Uncle Peg’s Chronicles
May 4, 2023
“From her Inventory, I Clothed Abigail”
This photo on Facebook made me smile this week
– a smiling Kaylan and a smiling garter snake – and signs of spring. Kaylan is
the daughter of Joseph and Christa Booth and is in the Charles R Holmes line.
As I’ve been enjoying a visit with Paul and
Pat this week, there aren’t any stats to share with you. We kept busy. We went
to a nostalgic 65th anniversary service at the church we grew up in
on Saturday morning, and spent Saturday evening picking up sticks at The Farm.
There’s a big pile ready for a bonfire some day when it’s not quite so dry.
There’s a house on a hill . . .
Lightfoot
Sunday, we went to my church service so they
could hear me sing in the choir, and they practically had to kick us out as we sat
and chatted with my friends of over 40 years. So glad they could meet.
Yesterday, we drove to our cousin Cindy’s
house for a visit and lunch and sharing of memories and catching up. The
weather was horrible, especially part of the drive home, but the fellowship was
sweet. We got to meet Jax, a tiny little brand-new Yorkie with a big bark. He
believes he is a big dog, and that is what counts.
Tuesday, we did some business and shopping –
books and Shreddies. And dinner at a restaurant, a rare treat these days.
My gratitude to Laura Watson this week. She
sent me photographs of her grandmother, Alma Robidoux Gaboury.
~
Guy Fielding – Stanley Fielding and Georgina
Gulliford – Arthur Fielding and Hazel Jones – Cuthbert Jones and Edna Hicks –
Abner Jones and Harriet Olevia Holmes – Daniel Holmes and Charlotte Hoyt.
~
Alma Robidoux
Alma Robidoux, grandmother of Laura Watson and
great-grandmother of Christopher Neel, both in our Facebook group, was born to
Charles and Amanda Alma (Gauthier) Robidoux in 1909 in Central Falls,
Providence, Rhode Island. Charles and Amanda were both born in Roxton Falls,
Quebec. They had a son, Ernest Edward Robidoux (1937 – 1998), who married three
times, all in California.
Laura Watson’s grandmother, Alma Robidoux,
married three times:
1st – Joseph Theodore ‘Ted’
Gaboury, in Rhode Island in 1927. Ted died in 1953.
2nd – Fenwick Howard Steeves.
Fenwick died in 1967.
3rd – George Thomas Cusson, in
California in 1971. He died in Santa Barbara in 1974.
Of interest to us is Alma’s marriage to
Fenwick Howard Steeves, son of Alf and Carrie (Holmes) Steeves. Fenwick was
born in New Brunswick, removed to Massachusetts where he was naturalized, and
removed to California for the rest of his life. He married first, Harriet
Fisher (1886 – 1935) and she died in California. They had two daughters. He
married second, Helen L Heaston in California in 1838, and I know nothing else
about her. He married third, Alma Robideau.
Fenwick died in Santa Barbara in 1967. Alma
died in 2001 in Hanford, California. I do not know the marriage date of Fenwick
and Alma, or the details of Laura’s relation to her grandmother.
Alma Robidoux, bride of her first
husband, Ted Gaboury.
~
I knew I wouldn’t have time for genealogy this
week so I saved the centre of my article, along with the revised introduction
and conclusion. I do not know how Abigail Holmes relates to us, just that she
does, given her location in Greenwich, Connecticut. That is called
circumstantial evidence. Brenda Batchelor edited it for me and it is now in the
inbox of the editor. I am still unsure on the genealogy of Sarah Potter. Was
she a widow or not? I am not sure. For your reading pleasure:
Where
There’s a Will
The Maltbie
Family of Stamford, Connecticut
1698 to
1798
Shafts of lightning will fly with true aim and will leap
from the clouds to the target, as from a well-drawn bow.[1]
Two years it had been
since they lowered her beloved into his grave in the burial ground. Abigail
hung her every day dress on the hook, squeezed into her stays, and put on the
pretty calico gown Jonathan had loved, covering it with her fine linen apron.
She attached her buckles to her shoes and danced around her room, glancing into
the looking glass and smiling. She covered her hair, damp and unruly in the
humidity, with her best bonnet, and brushed her napping son’s cheek with a kiss, tousling his red curls.[1]
Outside the window, storm clouds gathered and rumbled. Quickly, she donned her
gloves and stepped out on the porch to join her friends for afternoon tea. A rogue streak of lightning sliced the sky and
spotted Abigail’s shiny buckle. [1]
In this
year, the town of Stamford in Connecticut was severely distressed by a
malignant dysentery, which swept away seventy inhabitants out of a few
hundreds. The disease was confined to one street.[1]
Seventy
residents of Stamford succumbed to the dysentery outbreak of 1745. It struck in
late spring and continued well into the fall, assuming everyone’s cause of
death in the records was malignant dysentery. Recently married and father of an
infant, Jonathan Maltbie Jr died on August 13th, but his wife,
parents, and son were spared. Being a young man, he had not written his will.
Intestate decisions were left to the court; in Jonathan’s case, his father,
Jonathan Maltbie Sr, clerk, was involved in the process. With heavy heart, he
added Jonathan’s name to the growing list. He recorded the inventory takers’
list of his son’s belongings. He recorded the discussion about his infant
grandson, including the fact that he accepted the decision of the court to
become Jonathan’s guardian. He managed to write every letter of every word of
every sentence into the Stamford probate record book. With his quill, he recorded the
death of his son and namesake: Jonathan Hait Esq: Judge present Att a Court
of probate Held in & for the District of Stanford on April the 5th
1746, There Jon[a]th[an] Maltbie Admini[strat]or on the Estate of Jon[a]th[an]
Maltbie Jun[io]r: Late of s[ai]d Stanford Deceast Exhibited an Inventory of the
Estate of s[ai]d Deceast being all personall Amounting to the Sum of 216£/0/0 old Tenor Currancy for Acceptance Which this Court
Accepts of on the oath of the s[ai]d Admini[strat]or: & orders that the
Same be Recorded Left Jon[a]th[an] Maltbie Clerk[1]
Jonathan
Maltbie Sr and Sarah Potter
Jonathan
Maltbie Sr, a tanner and cordwainer come lately from Branford to Stamford,[1]
was soon active in town affairs. He served, from 1721 to 1753, as fence viewer,
constable, collector of the minister’s rate, member of various committees, townsman
and selectman, surveyor, sealer of leather, tithing man, and agent to the
General Assembly. He was on a long list of freemen in Stamford.[1] Rev. John Davenport united
Jonathan Sr and Mrs. Sarah Potter in marriage in Stamford on September 25,
1719.[1] Perhaps it
was due to his prominence in the town that in 1738, “Capt. Jonth
Maltbie was ordered to set in ye fore pue in ye meeting
house and his wife to set answerably, thereto.”[1] Possibly
Jonathan Sr’s wife, the widow Sarah Potter, maiden name unknown, was a
descendant of the Sellicks, as in 1746, it was recorded in the town minutes of
Stamford, “Capt. Jon[a]th[an] Maltbie in right of his wife, one of the
descendants of the s[ai]d Mr. John Selleck, having made application to the town
at this meeting for a com[mit]tee to shearch out and acertain bounds of s[ai]d
land . . .”[1]
When
Jonathan Maltbie Jr passed away in 1745, Jonathan Maltbie Sr became the legal
guardian of his grandson. He lived until approximately 1767 and his wife to approximately
1770, when their wills were probated. Jonathan, his grandson, was the first
person named in Jonathan Sr’s will: Imprimis I Give & Bequeath unto
my Loving Grandson Jonathan Maltbie the Son of my Dec[ease]d Son Jonathan
Maltbie of my Estate to the value of Thirty five pounds Lawful money to be paid
to him by my Executrix Hearafter named & to Enable her to pay it Do hereby
authorize & Impower her to make Sale of So much of my Land as Shall be
needful for that purpose.[1]
Jonathan Maltbie Jr and Abigail Holmes
Jonathan Jr was born to Jonathan Sr
and Sarah nine months after their marriage. He married Abigail Holmes on the
evening of February 27, 1744, in nearby Greenwich, where Abigail lived. Rev.
Mr. Todd pronounced them man and wife.[1] Her parents are
unknown to me so far. Death parted them eighteen months later, during the
summer of the dysentery outbreak in Stamford. Perhaps Abigail tightly clutched
her eight-year-old son at the graveside in the Stamford church burial ground.
Jonathan Sr recorded the date of death of his son: August 13, 1745. Jonathan
III was not yet an orphan. Grandfather Jonathan Sr took on the court-ordered
responsibility of raising the child. This occurred less than two months after
Jonathan Jr’s death. Att
a Court of Probate Held in & for the District of Stanford on Oct[o]ber the
4th 1745 Jon[a]th[an] Hait Esq[ui]re Judge present: this Court Being
Informed of Jon[a]th[an] Maltbie Jun[io]r Late of s[ai]d Stanford Deceast Left
one Child a Son Named Jon[a]th[an & having No Guardian & Not being of
age do thereupon Chuse this Court Do appoint & put in Jon[a]th[an] Maltbie
of Stanford Guardian to s[ai]d minor & ap[poin]t s[ai]d Jon[a]th[an]
Maltbie before this Court Declared to Jon[a]th[an] Hait Esq Judge & to his
Lawfull Suckissiors of s[ai]d District his Acceptance & also Acknowledged
him Sefe Bound in a Recognizance of one Hundred pounds old Tenor Currancy for a
faithfull Discharge of his Guardianship & that he Will Render an Acc[oun]t
there of when Lawfully Called there to Acknowledged in Court Left Jon[a]th[an]
Maltbie Clerk[1] Two years after
the death of his son, Clerk Jonathan Maltbie dipped his quill into his inkwell
and wrote the death announcement of his daughter-in-law: “Widow Abigail Maltbie, killed by lightning,
Aug. 9, 1747.”[1] Abigail also died intestate. John Holly and Alexander Bishop
completed Abigail’s inventory on May 8, 1749,[1] almost two
years after her death. It included some clothing – gowns, a petticoat, shifts,
stays, stockings, handkerchiefs, ribbons, aprons, several caps and bonnets,
gloves, and a cloak; bedding for herself and a child’s bed linen; pieces of
fabric and some yarn; and an old Bible. From her inventory, I clothed Abigail
in my creative introductory paragraph. Jonathan Maltbie Sr wrote the
directions for distribution of the estate as per the Court order, concluding
with this excerpt: . . .
Clear Estate
of the s[ai]d Deceas[e]d & the
Admin[istra]tor moved to this Court for a legal Disposition thereof and
it appearing to this Court that the s[ai]d Deceas[e]d has left But one Child and that a
Son and his name is Jon[a]th[an] Maltbie who is also
only son & Heir of Jon[a]th[an] Maltbie J[u]n[io]r late
of s[ai]d Stanford Deceas[e]d: where upon this Court does order the s[ai]d £29:5:3
above s[ai]d to be to and for the s[ai]d Son and only Child
of the s[ai]d Deceas[e]d his Heirs &Assigns forever the above is ordered
to be Recorded Left Jonth Maltbie Clerk[1] What
follows Jonathan and Abigail’s probate, dated August 5, 1746, was a tangle to
transcribe. I have left one blank and the “Gs” (perhaps G[rand]s[on]) may be incorrect, as could also be the order of
the words in the right bottom corner. In essence, the Court ordered the estates
of both deceased parents to Jonathan, the child of Jonathan Jr and Abigail
(Holmes) Maltbie, who had already been assigned guardianship of his
grandfather. Jonathan Hait Esq[ui]re Judge present Att a
Court of probates Held in and for the District of Stanford on Decem[be]r the
6/1748 There Jon[a]th[an] Maltbie Admi[nistrat]or on the Estate of Jon[a]th[an]
Maltbie Jun[io]r Late of s[ai]d Stanford Deceast: Informed this Court the Above
Abigail Maltbie Was Dead and that Before Distribution of her Husbands Estate
Which this Court Before was Informed: & there before this Court Gives
Judgment & order of s[ai]d above s[ai]d 59/15/01 ordered to the s[aid]
Widow of her Husbands estate now ordered to the above named Jon[a]th[an]
Maltbie who is the only Son & Heir and of the Gs of Jonathan
& of Abigail ____ Left
Jon[a]th[an] Maltbie Clerk[1]
Jonathan III and Elizabeth Allen
Jonathan III, son of the late
Jonathan and Abigail (Holmes) Maltbie, was, at two years and eight months of
age, now an orphan. Tragic as his start in life was, his grandparents lived
until Jonathan was in his twenties, and it appears they raised him well. His
grandfather left him an inheritance, and his grandmother also remembered him in
her will, probated in 1770. This indicates the importance of clothing in that
era; obviously, it was never discarded. Item.
I Give & Bequeath unto my loving Grandson Jonathan Maltbie what I have left
of my Dec[ease]d Husbands wearing apparel to be his own absolutely &
forever[1] Jonathan Maltbie III married Elizabeth Allen of
Fairfield, Connecticut, on October 23, 1768.[1] According to
the will of Jonathan III, written in 1792, probated in 1798 and distributed in
1799,[1]
and the intestate will of Elizabeth,[1] probated in 1799, they had eight children:
John, Jonathan, Sarah, Elizabeth aka Betsy, Abigail, William, Ann aka Nancy,
and Hannah. In Jonathan III’s typical of the era will, he named his wife as his
sole executrix. He left her the use of his estate, real and personal, for as
long as she remained his widow; the residue was to be divided among his eight
children. Before
the revolutionary war, Jonathan Maltbie III was a sea captain in the East India
trade.[1]
During and after the Revolutionary war, he served as a naval officer. He was
appointed Captain and Master of the United States Revenue cutter Argus by
President George Washington on the recommendation of his friend, Thaddeus Burr.[1] “He died Feb. 11th, 1798, while in command of this vessel,
and was buried in the old cemetery at Fairfield, Conn. The date of Jonathan
Maltbie’s commission as 1st Lieutenant is Oct. 12th,
1776. Date of Commission as Captain by George Washington, March 21st,
1791.”[1]
For interesting biographies of
Jonathan III’s life, read his story in the website,
“The Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Connecticut,” [1] and Dorothy Maltbie Verrill’s “Maltby-Maltbie
Family History.”[1] See the endnotes for links. 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 was
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 wrote in a
similar hand. Left.
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, 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 literacy was rare. They did what they had to do. And
what they did was of utmost importance to future genealogists and historians.
~
Here’s my thoughts on the meaning of Left. It’s my response to
Brenda Holmes, who edited my article.
“I too wonder about Left as a title and I have
a theory, sort of from Dad and sort of from googling. Dad used to pronounce
Lieutenant as Leftenant. I googled American colonial military title +Left
but couldn't find anything, so I tried British. Found a chat line which had
theories and rudeness galore but the most intelligent reasoning I read was the
fact that in the old writing, there were twenty-four letters, I and j were the
same, could be written either way, as were u and v. That I also know from my
study of the old secretary hand writing of that era. My assumption is that it's
the way the colonial Brits spoke the letter v. Does that make sense? Otherwise,
I can't find anything, but all four of those clerks, which included two or
three generations, clerked from before the Revolutionary War to a few years
after. Old habits die hard.”
~
The minstrel of
the dawn is gone.
Gordon Lightfoot
1938 - 2023
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