Coming to America: Cyprian and Margaret Prou, Indentured Servants

Sample Indenture Contract
source: http://www.virtualjamestown.org/indentures/sample_indenture

Several years ago I came across an interesting book on FamilySearch.org, Anderson, Cockrill, Moffett, Smith & Allied Families of Northern Virginia. I was actually looking for another ancestor when I stumbled across a chapter about Cyprian/Cyprien Prou, my 7th GreatGrandfather. For once, I actually downloaded the information about Cyprian and then returned to my original quest.

Fast forward to several years to 2021. I was now a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, thanks to my 4th GreatGrandfather Enoch Benson. I was now living in Georgia, close to where Enoch lived and a number of relatives were buried. Covid days gave me the opportunity to spend a lot more time learning about Enoch and his ancestors. And this lead me to Enoch's 3rd GreatGrandfather and my 7th, Cyprian Prou.

I was surprised at the pieces of information I had found over the years about Cyprian, some for which I had actually recorded a source. The thing that peaked my curiosity right away was a notation that Cyprian Prou had been an indentured servant. I wanted to know more about this circumstance, what lead to it, and what happened after he arrived in America. Looking for these things definitely took me back in time and introduced me to a variety of resources, all helping Cyprian become more real to me.

The first sourced information I found about Cyprian was a marriage record for Cyprian and his wife Margaret. According to the Vestry Register for the Collegiate Church of St Katherine by the Tower in London, Cyprian Prou and Margaret Vensanden where married there on 16 Jul 1683.(1) Another source concerning their marriage was found in Ancestry's "Virginia, Marriages of the Northern Neck of Virginia, 1649-1800". This entry provided the same date and place of their marriage and also included that Cyprian Prou had been born about 1663 in France. Cyprian's name suggested that he was of French descent while Margaret's suggests that she may have had Dutch or other European ancestors. Trying to verify their births and ancestors will have to wait for other days.

I found several records indicating that Cyprian had been an indentured servant as was his wife Margaret Vensanden Prou. The Virginia Colonial Records Project accessed through the Library of Virginia had online transcriptions of "Quarter Sessions Records, Plantation Indentures 1682/3 - 1684.(2) Report #2152 provided the following entry:

Margaret Prou(?), about 24, to Richard Bray. 4 years, "working in the ground excepted". 28 August 1684.

Cyprian Prou(?), about 21, to Richard Bray. 4 years, "working in the ground excepted". 28 August 1684.

What an entry! Name, age and probable birth year, length of the indenture, and a date to explore.

The records of Virtual Jamestown presented similar information but with some important clarifications.(3) The records were in table form and indicated:

• Margaret and Cyprian were going to Virginia.
• The date of 28 August 1684 was the date their indenture was signed.
• The normal indenture period was four years.
• Richard Bray of Maryland was the agent to whom they were indentured.

A bonus on the Virtual Jamestown web site was the transcriptions of two indenture contracts. Both contracts provided interesting information about the indenture process. In the 1755 contact for William Buckland, he was referred to as a "Covenant Servant" who was to serve the Executor on the "Plantation of Virginia beyond the seas" for a period of four years. It also mentioned his skill as a carpenter and joiner.  Furthermore, the contract stated that Buckland would be paid the standard annual rate of "20 pounds sterling, payable quarterly". From the entries for Margaret and Cyprian, it seemed that they would not be farming or "working in the ground", as they were excepted (exempted) from that type of work. Perhaps this meant that they, too, had some special skills.

The contract for Richard Lowther, written over 100 years earlier, provided more details about the person to whom Lowther was indentured or covenanted, Edward Hurd. Mr. Hurd as to "provide sufficient meate, drink, apparrell, and other necewaryes for his livelihood and maynetence dureing the said time", and at the conclusion of the contract, Hurd was to give to Richard Lowther "fifty acres of land in Virginia" for Lowther, his heirs, and assignees forever. Both documents were actually signed in England but apparently came with them to the Virginia colony.

I stumbled upon yet one more interesting part of Cyrprian and Margaret's story. On 8 Jun 1684, Marie Prou, the daughter of Cyprian and Margaret was baptized at the French Huguenot Church on Threadneedle Street in London.(4) This meant that they were embarking on a new life, one that would require significant labor on their parts, with a two month old infant. I cannot imagine what that experience would have been like.

Admittedly some of the journal articles I found concerning the status of indentures servants suggested that life may not have turned out to be as they had expected, but one record for Cyprian points to a more successful life in the Virginia Colony. In April of 1704, 20 years after Cyprian and Margaret arrived in the colony, Cyprian and several others petitioned the Virginia House of Burgesses to become naturalized citizens.(5) His naturalization petition was then approved in the House of Burgesses on 8 May 1704.(6)

"And upon consideration of the report of the said Committee upon the Petitions of John Gill, Stephen Gill, Samuel de Monville Teleije Alverton, Isaac Garret, Peter Rucks, and Clypian Prou praying to be Naturalized. The House agreed to the report of the Committee - That it is reasonable the said persons should be naturalized when they are qualifyed by taking the Oathes Enjoyned by Law."

Through the years Cyprian apparently acquired property and was able to support his growing family of five daughters for he wrote and signed a will on 16 Oct 1712.(7) Were he still indentured or without any property or other assets there would been little reason to draw up such a legal document. In his will, one page of which appears as a picture attached to an Ancestry Tree, Cyprian left some furniture to his daughter Frances (my 6 GreatGrandmother). He also named three daughters, Margaret, Susan, and Frances, as executors and stipulated that the remainder of his estate to be divided equally among the three.(8) All of this points to Cyprian having a sizeable estate at the time of his death. For Cyprian Prou, coming to the Virginia Colony seemed to have enabled him to have a prosperous life.

Tale of the Timeline shows the following

• 1683 - living in England
• 1683 - married to Margaret Vensanden
• 1684 - birth of oldest child, Marie
• 1684 - signed contract to be an indentured servant in the Virginia Colony, came to the Virginia Colony
• 1704 - petitioned for naturalization and was approved to be a naturalized citizen of the Virginia Colony
• 1712 - died, his will filed for probate on 5 Nov 1712

Learning something about an ancestor causes me to want to know still more about that person. Things such as what caused Cyprian and Margaret to decide to come to the colonies?  I would be thrilled to find the actual indenture contract that he or Margaret signed, especially if it explained why the couple was "excepted from working in the ground". Perhaps I can locate and read Cyprian's complete will and additional probate documents to get a better picture of the life that he had made for himself and his family in the colony. There are also some unsourced suggestions that Margaret may have died before Cyprian and that he later remarried. After I learned that Cyprian Prou's name appears in the "List of Qualified Huguenot Ancestors" of the National Huguenot Society, I need to look into their research materials. Then I saw several online trees that suggest that another ancestor, Thomas Benson, was also an indentured servant, coming to the Virginia Colony at about that same time. 

And, the list goes on ...

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#indenturedservants #immigrantancestors #ProuGenealogy

1. London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]. "Church of England Parish Registers, 1538-1812", records from City of London, Collegiate Church of St Katherine by the Tower, 1680-1695; record accessed through Ancestry.com.

2. Library of Virginia. Virginia Colonial Records Project, Middlesex County Record Office, "Quarter Sessions Records, Plantation Indentures 1682/3-1684." Indentures for service in Virginia, 1684; record accessed through www.lva.virginia.gov

3. Virtual Jamestown [web site], "Registers of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654-1686; record accessed through http://www.virtualjamestown.org

4. "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975" database, FarmilySearch.org

5.  Whitley, Edythe Johns Rucker. History of the Rucker family and their descendants. Hermitage Printing, 1927; accessed through www.hathitrust.org

6. McIlwaine, H R, ed., Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia 1702/3-1705, 1705-1706, 1710-1712, p 74, accessed through www.ancestraltrackers.net.

7. Burgess, James A. Anderson, Cockrill, Moffett, Smith & Allied Families of Northern Virginia; record accessed through FamilySearch.org.

8. Ancestry Tree 168705053, person 212209830156.

The Delight Is In the Details!

Will of Capt. William Richardson (1)

It was a chilly, dreary fall day, one just made for spending time online, searching for new family information. I decided to start by checking on some Ancestry hints mentioned in a weekly email. Not expecting to find anything of great note, I ended up being transported back to colonial days and learning a lot of information about my 8th Great-Uncle, William Richardson, thanks to his detailed will.

William Richardson, "being sick and weak of body" had written and signed his will on 1 April 1776.(2)  Just two days after the colonies in America had declared their independence from Britain, William died on 6 Jul 1776.(3) Immediately I wondered if William and his family had even been aware of that momentous event in American history. How long would it have taken for the news to travel from Philadelphia to New Hampshire?

His will was then presented for probate in the court of Rockingham, New Hampshire on 7 November 1776, with the final inventories recorded on 27 Nov 1776.(2) Generally, my research seemed to show wills being presented for probate within a short time of the death, sometimes even within days. Had the changes in American government caused it to take four months for William's will to be presented to the court, or was this just a case of finding the will?

The treasures of his will came from the numerous details it contained. I loved the view of colonial life it presented as William said he would

"will and bequeath to Elizabeth my dearly beloved wife two cows such as she should choose out of my stock of cows to be at her own disposal. And a horse to be kept for her to ride to the Publick Worship and elsewhere as she should have occasion, said horse to be kept at my Homestead Farm by my Executors that he may be convenient for her use during her natural life. I also give to her ... a sufficiency of firewood to be provided for her by my Executors and by them cut fit for her fire and laid convenient to the door of my dwelling house ... for the full term she shall remain my widow. ... I also give to her a third of the remainder of my estate."

So, in addition to a sizable portion of his estate, William wanted the widow Elizabeth to have transportation to church and plenty of firewood for warmth, left cut and stacked at her door, all in addition to the two cows. I love the specificity of this bequest.

The next portion of interest to me in the will was William's bequests to his children. Remembering Amy Johnson Crow's recent blog post on tracing daughters in the family tree, I was thrilled to see that William named his entire family. (4) Not only did he name each child, but he also provided the name of each daughter's husband in his bequests to:

• daughter Elizabeth Butterfield, wife of Capt. Joseph Butterfield
• daughter Mary Butterfield, wife of Capt. Reuben Butterfield
• daughter Marcy Fletcher, wife of Mr. Jacob Fletcher
• daughter Sara Gage, wife of Mr. Benjamin Gage
• daughter Hannah Richardson, single woman, "non compos ... totally incapable of taking care of her own substance"
• sons-in-law Joseph Butterfield, Reuben Butterfield, and Jacob Fletcher [note: interesting to see there was no bequest to son-in-law Benjamin Gage]
• son Asa Richardson
• son Daniel Richardson

This complete list of bequests confirmed the children I kept finding on unsourced online family trees as well as providing details of prior realty transactions between William and his two sons, all of which influenced the nature of the legacies left to the two sons.

It was touching to read in detail William's plan for the care of his daughter Hannah. He provided a sum of money to be used by Hannah's guardian for her care. William intended, as stated in his will, for Hannah to be cared for by Elizabeth until Elizabeth's death. Later, following Elizabeth's death, the minister of the church of Pelham was to recommend a "kind, human, and judicious and proper person" to care for Hannah. If the money set aside for Hannah's care was not enough, William said that funds for her care were "to be equally divided [among] her brothers and sisters and their legal representatives". William seemed to have carefully make plans to ensure that Hannah would always be cared for in any eventuality.

So my afternoon ended with some insights into colonial life, a sourced listing of William's children, details of Williams' land holdings, and a very specific plan for the care of one of his children. What more could you ask for when reading a will? Don't you wish every document we encountered had such clear, detailed information?

Now to learn more about Capt. Joseph Butterfield and Capt. Reuben Butterfield since William's brother Zachariah had married a Butterfield woman and there were other family marriages with Butterfields in successive generations. Plus I need to take a closer look at the various William Richardsons on WikiTree, now that I have the names of more family members. Plus, Archive.org has an interesting book, The Richardson Memorial by John Adams Vinton, that I have just downloaded and need to start reading. Almost every answer brings forth new questions and the search for new resources. And that is fine with me.
#ColonialAmericaGenealogy #RichardsonFamilyGenealogy #WillsandProbate

(1) "New Hampshire, Will and Probate Papers, 1643-1982, Rockingham, Estate Papers, no 4270-4402, 1776-1777", packet for William Richardson; accessed Ancestry.com
(2) "New Hampshire, Will and Probate Papers, 1643-1982, Rockingham, Probate Records, Vol 23-24, 1774-1778" packet for William Richardson; accessed Ancestry.com
(3) "Capt William Richardson (unk-1776)", FindAGrave memorial #132487788; citing Pelham Center Cemetery, Pelham, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire; photo by homeboss and memorial page by Sara  provide information.
(4) Crow, Amy Johnson, "Finding All the Daughters in the Family Tree", posted 20 Sep 2018; accessed on www.amyjohnsoncrow.com.

New Hampshire, Wills and Probate Records, 1643-1982(2) "New Hampshire, Wills and Probate Records, 1643-1982, Rockingham, p 404-410, will and inventory of William Richardson, will signed 1 Apr 1776, inventory dated Nov 1776", accessed on Ancestry.com.(3) "Capt William Richardson (unk-1776)", FindAGrave memorial #132487788; accessed 14 Oct 2018; citing Pelham Center Cemetery, Pelham, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire; photo by homeboss and memorial page by Sara  provide information.

Bridget Richardson Fletcher: "She being dead yet speaketh"

Old North Church, Boston
source: Wikimedia Commons

I have been accustomed to finding ministers, tavern keepers, teachers, and farmers scattered all over the branches of my family tree. But a poet and hymn writer, that was someone new to find! The bits I have gathered about my seventh GreatAunt, Bridget Richardson Fletcher, have blended into a story of a woman, her family, and life in colonial times.

Bridget Richardson was born in 1726, the fourth of Zachariah Richardson and Sarah Butterfield's ten children.(1) Although I have been unable to find any record concerning her education, she apparently learned to read and to write, as well as the knowledge of poetic form. These things were evidenced in her later life.

In February of 1745/1746 an intention to marry was recorded in the Westford, Massachusetts Church Records for Timothy Fletcher, Jr, of Westford and Bridget Richardson of Chelmsford. In the following years, according to the church records, Timothy and Bridget had seven children.(2) These children were Elijah (born 1747), Josiah (born 1749), Bridget (born 1751, apparently dying in childhood), Luce (born 1754), Jesse (born in 1757, apparently died at a young age), Bridget (born 1760), and Jese (born 1762). Seven children in 15 years is enough to keep anyone busy, but it was often the norm among colonial families.

Bridget Richardson Fletcher died on 8 June 1770, survived by her husband Timothy and five children, three of whom were under the age of 18 and were most likely still living at home. Her oldest son Elijah had just graduated from Harvard and was planning on a career in the ministry.(3) It was not unexpected to learn that her husband Timothy remarried, first in 1774 to Huldah Pearley and, following Huldah's death, to the much young Hannah Proctor in 1778.(4)

Son Elijah Fletcher was ordained into the ministry in 1773 and served as the minister of the Congregational Church of Hopkinton, New Hampshire. According to a biographer, once Rev. Elijah Fletcher began receiving a salary, one of his first deeds, following his marriage to Rebecca Chamberlain, was to arrange for the publication of a collection of his mother's poetry.(5)

Her book of poetry was published in Boston by Isaac Thomas who was the publisher of The Massachusetts Spy, an early colonial newspaper. I was able to access a copy of her book, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, on the Early American Imprints database at King University in Bristol, Virginia. The poems are listed as having been composed by "Bridget Fletcher, The wife of Timothy Fletcher, late of Wesford, deceased. She being dead yet speaketh". Included in the citation for Hymns and Spiritual Songs was this note, "The only known copy is imperfect". There was no mention, however, of the current physical location of Bridget's book.

Although Bridget Richardson Fletcher with this sole publication is not ranked among the oft-mentioned females writers in colonial America, people such as Anne Bradstreet, Mercy Otis Warren, and Phillis Wheatley, her writings continue to appear in a number of literary anthologies. A forthcoming work, American Colonial Women and Their Art, has this to say about Bridget Richardson Fletcher: (6)

Hymnographer Bridget Richardson Fletcher of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, compiled Hymns and Spiritual Songs on Several Occasions. The collection of eighty-two hymns stressed propriety, marriage, the punishment for sin, and the joys of redemption and God's grace. Hymn 36 described the virgin birth of Christ as a character asset of all women and a shield against male scorn. Hymn 70 surveyed the mutual duties of husband and wife and urged every man to prize his wife for her submission to authority."

The introduction of her book takes us clearly back into the eighteenth century as the editor (possibly Isaac Thomas) urged readers to "be ready to make allowances for the many inaccuracies of a female pen, when he considers that the advantages of females in general are but small, in comparison of those of the other sex, in point of polite learning". The editor further noted that the poems were not given titles and that some of them were not finished as "God, in his infinite wisdom, saw fit to call the author from this to a world of spirits, in the meridian of life ... [after] a fever for the space of three weeks ... she having passed through many difficulties".(7) There in the book's introduction was Bridget's probable cause of death at the age of 44.

Her poems are clearly filled with religious imagery and evidences of her faith. The following poems are a few examples of her hymns and sacred songs. This poem urged Christ to take her out of darkness and from her doubts and could have been written during the time of her fever and illness.

     My Saviour dear, don't leave me here,
         In this dark wilderness,
     Pray let me come a leaning on,
         Thy sweetly thy charming breast.
     
     For thou are strong and can'st perform,
         If thou the word shouldn'st speak,
     Could I get out then with a shout
         Around the earth I'd leap.

     But fight I will with all my skill
         If God will not forsake,
     I will hold fast while life doth last,
         Lest some my crown should take.
     
Hymn XXXVI, previously mentioned, presented her idea that the dignity of a woman comes because Christ was born of a woman. The photo also shows the condition of some of the pages of this copy of her book.

As I read Bridget's poetry, I kept wondering how these poems might have been sung as hymns. In her dissertation, Dr. Karen L. Shadle explained that "these strictly metered texts were to be sung to familiar melodies".(8) This is easy to understand when I consider the various hymns in our church hymnal that are sung to the same tune. If I tried, I could probably find a suitable melody for verses such as these from Hymn LXXXII:

     A contrite heart, O Lord impart,
         A broken spirit too:
     O meet us there, and hear our pray'r,
         If by thy leave we go.
     .....
     Lord give us grace to run the race,
         Which thou hast set before,
     Lord give us faith to keep us safe,
         And bring us safe ashore.

Library, King University, Bristol, Virginia

Reflections:

• I am appreciative that I was able to have online access to Hymns and Sacred Songs at King University in Bristol, Virginia. The colonial architecture of the campus was an appropriate setting for accessing information from colonial times.
• I'm grateful that Bridget Richardson Fletcher shared her thoughts through her poetry and that her eldest son, the Rev. Elijah Fletcher, saw fit to have his mother's poetry and hymns published in 1774.
• It was good to stretch my research habits by looking into a variety of academic publications and journals. HathiTrust and the JSTOR Digital Library proved to provide a number of excellent resources in my research.
• My journey to learn about Bridget started about a year ago with a single sentence mentioning her poems, a sentence I read somewhere in something about my 7th GreatGrandparents, Zachariah Richardson and Sarah Butterfield. The more I learned about Bridget, the more I wanted to share her story so that "she being death yet speaketh".

#colonialamericagenealogy #genealogyresources #massachusettsgenealogy #richardsongenealogy #womenpoets #hymnsandsacredsongs

(1) Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Database and Images, Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com : 2011); citing Chelmsford, Vital Record Transcripts, p 130, Chelmsford Births.
(2) Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Database and Images, Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com : 2011); citing Westford, Vital Record Transcripts, various pages, Westford Births.
(3) "Ecclesiastical History", Collections, Historical and Miscellaneous and Monthly Literary Journal, vol III, 1824; accessed http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/24/1824_JohnFarmerIII.pdf.
(4) Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Database and Images, Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com : 2011); citing Westford, Vital Record Transcripts, Marriages, p 169.
(5) Shipton, Clifford Kenyon. Sibley's Harvard graduates : biographical sketches of those who attended Harvard College ... with bibliographical and other notes, 1873; accessed through HathiTrust.org.
(6) Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. American Colonial Women and Their Art. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017; accessed on Google Books, September 2017.
(7) Fletcher, Bridget Richardson. Hymns and Spiritual Songs on Several Occasions. Boston, Thomas, 1774; accessed through Early American Imprints, series I, #42439.
(8) Sladle, Karen L. Singing With Spirit and Understanding: Psalmody As Holistic Practice in Late Eighteenth-Century New England. Presented to faculty of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2010.

The Tale of the Timeline : Sarah Good of the Salem Witch Trials

Salem Witch Trial Engraving, unknown artist;
source: Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes it is rather exciting to discover that an ancestor or relative had a brush with history. Other times, it can cause sadness, discontent, and questioning. The latter has been the case for me as I have learned more about the life and death of my 8th Great Aunt, Sarah Solart, for she was one of those accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.

Several months ago I posted about what I had learned about her father John Solart and the financial problems caused by his death. Even ten years after John Solart's death, his surviving children had not received any money from his estate. The property and money all appeared to remain in the hands of Ezekiel Woodward whom John's wife Elizabeth had married shortly after John's death. While her other sisters did not seem to have fallen onto hard times, this was not the case for Sarah.

The basic facts of Sarah Solart's story are told in a variety of sources ranging from Wikipedia to scholarly books and journals. Each source seemed to give very similar information. Once again, putting facts found from a variety of sources into a timeline helped to present a clearer picture of what happened to Sarah and her role in the Salem Witch Trials.

For the time period, Sarah married somewhat late in life, not marrying for the first time until she was about 28. Her husband was Daniel Poole, a young man considered to be a poor laborer.(1) Poole apparently died soon after their marriage, leaving Sarah to assume his debts. Several years later, Sarah married for the second time, this time to laborer William Good of Salem Village.(1) Sarah and William then had two daughters, Dorcus (sometimes referred to as Dorothy) Good and Mercy Good.

Sarah and William never seemed to have the financial success enjoyed by Sarah's father. Instead, they began to be regarded as annoying beggars. Books make reference to William sending Sarah out to beg, carrying baby Dorcus, as she visited neighbors seeking food or money. Marylynn Roach describes Sarah was "a woman at the lower end of the social scale ... pipe in her mouth, an infant in her arms and a four-year-old girl in tow ... reduced to begging for her children's sake."(2) As neighbors grew tired of the Good family and their begging, Sarah became what Emerson Baker described as a "poor, disaffected women, known for her sharp tongue and outbursts hurled even at those who offered to help her".(3) And so, the downward path for Sarah continued.

By February, 1692, the rumblings which soon erupted into the Salem Witch Trials were gathering and Sarah, according to Emerson Baker, was the "stereotypical view of a witch".(3) The records concerning all aspects of Sarah's trial are extensive. These include the various complaints against her, her arrest, examination, imprisonment, evidence entered against her, the grand jury indictment, her jury trial, her conviction and execution and even restitution for William Good.(4) Below is a timeline of Sarah's last five months as documented by A Guide to the On-Line Primary Resources of the Salem Witch Trials.(4)

29 Feb 1692	warrant for Sarah's arrest
1 Mar 1692	examination of Sarah, William Good said she was "an enemy to all good"
5 Mar 1692	William Good's testimony about a mark on Sarah's shoulder
5 Mar 1692	Sarah transferred from Ipswich to Salem
7 Mar 1692	Sarah transferred from Salem to Boston
23 Mar 1692	warrant for arrest of daughter Dorothy Good
24 Mar 1692	examination of Dorothy Good
4 Apr 1692	Dorothy Good accused of witchcraft
12 Apr 1692	Dorothy Good sent to Boston
23 May 1692	more testimony against Sarah
25 May 1692	warrant to imprison Sarah
2 Jun 1692	physical exam ordered for Sarah and others
28 Jun 1692	Grand jury considered the case of Sarah Good
29 Jun 1692	Sarah arraigned on indictments for witchcraft
12 Jul 1692	judge signed death warrant against Sarah
19 Jul 1692	Sarah's death by hanging
unknown date	Sarah's daughter Mercy died while in prison with Sarah

A Guide to the On-Line Primary Resources of the Salem Witch Trials also sheds some light on the life of young Dorcus/Dorothy Good. Dorothy, at age five, was the youngest person accused on witchcraft during the trials, but she was finally released in December of 1692 on a recognition bond posted by Samuel Ray. I have not been able to establish a relationship between Ray and young Dorcus. Ray was not married to any of Sarah Solart's sisters, and the recognition bond does not provide any information as to why Ray was involved in that action. Admittedly, it seems puzzling that her Dorcus/Dorothy's father, William Good, did not post that bond. Perhaps he was too impoverished to assume that obligation for his only known remaining child.

Little more is known about Dorcus/Dorothy Good or her father following Sarah's execution except for one legal document that William Good signed in 1710. At that time the Massachusetts legislature had passed the Reversal of Attainder which nullified the trial judgments against 22 of the convicted witches, one of whom was Sarah Good.(5) In response to the legislative action, William Good filed a petition for restitution on 13 Sep 1710.(6) Below is a transcription of William Good's petition.

To The Honourable Committee

The humble representation of Will'm Good of the Damage sustained by him in the year 1692, by reason of the sufferings of his family upon the account of supposed Witchcraft

1 My wife Sarah Good was In prison about four months & then Executed.

2 a sucking child dyed in prison before the Mothers Execution.

3 a child of 4 or 5 years old was in prison 7 or 8 months and being chain'd in the dungeon was so hardly used and terrifyed that she hath ever since been very chargeable haveing little or no reason to govern herself.--And I leave it unto the Honourable Court to Judge what damage I have sustained by such a destruction of my poor family

And so rest, Your Honours humble servant William Good

Salem. Sept 13, 1710

Further records indicate that 30 pounds was proposed to be given to William Good. These records are also the last I was able to find concerning either William Good or his daughter Dorcas/Dorothy.

Lessons Learned

• So, why celebrate the story of Sarah Solart Good, one of the first accused of the Salem witches? For starters, she was a relative. All of us have questionable individuals, those we don't particularly care for or agree with within our families. Sarah and her story just happens to be more public and well documented in a number of sources. 
• Her story reminds me that the lives of our ancestors and relatives are shaped and influenced by the time period in which they live as well as the geographical area of their home. Had Sarah exhibited her behavior in another time or place, she might well have been regarded simply as being a strange individual, one who might have been labeled "insane" on a 19th century census record. Living in another time or place, the actions of William Good might not have been seen as the norm.
• I was amazed at the quantity of digitized records online relating to the Salem Witch Trials. Without them, learning more about Sarah would have relied primarily upon resources available through area libraries. As an aside, I appreciate the way none of the staff at my local library seemed concerned when I would check out an armload of books about the Salem Witch Trials each visit over several months this past winter.
• The story of the Salem trials may not be over. As I was working on this post, I came across two new bits of information relating to the trials in Salem. Recently an original deposition from the Salem Witch Trials was sold by Christie's for $137,000.(7) In this document from August of 1692, Mary Daniel was accusing Margaret Scott of sorcery. References to this accusation are available on several online sources, but until Christie's included a photo of the document in the sale information, reading the original text online was not possible because the document was owned by a private collector. Perhaps other primary source documents will surface in the future. In addition, an interesting post by AncestralFindings reported that "ground penetrating sonar revealed no bodies at the presumed gallows site" on Proctor’s Ledge.(8) This raises an interesting question. What happened to the bodies of those executed? Where they removed in secret by family members? Were they taken to an as yet unknown site? Were they buried on family owned property? New information continues to lead to more questions.
• Because of researching Sarah Solart's life, the Salem Witch Trials are more to me than the old televised episode of You Were There: the Salem Witch Trials or a production of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. There is now a personal connection. And with it, personal questions as to how we regard those who are different from us, those with mental health issues, those on the fringes of society as well as concerns that we do not let mass hysteria contribute to future dark periods in our history.

#colonialamericangenealogy #lessonslearned #massachusettegenealogy #researchtips #solartgenealogy #taleofthetimeline

(1) Torrey, Clarence Almon. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co, 1985.
(2) Roach, Marilynn K. Six Women of Salem: the untold story of the accused and their accusers in the Salem Witch Trials. Boston: DaCapo Press, c2013.
(3) Baker, Emerson W. A Storm of Witchcraft: the Salem trials and the American experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press, c2015.
(4) "People Accused of Witchcraft in 1692", A Guide to the On-Line Primary Resources of the Salem Witch Trials. accessed http://www.17thc.us/primarysources.
(5) Roach, Marilynn K. The Salem Witch Trials: a day-to-day chronicle of a community under siege. Taylor Trade Publications, 2004.
(6) "Reversal of Attainder and Restitution Files 1710-1750", Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project. http://salem.lib.virginia.edu.
(7) Martinez, Alanna. "Christie's Sells Rare Deposition From Salem Witch Trials for $137K", www.observer.com, posted 15 Jun 2017.
(8) "Site of Salem Witch Trial Hangings Discovered: Why It's Important to Genealogists", www.AncestralFindings.com.

The Tale of the Timeline: the Solarts of Massachusetts

The Solomon Kimball House, Wenham, Massachusetts
By John Phelan (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes, it takes something as simple as a timeline to make sense of the stuff going on in a family. That was certainly the case when I started researching the family of my 8th Great Grandfather, John Solart of Massachusetts. I kept finding tidbits over several months from various sources concerning various family members. When I put events in order chronologically, several stories just seemed to pop out.

The first story concerned John Solart, Sr, my 8th GGfather, one of the early settlers of Wenham, Massachusetts. The earliest mention I've found concerning John, Sr. was in an interesting chapter on the historical taverns located in Wenham in Jack Hauck's book, Treasures of Wenham History.(1) John, Sr, was appointed by the General Court as "Keeper of the Tavern" in 1670, and later that year, John built another tavern, a building that still stands as a private residence on Main Street in Wenham.

John, Sr, was considered, by many sources, to be a wealthy man, implying that he was most likely an astute business man. It was surprising, however, to learn that John, Sr, died intestate, leaving no will. The story that appears over and over is that John committed suicide on 24 May 1672. Essex County Court records presented the deposition of two of his servants or employees who told of John, Sr, telling them several months before his death of his final wishes. John told the two men that he was "being often troubled with faynting Fits" and felt he "haue not long to live".(2)

In September, 1672, John's widow Elizabeth presented John's verbal will to the Essex County Court. At this September hearing, the two servants stated that John, Sr, said that his entire estate was to go to his wife Elizabeth "duering the time of her widowhood" and to be used for raising their children. Were Elizabeth to remarry, she was to receive one third of John, Sr's estate, the other two thirds to be divided among his children. Their deposition agreed with the customary division of property during that time. The estate inventory valued John, Sr's estate at 500 pounds. The record also listed the names of the seven children who were to receive a share of their father's estate when they came of age: John (Jr), Sarah, Hanah, Martha, Joseph, Abigaill (my 7th Great Grandmother), and Bethia.

Just three months later the widow Solart married Ezekiel Woodward on 20 Dec 1672.(3) According to the terms of John Solart, Sr's will, Elizabeth would not receive a portion of the estate, only money for the raising of the seven named in the court records.

Jump ahead a few years and the family composition has changed. Son John, Jr, had died and his will was proved on 28 Mar 1676.(4) Elizabeth Solart Woodward died in December of 1678.(5) The money from John, Sr's estate, however, still had not been divided among John's six children and John Jr's wife.

Less than a year after Elizabeth Solart Woodward's death, her son Joseph died. The Essex County Court in April of 1679 appointed an executor for Joseph's estate and allowed Elizabeth's daughters Abigaill and Bethia to select whom they wanted to be their legal guardians. Interestingly, none of these legal responsibilities were handed over to Ezekiel Woodward.(6) The estate money apparently had continued to be kept or used by Ezekiel Woodward.

It took further lawsuits filed by the surviving six children to attempt to get the share of their father's estate due to them. In September of 1682, all six of the surviving children, plus the husband of a deceased daughter Mary Solart Edwards, were still petitioning the Essex County Court to let one of them be named administrator of their father's estate.(7) The petition stated that Ezekiell Woodward had taken over the estate and had not paid the legacies.

By 1682, ten years after his death, the estate of John Solart, Sr, still had not been settled according to his desires. His widow had died, both of his sons were deceased, and all of his surviving daughters were now of age to receive their legacies. And, thus far, I have not come across any record that the daughters ever received the money due them by Ezekiell Woodward. For some of them, having additional money could have made a significant difference in their lives. For Sarah Solart, at least, her life might have made for a very different story.

Lessons Learned:

• Research such as this would be much more difficult without the digitized court and church records available online, records that have survived from our country's early days.
• When I find probate records like that for John, Sr, listing the full inventory and value of his estate as well as the names of all his family members, I remember once again just how much we can learn from wills and probate records.
• It is hard not to judge Ezekiell Woodward by today's standards, but the early courts did not appear to punish him or penalize him for the manner in which he seemed to maintain control of the Solart family's money. Life then as well as now is not an drama that is neatly solved in a 42 minute television program. I need to remind myself to simply look at the facts as they are presented in the time in which they occurred and not as similar events might be dealt with in the twentieth-first century.

#colonialamericangenealogy #lessonslearned #massachusettsgenealogy #solartgenealogy #taleofthetimeline

(1) Hauk, Jack E. "A History of Wenham Taverns From 1643 to 2008". Treasures of Wenham History. Wenham, Mass, self-published, 2013; accessed http://www.hwlibrary/org
(2) Dow, George. The probate records of Essex County, Massachusetts. Salem, Mass: Essex Institute, 1916-1920; accessed on www.hathitrust.org.
(3) Ancestry.com. Massachusettes Town and Vital Records 1620-1988, Wenham Vital Records Transcripts, Marriages; accessed on www.ancestry.com.
(4) Ancestry.com, Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991, Essex Probate Records, 1672-1691, estate of John Solart, Jr.; accessed on Ancestry.com.
(5) Ancestry.com. Massachusettes Town and Vital Records 1620-1988, Wenham Vital Records Transcripts, Deaths; accessed on www.ancestry.com
(6) Dow, George. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County. Salem, Mass: Essex Institute, 1911; accessed on www.ancestry.com
(7) Historical Collections of the Essex Institute. Salem, Mass: Essex Institute, 1861; accessed on www.books.google.com

Step by Step, Bit by Bit, Learning More About Hannah Larcom

"Step By Step" MPN photos

Hannah Larcom, my 6th Great Grandmother, wasn't exactly a brick wall, but she has been one lady for whom each answer tended to bring more questions.

It all started several months ago when I found the marriage record for Hannah Larcom and my 6th Great Grandfather Stephen Fairfield.(1)  The record was simple to find on a page of marriage records from Wenham, Massachusetts. There were even two other Fairfield relatives whose marriages were recorded on the same page. But who were Hannah's parents? Had she always lived in Wenham? And when was she born? Already the answer of her marriage date brought new information to seek.

There are a number of online family trees that listed Hannah as being the daughter of Mordecai Larcom so I tried to verify this information as the online trees all seemed to cite other online trees as the source. Sure enough, in the same collection of Wenham, Massachusetts records, I found the birth of a Hannah Larcom, daughter of Mordecai and his wife Abigall, born in Wenham 16 July 1704.(2) Now I knew the possible parents, birthplace, and birth date for Hannah.

It wasn't long before I stumbled over a big rock. While looking through that same record collection for some Fairfield information, I came across the unexpected. A death record for Hannah Larcom. Hannah, the daughter of Mordecai and Abigall, had died in October of 1704, at the age of just three months.(3) The fact meant that either two different people were the parents of Hannah Larcom or, as was frequently the case, Mordecai and Abigall later had a second daughter whom they also named Hannah. One more answer, more questions.

Trying to find a record of the birth of another Hannah Larcom still has me stumped. I have searched the available birth and baptismal records available online for the town of Wenham, Massachusetts, as well as those of the neighboring towns of Beverly and Ipswich, without having any success. The only mention thus far that I've found for a later birth date for a Hannah Larcom was in "Genealogy of the Larcom Family" published in a 1922 issue of the Essex Historical Collection journals.(4) This lengthy two-part article lists a Hannah Larcom, daughter of Mordecai Larcom, who was baptized in 1711 and [who became the] wife of Stephen Fairfield.

A further link between Hannah Larcom and her parents Mordecai and Abigail was found in the probate records of Mordecai Larcom's estate. Mordecai Larcom had died intestate in 1712, but his estate, however, was not probated until after the death of his wife Abigall in 1741.(5) Hannah's husband, Stephen Fairfield, appeared as a witness on a number of documents related to the probate proceedings, and a division of the estate was made to Stephen Fairfield "in right of his wife Hannah".(6)

Once again, Birth, Marriage, and Death/Probate records provided answers to some of the questions about Hannah. Looking for that elusive original birth or baptismal record from 1711 for Hannah will stay on my To-Do List for a while. For now I'll have to be satisfied with possible baptismal information and the probate records to connect Hannah to Mordecai Larcom and Abigail Solart as her parents. Several dots that could finally be connected to made a line on my family tree.

Later, when I started searching for information about Hannah's Solart grandparents, I found myself pulled in an unexpected direction. Talk about examining a Bright Shiny Object! I found not just more questions but a surprising brush with history. Definitly the subject for a future post. Or two.

#colonialamericangenealogy #genealogyresources #larcomgenealogy #massachusettsgenealogy

(1) Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Database and Images, Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com : 2011); citing Wenham Births, Marriages and Death, 670 of 696 images.
(2) Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Database and Images, Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com : 2011); citing Wenham Vital Record Transcripts, p 57.
(3) Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Database and Images, Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com : 2011); citing Wenham Vital Record Transcripts, p 210.
(4) Abbott, William F. "Genealogy of the Larcom Family", Essex Institute Historical Collectionm vol, LVIII, 1922; accessed on Google Books.
(5) "Essex, Massachusetts Probate Records, 1648-1840", Ancestry.com; citing Sanborn, Melinde Lutz. Essex County, Massachusetts Probate Index, 1638-1840. Salem, MA,  probate of estate of Mordecai Larcom, 2 Jun 1741; 
(6) Massachusetts, Essex, Probate File Papers, 1638-1881, Essex Cases 16000-17999, #16401 Mordeca Larcom; accessed AmericanAncestors.org

Tuesday's Tip : Get to Know the Time Period

A map of the most inhabited part of Virginia ... drawn by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, 1751
Library of Congress American Memory, Early Virginia Map Collection.

Lately I've been thrashing around trying to learn more about my 5 GreatGrandfather William Reid and other Reid family members who had resided in colonial Virginia. I was constantly being reminded that researching records from that time period were not like researching the birth, marriage, and death records of relatives in the 19th and 20th centuries.

One interesting resource I came across was Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia by Lyman Chalkley. The transcriptions of all three volumes were found on rootsweb.(1) Since I knew that my Reid ancestors had lived in Augusta County, VA, this resource seemed like it would be worth my time to look through, especially as the opening page stated 

"The Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia: 1745 to 1800 by Lyman Chalkley is really the best starting place for anyone researching ancestors in Augusta County during this time period. This three volume series contains most of the abstracts of court records in Augusta County between those dates."

I started with volume I, searching page after page using the Google find feature to locate Reed/Reid information. After going through Court Book XVII and 228 pages of abstracted records, I still had not found anything related to my ancestors. However, each page seemed to contain an interesting record that provided a closer look at life in Colonial Virginia. 

In the records for February 1745/1746, I kept coming across the term "freedom dues". After checking several online genealogy glossaries, I finally found more information in the online Encyclopedia Virginia. Freedom dues were the payment given to an indentured servant at the completion of his contract or term of service. Usually it was money, but freedom dues could also include clothing, tools, or animals.

While looking for Reids/Reeds, I can across several records concerning William Morrison (not a relative) who was seeking to obtain his freedom dues from Donald Davis. First Davis was called into court to show cause for not paying freedom dues to his indentured servant William. Another court record showed Morrison's attempt to be paid the dues from Davis' estate. Several months later, a third court record showed that William Morrison was finally paid his freedom dues of just over £3. Continued reading showed that William Morrison was one of many indentured servants who had to use the legal system in order to obtain what was due them.

The Chronicles provided a variety of records that could be proof of residence for someone's ancestors, especially in the days before the first US census of 1790. There were records in Book 1 that listed members named to that session of the County Court. Other records provided the names of court appointments such as Sheriff, deputies, attorneys, or surveyors. Also included were records of those selected as officers in the militia. Even a listing of family members newly immigrating to join a county resident were part of the court records. 

Some of the cases brought before the court were not much different from what passes through our legal system today. A wide variety of cases was handled through the Augusta County court with more serious cases being referred to the higher court in Williamsburg. Charges of drunkenness, swearing, adultery, or loose behavior. Individuals being charged with murder or theft. Property disputes. Requests for garnishment or child support. Petitions for tax relief for the elderly or infirmed. Claims for losses (due to Indian raids). Requests for building permits. Wills presented for probate. Petitions for bankruptcy. Even seemingly frivolous suits such as the case of an attorney charged with interrupting another (he was fined 5 shillings).

It was clearly a different time and place as seem through other court records. Some of the suits were hard to imagine such as the woman suing to regain her clothes which had been taken to settle a debt incurred by her late husband. As early as 1746, individuals were being brought before the court and accused of speaking "treasonable words". Taxes were levied as "six pounds of tobacco [to] be collected from every person that has not delivered in his crows heads or squirrels scalps, according to law". There were charges for conspiring with one Indian tribe against other tribes. The penalty for stealing lace was "39 lashes". One group of men, found guilty of breaking into a dwelling, was sentenced to having their ears chopped off!

Colonial jail, personal photo

A number of cases involved children being indentured by their family to another individual, usually because the family was unable to support the child. I read of one child who was brought by the parish church to be indentured to a gentleman after the child's father had "run away according to law". Still others, as young as two and three, were indentured because they were orphans in need of a home.

Smallpox continued to be a concern for the residents of Augusta County, Virginia. Court records showed that individuals coming from an area in which smallpox had been found were ordered to be removed from Augusta County by the Sheriff. Other records granted approval for doctors to inoculate any one in a specific area against smallpox.

Chalkley's court record abstractions proved to be worth the time I spent looking over them. That hour or two provided me with a better understanding of just how similar and yet how different life in the twenty-first century is when compared with that of the eighteenth century. As I continue to research ancestors living in colonial times, thanks to Chalkley, I have a clearer view of the legal system, the militia structure, and the relationship between the church and state as well as of everyday life in colonial Virginia.

(1) Chalkley, Lyman, Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia. Commonwealth Publishing, 1912; accessed on http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~chalkley/index.htm.

Military Monday: James Houston's Travels in Revolutionary Times

Map of Military Travels of James Houston, 1776-1780

Every once in a while, I stumble upon someone who turns out to be one interesting individual.  That has been the case with researching James Houston, the brother of Margaret Peggy Houston, my husband's third Great Grand Aunt.  I have been trying to learn more about Margaret and her family, and I kept coming across information about brother James when I was really just seeking more about Margaret.  Now I'm glad he kept popping up.

The areas where James traveled are taken from the original Revolutionary War Pension Application filed by James Houston in 1832.(1)  In his application he described his travels as a soldier during those years; I saw the names of many familiar places.  If you look at the map, my hometown of Johnson City, TN, is about in its center.  It turns out that James and his travels took him all around the area where I live and have visited for many years.  

Veterans Day seems an appropriate time to look at James and his service with the colonial forces.  His pension application provides sufficient details for me to be able to make the map above as well as locate the photographs below.  All quotes below regarding a specific place or area are taken from his application using the transcription found on the Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters web site.

Point A  Spring, 1776, Augusta County, Virginia -- "He entered the service in the spring season ... in the year 1776 under Captain William Buchanan as a volunteer in a patrolling Company, -- [he] resided in the County of Augusta in the State of Virginia at the time he entered the service."

Point B  September, 1777, Washington County, Virginia -- "Declarant removed from Augusta County ... to Washington County in Western Virginia in the month of September 1777, and in the month of February 1778 again entered the Service in said County of Washington, Virginia ... in a volunteer Company commanded by Captain Aaron Lewis.

Point C  February, 1778, Long Island on the Holston River, Tennessee, present day Kingsport, TN -- "Said Company belonged to a Regiment of Infantry who embodied at Long Island on Holston River commanded by Colonel Evan Shelby.

South Long Island, Kingsport, TN
source:  www.discoverkingsport.com

Point D  1778, Holston River at its junction with the Tennessee, present day Knoxville, TN -- "From Long Island on Holston the Army proceeded in canoes down Holston River to its junction with the Tennessee ... "

Holston and French Broad Rivers join in Knoxville to form the Tennessee River
source: www.Riverlorian.com

Point E 1778, Mouth of Chickamauga Creek, present day Chattanooga, TN -- " ... then down the Tennessee River to the Mouth of Chickamauga Creek, where we proceeded to destroy the encampments and provisions of a part of the Cherokee Indians, called Chickamaugas, but had no encounter with the Indians."

Chickamauga Creek, Chattanooga, TN
photo source: www.tnhistoryforkids.org

Point F and Point G October, 1778 to January, 1779, Powell Valley [There is a present day Powell Valley, TN and a Powell Valley, KY.  The state line between Tennessee and Kentucky may not have been widely known at the time of James' application] -- "About the first day of October 1778 again entered the service as a volunteer in the Company commanded by Captain Nathaniel Williams being a Company of Guards to reconnoiter the frontiers, and marched to Powels [sic Powell's] Valley in Kentucky and continued in service on the frontiers of Kentucky protecting the interior from the incursions of the hostile Indians until the month of January 1779."

Point H  April 1779 to October 1779, head of the New River, VA -- "Entered the service in Washington County, Virginia as Ensign in the Volunteer Company commanded by Captain William Edmondson.  ... said company reconnoitered as a company of discovery and guards on the frontiers of Washington, Virginia and on the head of New River, for the purpose of suppressing the disaffected and Tories."

New River in southwest Virginia
photo source: www.dgif.virginia.gov

Point I  October, 1779 [sic, 1780] at Watauga River, Carter County, Tennessee, present day site of Sycamore Shoals State Park -- " ... said Company joined the Regiment of volunteers commanded by Colonel William Campbell at Watauga River in what is now Carter or Sullivan County in the State of Tennessee ... "

Overmountain Men reenactment at Sycamore Shoals State Park, Elizabethton, TN
photo source: http://tnstateparks.com

Point J  1780, Battle of King's Mountain, NC / SC -- " ... from thence the Army were marched under the command of Colonel Campbell into the State of South Carolina [for] the defeat of the British and Tories at King's Mountain. ... from King's Mountain said Regiment returned home to Washington County and were discharged."

Monument at Kings Mountain National Military Park
photo source: Wikimedia Commons

Houston's return to Washington County apparently ended his military service.  His later life saw him playing various roles in the history of the young state of Tennessee, and that is definitely the subject for another post. 

(1)  "U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900," database and images. www.ancestry.com; citing Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.