Tag: Vermont

Lucy L. Wellington Wakefield (1801–1879)

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Land recordsLeave a comment

A Vermont mother on the Michigan lumber frontier

Lucy L. Wellington was born in Vermont in 1801, the daughter of Josiah Wellington and Polly Hutchinson. She grew up in Braintree and Randolph in Orange County and married James Wakefield there on 14 December 1820.¹

Their marriage began a family that would span the entire period of New England’s westward migration. Their first children were born in Vermont: George W. Wakefield (1821), Calvin Wakefield (1822), and Jefferson Wakefield (1823). They were followed by Matilda Wakefield (1825) and Luther Wakefield (1826). After a move within Orange County to Randolph, Lucy gave birth to Mary Jane Wakefield (1831), Jasper Wakefield (1833), Augusta Wakefield (1835), Levay Wakefield (1840), and Dana A. Wakefield (1842).² By the time the youngest child was born, Lucy had spent more than twenty years raising a large household in the hill towns of Vermont.

The family remained in Randolph through the 1850 census, but about 1855 Lucy and James joined the movement of many Orange County families to the Saginaw Valley of Michigan, settling in Albee Township.³

The Civil War years brought losses that touched Lucy directly. Her son Levay died in 1862, and her son Dana A. Wakefield died in 1864 while in service in Georgia.⁴

In April 1864, at more than sixty years of age, Lucy made a homestead entry at the United States Land Office in East Saginaw for 120 acres in Section 11 of Grant Township, Iosco County.⁵ Testimony preserved in the later federal land case established that she lived on this tract, built a house, cleared land, and planted an orchard.⁶ The Wakefield farm was remembered locally many years later as a well-known place in the township.

From the land record held at NARA for Lucy Wakefield.

Lucy participated in the development of the community. On 23 December 1868 she signed a petition in support of aid for the Tawas City and Plank Road Company, a project intended to connect the interior settlements with the Lake Huron shore.⁷ In 1870 she was enumerated in Grant Township with her daughter and son-in-law.⁸

Local and land ownership sources associate her property with the Sand Lake Hotel on the State Road. While the federal records describe her as a homesteader, her household stood at a recognized location in a lumbering township where travelers and workers moved between the interior and the shore.⁹

On 3 August 1876 Lucy wrote her will in Grant Township, bringing to a close more than a decade on the homestead she had established in her sixties.¹⁰

She died on 1 June 1879 in Albee Township, Saginaw County, at the age of seventy-eight. The cause of death was consumption.¹¹ In the 1880 mortality schedule she appears as a widowed woman, born in Vermont, whose final residence was in Michigan.¹²

Lucy’s life began in the settled farming towns of Vermont and ended on the edge of the Michigan lumber frontier. Between those two places she raised eleven children, buried two sons lost in the Civil War era, and, in her later years, established a working homestead in a newly opened township.

Children of James and Lucy (Wellington) Wakefield

  • George W. Wakefield, born 7 June 1821, Vermont
  • Calvin Wakefield, born 15 January 1822, Vermont
  • Jefferson Wakefield, born 3 February 1823 – died 1905
  • Matilda Wakefield, born 10 February 1825
  • Luther Wakefield, born 11 October 1826 – died 1895
  • Mary Jane Wakefield, born 10 April 1831 – died 1888
  • Jasper Wakefield, born 6 December 1833 – died 1915
  • Augusta Wakefield, born 7 September 1835 – died 1899
  • Levay Wakefield, born 12 October 1840 – died 8 February 1862
  • Dana A. Wakefield, born 1 May 1842 – died 14 May 1864

Sources

  1. Vermont vital and town records; marriage of James Wakefield and Lucy Wellington, Braintree, 14 December 1820.
  2. Vermont vital records and compiled family histories for Wakefield family births.
  3. 1850 U.S. census, Randolph, Orange County, Vermont; Saginaw County settlement information.
  4. Military death information for Levay Wakefield and Dana A. Wakefield.
  5. U.S. General Land Office, homestead entry, Lucy Wakefield, East Saginaw Land Office, April 1864.
  6. Department of the Interior land case file, witness testimony describing residence, buildings, and orchard on the Wakefield homestead.
  7. Petition supporting aid to the Tawas City and Plank Road Company, Grant Township, 23 December 1868.
  8. 1870 U.S. census, Grant Township, Iosco County, Michigan.
  9. Iosco County early land ownership compilations and local historical sources identifying the Wakefield property with the Sand Lake Hotel site.
  10. Iosco County, Michigan, will of Lucy Wakefield, 3 August 1876.
  11. Michigan death record, Lucy Wakefield, 1 June 1879, Albee Township, Saginaw County; cause of death: consumption.
  12. 1880 U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule, Saginaw County, Michigan.

Mary Jane Wakefield Stiles (1831 – before 1888)

On By NancyIn Ancestor ProfileLeave a comment

Mary Jane Wakefield was born 10 April 1831 in Randolph, Orange County, Vermont, the daughter of James Wakefield and Lucy L. Wellington.¹ She grew up in a Vermont family that was later divided by westward migration and by the Civil War, in which two of her brothers, Levay and Dana Wakefield, died in Union service.²

She married Wilbur F. Stiles on 15 June 1850 in Roxbury, Washington County, Vermont.³ By about 1851 their first child, Edward Eugene Stiles, was born in Michigan, marking the beginning of the family’s move west, although their daughter Emma Mae Stiles was born in Braintree, Vermont, in 1854.⁴ By 1858 they were again in Michigan, and in 1861 they were living in Albee Township, Saginaw County, where two of their young sons, Ervin and David, died.⁵

In 1864 Mary Jane’s mother purchased land near Sand Lake in Iosco County and established a household there.⁶ By 1870 Mary Jane and her children were living in Grant Township, Iosco County.

On 21 May 1870 her husband died there by suicide, having swallowed poison.⁷ He was recorded in the 1870 mortality schedule, and a notice in the Jackson Citizen reported the death of “William Stiles” near Sand Lake, ten miles west of Tawas City — a location that corresponds to the family’s residence.⁸ The mortality schedule and the Iosco County death record identify him as Wilbur (or Wilber), confirming the identity.⁹

When the 1870 census was taken, Mary Jane appeared as head of household in Grant Township. She was forty years old, born in Vermont, and keeping house. In the home were three of her children: Edward Eugene, working on the farm; Emma; and six-year-old William. Also living with them was George Lawhead, a twenty-five-year-old farm laborer born in New York. The family held real estate valued at $200, and the post office was listed as Tawas.¹⁰

By 1880 Mary Jane had returned to Albee Township, Saginaw County, where she was enumerated as head of household, a widow born in Vermont with both parents also born in Vermont.¹¹ In the previous year she had lost both of her parents.¹²

Her daughter Emma Mae died in Saginaw County on 6 April 1886.¹³ Mary Jane herself died sometime before 1888, when she no longer appears in the records.

Sources

  1. Vermont Vital Records, 1720–1908, birth of Mary Jane Wakefield, Randolph, Orange County, Vermont.
  2. U.S. Civil War service and death records for Levay Wakefield and Dana A. Wakefield.
  3. Vermont marriage record, Roxbury, Washington County, 15 June 1850, Wilbur F. Stiles and Mary Jane Wakefield.
  4. Birth records and later census records for Edward Eugene Stiles; Vermont vital record for Emma Mae Stiles, Braintree, 11 May 1854.
  5. Michigan death and burial records for Ervin Stiles (1861); David F. Stiles deceased before the 1870 census; residence in Albee Township, Saginaw County.
  6. Iosco County land purchase by Lucy L. Wellington, 1864.
  7. 1870 U.S. mortality schedule, Iosco County, Michigan, entry for Wilbur (Wilber) Stiles; Michigan death record, Iosco County.
  8. Jackson Citizen, 31 May 1870, notice of the suicide of “William Stiles” near Sand Lake.
  9. Correlation of mortality schedule and county death record identifying the deceased as Wilbur Stiles.
  10. 1870 U.S. census, Grant Township, Iosco County, Michigan, household of Mary Stiles.
  11. 1880 U.S. census, Albee Township, Saginaw County, Michigan, Mary J. Stiles.
  12. Death records for James Wakefield and Lucy L. Wellington, 1879.
  13. Michigan death record, Emma Mae Stiles, 6 April 1886, Saginaw County.

Eliza Smith Stiles: Land, Marriage, and Provision for Old Age in Northfield, Vermont

On By NancyIn Ancestor ProfileLeave a comment

Eliza Smith was born 2 April 1805 in Brookfield, Orange County, Vermont, the daughter of Abraham Smith and Abigail Blanchard.¹ Her life can be followed through a series of land and vital records that document her movement from daughter, to wife and mother, and finally to a woman whose support in old age was secured by a formal legal agreement.

She married David Stiles Jr. at Brookfield on 12 April 1826.² Their known children included Wilbur F. Stiles, born in 1827, and Sarah M. Stiles, born about 1831.³ By 1836 Eliza and her husband were living in Northfield, Washington County, where her father conveyed land directly to her in her married name.

In that deed, dated 1 February 1836, Abraham Smith of Brookfield granted to “Eliza Stiles of Northfield” one-third of a two-hundred-acre lot. The conveyance specified that the land was for Eliza and “her descendants of her body forever,” and that neither she nor “David her now husband” were to be displaced during their lifetimes. If she left no descendants, the property was to pass to the heirs of her brothers and sisters.⁴ This transfer placed the land in Eliza’s own legal control and established a line of inheritance through her children.

Excerpt of the land transaction between Abraham Smith and his daughter Eliza Smith Stiles as found in the deed book in Northfield, Vermont.

By 23 March 1840 Eliza had married her second husband, Edmund B. Glidden.⁵ The record of her son Wilbur’s land transactions in 1850 provides the clearest evidence that she was still living at that time and had remarried. On 12 October 1850 Wilbur sold land that had been “deeded me this day by Edmund Glidden & Eliza Glidden his wife,” explicitly identifying Eliza under her second married name and confirming her residence in Northfield.⁶

That same day, Wilbur entered into a separate bond in which he obligated himself to support “my said Mother Eliza Glidden during her natural life.” The agreement required him to provide suitable food, clothing, nursing during sickness, and, at her death, “a decent Christian burial and suitable grave stones.”⁷ In exchange, a mortgage secured the performance of these conditions. This document establishes both the mother–son relationship and the arrangement made for Eliza’s care in later life.

From the deed book in Northfield, Vermont

These transactions form a clear chain of property:

  • land granted by Abraham Smith to his daughter Eliza in 1836;
  • land conveyed by Edmund and Eliza Glidden to her son Wilbur in 1850;
  • Wilbur’s mortgage and bond for his mother’s lifetime support in the same year.

Through these records Eliza appears successively as daughter, wife, and mother, each role defined in legal terms.

Eliza was enumerated in the 1850 and 1860 censuses at Northfield in the household of Edmund Glidden.⁸ By 1870 she was living in Vernon, Tolland County, Connecticut, before returning to Northfield by 1880, where she again appears as Edmund’s wife.⁹ Edmund Glidden died at Northfield on 26 June 1884.¹⁰

Eliza died at Northfield on 28 October 1889 at the age of eighty-four years, six months, and twenty-six days. Her death record gives her name as Eliza Stiles, with her maiden name Smith in parentheses, and identifies her parents as Abraham Smith and Abigail Blanchard. The informant was her daughter, Sarah.¹¹ The use of the surname Stiles in the record created by her child reflects the name under which she had first established her household and borne her children.

The records of her life document the continuity of property and family across two marriages and into the next generation. From the land granted to her by her father in 1836, to the 1850 agreement that secured her maintenance in old age, Eliza Smith Stiles can be followed in the legal transactions that defined her place within her family and community.

Sources

  1. Vermont, Vital Records, 1720–1908, Brookfield, birth of Eliza Smith, 2 April 1805.
  2. Vermont, Vital Records, 1720–1908, Brookfield, marriage of David Stiles Jr. and Eliza Smith, 12 April 1826.
  3. 1850 U.S. census, Washington County, Vermont, population schedule, Northfield, household of Edmund Glidden; 1860 U.S. census, Washington County, Vermont, population schedule, Northfield, household of Edmund Glidden.
  4. Orange County, Vermont, Land Records, deed of Abraham Smith to Eliza Stiles, 1 February 1836; transcription in author’s possession.
  5. Vermont, Vital Records, 1720–1908, marriage of Edmund B. Glidden and Eliza Stiles, 23 March 1840.
  6. Washington County, Vermont, Land Records, deed of Edmund Glidden and Eliza Glidden to Wilbur F. Stiles, and deed of Wilbur F. Stiles to Isaac P. Jenks, 12 October 1850; transcription in author’s possession.
  7. Washington County, Vermont, Land Records, bond of Wilbur F. Stiles for the support of his mother Eliza Glidden, 12 October 1850; transcription in author’s possession.
  8. 1850 U.S. census, Washington County, Vermont, population schedule, Northfield, household of Edmund Glidden; 1860 U.S. census, Washington County, Vermont, population schedule, Northfield, household of Edmund Glidden.
  9. 1870 U.S. census, Tolland County, Connecticut, population schedule, Vernon; 1880 U.S. census, Washington County, Vermont, population schedule, Northfield, household of Edmund Glidden.
  10. Vermont, Vital Records, 1720–1908, Northfield, death of Edmund B. Glidden, 26 June 1884.
  11. Vermont, Vital Records, 1720–1908, Northfield, death of Eliza Stiles, 28 October 1889.

Emma Mae Stiles (1854–1886)

On By NancyIn Ancestor ProfileLeave a comment

Emma Mae Stiles was born 11 May 1854 in Braintree, Orange County, Vermont, the daughter of Wilbur F. Stiles and Mary Jane Wakefield.¹ By 1858 the family had moved to Michigan, where her brother Ervin was born in Davison, Genesee County.² Within a few years they were settled in Saginaw County, the place that would remain associated with Emma for the rest of her life.

On 22 January 1866 Emma appeared before the Saginaw County Board of Supervisors and was paid $1.70 in witness fees, along with her father, Wilbur F. Stiles, and her brother Eugene.³ She was about eleven years old. This entry places her in Saginaw County at that date and shows her participating in a county court proceeding with other members of her family.

Emma married George Washington Lawhead on 31 January 1869 in Albee Township, Saginaw County.⁴

The following year brought a major change. Her father, Wilbur F. Stiles, died in May 1870 in Grant Township, Iosco County. The 1870 mortality schedule records his occupation as carpenter, his birthplace as New York, and the cause of death as suicide by poison.⁵ In the same year Emma and her husband were enumerated in Grant Township, where members of the Stiles family had gone as part of the movement into Michigan’s lumbering region.⁶

Emma became the mother of three children. Her daughter Margaret Jane Lawhead was born 2 July 1872.⁷ A son, Renaldo, was born 16 August 1877 in Albee Township and died there on 14 October 1877.⁸ Her youngest child, Effie M. Lawhead, was born 26 July 1879 in Albee Township.⁹

In 1880 Emma was living in Albee Township with her husband and daughters Margaret and Effie.¹⁰

Emma Mae (Stiles) Lawhead died 6 April 1886 in Saginaw County at the age of thirty-one.¹¹ No burial place has been identified.

Her life spans the migration of her family from Vermont to mid-nineteenth-century Michigan, her childhood in Saginaw County, the move north to Iosco County at the time of her father’s death, and her return to Albee Township, where she spent her married years and where her children were born.

Sources

  1. Birth date and place from Michigan death record of Emma Mae Lawhead, 1886.
  2. Birth of Ervin Stiles, 19 May 1858, Davison, Genesee County, Michigan.
  3. Saginaw Courier, proceedings of the Saginaw County Board of Supervisors, 22 January 1866; witness fees for W. F. Stiles, Emma Stiles, and Eugene Stiles.
  4. Saginaw County, Michigan, marriage record, George W. Lawhead and Emma M. Stiles, 31 January 1869.
  5. 1870 U.S. mortality schedule, Grant Township, Iosco County, Michigan, Wilbur Stiles; cause of death “suicide by poison.”
  6. 1870 U.S. census, Grant Township, Iosco County, Michigan, George W. Lawhead household.
  7. Birth of Margaret Jane Lawhead, 2 July 1872, Michigan.
  8. Birth and death of Renaldo Lawhead, Albee Township, Saginaw County, Michigan, 1877.
  9. Birth of Effie M. Lawhead, 26 July 1879, Albee Township, Saginaw County, Michigan.
  10. 1880 U.S. census, Albee Township, Saginaw County, Michigan, George W. Lawhead household.
  11. Michigan death record, Emma Mae Lawhead, 6 April 1886.

The Josiah of New Braintree

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Brick WallLeave a comment

A Tempting but Unproven Identification

The Josiah Many Trees Attach

A large number of online family trees identify my ancestor, Josiah Willington (husband of Polly Hutchinson), as the son of Josiah Willington and Susanna Stearns. This identification almost always rests on a single individual: the child described in Bond’s History of Watertown as “Josiah of New Braintree,” the only known child of Josiah Willington (b. 1745) and Susanna Stearns, who died in 1766.¹

At first glance, this seems appealing. The name matches. The time period overlaps. And “New Braintree” is geographically plausible within a Massachusetts–Vermont migration pattern. But genealogy is not built on plausibility alone.

What Bond Actually Says

Bond is careful, and his wording matters. He identifies Josiah Willington, born April 4, 1745, son of Thomas Willington and Margaret Stone, who married Susanna Stearns. Susanna died in 1766. Bond then lists one child, identified only as “Josiah of New Braintree.”²

Bond does not provide a birth date for that child, nor a marriage, spouse, children, migration trail, or death record. His entry ends there. This is not unusual in compiled genealogies, but it means the identification stops precisely where many modern trees begin to speculate.

The Age Question and the 1810 Census

The 1810 U.S. census for Braintree, Orange County, Vermont shows Josiah Willington as the sole adult male in his household, aged between 26 and 44.³ This bracket allows for a birth as early as 1766. If the “Josiah of New Braintree” were born in the same year his mother died, he would be 44 years old in 1810, which fits the census category.

Census age brackets establish possibility, not identity.

1810 US Federal Census for Braintree, Vermont.
Close-up of Josiah Willington household from the 1810 census.

The Age Gap with Polly Hutchinson

Polly Hutchinson was born in 1782.⁴ If Josiah were born in 1766, he would be approximately sixteen years older than his wife.

Such an age gap is not impossible in late eighteenth-century New England, but it is less typical for a first marriage. Larger gaps are more often associated with widowers, and there is no evidence that Josiah Willington had been previously married before his 1794 marriage to Polly Hutchinson in Worcester.⁵ The age difference does not disprove the theory, but it raises the standard of proof required to support it.

The Hutchinson Cluster in Braintree

The 1810 census page for Braintree is significant for another reason: the Hutchinson family appears on the same enumeration, near Josiah Willington’s household. The households of Lot Hutchinson and Abiathar Hutchinson are recorded in the same sequence as Josiah’s.³ These are not random names. Lot Hutchinson is Polly’s father, and Abiathar Hutchinson is Polly’s brother.⁶

This matters because early federal census schedules were recorded in the order the enumerator visited households, which typically reflects geographic proximity and often reflects kin-based settlement patterns. The Braintree census therefore shows Josiah living within Polly’s family network.

Equally important, there are no other Willington or Wellington households in Braintree in the 1810 census.³ Josiah appears as a single Willington household surrounded not by paternal kin, but by his wife’s family.

This does not prove his parentage, but it does show where his documented family network lies once the record trail becomes clear.

The Temptation to Explain Silence

At this point, it becomes tempting to construct a narrative: Susanna Stearns dies in childbirth or shortly thereafter; Josiah grows up motherless; his father remarries; Josiah becomes estranged from his paternal family; he leaves with no paper trail and reappears years later in Worcester and then Vermont.

This story is emotionally coherent, but genealogy cannot be built on satisfying explanations.

Estrangement is one of the hardest things to prove in eighteenth-century records, but it is rarely completely invisible. Even estranged children often appear in wills, guardianships, land divisions, apprenticeships, or church records. No such record has been found connecting the “Josiah of New Braintree” to the adult Josiah of Worcester and Vermont.

What we have is not evidence of estrangement. It is silence.

The Missing Documentary Bridge

If my Josiah were the son of Josiah and Susanna Stearns, at least one document would reasonably be expected to connect him forward in time: a record naming origin, a removal or church dismissal, a deed, a probate reference, or a Willington kin connection in Vermont.

Instead, the surviving records place him firmly in a different documented pattern: marriage in Worcester in 1794 with both parties “of Worcester,”⁵ residence in Braintree, Vermont by 1810 within the Hutchinson family cluster,³ and probate in Vermont with no references to Massachusetts Willington kin.⁷ No document links him backward to Watertown, Weston, or New Braintree.

Why This Identification Persists

The persistence of this theory in online trees is understandable. Researchers are confronted with multiple Josiah Willingtons in Massachusetts, incomplete birth records, and a conveniently named child whose adulthood is undocumented. Faced with a brick wall, many choose the explanation that makes the puzzle fit.

At present, identifying my ancestor Josiah Willington as the son of Josiah Willington and Susanna Stearns remains possible but unproven. It rests on age compatibility and name alone, without a single document bridging the gap between childhood and adulthood.

Possibility is not proof.

Sources

  1. Henry Bond, Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860), Wellington section.
  2. Ibid.
  3. 1810 U.S. Census, Braintree, Orange County, Vermont, households including Josiah Willington, Lot Hutchinson, and Abiathar Hutchinson.
  4. Sutton, Massachusetts, vital records, birth of Molly (Polly) Hutchinson, 1782.
  5. Worcester, Massachusetts, marriage records, Josiah Willington and Polly Hutchinson, 6 September 1794.
  6. Perley Derby, The Hutchinson Family: or the Descendants of Barnard Hutchinson of Cowlam, England (Salem, MA: Essex Institute Press, 1870), entries for Lot Hutchinson and his children, including Polly and Abiathar.
  7. Vermont probate records, estate of Josiah Willington, proved 1818.

Following the Trail

On By NancyIn Brick WallLeave a comment

Worcester, Vermont, and the Limits of Paper Records

If the name problem explains how false parentage is created, geography explains how those errors persist. In the case of Josiah Willington who married Polly Hutchinson, the surviving records form a narrow but consistent geographic trail. That trail begins in Worcester, Massachusetts, and ends in Braintree, Orange County, Vermont. What lies outside that trail is just as important as what lies within it.

What “of Worcester” Actually Means

The 6 September 1794 marriage record for Josiah Willington and Polly Hutchinson states that both parties were “of Worcester.”¹ In Massachusetts vital records, this phrase identifies legal residence at the time of marriage, not place of birth. It does not imply parentage, childhood residence, or family origin.

This distinction matters. Many compiled genealogies treat “of Worcester” as synonymous with “born in Worcester,” but town clerks did not use the phrase in that way. A person could be “of” a town after residing there only briefly, particularly if employment or marriage brought them in.

Worcester Birth Records and a Meaningful Absence

A review of Worcester town birth records for the eighteenth century reveals no births for individuals with the surname Willington or Wellington.² This is not merely the absence of a Josiah; it is the absence of the surname entirely.

Worcester’s vital records for this period are comparatively robust. Numerous families appear repeatedly, and children born to transient laborers are often recorded. The complete absence of the Willington/Wellington surname strongly suggests that Josiah was not born in Worcester and that his family was not established there at the time of his birth.

Negative evidence of this kind does not identify parents, but it does eliminate Worcester as a likely place of origin.

Polly Hutchinson and Worcester County Context

Polly Hutchinson provides additional context. She was born in 1782 in Sutton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, a town located southeast of Worcester.³ Sutton’s birth records include multiple Hutchinson families but, like Worcester, contain no Willington or Wellington births during the relevant period.⁴

This pattern suggests that Josiah’s presence in Worcester was likely tied to adult residence or employment rather than family origin. It is consistent with a scenario in which Josiah relocated to Worcester County as a young man and met Polly there prior to their marriage.

The Vermont Migration Pattern

By the early nineteenth century, Josiah Willington appears consistently in Vermont records. His children’s births, his appearance in the 1810 federal census, and his probate all place him in Braintree, Orange County, Vermont.⁵

This movement fits a well-documented migration pattern: late eighteenth-century settlers moving from central Massachusetts into Vermont following land openings and post-Revolutionary settlement opportunities. Worcester County was a common staging area for this westward and northward movement, even for individuals who had not been born there.

Crucially, none of the Josiah Willingtons documented in Bond’s History of Watertown are traced into Vermont. Bond’s families remain centered in Middlesex County and adjacent towns, with no documented link to Orange County, Vermont.⁶

Why Watertown-Centered Lineages Struggle to Fit

Attempts to link the Vermont Josiah to the Watertown Willington families rely on circumstantial reasoning: shared given names, approximate ages, and geographic proximity. But proximity alone is not enough.

Worcester lies west of Watertown, and while travel between the two was certainly possible, no record has been found placing any of Bond’s Josiahs in Worcester prior to 1794. Likewise, no record places any Watertown-based Josiah in Vermont in the early nineteenth century.

Without documentation showing movement from Watertown to Worcester and then to Vermont, these connections remain speculative.

What the Records Do Show Consistently

Across all surviving records, the Josiah Willington who married Polly Hutchinson appears only in the following contexts:

Worcester, Massachusetts, at the time of marriage in 1794.¹
Braintree, Orange County, Vermont, from at least 1803 through his death in 1817.⁵
Vermont probate and newspaper notices following his death.⁷

He does not appear in Middlesex County town records as a child, does not appear in Watertown family sketches, and does not appear in Worcester birth records. This narrow geographic footprint argues for caution in assigning parentage.

The Value of Geographic Restraint

One of the most difficult disciplines in genealogical research is restraint: resisting the urge to extend a lineage beyond what the records can support. In this case, geography acts as a boundary. It limits which records can plausibly belong to the same individual and which cannot.

Rather than proving who Josiah Willington’s parents were, the geographic evidence clarifies who they likely were not. That clarification is essential groundwork for any future discovery.

Sources

  1. Worcester, Massachusetts, marriage records, 6 September 1794, Josiah Willington and Polly Hutchinson.
  2. Worcester town birth records, eighteenth century, review showing no entries for Willington or Wellington surnames.
  3. Sutton, Massachusetts, town birth records, 1782, birth of Molly (Polly) Hutchinson.
  4. Sutton, Massachusetts, town birth records, review showing no entries for Willington or Wellington surnames.
  5. Vermont vital records and federal census schedules, Braintree, Orange County, including births of children, 1810 census, and death of Josiah Willington in 1817.
  6. Henry Bond, History of Watertown, Massachusetts (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860), Wellington family sketches.
  7. Vermont Republican and Journal (Windsor), probate notice for Josiah Willington, May 1818.

The Name Trap

On By NancyIn Brick WallLeave a comment

Why Multiple Josiah Willingtons Create False Lineages

One of the most persistent sources of error in New England genealogy is the assumption that identical names refer to a single individual. When a name repeats across generations, towns, and families, records that belong to different men are easily—and often incorrectly—merged.

The case of Josiah Willington illustrates this problem clearly. Multiple men of the same name lived in Massachusetts during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, some contemporaneously. These men are documented in respected published sources, yet none can be automatically identified as the Josiah Willington who married Polly Hutchinson in Worcester in 1794 and later settled in Vermont.

The Six Josiah Willingtons in Bond’s History of Watertown

Henry Bond’s History of Watertown, Massachusetts documents six distinct individuals named Josiah Willington across multiple generations of the Wellington family.¹ These entries demonstrate both the frequency of the name and the danger of assuming identity based on name alone.

The six Josiah Willingtons identified by Bond are:

Josiah Willington, baptized 23 May 1708, son of John Willington and Hannah Morse. Bond identifies this Josiah as “of Weston” and records that he married a woman named Mary.²

Josiah Willington, born 4 April 1745, son of Thomas Willington and Margaret Stone. This Josiah married Susanna Stearns, who died in 1766.³

Josiah Willington of New Braintree, identified by Bond as the son of Josiah Willington (born 1745) and Susanna Stearns.⁴

Josiah Willington, born 4 June 1780, son of Joseph Willington and Dorcas Stone.⁵

Josiah Willington, born 16 September 1796 and died 12 June 1797, son of Thaddeus Willington and Ruhanna Brown.⁶

Josiah Willington, born 17 March 1802, also a son of Thaddeus Willington and Ruhanna Brown.⁷

These entries represent six separate individuals appearing in distinct family sketches and generational contexts. Some lived only briefly, others reached adulthood, and several overlapped chronologically with the Josiah Willington who married Polly Hutchinson in 1794.

What Bond Does and Does Not Establish

Bond’s work demonstrates that the name Josiah Willington was reused repeatedly within the extended Wellington family. This repetition alone makes name-based identification unsafe.

At the same time, Bond does not identify a Josiah Willington who married Polly Hutchinson, does not place any Josiah Willington in Worcester, Massachusetts, and does not trace any Josiah Willington to Vermont. Bond’s sketches are centered on Watertown and nearby Middlesex County towns, and they do not extend to Worcester County or later Vermont settlers.

Bond therefore provides important context for name repetition, but it does not establish identity for the Josiah Willington associated with Worcester and Braintree, Vermont.

Documented Marriages Involving Men Named Josiah Willington

Independent of Bond, Massachusetts town records document several marriages involving men named Josiah Willington or Wellington during the same general period:

Josiah Wellington married Susanna Stearns in 1765.³
A Josiah Wellington married Mary Smith in Sudbury in the early 1770s.⁸
Josiah Wellington married Zilpah Delano in Norton in 1772.⁹
Josiah Willington married Polly Hutchinson in Worcester on 6 September 1794.¹⁰

These marriages involve different women, different towns, and different time frames. No record has been found that connects any of these men to one another through remarriage, migration, or parentage.

The Absence of Willington Births in Worcester

The marriage record of 1794 states that Josiah Willington was “of Worcester,” a phrase that denotes legal residence rather than birthplace. A review of Worcester town birth records reveals no births for individuals with the surname Willington or Wellington at all, not merely the absence of a Josiah.¹¹

This absence is significant. Worcester’s vital records for the eighteenth century are comparatively thorough, and many other families are well represented. The lack of any Willington or Wellington births indicates that the family was not established in Worcester during the period when Josiah would have been born.

This evidence supports the conclusion that Josiah was not born in Worcester, but arrived there from another town or county prior to his marriage.

Overlapping Lifespans and Separate Locations

The existence of multiple adult men named Josiah Willington is further supported by overlapping lifespans. Men marrying in the 1760s and 1770s could still have been living in the 1790s, making it unsafe to assume that a later marriage represents the same individual without corroborating evidence.

Geography reinforces this separation. The towns associated with these Josiahs—Watertown, Weston, Sudbury, Norton, and Worcester—span multiple counties. While movement between towns was common, no record has been found that traces a specific Josiah from any of Bond’s Watertown families into Worcester and then onward to Vermont.

Why Name Duplication Matters

In eighteenth-century New England, the reuse of given names across generations was common. Sons were often named for fathers, grandfathers, or uncles, resulting in multiple contemporaries with identical names living within a relatively small geographic area.

In this case, the presence of six documented Josiah Willingtons means that records must be assigned cautiously. Marriages cannot be merged without proof, and parentage cannot be inferred based solely on name similarity. Bond’s documentation confirms name repetition but does not resolve identity for men appearing outside his geographic scope.

Sources

  1. Henry Bond, History of Watertown, Massachusetts (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1860), Wellington family sketches.
  2. Ibid., entry for Josiah Willington, baptized 23 May 1708, son of John Willington and Hannah Morse.
  3. Ibid., entry for Josiah Willington, born 4 April 1745, son of Thomas Willington and Margaret Stone; marriage to Susanna Stearns.
  4. Ibid., entry identifying Josiah of New Braintree as son of Josiah Willington (b. 1745) and Susanna Stearns.
  5. Ibid., entry for Josiah Willington, born 4 June 1780, son of Joseph Willington and Dorcas Stone.
  6. Ibid., entry for Josiah Willington, born 16 September 1796, son of Thaddeus Willington and Ruhanna Brown.
  7. Ibid., entry for Josiah Willington, born 17 March 1802, son of Thaddeus Willington and Ruhanna Brown.
  8. Massachusetts town records, Sudbury, marriage of Josiah Wellington and Mary Smith.
  9. Massachusetts town records, Norton, marriage of Josiah Wellington and Zilpah Delano, 1772.
  10. Worcester, Massachusetts, marriage records, 6 September 1794, Josiah Willington and Polly Hutchinson.
  11. Worcester town birth records, eighteenth century, review of births showing no entries for the surnames Willington or Wellington.

Who Was Josiah Willington?

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Brick WallLeave a comment

Establishing the Man Before Chasing the Parents

When a genealogical problem remains unresolved after decades of research, the difficulty is often not a lack of effort but a lack of clarity. Before asking who someone’s parents were, it is essential to establish a more basic fact: who the person actually was.

This post documents what can be stated with confidence about Josiah Willington, husband of Polly Hutchinson, without assigning unproven parentage or speculating about his birth.

Josiah Willington in Braintree, Vermont

The most reliable summary of Josiah Willington’s adult life appears in H. Royce Bass’s History of Braintree, Vermont. Bass was writing from town-level records and local knowledge, and his work is generally careful in distinguishing settlers from one another. In his entry for Josiah Willington, Bass states that Josiah “came from Worcester, Mass.; m. Polly Hutchinson; d. in 1817; occupation, carpenter.”¹

Willington Family in History of Braintree, Vermont by H. Royce Bass.

This statement establishes several critical facts. Josiah resided in Worcester, Massachusetts, immediately before settling in Vermont. He married Polly Hutchinson, died in 1817, and worked as a carpenter. Bass then lists Josiah’s children, whose names and order form a consistent family group. There is no indication that Bass is referring to more than one man, nor does he express uncertainty about Josiah’s identity as a settler of Braintree.

Marriage in Worcester, Massachusetts

Josiah Willington married Polly Hutchinson on 6 September 1794 in Worcester, Massachusetts. The marriage record states that both parties were “of Worcester.”²

In late-eighteenth-century Massachusetts records, the phrase “of Worcester” denotes legal residence at the time of marriage rather than place of birth. This confirms that Josiah was a recognized resident of Worcester by 1794, not a transient individual marrying while passing through the town. The marriage record aligns closely with Bass’s statement that Josiah later “came from Worcester” when he removed to Vermont.

Occupation: Carpenter

Bass identifies Josiah’s occupation as carpenter, a detail that helps explain his migration pattern. Carpenters in this period typically learned their trade through apprenticeship or extended employment, lived for years in the towns where they worked, and relocated when land or opportunity became available elsewhere.

This occupational profile fits well with Josiah’s documented residence in Worcester during the early 1790s and his subsequent move to Vermont, where skilled tradesmen were in demand during early settlement.

Removal to Braintree and Death

Josiah eventually settled in Braintree, Orange County, Vermont, where he lived until his death in 1817. Vermont probate records dated the following year confirm his death and demonstrate continuity of identity from Worcester to Braintree.³ No evidence has been found to suggest that more than one man named Josiah Willington lived in Braintree during this period.

Children of Josiah Willington and Polly Hutchinson

H. Royce Bass includes a list of children for Josiah Willington and his wife Polly Hutchinson in his entry for early settlers of Braintree, Vermont.¹ Bass’s account establishes the composition of the household but does not provide full birth details for each child. As is common for early Vermont families, surviving vital records are incomplete, and not every child can be documented with a contemporaneous birth registration.

The children attributed to Josiah Willington and Polly Hutchinson through Bass’s account and corroborated by later records are as follows:

Ashley Hiram Willington, born 25 February 1795.⁴ Ashley’s birth is one of the few supported by a specific date and appears consistently in later Vermont records identifying him as a son of Josiah and Polly.

Lucy L. Willington, born about 1801.⁵ Lucy’s birth year is approximate and derived from later records rather than a surviving birth entry.

David Willington, born 8 April 1803 in Braintree, Orange County, Vermont.⁶ David’s birth is supported by Vermont vital records and consistently attributed to Josiah and Polly.

Polly Willington, born after 1803 and died in 1842.⁷ No contemporaneous birth record has been located for Polly, but her placement within the family is supported by compiled family records and probate-era documentation.

Luther Willington, born after 1803 and died in 1839.⁸ Luther does not appear in surviving birth registers, but his association with the Willington family is consistently reported in later records.

Levi Sylvester Willington, born in 1813 in Braintree, Orange County, Vermont.⁹ Levi’s birth year and parentage are supported by Vermont vital records.

Amos Hubbard Willington, born 24 March 1815 in Braintree, Orange County, Vermont.¹⁰ Amos is the youngest known child, born two years before Josiah’s death, and his birth is recorded in Vermont records.

Although individual birth records have not survived for every child, this group forms a coherent family unit across multiple independent sources. The names, sequence, and time span are consistent with a single household headed by Josiah Willington and Polly Hutchinson, residing in Vermont following their removal from Worcester, Massachusetts.

What Is Not Known

Despite the clarity of Josiah Willington’s adult life, certain facts remain unproven. His birthplace is unknown. His birth year is undocumented. His parents are not identified in any surviving record.

These gaps are not the result of casual research. Town records, county records, newspapers, and published genealogies have been examined repeatedly over many years. The absence of evidence must be acknowledged honestly.

Establishing Identity Before Parentage

In genealogical research, particularly when dealing with common given names, assigning parents before establishing identity often leads to error. This case involves multiple contemporaneous men named Josiah Willington or Wellington living in Massachusetts during the same period. Without careful separation, it is easy to merge records that do not belong together.

By first establishing who Josiah Willington was—where he lived, whom he married, what he did for a living, and where he died—we create a firm foundation for responsible analysis.

Sources

  1. H. Royce Bass, History of Braintree, Vermont (Braintree, VT: Town of Braintree, n.d.), entry for Josiah Willington.
  2. Worcester, Massachusetts, marriage records, 6 September 1794, Josiah Willington and Polly Hutchinson.
  3. Vermont probate records, Orange County, estate of Josiah Willington, proved 1818.
  4. Vermont Vital Records, birth of Ashley Hiram Willington, 25 February 1795.
  5. Vermont Vital Records and later compiled records, Lucy L. Willington, b. c. 1801.
  6. Vermont Vital Records, birth of David Willington, 8 April 1803, Braintree, Orange County, Vermont.
  7. Vermont Vital Records and compiled family records, Polly Willington, d. 1842.
  8. Vermont Vital Records and compiled family records, Luther Willington, d. 1839.
  9. Vermont Vital Records, birth of Levi Sylvester Willington, 1813, Braintree, Orange County, Vermont.
  10. Vermont Vital Records, birth of Amos Hubbard Willington, 24 March 1815, Braintree, Orange County, Vermont.

When History Stops Being Abstract: Discovering a Family Connection to Ethan Allen

On By NancyIn American History, Ancestor Profile, Revolutionary WarLeave a comment

When I was in history class in school, I was bored.
Not because history wasn’t important, but because it felt distant. The people we studied were names on a page—interesting, perhaps, but disconnected from my own life. I remember thinking that history might feel very different if I were actually related to someone we were learning about.

One group that did stand out to me even then was the Green Mountain Boys. Their exploits during the early days of the American Revolution felt bolder and less conventional than the orderly narratives found in textbooks. I remember thinking it would be fascinating to be connected to someone like that.

Years later, through genealogical research, I discovered that I am.

Through documented colonial records, I am a third cousin, eight times removed from Ethan Allen, the outspoken leader of the Green Mountain Boys. While he is not a direct ancestor, he is part of my extended family network, connected through well-documented seventeenth-century New England families.

Who Was Ethan Allen?

Ethan Allen was born on 10 January 1738 in Litchfield, Connecticut, the son of Joseph Allen and Mary Baker.¹ He grew up on the Connecticut frontier and later became closely associated with the territory that would become Vermont. Allen was largely self-educated, deeply independent, and known for his forceful personality—traits that shaped both his leadership and his reputation.

General Ethan Allen
Ethan Allen. Nineteenth-century engraving. Public domain. Image via ReusableArt.com.

Allen is best remembered for his role in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775. Leading a force of Green Mountain Boys, along with Benedict Arnold, Allen surprised the small British garrison and secured the fort with little resistance.² The artillery seized at Ticonderoga later proved critical in forcing British troops to evacuate Boston.³

Beyond that single event, Allen remained a controversial figure. He was never formally commissioned as an officer in the Continental Army and frequently clashed with authorities. He was captured by British forces during an ill-fated invasion of Quebec in 1775 and spent more than two years as a prisoner of war.⁴ After his release, Allen continued to advocate fiercely for Vermont’s independence, resisting efforts by both New York and the Continental Congress to assert control over the region.⁵

Allen’s legacy is complex: he was a revolutionary hero to some, a political irritant to others, and a man whose independence often placed him at odds with the very cause he supported.

The Genealogical Connection

The relationship between Ethan Allen and myself is supported by original town, church, and probate records from Massachusetts and Connecticut that document both lines back to a shared seventeenth-century couple.

Ethan Allen’s maternal ancestry traces through Mercy Wright of Deerfield, Massachusetts, the daughter of Judah Wright and Mercy Burt. Mercy Burt was the daughter of Henry Burt and Eulalia March, early settlers of Springfield, Massachusetts. Both Henry Burt and his wife Eulalia are well documented in Springfield town records, church registers, and probate material, and it is through their children that multiple New England family lines descend.⁶

My own lineage also descends from this same couple—Henry Burt and Eulalia March—but through a different child, Dorcas Burt, who married John Stiles. Dorcas appears repeatedly in Springfield and Windsor records, and her descendants are documented across Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont through successive generations.⁷

Because both Ethan Allen and I descend from Henry Burt and Eulalia March through different children and across multiple generations, we share them as common ancestors. This places us within a distant but clearly documented kinship network rooted in early colonial New England, established through original records rather than family tradition or assumption.

Why a Distant Relationship Still Matters

I am not claiming Ethan Allen as a direct ancestor, nor suggesting that a distant cousin relationship confers historical importance. What it does provide is context.

The Green Mountain Boys no longer feel like anonymous figures acting in isolation. They were men operating within the same colonial communities, family networks, and record-keeping systems as my own ancestors—networks shaped just as much by women as by men. Without women like Eulalia March, Mercy Burt, and Mercy Wright, none of these lines would exist to be traced today.

The American Revolution did not happen in abstraction—it unfolded among families whose lives intersected in ways we can still trace through the records they left behind.

For me, that realization transformed history from something remote into something tangible. It closed a circle that began in a classroom years ago, when history felt dull simply because it felt disconnected.

Sometimes history doesn’t become interesting because it changes—but because our relationship to it does.

Notes

  1. Vital Records of Litchfield, Connecticut, 1721–1850 (Hartford: Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars, 1907), 23.
  2. Ethan Allen, A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity (Philadelphia: Robert Bell, 1779), 11–15.
  3. Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 284–286.
  4. Allen, Narrative of Captivity, 49–112.
  5. Charles A. Jellison, Ethan Allen: Frontier Rebel (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1969), 201–245.
  6. Vital Records of Springfield, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, vol. 1 (Springfield, MA: Springfield Printing and Binding Co., 1923), Burt entries; Hampden County, Massachusetts, Probate Records, estate of Henry Burt (1662).
  7. Vital Records of Windsor, Connecticut, to the Year 1850 (Hartford: Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars, 1904); Vital Records of Westfield, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1904).

David Stiles (1799–1872) of New Hampshire and Vermont

On By NancyIn Ancestor ProfileLeave a comment

David Stiles, sometimes recorded as David Styles, was born on 26 August 1799 in Milford, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, the son of David Stiles and Mary Towne.¹ He spent his early life in New Hampshire but relocated to Vermont as a young adult, where he remained for the rest of his life and where most surviving records documenting his life were created.

Establishment in Vermont

By 1830, David Stiles was living in Brookfield, Orange County, Vermont. In that census, he was enumerated immediately before Abraham Smith, his father-in-law.² Because early census schedules were recorded in geographic order, this proximity strongly supports the identification of David Stiles as the husband of Eliza Smith during this period and places him squarely within the Smith family’s local network.

David continued to reside in central Vermont over the following decades. Although his surname appears with variant spellings in the records, his residence, occupation, and family associations remain consistent.

Marriage to Eliza Smith

David Stiles married Eliza Smith on 12 April 1826 in Brookfield, Vermont.³ Eliza was the daughter of Abraham Smith. The couple had exactly two children:

  • Wilbur F. Stiles, born 16 March 1827
  • Sarah M. Stiles, born about 1831⁴

No evidence has been found of additional children.

No divorce record has been located for David Stiles and Eliza Smith. However, Eliza clearly left David before 1840. She married Edmund Glidden on 23 March 1840, establishing that her marriage to David had ended by that date.⁵

Edmund Glidden later appears as a surety in probate material associated with David Stiles’s estate. This connection reinforces the conclusion that David Stiles and Eliza Smith were formerly married and shared children, despite the absence of a surviving divorce record.

Marriage to Elizabeth Harris and Divorce

On 1 May 1842, David Stiles married Elizabeth Harris in Northfield, Washington County, Vermont.⁶ The marriage record identifies her as “Mrs. Elizabeth Harris,” indicating that Harris was a married surname and that she had been previously married. Her maiden name has not yet been identified.

This designation helps explain an 1840 census entry in which Elizabeth Harris appears as the named head of household in Northfield, Vermont.⁷ While census schedules of this period typically list male householders, women were sometimes recorded when they controlled or managed the household, were widowed, or were living independently. Her appearance as head of household is therefore consistent with her marital history.

David Stiles and Elizabeth Harris were divorced by decree of the Vermont Supreme Court in April 1853.⁸ Contemporary newspaper notices confirm the divorce and place it firmly within the known timeline of David’s life.

Later Marriages

Following his divorce from Elizabeth Harris, David married Angeline Poole on 29 November 1853 in Northfield.⁹ Angeline died in 1868.

David married for the final time on 7 November 1870 in Williamstown, Vermont, to Melissa E. Davenport.¹⁰ This marriage record identifies the groom as 70 years old, born in New Hampshire, a farmer by occupation, and the son of David Stiles. These details align precisely with David Stiles Jr. (1799–1872) and distinguish him from another, younger Vermont-born man of the same name living in Northfield at the same time.

Census Records and Men of the Same Name

The 1870 census for Northfield, Vermont, contains entries for two men named David Stiles (or Styles).¹¹ One is younger and Vermont-born; the other is older and consistent with a New Hampshire birth in 1799. When age, birthplace, occupation, marital history, and probate evidence are considered together, the older individual can be confidently identified as David Stiles Jr.

The presence of more than one man of the same name in the same town highlights the importance of evaluating census records alongside other documents rather than relying on any single source in isolation.

Death and Probate

David Stiles died on 8 September 1872 in Randolph, Orange County, Vermont, at the age of 73.¹² His death record lists his occupation as farmer and gives the cause of death as consumption. Probate records name Luther Wakefield, husband of David’s daughter Sarah Stiles, as administrator of the estate.¹³ This appointment confirms the established family relationships and links David’s early and later life through consistent documentary evidence.

Conclusion

Although the life of David Stiles presents challenges common to nineteenth-century research—including surname variations, multiple marriages, and contemporaries of the same name—the surviving records form a coherent and well-supported narrative. Census proximity to Abraham Smith, the documented marriage to Eliza Smith and their two children, Eliza’s remarriage by 1840, a court-ordered divorce from Elizabeth Harris, clearly identified later marriages, and probate administration by known relatives together establish the life course of David Stiles Jr. (1799–1872).

Sources

  1. New Hampshire birth records, Milford, Hillsborough County, 1799.
  2. 1830 U.S. census, Brookfield, Orange County, Vermont.
  3. Vermont marriage records, Brookfield, Orange County, 12 April 1826.
  4. Vermont vital and census records for Wilbur F. Stiles and Sarah M. Stiles.
  5. Vermont marriage, Eliza Smith to Edmund Glidden, 23 March 1840 (date preserved through derivative sources).
  6. Vermont marriage records, Northfield, Washington County, 1 May 1842.
  7. 1840 U.S. census, Northfield, Washington County, Vermont.
  8. Vermont Supreme Court divorce notices, April 1853.
  9. Vermont marriage records, Northfield, Washington County, 29 November 1853.
  10. Vermont marriage records, Williamstown, Orange County, 7 November 1870.
  11. 1870 U.S. census, Northfield, Washington County, Vermont.
  12. Vermont death records, Randolph, Orange County, 8 September 1872.
  13. Vermont probate records, Orange County, estate of David Stiles.