Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume II, Part 25

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 1008

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 25

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Massachusetts. Children : I. Noah, born September 21, 1739; mentioned below. 2.

Elijah, August 9, 1741 ; married Sarah Towns- ley. 3. Mary, October 5, 1743; married, De- cember 3, 1763, Joseph Hoar, Jr, 4. Hannah, November 24. 1745; married, January 26, 1769. Abel Goodell. 5. Jacob, February 24, 1748; married Bathsheba Holbrook; in the revolution. 6. Emma, June 10, 1750; married William Goodell. 7. Dorothy, 1752, baptized October 15, 1752 ; married, July 2, 1773, Sam- uel Hoar. 8. Samuel, March 23, 1755; mar- ried Lucy Caroline Allen. 9. Daniel, October 5, 1760; married Lucy Hoar.

(V) Noah (2), son of Noah ( I) Hitchcock, was born at Brimfield, September 21, 1739, died January 23, 1826. He resided in Brim- field. He married (first) October 7, 1762. Silence Burt, born September 19, 1733, died March 29, 1808. He married (second) (in- tentions dated June 7, 1808) Sarah Wood, who died February 5, 1814, aged sixty-two.

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He married (third) Hannah Moore, who died May 19, 1818, aged seventy-eight. On Au- gust 16, 1769, he was paid twenty pounds for his service in the army. Children: I. Silence, born December, 1763; married, October 14, 1790, Samuel Buel. 2. Gad, February 15, 1765 ; married Lydia Sanders. 3. Jesse, Sep- tember 3, 1766; mentioned below. 4. Noah, September 22, 1768: married Mercy Keep. . 5. David, November 22, 1770; died October 13, 1777. 6. Lovisa, May 24, 1772; married, January 23, 1798, Seth Keep. 7. Asa, March 5. 1775 ; died March 13, 1778. 8. Asahel, June 20, 1779.

(VI) Jesse, son of Noah (2) Hitchcock, was born September 3, 1766, died November 4, 1836. He lived in Brimfield and was a car- penter and builder. He was three years town treasurer, and served in the revolution in 1780. He married, January 19, 1792, Vashti Steb- bins, born October 18, 1770, died September II, 1841. Children: I. Emily, born March I, 1793, died November 4. 1858; married Dan- forth Green. 2. Abner, February 22, 1795; mentioned below. 3. Laura Allen, February II, 1797; married, 1820. Daniel Hitchcock ; died March 1, 1821. 4. Eliza, May 26, 1799; died December 11, 1800. 5. Alfred, August 19, 1801 ; married Martha B. Allen. 6. Alvan, February 25, 1804; died June 20, 1818. 7. Martha Smith, January 12, 1810; married, March 17, 1852, Hezekiah Ferry, Jr. 8. Eliza Burt, May 17, 1812; married, December 10, 1857, Harvey Wolcott. 9. Josiah Stebbins, June 28, 1816; married, 1849, Caroline Haven.

(VII) Deacon Abner, son of Jesse Hitch- cock, was born at Brimfield, February 22, 1795, died May 2, 1868. He was deacon of the Con- gregational church in 1835; representative to the legislature in 1838. He served as select- man three years and treasurer one year. He was superintendent of the Otis Company's mills and later operating a farm and brickyard. He married (first ) November 12, 1815, Susan Gardner, born April 15. 1798, died February 27, 1857; (second) November 2, 1858, Nancy Lawton, born October 18, 1814. Children : I. Calvin, born March 22, 1817; married Delia Chandler. 2. Alvin, September 17, 1818; mar- ried Lavinia Tenney. 3. Lavinia, May 4, 1820; married, May 19, 1844. B. C. Moulton. 4. Elizabeth, September 10, 1822; died October 3, 1822. 5. Susan, February 8, 1824; mar- ried (first) October 16, 1844, Smith Hall; (second) March 9, 1853, Luther Chapin. 6. Abner Dwight, February 26, 1826; mentioned below. 7. Elizabeth Gardner, November 15,

1826; died June 2, 1872. 8. Esther Fenton, December 8, 1827 ; died 1909. 9. Vashti Steb- bins, December 8, 1828; married, October 20, 1863, Gamaliel Marsh. 10. Charles Foster, July 3, 1831 ; married Hannah M. McClintock. II. Sarah Jane, February 23, 1834; married, November 23, 1864, Chauncey F. Hyde.

(VIII) Abner Dwight, son of Deacon Abner Hitchcock, was born in Brimfield, February 26, 1826, died at Ware, June 19, 1908. He owned a farm in Brimfield, and later moved to Belchertown. He removed thence to Ware, where he conducted a meat market. He mar- ried, October 27, 1847, Maria Loraine Thayer, born at Belchertown, June 27, 1829, died April 20, 1890, in Ware, Massachusetts. Children : I. Clarence Eugene, born August 21, 1848; mentioned below. 2. Henrietta Thayer, Belcher- town, January 5, 1850. 3. Frank Edgar, July 24, 1853 ; died September 13, 1853. 4. Oscar Dwight, May 26, 1856; died March 14, 1858. 5. Marion Edith, May 5, 1865.

(IX) Clarence Eugene, son of Abner Dwight Hitchcock, was born in Belchertown, August 21, 1848. He attended the public schools of his native town and one term at Carrie Root's private school. He worked on his father's farm until he was twenty years old and then came to Springfield as a driver in the employ of Smith & Martin, lumber dealers. Subse- quently he was a clerk for two years and a half in the store of his uncle at Gilbertville. He returned to Springfield and again worked in the lumber yard. In 1871 he engaged in the lumber business on his own account in partner- ship with Deacon C. H. Smith. Two years later Deacon Smith retired from the business and the firm name became Hitchcock & Barnes. In 1880 Mr. Barnes sold his interests to P. H. Potter. A year later Mr. Hitchcock also sold out. During the next six years he was in the employ of the firm of Marsh & Murray, of Springfield. In 1888, he leased land on Dwight street of the Barnes estate and in partnership with E. S. Decker under the firm name of C. E. Hitchcock & Company conducted a lum- ber business. The firm was prosperous. At the end of seven years Mr. Hitchcock bought the interests of his partner and continued alone for three years, then selling out to Wood & Richmond. He spent a year and a half set- tling his affairs, and in November, 1899, bought the box factory and business of John A. Hall and conducted it for the next nine years under the firm name of the North Dana Box Com- pany, selling it in January, 1909, to A. W. Mason. In politics he is a Republican. He

leftchock

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attends the Congregational church, as does also his family. He married, May 23, 1872, Loura Gertrude Wetherell, born August 25, 1848, daughter of John Balcom and Parnell Kinsman (Hervey) Wetherell, granddaughter of John Wetherell. They have one child, Lotta Edith, born May 10, 1882, married George Watson Pauli, secretary of the D. H. Brigham Company, of Springfield.

IRELAND The name Ireland, as we learn from "Some Account of the Ireland Family," by Joseph Norton Ireland, is of early date in Britain, and is supposed to have originated there by the removal of families natives of or long resident in the Island so called, to her sister kingdom beyond the Irish Sea. Adam de Irlonde and Henry de Irlaunde are among the earliest mentioned residents in England, and from these forms the present day name had been formed. The various families bear- ing the name appear to have been of high respectability, and some of them were of con- siderable prominence. A coat-of-arms : Gules, three fleur de lis, argent, and a chief indented, ermine, the crest a dove bearing an olive branch, with the motto "Amor et Pax," was assigned in 1601, to James Ireland, Esq., son and heir of John Ireland, Esq., of Hertford- shire, the son of Hugh Ireland, of Lancaster. John Ireland, a celebrated connoisseur in art, wrote "Hogarth Illustrated," in three volumes, and a "Life of Henderson the Actor," and died in Birmingham in 1808. Another John Ireland, distinguished for his learning and piety, became Dean of Westminster in 1816, and at his death in 1842, bequeathed much of his immense fortune to religious and literary institutions. It is not known, however, that any of these families was connected with that of the founder of the Ireland family of this article. A Samuel Ireland, with wife and child, came to America in the ship "Increase," in 1635, and settled in Wethersfield, Connecti- cut, where he died within ten years after, his widow Mary, in 1645, marrying Robert Bur- rows, of Burroughs. She had two daughters, Mary and Martha, by her first husband, whose portions of £30 each were paid to their step- father, October 20, 1651. Dissensions soon arose among the settlers of Wethersfield, and a considerable body of them went to Stamford, Connecticut. After a year or two a division took place in the Stamford detachment, and the seceders departed for Long Island, where, at Hempstead, they bought a tract of land

from the Indians, and received a patent or ground brief, from Governor Kieft, in No- vember, 1644.

(I) Thomas Ireland first appears as one of the fifty proprietors of this grant, but whether he came with the company from Stamford or joined it on the Island, has not been discovered, but as most of the patentees were formerly of Wethersfield, it is not improbable that he was a brother or other relative of Samuel Ireland of that place. As one of the proprietors he received one hundred and fifty acres of land, and enjoyed the privileges of pasture and meadow land in common with the other set- tlers. At one time he was proprietor of an inn or house of entertainment for travellers, and in 1659 made complaint against Richard Brudenell, keeper of a similar house, for many deceitful dealings with his customers, and pro- duced no less than six witnesses to prove the offence charged, for which the said Brudenell was mulcted in the sum of twelve guilders, and his books were pronounced false and unfit to pass in law. January 16, 1663, Thomas Ire- land bought of Joseph Scott a piece of land with dwelling house and barn thereon, in Hempstead. In 1668 the town granted him an additional tract of twenty-two acres, which by town court order of January 24, 1669, was, in consequence of his death, conveyed to his widow. The date of Thomas Ireland's death is not given, but his will is dated September 30, 1668, and is on record in the surrogate's office in New York City. The name of the wife of Thomas Ireland was Joan; and about August 21, 1671, she married (second) Rich- ard Lattin. Children of Thomas and Joan Ireland, named in his will : Joan, Jane, Thomas and Elizabeth.

(II) Thomas (2), apparently only son of Thomas (I) and Joan Ireland, could not have been born before 1647, as he was not yet "of age" when his father's will was executed in 1668. He was heir to his father's real prop- erty under the provisions of the will, that part of it referring to the son being as follows: "Also, I give to my sonne Thomas my housing and lands wth all ye privileges thereunto be- longing, he to have ye said housing and lands at ye decease of my wife, or if my wife do marry againe, he is to have them when he comes to be one and twenty years of age, besydes what he hath in nomination already wth my other children." July 25, 1671, he re- ceived by conveyance from his mother the twenty-two acres granted by the town to his father, January 24, 1669. He was living in

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Hampstead when at a town meeting held March 17, 1677, he was authorized to take up an additional "hundred akers" of land, and a "pese of woodland," the location of which land he decided by drawing lots, he drawing No. 25. The proprietor of the town then num- bered forty-three, but there were other inhabit- ants, who after the above award was made were authorized to take up "50 akers apese." In August, 1678, he was authorized by town meeting to draw for a lot of the common meadow at Rockaway, and by a previous allot- ment, about July, 1669, he had taken up eight acres and one hundred and six and one-half rods of meadow, "by the Bay and great neck northward." June 26, 1685, he deeded to his brother-in-law, Charles Abrahams, four acres of land, free of any moneyed considera- tion, and March 20, 1687, he sold to Moses Erwin his meadow division at Rockaway "in consideration of a valuable some already received in full satisfaction." In Febru- ary, 1698, he exchanged his new dwelling house and lands appertaining to a place called Ireland's Meadow, with Benjamin Burtsall, receiving from the latter forty- nine acres of land at Cold Spring, Oyster Bay, with other rights, and mowing privileges on Jericho plains. November 17, 1700, he had from Thomas Youngs, Jr., of Oyster Bay in consideration of f16, "and other good causes and considerations," thirty acres of land "within the pattent and old purchase of Oyster Bay, adjoining the highway to Huntington, on the west side, nigh unto Cold Spring." On October 7, 1704, he and his wife Mary con- veyed to Edward Wright, Esq., a parcel or tract of land of about fourteen acres in Hemp- stead, which he had purchased of Timothy Halstead. Thomas Ireland probably died at Cold Spring about 1710-11, leaving his widow Mary and certainly four sons and probably other children. In a manuscript census list of Hempstead, made August, 1698, on rec- ord at Albany, occur the names of Thomas and Mary Ireland, and their children, John, Thomas, Mary, Adam, Daniel, Job, Amos, Elizabeth and Joseph.

(III) John, eldest son of Thomas (2) and Mary Ireland, lived, died and was buried on his farm at Cold Spring, Oyster Bay, previ- ous to the year 1748. It may be supposed that he was born about 1687, as in deeds made by his father at that date and previously, the name of his mother is not attached, although signed to others of a later date. September 14, 1708, in a deed, with Sarah, his wife, wherein he is

described as a planter, for "divers good and lawful causes and considerations, and more especially for a valuable sum of good and law- ful money," he conveyed to John Pearce, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, two separate parcels of land, one of twelve acres, and one of fourteen acres, partly bounded by a road called Thomas Ireland's South Path, &c. On February 6, 1712, he conveyed to his mother, Mary Ireland, in consideration of natural affec- tion and other causes all his right, title and interest to certain lands which belonged to his father, Thomas Ireland, deceased, with all houses, barns, trees, &c., there unto appertain- ing. January 3, 1712, in consideration of good will and brotherly affection, he, with the con- sent of his mother Mary, conveyed to his loving brother Job, seventeen acres of land in Oyster Bay, being a portion of the thirty acres purchased by their father, Thomas Ireland, deceased, of Thomas Youngs, Jr. The date of John Ireland's death is undiscovered. He left a son Joseph, and probably other children, but no evidence concerning any other child but Joseph has been found.

(IV) Joseph, only known child of John and Sarah Ireland, was born probably in 1713. He sold his farm at Oyster Bay, May 14, 1748, to William and Benjamin Hawxhurst, for £300, excepting a plot four rods square, where his father, John Ireland, was buried, which he reserved as a burial place for his family ; and purchased, May 16, 1749 (according to the records-but probably the sale and pur- chase were made the same year), from Israel Wood six several pieces of land, amounting to upwards of one hundred and seventy-seven acres, with houses, barns, &c., for the sum of £658, "At a place called by the name of the West Hills, within the township of Hunting- ton." He was a millwright by trade, and a most estimable and benevolent man. Besides his own large family, he brought up and cared for numerous grandchildren, and, if the term may be used, step-grandchildren. His taxable property at various times was estimated from £600 to £800, and in 1782 at f1,000. An inven- tory of his estate, found in the Huntington records, but without date, enumerated 200 acres of land, 2 loads of hay, 2 horses, 7 cows, 7 two-year-old cattle, 26 sheep, 5 swine, 40 acres of woodland, and one slave ; and also mentions 'meadow cut,' which probably refers to a share or right in the public meadow land of the town. In 1752 he had his cattle mark recorded,-the cattle of the residents at that «late still pasturing on the common lands of

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the town. In 1764 he was executor of the will of Samuel Brush, to which his wife had been a witness. In 1775 he signed to support Congress, and when the town was occupied by British troops he was frequently called by them the 'good-natured old rebel.'" * * "In 1778, with John and Israel Wood, George Norton, John Avery, Abiel Titus, and more than 500 other inhabitants of Huntington he, with his sons John, Daniel, Joseph, Jacob and Thomas, and his grandson Losee Ireland, took an oath of peaceable behavior and allegiance to his majesty, George III." In compliance with the request contained in a circular by the agent of the English government, dated Hunt- ington, May 28, 1783, Joseph Ireland present- ed a bill for services, forage, and pasturage, amounting to £34 18s 4d, upon which was a credit of three pounds. "Another claim for 'Loss of Teams' Work, loss of cattle, Hay, straw, Oats, Corn, poultry, swine, timber, prest and stolen by the British Troops,' to the amount of £156 3s four d., is signed by Joseph Ireland, who was probably the son of the be- fore mentioned one." These were two of several hundred bills of a similar character presented by inhabitants of Huntington, none of which was ever paid.

Joseph Ireland died June, 1793, at the age of eighty, leaving a will which was proved No- vember 8, 1793. He married, about 1735, Elizabeth Losee, who died 1802, aged about ninety. Her father, Peter Losee, the earliest known of the name, was probably a resident of Oyster Bay previous to 1700. He was the father of three sons and ten daughters. Chil- dren of Joseph and Elizabeth Ireland: Losee, John, Daniel, Joseph, Jacob, Thomas, Sarah, Phoebe, Margaret and Elizabeth.

(V) John (2), second son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Losee) Ireland, was born probably in 1738. He was an active adherent of the crown, and during the revolution he was an assistant commissary in the British army while it occupied Long Island. In 1767 he, with Hannah, his wife, conveyed to Isaac Smith forty-six acres and ten square rods of land for a consideration of £200, and by warranty deed of January 21, 1768, received from Josiah Rogers eighty-two acres of land at West Neck, Cold Spring, Huntington, for which he paid £369. In May, 1773, he purchased the parson- age land at West Neck, and, in 1774, sold thirty-three acres to Richard Conklin for £92. His taxable property on the assessment lists of Huntington was estimated in 1768 at £300, and in December, 1774. at £800. In 1777 he

was taken in arms at Lloyd's Neck and kept a prisoner, but in the spring of 1778 he was allowed to return home to procure clothing and other necessaries, on condition that he would deliver himself to his captors in thirty days. He died of smallpox, in the barracks at Lloyd's Neck, in the winter of 1779-80, and letters of administration on his estate were issued to his widow Hannah, February 24, 1780. He mar- ried, about 1765, Hannah, daughter of George and Mary (Helmes) Norton (see Norton), who died in 1786, and was buried in the grounds of the Brick Presbyterian Church, corner of Park Row and Beekman street. Ad- ministration on her estate was granted to her brother, Isaac Norton, August 22, 1786. Chil- dren: Elizabeth (Betsy), William Helmes, George, Mary, Joseph, Louisa and John.

(VI) George, second son of John (2) and Hannah (Norton) Ireland, was born Novem- ber 8, 1770, and died at his residence in Lex- ington avenue, New York, January, 1863, in his ninety-third year. He was an eminent builder, and erected some of the most elegant houses of that time in New York. He was an original director of the Mechanics' Bank, of New York, and for twenty years or more was president of the Mutual Insurance Company, the first established in the city, which was afterward renamed the Knickerbocker. He married (first ) about 1796, Catharine Inness, who died January 14, 1734; (second) Hannah Baley, who survived him and died without issue in 1880. Children of George and Cath- arine (Inness) Ireland : Charles (died young), James (died young), Cornelia Ann, Jane, Catharine, and George, next mentioned.

(VII) George (2), third son of George (I) and Catharine (Inness) Ireland, was born in New York City, April 23, 1813, and died in New Canaan, Connecticut, 1873. He grad- uated from Columbia College in 1830, with the degree of B. A., and soon entered upon the study of law with Daniel Lord, then one of the leading legal lights of New York. He was admitted to practice, continuing alone until about 1857, when he formed a partnership with William, C. Russel, who was afterward pro- fessor and acting president of Cornell Uni- versity. He once had an office at 7 Nassau street, and at another time at 106 Broadway. He made a specialty of that class of legal work in which titles are at issue. In politics he was a Whig and afterward a Republican. He was school trustee from ward 5 in 1863 and 1864. In religious faith he was a Unitarian and was one of the earliest members of Dr. Bellows's

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church. He was of refined and scholarly tastes and inherited the kindly good nature of his paternal ancestors, and was much loved by his acquaintances as well as by his family. He was not a member of any secret society or club; but was a member of the old Knicker- bocker Base Ball Club, which was an amateur association composed of professional men of the city who played ball for their own amuse- ment, having their grounds in Hoboken. That was in the days before base ball had become the sport of professionals. George Ireland married, November 8, 1837, Anna Mary Brown, who was born June 25, 1816, and died October 28, 1891. She was the daughter of General Aaron and Letitia (Purdy) Brown, of Somers, Westchester county, New York ( see Brown). Children: Catharine Inness, Oscar Brown, Julia Clinch, Emma Norton, Frederick Guion, Mary and Anna (twins), Louisa, Grace and George. Although his family was large, Mr. Ireland gave his children good educations which they used to advantage. Catherine Inness, born December 9, 1838, was a teacher in Mrs. Louis Agassiz's school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and afterward conducted a school of her own in Boston. Oscar B. is mentioned below. Frederick G., born 1846, was educated in Phillips-Exeter Academy, Harvard College and the law school of Colum- bia College ; was admitted to the bar, and later taught school. He is now chief examiner of the Civil Service Commission in New York City. He married, September 1, 1880, Alice M. Carpenter. George is a merchant in Chi- cago. Julia Clinch, born 1842, married, 1864, Preston B. Spring, and had five children, of whom these survive: Lilian, wife of Walter B. Cheney; Margaret Guion, wife of Robert Ramsey, and Edward Spring; Anna and Louisa, died young.

(VIII) Oscar Brown, eldest son of George (2) and Anna M. (Brown) Ireland, was born on Greenwich street, New York City, Octo- ber 28, 1840. He was educated in William H. Leggett's private school, in Ward School, Number Forty-four, and in the New York Free Academy, now the College of the City of New York, graduating from the latter in 1859 with the degree of A. B. Soon after graduating he became a clerk in the wholesale commercial house of Clark & McConnin, and later their successors, W. Irving Clark & Com- pany, Fletcher street, New York, where he was employed till the fall of r863, when he was commissioned second lieutenant in the United States Signal Corps by President Lin-

coln, and served in the Department of the South, and in the Shenandoah Valley, also with the Army of the James. He was also for a time signal officer on board the warship "Vermont," at Hilton Head, South Carolina. In the summer of 1865 he was mustered out with the brevet ranks of first lieutenant and captain. During the two years next follow- ing he was employed by a shipping house in New York. In 1867 he was offered a position with a company as cashier and bookkeeper to go to Colombia, South America, which he accepted. The business of the company was chiefly to import and sell American made goods and buy and export rubber and hard- woods. He was stationed on the Sinu river, about seventy-five miles inland from Carta- gena, at a place where the population was com- posed of whites, negroes, Indians and Mesti- zos, only two or three of whom spoke Eng- lish, but he soon acquired a working knowl- edge of Spanish. After a stay of about one and one-half years, 1867-9, he returned to the United States, firm in the conviction that home is one of the best places in the world, if it is in New York City. D. P. Fackler was then as now a prominent consulting actuary, and in his office Mr. Ireland spent the next two or three years preparing for a busy future. In 1872, June I, he was called to the position of actuary of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Springfield, and has held that place continuously from then till now (1909), a period of thirty-seven years. January 27, 1909, he was elected second vice- president of this organization. No comment is necessary to explain Mr. Ireland's character and ability as a business man. He is a mem- ber of the Church of the Unity, of which he has been clerk since 1876. He votes the Re- publican ticket, and has been twice elected to the school board, serving terms of three years each. He received the honorary degree of A. M. from his alma mater. He is a member of the college fraternity of Alpha Delta Phi ; the Massachusetts Commandery of the Mili- tary Order of the Loyal Legion; E. K. Wil- cox Post, Grand Army of the Republic ; the . Huguenot Society of America, of which he is a vice-president ; the Actuarial Society of America, of which he is an ex-president ; and the Springfield Canoe Association. He has been connected with various musical associa- tions, and was for twenty-five years a member of the Orpheus Club. He is also a member of the Springfield Music Festival Association, of which he is a director. He was married, De-

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume II, Part 25

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 1008

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 1008