Tuesday, April 12, 2011
In a prior blog, I promised to follow up on the hunt for the elusive father of Chester Elliott. Here's an update.
George W. Wing, in his SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) application, said that David Elliott, brother of Joseph Elliott (Jr.), of Sutton, Massachusetts was the father of Chester Elliott. I don't think so. David Elliott, brother of Joseph Elliott, Jr., did not enlist in 1781 to serve in the Revolutionary War. This David Elliott, according to the Sutton vital records (gs11) died at age 27 in 1761. This David Elliott, according to the Officers and Men of Sutton (page 778) may have been in the Colonial Service as a private serving with his brother, Joseph, Jr., and his father, Corporal Joseph, but he did not live to enlist and serve in the Revolutionary War in 1781.
The problem--it seems--for those, like George Wing, who researched these records around 1900 is that there are so many Elliotts who named their children after their brothers or fathers. There are so many Elliotts period. Or, maybe I am reading records that are not accurate?
Here is what I have learned about this particular Elliott family so far.
Joseph Ellyott/Elliot (1701/2- January 22, 1796), son of Frances Elliot and Abigail (?), married Jerusha (Fuller) ( -September 12, 1788), daughter of John Fuller and Phebe, in Middleton, Massachusetts on April 3, 1730 according to the vital records of Middleton. John Fuller was the son of Thomas and Ruth Fuller of Salem, Massachusetts.
According to the History of the Town of Sutton, Massachusetts 1704-1876, the children of Joseph and Jerusha Ellyott were:
Joseph, (Jr.) b. November 17, 1731 in Sutton, Massachusetts
David, b. October 11, 1734 in Sutton
John, b. February 21, 1739
Andrew, b. December 9, 1743
Aaron, b. July 22, 1747
The most compelling evidence that this family might be the right Elliott family is not what George Wing claimed in his SAR application but what George W. Elliott himself said about his father Chester and his grandfather Joseph Elliott in the Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Brown, Kewaunee and Door, Wisconsin.... G.W. Elliott believed that his grandfather was Joseph Elliott, a preacher of renown who married his wife in Massachusetts and had a large family and lived to an old age. Joseph, Jr. fits the description of this man. Except, this Joseph didn't die in Utica, NY as G.W. Elliott believed and he didn't have any children named Chester--at least according to the Sutton records.
Joseph, Jr. married first Susanna (?) and second Anna (Dwight), daughter of Samuel Dwight, on October 28, 1772. The facts known about Joseph, Jr. are that he was a major, lived near a blacksmith shop in Sutton, kept a tavern in his house at one time and was a deacon at the time of his death at age 90 on April 19, 1821 in Leicester, Massachusetts. His family was large. His children were:
Molly, b. 1756
Abigail, b. 1758
John, b. 1761
Jerusha, b. 1763 who married Asahel Kimball in 1786
David, b. February 19, 1766
Samuel Dwight, b. 1773
Joseph, b. 1775
Ama, b. 1779 who married Leonard Kimball in 1799
Susanna, b. February 14, 1781
Elizabeth, b. 1783
Katherine, b 1785
Charles Buckley, b. 1788.
I suspect the David that George Wing refers to is actually the son of Joseph Jr., not the brother of Joseph, Jr. If David was born in 1766, he could have enlisted at age 15 as a fifer in 1781 in his father Captain Joseph Elliott's (Jr.) company.
Here is what I know about this Elliott family of Sutton, Massachusetts. It is not the same family that George W. Elliott described that he descended from. It is not the same family that the descendents of Irving Elliott say they descended from. It is not the same family that Grace Wing says the family descended from. It is not the same family that Charles D. Elliott says the family descended from. And, it doesn't look like it is correct in the SAR application of George Wing either.
The Elliott search continues.... Perhaps I'll eventually be able to rule out all of the wrong Elliott familes of New England!
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