The Fancher Family
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THE FANCHER FAMILY By William Hoyt Fancher Danbury, Conn Printed at THE CABINET PRESS Milford, N. H. 1947 Edited and Compiled by WILLIAM CARROLL HILL, Editor and Historian New England Historic Genealogical Society Price $5.00 Distribution by NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY 9 Ashburton Place, Boston, Mass. OWNER'S INDEX GENERA- INDIV, NAMES OF ANCESTORS PAGE TION NO, I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI xnf William Hoyt Fancher Preface This Fancher Genealogy is a memorial to the untiring and devoted efforts through nearly two decades of William Hoyt Fancher, a native of Danbury, Conn., who died in that city March 11, 1943, at the age of 57 years, leaving a great volume of collected data to the New England His toric Genealogical Society with a bequest providing for its publication. Mr. Fancher displayed a tremendous amount of energy in the collec tion of information about the Fancher family. He sought out every indi vidual throughout the country bearing the name that he could find by con sulting directories, telephone books, state and federal war records and census reports. Through the short span of life permitted to him he tabulated and aligned so far as he could the information transmitted to him by individual members of families. When he had to relinquish his work there remained many hundreds of Fanchers who could not be genealogically traced to the six early ancestors with whom he began his genealogy. Attached to every family report, however, there is found the author ity, by a member of the family personally, or official document, giving the source of his information. In the interests of brevity, and because they are largely family records, these sources of information are not given in the following pages. Likewise, because the means provided for printing the book are not adequate, the many hundreds of names which show in the sixth, and later, generations, remain unpublished. It will have to suffice that heads of families in the fifth generation, with the names of their children, are given, by which it is to be hoped present day Fanchers will be able to trace their lineage. However, all the data collected by Mr. Fancher has been carefully arranged in order and has been deposited with the New England Historic Genealogical Society, where it will be preserved for all time for future use and study by any interested. This preface would not be complete without a more intimate word as to William Hoyt Fancher, and in this connection the editor and com piler presents the following brief abstract from a letter of an Arkansas member of the family which undoubtedly expresses the feelings of many hundreds of others: "The announcement of the death of William H. Fancher was a great shock to me. "He had influenced my life for good. I had learned much from him from a genealogical standpoint for which I will be eternally grateful, but I believe his broad, frank, fair and sensible philosophy of life did me more good and affected my life more than any other person I ever contacted. There appeared to be no sham in him, he wanted no show, no drawing on 1 the imagination, just plain simple facts, always with verification if pos sible. I loved his spirit of simplicity. It will live on through the ages. "The Fancher families, in his passing, have sustained an irreparable loss. He had worked hard and unselfishly to establish facts regarding the Fanchers that would warrant an accurate history. When he lacked co operation, he was not dismayed, but worked faithfully on, realizing there would be a few of the name that would respond to his many letters seek ing information and through them he possibly could get what the others failed to give. His plan worked to an amazing degree. The data that he has given so many of his years to gathering concerning the family is simply amazing. It is hard to think that he had to go before his great work was finished." WILLIAM CARROLL HILL, Editor and Compiler. 2 Foreword Prepared by the Late WILLIAM HOYT FANCHER This work is the result of the compiler's desire to know something of his own ancestry. The fact that no history of the Fancher family has ever been printed is sufficient to justify this attempt to preserve in the best possible form the items which are here presented. This work has not been prepared for professional use but rather for the benefit of members of the family here and in the future. At the start there was so much material in early Connecticut history that it seemed almost impossible to get any one line straightened out and it soon became known that instead of a few the name was plentiful and it appeared best to include the whole family, though at times it has been most difficult. Church, city, town, county and state records have been searched as well as the national census and pension records. Many letters have been written and old family account books and later family Bibles have played their part in the collection of the follow ing pages. In some instances the people written to have refused to co operate. Many have never answered. It may be that some of these people are included in the records, but the compiler knows not of it. Positive Huguenot ancestry is always hard to establish. Few came direct from France to the new world; most of the refugees went either to England or Holland and after a sojourn of a few years reached these shores. We have attempted accuracy in every detail, this being the great requisite in such a work. However we have found as many as three family Bibles of one family, each was said to be the original, but as all were not alike all could not be right. We have also seen in the same record book of a town two different entries of the same item. It is therefore hard to say in every case that we are right and additional research would produce nothing. We have quoted our authorities in all cases where known. On the following pages the name Fancher is spelled according to the way the several branches of the family spell it themselves. From old records we find several spellings and as most of the earlier records were written by others and often by the way names would sound, we get many spellings of the same word. It is a humiliating thought that men are usually forgotten in so few years, even by their own descendants. In life they have done their part, the same as we do, and perhaps they have lived to a good old age, still, in a few short years, it seems that nothing is left of them or about them that we can trace. It is hoped that this record will awaken interest in our family history and that more and better records will be kept in future years. We feel that letters from the Protestant Society of France indicate early French ancestry. Fancher is anglicised of Faucher, an earlier spell ing being Fauchier and, about 1200, the spelling was Falchier. 3 Candor compels the admission that no royal blood courses through Fancher veins. We can lay no claim to any noble lineage. We have no Coat of Arms, for the name of Fancher is not found in any book of her aldry. Nor do we locate a single one of the name among the priesthood, who, in the Middle Ages, boasted of their power over the people. We descend from humble folks, small farmers and mechanics, those who suf fered in their pasts that their children might have better social and cultural advantages. The authorities are given for each family. This being a compiled work, we give only the records that we have been able to collect or have been sent in to us. In many cases the writing is poor and not punctuated and we have probably made mistakes and in many cases the people have not followed up with their family history and therefore the family remains unfinished. We regret this as much as anybody but we are not able to make folks comply with our wishes. 4 The Fancher Family CATHERINE1 FANCHER, whose parents and date of birth are unknown, is believed to have been the eldest of the Fanchers with whom this genealogy is concerned. That she was the sister of William1 Fancher is established by the record that her son, Samuel Elwell, married his "cousin," Hannah Fancher, the daughter of William1 Fancher, and a like record of the daughter of William that she mar ried her "cousin" Samuel Elwell. Because of the proximity of their homes, nearness of age and inter-family relations, it is the opinion of the compiler that Catherine and William were of the same Fancher family as Hannah and John, alleged by descendants to have been brother and sister, and of Richard and David, and it is assumed for the purposes of this genealogy, that all six were brothers and sisters. Because of the earlier marriage of Catherine, in 1717, it has been presumed that she was older than her brother William, who was married in 1723, and accordingly her record is treated first. Catherine Fancher was married in Branford, Conn., 14 Aug. 1717 to EBENEZER ELWELL, son of Samuel and Sarah (Wheadon) Elwell, who was born in Branford 28 Oct. 1690 and died in Plymouth, Conn., 24 Dec. 1754. Catherine died in Plymouth 9 Jan.