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Descendants of John Fay
(Fifth Generation) |
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Researched |
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John was born in Fitzwilliam, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, on October 18, 1785. Orlin mentions him as follows: |
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When I was first researching his line, I wrote the following:
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Orlin starts his reporting on this group on page 231, where he says that John, (4th generation), born 1756, "res[ided] Marlboro & Fitzwilliam, N.Y." On the next page, under daughter Lydia, Orlin says, "Fitzwilliam, rem. to Sullivan, N.Y." This SHOULD be "Fitzwilliam, N.H." and "Sullivan, N.H." The short biography on page 285 gives the correct state: "His first two children were born in Marlboro, from which place he went to Fitzwilliam, N.H., where the rest of his children were born and where he died aged 83 years." This would mean that he would be present in N.H. for the first census in 1790, and would be found there through the census of 1830. And this is exactly what we find; in 1830, he has moved in with his son Benjamin, and it is Benjamin who is "head of house."
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Orlin's data for John (5th generation), born 1785, is both incomplete and inaccurate. While John was indeed married to Betsey Clark and Phebe Locke, he married Phebe FIRST, then later Betsey. The approximate date for his marriage to Phebe is 1810; the date of his marriage to Betsey is established indirectly by the birth of their first child Eliza in 1823. We do not yet know the place of John's marriage to Betsey, or the birth place of their daughter Eliza. [This is the part that is still wrong. It was a different John who married Phebe: see below]
Phebe Locke was a widow. She had been married before in 1808 to John Whiting. John died in 1809, leaving Phebe with an infant son, John G. Whiting, born March 27, 1809. John G. appears in an 1850 census with his second wife Crissana, his 19 year old daughter Harriet by his first wife, and children Lucy F. 6, Phebe A. 4, and Mary A. 2.
All of the children mentioned by Orlin are children of John and Phebe. John and Betsey had two children who are not mentioned by Orlin, namely, Eliza and, in 1830, William Clark Fay, born in Harvard.
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This now turns out to be partly correct and partly incorrect. This John, born 1785, the son of John and Lovinah Brigham, WAS married to Betsey Clark and did have two children, Eliza and William. However, this is NOT the John who married Phebe. In working with this, I did not have dates of birth for the children of John and Phebe; I did have dates for John and Betsey. Betsey's daughter Eliza was born in 1823, her son William in 1830. In theory, there would have been enough time for Phebe to bear seven children and then die, and for John to have married a second time. However, John and Phebe's son Lucius was actually born in 1823, a fact I learned later. This makes the earlier assumption impossible, and it makes it clear that Orlin has mixed up two families.
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| Early evidence for the family of John and Betsey comes from the Vital Records of Harvard, Massachusetts, where the birth of William is recorded, as well as the death of Betsey in 1836 and the death of their daughter Eliza in 1846.
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"William Clark, s. of John and Eliza, Mar. 11, 1830."
"FAY, Eliza, July 2, 1836, a. 43 y. (Betsey A., w. of John, July 9,
1836, a. 44 y. G.R.I.)"
"Eliza (Mary E., G.R.I), d. of John and (Betsey A., G.R.I), Aug. 27,
1846, a. 23 y. Unm. Consumption. (Aug. 28, 1846. G.R.I.)."
Also recorded is the third marriage of John:
"FAY, John and Susan Watkins of Marlborough, Sept. 12, 1839"
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| I have not found the marriage of John and Betsey or the birth of Eliza. I am not sure whether they were married in Vermont or Massachusetts. I have search most of the towns in Massachusetts without success.
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