colonial New England, genealogy, Research tips

John Bagg of Springfield, Massachusetts

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Seventeenth-century New Englanders were wary of strangers. In Springfield, Massachusetts, newcomers had to be approved by the town residents before they could stay for more than a month, but when John Bagg moved to Springfield around 1657, he not only stayed, he married the daughter of one of the town’s leading citizens.

John’s origins are obscure, but once he settled in Springfield, town records were thorough, and the life of my seven-times great-grandfather was well documented. The first record of John Bagg’s name there was his marriage to Hannah Burt, daughter of Henry Burt and Ulalia March, on Dec. 24, 1657.1 Soon after, he opened an account at John Pynchon’s general store. He also worked for Pynchon, earning several shillings a day for fetching hay and stones, felling timber, reaping wheat and trimming the orchard.2

In 1659, he was listed in the ninth of 10 rows in the meeting house (the church), where seating was assigned according to status in the community. Three years later, he had moved up a row.

In 1662, John and several friends appeared in court, charged with the illegal act of playing cards. He pleaded guilty and paid a fine.

Another incident, involving a breach of town regulations, seems trivial today. John had been named a fence-viewer, an important responsibility since escaped livestock could damage crops. When he and his fence-viewing partner Reice Bedortha observed defects in a neighbour’s fence, town officials fined the owner. At the same time, John complained there was a defect in Bedortha’s fence, but Bedortha countered that it wasn’t his fence. Both men were fined for not carrying out their fence-viewing duties properly.3  

The inhabitants of Springfield all supported their families as subsistence farmers. No one became rich, but neither did they starve. They mainly acquired farmland as land grants from the town. John’s first grant, a six-acre parcel of land, was approved in 1660. In 1664, he purchased 20 acres on the Chicopee Plain and, in the same year, the town granted him 30 acres near the Agawam River (now the Westfield River).

In 1668, John and two friends leased another 40 acres. Cash was always in short supply, so they paid half the rent in “good merchantable wheate, and the other half in Pease and Indian corne, all good and merchantable.”4 The town later granted him several additional small pieces of land.

Springfield, the first town built in the western interior of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was founded beside the Connecticut River in 1636. The site was chosen primarily for commercial reasons. The Great River, as people called it, provided transportation, while meadows provided grazing for livestock and the soil was fertile. The town founders purchased land on both the east and west sides of the Connecticut River from the indigenous people. The town was on the east side and most of John’s property was on the other side, in what later became West Springfield.

The destruction of much of Springfield in 1675, during King Philip’s War, must have been the most terrifying event of John’s life. Town residents had been on good terms with many of the area’s indigenous people, but a bloody conflict erupted in 1675. Moe than 30 houses and 25 barns in Springfield were burned, as well as several mills and large quantities of corn that had been stored for the coming winter.

John’s and Hannah’s wedding was another milestone. When they married, she was 16; he may have been considerably older. Hannah was the ninth of Henry and Ulalia Burt’s 13 children, and the first member of the Burt family to be born in the colony.

John’s Obscure Origins

About 40 years ago, my mother wondered, who was the first member of the Bagg family to come to North America? She turned to Debrett’s, a company that specialized in researching British aristocratic families. Meanwhile, she told her friend Carol, from Boston, about her interest in the Bagg family history. Carol replied, “I’m descended from the Baggs too!” and she sent my mother an article about the family’s roots in colonial Massachusetts.6

With that information, Debrett’s prepared a report on four generations of the Bagg family in Springfield, Westfield and Pittsfield. Carol’s ancestor was Joseph Bagg (1740-1836) and ours was his brother Phineas (c. 1751-1823), who moved to Canada around 1795.3 Their great-grandfather, John Bagg (? – 1683), was the immigrant member of the family.

When John first appeared in Springfield records, 20 years had passed since the town was founded, and it was long after the Great Migration, the period between 1620 and 1640 when thousands of people emigrated from England to New England.

A book about the Burt family written in the 1890s said that John Bagg “is supposed to have emigrated from Plymouth, England.”9 My grandparents thought that we were descended from Sir James Bagge who was mayor of Plymouth in the early 1600s and lived in a mansion called Saltram, but the Debrett’s researcher concluded there was no evidence to connect him to my family.

Their report revealed that several individuals named John Bagg came to North America in the 17th century. The Original Lists of Persons of Quality, by John Camden Hotten, which listed emigrants, religious exiles, political rebels and others who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700, listed a John Bagg who owned more than 10 acres of land in Barbados in 1638, but there is no evidence to suggest he relocated to Massachusetts 20 years later. 

A better bet is the John Bagg, age 16, who was transported to Virginia aboard the ship Safety in August, 1635.10 In 1991, researcher W. Denis Hanley of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) replied to Mother’s query. He suggested that John Bagg may have gone to Virginia as an indentured servant, having promised to work the land for several years, but broke that promise and sailed to Barbados where he was granted land, then eventually moved to Massachusetts. Or he might have gone to Virginia as an indentured servant, stayed on the plantation for a number of years and moved to Massachusetts in the 1650s.

If John Bagg left England at age 16 in 1635, he would have been 38 when he got married. As for his motivation to leave Virginia, there were few single women on the plantations there, so perhaps he came to Massachusetts to look for a wife and picked Springfield, hoping to find employment as a day labourer until he could acquire land of his own.

I have not followed up with further research in Virginia. But even if I find John Bagg – or Bag, Bagge, Begg, Bigg or Biggs – in the records there, it would be hard to say with certainty that he was the man who settled in Springfield, and we still do not know his origins in England. I have not pursued further research to determine when or where he was born since it would be so difficult to prove.

My own theory – and again, I have no evidence – is that someone in John’s family knew members of the Burt family in England, so John made his way to Springfield, where he had connections.

What Springfield records do show is that John and Hannah had 10 children: Hannah (1658-1740) married Nathaniel Sikes; Mercy (1660-1738) m. Ebenezer Jones; Daniel (1663); John (1665-1740) m. Mercy Thomas; Daniel (1668-1738) m. Hannah Phelps (my direct ancestors); Jonathan (1670-1746) m. Mary Weller; Abigail (1675-1739) m. Benjamin Cooley; James (1675-1689), Sarah (1678-?) m. 1. Benoni Atchison, 2. Samuel Barnard; Abilene, (1680- 1750).5

Hannah died, age 39, on Aug. 1, 1680,11 several days after giving birth to Abilene. Three years later, on Sept. 5, 1683, John Bagg “was sicke and died”.12

John’s probate record shows that Samuel Marshfield became guardian of sons John and James, and of baby Abilene, but it is not clear what happened to the other children. The inventory of his estate listed the simple belongings of a farmer: a yoke of oxen, a horse, some cows and swine, a cart, plow, axe, kettle, bedding, two coats, a pair of britches, a hat and a pair of stockings. His house and adjoining land were evaluated at 16 pounds. His debts totalled 50 pounds.13   

John may have had humble origins, but in 1893, Springfield historian Henry M. Burt wrote that John Bagg “appears to have been an industrious citizen and his descendants are among the most prosperous and intelligent people of recent times.”14

This story was previously posted in 2018 as two separate articles on my personal family history website Writing Up the Ancestors.

See also: Janice Hamilton, “Henry Burt, from Devon Clothier to Springfield Farmer”, Genealogy Ensemble, March 7, 2018. https://genealogyensemble.com/2018/03/07/henry-burt-from-devon-clothier-to-colonial-farmer/

Sources:

1. Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1621-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016), accessed Feb. 21, 2018

2. Henry M. Burt, Silas W. Burt. Early Days in New England. Life and Times of Henry Burt of Springfield and Some of His Descendants. Springfield: Clark W. Bryan, printers, 1893. Google Books, p.250.

3. Henry M. Burt, The First Century of the History of Springfield. The Official Records from 1636 to 1736, with an historical review and biographical mention of the founders. Volume 1 Springfield, Mass: Printed and Published by Henry M. Burt, 1898. Internet Archive, p. 56, accessed Sept. 26, 2026..

4. Burt, Early Days in New England, p. 251.

5. Thomas B. Warren, Springfield Families, Vol. 1 (A-E), copied by Mercy Warren Chapter, Springfield, Mass, 1934-1935, p. 22.

6. Lyman Hotchkiss Bagg “Autobiography 1846-1895. Forming a supplement to the “Obituary Notice of a Yale Graduate of ’69 written by himself in 1890.” New York: printed for private distribution by Karl Kron, publisher; reprinted from the Biographical Records of the Yale Class of 1869, vol. I, p 24-32.

7.  Debrett, “The Bagg Family of Massachusetts, America and of Montreal, Canada. Research for Mrs. J.D. Hamilton, July, 1980.”

8. William A. Cooper, “The James Bagg of Lanesborough, Massachusetts” based on research made by John McIlvene. Conshohooken, Pa, 1918.

9. Henry M. Burt, Silas W. Burt. Early Days in New England. p.249.

10. Michael Tupper, editor. Passengers to America. A Consolidation of Ship Passenger Lists from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977, p. 98.

11. Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1621-1850 (Online Database:  AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016), accessed Feb. 21, 2018.

12. Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1621-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016), accessed Feb. 20, 2018.

13. Hampshire County, Massachusetts probate records 1660-1916. index, 1660-1971 [microform].

14. Burt, Early Days in New England, p. 250.

Additional Reading:

Virginia DeJohn Anderson. New England’s Generation, The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Lyman Hotchkiss Bagg “Autobiography 1846-1895. Forming a supplement to the “Obituary Notice of a Yale Graduate of ’69 written by himself in 1890.” New York: printed for private distribution by Karl Kron, publisher; reprinted from the Biographical Records of the Yale Class of 1869, vol. I, p 24-32.

Patricia Law Hatcher. Researching Your Colonial New England Ancestors. Provo, Utah: Ancestry Publishing, 2006.

Nathaniel Philbrick. Mayflower. A story of courage, community and war. New York: Penguin Books, 2007.

colonial New England, genealogy

Consider Moseley of Westfield, MA

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Consider Moseley (1675-1755), of Westfield, Massachusetts had an unusual name. In Puritan New England, where he was born, people normally named their children after close relatives1 or gave them Biblical names, but the origin of Consider’s name is a mystery. Maybe his parents had good imaginations: they called one of his brothers Comfort.

Whatever the origin of his name, my six-times great-grandfather was born in Windsor, Connecticut, the fifth child of Lieut. John Maudsley (an earlier spelling of the last name) and his wife, Mary Newberry. Consider had five younger siblings, all of them born after the family relocated to Westfield, Massachusetts2 around 1675.

John Maudsley was probably born in 1640 in Dorchester, Massachusetts.3 He and Mary married in 1664 and the couple moved to Windsor. It had been established on the banks of the Connecticut River almost 30 years earlier, and the founding settlers had received land grants but, as a relative latecomer, John purchased his land.

John sold that property in 1677 and moved to Westfield4 where he bought a house and store. According to Westfield chronicler Chester Stiles, “Mr. Moseley had already proved his valour in battles with the followers of King Philip. [King Philip’s War, 1675-1676, was fought between some of the indigenous people and the colonists.] Hence, he was warmly welcomed to the stockaded hamlet and chosen lieutenant of the little company of defenders. He was also recorded as one of the seven original members, or “foundation men,” of the [Congregational] church first organized under Rev. Edward Taylor in 1677.” 5

John still owned a mill in Windsor, and he died there in 1690. Mary then married her Westfield neighbour, widower Isaac Phelps.6 Consider was 15 at the time of his father’s death and, as one of the older boys in the family, he would likely have been responsible for many chores on the family farm.

Consider was still a young man in 1700 when he was called upon to assist the community. Officially this was peace time, but there was only a lull between two wars between England and France, King William’s War and Queen Ann’s War. Even in peace time, the people of Westfield were worried that the indigenous people who were allied with the French would come from New France (Quebec) and attack them.7

The town residents agreed that several houses should be securely fortified, and Consider’s house was one of the buildings chosen. Teams of neighbours helped with the work. Consider eventually became a lieutenant in the Westfield militia.

Lieut. Consider Moseley’s grave in the old burying ground, Westfield, MA. JH photo, 2014.

In 1709, at age 34, Consider married Elizabeth Bancroft.8 The couple had eight children, including twins Elizabeth and Daniel. (Elizabeth Moseley grew up to marry David Bagg, and the couple are my direct ancestors.9)  In 1731, after Elizabeth died, he married Rebecka (Williams) Dewey, the widow of Jedediah Dewey II.10 Rebecka had nine children of her own at the time, ranging in age from five to 26.  

When Consider died in September, 1755 at age 80, he was described as “one of the wealthiest and most influential men of the town.”11 He may or may not have considered wealth important. Puritans valued hard work, but wasting their money on frivolous things was frowned upon. Wealth was tied to influence, however. Wealthier residents were usually elected to their town’s most important offices and, every Sunday when the people of New England went to church, where they sat depended on their social status.12

Many Puritans believed that God ordained all that happened, so an individual’s prosperity was a sign of God’s approval for a commitment to godly living. In his will, Consider noted that, “it has pleased God to bless me in this life.”

When Consider wrote his will in January, 1754, he noted that he was “infirm and weak in body, yet of perfect mind and memory.” Indeed, this four-page document shows how well organized he was. He owned numerous tracts of pasture land and farm land around Westfield, and he identified each one according to its geographic location, neighbouring lot owners or the individual from whom he had purchased it.

He had already signed deeds of conveyance giving the titles of several properties to his sons. He split the land between his two sons, Daniel and Israel, and the sons of his late son Benjamin. Each of his five daughters, and Benjamin’s daughter, received relatively small sums of money and a share of his furniture and household goods.

As for his beloved wife Rebecka, his bequest to her was five shillings “in consideration of the articles of agreement concluded between us at our marriage.” He did not describe that agreement,13  but her children probably looked after her for the rest of her life.

This article first appeared on my personal family history blog Writing Up the Ancestors in 2018.

Notes:

Children of John Maudsley and Mary Newberry:  

Born in Windsor: Benjamin, b. 1666, m. Mary Sackett; Margaret, b. 1668/69, d. 1678; Joseph, b. 1670, m. Abigail Root; Mary, b. 1673, m. Isaac Phelps Jr.; Consider, b. 1675, m. 1, Elizabeth Bancroft, 2, widow Rebecca Dewey.

Born in Westfield: John, b. 1678, d. c. 1690; Comfort, b. 1680, d. 1711; Margaret b. 1683, m. Samuel Taylor; Elizabeth, b. 1685; Hannah, b. 1690, d. 1707.

Source: Henry R. Stiles, The History of Ancient Windsor vol. II, p. 508.

The Bancroft Family:

Immigrant John Bancroft brought his wife and children to New England in 1632 and settled in Lynn, Massachusetts. After he died in 1637, his wife may have remarried and moved to Windsor, Connecticut. 

In 1650, John Bancroft Jr. married Hanna Duper in Windsor. John Jr. and Hanna had five children, including Nathaniel, born 1653. After John Jr. died in 1662, Hanna remarried and moved to Westfield.

Nathaniel Bancroft married Hannah Williams in 1677. They had five children, with Elizabeth, born 1682, being the second-youngest. Elizabeth Bancroft married Consider Moseley in 1709.

Source: Henry R. Stiles, The History of Ancient Windsor vol. II, p. 40-41.

Children of Consider Moseley and Elizabeth Bancroft:

Rhoda, b. 1710, m. Nathaniel Weller; Israel, b. 1711, Daniel, b. 1714, m. Ann Abbott; Elizabeth, b. 1714, m. Daniel Bagg; Lydia, b. 1716, m. Israel Dewey; Ruth, b. 1717, m. Thomas Root; Mercy, b. 1722, m. Aaron King; Benjamin?, m. Hannah?                

Source: Henry R. Stiles, The History of Ancient Windsor, p. 509.

Sources:

1. David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, New York, Oxford University Press, 1898, p 23.

2. Henry R. Stiles. The History of Ancient Windsor, Vol. II, a facsimile of the 1892 edition, Somersworth: New Hampshire Publishing Co., 1976. p. 508, https://archive.org/stream/historygenealogi02stil#page/508/mode/2up accessed April 10, 2018.

3. Robert Charles Anderson, Great Migration Directory: Immigrants of New England, 1620-1640, a Concise Compendium. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015.

4. Henry R. Stiles, The History of Ancient Windsor, p. 508.

5. Chester D. Stiles, A History of the Town of Westfield, compiled for public schools from Greenough’s History of Westfield in the Annals of Hampden County and other sources, Westfield: J.D. Cadle & Company, 1919, p. 22. https://archive.org/stream/historyoftownofw00stil#page/22/mode/2up  accessed April 14, 2018.

6. The American Genealogist. New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 – .) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB283/i/12963/239/24672606, accessed April 7, 2018.

7. Rev. John H. Lockwood. Westfield and its Historic Influences, 1669-1919: the life of an early town. Springfield, MA, printed and sold by the author, 1922, p. 295, https://archive.org/stream/westfieldandits00lockgoog#page/n324/mode/2up  accessed April 10, 2018.

8. Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1621-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016), https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/13251/47/253015607 accessed April 14, 2018.

9. Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1621-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/r/253018268, accessed April 10, 2018.

10. Joann River, River-Hopkins, Saemann-Nickel and Related Families (website), Jedediah Dewey II #8003, http://josfamilyhistory.com/htm/nickel/griffin/sheldon/noble/noble-dewey.htm#jed3, accessed April 15, 2018.

11. Lockwood, Westfield and its Historic Influences, p. 386.  https://archive.org/stream/westfieldandits00lockgoog#page/n414/mode/2up, accessed April 10, 2018.

12. Virginia DeJohn Anderson, New England’s Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991, p.175.

13.  Westfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, Probate Record of the estate of Consider Moseley, 1755. Case Number 102-30, Hampshire Box 102, 1755, page 102-30:1.

genealogy

Before the Beatles were The Beatles: An Usherette’s Story

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It started with a Brenda Lee YouTube video I viewed. Suddenly, the decades melted away, and I realised I had actually seen her in person. Not on a screen, but right there in front of me, in my home town of Plymouth, Devon, England.

It was 1963, and I was employed as an usherette at the ABC Cinema at Derry’s Cross. Built in 1938 as the Royal Cinema, this grand Art Deco landmark was later renamed the ABC. (Associated British Cinemas)

By the sixties, with its massive capacity of over 2,400 seats divided between the stalls and the circle, it had become a premier venue hosting not just up-to-date films, but major live music and concert tours.

The ABC Cinema, in 1972

Looking back at 1963, I realise I did not just witness any ordinary concerts; I was right on the cusp of full-blown Beatlemania. Whether it was Helen Shapiro’s tour earlier that year, in March 1963, when the Beatles were supporting her as just another gig on the bill; or that breathless night on November 13th, 1963, when they returned as the main attraction (right before With The Beatles dropped), I was standing right in the middle of cultural history.

Back then, life as an usherette was non-stop. We worked from 1 pm to 10 pm. The cinema operated on continuous showings: first a low-budget ‘B’ film, then Pathé News, Pearl and Dean advertisements, and finally the big ‘A’ film everyone had come to see.

Because people came and went throughout the day, the auditorium lights only went up after the ‘B’ film. That was our cue to head down the aisles with huge, heavy trays strapped around our necks, stand in a blinding searchlight and serve ice cream of all flavours, small drinks, and chocolate bars. In those days, I was so skinny that those trays constantly bruised my hip bones! When the films were playing, we had to walk up and down the aisles, shine our torches and direct patrons to their seats.

Then there were the Saturday morning children’s shows—cartoons and serials that were wonderfully rowdy, noisy, and entirely chaotic with zero crowd control.

I vividly remember walking down the aisle with my heavy tray one Saturday morning only to discover one of the “little monsters” had strung a rope right across my path. I stopped just in time, with the rope grazing my ankles, while the kids on either side groaned in deep disappointment. I hated Saturday morning shifts, especially if I’d had a good night out on Friday!

By the end of a weekday shift, after breathing in the thick haze of cigarette smoke—because everyone smoked in the cinemas back then—my red ABC uniform, complete with lapel badges and a red belt, stank of smoke by the time I got home.

In the midst of all this routine, the cinema also hosted the biggest pop stars of the decade, and I saw them all:

Pictured below: Billy Fury, Brenda Lee, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Helen Shapiro, and Joe Brown and the Bruvvers.

I suddenly found myself remarkably popular with school “friends” I hadn’t seen since leaving school, all of a sudden writing to me to ask for “front seats”!

But since I wasn’t really interested in music back then—I could take it or leave it—it all felt like business as usual. By the 13th of November, 1963, The Beatles were back again to play at the ABC Cinema, but this time, as the headliners.

The support acts were The Kestrels, Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, the Vernon Girls and comedian Frank Berry.

The Beatles ABC Cinema 1963

That evening in November, when they were now much more famous, I set off for my usual shift. I remember being very surprised to see hordes of girls outside the cinema, and having to fight my way up to the glass doors of my workplace, where the supervisor was manning the door to keep screaming girls out and help us, staff, in!

I could not understand what all the fuss was about. The Beatles played two shows that night, and the screams made my ears ring all night!

Our job was to stay in the auditorium to make sure nobody fainted or tried to climb the stage. Thankfully, apart from the screaming, everyone stayed in their seats—we didn’t even need barriers or security standing up front like they do today.

After the show, we all went back to our staff room, changed and waited outside the staff room to see the Beatlesslip out the back door to the Westward Television studios right next door to the cinema for an interview.

I should have asked them for their autographs! None of us did. We just locked up and headed straight for the pubs. Missing out on those autographs? I bet I was not alone; thousands of kids and staff must have felt that exact same way before realising just how massive those lads from Liverpool would become.

For decades, I hardly ever thought about it. But seeing Brenda Lee on screen after all these years brought it all rushing back—the heavy trays, the smoky air, the red uniform, and the front-row seat I had to the birth of musical history.

Staff of the ABC Cinema during the Helen Shapiro Show.

Fellow Usherettes with our trusty torches

Left: Mavis, Marian and Pat.

NOTE:

Over the years, the cinema closed and reopened. It remained a single 2,400+ seat venue until May 1976, when it was temporarily closed and subdivided into a triple-screen cinema and bingo hall.

It finally closed as ‘Reel Cinemas’ in 2019 and is currently the subject of a community campaign aiming to restore it as a cultural and entertainment venue

NOTES

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79vjy544p3o

genealogy, Quebec

The Mystery of Pamela Stanley

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By Lucy Anglin and Janice Hamilton (2nd cousins)

One of the biggest challenges in researching our family history was discovering what happened to our four-times-great-grandmother, Pamela Stanley, the wife of Phineas Bagg (c. 1750–1823). Like many women in colonial America, Pamela left very few records behind.

We knew that Phineas and his children moved from Massachusetts to Canada around 1795. But what about Pamela? Did she make the journey with them, or had she already died in the United States?

Pamela’s story is especially interesting because her maiden name, Stanley, was carried on through four generations of our family. Her son, Montreal merchant Stanley Bagg (1788–1853), was followed by his son Stanley Clark Bagg (1820–1873), his grandson Robert Stanley Bagg (1848–1912), and his great-grandson Stanley Bagg Lindsay (1889–1965).

Pamela’s Early Life

We do have a record of Pamela’s birth. She was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1760.¹ She was the fourth of eight children born to Timothy Stanley Jr., originally from Hartford, Connecticut, and his wife, Mary Hopkins, who came from Harwinton, Connecticut.²

Pamela’s father probably ran a small clothier’s business in Litchfield, a village in northern Connecticut. When the American Revolution began, he enlisted in the military. Unfortunately, he was captured by the British and died aboard a prison ship in New York Harbour in 1776.

Pamela’s mother had died around 1770, and her father left no will. Sometime after his death, Pamela appears to have moved to Massachusetts. She would have been about sixteen at the time.

Pamela and Phineas

On March 29, 1780, Pamela Stanley, age 20, and Phineas Bagg, age 30, both of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, announced their intention to marry.³

Phineas was a farmer who lived in the remote Berkshire Hills, about 90 kilometres (60 miles) from Litchfield.

There may have been a family connection that brought Pamela to Pittsfield. Her uncle, Caleb Stanley, lived there for many years and served as the town clerk from 1777 until his death in 1781. Perhaps Pamela went to live with him after her father died.⁴

There was another interesting connection between the two families. Pamela’s brother Frederick and Phineas’s brother Martin served together in the same militia unit in 1777.

Pamela as a Wife and Mother

Life for Pamela as a young wife would have been busy and demanding. Women helped their husbands in the fields, especially during planting and harvest. They also spent countless hours tending their gardens, preparing food, preserving supplies and caring for their families.

Women often formed strong relationships with other women in their communities. They traded or bartered the goods they produced with their neighbours, and charity was an important part of community life. They also tended to be more religious than their husbands.

Pamela was no doubt a loving mother, although motherhood in those days was often described as “a kind of travail, an unavoidable though potentially rewarding labor ordained by God.”⁵

Pamela’s Children

Unfortunately, no records have survived showing the baptisms of Phineas and Pamela’s children. Most published records list only two sons, Stanley and Abner.

However, research by my cousin revealed that the couple actually had four children who survived to adulthood:

  • Polly (1785–1856)
  • Stanley (1788–1853)
  • Abner (c. 1790–1852)
  • Sophia (c. 1791–1860)⁶

Phineas’s household appeared in a local Pittsfield census in 1786 and again in the 1790 U.S. federal census. Unfortunately, Phineas was the only member of the family personally identified in those records.

What Happened to Pamela?

This is where the mystery begins.

We still don’t know exactly when Pamela died.

The minister of the First Congregational Church in Pittsfield kept careful records of births and deaths among his parishioners and often even recorded the cause of death. But the early 1790s were especially difficult years for the community.

About 30 people died in Pittsfield in 1792, followed by another 26 in 1793. The following year was even worse: 36 people died in 1794, including 14 adults.⁷

The minister must have been exhausted and overwhelmed by so much illness and grief.

It is possible that Pamela died during this difficult period, leaving her four children without their mother and Phineas to raise them alone. Unfortunately, there is no known record of her grave. Perhaps Phineas could not afford a gravestone, or perhaps a stone once existed but was lost or deteriorated over the years.

A New Life in Canada

Sometime between 1794 and 1797, Phineas found himself deeply in debt. He lost almost all of his farmland, along with his barn and half of his house, to repay his creditors.⁸

If Pamela had already died, Phineas was now a widower with four children to raise. Perhaps this difficult situation helped convince him that it was time for a fresh start.

He eventually moved to Canada, where he became an innkeeper in La Prairie, Quebec. Later, he ran a tavern called the Mile End Tavern near Montreal. His son Stanley eventually married the only daughter of the tavern’s owner.

And so the family’s Canadian story began.

What If Pamela Had Lived?

We often wonder what would have happened if Pamela had not died.

Would Phineas still have left Massachusetts and come to Canada? Would he have brought Pamela and their four children with him?

We sure hope so.

Otherwise, Janice and I wouldn’t be here!

Captain Stanley Lindsay

Footnotes 

1. Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630-1870 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928.  https://www.americanancestors.org/DB414/i/13218/203/234906257

2. The children of Timothy Stanley Jr. and Mary Hopkins were:

Timothy, b. 1754, m. Lucy Woodruff

Mary, b. 1756, m. Amasa Castle

Frederick, b. 1758, m. 1. M.S. Bishop; 2. M.K. Grosvenor

Pamela, b. 1760, m. Phineas Bagg

Abigail, b. 1762

Eunice, m 1764

Huldah, b. 1766, m. Levi DeWolf

Rufus, b. 1767, m. Lydia Collins

Source:  Israel P. Warren, The Stanley Families of America, as descended from John, Timothy and Thomas Stanley of Hartford, CT.  1636. Timothy Stanley, #74, p. 24, Portland, Maine: B. Thurston & Co, 1887, https://archive.org/details/stanleyfamilieso00byuwarr

3.  Early Vital Records of Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden & Hampshire Counties, Mass. to about 1850 (electronic resource) Wheat Ridge, CO: Search and Research Publ Corp. c2000, p. 22 of sheet 99, F94/p6/M37.

4. Warren, Ibid. #81, p. 245.

5. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750, p. 239.  

6. Stanley Bagg and his brother Abner were both baptized as adults in Christ Church (Anglican) Montreal in 1831. At that time Stanley gave his date of birth as June 27, 1788. “Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968” [database on-line].  Ancestry.com, (www.ancestry.ca, accessed 2 Oct. 2016), entry for Stanley Bagg, 2 April, 1831; citing Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.

The same source gives Abner’s date of birth as August 5, 1790, however, this date does not make sense in light of his sister Sophia’s calculated birthdate. At his death in 1852, Abner’s age was recorded as 64, which would have meant he was born in 1788, the year brother Stanley was supposed to have been born. When he was married in 1814, Abner gave his age as 25, which would have meant he was born in 1789. 

Sophia was probably the youngest of Pamela’s children. Dame Sophia Bagg, veuve (widow) Gabriel Roy died Nov. 12, 1860, and at the time was said to have been 69 years, eight months of age. (“Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968” [database on-line]. Ancestry.com.) Calculating her date of birth from that, she would have been born around February 20, 1791. She is probably buried with her husband in the parish church in Saint-Laurent, Quebec. 

According to her date of birth calculated from age, Pamela’s oldest daughter, Polly, was born April 22, 1785. She married farmer William Bush and lived in West Haven, Vermont, a rural area near the southern tip of Lake Champlain. The family later moved to southern Illinois and Polly died there on Jan 9, 1856. 

7. Records pf the First Church, Pittsfield, Rollins H. Cooke Collection, Berkshire County, vols 26 and 27, reel #2.

8. Massachusetts Land Records 1620-1986, Berkshire, Deeds, 1792-1813, vol 31-32, images 438- 442. www.familysearch.org, Accessed Sept. 26, 2018.

colonial New England, genealogy, United States

Isaac Phelps and his Blended Families

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My seven-times great grandfather Isaac Phelps (1638-1725) was like the Energizer bunny: he never seemed to stop. For much of his life, he worked hard as a farmer and he held many offices in his home town in New England, but he also became a school teacher at age 64 and was named a captain in the militia at age 71. Only death seemed to slow him down, at age 87, and his tombstone is almost as legible now as the day it was carved.

Isaac was born in 1638 in Windsor, Connecticut, the eldest son of George Phelps and Philura Randall,1 both of whom were newcomers to New England, part of a wave of Puritans who fled England, hoping to follow their religious beliefs without persecution.

The Puritans wanted to be able to read the Bible themselves, so education was considered important in colonial New England. Meanwhile, everyone in the community attended church for the whole day every Sunday.

By the time he was nine years old, Isaac had four younger siblings, but that year, 1647, two of them died. The following April, his mother died.2 Families needed two parents to share the work of running the household and the farm, so his father did not wait long to remarry. George Phelps’ second wife was Frances Dewey, whose second husband, Thomas Dewey, had died two days before Philura.3

From age ten, Isaac grew up in what we would describe as a blended family. The household included his father and step-mother, his brother Joseph, Mary Clark (Frances’ daughter from her first marriage) and the five Dewey children: Thomas, Josiah, Anna, Israel and Jedediah. Eventually, there were three more half-brothers: Jacob, John and Nathaniel Phelps. Isaac’s other brother, Abraham, was adopted by Randall relatives who were childless.4

The grave of Isaac Phelps in the Old Burying Ground, Westfield, MA. JH photo, 2014

In 1662, Isaac married Ann Gaylord.5 (See note i) Isaac’s and Ann’s eldest child, Isaac Jr., was born in 1666 in Windsor. The family moved to Westfield, Massachusetts around 1670 and the rest of their 11 children were born in that frontier settlement. (See note ii)

Ann (Gaylord) Phelps died in 1689 or 1690, when the youngest child was still a toddler. Sometime before 1694, Isaac married his neighbour, widow Mary (Newberry) Maudsley,6 who had eight children of her own. (See note iii) Once again, Isaac was part of a big, blended family.

Other members of the extended Phelps/Dewey family also lived in Westfield. Perhaps they saw opportunities to acquire fertile farmland in the new settlement, which was founded by settlers from nearby Springfield and a handful of families from Windsor.

Isaac and his father were among the first settlers in Westfield, choosing prime home lots located near the Little River in 1667.7 The colonists purchased the land from the indigenous people and Westfield was incorporated in 1669.

Because Westfield was quite isolated, the residents were afraid of attacks by the indigenous people, especially during King Phillip’s War (1675-76). When colonial authorities in Boston told the residents to go to Springfield because of the danger, Isaac Phelps was one of four people to sign a letter refusing to do so. Instead, Westfield residents built a two-square-mile wooden palisade around the town and dug an underground cellar where the women and children could hide.8 Westfield was not attacked, although Springfield was, and some individuals were.

Westfield’s citizens maintained a militia for decades to counter the threat that was fueled by ongoing wars between the English and the French and their Native American allies. In 1709, Isaac became a captain in the militia.

Isaac also played a role in Westfield’s civic life. He served as town clerk, assessor, surveyor and town treasurer,10 and teacher. He was also a legislator of the Massachusetts General Court.

Westfield had about 150 residents in 1676, and the town continued to grow. The Dewey brothers built a mill on one of the many nearby creeks, there was a tavern in the town and a road that led to Springfield. Most important, the town had a minister: Reverend Edward Taylor, a graduate of Cambridge University and of Harvard University, served the people of Westfield from 1679 to 1726. Isaac was one of the founding members of the church, and a deacon.9

Isaac Phelps died in 1725 and was buried in Westfield’s Old Burying Ground.

This story was first published on my personal family history blog, Writing Up the Ancestors, in 2018.

Notes:

i. The Gaylord family. Ann Gaylord’s grandfather William Gaylord (also spelled Gayler, Gaylar, Gaylor, Gailead and Gailer) brought his family from England to Dorchester, Massachusetts aboard the Mary and John in 1630. At the time, he and his wife had six children ranging in age from about four to 15.11

William Gaylord played an important role in Dorchester, initially as one of two deacons of the Congregational church that the colonists and their pastor, John Warham, established there. William was one of four men who signed early town orders in Dorchester, he was chosen as a selectman (town official) for several terms between 1635 and 1637, and he was appointed assessor in 1636.

Two years later, the Gaylord family followed Rev. Warham and a number of other Dorchester families to Windsor, Connecticut. There, William was granted a 20-acre home lot and several tracts of agricultural land. He served as deputy for Windsor to the Connecticut General Court for many years. His wife died in Windsor in 1657; William Sr. died in 1673.

Their second child, William Jr., was baptized in Crewkerne, Somersetshire, in 1617, and married Anna Porter in Windsor in 1641.12 The Porter family had settled in Windsor in 1639. After Anna died in 1653, William married Elizabeth Drake.

William Gaylord Jr. died in 1656, leaving seven children, the oldest of whom was Ann, born 1645. Ann must have shouldered a lot of responsibility helping to raise her younger brothers and sisters. She married Isaac Phelps on March 11, 1662/63.

ii. Isaac’s and Ann’s children born in Windsor:

Isaac, b. 1666, m. Mary Moseley.

Those who were baptized in Westfield were:

daughter b. 1669, d. young.

John b. 1672, married Thankful Hitchcock;

Hannah b. 1674, m. Daniel Bagg in 1693/4 (my direct ancestors);13

Hezekiah b. 1677;

Joseph b. 1679;

Daniel b. 1681, d. 1690;

Noah, b. 1684, d. 1731 at Housatonnuc;

infant, b/d 1686;

Ebenezer, b. 1687, m. Susanna Burbank.14

iii. Some 19th-century genealogies suggest Isaac did not remarry after Ann’s death, but it would have been unusual for a widower with several young children not to look for a new wife. An article proving Isaac did remarry appeared in The American Genealogist in 1993 (TAG vol. 68, p 239-241). In such a small community, there were multiple connections between some of these blended family members. After Isaac Phelps married Mary (Newberry) Maudsley, his son Isaac Jr. married her daughter, Mary Maudsley.

iv. Windsor and Westfield kept good records and these databases are available online from the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Several books have been written about the area and its residents, mostly by amateur historians and genealogists in the 19th century, and the information in these books needs to be checked against the databases. Keep in mind that often several individuals living about the same time had the same name. For example, besides the father and son I have mentioned, there were three other men named Isaac Phelps. See The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 163 [2009]: 117.

Sources:

1. Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630-1870 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928. https://www.americanancestors.org/DB414/i/12316/224/138422806, accessed April 7, 2018

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Oliver Seymour Phelps and Andrew T. Servin, compilers, “George Phelps the Emigrant, 1630,” The Phelps Family of America and their English Ancestors, and other interesting papers, coats of arms and valuable records, volume II (Pittsfield, MA: Eagle Publishing Company, 1899), p. 1270.

5. Burton Spear, compiler, Search for the Passengers of the Mary and John, 1630, vol. 5, Gallop – Greenway (Toledo: The Mary and John Clearing House, 1987), p 18.

6. The American Genealogist. New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 – .) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB283/i/12963/239/24672606, accessed April 7, 2018.

7. Rev. John H. Lockwood, Westfield and its Historic Influences 1669-1919: The Life of an Early Town (Springfield, 1922, Printed and sold by the author), p. 58, https://archive.org/stream/westfieldandits00lockgoog#page/n80/mode/2up accessed April 1, 2018

8. Kay Delli Bovi, Barbara Trant, volunteers in public schools, The Westfield Story, printed in 2006, http://www.cityofwestfield.org/DocumentCenter/View/236 accessed April 7, 2018.

9. Lockwood, Westfield and its Historic Influences 1669-1919, p. 94. https://archive.org/stream/westfieldandits00lockgoog#page/n120/mode/2up, accessed April 1, 2018.

10. Phelps and Servin, The Phelps Family of America and their English Ancestors, p. 1269.

11 Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, 3 volumes, (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society), II: 742.

12.  Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630-1870 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928. https://www.americanancestors.org/DB414/r/138416737, accessed April 10, 2018.

13. New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1568/r/426875386, accessed April 10, 2018.

14. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2013.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB202/r/245392558, accessed April 10, 2018.

genealogy, Ontario, Toronto

The House on Seaton Street

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71 & 69 Seaton Street in the early 1900s in the author’s collection and in the 2020s from Google.

All houses have a history, and number 69 Seaton Street, Toronto, had my family members living in it for more than 60 of its 150-year life. It was part of a five-row house. Houses in the Cabbage Town area were built in the 1850s to the 1880s for the workers. The houses were small, usually three or four rooms, built quickly, but still many of them have survived to this day.

William Eagle, my great-grandfather, purchased the house in 1903. William came from County Monaghan, Ireland. It says so on his tombstone. I don’t know when he immigrated but he, his father Alexander, mother Martha McClelland, sister Elizabeth, and brothers Alexander and James all ended up in Canada, where records of them exist, some dating before 1861.

William Eagle and his mother, Martha McClelland Eagle, picture from R.M. Bunse

William became a wagonmaker following in the footsteps of his uncle and brother-in-law. Being a wheelwright or wainwright was an important job in the 19th  century as wagons, carriages and sleighs were the main modes of transportation. There was great demand for wagonmakers’ services, and a skilled craftsman could make a very comfortable living in the trade. It seems that William did just that.

Family was important to him. He felt his family responsibilities strongly. William lived with and looked after his mother after his father’s death and then kept an eye on his brother’s family after his brother’s death. He postponed his marriage to Eliza Jane Bailey as he didn’t want his wife to be his mother’s nursemaid. They eventually married in 1881.

William Eagle photograph in the collection of the author

William and Eliza Jane first lived on Ontario St in a small cottage, almost back-to-back with the house on Seaton Street. They only moved to the larger house in 1905. Unfortunately, William died the next year. His will, written two days before he died, left everything he had to his wife Eliza Jane. It was signed on his deathbed with an X, after he indicated he understood what the will said. The will had to go through probate and the results were published in the newspapers. It was there that I learned that he owned not one but two houses! He had purchased both 71 and 69 Seaton, attached houses.

In the Toronto Telegram

Number 71 was rented out, so the income received would have helped support Eliza Jane and her two daughters. They continued to live in #69. When Eliza Jane died in 1931, her estate went to her daughters Amy and Minnie. At this time, Minnie, my grandmother, had married and was living in Montreal. Amy, still single, lived in the house. Minnie sold her share of #71 to Amy for $100 and “Natural Love and Affection.” This rather unusual sale was recorded as such in the Toronto Land Records. This transaction was consented to by the Provincial Treasury, as the house was worth more than $100.

Toronto Land Records 1800-1958

Amy sold #71 in 1945 for $6,000, $3,500 cash and a mortgage of $2,500. It seems she was the mortgage holder until it was paid off in 1950. This money enabled Amy to continue living in her other house until her death in 1965. After her death, the house was finally sold for $8,000.

This was a small house, just 13.02 feet wide but on a lot 95.5 feet deep. When William bought it, the ground floor had a parlour, a dining room with the kitchen off the back. The second floor had two bedrooms and a bathroom. The toilet had a wooden tank on the wall with a pull chain, that intregued us when we visited as children. The attic had two rooms, one with a window a facing west toward City Hall. This was the vantage point for watching the New Year’s fireworks.

The house is still standing and when recently sold, was advertised as a duplex with the possibility of a third occupant. The selling price was $1,099,900!

NOTES:

The Estate of Waggonmaker, The Toronto Telegram (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) · Fri, Oct 19, 1906 . Page 15. Newspapers.com downloaded on May 19, 2026.

I started with Newspapers.com when Gail Devers mentioned on her blog, Genealogy a la Carte, that the Toronto Telegram was online. That was the first hint that William owned two houses, since The Toronto Star reported only the estate’s total value.

Full-text searches for William Eagle Toronto on FamilySearch.org revealed some interesting documents related to his will, the probate and house purchases.

William Eagle’s Will: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3M4-W3TT-4?view=fullText

Toronto Land Records 1800-1958 Plan 127 – Lot 24 East Side of Seaton Street https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H6-PGDL?view=fullText

Searches for recent sales of 69 Seaton Street brought up pictures of the house, current values and this description of the house and its location. An original small house could could become a triplex!

“Welcome to 69 Seaton Street a rare gem in the city, fronting on to Seaton St with its 2 distinct upper & lower address; while backing onto Nighthawk Lane, with a possible third separate residence (if you wish to rent or entertain hanging a shingle and having a business at home). This downtown core Cabbage Town century-old Victorian charmer in the heart of the city of Toronto is close to all amenities, situated near the universities, arts, entertainment, business, and theatre districts while bordering all the cosmopolitan businesses in all areas of Toronto. This legal conforming duplex with the potential as a legal Triplex in its duality is a rare & unique find in this or any city. Built in the late 1800’s & fully renovated this Victorian charmer is a rare gem in deed.”

Quebec

11th Grade Math Class

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These days, when I need to employ some math to figure out a household problem, such as how many pesos to take to Cancun or what is more economical, using Keurig pods or canned coffee, I rely on Google.

That’s because much like my handwriting, my math skills have atrophied over the years.

But, was I ever good at math? That I really can’t tell you.

During my childhood, I used to help my mother double and triple her recipes for our hungry family. A precocious learner with a terrific memory, my mom had skipped two grades at her convent school, she said, so she missed out on a key component of her math education, fractions. Her cakes always turned turned out scrumptious proving, I think, my early math ability.

My own math implosion happened in the 10th grade. I was in advanced math in grade 10 with all of my friends from the ‘enriched’ stream and I did so poorly on the final exam I plummeted the next year into remedial math, totally skipping general math. My parents’ divorce that year likely had something to do with it.

Still, a friend of mine who went on to major in genetics in university, claimed she too ‘hit the wall’ in the 10th grade. Her father, an engineer, helped her through it, she said.

Ironically, my father, a chartered accountant, majored in math at Oxford around WWII. While I was still in the single digits age-wise, he often gave me math puzzles in the hope I would prove to be some kind of math genius: If a bath fills at this rate and empties at that rate how much water is left after 10 minutes? I’m not joking. My father, apparently, had never heard of scaffolding.

My 10th grade math teacher, judging from Facebook posts upon his death, was a terrific teacher. He just didn’t put much store in my abilities. Maybe he was put off by my loudmouth ‘women’s lib’ lecturing. Let’s face it, in those days, they expected girls to fumble in math at around 16 years of age. Hormones and all.

I recall how achingly awful it was to be in this 11th grade remedial math class not only because I didn’t know anybody but because the teacher treated the students as if they were so stupid -and I wasn’t used to that. I remember the man entering the classroom room once with a styrofoam coffee cup over his face, snorting like a pig.

I don’t recall my final matriculation mark in math. I do recall the SATS, those aptitude tests you took at the end of school. I remember approaching the desk set up outside the gym oh-so- timidly to learn my score. The desk attendant handed it to me on a little piece of paper: a 92 percentile for language and 75 percentile for math.

The girl beside me with much lower numbers announced that ‘lower is better” and with such confidence I half-believed her. Then Jay, one of the smartest and coolest kids in our grade sauntered up to the desk, his glistening head of golden hair catching the morning light. The desk attendant handed him his score. The boy gave a hint of a shrug then (rather snootily) waved the paper in my face. 99th and 99th percentile. But of course.

So on these Scholastic Aptitude Tests I got the same math score as my friend Wayne, a funny hard working boy with a penchant for public speaking who was in advanced math. He once told a teacher who was polling another class that he did two full hours of homework a night when the rest of us admitted with misguided pride to doing around ten minutes or even five minutes or even none at all. This boy went on to become a much celebrated scientist and he now gives talks around the world. Surprise!

I got a much better math score than my gal-pal, Tessa, from an artsy family, who told me she could read by age three which may have been ‘a creative exaggeration’ (she was prone to them) and who already had a short story published in an American teen magazine. (This I can verify.)Tessa often showed me the portfolio of photographs and poems she had ready to submit to a prestigious college film program. On the SATS, Tessa got a high high 90’s score for language and a low low 20 percentile score for the math. And she had been in the general math class!

My 75th percentile high school score in mathematics isn’t Bill Gates territory, but it’s OK. I do recall that I loved solving long division in elementary school and quadratic equations in grade 9, before the divorce.

Anyway, it evened out because being in the enriched English stream I could spit on a page and get an A. That being said, Mrs. B. my 11th grade teacher, did not appreciate me choosing “the rock star” Bob Dylan as a poet for an end-of-term project so she gave me an A-.

I had been inspired by my 10th grade teacher who let us kids listen to Jesus Christ Superstar in class instead of deconstructing some dull Dickens novel. For this 11th grade Dylan project, I listened to my older brother’s Best Of Bob long play album over and over to transcribe the lyrics, my index finger recklessly jiggering the stylus on the turntable of his beloved brand new stereo system. I didn’t get all of the words. For My Back Pages, I transcribed “half racked refrigerators” instead of “half wracked prejudice.” Maybe that was why I lost the marks. Doubt it, though.

Still, in hindsight, who was right about Bob Dylan, my teacher Mrs. B or me? Nobel Prize, eh? Today, I regularly listen to both Bob Dylan and Murray Head on Spotify, my musical sensibilities firmly entrenched in that time period.

Back then, in the early 1970’s Jay, the cool and the clever, wasn’t afraid of ever getting less than an A in any subject. I recall him blithely waltzing into grade eleven English class on the very last day, his arms piled high with long overdue essays that, apparently, he had tossed off the night before. And then, performing for the class, he casually let go of them one-by-one onto the teacher’s desk. What style he had! What panache! I should have married him.

Dundee, genealogy, Migration, Quebec, Scotland, WWI

A Twist of Fate

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By Susan Gingras Calcagni

My great-grandfather, William Irvine, born on 31 August 1864 in Maryton, Kirriemuir, Forfar, Scotland1 was devastated by the death of his eldest daughter, Mary Ann, in 1911.2  Heartbroken, William was ready to hand over his lease as a publican and make preparations to sail to Canada with one of his daughters, Georgina. The 1911 census reveals that William was a Spirit Merchant at the Camperdown Pub located at 144 High Street in Dundee, Scotland.  William and his family were living at 22 Peel Street in Lochee, Dundee,3 just a 10-minute walk from the pub. This was a popular pub with the workers of the Camperdown Works, the largest jute factory in the world at the time.4 By spring 1912 William had found a new owner who was interested in taking over the pub and William had finalized preparations to emigrate to Canada.

Subsequently, William was shocked and dismayed to learn that his emigration to Canada would need to be delayed. James Jones, the new owner, could not take over the lease to the pub as planned. His son was due to return from India and the transfer of the lease had to wait until his return. This would have been overwhelming for William and this new development significantly altered the plans he had set in motion for a new life. He had come this far and would hold on to the one silver thread to achieve his goal. I can only imagine his strength and determination in the face of this situation and the need to change his plans.

While I was growing up, my Aunt Gladys Fairlie, my mum’s sister, was very keen to learn from her grandmother, Betsy, William’s wife, about her family history. As William Irvine died in 1931 in Montreal, Quebec,5 Betsy was the only one living to tell the family stories. Now here is where the family lore comes into play. Gladys was born in Canada, and not having immigrated, she would ask her grandmother why they came to Canada. Betsy told her that it was due to the death of their eldest daughter. It was said that this broke William’s heart and therefore he decided to leave Scotland for Canada. One can only dare say how devastated they must have been when forced to contend with the loss of their daughter, Mary Ann, at the tender age of 17 years old. As genealogists, we are often under the impression that our ancestors usually emigrated for economic reasons and opportunities to better their lives. In this case, it was not the sole cause for my family.  It was heartbreak, and further research revealed that it was an overwhelming one for William.

While researching William and Betsy’s immigration to Canada, I found that William was a widower at the time of his marriage to Betsy (something we weren’t aware of).6 A well-known step in researching family history is to leave no stone unturned, so I dug deeper into the records to learn that William had first married in December 1887.7 Unfortunately the death of Mary Ann in 1911 was not the first tragedy in his life. On 8 February 1888, his first wife, Mary McGregor Grimmond died days after giving birth.8 This was followed quickly by the death of their twin daughters, [Mary and unknown] on 29 February 1888.9 Chills ran through my body as I could only imagine how devastated my great-grandfather must have felt with grief and sorrow in his heart. My quest to learn more had increased ten-fold.

Moving forward, in 2002 plans for travel to Scotland were underway to learn more about my ancestors and especially about William and Betsy’s emigration to Canada. My Aunt Gladys and I were embarking on a fact-finding mission with the hope of confirming the stories she had been told by her grandmother over the years. Airline tickets were purchased and reservations were booked with plans to spend time in Dundee. I sent emails to the Dundee City Archives to book appointments to review the records to locate the address of the Public House where William was a publican and any other pertinent particulars we may extract. Meanwhile, I contacted the Balgay Cemetery in Dundee to plan a visit to the gravesite of Mary Ann Irvine. My Aunt Gladys had always yearned to locate and visit her grandfather’s pub and her Aunt Mary Ann’s gravesite. My desire to seek out these details were equally shared. My mission was underway and there was no disappointing my aunt.

With all the information swirling in my head, I was eager to start my quest. However, here is where my curiosity really started to unfold. Gladys was also told that William had his passage to Canada in the making and that the new owner of the Public House requested that William delay his departure, as noted above in this story. When we visited the Dundee Archives, you can imagine how thrilled we were when shown the entry at the Dundee City Archives10 with evidence that there was indeed an alteration in the transfer of the lease for the Public House located at 144 High Street, Lochee, Dundee between William Irvine and James Jones, Spirit dealers. Betsy, William’s wife, told the story that William was dismayed that he was required to stay on longer just until Mr. Jones’ son arrived back from India. Mr. Brian Cullens of the Dundee City Archives, who I had contacted by email, remarked that day on our visit that William probably had needed to alter his arrangements for his passage to Canada. This delay in the transfer of the lease saved William and Georgina’s lives. Originally William and Georgina had booked their passage on the RMS Titanic that left Southampton, England on April 15, 1912 but these tickets had to be cancelled. Eventually William and Georgina travelled on the Allan Line’s SS Scandinavian which departed from Glasgow on June 29, 1912, two months after the RMS Titanic’s fated voyage.11 After confirming at the Dundee City Archives that William did, indeed, change his travel plans made Aunt Gladys and I realize that we were in Dundee in 2002 because of this remarkable twist of fate.

Extracts from the Dundee City Archives, 2002

While in Dundee in 2002, we also visited the site of William Irvine’s pub which was then called the “Last Tram” located at 144-146 High Street. Below is a picture taken during this trip. This name of the pub honoured the historic end of the Dundee’s tram service in October 1956. In earlier years, the Camperdown Tavern, was nicknamed the “Tommy” or the Wounded Tommy. The soldiers of WWI who were badly wounded and who recuperated in Bright Street nearby the tavern at the Union Street Church Hall were nicknamed the “Tommies.” They were patrons of the tavern because the wounded soldiers would find it easy to enter and exit with no steps from the street level.12

The Last Tram, Dundee, Scotland, family photo by author, 2002

Often, as genealogists, we are asked why we do family history. Greater than the sum of these fragments, here is one of my responses. On the train ride leaving Dundee, Gladys and I were sitting there, and while crossing the Tay Rail Bridge, my aunt turned and looked at me. In a surreal tone she expressed her thoughts, “What would my grandparents and my mother think to know that I was there and sat in the family’s Public House, the same brick and mortar, and visited the Balgay Cemetery gravesite of my aunt that I had never met.”  This squeezed my heart knowing that I had fulfilled a dream of the person who has always been my soul mate and inspiration in life and genealogy, my dearest Aunt Gladys.

  1. New Register House Scotland, Statutory Birth Records, 1864, William Irvine, accessed 2000.
  2. ScotlandsPeople, Statutory Death Records, 1911 Mary Ann Irvine, accessed 2006.
  3. ScotlandsPeople, 1911 UK Census, accessed 2011.
  4. Wikipedia, Camperdown Works, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camperdown_Works, accessed 22 June 2026.
  5. Ancestry, Drouin Collection, Grace Anglican Church, Montreal, Quebec, accessed 5 August 2026.
  6. New Register House Scotland, Statutory Marriage Records, 1892, William Irvine and Betsy Smith Lawson, accessed 2000.
  7. ScotlandsPeople, Statutory Marriage Records, 1887,William Irvine and Mary McGregor Grimmond, accessed 2008.
  8. ScotlandsPeople, Statutory Death Records, 1888, Mary McGregor Grimmond, accessed 2008.
  9. ScotlandsPeople, Statutory Death Records, 1888, Mary McGregor Grimmond Irvine, accessed 2008.
  10. Dundee City Archives, Liquor Licensing Records, William Irvine, accessed 2002.
  11. Findmypast, Passenger Lists leaving UK 1890 -1960, William Irvine, accessed 2007.
  12. Wikipedia, Camperdown Works, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camperdown_Works, accessed 6 August 2026.
genealogy, United States

The Phelps Family of Windsor and Westfield

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In recognition of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, I am reposting a series of articles about my American colonial ancestors in Massachusetts and Connecticut, including members of the Stanley, Bagg, Burt, Phelps, Moseley, Mygatt and other families. These people are also the ancestors of Lucy Anglin, my second cousin and fellow contributor to Genealogy Ensemble. Most of these stories were written around 2018, and were then posted on my personal family history blog Writing Up the Ancestors.

For many of the colonists who fled England to become pioneers in New England in the 1630s, rebuilding their lives once was enough. But not for George Phelps. He helped to found the town of Windsor, Connecticut and raised his family there. Thirty years later, he started over as a founding settler of Westfield, a new town on the edge of the Massachusetts wilderness.

His date and place of birth in England are unknown, but he was probably born around 1613.1 He probably came to New England on the ship Recovery in 1634.2 Most of its passengers were from southwest England, and George may have been from the same area.

He initially settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Some people in Dorchester complained that the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were too elitist and autocratic.3 They wanted to be part of a more democratic society. In 1635, a group of unhappy colonists left Dorchester with their minister, Reverend John Warham, determined to found a new community they called Windsor, Connecticut. George was one of them.

A trading post had been built at the spot where the Farmington River flows into the Connecticut River several years earlier, and the indigenous people in the area were friendly to the newcomers and willing to sell them land. The spot was well located for trade and its riverside meadows were fertile, so Warham’s group decided to settle there. 

Sixty men, women and children travelled overland with their farm animals, while their possessions were shipped by water. The first winter was so difficult that many of the cattle died and some of the would-be settlers fled back to Dorchester, returning to Windsor in the spring, accompanied by additional settlers.

In 1637, the Pequot Indians began attacking the New England colonists, so the settlers surrounded their houses with a protective wooden palisade. By 1639, the danger had subsided and the people of Windsor began construction of the most important building in the community: the church and meeting house.

George married Philura Randall, the daughter of Philip Randall, although there is no surviving record of their marriage. They lived in an area known as the Island, overlooking the Farmington River, but not only was that area prone to flooding, in 1640, the house burned.4

Like most of his neighbours, George supported his family as a farmer. According to a 1640 inventory of Windsor properties, he owned nine different tracts of land, including several acres in what was known as the Plimouth Meadow, as well as several properties on the other side of what people called the Great River and several narrow tracts of land that stretched three miles back from the water.5

As well as wheat and Indian corn, George may have grown tobacco, a crop that has been grown in the area since 1640, and he planted 500 apple trees. Apples had been imported to the colony from England and were a staple of the New England diet.

He signed land deeds and his will with a mark, so George probably did not know how to write, however, he did own some books.6  He served as a constable in Windsor in 1645 and was on juries a number of times between 1649 and 1667.

George and Philura had five children, including Isaac (my direct ancestor), who was born in 1638, Abraham, born 1642, and Joseph, born 1647.The years 1647 and 1648 were particularly difficult, with many deaths in the community. Two of the Phelps children died in 1647, and Philura died on April 29, 1648.7 George remarried six months later. His second wife was Frances Dewey, the widow of Thomas Dewey, who had had also died in April. Frances had a daughter from her first marriage and five young children from her marriage with Thomas. She and George went on to have three children together: Jacob, born 1649, John, born 1651, and Nathaniel, born 1654.8

In the late 1660s, the Phelps family left Windsor and helped to found Westfield, Massachusetts. Some of their Windsor neighbours made the same move, joining several families who had come from Springfield, Massachusetts to establish the new town. Life was not easy in Westfield, which was the westernmost town in Massachusetts, nevertheless, these self-reliant pioneers survived the many hardships they faced and the town grew.

When George Phelps died on May 8, 1687,9 he left his bedding, household goods, some money and the use of part of the house in Westfield to his wife. She died in Westfield three years later.

His son Jacob received a four-acre section of the home lot in Westfield that included the house, barn and orchard. To son Isaac, he left “the best coat of my wearing apparel and my mare.”10 He distributed money and his remaining land in Windsor and Westfield between all his sons.

Notes

Note that some of the sources of information on this period were written in the 19th century by gentleman genealogists. Books of this type often contain errors and must be used with caution. For more background, see the website of the organization Descendants of the Founders of Ancient Windsor, https://dfaw.org. See also the website https://connecticuthistory.org/towns-page/windsor/

Sources

1. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010), (Originally published as: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, 3 vols. 1995), p 445. https://www.americanancestors.org/DB393/i/12107/539/1415511879, accessed March 25, 2018.

2. “The Origin of George Phelps” Phelps Family History in America, http://www.phelpsfamilyhistory.com/research/george/index.asp, accessed March 24, 2018.

3. Howard, Daniel. A New History of Old Windsor, Connecticut. Windsor Locks, CT: Journal Press, 1935. http://www.archive.org/stream/newhistoryofoldw00howa#page/n5/mode/2up, accessed March 29, 2018.

4. Stiles, Henry. The History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut Including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington. 1635-1891, Vol. 1. Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1891, p. 163. http://www.achive.org/stream/historygenealogi01stil#page/n7/mode/2up, accessed March 24, 2018.

5. Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, p 446.

6. Oliver Seymour Phelps and Andrew T. Servin, compilers. The Phelps Family of America and their English Ancestors, and other interesting papers, coats of arms and valuable records. Volume II.  Pittsfield, MA, Eagle Publishing Company, 1899. “George Phelps the Emigrant, 1630,” p. 1267.

7. Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630-1870 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928, https://www.americanancestors.org/DB414/i/12316/224/138422806, accessed April 7, 2018

8. Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, p 449.

9. Massachusetts Vital Records. 1621-1850 (online database: AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/r/253013871, accessed March 21, 2018.

10. Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, p 447.

genealogy, Immigration, United States

Timothy Stanley of Hartford CT and his Descendants

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In recognition of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, I am reposting a series of articles about my American colonial ancestors in Massachusetts and Connecticut, including members of the Stanley, Bagg, Burt, Phelps, Moseley, Mygatt and other families. These people are also the ancestors of Lucy Anglin, my second cousin and fellow contributor to Genealogy Ensemble. Most of these stories were written around 2018, and were then posted on my personal family history blog Writing Up the Ancestors.

Three generations of my ancestors – Stanley Bagg, Stanley Clark Bagg and Robert Stanley Bagg – shared the name Stanley, presumably in honor of Stanley Bagg’s mother’s maiden name, Pamela Stanley. Born in 1760, she was a sixth-generation American.  

Three brothers, John, Thomas, and Timothy Stanley, with their wives and children, set sail for America from England in 1634. Their father, Robert Standly (c 1570-1605), was a whitesmith (meaning he made things out of metal) in Tenterden, Kent, in the southeast of England.1

They were part of a wave of strongly religious Puritan settlers who came to New England because they disagreed with the Church of England. Timothy Stanley (c. 1603-1648) and his wife Elizabeth (c 1602-1678) were my direct immigrant ancestors.

The grave of immigrant Timothy Stanley in the Ancient Burying Ground, Hartford, Connecticut. JH photo.

It could not have been an easy voyage for this extended family because John, the eldest of the brothers, died at sea, leaving his three young children to be raised by Thomas and Timothy. The Stanley family spent about two years in Cambridge, Massachusetts where Timothy was granted six acres of land and was named a freeman and admitted as a member of the Congregational church.2

Some Cambridge residents complained that there wasn’t enough land for all the new settlers. Then, after Pastor Thomas Hooker had a dispute with Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop, Hooker and about 100 parishioners followed the old indigenous peoples’ trail south to the spot on the Connecticut River (also known as the Great River) that became Hartford.3

Timothy quickly established himself as a farmer in Hartford, and when a land inventory was taken in 1639, he held nine parcels of land of varying sizes. His house lot, including outhouses and gardens, was about two acres, on the west side of Front Street and with a view of the river. Later, he also bought property in Farmington, about 10 miles away.

The Stanley house was described in 1670 as follows: “It is a small, two-storey building, having on the first floor only the hall and “kitchinn”, the latter serving alike for a cook-room, living-room and parlor. Meager enough is the furniture: a deal table with a “form” or bench for sitting upon at meals, and standing in winter before the great open fireplace….. Such a luxury as a carpet is unknown.”4

Timothy and Elizabeth (whose maiden name is unknown) had seven children. The two eldest, Joseph and Timothy, were born in England; both died very young. Elizabeth, Abigail, Caleb, Lois and Isaac were all born in Hartford.5 Timothy also raised his niece Ruth.

Timothy was active in the community. He served on several juries, he served as a Hartford selectman (town official) and he was on a committee to distribute land.

As Puritans, their religious beliefs were central to their lives. Puritans believed that man was inherently sinful. Even though they were unworthy, God chose to save some people and to send others to hell, and there was nothing anyone could do to change this. They believed everything happened for a reason. Meanwhile, the Puritans believed in hard work, and in the importance of education.6

Timothy died in April, 1648, at age 45, and he is buried, along with many of the city’s founding settlers and their descendants, in the Ancient Burying Ground of Hartford, Connecticut, one of America’s oldest cemeteries.

The inventory of his estate, taken on Oct 16, 1648, totalled £332, of which £167 represented the value of his real estate. The inventory counted household goods such as a bedstead and pillows, a hall chest, kettles and dishes, several books, a warming pan and two muskets. The farm animals included six oxen, several cows, a horse, sheep, pigs and bees.7 The court ordered that all his children be awarded something from his estate, while the house and lands in Hartford went to son Caleb.

In 1661, the widowed Elizabeth married Andrew Bacon. By 1671, when she made out her will, Andrew had died and she had returned to Hartford to live with son Caleb’s family. Elizabeth Bacon died in 1678, around age 76.

Caleb Stanley

My direct ancestor Caleb Stanley (1642-1718) was Timothy and Elizabeth’s fifth child.  In 1688, Capt. Caleb Stanley was appointed the important task of keeping Hartford’s ammunition safe. He was married three times: 1) Hannah Cowles, daughter of John Cowles, who died in 1690, age 44; 2) Mrs. Sarah (Foster) Long, died 1698, age 44; 3) Mrs. Lydia (Cole) Wilson, died 1732.

Caleb and Hannah had a number of children, most of whom died as infants, and Caleb had two more children with his second wife. My line of the family goes through Caleb’s and Hannah’s fifth child, Caleb Jr. (1674-1712). He was said to be one of the most distinguished men in the colony. He was secretary of the colony from 1709 until his death three years later, and he was appointed surveyor for Hartford County in 1700.

Calen Jr. married Hannah Spencer in 1696. They had no children and she died six years later. In 1704, he married Abigail Bunce, daughter of Thomas and Susanna (Bull) Bunce, and they had four children. Their eldest son, Timothy, was my direct ancestor.

This Timothy Stanley (1705-1787) inherited his father’s homestead in Hartford and sold it in 1742 when he moved to Harwinton, CT. By 1781, he was living in Wethersfield, CT. He married Mary Mygatt in 1729 and they had eight children, seven of whom grew to adulthood. Mary Mygatt died in 1786 at age 78, and Timothy died the following year, age 83.

Both Timothy and Mary were said to “own the covenant,” meaning they were bound to God and one another through a covenant. The covenant, a contract that rested on consent and mutual responsibilities, was an important aspect of the Congregational Church at this time.

Their eldest son, Timothy Stanley Jr, born in 1730, lived near Litchfield, CT and was probably a clothier. He married Mary Hopkins of Harwinton in 1754 and they had eight children. Mary Hopkins probably died around 1770. During the American Revolution, this Timothy enlisted with Capt. Beebe’s regiment, and he died on a British prison ship in New York Harbour in 1776.

Their fourth child was my four-times great-grandmother Pamela Stanley, born in Litchfield, CT in 1760. She married Phineas Bagg in Pittsfield, MA in 1780 and she probably died there around 1793. Phineas and his four children, Polly, Stanley, Abner and Sophia, immigrated to Canada around 1795.

Notes:

Members of the Bagg family probably believed their Stanley ancestors were wealthy landowners in England, but an article published in 2005 showed the immigrant family were, in fact, middle class. See Leslie Mahler, “Re-Examining the English Origin of the Stanley Brothers of Hartford, Connecticut: A Case of Invented Records,” The American Genealogist, vol. 80, July, 2005, p. 218.  www.Americanancestors.org. However, despite their non-aristocratic origins, descendants of the Stanley family include several presidents of the United States. See Gary Boyd Roberts, compiler, Ancestors of American Presidents, 2009 Edition, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009.

The Ancient Burying Ground in downtown Hartford is the final resting place of many of the city’s founding settlers. A tall monument lists their names. The cemetery has an extensive website, http://theancientburyingground.org/ and is well worth a visit in person. See also Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford, www.foundersofhartford.org

Sources:

1. Leslie Mahler, “Re-Examining the English Origin of the Stanley Brothers of Hartford, Connecticut: A Case of Invented Records,” The American Genealogist, vol. 80, July, 2005, p. 218.   http://www.Americanancestors.org, accessed July 24, 2013.

2. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, series 2, vol. VI, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009.  463.

3. David M. Roth, Connecticut: A History. American Association for State and Local History, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1979, 39.

4. Israel P. Warren, compiler. The Stanley Families of America as descended from John, Timothy and Thomas Stanley of Hartford, CT, 1636. Portland, Maine: printed by B. Thurston & Co., 1887, 228.

5. Anderson, 465. 

6. Francis J. Bremer, Puritanism: A Very Short Introduction, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009, 43.

7.  Warren, 226.

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