A JOURNEY FROM ADOLPHUSTOWN, UPPER CANADA
TO DUTCHESS COUNTY, AND NEW YORK CITY in 1824
BY CONSIDER MERRITT HAIGHT 1802- 1838
WITH AN
INTRODUCTION BY MERTON Y. WILLIAMS
1.
2.
Daniel `s first wife was Mary Moor, a daughter of Andrew Moore whose wife,
was a daughter of Samuel Dorland of Dutchess County. Their son Philip was born
December 1st, 1787 and his mother died ten days later. Daniel’s second wife was
Mary, the daughter of John Dorland and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Jona then
Ricketson, and a sister of Dr. Shadrick Ricketson a leading physician and author
in New York City. Mary was born in Dutchess County, arch 23rd 1772. Daniel and
Mary’s first child, Mary, was born in Dutchess County, March 6th 1790.
A staunch member of Nine Partner’s Quarterly Meeting Friends, Daniel
Haight refused to Join the Republican army and suffered much during the war.
When peace came, relatives and friends moved north to Canada including his
father-in-law John Dorland and his brothers Philip and Thomas Dorland.
Daniel Haight witnessed Ichabod Bowerman’s will at Oswego, Dutchess, Co.
N.Y. Second month 4th 1790, but his name is missing it the first census of the
State of New York, 1790. Daniel Haight his wife Mary, his son Philip and Mary, a
baby in arms, had moved to 4th Town or Adolphustown which had been settled by
Major Peter Vanalstine of New York and his band of Loyalists June 16th, 1784.
Daniel opened a general store in Adolphustown and a son John D. was born
there November 23rd 1791. In 1792 Daniel bought a farm on, Concession 2 about
three Miles east of the village and built a comfortable colonial house Good barn
and outbuildings.
3.
Other children were born as follows:
Rhoda, September 14, 1793;
Joseph B., August 23rd, 1795;
Ricketson, November 22, 1797;
Reuben
Amos, February 5, 1800;
Consider Merritt, April 28th 1802;
Bathsheba
Tabitha, August 26, 1805;
Rowland Ricketson, July 28, 1807;
Samuel
Dorland, September 28, 1809.
Consider Merritt, the eighth child of Daniel
Haight’s and the seventh of Mary Dorland’s probably attended the school
established in Adolphustown in 1789 by a Mr. Lyons near the U.E.L Memorial
Church. Mr. Hughes later taught there, having as students, six Dorland boys,
Allan Vanalstine and John A. MacDonald (later Sir John A.) This would be about
the time that Consider Merritt made his recorded trip to New York State. The
beautiful Spencerian hand writing and the precise language of his diary bespeak
careful training, Canniff Haight (1899) says of his grandfather Daniel Haight
(p.22) "Having been carefully trained himself he felt the importance of
intelligent parental watchfulness over the rearing of his own children, and
possessing a good education he was alive to its benefits and did all he could to
advance it" "the log school house widely separated, quite in keeping with the
teachers, were the only places where the young were taught the meagre and
imperfect rudiments of an education.
4.
In the Summer of 1821 there came to Adolphustown William Mullett, his wife,
and eleven children, and rented a farm from Major Patton, a half pay officer. a
prosperous tanner and Currier at Frampton Cotterell, Glouchestershire, England,
during the Napoleonic wars, his business failed with the coming of peace and on
April 25th 1821, the Mullett family with several other Quakers in a passenger
list of 40 or 50 sailed from the bridge- at Bristol in the Brig, the"Friend"
They docked at Quebec on July 3rd and made their way up the St. Lawrence river
by the Durham boats of that day. Strong in man power, William Mullett started a
small store in Adolphustown which he ran for 3 or 4 years as well as his farm,
William Mullett’s wife was Mary Clothier, the daughter of James Clothier of
Street Somersetshire. The Mullett`s and Clothiers were brought over from Prance
by Henry VIII after the Reformation to help establish the woolen luaus try at
Street. Of Huguenot origin, both families Joined the Society of Friends in the
time of its founder George Fox. Mary Clothier had attended Ackworth Friends’
School in Yorkshire and the older members of her family went to Sidcot Friends’
School in Somerset- Among these were the fifth child, Deborah, born 11th month
29th 1804, who attended Sidcot from April 1816 to October 1818.
Living in
the same community and attending the same Quaker Meeting in the Meeting house
built on John Dorland’s farm on the South side of Hay Bay in 1798 and
established as a Monthly Meeting by Nine Partners Meeting, N.Y. in 1801, the
Haight and Mullett families mingled on intimate terms. It is not surprising
5.
that marriages resulted. Bathaheba married John Mullett and on Dec.
17th 1828 Consider Merritt married Deborah Mullett. The young couple started
life at Galt’s Corners north of Conway, in the second concession additional of
Fredericksburgh, on fifty acres of land in lot 1 given Consider by his father.
In 1829 Consider bought his brother’s adjoining farm when Ricketson purchased
the north half of his father’s old home in order to take care of his parents The
sale of Daniel Haight’s household property on the 26th of January 1829 has been
recorded by the Ontario Bureau of Industries 1897 (pp 85 - 91), with the
statement "It is worth printing for two reasons, first because it Gives a record
of the possessions of the well-to-do farmer seventy years ago, and second
because it is a statement of values of the same.
The value of the Dispersion
Sale totaled L 326-6-8.
Consider Haight bought the following articles:
price L
4
hogs
1-19-6
5
hogs
2-8-0
2
calves
2-8-6
1
calf
12-6
1
Heiffer
2-15-0
1 yoke oxen
23-0-0
1
Mare
12-1-0
1
cutter
2-9-6
1 sow and pigs 1-0-0
1 set
harness 3-16-0
1
pan
6-3
6. L
1 cake pan
ect.
6-9
3
pails
7-6
1 chair and
sundries
5-3
1 Hand
Saw
3-9
6
Chairs
1-4-6
1 Ox
Cart
6-1-0
1
Chair
13-2
1 Beadstead and
cord
19-0
1
Harrow
18-6
1 Set blacksmith’s
tools 10- 1-0
2
Sythes
1-0
Combus table
and a lot of things
in 1-9-9
the shop
1 box of
bucks
3-9
1 hand irons and
tongs 1-4-6
1 Ton of
hay
1-18-6
1 Ox
yoke
1-3
1 Grind
stone
7-6
TOTAL -L 49 - 2 - 11
An inventory of Household Effects belonging to Daniel Haight as at 4th month
1829 totaled L 114 - 13 - 8.
The books Listed number 25, including religious
books, the History of the United States and treatises On Geography, Health, etc.
" 1 pair Gold scales and weights 7 - 6" is in the writer’s possession.
7.
By the time Daniel Haight had died at his residence,
August 19, 1830, Consider Haight had built for his family a comfortable house on
the northwest corner of the cross-roads. Recross the road to the east, a Mr.
Soby had built a small but substantial log house Just before he was called away
to the war of 1812, in which he lost his life. Across the road from Soby’s house
to the south, Consider Haight built a black-smith shop of oak Logs. From now on
for the next ten years he was a busy man while his six children arrived in five
births. Black-smithing in those days included much hand manufacturing of
household utensils, of trace, sleighs and other farm gear, as well as shoeing
horses and making general repairs. Pancake turners, toes tins forks and other
household ware in my great Grandmother Deborah’s kitchen showed the skill and
beauty of design and finish of which my Great-grandfather was capable. He often
returned to his shop in the evening, working by the light of homemade tallow
candles and of his forge, reserving the day for his farm. After their first
child, Elizabeth was born, Deborah Haight rode two horseback with her baby on
her arm some two miles north to Lot 1,on the Hay Bay shore where her mother and
father, Mary and William Mullett, had finally settled with the younger members
of their family. The wolves howled in the autumn as she rode through a cedar
swamp. The Gatherings at the Quaker Meeting on the Hay Bay road brought all
local relatives together. In common with most pioneers, Consider Haight took
advantage of the wild life around him by trapping and hunting,. Grandmother
Deborah described to me when I was a child how Grandfather Consider
8.
sometimes brought home a live fox held tightly under his arm. In the autumn
it was customary to drive wild game out onto Adolphustown and adjoining points
by means of a row of men marching in close formation, Many deer were thus killed
and frozen for winter food. Consider Haight had a reputation for being a Good
shot, and owned two Guns,, one doubtless a rifle. Raising a family uncle.
pioneer conditions was no easy task! In the winter of 1837 - 38, Consider Haight
went into the woods at night disguised by a white sheet thrown over his clothes,
He probably got a deer, but at the cost of a severe chilling. "Galloping
Consumption", as it was called, followed and on the 5th of the following August
he was dead I+} was laid by the side of his father in the Friends burying ground
at Hay Bay. His wife Deborah with months old, faced a hard task. with assistance
and advice from Hay Bay, she carried on Girls and neighbour’s children.
four
little Girls, Lydia only three By letting the farm on shares, and her father and
brother Banjamin at For a time she ran a little school for
her Twelve years
of lonely struggle followed. daughter Elizabeth and Her eldest
married a
neighbor boy, Robert Cadman, before she was seventeen; and Rachel had married
Nelson Sills at eighteen On
January 24th, 1850 Deborah Mullett Haight marrie
Vincent Bowerman, a well established farmer near Bloomfield Prince Edward Co.
Ontario. His wife had died a short time before. He was the eldest son of Thomas
Bowerman a U.E.L. pioneer in Prince Edward Co. from Dutchess
9.
County New York, who was followed into Upper Canada by his widowed mother and
fourteen of his father`s eighteen children. alhough a soldier and not a member
of the Society of Friends, he was still one of the founders of that faith in
Canada and his son Vincent and his family were staunch Friends. Thus the long
story of Consider Haight widow and her family follows the trend which they
themselves had set Their third daughter Mary Haight married Vincent Bowerman’s
younger son Levi Vincent, while the combined Bowerman-Haight family lived in a
crowded plank house at Schoharie, North of Bloomfield. In 1864, Levi, who had
become head of the family, built a fine brick home for his parents and himself.
In 1875 he bought the Bloomfield Cheese factory and started operating it. In
1881 Levi moved his father
Vincent, his step-mother Deborah, his wife Mary
and two surviving daughters, Carrie and Rachel, and Mary’s sister Lydia into a
fine newly built brick home back of the cheese factory, on a 50 acre farm. In
1882 - Caroline Elizabeth (Carrie) Bowerman married Edwin A. Williams, son of
John P. Williams, farmer, mill operator and pioneer horticulturist, who lived on
his farm among his orchards east of Bloomfield. On June 21st, 1883 the writer
was born while his parents were living temporarily at the cheese factory house.
He was thus the fourth generation in the home. When father and mother moved to
-their farm in Yerexville, I remained in the old home.My brothers Thomas
Bowerman and John Platt Williams were born on the Yerexville farm. Vincent
Bowerman died February 5th 1885. In May 1888, Levi Bowerman moved his family
10.
consisting of his wife Mary, her sister Lydia Haight his step-mother
Deborah and the writer to the corner house at Cory Street Bloomfield. In
December, Mary Jane Williams, John Platt’s wife, died at the old farm. On
January 10th 1889, Edwin Williams, my father, was frilled on his farm by a West
Indian Hurricane which came up the Hudson River and crossed over to Ontario
following the general route followed by the United Empire Loyalists. The
following spring, Levi brought the Bloomfield and Yerexville elements of the
family together in the Watson Place by the Morgan Saw and Woolen Mill east of
the Williams farm and formerly run by Grandfather Williams.. On January 14th,
1890, Lydia Trumpour Haight married John Platt Williams as his second wife
and moved into the Williams home about one half mile by road from the new home
of the Levi V. Bowerman family. On October 27th, 1892, Deborah Mullett, Haight
Bowerman died, nearly eighty-eight years old. Thus passed Consider Merritt
Haight`s widow! The writer had lived in the same home with her all of a nine and
one half years the 4th Generation ! From this experience he draws heavily for
his interpretation of the Haight history. Furniture, books, stories formed a
distinctive atmosphere. Grandmother Deborah taught me
my letters as she had
taught them in her little school. She taught me much more and has left behind an
indelible memory.
11.
G E N E A L O G Y
MULLETT DESCENT BY
GENERATIONS
I. Israel Mullet born about 1660 Died 1730 in Compton, Dando, Somerset
II. John Mullett - Married Ann Maddock ? 29 1729
He died 1765
She
died III 17, 1747
III. John Mullett - Born X 16, 1736 Died I 1, 1811
Married Sarah Lyddon, B.IX 16 1766
She died V 24 1805
IV Willian
Mullet
Born Ilminster, England IX 4 1768
Died Bloomfield, Ont. X 31, 5
Married Mary Clothier, 1795
She was born at Street Somerset,
England,
VII 3 1774
Died Hay Bay XII 28 1845.
12.
CLOTHIER
DECENT BY GENERATIONS _
I. Henry Clothier of Alford
rear
Castle Cary, Somerset. He came to
.Street, Somerset about 1643 and married
Elizabeth Gundy. She was a daughter
of Henry Gundy of Street, who joined the
Society of Friends at its beginning.
II. James Clothier - Married Joane
Coate in 1686.
III. James Clothier - Born 1688 - died 1769.
IV.
James Clothier - Born 1730 - Died 1801 Married Hannah Etherington.
V. Mary Clothier - born in the old stone house
opposite the Tanyard
Cottage, Street,
Somersetshire
7th month 3, 1774.
Died - Hay Bay
Ontario, 12th month 28, 1845
13.
CHILDREN OF WILLIAM and MARY CLOTHIER MULLETT
1. Mary Born 5 month 25, 1796
died 1 16 1824
2. Sarah Born 5
month 22, 1798 died 7-5-1839
3. William Born 11 month 18,
1799
died 9-3-1865
4. John Born 8 month 30, 1802
died 3-2-1889
5. Deborah Born 11 month
29, 1804 died 10-27-1892
6. Rachel Born 9 month 26, 180 6
died 10-28-1381
7. James Born 6 month
28, 1808 Clothier
died 7-28-1902
8. Maria Born 10 month 12, 1810
died 10-17-1886
9.
Arthur Born 10 month 29, 1814
died
10-3-1899
10. Henry Born 7 month 13,
1816
died 1-16-1900
11. Benjamin Born 12 month 29, 1818
died 9-20-1906
12. Hannah Born 9
month 30 1823
13. Phebe died 11-6-1823
CHILDREN OF
CONSIDER MERRITT HAIGHT born in Adolphustown, Canada 4th
month 28th, 1802 Died 8th month 5th, 1838 and
DEBORAH MULLETT, born at
Frampton ,Gloucestershire,
England 11th month
29th 1804
Died 10th month 27th
1892 married 12th month 17th
1828
1. Elizabeth Prideaux Haight,
Born 3rd month
10th 1830. At Fredericksburg,
Canada. Married Robert
Cadman 10th month 6th 1846.
2. Rachel Clendenan
Haight Born 9th month 9th
1831 at Fredericksburg.
Married Nelson Sills 12th month 18th, 1849.
3. Phoebe
Haight - Born 9th month 9th 1831
Died 9th month 10th
1831.
4. Consider M. Haight (Junior)
Born 9th month
20th 1833
Died 11th month 14th 1834
5. Mary Mullett
Haight
Born 11th month 20th 1836
Married Levi V. Bowerman - 8th month 25th 1853. Died 5th
month 12,1905
6. Lydia Trwnpour Haight
Born 5th
month 7th 1838
Married John P. Williams - 1st month 14th
1890 Died 1st Month 10th,1918
15.
16.
Appendix to the Report of the Ontario Bureau of Industries 1897 - (Nb people
of Adolphustown
1796.
pp 27 - 49 Haights p 42 & 63 - Quakers P. 69)
Haight, Canniff, A genealogical Narrative of
the Daniel Haight Family. Frontispiece, 71 pages.
Toronto, 1899
Canniff, William - The Settlement of Upper Canada 671 pages.
Toronto, 1869
Herrington, Walter S.
History of The County of Lennox and
Addington
427 pages. Toronto, 1913
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