USA > New York > Hudson-Mohawk genealogical and family memoirs, Volume I > Part 65
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1881 ; was for six years a member and presi- dent of the old Albany Academy of Medi- cine. He married; in 1871, Jennie S., dangh- ter of John Sargent, of Rochester, New York. They have one son.
(IX) Frank Sargent, son of Dr. Ezra Al- bert and Jennie S. (Sargent ) Bartlett, was born March 10, 1886. He graduated at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, now with the General Electric Company with offices in New York City. He married Kathryn Hitchler.
The clan Finley of Scotland, a FINLEY Highland family of the country in the vicinity of Inverness, is said to be one of the most ancient of all Highland clans. The late Rev. John Bor- land Finley, Ph.D., Kithaurny, Pennsylvania, who was an ardent lover of family history and devoted much time and labor in researches, says: "The Clan Finley is the most ancient and whole family of Scotland, and existed be- fore a Campbell or a Stewart or a Cameron or a MacDonald had an existence." By the same authority the origin of the clan is de- rived from "Macbeth." "The Encyclopedia Britannica" says in substance "Macbeth (son of Finley, a Celtic chieftain in Scotland, and mormaor of Moray, son of Ruadher) snc- ceeded his father as mormaor of Moray, be- came a successful general under and after- wards revolted against and killed in battle, Duncan, King of Scotland. Upon Duncan's death he succeeded to the crown and reigned as king of Scotland from A.D. 1040 until his death in 1057." Dr. Finley ascribes the downfall of the clan to Macbeth's death, which was brought about by a mere party combina- tion, after which the clan was declared to be illegal, and the tartan and the clan were known as that of Farquharson. It is possible that some kinship may have existed between the families of Finley and Farquharson, one of the latter name who was slain at Pinkie in 1547, bore the name of Finley Mor on ac- count of his great height and strength. The clan was in existence as a clan long after the days of Macbeth. This fact is certain and also the facts are certain of its existence during the sixteenth century, and that some time before the seventeenth century the for- tunes of the clan had fallen. At some time after the beginning of the seventeenth cen- tury the clan began to migrate from Inver- ness, southward into the lowlands and south- westerly toward the western coast of Scot- land. Certain members stopped on the west- erly coast of Scotland, others crossed over into the north of Ireland. The Irish branches
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are very numerous, perhaps the best known individual of the Irish settlers was late Sir Thomas Finley, of Sugarloaf, Betterby coun- ty, Caran. The earliest known spelling of the name is Finlig, subsequently Finligh and Fin- ley. According to Dr. Finley, the names Fin- ley. Finlay, Findlay, Findley, are identical in origin, the name Finley being Scotch, pure and simple, and all others modern and merely an attempt to Anglicize it. The name itself certainly suggests Celtic ancestry, and it is more than probable that when the Finleys of Inverness crossed over during the seventeenth century into the northern part of Ireland they were simply returning to the "Scotch Magir" whence their ancestors had departed many centuries before.
During the period between 1700 and 1750 there was considerable and continuous emi- gration of the Scotch-Irish to America, and among them were many of the clan Finley, who gave of their sterling stock for the set- tling of the colonies. On the 24th of Sep- tember, 1734, Michael Finley with seven sons, the names of five of whom are definitely known, arrived in this country from the county of Armagh, province of Ulster, Ire- land, and settled in Pennsylvania, ultimately in Chester county. Michael Finley was a farmer by occupation, a Presbyterian in re- ligion, and among his sons is one Samuel Finley, who became the Rev. Samuel Finley, M.A., D.D., president of Princeton College, New Jersey. The other brothers were the Rev. James Finley, John, William, and Michael Finley. It is known that the first five married, and now have descendants living in various parts of this country. Samuel was nineteen when he came to America. He was ordained a minister in 1743, settled in West Nottingham, Maryland, where in an academy which he established he qualified many youths for usefulness. His intense application to his duties impaired his health and he went to Philadelphia, where he died, July 16, 1766, in the fifty-first year of his age. His grave is in Arlington, Pennsylvania. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the Uni- versity of Glasgow. Dr. Finley was twice marricd, his first wife being Sarah Hall, an aunt of Dr. Benjamin Rush, and they had the following children: 1. Susannah, married Isaac Snowdon, and from this marriage most of the present Snowdons of Pennsylvania de- scend. 2. Rebecca, married Samuel Breese, and their daughter, Ann Breese, married Rev. J. Morse, one of their children being Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the inventor of the tele- graph. 3. Ebenezer, a captain in the Mary- land line during the revolution, and who later
settled in Ohio, leaving no children. 4. James Edward Burr, a surgeon in the revolutionary war, who ultimately settled in Charlestown, South Carolina. 5. Joseph, a physician, who died in early life. 6. John H., a lieutenant in the Pennsylvania line during the revolution and a graduate of Princeton College; he mar- ried Martha Berkley and settled in West- moreland county, Pennsylvania. 7. Samuel, a graduate of Princeton, a physician and sur- geon in the Massachusetts line during the revolutionary war.
Dr. John H. Finley, president of the Col- lege of the City of New York, is a descend- ant of one of the brothers of President Sam- uel Finley, of Princeton. Lieutenant John H. Finley, sixth child of President Samuel Finley, probably settled in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania. His first son, Major John Fin- ley, was the first white man to visit the coun- try now forming the state of Kentucky. He settled at Blue Licks, Kentucky. The second son, Michael, settled at Mud Licks, Kentucky. The third son, Major Samuel Finley, was a major in the Virginia line at the time of the revolution, and commanded a regiment of riflemen in the war of 1812. Robert Finley, D.D., president of Franklin College, Athens, Georgia, was a native of Princeton, and grad- tiated at that college in 1787. He died in 1817, aged forty-five years. John Harris, whose son was the founder of Harrisburg, settled on the Susquehanna before 1730. Associated with him after that date, among others was John Finley, who married the daughter of Harris in 1744. He made trading trips from the Harris settlement during that decade as far west as the present state of Ohio, and there is reason to believe that he penetrated to the Yadkin Valley before 1750. In 1752 he tra- versed northern Kentucky as far as the falls of the Ohio river. He served in Braddock's campaign of 1755 as a companion of Daniel Boone, whose father had removed from Bucks county and settled on the Yadkin at Homan's Ford in 1748.
Dr. John McMillan and the Finleys estab- lished more than a dozen colleges in the west and south. It has been the boast of Ulster- men that the first general who fell in the rev- olution was an Ulsterman, Richard Montgom- ery, who fought at the siege of Quebec; and that Samuel Finley, president of Princeton College, and Francis Allison, had a conspicu- ous place in educating the American mind to independence.
(I) The Finleys now resident in Troy, de- scend from an Irish ancestor, Goin Finley, a descendant of the Scotch family previously chronicled. Goin Finley came to this country
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about 1730. In 1734 he was a resident of Edgartown and in 1739 was received into the church, as from Ireland, with his wife Mary, and on August 2 of that year their children, Samuel, John, William, Margaret, Elizabeth and Mary were baptized. In the next year Jane was baptized.
The church records show the admission of Abraham Finley and wife Elizabeth a few weeks after Goin was received. Agnes Wheir a sister of Goin, was also a resident in Ed- gartown. His son Samuel married Hannah, daugliter of James Hamlin, of Edgartown, probably a widow of John Selew, of Glaston- bury. Some time between 1739 and 1746 Goin Finley settled with his brother John and pos- sibly sister Elizabeth at Glastonbury, Con- necticut. In 1746 Goin Finley bought one hundred acres of land from Elizabeth Bing- ham. Another deed, April 28, 1752, bears his name.
His will dated June 29, 1767, and pro- bated July 2, 1771, mentions his wife Mary, daughters Margaret Couel, and Elizabeth Chamberlain, sons Samuel and John, and daughters Jane and Anne. It gives the land in the "Parish of Marlborough where Samuel now lives."
(II) Captain Samuel Finley, son of Goin and Mary Finley, in will dated Glastonbury, Connecticut, February 7, 1793, mentions "my wife, Lydia," "son Samuel to have house where he now lifes (Parish of Marl- boroughi) ; my grandsons John Jones and Samuel Finley Jones and my son David." Captain Samuel Finley's will was probated October 6, 1797. A codicil dated January 18, 1797, "having intelligence that John Jones has gone to sea and all on board ship lost." Samuel Finley Jones was to have his broth- er's part of the bequest. He died August I, 1797, aged seventy-five years. He had Sam- uel, David and a daughter who married John Jones.
As showing the strength of religious conviction in that period, the following inci- dent as quoted by Mr. Hanna (author of The Scotch-Irish in America) is interesting, it being understood that the established religion of New England was according to the Con- gregational form, while Princeton, New Jer- sey, and Philadelphia were Scotch Presby- terian. In Milford, New Haven county, Con- necticut, in 1741, a considerable minority of the people left the established Congregational church and "professed themselves to be Pres- byterians according to the church of Scot- land." Thirty-nine of these people qualified themselves under the Toleration Act and es- tablished a Presbyterian church there in 1742,
The Rev. Benajah Case preached to them on the 17th of that month, for which offense he was fined and imprisoned. The people made preparations to build a meeting house in May, 1742, but the town refused to let them build it on the common. In 1743, at the request of the congregation, the New Bruns- wick Presbytry sent them as a supply the Rev. Samuel Finley, afterward president of Prince- ton College. He preached at Milford, August 25, and at New Haven on September 1. For this offense he was prosecuted, tried and con- demned. For disturbing the peace of the community, Governor Law ordered him trans- ported as a vagrant from town to town out of the colony. This treatment was considered by some of the foremost civilians of Connec- ticut, and of the city of New York, to be so contrary to the spirit and letter of the British constitution as to work a forfeiture of the colonial charter.
(III) Samuel (2), son of Captain Samuel (1) and Lydia Finley, was born in 1749. He married, 1772, Delight, daughter of Solomon Phelps, of Hebron, Connecticut ; died at Gen- eseo, New York, October 6, 1806. Children : Samuel and David were baptized in 1778, De- light in June, 1780, Sophia Barber, in Sep- tember, 1794. In 1805, Samuel Finley re- moved with his wife and four children to the opening of the Geneseo Valley by the Wads- worth family and settled at Geneseo, New York. (See report of the Centennial of the town of Marlborough.) A considerable num- ber of the residents of the town of Marlbor- ough went to Geneseo in 1805 and later. Among those were the following who were dismissed from the church that year: Joseph Kneeland, David Kneeland and wife, Samuel Finley and wife, Deacon Skinner and wife, several of the sons going with them, all rec- ommended to the church of Christ in Geneseo. The Congregational Society was organized in Geneseo, May 5, 1810, with twenty-five mem- bers, among them David Skinner, Jerusha Skinner. David Kneeland, Mercy Kneeland, Dolly R. Beach, Delight Finley, Betsy Fin- ley and Abigail Case. James Wadsworth, son of John Wadsworth of Durham. Connecticut, and a descendant of William Wadsworth, of Hartford, Connecticut, was born in Durham, April 20, 1768. In 1790 James Wadsworth and his brother William removed to the Gen- eseo Valley. All provisions had to be hauled through the forests, and they took several laborers with them to clear the land. They ascended the Hudson to the mouth of the Mohawk, thence to Schenectady. Within a few years they had erected a grist mill and a saw mill at Geneseo. James attended to the
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duties of the land office while William farmed and raised stock. Geneseo was then consid- ered to be the "far west." Wadsworth, in 1805. wrote to Samuel Finley that he was de- sirous of securing settlers and offered three farms in Geneseo in exchange for an old farm at the old residence, Marlboroughi, provided the families were thrifty and of good prin- ciple. In 1803 Wadsworth had fixed the value of the land at four and five dollars per acre and offered five thousand acres for sale. The journey from New York City to Geneseo, two hundred and twenty miles, was made in twenty days in November, 1804, one hundred bushels of wheat in one load being drawn by four yoke of oxen. Major-General William Wadsworth held the office of supervisor for twenty-one years. In 1834 the Congregational Society adopted the form of government of the Presbyterians, becoming the Second Pres- byterian Church of Geneseo; the first was organized in 1795 by settlers from Pennsyl- vania of Scotch-Irish descent. Temple Hill was early selected by Wadsworth for an acad- emy site. In 1827 the present (1876) acad- emy buildings were complete.
(IV) David, son of Samuel (2) and De- light ( Phelps) Finley, was born in Marl- borough, Connecticut, 1777, died in Avon, New York, December 23, 1812. He married, November 5, 1800, Jerusha Skinner. Chil- dren :
1. Frances, born August 6, 1801 ; mar- ried George Paddock. 2. Jerusha, May II, 1804, died in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, March 14, 1841 ; married Gustavus Foster. 3. Homer Skinner, October 30, 1808, died in Cobden, Il- linois, July 5, 1881 ; married Eliza Barrows. 4. David, sce forward.
(V) David (2), son of David (1) and Jerusha (Skinner) Finley, was born August 10, 1812, in Avon, New York. He spent the early years of his life in the then "far west" of Indiana and Wisconsin. He was settled at Michigan city in 1836 where he married (first) Lucy Ann (Sumner) Thorndyke, who died December 21. 1839; no issue. David Finley then removed to Milwaukee, remaining in Wisconsin until about 1845, when he came east, settling in Champlain, New York, where he lived until his death, August 30, 1881. He established in Champlain a foundry and ma- chine shop, which is still continued as the Sheridan Iron Works. He married (second) Susan Barlow Weeks, of St. Albans, Ver- mont, who still resides at Champlain. Chil- dren : William, Frances Aurelia, Margaret Cornelia, Helen Maria, Charles Homer, Hor- ace Blunt, William, David. Horace Blunt Fin- ley has been a resident of Troy since 1883.
Those in the United States LOUCKS who bear the name Laux, Loux, Lauck, Laucks, or Loucks descend from a common ancestor, the father of Philip and Nicholas Laux, Palatin- ates, who came to the American colonies in the emigration of 1710. The origin of the family is recorded in the ancient chronicles of the region on either side of the Pyrenees. in the extreme southeast of France, the head of the family as traced being Inigo Lope du Laux, Seigneur de Biscaye and Count of Al- ava, who had two sons, one of whom, Guil- laume Sanche du Laux, being the founder of the house or family from whom all those bear- ing the name of Laux descend. The family was rich and powerful, holding high and im- portant offices in the state. In later genera- tions many of the members of the several fam- ilies became Protestants and suffered in con- sequence.
The Huguenot forefathers of Philip and Nicholas Laux settled in the Palatinate of the Rhine in Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Nassau, their parents or grandparents going there pre- vious to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and settling during the religious war known in history as the "Thirty Years War." Ger- many had barely begun to recover from the effects of the war, which was more severely felt in the Palatinate than in any other part of the Fatherland, when the wars of Louis XIV. of France began, and life was again made a horror for the inhabitants. On the advice of the leading generals of the French King, the Palatinate was ordered to be de- stroyed and soon but the blackened ruins of cities. towns, and hamlets remained. To flee from such horrors and to escape the vengeance of the French King, who was par- ticularly bitter against his Protestant subjects who had fled from his tyranny, is why thirty thousand Palatinates went to London, Eng- land, for the kind-hearted English Queen Anne had invited the distressed Protestants of Germany to make their home in her Ameri- can colonies. In this company were Philip and Nicholas Laux with their families.
Of these many went back to Germany and several thousand were sent to Ireland, where they found homes in county Limerick. Thou- sands more perished at sea and on shipboard from fever and want of food. Four thou- sand, among them Philip and Nicholas Laux, left England in ten vessels on Christmas day in 1709 and after a perilous voyage of six months arrived at New York, June 14, 1710. Of the four thousand, seventeen hundred died at sea, and while in the act of landing. The remaining twenty-three hundred were en-
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camped in tents on Nutting, now Governor's Island, New York Harbor. In the late aut- umn fourteen hundred were taken one hun- dred miles up the Hudson river to Living- ston Manor, where they were shamefully treated by Governor Hunter and associates. As Queen Anne had expended ten thousand pounds in bringing them to America they were expected to repay the government under a contract by making tar, pitch, and raising hemp (naval stores) in America, for a cer- tain period. The plan proved a failure and the Palatinates again became desperate, for they were suffering for the necessarics of life. The Palatinates were men of honor and will- ing to carry out the terms of their contract, but the forests and soil were not suitable for the production of naval stores. They more- over showed their devotion by enlisting in the Canadian expedition of 1711, fully one-third of the able-bodied men serving in that campaign. They were to receive wages the same as other soldiers, their families were to be taken care of and the arms they fought with were to be retained on their return. Many lost their lives in the campaign and the survivors found their families in a famished condition on their return, no food having been given them by the colonial government, as promised. Their arms were also taken away. Then their hatred of wrong and injustice burst forth and they determined to break away from the spot where treachery and starvation seemed their only portion. When in London they had met a delegation of Mohawk In- dians who had promised them land in the Schoharie Valley and the land had been con- veyed to the Indians by Queen Anne for that purpose. Remembering this, they petitioned Governor Hunter that they might settle on the land promised them by the Indians. He refused in a great fury saying, "Here is your land, where you must live and die." But now fully aroused to their danger they began delib- erate preparations, and late in 1711 one hun- dred and fifty families, among them Philip Laux and family, quit the scene of their mis- ery and started for Schoharie, sixty miles northwest of Livingston Manor. They had to make their way through a roadless wilder- ness, without horse to draw or carry their belongings. They harnessed themselves to rudely constructed sledges on which they loaded their baggage, children, and sick and delicate women, and dragged them over the snow. They were three weeks in making the journey, suffering greatly from cold and hun- ger. After their arrival their situation was but little improved, and but for the kindness of friendly Indians all must have perished.
But their indomitable courage and energy en- abled them to survive the winter, and a year later found them housed and the cultivation of land well under way. The vindictive ani- mosity of Governor Hunter, however, still pursued them, and after a sojourn of ten years in the Schoharie Valley the greater part left for permanent homes in more hospitable re- gions, the majority going to the Mohawk Val- ley, where they became prosperous. Many of the descendants of Philip Laux are found there today, wealthy and influential. A branch settled in Pennsylvania, including Con- rad Weiser, a son of John Conrad Weiser, whom Governor Hunter threatened to hang for being "disobedient and mutinous." Many of the Laux family served in the colonial wars and in the revolution. They served with Her- kimer at Oriskany and the revolutionary rolls teem with the family name in its various forms. They were prominent in the war of 1812 and in the great civil war.
(I) Philip Laux bought land at Middleburg and in the town of Sharon, Schoharie county. upon which his descendants are yet settled. He had four sons: Peter, Cornelis, Andrew and William. Andrew was a well known lo- cal musician and chorister of the Lutheran church at Schoharie. Both Philip and Nicho- las Laux were among the Palatinate volun- teers for the expedition against Quebec in 1711. They belonged to the Haysbury Com- pany that was formed in Livingston Manor.
(II) William Loucks, son of Philip Laux, the emigrant, settled in Middleburg. He was the only Tory in his family except most of his sons. When Johnson invaded the valley in 1780 all the Loucks buildings were burned except his, which was made a resting place and supply station. He had by first wife, Andrew and Peter, of Sharon; Jeremiah of Middleburg ; and daughter who married John Ingold (2), of Schoharie. By his second wife he had John W., Jacob, Henry William, Da- vid, Mrs. Storm Becker and Mrs. William Borrt.
(III) Peter, son of William Loucks and his first wife, settled with his brother Andrew in Sharon, Schoharie county, New York, about 1765. Peter was a farmer and an energetic business man. The Sharon historian says, "he had clearer views upon political matters than his brother Andrew, especially during the 'struggle for liberty.'" This would indicate that Peter was a Patriot and Andrew a Tory. Peter erected a house in 1802 from timber that had been prepared to build a church, but a controversy arose that ended in the church being built at Lawyersville. The lumber was then sold at auction and purchased by Peter
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Loucks. This house yet stands. Children of Peter Loucks: William, John H., Hollis, Dan- iel, Andrew P., Mary, married Peter Brown, Sarah, married Joseph W. Van Schaick.
(IV) John H., son of Peter Loucks, of Sharon, New York, was born in that town where he lived for many years. He settled later in Albany county, New York, where de- scendants are plentiful. He married and had sons.
(V) James Harris, son of John H. Loucks, of Sharon, Schoharie county, and Albany county, New York, was a prosperous farmer of the town of Bethlehem. He owned a good farm, and was a man of high character and good standing in his town. He married Hes- ter Slingerland, sister of William H. Slinger- land, of Slingerlands, Albany county, and daughter of John A. and Leah (Brett) Slin- gerland, descendant of Teunise Cornelis Slin- gerland who came from Holland in 1650 to what is now the town of Bethlehem, Albany county. They had several children.
(VI) John Albert Slingerland, son of James Harris and Hester (Slingerland) Loucks, was born on the old Loucks homestead in Slin- gerlands, Albany county, New York, July 19, 1841.
He was educated in the public schools of his town and of Albany county, New York. He grew up on a farm, and on arriving at man's estate became a farmer on liis own ac- count, continuing that occupation all his ac- tive years. He prospered in his chosen busi- ness and is now (1910) living a retired life in the village of New Scotland. He enlisted October 11, 1862, in Company H, One Hun- dred and Seventy-seventh Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry, at New Scotland, to serve nine months; mustered in as ser- geant of Company H, November 21, 1862; mustered out with company September 10, 1863, at Albany, New York. He married Su- san Slingerland, daughter of Peter, son of Maus, son of Peter, son of Teunise Cornelis, son of Cornelis, son of Teunise Cornelis Slin- gerland, the Dutch emigrant and ancestor. His son Cornelis, born June 7, 1670, married Eva Mabie, May 28, 1696. Their son, Teu- nise Cornelis Slingerland, born March I, 1722, married and had four sons: John, Cor- nelius, Peter, Henry. Peter Slingerland, third son, was born February 5, 1759, died 1847. He built mills and converted the tim- ber on his land into lumber. He married Ger- trude Bloomingdale. Their only son, Maus Slingerland, was born March 7, 1806. He inherited the saw and grist mills built by his father and owned in addition seven hundred acres of land. He married Susanna, daugh-
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