HARRIETT GRACE SCOTT I N THE WEDDING DRESS OF HER GREAT-GRANDMOTHE R MO LLY CO N EY ANCESTORS A.ND DESCENDANTS of JOHN CONEY of Boston, England and Boston, Massachusetts By MARY LOVERING HOLMAN - member of The Connecticut Historical Society The New Hampshire Hiatorical Society The Hiatorical Society of Peumylvimia and life member of The New England Hiatoric Genealogical Society Compiled by the a.uthor for BAIUUETT GRACE SC01T of Brookline, Mau. 1928 C"'Pl/f'lonl, 1928 bu MARY LOVERING HOLMAN AU riohll r6lfll'Hd TB ■ RtrllJ'O!tl> PRZ81 CONCORD THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY GREAT GRANDMOTHER MOLLY CONEY WIFE OF CAPTAIN EPBRAIY ScoTT OF WARE, MAssACBUSETTS THE FRAGRANCE OF WHOSE LIVING HAS PERSISTED UNTO THE FOUBTH GENERATION llABBIETT GRACE SCOTT "IT is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended, but the glory belongs to Otll' ancestors." Plutarch FOREWORD IN presenting this book to the descendants of John Coney, who came from Boston, England, the author wishes to acknowledge her indebtedness to the late George Henry Coney of Ware, Massachusetts, who gathered together many records of the descendants of William 3, Coney, who settled in Ware; to Mehetabel Belcher Fairbanks of Farmington, Maine, for her assistance in obtaining the data of the descendants of Samuel 3 Cony, who went to Augusta, Maine, and to Canon C. W. Foster of Timberland Vicarage, England, whose courtesy and promptness in sending desired records is warmly ap­ preciated. She wishes also to thank all those descendants who pains­ takingly furnished copies of their family records thus enabling her to perfect the pedigree. Nearly all the Coneys in America are descended from John Coney. There are some few families of the name in Maine and in the West who come from more recent immigrants to the country, mainly from Ireland. MARY LoVERING HOLM.AN Watertown, Mass., 19i8 CONEY OF K I R T ON LINCOLNSHIRE ARMS OF CONEY OF KIRTON SABLE, a fesse cotised or between three conies argent. CBEST: A demi-coney sa. (or argent) holding a pansy flower purple, stalked and leaved vert. The various visitation pedigrees of the Coney, Conny, Cony families of Lincolnshire and Norfolk show substantially the same arms. The main difference being that the Lincolnshire family show the fess cotiaed OT and the Norfolk one the fess cotiaed argent. The Bassingthorpe Coneys, derived from the Kirton family, place on the f eas cotiaed <YI' three escallops of the field, a later addition to the ancient arms. The Coneys of Y axley, also a branch of the Kirton family, used afeas argent cotiaed or, but they appeared in Yaxley about twenty years after the Coneys were established in Frampton, and it was from the Frampton family that John Coney descended. The seal used by the latter does not show color. It seems to the compiler of this book that since the Norfolk family are of much later origin than the Lincolnshire one, which dates back to 1!!56, the most ancient arms of this family must bear the f eaa cotiaed OT and that the Norfolk arms were differenced by the change in color of the f eaa cotised from gold to silver. There seems also no way to check the color of the crest. It is not given in some of the pedigrees. In the church of Frampton, where the arms appear on a memorial window of comparatively recent date, no crest at all is given. This is also true of the arms at Frampton Old Hall. Possibly the family at Kirton did not use the crest, but it is given in pedigrees compiled long before John Coney sailed for America, ENGLISH ANCESTRY OF JOHN CONEY FRoM BosToN, ENGLAND, To BosTON, MAssAcuusETTS Seal• 0 "PARTS OF HOLLAND," LINCOLNSHIRE. ENGLAND ENGLISH ANCESTRY OF JOHN CONEY FRoM BosToN, ENGLAND, TO BosTON, MAssAcHUSETTS IN the mid-eastern part of England there is a stretch of low-lying land much of which is below the level of the sea. Either from its resemblance to the land of the Dutch, or because like it, it is hollow land, it is called the "parts of Holland", or "Holland in Lincoln", in the early records. The old church of Boston, St. Botolphstown, may be said to be about in the middle of this low country, its lofty spire being seen from all the surrounding parishes of Frampton, Kirton, Algarkirk, Fishtoft, Skirbeck, and so forth. This is the famous fen country to which the Saxons under Hereward the Wake retired when William the Conqueror came over in 1066. From this part of Lincolnshire came many an early immigrant to New England, the most striking of whom, Rev. John Cotton, was from Boston itseH, he having been the vicar of that parish. One of these immigrants, a little boy named John Coney, with his mother, sister, and stepfather, Oliver Mellows, came to Boston, Mass., f:-om Boston, England, in 1684. He was a nephew of the wife of John Cotton. His family had been resident in Kirton and Frampton from remote time, for although various pedigrees of branches of his family appearing in the visitations are all traced to a Robert Coney of Byam in France, who came to England with the wife of Edward II, in 1308, extant records show the presence of the family name in Lincolnshire as early as H56. The history of any old family antedating the beginning of the church registers, the earliest of which only date from about 1538, has to be gleaned from wills, administrations, subsidies, and other public docu­ ments. Fortunately in this family the visitation pedigrees give much information although they vary in some details. The pedigree here submitted has been evolved by consolidation and elimination of such evidences as have been found. Frampton and Kirton are about four miles south of Boston. The ~hurch of St. Mary, Frampton, often called "Our Lady of Frampton", 1s two miles from that of SS. Peter and Paul in Kirton, the two parishes being contiguous. Frampton church is very old, for although the present edifice dates back only to 1100, it is built on the foundation JOHN CONEY GENEALOGY of an earlier church. Across from the church, surrounded by wide meadows, is a beautiful old Georgian house, built by Coney Tunnard • in l 7!l0 on the site of the very old Coney holdings in Frampton and called Frampton Old Hall. Frampton is a sleepy little parish, and the morning we saw it the trees that lined the roadway cast flickering shadows across the peaceful churchyard. Some old men were mowing the grass from the sunken graves, and the scent of the newly cut hay filled the air. Around the Hall the meadows were full of fine red Lincolnshire cattle, for this is an agricultural county. It is perhaps a wee bit prosaic to confess that the main occupation of the countryside is the raising of potatoes and mustard mainly for seed, and that the present occupant of Frampton Old Hall is a gentleman named Dennis who rejoices in the nickname of, "The Potato King". The church edifice was once cruciform, but has lost its north transept. The old tower and the rest of the building remain. There are many quaint and unexpected carvings; one of these, a face carved on a buttress outside at the angle of the transept, bears this inscription, "Wot y" whi I stad her [know ye, why I stand here] for I forswor my Savior ego Richardus in Angulo". It is called locally, "Richard in the comer". Its significance has been forgotten for many, many generations but it was probably a penance. Within the church is an interesting very .old carved oak screen and font, the latter antedating the Norman conquest, and in which many a Coney has been baptised. The chandelier of heavy brass was lowered for cleaning, so we were able to read for ourselves its queer inscription. It is not very old, only about two hundred years, being given to the church by that same Coney Tunnard who built Frampton Old Hall on the site of the Coney holdings. The pendant rod is broken by a sitting rabbit or coney, and the big brass ball from which the arms extend bears the following words, only to be read by walking around it when it is lowered: "The gift of Coney Tunnard Gent for an example to all Pretenders of Love To the Church which by their act Dont show Anno Domini 1722." The Coney property passed into the Tunnard family in 1669 by the marriage of Mary Coney, daughter of Richard and Marian (Ayre) Coney, to Richard Tunnard. Frampton Old Hall, built by their b'l"andson, passed out of the family by the marriage of the heiress to a Mr. Moore. His son, Colonel Moore, was very proud of his descent from the ancient family of Coney. He put a window in the church, bearing in colored glass the Coney arms and those of other ancestral families from which he had descent. Another member of the family has placed on the wall by the window a tablet containing the deaths in this branch. It begins with that Richard Coney who • • Son of Samuel Tunnard and grandaon of Thomaa and Mary (Coney) Tunnard. ANCESTORS IN ENGLAND s married Mary Kidgell and Marian Ayre, but as the first wile is not given, the line must come through the second one. "Richard Coney 1659 Marian Ayre, his widow 1670 Thomas Tunnard 1699 Mary Coney, his wife 1699 Samuel Tunnard 1725 Mary Coddington, his widow Coney Tunnard 1786 Lydia (Clark) 1729" It is possible that this was erected by Mary (Coddington) Tunnard, since her date of death is omitted.