Two John Smiths in the New Jersey Volunteers: Oxford Township, Sussex County

This is the second post in a series about two of my maternal ancestors, John Smith Sr. and his son John Smith Jr. As described in the first post, John Smith Sr of Sussex County, New Jersey and New Brunswick, Canada, both men were Loyalists who served in the New Jersey Volunteers during the Revolutionary War.¹ John Sr. appears on a 1773 Oxford Township tax list.² Some of his children appear in Sussex County records after the war.³

But which two of the several soldiers named John Smith were they? Their Sussex County ties and the company they kept before, during, and after the war, including in Upper Canada, give us clues.

Where they lived: A County with a Tory Reputation

On 24 January 1777, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail from Easton, Pennsylvania, after an arduous journey across northern New Jersey. He had left Massachusetts on 9 January to rejoin the Continental Congress, then meeting in Baltimore.⁴ His inland route took him through Sussex County and across the Delaware River to Easton.⁵ He wrote:

… We have passed through the famous County of Sussex in New Jersey, where the Sussex Court House stands and where We have so often been told the Tories are so numerous and so dangerous. We met with no Molestation, nor Insult. We stopped at some of the most noted Tory Houses, and were treated every where with the Utmost Respect. Upon the strictest Inquiry I could make, I was assured that a great Majority of the Inhabitants are stanch Whiggs. Sussex they say can take Care of Sussex, and yet all agree that there are more Tories in that County [than in a]ny other. If the British Army should get into that County in sufficient Numbers to protect the Tories there is no doubt to be made they would be insolent enough and malicious and revengefull. But there is no danger at present and will be none untill that Event takes Place …⁶

Adams was not writing about Sussex from a distance. The previous day he had visited the Moravian mills at Hope, near Oxford.⁷

Map of Northern New Jersey in 1775 showing Sussex County, Oxford, Greenwich, Mansfield, Knowlton, Hardwick, Wantage, Montague, and surrounding roads and townships — Northern New Jersey in 1775, showing Sussex County and its townships. Map by John P. Snyder.⁸

Adams’s visit came only three days after a young soldier recorded as “John Smith Junr.” enlisted in the Fifth Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers, a Loyalist regiment that fought alongside British forces.⁹ I believe this was the same John Jr. who petitioned for land in Upper Canada twenty-seven years later and said that both he and his father had served in the Jersey Volunteers.¹⁰

John Smith Senior and Junior of Oxford

A notice published in the New-Jersey Gazette on 16 September 1778 reported inquisitions found on 20 June 1778 against Sussex County men accused of having “joined, aided or assisted the army of the King of Great-Britain.” The notice named sixty-three men in four township groups: sixteen late of Greenwich, twenty late of Oxford, twenty-two late of Knowlton, and five late of Mansfield Woodhouse. Among the twenty identified as late of Oxford were Peter Appleman, David Young, Reuben Green, Michael Lemon, John Smith Senior, and John Smith Junior. The same notice separately named Robert Thompson among the men described as late of Mansfield Woodhouse.¹¹

New-Jersey Gazette notice of 16 September 1778 naming John Smith senior and junior among men late of Oxford — *New-Jersey Gazette*, 16 September 1778: the notice naming John Smith senior and junior among Sussex County men accused of aiding the King’s army. ¹²

Two names in the notice connect to Eleanor, daughter of the elder John Smith. David Young, named among the Oxford men, was her first husband. Her 1797 petition confirms the marriage and describes Young’s wartime service within the British lines.¹³ Robert Thompson, named separately among the Mansfield Woodhouse men, was likely the man who became her second husband after Young’s death around 1780.¹⁴ In 1780 Eleanor served as administratrix of Young’s estate, and Robert Thompson was a bondsman for the administration; both were described as residents of Oxford Township.¹⁵ By the date of her Upper Canada petition, 3 March 1797, Eleanor was Robert Thompson’s wife.¹⁶

Excerpt from Eleanor Thompson’s Upper Canada petition stating that she was formerly married to David Young, who served during the war within the British lines — Eleanor Thompson’s 1797 Upper Canada petition states that she was formerly married to David Young, who served during the war within the British lines. ¹⁷

In a history of Sussex County published in The Wantage Recorder in 1910, Charles E. Stickney described the August 1778 court term. His account named “John Smith,” “John Smith, Jr.,” and David Young among those indicted for “joining the army of the King of Great Britain.” Robert Thompson, named in the newspaper’s inquisition notice, does not appear in Stickney’s printed indictment list.¹⁸

Excerpt from Charles E. Stickney’s 1910 account listing John Smith and John Smith Jr. among men indicted in Sussex County — Charles E. Stickney’s account of the August 1778 Sussex County indictments, *The Wantage Recorder*, 28 January 1910, p. 2. ¹⁹

The original indictment has not been located. In response to an inquiry, the New Jersey State Archives reported that its staff found no 1778 indictment for John Smith in the records it holds. The Archives also explained that the Sussex County clerk did not transfer the county minute books and that the entry might remain in books still held by the county.²⁰

According to Stickney, the accused men were called three times at the August 1778 court term. They did not appear, so the court entered a default and directed officials to proceed against their property.²¹ His account agrees with the contemporary notice on the two John Smith names, though it omits the newspaper’s “Senior” designation. Together the sources place two men called John Smith Senior and Junior in the Oxford group accused of joining or aiding the King’s army. Neither source states a father-and-son relationship. The reason to consider one is the 1804 petition in which John Smith says that he and his deceased father, also named John Smith, served in the Jersey Volunteers.²² The military rolls and Oxford connections that follow test whether the petitioner and his father were the men named in Sussex.

The Army of the King of Great Britain: The New Jersey Volunteers

The Sussex notice accused men of having “joined, aided or assisted” the King’s army. Those words covered military service as well as aid to British forces. One Loyalist unit that recruited in Sussex was the New Jersey Volunteers, a provincial corps raised from American recruits and equipped by the Crown.²³

Brigadier General Cortlandt Skinner began raising the New Jersey Volunteers in late 1776. Its battalions drew recruits from different parts of New Jersey. Joseph Barton of Newton raised the regiment’s Fifth Battalion chiefly among Sussex County Loyalists beginning in late 1776. The battalion later served on Staten Island, where Barton and approximately thirty of its men were captured during an American attack on 22 August 1777.²⁴

The Fifth Battalion ceased to exist as an independent unit on 25 April 1778, when it was combined with the former First Battalion to create a reorganized First Battalion. Many of its officers and enlisted men continued in the new unit. A Sussex recruit may therefore appear on Fifth Battalion rolls before the consolidation and on First Battalion rolls afterward.²⁵

The underlying muster rolls survive among the British military records held by Library and Archives Canada. These periodic company lists record names and ranks and frequently note whether a soldier was present, sick, on guard, recruiting, deserted, dead, or “prisoner with the rebels.” They allow individual military careers—including those of several men named in the Sussex proceedings—to be followed through time and across the battalion’s reorganization.²⁶

Two John Smith Careers in the Fifth Battalion

The rolls preserve two distinct John Smith careers. One soldier is named Junior and was captured in 1777; the other continued to appear in the battalion while Junior was a prisoner. A later company roll carries both men.

The Younger Soldier

A roll of Captain Silas Hopkins’s company calls one soldier “John Smith Junr.” It records his enlistment on 20 January 1777 and marks him “absent with leave.” Christopher Insley was the company’s lieutenant. A later Benjamin Barton company roll lists Insley and a private named John Smith together.²⁷

Hopkins company muster roll recording John Smith Junr. and his enlistment on 20 January 1777 — Hopkins company roll, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, showing “John Smith Junr.” Library and Archives Canada, microfilm C-4217, image 143. ²⁸

During the Continental attack on Staten Island on 22 August 1777, Junior was captured. Benjamin Barton’s company return listed a John Smith as a prisoner five days later. A First Battalion roll of July 1779 still carried “John Smith Junior” as a prisoner, preserving the name and status after the battalion’s reorganization.²⁹

First part of the July 1779 Millidge company muster roll in the First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers — Millidge company roll, First Battalion, 1 July 1779, first of two images. Library and Archives Canada, microfilm C-3873, image 779. ³⁰

Continuation of the July 1779 Millidge company muster roll recording John Smith Junior — Continuation of the Millidge company roll recording “John Smith Junior” as a prisoner. Library and Archives Canada, microfilm C-3873, image 780. ³¹

A First Battalion roll of Colonel Cortlandt Skinner’s company, covering the period through 24 August 1783, lists a John Smith among the “Prisoners with the Enemy.” The roll omits “Junior,” but an earlier First Battalion roll expressly calls its prisoner “John Smith Junior.”³²

The August 1778 court term fell between rolls that recorded Junior as a prisoner. If the captured soldier was the Oxford Junior, his captivity would explain why he did not appear when the Sussex defendants were called.³³

The regiment recorded what happened to two other men captured in the Staten Island attack: John Hasselbacher escaped in September 1777, and James Davis was exchanged. The same 7 May 1778 roll recorded both outcomes, while John Smith Junior was still listed as a prisoner in July 1779. His release has not been located.³⁴

The Second Soldier

A second John Smith enlisted on 11 June 1777.³⁵

On 27 August 1777, Lieutenant-Colonel Barton’s company return placed John Smith at entry 29, Henry Boughner at 32, and David Young at 34. Four men on the return were marked as prisoners; this John Smith was not one of them. The record thus follows the second soldier while Junior was in Continental custody. Boughner also appears as Buchner in other records.³⁶

Barton company roll of 27 August 1777 listing John Smith, Henry Boughner, and David Young — Barton company return near the New Blazing Star, 27 August 1777, showing John Smith, Henry Boughner, and David Young. Library and Archives Canada, microfilm C-4217, image 167. ³⁷

On the muster of 3 October, he was serving in Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Barton’s company and recorded “on Guard” at Carle’s Neck. Junior had already been a prisoner for more than a month.³⁸

Captain James Shaw’s company roll of 7 May 1778 carries both men in the reorganized First Battalion. John Smith at no. 18 was “Confined in Guard House”; John Smith at no. 44 appeared among thirteen “Prisoners with Rebels.” The second entry fits Junior’s continuing captivity. The roll does not explain why the other John Smith was held in the guardhouse.³⁹

Shaw company roll of 7 May 1778 with two John Smith entries, one confined in the guardhouse and the other among prisoners with rebels — Shaw company roll, 7 May 1778: John Smith at no. 18 and another at no. 44. Library and Archives Canada, microfilm C-3873, image 708. ⁴⁰

The roll was made about six weeks before the Sussex inquisitions. Fourteen of the sixty-three men in the newspaper notice appear among the sixty officers and men of Shaw’s company. The overlap includes both John Smith entries and Michael Lemon from Oxford, the Kitchen men from Greenwich, and men named in the Knowlton and Mansfield Woodhouse groups. The spellings vary across the two records.⁴¹

The second John continued on the rolls through the battalion’s reorganization. A later return recorded his desertion on 24 November 1778. No located military roll calls him Senior; his recorded duty within the British lines while Junior was held prisoner establishes that they were different soldiers.⁴²

Comparing the John Smiths in the New Jersey Volunteers

The rolls show two soldiers in Barton’s Fifth Battalion who were later carried in the reorganized First Battalion. Other battalions recorded men with the same name. Comparing their service and Sussex connections helps identify which entries best fit the Oxford Senior and Junior.

John Smith entry	Recorded service	Connection to the Oxford evidence
Fifth, then First Battalion: “Junior”	Enlisted 20 January 1777; captured 22 August 1777; still listed as a prisoner on 1 July 1779. A First Battalion roll continued to list him among its prisoners through 24 August 1783, although that roll omits the Junior label.⁴³	Expressly identified as Junior in other rolls; he appears among the prisoners on Shaw’s 7 May 1778 return beside the second John Smith and twelve other names matching the Sussex notice.⁴⁴
Fifth, then First Battalion: second John	Enlisted 11 June 1777; served while Junior was a prisoner; listed as confined in the guardhouse on 7 May 1778; later recorded as having deserted 24 November 1778.	Appears on Shaw’s return alongside Junior and the Sussex names, but no located military roll calls this soldier Senior.⁴⁵
Second Battalion	Private enlisted in September 1777 by Major Antill; reported deserted on 10 October 1777.	No Oxford association has been located. Apart from John Smith, no name on the examined return matches the Sussex notice; an index calls him a sergeant but the roll does not.⁴⁶
Fourth Battalion: prisoner entry	Listed among prisoners on a 30 December 1779 return and on another examined return.	No Oxford or Sussex connection has been located; the two prisoner entries may refer to one soldier.⁴⁷
Fourth Battalion: active entry	Listed as an active private on an incompletely dated return.	Its date does not establish whether it records the same man as the Fourth Battalion prisoner entry or another man.⁴⁸

The two entries in Shaw’s company are distinguished by their simultaneous but different statuses. The examined Second and Fourth Battalion rolls supply no comparable cluster of names from the Sussex notice. Their gaps in dating and identification still matter: the comparison favors the First Battalion pair but does not independently name its second soldier as Senior.⁴⁹

Stickney also wondered whether a John Smith on an adjutant-general’s list of Continental soldiers was Senior or Junior. His question arose in 1910, and the Continental soldier’s identity remains open. Other Sussex men named John Smith will be examined in a later post.⁵⁰

Stickney’s 1910 discussion asking which John Smith appeared on an adjutant general’s list of Continental soldiers — Stickney’s later question about an unidentified John Smith on a Continental adjutant-general’s list, *The Wantage Recorder*, 28 January 1910, p. 2. ⁵¹

The Oxford Families Around the Soldiers

The 1778 notice placed the two John Smiths in Oxford, while naming associates in Oxford, Greenwich, and Mansfield Woodhouse. Their earlier petitions, wartime rolls, estate papers, and Upper Canadian petitions show how these families remained connected before, during, and after the war. A neighbor who signed a petition with a John Smith, a relative who served in the same battalion, and a former associate who reappeared in Upper Canada each adds context to the proposed identification. An unsigned relationship in one record cannot distinguish among several men named John Smith; repeated links to relatives, comrades, and later migrants make the proposed identification more specific.

Van Nest, Hollinshead, and Their Oxford Neighbors

John Van Nest, Joseph Hollinshead, Christopher Insley, and Thomas Parry recur across prewar petitions, Fifth Battalion rolls, and later Oxford estate and land records. Their overlapping associations connect a John Smith on the petitions to people who appear in Junior’s military service and in his sister Eleanor’s household.

Christopher Insley supported Van Nest’s tavern petition in 1764. In May 1772, Van Nest witnessed Joseph and Susannah Hollinshead’s deed to Insley.⁵²

That November, a John Smith signed Aser Carter’s tavern petition with Van Nest, Hollinshead, Wheeler and Henry Kitchen, Boltis Appleman, and John McMurtrie. Wheeler and Henry were the fathers of John and Andrew Kitchen, whose names later appeared with both John Smith entries on Shaw’s roll. The Smiths were assessed in Oxford in 1773 and the Kitchens in Greenwich in 1774. The petition records an association across township lines; it does not tell us which John Smith signed.⁵³

By 1777, Insley was a lieutenant in the Fifth Battalion. A Hopkins company roll names “John Smith Junr.” among the men serving under him; a later Barton company roll names both Insley and Junior during the muster period in which Junior was captured.⁵⁴ The 1778 Sussex notice names Christopher “Inslee” among the Greenwich men and John Smith Senior and Junior among the Oxford men. The spelling differs, and the notice gives no rank, so identifying “Inslee” as Lieutenant Insley remains an inference. Junior served under an officer with documented prewar ties to Van Nest and Hollinshead; their petitions name a John Smith without specifying which one.

David Young, the first husband of the elder John Smith’s daughter Eleanor, also belonged to this wartime circle. Named with Senior and Junior among the Oxford defendants in 1778, he had enlisted in Barton’s Fifth Battalion on 20 April 1777. By January 1778 he was a second corporal; a later roll reported his desertion on 14 November 1778.⁵⁵

Young’s 1780 estate records place Eleanor and her future husband Robert Thompson in Oxford. Thomas Parry helped take the inventory. He had signed earlier petitions with a John Smith, Hollinshead, McMurtrie, and Van Nest, so the estate record connects Eleanor’s household with people already visible in the prewar Oxford petitions.⁵⁶

1780 probate record for David Young of Oxford naming Eleanor as administratrix and Robert Thompson as fellow bondsman — David Young estate administration, 1780, naming Eleanor and Robert Thompson as residents of Oxford Township. ⁵⁷

Parry appears again in a 1781 Oxford road return. The route ran from the plantation of Nicholas Smith past Robert Hoops and Benjamin Saxton, into the Hollinshead tract at the lot occupied by Parry, and toward the Delaware-to-Oxford-Furnace road. Nicholas Smith’s relationship, if any, to John Smith Senior and Junior has not been established.⁵⁸ On 10 February 1782, Hoops conveyed approximately thirty acres from the former Joseph Hollinshead tract to James Hyndshaw. One boundary was land “held by John Smith.” The deed places land held by a John Smith beside a parcel from the Hollinshead tract in the Oxford neighborhood described by the road return.⁵⁹

This Oxford parcel was separate from the approximately 201-acre Hollinshead property conveyed to Christopher Insley in Greenwich Township in 1772. The 1782 deed identifies the adjoining landholder only as John Smith, without a seniority label or family relationship. Which John Smith held that land remains uncertain.

Reuben Green and David Palmer

Reuben Green and David Palmer both lead back to John Green’s Oxford family. Reuben served with the second John Smith, while Palmer helped appraise John Green’s estate. Palmer’s later petition identifies Sussex County as his former home and follows his family into Upper Canada.

Reuben Green appears with the second John Smith and David Young in Barton’s company, and the 1778 notice names him with Senior and Junior among the Oxford men. He belonged to John Green’s Oxford family.⁶⁰

Palmer appears on Oxford’s 1773 tax list and helped appraise John Green’s estate in 1784. In a petition dated at Forty Mile Creek on 5 July 1795, David Palmer explicitly identified himself as a former resident and miller of Sussex County. He said that he had aided Loyalists, helped obtain recruits for the British army, and brought his wife and children to Upper Canada in 1788. His stated Sussex origin makes him a strong candidate for the David Palmer on Oxford’s 1773 tax list and in John Green’s 1784 estate records.⁶¹ Francis Goring’s journal mentions a David Palmer (Parmer) at Thirty Mile Creek in 1803 and refers to Palmer’s wife at his house.⁶²

Peter Appleman

Peter Appleman signed a 1773 Oxford tavern petition with a John Smith; the 1778 notice later named him alongside Senior and Junior among the Oxford men.⁶³

His British compensation claim states that his property was confiscated because he had joined the King’s troops in 1776. William Current and William Louder, described as former near neighbors, supported his property evidence, and Joseph Barton certified their credibility and near-neighbor status.⁶⁴

Appleman’s military unit is still uncertain. No secure entry for him has been located in the New Jersey Volunteers rolls examined for this study.⁶⁵

The Lemons and the Camps or Kemps

Michael Lemon appears with both John Smith soldiers on Shaw’s roll. A second man named Lemon, Jacob, later signed a Canadian land-petition certificate with Robert Camp or Kemp, who married the elder John Smith’s daughter Elizabeth. That combination brings the wartime company and Elizabeth’s Upper Canadian circle into the same discussion.

Michael Lemon appears on Shaw’s 7 May 1778 company return with both John Smith entries, one confined in the guardhouse and the other among the “Prisoners with Rebels.” The Sussex notice then names “Michael Lemmon” with Senior and Junior among the Oxford men. Shaw’s roll also carries Andrew Kitchen, John Clendenning, John Gorman, Thomas Richardson, and John Cummins, all named in the notice.⁶⁶

The Oxford designation in the notice and the overlap of names support identifying the soldier with the Sussex defendant. Neither document specifies the soldier’s Oxford residence or establishes a relationship between Michael and Jacob Lemon.

Robert Camp or Kemp married Elizabeth Smith, daughter of the elder John Smith. According to Robert’s 1797 petition, they arrived in Upper Canada in 1792 with two children—the earliest documented arrival there among Elizabeth’s siblings.⁶⁷ On 22 September 1796, Robert Camp, David Kamp, and Jacob Lemon signed a certificate supporting William Current’s Upper Canadian land petition. Current had also testified as a former near neighbor in Peter Appleman’s British compensation claim.⁶⁸

Swayze, Younglove, and Boughner

The Swayze, Younglove, and Boughner families connect the two John Smith careers to different parts of the same Sussex community. A John Smith signed Israel Swayze’s tavern petition; Israel’s daughter married Junior’s company commander; and Younglove and Henry Boughner served in Barton’s company with the second John. Members of these families later appear together in Upper Canadian petitions.

In May 1770, a John Smith signed Israel Swayze’s tavern-license petition alongside John McMurtrie and John Van Nest.⁶⁹ Israel died in 1774. His will named three children whose later histories are relevant here: Mary, wife of Silas Hopkins; Mehitable, wife of Peter Hopkins; and a son also named Israel.⁷⁰

Mary’s husband, Captain Silas Hopkins, commanded the Fifth Battalion company whose roll records “John Smith Junr.”⁷¹ Mary and Silas later settled in Upper Canada.⁷² After Peter’s death, Mehitable petitioned for land in Upper Canada. She stated that both she and Peter had helped Loyalists and people in British service during the war.⁷³

Israel’s son and namesake also settled in Upper Canada. A 1791 land-board record described him as a Loyalist living in Thorold Township.⁷⁴ His 1797 petition stated that he had arrived in the province in 1787.⁷⁵

Ezekiel Younglove appears in Barton’s company in early 1778 with David Young, Reuben Green, and John Smith.⁷⁶ When Younglove sought land in Upper Canada, both Israel and his cousin Isaac Swayze signed in support of his petition, along with members of the Beemer family and Henry Buchner.⁷⁷

Henry Boughner stood at entry 32 of Barton’s 27 August 1777 company return, near the second John Smith at entry 29 and David Young at entry 34.⁷⁸ Boughner or Buchner family members also appear in prewar Oxford records, accounts of help given to Loyalist partisan James Moody, and later Upper Canadian records. The older Henry in the 1773 records and a younger soldier or Canadian man with the same name cannot be assumed to be one person.⁷⁹

James Moody and the Support behind Military Service

James Moody brings the Boughner evidence back to Junior’s battalion. A January 1778 Barton-company return names Moody while it still carries John Smith Junior as a prisoner in Continental custody. Their shared appearance establishes a battalion connection; it does not record personal contact.⁸⁰

Moody had left Sussex County for the British lines with more than seventy neighbors in April 1777. He initially served in the New Jersey Volunteers without pay and returned to northern New Jersey to gather information and recruit men for the British forces.⁸¹

His Sussex operations relied on local help. In a 1795 Upper Canadian land petition, Matthias Boughner said that he had hidden Moody and his party in his house and supplied arms, ammunition, and provisions after Moody’s failed attempt to capture Governor William Livingston.⁸² A separate certificate said that Henry Buchner Senior and his family had sheltered Moody.⁸³ Nathaniel Pettit reported that Henry Boughner, Matthias Boughner, and Jacob Beam had been imprisoned, indicted, and fined for supplying and guiding him. These accounts show the local support available to British recruiters in the community from which the two John Smith soldiers are thought to have come.⁸⁴

After the War: The Smith Family in the Records

A First Battalion roll dated 1 July 1779 still listed John Smith Junior as a prisoner.⁸⁵ A Skinner-company roll covering the period through 24 August 1783 still listed the First Battalion’s prisoner John Smith, without repeating the Junior label.⁸⁶ Junior’s release date and route out of custody have not been located. The elder John’s last located military entry reports his desertion on 24 November 1778. No surviving record currently shows where he went afterward.⁸⁷

Loyalists evacuated New York in 1783 for Nova Scotia and for settlements that became New Brunswick the following year. That movement offers a possible context for the family’s later report that the elder John died in New Brunswick, but no located record establishes when or how he reached the province.⁸⁸

A 1786 claim shows how difficult it can be to follow the Sussex proceedings after the war. On 16 March, Archibald Stewart, the former sheriff of Sussex County, sought reimbursement for money he had become liable to pay on behalf of John Smith and Joseph Barton. Stewart stated that their estates had been confiscated before he could recover the debt. In proceedings dated 17 March, an Assembly committee reported that it could not find in the auditor’s books that commissioners had taken John Smith’s property.⁸⁹ The 1778 inquisition had named both Oxford John Smiths. Stewart’s claim does not establish which man was his debtor.

Composite of the 17 March 1786 Assembly proceedings reporting no record of John Smith’s property being taken, signed Jacob Arnold and Jonathan Bowen — Assembly proceedings of 17 March 1786, printed in the *New-Jersey Gazette* on 22 May 1786. Jacob Arnold and Jonathan Bowen reported finding no record in the auditor’s books that commissioners had taken John Smith’s property.⁹⁰

Records of the children show continuing ties to Sussex County. John Sr’s son David Smith married Mary Kennedy there on 21 January 1796. Their marriage entry says “both their parents being present,” but does not name the parents or establish whether David’s father was among them.⁹¹

By 1797, daughter Eleanor was in Upper Canada. Her petition identified her as David Young’s widow and Robert Thompson’s wife.⁹² Petitions submitted by or for Eleanor and her sister Elizabeth reported that their father had died in New Brunswick.⁹³ Meanwhile, another daughter, Cornelia Smith, married William Shingler in Sussex County on 22 March 1798.⁹⁴ The children’s records place members of the family on both sides of the border without tracing their father’s movements after 1778.

On 2 January 1804, the younger John petitioned for land in Upper Canada. He stated that he had served during the Revolution and that his deceased father, John Smith, had also served in the Jersey Volunteers. The petition brings the two men together again in a family record after the wartime rolls fall silent.⁹⁵

1804 Upper Canada land petition of John Smith describing his deceased father’s service in the Jersey Volunteers — John Smith’s Upper Canada land petition, 2 January 1804, identifying his deceased father as a Jersey Volunteers veteran. Library and Archives Canada, RG 1 L 3, bundle S 6, petition 63. ⁹⁶

The Oxford Men and the Upper Canadian Petition

The 1778 Sussex notice names John Smith Senior and Junior among the Oxford men accused of aiding the King’s army.⁹⁷ Shaw’s roll carries two John Smiths among twelve other names that match the names in the 1778 notice; earlier and later rolls identify the captured soldier as Junior.⁹⁸ The First Battalion continued to list its prisoner John Smith on a roll ending 24 August 1783.⁹⁹

Family evidence makes the match more specific. David Young, the elder John’s son-in-law, appears with the Oxford Smiths in the Sussex notice and served in Barton’s company with the second John Smith.¹⁰⁰ In 1804, a John Smith petitioning in Upper Canada stated that he and his deceased father, also John Smith, had served in the Jersey Volunteers.¹⁰¹

The Oxford Senior and Junior are the strongest match for the two soldiers traced from the Fifth Battalion into the reorganized First. The captured Junior most likely became the Upper Canadian petitioner; the second soldier most likely was his father. The rolls do not call that second soldier Senior, and the petition does not name their battalion or companies. Their shared Oxford setting, overlapping military careers, and family connections make the identification persuasive despite those gaps.

Notes

John Smith, petition dated 2 January 1804, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 453, bundle S 6, petition 63, microfilm C-2809, Library and Archives Canada; digitized petition PDF. The general Library and Archives Canada land-petitions guide is also available at land-petitions guide. ↩
Oxford Township tax ratables, Sussex County, July 1773, New Jersey State Archives, Tax Ratables SAS00001, Book 1801; digital copy. ↩
Sussex County marriage entries: David Smith and Mary Kennedy, 21 January 1796, digital image; Cornelia Smith and William Shingler, 22 March 1798, digital image. ↩
John Adams to Abigail Adams, 9 January 1777, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, June 1776–March 1778, ed. L. H. Butterfield (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), 144–145, Massachusetts Historical Society digital edition. Adams wrote from Dedham after leaving home that morning; the editors note that Congress had reassembled in Baltimore on 20 December 1776. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 7, January 1–May 21, 1777, ed. Worthington C. Ford (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1907), 86, Library of Congress digital copy, records Adams taking his seat on 4 February 1777. ↩
John Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 January 1777, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, 148–149, Founders Online; the editors’ itinerary accompanying Adams’s 9 January letter lists Sussex Court House, Oxford Township, Oxford, Greenwich, the Delaware River, and Easton, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, 144–145, Massachusetts Historical Society digital edition. ↩
“John Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 January 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0106. Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, June 1776 – March 1778, ed. L. H. Butterfield (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), p. 149. Adams wrote from Easton, Pennsylvania. The bracketed reading follows the Founders Online transcription. ↩
“John Adams to Abigail Adams, 24 January 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0106. Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, June 1776 – March 1778, ed. L. H. Butterfield (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), p. 149. Adams wrote from Easton, Pennsylvania. The bracketed reading follows the Founders Online transcription. ↩
John P. Snyder, “Northern New Jersey 1775,” map included in Dennis P. Ryan, New Jersey in the American Revolution, 1763–1783: A Chronology (New Jersey Historical Commission, 1975), digitized by the New Jersey State Library; item page and digitized volume. The map is a reconstruction of Northern New Jersey in 1775, not an original contemporary 1775 map. ↩
John Smith Junior’s enlistment date of 20 January 1777 is taken from the undated muster roll of Captain Silas Hopkins’s company, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, entry “John Smith Junr.,” microfilm C-4217, digital image 143, digital image. John Adams described his visit to the Moravian mills on 23 January 1777 and his passage through Sussex County in his letter to Abigail Adams, 24 January 1777, Easton, Pennsylvania, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, p. 149; Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive, Massachusetts Historical Society; Founders Online. ↩
John Smith, petition dated 2 January 1804, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 453, bundle S 6, petition 63, microfilm C-2809, Library and Archives Canada; digitized petition PDF. The general Library and Archives Canada land-petitions guide is also available at land-petitions guide. ↩
“Whereas Inquisitions Were Found the 20th Day of June 1778,” notice dated 5 September 1778, New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778, transcript and image. The notice identifies Peter Appleman, David Young, Reuben Green, Michael Lemon, John Smith Senior, and John Smith Junior as late of Oxford and Robert Thompson as late of Mansfield Woodhouse. ↩
“Whereas Inquisitions Were Found the 20th Day of June 1778,” notice dated 5 September 1778, New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778, transcript and image. The notice identifies Peter Appleman, David Young, Reuben Green, Michael Lemon, John Smith Senior, and John Smith Junior as late of Oxford and Robert Thompson as late of Mansfield Woodhouse. ↩
Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, petition dated 3 March 1797, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 495, bundle T 2, petition 52, microfilm C-2833, Library and Archives Canada; digital image. ↩
“Whereas Inquisitions Were Found the 20th Day of June 1778,” New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778, transcript and image; David Young estate administration, 13 September 1780, Probate Liber M, p. 88, abstracted in Calendar of New Jersey Wills, vol. 5 (1771–1780), p. 588, digital copy; Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, 1797 petition, RG 1 L 3, bundle T 2, petition 52, digital image. The identification of the 1778 Robert Thompson with Eleanor’s later husband is inferred from these records. ↩
David Young estate administration, 13 September 1780, Probate Liber M, p. 88, abstracted in Calendar of New Jersey Wills, vol. 5 (1771–1780), p. 588; digital copy. ↩
Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, petition dated 3 March 1797, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 495, bundle T 2, petition 52, microfilm C-2833, Library and Archives Canada; digital image. ↩
Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, petition dated 3 March 1797, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 495, bundle T 2, petition 52, microfilm C-2833; digital image. ↩
Charles E. Stickney, “Sussex County As It Was and Is: Considered in Its Entirety From Its Organization to Date,” chapter 55, “Military—Continued,” The Wantage Recorder (Sussex, New Jersey), 28 January 1910, p. 2, https://sussexcounty.historyarchives.online/viewer?i=t&d=01011909-12311910&e=John%20Smith&m=between&ord=e1&fn=the_wantage_recorder_usa_new_jersey_sussex_19100128_english_2&df=1&dt=9&cid=3517&t=51001. A later compilation reproduces the indictment list and default order at
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHK-93R2-JVZ5. ↩
Charles E. Stickney, “Sussex County As It Was and Is: Considered in Its Entirety From Its Organization to Date,” chapter 55, “Military—Continued,” The Wantage Recorder (Sussex, New Jersey), 28 January 1910, p. 2, https://sussexcounty.historyarchives.online/viewer?i=t&d=01011909-12311910&e=John%20Smith&m=between&ord=e1&fn=the_wantage_recorder_usa_new_jersey_sussex_19100128_english_2&df=1&dt=9&cid=3517&t=51001. A later compilation reproduces the indictment list and default order at
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHK-93R2-JVZ5. ↩
Catherine Medich, New Jersey State Archives, email to Tracey Marcelo, 2 September 2026, reporting that Archives staff found no 1778 indictment for John Smith and that the Sussex County clerk had not transferred the county minute books; privately held by the author. ↩
Stickney, “Sussex County As It Was and Is,” The Wantage Recorder, 28 January 1910, p. 2, digital image; New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778, transcript and image. ↩
John Smith, land petition dated 2 January 1804, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 453, bundle S 6, petition 63, microfilm C-2809, Library and Archives Canada; digitized petition. ↩
“Whereas Inquisitions Were Found the 20th Day of June 1778,” notice dated 5 September 1778, New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778, New Jersey State Archives, https://www.njarchive.org/periodicals/NJA-P-P1125X6S/1778-09-16?view=transcript; “Glossary of Terms,” On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies, entry for “Provincial,” https://www.royalprovincial.com/etc/gloss/gloss.htm. ↩
Todd W. Braisted, “A History of the 5th Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers,” On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies, https://www.royalprovincial.com/military/rhist/njv/5njvhist.htm. Braisted states that Joseph Barton of Newton received a warrant from Skinner to raise a battalion among the Loyalists of Sussex County; approximately 250 officers and men had been raised by November 1776. He also describes the battalion’s Bergen County rendezvous, subsequent Staten Island service, and James Moody’s recruiting activities. ↩
Braisted, “A History of the 5th Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers,” https://www.royalprovincial.com/military/rhist/njv/5njvhist.htm; Todd W. Braisted, “A History of the 1st Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers,” On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies, https://www.royalprovincial.com/military/rhist/njv/1njvhist.htm. Braisted dates the consolidation to 25 April 1778 and explains that the Fifth and former First Battalions formed the reorganized First Battalion. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, “C” Series, RG 8-I, Loyalist Regiment Muster Rolls, New Jersey Volunteers; Finding Aid MSS1800, p. 31, https://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000002012.pdf; “British Military and Naval Records,” Library and Archives Canada, https://www.canada.ca/en/library-archives/collection/research-help/military-history/british-military-naval-records.html; microfilm C-4217, digitized by Héritage, https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c4217. The finding aid identifies New Jersey Volunteers muster rolls on reels C-4216 and C-4217; other New Jersey Volunteers rolls appear elsewhere in the series. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1860, p. 14, undated muster roll of Captain Silas Hopkins’s company, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Joseph Barton, entry “John Smith Junr.,” enlisted 20 January 1777 and recorded “absent with leave”; Christopher Insley listed as lieutenant, microfilm C-4217, digital image 143, digital image; later roll of Captain Benjamin Barton’s company, microfilm C-4217, digital image 169, digital image. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1860, p. 14, undated muster roll of Captain Silas Hopkins’s company, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Joseph Barton, entry “John Smith Junr.,” enlisted 20 January 1777 and recorded “absent with leave”; Christopher Insley listed as lieutenant, microfilm C-4217, digital image 143, digital image. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1852, p. 12, muster roll of Major Thomas Millidge’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Barton, Staten Island, 1 July 1779, entry “John Smith Junior,” microfilm C-3873, digital images 779–780; first image and second image. Benjamin Barton’s company return of 27 August 1777, microfilm C-4217, digital image 169, also records John Smith as a prisoner; digital image. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1852, p. 12, Major Thomas Millidge’s company, 1 July 1779, microfilm C-3873, digital image 779. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1852, p. 12, Major Thomas Millidge’s company, 1 July 1779, microfilm C-3873, digital image 780. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1853, pp. 81–82, muster roll of Colonel Cortlandt Skinner’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, covering 25 June–24 August 1783, microfilm C-3874, images 77–78; dated company roll and continuation with prisoner entries. The continuation lists “John Smith” among men labeled “Prisoners with the Enemy” without a Junior designation. The First Battalion’s Millidge roll of 1 July 1779 names its prisoner “John Smith Junior”. ↩
Charles E. Stickney, “Sussex County As It Was and Is,” The Wantage Recorder, 28 January 1910, p. 2, digital image; Captain James Shaw’s company roll, 7 May 1778, Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1851, p. 58, microfilm C-3873, digital image 708; Major Thomas Millidge’s company roll, 1 July 1779, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1852, p. 12, microfilm C-3873, digital image 780. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1851, p. 58, muster roll of Captain James Shaw’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Staten Island, 7 May 1778, microfilm C-3873, digital image 708; entries 18 and 44, John Smith; digital image. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Barton-company muster at Carle’s Neck, 3 October 1777, microfilm C-4217, digital image 154. The roll records the second John Smith as enlisted on 11 June 1777 and “on Guard”; digital image. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1860, p. 23, muster roll of Lieutenant-Colonel Barton’s company, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Captain-Lieutenant John Cougle, near the New Blazing Star, 27 August 1777, microfilm C-4217, digital image 167; entries 25 (Peter Smith), 29 (John Smith), 32 (Henry Boughner), and 34 (David Young). ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1860, p. 23, muster roll of Lieutenant-Colonel Barton’s company, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Captain-Lieutenant John Cougle, near the New Blazing Star, 27 August 1777, microfilm C-4217, digital image 167; entries 25 (Peter Smith), 29 (John Smith), 32 (Henry Boughner), and 34 (David Young). ↩
Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Barton-company muster at Carle’s Neck, 3 October 1777, microfilm C-4217, digital image 154. The roll records the second John Smith as enlisted on 11 June 1777 and “on Guard”; digital image. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1851, p. 58, muster roll of Captain James Shaw’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Staten Island, 7 May 1778, microfilm C-3873, digital image 708; entries 18 and 44, John Smith; digital image. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1851, p. 58, muster roll of Captain James Shaw’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Staten Island, 7 May 1778, microfilm C-3873, digital image 708; entries 18 and 44, John Smith; digital image. ↩
The fourteen names, as each appears in the two records. The first is the muster roll of Captain James Shaw’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Staten Island, 7 May 1778, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1851, p. 58, microfilm C-3873, digital image 708, digital image; the second is the “Whereas Inquisitions Were Found the 20th Day of June 1778” notice dated 5 September 1778, New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778, transcript and image. With the township group given in the notice: John Kitchen (corporal) / John Kitchen, Greenwich; Obediah Hoagland (2) / Obadiah Hoaglin, Knowlton; John Whitnackt (3) / John Whilenack, Knowlton; Andrew Kitchen (6) / Andrew Kitchen, Greenwich; Matthias Zimmerman (8) / Matthias Zimmerman, Knowlton; Andrew Shooley (13) / Andrew Schooly, Greenwich; John Clendening (15) / John Clendenan, Knowlton; John Gorman (16) / John Gormon, Mansfieldwoodhouse; John Smith (18) / John Smith senior and junior, Oxford; Thomas Richardson (25) / Thomas Richardson, Knowlton; Michael Lemon (26) / Michael Lemmon, Oxford; John Smith (44) / John Smith senior and junior, Oxford; Christopher Young (46) / Christopher Young, Knowlton; John Cummins (47) / John Cummins, Knowlton. Two entries on the roll were considered and excluded: Christian Hoffman (9), whose given name differs from the notice’s Christopher Hoofman and who is one of two Hoffmans on the roll, and William Green (23), against the notice’s Ruelin Green. The roll’s Brian Ansley is likewise not the notice’s John Ansley, and its drummer Thomas Gorman is not the John Gormon matched at entry 16. The roll is stamped “Poor Copy”; the readings above were made from the digitized image linked here. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1851, pp. 64–65, list of Captain James Shaw’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, 31 August 1779, entry for John Smith recording “Deserted 24 November,” microfilm C-3873, digital images 718–719; first page and continuation showing the desertion. The continuation does not repeat the year beside the entry; 1778 is the preceding 24 November and is therefore supplied in the text. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1853, pp. 81–82, muster roll of Colonel Cortlandt Skinner’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, covering 25 June–24 August 1783, microfilm C-3874, images 77–78; dated company roll and continuation with prisoner entries. The continuation lists “John Smith” among men labeled “Prisoners with the Enemy” without a Junior designation. The First Battalion’s Millidge roll of 1 July 1779 names its prisoner “John Smith Junior”. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1852, p. 12, muster roll of Major Thomas Millidge’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Barton, Staten Island, 1 July 1779, entry “John Smith Junior,” microfilm C-3873, digital images 779–780; first image and second image. Benjamin Barton’s company return of 27 August 1777, microfilm C-4217, digital image 169, also records John Smith as a prisoner; digital image. Captain James Shaw’s company muster, 7 May 1778, vol. 1851, p. 58, microfilm C-3873, image 708; “Whereas Inquisitions Were Found,” New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Barton-company muster at Carle’s Neck, 3 October 1777, microfilm C-4217, digital image 154. The roll records the second John Smith as enlisted on 11 June 1777 and “on Guard”; digital image. Captain James Shaw’s company muster, 7 May 1778, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1851, p. 58, microfilm C-3873, image 708; later Shaw-company return reporting desertion on 24 November 1778, vol. 1851, pp. 64–65, images 718–719. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1854, p. 16, muster roll of the Second Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel John Morris, 24 February 1778, microfilm C-3874, digital image 178; entry for John Smith, private, enlisted September 1777 by Major Antill and reported deserted 10 October 1777. The page lists thirty-eight men; apart from John Smith, none is named in the Sussex inquisition notice, and its only sergeant is Lewis Price; an index identification of this John Smith as a sergeant is not supported by the roll. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1858, Fourth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, microfilm C-4216: p. 1, image 468; pp. 41–42, images 576 and 579; and p. 52, muster roll of Captain Samuel Ryerson’s company, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Abraham Van Buskirk, 30 December 1779, image 603. A John Smith appears within the group braced as prisoners on both the 30 December 1779 return, at no. 46, and the later return at pp. 41–42, at no. 44, which is consistent with one man carried as a prisoner rather than two soldiers. The entry recording a John Smith as an active private has not been located on either of those returns. Apart from John Smith, neither return carries another name from the Sussex inquisition notice. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1858, Fourth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, microfilm C-4216: p. 1, image 468; pp. 41–42, images 576 and 579; and p. 52, muster roll of Captain Samuel Ryerson’s company, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Abraham Van Buskirk, 30 December 1779, image 603. A John Smith appears within the group braced as prisoners on both the 30 December 1779 return, at no. 46, and the later return at pp. 41–42, at no. 44, which is consistent with one man carried as a prisoner rather than two soldiers. The entry recording a John Smith as an active private has not been located on either of those returns. Apart from John Smith, neither return carries another name from the Sussex inquisition notice. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1854, p. 16, muster roll of the Second Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel John Morris, 24 February 1778, microfilm C-3874, digital image 178; entry for John Smith, private, enlisted September 1777 by Major Antill and reported deserted 10 October 1777. The page lists thirty-eight men; apart from John Smith, none is named in the Sussex inquisition notice, and its only sergeant is Lewis Price; an index identification of this John Smith as a sergeant is not supported by the roll. Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1858, Fourth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, microfilm C-4216: p. 1, image 468; pp. 41–42, images 576 and 579; and p. 52, muster roll of Captain Samuel Ryerson’s company, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Abraham Van Buskirk, 30 December 1779, image 603. A John Smith appears within the group braced as prisoners on both the 30 December 1779 return, at no. 46, and the later return at pp. 41–42, at no. 44, which is consistent with one man carried as a prisoner rather than two soldiers. The entry recording a John Smith as an active private has not been located on either of those returns. Apart from John Smith, neither return carries another name from the Sussex inquisition notice. ↩
Charles E. Stickney, “Sussex County As It Was and Is: Considered in Its Entirety From Its Organization to Date,” chapter 55, “Military—Continued,” The Wantage Recorder, 28 January 1910, p. 2, digital image. The adjutant-general list discussed in the text appears in the same chapter. The later compilation preserves the indictment and default discussion at FamilySearch and the adjutant-list discussion at FamilySearch. ↩
Charles E. Stickney, “Sussex County As It Was and Is: Considered in Its Entirety From Its Organization to Date,” chapter 55, “Military—Continued,” The Wantage Recorder, 28 January 1910, p. 2, digital image. The adjutant-general list discussed in the text appears in the same chapter. The later compilation preserves the indictment and default discussion at FamilySearch and the adjutant-list discussion at FamilySearch. ↩
John Van Nest tavern petition, 1764, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSGS-X9XM-X; John McMurtrie petition, 1769, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSGS-X9F9-9; Joseph and Susannah Hollinshead to Christopher Insley, 19 May 1772, Sussex County deed record, pp. 219–221, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSYH-XQHV-M. Petition for Aser Carter’s tavern license, November 1772, digital image; Israel Swayze tavern-license petition, May 1770, digital image. ↩
Petition of subscribers to the Court of Justices in Sessions, Sussex County, November term 1772, on behalf of Aser Carter, for a license to keep a house of public entertainment in the house he then occupied at Phillipsburgh; the subscribers include Joseph Hollinshead, Thomas Hanlon, John Smith, Wheeler Kitchen, Henry Kitchen, Alexander White, Boltis Appleman, John McMurtrie, and John Van Nest; digital image, FamilySearch. Greenwich Township tax ratables, Sussex County, September 1774, New Jersey General Assembly, Tax Ratables (Duplicates), 1768–1854, SAS00001, Book 1792, New Jersey State Archives; digital copy; Henry and Wheeler Kitchen were assessed in Greenwich Township, and this is the only located Greenwich list for the period. Oxford Township tax ratables, Sussex County, July 1773, New Jersey State Archives, Tax Ratables SAS00001, Book 1801, digital image, place the Smiths in Oxford. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Captain Silas Hopkins’s company roll, microfilm C-4217, digital image 143; Captain Benjamin Barton’s company roll for the muster period ending 24 August 1777, microfilm C-4217, digital image 169. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers rolls documenting David Young’s enlistment on 20 April 1777, second-corporal status by 8 January 1778, and desertion on 14 November 1778. David Young estate records, Oxford Township, Sussex County, New Jersey: inventory dated 31 August 1780 and administration dated 13 September 1780, Probate Liber M, p. 88, abstracted in New Jersey Archives, first series, vol. 34, Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Administrations, Etc., vol. 5, 1771–1780, p. 588; digital copy. The entry names Eleanor Young as administratrix, Robert Thompson as fellow bondsman, and William Currant and Thomas Parry as the men who made the inventory. ↩
David Young estate records, inventory dated 31 August 1780 and administration dated 13 September 1780, Probate Liber M, p. 88, abstracted in New Jersey Archives, first series, vol. 34, Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Administrations, Etc., vol. 5, 1771–1780, p. 588; digital copy. John McMurtrie petition, 1769, digital image; Sussex County petition on behalf of Aser Carter, November 1772, digital image. ↩
David Young estate administration, 13 September 1780, Probate Liber M, p. 88, abstracted in Calendar of New Jersey Wills, vol. 5 (1771–1780), p. 588; digital copy. ↩
1781 Oxford Township road return naming the Nicholas Smith plantation, Robert Hoops, Benjamin Saxton, Thomas Parry, and the Hollinshead tract; digital image. ↩
Robert Hoops to James Hyndshaw, 10 February 1782, conveyance of approximately thirty acres in Oxford Township from the former Joseph Hollinshead tract, with a boundary described by land “held by John Smith”; digital image. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Barton-company muster of March 1778; July 1773 Oxford Township tax list, New Jersey State Archives, Tax Ratables SAS00001, Book 1801, digital image; estate of John Green of Oxford, inventory dated 2 November 1784, probate abstract image, Ancestry. ↩
July 1773 Oxford Township tax list; estate of John Green of Oxford, inventory dated 2 November 1784, appraised by John Robeson and David Palmer; David Palmer, petition dated 5 July 1795, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, bundle P 2, petition 5, Library and Archives Canada, describing aid to Loyalist refugees and help obtaining British recruits; transcription of Palmer’s petition and Nathaniel Pettit’s accompanying certificate (5a). ↩
Francis Goring, journal entry concerning David Palmer (Parmer) at Thirty Mile Creek, 1803, transcribed in Notes of Niagara (1989–1990); page number not supplied with the extract. ↩
William Kerr petition, May 1773, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4Y-LGXL; “Whereas Inquisitions Were Found the 20th Day of June 1778,”
New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778. The records use both Appleman and Appelman spellings. ↩
Peter Appleman Loyalist compensation claim, Audit Office AO 13/96, The National Archives, United Kingdom, including Appleman’s statement that his estate was confiscated because he had joined the King’s troops in 1776, affidavits of William Louder and William Current, and Joseph Barton’s certification; digitized claim image. ↩
Researcher’s review of the “A” section of the New Jersey Volunteers military card index and individual roll searches for the located John Smith entries across the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Battalions and the reorganized First Battalion, together with other battalion rolls examined during the comparison; no matching entry for Peter Appleman or Appelman was located as of 2 September 2026. This is a report of the records searched and the result obtained, not proof that no such record survives. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1851, p. 58, muster roll of Captain James Shaw’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Staten Island, 7 May 1778, microfilm C-3873, digital image 708, entries for Michael Lemon and the two John Smiths, digital image; “Whereas Inquisitions Were Found the 20th Day of June 1778,” notice dated 5 September 1778, New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778, transcript and image. ↩
Robert Camp (Kemp), petition of 1797, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 268, bundle K 3, petition 5, microfilm C-2116, Library and Archives Canada; digital image concerning the family’s 1792 arrival. The description of their arrival as the earliest documented among these siblings reflects the petitions reviewed for this study. ↩
Certificate dated 22 September 1796 signed by David Kamp, Jacob Lemon, and Robert Camp in support of William Current (Currant), Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, bundle C 2, petition 55e, Library and Archives Canada; transcription; Peter Appleman, Loyalist compensation claim, AO 13/96, The National Archives, United Kingdom, digitized claim. ↩
Petition in support of Israel Swayze’s application for a tavern license, Sussex County, New Jersey, May 1770, in Applications for tavern licenses, 1753–1860, Licenses 1770–1784; digital image, FamilySearch, image 64. Swayze signed at the head as the applicant; the subscribers include John McMurtrie, John Van Nest, and a John Smith. ↩
Israel Swayze of Oxford, will dated 27 August 1774 and proved 29 September 1774, New Jersey probate Liber 16, p. 414; abstract in New Jersey Archives, first series, vol. 34, Calendar of New Jersey Wills, vol. 5 (1771–1780); digital copy. The abstract spells the married daughters’ surname “Hobkins.” ↩
Captain Silas Hopkins’s company, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, undated muster roll, Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1860, p. 14, microfilm C-4217, digital image 143. ↩
Israel Swayze of Oxford, 1774 will, Calendar of New Jersey Wills, vol. 5 (1771–1780), digital copy; “Hopkins, Caleb,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, biography, identifying Caleb’s parents as Silas Hopkins and Mary Swayze; Ontario pioneer biography of Silas Hopkins, describing Silas’s later settlement in Upper Canada. ↩
Mehitable (Mahitabel) Hopkins, petition received 6 August 1795, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, bundle H 2, petition 146, and Isaac Swayze’s accompanying correction of her given name, petition 146a, Library and Archives Canada; transcription of the petition and correction. ↩
Land Board order concerning Israel Sweezy of Thorold, 9 February 1791, Thorold Township Papers, document 0168, describing a prior grant as a Loyalist; transcription of the township papers. ↩
Israel Swayze (Swayse), petition received 25 April 1797, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 450, bundle S 3, petition 113, microfilm C-2807, Library and Archives Canada; transcription of petition and certificates. The petition states that he arrived in 1787. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel Barton’s company return, 8 January 1778, microfilm C-4217, digital image 130. ↩
Lieutenant-Colonel Barton’s company returns of January and March 1778, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series; Ezekiel Younglove, Upper Canada Land Petition, RG 1 L 3, bundle Y 1, petition 3, digital image, signed in support by Isaac Swayze, Israel Swayze, members of the Beemer family, and Henry Buchner. The identification of Isaac and the younger Israel as cousins follows Israel Swayze of Oxford’s 1774 will, will abstract, and the parentage given for Isaac Swayze in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1860, p. 23, muster roll of Lieutenant-Colonel Barton’s company, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Captain-Lieutenant John Cougle, near the New Blazing Star, 27 August 1777, microfilm C-4217, digital image 167; entries 25 (Peter Smith), 29 (John Smith), 32 (Henry Boughner), and 34 (David Young). ↩
Oxford Township tax ratables, July 1773, New Jersey State Archives, SAS00001, Book 1801, digital image (surname recorded as “Bugner”); Barton’s company roll, 27 August 1777, digital image 167; Matthias Boughner’s 1795 petition, RG 1 L 3, bundle B 1, petition 75, and Nathaniel Pettit’s 1792 certificate, bundle B 1, petition 92a, transcriptions; Henry Buchner Senior’s petition and certificates, bundle B 1, petition 121 and 121a, transcriptions. The records do not establish that every man named Henry Boughner or Buchner was the same person. ↩
Lieutenant-Colonel Barton’s company return, 8 January 1778, New Jersey Volunteers, Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, microfilm C-4217, digital image 130. ↩
Susan Burgess Shenstone, So Obstinately Loyal: James Moody, 1744–1809, Google Books digital copy; Loyalist records describing Boughner or Buchner assistance to Moody and his party; Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Barton-company return of 8 January 1778, microfilm C-4217, image 130, digital image. These sources provide the names, dates, and service details cited here; the connections among the several Boughner or Buchner records remain an inference rather than a fact stated by any one source. ↩
Matthias Boughner (Mathias Buggener), petition dated 7 July 1795, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, bundle B 1, petition 75, Library and Archives Canada, describing Moody’s party sheltering at his home after the failed attempt to capture Governor Livingston; transcription. ↩
Certificate attached to Henry Buchner Senior’s Upper Canada Land Petition, RG 1 L 3, bundle B 1, petition 121a, Library and Archives Canada; transcription. ↩
Nathaniel Pettit, certificate dated 10 November 1792 concerning Jacob Beam, Henry Boughner, and Matthias Boughner, appended to the Upper Canada Land Petition of Jacob Beam, RG 1 L 3, bundle B 1, petition 92a, Library and Archives Canada; transcription. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1852, p. 12, muster roll of Major Thomas Millidge’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Barton, Staten Island, 1 July 1779, entry “John Smith Junior,” microfilm C-3873, digital images 779–780; first image and second image. Benjamin Barton’s company return of 27 August 1777, microfilm C-4217, digital image 169, also records John Smith as a prisoner; digital image. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1853, pp. 81–82, muster roll of Colonel Cortlandt Skinner’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, covering 25 June–24 August 1783, microfilm C-3874, images 77–78; dated company roll and continuation with prisoner entries. The continuation lists “John Smith” among men labeled “Prisoners with the Enemy” without a Junior designation. The First Battalion’s Millidge roll of 1 July 1779 names its prisoner “John Smith Junior”. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1852, p. 12, muster roll of Major Thomas Millidge’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Barton, Staten Island, 1 July 1779, entry “John Smith Junior,” microfilm C-3873, digital images 779–780; first image and second image. Benjamin Barton’s company return of 27 August 1777, microfilm C-4217, digital image 169, also records John Smith as a prisoner; digital image. Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1851, pp. 64–65, list of Captain James Shaw’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, 31 August 1779, entry for John Smith recording “Deserted 24 November,” microfilm C-3873, digital images 718–719; first page and continuation showing the desertion. The continuation does not repeat the year beside the entry; 1778 is the preceding 24 November and is therefore supplied in the text. ↩
Government of New Brunswick, “History of New Brunswick” and account of the 1783 Loyalist arrival; the father’s reported death in New Brunswick appears in the 1797 petitions of Eleanor Smith Young Thompson and Elizabeth Smith Kemp, RG 1 L 3, bundles T 2, petition 52, and K 3, petition 5. ↩
Archibald Stewart claim concerning debts owed by John Smith and Joseph Barton, dated 16 March 1786, New-Jersey Gazette, 15 May 1786, GenealogyBank; Assembly committee report that the auditor’s books did not show John Smith’s property taken by the commissioners, in proceedings dated 17 March 1786, New-Jersey Gazette, 22 May 1786, GenealogyBank. ↩
Assembly committee report in proceedings dated Friday, 17 March 1786, New-Jersey Gazette, 22 May 1786, naming Jacob Arnold and Jonathan Bowen and reporting that the auditor’s books did not show commissioners taking John Smith’s property; newspaper image at GenealogyBank. The illustration combines the printed proceedings date and the committee report from the same newspaper page. ↩
David Smith and Mary Kennedy, marriage entry dated 21 January 1796, Sussex County, New Jersey; digital image. The wording “both their parents being present” does not identify those parents. ↩
Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, petition dated 3 March 1797, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 495, bundle T 2, petition 52, microfilm C-2833; digital image. ↩
Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, petition dated 3 March 1797, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 495, bundle T 2, petition 52, microfilm C-2833; digital image; Robert Kemp, petition on behalf of Elizabeth Smith Kemp, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 268, bundle K 3, petition 5, microfilm C-2116, digital image. ↩
Cornelia Smith and William Shingler, marriage entry dated 22 March 1798, Sussex County, New Jersey; digital image. ↩
John Smith, petition dated 2 January 1804, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 453, bundle S 6, petition 63, microfilm C-2809, Library and Archives Canada; digitized petition PDF. The general Library and Archives Canada land-petitions guide is also available at land-petitions guide. ↩
John Smith, petition dated 2 January 1804, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 453, bundle S 6, petition 63, microfilm C-2809, Library and Archives Canada; digitized petition. ↩
“Whereas Inquisitions Were Found the 20th Day of June 1778,” notice dated 5 September 1778, New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778, transcript and image; Charles E. Stickney, “Sussex County As It Was and Is: Considered in Its Entirety From Its Organization to Date,” chapter 55, “Military—Continued,” The Wantage Recorder (Sussex, New Jersey), 28 January 1910, p. 2, https://sussexcounty.historyarchives.online/viewer?i=t&d=01011909-12311910&e=John%20Smith&m=between&ord=e1&fn=the_wantage_recorder_usa_new_jersey_sussex_19100128_english_2&df=1&dt=9&cid=3517&t=51001. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1851, p. 58, muster roll of Captain James Shaw’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, Staten Island, 7 May 1778, microfilm C-3873, digital image 708, digital image; “Whereas Inquisitions Were Found the 20th Day of June 1778,” notice dated 5 September 1778, New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778, transcript and image. Comparing the two records yields fourteen overlapping entries when the two John Smith entries are counted separately: John Kitchen, Obadiah Hoaglin, John Whilenack, Andrew Kitchen, Matthias Zimmerman, Andrew Schooly, John Clendenan, John Gormon, John Smith (two entries), Thomas Richardson, Michael Lemon, Christopher Young, and John Cummins. The records use variant spellings, and the comparison remains an identification of names, not proof that every military entry represents the same individual named in the notice. ↩
Library and Archives Canada, British Military and Naval Records, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1853, pp. 81–82, muster roll of Colonel Cortlandt Skinner’s company, First Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, covering 25 June–24 August 1783, microfilm C-3874, images 77–78; dated company roll and continuation with prisoner entries. The continuation lists “John Smith” among men labeled “Prisoners with the Enemy” without a Junior designation. The First Battalion’s Millidge roll of 1 July 1779 names its prisoner “John Smith Junior”. ↩
“Whereas Inquisitions Were Found the 20th Day of June 1778,” New-Jersey Gazette, 16 September 1778, transcript and image; Lieutenant-Colonel Barton’s company muster, Fifth Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, near the New Blazing Star, 27 August 1777, Library and Archives Canada, RG 8, C Series, vol. 1860, p. 23, microfilm C-4217, image 167, digital image (John Smith at entry 29 and David Young at entry 34); Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, 3 March 1797 land petition, RG 1 L 3, vol. 495, bundle T 2, petition 52, digital image. ↩
John Smith, petition dated 2 January 1804, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1 L 3, vol. 453, bundle S 6, petition 63, microfilm C-2809, Library and Archives Canada; digitized petition PDF. ↩

Joshua Robins Jr., husband of Mary Blatchley

This article was first published on my RootsWeb site and is republished here, lightly edited, on 15 September 2026. If you have information to add or correct, please get in touch.

Details about Joshua Robins, who married Mary Blatchley, are sparse. Much of the information that follows is speculation based on a few facts, which I derived from a lot of research. Known sources are cited in the footnotes.

Joshua Robins was likely born about 1740 in New Jersey. Although the exact location of his birth is unknown, it is likely to be either Morris County or Hunterdon County. Joshua died in Ontario after 1817.¹

He married Mary Blatchley sometime between 1760 and 1773 in New Jersey. She was born on 29 October 1742 in New Jersey.² She was the daughter of Ebenezer Blatchley and Hannah Miller. Mary died before 1804, in either New Jersey or Ontario.³

The research of the Blatchley family recorded in History of Medicine in New Jersey: And of Its Medical Men, from the Settlement of the Province to A.D. 1800 states that Mary Blatchley had a sister, Sarah Blatchley, and that Sarah was the wife of Daniel Robins.⁴ The speculation is that Joshua and Daniel were brothers. I believe they were the sons of Joshua Robins of Hunterdon, Morris, and Sussex Counties, New Jersey.

1754: the earliest record

The earliest record I have found for Joshua was a court record in Sussex County, New Jersey, in 1754:⁵

Sussex May Session 1754

The King vs Charles McConnell

The Defendt Being Charged with this Indictment pleads Not Guilty

? Harrell — file May 30th 1754 — Russell Clerk(?) — ? Billa Vora ? — William Scholey? Foreman

Evidence for the King: Elisha Robins’s wife; Joshua Robins; Elis. Robins’s daughter; Joshua Robins Jun.; Perkins (?) Lovell; Richd. Slough; Elisha Coller; Eliz. Hadly (?); Hazen

Province of New Jersey, County of Sussex

The Grand Inquest for our Sovereign Lord King for the Body of the County of Sussex Being (then and then) Duly Charged Sworn and Affirmed upon the Respective Oath and Affirmation of at least twelve honorable and Lawfull men of the said County, Do present That Charles McConnell late of New Town in the County of Sussex aforesaid yeoman Being a person of a Turbulant, Malitious, and Malevolent Principal and Disposition and Designing Contriving and <?> and Jonathan Smalley to prejudice and Injure the fifth day of April in the Twenty Seventh year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Second by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the faith. At New Town aforesaid in the County of Sussex aforesaid and within the jurisdiction of this Court a Certain Roan Coloured Mare the property of the aforesaid Jonathan Smalley (then and there) <missing> with a certain knife or some other sharp weapon, did <missing> unlawfully wickedly and maliciously (in the Belly of the said Mare) Stab, Cutt and wound, By which said <missing> to the great damage of the said Jonathan Smalley <missing> and most purnatious [pernicious?] Example of all others in such case Delinquent and against the peace of our said Sovereign Lord the King that nowis his Crown and Dignity.

Harrell, AS Genl.

This record places both Joshua Robins [Sr.] and Joshua Robins Jr. in Newtown, Sussex County, in 1754, although it is unclear whether they were visiting or whether they lived there. They were also with Elisha Robins’s wife and daughter at the time the crime took place.

A few years later, in 1759, the Joshua Robins (who I believe to be Joshua Robins Sr.) and Elisha Robins of Sussex County were among names on a petition to Governor Jonathan Belcher and Council “from the inhabitants of Sussex County, on a frontier of the province next to Pennsylvania, asking that greater efforts be made to defend the province against the French and Indians.”⁶

The signatures of Joshua Robins and Elisha Robins on the 1759 petition to Governor Jonathan Belcher. — The Joshua Robins and Elisha Robins signatures on the 1759 Belcher petition.

To me these signatures look like they were made by the same person. Perhaps one of them signed both names?

In any case, from this record I believe we can conclude that Joshua Robins Sr. and his family, which included sons Daniel and Joshua Jr. (who is the subject of this page), likely lived in Sussex County by 1759, if not earlier.

Sussex County records: which Joshua?

It is difficult to determine which New Jersey Sussex County records belong to the senior Joshua and which belong to the junior Joshua. However, using the estimate of 1740 as the younger Joshua’s birth date, I believe the following records belong to Joshua junior.⁷

1784: the estate of John Hazlett

1784, Oct 5. John Hazlett of Oxford twp., Sussex Co. Int. Adm’rs Sophia Hazlett and William White. Fellowbondsman: William Kerr, all of the same place.

1784 Sept 16. Inventory 123.14.4 made by Joshua Swayze and Joshua Robins. Lib. 26, p. 527.

Note: only Joshua Swayze’s signature appears in this record as “one of the appraisers.”

1791: the estate of Coonrod Woolweaver

1791, March 21. Coonrod Woolweaver of Sussex Co. Int. Adm’rs John Gibbs and Richard Gibbs. Fellowbondsmen: Peter Wolfe and Joshua Robins, all of said Co. Witnesses Wm. Beardslee and Wm. A. Anderson.

1791 March 15. Inventory 95.12.9. 1791 March 30. Remaining inventory 6.6.6, both made by Joseph Coats and Peter Wolfe. File 515S.

Page from the 1791 administration of the estate of Coonrod Woolweaver, Sussex County, New Jersey, signed by Joshua Robins as fellowbondsman below Peter Wolfe. — Joshua Robins’s signature on the 1791 Woolweaver administration.

1794: Ontario and the oath of allegiance

By 1794, Joshua was in Ontario, Canada. It’s possible that he went at the same time as his widowed sister-in-law, Sarah Blatchley Robins, who arrived in Ontario in 1793.

In June 1794, Joshua was one of several men who took the oath of allegiance:⁸

Upper Canada Land Board record of June 1794 listing Joshua Robins among men who took the oath of allegiance. — The June 1794 Upper Canada Land Board oath of allegiance entry.

Some of these men were probably well known to Joshua:

Ezekiel Younglove was in the 1st Battalion New Jersey Volunteers (a British Loyalist militia) with Jonas Johnson. In 1787, his Sussex County, New Jersey property was confiscated because of his support of the British during the Revolutionary War.⁹
Ephraim Hopkins and Peter Hopkins were the sons of Peter Hopkins and Mehitable Swayze. Peter died in 1785 in Sussex County, New Jersey.¹⁰ He was a well-known sympathizer with the Crown, and his brother Silas was a Captain in the New Jersey Volunteers. By August 1795, Mehitable (who sometimes used the name Esther) was in Ontario and petitioned for land.¹¹ According to some researchers on the Internet, Mehitable married Joshua Robins sometime before 1811, when they appear together as husband and wife in a deed to sell property that belonged to Mehitable in Burford, Brant County, Ontario.¹² I also found an 1804 court record in which a witness in the case said “He was at the house of [Joshua] Robins, frequently called the Widow Hopkins house.” Perhaps that means they were married by 1804.¹³ (See the full entry below.)
Jabez Collver (or Culver) was a Presbyterian minister in Morris and Sussex Counties, New Jersey, who was sympathetic to the British.¹⁴

Further down the same page is a notation about Joshua being an “old soldier” and that he received a land grant in Township 9 (Thorold) for lots 19 and 20 in the 8th concession.

Land board notation of June 1794 describing Joshua Robins as an old soldier and granting him lots 19 and 20 in the 8th concession of Township 9, Thorold. — The “old soldier” notation and the Township 9 land grant, June 1794.

By August 1794, concessions were eliminated in Thorold and lots 19 and 20 were renumbered as 159 and 160.¹⁵

1794 August 9th; August 16th. Entry #235. Joshua Robbins, Thorold twp., lots 159 and 160.

Source: Upper Canada Land Records, Assignments. Record group MF MS 81, Volume 050, page 26.

The patent was issued 16 May 1798: Joshua Robbins, 200 acres, lots 159 and 160.

Despite Joshua being called an “old soldier,” I haven’t found any evidence of him in any British regiment records. However, it is possible that they considered him to be “an old soldier” if he simply supported the British cause in ways that his fellow Loyalists were aware of — food, shelter, scouting, any number of activities.

1796: the Loyalist relief petition

In 1796, several men who considered themselves Loyalists, including Joshua Robins, petitioned the Crown to give them “relief.” Many of the men in this petition lived in Sussex County, New Jersey, during the Revolutionary War.¹⁶

The handwriting and spelling of “Joshway Robans” in this petition make me think that someone else signed the petition for him.

The name "Joshway Robans" as written on the 1796 Loyalist relief petition to Peter Russell. — “Joshway Robans” on the 1796 petition.

See a copy of the petition: 1796 Petition (PDF). A transcript follows.

To his Exelency Peter Russel Esqr adminstering the Government and Commander In Cheife [sic] in and over his Majestys Provence of Upper Canada &c &c &c The Pettition of the Subscribers Humbly Sheweth

That your pettitloners were formerly inhabitants of the Now United States of amerIca and In life Time of the late Revolution by his most Gracious Majestye Declared to be In a State of Rebellion which To them was a Greefe and Vexantion and as thay Evere ware faIthful Loyolist and Never bore armes against his Majestye and as Soon As In their power alter the Treaty of Seperation Removed them Selves and famelyes Into thIs provence AND where us his Excelency Governor Simcoe in hIs Goodness Isued a proclamation in april Last whereby as we hoped Through the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the peace In Mickulmus Terme of this year Gave us Releaf In That unhappie Sittuation but as That Court Does Not Construe that proclematlon as we Expected We Most Humbly pray That your Exelency will Grant us Such Releafe In the Promeses as you in your Wisdom may Conceve our unhappi Circomstancs Merrets and that we may obtain the agreable protection and benefit of the above Said Proclimaton and your Pettltions as In Duty bound Will Ever pray. Newark 12th October 1796

Nathl Pettit · Timothy Skinner · Adam Green · John WilIson · Leonard Miesener · David Camp · Matthies Bugner · Jonathan Pettit · James Willson · Samuel willson · Andrew Willson · Andrew Pettit · Bassnett Dill (Dell) · Joshway Robans · Henry Buchner · Barthohmew Lunden · Jeremiah Lunden · Hugh Mullhalond · Jacob Smith · John Pettit · Steven Coon · Mical Coon · John Smith · Joseph Corwin · Chrarles Pettit · John Pettit · Henry Hixon · David Palmer · John Silverthorn · William Rymer · Henry Smith · James Nevills · Alex Markle · Thorns Sllverthorn · Jabez Collver SenIor · Adam Hagars · John Davis · Charles Cooley · Robert Davis · William Man · Thomas Davis · Asa Walterhouse · Elias Sloot · David Kern · Matthew Kemp · Ehenezer Kelly · John Mucclebone · John Green · Henry Chrysler · William Kitchen · Gideon Cooley Senor · Gershorn Carpenter · Calvin Cooley · Thos Matthews · Robt Thompson

1797: a petition refused

In 1797, Joshua made another petition requesting more land; however, it seems to have been rejected:¹⁷

Upper Canada Land book, Volume C, page 23. 2nd May 1797. Robins, Joshua.

Upper Canada Land Petition of Joshua Robins of Thorold, dated at Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake) on 24 Jan 1797:

“Humbly sheweth That your Petitioner is a Loyalist and suffered for his principles — that he has been several years in the above mentioned Township, which he has very much improved — prays your Honor would be pleased to grant him an addition to the Land he has received (vizt 200 Acres) and your Petitioner as in duty bound will ever pray—” [Unsigned].

Added notation of Thomas Ridout, N.P.: “I do certify this petition was personally applied for, by Joshua Robins [Signed] T Ridout N.P.” Received at the Executive Council Office on 1 Feb 1797 and read in Council on 2 May. Ordered: the Petitioner has had the proportion granted to settlers.

1804: the fight at the Widow Hopkins house

In December 1804, Joshua was mentioned in a court case involving Peter Hopkins.¹⁸

Note: I’ve only seen a transcription of this record, and in that transcription Joshua’s name is written as Joseph. I believe this was an error on the transcriber’s part.

December 1804.

Asa Barton (alias Baton), habeas corpus on a felony, December 11, 1804; heard before William Dummer Powell, Niagara, December 17, 1804.

Evidence of Levi Cassady, Stamford, blacksmith, taken before William Dickson: deponent is a neighbour of Peter Hopkins and Asa Barton. There was a fight in July or August and deponent heard Hopkins say if it was in his power to get Barton he would put out his eyes, all he wished for was an opportunity of that kind and he’d be satisfied.

Evidence of Hugh Willson, Thorold, farmer, 4 December 1804: He was at the house of Joseph [Joshua] Robins, in Thorold. Two men — Ephraim Hopkins and Hermanus VanAlstine — were fighting. Peter Hopkins was there to promote it. Hopkins said to Barton “you are not Lord and Master here.” Barton said “I don’t want to be.” Hopkins: “if you want anything I am just the boy can give it to you.” Barton: “If you want anything of me, come over the fence with me.” Hopkins: “No, here is a pretty little spot.” Barton walked up and struck him. They clenched, Ephraim Hopkins said “damn him, Peter, gouge him and castrate him!” Peter Hopkins cried “enough!” and Barton let go. Deponent heard nothing that Barton gouged his eye.

Evidence of Asa Cartwright, Thorold, shoemaker: deponent heard talk at Peter Hopkin’s house, said he’d known a man in the United States had both eyes gouged and recovered his sight. After the fight he rubbed one eye and shut the other and could see as well as… [text missing.]

Evidence of Samuel Brown of Thorold, farmer: He was at the house of Joseph [Joshua] Robins, frequently called the Widow Hopkins house. Hopkins promoted a fight, marked a ring in the sod with a board for the fight.

Evidence of Simon Markson, Thorold, farmer: He saw Hopkins a week after the fight, who complained of a sore eye. Hopkins said he was more to blame in the fight than Barton was.

Alexander Stewart, counsel for the defense.

1809–1817: the land goes

In 1809, Joshua “sold” lots 159 and 160, which he received as his grant petition in 1794, to Blatchley Loyd Robbins (who was Joshua’s nephew). I say “sold” because there is no mention of money anywhere in the deed — but it doesn’t say it was a gift either. The property subsequently went to Blatchley’s son Joshua, and then was divided up among the rest of Blatchley’s children, with some sold to Elisha Howell.¹⁹

1812–1817. Between 1812 and 1817, Joshua Robbins (calling himself “Joshua Robbins Senior” — I believe to distinguish himself from Blatchley’s son Joshua) got 200 acres from Robert Hamilton: lots 181 and 182. How and when, I have no idea. According to the township map of 1812, Robert Hamilton still had the property at that time.

1817. In 1817, Joshua Robbins Senior “sells” the 200 acres originally patented to Robert Hamilton to Samuel Hopkins.²⁰ Again, I say “sells” because there is no mention of money anywhere in the deed — but it doesn’t say it was a gift either. This Samuel Hopkins was married to a Prudence. He was the son of Mehitable Swayze Hopkins and Peter Hopkins, and he was supposedly born around 1783.²¹

The last record I have for Joshua is the 1817 Thorold tax list.²² His assessment was 0.4.5. He was listed between John Smith and Mary Clark.

His children

The number and names of Joshua’s children are unclear. Unfortunately, unlike his sister-in-law Sarah Robins, he did not have a petition that listed the number of children who accompanied him to Ontario.

I have identified two likely sons of Joshua. It is likely that Joshua had other children. However, without knowing when his first wife Mary Blatchley died, and without a will from Joshua, I have not yet identified them.

Job Robins

Born in 1773, likely in New Jersey. He married Mary Palmer sometime before 25 January 1804, when she petitioned for land as the daughter of a Loyalist and the wife of Job Robins. She was the daughter of David Palmer, a Loyalist from Sussex County, New Jersey.²³

A map of Thorold dated 22 January 1794 shows Job Robbins on lots 78 and 101.²⁴ However, patents for these lots, made in 1798, went to Ezekiel Younglove.²⁵ Other notes about Job Robins are found in the Thorold township papers:^26, 27

Robins, Job

On 20 Jul 1803, Acting Surveyors General Chewett and Ridout prepared a surveyor’s assignment for Job Robins of Thorold Twp., yeoman, for 100 acres of land in Lot 191, Thorold Twp., as per 51st Claim Niagara Commission 1803. Added note: Joshua Robins original nominee. (Thorold Township Papers 0457)

On 4 Nov 1803, the Executive Council of Upper Canada gave a grant to Job Robins of Thorold Twp., yeoman, for Lot 191, Thorold Twp., as per 51st Claim Niagara Commission Aug 1803. (Thorold Township Papers 0459)

Lot 191: By 1810, all 100 acres was owned by James Kenny. No record of how Kenny came to own it. James Kenny sold it to George Keefer 5 May 1810. Deed #1890.

Job died before 27 February 1834, when Mary petitioned for land a second time and stated she was the widow of Job and the daughter of David Palmer.²⁸

John Robins

Born in 1785 in New Jersey. He married Tabitha Strowbridge, possibly 16 September 1806.²⁹ He died between 1861 and 1871, probably in Dorchester, Middlesex County, Ontario.³⁰ In 1804, when he petitioned the Crown for land, he lived in Thorold. He received property in Wainfleet in 1809.³¹ John and Tabitha lived in Thorold until about 1838, after which they moved to Windham Township in Norfolk County, Ontario.³²

Source citations

Joshua Robins, last record found: Thorold 1817 tax list. Thorold Assessments and census 1817, 1835 & 1837, extracted for the 15th anniversary from Notes From Niagara, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1995, page 2. ↩
Ebenezer Blatchley family. History of medicine in New Jersey: and of its medical men, from the settlement of the province to A.D. 1800. Wickes, S., & Dickinson, J. (1879). Newark: M.R. Dennis, p. 152. ↩
In December 1804, Joshua Robins’s house was also known as the “Widow Hopkins” house. This likely indicates that Joshua had married Mehitable Swayze Hopkins before December 1804, and that Mary Blatchley passed away sometime before this date. Early Niagara District Court Records, Vol 1. Quarter Sessions 1787-1841, p. 37. ↩
Ebenezer Blatchley family. History of medicine in New Jersey: and of its medical men, from the settlement of the province to A.D. 1800. Wickes, S., & Dickinson, J. (1879). Newark: M.R. Dennis, p. 152. ↩
Joshua Robins [Sr.] and Joshua Robins Jr., witnesses in “The King vs. Charles McConnell.” New Jersey State Archives, Sussex County Court of Common Pleas, Indictments series 1754–1936, 1754–1778, Box 1. ↩
Joshua Robins and Elisha Robins among names on petition to New Jersey Governor Belcher from the inhabitants of Sussex County, dated 1759. Manuscript Collection–SAH: Oversized (New Jersey State Archives), Box 1-41, folder 5. Belcher petition (PDF). ↩
John Hazlett, 1784. Volume XXXV, Abstracts of Wills, 1781-1785. — Coonrod Woolweaver, 1791. Volume XXXVII, Abstracts of Wills, 1791-1795. ↩
Upper Canada Land Board (1765-1804), Robins, Joshua. District: Nassau. Year: 1794. Description: took oath of allegiance. Volume 6, page 70. Reference RG 1 L4, microfilm C-14027. Canadiana Heritage. ↩
1st Battalion New Jersey Volunteers, Nealon’s Company 1780, royalprovincial.com. — 1787 Property Confiscations, Somerset, Hunterdon, Morris, and Sussex, royalprovincial.com. ↩
Peter Hopkins will, #5558S, 1784-1786, Sussex Co., New Jersey. Unindexed wills of Sussex County, New Jersey, ca. 1760-1850, 5554 S – 5678 S. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm #589082. ↩
Mehitable (Esther) Hopkins petition, August 1795. Upper Canada Land Petitions, LAC “H” Bundle 2, Petition Number 146. ↩
Ronald Cox’s Ancestors, Cousins, and their allied families. Formerly at RootsWeb WorldConnect (database roncox, id I33420); WorldConnect was retired in 2023. ↩
Early Niagara District Court Records, Vol 1. Quarter Sessions 1787-1841, p. 37. ↩
Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement, with endnotes by R. Robert Mutrie. Chapter 8, Culver. sites.google.com/site/longpointsettlers. ↩
Upper Canada Land Records, Assignments. Record group MF MS 81, Volume 050, page 26. For more information about the renumbering of Thorold lots, see And Jones Created Thorold by Alun Hughes, tbhs.ca/hughes/jones.html. ↩
1796 Petition to Crown, Nathaniel Pettit and others, Newark, Ontario. Volume 399, Bundle P Misc. 1797-1836, Petition 9. Reference RG 1 L3, microfilm C-2488. ↩
1797 Upper Canada Land Petitions, LAC “R” Bundle 3, Petition Number 98a. ↩
Early Niagara District Court Records, Vol 1. Quarter Sessions 1787-1841, p. 37. Brian K. Narhi, 2006. ↩
Welland Co. Ontario, Thorold Township, Old Series v.A (81-11151), 1798-1836, Memorial #9610. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 170968. #9610, 1809 October 30: an indenture between Joshua Robins, yeoman of Thorold, unto Blackly Robins, yeoman of Thorold, lots 159 and 160, formerly 19 and 20 in 6th conc. of Thorold. Witnesses: Joshua Robins Jr. of Thorold, farmer, and Charles K. Fell of Pelham (recorded 14 March 1834). I believe this Joshua Robins Jr. is Blatchley’s son, born between 1794 and 1799. ↩
#7595, 8 Dec 1817, recorded 25 April 1829. Joshua Robins to Samuel Hopkins, 200 acres, lots 181 and 182. Abstract index books of Thorold Township 1796-1866. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 170966. ↩
Peter Hopkins will, #5558S, 1784-1786, Sussex Co., New Jersey. Unindexed wills of Sussex County, New Jersey, ca. 1760-1850, 5554 S – 5678 S. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm #589082. ↩
Joshua Robins, last record found: Thorold 1817 tax list. Thorold Assessments and census 1817, 1835 & 1837, extracted for the 15th anniversary from Notes From Niagara, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1995, page 2. ↩
Upper Canada Land Petitions (1763-1865). Name: Palmer/Robins, Mary. Place: Thorold. Year: 1804. Volume 425, Bundle R 7, Petition 8, Microfilm C-2741, Reference RG 1 L3. ↩
1794 Map of Thorold Township. Atlas of Early Pioneers of Niagara Peninsula, Corlene Dwyer Taylor, U.E., 2002, page 61. ↩
Lots 78 and 101. Abstract index books of Thorold Township 1796-1866. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 170966. ↩
Job Robins, Thorold. Township papers, 1783-1870s, Thorah — Thornbury — Thorold — Thurlow (to p. 263). Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 1403161, pages 457 and 459. ↩
Lot 191. Abstract index books of Thorold Township 1796-1866. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 170966. ↩
Upper Canada Land Petitions (1763-1865). Name: Palmer/Robins, Mary. Place: Pelham. Year: 1834. Volume 434, Bundle R 18, Petition 87, Microfilm C-2746, Reference RG 1 L3. ↩
Tabitha Strowbridge to John Robins marriage date. (No source given.) Genealogy of the Trowbridge Family of Morris County, New Jersey, trowbridgemountain.info. ↩
John Robins, male, age 75, birth year 1786, birthplace Canada West, marital status widowed, home in 1861 Dorchester, Middlesex, Canada West, religion E Methodist. Film number C-1049-1050, page number 10. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Census Returns for 1861; Roll C-1049-1050. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1861 Census of Canada [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2009. ↩
1809 Nov 10, patent to John Robins, Lot 31, 5th concession, 200 acres, north and south parts, Wainfleet. Abstract index books of Wainfleet Township 1796-1865. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 170983. ↩
1838 Sept 15, #5775?, Isaac Howell to John Robins, S 1/2, 100 acres, lot 3, concession 6, Windham twp., Norfolk Co. Land records of Norfolk County, 1797-1953, Windham Twp., v. 10-11 (4668-7604, 9214-14302), 1847-1859. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 160708. ↩

Daniel Robins, husband of Sarah Blatchley

This article was first published on my RootsWeb site and is republished here, lightly edited, on 15 September 2026. If you have information to add or correct, please get in touch.

Details about Daniel Robins, who married Sarah Blatchley, are sparse. Much of the information that follows is speculation based on a few facts, which I derived from a lot of research. Known sources are cited in the footnotes.

Daniel Robins was likely born between 1730 and 1740 in New Jersey. Although the exact location of his birth is unknown, it is likely to be either Morris County or Hunterdon County. Daniel died before 1793.¹ Likely locations are Ontario, Canada, or New Jersey, or somewhere between them.

He married Sarah Blatchley about 1757 in New Jersey. She was born on 23 November 1739 in New Jersey.² She was the daughter of Ebenezer Blatchley and Hannah Miller. Sarah died sometime between 2 April 1814 and 6 January 1835, likely in Thorold, Lincoln County, Ontario.³

The research of the Blatchley family recorded in History of Medicine in New Jersey: And of Its Medical Men, from the Settlement of the Province to A.D. 1800 states that Sarah Blatchley had a sister, Mary Blatchley, and that Mary was the wife of Joshua Robins.⁴ The speculation is that Daniel and Joshua were brothers. I believe they were the sons of Joshua Robins of Hunterdon, Morris, and Sussex Counties, New Jersey.

1773: Oxford Township, Sussex County

Daniel is difficult to find in any New Jersey records. However, in July 1773, I believe he lived in Oxford Township, Sussex County, New Jersey. He appears in this tax list:⁵

Line from the July 1773 Oxford Township tax ratables reading "Dainnel Robins" with 131 acres. — “131 acres Dainnel Robins” — July 1773 Oxford Township, Sussex County tax list.

I have not found any land or deed records that correspond to this property. So I don’t know when or how he came to own it, nor can I find when the ownership went to someone else.

It is important to note that the location of the property changed county boundaries several times in a 125-year period. Oxford Township was part of Hardwick Township, and both townships were in the following counties in the years shown:

Burlington County, 1699–1714
Hunterdon County, 1714–1739
Morris County, 1739–1753
Sussex County, 1753
Warren County, 1824

1796: Sarah’s petition to the Crown

By 1793, Daniel had died, and Sarah Robins, with “3 sons and 3 daughters,” went to Ontario, Canada.⁶ On 6 May 1796, Sarah petitioned the British Crown for land:⁷

Upper Canada Land Petitions, Volume 423, Microfilm reel C-2740, Petition R2/47

To his Excellency John Graves Simcoe, Esquire Lt. Gov and commander in Chief of the Province of Upper Canada In Council

The Petition of Sarah Robins of the Township of Thorold widow who came into the Province three years ago [1793] with three sons and three daughters and has never received any Land. Respectfully shews, That your petitioner is desirous to settle on the lands of the Crown in this Province being in a condition to cultivate and improve the same. That she is ready to take the usual oaths and subscribe the declaration that she professes the Christian religion and obedience to the laws and has lived inoffesively in the conuntry which she has left. Prays your Excellency would be pleased to grant her Four Hundred acres of land upon the terms and conditions expressed in your Excellency’s proclamation bearing date of 7th day of February 1792 or such other quantity of land as to your Excellency in your wisdom may think meet. And your petitioner as in duty bound will ever pray.

Niagara 6 May 1796

Recommended for 200 acres if not given before. Entered in Land Book B, page 90.

Received July 12 1796. Confirmed 8 October 1796 in Land Book B page 29

A warrant issued by William Dickson Esq 12 June 1806. Patent fee paid see within.

From this document, we know that she had at least six children. However, I believe she had at least two other sons who remained in Sussex County, New Jersey.

The two sons who stayed in New Jersey

Both of these men were on a militia list in Oxford Township, Sussex County, in 1793.⁸ They were:

MILLER ROBINS, born on 6 July 1758 in Oxford Township, Sussex County, New Jersey. He married ?. He served in the U.S. military during the Revolutionary War and applied for a pension. He died between 1845 and 1853 in Lawrence County, Ohio.⁹

ABSOLOM ROBINS, born between 1760 and 1770. He died after 1800, probably around Hope, New Jersey. He married ELEN ?.¹⁰

The three sons and three daughters who went to Ontario

As for the “3 sons and 3 daughters” who went with her to Ontario, I believe they were:

Joshua Robins

Born between 1759 and 1765. He died in August 1799 in Thorold Township, Lincoln County, Ontario. One Ontario land record about this Joshua was full of very helpful information, including proof that John Clark (my ancestor) was the brother-in-law of Joshua, Daniel, and Blatchley Robins.¹¹ A transcription follows:

Upper Canada Land Petitions, R [misc] 1–12 1797 445A, microfilm C-2804; RG1, L3, Vol 445a, R Bundle Misc, No. 10

To the Honourable the Governor in Council

The Petition of Bleaxy Robins Humbly sheweth

that your Petitioner’s Brother Joshua Robins next immediately older than your petitioner died in August last possessed of Lots no 190 and 191 in the Township of Thorold County of Lincoln as pr. Land Board Certificate Herewith—

That your Petitioner [esteeming?] himself lawful heir to this Land Now prays to transfer his Rights thereunto unto his Brother Daniel Robins as he firmly believes this was the wish & intent of his deceased Brother

& he prays your Honors to [?] that the deed may issue in the name of the said Daniel Robins—

And your Petitioner as in duly bound will ever pray.

Blachly Robins

Personaly appeared before one Robert Hamilton Esq a Justice of the Peace for the District of Niagara John Clark the Brother in Law to the above Blachly Robins who on oath declared that the said Blachly Robins was the Brother of the deceased Joshua Robins & next to him in decent — And that he was also persent when his said Brother in Law signed the forgoing Petition to Relingquish his Right of succession on favor of their younger Brother Daniel Robins.

his X mark John Clark

Sworn before me at Queenston Feb 28 1800 — Rbt Hamilton JP

Petition of Blachly Robins to the Honble the Governor [?]

[?] office 15 July 1802 — The certificate is to be returned to the Petitioner who is referred to the Commis. By Order of the Gov. James Green

[?] 14 Dec 1802 — To [?] over until it appears who was the Heir of Joshua Robins & for proof that he died intestate.

Mary Robins

Born between 1770 and 1780. She died after 15 July 1822 in Thorold, Lincoln County, Ontario.¹² She married JOHN CLARK before August 1794, probably in New Jersey. He was born between 1760 and 1773 (he was likely 21 or older in 1794); he made a settler’s petition on the same day as his brothers-in-law Joshua Robins and Blatchley Robins.¹³ He died on 4 December 1812 in Ontario, Canada.¹⁴

Anna Robins

(This is a tenuous assumption. See the note that follows.) Born between 1770 and 1780. She died after 1836.¹⁵ She married JOB STROWBRIDGE. He was born about 1772 in New York. He died on 12 August 1836 in Thorold, Lincoln County, Ontario.¹⁶

Note: I have no concrete evidence that Ann (or Ana), wife of Job Strowbridge, is a sister to my ancestor Mary Robins. However, she gave testimony in the “Heir and Devisee” case for John Clark Jr., son of John Clark and Mary Robins, in which she said she knew John Clark before his marriage to Mary and that she was at the birth of John Clark Jr.¹⁷ I’m certain that John and Mary were married before they went to Ontario. So whoever Ann Strowbridge is, she would have had to know the couple before they married and before they moved to Ontario, and then moved to Ontario at the same time they did and stayed in close contact. These facts made her a likely candidate for the second daughter of the three who came with Sarah Robins to Ontario.

A transcription of that record follows. This is a lengthy file; the excerpt below is only the portion that provides the testimony of Anna Strowbridge.

1822 June–July. Second Heir and Devisee Commission Case Files, Case File Number 40-0536

…

And the said Ann Strowbridge as aforesaid being duly Sworn on Oath Depseth and saith that she is well acquainted with John Clark of the Township of Thorold in the District of Niagara Province of Upper Canada Farmer who Claims Lots Nos. 211 and 212 in the Township of Thorold aforesaid. That she Deposeth was present at his birth and hath been acquainted with him since a child until this day. And also swears that she knew John Clark late of Thorold deceased the Father of the present Claimant John Clark. And was acquainted with him before he was married and knew him well as a [? neighbor] until his death. And Deponent also says that she ? believes John Clark as aforesaid deceased and Father of John Clark no Claimant Died without having made any last Will and Testament. And that said John Clark the new Claimant is of the age twenty five years and is the eldest son and heir at law of his said deceased Father John Clark as aforesaid And further Deponent saith not.

Sworn before me at Niagara this 15th June 1822. Ralfe Clench, Commissioner, District of Niagara

[signed] Ann (her X mark) Strowbridge

…

Blatchley Loyd Robins

Born between 1760 and 1770. He died about July 1814 in Thorold, Lincoln County, Ontario.¹⁸ He married ANNA HANNAH (unknown maiden name). She died after 1817.¹⁹ He owned two lots, 158 and 194, in Thorold Township, Lincoln County, Ontario, that he received from the Crown.²⁰ His will was written in 1814 but it wasn’t recorded until 1863.²¹

Sarah Robins

Born about 1775 in New Jersey. She died before 1851, likely in Windham, Norfolk County, Ontario. She married PETER BOUGHNER.²² He was born in 1770 in New Jersey. He likely died in Windham, Norfolk County, Ontario.

Daniel Robins

Born in 1777 in New Jersey.^23, 24 He died after 1851 in Gainsborough, Lincoln County, Ontario. He married MARY ? before 1805 in Ontario. She died before 1851 in Gainsborough, Ontario. He received land from the Crown that was located in Wainfleet.²⁵

The two Daniel Robinses of Gainsborough

There were two men named Daniel Robins who lived in Gainsborough Township, and they are frequently confused.

The Daniel son of Sarah Robins lived on “broken front” lot 7, concession 1 of Gainsborough.²⁶

The other Daniel was born in New Jersey in 1765 and owned lots 11 and 12 in concession 2 of Gainsborough.²⁷ He received those lots from the Crown. He had a brother Stephen and a sister Abigail, both of whom also lived in Ontario.²⁸ Their remaining brother, Isaac, remained in Sussex County and later moved to Columbia County, Pennsylvania.²⁹ These siblings were the children of Daniel Robins of Knowlton, Sussex County, New Jersey (who died there in 1802), and his wife Anne (maiden name unknown).³⁰

Sarah’s land in Thorold

The land that Sarah received from the Crown was lots 192 and 193 in Thorold Township, Lincoln County, Ontario.

In 1806, the Thorold township papers documented that Sarah received her certificate of residence:³¹

1806. Thorold Township papers, pg. 000461

Sarah Robins — 13 June 1806 — Widow, lots 192 & 193 — Order in Council Oct 8 1796 — Survey paid, fiat #840 — Description 11086 — 13 June 1806 — Certificate of Residence 23 May 1805 — Book of letters No. 15, p. 2322

pg. 000464 — Signed letter stating Sarah had lived on the lots for 8 years: James Ryan, Blackley Robins, Fanny ?, Rebecky ?, Edward Topham, Aaron Dennis

1807: fifteen acres to John Clark

In 1807, she sold 15 acres of the south end of lot 193 to John Clark (Senior).³² The deed was not recorded until 1831; deed No. 1351.

Sarah Robins to John Clark deed, No. 1351, Bargain and Sale. Recorded the 22nd day of August 1831 at 9 o’clock, and on the oath of Daniel Robins. Signed Johnson Stewart, Dep Regr, for John Lyons, Register.

Upper Canada, Niagara District, To wit: Daniel Robins of the Township of Gainsborough in the said District yeoman ?——— oath saith that the said John Clark eldest son and heir at law to the late John Clark the grantee in the within named sign and seal the Memorial for the said Registry thereof and Sarah Robins the grantor sign and seal (and as her act and deed deliver said deed to which Memorial relate to the purposes therein mentioned and further trust he this Deponent is a subscribing witness to both Instruments. I hereby certify that I have administred the foregoing oath of proof to the above named Daniel Robins twenty second day of August 1831 at Niagara in said District.

Johnson Stewart, Dep Regr, for John Lyons, Register

A Memorial to be Registered pursuant to the Statute in each case made and provided of an Indenture of Bargain and Sale and bearing date the ninth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seven (1807) between Sarah Robins of the Township of Thorold County of Lincoln and Niagara District of the Province of Upper Canada widow of the first part and John Clark of the township county district and province aforesaid yeoman of the other part whereby it is witnessed that the said Sarah in consideration of the sum of fourteen (14) pounds lawful money of the said Province to her by the said John Clark in hand well and truly paid at or before the sealing and delivery thereof, the receipt thereof acknowledged hath granted, bargained, sold, aliened, released, conveyed and confirmed unto the said John his heirs and assigns all that certain tract or parcel of land containing by ?admeasurement fifteen acres situate in the Township, County and Province aforesaid which said fifteen acres of land were granted by ?Setters patent under the great seal of the said Province to the said Sarah Robins being in the South end of lot number one hundred and ninety three in the Township of Thorold which tract of land is described or otherwise known as follows, that is to say, Beginning at the South East angle of lot number one hundred and ninety three then North seven and a half chains then West twenty chains then South seven and a half chains then East twenty chains to the Beginning Together with all houses out houses, ?edices, buildings, orchards, gardens, woods, underwoods, ways, paths, waters, water courses, easements, profits, commodities, advantages, ?emoluments, and hereditaments, whatsoever to the said part or parcel of land and premises belonging or in any wise belonging or which to or with the same now or at any time heretofore have been held, used, occupied, accepted, reputed, or taken or known as part of a parcel or number thereof or of any part thereof and the reversion and reversions, remainder and remainders, rents issues and profits, of all and singular the said thereby bargained and sold premises and every part and parcel thereof with the appurtenances and all the estate rights title interest property possession claim, challenge and demand whatsoever either in law or equity of her the said Sarah in and to all and singular the said premises and every part and parcel thereof.

TO Have and To Hold, all and singular the said tract or parcel of land hereditaments, and premises and with the appurtenances unto the said John his heirs and assigns to the only property use and behoof of the said John his heirs and assigns forever and to and for no other use intent or purpose whatsoever which said Indenture is witnessed by Caleb Hopkins late of the Township of Thorold in the Niagara District schoolmaster, Blachley Robins late of the same place deceased yeoman, and Daniel Robins of Gainsborough in the said district of Niagara yeoman and this Memorial thereof is hereby required to be Registered by me John Clark – son and heir at law the ?——— grantee herein named. As Witness m hand and ?seal as ?———ston, this 17th day of August 1831

Signed John Clark (Seal)

Signed and seald in the presence: ?Chas ? Leonard, Daniel Robins

1814: the Overholt hundred acres

In 1814, Sarah received 100 acres from Abraham Overholt, and on the same day she sold it to her son Daniel Robins. These deeds weren’t recorded until 1852 and 1835, and Sarah had passed away before 1835.³³

1814 Apr 2, #497, Vol B, page 80. Bargain and Sale. Abraham Overhold and Elizabeth wife to Sarah Robins, 100 acres. (This deed was not recorded until 1852 Nov 7.)

1814 April 2, #10113. Bargain and Sale. Sarah Robins to Daniel Robins.

A Memorial to be registered pursuant to the Statute in such case made and provided of a Deed bearing date the second day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fourteen & Whereby Sarah Robins late of the Township of Thorold in the county of Lincoln in the District of Niagara in the Province of Upper Canada Widow deceased for and in consideration of the sum of one hundred pounds lawful money of the Province afsaid to her in hand paid by Daniel Robins of the Township of Thorold county District and Province aforesaid Yeoman hath given and granted unto the said Daniel Robins his heirs and assigns forever, all that parcel tract of land situate in the Township of Thorold in the County and District aforesaid containing by admeasurement One hundred Acres be the same more or less number 161 in the said Township of Thorold.

Together with all wood and waters there on lying and being under the reservations limitations and conditions there in after expressed which said One hundred acres are butted and bounded on the West side of Joshua Robins lots or may be otherwise known as follows that is to say commencing at the North East angle of the side respectively then running South fifty chains thence West twenty chains thenc North fifty chains and thence East twenty chains to the place of beginning in each line be teh same more or less.

To Have and To Hold all and singular the above granted premises and every parcel thereof with the appurtances unto the said Daniel Robins his heirs and ssigns forever which said Deed is witnessed by Abraham Overholt of the Township of Pelham Yeoman, Isaac Overholt of the Township of Thorold Yeoman and John Clark of the same place Yeoman all of the District of Niagara And this Memorial thereof is hereby required to be registered by me the said Grantee therein named Witness my hand and seal this sixth day of January in the year of our Lord 1835.

Signed and Sealed in presence of John Clark, Thomas Jennings

(signed) Daniel Robins

John Clark of the Township of Thorold in said District yeoman make an oath and saith that he saw the within named Sarah Robins the Grantor (now deceased) equate? and deliver forth purposes therein mentioned the Deed ? which be annexed is a Memorial also saw the within named Daniel Robins Grantee sign and sela the said annexed Memorial for the Registry thereof and further that he this Deponent is a subscribing witness to both Instruments. I hereby certify that I have administered the foregoing oath of proof to the said John Clark the Sixth day of January 1835. (signed) Thomas Jennings, Register for John Lyons. (signed) John Clark

Source citations

Sarah Robins Petition. Upper Canada Land Petitions, Volume 423, Microfilm reel C-2740, Petition R2/47. Sarah Robins was a widow when she went to Ontario in 1793. ↩
Ebenezer Blatchley family. History of medicine in New Jersey: and of its medical men, from the settlement of the province to A.D. 1800. Wickes, S., & Dickinson, J. (1879). Newark: M.R. Dennis, p. 152. ↩
Sarah Robins to Daniel Robins deed. Ontario Land records v.P-Q nos. 9790-10811, 1834-1836, Memorial #10113, 1814 Apr 2. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 0170157. ↩
Ebenezer Blatchley family. History of medicine in New Jersey: and of its medical men, from the settlement of the province to A.D. 1800. Wickes, S., & Dickinson, J. (1879). Newark: M.R. Dennis, p. 152. ↩
Oxford twp., Sussex Co., New Jersey, July 1773 tax list. Tax ratables, Sussex Co., 1773-1822. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 865491. ↩
Sarah Robins Petition. Upper Canada Land Petitions, Volume 423, Microfilm reel C-2740, Petition R2/47. Sarah Robins went to Ontario in 1793 with 3 sons and 3 daughters. ↩
Ibid. ↩
#56 Absolm Robins and #58 Miller Robins, listed in the “from Township of Oxford” section of page 281. New Jersey in 1793: An Abstract and Index to the 1793 Militia Census of the State of New Jersey, page 281. ↩
Miller Robins Revolutionary War pension application. Veteran’s name: Miller Robbens; state: New Jersey; pension number R. 8,858; additional name: Miller Robins; GS film number 972054; affiliate publication number M804; digital folder number 004168361; image number 00020; affiliate identifier 14133312. “United States Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Applications, 1800-1900,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NSZ1-3ZF: 11 December 2014), Miller Robins, pension number R. 8,858, service New Jersey; from “Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files,” database and images, Fold3.com; citing NARA microfilm publication M804 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1974); FHL microfilm 972,054. ↩
Absolom’s wife’s name was on their daughter Sarah’s marriage record when she married Israel Swayze. New Jersey, Marriages, 1678-1985: Israel Swayze and Sarah Curlis, married 25 Aug 1856 at Hope, Warren, New Jersey; groom’s father Joshua Swayze, groom’s mother Mary; bride’s father Absolum Robins, bride’s mother Elen. Indexing project (batch) number M02602-8; source film number 584584. “New Jersey Marriages, 1678-1985,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZG8-1P9: 12 December 2014); citing 584,584. ↩
“Blexley” Robins petition for brother Joshua Robins, deceased. Upper Canada Land Petitions RG1, L3, Vol 445a, R Bundle Misc, No. 10. Library and Archives Canada, microform digitization. ↩
1822: gave deposition in her son John Clark Jr.’s heir and devisee case. John Clark (Jr.), Second Heir and Devisee Commission Case Files, Case File Number 40-0536. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 1314010. ↩
John Clerk petition. Upper Canada Land Records, Assignments. Record group MF MS 81, Volume 050, page 28. ↩
Mary Clark (as widow). Military Pensions of Widows and Orphans. National Archives of Canada, RG5, A, 1, Vol 30, Reel C-4547. ↩
Anna Strowbridge named in husband Job Strowbridge’s will in 1836. Lincoln Co. Ontario Probate Records, Volume 4, p. 118. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 0579150. ↩
Job Strowbridge, buried in Fonthill Municipal Cemetery (Browns North). Fonthill Municipal Cemetery Browns North OGS #4631, Pelham Township, Welland County. The Ontario Genealogical Society, Niagara Peninsula Branch, 1997. ↩
1822: gave deposition in John Clark Jr.’s heir and devisee case. John Clark (Jr.), Second Heir and Devisee Commission Case Files, Case File Number 40-0536. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 1314010. ↩
Blatchley Robins will. ↩
1817 Thorold tax assessment list: Hannah Robins 0.6.10, between Garrett Teller [Ganet Tellen] and Jacob Ostrander (and near Mary Clark, likely widow of John Clark). Thorold Assessments and census 1817, 1835 & 1837, extracted for the 15th anniversary from Notes From Niagara, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1995, page 2. ↩
1794 August 9th; August 16th. Settler’s petition for property, Blackley Robins, Thorold twp., lots 158 and 194. Upper Canada Land Records, Assignments. Record group MF MS 81, Volume 050, page 28. Note: this was the same day that John Clark and Joshua Robins made their settler’s petitions. ↩
Blatchley Robins will, No. 11469. Written 3 July 1814. Recorded 8 June 1863. Welland Co. Ontario Land Records, Thorold Township, Old Series, v. E-F (10601-14228, 15-2829, 1-59), 1862-1868. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 170972. ↩
“The Buchner and Boughners.” Pioneer Sketches of Long Point Settlement: Or, Norfolk’s Foundation Builders and Their Family Genealogies. W. Briggs, 1898, page 28. Google Books. ↩
Daniel Robins, age 75, born United States, living in the household of Daniel Robins, age 41, born Canada. 1851 census; census place: Gainsborough, Lincoln County, Canada West (Ontario); Schedule A; Roll C_11736; Page 19; Line 22. ↩
Daniel Robins land petition says he was a native of New Jersey. Upper Canada Land Petitions, Volume 426, Microfilm reel C-2742, Petition R9/23. Library and Archives Canada, microform digitization. ↩
Daniel Robins land grant: 1809 Nov 10, patent to Daniel Robins, Lot 32, 5th concession, 200 acres, north and south parts, Wainfleet. Abstract index books of Wainfleet Township 1796-1865. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 170983. ↩
1825: Daniel Robins of Gainsborough buys from Jacob Beam of Clinton lot 7, broken front, Gainsborough (#5220). Land records of Lincoln County, Gainsborough Township, v. A-B (36-10804), 1847-1860. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 170123. Memorial #5220. ↩
Daniel Robins, settler’s petition for property. Upper Canada Land Records, Assignments. Record group MF MS 81. #1029 Daniel Robins, north halves 11 & 12 in conc. 2 Gainsborough, 200 acres. Assigned Newark 30 Sept 1795, Cert. Hon. Peter Russell. Age 30. Where born: New Jersey. Farmer. (With Stephen Robins, age 27, and William Dilce, age 27, all born New Jersey.) ↩
Sussex Co., New Jersey deeds (abstracted by Marshall Lake). Dated 2 Feb 1804 — grantor: Daniel ROBINS of Gainsborough Twp, Lincoln Co, ON, Canada; grantee: Isaac ROBINS of Knowlton Twp, Sussex Co, NJ; amount $100; 4 tracts (216 3/4 acres); previous owners: tract 1, Richard CLARK (4 1/4 acres) 15 Apr 1779; tract 2, Adam & Elizabeth SNIDER (143 1/2 acres) 7 Aug 1793; tract 3, Daniel VAUGHAN (57 acres) 2 Apr 1795; tract 4, William SWAGG (12 acres) 22 Oct 1802; witnesses John ARMSTRONG, Jacob ARMSTRONG. Notes: Daniel ROBINS is identified as an heir of Daniel ROBINS, late of Knowlton Twp, died intestate. Dated 19 Jun 1815 — grantor: Jacob VAUGHAN of Gainsborough Twp, Lincoln Co, ON, Canada (husband of Abigail Robins); grantee: Isaac ROBINS of Knowlton Twp, Sussex Co, NJ; same 4 tracts; witnessed 31 Jan 1816; witnesses Ira SHERER, Isaav READ; judge John ARMSTRONG. Notes: Jacob VAUGHAN is identified as an heir of Daniel ROBINS, late of Knowlton Twp, died intestate, and as the son-in-law of Daniel ROBINS, dec’d; wife of Jacob VAUGHAN: Abigail. Recorded 26 Jun 1824. ↩
Isaac Robins Revolutionary War pension record. United States Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Applications, 1800-1900, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NS8Q-WQQ: 11 December 2014), Isaac Robins, pension number S. 22954, service New Jersey; from “Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files,” database and images, Fold3.com; citing NARA microfilm publication M804 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1974); FHL microfilm 972,063. ↩
Estate records for Daniel Robins of Knowlton, Sussex Co., New Jersey. Estate file #988S. Year: 1802. ↩
Sarah Robins, Thorold. Township papers, 1783-1870s, Thorah — Thornbury — Thorold — Thurlow (to p. 263). Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 1403161. ↩
Sarah Robins to John Clark deed. Welland Co. Ontario, Thorold Township, Old Series v.A (81-11151), 1798-1836, Memorial #1351. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 170968. ↩
Abraham and Elizabeth Overholt to Sarah Robins. Welland Co. Ontario, Thorold Township, Old Series v.A-B (53-3777, 5-3306), 1847-1855, Memorial #497. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 170970. — Sarah Robins to Daniel Robins deed. Niagara District Ontario Land records v.P-Q nos. 9790-10811, 1834-1836, Memorial #10113, 1814 Apr 2. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, microfilm 0170157. ↩

Joshua Robins of Hunterdon, Morris, and Sussex Counties, New Jersey

This article was first published on my RootsWeb site and is republished here, lightly edited, on 15 September 2026. It was revised on 27 September 2026 to add new records about Joshua’s family and where he lived. If you have information to add or correct, please get in touch.

Details about Joshua Robins are sparse. Known sources are cited in the footnotes.

Joshua Robins was likely born between 1698 and 1710 in New Jersey. Although the exact location of his birth is unknown, it is likely to be Monmouth County. He was still living in February 1775, when he witnessed a will (see below). The date and place of his death are unknown.

His parents were Daniel Robins (b. 1666, d. between 1733 and 1737) and his wife Mary [surname unknown]. Daniel had died by 25 March 1737, when his son Isaac mortgaged “the plantation that Daniel Robins dec[ease]d, Father to the aforesaid Isaac Robins, formerly lived upon” (see the 1737 section below).

His brothers and sisters

Records name several of Joshua’s brothers: Isaac (d. 1741), Job, John, Jonathan, and Elisha. Amos Thatcher’s wife, Lydia, may have been a sister; the evidence is discussed in the 1737 section below.

His children

Joshua’s wife’s name is unknown. But he had at least two sons:

Daniel Robins was likely born between 1730 and 1740 in New Jersey. Although the exact location of his birth is unknown, it is likely to be either Morris County or Hunterdon County. Daniel died before 1793. Likely locations are Ontario, Canada, or New Jersey, or somewhere between them. He married Sarah Blatchley about 1757 in New Jersey. She was born on 23 November 1739 in New Jersey. She was the daughter of Ebenezer Blatchley and Hannah Miller. Sarah died sometime between 2 April 1814 and 6 January 1835, likely in Thorold, Lincoln County, Ontario.

Joshua Robins Jr. was likely born about 1740 in New Jersey. Although the exact location of his birth is unknown, it is likely to be either Morris County or Hunterdon County. Joshua died in Ontario after 1817. He married Mary Blatchley sometime between 1760 and 1773 in New Jersey. She was born on 29 October 1742 in New Jersey. She was the daughter of Ebenezer Blatchley and Hannah Miller. Mary died before 1804, in either New Jersey or Ontario.

Any other children are unknown at this time.

1714–1737: the Lebanon Township property

Joshua Robins’s father, Daniel Robins, died sometime between 1733 and 1737, and in March 1737 Joshua took out a mortgage on property in Lebanon Township, Hunterdon County, that was originally surveyed for his father. Details of the original survey follow, from Robins, Robbins of New Jersey, page 222:¹

Book A, page 186, Hunterdon County south branch of Rarington (Raritan) River 1714, Survey 333 acres to Daniel Robins

By virtue of a Warrant from the Council of Proprietors bearing date ye 10th day of March 1714 surveyed this tract of land unto Daniel Robbins in _____________ ye head of ye South Branch of Rarington River in Hunterdon County. Beginning at a white oak tree Corner of Marcy Daurdwart’s (?) [ed. note: perhaps this should say Francis Davenport?] land thence Southeastwardly thirty degrees fifty six chains to a Corner marked DR (2) Thence Northeastwardly sixty degrees sixty three chains to a corner black oak tree marked DR (3) Thence N. Westwardly thirty degrees Sixty three chains ? to a corner maple tree marked K (4) Thence S. Westwardly by sixty degrees sixty chains to ye first highways. Surveyed by John Reading May 13 1717. Inspected and approved by ye Committee of Proprietors and ordered to be recorded John Wills Clerk

Transcribed 3/5/2006 by John Wm Taylor

The property was located near Middle Valley; in 1739 this area became Morris County. From Early Germans in New Jersey by Theodore F. Chambers (Dover, N.J., 1895), page 172: “David Zofrin (Sovereign) bought the Daniel Robins tract of 333 acres, which had belonged originally to Samuel Johnson. This land located in the area called Flocktown in Morris Co. near Schooley’s Mountain.” Daniel Robins settled in Amwell Township.

Note: early in my research, I confused the property described in this survey with 333 acres that Daniel Robins owned in Amwell Township. The Amwell property is a completely different 333 acres, and is well described and documented by Hunterdon County historian Marfy Goodspeed in her article The Two Taverns at Robins Hill.

Additional details about the Lebanon Township / Flocktown property that Joshua Robins mortgaged in 1737:

It is located in present-day Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey.
It was adjacent to Joseph Pidgeon and Benjamin Wright when Pidgeon’s property was surveyed in 1718. Joseph Pidgeon’s land sold in 1721 to Isaac Miranda. Benjamin Wright’s property was sold to John Eaton before 1761 and then to Matthias Thomas (year unknown).
Also adjacent is Samuel Furness’s property, which he bought in 1720 and which was later bought by Andreas Flock in 1773.

Many of Flock’s children went to Canada; a couple of his daughters were married to the Hansler brothers, Andrew and George Hansler, who had property dealings in Ontario with John (a son of Joshua Robins Jr.) and Daniel Robins (a son of “widow Sarah Robbins“).²

The property is roughly seven miles from Samuel Swayze’s burial location at Chester Congregational Cemetery. Samuel was the grandfather of several Swayzes who went to Ontario, including Mehitable (the second wife of Joshua Robbins Jr.), Mary and Israel (all children of Samuel’s son Israel), and Isaac (the son of Samuel’s son Caleb).

Chambers included a hand-drawn map of the area in his book: Chambers’s map (PDF).³ Here is a snippet. D. Robins’s property is under the “OWN” in FLOCKTOWN.

Detail of Theodore Chambers's 1895 hand-drawn map of Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey, showing D. Robins's property beneath the word FLOCKTOWN. — Detail from Chambers’s map of Washington Township, Morris County. D. Robins’s property lies under the “OWN” in FLOCKTOWN. Click the map to open it at full size.

Detail from Chambers’s map of Washington Township, Morris County. D. Robins’s property lies under the “OWN” in FLOCKTOWN.

1737–1750: Joshua’s mortgage

Joshua’s mortgage on this property survives in the Hunterdon County Loan Office’s 1737 mortgage register, now at the New Jersey State Archives. The register has two parts: a printed indenture with a record of payments, and the clerk’s handwritten minute copy.

1737. The clerk’s minute copy of mortgage No. 8, Hunterdon County Loan Office (New Jersey State Archives):⁴

Joshua Robins of the Township of Amwell Township in the County of Hunterdon Doth Convey by Deed of Mortgage for Consideration of Twenty Pounds to him in hand paid by the Commisioners of the Loan Office of the County of Hunterdon the following tract or parcel of Land Situate in the Township of Lebanon and County aforesaid and is butted and bounded as follows VIZ

Beginning at a White Oak tree Corner of Francis Davenport’s land and marked FD thence south Easterly thirty degrees and fifty six chains to a corner hickory tree marked DR thence North Easterly Sixty Degrees sixty three chains to a Corner black oak tree marked DR thence North Westerly thirty degrees fifty six chains to a corner maple tree marked IK thence South Westerly sixty degrees sixty three chains to the first mentioned corner containing three hundred and thirty three acres. In witness whereof I have hereunto Set my hand The Twenty fifth day of March Anno Domini 1737.

Joshua Robins

Signed in the presence of James Neilson, Job Robins

The signature of Joshua Robins on his 25 March 1737 Hunterdon County Loan Office mortgage. — Joshua Robins’s signature on the 1737 mortgage.

1737–1750. The mortgage register, No. 8 (New Jersey State Archives). (The first page of this record is a printed form repeating the specifics of the agreement and property description and providing the terms of the mortgage.) The annual interest payments run as follows:⁵

Hunterdon April 27th 1738 — Joshua Robins paid the sum of Two pounds five shillings being part of Twenty pounds. Interest due thereon for one year.

Hunterdon March 27th 1739 — Two pounds three shillings and nine pence.

Hunterdon April the 29th 1740 — Two pounds two shillings and six pence.

April 30th 1741 — Two pounds one shilling and three pence.

Hunterdon April 6th 1742 — forty shillings.

April the 28th 1743 — thirty eight shillings and nine pence.

Hunterdon April 26th 1744 — thirty seven shillings and six pence.

Hunterdon April 24th 1745 — Thirty six shillings and three pence.

Hunterdon April 24th 1746 — Thirty five shillings.

Hunterdon April 30th 1747 — Thirty three shillings and nine pence.

Hunterdon April 26th 1748 — Joshua Robins by Job Robins paid the sum of Thirty two shillings and six pence.

Hunterdon April 27th 1749 — Joshua Robins by Job Robins paid the sum of Thirty shillings and three pence.

Hunterdon April 26th 1750 — Thirty shillings.

Each entry records interest due for one year on the principal of twenty pounds. See all three pages of Joshua Robins’s mortgage (PDF, New Jersey State Archives).

The other Robins mortgages of 25 March 1737

Joshua’s mortgage was one of several made by Daniel Robins’s heirs at the Hunterdon Loan Office. The mortgages in the Loan Office’s 1737 register that I have examined are all dated 25 March 1737, and James Neilson witnessed all of them. So the date and his signature do not show which borrowers came in together. The numbering and the second witness do.

Job Robins witnessed four consecutive mortgages, Nos. 7 through 10: Emanuel Coryell’s, Joshua’s, Amos Thatcher’s, and Elisha’s.⁶ The borrowers at a sitting often witnessed for each other, and Emanuel Coryell had himself witnessed No. 6, so Job’s signature on Coryell’s mortgage does not by itself show any family tie. Isaac came in separately. He witnessed Aaron Seyock’s mortgage, No. 19,⁷ and then made his own, No. 20, which was witnessed by Jacobus Kinney.

Isaac Robins, No. 20. Isaac mortgaged 200 acres in Amwell Township, bounded by land of Larrowes and Thomas Kitchen on the west, Governor Penn on the north, Thomas Hunt and Nathaniel Pettit on the east, and John Hadden on the south. The mortgage describes the land as “being part & parcel of a larger tract of land formerly surveyed for said John Hadden being the plantation that Daniel Robins dec[ease]d Father to the aforesaid Isaac Robins formerly lived upon.”⁸ This is the record that shows Daniel was dead by March 1737.

Elisha Robins, No. 10. Elisha mortgaged 100 acres in Amwell, a “messuage and plantation,” beginning “at a stone being a corner of Samuel Green’s land in Medcalf’s line.”⁹

Amos Thatcher, No. 9. Amos Thatcher mortgaged 100 acres in Amwell. His land began “at a stone for a corner in Samuel Green’s line of his land bought of Daniel Robins dec[ease]d,” ran along Green’s line to a corner of Job Robins’s land, then to John Lewis’s land, and closed “by the remaining part of Elisha Robins’s land.”¹⁰

Taken together, these mortgages look like a division of Daniel’s land among his heirs. Isaac had the home plantation. Elisha and Amos Thatcher had adjoining parcels next to Job. Joshua had the Lebanon tract. Samuel Green had bought part of Daniel’s land before Daniel died.

Sketch of the 1737 Elisha Robins and Amos Thatcher parcels in Amwell Township, drawn from their mortgage courses. — Sketch of the Elisha Robins (No. 10) and Amos Thatcher (No. 9) parcels in Amwell Township, drawn from the courses in their 25 March 1737 mortgages. Neighbors are shown only where the mortgages name them. The block has not been located on a modern map.

Why would Amos Thatcher’s land have been part of the same block as Elisha Robins’s land? I believe Amos was married to Daniel’s daughter Lydia, and that his parcel was her share. When Isaac Robins made his will on 1 April 1741, he named his wife and “friends Job Robins and Amos Thatcher” as executors, and one of the witnesses was Lydia Thatcher.¹¹ Other researchers have identified Amos’s wife as Lydia Prall. I have not seen the evidence for that identification, and I have not found a record of the marriage itself, so this remains a theory. It is also possible that Amos simply bought part of Elisha’s land.

1741: Maidenhead Township tax list

Joshua, Job, and John Robins appear on a tax list in Maidenhead Township. Job and John are believed to be two of Joshua’s brothers. Job was also a witness to Joshua’s mortgage in 1737, and it appears he might have paid Joshua’s mortgage in 1748 and 1749.¹²

Maidenhead Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey tax lists:

Job Robins
John Robins
Joshua Robins

Today Maidenhead is Lawrenceville, New Jersey, in Mercer County, halfway between Princeton and Trenton. Lawrenceville was founded as Maidenhead in 1697, as part of Burlington County in the colony of West Jersey. In 1714 the village became part of Hunterdon County. It remained in Hunterdon until Mercer County was created in 1838. In 1798 the New Jersey Legislature legally incorporated the Township of Maidenhead. In the 1800s the name was changed to Lawrenceville.¹³

1747: arrested with a counterfeiting ring

The next record I found for a Joshua was in 1747, when he was arrested as part of a large counterfeiting ring in Morris County. But similarly to the 1741 Maidenhead tax list, it’s unclear who this Joshua is. The author describes that many were “young men.” The Joshua of this study would have been a man probably in his 30s or 40s–not a “young man.” From Colonial and Revolutionary Morris County by Theodore Thayer (Morris County Heritage Commission, 1975), page 115:¹⁴

When counterfeiting was rampant in Morris County, it was difficult to convict the perpetrators. Many of the counterfeiters were popular young men with many influential relatives and friends. Furthermore, many of the inhabitants did not look upon the crime as inimical to their interests; rather, they viewed the actions of the counterfeiters as clever and smart. In fact, to perhaps the great majority, the counterfeiters were popular heroes. They did not perceive the great harm which this form of lawbreaking could cause to a community.

As early as 1744 there were several indictments against counterfeiters for altering paper money, but no arrests appear to have been made. Then in 1747, a whole ring of counterfeiters and passers of counterfeit bills were arrested and jailed. The number and good station in life of most of the men reveal the prevailing disposition toward counterfeiting. The names of the arrested were: Timothy Conner, Seth Hall, Jonathan Hathaway, John Pipes, Job Allen, Andrew Morrison, Abraham Southerd, Samuel Blackford, Sylvanus Totten, and David Brant, all of Morristown. In addition there were Abraham Hathaway, Jacobus Vanetta, John McNeal, Joshua Robins, Abraham Anderson, Robert Livingston, Court Timery, and Isaac Woortman. Through the laxity of Sheriff Caleb Fairchild, all the prisoners broke jail and escaped to the homes of friends and relatives. Governor Jonathan Belcher and his Council agreed that counterfeiters could not be convicted in Morris County and proposed that henceforth they be removed from the county for trial. The Assembly, however, disagreed, and the proposal was dropped. Chief Justice Robert Hunter Morris wanted Sheriff Fairchild prosecuted for allowing the prisoners to escape but no action was taken.

It was not until the Court of Oyer and Terminer was established in Morris County in 1750, with Chief Justice Nevill presiding, that some of the counterfeiters were again arrested and brought to trial. David Brant was found guilty, fined L25, jailed for three months, and put on good behavior for seven years. Ebenezer David was fined L5, ordered to stand in the pillory one hour, jailed for six months, and put on good behavior for nine years. Jeremiah Wright received a fine of L10 for assisting the counterfeiters and was put on good behavior for seven years. Finally, Peter Salter was fined twenty shillings and put on good behavior for two years for counterfeiting pieces of eight. These sentences were light; after all, the law prescribed the death penalty for counterfeiters.

It was not until 1752 that the county had another session of the Oyer and Terminer Court. This time nine persons were charged with assisting counterfeiters. The culprits, almost all of whom had been indicted in 1747, were Abraham Hathaway, Jonathan Hathaway, Job Allen, Andrew Morrison, John Pipes, Timothy Comer, Sylvanus Totten, Seth Hall, and Samuel Blackford. The Court, perhaps for lack of evidence, decided not to try the men at the time. They were all released in their own recognizance and ordered to appear at the next court. When it met again in September 1753, the men simply were given small fines on charges of misdemeanor and dismissed.

Although the punishments handed down by the Court in 1750 and 1753 were light, the actions of the Court were such that counterfeiting did not again appear in Morris County for nearly twenty years.

1749: Joshua and Elisha Robins in the Dansbury Diaries

The Moravian minister Sven Roseen kept a diary of his travels through northwestern New Jersey in 1749. The area was then part of Greenwich Township, Morris County. It became Hardwick Township in 1750 and part of Sussex County in 1753.

On 29 March 1749, Roseen was at the house of Joseph Matt, near the Pequest. He asked about a more direct way north to Isaac Tietsoort’s place on the Walkill. Matt and his son-in-law, Jeremy Right, described the road by the houses along it:

From Jacob Mason’s place … to Robert Wilson, five miles, from Robert Wilson to Joseph Willets’, four miles, from Willets’ to Joshua Robins’, three miles, from Robins’ to the old road, four miles.¹⁵

Local men used Joshua’s house as a point on the road when they gave directions. That means he was settled there, and known in the neighborhood, by March 1749. This is ten years earlier than the 1759 petition, which had been my earliest record placing him in this part of New Jersey.

The Joseph Willets of these directions was almost certainly Joseph Willetts Jr. On 2 May 1750, he had 188.82 acres surveyed “on the North side of Paquass” (the Pequest), land he had bought from James Alexander.¹⁶ In 1751 he was one of four trustees, “all of Hardwick Township,” who received a four-acre lot from Thomas and Richard Penn for a Quaker meetinghouse.¹⁷ Joshua lived three road miles beyond Joseph Willetts, on the road north.

Three weeks earlier, on 9 March, Roseen held a meeting at the house of Captain Sam Green. He wrote that “Elisha Robins, a Quaker residing seven miles from Captain Green,” came to the meeting.¹⁸ I believe Captain Green was Samuel Green Sr., the surveyor, whose homestead by 1746 was just north of what became Johnsonburg, then called the Log Gaol.¹⁹ Roseen gives no direction for Elisha’s seven miles, so his house cannot be placed as closely as Joshua’s. Elisha was not one of the regular attendants. He was a Quaker who came to hear a Moravian preacher.

Putting these records together, Joshua lived on the road that ran between the upper Pequest and the Log Gaol, probably within a few miles of the Log Gaol. A map made about 1769 shows this road running east from the Log Gaol to Amos Pettit’s tavern and the upper Pequest.²⁰

Annotated detail of a 1769 manuscript map of northern New Jersey, marking the Log Gaol, the road east to Amos Pettit’s tavern, and the approximate Willetts land. — Annotated detail from *Three Maps of Northern New Jersey* ([1769?]), Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. The road from the Log Gaol (Johnsonburg) east to Amos Pettit’s tavern is the probable location of Joshua Robins’s house in 1749. Annotations added for this article.

Roseen’s distances are road miles, not straight-line distances, and neither Joseph Willetts’s land nor Jacob Mason’s house has been placed on a modern map yet. So the location of Joshua’s house is known only to within a few miles. Roseen also does not say what church Joshua belonged to, and his religious affiliation remains undocumented.

These records may also explain the mortgage payments above. In April 1748 and April 1749, Joshua’s interest was paid “by Job Robins” in Hunterdon. By then Joshua was living well to the north, and his brother may have paid on his behalf. Elisha paid off his own Amwell mortgage in full on 30 April 1747,²¹ which fits a move north before Roseen found him there in 1749.

1752: sale to Jonathan Pettit

On 30 June 1752, Joshua Robins sold a lot of five and a half acres in Hardwick to Jonathan Pettit. I have not found the original deed. The sale is recited in a later deed from James Ludlum to William Armstrong, recorded in 1819, which conveys “part of a lot of five acres and a half conveyed by Joshua Robins to Jonathan Pettit by deed of indenture dated 30th day of June 1752,” beginning “at a large stone by the side of the great road.”²²

Jonathan Pettit was licensed to keep a tavern in his house at the Log Gaol as early as 1752, and the first courts of the new Sussex County met there in 1753.²³ So Joshua’s lot was at the center of what became the village of Johnsonburg. The deed does not say whether the lot was all the land Joshua owned there, or part of a larger holding.

1754: The King vs. Charles McConnell

In April 1754, Joshua Robins, his son Joshua Robins Jr., the wife of Elisha Robins (Mary), the daughter of Elisha Robins (Jane), and others were witnesses to the attack on a horse by Charles McConnell in Newtown, Sussex County, New Jersey:²⁴

Sussex May Session 1754

The King vs Charles McConnell

The Defendt Being Charged with this Indictment pleads Not Guilty

? Harrell — file May 30th 1754 — Russell Clerk(?) — ? Billa Vora ? — William Scholey? Foreman

Evidence for the King: Elisha Robins’s wife; Joshua Robins; Elis. Robins’s daughter; Joshua Robins Jun.; Perkins (?) Lovell; Richd. Slough; Elisha Coller; Eliz. Hadly (?); Hazen

Province of New Jersey, County of Sussex

The Grand Inquest for our Sovereign Lord King for the Body of the County of Sussex Being (then and then) Duly Charged Sworn and Affirmed upon the Respective Oath and Affirmation of at least twelve honorable and Lawfull men of the said County, Do present That Charles McConnell late of New Town in the County of Sussex aforesaid yeoman Being a person of a Turbulant, Malitious, and Malevolent Principal and Disposition and Designing Contriving and <?> and Jonathan Smalley to prejudice and Injure the fifth day of April in the Twenty Seventh year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Second by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the faith. At New Town aforesaid in the County of Sussex aforesaid and within the jurisdiction of this Court a Certain Roan Coloured Mare the property of the aforesaid Jonathan Smalley (then and there) <missing> with a certain knife or some other sharp weapon, did <missing> unlawfully wickedly and maliciously (in the Belly of the said Mare) Stab, Cutt and wound, By which said <missing> to the great damage of the said Jonathan Smalley <missing> and most purnatious [pernicious?] Example of all others in such case Delinquent and against the peace of our said Sovereign Lord the King that nowis his Crown and Dignity.

Harrell, AS Genl.

This record places both Joshua Robins [Sr.] and Joshua Robins Jr. in Newtown, Sussex County, in 1754. Since Joshua and his brother Elisha were already living in this part of the county by 1749 (see above), they were most likely witnesses as local residents, not visitors. Elisha Robins was another brother of Joshua.

Additional details about this incident were mentioned on a web page written by a descendant of Samuel Hazen:

The name of Samuel Hazen is the first of the family to have been found in New Jersey records. In an old volume at Newton appears this record: “At a court of General Sessions of the Peace held at Hardwick, County of Sussex, on the Third Tuesday in February in the year of our Lord one Thousand seven hundred and fifty five and in the Twenty eighth year of his Majesty’s Reign — The King vs. Charles McConnell — Indictment for misdemeanor. The attorney general opened the cause — and the following Evidences pro Rege — Mary Robins, Jane Robins, Joshua Robins, Saml. Hazen, Thomas Wolverton.”

Soon after this date, the names of Thomas and Daniel Hazen appear in the same book of court records, and in 1778 the name of Nathaniel Hazen [son of John]. This corroborates the general tradition among their descendants that three or four brothers came from Connecticut to New Jersey at about the same time. The only known child of Samuel is his son Samuel.

I haven’t been able to find the specific record described here that names Mary Robins and Jane Robins. The copy I have only says “Elisha Robins’ wife” and “Elisha Robins’ daughter.”

See King vs. Charles McConnell (PDF).

1759: the Belcher petition

A few years later, on 15 May 1759, Joshua Robins and Elisha Robins of Sussex County were among names on a petition to Governor Jonathan Belcher and Council “from the inhabitants of Sussex County, on a frontier of the province next to Pennsylvania, asking that greater efforts be made to defend the province against the French and Indians.”²⁵

To me these signatures look like they were made by the same person. Perhaps one of them signed both names?

To see the entire petition with all signatures, see the Belcher petition, 1759 (PDF).

This petition fits with the 1749 diary entry and the 1752 deed. Joshua Robins Sr. and his family, which included sons Daniel and Joshua Jr., had been living in this area, then part of Morris County, since at least 1749.

1759–1760: Robins and Roberts

Also in May 1759, Joshua Robins was in a Sussex County court case, Daniel Roberts vs. Joshua Robbins,²⁶ and in another in July or August 1760, Joshua Robins vs. Daniel Roberts.²⁷ These cases were for money each said the other owed him.

1766: “late of Hunterdon”

Hunterdon miscellaneous court records, Joshua Robbins, 1766, file #29958:²⁸

1766 Joshua Robbins late of Hunterdon, appear at court in Trenton 1st Feb next (1767?)

Answer to assignees of Henry Snyder an insolvent debtor (Daniel Casse? and Thomas Lowry) a plea of trespass of the case to their damage of 18 pounds proclamation money. Witness William Morris, Esq judge of said court at Trenton, 23rd Oct fifth year of our reign.

The fact that Joshua is referred to as “late of Hunterdon” but is still living — as is apparent from the judge’s request that the sheriff find and bring Joshua to the court — seems to indicate that Joshua had once lived in Hunterdon but no longer did. This makes sense given that other records place him in the Hardwick area from at least 1749.

1775: witness to the will of Samuel Green

In February 1775, Joshua Robins witnessed the will of Samuel Green of Knowlton, Sussex County. This is Joshua Robins Sr.’s signature:²⁹

1775, Feb. 6. Green, Samuel, of Knowlton, Sussex Co., yeoman; will of. Wife, Abig’ail Green, all personal, while my widow. Eldest son, Daniel Nicholas Green, ½ of my land. Son, Samuel Thomas Green, the other ½. Daughter, Ann, 200 acres in Oxford Township. Executors — wife, Abigail, and son, Samuel Thomas Green. Witnesses — Joshua Robins, Richard Shackleton, Andrew Whitsal. Proved May 22, 1775.

1775, May 11. Inventory, £726.6.1, made by Richard Shackleton and Andrew Whitsal. Lib. 17, p. 224.

Final page of the 1775 will of Samuel Green of Knowlton, Sussex County, New Jersey, signed by Samuel Green and witnessed by Joshua Robins, Richard Shackleton, and Andrew Whitsal. — Joshua Robins’s signature witnessing the 1775 will of Samuel Green.

This Samuel Green was John Samuel Green, the eldest son of Samuel Green Sr. I believe he is the “young Sam Green” of Roseen’s 1749 diary. Andrew Whitsal, another witness, was his son-in-law, Andrew Whitesell, the husband of his daughter Margaret.³⁰

Note that Richard Shackleton signed this will alongside Joshua Robins. That is worth keeping in mind when reading the next section.

1775: a will that may or may not exist

One of the most frustrating mentions of Joshua Robins in a record is a statement on page 90 of The Shackletons, a book about the genealogy of Richard Shackleton written by Bernice Close Shackelton and published in 1972. It states that Richard witnessed the will of Joshua Robbins:³¹

The passage in The Shackletons (1972), page 90.

Unfortunately, there is no source for this statement.

I contacted a Shackleton researcher, Mary Shackleton, and she was also at a loss to find a source for it. I also contacted the New Jersey State Archives, and the archivist looked in all the places she could think of but could not find a will for Joshua Robbins. The places looked were:

New Jersey, Published Archives Series, First Series
Index of wills, inventories, etc. in the Office of the Secretary of State prior to 1901 (1912)
Unindexed wills of Sussex County, 1784–1820

So did Ms. Shackleton make a mistake? Or did a Joshua Robins will exist that is now missing?

The volunteer at the New Jersey State Archives did say that there are a few collections of wills that cannot be searched — Colonial Non-New Jersey, Closed, and Conserved:

Some of the original files, now at the New Jersey State Archives, have been “closed” to public access due to their poor condition.
Some of the original files have received “conservation treatment” due to their prior poor condition.
There are a few “Colonial non-New Jersey” wills that were recorded with the New Jersey Secretary of State’s Office, which are listed in volume 3 of this published set. [See volume 3, “Addenda,” pp. 1449–1452. Volume 3 also contains the listing for Sussex County Wills & Inventories, pp. 1294–1343.]

So for now, if a will of Joshua Robbins exists, I haven’t found it. If someone out there finds it, I hope they’ll contact me.

Source citations

Robins, Robbins of New Jersey. Taylor and Hoffman, 2006. ↩
1810 April 9, #3050: John Robbins and Tabitha his wife to George Hainsler, 100 acres, south end Wainfleet lot 31, 5th concession. Source: Land Records of Welland Co., Wainfleet Township, v. A–B, Old Series (31-13088, 41-9463), 1797–1847. Family History Library microfilm 170985. — 1814 Dec 2, #5408: Daniel Robins of Thorold and Mary his wife sell to George Hansel of Pelham, N 1/2 lot 32, 5th concession in Wainfleet, 100 acres. Source: images.ourontario.ca — an indenture of land sold from Daniel Robins of Thorold to George Hansil of Pelham for Lot 32 (100 acres) in the 5th Concession of the Township of Wainfleet. ↩
Chambers, Theodore Frelinghuysen (1849–1916). The early Germans of New Jersey: their history, churches, and genealogies. Published 1895. ↩
Joshua Robins, mortgage No. 8, 25 March 1737. Hunterdon County, Loan Office, Mortgage Registers and Ledgers, 1733–ca. 1787: 1737 Mortgage Register Minute Copy. New Jersey State Archives (CHNLO001). Digital image. ↩
Joshua Robins, mortgage No. 8, printed indenture and payment record, 1737–1750. Hunterdon County, Loan Office, Mortgage Registers and Ledgers, 1733–ca. 1787: 1737 Mortgage Register. New Jersey State Archives (CHNLO001); digital image, see note 4. ↩
Emanuel Coryell, mortgage No. 7, and William Schooley, mortgage No. 6, 25 March 1737. Hunterdon County, Loan Office, Mortgage Registers and Ledgers, 1733–ca. 1787: 1737 Mortgage Register and 1737 Mortgage Register Minute Copy. New Jersey State Archives (CHNLO001), digital images (No. 7). ↩
Aaron Seyock, mortgage No. 19, 25 March 1737. Hunterdon County, Loan Office, Mortgage Registers and Ledgers, 1733–ca. 1787: 1737 Mortgage Register and 1737 Mortgage Register Minute Copy. New Jersey State Archives (CHNLO001). ↩
Isaac Robins, mortgage No. 20, 25 March 1737. Hunterdon County, Loan Office, Mortgage Registers and Ledgers, 1733–ca. 1787: 1737 Mortgage Register and 1737 Mortgage Register Minute Copy. New Jersey State Archives (CHNLO001), digital images. ↩
Elisha Robins, mortgage No. 10, 25 March 1737. Hunterdon County, Loan Office, Mortgage Registers and Ledgers, 1733–ca. 1787: 1737 Mortgage Register and 1737 Mortgage Register Minute Copy. New Jersey State Archives (CHNLO001), digital images. ↩
Amos Thatcher, mortgage No. 9, 25 March 1737. Hunterdon County, Loan Office, Mortgage Registers and Ledgers, 1733–ca. 1787: 1737 Mortgage Register and 1737 Mortgage Register Minute Copy. New Jersey State Archives (CHNLO001), digital images. ↩
1741, April 1. Robins, Isaac, of Hunterdon Co.; will of. Proved Oct. 22, 1741. Lib. E, p. 368; inventory, 13 Oct. 1741, Lib. 4, p. 322. Abstract in New Jersey Archives, 1st series, vol. 30 (Abstracts of Wills, vol. 2, 1730–1750), p. 402. Digital image, Ancestry, “New Jersey, U.S., Abstract of Wills, 1670–1817.” ↩
Ancestry.com. New Jersey, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1643–1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 1999. Original data: Jackson, Ronald V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp., New Jersey Census, 1643–1890. ↩
Maidenhead history, in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. ↩
Thayer, Theodore. Colonial and Revolutionary Morris County. Morris County Heritage Commission, 1975. ↩
Schwarze, William N., and Ralf Ridgway Hillman, translators and editors. The Dansbury Diaries: Moravian Travel Diaries, 1748–1755, of the Reverend Sven Roseen and Others in the Area of Dansbury, Now Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Picton Press, 1994. Page 75, entry for 29 March 1749. ↩
Survey for Joseph Willetts Jr., 188.82 acres, 2 May 1750. General Board of Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey, Surveys and Warrants, Survey/Warrant Book S3, folio 31. New Jersey State Archives (PEASJ003). ↩
Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, by their attorneys Richard Peters and Lynford Lardner, to Samuel Schooley, Samuel Willson Jr., Joseph Willets, and Joseph Lundy, trustees, 25 March 1751; recorded 22 June 1815. Sussex County, New Jersey, Deeds 1815–1816, pages 206–210. Sussex County Clerk’s Office. Digital image, FamilySearch, DGS 007896857, image 129 of 306. ↩
Schwarze and Hillman, The Dansbury Diaries, page 65, entry for 9 March 1749 (Elisha Robins at Captain Green’s). See note 15. ↩
Johnsonburg Historic District, Warren County, New Jersey. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPGallery. ↩
Three Maps [i.e. Map on 3 Sheets] of Northern New Jersey, with Reference to the Boundary between New York and New Jersey. Manuscript map, [1769?]. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, G3811.F7 1769 .T5. https://lccn.loc.gov/gm71000590. ↩
Elisha Robins, mortgage No. 10, payment entries 1738–1747. See note 9. ↩
James Ludlum to William Armstrong, deed dated 22 May 1794; acknowledged 24 November 1818; recorded 2 February 1819. Sussex County, New Jersey, Deeds 1818–1819, page 288. Sussex County Clerk’s Office. Digital image, FamilySearch, DGS 008355644, image 174 of 255. ↩
Johnsonburg Historic District registration form. See note 19. ↩
Joshua Robins [Sr.] and Joshua Robins Jr., witnesses in “The King vs. Charles McConnell.” New Jersey State Archives, Sussex County Court of Common Pleas, Indictments series 1754–1936, 1754–1778, Box 1. ↩
Joshua Robins and Elisha Robins among names on petition to New Jersey Governor Belcher from the inhabitants of Sussex County, dated 1759. Manuscript Collection–SAH: Oversized (New Jersey State Archives), Box 1-41, folder 5. ↩
Daniel Roberts vs. Joshua Robbins. Sussex County Court of Common Pleas, Case Files, Box 3. ↩
Joshua Robbins vs. Daniel Roberts. Sussex County Court of Common Pleas, Case Files, Box 3. ↩
Joshua Robbins, 1766, file no. 29958. Hunterdon New Jersey, Misc. court records, loans, etc., no. 29780–30090, 1713–1860. Family History Library microfilm 819087. ↩
Samuel Green, 1775. Volume XXXIV, New Jersey Abstracts of Wills, 1771–1780. ↩
Goodspeed, Marfy. “The Green Family Tree.” Goodspeed Histories, 3 April 2018. https://goodspeedhistories.com/the-green-family/. ↩
Shackelton, Bernice Close. The Shackletons, a book about the genealogy of Richard Shackleton. 1972, pages 88 and 90. ↩

John Smith Sr of Sussex County, New Jersey and New Brunswick, Canada

John Smith Sr. was likely born about 1730.¹ He was a Loyalist associated with Sussex County, New Jersey, during the American Revolution, and he died in New Brunswick, Canada sometime before 3 March 1797.² The name of his wife has not yet been identified.

This is the first post in a series about this family. It introduces John Smith Sr., the children who can be identified from the surviving records, and the evidence connecting them across New Jersey and Upper Canada. A later post will examine the military evidence in detail, and another will address the several men named John Smith in Sussex County.

At least six of his children can be reconstructed from records created in New Jersey and Upper Canada: Eleanor, John, Mary, Elizabeth, David, and Cornelia Smith. Several Upper Canada land petitions identify him as John Smith, deceased, a U.E. Loyalist; some add that he served in the Jersey Volunteers or died in New Brunswick. Later probate and land records connect the children to one another and extend the family into another generation.³

Before members of the family began moving to Upper Canada, their documented home was Sussex County, New Jersey, probably in or near Oxford Township. Eleanor’s first husband, David Young, died there in 1780, and his probate record identifies him as a resident of Oxford Township. The younger children David and Cornelia Smith were still in Sussex County when they married there in 1796 and 1798, respectively.⁴

A John Smith appears in the 1773 tax ratables for Oxford Township, alongside Thompson Smith, Peter Smith, Moses Smith, and Christopher Smith. The other John Smiths in the surviving Sussex County ratables of that period were assessed in Montague and Knowlton townships.⁵

The Children of John Smith Sr.

Eleanor Smith

Eleanor Smith was born about 1758.⁶ She married David Young of Oxford Township, Sussex County, New Jersey. After David’s death, she married Robert Thompson before 1797.⁷

David Young died intestate by 1780; his estate was inventoried in Oxford Township on 31 August 1780.⁸

In March 1797, Eleanor petitioned the government of Upper Canada for land. Her petition material identified her as Eleanor Smith, daughter of John Smith, and described her as formerly the wife of David Young and the current wife of Robert Thompson. Supporting evidence stated that her father had joined the Royal Standard and had died in New Brunswick.⁹

No children were named in David Young’s probate papers; however, Eleanor and David appear to have had at least one child, a son named David, who later appears in records in Ontario, Canada.¹⁰

A 4 September 1830 petition from inhabitants of Pelham Township describes David Young as a long-standing, industrious resident who had been clearing and improving Lot 5 in the Seventh Concession since 1824. Joseph C. Price and John Smith were among the men who signed in his support. The petition does not identify David Young’s parents, and the identity of the John Smith who signed is not independently established; it is nevertheless the one located Ontario record that places David Young within the Smith–Price friends, associates, and neighbors (FAN) network.¹¹

Eleanor and Robert Thompson later had at least seven children: James, John, Jane, Andrew Heron, Alexander Garner, Ann, and Robert Jr. Eleanor appears to have died before 17 October 1822, the date of Robert’s will. She is not named in it, although the will carefully names the children and makes provisions for unmarried women in the household.¹²

Robert’s will names his eldest son James; his second son John; his sons Robert and Andrew Heron Thompson; his son Alexander Garner Thompson; and his daughters Jane McClelland and Ann Thompson. It also mentions Catharine London in a provision allowing her and Ann to use a room in the house while they remained single, but the text does not clearly identify Catharine as Robert’s daughter, so she is not included in the seven-child count.¹³

The distinctive name Alexander Garner may have honored Eleanor’s brother-in-law, Alexander Garner/Gardiner, the husband of her sister Mary Smith.¹⁴

John Smith Jr.

John Smith Jr. was born about 1760 and died between 22 August 1844 and 24 January 1845 in Pelham Township, Welland County, Canada West.¹⁵

On 2 January 1804, while living in Gainsborough Township, he petitioned the government of Upper Canada for land. He said that he had served in the Jersey Volunteers during the American Revolution and that his deceased father, also John Smith, was a U.E. Loyalist who likewise served in the Jersey Volunteers. At that time, John had a wife and six children; his wife’s name has not yet been identified.¹⁶

Later records clarify his position in this family. His sister Mary Smith Gardner’s land descended to a nephew identified as the eldest son and heir at law of her deceased eldest brother, John Smith of Pelham Township.¹⁷ John’s 1844 will styles him “John Smith Senr.” and names his eldest son John. The later use of Senior is compatible with a man called Junior earlier in life who eventually had an adult son of the same name.¹⁸

The petition was rejected. An annotation reveals the same identity problem faced by researchers today: “The Name John Smith of the Home District appears Three times on the U.E. List.” The name alone was not enough.¹⁹

The UE list actually yields four relevant entries when the man separately styled John Smith, Senr. is included. The annotation appears to have counted only the three entries recorded under the exact name John Smith.

This same-name problem makes it necessary to compare the men rather than assume that any one U.E.-list entry belonged to the Oxford family.²⁰

U.E.-list entry	Identifying evidence	Why it does or does not fit
John Smith “who died at Brunswick”²¹	U.E. entry associated with New Jersey and 1777. Eleanor’s petition identifies her father as a Loyalist who died in New Brunswick; Mary’s petition and the certificate annexed to Elizabeth’s describe him as deceased without naming a place; John Jr. stated that both he and his deceased father served in the Jersey Volunteers.	Best fit for the elder Oxford/Sussex John Smith and the father of the reconstructed Gainsborough–Pelham family.
John Smith, Senr., of Grand River²²	Formerly of Dutchess County, New York; came in 1786 with a wife and nine children. His petitions name sons William, John, and Joseph and daughters Eleanor, Hannah, Elizabeth, Lydia, and Anna.	A separate large family. It cannot be the Oxford father, who was deceased by March 1797 and reportedly died in New Brunswick.
John Smith of Niagara; 78th and 84th Regiments²³	Reported service with the 78th Regiment at Quebec and later with the 84th Regiment; associated with Niagara.	His regimental history does not match the Jersey Volunteers service claimed by John Jr. for himself and his father.
John Smith of the Head of the Lake²⁴	The Grimsby Lot 16–Ancaster settler who said in 1793 that he arrived in 1788; his petition names sons Benjamin, Stephen, and John. Descendant accounts call him “Little John” and identify his wife as Anna Roy.	His Canadian land history is distinct from both the Oxford family and John Smith, cooper, on adjoining Grimsby Lot 17. His alleged Sussex County origin remains unproved.

The four entries therefore cannot be treated as interchangeable appearances of the same name. Only the “died at Brunswick” entry agrees with the father’s reported place of death, while the Gainsborough–Pelham petitioner uniquely combines Jersey Volunteers service with a deceased father of the same name who also served. The New Jersey senior–junior evidence, Oxford network, and petitions of the children complete a family pattern not reproduced by the other U.E.-list candidates.

John Smith Jr.’s 1804 petition stated that he had a wife and six children. Four of those children can presently be identified with varying degrees of confidence. John and James are directly named as sons in John Jr.’s 1844 will. Mary and Anna are not named directly as John’s daughters; their identifications rest on cumulative family-network and household evidence.²⁵

Mary Smith, born about 1787;²⁶ married Joseph Carter Price before about 1807;²⁷ died 4 January 1862 at Fonthill, Welland County, Canada West.²⁸
John Smith, born about 1794;²⁹ married Catharine Schram, daughter of John Schram of Pelham, by July 1819;³⁰ died 9 January 1863 in Pelham Township.³¹
James Snyder Smith, born about 1795; he may have had a son named William or Willson, born about 1839, although that identification remains tentative.³²
Anna Smith, born about 1800;³³ married a George Clark of Thorold and was later known as Anna Clark.³⁴ She had at least three sons identified in the surviving records: John Clark, Richard Clark, and Nelson Clark—and possibly one daughter, Christeen.

Mary Smith’s identification is circumstantial, but the evidence forms a substantial family pattern. Her husband, Joseph C. Price, appears in several records with John Smith, and their sons included John Smith Price and David Smith Price. The 1862 probate of Mary Price the Elder identifies David Smith Price and Mary Price the younger as her children. A related 1868 land record identifies John Smith Price as Mary Price the Elder’s son and names his brothers and sisters; it also states that he died intestate without surviving children. These records establish the Price family structure directly, but no located record states that Mary Smith Price was John Smith Jr.’s daughter. I nevertheless believe that she was, based on the cumulative evidence.³⁵

Anna’s identification rests on a particularly meaningful household connection. In the 1851 census of Gainsborough Township, James Smith was enumerated in the same household as Ann Clark, William Smith, and Richard Clark. The enumerator recorded James as a widower, as blind, and as born in the United States; Ann is recorded as born in Canada. A blind widower in his fifties sharing a house with a widowed sister and her nearly grown son is an arrangement families made, and the surnames, the birthplaces, and the composition of the household together support identifying James Smith as James Snyder Smith and Ann Clark as Anna Smith, after her marriage to George Clark. Richard Clark’s presence is consistent with his being Anna’s son. The census does not state that James and Ann were siblings, and its entries for Ann’s age and marital status are demonstrably wrong, so this remains circumstantial evidence rather than direct proof.³⁶

The 1861 census of Bayham Township, Elgin County, places John Clark, age forty-one, Mary Clark, age thirty-one, and an older “A. Clark,” age sixty-five, in the same household, along with George, William, and Mary J. Clark. This provides additional household evidence for identifying John Clark as another of Anna’s sons, although the census records only the older woman’s initial.³⁷

Nelson Clark’s later death certificate names Anna Smith as his mother and leaves his father unidentified, providing independent support for the identification of Anna Clark as Anna Smith. Taken together, these records make Anna a strong working identification as one of John Smith Jr.’s daughters and support the identification of three sons: John, Richard, and Nelson Clark.³⁸

One additional possibility is worth preserving for future research: the 1851 Gainsborough census lists Christeen Clark, age twenty-two, in the household of Joseph Snyder. Her age is consistent with a possible daughter of Anna and George born about 1829, but no located record connects her directly to them.³⁹

The Snyder household may also be relevant to the unexplained middle name Snyder in James Snyder Smith’s name, although there is presently no direct evidence that John Smith Jr.’s wife was a Snyder. This is a research lead, not an identified child.

Mary Smith

Mary Smith was born 2 October 1766 and died at the Town of Niagara, Canada West, on 11 June 1845. She was buried in St. Mark’s churchyard.⁴⁰

Mary was unmarried and thirty years old when she petitioned for land on 11 March 1797 as a daughter of John Smith, deceased, a U.E. Loyalist. Her petition register entry directly connects her application to her sister Eleanor’s household. Mary Smith and Eleanor Thompson appear consecutively in the register, and the “By Whom” column for Mary’s petition names Robert Thompson, Eleanor’s husband.⁴¹

Mary’s claim succeeded. On 30 June 1801 the Crown patented to her the whole of Lot 12 in the 14th Concession of Burford Township, containing two hundred acres. She retained the property throughout her life.⁴²

Between 1801 and 1824 Mary married Alexander Gardner or Gardiner of Niagara, a native of Perthshire and master mason in the Royal Engineer Department.⁴³ Alexander died in 1824 at age sixty-five.⁴⁴ Mary survived him by twenty-one years and appears to have left no children.⁴⁵

Mary died intestate with a substantial personal estate. On 1 November 1845 administration was granted to David Smith of Gainsborough, identified as her brother and only surviving brother.⁴⁶

Her Burford land descended separately; the later memorials identify the deceased John Smith of Pelham Township as Mary’s eldest brother and John’s son John as his eldest son and heir at law.⁴⁷

Elizabeth Smith

Elizabeth Smith was born about 14 April 1769 and died 23 January 1823.⁴⁸ The date of birth is calculated from the age recorded in a gravestone inscription; the cemetery location has not been independently verified. She married Robert Camp, whose surname also appears as Kemp. They were in Upper Canada by 1792 with two children.⁴⁹

In a petition dated 25 April 1797, Robert Kemp petitioned for land on behalf of his wife, Elizabeth. He stated that he had come into Upper Canada in 1792 with a wife and two children, that he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of John Smith, a U.E. Loyalist, and that Elizabeth had never received land. He asked that she be granted 200 acres as the daughter of a Loyalist. The Clerk of the Sessions at Newark annexed a certificate to the petition describing Elizabeth as the daughter of John Smith, deceased, and stating that the justices were satisfied he had adhered to the Unity of the Empire and joined the Royal Standard in America before 1783. The certificate does not say where he died. It adds that Elizabeth then had three children, two of them born before 1789. The petition succeeded: a warrant for 200 acres was granted on 12 May 1797.⁵⁰

David Smith

David Smith was born 14 March 1775 and died 29 August 1861 in Gainsborough Township, Lincoln County, Canada West.⁵¹

He married Mary Kennedy in Sussex County on 21 January 1796. The marriage entry states that they were married “with the Consent of both their Parents being present.” The wording indicates that a parent or surviving parent for each party was present and consented to the marriage, but it does not identify those parents. It therefore does not establish whether David’s father, John Smith Sr., was still living in January 1796.⁵²

David later stated that he came from New Jersey to Upper Canada in 1800. In 1804 he petitioned for land as a son of John Smith, deceased, a U.E. Loyalist who served in the Jersey Volunteers. David was then living in Gainsborough with a wife and five children. His claim, like his brother John’s, was rejected as “Not Privileged.”⁵³

David remained in Upper Canada. When Mary died in 1845, he was identified as her only surviving brother and served as administrator of her estate.

Cornelia Smith

Cornelia Smith was born about 1776⁵⁴ and died before 1819 in Upper Canada.⁵⁵ She married William Shingler in Sussex County on 22 March 1798.⁵⁶

No land petition has yet been located for Cornelia or William, but later records preserve their connection to the Smith family. William Shingler witnessed an 1805 Gainsborough deed involving his brother-in-law John Smith, and John’s 1844 will refers to a mortgage involving William Shingler Jr. Cornelia’s 1798 marriage also shows that members of the family remained in Sussex County after other siblings had begun establishing themselves in Upper Canada.⁵⁷

A later Michigan death record directly names Henry Shingler’s parents as William Shingler and Cornelia. Henry died in Genesee County, Michigan on 7 November 1870, aged 52 years, 11 months, and 21 days; that age calculates to a birth date of 16 November 1817. The record therefore provides direct evidence of at least one child of Cornelia and William and extends this Sussex County family into the next generation.⁵⁸

A Family That Moved in Stages

The records do not describe a household that simply moved together after the Revolution. Instead, the family dispersed and gradually reassembled in British North America. Elizabeth and Robert Kemp were in Upper Canada by about 1792. Eleanor and Mary were there by the later 1790s. Cornelia was still in Sussex County where she married in 1798. David said that he moved from New Jersey in 1800. John arrived sometime before his 1804 petition.

Their father followed a different path. All three of the daughters’ 1797 applications describe him as deceased — Eleanor’s and Mary’s in March, and the certificate annexed to Elizabeth’s in April — but Eleanor’s is the only one that reports where he died. An addenda sheet for the Home District U.E. list contains the unusually specific entry “Smith. John who died at Brunswick” followed by “New Jersey 1777.” The entry does not explain the significance of the year 1777. Nevertheless, its combination of New Jersey and a death in New Brunswick agrees with what Eleanor’s petition reports.⁵⁹

The Years Between 1783 and 1797

The surviving family records leave a significant gap in John Smith Sr.’s history. By 1797, his children described him as a Loyalist who had died in New Brunswick. They do not say when he arrived there, where he lived, what he did after the Revolution, or when he died. At present, his whereabouts between the end of the war in 1783 and the 1797 petitions remain unknown.⁶⁰

One record may narrow the question, but only slightly. When David Smith married Mary Kennedy in 1796, the entry stated that “both their parents” were present and consenting.⁶¹ The wording indicates parental participation on both sides of the marriage, but it does not identify the parents who attended. Nor does it necessarily mean that all four biological parents were alive and present. The record therefore should not be treated as proof that David’s father, John Smith Sr., was still living in 1796. It could have been his mother.

The family’s report that John died in New Brunswick is historically plausible. At the end of the Revolution, British military units and Loyalist refugees were evacuated from New York to British North America. Thousands arrived in 1783 in what was then Nova Scotia, particularly along the Saint John River and the Bay of Fundy. Veterans of the New Jersey Volunteers were among the Loyalists who received land or settled in the region. New Brunswick was created as a separate province the following year.⁶²

That larger migration explains how a Sussex County Loyalist might have reached New Brunswick, but it does not establish that John followed any particular regiment, transport, settlement party, or relative. Loyalists arrived as soldiers, discharged veterans, civilian refugees, dependents, laborers, and later migrants. Without a record naming this John Smith, the general history of the evacuation cannot fill the gap in his individual history.

Research in New Brunswick records has not yet produced a conclusive identification. The name John Smith appears repeatedly in Loyalist lists, land petitions, grants, military records, probate files, and local histories. Most of those occurrences contain too little identifying information to connect the man named with this family. A shared name, Loyalist status, or residence in New Brunswick is not enough, particularly when several unrelated men named John Smith were present in the province.

The New Brunswick search has not yet produced a document that connects any particular John Smith with the Sussex County associates, wife, children, occupation, or later Upper Canada family. Nor has a probate or land record been found that securely connects a New Brunswick John Smith with the children who later settled in Upper Canada. The search has therefore produced possibilities, but no identification strong enough to present as fact.⁶³

For now, the defensible conclusion is limited: the family’s 1797 records identify John Smith Sr. as a Loyalist who served in the New Jersey Volunteers and report that he had died in New Brunswick. How and when he reached the province, where he settled, and what became of him between 1783 and 1797 remain unknown. The military evidence that may identify him before that gap requires a separate examination.

Notes

Estimated birth, about 1730. This is a working estimate based on John Smith Sr.’s reported service in the New Jersey Volunteers and the age he would likely have been during the American Revolution. No record of his birth has been located. ↩
Upper Canada Land Petitions, vol. 495, petition T2/52, Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, 3 March 1797, microfilm C-2833, Library and Archives Canada; digital image. The petition and supporting material identify John Smith as Eleanor’s father, a Loyalist associated with New Jersey who had died in New Brunswick. ↩
The reconstruction rests principally on the following records. Upper Canada Land Petitions, Library and Archives Canada: Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, vol. 495, petition T2/52, 3 March 1797, microfilm C-2833, cited in full at note 2; Mary Smith, vol. 449, petition S2/141, microfilm C-2806, images 986–989, dated or received 11 March 1797, digital images; Robert Kemp on behalf of his wife Elizabeth Smith Camp/Kemp, RG 1, L 3, vol. 268, bundle K 3, petition 5, 25 April 1797, microfilm C-2116, digital image; John Smith Jr., vol. 453, petition S6/63, microfilm C-2809, image 119, 2 January 1804, digital image; and David Smith, vol. 453, petition S6/64, microfilm C-2809, image 122, digital image, and vol. 462, petition S14/20, microfilm C-2814, image 725, digital image. Each identifies the petitioner as a child of John Smith, deceased, a U.E. Loyalist; John Jr.’s and David’s add service in the Jersey Volunteers, and Eleanor’s adds his death in New Brunswick. For the later records: Estate of Mary Gardiner, 1845, Court of Probate, Canada West, RG 22 / 6-1-A / GARDINER, MARY 1845, Archives of Ontario; digital image, FamilySearch, granting administration to her brother David Smith of Gainsborough; Estate of John Smith, 1844, Lincoln County Surrogate Court Estate Files, 1794–1859, RG 22-235, Archives of Ontario; and Burford Township memorials nos. 10, 549, and 646, registered 1853–1855, Brant County Land Registry Office, which identify John Smith of Pelham Township as Mary’s deceased eldest brother and his son John as her nephew and heir at law. Cornelia Smith is established not by petition but by her 22 March 1798 Sussex County marriage and the 7 November 1870 Genesee County, Michigan death record of her son Henry Shingler, cited in full at notes 56 and 58. ↩
David Young estate, inventory, 31 August 1780, Oxford Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, Sussex County Wills, 224s–333s, image 626, New Jersey, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1739–1991, database and images, Ancestry.com; digital image. David Smith and Mary Kennedy marriage return, 21 January 1796, Sussex County, New Jersey, performed by Justice John Axford; digital image, FamilySearch. William Shingler and Cornelia Smith marriage, 22 March 1798, Sussex County, New Jersey; “Sussex, New Jersey, United States records,” image 139 of 966, image group number 004541256; digital image, FamilySearch. These records place the family in or near Oxford Township and show that David and Cornelia remained in Sussex County after other family members began moving to Upper Canada. ↩
Oxford Township tax ratables, Sussex County, New Jersey, July 1773, New Jersey State Archives, Tax Ratables SAS00001, Book 1801; digital image, New Jersey Department of State. Also available on Family History Library microfilm 865491, image group 7895283. ↩
Estimated birth, about 1758. Eleanor was married to David Young by 1780, when his Oxford Township estate was inventoried, placing her marriage in the 1770s and her birth well before 1762. David Young estate, inventory, 31 August 1780, Oxford Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, Sussex County Wills, 224s–333s, image 626, New Jersey, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1739–1991, database and images, Ancestry.com; digital image. Her position before Mary (born 1766), Elizabeth (born 1769), David (born 1775), and Cornelia (born about 1776) supports an estimate in the later 1750s. No record of her birth has been located. ↩
Upper Canada Land Petitions, vol. 495, petition T2/52, Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, 3 March 1797, microfilm C-2833, Library and Archives Canada; digital image. The petition describes Eleanor as formerly the wife of David Young and then the wife of Robert Thompson, establishing both marriages by March 1797. ↩
David Young estate, inventory, 31 August 1780, Oxford Township, Sussex County, New Jersey, Sussex County Wills, 224s–333s, image 626, New Jersey, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1739–1991, database and images, Ancestry.com; digital image. The estate papers do not name children. ↩
Upper Canada Land Petitions, vol. 495, petition T2/52, Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, 3 March 1797, microfilm C-2833, Library and Archives Canada; digital image. The petition identifies Eleanor as John Smith’s daughter and states that her father had joined the Royal Standard and died in New Brunswick. ↩
The 1780 David Young estate papers do not name children; see note 8. The later identification of a David Young as a possible son of Eleanor and David is therefore tentative. A 4 September 1830 Pelham petition places a David Young within the Smith–Price network but does not identify his parents; digital image, FamilySearch. ↩
Petition of inhabitants of Pelham Township in support of David Young, 4 September 1830, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1, L 3, vol. 552, Library and Archives Canada; digital image, FamilySearch. The petition is signed by Joseph C. Price and John Smith, but does not identify David Young’s parents or establish which John Smith signed. ↩
Robert Thompson, will dated 17 October 1822, and related memorial of exemplification registered 4 December 1834, Township of Niagara, Lincoln County, Upper Canada; will, digital image, and related memorial, digital image, FamilySearch. The will identifies Eleanor’s children but does not name Eleanor, supporting the conclusion that she had died before the will was made. ↩
Robert Thompson, will dated 17 October 1822, Township of Niagara, Lincoln County, Upper Canada; digital image, FamilySearch. The will names James, John, Robert, Andrew Heron, Alexander Garner, Jane McClelland, and Ann. It mentions Catharine London in a provision allowing her and Ann to use a room while single, but does not clearly identify Catharine as Robert’s daughter. ↩
Robert Thompson, will dated 17 October 1822, Township of Niagara, Lincoln County, Upper Canada; digital image, FamilySearch. The possibility that “Alexander Garner” honored Eleanor’s brother-in-law is an inference from Mary Smith’s later identification as Mary Garner/Gardiner and the memorial records for Mary Smith Garner and Alexander Gardiner. ↩
Estimated birth, about 1760. John Smith Jr.’s death occurred between 22 August 1844, the date of his will, and 24 January 1845, when probate was granted at Niagara. Estate of John Smith, 1844, Lincoln County Surrogate Court Estate Files, 1794–1859, RG 22-235, Archives of Ontario; copy from microfilm purchased from the Archives of Ontario. The will opens, “I John Smith Senr Township of Pelham District of Niagara Province of Canada West,” and names his eldest son John. ↩
John Smith, Upper Canada Land Petitions, vol. 453, petition S6/63, microfilm C-2809, image 119, Library and Archives Canada, petition dated 2 January 1804 and acted upon in March 1804; digital image. John stated that he had served in the Jersey Volunteers, that his deceased father John Smith was also a U.E. Loyalist who served in that corps, and that he had a wife and six children. ↩
Estate of Mary Gardiner, 1845, Court of Probate, Canada West, RG 22 / 6-1-A / GARDINER, MARY 1845, Archives of Ontario; digital image, FamilySearch. See also Abstract Index to Deeds, Burford Township, Lot 12, Concession 14, Brant County Land Registry Office, and memorials nos. 10, 549, and 646, together with the abstract index image, FamilySearch. The related Estate of John Smith, 1844, RG 22-235, Archives of Ontario, is a copy from microfilm purchased from the Archives of Ontario. Together these records identify John Smith of Pelham Township as Mary’s deceased eldest brother and his son John as Mary’s nephew and heir at law. ↩
Estate of John Smith, 1844, Lincoln County Surrogate Court Estate Files, 1794–1859, RG 22-235, Archives of Ontario; copy from microfilm purchased from the Archives of Ontario. The will styles the testator “John Smith Senr.” and names his eldest son John. The interpretation that this is compatible with an earlier “Junior” designation is genealogical analysis, not a statement made in the will. ↩
John Smith, Upper Canada Land Petitions, vol. 453, petition S6/63, microfilm C-2809, image 119, Library and Archives Canada, petition dated 2 January 1804; digital image. The petition was rejected as “Not Privileged,” and the annotation states: “The Name John Smith of the Home District appears Three times on the U.E. List.” ↩
Centennial of the Settlement of Upper Canada by the United Empire Loyalists, 1784–1884 (Toronto: Rose Publishing Company, 1885), Appendix B, p. 256; digital image, Google Books. The comparison table also uses the individual family and land records cited elsewhere in this post. ↩
Centennial of the Settlement of Upper Canada by the United Empire Loyalists, 1784–1884, Appendix B, p. 256; digital image, Google Books. The entry reads “Smith, John . . . Who died at Brunswick,” with “New Jersey 1777.” The archival addendum is identified as RG 5, A 1, vol. 259, p. 140850, Library and Archives Canada; digital image, FamilySearch. Two qualifications belong with this identification. First, the certificate annexed to Eleanor’s petition spells out New Brunswick, the province, while the addenda entry reads only “Brunswick” and pairs it with New Jersey and the year 1777; the British held New Brunswick, New Jersey, from December 1776 to June 1777, so that entry could describe a death there instead. The two records corroborate one another only if the addenda’s “Brunswick” is the province and its 1777 is the year he joined rather than the year he died. The latter reading is consistent with the documented 1777 enlistment of both John Smith Sr. and John Smith Jr. in the New Jersey Volunteers, but it is an interpretation of the compiler’s shorthand and is not stated in the entry. Second, of the three 1797 certificates issued by the same Clerk of the Sessions, only Eleanor’s names a place of death, and that certificate identifies her husband Robert Thompson as its bearer; the New Brunswick detail therefore rests on a single family informant rather than on independent knowledge. With those qualifications, the Brunswick entry remains the best fit for the reconstructed Oxford/Sussex family, since John Jr.’s 1804 petition identifies Jersey Volunteers service for both himself and his deceased father. See Eleanor’s petition, Elizabeth’s petition, and John Jr.’s petition. ↩
Centennial of the Settlement of Upper Canada by the United Empire Loyalists, 1784–1884, Appendix B, p. 256; digital image, Google Books; related petition abstracts, The Niagara Settlers. This John Smith, formerly of Dutchess County, New York, arrived in Upper Canada in 1786 with a wife and nine children. His large Grand River/Ancaster family is distinct from the reconstructed Oxford family, whose father was reported deceased by March 1797 and associated with New Brunswick. ↩
Centennial of the Settlement of Upper Canada by the United Empire Loyalists, 1784–1884, Appendix B, p. 256; digital image, Google Books. The Niagara entry reports service in the 78th Regiment at Quebec and later the 84th Regiment. That regimental history differs from the Jersey Volunteers service reported for John Jr. and his father in the 1804 petition; John Jr.’s petition. ↩
Centennial of the Settlement of Upper Canada by the United Empire Loyalists, 1784–1884, Appendix B, p. 256; digital image, Google Books. The Head of the Lake entry concerns the settler associated with Grimsby Lot 16, who reported arriving in 1788 and named sons Benjamin, Stephen, and John. Later accounts call him “Little John” and identify his wife as Anna Roy; see UELAC and R. Janet Powell, Annals of the Forty: Loyalist and Pioneer Families of West Lincoln, 1783–1833, no. 8, pp. 15–16, digital copy, FamilySearch Digital Library. His Canadian land history is distinct from the Oxford family, and the alleged Sussex County origin remains unproved. ↩
Estate of John Smith, 1844, Lincoln County Surrogate Court Estate Files, 1794–1859, RG 22-235, Archives of Ontario; copy from microfilm purchased from the Archives of Ontario. The will names sons John and James. John’s 1804 petition states that he had a wife and six children. Mary and Anna are not directly identified as his daughters in the located records; their identifications are based on the cumulative evidence discussed in notes 26–39. ↩
Price–Hutson Burial Ground, OGS no. 5750, Lot 256 BF, former Thorold Township, now Welland; transcription by Harold A. Fox, June 1983, Niagara Peninsula Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, ISBN 978-0-7779-3772-3; cemetery index. The derivative transcription reads “PRICE, Joseph C 1783–1842 (wife Mary 1787–1862).” ↩
Estimated marriage date, by about 1807, from the age of the eldest known son. John S. Price died 18 April 1860, aged 52, according to Fonthill Municipal Cemetery, Brown’s North, OGS no. 4631, Pelham Township, Welland County, p. 28. No record of Joseph C. Price and Mary Smith’s marriage has been located. ↩
Will of Mary Price the elder, Fonthill, dated 25 December 1861 and proved 16 January 1862, Surrogate Court of Welland County, registered copy, pp. 390–393; digital image, FamilySearch. The probate recites that she died on or about 4 January 1862 and names her children, including David Smith Price, Mary Price the younger, and her deceased son John S. Price. ↩
1851 Census of Canada West, Lincoln County, Gainsborough Township, Schedule A, roll C_11736, p. 68, line 9, enumerator Jacob Kennedy: John Smith, cordwainer, and Catharine Smith; digital image, Ancestry. This is the John Smith and Catharine Smith household—not the James Smith/Ann Clark household cited in note 36 or the Christeen Clark household cited in note 39. Ages at next birthday were 58 and 52, supporting estimated births about 1794 and 1799. ↩
Petition of Catharine Smith of Gainsborough Township, sworn 13 July 1819 in the General Quarter Sessions of the District of Niagara before Thomas Dickson; Upper Canada Land Petitions, “S” Bundle 12, 1819–1820, RG 1, L 3, vol. 460, p. 270, microfilm C-2813, Library and Archives Canada; digital image. Catharine stated that she was married to John Smith of Gainsborough and was the daughter of John Schram of Pelham, establishing the marriage by July 1819. ↩
Jeremiah Smith et al. to Joseph Smith, memorial no. 14229, indenture dated 2 December 1865 and registered 28 December 1865, Pelham Township, Welland County, book E, p. 18; digital image, FamilySearch. The memorial records John Smith the Elder’s death at Pelham on or about 9 January 1863, names his heirs, and identifies his widow Catharine. The identification of this man as John Smith Jr.’s eldest son rests on the chain of records linking Catharine of Gainsborough in 1819, the farm in John Jr.’s 1844 will, the 1851 Gainsborough household, and the Burford memorials. ↩
1851 Census of Canada West, Lincoln County, Gainsborough Township, personal census, p. 19: James Smith and William Smith, ages 56 and 12; digital image, Ancestry, subscription database. The relationship is not stated, so identifying William or Willson as James’s son remains tentative. ↩
Estimated birth, about 1800. The 1851 Gainsborough census gives Anna’s age at next birthday as 43, while the 1861 Bayham census gives the older “A. Clark” an age of 65. Both identify her as Canadian-born. The estimate about 1800 best accommodates the age of her son John Clark and the family’s 1804 report of six children. 1851 Census of Canada West, Lincoln County, Gainsborough Township, personal census, p. 19, entry for Ann Clark; digital image, Ancestry, subscription database. 1861 Census of Canada West, Elgin County, Bayham Township, enumeration district 5, p. 102, entry for “A. Clark”; digital image, Ancestry, subscription database. No record of her birth has been located. ↩
Estimated marriage and husband identification. John Clark’s age of 41 in 1861 places his birth about 1820, suggesting that Anna married by about 1819. No located record names Anna’s husband. “George Clark” is a working identification based on the reconstruction of the Thorold–Pelham Clark family, in which George is the otherwise unaccounted-for son most consistent with this marriage. For John Clark’s age, see 1861 Census of Canada West, Elgin County, Bayham Township, enumeration district 5, p. 102; digital image, Ancestry, subscription database. ↩
Joseph C. Price and John Smith, signatures on a 4 September 1830 Pelham petition concerning David Young; digital image, FamilySearch. See also the 25 April 1831 Pelham petition signed by both men, digital image. Mary Price the Elder’s 1862 probate identifies David Smith Price and Mary Price the younger as her children, digital image; an 1868 land record identifies John Smith Price as her son and names his siblings, digital image. These records establish the Price relationships but do not directly state that Mary Smith Price was John Smith Jr.’s daughter. ↩
1851 Census of Canada West, Lincoln County, Gainsborough Township, personal census, p. 19, lines 26–29: James Smith, born in the United States; Ann Clark, born in Canada; William Smith; and Richard Clark; digital image, Ancestry, subscription database. James is marked widowed and blind; Ann is marked single, although Richard Clark’s presence and the children’s ages make parts of the enumeration unreliable. The household composition and surnames support, but do not prove, the identification of James Snyder Smith and Anna Smith. ↩
1861 Census of Canada West, Elgin County, Bayham Township, enumeration district 5, p. 102: John Clark, age 41; Mary Clark, age 31; and an older “A. Clark,” age 65, with George, William, and Mary J. Clark; digital image, Ancestry, subscription database. The household provides additional evidence for identifying John Clark as one of Anna’s sons, but the older woman is recorded only by an initial and the relationships are not stated. ↩
Nelson Clark, Michigan death certificate; digital image, Ancestry, subscription database. The certificate names Anna Smith as Nelson’s mother and leaves his father unidentified. In combination with the 1851 and 1861 census evidence, it supports Anna as a strong working identification among John Smith Jr.’s daughters and supports the identification of John, Richard, and Nelson Clark as her sons. ↩
1851 Census of Canada West, Lincoln County, Gainsborough Township, personal census, p. 130F: Christeen Clark, age 22, in the household of Joseph Snyder; digital image, Ancestry, subscription database. The census establishes Christeen’s age and household appearance but does not identify her parents or connect her directly to Anna Smith and George Clark. She is therefore a possible, unconfirmed child. ↩
Gravestone of Mary Gardner, St. Mark’s Anglican Cemetery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, read from a photograph; see also “Mary Smith Gardner,” memorial no. 233850644, Find a Grave. The inscription gives an age of 78 years, 8 months, and 9 days. Read with the 11 June 1845 death date recorded in the estate material, that age calculates to a birth date of 2 October 1766. ↩
Mary Smith, Upper Canada Land Petitions, vol. 449, petition S2/141, microfilm C-2806, images 986–989, Library and Archives Canada, dated or received 11 March 1797; digital images. The petition proper is at image 987 and the clerk’s certificate at image 989. See also the Upper Canada land-petition register, entries D1414, Mary Smith, and D1415, Eleanor Thompson, RG 1, C-I-3, p. 120; digital image, FamilySearch. The register places the sisters’ petitions consecutively and names Robert Thompson in the “By Whom” column for Mary’s petition. ↩
Crown patent to Mary Smith, 30 June 1801, Burford Township, Lot 12, Concession 14; Abstract Index to Deeds, Brant County Land Registry Office; digital image, FamilySearch. The index shows no conveyance by Mary during her lifetime. ↩
The marriage record of Mary Smith and Alexander Gardner/Gardiner has not been located. The relationship rests on Mary’s identification as Gardiner in her 1845 estate, digital image, FamilySearch, and the memorial records for Mary Smith Garner and Alexander Gardiner. The surname appears as Garner, Gardner, and Gardiner in different records. ↩
Gravestone of Alexander Gardiner, St. Mark’s Anglican Cemetery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, transcribed in Janet Carnochan, Graves and Inscriptions in the Niagara Peninsula, Niagara Historical Society; transcription published by the Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum. See also memorial no. 69780216, Find a Grave. The inscription describes Alexander as a native of Perthshire and a master mason in the Royal Engineer Department, and records his death in 1824 at age 65. ↩
The conclusion that Mary left no children is inferential. Her 1845 intestate estate was administered by her brother David, and her Burford land descended to a nephew. Estate of Mary Gardiner, 1845, Court of Probate, Canada West, RG 22 / 6-1-A / GARDINER, MARY 1845, Archives of Ontario; digital image, FamilySearch. Burford Township memorials nos. 10, 549, and 646, registered 1853–1855, Brant County Land Registry Office. No record naming a child of Mary and Alexander has been located. Alexander Gardiner memorial, Find a Grave. ↩
Estate of Mary Gardiner, 1845, Court of Probate, Canada West, RG 22 / 6-1-A / GARDINER, MARY 1845, Archives of Ontario; digital image, FamilySearch. Administration was granted to David Smith of Gainsborough, identified as Mary’s brother and only surviving brother. ↩
Burford Township memorials nos. 10, 549, and 646, registered 1853–1855, and the Abstract Index to Deeds, Burford Township, Lot 12, Concession 14, Brant County Land Registry Office. The memorials identify John Smith of Pelham Township as Mary’s deceased eldest brother and his son John as her nephew and heir at law. ↩
Elizabeth Camp, Canadian Headstones, person record 452991; record and inscription. The inscription gives her death as 23 January 1823 and her age as 53 years, 9 months, and 9 days, calculating to an approximate birth date of 14 April 1769. The cemetery location has not been independently verified. ↩
Robert Kemp/Camp, petition for his wife Elizabeth, 25 April 1797, Newark, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1, L 3, vol. 268, bundle K 3, petition 5, microfilm C-2116, Library and Archives Canada; digital image. Robert stated that he had come into the province in 1792 with a wife and two children and was married to Elizabeth. He signed “Robert Camp”; the docket and certificate spell the surname Kemp. ↩
Robert Kemp/Camp, petition dated 25 April 1797, Newark, Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 1, L 3, vol. 268, bundle K 3, petition 5, microfilm C-2116, Library and Archives Canada; digital image. The petition identifies Elizabeth as the daughter of John Smith, deceased, and the certificate states that the justices were satisfied John had adhered to the Unity of the Empire and joined the Royal Standard before 1783. The warrant for 200 acres was granted 12 May 1797. ↩
David Smith, CanadaGenWeb Cemetery Project, person record 2358233; record. The record reports David’s birth on 14 March 1775 and death on 29 August 1861 in Gainsborough Township, Lincoln County, Canada West. ↩
Sussex County marriage return, David Smith and Mary Kennedy, 21 January 1796, performed by Justice John Axford; digital image, FamilySearch. The entry states that the marriage took place “with the consent of both their Parents being present.” ↩
David Smith, Upper Canada Land Petitions, vol. 453, petition S6/64, microfilm C-2809, image 122, and vol. 462, petition S14/20, microfilm C-2814, image 725, Library and Archives Canada; 1804 petition and later petition. The later petition states that David came from New Jersey to Upper Canada in 1800. ↩
Estimated birth, about 1776. Cornelia married on 22 March 1798 and appears at the end of the sibling sequence after Mary (born 1766), Elizabeth (born 1769), and David (born 1775). William Shingler and Cornelia Smith marriage, 22 March 1798, Sussex County, New Jersey; “Sussex, New Jersey, United States records,” image 139 of 966, image group number 004541256; digital image, FamilySearch. No record of her birth has been located. ↩
William D. Reid, The Loyalists in Ontario: The Sons and Daughters of the American Loyalists of Upper Canada (Lambertville, N.J.: Hunterdon House, 1973), p. 67; digital image, Ancestry. Reid abstracts an Order in Council of 27 January 1819 under Walter Clendenning: “Rebecca, m. —- Shingler. O.C. 27 Jan 1819.” The later land records identify the unnamed Shingler as William Shingler: Crown patent to Rebecca Shingler for Lot 22, Concession 2, Erin Township, 2 May 1837; deed dated 28 February 1838 and registered 3 March 1838, memorial no. 87, book L; abstract index and registered memorial, FamilySearch. These records show that William’s marriage to Rebecca Clendenning occurred by January 1819, so Cornelia had died by then. ↩
William Shingler and Cornelia Smith marriage, 22 March 1798, Sussex County, New Jersey; “Sussex, New Jersey, United States records,” image 139 of 966, image group number 004541256, Sussex County Clerk, New Jersey County Court; digital image, FamilySearch (accessed 6 September 2026). ↩
Patrick McGaw and Hannah McGaw to John Smith, deed no. 5569, 23 December 1805, Gainsborough Township, Lincoln County, Upper Canada, land records, vols. G–H; digital image, FamilySearch. See also Estate of John Smith, 1844, RG 22-235, Archives of Ontario, which refers to a 3 November 1843 mortgage from William Shingler Jr. to John Smith’s son James. ↩
State of Michigan, Genesee County, record of deaths, p. 39, entry no. 1775, Henry Shingler, 7 November 1870; digital image, FamilySearch. The record gives Henry’s age as 52 years, 11 months, and 21 days and names his parents as William Shingler and Cornelia. ↩
Addenda to the Home District U.E. List, entry “Smith. John who died at Brunswick / New Jersey 1777,” RG 5, A 1, vol. 259, p. 140850, Library and Archives Canada; digital image, FamilySearch. The entry also appears in Centennial of the Settlement of Upper Canada by the United Empire Loyalists, 1784–1884, Appendix B, p. 256; digital image, Google Books. ↩
Upper Canada Land Petitions of Eleanor Smith Young Thompson, 3 March 1797; Mary Smith, dated or received 11 March 1797; and Robert Kemp on behalf of Elizabeth Smith Kemp, 25 April 1797, Library and Archives Canada. These records report John Smith as deceased by the time of the petitions but do not establish the date, place, or circumstances of his death. ↩
Sussex County marriage return, David Smith and Mary Kennedy, 21 January 1796, performed by Justice John Axford; digital image, FamilySearch. The entry does not name the parents who were present and therefore does not establish that David’s father was living on that date. ↩
Government of New Brunswick, “History,” describing the arrival of Loyalist refugees at the mouth of the Saint John River beginning in 1783 and the creation of New Brunswick as a separate province in 1784, Government of New Brunswick; and “New Brunswick: Our Stories, Our People—1783,” describing the evacuation from New York and the arrival of Loyalist refugees in the Saint John River valley, Government of New Brunswick. These sources establish the historical setting, not John Smith’s individual route or settlement. ↩
Research in New Brunswick records has located several men named John Smith but no record containing enough identifying information—such as Sussex County origin, named family members, occupation, associates, or a later Upper Canada connection—to identify one as the father of Eleanor, John, Mary, Elizabeth, David, and Cornelia Smith. This is a statement of the present research result, not proof that no identifying record survives. ↩