THE GREAT MIGRATION AND THE DAILEY FAMILY TREE

JOHN AYLSWORTH/ELLSWORTH (1578-1653)

My maternal 12th great grandfather, John Aylsworth (Ellsworth) (1578-1653) sailed to Boston, MA in 1629. Born 03 Feb 1578 in Cambridgeshire, England. D. 26 Mar 1653 – buried in Quidnessett Memorial Cemetery, North Kingstown, Washington County, Rhode Island.  There is no reason given for his leaving England for the English Colonies. It is quite possible he moved his family to Rhode Island for religious or political reasons. Another account has him returning to England where he died. He was joined by his son, Arthur Aylsworth sometime before 1679. There is much confusion over the spelling of the surname, Aylsworth or Ellsworth. One writer accounts for the two spellings with the following explanation: In 1660, King Charles II enacted the Conformity Act, which imposed severe penalties on non-Episcopalian religions.  At this time, one of three Aylsworth brothers fled to Holland spelling his name after the Dutch pronunciation “Elswort”. Six years later, the second brother, facing persecution, fled to America and settled in New York. Since they were associated with the Dutch Reformed Church, they spelled their name Ellsworth. The third brother had remained in Wales until 1681. He sailed to the Colonies in that year as an Aylesworth. As a result, it is difficult and confusing to sort out the records of these families and their descendants.

ABRAHAM SAMPSON (1614-1685)

My paternal, 11th great grandfather, Abraham Sampson (1614-1685), was thought to be the cousin of Henry Sampson (1603-1685), one of the original Mayflower passengers, according to one source; Find a Grave. He came from England sometime after Henry; it is not known what year but probably 1629 0r 1630 and settled in Duxbury.  He was on a list of persons in Duxbury “able to bear arms” in 1643, which included all able-bodied males between the ages of sixteen and sixty. Abraham was one of the fifty-four original grantees of Bridgewater.  Most of the grantees, including Abraham did not move there.  He was surveyor of highways in 1648; constable in 1653 and was admitted freeman of Plymouth Colony in 1654. Four generations of Sampson’s remained in the Plymouth Colony until David Sampson (1771-1832) relocated his family in the Virginia Colony. He remained there until 1802 when land in the Ohio territory opened for homesteading.  He and several other Virginia families, including his wife, Sarah Brouse’s family, left for the Lower Scioto River area. David Sampson and Sarah (Brouse) Sampson are considered one of the founding families of Ohio.

GEORGE R POTTER (1584-1640)

My maternal 8th great grandfather, George Richard Potter, was one of the more controversial family members to arrive in colonial America.  I would speculate his motive for leaving his home in Coventry, England was to seek true religious freedom.  He arrived in 1630 in Lynn, MA, was admitted a freeman on 03 Sep 1631.  He then moved to Newport, RI in 1638.  Robert Potter was also an inhabitant of Portsmounth for a time. In 1641, a group of men led by Samuel Groton, bought a tract of land called the Shawomet purchase, which they named Warrick, in honor of the Earl of Warrick, who had espoused their cause during their religious differences with colonial officials.  According to “Fuller’s History of Warrick”, Robert was one of the twelve purchasers of Warrick from the Indian Miantonomi.  In 1643, he was arrested, taken to Boston, tried for contumacy (stubborn resistance to authority) and convicted. He appealed the decision to the British Council which reversed the conviction.  In 1644, he was released and returned home. However, he paid a heavy price for his religious beliefs. When the Massachusetts soldiers came to arrest him, they burned his home and all other buildings on his property.  This forced his wife, Isabel, with some of the other women, to seek refuge in the woods.  Soon afterwards, they died from exposure and fright. 

The following is a description of George Potter’s religious fanaticism: “There is something heroic about a religious zealot.  The sacrifice of self upon the altar of an ideal appeals to the heart, not matter whether the sacrifice consists of and anchoritic life of abnegation and suffering, of an evangelist’s career in the dark communities of the world, or the turbulent existence of the reformer, trying to arouse his generation to a loftier manhood. In the early settlement of New England, these types of men were numerous and noticeable.  What could be more picturesque than Miles Standish praying with extreme unction for God’s blessing upon the heathen redskins, and then sallying forth with the sword and gun to send as many as he possibly could into the presence of their creator?  What dramatic possibilities are bound up in the experience of Lion Gardiner at Fort Saybrook, where his day was divided into fragments which were applied to study, engineering, manual labor, prayer, and taking arms against “the hellish Indians.”  No less memorable was the fierce enthusiasm of George Potter of Warwick, RI., who founded a race which added lustre to American annals.”

CORNELIS VAN VOORST (1589-1638)

My 10th maternal great grandfather, Cornelis Van Voorst, was born in Utrecht, Netherlands. He wasn’t named Van Voorst at birth; it could have been Hendricksen.  Cornelis was sent to Italy to study woodcarving.  When he returned, he established himself as an expert in wood and woodcarving.  In 1610, Cornelis was among the rebels who plotted to take over the government at Utrecht. They had been involved in a religious dispute that had become a political feud.  The plot was discovered and the plotters, including Cornelis, were imprisoned and ultimately banished from the Netherlands.  It is believed he lived in Belgium until 1619 when general amnesty allowed him to return to The Netherlands. In 1607, he married Beatrix van der Laen. They had four sons, two of which we know sailed with him to New Netherland and settle in the Dutch West India Company’s Hudson County area.  This area encompassed the mouth of the Hudson River.  Cornelis Van Voorst and his family first arrived in New Amsterdam on July 27, 1626.  He made a number of trips from The Netherlands to New Amsterdam between 1626 and 1638, the year of his death.  His wife, Beatrix, died in 1628 and he remarried in 1629 to Vrouwtje Frouke Ides. They had two children; Ides Corneliszen and Annetje Cornelise.  Ides Corneliszen was the first white child to be born and married in Ahasymus, New Amsterdam. On his initial trip to New Amsterdam, Cornelis came as a forester and lumberman, in the employ of the Dutch West India Company.  He leased a farm on Manhattan Island until 1630 for the purpose of clearing the forests that covered Manhattan Island. Towards the end of 1629, he sailed back to The Netherlands, where he gained influence and was appointed as a director of an area called Pavonia (now known as Jersey City, New Jersey). Cornelis served as the Chief Officer and judicial head of Pavonia. In 1634, during an argument, Cornelis, stabbed a man to death over an unknown disagreement. He made reparations to the man’s family (the usual custom of those times) and avoided prosecution. On a trip back to The Netherlands in 1638, Cornelis Van Voorst died at the home of his brother-in-law, Wynant Jacobsz, leaving a wife and children in New Netherland.

EDMOND FREEMAN JR. (1596-1682)

My 14th maternal great grandfather, Edmond Freeman, Jr. was known as “Founder of the town of Sandwich, Assistant of the Governor of the Massachusetts Colony, William Bradford & Settler of Saugus & Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts” He was the son of Edmond Freeman, Sr. and Alice (Coles) Freeman. His first wife, Bennett Hodsoll, mother of all his children, died 12 Apr 1630.  His second wife was Elizabeth (maiden name unknown). Edmond, with his new wife and four children, arrived in the colonies on the ship Abigail, Robert Hackwell, Master, in October 1635.  In that year, he resided in Lynn (formerly known as Saugus). In January 1637, he was admitted as a freeman at Plymouth and then reside in Duxbury for a short time.  In 1637, he and nine others obtained permission from the General Court of Plymouth to establish a town on Cape Cod, which two years later was incorporated as the town of Sandwich. The men who settled Sandwich were Puritans rather than Pilgrims.  Some were merchants and more tolerate on religious matters than the Pilgrims.  A group of Quakers developed in Sandwich and were tolerated by the townspeople who often shielded them.  Edmond Freeman was a member and deacon of the church at Sandwich in 1638. Although a deacon in the church, he had a tolerant attitude toward the Quakers. Edmond served on juries and served with others to settle minor disputes, thus seems to have been a man of influence.  He was a merchant at Sandwich and represented several London merchants.  In 1639, he made a trip to England on business where he purchased hats valued at about 52 pounds. With this purchase, he agreed in writing, to pay for them six months after their arrival in the colonies.  Edmond returned to Sandwich on the ship Champion.  He had a power of attorney from his brother-in-law, John Beauchamp and acted as an agent to collect money from men in the Plymouth Colony due various London merchants.

HENRICUS N TIBBETTS (1596-1676)

My 12th great grandfather, Henricus Nicolai Tibbetts, of ancient Dover, NH, came at the age of 39 on the ship, James, which sailed from London 13 Jul 1635.  He sailed with his wife Elizabeth, age 39 and children, Jeremiah, age 4, Samuel, age 2 and his sister, Rememberance, aged 28.  They did not come with the first group of Captain Wiggan’s immigrants but seem to have been part of the same movement. Records indicate they were Quakers.  Henry probably first lived in Boston and was granted 20 acres by the town of Dover in 1642.  He was a shoemaker, farmer and engage in the lumber business.  In 1653, he was admitted as a freeman at Dover.  Henry served as Constable in 1653 and was surveyor of fences in 1663.  In 1656 he was granted 100 acres between St. Alban’s Cove and Quamphegan. This land remained in the Tibbetts family for many generations.

BENJAMIN BUTTERFIELD (1600-1688)

My 12th maternal great grandfather, Benjamin Butterfield, arrived in Charlestown, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638.  He arrived with his wife, Ann and two children.  He was among the first settlers of the town of Woburn, when his name is found among the earliest town orders. He was one of thirty-two men who subscribed to the founding document at Woburn and was made a Freeman in 1643.  In 1654, he joined 29 others in petitioning to create what would become Chelmsford.  His home and farm were located in what is now Lowell, Massachusetts.

JOHN PORTER (1594-1646)

My 13th maternal great grandfather, John Porter, aged 44, sailed with his family, from England on the “Susan & Ellen,” possibly with the Rev. Huit party on their way to Windsor,  in 1638.  Another account of his arrival has him arriving from Waymouth, England, 20 Mar 1635 and living in Hingham, MA.  This appears to be another John Porter.  In 1639, he acquired a home lot in Windsor. In 1640, John Porter was appointed Constable in Windsor. By 1641, John had grants from the town totaling 400 acres, making him among the most influential and prosperous men in Windsor. He was active in the community serving in both town and colony offices, serving as Deputy from Windsor to the Connecticut Legislature in August 1639, October 1646 and May 1647.

RICHARD STOUT (1615-1705)

My maternal 12th great grandfather, Richard Stout, was said to have left Nottinghamshire after a disagreement with his father over Richard’s choice of a finance.  Many historians believe he left home, either joined or was pressed into the British Navy.  Seven years later, 1643, he landed in New Amsterdam. There, he was discharged from the Navy. Richard Stout was them employed as a soldier to accompany Lady Moody and other settlers to Gravesend.  By 1661, he became the largest landowner at Gravesend. In 1663, Richard Stout and others were given permission to negotiate with the Indians for the purchases of lands which are now Monmouth County, New Jersey. On 25 Jan 1664, the purchase of lands was finalized.  Richard Stout is recognized and one of the founders of Middletown, New Jersey and his wife Penelope, as the first white women in what is now New Jersey.

GERRIT C VAN NEWKIRK (1631-1696

My maternal 11th great grandfather, Gerrit Cornelisse Van Newkirk, sailed on the Dutch ship “Moesman” with his wife, Chieltje, and two sons, arriving at Flatbush, Long Island in 1659.  He then purchased 36 acres of land in what is now known as the City of Brooklyn. Only a street named Newkirk remains of his family’s presence in the area.  In 1665, he sold that land and moved to Hurley, Ulster County, New York.  Both Gerrit and Chieltje lived in Hurley until their deaths.

JOHANNES G BARNHART (1678-1733)

The first Barnhardt arrived in the American Colonies in 1710. Johannes Georg and his wife, Maria “Anna” Eulalia, came to the American colonies from Germany as part of the Palatine Migration of 1709. This migration was the result of (1) destruction and overwhelming loss of lives (more than two thirds of the population died) caused by the Thirty Years Wars (1618-1648), (2) the collapse of the Palatinate state economy and (3) drought followed by very harsh, extraordinarily severe winter. The mass migration began when Queen Anne’s government had shown sympathy for the Palatines and had invited them to go to American and work in trade for passage. In the summer of 1710, a colony of more than 2,000 arrived in New York and later located in five villages on either side of the Hudson River, possibly East Camp. Some of these early immigrants also ended up in Berks County, Pennsylvania. When Johannes Georg Barnhardt/Bernhardt was born on September 9, 1678, in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany, his father, Philip, was 33 and his mother, Anna, was 28. He married Maria ‘Anna’ Eulalia Ernst on December 28, 1695, in Flörsheim am Main, Hesse, Germany. They had 11 children in 31 years. He died in February 1733 in New York, New York, at the age of 54.  It is likely he and his wife, Maria, settled in one of the five camps along the Hudson River.

JOHANN D WILDERMUTH (1717-1788)

My maternal 9th great grandfather, Johann David Wildermuth, arrived at the port of Philadelphia on 22 Sep 1752, aboard the ship, Halifax, which sailed from Rotterdam with Thomas Coatam, Captain.  There is no record of his family with him, but since he was married before 1752 and his children were born before then, it is reasonable that they came with him. Originally from the Palatinate area of Germany, he came by way of Holland. Called the “Palatine Dutch”, thousands, during this time, were fleeing Germany because of famine, war and religious perse. In 1775, Johann David, paid 15 pounds for 100 acres of land in Bern Township, Berks County, PA.  In 1788, at age 77, he died in Bern Township, Berks County, PA.  His land then passed to his son, William Wildermuth.