The Worland Family in America and Beyond

I began my life in the Puget Sound area of Washington State, on an island filled with forests and wild rhododendrons. I was separated from my Worland family there at an early age. Recently, I was reunited with my family and learned of my heritage. And so, this journey to know my ancestors began. The Worlands, Gideons, Newtons, Conards... they were the colonists, the settlers, the pioneers. They fought in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War. This is their story, and the story of a nation. -Deci Worland MacKinnon

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

August 1731, Rhode Island

August 7, 1731- Richard Ward is born to Joseph Ward & Sarah Weeden in Portsmouth, Newport County, Rhode Island.

August 15, 1731- Joseph Cook is born to John Cook & Mary Slocum in Portsmouth, Newport County, Rhode Island.

August 17, 1731- Anne Peckham is born to Isaac Peckham & Jane Sisson in Middletown, Newport County, Rhode Island.

(Richard Ward and Anne Peckham are my second cousins 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are George Sisson & Sarah Lawton. Richard Ward, Anne Peckham and Joseph Cook are third cousins.
Joseph Cook is my third cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Thomas Lawton & Elizabeth Salisbury.)
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Monday, November 29, 2010

July 1731, Rhode Island

July 29, 1731- My seventh great grandaunt, Abigail Sisson, is born to John Sisson & Rebecca Lawton in Tiverton, Newport County, Rhode Island.
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Sunday, November 28, 2010

July 1731, Pennsylvania

July 9, 1731- George Burson, Jr. and Sarah Cox, daughter of Richard Cox & Margaret Potts, are married at Gilbert's Manor in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
The marriage took place at the house of John Jacobs, Sr. Among the witnesses were Richard and Hannah Cox, Joan Potts, William and Elizabeth Burson, Conraed and Anne Conraed, and eighteen others.
The couple initially resided at Province, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. In 1754, George, Jr. and his wife Sarah moved to Loudoun County, Virginia. Most of the Bursons in Indiana, Ohio, Colorado, and California are descendants of George and Sarah Burson---according to the books: "Burson Story" by Eleanor Burson and "The History of the Burson Family" by John C. Burson.

(Sarah Cox is my second cousin 7 times removed. Our common ancestors are Thomas Potts & Elizabeth Baset.)
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Saturday, November 27, 2010

July 1731, Rhode Island

July 1, 1731- Lydia Sisson is born to George Sisson & Lydia Cole in Portsmouth, Newport County, Rhode Island.

(Lydia Sisson is my first cousin 9 times removed. Our common ancestors are George Sisson & Sarah Lawton and Hugh Cole & Deborah Allen Buckland.)
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July 1731, Connecticut

July 11, 1731- Joseph Clark is born to Joseph Clark & Miriam Cornwall in Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut. Their first son, he would die soon after his second birthday.

(Joseph Clark is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are John Cornwall & Martha Peck.)
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Friday, November 26, 2010

June 1731, Connecticut

June 15, 1731- Sarah Sisson is born to George Sisson & Elizabeth Sherman in Portsmouth, Newport County, Rhode Island.

June 20, 1731- Sarah Cornwall is born to John Cornwall & Mary Foster in Middletown, Hartford, Connecticut.

(Sarah Sisson is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are George Sisson & Sarah Lawton.
Sarah Cornwall is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are John Cornwall & Martha Peck.)
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Thursday, November 25, 2010

June 1731, Massachusetts

June 3, 1731- Thomas Sherman marries his second cousin, Phebe Lawton, in Freetown, Bristol County, Massachusetts.

(Thomas Sherman and Phebe Lawton are my second cousins 9 times removed. Our common ancestors are Thomas Lawton & Elizabeth Salisbury.)
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May 1731, Pennsylvania

May 27, 1731- The "Pennsylvania Gazette," of May 27, 1731, contains the following advertisement placed by my sixth great grandfather, David Potts :

"Run away from David Potts, at Socken above the Great Swamp,  A Servant Boy named John Williams, about seventeen Years of Age, of swarthy complexion, has black Hair, and two Molds on his Forehead. Had on a brown linsey-woolsey Jacket, Leather Breeches, a pair of Shoe packs, and Stockings footed White. He is supposed to have with him a Big Bay Horse, with a Switch Tail, and a Star in the Forehead, a half crop and a half penny in the Ear, and branded on the near Shoulder I P with a Dagger, over it. Whoever secures him and gives notice to George Shoemaker, Innkeeper, in Philadelphia, so that his Master may have him again, shall have Forty Shillings Reward, and Reasonable Charges paid, by DAVID POTTS."


(NOTE: The Great Swamp was a marshy tract of land in the upper end of Bucks County, including the village of Quakertown. Saucon is the name of a creek emptying from the south-west into the Lehigh River, a few miles below Bethlehem. Before the year 1730, some Philadelphia speculators bought up large tracts of the rich lands in the Saucon valley and sold it out in smaller parcels. It seems quite likely that David Potts was then living in the Saucon Valley, within limits of either the present Lehigh or Northampton County).

Photograph by Seth Werkheiser (http://www.flic...Image via Wikipedia

The brand I P may have been the initials of Jonas Potts, who probably contributed to his son's start in life.
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May 1731, Maryland

Charles County Land Records, Liber M#2 Page 246.

May 12, 1731- At the request of Captain John Lancaster of Charles County, the following deed was recorded this May 12, 1731.
Mav 7, 1731, from Raphael Neale of Charles County, Gentleman, to John Lancaster and Elizabeth, his wife, daughter of said Raphael Neale, for the natural love that Raphael Neale has for his said daughter and for 5 shillings, all that tract of land in Charles County adjoining the lands of Arthur Turner, bounded by said Turner's bound tree, a marsh that falls into St. Raphaels Creek, a Huckleberry Swamp, the land of John Slingsby, the head of Poseys Creek near the bounded tree of Slingsby now Allen, the land of Christopher Russell, the line of land formerly surveyed for Benjamin Gill, Arthur Turner, containing and laid out for about 494 acres (as by the patent granted to Anthony Neale, son of James, dated Oct 10, 1695). It is the intent of this deed that the aforesaid John is to possess the aforesaid land during his natural life, and afterwards, it reverts to the next heir at law apparent of said Raphael Neale. Signed - Raphael Neale, Mary (M her mark) Neale. Wit - Gust. Brown, John Chandler, John Fendall. Mary, the wife of Raphael Neale, relinquished her right of dower in and to the within mentioned land and premises.

(Raphael Neale is my second cousin 7 times removed. Our common ancestors are Benjamin Gill & Mary Mainwaring. Benjamin Gill is Raphael's great grandfather and my eighth great grandfather. Captain John Lancaster was Raphael Neale's son-in-law, having married Raphael's daughter, Elizabeth.)

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

May 1731, Connecticut

May 2, 1731- My eighth great grandaunt, Elizabeth Doolittle, dies at the age of 79 in New Haven, Connecticut. She lies buried beside her husband in Montowese Cemetery, North Haven.
Tombstone reads: "Here lies ye Body of Mrs Elizabeth ye Wife of Mr John Brockett who died
March 1731"
Elizabeth was the daughter of Abraham Doolittle & Joan Alling.
Her family moved to Wallingford about 1668, and there a few years later Elizabeth married Dr. John Brockett.

May 5, 1731- Samuel Hall is born to Daniel Hall & Martha Doolittle in Wallingford, New Haven, Connecticut.

May 12, 1731- Lois Tyler is born to Nathan Tyler & Rachel Tuttle in Wallingford, New Haven, Connecticut.

May 17, 1731- Ebenezer Blakeslee marries Jemima Tuttle in New Haven, Connecticut.

(Samuel Hall is my first cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Samuel Doolittle & Mary Cornwall. Elizabeth Doolittle is Samuel's grandaunt. Lois Tyler and Jemima Tuttle are Elizabeth Doolittle's great grandnieces. Lois Tyler and Samuel Hall are first cousins once removed.
Lois Tyler is my third cousin 7 times removed. Jemima Tuttle is her second cousin once removed. Jemima Tuttle is my second cousin 8 times removed. Samuel Hall is Jemima's second cousin. Our common ancestor is Abraham Doolittle.)
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March 1731, Pennsylvania

March 25, 1731- Abraham Isaac Op den Graeff dies in Skippack, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Abraham was born in 1660 in Krefeld, Germany. At the age of 19, he married Catherina Trintje Jansen,  at the Krefeld Reformed Church.
Abraham was the youngest of the three Op den Graeff brothers who came from Krefeld on the ship 'Concord'.
He and his brothers had paid for 2,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania from Jacob Telner (who had an original land grant for the land from William Penn, dated Mar. 9, 1682) while still in Europe. 828 acres of this land was located in what is now Germantown. The Eastern State Penitentiary now stands on part of the original tract at Craterford, Pennsylvania.  

"We whose names appear are to these presents subscribed, do hereby certify unto all whom it may concern, that soon after our arrival in this province of Pennsylvania, in October, 1683, to our certain knowledge Herman of de Graff, Dirk op den Graff, and Abraham op den Graff, as well as ourselves, in the care of Francis Daniel Pastorius, at Philadelphia, did cast lots for the respective lots which they and we then began to settle in Germantown; and the said Graffs (three brothers) have sold their several lots, each by himself, no less than if a division in writing had been made by them. Witness our hands this 29th Nov., A.D. 1709.
Lenart Arets 

Thones Kunder 
Abraham Tunes
Jan Lensen

William Streygert
Jan Lucken
Reiner Tysen”


Abraham and his brothers transferred their weaving industry to Germantown and were largely responsible for making it famous and it was claimed that Abraham was the most skilled of all Germantown's "High German People and Low Dutch" trading in weaving linen cloth. Abraham won a Governor's prize of 1500 Lire for the first and finest piece of linen woven in the State of Pennsylvania.
In 1688, Abraham and Herman Op den Graeff, another man, and Pastorius, met at Thone Kunder's home to draft a resolution in opposition to salvery, supposedly put in writing by Pastorius. They presented it at their monthly meeting, which refered it up the Quaker chain of meetings as too weighty to deal with until it reached the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

The Original Signatures

A slave ship had sailed into Philadelphia, and the slaves were bought up by wealthy Philadelphia Quakers.  Allegedly, most wealthy Englishmen in Philadelphia owned slaves, and the Germans at Germantown all opposed slavery, because of their history of having been oppressed in Germany.


In 1689 he was one of eleven men to whom Penn granted a charter for Germantown, where he is called "Abraham Isaacs Op de Graef" and in that charter he was one of the six men appointed to serve as the first "committeemen". He served as town burgess in 1692 and was a member of the colonial assembly in 1689, 1690 and 1692.
His last years were marked by trouble; his fences over which he had quarrelled with his neighbors were condmened as insufficient.  He quarrelled with the sheriff over how much he had to pay for the legal costs associated with his son's unauthorized appropriation of a neighbor's horse.  He was sued in 1704 by a neighbor for money due on purchased goods- and he was hardly a poor man.  "That same year, an old Krefeld neighbor and fellow-pilgrim, Veit, or David Scherkes, declared that 'no honest man woud be in Abraham's company' and when Abraham sued him for slander, David was acquitted."  (Dutch Quakers)

"Over the years there seems to have been a decline in the respect held towards him by Germantown settlers.  His personality, which seems to have been difficult, as is evident from his increasing appearances in the Germantown court, may have been mostly responsible for this development.  Excepting the recording of deeds two appearances as a juror, in 1702 and 1703, and a debt case in 1704, most of Op den Graef's court appearances involved personal infringements  of the law. Thus he was twice cited and fined for neglecting his fences, he was deemed responsible for the repeated misdeeds of his children, he let his hogs run loose, and he verbally abused people, who then abused him in return.  ...In March 1704 Op de Graef was convicted of abusing the bailiff in open court..."  (House of Representatives, Pennsylvania, 1991, "Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania:  A Biographical Dictionary".

He sold his house at  Germantown on May 16, 1704, and thereafter lived in "The Dutch township"  along the Perkionen. Hwas the only one of the family to return to the Mennonite faith, which he did sometime after 1708.  He was also the only one to have children.
He died before Mar 27, 1731, when his tract of  530 acres was divided among his surviving children.  He lies buried in Skippack Memorial Cemetary in Pennsylvania.

Penn's Invitation

(Abraham Isaac Op den Graeff is my first cousin 10 times removed. Our common ancestors are Hermann Op den Graeff & Gretjen Driessen Pletjes and Pieter Dohrs & Lysgen Grietes.)
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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

February 1731, Massachusetts

February 18, 1731- My sixth great grandmother, Sarah Cole, is born to Hugh Cole & Jane Sisson in Swansea, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
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Monday, November 22, 2010

February 1731, Pennsylvania

February 18, 1731- Evan Lukens is born to Peter Lukens & Gaynor Evans in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

(Evan Lukens is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Mathias Dohrs & Agnes Neesgen Op den Graeff.)
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Sunday, November 21, 2010

February 1731, Connecticut

February 4, 1731- Rachel Dowd is born to Jacob Dowd & Elizabeth Cornwall in Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut.

February 6, 1731- Isaiah Tuttle is born to Isaiah Tuttle & Susanna Doolittle in New Haven, Connecticut. The child would not survive, dying soon after his birth.

February 8, 1731- Jonathan Moss is born to Solomon Moss & Sarah Fenn in Wallingford, New Haven, Connecticut.

February 10, 1731- Thomas Doolittle is born to Jonathan Doolittle & Rebecca Ranney in Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut.

February 26, 1731- Jerusha Doolittle is born to Ebenezer Doolittle & Lydia Warner in Waterbury Township, New Haven, Connecticut.

(Rachel Dowd is my second cousin 8 times removed. Thomas Doolittle is her second cousin. Our common ancestors are John Cornwall & Martha Peck.
Isaiah Tuttle and Jerusha Doolittle are my second cousins 8 times removed. They and Thomas Doolittle are second cousins. Our common ancestors are Abraham Doolittle & Abigail Moss.
Jonathan Moss is my second cousin 9 times removed. Isaiah Tuttle, Jerusha Doolittle and Thomas Doolittle are Jonathan's second cousins once removed. Our common ancestors are John Moss & Abigail "Goody" Charles.
Thomas Doolittle is my first cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Samuel Doolittle & Mary Cornwall.)
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Saturday, November 20, 2010

February 1731, Rhode Island

February 3, 1731- Peleg Sherman, son of Peleg Sherman & Alice Fish, marries his first cousin, Bathsheba Sherman, daughter of Samuel Sherman & Sarah Pearce, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Their fathers were brothers. They were married by Justice William Sanford.

The Shermans were an ancient family in England. The name is said to be derived from their ancient occupation, they having been cloth dressers or shearers of cloth.
 
The History of New Bedford, Bristol County, 

(Peleg and Bathsheba Sherman are my second cousins 9 times removed. Our common ancestors are Thomas Lawton & Elizabeth Salisbury.)
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Friday, November 19, 2010

January 1731, Connecticut.

Wethersfield Cove (Connecticut River), Wethers...Image via Wikipedia
January 2, 1731- My eighth great granduncle, William Cornwall, dies at the age of 57 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut.
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Thursday, November 18, 2010

1731, Maryland

1731- My fifth great granduncle, James Pike, is born to Archibald & Lucy Pike in St. Mary's County, Maryland.

Mary Hanson is born to John Hanson & Elizabeth Tyler in Maryland.

William Leake marries Ann Redman in Maryland.

(Mary Hanson is my first cousin 7 times removed. Our common ancestor is Elizabeth Hussey.
William Leake is my second cousin 7 times removed. Our common ancestors are James French & Elizabeth Meekin.)
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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

1731, Pennsylvania

1731- John Lukens is born to Joseph Lucken & Susanna Maurle in Montgomery, Pennsylvania.

Septimus Levering is born to Jacob Levering & Alice Tunes in Roxborough, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was named Septimus because he was the seventh son.

(John Lukens is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Mathias Dohrs & Agnes Neesgen Op den Graeff. Septimus Levering is John's second cousin.
Septimus Levering is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestor is Thonis Klincken.)
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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

December 1730, Connecticut

December 20, 1730- Ann Doolittle is born to Thomas Doolittle & Sarah Abernathy in Wallingford, New Haven, Connecticut.

(Ann Doolittle is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestor is Abraham Doolittle.)
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Sunday, November 14, 2010

December 1730, Pennsylvania

December 20, 1730- Peter Cleaver is born to Peter Cleaver & Elizabeth Potts in Upper Dublin Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

(Peter Cleaver is my second cousin 7 times removed. Our common ancestors are Thomas Potts & Elizabeth Baset.)
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November 1730, Pennsylvania

Neshaminy Creek
November 16, 1730- David Potts dies at the age of 60 in Germantown, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.
David was born about 1670, in Montgomeryshire,Wales. David was a Welsh Quaker and a miller by trade. About 1690, he and his two brothers migrated to Pennsylvania. David Potts married Alice Croasdale, youngest daughter of Thomas Croasdale and Agnes Hathornthwaite. Agnes had came to Pennsylvania in the ship "Welcome" with William Penn.
The couple settled on Neshaminy Creek in Bucks County, in the vicinity of the village of Langhorne.
David Potts was a man of good standing in the community and had the confidence of his neighbors. He represented Philadelphia County in the Provinicial Assembly for the years, 1728, 1729, and 1730. "The Pennsylvania Gazette" of Nov. 19, 1730, contained a notice of his death in which it is stated that "Monday last died Mr. David Potts, one of the Members of Assembly for this County."

(David Potts is my seventh great granduncle.)
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Saturday, November 13, 2010

November 1730, Connecticut

November 9, 1730- Deliverance Doolittle is born to Abraham Doolittle & Mary Lewis in Cheshire Parish at Wallingford, New Haven, Connecticut.

From the Doolittle Family: Abraham Doolittle and his wife Mary Lewis settled in 1710 in Cheshire parish, north of the village, being among its earliest inhabitants and shared in the struggle to get a start in the world...the privations and dangers of frontier life and the toils and cares of home and growing family. They were undaunted by hardships, and their heroism never failed. These dwellers in the wilderness inherited a taste for refinement and education from an intelligent and cultured ancestry, but with the scarcity of literature, the minister and school teacher were almost their only source of instruction. Industrious, energetic, capable and possessed of firmness of purpose, they established among the hills of Conn. one of those homes of happiness, of taste and character on which the foundations of the Republic were laid. Household fnrniture was rude and scanty. Usually no carpets covered the floor; each room had a bed and a chest of drawers occupied the parlor. Sun dials took the place of clocks, and pewter and wooden dishes were used instead of china and silver, which were kept for special occasions.

November 22, 1730- Samuel Turner is born to John Turner & Abigail Richards in Hartford, Connecticut.

(Deliverance Doolittle is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestor is Abraham Doolittle.
Samuel Turner is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Edward Turner & Mary Sanford. )
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Friday, November 12, 2010

September 1730, Pennsylvania

September, 1730- Joseph Burson is born to Joseph Burson & Mary Rachel Potts at Gilbert's Manor, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

(Joseph Burson is my first cousin 7 times removed. Our common ancestors are Jonas Potts & Mary Thomaston.)
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Thursday, November 11, 2010

August 1730, Connecticut

August 29, 1730- My sixth great grandaunt, Elizabeth Turner, is born to Hannah Doolittle & Stephen Turner, Jr. in Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut.

Desire Dowd is born to David Dowd & Mary Cornwall in Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut.

(Desire Dowd is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are John Cornwall & Martha Peck. Elizabeth Turner is her second cousin.)
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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

August 1730, Massachusetts

August 13, 1730- My seventh great grandparents, Jane Sisson and Hugh Cole, are married in Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts.

August 15, 1730- Gilbert Sisson is born to George Sisson & Lydia Cole in Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts.

(Gilbert Sisson is my first cousin 9 times removed. Our common ancestors are George Sisson & Sarah Lawton.)
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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

August 1730, Pennsylvania

August 3, 1730- Ellis Lewis is born to Ellis Lewis & Mary Tyson in Upper Dublin, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

August 29, 1730- Jacob Cadwallader and Magdelene Conard, daughter of Matthias Cunard and his wife Barbara Tyson, are married at the Abington Monthly Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Jacob Cadwallader, son of John Cadwalader, was a farmer.

August 30, 1730- Daniel Lewis is born to James Lewis & Sarah Potts in Cumru Township, Cumberland, Berks County, Pennsylvania.

(Ellis Lewis is my third cousin 7 times removed. Our common ancestors are Mathias Dohrs & Agnes Neesgen Op den Graeff and Coentgen Lenssen Coenis & Anna Entgen Thones. Magdeline Conard is his second cousin once removed.
Magdeline Conard is my first cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Thones Kunders & Elin Magdalen Tyson.
Daniel Lewis is my second cousin 7 times removed. Ellis Lewis is his second cousin twice removed. Our common ancestors are Thomas Potts & Elizabeth Baset.)
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Monday, November 8, 2010

August 1730, Rhode Island

August 1, 1730- Christopher Sherman is born to Thomas Shearman & Sarah Sisson in Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode Island.

August 4, 1730- My sixth great grandfather, John Randall, is born in Foster, Providence County, Rhode Island. There is an issue with the research here. Most family trees list his parents as Henry & Susanna Randall. This is highly unlikely, as Susanna was born in 1674. This does not seem possible, and throws much of my earlier Randall associations into question. I'm working on it.
One possibility is that he is the child of John Randall & Martha Williams, but I have not found verification.
Connecticut Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) Record for John Randall lists his father as Captain John Randall. 
The American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) lists his birthdate as 1730, in the rolls of Connecticut men who served in the French and Indian War. This would account for his also being referred to as "Captain."


(Christopher Sherman is my second cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are George Sisson & Sarah Lawton.)
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