52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2017 WEEK 47: SAMUEL PHELPS JR. OF ANDOVER, MA.

William Richard Cutter describes my 7x great grandfather Samuel Phelps Jr and his family:

(IV) Samuel Phelps, son of Samuel Phelps (3), was born in Andover, November 22, 1684, died there April, 1745. He married Hannah Dane, who died May 26, 1746, sister of John Dane. She was admitted to the church in 1714. His will was dated April 5, 1745, and proved May 6, 1745. He bequeathed to Samuel who had agreed to care for his parents (Samuel (3) and wife), to Thomas, Joseph, Hannah, Abbott and Mary Stevens, his five children. The estate was inventoried at three hundred and ninety-seven pounds, eleven shillings and one penny. Children, born at Andover: 1. Samuel, February 5, 1713, mentioned below. 2. Hannah, married, February 14. 1734, Ephraim Abbott. 3. Mary, born February 14, 1716, married ------- Stevens. 4. Francis, born January 11, 1719-20, married Phebe Holt. 5. Joseph, born March 27, 172324, probably settled in Wilton, New Hampshire.-p888

Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 2  Lewis historical Publishing Company, 1908, Boston, Ma.

Charlotte Helen Abbott writes that Mary Phelps'  husband  was John Stevens Jr. A check with the Andover, Ma. marriage records confirms his identity. Samuel III married Pricilla Holt.

I've found Samuel Phelps Jr.'s  probate record and will be posting a transcription here when it's done.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2017 WEEK 46: SAMUEL PHELPS OF ANDOVER, MA.

Continuing with the ancestors of Hannah (Phelps) Abbott, here's what William Richard Cutter wrote about my 8x great grandfather Samuel Phelps:

(III) Samuel Phelps, son of Edward Phelps (2), was born at Newbury, 1651. He r SR. emoved with his father to Andover, Massachusetts, and married, March 21, 1679. Sarah Chandler, daughter of Thomas and Hannah ( Brewer) Chandler. She was born at Andover, December 20, 1661, died April 5, 1757. She was admitted to the church at South Andover, January 25, 1713. He was a clothier by trade; was one of the twenty men chosen to fight the Indians in 1695 under Captain Gardner. He and his wife Sarah, his brother Edward and wife, Ruth, deeded lands to Thomas Abbott in 1697. He took the oath of allegiance in 1678, and was admitted to the South Church, May 10, 1713. He died January 26, 1746, aged ninety-five years. Children: i. Sarah, born October 16, 1682. 2. Samuel, born November 22, 1684, mentioned below. 3. John, born April 28, 1686, married Sarah Andrews. 4. Joseph, born February 8, 1689, married Elizabeth Abbott. 5. Hannah, born May 18, 1691, died March 24, 1695. 6. Henry, born September 24, 1693, married Abigail Lovejoy. daughter of Deacon William and Mary Lovejoy: second, . Susanna Kittridge, widow of Francis Kittridge, of Tewksbury; his two children died young and his will is particularly interesting as it mentions all his near relatives. (He bequeathed to the poor of the south parish: to his sister Deborah, wife of Stephen Blanchard; to his brother John Phelps's heirs; to heirs of his brother Thomas Phelps; to sister Ann, wife of John Stevens; to his kinswoman, Hannah Chandler, daughter of his brother Samuel Phelps: to kinswoman wife of Thomas Austin, and daughter of his sister, Elizabeth Lovejoy: to kinswoman Sarah Lovejoy, sister of his first wife; to kinsman John Phelps and daughter Abigail: to the wife of Abraham Morss: to the wife of Hezekiah Lovejoy: to kinsman Benjamin Stevens, of Metlmen: kinsman Samuel Fields, of Boston, and gave his freedom to his negro slave Pompey). 7. Thomas, born November 5, 1605, married Mary Blanchard; second, Prudence____ . 8. Elizabeth, born September 6, 1698, married Jonathan Lovejoy. 9. Anna, born February 22, 1701, married John Stevens. 10. Deborah, born 1703-04, married Stephen Blanchard.-p888

Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 2  Lewis historical Publishing Company, 1908, Boston, Ma.

Again, there are marriages by Samuel's children with the members of the Abbott, Chandler, Stevens and Lovejoy families.

I'm descended from Samuel Phelps Jr.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2017 WEEK 45: EDWARD PHELPS OF ANDOVER, MA.

The subject for this entry in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is my 9x great grandfather
Edward Phelps. Once again, here's William Richard Cutter:


(II) Edward Phelps, son of Henry Phelps (1), was born in England and came over with his father and brothers, perhaps in the same ship. He settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, near the town of Salem. One account has it that he came from Bolton. England. He took the oath of allegiance and fidelity to the Crown in 1678. Eleanor Tresler, mentioned above, calls him her brother. He married Elizabeth Adams, widow of Robert Adams, of Newbury. His estate was administered by his sons Samuel and Edward, appointed March 31. 1690. He died suddenly October 3, 1689, and his estate was partitioned January 17, 1689-90. Children, born in Newbury: 1. Elizabeth, born 1646, married Joseph Ballard. 2. Samuel, born 1651, mentioned below. 3. John, born December 15.1657. unmarried;killed by the Indians at the survey of Scarborough, Maine, June 29, 1677. 4. Eleanor, born 1660, married William Chandler. 5. Edward, born 1663, married Ruth Andrews. pp887-888

Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 2  Lewis historical Publishing Company, 1908, Boston, Ma.


I found Edward's probate file and will be transcribing it soon. 

Looking at the people Edward's children married there are  memebers of the Ballard, Chandler, and Andrews familes who are prominent in the founding of Andover, Ma. His son Samuel (my 8x great grandfather) also married a Chandler.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2017 WEEK 44: HENRY PHELPS OF ANDOVER, MA.

It's time now to turn to the ancestors of my 6x great grandmother Hannah (Phelps) Abbott.

This Phelps line is  one of two in my Dad's ancestry, the other being through Arvilla Ames, my
3x great grandmother.  Both are descended from my 10xggf and immigrant ancestor Henry Phelps. There seems to have been some confusion about the identity of his wife Eleanor, as detailed
by what William Richard Cutter wrote: MA.

(I) Henry Phelps, of Salem, immigrant ancestor, according to the Phelps Genealogy, came from London, England, on the ship "Hercules" in the spring of 1634. He settled in Salem, Massachusetts. The records tell us very little further and there is some reason for thinking that Henry (1) and Henry (2) were the same. He is said to have been a Quaker. His first wife was a daughter of Thomas Tresler. He married next in 1652 Hannah Bassett. Children: 1. Henry, came over in 1634, arriving in Boston April 16, 1634. (The will of Eleanor Tresler, widow of Thomas, dated February 15, 1654, proved April, 1665, mentions grandchild John Phelps, son of Henry Phelps, indicating that Phelps had but one surviving son by his Tresler wife. The estate of Obadiah Antrim was divided among his heirs—John Phelps, son of Henry, Hannah Burnap, wife of Isaac; children: i. Christopher, married Elizabeth Sharp; ii. Samuel, married Elizabeth . a widow; iii. Thomas, born probably in Salem; iv. John, born about 1664. married Abigail Upton, widow ). 2..Nicholas (perhaps the same as Nicholas Phillips or Phelps, of Dedham and Boston), was a Quaker in Salem; married Hannah Bassett, who was also a Quaker and was whipped for her religious views; Nicholas was sent to the house of correction and finally banished from Salem: is said to have returned to England. 3. Edward, mentioned below. p887

Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 2  Lewis historical Publishing Company, 1908, Boston, Ma.



Henry's son Edward Phelps is my 9x great grandfather.

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2017 WEEK 38:THE ANCESTORS OF MEHITABLE ABBOTT

I'm about to move on to the ancestry of my 5x great grandmother Mehitable (Abbott) Abbott. She and her husband Jonathan Abbott were third cousins as descendants of George Abbott, as well as fourth cousins through ancestor Ralph Farnham Sr.

Here's Mehitable's relationship to George Abbott:

Her ancestors in this line include another Abbott line, along with Stevens, Parkers, and Barkers.

Through her mother Hannah Phelps, there are connections to other prominent early settlers of Andover, Ma: Ingalls, Poor, Dane, and Chandler.

WHEN GOOD PURITANS GO BAD: HENRY PHELPS PT2

Having found testimony against Henry Phelps' behavior with his future sister-in-law Hannah Baskell in Volume 1 of  Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, I searched for more information. But there was nothing else about the matter there, so I turned to Volume 2, where there were several more mentions of them. The first was at a session of the Salem Quarterly Court on Nov 27 1660:

Henry Phelps, being bound to this court to answer a complaint for keeping company or in the house with his brother's wife, and appearing, was released of his bond. Upon further consideration and examination of some witnesses, which the court did not see meet for the present to bring forth in public, and the wife of Nicholas Phelps not appearing, said Phelps was bound to the next court at Salem. He was ordered meanwhile to keep from the company of his brother Nicolas Phelps’ wife.‘ 

In the footnotes of the page is this: 


Henry Phelps, of Salem, was complained of at the county court at Boston, July 31, 1660, for beating his son, John Phelps, and forcing him to work carrying dung and mending a hogshead on the Lord's day, also for intimacy with his brother's wife and for entertaining Quakers. It was ordered that John Phelps, the son, be given over to his uncle, Mr. Edmond Batter, to take care of him and place him out to some religious family as an apprentice, said Henry, the father, to pay to Mr. Batter what the boy's grandmother left him, to be improved to said John Phelps’ best advantage. Said Henry Phelps was ordered to give bond for his good behavior until the next Salem court, and especially not to be found in the company of Nicholas Phelps’ wife, and to answer at that time concerning the entertaining of Quakers. Copy of judgment, made by Edward Rawson,T recorder. Sureties: Tho. Joy and Nicholas Phillips. Copy of bond, made by Edward Rawson,T recorder.

Henry Phelps bound for appearance at the next Salem court. Copy of Ipswich court record, made by Robert Lord,T cleric.-pp261-262

The next session was held at Salem on June 4 1661

Henry Phelps, appearing under bonds, to answer the complaint against him concerning his brother, Nicholas Phelps’ wife, and no one appearing to testify against him, was discharged of his bond for appearance, but was still bound in 10li. not to accompany his brother’s wife.-p310 

Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, Volume 2, Essex Institute, Salem, Ma. 1912

The Boston Court awarding custody of Henry's son John to another relative wasn't just a matter
of his harsh treatment of the boy. It was done, I think, more because of the biggest crime of the
Phelps' family. The Phelps were Quakers, and Hannah (Baskell) Phelps was quite vocal about it.
Perhaps that, plus the testimony years before from Janet Johnson about the behavior of Henry
and Hannah, was the reason he was warned off from associating with her. 
  
I'll discuss Nicholas and Hannah's dealings with the Court in another blogpost. 

WHEN GOOD PURITANS GO BAD: HENRY PHELPS PT1

Over the years I've found some of the best stories about my ancestors in the free Googlebooks
editions of the colonial Essex County, Ma. court records. The other day I googled my Phelps
family and found this fascinating story. It's strange because it isn't part of a case, just a deposition
that doesn't match up with anything else on the page. It involves the two brothers of my 9x great grandfather Edward Phelps, and is from the Hampton Quarterly Court held on 28Sep 1652:

Deposition of Jane Johnson: "Saith yt: coming our in the ship with Henry Phelps & Hannah the now wife of Nich: Phelps: Henry Phelps going ashore the ship lying at the Downes: Hannah wept till shee made ||her|| selue sicke because mr Fackler would not suffer her to goe ashore with Henry Phelps : & Henry came aboard late in the night, the next morning mr Falckner Chid Henry Phelps & Hannah & said was it not enough for yw to let Hannah lay her head in yr lape but must shee ly in ye Cabbin to & called Hannah Strumpet & this deponent saith farther yet she saw Henry Phelps ly in his Cabbin & Hannah Baskel the now wife of Nick Phelps came & lay down her head by him & pull her head up again often as he lay in his Cabbin: & when he was smocking in the Cook roome tobaca Hannah tooke the pip out of his mouth" pp267-268

Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County ..., Volume 1 Essex Institute,  Salem, Ma 1911

"Chid" is a misspelling of chide, I believe.

So, Jane Johnson seems to be saying that my 9x great granduncle Henry Phelps was engaged with a
bit of "hanky-panky" with a woman named Hannah Baskel, who would eventually marry his brother
Nicholas. Jane doesn't say how long ago the incident occurred, but it could have happened as early as 1634 if the brothers came over from England with their father Henry Phelps Sr. Why was Jane
bringing up something that took place years ago?

There were no further details in Volume One of the Records and Files. I decided to search Volume
Two. 

To be continued

MY PHELPS LINES

I mentioned in my previous post that  my ancestors Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker
were both descended from John Ames and Priscilla Kimball.  Here's a chart showing their
lines:

I now also have a double descent from Samuel Phelps and Sara Chandler through
my great grandparents Philip J West and Clara Ellingwood, which goes like this:

Another example of how the small population in colonial New England led to many
entangled family lines!

THE QUESTION OF LYDIA PHELPS' PARENTS PT4: CONCLUSIONS

I haven't been able to find any  a marriage record as yet for Jonathan Phelps and
Beulah Parker, but I am convinced that Jonathan was the son of Samuel Phelps and
Elizabeth Andrews and that Beulah Parker was the daughter of John Parker and
Joanna Ames.

 The reasons I've come to this conclusion:

Discrepancies in "Aunt Betsey"(Ames)Putnam's story about her parents.

1. Her statement that when Lydia Phelps met and married John Ames it
was his second marriage. There is quite a bit of information on John Ames
but there is no mention of a first marriage in any of it.

2.Her story that Lydia's parents were of Scottish descent:  I mentioned in my
last post that I recognized the names of Beulah's mother Joanna Ames in what
William Richard Cutter had written about the family. This is because I already had
Joanna Ames in my database. She was the daughter of my 8x great grandparents
John Ames and Priscilla Kimball, and she married John Parker. The Parker, Ames,
and Kimball families had been living in Massachusetts for over a century by the
time of Lydia Phelps' birth.

The probate file and Phelps genealogy information :

The match of the names of the children of Jonathan and Beulah in the probate file
with the names in Charlotte Helen Abbott's genealogy of the Phelps family. 
This gives credence to me of her identification of Jonathan as the son of
John Phelps and Elizabeth Andrews, members of two more long established
colonial Massachusetts families. I've used her genealogy of the Barker family as
a reference while working on my grandmother's family and found her to be
very reliable as I've been able to find records to verify her Barker genealogy.
 
Name Patterns:

Once again, the names of the children of Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker were:
Joanna
Lydia
Jonathan
Francis.
  
Joanna is also the name of Beulah Parker's grandmother in Cutter's genealogy of
the family.

Lydia is the name of  Jonathan Phelps' sister in Abbott's Phelps family genealogy.

Jonathan could be named for his father or a number of other men with that name in the
Phelps and Ames families.

Francis was a Phelps family name because of the marriage of Rev Francis Dane's daughter Hannah to Samuel Phelps in 1684. (Ironic considering the events of the Salem Witch trials between the two families.) They are my 7x great grandparents through my Abbott line.


I still need to find a marriage record for Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker,
but for the reasons I've given here, I believe they are my 6x great grandparents.

THE QUESTION OF LYDIA PHELPS' PARENTS PT3

Continuing the story of my search to confirm the identities of the parents of
Lydia Phelps, my 5x great grandmother:

Having looked at the probate file of Jonathan Phelps at the American Ancestors
website, I next decided to see what I could find in Charlotte Helen Abbott's EarlyRecords Of The Phelps Family Of Andover on the Memorial Hall Library of Andover,
Ma. website. Since Beulah is a distinctive name I used that in the Find function of my
Firefox browser. I found two mentions of Beulah Parker. The first is on page 5 in the
list of the children of Samuel Phelps and Elizabeth Andrews.

It says their son Jonathan Phelps was born in 1726, that he married Beulah Parker
(but no date is given) .that he died in Groton, Ma in 1758, and that Beulah's second
husband was Peter Gilson. Notice the name of Jonathan's sister above his name.

The next mention of Jonathan and Beulah is the list of their children on page 9:

They match the names of the children in the probate file for Jonathan Phelps.

I decided to Google search next using the words Beulan, Parker, and Groton to
see if I could find more on Beulah. Old reliable William Richard Cutter came through for me again:

(III) John Parker, son of Samuel Parker (2), was born at Groton, in 1694. He married in that town, May 22, 1719, Joanna Ames. Children, born in Groton: 1. John, December 12, 1719. 2. Robert, January 20, 1720. 3. Jerusha, June 20, 1725. 4. Sarah, June 8, 1727. 5. Beulah, October 10, 1729. 6. Jonathan, December 1, 1732 (twin). 7. Relief (twin), December 1, 1732. 8. Deborah, June 4, 1736. 9. Oliver, mentioned below...-p1865

William Richard Cutter, Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 4(Google eBook) Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910 Boston (Mass.)

When I saw the name of Beulah's mother, I recognized it immediately.

To be continued.

THE QUESTION OF LYDIA PHELPS' PARENTS PT2

Continuing the story of my search to confirm the identities of the parents of
Lydia Phelps, my 5x great grandmother:

I originally had Lydia's parents and Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker of
Groton, Ma. and then Hollis, New Hampshire. Sampson Read had cast doubt
on that in his genealogy of his family because of an interview with Betsey
(Ames)Putnam, my 4x great grandaunt, Betsey claimed that Jonathan Phelps
was a Scotsman because of stories Lydia had told her as a child.

The death date I had for Lydia's father Jonathan was 25Nov 1758.  Looking in the
Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871 on the American Ancestors
website, I found this file:

((Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. 

AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. 

(From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)

I opened the file and looking at the first image I knew it was the right Jonathan
Phelps:

((Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014.
(From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) ))



The document reads:
To the Honourable Saml Danforth,  Esq, Judge of
Probate for the County of Middlesex
These are to inform your Honour that it is my Desire
that you would appoint Capt Abel Lawrance of Groton
Administrator to ye estate of my husband Jonathan
Phelps Late of Groton Deceased & in so doing you oblige
your Humble Servt.
Groton March 12th 1759 Bulah Phelps
P:S: It is my desire my Brother Robert Parker
should be Gardian for my children Viz Joanna
Lydia Jonathan and Francis.
The rest of the file consists of images of the inventory of the estate, most of which
went to Beulah (Parker) Phelps.

Next I went to  website for the Memorial Hall Library of Andover, Ma. , specifically to
the page for the Abbott Genealogies. These are collected genealogies written by my
distant cousin Charlotte Helen Abbott . She was a well known genealogist who wrote
a series of columns on the histories of Andover families for the local town newspaper.
One of those families was the Phelps family.

I'll discuss what she wrote about Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker in my next post.

To be continued...

THE QUESTION OF LYDIA PHELPS' PARENTS PT1

A few years back I posted about the question of the identities of the parents of
Lydia (Phelps) West, my 5x great grandmother. The original information I had
was that she was the daughter of Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Parker of Groton,
Massachusetts. Then seven years ago I found this:

"My father was John Ames, who was born in Groton, Mass., and
mother was Lydia Phelps, who was born in Hollis, Mass... When
father married second wife, the widow of Sampson Read, she had
three children, Sampson, Lydia and Amy, then children by John
Ames were: John, Jonathan, Zekiel, Polly, Betsey, and Ralph;
all born in Groton, Mass., except Ralph, who was in Merrimac,
Mass., and myself in Hollis." --Aunt Betsey Putnam, as told to Axel
H. Reed, Genealogy, p. 17.

"Lydia Phelps, my mother, was of Scottish decent [sic], whose
parents were born in Scotland, and from whom the Reads got
their light eyes, so father Ames used to say."
--Aunt Betsey Putnam, as told to Axel H. Reed, Genealogy, p. 17.

((The source for the quotes is: "Genealogical Record of The Reads,
Reeds, the Bisbees, the Bradfords of the United States of America"
in the line of Esdras Read of Boston and England, 1635 to 1915.
Thomas Besbedge or Bisbee of Scituate, Mass. and England, 1634
to 1915. Governor William Bradford, of Plymouth, Mass., and
England, 1620 to 1915." By Axel Hayford Reed, Glencoe, MN,
1915. I found them here at “The Ancestry of Overmire, Tifft, Richardson,
Bradford, Reed,” by Larry Overmire, RootsWeb World Connect Project,
2000-2007))

On the strength of that I unlinked Jonathan Phelps and Beulah Paker as Lydia's
parents because their families had been in Massachusetts for nearly a century
before Lydia's birth. But I didn't remove them or their families from my database
until I found more definite proof one way or the other . Then a few months back
the NEHGS added the Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871 
images to their American Ancestors and I started searching there for for the probate
files belonging  to my Middlesex County ancestors. One of the names I searched
for was Jonathan Phelps.

What I found there and one other place has I think settled the question of who
Lydia Phelps' parents were for me.

To be continued

SLOW NIGHT ON THE GENEALOGY FRONT

It’s one of those nights where I’m too tired to do
much genealogy blogging. My eyes have that burny
feel and the brain isn’t functioning on all cylinders.
I did manage to upload those photos I’ve scanned
to Snapfish. It’s free and I want to get as much of
the family pictures and genealogy saved as possible
for reasons I’ll go into tomorrow night.

An addendum to my entry on the portrait of Clara
Ford Ellingwood. This is her line of descent from
Henry Phelps showing where it ties into the Abbott
and Dunham lines. She and my great-grandfather
were 7th cousins through their common descent from
from Henry Phelps and Eleanor Sharp


Henry Phelps m. Eleanor Sharp
Edward Phelps m. Elizabeth Adams
Samuel Phelps m. Sarah Chandler
Samuel Phelps m. Hannah Dane
Hannah Phelps m. Ephraim Abbot(t)
Mehitable Abbot(t) m. Jonathan Abbot(t)
Zerviah Abbot(t) m. John Ellingwood
John Ellingwood Jr. m. Rachael Barrows
Asa F. Ellingwood m. Florilla Dunham
Clara Ellingwood m. Philip J. West