This blog is written for the grandchildren of William and Phyllis James McKim,
the children of Marilyn, Karen, Ellen, and Susan.
Her father's most recent immigrant ancestors arrived about a decade before Ellis Island opened. But all of her mother's immigrant ancestors arrived even before the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776! 
Your most famous blood relative (at least that I found):
Your 10G grandfather Samuel Lincoln #1545,
was a
weaver who was born in 1622 in Hingham, England. In 1637, he emigrated,
as an employee of another family, to the Plymouth Colony, and then moved to Hingham, MA, where he met and married Martha
Lyford #1546.
President Abraham Lincoln
was one of Sam and Martha's 3G grandchildren and you are one of their 9G
grandchildren, so it is possible you share a bit of DNA with Abe. In
other words, your mom is Abraham Lincoln's 4th cousin, 5 times
removed and you are his 4th cousin, 6 times removed.
You're
related in a similar way to the Presidents Bush. They and you are
descendants of #773 and 774 Samuel and Hannah Gill Clapp, both born in the 1640s in Scituate, Massachusetts.
McKim:
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| The English village of Hingham still prides itself on being the origin of so many Puritans (although they left). |
They likely set foot in America at Boston, but shortly
after that founded a new settlement which they call Hingham,
Massachusetts.
Pilgrims & Puritans Pilgrims and Puritans are more than a highlight of your American family tree; they are the bedrock foundation. Both groups were opposed to the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church. Both needed to leave England because the official state church stood in the way of their ability to earn a living and sometimes even live. (You have at least one ancestor—your 14G grandfather Thomas Carman—who was burned at the stake for heresy.)
Pilgrims were more extreme—they wanted to separate from the church entirely. Pilgrims were not poor, but they were not rich, either. They left England first to live in the Netherlands, in a town called Leiden, for a few years, but then decided to go to America. Their first boat out of the Netherlands was the Mayflower, and they founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. I didn't find any of your ancestors who hopped on that first boat, but you do have ancestors who were Pilgrims in Leiden. Your 10G grandfather, Jacob Hurst #3085, married a Dutch girl, Gartend Bennister #3086 while they were there. Your very first American ancestor came to Plymouth Colony in 1624.
Puritans wanted only to reform the Anglican Church, but they were persecuted just the same. They tended to be more well-educated and more wealthy than the Pilgrims. In 1630, after the Pilgrims showed that survival was possible in New England, Puritans founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in and around Boston. Their first boat was actually a fleet of eleven boats carrying more than 700 Puritans—the Winthrop Fleet. Dozens of your ancestors were on that fleet.
Any differences between the two groups rapidly became irrelevant as they worked to survive in their new colonies, so the distinction between Puritan and Pilgrim doesn't matter much after the opening chapter. I'll use the word "Puritan" mostly in this blog when I want to refer to the religiously-motivated English settlers of New England.
Some of my favorite individual stories:
- A London street urchin: Your 10G grandfather #3327 John Bellows, at age 12, was likely scraped up from the streets of London or Gloucester in 1635 and loaded with three other unwanted free-range children onto a a ship called the Hopewell bound for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It appears to have been a 17th-century version of an orphan train. Likely indentured, he learned a trade (carpentry), became a founder or Marlborough, Massachusetts, and died a well-off man.
- Just about as scandalous as it gets: The story of Rev. John Lyford and his wife, Sarah Oakley, your 10G grandparents, (#3093, 3094) features lies, adultery, an out-of-wedlock child, espionage, and more. It has fascinating things to say, I believe, about the Pilgrims, their financiers, sociopaths, and the biases of historians and church fathers that endure to this day.
- The better part of the population of Hingham, a village in Norfolk (eastern England), who relocated en masse to a new Hingham, a village they created in 1633. The
parishioners who left Hingham had been so industrious that after they
left, the town petitioned Parliament for relief, writing that "most of the able inhabitants have forsaken their dwellings and
have gone aways and the town is now
left in misery by reason of the meanness of the [remaining]inhabitants." Your 11G grandfather, #6209, Edmund Hobart, is credited/blamed for leading the exodus that emptied the village of all its worthy citizens.
- Two slave holders: See #385 Joseph Bates and #879 Hugh Roberts;
- Witchcraft: See #793 Samuel Bartlett and do not miss the story of #3281 & 3282 Samuel Stratton and Alice Beebe, who risked their own lives to stand up vociferously against the first witch trial; and
- a modern-day ghost: See #1551 Jeremiah Beal.
One more thing: I found only about one-eighth of your Puritan ancestors. Mary Sanford #52 is a big hole in my research. If anyone can ever identify her parents, we will find more ancestors—maybe even a Mayflower family.
Educated people
You missed being the first in your family to graduate from college by at least 400 years. Your immigrant ancestors include several Oxford and Cambridge graduates, and they left behind additional highly educated ancestors in England. They also worked to make sure others would be well-educated. The Widener Library at Harvard University sits on the site of the homestead of your 8G grandfather John White, #1627, and your 7G grandfather John Strong #801 was among Harvard's original 'patrons' who pledged a certain amount each month or year to get the young institution up and going.
Pre-revolution minutemen, militia, etc. .
- #101 Jonathan Warner was a minuteman with the Northampton militia, who responded to the Lexington Alarm—that's the one roused by Paul Revere and others on the night of the 18th of April in '75.
- # 97 Elias Lyman (1710-1790) was with the Bennington Alarm, in Northampton, Massachusetts. (note to self: see the family history saved to Malachi James);
- #193 Adam Beal (#193) was recorded on the minuteman roll of Goshen, Massachusetts;
- add more as I find them.
American Revolution Soldiers
are noted (AR) on the pages with individual ancestors. All were patriots; none were royalists. These men tend to have good documentation on
Ancestry.com as a result of all the uploaded applications for membership
in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and Sons of the
American Revolution (SAR).
- # 95 John James
- # 97 Elias Lyman (Battles of Ticonderoga and Saratoga)
- #101 Jonathan Warner (Siege of Boston, Bennington, Saratoga)
- #131 Lt. William Nelson
- #193 Adam Beal (whose son & namesake participated in the Boston Tea Party)
- #197 Jonathan Clapp
- #202 Israel Sheldon
- #207 John Bellows
- #209 Daniel Youngs
- #221 Ebenezer Lyon
- #235 Jacob Werner
- #241 David Hunter, who didn't die in battle but based on the reputation he'd earned in the French and Indian Wars was specifically targeted by the royal Governor of Virginia, who issued a writ of habeas corpus in the name of King George ordering his execution. Unfortunately, the British soldiers did find him.
- #243 John Jacob Arendt
- #247 Michael Hoffman (found on a list of 'Graves of Revolutionary War patriots'. Died January 1777 in Bucks Co, PA, where there was no battle, but which I've learned was the location of "supply depots, and hospitals for wounded and sick soldiers. Deaths in the region during this time would most likely have been due to disease, exposure, or complications from injuries, as these were leading causes of death for soldiers during the Revolutionary War.")
- #439 Moses Roberts
- #445 John Willcocks died in the fighting during Washington's retreat through New Jersey.
- Add more as I find them
The Deerfield Raid I cannot believe my mother's family did not pass this story down to her. You have six direct ancestors and even more sibling/in-law ancestors who were, in 1704, caught up in one of the earliest outbreaks in what came to be known as the French and Indian Wars.
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| In the list of ancestors, I've marked each person who was killed or who lost someone close with this icon. |
Entire books have been written, but briefly: At the dawn of the 18th century, Deerfield was a village that was then on the northwestern frontier of English settlement, in the Connecticut River Valley. At that time, France wanted to expand its colonial reach south from Canada. A few native tribes also claimed the land. Everyone knew tensions between France and England were rising and that Deerfield was in danger if war broke out.
The village built a stockade and gathered a small militia, led by your 7G grandfather Jonathan Wells. But one night in February 1704, the snow was piled high enough so that the leader of the French troops saw an opportunity to get a lot of his Indian allies over the top, which he did, in a pre-dawn raid.
After an hours-long house-to-house battle within the stockade, followed by one on a field nearby, most of the houses had been burned to the ground. Forty-seven villagers were dead, including your 7G grandfather, David Hoyt, Jr.
Your 8G grandmother Hannah Atkinson Stebbins survived the awful night along with her daughter, your 7G grandmother Mary Edwards Hoyt and Mary's infant daughter (your 6G grandmother Mary Hoyt). But she lost her second husband, Benoni Stebbins and many cousins, nieces, and nephews. Jonathon Wells survived, but the raiders captured 112 villagers and started them on a 300-mile foot march through the snow to Montreal. Your 8G grandfather, David Hoyt, Sr., was among the captives and died of starvation en route.
Roughly 60 colonists were later ransomed by negotiators who were led by your 6G granduncle John Sheldon. John Sheldon had survived the raid, but lost his wife and youngest daughter. Three of his children and a daughter-in-law were among the captives. Other captives, primarily children, remained with French families or were adopted by Mohawk families.
This link is a wonderful explanation of the tragedy.
The highlighted people below are your direct ancestors; the stories of the other Hoyt children, whose fates are described here, illustrate the nature of the disaster:
Inventor One of your 6G grandmothers, #202 Martha Dickinson Graves, invented the covered button (that is, a shell button covered in fabric to match the garment) and a circular chisel for efficiently cutting the fabric for the buttons. Her cottage industry supplied the New York market with covered buttons. How I wish your grandmother Phyllis had known of her—she would have loved that story!
Attacked by Union soldiers Your 3G grandfather Robert Sloss,
#17, was a shopkeeper in Pennsylvania and a 'Copperhead' (a person
loyal to the United States, but opposed to the war). A group of Union
soldiers didn't like this, and so they ransacked his store and attacked
him, his son, and two of their neighbors. The account is in Robert's post.
The Gettysburg story You can find the story of what happened when soldiers (both sides!) came marching through your 3G grandparents' Adams County farm in #14 Sarah Taylor Bream's post.
