Notable is the Clerk

 

Uncle Peg’s Chronicles

April 27, 2023

“Notable is the Clerk”

 

 

 

This photo of Karl Holmes made me smile this week. It’s just so . . . Karl. He and Pauline are taking in the pubs and castles in England. I am enjoying Pauline’s virtual tour.

 

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I still cannot update my Family Tree Maker Program.

 

 

Number of pages in Outline Descendant Report: 163, up from 161.

Number of pages in the basic Descendant Report: 246 (up from 246 last chronicle)

 

Francis Holmes is # 1. I am still # 339.

Jonathan Marquez (Frances Anne Holmes Ballantyne line) is last at # 503.

# 502, where he was last week, is now Derrick Hurde.

This should change weekly, if I’m doing my job.

 

 

Stats and Introductions

 

The names I drew last week are:

 

·         Neil Duncan is still # 332.

·         Heather Duncan Kervin is still # 457.

 

New this week are Michelle Gardner and Brenda Marquez.

 

 

Michelle Gardner is # 469 and is in the Charles R Holmes line. I know Michelle well, as she is my niece, daughter of my brother, Paul. I remember holding her in my arms at the airport, as Paul and Ruth were waiting to board the plane that would take them to Alaska for many years. I remember holding her infant daughter, Lauren, and playing with her older sister, Megan, at West Point, where several of us gathered at West Point for nephew and cousin and grandson James Booth’s graduation. All of a sudden, Megan is graduating high school this year. How did that happen? Michelle is the wife of Dr. Ren Garder, and they make their home in Tennessee, a long way and change in weather from Alaska.

 

Brenda Marquez is # 485 and is in the Fanny Holmes Ballantyne line. We used to talk quite a bit years ago. She’s extraordinary, as far as I’m concerned. Checked out her recent Facebook and I think she’s pretty busy; quiet lately, but her profile is a butterfly sitting on her hand and in a recent header photo, she’s wearing her hard hat and safety vest and standing beside the heavy equipment piece she operates, and she’s almost as tall as the tire: an apt gentle fierce combination of a woman who loves her babes and her ancestors. Not sure if she still drives her motorcycle or not, but I bet she does. Brenda is the daughter of Stephen Riggs and Carol Wilson, and has four grown children – Jonathan, Raquel, Katrina and Derrick.

 

Watch for your name.

 

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My genealogy goals for this week were:

 

·         Chronicle several times, and publish on Thursday morning.

·         Add a few more people to the tree so the stats move.

·         Finish researching and writing about Jonathan Maltbie for the “Where There’s a Will” article.

·         Complete the William Holmes line for the Lincoln Historical Society.

·         Continue indexing old New Brunswick obituaries and death notices for the NBGS website project.

·         Get ready to scan Uncle Billy’s guest book for the NBGS website.

·         Get ready for the AGM for NBGS and for our branch, both in May.

I worked on revising the Jonathan and Abigail (Holmes) Maltbie article – such a sad story. I am also done revising and cutting and should be able to get the short version off to News and Notes by the end of the month.  I worked on the newspaper index a bit. I sent the tentative program off to our board of directors for the provincial AGM for their approval. I also went down a rabbit trail that is not Holmes related and found a murdered relative in a collateral line.

From the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick:

 

Daniel F. Johnson : Volume 66 Number 3908

Date April 12 1887
County Saint John
Place Saint John
Newspaper The Daily Telegraph

Woodstock, April 11 - Today Daniel DULEY of Florenceville (Carleton Co.) was brought before Police Magistrate Dibblee to undergo preliminary examination on a serious charge. At an early hour one day last fall, John LOVELY was found lying beneath the Florenceville bridge, fatally injured. He died soon after being found. The circumstances seemed to indicate he had received foul play. Duley was arrested on suspicion of having caused Lovely's death.

 

I remember Dad telling me we had Lovely relatives. This man died long before Dad was born; probably that is why he did not mention the story to me.

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My special thanks this week to Brenda (Holmes) Batchelor for editing my article for my newsletter for our branch of the New Brunswick Genealogical Society. Editors are as important as clerks.

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Here is Mary Ellen, in her new, comfy outfit. Her sister, Theresa, along with her husband and son, came for a visit and brought her a gift. An excerpt from her sister’s Facebook post.

“Saturday April 22, 2023

My wonderful Husband Richard & l and our oldest son Richie took a long ride down to make a surprise visit to see our Beautiful Sister Mary Ellen! As you all know, she is residing in a rehab down in Wareham!

I bought her a light orange lounge set. She opened up my gift and her eyes were just lit up like a Christmas tree - she absolutely loved her gift! The nurses came in and we helped her put them on, she got out of bed with help and sat in the wheelchair and visited with us! I tell you it brought tears to my eyes to see her so happy and such a positive outlook about her life and what the future holds! With lots of hugs and kisses and several photographs we had an awesome time together. I seriously wanted to take her home!

I did not want to leave! She gave me a copy of her son Dan’s book! ‘THE ASSET MINDSET.’ “

 

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I look forward to the arrival of my brother and sister, Paul and Pat, tomorrow, for a few days: A Three Peas adventure – no definite plans. Hopefully they won’t freeze.

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Last week I posted the introduction to my Maltbie story. Today, I give you the conclusion. The story is still eight pages long. I need to cut it to three, plus endnotes. I’ll have the entire edited tale for you next week.

“Important to the entire process of executing a last will and testament are the executor/executrix, judge, witnesses, administrator, inventory takers, distributors, and clerk. Notable is the clerk, for if his handwriting was not legible, the documents are useless. Also important is their consistency and length of service, for their handwriting becomes familiar. Another clerk in another generation writes somewhat differently, and we must adapt our eyes to different writing. Writers of this era all wrote in a similar hand. As centuries went by, people tended to have more unique handwriting.

Jonathan Maltbie Sr, clerk and father and father-in-law of Jonathan Maltbie Jr and Abigail Holmes, kept the town and probate records of Stamford. When he passed, Left Charles Webb, clerk, recorded his will and probate documents. Left John Davenport, clerk, recorded Sarah Maltbie’s intestate papers. When Jonathan III and his wife, Elizabeth Allen, died, Samuel Rowland, their son-in-law, recorded the details. Although Webb and Davenport were not family members to my knowledge, they would have been familiar with the Maltbies and other residents of the towns of Stamford and Fairfield.  It must have been an emotional task to record the probate records of old communities.

There seems to have been no excuse for mourning. These men were appointed to the court: they were literate, in an era when that was rare. They did what they had to do. And what they did was of utmost importance to future genealogists and historians.”

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I believe that “Left” is the British abbreviation of Lieutenant. (This story took place before and a few years after the Revolution, so they probably still had the British accent and Britishisms.) Back in the day, there were twenty-four letters in the alphabet. “I” and “j” were used interchangeably, as were “u” and “v”. I think the “v” slurred into an “f” sound. Also, my Dad always said “Leftenant” rather than “Lieutenant.” If anyone definitely knows differently for the meaning of Left in front of the names, please let me know.

Unlike our direct Holmes ancestors, Jonathan was not a Loyalist. The Revolutionary War divided our family.

This is a recent photo (see the link due to copyright) and story of the home of distant cousin Jonathan Maltbie III. “On July 7-8, 1779, the Red Coats marched through Fairfield torching houses to punish the locals for seeking independence. They killed locals, destroying anything they could find on their way out, setting fires to homes and civic buildings around the Green. This home was built by Isaac Tucker, later sold to Jonathan Maltbie, sea captain involved with East Indies trade. He later would fight against the British during the Revolution, and after the war, was hired as captain on one of the first cutter ships built, the Argus. During the British invasion of Fairfield, they attempted to set fire to this home three times, but it seemed to never go up in flames when they returned. The tradition holds that an elderly servant, hiding upstairs, put out the flames and saved the house from destruction, after the British Troops torched it. Burn marks apparently remain inside to this day. Since the home was built, the front door facing the street was relocated to the side, and a large multi-pane bay window was installed in its place.”

https://buildingsofnewengland.com/2020/11/07/captain-john-maltbie-house-1766/

Another story in more detail: https://www.theconnecticutsociety.org/maltbie-jonathan/

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Historywill teach us many lessons if we let it.