•Thursday, December 04, 2014
I wish I
could give you more details about my 6th great grandfather, David
Bishop. David’s short life meant that he
left fewer records and clues. By my
reckoning, he lived to be about 39 years old, not even half as long as his
father’s son Ebenezer's 90-year life span.
Here’s how I
arrived at his approximate birth date:
- Birth order: according to his parents’ probate records, David was fourth or fifth son of Edward and Sarah Bishop. His older brother Samuel was born about 1675, if his gravestone dates are correct (see www.findagrave.com for his burial record in Bristol County, Massachusetts Bay Colony).
- Salem Village Petition: A 1695 petition of Salem Villagers (Essex County, Massachusetts) who were against the continued ministry of Samuel Parris contains a column headed “young men 16 years old”. Under this heading are Samuel Bishop, Jonathan Bishop, David Bishop and William Bishop (names all spelled “Byshop”).
- Salem Village Tax or Rate Lists: David Bishop’s name first appears on the list of 1699. By 1702, his name is no longer included.
 |
| (Click to Enlarge) Salem Village Anti-Parris Petition of 1695. Used by permission from the First Church of Danvers. |
Using those
sources, I came up with approximately 1678 for the year of his birth. To be among those young men who were at least
“16 years old” in 1695, he had to have been born by 1679.
David
probably departed from Salem in about 1700/01, relocating in the town of Woodstock
in Windham County, Connecticut Colony. In
Woodstock, David married Rebeccah Hubbard on February 4, 1701/02 (recorded in the Woodstock Congregational Church records).
David’s life
once he left Salem is documented partly through histories of towns in
Connecticut Colony, partly from vital records of Pomfret and Woodstock and
partially from court records, such as land records and town meeting records
(Ashford, Connecticut). He would live
for only about 16 years more after leaving Salem, residing (according to deeds)
in the young settlements of Pomfret (Mashamoquett), Killingly and Ashford, all
in present-day Windham County.
The births of
his children are as follows – all born in Pomfret except for one:
- Sarah Bishop 15 December 1702
- Rachel Bishop 5 March 1705
- John Bishop - 1 February 1707
- Ebenezer Bishop 25 March 1708
- David Bishop 27 March 1710
- Rebecca Bishop 27 April 1712
- Mary Bishop - 28 December 1715 (born in Ashford)
I haven’t yet
found the first deed for David Bishop; the earliest I’ve found so far is from
the 22nd day in January 1702/03 and begins as follows:
To all Christian People unto whom these presents shall or may come David Bishop of Mashamoquet in ye county of New London in ye Colony of connecticut in New England and Rebecca his wife, for and in consideration of ye full and compleat sum of nine pounds current silver money of New England unto them in hand by John Hubbard of Woodstock in ye county of Suffolk in her Majesty’s province of ye Massachusets bay in New England, husbandman……deliver unto the sd John Hubbard and his heirs…..a certain tract or parcell of land in Mashamamoquett containing thirty seven acres of upland and an acre and half of meadow….. (Pomfret, Connecticut deeds, Volume 1, pages 132-33).
The latest
deed found for David and Rebecca Bishop was on the 18th day of May
1714 (Pomfret deeds, volume 1, pages 23-24).
In this deed Caleb Jackson of Ashford, husbandman, in consideration of
the sum of “twenty four pounds current money” paid by “David Bishop of
Killingley in the county of New London in the Colony of Connecticut….weaver....",
sold to David land lying in Ashford containing about ninety acres.
It’s confusing
that the deed refers to David as being “of Killingley” in 1714. It may be that he lived there for a short
period of time before moving from Pomfret to Ashford. The history of Pomfret says that David Bishop
was among those who petitioned the colonial assembly for a charter to establish
the town of Pomfret in 1713. And yet a
history of Windham (History of Windham County, Connecticut, Edited by Richard
M. Bayles, published 1889, by Preston, New York. See pages 524-25 and 992-93),
stated that in 1712 David Bishop (among others) bought land of James Corbin and
“joined the eastern settlement” of Ashford.
I’m still looking for that land record in which David bought the land
from Corbin.
But what I
can state here with more certainty is the approximate year of David’s
death: late 1716 to some time in 1717,
probably in Ashford. Before my recent
research into Ashford town records, I had only found what other researchers had
found: that he died before the winter of 1725.
Bristol County, Massachusetts probate records in that year for David’s
mother Sarah Bishop referred to the heirs of her son David, so we just knew
that he had died some time between the death of his father Edward in 1711 and
Sarah’s death in 1725.
But we can
come closer to reckoning his date of death through the town records of Ashford,
Connecticut. First, on page 4 of the
records I found recorded the marriage of Benjamin Allen to Rebecca Bishop on 31
December 1717. Next, among the records
of the town meetings, David Bishop was listed as one of those who cast a
dissenting vote in the meeting on October 3rd 1716 (page 23).
The last
clues come from two other citations in the town meeting records. One was on March 5, 1718 in which Ashford proprietors
agreed “to draw for their farms on lotts and likewise drad (sic) as follows”. Listed
at number 9 on this list is “David Bishop heirs”.
Then at the
meeting of December 29th in 1718 (page 48) is found the following
vote:
Voted at sd meeting that the Town doe grant to the heirs of David Bishop an equal share of all Divisions of Land. Here’s a copy of that record (click to enlarge).
 |
| Proprietors Records, Ashford, Windham County, Connecticut, 1705-1770, page 48. (Click to enlarge) |
I’m hoping to
discover more about David’s brief life and also to verify that it was his widow
Rebecca who married Benjamin Allen in 1717.
If any researchers have more details about this couple, please share
them with us. My email address is omanora74@gmail.com.
