On June 23, 2022, I wrote about my ancestors who had birthdays in June, and on July 14 I wrote about my ancestors who were born in July. Today, the focus is on my ancestors who had birthdays in August. This was part of a two-year-long project I worked on in 2018-2019, writing about hundreds of my ancestors on their birthdays. It was a ridiculous project, and it about killed me, but I’m glad to have this information available to me.
Sixteen of my ancestors were born in August – more than the 10 born in July but fewer than the 24 born in June. This will be easier.
August 6: Elizabeth Maritje Delgyn (7th great-grandmother, 1794-1778)
I need to say, from the outset, that Dutch names are difficult to research. They were spelled any number of ways, and it’s hard to track who’s who. Add to that the fact that in some records the names are Anglicized – Jacobus becomes Jacob, Johannes becomes John (or Hans), Meritje becomes Mary, Geertje becomes Gertrude. Katarina become Catherine – but sometimes the names are not anglicized. And the last names are transcribed any which way -- Delgyn is sometimes Dildine or Dildyn, Wyckoff is sometimes Wijkof, and so forth.
With that caveat, here’s what I think I know about Elizabeth. She was the last of six children born to Hans Jacob Delgyn (or Johannes Jacobus Dildine) and the improbably named Maria Catherine DeVeaux Jung in Germany, I think.
One story says that her father died on board ship as the family was travelling from Germany to New Jersey. I don’t know that for sure, but once the family arrives in New Jersey there is no further mention of the father.
Elizabeth married Nicholas Wycoff in 1723 in Monmouth, New Jersey. Nicholas’s great-grandfather was Pieter Claesen Wyckoff, who came to New Amsterdam in 1636 as a 10-year-old indentured servant. The Wyckoff home in Brooklyn is still standing and is identified as the oldest home in New York City.
The Wycoff name is prominent in the records of the Dutch Reformed Church in Readington, New Jersey, where Elizabeth and Nicholas lived. As a side note, the Woertman family name (which would be Anglicized as Workman within two generations, is also visible in these records. Elizabeth’s granddaughter, also named Elizabeth, would marry Abraham Workman in 1770. Elizabeth lived long enough to witness this marriage.
Elizabeth and Nicholas had 11 children, including my 6th great-grandfather Samuel Wycoff, who was their second child.
August 7: Ebenezer Moon (7th great-grandfather, 1645-1712)
Ebenezer was the first of six children born to Dorothy Osborne and Robert Moon in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a tailor in Boston, but I don’t know when he came to Massachusetts.
Ebenezer married Rebecca Peabody in Rhode Island in 1670. Rebecca’s parents, John and Dorothy Tully (or Tooley). John came early to Newport and bought land in 1649. He was among 99 signers of the agreement to purchase "Quononaqutt Island" in 1657.
Ebenezer and Rebecca had four children, including my 6th great-grandfather, also named Ebenezer, who was their oldest child
August 10: Isaac Bilyeu (7th great-grandfather, 1661-1708)
Isaac was born “at sea”, at least according to one record, but his birth was recorded in New Jersey and his parents settled in Staten Island. He was the ninth of 13 children born to Peter (Pierre) Bilyeu and Francoise du Bois. His parents were born in French Flanders, near the modern-day Netherlands, married there, and had eight children before they and arrived in New Jersey in 1649.
They settled in Staten Island, where their house, known today as the Bilyeu-Stratton-Perrine House, still exists and is identified as the oldest house in Staten Island.
Isaac married Ida Sueberingh in New Jersey in 1684. Ida’s history is interesting in itself – see her birthday entry on November 2!
Isaac and Ida had 14 children (more or less), including my 6th great-grandfather Peter Bilyeu.
Isaac died in New Jersey in 1708.
I connect to Isaac through my Workman family line. Bilyeus and Workmans intermarried numerous times through succeeding generations as both families moved west through Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois. Several members of the Bilyeu/Workman family were with the Mormons at Nauvoo, Illinois, and were part of the Mormon migration to Salt Lake City in 1846.
August 10: John Taylor (10th great-grandfather, 1607-1651)
John was the fifth of 15 children born in Cumberland, England, to Margaret Swinderby and Captain Thomas Taylor II.
John married Elizabeth Horton in London sometime around 1630 and they had seven children, including my 9th great-grandfather James Taylor, who was their fifth child, before they emigrated to Lancaster County, Virginia, in 1648, along with several of John’s brothers. John’s 4th great-grandson was Zachary Taylor, the 12 President of the United States. This makes Zachary Taylor my 4th cousin 6th removed, I believe.
August 10: Sarah Swan (9th great-grandmother, 1655-1729)
Sarah was the 6th of something like 13 children born to Robert and Elizabeth Acie Swan in Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts. Sarah’s father came to Massachusetts in 1638, landing at Boston and settling first in Andover and then in Haverhill in Essex County. Robert was not always an upstanding citizen of Haverhill; although he was identified as a “lot-layer” (apparently responsible for marking and allocating lots of land), the town records also show him as having once been “fined 20s for being drunk and cursing.”
Sarah married Thomas Hartshorn in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in 1671. Thomas’s father, also named Thomas, arrived in Massachusetts about 1636-38 and settled in Lynn by 1638. A tailor, Thomas was living in Reading in 1639, five years before its incorporation in 1644. He appears in a number of records of the town of Reading; in 1662, he was one of 20 members of the church who paid a dog-whipper. I had to find out what a dog-whipper was. Well, it was the person named to control the dogs that sometimes accompanied their owners to church, and the definition was broadened to include the general responsibility of controlling stray dogs in the town. An early animal control warden.
Sarah and Thomas-the-son-of-the-dog-whipper had six children, including my 8th great-grandmother, also named Sarah, who was their second child.
August 11: Spencer Arnold (3rd great-grandfather, 1794-1831)
Spencer was the only child of Eli Arnold. I’m not sure about the name of Spencer’s mother. Spencer was born in Knox County, Maine, at a time when Maine was still part of Massachusetts.
Spencer served in the War of 1812; he was a private in Capt. Moses Burley's Company, Lieut. Col. J. Cummings' Regiment in 1814. This regiment was raised in Palermo and was based in Belfast, Maine.
Spencer married Martha Pease in 1817. They had four children, including my 2nd great-grandfather Miles Arnold (1821-1899) before they moved to Ohio in 1829. They had one more child after they moved to Ohio.
Spencer was a surveyor for the brief time he lived in Ohio. He laid out the town of Fredonia, in Licking County, Ohio.
August 15: Samuel Benton (8th great-grandfather, 1658-1746)
Samuel was the fifth of seven children born to Andrew and Hannah Stocking Benton. He was born in Milford, Connecticut, but his family moved to Hartford while he was a child and he lived the rest of his life there. His father Andrew was a civic leader in Hartford, where he owned land and held public office, and some of the events of Andrew’s life were to play an important part in shaping Samuel’s childhood.
During the 1670s, Hartford was swept up in the witchcraft hysteria that we most commonly associate with Salem, in neighboring Massachusetts, but this peculiar obsession manifested itself in many other towns in early New England, including Hartford. A woman named Anne Cole was among those accused of witchcraft in the 1660s, a time when several people in Hartford were hanged after being convicting of consorting with Satan and bewitching other residents of the town. Anne Cole was acquitted of these crimes, however, and Andrew married her after the death of his first wife, Hannah Stocking, in 1672. Samuel was 14 years old when his mother died and when his father married Anne; this must have been a strange time in a young boy’s life.
Samuel was an original proprietor of the town of Harwinton, Connecticut, and served in several public positions. He was a “surveyor of highways” and was a selectman He was one of the grantees in a deed given by the trustees constituted by the Connecticut Assembly to the First Proprietors of the Town of Tolland. Samuel’s life is told in great detail in a 300-page biography of Samuel and all of his descendants (Samuel Slade Benton: His descendants 1620-1901).
Samuel married Sarah Chatterton in 1679. Sarah’s grandfather, William Chatterton, had arrived in New Hampshire by 1640, but I don’t know anything else about him. Samuel and Sarah had six children, including my 7th great-grandfather Daniel Benton, who was their fifth child.
August 16: Thomas Burgess (11th great-grandfather, 1601-1685)
Thomas was the third of ten children born to Thomas and Elizabeth Pye Burgess in Truro, England. Thomas’s father was a member of Parliament from Truro from 1604 until his death in 1619, when one record shows that his political position passed briefly to Thomas-the-birthday-boy. Thomas married Dorothy Waynes in England in in 1628 came to New England in the mid-1630s, settling in Sandwich in Barnstable County.
I don’t know how many children Thomas and Dorothy had. The records are very confusing. I’m pretty sure that I’m descended from their daughter Elizabeth, who may have been born in England before they came to Massachusetts but I’m not sure about that either.
August 18: Howard Percival Ellefritz (great-grandfather, 1870-1932)
Howard was the third of seven children born to Solomon and Mary Ann Botts Ellefritz. Solomon’s family (the German name was Ilgenfritz; Solomon anglicized it to Ellefritz) had come to Pennsylvania in 1737 (making them one of my most recent immigrant lines). Solomon moved to Illinois in the 1640s with his widowed mother and at least two half-siblings.
Howard’s mother Mary Ann Botts was descended from a long line of ancestors who first arrived in Virginia in the 1640s. More than 20 members of the Botts family moved from Kentucky to Illinois in the 1830s, and Mary Ann was born in Illinois in 1837.
He married May Wilson on September 29, 1895, in Hancock, Illinois. May’s lineage also goes back to colonial Virginia; the Wilson family originated in Augusta County, Virginia. They also moved from Virginia through Kentucky to Illinois before the 1840s.
Howard and May had ten children in 15 years. Census records show that Howard worked as a farm laborer most of his life, and that he and May did not own the homes they lived in. During the 1920s, they lived in Quincy, Illinois, for several years; he worked as a carpenter during this time.
August 18: Sarah Merriam (8th great-grandmother, 1675-1738)
Sarah was the third of seven children born to Samuel and Elizabeth Townsend Merriam in Concord, Massachusetts. Sarah’s paternal grandfather, George Merriam, had come to Massachusetts in 1637. Her maternal grandfather, John Townsend, had also come to Massachusetts in the 1630s and served as a soldier for Massachusetts in King Philip’s War in 1675-76.
Sarah married Edward Wheeler in Concord in 1697. Edward (often referred to as “Deacon” Edward Wheeler) was a weaver by trade. His grandfather, George Wheeler, had come to Massachusetts in the 1630s. George ran a tavern in Concord.
Sarah and Edward had 13 children, including my 7th great-grandfather Nathan Wheeler, who was their second child
.August 23: Philippe Lescaude (7th great-grandfather, 1668-1743)
Philippe was born in St. Peter's Parish on the Isle of Jersey (off the coast of France) in 1668; his wife Martha was born in on the Isle of Guernsey. Philippe and Mary married on the Isle of Jersey in 1695 and emigrated to Beverley, Massachusetts in 1698. They were French Huguenots (Protestants) at a time when the Catholic Church was the official church of France. Their religious freedom was protected by the 1598 Edict of Nantes. However, in 1685 Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes. As a result, over the next several years, France lost more than 400,000 of its Protestant inhabitants. Many emigrated to England, Prussia, the Netherlands, and America, It is highly likely that Philippe and Martha came to Massachusetts as part of this exodus.
They had six children in 19 years, including my 6th great-grandfather Isaac Cody, their third child.
Philippe died on February 3, 1743, in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, at the age of 74. Philippe’s descendants anglicized their last name, making it “Cody.” Philippe’s 4th great-grandson was William F. Cody, known to Americans as “Buffalo Bill.” This makes Buffalo Bill my 4th cousin 4th removed. There ya go.
August 26: John Abbot (8th great-grandfather, 1662-1718)
John was the fifth of 13 children born to George and Sarah Farnham Abbott in Andover, Massachusetts. George had come to Massachusetts in 1635 and settled in Andover, where He was a tailor and farmer who acquired land and wealth (one of the five wealthiest men of Andover on the tax records), and he served in the militia. Sarah’s father, Ralph Farnham, had come to New England in 1637 and settled in Concord.
John inherited wealth and status from his father; in addition, both he and his father are reported to have been paid 30 shillings per year to ring the bell at the North meeting house in Andover and sweep the floor.
John married Jemima Johnson in 1697. Jemima’s grandfather, John Johnson, had come to New England in 1635 as part of the Puritan Great Migration.
John Abbot (the birthday boy) and Jemima had five children, including my 7th great-grandmother Mary Abbot, who was their third child.
August 27: Elizabeth Stuart (3rd great-grandmother, 1797-1862)
Elizabeth was the first of 10 children born to Charles and Philadelphia Simpson Stuart. Charles’s family goes back to the earliest days of Virginia; his 2nd great-grandfather, George Proctor, was born in Jamestown in 1621. Philadelphia’s roots also can be traced far back, this time into Maryland, where her 2nd great-grandfather John Wheeler owned land and served in the military in the 1680.
Elizabeth married James F. Wilson in Madison, Kentucky. James’s family can also be traced back to colonial Maryland, but I haven’t been able to uncover much specific information about this branch of the family. Elizabeth and James had 15 children (including my 2nd great-grandfather, William, who was their 12th child).
August 27: Elizabeth Mitchell (9th great-grandmother, 1627-1681)
Elizabeth was the first of three children born to Experience and Jane Cooke Mitchell in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Experience (her father, with another odd Puritan name) arrived in Massachusetts in 1623 on the ship Anne. Experience had been with the Pilgrim group in Leyden, Holland, and left a brother behind him there when he came to Plymouth.
Elizabeth’s mother, Jane Cooke, was the daughter of Mayflower passenger Francis Cooke. Jane had also come to Plymouth on the Anne, with her mother and siblings that Francis had left behind when he undertook the perilous Mayflower voyage. Experience and Jane married in 1627, and Elizabeth and her siblings were born within the next several years. Jane died in the early 1630s (possibly in childbirth), when Elizabeth would have been somewhere around five years old. Experience remarried and he and his second wife, Mary, had five more children. Elizabeth was raised as the oldest child of 7 younger siblings and half-siblings. Experience and his family soon relocated to Duxbury in the Plymouth Colony.
Elizabeth married John Washburn in 1645. John had come to New England in 1635 with his mother and brother; his father had come to Plymouth alone in 1632. The family had settled in Duxbury. The immigrant John and his son John (who married Elizabeth) were among the original 54 persons who became proprietors of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1645.
Elizabeth and John had nine children, including my 8th great-grandmother, Mary Washburn, who was their fourth child.
August 29: Richard Burke (8th great-grandfather, 1640-1693)
Richard was the son of William Burke, so far as I can tell, but I don’t know anything about William. Richard was born in Sudbury, Massachusetts, west of Boston.
Richard’s name appears frequently in the town records of Sudbury. On October 24,1670, he bought one hundred and thirty acres of land in Sudbury, and March 1, 1685-86, he was granted by the town of Stow thirty acres upland and swampland for a house lot. On July 26, 1687, he had another small grant of land in Stow.
Richard married Mary Parmenter on June 24, 1670, in Sudbury. Mary was the daughter of John and Amy Parmenter and the granddaughter of Deacon John Parmenter, one of the first settlers of Sudbury, Massachusetts.
Richard and Mary had eight children, including my 7th great-grandmother Mary Burke, who was their fifth child. Mary Burke married George Parmenter, Jr. – her first cousin – so things get a little confusing.
August 30: Ebenezer Moon (5th great-grandfather, 1708-1778)
Ebenezer was born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, the second of 13 (or so) children born to Ebenezer and Elizabeth Richardson Moon. Ebenezer-the-birthday-boy was the third in a line of what would be four men named Ebenezer Moon in this lineage. I’m not sure when Ebenezer’s immigrant ancestor, his great-grandfather Robert Moon, came to New England, but by 1645 he is identified as a tailor in Boston,. Robert left Boston in 1651 and settled in Newport, Rhode Island.
Ebenezer married Elizabeth Deake on June 12, 1735, in Kingston, Rhode Island. Elizabeth was the third child of Richard and Mary Lewis Deake. Richard appears to have been a late immigrant to New England, arriving sometime after 1680. Mary was the great-granddaughter of Edmund Lewis, who had come to Boston in 1634 and settled in Lynn.
Ebenezer and Elizabeth had 11 children, including my 4th great-grandmother Rebecca.
It’s not appropriate to wish these people a “Happy Birthday,” because they’re, like, dead, and I don’t believe in things like “happy heavenly birthday.” (I also don’t think that there is a “rainbow bridge” where our dead pets somehow pass into a heaven that I don’t believe in, either – it’s theologically very sketchy, IMHO, but that’s another essay). But as I researched and wrote the short biographical sketches that made up my original book, I committed to thinking about my ancestors and saying their names. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist and author of Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlife, wrote something that stuck with me as I did this research:
“There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time.”
When I say these names, I ensure that these people do not die their third death. If you read their names aloud, you also help them stay alive. Make a point of saying the names of your friends and family – both immediate and distant – so that they don’t die that third death either.
Well, that's pretty amazing. I guess your lines have always had an affinity for one another.
Remarkable. Whose birthdate do you share? I was delighted to discover that my paternal second-great grandmother and I share the same day. Inevitable somewhere, particularly in your sizeable family connections.