Allen line: Samuel Hitchcock 1717-1777

I was getting frustrated.  Why could I find so little information about Samuel?  He lived in the same town, Springfield, Massachusetts, his whole life.  He is a direct ancestor of Grover Cleveland, President of the United States.  Why was the amount of information about him so limited?  And then-jackpot! I found his estate papers on the American Ancestors website, and it was happy dance time. 

But let's start at the beginning.  Samuel Hitchcock was born June 9, 1717 in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of Ensign John and Mary Ball Hitchcock.  He was the youngest of their eleven children and may have been just the tiniest bit spoiled, although of course good New Englanders would not have "spoiled" their children.  Since his name is in the records of the First Church (Congregational) of Springfield, we know that he had only two pastors for his entire life.  Daniel Brewer was the pastor when he was born, and Robert Breck not only married Samuel and his wife, Ruth Stebbins, but also buried him.  That's a pretty long record for pastoral longevity and it may be that the church was truly unified during all that time. 

Samuel married just a few days past his 21st birthday, to Ruth Stebbins, daughter of Thomas and Mary Ely Stebbins.  Ruth was either 16 or 17 when she married-records differ as to the year of the wedding, but it was either 1738 or 1739.  The couple quickly settled into married life, and would eventually have twelve children together, all of whom lived to adulthood.  Samuel's father died in 1751, when he received a "French gun" from his father, and Mary died in 1760. 

That's pretty much what we know about Samuel from records I'd found.  I'd begun to think that our Samuel was a "nobody", or rather, one of the ordinary people who live under the radar, without drawing notice either good or bad.  I don't know whether he served in the French and Indian war, although because Springfield is located on the Connecticut river in Western Massachusetts, and because Samuel would have been less than 40 years old when the war started, it would be quite likely that he did serve then.  It's one of my burning questions about Samuel. 

I interrupt this blog post for a history geek moment.  When I started looking at the estate papers, one cool thing is that in May of 1777, appraisers were appointed for the estate, a usual procedure and nothing unusual.  By this time, the colonies were using printed forms, where only the name of the deceased and the names of the appraisers had to be added by hand.  What's neat about this one is that the heading on the paper was printed "Province of Massachusetts".  The justice of the peace had crossed out "Province of" and written "State of" on the form.  This was less than a year after the Declaration of Independence, things were not going well for the colonists, and yet, Massachusetts, considered itself a state.  It gave me a thrill chill to see that written out. 

Samuel died April 22, 1777, after Ruth died in 1775.  He died without a will, so perhaps it was a sudden illness or accident that took hiw life.  The administrators of the estate didn't have an easy time of it.  They had to divide the land that Samuel owned into 13 more or less equal tracts.  Samuel, the oldest son got a double portion, and each of the other children got about 100 acres, although I don't think it was necessarily in nice neat squares.  An added bonus:  My Revolutionary War hero, Richard Falley, and his wife, Margaret Falley, along with several other Hitchcock children signed that they had received their portions.  So I know those two ancestors, at least, were literate.  Each child also received about 77 pounds, with son Samuel receiving a double portion of 154 pounds plus. 

Interesting items in the inventory:  One new beaver hatt, one grey wig, at least two pairs of silver knee buckles, about 15 books, including a Bible and hymnal, at least 20 different tracts of land, more farm animals than the typical "yeoman", although that is how Samuel is referred to in one document, quite a few household furnishings including "2 great chairs and 13 old chairs", 14 pewter plates and other pewterware, one fifth of a cider mill, a weaver's shop, and a lot of tools and farm implements.  Clearly, although a yeoman who apparently didn't make many waves in town, Samuel did make money and was relatively well off in the town.  His estate, before expenses, was valued at about 1300 pounds, and it took four appraisers a total of 17 man days to value everything they found. 

It would be interesting to know what his neighbors thought of Samuel Hitchcock.  Was he well regarded?  Was he a nice man?  Did he do his duty during the French and Indian war?  Did the town perceive him as being rich, or greedy, or generous, or something in between?  Was he a patriot during the earliest years of the Revolution?  (I'll wager he was!)  I've enjoyed getting to know a little bit about Samuel Hitchcock, and would love to know more!

The line of descent is"

Sanuel Hitchcok-Ruth Stebbins
Margaret Hitchcock-Richard Falley
Samuel Falley-Ruth Root
Clarissa Falley-John Havens Starr
Harriet Starr-John Wilson Knott
Edith Knott-Edward Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants