Family Stories, Fact or Fiction Part Three

Daniel Hawley

Evacuation From New York

At the end of the War of Independence, we find nine year old Daniel Hawley, our 4th Great Grandfather joining his newly widowed mother, Abigail and four brothers and two sisters aboard the H.M.S. Eagle, presumably leaving the newly independent United States of America forever.

Launched in 1775, the H.M.S. Eagle was the flagship of  Vice Admiral Lord Howe, Commander-in Chief, North America Station of the Royal Navy. As an Intrepid Class 64 gun 3rd rate warship, the Eagle had just returned to New York from what is considered the last battle of the War of Independence, off  Cuddalore, India in the Bay of Bengal. Previously in 1776, the Eagle had been the target of what is probably the first attack on a naval ship by a submarine, when David Bushnell unsuccessfully attempted to attach a bomb to the Eagle's hull, using his submarine, the Turtle.

                                            H.M.S. Eagle

  

After a week of so at sea, H.M.S. Eagle landed at what is now Saint John, New Brunswick, in late September, 1783, carrying 240 persons, most of whom were associated with Captain John Smith's militia company. Included in the passenger manifest were 73 men, 41 women, 63 children above age ten, and 63 children under that age. The only identified members of the company were Captain John Smith' and Lieutenants Thomas Treadwell Smith and Albert Van Nostrandt. John Hawley may well have been a member Smith's company, however I have not been able to locate a muster roll to confirm this.

Early Years in New Brunswick

Abigail and her seven children were likely impoverished, as the family farm in Westchester County had been forfeited. A fourty one year old widow, she is thought to have remarried as the Hawley Record appends the surname Lyon to her record without any further explanation. (1)  Records of John & Abigail Sanford Hawley's family are scarce. The Hawley Record lists them only with four unnamed children. However, in "The Loyalists of New Brunswick" (1955), Abigail's deposition says she is the relict of John and the mother of Henry, Samuel, Ezra, Daniel, Sally, Abigail and John. The records of New Brunswick may hold the secret of what happened to her.

In 1830 a distribution was made on the estates of "Hester" and Rachel Sanford to the heirs-at-large, among them Samuel, Daniel, Sarah, John, and the descendants of Henry and Abigail, all children of Abigail Hawley, a deceased sister. It is believed Abigail died in New Brunswick sometime prior to 1830.

Similarly, two of Abigail's daughters, Abigail, born 1776 and Sarah Susan, born 1778 also disappear from both the New Brunswick and New York records. On 15 June 1803 Abigail was mentioned as daughter Abigail Hawley in the will of her grand-mother, Sarah Meeker, who died on 31 October 1803 in Redding Center, Connecticut. 

  

Return to New York

Abigail's sons, John, Henry, Samuel, Ezra and Daniel all appear back in New York within several years, where they marry women from Westchester and the adjacent Dutchess counties.

John Hawley Jr. appears to be the first to return to New York where he married Jerusa Abbott on 21 Feb 1785. There is no mention of his time in New Brunswick in any of the articles found to date. After a number of years in Durham, New York, John and Jerusa migrated from New York state; apparently by wagon across Pennsylvania,  then down the Ohio River by flat boat to the mouth of the Little Miami river near Cincinnati, Ohio,  arriving there on July 4 1814 part of the family settled where the town of Oxford Ohio is now situated. John, who described himself as the son of a "Tory", died at Jefferson, Preble County, Ohio on 1 Aug 1853.

Henry Hawley appears next in Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York where on 17 March 1797 he marries Mary Woodin. Henry and Mary have eight children between 1799 and 1813, all apparently born in Fishkill. Henry and Mary next show up in Brantford, Upper Canada about 1813, after living in Durham, New York for several years. Henry would spend the rest of his life in Upper Canada, dying in 1826 at Bayham in Elgin County. Several of Henry and Mary's children remained in south western Ontario, while others migrated further west to Michigan and onwards to Utah.

Samuel Hawley disappears entirely from the records, other than a notation "Loyalist " in the Hawley record. However no further evidence of his support for the Loyalist cause has been sighted.

Ezra Hawley, the last child of John and Abigail  to be christened in the South Salem church, also returned to New York where he married Susannah Woodin, and a nephew, Abram Hawley, whom he had adopted, Not having any children of his own. Ezra, Susannah and Abram came to Brant County in 1810, where they located on 240 acres of land in what was known as the Johnson Settlement, purchased from a man named William Crume, who was one of Butler's Rangers, who had in turn obtained it from the Joseph Brant. As  "late Loyalists" they apparently suffered a great deal from the treachery of the Indians, who thought they were" Yankees," during the first year of their residence here, and were frequently forced to put themselves under the protection of their neighbours.(2)

Daniel Hawley, our 4th great grandfather, also returned to Westchester County where in 1795 he married Sarah Raymond, daughter of Sands Raymond Sr. and Sarah Betts.

Sands, our 5th great grandfather,  had been a 2nd Lieutenant in the Westchester Militia where he fought in the battles of White Plains and Washington Heights in 1776 which were led by George Washington. Twice captured, he was held as prisoner in the infamous Livingston Sugar House on Liberty Street in the British occupied Manhattan which used as a prison to hold as many as 800 Patriot's. The Livingston Sugar House was " a dark stone building, grey and rusty with age and a dungeon-like aspect'. Conditions were wretched as prior to Battle of Yorkton in 1782, Patriot prisoners were considered traitors rather than prisoners of war. Some were simply shot, while others were crowded into old buildings and leaking hulks anchored in various bays around New York. As many as 10,000 prisoners died. It also should be noted that several of his siblings and his step mother, Mary Gitto, as well as a number of  relatives of his wife, Sarah Betts, had relocated to Kingston, New Brunswick after the end of the war.

Whatever his feelings towards Loyalists, he apparently had no major problem with his daughter marrying the son of a Loyalist. Either the passage of almost 20 years had dimmed his memory of the sugar house, or perhaps he simply did not believe the activities of John Hawley should influence the treatment of his then two year old son, Daniel.

Return to Canada

In any event, 29 years after the original Loyalist migration of 1783, and after at least 17 years back in New York, Daniel and Sarah, and their 10 children, left New York in the spring of 1812, bound for once Canada again. No records of their trip are thought to exist, however according to the History of Brant County; Biographical Sketches,  Daniel Hawley "...was born in the United States, where he married Sarah Raymond. They came to Canada in 1812, and he was engaged in the war of that time. He died in 1844, his wife having died about 1819. He was possessed of strong frame and a vigorous constitution. " (3) Given the date, which predates both the construction of the Erie Canal and the railroad to Buffalo, it is very likely they traveled by oxcart as they would need oxen or horses to operate a farm in Canada.

 From a Hawley cousin, we find this narrative:

“ The Hawley’s moved from Durham (New York) to five miles east of Paris on Governor’s road. They moved with oxen and long sleds - not bob sleighs which were not invented until later - and the jar of the sled over the cradle knolls churned their butter as they came along. Each man got all the land he could walk around in one day and blaze the trees . Their lease was for 999 years at the cost of $1.00 to the Indians. There were three brother settled on the Governors Road Harvey, Hiram and Henry. Theirs was the Hawley Settlement."(4)

Another distant cousin, Angela Files, writes in her Stories of the Johnson Settlement and Smokey Hollow as follows:

According to the  "The Changing of Native Lands to Settlements Along the Grand River - PART III"  The "Johnson Settlement (part of Brantford Township), was named in honour of George Johnson, son of Molly Brant and first teacher in the Native settlement north-east of Brant's Ford.  This was one of the earliest settlements on the Johnson Tract, north of Cayuga Village, on Fairchild's Creek.  The early settlers were an enclave of Loyalists.  Benjamin Fairchild and Alexander Westbrook had served under Chief Joseph Brant during the American Revolution.  They moved to the Johnson area in 1788.  In 1793, Isaac Whiting leased "for 999 years", a farm on Fairchild's Creek.  Gordon Chapin, Isaac Whiting's son-in-law and David Phelps settled shortly thereafter.  Phelps acquired a lease by 1801.  On February 5, 1798, six hundred acres of the tract was sold to "Dutch Green", or Peter Green, on concession two.  A number of non-Native men had received 999-year leases from Joseph Brant, who hoped that they would teach the Native residents improved methods of farming.  The leases had not been approved by the authorities and were not valid.  Ezra Hawley, who described himself as the "son of a Loyalist", was farming in 1811.

In 1841, it was decided to permit all Six Nations people who wished to move, to cross the Grand River and settle on the Reserve.  Before departure, they were required to collect a fair payment from any white men living on their lands, with the money being returned to the Native funds." (5)

Sarah and Daniel's original farm, comprising about 280 acres, straddles Fairchild Creek on the south side of what was the old highway #2,  several miles east of Brantford, Ontario. Both Sarah, who died 29 May 1820  after the birth of her 14th child, Daniel Jr., and Daniel Sr., who died  5 Feb 1844 are buried across the road in the Brant Cemetery.

Is the Story True?

Back to our original question, did Sarah Hawley travel by oxcart to Sarnia and did her mother daub their cheeks with red paint to scare off hostile Indians, I believe the answer is a qualified yes. Qualified in that while evidence supports the oxcart and the "issues" with less than friendly Indians, the story appears to stop in Brantford with only circumstantial evidence that Sarah Hawley may have lived in Sarnia.

The only connection  that I have found regarding Sarah Hawley and the land upon which the Lambton County Courthouse and Goal is quite speculative. On 24 March 1834, Sarah's third cousin, Benjamin Fairchild, who was a Loyalist and a crony of the ruling Family Compact, was granted 100 acres located at the North east corner of what is now Christina Street and London Road in Sarnia. There is no evidence that Fairchild ever occupied the land, however he reportedly sold the land to George Durand, who in turn sold part of it back to the government in order that the courthouse could be built.(6) Is it possible that Fairchild allowed his cousin Sarah, and her carpenter husband John Mellen, to occupy the property in order that he could perfect his interest in the land grant? Possibly, but clearly unproven.

This theory is getting ahead of the narrative as I have yet to introduce our 3rd great grandfather, John Mellen. A complicated man, his story deserves a post of his own.

Notes:

1. http://www.hawleysociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Issue_691
2. History of Brant County; Biographical Sketches, pp. 181
3. History of Brant County; Biographical Sketches, pp. 572-3
4. http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.canada.ontario.brant/9227/mb.ashx
5. Selected Reprints from the Grand River Branch Newsletter, Branches,"The Changing of Native Lands to Settlements Along the Grand River - PART III",,Angela E.M. Files, February 1994, Vol.6 No.1, Pages 21-22
6. Sarnia Gateway to Bluewaterland, Edward Phelps, P.13, 22

Additional Sources:

1.       Ancestors & Descendants of Francis Marion Hawley & Louetta Wise Hawley, William Robert Hawley &     Jane Walterhouse Hawley, 1977,  page 6

2.       Smith Hawley and his Descendants,  Marilyn Hawley Symonds, Lansing, Michigan, 1961, pages 22 & 23

3.       Thomas Sanford the Emigrant to New England,  Carlton E Sanford, The Tuttle Company, Printers,      Rutland, Vermont, (n.d.), page 150

Will of John Hawley

The following transcription of John Hawley’s will is taken from "Collections of The New York Historical Society For The Year 1904", page 67, section titled “Abstracts of Wills on file in the surrogates office, City of New York.” It's Volume XIII with dates from September 3, 1784 to June 12, 1786 [Page 328 in the Volume of originals. Page 67 is the publication page.] Page  67-68

I, JOHN HAWLEY, of Salam, Westchester County, being in good helth do this 31st day of December, in the year of our Lord, 1770, make this my last Will and Testament. I leave to my loving wife Abigail one third of my house and barn and one third of my lands and of my moveables after my debts is paid as long as she shall live. The rest of my estate to my children, viz.: John, Henry, Samuel and Abigail to be divided as follows: ti John, being the oldest son, £10 more than the rest of my sons, and then for my sons to be  equal, and for my daughter Abigail to have one third as much as one of my sons, I mean that where one of my sons will have nine pounds my daughter shall have three; and my wife s thirds above mentioned to be equally divided with my sons as aforesaid, and my daughter to have one third as much as any son. If I shall have any more children by my wife, if sons, they to be equal with my other said sons, if girls, to be equal with my other said daughter. I constitute my wife sole executor.

(Signed) JOHN HAWLEY and also ABIGAIL HAWLEY.

Witnesses, Gershom Selleck, Nathan Olmsted Jr., Ezekiel Hawley, Jr.

Proved, Westchester County, November 6, 1784.

Administration granted to Abigail Hawley, New York, December 24, 1784. Page 329.

Author:   New York (County) Surrogate's Court

Title:   Abstracts of wills on file in the Surrogate's Office, City of New York (Volume XIII. Sept 3, 1784-Jun 12, 1786)

Publication Info:  Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Library

Print source:  New York: Printed for the Society, 1905

URL:   http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=nys;idno=nys071

U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970

Name:        Lieutenant Sands Raymond Sr.

SAR Membership:       41408

Birth Date:                    1730

Birth Place:                   Norwalk, Connecticut

Death Date:                  20 Jul 1791

Spouse:      Sarah Betts

Children: Sands Raymond

Source Citation: Volume: 208; SAR Membership Number: 41408.

Source Information: Ancestry.com. U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970. Louisville, Kentucky: National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Microfilm, 508 rolls.

Description: This database contains applications for membership in the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution approved between 1889 and 31 December 1970. These records can be an excellent source for names, dates, locations, and family relationships.

Daughters of the American Revolution

RAYMOND, SANDS SR

Ancestor #: A093757

Service: NEW YORK    Rank: LIEUTENANT

Birth: 1730    NORWALK FAIRFIELD CO CONNECTICUT

Death: 7-20-1803     SALEM WESTCHESTER CO NEW YORK

Service Source: NARA, M881, COMP MIL SERV RECS, ROLL #759; ROBERTS, NY IN THE REV, P 207

Service Description:

1) CAPT ABIJAH GILBERT, COL THOMAS THOMAS, 2ND REGT, WESTCHESTER CO, MILITIA (Salem, South District)