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THE BERKSHIRE VT., CHAFFEES 1801 - 2016 Blank Page Blank Page i Published 2016 in Adobe PDF format by the Chaffee Association Richford, VT Digital Printing Thomson - Shore Dexter, MI 2017 ii THE BERKSHIRE, VERMONT, CHAFFEES AND THEIR DESCENDANTS 1801 - 2016 The first eleven generations were compiled by Almer J. Elliot of Richford, VT in 1911. Twelfth generation information was added by Grace (Chaffee) Smith in 1951. Updates including the Fourteenth generation and corrections were compiled by Kathy Kennett, Ida Burdick and John Weld, President of the Chaffee Association in 2016 A short biography of Comfort Chaffee and his wife, Lucy Stow, early settlers of Berkshire, with a full record of their descendants for fourteen generations, and also an account of the ancestry of Comfort and Lucy (Stow) Chaffee in nearly all lines to the immigrant ancestor and in some lines to generations living in England. iii iv In Memory of Mr. Comfort Chaffee who was born March 9, 1756 and died Feb’y 23, 1828 , aged 71 years 11 months & 15 days. His native place was Rehoboth, Massachusetts West Berkshire, VT Cemetery v vi vii CHAFFEE NEIGHBORHOOD Looking north from Searles Hill - Photograph taken April 27, 1911 Note - beyond white house in foreground (F.C. Weld’s farmhouse) is brick house on site of original Chaffee homestead. Farthest house on right side of road is C. S. Chaffee’s residence. ix ORIGIN OF THE NAME CHAFFEE In answer to many inquiries, the following regarding the “ Derivation of the Surname,” under the title of “The Name of Chaffee in England,” is given verbatim from “The Chaffee Genealogy,’’ Appendix, page 585: “ From the Etymolgical Dictionary of Family and Christian Names by William Arthur, M. A., published New York, 1857. Chaffee (Fr.) Chafe, to heat to grow warm or angry, (Fr.) Chauffer, to warm, to cannonade, attack briskly. The following is given in a book called The Norman People, which was published by Henry S. King & Co., of London, England, in 1874: From page 184, “ Cafe, or Chaff, from chauve, bald (Lower). Henry, Nicholas, Robert, Ranulph le Chauve, or Calvus, 1180-95, in Normandy (Mag. Rot. Scac). These names frequently occur in England, 13th century and later.” From page 193, “ Chaffey or Chaffy, a form of Chafe or Chaff.” Combe, O. Fr.-That unwatered portion of a valley which forms its continuation beyond and above the most elevated spring that issues into it. A deep valley where the sides come together in a concave form. Then follows an account of Chaffcombe or Chafecombe in Somerset county, England, taken from a History Of Somerset, by Rev. John Collinson, published in 1791 at Bath by R. Crutwell, Vol. 3 page 115. In the Conquerer’s time this little parish belonged to the Bishop of Coutances, and the ancient name was Caffecome, which is compounded of the Saxon lay, sharp, and lomb, valley. Another account in “ The Chaffee Genealogy ” of the derivation of the surname is taken from an article in Devonshire Wills by the Rev. W. K. W. Chafy, D. D., of Rous Lench Court, Evesham England, which says: “ The Chafys derive their name from their ancient heritage, “ Chafecombe,” now Chaffcombe, near Chard, which is the ‘ceaf cumbe’ (in English, the light or breezy valley) of the Saxon period, and which was held by their ancestor, Hugo the Thegn, or Thane, in the days of Ethelred ‘the Unready,’ and by his son, Raynald Fitz-Hugh, in those of Edward ‘ the Confessor.” “ But although the Chafys can thus trace back with unerring certainty to a period long anterior to the conquest, and so justify the assertion inscribed on the ancient tomb of one of them in Devonshire, as to his own identity with the “perantiqua” race of the Chafes of Chafecombe, yet they are not, paternally at least, of Saxon origin, which at once accounts for their continued possession of Chafecombe under Norman rule, for though their representative then nominally became sub-tenant under the Bishop of Coutance, he practically remained the owner of the land of his ancestors under the newly-devised feudal system. This was “ Ralph Fitz-Reginald,” the grandson of Hugo or Hugh, whose own names and those of his immediate posterity and their adoption of the Norman “ Fitz ” as expressive of their parentage, sufficiently prove that the long prevalent idea as to the “ Saxon origin of the Chafecombe family ” is as erroneous as the position of its earliest ascertained members in Saxon England is unique and interesting.” “ Hugo,” who is said by many of his English detractors to have been of “ mean x ORIGIN OF THE NAME CHAFFEE origin, and the son of a French churl,” was the confidential adviser of Emma of Nomandy, second wife of King Ethelred, and came to England in her train in the year 1002. This article, which is several pages in length, goes on to show that Robert Fitz-Ralph, a grandson of Hugo, was described as “Lord of Chafecombe,” and as holding lands in the Reign of Henry I. From him descended the Chafes of England, and the descent is brought nearly to the close of the last century. A list is given of many English wills, records of marriages, baptisms, burials, tombstone records, christenings, etc., of persons bearing the name of Chaffy, under its varied spellings, the dates varying from 1552 to 1698. The Christian name of Thomas appears about twenty times, but there is no proof that any of these Chaffys were relatives of Thomas Chaffe of Hingham, Hull and Rehoboth, Mass. “The Chaffee Genealogy’’ gives a picture of the old church at Chaffcombe. The nearest approach to our surname in Scotland is Mac Haffie or Haffie. William Chaffy appears among the “ 49 ’’ officers in Ireland in 1649 in the time of Charles I. In 1886 the surname did not appear in any of the city directories of Ireland. The surname has not been found at all in Wales. The surname has not been found in the directories of the principal cities of France, but the surname Chouffet, pronounced Shufa, occurs there. The descendants of Thomas Chaffe, of Hingham, Mass., find no coat of arms connected with his surname. There are coats of arms of the surname used in England, but neither these nor. the one used by the Rev. W. K. W. Chafy have been proven to be connected in any way with the surname in the United States. __________ The more common pronunciation of the name “Chaffee” is with the “a” short as in the word chaff, but in Berkshire, Vt., the name is pronounced with the long sound of “a’’ as in chafe. The latter pronunciation is general among the descendants of the Chaffees of Berkshire wherever found in United States or Canada, although there are some exceptions. xi xii Table of Contents Introduction………...…………………………….......……….…….........1 Five Generations of Chaffee Ancestors……...........………………...........3 Sixth Generation…………................………………………..….…….....7 Seventh Generation……………………………........……….....….…….11 Eighth Generation………………………………….......…......…..……..18 Ninth Generation……………………………………........…….....….…39 Tenth Generation…………………………………………..........………92 Eleventh Generation………………………………………........……...189 Twelfth Generation…………………………………….…….......….....348 Thirteen Generation…………………………………………........…....528 Fourteenth Generation………………………………………........……674 Fifteenth Generation……………………………………........………...722 The Braddock Chaffee Line……………………...………......………..725 State Codes………………………………………………….......….….728 Index……………………………………………………….….......…...729 1 INTRODUCTION “The Berkshire, VT., Chaffees” is a record of one line of the sixth generation of Chaffees descended from Thomas Chaffe, the immigrant ancestor. Comfort Chaffee was but one of nearly or quite one hundred fifty male descendants in the sixth generation bearing the name of Chaffee (under its varied spellings) who married and had descendants. Having settled in Berkshire, VT, a town bordering Canada, and quite removed from his boyhood home of Rehoboth, MA, the family lost touch with their Massachusetts relatives, and were thus largely left out of “The Chaffee Genealogy,“ which was compiled by William H. Chaffee, and published in 1909. This record is a continuation of the two previously published genealogies of the descendants of Comfort Chaffee. The first edition of the descendants of Comfort Chaffee was compiled by Almer J. Elliot, and published by the Gilpin Printing Company in Richford, VT, covering the years 1801-1911. Photographs of Comforts Chaffee’s children and their spouses (except for Reuben and Comfort Jr.,) were included, along with a photograph of the Berkshire homestead and a page from Lucy Stow’s bible. The second edition was a reprint of the first, followed by information compiled by Grace (Chaffee) Smith of Berkshire, VT, covering the years 1801-1952, bringing the descendants of Comfort as up-to-date as possible to that point. This third edition of “The Berkshire, VT., Chaffees” covers the years 1801-2015, and has been compiled by Kathy Kennett, Ida Burdick and John Weld, the responsibility and time consuming research being passed from one to the other. Much of the earlier information has been copied “verbatim” from the two previous editions, with corrections and additions to that information having been made. I decided (probably to the chagrin of the others) to condense the chapters of the first five generations and that of Comfort himself, leaving out all of his land transactions except the ones that showed the places to which he moved and when he did so. I have also left out the extra genealogies of Comfort’s ancestors to save space and time. Part of the section on Braddock Chaffee has been left in to show the connection, but has been condensed as well. As with all genealogies, this is not a complete compilation of Comfort’s descendants. Although many of them stayed in Berkshire and the neighboring towns, many more made that push westward and lost all contact with their Vermont relatives, just as Comfort did with his after moving north. There was not time enough to try and locate as well as contact so many people for information; the book taking longer than expected to complete as it is.

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