Deluged in Blood

Exeter Cathedral circa 1830

I've written previously about the suicide of Thomas STEVENS (1782-1832), whose mother was first cousin to the Right Honourable John Lord Rolle of Stevenstone. An account of his death in The Annual Register describes how he cut his own throat and died in the arms of his wife, "deluged in blood flowing in torrents." Far less melodramatic, and probably far more accurate, is this account from Trewman's Exeter Flying Post:

Trewman's Exeter Flying Post, Thursday, 19 Jan 1832 THE LATE THOMAS STEVENS, ESQ. It is with feelings of grief to which we are at loss for words to give utterance that we announce the death of this gentleman. Educated for the Bar, he early displayed talents of a superior order, and having been selected by Mr. Courtenay, Recorder of this city, on several occasions, in his unavoidable absence, to officiate as his deputy, his services were thought so highly of, that on the resignation of that gentleman, in 1820, was invited by the Chamber to fill the situation in his stead. How he has performed the duties of it is known to the whole city. Indefatigable in the prosecution of these, he was ever at hand to advise and direct, and his instructions to the different Grand Juries, were marked by sound sense, a thorough knowledge of the state of society and its best interests, as well as of the law. The melancholy event by which the public are deprived of the services of such a man, is no subject for comment; that such a mind should have given way under, unquestionably, great mental excitement, is one of those circumstances that must remain inscrutable to human understanding, and should teach us all how weak and dependent, even at the best, we are. As a country gentleman, Mr. Stevens had ever taken an active part in the business of the district in which he resided, and long held the commission of Major, in the North Devon Regiment of Yeoman Calvary, in which situation, as in all others, he was beloved and respected. The deceased was 49 years of age, a remarkably affectionate husband, and tender father; a good and considerate landlord, and kind master. Possessed of feelings like these, late events in his neighbourhood had much distressed him, and threats towards one who designed nothing but good, preyed upon his mind. He had been subject to walk in his sleep, and it is imagined that having in this way quitted his bed, under apprehensions that the conspirators were attacking his mansion-house, and the servants (at that hour,) not instantly answering his call, he first fired a loaded pistol in the direction of the shrubbery, and with a razor cut his throat. This sad event, as will been seen by the evidence, took place at his seat,—Cross, near Torrington, about half-past one o'clock, on the morning of Saturday last, the 14th inst. On the same day, an inquest was taken before Francis Kingdon, Esq., Coroner,—when      Edmund Herring Caddy, Esq., of Great Torrington, Surgeon, was the first witness examined:—Saw the deceased on Thursday last, at Great Torrington, his spirits appeared very low and dejected; saw him again on Friday, between the hours of 4 and 5 in the afternoon, he appeared still more dejected in mind and very low in spirits—he stated that he had not slept for several nights, and that his mind had been much harrassed; advised deceased to put his feet in warm water and go to bed, and that he would send him some medicine; deceased complained of a pain in his head, and said that his stomach was in a disordered state from bile; was again send for between the hours of 1 and 2 o'clock on Saturday morning when he found him dead, deceased was lying on his back in his dressing-room which was covered with blood, an open razor on his bowels, and a pistol on the floor; on examining the body found a large wound on the throat extending from ear to ear, which had divided the carotid arteries and the windpipe, the wound extended back to the vertebrae; of the neck, which must have caused immediate death, and which the cause of the death of the deceased; found no other wound on the body, nor any marks of violence; has no doubt that the deceased died by his own act; the symptoms under which the deceased has labored very frequently produces delirium and temporary derangement of mind.      Thomas Sandford, a servant to the deceased; have observed my master has failed in his appetite for some time past, and that on Friday he appeared quite melancholy, that he was continually passing from room to room, and was so weak that he could scarcely walk upright; remarked to the servants the state in which my master was in; my master retired to his bed about 5 o'clock in the evening; about half-past 1 my master's bell rang continually which awoke me; wend down in my small clothes and Mary Elsworthy who had answered the bell called "he is killed, he is killed;" saw nothing more until Mr. Caddy arrived, who examined the body; is quite sure that no person could come into the house as he had himself secured the house, and is of opinion died by his own act.      John Upstone, heard my master's bell ring about half-past 1 on Saturday morning; struck a light and went down to my master's dressing-room, and entered it with Mary Elsworthy the maid servant; saw the deceased lying on the floor covered with blood; his throat was cut from ear to ear; lifted him up with the assistance of Mary Elsworthy; saw no sign of life left but heard on laying him down again a rattle in the throat of deceased three times; saw a razor on the upper part of the thigh which was covered with blood; washed the body after Mr. Caddy, which was covered with blood; washed the body after Mr. Caddy, surgeon, had examined it; there is no possibility of any person entering the room of the deceased by the window; has no doubt deceased died by his own act; there was also a pistol lying on the floor, but did not examine it.      The evidence being gone through, and the Coroner having summed up, the Jury delivered their verdict, That the deceased labouring under a grievous disease of body, and being delirious and out of his mind, had inflicted on himself a mortal wound of which he died.      Mr. Stevens has left a widow, and two daughters, of tender years, who with numerous relatives, and still more numerous friends, mourn this great bereavement.

Thomas married Sophia LE MARCHANT (1798-1860), daughter of Joshua LE MARCHANT (1763- ?) and Sarah Susannah GLUBB, at Sidmouth, Devon on 14 May 1821. Thomas and Sophia had two daughters. Sophia (1822-1892) and Louisa Annie (1828-1868).

A Gruesome Death

Trewman's Exeter Flying Post

For most of my English research purposes, the two most useful newspapers are the North Devon Journal and Trewman's Exeter Flying Post. In my last post I wrote about how scans of the North Devon Journal are now available through the British Newspaper Archive. Another newspaper resource is British Newspapers 1800-1900, the result of a partnership of the British Library with Gale, a part of Cengage Learning. Until recently access was only available to institutions, however, individuals can now purpose a 24-hour pass for £6.99, or a seven-day pass for £9.99. And so, for the last seven days, I've been reading Trewman's Exeter Flying Post.

In previous posts, I've written about some accidental deaths in the parish of Merton, Devon, and recently reported on the accidental death of my distant relative, Mary Jane BULLEID (1828-1838). Both the North Devon Journal and Trewman's Exeter Flying Post frequently reported on inquests "on the body" of victims of misadventure. Perhaps the most gruesome in its details is this report from the Thursday, March 25, 1841 edition of Trewman's Exeter Flying Post:

FATAL ACCIDENT.—On the 16th inst. as a boy named Oliver, about 12 years old, in the service of Mrs. Petherbridge, of Pill, in the parish of Tawstock, was going with a horse and cart, in passing a gateway the horse started, and the cart being upset on the unfortunate boy, his head was crushed in such a manner that the brains literally protruded through the fissures caused in the bone of the skull. An inquest was taken on the body, and a verdict of Accidental Death returned.

The most likely candidate for the victim is Henry OLIVER, son of John OLIVER and Ann SALTERN, who was baptised at Tawstock, Devon on 29 Mar 1829.

Mary Jane Bulleid (1828-1838)

St John the Baptist, Hatherleigh, Devon

Many of my ancestors and relatives are simply names, dates and places on a page. Occasionally, however, I learn something more.

The British Newspaper Archive is a new online resource for genealogists and historians. According to its website, "the British Newspaper Archive is a partnership between the British Library and brightsolid online publishing to digitise up to 40 million newspaper pages from the British Library's vast collection over the next 10 years." Over three million pages are currently available. Searching the archive is free, however, there is a small cost to view individual pages.

As a researcher whose primary interest is Devon, I was happy to discover that several historical Devon newspapers have been scanned, including the Western Times and the North Devon Journal. So far I have focused on finding articles relating to my COOKE, LOVEBAND, and BRAGINGTON ancestors and relatives, however, a quick search for BULLEID uncovered the following:

Western Times, Friday, Aug 31, 1838

INQUESTS HELD BY H.A. VALLACK, ESQ. CORONER.— At North Lew, on the body of Mary Jane Bulleid, aged 10 years, daughter of Mr. Bulleid, of Hatherleigh. The deceased had been incautiously and ignorantly placed by a servant man on a horse with her foot in the stirrup leather—the result was, she fell from the horse, and being entangled in the leather, the animal became frightened, and ran off furiously for nearly a mile to the house of his owner, by which time the head of the poor child was fractured, and the scalp entirely gone. Verdict 'accidental death.'

Mary Jane BULLEID was the niece of my ggg-grandmother Mary Field BULLEID (1809-1894). Her parents were Samuel BULLEID (1803-1875) and Patience TUCKER (1804-1885). Samuel had been born in Dolton, Devon but moved to Hatherleigh and established himself as a butcher. Mary Jane was the second eldest of seven children. Her gravestone in the churchyard of St John the Baptist records her death as well as the deaths of three of her siblings.

The Descendants of David Jacques (1762-1824)

Jacques Monument, Utley Cemetery,
Keighley, Yorkshire

A number of different stories have been told about the origins of the family of my grandfather, Alfred George Jacques (1896-1939). One such story is that the Jacqueses are descendants of Colonel Henri Jacques, a refugee from the French Revolution who landed at Whitehaven, Cumberland. Another is that the family is descended from a rich Huguenot who came to England to make his fortune in the wool trade. Research initiated by the late Greville Jacques of Sugnall, Stafford, however, indicates that the Jacqueses originated in Scotland and that Jacques is a variant of the surname Jack.

The earliest record of the Jacqueses is that of the marriage of David Jack to Jean Gillies in 1784 in Douglas, Lanark, Scotland. Jean was baptised in 1761, the daughter of William Gillies and Jean Wier. David and Jean had thirteen children, nine boys and four girls. Most of their children were born in Windermere, Westmoreland, England, however, the second daughter, Allison, was baptised at Douglas in 1789, while the first daughter, Jeannie died there in 1794.

The names and birthdates of David and Jean's children appear in a Bible currently held by a son of Greville Jacques. Greville Jacques writes:

The family bible is a bit of a mystery. It has obviously been rebound and the information about David and Jeannie Jacques's children is on a new fly sheet. However, this information is repeated on a piece of paper which dates about the beginning of the 20th Century and is in the possession of Hazel Taylor a distant cousin I contacted for the first time last summer. At the beginning of the New Testament there is a title page which gives the date of printing as MDCCLXII [1762]. At the top of this page in longhand is written P.L. Jacques July 25th 1869 and on the next page is written William Jacques July 25th 1869. So the bible is quite old, but the information on the new fly sheet could have been written when it was rebound, but not in living memory.

The bible also records the deaths of Allison and James Jacques who "drowned together in Lake Windermere Aug 12 1800" as well as that of George Jacques who was "killed at Waterloo."

In the parish registers of Windermere, David Jacques is referred to as "of the island, gardener or of Belle Isle." David Jacques was most likely gardener to Isabella Curwen and John Christian of Belle Isle. This is supported by the names of three of the Jacques children: John Christian, Isabella and Curwen.

Isabella Curwen and John Christian were first cousins of Fletcher Christian of HMS Bounty fame. Belle Isle is noted for its Georgian roundhouse. Fiona Mountain, author of the historical romance novel Isabella, writes:

Belle Isle, formerly known as the Great Island, is the largest island on Windermere and the only one to be inhabited. Situated in the centre of the lake, with views of the villages of Ambleside and Bowness and the mountain ranges bounding the Troutbeck Valley, it was the seat of the Lord of the Manor of Windermere until it passed into the possession of the local Philipson family. It was bought by a Mr. English in 1774 who instructed the architect John Plaw — later a leading master builder in Westminster who erected the church at Paddington and Montague House, Portman Square — to construct the unusual roundhouse. The construction of the house was not complete when Mr. English went bankrupt and sold the house and island for £1,720 to Isabella Curwen after whom it was then named. The descendants of Isabella and her husband John Christian Curwen lived on the island until 1993.Isabella Curwen was born on October 2nd 1765, the only child of Henry Curwen of Workington Hall who died when she was thirteen, leaving her the heiress of the estate and huge mining interests. John Christian, her cousin, was made her guardian and later became her husband. It was John who bought for her the island on Windermere which was named Belle Isle in her honour.

John Christian, Isabella's husband and also first cousin to Fletcher, took the name and arms of Curwen on his marriage to Isabella.

John was the head of the Cumberland Christians who inherited the Ewanrigg estate at Maryport. He was a prominent Whig MP, innovator of social welfare and an agricultural pioneer. His chief political opponent was the Earl of Lonsdale, nicknamed the Bad Earl because of his use of bribery, corruption and violence to win elections – on one occasion he went so far as to arm his colliers with bludgeons in an attempt to unseat Christian.

His work as an agricultural pioneer earned John Christian Curwen the title ‘The Father of Agriculture’ and he is credited with planting over three million larch trees on the banks of Windermere. As an early welfare reformer he set up compulsory sickness and unemployment benefit schemes for his workers which were in many ways precursors to the National Health Service.

David Jacques was buried at Windermere on 31 Apr 1824 at the age of 62. Also buried at Windermere were his daughter Allison, and his sons James, Robert and Curwen. His daughter Annie married John Moore in 1824.

Archibald Jacques, the son of David Jacques and Jean Gillies, moved to the Cartmel area of Lancashire, and in 1820 married Eleanor Bartram of Bootle, Cumberland. Archibald and Eleanor had seven children. The oldest daughter, Ann, married Thomas Rudd, a mariner who was 18 years her senior. Thomas and Ann had a least four children and lived in Ulverston, Lancashire.

David Jacques, the son of David Jacques and Jean Gillies, moved to Keighley, Yorkshire, and in 1812 married Elizabeth Corlass, daughter of John Corlass and Alice Lawson. Alice Lawson was the daughter of Robert Lawson and Mary Playtress. John Corlass was the brother of Thomas Corlass, owner of Hope Mill.

Hope Mill was one of the first steam powered cotton mills to be built in Keighley. Corlass employed a large number of pauper children, some of whom may have come from afar afield as London. Corlass lost money as a cotton spinner during the Napoleonic Wars and in 1812 was so "agitated by the unfavourable state of the markets, he one morning went to the engine tender and ordered him to rake out the fire and stop the engine; and this being done, he from that time ceased to be a cotton spinner."

In the 1822 Baines Directory entry for Keighley, David Jacques appears under the heading Gardeners, Nursery and Seedsmen as "Jacques Dvd. (dealer in British wines) Spring gardens."

David and Elizabeth had ten children: eight boys and two girls. David died in 1831 and is buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's, Keighley along with his wife, his eldest son William and his youngest son Archibald Gillhouse.

John Corlass Jacques, the second son of David Jacques and Elizabeth Corlass, became a grocer in Morton, Yorkshire. John married Rebecca Greenwood and had three children. According to Philip Evans, a descendant of John's eldest son William, John Corlass Jacques was a prominent figure in Morton. There are several references to him in the minutes of local committee meetings and his signature is to be found on several occasions in official documents. His daughter Priscilla Greenwood Jacques married the butcher Samuel Midgley. John Corlass Jacques is mentioned in Midgleyana by John Franklin Midgley, grandson of Priscilla, who also asserted that Priscilla Greenwood Jacques was the great-granddaughter of Colonel Henri Jacques.

David and Elizabeth's fifth son, Henry Jacques, married Mary Hollings. Six of their nine offspring died in childhood and are buried with their parents in Utley Cemetery, Keighley. The name of one of their children, Curwen George Hollings Jacques, acknowledges their Windermere roots.

David and Elizabeth's seventh son, George Jacques, began his career as a wool spinner in Keighley, Yorkshire. When the Waterloo Mills was built in nearby Silsden, George was one of the purchasers and soon became the sole owner. In the 1870s George had a home called Springbank built on Howden Road in Silsden. When George died in 1895, his estate was worth £72,000. Today this would be worth over £4,000,000.

George married Arabella Holmes and had six children. His son, Plateras, inherited Waterloo Mills and Springbank. Plateras married late in life and had no children. He did, however, travel extensively. Passenger records exist showing a passage from Japan to Vancouver in 1922 and a passage a few months later from Quebec City to Southhampton. When Plateras died in 1935 his estate was valued at over £350,000 (£13,000,000).

George's daughter Arabella married Arthur Sellers. Their son, Arthur Brian Sellers, was a famous cricket player. George's daughter Alice married Edgar Heap, a prosperous wool merchant in Bradford. Apparently it was one of the poshest weddings Silsden had ever seen.

Plateras Lawson Jacques was the sixth son of David and Elizabeth, and was named for his paternal grandmother Alice Lawson and her mother Mary Playtress. Plateras married Ellen Jennings, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah Jennings of Bradford in 1851. Plateras and Ellen had eight children, one of whom, Ellen, died at the age of five.

The oldest child, George Gilbert Jacques, emigrated to Australia. He married Catherine McWilliams in 1878 in Ipswitch, Queensland. Both George and Catherine are buried in the Lutwyche Cemetery in Brisbane, Queensland.

Plateras and Ellen's oldest daughter, Sarah, was born at sea and her birth was apparently registered in Augusta, Maine in the United States. The family's stay in the United States was brief since all of Sarah's siblings were born in Yorkshire. Sarah never married. Her sister, Alice, married a widower, James Roberts, and lived in Fenton, Staffordshire.

Plateras and Ellen's second eldest son William became an architect and did not marry. Their third son, Alfred was a journalist who married Emma Murgatroyd. Greville Jacques is their grandson. Plateras and Ellen's fourth son, John Henry Jacques was also an architect. He married Marion Cane and named his second son Geoffrey Plateras Lawson Jacques. Geoffrey joined the Royal Flying Corps but died in a mid-air collision in 1916 over Salisbury Plain.

The youngest son, Charlie Jacques started as a goldsmith's clerk but eventually became Chief Accountant of the Public Utilities Commission of London, Ontario, Canada. In 1891 in Sutton, Surrey he married Alice Lymath. Alice was the daughter of George Lymath and Elizabeth Boorer and was one of five girls, two of whom, Alice and Charlotte, were twins. Charlie and Alice had three children, all born in Sutton: Archibald Lymath, Alfred George and Dorothy. Charlie emigrated to Canada in 1906, arriving at Quebec City aboard the SS Canada on the 2nd of November. Alice and her three children joined Charlie the following spring, arriving in Quebec City aboard the RMS Empress of Britain on the 24th of May.

Plateras died in 1870 and is buried in Uttly Cemetery, Keighley. In 1875 Ellen married Issac Holmes a widower with two boys. Both Issac and his two boys had died by 1878 at which point Ellen decided to move her family to the south of England, to Sutton in Surrey. Ellen died in 1898 in Sutton but is buried with her husband in Keighley.

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Belle Isle, Windermere © Copyright Brian Clift and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Waterloo Mills, Silsden © Copyright Chris Allen and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Family History, Family Mythology

Long before I became interested in genealogy, I had heard the story of how my ggg-grandfather had come from Barnstaple, Devon in the early 19th century to establish a fishing station in Newfoundland. A sister of my grandfather had been very fond of telling how William Cooke had brought over three sailing ships, two slaves and £80,000; and had then lost it all when the fishery collapsed.

 

Even before I began to research my family history, I had doubts about this story. Although slavery existed in the United States and in British possessions in the Caribbean, it was essentially non-existent in the United Kingdom and in Newfoundland. As well, £80,000 in 1820 would be worth almost three and a half million pounds today. 

Eventually, after several years of research, the truth began to emerge. In 1817, William Cooke had left High Bickington, Devon to assume management of a fishing station located at Paradise on Placentia Bay on the south coast of Newfoundland. The fishing station had previously been owned by William's great-uncle George Cooke, and had been inherited by William's father in 1790. William's father was also majority owner of the brig Friends, built in Barnstaple in 1812. When William's father died in 1821, William inherited both the brig and the fishing station.

This brig, build in 1828, would have been similar to the brig Friends built at Barnstaple in 1812. (Source: Art Gallery of Nova Scotia)

The men who actually did the fishing often worked in very harsh conditions, however, they were not slaves. One of them, William Harding, recorded his experiences:

I and seven men more was sent in a cod seine skiff hauling codfish. We were sent off Sunday after dinner and not to return to the cookroom until Saturday evening. No place to sleep only a nap in the skiff, while one would be waiting for a haul of fish and only one meal of victuals cooked in twenty four hours. If we wanted more there was bread and butter and water in the skiff ... we had only one night in the week to sleep in our bed".

When William Cooke left Newfoundland in the late 1830s, it was not because the fishery had collapsed, but because it had slowly become unprofitable. As the youngest son, there was little in Devon for him to return to, so William decided instead to move to New Carlisle, Quebec, a small but thriving settlement on the Gaspe Peninsula that had been founded by United Empire Loyalists after the American Revolution. 

My maternal grandfather's family also has it's share of mythology. My mother had heard stories about how the Jacques family were the descendants of French Huguenots who had fled persecution in the 17th century. Another story was that the Jacqueses has been involved in the manufacturing of beaver hats in the 17th and 18th centuries. When I began researching the Jacqueses, I came across yet another myth, one that held that my grandfather was the descendant of a Colonel Henry Jacques who fled France during the Revolution. At least one distant cousin still holds to this belief, and this perhaps explains why he no longer responds to my emails. 

The reality is not quite so dramatic, but is interesting in it's own right. My gggg-grandfather David Jacks was most likely born in Scotland, and was employed by the Curwen family as a gardener for their Belle Isle estate on Lake Windemere in Westmorland. The Windermere parish register shows a gradual change in spelling from Jacks to Jacques. The latter spelling had firmly taken hold by the time my ggg-grandfather moved south to Keighley, Yorkshire. 

My sense is that my Jacques ancestors invented a mythology to make themselves more socially acceptable. It apparently worked. My ggg-grandfather married "above his station," as his wife was the niece of a mill owner. A brother of my gg-grandfather married a mill owner's daughter and eventually became a mill owner himself. My great-grandfather's brothers were architects and journalists. And they were apparently horrified when my great-grandfather married a coachman's daughter. This possibly explains why my great-grandfather emigrated to Canada.

So beware of family mythology. Although there may be grains of truths in the stories, the reality is often quite different, but just as fascinating.

Death by Misadventure

All Saints Church, Merton, Devon

Merton is a Devon parish a few kilometres south of Great Torrington. Perhaps best known as the birthplace of General George Monck (1608-1670) — the architect of the restoration of Charles II — Merton is also the birthplace of my ggg-grandfather Thomas Smith (1807-1841).

This past summer during my trip to Devon, I spent some time viewing microfiche of the Merton burial registers, and noticed that in the mid 19th century the curate of Merton, John C. Fisher, and later the rector, J.C. Kempe would include details of accidental or unusual deaths. Here are a few of the entries:

• Jane HEYWOOD buried 30 Apr 1837 aged 4 "accidentally drowned in the Torridge"
• William LUGG buried 4 Nov 1838 aged 40 "died of small pox"
• Fanny MAYNE buried 19 Nov 1838 aged 5 "accidentally burnt five weeks before she died"
• Eliza ELLACOTT buried 3 Feb 1839 aged 4 "accidentally burnt about a week before she died"
• Thomas STACEY buried 29 Oct 1843 aged 22 "died from injuries received by a Waggon going over him — surviving only a few days"
• Mary JOHNS buried 10 Jun 1845 aged 15 "accidentally drowned at Beaford Bridge"
• Hannah BALKWILL buried 18 Aug 1847 aged 33 "killed in the harvest field by the cart going over her chest"
• Priscilla CUDMORE bur 14 Aug 1859 aged 5 "her clothes caught fire during the temporary absence of her mother & died within 6 hours by the effect of the burns"

William Lugg's death from smallpox is somewhat unusual as it occured more than forty years after Dr. Edward Jenner discovered that immunity to the disease could be produced by inoculating a person with cowpox pus.

According to a brief article in Trewman's Exeter Flying Post, Eliza Ellacott "was accidentally burnt during the temporary absence of her elder sister who was left in charge of her."

Caldwell and Beebe

February 1834 marriage of Joshua BEEBE to
Mary WATT. Joshua's mother Mary SECORD
was almost 100 years old at the time of the
marriage. (Source: Drouin Collection)

So I finally gave in and purchased a subscription to Ancestry. Previously, whenever I needed to check census information or use the Drouin Collection of Quebec Vital & Church Records, I would have to visit the library to access the Ancestry Library Edition, usually on a computer with a monitor far too small for the purpose. Far more convenient to work at home with a 24" widescreen monitor and a really comfortable chair.

Access to the Drouin Collection has been quite useful as I am currently updating and expanding my information on the CALDWELL and BEEBE families of New Carlisle on the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec. I've previously written how my ggggg-grandmother, Mary SECORD (1734- ?), widow of Joshua BEEBE (1738-1778), settled at New Carlisle in 1784 with six of her seven children (four sons and two daughters). One son, Amasa BEEBE (1769-1862), did not marry, while another, Secord BEEBE (1764-1859), moved to Nova Scotia. The other two, Asa BEEBE (1772-1861) and Joshua BEEBE (1778-1844), had large families and some of their descendants still live in New Carlisle.

Joshua BEEBE had three wives and at least 11 children born over a forty year period. In fact, his third wife, Mary Ann WATT (1813- ?), was younger than several of the older children, and was not much older than Joshua's son Amasa BEEBE (1815-1901), who married Mary COOKE (1823-1873), sister of my gg-grandfather.

In the previous post I mentioned that Mary SECORD's youngest daughter, Sarah BEEBE (1774-1823) married Andrew Todd CALDWELL (1772-1827), son of Robert CALDWELL (1735-1825). Her descendants are proving to be rather elusive. A document dated 1816 records that Andrew and Sarah had four children, however, additional records exist for only two of them. Andrew and Sarah's daughter, Elizabeth CALDWELL (? -1864) married her cousin Adin BEEBE (? -1865) . Two of Andrew's nephews also married BEEBEs, while another two married COOKEs (sisters of my gg-grandfather). In 19th and early 20th century New Carlisle, almost everyone was related.

Many of the CALDWELL's were seafarers. Andrew Todd CALDWELL, for instance, apparently died at sea sailing from Boston to Halifax. Last year I was contacted by a CALDWELL descendant living in Australia who believed that his gg-grandfather, Charles CALDWELL (1812-1874), had been born in New Carlisle. The problem was that although it seemed likely that Charles was a grandchild of Robert CALDWELL, it was uncertain who the father was. Eventually my correspondent decided that Charles was the son of John Todd CALDWELL (1764-1850). Having now looked more closely at the data, however, I think it equally likely that any of John Todd CALDWELL's brothers, including Andrew Todd CALDWELL, could be the father.

Barring the discovery of a Caldwell bible, it is unlikely that this mystery will be solved. Records for New Carlisle from the early 19th century are almost non-existent, although clues can often be found in later records preserved in the Droiun Collection.