody III.  She had no known children with him, and outlived him.  William's second wife was an Alden, who may trace back to John Alden of the Mayflower, so there is another distant Mayflower connection.  

It certainly looks like the Starr family contributed greatly to the growth of Groton, Connecticut as well as a few other nearby towns!

 

The family of Samuel Starr 1641-1687

 Continuing with the Starr family saga...We are now in the third generation of Starrs, and Samuel was the first born in New England.  He is widely accepted as the son of Thomas and Rachel Starr, although birth records are lacking.  By December of 1664, he was in New London, Connecticut, where he married Hannah Brewster, the daughter of Jonathan and Lucretia Oldham Brewster on December 16.  Hannah is the granddaughter of Elder William and Mary Brewster

Samuel and Hannah had just four known children, although many lists include five names.  Their known children were:

Samuel, born December 11, 1665.  I've found nothing further about him, so he may have died young.  

Thomas, born September 27, 1668.  He married Mary or Mercy Morgan, daughter of Captain James and Mary Vine Morgan.  They had eight children:  Mary, Hannah, Samuel, Thomas, Jerusha, Rachel, James, and Thomas again.  We are descended from Mary and also the second Thomas.  More of Thomas's family will be profiled in an upcoming post.

Comfort Starr was born August 7, 1671, and died young.  

Captain Jonathan Starr was born February 23, 1674, and married Elizabeth Morgan, who was also the daughter of Captain James and Mary Vine Morgan.  Yes, the brothers married sisters, which must have made it confusing for the double cousins, their children.  Jonathan and Elizabeth had 10 children: Samuel, Elizabeth, Lt. Jonathan, Lucy (also seen as Lusanna), Hannah, Captain Joseph, Vine, Rachel, Mary, and Catherine.   

Just to make things more interesting regarding the Starr and Morgan families, Hannah, the widow of Samuel Starr, married James Morgan, the widower of Mary Vine, in 1690. Although they had no children together, my head spins trying to figure out the relationships.  At least it would have made for smaller family reunions.  

Several trees also place Benjamin Starr, born in 1679, as a child of Samuel and Hannah.  However, the only records I've found for a Benjamin Starr born that year are for the son of Comfort and Marah Weld Starr, and he was born in Middletown, not New London, where Samuel lived and died.  

I've written of Samuel's life and accomplishments earlier.  He and his family (although small by Starr family expectations) contributed much to their community.