Re: Carpenter Family/ Warren and Morris County New Jersey Connections
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In reply to:
Carpenter Family/ Warren and Morris County New Jersey Connections
Millie VanScoten 2/02/07
Dear Millie,
Ashman Carpenter (circa 1804 - 1869) was a son of Joseph James Carpenter (circa 1769 - 1851) and Margaret Hope (1775 - 1824).Ashman’s wife was Susan Allen (1805 - 1886), and she was most likely a daughter of James Allen (circa 1771 - 1838) and Sarah Groff (after 1770 - circa 1855). The following discussion explains my current understanding of the basic biographical details for Ashman’s family members, based on a variety of primary and secondary sources.Precise dates are subject to interpretation, so please advise me if the evidence leads you to any different conclusions regarding this lineage.At the end of this reply, I have added some background material on Ashman himself.Although this will undoubtedly duplicate information that you already know, I hope that you might be able to answer some of my unresolved questions regarding Ashman’s migrations.
JOSEPH JAMES CARPENTER.Perhaps the most useful source of information on the family of Joseph James Carpenter is a transcription of an oral family history that one of Joseph’s sons, also named Joseph, conveyed to his daughter.This narrative survives today in the form of a 1912 retyped version of an earlier transcription entitled “History of the Carpenter Family as Related by the Late Joseph James Carpenter, Sr.” (as a matter of clarification, the Joseph James Carpenter, Sr. in the title refers to this brother of Ashman who was named after their father).According to the extant version of this account, Joseph James Carpenter and most of his family (including Ashman) migrated from New Jersey to Canada in 1816.They lived there for eight years before moving to Rochester, New York, where Margaret (Hope) Carpenter died in April 1824.Joseph subsequently returned to Canada, where he died in 1851 at the home of one of his sons.The manuscript also contains an extensive family tree.Despite a variety of inaccuracies, particularly regarding earlier generations, this document certainly appears to be authentic.
This account is also consistent with the abstract of an obituary for a Joseph Carpenter that appears in the book “Death Notices from the Christian Guardian, 1851-1860” by the Rev. Donald A. McKenzie.The abstract refers to a Joseph Carpenter who was born in March 1769 in NJ and died on 9 May 1851 in Townsend Township, Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada.The abstract indicates that he was born in Essex County, although it likely should read Sussex County.Please note that I have only seen the abstract in Rev. Mackenzie’s compilation, not the actual obituary.
The Grimsby Historical Society’s 1953 publication “Annals of the Forty” (No. 4, as revised and reprinted in 1983) lists Joseph Carpenter’s date of birth as 1767, his date of migration to Canada as 1817 and his residence as Saltfleet. These dates obviously differ slightly from those set forth in the other sources noted above.His parents had moved to the Niagara region in Upper Canada after the American Revolution, and various family members ultimately settled in the Saltfleet area.Significantly, this same Canadian source notes that Joseph’s son Ashman returned to live in New Jersey.
Prior to these migrations, Joseph Carpenter and his family apparently resided for a time in Hunterdon County, NJ during the 1790s.The abstract of the 1793 Militia Census for NJ lists a Joseph Carpenter in Bethlehem Township, Hunterdon County.Moreover, the Spring 1991 edition of the “Hunterdon Historical Newsletter” contains a transcription of the 1795 Subscription for the Bethlehem Presbyterian Churchyard, which also includes a Joseph Carpenter. This is undoubtedly our Joseph Carpenter; his name appears on the list indented under the name of Adam Hope, his father-in-law.So far, I have not located concrete evidence of any subsequent residences that might indicate Ashman’s birthplace, although Sussex (now Warren) County is a strong possibility.
MARGARET HOPE.The most detailed vital statistics that I have found thus far for Margaret Hope, the wife of Joseph Carpenter, come from a secondary source, namely Isaac Watson Dunham’s 1907 book “Dunham Genealogy.”Without any notation as to the underlying source, that book references 21 July 1775 as the date of birth for Margaret Hope.It also mentions September 15, 1793 as her date of marriage to Joseph Carpenter and lists their children, including Ashman.By comparison, the aforementioned obituary abstract for Joseph Carpenter names 1794 as their marriage year.Margaret’s father, Captain Adam Hope, resided in Clinton, Hunterdon County, NJ at the time of the American Revolution, so it is probable that she was born there.As previously mentioned, she purportedly died in Rochester, New York in April 1824.I have not located any primary source materials to confirm or disprove these dates and places, but I understand that a Hope family Bible may exist.
SUSAN ALLEN.Ashman Carpenter’s wife was Susan Allen, and both are buried in Hackettstown Union Cemetery in a plot with their eldest son.Your post refers to a birth year of 1810 for Susan, and the applicable Federal Censuses offer a variety of possible years.Indeed, her tombstone implies yet a different year of birth, and it lists her apparent date of burial as her date of death (all of the gravestones in this particular plot contain significant inaccuracies and are not reliable sources for dates).However, Susan’s death certificate states that she died in Hackettstown on 28 May 1886 at the age of 81 years and 18 days, which suggests that she was born on 10 May 1805.Both the handwritten Register of the Hackettstown Union Cemetery and her death notice in “The Hackettstown Gazette” reflect the data in the death certificate.Although the Federal Censuses list her name as Susan, the name “Susanah” [sic] appears on her death certificate, newspaper death notice and tombstone, whereas certain church records spell her name “Susanna.”She resided in Beattystown with her husband, but she evidently relocated to Hackettstown following his death in 1869.The 1870 and 1880 Censuses both show her living there with a daughter.
I have not found a definitive marriage record for Ashman Carpenter and Susan Allen, although it likely occurred prior to 1826.Ashman and Susan actually had ten children, not nine as you might have assumed from the Federal Census records.Their first child, Henry E. Carpenter, was born circa 1826, and he appears separately with his own family in the 1850 Census.
Susan (Allen) Carpenter’s death certificate names James and Sarah Allen as her parents.The most likely candidates for her parents are the James Allen and Sarah Groff described below.
JAMES ALLEN.Tombstone transcriptions from the old Hackettstown Presbyterian Churchyard include a James Allen, who died on May 11, 1838 in his 67th year (note that the DAR version of the transcription reads “May 1” whereas the GMNJ version reads “May 11”).If this is our James Allen, then his year of birth would be roughly 1771.The 1830 Census for Mansfield Township, Warren County, NJ lists a James Allen born in the 1770s with a spouse of comparable age, but he does not appear in the 1840 Census.However, a Sarah Allen does appear in the 1840 Census for Mansfield Township on the line immediately after the entry for Ashman Carpenter.Although Sarah’s age in the 1840 Census suggests a year of birth in the 1780s, it would not be unreasonable to conclude that this is the widow of the late James Allen listed in the 1830 Census.Read together, these records support the proposition that the James Allen buried in the Hackettstown Presbyterian Churchyard is the spouse of Sarah Allen and the father of Susan Allen.
According to the handwritten marriage return submitted by the Rev. William Tims, a James Allen of Sussex County married a Sarah Groff of Morris County on 29 October 1797 in Morris County, NJ.Other records indicate that a James Allen may have resided in the Hackettstown area during this general time period.For example, in the microfilm copy of the Session Minutes of the First Presbyterian Church of Hackettstown, a church pew diagram from 1790 shows a James Allen.A James Allen also appears in the abstract of the 1793 Militia Census for Roxbury Township in Morris County, which at that time encompassed the area just across the river from Hackettstown.Whether or not these all refer to the same James Allen is unclear to me; an examination of the deed and judicial records in the NJ State Archives may help resolve this matter.
SARAH GROFF.As noted above, the 1830 and 1840 Census records suggest that Sarah (Groff) Allen was born sometime after 1770, and her name does not appear in the 1850 Census for Warren County, NJ.However, the microfilm copy of the Roll of Members of the First Presbyterian Church of Hackettstown for 1855-56 lists a “Sarah wid Jas Allen” in “Beatteystown” [sic], which has been crossed out with the notation “Died 1855”.Beattystown is the part of Mansfield Township where Ashman and Susan Carpenter resided, so this may well refer to our Sarah (Groff) Allen.So far, I have not located either a tombstone transcription or an entry in the Return of Deaths to confirm this hypothesis.
Similarly, I have not discovered any definitive evidence yet as to the respective parents of James Allen and Sarah Groff.However, H.C. Bradsby’s 1885 volume “The History of Bureau County, Illinois” contains an interesting clue in the biography of an Elisha Allen who migrated from Warren County, NJ to Illinois in 1871.An extract from Elisha Allen’s biography reads as follows: “His parents, James and Sarah (Groff) Allen, were natives of New Jersey, where they died.The mother was of German extraction, and grandfather Allen was also of German descent.”If the foregoing lineage for Susan is accurate and this Elisha is her brother, then the Allen surname may be an Anglicized version of a German surname.
ASHMAN CARPENTER.As with the other individuals mentioned above, the available sources differ on his year of birth.Your message refers to 1805, which is one possibility based on the 1850 Census. The 1860 Census suggests 1802.A transcription of Ashman’s tombstone in Hackettstown Union Cemetery lists his age at death in June 1869 as 65 years and 11 months, which implies 1803 as his year of birth.Another researcher has informed me that family Bible records set Ashman’s date of birth as 4 January 1804, but I have not seen this piece of evidence myself.Regarding his precise date of death, Ashman’s tombstone reads 16 June 1869, but a short item in “The Warren Gazette” indicates that he died on 15 June 1869.According to this article, he died suddenly as a consequence of “heart disease” while at work in his garden in Beattystown.I have not been able to locate an entry in the Return of Deaths for him.
Although Ashman evidently moved with his parents to Canada, the date of his return to New Jersey is unclear.The 1830 Census for Warren County lists an Ashman Carpenter in Independence Township.However, there is some evidence to suggest that he lived in New York State during the mid-1820s (remember that his parents moved to Rochester at this time).For example, the 1860 and 1870 Censuses record that his eldest son, Henry, was born in New York State around 1826.Interestingly, an 1826 Brooklyn Directory contains the entry “Carpenter Ashman, carpenter, 25 Orange.”Whether this is our Ashman is uncertain, but the 1850 and 1860 Censuses do list his occupation as “carpenter.”More specifically, the 1850 edition of “Kirkbride’s New Jersey Business Directory” records “house carpenter” as the profession of an “A. Carpenter” of Beattystown.The precise chronology of his migrations and the date/place of his marriage to Susan Allen remain unproven, and I welcome any evidence that you may have on these points.
On a broader genealogical note, Ashman’s direct Carpenter line traces its origins to William Carpenter (b. 1605), who emigrated from England on the ship “Bevis” in 1638.Ashman’s matrilineal lines through Margaret Hope include a variety of well documented colonial New England families.One of these lines traces its American origins to Edward Fuller of the “Mayflower” though the Dunham family.
Best Regards,
William Carpenter
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Re: Carpenter Family/ Warren and Morris County New Jersey Connections