Probably Nathan: A Plausible Genealogy of Nathan Holmes of Hamilton, New York

Contents

• Surnames
• Introduction
• Information on Nathan of Hamilton
• Nathan's family
• Nathan in Connecticut
• Summary: Nathan's life and family
• Descendants of Nathan
• References

Surnames

Surnames mentioned herein are: ALDEN, BARTLETT, BILL, BREWSTER, CHAPEL, COOK, DIBBLE, DOUGLASS, EGGLESTON, FAUNCE, HODGES, HOLMES, MULLENS, ROGERS, SMITH, STOWELL, WARREN, WICKWIRE, and WILSON.

Introduction

This document attempts to set out some of the ancestry, family, and descendants of Nathan HOLMES, who was born in Montville, New London County, Connecticut, lived most of his adult life in Hamilton, Madison County, New York, and died in Farmersville, Cattaraugus County, New York. This is a somewhat audacious goal given that no such person has been proved (to my satisfaction) to exist -- or rather, that that "person" has not been proved not to be several different people. The audacity becomes greater when we consider that there is no known contemporary documentation of Nathan's parentage, marriage, or children, and no account at all, contemporary or otherwise, linking Nathan to most of his presumed children. Nathan is, in other words, the proverbial genealogical brick wall. However, several years of effort have yielded enough hints and circumstantial evidence to suggest a fairly consistent, plausible picture. Virtually nothing about Nathan can yet be proved beyond question, but the story presented here is, I think, probably correct for the most part.

I make no claim that I have exhausted the research possibilities connected with Nathan; on the contrary, I believe I have only scratched the surface. This document is a work in progress, and will be revised as new information comes to light.

Some references are given; follow links on names in square brackets (e.g., [Tuttle1] to see them), but in general I haven't shown sources or detailed information on individuals here; instead, follow the links on individuals' names (e.g., Nathan HOLMES) to see their entries in my online family tree.

Information on Nathan of Hamilton

Hamilton is a mostly rural town in Madison County, near the geographic center of New York State. The village of Hamilton is the home of Colgate University. Poolville lies southeast of Hamilton village; the crossroads of Hamilton Center are a mile or so to its northeast and the tiny settlement of South Hamilton a couple of miles to its east. Further east is the Town of Brookfield; north of Hamilton is the Town of Madison; and to the south is Chenango County, from which Madison County was split off in 1809.

Let's start with what is known about Nathan HOLMES of Hamilton.

Unfortunately not much is really known. Madison County seems to suffer from a dearth of records. The only candidates for contemporary records of Nathan I know of are the following:

• 1810 US census population schedule for Hamilton
• 1820 US census population schedule for Paris, Oneida County, New York
• Book with Nathan's signature
• Gravestone of Grace HOLMES

From these we learn rather little -- including whether any two of these records refer to the same Nathan. Let's consider them one at a time.

The 1810 census -- like all the US censuses through 1840 -- listed no names other than that of the head of each household. In 1810 the person who compiled the census for Madison County, New York recorded only first initials and last names of the heads of household (an act of laziness that surely earns him a place in the first circle of genealogists' Hell). In Hamilton, there was a household headed by "N. HOLMES" as follows:

• 2 males under 10
• 1 male 10-16
• 1 male 16-26
• 1 male 26-45
• 1 female under 10
• 2 females 10-16
• 1 female 26-45

As we will see later, there is reason to believe this "N. HOLMES" was Nathan HOLMES.

In 1820 there is a Nathan HOLMES as head of household in Paris, Oneida County, New York (20 miles or so from Hamilton), in the over 45 age bracket. The only other member of the household is a female over 45. These could be the same Nathan and his wife, but it raises the question: Where did the children go? And another question: Where was Nathan in 1830 and 1840? There is no Nathan HOLMES in the right age bracket as head of household anywhere in New York in those years.

A third "record" of Nathan is a novel now in my possession, published in the 1830s, that has the name "Nathan HOLMES" written in pencil on the title page. This tells us nothing of significance -- except that, since the novel has been in my family, it suggests a family connection between my line and (someone named) Nathan. (Unfortunately I know nothing of the history of the book. It and another old book were among my father's possessions when he died, and my mother did not know where he got them -- in fact, until we noticed the Holmes signatures in them, she thought he might have picked them up at a garage sale. The other book, also dating from about the 1830s, had the name and address of my great grandfather's sister written in pencil on the inside back cover: "Nancy M. HOLMES, Hamilton New York". These certainly were not garage sale finds, and I suspect they had been in the possession of my aunt until late in her life, at which point somehow my father got them.)

A gravestone at Poolville Rural Cemetery, in the village of Poolville in the town of Hamilton, reads "In Memory of Grace wife of Nathan Holmes Died Jan 30 1840 [ae] 69 Years". (Tuttle, in [Tuttle1] and [Tuttle2], transcribes the husband's name as "Needham HOLMES", but this is an error as can be (barely!) seen in this photo.) Of course the implied birthdate (ca. 1771) for Grace is consistent with that of the wife in the 1810 N. HOLMES census entry.

We will see below reasons to believe the Nathan HOLMES of Farmersville, Cattaraugus County, New York was Nathan of Hamilton. I know of two contemporary records of Nathan of Farmersville:

• Gravestone of Nathan HOLMES
• 1850 US census mortality schedule for Farmersville

A gravestone in Farmersville has the name Nathan HOLMES and a death date of 1 March, but the year is unreadable. A 1985 genealogy of the descendants of Peter HOLMES of Farmersville by Hermia Hallauer Gordon ([Gordon]), who examined the stone when it was readable, says the year was 1850, and Nathan was 83. Mostly confirming this is the mortality schedule from the 1850 US census for Farmersville, according to which Nathan HOLMES, a farmer born in Connecticut, died in February at age 83. Again, this leads to a birthdate in the proper age range to match N. HOLMES in the 1810 census.

To get any further we must supplement these records with a (much) later story, given in [Gordon]. This genealogy identifies Peter HOLMES (who is buried next to Nathan) as a son of Nathan and contains a brief account of Nathan and his family, attributed to Gordon's mother, Zoe Hallauer. If only as a cautionary tale on the pitfalls of family legends as genealogical sources, I quote this account in its entirety -- but with a warning first to take the following with a grain of salt, as indicated by my comments afterward:

"John Holmes lived during the reign of King Charles II of England. They came to America about 1622 on the second crossing of the Mayflower ship from Holland where they had lived for several years because of the political upheaval in England. John Holmes became Captain of the Colony, two years after Miles Standish.

"John Holmes's family were wealthy, lived in Boston, had the first embossed wallpaper from China. The Holmeses were owners of ships.

"Nathan Holmes, 1767-March 1850, a descendant of John Holmes, had three sons, Jabez, Peter and Henry. Peter, our ancestor, and Nathan are buried in Farmersville, Cattaraugus County, New York. Nathan, it is said, was taken prisoner by the British in the War of 1812, and put on a ship for England. Before it could reach England, the boat was captured by Americans, possibly John Paul Jones, and returned to America.

"Nathan moved his family from Boston down along the Connecticut River to Hartford, Conn. It is believed that Peter was born in Hartford. They later migrated to New York State with their oxen and carts, loaded with beautiful furniture, a grandfather's clock, plants, seeds, etc. Some rode horseback. The family settled in Hamilton, Madison Co., N.Y. where, it is said, the sons attended college.

"It is said that Nathan's son Jabez with sons Jackson and Chauncy, and Henry, who had 2 daughters, Hannah who married a Smith and another daughter who married Eggleston. [sentence incomplete in original] They had one daughter, Lydia. The two sons and families migrated to California.

[The above garbled sentence was rewritten on another page as follows: "It is said that Nathan's son Jabez had two sons -- Jackson and Chauncy. Also that Nathan's son Henry had two daughters, Hannah, who married a Smith, and the other married an Eggleston. She had a daughter -- Lydia. (not confirmed.)"]

"Peter's family moved on to Wyoming, New York, and finally to Farmersville, New York.

"The government was trying to settle the west, but was in need of money. After the War of 1812 the Holmeses were sold several thousand acres of land for a large sum of money by the government in Madison County and Cattaraugus County. Later they found the land to be worth only 8 dollars an acre.

"Peter Holmes's family arrived in Cattaraugus Co. about 1820-25. Others that came with the Holmeses were Richard Tozer, Peter and Cornelius Ten Broeck, the Robbins, Peets, and Caleb Cooley.

"Nathan stayed in Hamilton, Madison County. Many years later when he was old, and lost his eyesight, Peter went back to Hamilton and brought his father to Farmersville to stay with them. He was buried in Farmersville Cemetery in 1850. Part of his gravestone was still showing in 1980 beside that of Peter and Rachel.

"Peter Holmes married Rachel Stowell (from Vermont) born 1800. They had seven children... Peter was a maker of woodenware tools, and a farmer.

"The Holmeses were members of the Farmersville Community Church. Several Holmes families are still members of that church. They helped to build the new church in 1983, across from the old church. "

As important as this account is, it is (as [Gordon] acknowledges) not supported by any known contemporary documentation, and it is manifestly incorrect or at least questionable on several points:

• Charles II reigned from 1660-1685 -- several decades after John is claimed to have arrived in America. Was Charles I what was meant? He reigned 1625-1649. The monarch at the time of the founding of Plymouth was James I.
• The Mayflower never made a second crossing. That is, the Mayflower that brought the Pilgrims in 1620 never did. There were other ships of the same name, some of which did bring settlers to New England in later years. However, in the early 1620s the only ships that brought passengers to Plymouth were:

  Mayflower, 1620
  Fortune, 1621
  Anne and Little James, 1623.

  There was no one with the name John HOLMES, or any similar name, among the passengers on these ships.
• Miles Standish was hired by the Pilgrims as a military advisor. He served the colony in the areas of colonial defense and Indian relations, and from 1625-1627 as their representative in England. I'm not sure what "Captain of the Colony" means. The leader of the colony was the Governor. The first Governor of Plymouth was John Carver; after his death in April 1621, William Bradford became Governor and served in that office for 31 of the next 36 years.
• There were two British colonies in what is now the State of Massachusetts: Plymouth and Massachusetts. Plymouth was founded by what we now call the Pilgrims; they were members of a religious faction known as the Separatists, because they wanted to split away from the Church of England and form a new church. Massachusetts was founded by Puritans, who wanted to reform the Church of England from within. Boston was in Massachusetts, so if the statement that John's family lived in Boston is true, they must have moved from one colony to the other.
• Jabez HOLMES of Hamilton, Madison, New York served at Sackett's Harbor in the war of 1812, but there seem to be no records of any Nathan HOLMES from New York also serving in that war.
• The Connecticut River does not flow through, or anywhere near, Boston.
• The Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, the forerunner of Colgate University, opened in 1820; until 1839, it trained students for the ministry only. None of the probable sons of Nathan is known to have been a minister.

On the other hand, as we will see, there does appear to be some factual basis for much of this family legend (as it appears to be) although it has become garbled in the retelling. This presents me with a dilemma: To what extent can I make an argument based on some of the "facts" presented in this story while simultaneously dismissing other "facts" as probable errors? There's great potential for intellectual dishonesty here, choosing the parts of [Gordon's] story that support my argument and disregarding the parts that don't. Still, where [Gordon's] narrative is all I have to go on, it would be silly to disregard the whole thing because some of it is wrong. I believe I've been reasonably careful in using this story to guide my hypotheses, but it admittedly is a tricky question.

Nathan's family

[Gordon] tells us the Nathan HOLMES buried in Farmersville had lived in Hamilton, a claim for which I have no direct confirmation, but I also know of no reason to think it isn't true. Peter was buried next to Nathan, and we can confidently assume they really were father and son. [Gordon] gives two dates for Peter's birth (about 1794 and about 1798), but ca. 1797 seems most likely from the census.

What about other family members?

[Gordon] gives names for two brothers of Peter: Jabez and Henry. Someone named Jabez HOLMES appears as head of household in the US census population schedules for 1830 (in Hamilton), 1840 (in nearby Georgetown), 1850 (in nearby Madison), 1860 (in Hamilton), 1870 (in Hanover, Chautauqua County, New York), and 1880 (in Hanover), and in the New York State census population schedules for 1855 (in Hamilton), 1865 (in Hanover), and 1875 (in Hanover). Clearly these are the same Jabez HOLMES for the censuses from 1850 on. The households in 1830 and 1840 are reasonably consistent with those later households, though we can't prove they are the same. From a comparison of the names near Jabez's in the 1855-1860 censuses with those shown on an 1853 map of Hamilton, it's clear Jabez must have lived in or near Poolville at that time; and he is said to be a resident of Poolville in an 1864 newspaper report of his daughter's marriage. This is confirmed by a map published in 1859, with "J. HOLMES" labelling a house at the edge of Poolville on the road toward Earlville.

His first wife and two of his sons, Franklin and Albert, both of whom died in military service in the Civil War, are buried at Hamilton Center. The censuses say he was born in Connecticut around 1795, and a family bible record gives his birthdate as 9 Nov 1795.

[Gordon] says Jabez and Henry both moved to California, and this Jabez fails to conform -- unless he returned after staying in California too briefly to miss a census in Madison County. However, he does conform in having had a son named Chauncey. None of his sons are recorded as being named Jackson, but the published transcription of the Bible record lists a son named Andrew P. HOLMES. That same transcription gives P as the middle initial of Franklin and Albert,, both of whom have middle initial given as J in other sources; apparently whoever transcribed the Bible record misread the J's as P's. In that case Andrew's middle initial may have been J. He was born in 1824, the year Andrew Jackson first came close to being elected President (he was elected four years later). Could Jabez have been a Jackson supporter who named his son Andrew Jackson HOLMES? This is an unanswered question; I have found no other records of Andrew.

In any case, if, as [Gordon] claims, Peter really had a brother named Jabez, this seems to be the best candidate. If there were a death record for Jabez it might list his parents, but unfortunately he died in 1880, just a couple of years before New York State started keeping vital records consistently.

There were many Henry HOLMESes in the 1800s; about fifteen were heads of household in New York State in 1840 and 1850, including one in Brookfield just east of Hamilton. But the one of interest to us was in Vernon, Oneida County (about 25 miles north of Poolville) until 1847 when he moved to Greenfield Center, Saratoga County. Of his twelve known children, four were named Albert, Franklin, Helen, and Harriet. Of Jabez's nine known children, four were named Albert, Franklin, Helen, and Harriet. This proves nothing but is an intriguing similarity. More indications that this is Peter's brother come from a set of 19th century photos now owned by a descendant of Henry's, Joyce Waldinger, who received them from her grandmother. Most are unlabelled but a few have names attached. One is "Helen Eggleston -- Cousin of A. W. Holmes". A. W. HOLMES may refer to Henry's son Albert W. HOLMES. Another is "Grace Holmes -- Hamilton, NY -- Cousin".

The Eggleston surname on the first of these suggests a connection to Peter, while the second demonstrates that Henry had family connections in Hamilton. We will see more evidence of such connections later. The census population schedules for 1840 (Vernon) and 1850, 1855, 1860, and 1865 (Greenfield Center) show that Henry, like Jabez and Peter, was born in Connecticut -- and did not go to California, or not for long. His birthdate was 16 Aug 1809. Henry died in 1867 so, again, there is no death record.

So we do indeed find a Jabez and a Henry, both with connections to Hamilton, both born in Connecticut, and both of reasonable ages to be brothers of Peter and sons of the Nathan buried in Farmersville. (One researcher has a date of "about 1792" for Peter's brother Henry, which would rule out Henry of Vernon if correct; however, he did not know the source of that date and it has not been corroborated.) [Gordon] says nothing about their mother, but the Grace buried in Poolville certainly was in the right place and had a reasonable birthdate and a husband with the right name.

[Gordon] suggests that Peter had only two brothers, but perhaps only two that Gordon knew of would be a more reasonable interpretation. Certainly there seem to have been more, if the 1810 "N. HOLMES" was Peter's father. Can we identify more siblings?

One would seem to be easy: In 1855 a widow named Phebe WILSON was living in Jabez HOLMES's household and was described as Jabez's sister, age 53. Indeed N. HOLMES had one female under 10 in his 1810 household. But it probably wasn't Phebe. The same 1855 census says Phebe was born in Washington County, New York -- a place Nathan is not known to have been associated with, and it seems likely Nathan would have been in Connecticut in 1802 since he had sons born there before and after that date. In 1880 Phebe was living in North Township, Lake County, Indiana (as demonstrated by an affadavit in Jabez's military pension file), and the 1880 census says not only Phebe but both her parents were born in New York. These discrepancies suggest Phebe was not Jabez's sister after all, but perhaps his sister in law. Note that Phebe's son bought land in Indiana from an Ira DIBBLE, and Jabez's first wife was Irene DIBBLE. That would seem to give a little support to the theory that Phebe was Irene's sister; but the evidence is considerably stronger that she was a sister of Jabez's second wife, Harriet SMITH. First, both Phebe and Harriet had sons named Chauncey. Second, Harriet appears to have been a daughter of one Simeon SMITH and his first wife, whose name also was Phebe. Simeon seems to have come to Hamilton from Washington County. This information seems very strongly suggestive although not absolutely conclusive. Phebe's death record, if one exists, might clarify the matter.

Among other younger Holmeses in Hamilton was a Nathan HOLMES, born in Madison County, New York about 1811, who lived southwest of Poolville. This could well be a son of the elder Nathan, and the suspicion grows stronger when we find he had a daughter named Grace! It would be entirely reasonable for the younger Nathan to name his daughter after his mother. Moreover, this Grace HOLMES is the only known person in Hamilton who could have been the girl in the aforementioned photograph. She was born about 1846, so would have been in her mid to late teens in the first half of the 1860s, which, judging by the style of the dress, is when that photograph was taken. If Nathan Jr. and Henry were brothers, then Grace would indeed have been a cousin of Albert W. HOLMES. So the younger Nathan shows strong evidence of a connection to the elder Nathan, the elder Grace, and Henry. Nathan died in 1856 -- again, no death record.

Another candidate is Hiram HOLMES, born in Connecticut on 2 Aug 1804. Hiram apparently was living in 1840 (if the "Ira HOLMES" in the census was really Hiram HOLMES; the number, sexes, and age brackets of the household members match Hiram's family, and I know of no other records of an "Ira HOLMES" in Hamilton) less than a mile west of Hamilton Center. He died in 1864 -- once again, too early for death records -- and is buried in Poolville, in the same cemetery as the elder Grace. Hiram's grandson Clarence wrote a few pages of "Reminiscences" in the 1950s, and he could recall little about his ancestry and elder relatives, but he does recall "a cousin, I think" named Fred HOLMES who came to visit while Clarence was young. Fred was an undertaker in New York City. This is a crucial link: Henry HOLMES had a son named Frederick, who was indeed a New York City undertaker. Joyce Waldinger has two photos of him posing in front of his funeral parlor.

Clarence's brother John moved to the midwest in the 1880s and returned east only twice. On one of these trips he visited Fred or his sons at their home in Mount Vernon, New York, returning with a watch and two silver spoons from Hufnagl's Jewelry Store where Fred's son Chester was employed. So Hiram certainly was connected to Henry, and it seems likely he was another sibling. Hiram was my 2nd great grandfather, and the fact that our family possesses a book that belonged to "Nathan HOLMES" is further evidence of a connection. (The book could have belonged to either the elder Nathan or the younger, of course, but either way it suggests a connection between Hiram and the elder Nathan.) A tenuous connection also exists to the younger Nathan: Hiram's wife, Rhoda, was a member of the South Hamilton Baptist Church, where Nathan's daughter Grace was married in 1873.

[Gordon] says Henry had two daughters, one who married an Eggleston and had a daughter Lydia, and a Hannah who married a Smith. None of Henry's daughters actually seem to match. Instead, there was a Eunice HOLMES, born in Connecticut (according to the 1850 and 1855 censuses; New York according to later censuses) about 1806, who married Joseph Francis EGGLESTON and moved to Cortland, Cortland County, New York. They had four daughters, none named Lydia, but one was named Helen -- who, if Eunice was a sister of Henry, would have been another of Albert W. HOLMES's cousins. Given the mention of marriage to an Eggleston in [Gordon's] story and the photo of cousin Helen EGGLESTON in Joyce's collection, it seems likely Eunice was indeed another sibling. She died in 1861.

That suggests the Hannah who married a Smith was also among Nathan's children, not Henry's, and from census records and the Poolville cemetery records we find there was a Hannah born ca. 1815 who was wife of Edwin F. SMITH in Hamilton. In fact, the Smiths apparently lived very near where Hiram did in 1840. Hannah died in 1877, and Edwin and Hannah both are buried in Poolville. To assert that Hannah's maiden name was HOLMES and that she was Nathan's daughter borders on sheer speculation, but it seems a reasonable guess at this point.

There were other Holmeses living in Hamilton in the early 1800s, but most can be ruled out as children of Nathan:

• A Holmes family including Elijah HOLMES, Israel HOLMES, and Solomon HOLMES in nearby Hubbardsville seems to have been unrelated -- a list of relatives compiled for the estate file of one of them (Elijah HOLMES) does not list any of the Holmeses I've mentioned here.
• Americus HOLMES, intriguingly, lived in at least two places in Hamilton in the period 1868-1875, and both were within a mile (perhaps much less) of the two places where Hiram HOLMES lived in 1840 and 1850-1860. (Hiram's name appears on none of the land ownership maps, but comparison of the nearby names in the 1860 census with the names on the 1859 map make it clear Hiram must have then lived very near the intersection of what are now known as South Hamilton, Willey, and Humphrey Roads.) He's buried in Poolville, only a few yards away from Hiram. However, Americus is known to descend from early Holmeses in the town of Brookfield, Madison County, New York. I have found no real evidence of any link between Nathan's family and the Brookfield Holmeses. The latter came from Colchester, New London County, Connecticut. We will see evidence Nathan came from a place near Colchester and there may well have been a connection there, but his relationship if any to Americus was probably rather remote.
• Alonzo HOLMES of Hamilton likewise was connected with a Brookfield Holmes family, which has shown no clear signs of being connected to Nathan.
• Jonathan Gilbert HOLMES of Hamilton will be dealt with later.

To summarize, we have evidence in favor of the following family:

• Nathan HOLMES, father, ca. 1766 - 1850
• Grace ----, mother, ca. 1771 - 1840
• Jabez HOLMES, son, 1795 - 1880
• Peter HOLMES, son, ca. 1797 - 1864
• Hiram HOLMES, son, 1804 - 1864
• Eunice HOLMES, daughter, 1806 - 1861
• Nathan HOLMES, son, ca. 1811 - 1856
• Hannah HOLMES, daughter, ca. 1815 - 1877

This is almost entirely consistent with the 1810 household of N. HOLMES. Two females then ages 10-16 remain unknown, and Jabez would have to have been a year or so older to be the male in the 16-26 age bracket instead of a second male in the 10-16 bracket. This kind of discrepancy is not uncommon in the census records.

Now let's see if we can trace this family back into Connecticut.

Nathan in Connecticut

Let's begin with what I believe is a red herring: [Gordon] says Nathan was born in Boston, Massachusetts and lived in Hartford, Connecticut.

However, as stated above, the 1850 census mortality schedule for Farmersville says Nathan was born in Connecticut. I know of no records of any Nathan HOLMES born around 1766 in the Boston area or living around 1800 near Hartford. In fact, no one named Nathan HOLMES in the right age bracket appears as head of household anywhere in Connecticut in any census except for New Milford, Litchfield County in 1790 and Montville, New London County in 1800. Of course it's possible Nathan was in Hartford and was missed by the census, or was not head of household, but I find it easier to believe [Gordon's] story was inaccurate, especially in the face of much circumstantial evidence (discussed below) tying the Hamilton Nathan to Montville. Let's then examine this one piece of contemporary documentation I know of for Nathan of Montville, after first provisionally disposing of the New Milford Nathan: The only age information in the 1790 census is whether the males were over 16. But there were 4 children under 16 in the New Milford Nathan's household, suggesting he was older than 23 and so was not our Nathan.

In the 1800 Nathan HOLMES household in Montville there were:

• 2 males under 10
• 1 male 26-45
• 3 females under 10
• 1 female 26-45

The adult male must have been Nathan and the adult female was presumably his wife; both therefore were born between 1855 and 1874.

Could N. HOLMES of Hamilton in 1810 and Nathan HOLMES of Montville in 1800 be the same person? If so (and if the wives in 1800 and 1810 were the same) then Nathan and his wife must have been born between 1865 and 1874. If the two males under 10 in 1800 were the two males over 10 and under 26 in 1810, then they must have been born in 1794-1800 and 1790-1794. Of the three females under 10 in 1800, two must have been born in 1794-1800 and the third must have died, married, or otherwise left the household, assuming the two ages 10-16 in 1810 can be identified with two of the three under 10 in 1800. There are other possibilities (e.g. one or more of the younger household members could have been servants or hired hands rather than family members -- and census mistakes are frequent enough that they must always be considered among the possibilities), but the simplest reconciliation of these two records, and a comparison to the previously reconstructed family, is:

• husband, born 1765-1774 -- Nathan, b. ca. 1766
• wife, born 1765-1774 -- Grace, b. ca. 1771
• son, born 1790-1794 -- Jabez, b. 1795
• son, born 1794-1800 -- Peter, b. ca. 1797
• daughter, born 1790-1800 (absent in 1810) -- ?
• two daughters, born 1794-1800 -- ?
• two sons, born 1800-1810 -- Hiram, b. 1804, and Henry, b. 1809
• one daughter, born 1800-1810 -- Eunice, b. 1806

Of course, Nathan Jr. and Hannah were born after these censuses. The degree of consistency between the censuses and the reconstructed family is rather remarkable. The only problem is the aforementioned one with Jabez being in the wrong age bracket by about a year in the 1810 census.

I know of no other contemporary records of Nathan of Montville: no church, family Bible, court, or land records. The only other mentions of this Nathan are in two much later books.

The first is Baker's 1896 History of Montville [Baker] -- a resource to be used with caution, as any such secondary source is, but especially given Baker's reputation for unreliability. In the "Holmes Families" section, Samuel HOLMES of New London and his wife Lucretia are said to have had a son named Nathan, but no other information on Nathan is given there. In the "Chapel Families" section Grace CHAPEL is said to have married someone named Nathan HOLMES. Again, no further information on Nathan is given there, and no indication that this is the same Nathan as the one who was Samuel's son. Baker gives no clear indication of his sources for either claim.

(A 2000 article on Samuel HOLMES [Stover] gives Grace's surname as CHAPMAN, but in private email the author has acknowledged this was an error; the name should have been CHAPEL, and Baker was her uncited source.)

The 1905 Genealogical and Biographical Record of New London County [GBRNLC] corroborates Nathan as a son of Samuel, again with no further information. His mother's surname is given, with no stated justification, as BILL. (The book does not list its authors, and for all I know its account of Samuel HOLMES could also have been written by Baker. But note that in some respects the two accounts differ.)

Baker provides other information that suggests Nathan of Hamilton was Nathan of Montville. Perhaps the strongest evidence is in regard to Nathan's wife. According to Baker, Grace CHAPEL's sister Lydia married Jeremiah WICKWIRE -- and census and cemetery records show a Lydia and Jeremiah WICKWIRE in Hamilton, near Poolville and quite close to Hiram HOLMES's 1840 residence. Lydia and Jeremiah were buried in Poolville, in the same cemetery as Grace, wife of Nathan of Hamilton. So was a man named Peter CHAPEL; Baker lists a Peter CHAPEL as a brother of Grace and Lydia. Peter CHAPEL was also the name of Grace, Lydia, and Peter's father; if Grace CHAPEL was Nathan HOLMES's wife, then Peter HOLMES presumably was named for his grandfather.

A brother of Jeremiah WICKWIRE, Zadoc WICKWIRE, also moved from Montville to Hamilton and lived near Hiram HOLMES's 1840 home. Zadoc's wife's name was Lovina, and Baker identifies her as Lovina HOLMES, daughter of Jabez HOLMES of Montville, a son of Samuel HOLMES and brother of Nathan! If Nathan of Montville was father of Jabez HOLMES of Poolville, then the latter presumably was named for his uncle. (Nathan seemingly was returning his brother's favor; Jabez of Montville named one of his sons Nathan.)

Another child of Jabez HOLMES of Montville was named Jonathan Gilbert HOLMES, and Gilbert (as he apparently was known) also went to Hamilton, sometime between the 1830 and 1840 censuses; in 1840 he was living a mile or so north of Hamilton Center. In 1850 he was living in Madison, not very far, apparently, from the younger Jabez HOLMES. His wife died in 1852 and was buried at Hamilton Center. By 1860 he had returned to New London County where he spent the rest of his life. (Gilbert's family connections are documented in a published transcription of a family Bible record [Tubbs].)

So we find Nathan of Montville's wife's sister, two of his cousins, and perhaps his wife's brother all living near Poolville.

In Brookfield, the next town east of Hamilton, lived a Thomas HOLMES, who was born in Waterville, near Montville, the son of John HOLMES and Naomi ROGERS. I do not know how or if he ties into the rest of the Montville Holmeses, though his father could have been a son of Samuel's son John, or possibly could have been Samuel's son John himself.

The fact that Nathan and Grace of Montville had all these relatives living near Poolville proves nothing directly but is very strong circumstantial evidence that they and Nathan and Grace of Hamilton were the same couple.

The interesting thing is that with all its faults, [Gordon's] story of Peter's ancestry does bear some resemblance to the truth, if Peter was a grandson of Samuel. Nathan did not come from Boston, but Samuel was a native of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Samuel's forebears did indeed include a John HOLMES, who was in Plymouth by the early 1630s and served the colony in an important office, not that of "Captain" but that of "Messenger". His great grandson Elisha HOLMES, Samuel's father, is said to have owned "a large number of ships and several warehouses" [GBRNLC], again echoing a claim in [Gordon's] story. [Gordon] actually falls short of reality with regard to Mayflower connections: Samuel's ancestors included several Mayflower passengers, among them John ALDEN and Priscilla MULLENS, William BREWSTER, and Richard WARREN.

Samuel's Holmes line back to the immigrant ancestor is given in [Williams] as:

1. John HOLMES (of Plymouth, Massachusetts; b. bet. 1583-1611, d. aft. 7 Oct 1651) and Sarah ---- (d. Aug 1650)
2. Nathaniel HOLMES (b. abt. 1643, d. 25 Jul 1727) and Mercy FAUNCE (b. 10 Apr 1651, d. 11 Feb 1731/32)
3. Elisha HOLMES (b. 16 Apr 1670, d. bet. 1743-1745) and Sarah BARTLETT (b. bef. 1680, d. 24 Jul 1714)
4. Elisha HOLMES (b. 19 Jan 1697/98, d. 1779) and Sarah BARTLETT (b. aft. 19 Apr 1700, d. 4 Jul 1738) [Yes, that's correct -- Elisha was named for his father, and married a woman with the same name as his mother. The two Sarahs were distant cousins.]
5. Samuel HOLMES (b. 26 Jun 1722, d. ca. 1774).

In early 2008 yDNA testing was done by familytreedna.com for Ralph HOLMES, a descendant of Hiram. Out of 12 alleles (markers) tested, 12 matched for two other Holmeses in the familytreedna.com database, and 11 matched for one other Holmes. All three matched Holmeses apparently claim descent from John HOLMES, though via a different son, also named John HOLMES. This would seem to be proof Hiram descended in the male line from either John HOLMES or someone related to him, though of course the possibility that the line did not go via Nathan and Samuel can't be ruled out, nor that one or more of Hiram's postulated siblings was in fact of a different family. Testing of more than 12 alleles would help pin this down, as would testing of male line descendants of Hiram's and Nathan's brothers.

Summary: Nathan's life and family

What follows by way of summation is a sketch of the life of Nathan HOLMES. While it is presented as if it were factual, I emphasize again that most of it lacks any proof, though I believe it is substantially correct. But for now it is more convenient to pretend, just for a short time, that we know the truth and that it goes like this...

Nathan HOLMES was born about 1766 in the North Parish of the Town of New London, New London County, Connecticut -- an area that later was split off into a new town called Montville. His father was Samuel HOLMES; his mother was Lucretia BILL. Nathan was one of twelve children of Samuel. His father died around 1774, but his mother lived until about 1820.

Nathan married Grace CHAPEL, who was born about 1771, daughter of Peter CHAPEL and Esther DOUGLASS. At least five children and perhaps eight or more were born to them in Montville, including: Jabez, born 1795; Peter, born about 1797; Hiram, born 1804; Eunice, born about 1806; Henry, born 1809; and probably three other girls born before 1800.

In late 1809 or early 1810 the family relocated to somewhere near the village of Poolville in the Town of Hamilton, Madison County, New York. There Nathan and Grace had at least one or two more children: Nathan, born about 1811; and perhaps Hannah, born about 1815.

Jabez, Hiram, Nathan Jr., and Hannah stayed in or near Poolville most of their lives, but Peter went first to Wyoming County, and later to Farmersville, Cattaraugus County, both in New York; Eunice went to Cortland, Cortland County, New York; and Henry went first to Vernon, Oneida County and then to Greenfield Center, Saratoga County, both in New York.

In 1840 Grace died. Sometime in the following decade Nathan went to live with Peter in Farmersville; he may have been blind in his last years. He died in 1850.

Descendants of Nathan

Descendants of Jabez

Descendants of Peter

Descendants of Hiram

Descendants of Eunice

Descendants of Henry

Descendants of Nathan Jr.

Descendants of Hannah

References

[Baker]

Henry A. Baker, History of Montville, Connecticut, Formerly the North Parish of New London, from 1640 to 1896, Case, Lockwood & Brainard (Hartford, Connecticut, 1896), "Chapel Families" (pp. 474-485), "Holmes Families" (pp. 327-332), and "Wickwire Families" (pages not noted).

[GBRNLC]

Genealogical and Biographical Record of New London County, Connecticut, J.H. Beers & Co. (Chicago, 1905), pp. 833-835.

[Gordon]

Hermia Hallauer Gordon, Peter Holmes Genealogy, 1794-1980, privately published (Pompano Beach, Florida, 1985)

[Sceva]

Jack Sceva, Descendants of Corydon Holmes and Alice Blackmon, privately published (2000)

[Stover]

Margaret Harris Stover, "Samuel Holmes of Montville, Connecticut", Mayflower Quarterly V. 66, pp. 243-9 (September 2000).

[Tubbs]

Bible, 1826, no printer or place given, owner: Mrs. Gertrude Dunbar Tubbs, New London. Transcribed in "Connecticut Family Records", National Society of Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America, 1935, p. 120. (Credit for finding this goes to Dan McDonald.)

[Tuttle1]

William H. Tuttle, Early Burials in Madison County.

[Tuttle2]

William H. Tuttle, Names and Sketches of the Pioneer Settlers of Madison County, New York, ed. Isabel Bracy, Heart of the Lakes (Interlaken, NY).

[Williams]

Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Vol. 16 Part 1, compiled by Esther Littleford Woodworth-Barnes, edited by Alicia Crane Williams, General Society of Mayflower Descendants (Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1999), pp. 267-268.