Little Red Church in Peekskill NY

A little church sits pretty at a crossroads in NY state. It is a rare pre-revolutionary Church and the burial place of 54 revolutionary soldiers. The one-room frame church was dedicated in 1767.

During the Revolutionary War it was used as a shelter for soldiers and as a hospital for Continental and French soldiers.

My great7 grandparents, Richard Curry and Elizabeth Jones Curry, lived during the Revolution.  They resided in the politically diverse, wildly divided, Westchester County, NY. In the midst of the war, Richard and Elizabeth were senior citizens and they had already lived through much hardship.

When Richard was only twelve years old his father died. On the 5th of June 1722 the  Court proclaimed that Richard Curry, son of Richard Curry dec’d (who had just died the previous month), was to be bound unto Nathan Jones of Bedford until the age of 21. It is uncertain if Richard’s mother was still alive. It is possible that, as a widow, she could not feed and cloth her children and she was forced let her children go as indentured servants.

Richard’s new home with Nathan Jones would prove to be beneficial to his future. Nathan’s young, and I like to image extraordiarily beautiful, daughter was to eventually become Richard’s bride.  In approximately 1734 Richard and Elizabeth married in Bedford NY and they settled in the Cortlandt Manor/Peekskill area of NY.  According to Rev. Warriner’s book, Old Sands Street Methodist Episcopal Church, written in 1885:

About 1730, having married, he [Richard Curry]  took his young wife and all their effects, and, mounting themselves on a single horse, they rode northward into the almost unbroken forrests in the northern part of Westchester County, then still, occupied by the wild Algonquins. He located in the valley of Peekskill Creek, a few miles back from the Hudson, where he became an extensive land owner, reared a large family and died in 1806.

On Valentine’s Day, 1778, Elizabeth passed away.  Her daughter Martha, who I am descended from, died only 9 months later during childbirth. Elizabeth was buried in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Cortlandt Manor, Peekskill NY. It is possible that Martha might be as well.  Martha’s husband and their remaining children would leave NY as Loyalists and settle in what is now New Brunswick.

Richard Curry would live on for another 28 years. He did not leave with his son-in-law as a Loyalist.  If he did side with the Loyalists his age may have prevented him from attempting the long and arduous journey. He was 96 when he died and is buried alongside his wife.

Here is the idyllic little church and cemetery where the remains of Richard and Elizabeth Curry reside…

St.Peter’s Episcopal Church, Cortlandt Manor, Peekskill NY.

From Benson J. Lossing's "Pictoral Field Book of the Revolution", 1850

Lower Jemseg NB… and the Loyal Dykemans.

Deep in the heart of New Brunswick sits a pretty little Queen’s County location know as Jemseg.  It has a rich history thanks to it’s location on a prosperous trading river system.

In 1659 the first trading post was built in Jemseg by Col. Thomas Temple, Governor of Acadia and Nova Scotia.  This was a fortified post that allowed trade with the local Maliseet Indians and easy access to the thriving town that is today’s Saint John (by way of an efficient river system). In 1667 Acadia was returned to France and Temple left to settle in Boston. By this point the post was used for both trading and military control.  In 1674 the post was attacked and taken over by the Dutch, but their occupation only lasted several months before the Acadians reclaimed it.

In 1713 Acadia was turned over to the English for the last time and the British controlled the area once again. Many local Acadians  stayed on their land until 1758 when General Moncton burned the remaining Acadian farms of the Jemseg area and ensured that they left.

After 1758 and before 1783 a small handful of English families populated the Jemseg area. A few took over “abandoned” farms and shelters left by banished Acadians. The area was a rich agricultural source with an excellent river system to support the transport of their goods to neighbouring villages. It was an area just waiting for a population surge and the American Revolution provided that. In 1783 the Loyalists were expelled from America.

When those Loyalist came looking for a new home, the Jemseg area was an obvious choice. The Dykeman’s  knew good farming land and understood the importance of a deep and complex river system.

When Loyalist Gilbert Hatfield Dykeman came to the Maritimes with his parents he was 14 years old. Together they settled in Gagetown. Eleven years later, on July 10th, 1794, Gilbert married Dorcas Manzer who also came to Queen’s County as a Loyalist with her parents at the tender age of 6.

Together they choose to begin their married life in the rich agricultural land that Lower Jemseg had to offer. Extensive flat farming land backed onto the fertile riverbed and allowed for successful crops with accessible irrigation. There was a local school, started in early 1800’s  for the 6 future children they would have and the Anglican Church stood proudly at Gagetown just across the river (although the distance was significant, the river system allowed sufficient access).

By the 1820’s the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent Rev. Abraham Wood to the Jemseg area as a travelling pastor to the local pockets of population.  Where the St.James Anglican Church stands now an earlier Church was likely built around 1850 (the cemetery there has stones as early as 1850).

In fact one of the oldest burials at the site is that of Gilbert Hatfield Dykeman who died on  October 1st, 1851.  He is my great5 grandfather, a descendant of Dutch immigrants to New Amsterdam (in what is now Harlem NY). Gilbert shares his gravestone with his wife Dorcas who died almost 11 years later on August 1st, 1862.

The pretty stone Church that stands in Lower Jemseg today was built in 1887. Many  Dykemans would have been involved with the building of the new Church.  Today the Dykeman name is still predominant in Lower Jemseg. Two hundred and twenty-six years after they arrived as Loyalists they still live there, farm there, and worship there too. They came Loyal to the Crown and now they’re Loyal to their Home.

Stone of Gilbert H. Dykeman and wife Dorcas Manzer at St.James Anglican Church, Lower Jemseg NB

Dorcas Manzer, wife to Gilbert Hatfield Dykeman, on side of husband's stone at St.James Anglican Church Cemetery, Lower Jemseg NB

For pictures of St.James Church and individual stone shots check out the following rootsweb page: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~damery/QU/Camb-08/Camb-08.htm

St. John’s Episcopal Church: Place of Worship. Place of War.

On the 24th of August, 1753, a small newborn boy was baptized in Elizabethtown NJ. His name was James Hatfield and he was baptized in the St. John’s Episcopal Church… a Church founded by missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, from London England.

This Society was officially organized in 1701 by King William III. A Charter was issued that said the Anglican SPG was: “an organisation able to send priests and schoolteachers to America to help provide the Church’s ministry to the colonists”… and was later amended to add to it’s mandate: ” the evangelisation of slaves and Native Americans.”     By 1702 the first missionaries were sent to America. In 1706 St. John’s Episcopal Church in Elizabethtown NJ was built under the SPG’s guidance.

Forty-seven years later James Hatfield was born and was baptised in this Church.  During the Revolution St. John’s Episcopal Church was occupied by the British Army calvary. At the age of 23 James joined the British Army and acted as a guide, according to tradition, in almost every expedition in New Jersey. It is easy to picture him often in the local British headquarters… what was once his local Church. By the end of the war the St. John’s Episcopal Church was turned over to the hands of the Rebels under the leadership of George Washington. Today this Church is considered a US Army Historic Site.

But James Hatfield did not grovel to Washington. Instead he chose to remain loyal to the King. He set sail for Shelburne Nova Scotia, with his family, in 1783 as a United Empire Loyalist. There he worked as a lumber surveyor and eventually left Shelburne in the summer of 1785 and settled in Tusket River NS.

At the age of 53, or thereabouts, James passed away. His daughter Phoebe, my great5 grandmother, was likely born the same year the Rebels took over the Elizabethtown Episcopal Church under Washington’s leadership (1780). As a precocious three year old she would have traveled the seas to the new land of Nova Scotia, no doubt wide-eyed with wonder! Perhaps her earliest memories would be on that ship… waiting to dock in a new land, a new home.

A Little Chapel in Yorkshire

Always elusive, the Fisher’s have not been an easy family to find. But earlier last month I was able to locate my great great Grandfather, John Marshall Fisher & his wife Charlotte, along with most of their children, on the 1901 British National Census.

What a decadent source of information. I learned the ages of John Marshall (44) & Charlotte (34) in 1901, which in turn indicated their birth year. I learned where they were born and how they made their living (John worked in a Chemical Works plant).  I was also able to confirm that they were neither lunatic, imbecile nor feeble-minded (phew!).

But one of the more interesting things I learned (and this is something often overlooked) was the discovery of their home address and the neighbours that surrounded them.

In 1901 John & Charlotte and five of their six children (twins would come later) lived in 4  Cookson’s Cottage, Whitley Bridge, Yorkshire, West Riding. Their oldest son, John Marshall jr., worked and lived on a neighbouring farm about a mile and a half away (also found in the 1901 census).

4 Cookson’s Cottage was beside the local almshouse. Their neighbours in the almshouse were the widow Jane Cooper, age 73, widow Sarah Hepworth, aged 80 & a 63 year old bachelor, George Harrison.  Also, just a few buildings down from them was a Wesleyan Chapel (listed next to 1 Cookson’s Cottage in the Census).

The presence of this Chapel is an important clue. Time may have erased the Cookson’s Cottages, but a chapel has a better chance of surviving the ages. And even if the Chapel is gone, the local archives probably have a record of where it was. And if I can find the Chapel location, then I know that John and Charlotte were only steps away.

The Census also indicated that Whitley Bridge was in the Ecclesiastical Parish of Kellington. In 1868 someone wrote this about the parish :

“KELLINGTON: …The parish is noted for its superior breed of sheep and short-horned cattle, also the quality of its barley for malting purposes. The soil is a light sandy loam. A canal passes through the parish to Goole. The village, which is of considerable antiquity, at one time belonged to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of York, value £300, in the patronage of Trinity College, Cambridge. The church, dedicated to St. Edmund, is an ancient structure, with a low, square, western tower containing three bells. In the churchyard is an ancient stone with a cross rudely sculptured. The parochial charities produce about £5 per annum. The Wesleyans have a chapel. Earl Cathcart is the principal landowner.” (GEN UKI).

I have yet to sort out the religion of the Fishers. Likely they were Anglican, and if that is the case then there may be records of marriage and birth at the St.Edmund Church in Kellington. But there is a chance that the Fisher’s may have attended this Wesleyan Chapel a few doors down. Perhaps they joined the widows Jane & Sarah and old George for the walk to Church on Sunday morning.

The floating Church lands in Harlem

Not all Churches are tethered to the ground.

On the 12th of October 1662 the Purmerland Church floated out to sea, leaving Amsterdam for the promising shores of America.  Benjamin Bartense was the ship’s captain and going along for the ride were my ancestors Isaac Vermeille, his wife, Jacomina Jacobs and their four adult children (including son Johannes, also in my direct line). They each paid 39 florins for the trip.

Ther Vermeille’s were used to moving. Isaac was likely born a foreigner in London, UK, moved to Leyden, Holland (before August 1629), moved to Manheim (after 1637), returned to Leyden only to sail off to America in 1662.  It is believed that Isaac may have been a Walloon from Belgium whose family escaped persecution by going to London (where Isaac was probably born).

The ship that left for America was called “Purmerland Church”. It was a haven, a place of religious freedom, and it was guided by the hand of God. It was God who would deliver them across the ocean to a new homestead, where they could practice their faith in the way the believed they should. It only makes sense that they would call their ship, their Church.

Once they landed in America in February 1663 they settled in what is now Harlem NY. They were immediately embroiled in a war with the Indians. The Indians of the Esopus tribe attacked the area on June 7th, 1663. They burned farms,  killed 12 men, 4 women and 3 children.  Also, four women and six children went missing. It was not a warm welcoming to the area. Immediately following this massacre, 40 local men were formed into militia companies. Isaac Vermeille was one of these men. He was issued a musquet for the purpose of being a local protector.

In 1665 Isaac Vermeille’s name is listed as a member of the Church at New Harlem. This is the oldest  Church in Harlem NY and it survives today as the Elmendorf Reformed Church. The original building was erected during the winter of 1665, at what is now the corner of First Avenue and 127th Street, Harlem NY. This  means that Isaac and his family were original members of this earliest Church. Rev. Hendick jansen Van Der Vim was the Pastor of this Church between the years 1664-1684.

January 2009. And the theme is…

The many family Churches of our history.

Anyone who ever attended Sunday School knows that the Church is not the building, but the people who gather under it’s roof.  The people have come and gone, but many of the buildings still stand.  Some of the people still stand out in history, too.

On 25 January 1826 Phoebe Beyea and Richard Smith were married at St. Pauls Parish Church, Hampton, NB by the Reverend James Cookson. Phoebe’s brother, a carpenter named James Beyea, had helped to build that very Church.

However, it was the man who married them that we will discuss here. James Cookson attended Cambridge University in England and was ordained for the Church on 17 December 1809 by the Bishop of Winchester.  The Reverend James Cookson wanted to be a missionary. A copy of the minutes of the Venerable Society of the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,  19 March 1819, can be found at the National Archives of Canada, in Ottawa. It expresses the following:

“A letter from the Rev. James Cookson, expressing a wish to be employed as a Missionary in the Service of the Society and Requesting the appointment to the Mission at Hampton, New Brunswick, and his testimonial produced, signed by three beneficed clergymen and countersigned by the Bishop of the Diocese,

“Agreed to adopt Mr. Cookson and to appoint him to the Mission of Hampton, N.B., with a salary of 200 Ibs and 100 Ibs in aid of the expenses of his voyage.”

Rev. Cookson arrived in NB on 14 June 1819 after a “tedious and tempestuous” ship voyage (which he expressed in his letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury on 19 July 1819).

James was appointed as Reverend to the St.Pauls Parish Church in Hampton and he preached his first sermon on 27 June 1819. The sermon was based on the scripture passage, Luke 15:10: “likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”

During James’ leadership the average Sunday attendance at the Church was 300. He also ministered to other local Churches and worked closely with Rev. Scovil, from Kingston, NB. After ten years, in 1829, he resigned from St. Pauls Church.

In 1848 James’ wife, Mary, died and was buried at Church of the Ascension, Lower Norton, NB. Three years later James decided to head home to England and stay with his two sisters.  He died on the Isle of Guernsey on 31 August 1857.

But on a cold wintery Wednesday my two great great great great grandparents declared their love in front of God, their friends and family and Rev. James Cookson. And that makes him part of our family history.

*for more information on James Cookson and family see: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cookson/HistoryJessieCookson.html

ps. Happy Birthday to Gramma.

The final Anniversary posting on the day of my Anniversary!

December is here and snow is here. We’re on the eve of the storm of the week, about to hit at any moment, so in the calm before the storm I thought I’d take a moment and remember those who came before us.  Here are the following ancestors who were wed during the chilly but cozy month of Jesus’ birth:

• Peter Levally & Elizabeth Yabsley: 3 December 1727
• John Odell & Joan Bingley: 5 December 1603
• John Yabsley & Susanna Andrews: 9 December 1703
• Stephen Hurlburt & Phoebe Dickenson: 12 December 1678
• Kevin Langille & Sarah Fisher: 19 December 1997
• John Beyea & Lydia Mosher: 27 December 1846
• Henry Burt & Eulalia March: 28 December1619

On the first day of the new year in 1847, the Saint John  newspaper, Weekly Chronicle, reported the following bit of news:

m. 27th inst., by Rev. Francis, John BEYEA / Miss Lydia MOSHER, both of Hampton parish (Kings Co.)

This little genealogical gem is solid proof of the marriage date of my great great great grandparents: 27th of December 1846. The  information of the name of the officiant is just an added bonus.

Newspapers are an extraordinary source of wealth to a genealogist. It not only lists  birth dates, marriage dates and death dates but may also give us snippets of character as well.  When Lydia passed away, 45 years after she married John, the May 21, 1892, Saint John Daily Telegraph reported the following:

Lydia L. BEYEA wife of John BEYEA died at Hampton (Kings Co.) 19th. It was unexpected to all her friends as she was smart and active within a few days of her death; but the grippe having set in with heart disease, carried her away very suddenly. Seven years ago she was baptized by Rev. E.K. Ganong and joined the first Hampton Baptist Church. The deceased leaves a husband, six children and a large number of grandchildren.

This is full of great information beyond a simple confirmation of dates. We learn that Lydia died unexpectedly and we learn the cause of her death. We learn about where she was when she died. We learn about her character (smart and active). We learn about an important event in her life (adult baptism) and the officiant who was there. We learn the name of her home church and that she has six surviving children and many descendants. We are told that her husband is still alive so we can confirm that he died after this date.

Lydia was 64 years old when she died. This is not confirmed by the newspaper but I do have her birthdate as 19 July 1827 (her tombstone lists her birth year).  Exactly 113 years after Lydia died (May 19th) my youngest daughter Bridget was born. Exactly 11 years ago tonight (December 19th) I married Bridget’s (and her older sister, Grace’s) Daddy, Kevin Peter Langille (born 26 February 1971).  A fitting day to submit the final post for the Year of Anniversaries!

God bless you all this holiest of seasons! “See” you in the New Year!

November: Though Death Divides…

• Robert Burdick & Ruth Hubbard: 2 November 1655
• Ian Bosch & Wilhelmina Voight: 3 November 1624
• Diderick Bosch & Marie Schubring: 8 November 1574
• Gerard Spencer & Alice Whitebread: 10 November 1600
• Joseph Clarke & Bethiah Hubbard: 16 November 1664
• David Winchell & Elizabeth Filley: 18 November 1669
• Israel Porter & Elizabeth Hathorne: 20 November 1672
• Ebenezer Porter & Sarah Raymond: 20 November 1760
• Thomas Hatfield & Alice Ebel: 27 November 1671
• James Henry Beyea & Phoebe Sophia Smith: 29 November 1875
• John Marshall Fisher & Barbara Ann Brice: 29 November 1969

Today ( November 29th) is my parent’s 39th wedding anniversary… a beautiful sunshiny November day. It is also my great great grandparent’s 133rd wedding anniversary. They were married 94 years apart. Here is what I know of Phoebe Sophia (Smith) & James Henry Beyea.

James was born on November 19th, 1952, in Smithtown NB.  His parents were Lydia (Mosher) and John Beyea.  He was became a carpenter, like his father and grandfather (also James Beyea) before him. He was the oldest son of six siblings: two older sisters, Annie Eliza and Mary Elizabeth and 3 younger siblings, John Edwin, Martha Matilda and William Allan.

James married Phoebe Sophia Smith, the local midwife, daughter of deacon James Smith (deacon of the Smithtown United Baptist Church) and his late wife Dorcas Manzer (Dykeman).

James & Phoebe had three children: Mary Florence (known as Mayme or Mae), Elizabeth Mosher (known as Libby) and William Henry (known as Harry).  It seems that James and Phoebe liked nicknames.

When Harry, my great grandfather, was born in 1888, his eldest sister was 11 years old and second born sister was 5. There is a good chance that there were more than three pregnancies throughout those 11 years but none are recorded as lost, or born and died young. Phoebe, herself, was the local midwife and would have experienced the many joys and trajedies of birth and death, her own included.  Only 4 years before her marriage to James, Phoebe’s own mother died in childbirth at the age of 39. There is a good chance that Phoebe might have been the midwife to her mother and certainly would have helped raise her new little sister after the loss of her Mom. This new little sister to Phoebe was named Dorcas, after her mother, and she went on to survive adulthood and have four children of her own.

James and Phoebe, sometime in the early years of the new century, ventured to Boston MA to find carpentry work. Their daughter May and her husband George went with them. Harry, who was single at the time also went. It is uncertain if Libby and her husband came along as well.  They returned to the Lakeside area of New Brunswick in 1913 along with my great grandfather and his new wife, Annie Elizabeth Barr, whom he met and married in Boston. Annie was a Nova Scotia girl, living in Boston, about to raise a New Brunswick family. My grandmother was their second youngest daughter.

In 1927, only days before her 71st birthday Phoebe Sophia died. She had gone almost entirely blind in her later years. Her oldest daughter had adopted 2 children: Phyllis and Frank, and her youngest daughter was pregnant with what would be her only child: Barbara Jane (Nichols). Harry had 6 surviving children. Their youngest, at the time of Phoebe Sophia’s death, was 5 year old Ewilda Elizabeth, my grandmother.

James passed way 3 1/2 years after his wife, on February 1st, 1931, with complications from pneumonia. They are both buried at the Baptist Churchyard in Smithtown NB.  Their stone was purchased from a catalogue company (possibly Eatons). Today it broken in 3 parts and lists only the name Beyea, (now hidden on the base stone).  It leaves us with the parting words: “Though Death Divides, Fond Memory Clings”.

James Henry Beyea & Phoebe Sophia (Smith)

October

I returned, this month, from the heart of my ancestral homeland: New Brunswick.

Thank you to Clara Wanamaker and her daughter Beth for sharing the research that they have done and the fabulous pictures they have inherited. It was so very wonderful to see a picture of my great great grandmother, Bethelda Hannah Gavel Barr, that wasn’t the size of a locket shot.

Thank you to Ron Dykeman who toured us around the early Dykeman settlement… showed us the original land where Loyalist Garrett Dykeman and his wife Eunice Hatfield settled. We stood on the shore of Dykeman Lake and enjoyed the feeling of historic family tranquility, surrounded by autumn splendour. Ron’s aunt also shared, with us, many family stories and much of her family research.

The maritime generosity and friendliness of these people made me proud to have a New Brunswick heritage!

I have decided, because I have so much time (I hope you hear the sarcasm dripping), that I will be writing a novelized history of my New Brunswick Loyalists grandparents… specifically, James Beyea & Martha Curry Sherwood, Richard Bull & Jemima Budd Bull, Isaiah James Smith & Joanna Davis, Garrett Dykeman & Eunice Hatfield. I will fill you in on my progress as the months continue. My aim is to have it complete by my parent’s 40th Anniversary (which will be November 29th, 2009).

Speaking of anniversaries, here’s the October list:

• William Doty & Elinor Sauchee: 1 October 1761
• Edward Waldene & Mary Hunt: 3 October 1574
• Nathaniel Raymond & Martha Balch: 3 October 1735
• Timothy Hurlburt & Sarah Clark: 5 October 1757 
• John Clarke & Catherine Cooke: 12 October 1567
• (Deacon) John Gavel & Phoebe Hatfield: 16 October 1799
• William Brooks & Mary Burt: 18 October 1654
• Henry Best & Grace Boithes: 23 October 1577
• James Smith & Dorcas Manzer Dykeman: 25 October 1853
• Henry Best & Margarita Maud: 26 October 1552
• Samuel Balch & Martha Newmarch: 27 October 1675
• John Nason & Elizabeth Rogers: 28 October 1600
• Richard Sabin & Mary Elizabeth Busche: 29 October 1608
• Mark Batchelder & Mary Fantinge: 30 October 1598

I had the priviledge this month of visiting the gravesite of James Smith & Dorcas Manzer Dykeman, who were married on the 25th of October 1853. They were married in the Cambridge Parish, quite possibly in St.James Anglican Church, Lower Jemseg, where Dorcas was born. The lived in Smithtown, where James was born and raised, and had 8 children: James, Phoebe Sophia (my great great grandmother, Clara Amelia, Rachel Susanna (died as an infant), Barnet, Albert, Herbert, and Dorcas Rebecca.  James & Dorcas were married for 17 1/2 years until the early death of Dorcas at age 39. She died 7 days after the birth of their daughter, Dorcas Rebecca Smith. This little baby survied to adulthood, married and had 4 children of her own. Her youngest was named Wilda Helen, born 15 January 1906. My grandmother was named Ewilda… I’m curious about that connection, but I digress…

Dorcas and James were buried in the picturesque Smithtown Baptist Church cemetery. I will leave you with the picture of their stone. It’s abit hard to read, so here’s what it says:

In memory of

James Smith

1827-1892

his wife

Dorcas M.

1832-1871

thier daughter

Rachel S.

1860-1861

September… just under the wire.

 September anniversaries:

• Baltus Berentsen Van Kleek & (Ca)Tryntje Jans Buys: September 1676
• Edmund Lockwood & Alice Cowper: 3 September 1591
• Daniel de Tourneur & Jacqueline Parisis: 5 September 1650
• William Henry Beyea & Annie Elizabeth Beyea: 6 September 1911
• Johannes Bosch & Rossina Niemeyer: 8 September 1490
• Robert Barr & Hepzibeth Doty: 10 September 1807
• Sgt. Thomas Spencer & Sarah Bearding: 11 September 1645
• Richard Odell & Elizabeth Pierce: 15 September 1565
• Cornelis Hendricks Buys & Hendrickje Jansdr Damen: 16 September 1628
• Edward Camp & Grace Mott: 21 September 1615
• Jeremiah Sabin & Mary Abbot: 23 September 1724
• William Sherwood & Margaret Spalding: 25 September 1545

Well I’m squeaking this one in, just under the wire! It’s been a month of illness, house renovations, appliance breakdowns, and numerous other “hiccups” that I can use as excuses for my last minute posting… Good new is, I have one week until I take the girls with me to the ancestral homeland of New Brunswick (lots of packing yet to do!) and I just spent this past weekend at a dear friend’s wedding (a lovely water’s edge ceremony!).  Speaking of weddings, this months ‘celebrity’ couple are Edward Camp & Grace Mott.

An older Edward and twenty-two year old Grace Mott were married on the 21st of September 1615 at St. Margaret’s, Hunsdon, Essex Co., UK.

Edward was born and christened 7.7 miles away the All Saints Church in Nazeing UK.  In 1610 he purchased a house in St. Margaret’s, 2 miles south of Hunsdon, which he named “The Gate House” and five years later he married Grace in St. Margaret’s.

Their marriage and life didn’t slow down from there. Edward was a hard working blacksmith. It is rumoured they had the smithy right in their house. I can envision Grace doing a lot of dusting and laundry, trying to keep the blacksmith effects off their clothes and furniture.

In Edward’s senior years (in the 1650’s) he became a Quaker and held secret meetings in his barn. Perhaps he was influence by his eldest son, Edward Jr.,  who is rumoured to have left England to escape religious persecution. America was a much more  Quaker friendly destination and many Camp’s found there today come from the line of Edward Jr (the son that I am also a descendant of).

Edward Sr.’s clandestine Quaker meetings did not go unnoticed. He was caught in 1661 (possibly at the age of 86) and was imprisioned, in Hertford Gaol, with 7 other Quakers.

If I have the dates right (and there is some question about this) Edward lived to be 107 years old. Grace died sometime after 1633… perhaps as young as forty… likely long before her husband became a Quaker, had hidden barn meetings, and was arrested as a religious dissenter.

Next month I will talk a little bit about the NB trip. I plan on a full day of cemetary hoping with some gravestone photography… always a good time! And I have a date with my grandmother’s cousin to talk about family history! I can’t wait!