The family of Kingsland Comstock 1673-1721

 The third man in our Comstock line is Kingsland (Kinsley, and other variations), the son of Daniel and Palthiah Elderkin Comstock.  He was born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1673 and died in New London, Connecticut in 1721.  He married Mary Atwell, the daughter of Benjamin and Mary Uncas Atwell.  (Mary was indigenous, and this is one of very few native persons that I have found in any of the four families I write about (Holbrook, Allen, Harshbarger, Beeks).  That story fascinates me.  Kingsland and Mary had six known children together, but their birth dates are not well documented, or at least I have not been able to find anything more than "about" dates.  Many death dates are missing, also.  This would be a fine family for a thorough investigation, so we could be more sure about our ancestors and their families.

Mary may have been the firstborn, about 1701 and her death date must at this point be unknown.  She married Philip Want, whose parentage is also not known.  Their children are Mary, Martha, Matthew, Thomas, Benjamin, Ann, Philip, and Joseph.  (I might suspect that Matthew or Thomas may be a clue for the father or grandfather of Philip, but that is just a guess.) Philip died in 1739 and there is a possibility that she is the Mary Want who married "old Mr. Powers" but this is not proven.

Ann may have been the next born, about 1704.  She married Peter Chapman, the son of Samuel and Bethia Tubbs Chapman (yes, Bethia is a sister to our Mary Tubbs, who is our ancestor in another line) .  She died after 1753.  Their children are Andrew, Alithia, Zephaniah, Susannah, Peter, Ann, Adinijah, and another Zephaniah.  

Benjamin was born about 1705 and died in 1753 in Lyme or New London, Connecticut.  His wife's name is not currently known, but he had at least two sons, Daniel and Benjamin.   

Joseph was born about 1707, although I suspect it may have been earlier.  He died in 1725 in New London, and left at least one child, a daughter, Sarah.  It would have been unusual for an 18 year old male to have left a child, whether he married the mother or not, which is why I wonder if he may have been born earlier.  However, it is possible that the 1707 date is correct; he wouldn't have been the first 18 year old to have become a father.  

Then there is a long pause between births, which of course makes us consider whether there may have been other pregnancies, perhaps even births of which we have no record.  There is also the possibility that Mary may have died and there was another Mary who was the mother of the next two children, but there is no indication of that.  Perhaps the birth years of the last two sons were only guesses, and bad ones, at that. We can only wonder.

Daniel was born about 1715 and died in 1753 in New London, Connecticut.  He married Mary Chapel, the son of Joseph and Bethia Dart Chappell.  Mary was a descendant of our ancestor George Chappell, it appears.  Their children are Elisha, Mary, Ebenezer, Desire, Christian, Jemima, Daniel, and Alpheus.   

And finally, there is Kingsland, who is thought to have been born about 1719.  He died after 1753 in New London, Connecticut.  He married Rachel Crocker, the daughter of John and Mercy Tubbs Crocker.  Their children are John, Joseph, Mary, Rachel, and Elizabeth.  I will follow this family in my next blog post.

Several of these children are given death dates of 1753, or after 1753, because they showed up in their mother's will in 1753.  If they all died during that same time period, there must have been an epidemic going around then.  My guess is that some of the dates are later but that records are missing to give the correct dates.  In other words, this is a post full of more questions than answers, but at least it gives us a feel for this family, who seem to have stayed in the same geographic area for all their lives-unless, of course, they moved on and that's why we can't find adequate records.