Forbes and Forbush Genealogy

FRED. C. Pl ERCE. FORBES AND FORBUSfI GENE.1-1.LO G Y. THE DESCENDANTS OF DANIEL FORBUSH, ,vuo CA:1rn FROM ScoTLAND AnouT THE YEAR 1G55, AND SETTLED IN l\lARLBORouGH, lIAss., IN 1()75. l!Y FREDERICK CLIFTON PIERCE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, AtJTUOR OF P11mcE, PEIRCE, AND PEARCE GENEALOGIES ; HISTORIES OF GRAFTON AND BARRE, MAss.; MEMBER OF N. E. HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL Socn<TY, AND OTHERS. PUBLISHED FOR 'l'HE AUTHOR. 1892. 'l'o 1\-f Y Cl RANTHIOTHEit, .M1ts. NANCY (Fo1wusn) SmTn, Tms WoRK Is MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY 'rHE AUTHOR. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. Having published four volumes of the Peirce, Pierce aml Pearce family history at t.he urgent request of relatives, I have compiled the Forbes-Forbush genealogy, with what snccess the reader of this volume can jndge. Thousands of letters were written, arnl in nearly every instance prompt., full, and very com plete replies received, varying in lengt.h from a single paii:e of note paper to over twenty pages of foolscap. It required conshlerahle work to arrange all this matter in a presentable form. The style adopted by the New England Historical and Genealogical Society in the publication of their Re9il<ter, has been used as the best and simplest arrangement. It is the habit of some persons to depreciate genealogical studies and labor, and in some inst:mces even to ridicule the efforts of those so engnged. It is a mattrr of extreme indifference to them whether they have had nny ancestors or not, and in nearly every case of this kiIHl the persons only care for themselves. They are so wrapt up in self, that all other matters dwindle into utter insignificance. AnnREVIATIONS AND ExrLANATIONS.-ac. for aged; allt. for about; b. for horn; hap. for baptized; bcf., before; ch., children; d., died; dan., rlnughtcr; dec'd., deceased; m., married; unrn., unmarried; inv., inventory; rep., rcprcser;tative; res., resided, resides, or residence; w., wifc;wid., widower;yr.,year;s. p., without issue. There are other abbreviations of such common use that the meaning will he obvious. A nmne in parenthesis, thus: Sarah Forbush, dau. of John and llfaria (Scott) Forbush, imlicatcs the maiden-name of the mother. An interroga tion mark implies doubt or want of absolute .certainty. Birthplaces are not always given, but they can be ascertained by reference to. the persons' parents and their residence at the time of birth. OLD AND NEW STYI,E.-In computing time, the solar year is reckoned 365t days, hut this is too much by eleven minutes and a fmclion. If this excess be neglected, in the course of centuries, 1st of January would fall back toward midsummer, and in 1/i82, the time of Pope Gregory XIII., it was found thnt the vernal equinox, which, in A. D. 325, happened on the 21st of March, actually occurred on the 10th of March. For the purpose of rectifying the calendar, the Pope ordered that ten days be dropped for that year. This was called "New St.ylc," and the former calcnrlar, "Old St,ylc." The new calendar wns soon adopte1I by all Catholic countries, but in England, and het· colonies, it was disre garded till 1752, when the error of the old calendar amounted to eleven days, and by an Act of Parliament thr.y were dropped from September of that year. If the year began the 25th of March, the date would he February 9, 1684; if the year began the 1st of January, the date would be February 9, 1685, and changed to New Style by addition of eleven days. would be Fcbrunry 16, 1685. ( 5) 6 .thdhor's Preface. Onm1N OJ<' Tm£ NAME.-One of the most common methods of bestowing surnames was from the place, or residence. Not only countries, but counties and towns were a fruitful source of surnames. John, from Cornwall, became John Corn wall, or Cornish. Richard, who lived near a piece of wornllaml, was spoken of as Richard, at or near the wood, originating t·he surname, Atwood; or John, living near a hill, became John Hill. So with Umlerhill, Atwell, etc. John, living near a clump of oaks, was John atten oaks, ahbrevintcd into Noakes; or William, who had pitched his tent, or cabin, near a notable ash tree, wus known as William at the ash, or William atten ash, whieh easily drifte<l into Nash. So, too, Thomas, who lived ncur a small stream (or in Anglo-Saxon, a becket), was Thomas at the beckct, nnd thus was named the martyr, Thomas 1\Beckct. The most com mon terminations of English surnumcs, taken from places, are fu1'tl, lwrn, ll!l.i, and ton. Ford is from the Saxan Juran, to go; signifying the pluce where a stream could be crossed. Io the name of Shakespeare's birthplace we have a memento of three different ems of English history; viz., tho periods of the occup1111cy by the old Britous, the Romans, and the Saxons. St-mt is an abbreviutiou of stmt,t (street), the name by which the great Roman roads were known. Jllml tells us that one of these roads crossed a strnum, and .:hon is the name which the old Britons, or Celts, gave to the streams. The word lea, leah, or leigh, signifying a partially wooded field, served as the ending for many surnames, such as Horsley, Cowley, Ashley, Oakley, Lind ley, and Berkley, or Birchley. lluy, or ltuw, means a hedge, and this bus given us Hayes, Haynes, Haley, Haywood, Hawes, Haworth, Hawthorn, Haughton, or Houghton. Occupations, too, have afforded an endless array of surnames. This method was used by the Romans in such names as Fabricus (smith), Pictor (painter), Agricola (farmer). In England a skillful huuter would adopt that as his surniune, and equnlly so with the carpenter, joiner, sawyer, baker, or butcher. Personal traits, and complexion, too, gave rise to surnames. From the former we have the names Stout, Strong, Long, Longman, Longfellow; and from the latter, Brown, Black, etc. Some mental and moral traits were also used to denote surnames. Richard the First, of England, was better known as Richard of the Lion Heart. The next step would be to derive from this quality the surname Lion. The name of Forbush is a good example of the mutations which some family names have undergone, for the varying orthography adopted from time to time for the most part, no doubt, by town clerks, and other public recorders, duriug the early period of our country's settlement-have been such, thut, in the course of three or four generations, the knowledge among dcscun<lauts that they had one common ancestor in this country has been lost, a.ml without it, their family iden tity. The change is still going on-to trace the descendants of some of the early settlers to the present time, from public records, has tlwrcfore become extremely difficult. The following is an example of the changes in one name: "Next, he showed me, by the aid of a few family documents iu his possession, that the original name of his ancestors had Leen Meredith, or, to write it Welsh fashion, Marcdydd. Now, in Wales, the accent is always thrown 011 the last syllable but one-the peuulti- Anthor' s Preface. 7 mate, as we say, in Latin prosOlly. So Meredith is pronouncml much as though it rhymed with • wcddcth.' A couple of humlretl years ngo, one of these Welsh l\fore<liths settled in Staffonlshire; hut :t8 he kept close, apparently, to the original pronunciation of his name, it was Angliciz1•d by his neigh hors; not into the usmd l\lcredith (which is formetl on the regular English rule of throwing the accent backward), hut into .l\Ierca1ly. Careless utterance soon corrupted that sound to l\l'rcmly, am! finally to Heady. The four stages-}laredyd1l, Meredith, Meready, and Ready-were nil to be found consccul,ively in my friend's documents in the name" Heady."-From the Uornltill ,lfagazine. The mme Forbush is of Scotch extraction and has Ileen spelled on the town records of New Englatul, Ffnrrnlms, Ffcrebas, Farrowhush, Fforhus, Forhcs, Forhus, Fabush, Furbush, Furbish, Fforbcs, Farahas, Foiles, Farehush, and Fawbush. The following, in relation to the nanw, is found in "Arthnr's Etymological Diclionary of Family and Christi:in Names," published in 1857. FoumsnER, a polisher of armor or weapons. FummsnER, the same as Forl.Jisher. FonnEs, local, lands free from military service, called Saor Ji"orbn, or free lands. It is also the name of a parish in Aberdeenshire, Elcotland. FAimAnAs, Funmsn, ETC.-ln the London "Notes and Queries" (Fifth S., Vol. vi, p. 426), attention was called to an article by the late Andrew H. ·ward, in the Register paper, 1853 (rclnting to the various ways the names Forbes-Forbush had been recorded in the early New England town records). In the next Vol. (Fifth S., vii) "Notes and Queries," p. 97, Wm. ,John Potts, of Camden, N . .T., suggests that that name may be a corrupt.ion of Firebrace, and refers to "Noles and Queries" (Fourth S., Vol. iii, p. 240), for an account of this family, where the writer says the name Firchrnce, was formerly spelled Fcrbmcc, Ffcrebras, nnd Farbras. "Among those persons," continued Mr. Potts, "who emigrated to Vir ginia in the Seventeenth century, I find, in ITotton's List of Emigrants," etc., to the American planlations (1874, p. 187), living in Virginia in 1623, Roger Far• bracke, p. 245, l\lusters of the Inhnbitnnts of Virginia," 1624-5, Hoger Farbrasc, aged 26, in the Elizabeth, Hl21 ; p.

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