Stanwood Family
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A HISTORY OF THE STANWOOD FAMILY IN. AMERICA BY ETHEL STANWOOD BOLTON BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS ROCKWELL AND CHURCHILL PRESS TO <tbarles lknowles l.Solton WHOSE ASSISTA);'CE AND INTEREST HAVE GIVEX THE BOOK MUCH OF ITS WORTH AND ACCURACY AND WHOSE ENCOL'RAGE?vIENT HAS LED TO ITS FINAL COMPLETIO:-. PREFACE. JN writing the history of the STANWOOD FAMILY the original records of the _towns and churches, and the wills and deeds at the county seats, have been followed in every case where it was possible, rather than books or hearsay evidence ; and the graveyards have i:iot been neglected. Tradition has been taken only where there were no records, and in every case of this kind I have endeavored to show whether or not confidence can be placed in the information. The work of arranging and indexing court, military, and town records has been carried on so rapidly of late that it has been possible to find material relating to the earlier generations of the family which a few years ago v:ould have been inaccessible. I have no doubt that the work which is now being done at the State House, the court houses, and in many of the towns will soon make it possible to add much more which will be of equal interest. The success of the illustrations in the book is due largely to my uncle, Mr. G. Francis Topliff, of Boston. Among others whom I wish to thank most heartily for their assistance are Mr. J. J. Tracy, chief custodian of the Massachusetts Archives; Prof. George T. Little, Litt. D., (5) 6 STANWOOD FAMILY.· Librarian of Bowdoin College; Mr. W. P. Greenlaw, of the New England Historic Genealogical Society; Mr. George S. Brown, of Boston; and Mr. John Noble, clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court. I wish also to acknowledge great assistance from Mr. John J. Stanwood, :Miss Cordelia J. Stanwood, lVIr. Lewis A. Stanwood, Mr. Francis C. Stanwood, Mrs. Harvey B. Steele, Miss Judith Rogers, Captain Samuel F. Stanwood,· Colonel; Eben Poore Stanwood, Mrs. Bradley Martin Thomas, Mrs. Emma A. Snow, Mrs. Joseph Wilby, Mr. James B. Stanwood, Miss Kate B. Stanwood, Mr. Joseph E. Stanwood, Mrs. Edwin L. Stanwood, Mrs. Hugh Dun lap Stanwood, Mr. Wendell E. Stanwood, Mrs. Ellen Dun lap Hopkins, Mr. Edward Stanwood, Mr. Edward W. C:.t,:inurnnr1 Mr l-:r Pnnr C:.t=in·mnnr1 Mr (;.pnr. e-~ l\.lf. Strl.n- .__,.,_ui..1.vv ...,..,_,'-,1., .&.'t'.L.1.• ~..1..~.a..1..1.J .._,~~.&.&.'1T'-J'-''--6J .L'f.L.&.• ---- ~- - - ----- wood, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry J. L. Stanwood. E. S. B. BROOKLINE, :MASSACHUSETTS, March, 1899. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE ZEBULON STANWOOD, of Gloucester ( 137) 84 CAPTAIN WILLIAM STAN\VOOD'S (216) HOUSE, Mere Point, Brunswick 106 CAPTAIN ISAAC STANWOOD'S (252) HOUSE, Ipswich, 124 DAVID STANWOOD, of Boston (258) 128 NANCY MAYHEW STANWOOD . rm A -aT'l'TT- ,-.. -.·~ CAPTAIN THEODORE ,.:HAl'l VVUUV, of Gloucester CAPTAIN \VILLIAM STAN\VOOD, of Brunswick (369), 152 COLONEL DAVID STANWOOD, of Brunswick ( 402), I 56 REV. HENRY STAN\VOOD, of Newburyport (458) . 168 DEACON ISAAC STANWOOD, of Ipswich (467) . 188 ]AMES BRO\VN STANWOOD,~of Cincinnati ( IOI 7) . 234 INTRODUCTION. OME six hundred years before Philip Stainwood came .S to this country, the name of Stanwood in its ancient Saxon form was known in England. When the Domesday Survey was made, Staneude, which to-day is Stanswood in the County of Hampshire, was owned by the king, and part of it was included in his New Forest hunting-ground. The rest of the land was cultivated, and the description of the life in this little hamlet, which was later to give a name to a family, is simple and quaint. " IN RODBRIDGE HUNDREDO. " Ipse Rez tenet Staneude, Cheping tenuit, de rege Edwardo. Tune, se defendebat pro 2 hidis; modo, pro una; quia alia est in foresta. Terra est 7 carucatae. In (9) 10 STANWOOD FAMILY. dominio est una; et I 3 villani et 20 bordarii, cum 7 carucis. !bi 4 servi ; et unus molinus, de 5 solidos ; et 4 acrae prati; et 2 piscariae de 50 denariis. Silva de IO porcis. T. R. E. valebat IO libras; et postea, et modo, 7 libras. Hoc manerium jacit in firma Regis, quam habet, de insula de Wit." " IN RODBRIDGE HUNDRED. " The King holds Staneude, which was held by Cheping of King Edward, and was, then, assessed at 2 hides. It is now, assessed at I only, bec.!use the other is in the forest. Here are 7 ploughlands; r ploughland is in demesne ; and I 3 villagers and 20 borderers employ 7 ploughs. Here are 4 servants, and a mill, which pays 5 shillings ; and 4 acres of meadow; and 2 fisheries worth 50 pence a year. Here are woods which furnish IO hogs. It was worth T. R. E. IO pounds. It was after wards, and is now worth 7 pounds. This manor is dependent on another belonging to the king in the Isle of Wight." (From the. Domesday Book in Warner's " History of Hampshire.") The place is a hamlet still. It lies at the head of Stans wood Bay, in the parish of Fawley, about nvo miles south of the town of that name, and some ten miles south of Southampton. "It comprises about three acres of land, with large trees upon it. This insulated spot is commonly called the ' Floating Island,' from its occasionally shifting its position several feet in wet seasons." ·:1< The explana tion is that "before the district was drained, and when the water was headed back by a milldam," t the plot was shifted from its position by the action of strong winds * \Vhite's " Hampshire," 1859. t Ibid, 1878. INTRODUCTION. II upon the trees and brushwood. In 1859, Thomas Cheyney and William Lane were the twe, farmers living at Stanswood. Twenty years later (1878), Thomas Cheyney was still there, but Charles Reynard had taken the place of William Lane at Little Stanswood. Although the name is so ancient, the cases where. it appears, except as applied to the hamlet, are very few, and even of those one cannot be certain. In a patent roll of the time of Edward III., dated at Edinburgh, September 20, 1335, there is a case in poirit: " Commission. of oyer and terminer to Richard de Wylughby, John del Ker and William de Gotham, on Complaint by Robert, son of Henry Austyn of Suthwell and Robert de Morton, chaplin, that Adam de Neuton of Suthwell, Henry Mye, Sampson de Oxton, Richard Parker, William Ryneling, William de Hokerton, Robert de Somerby, Richard de Normanton, John Godewyn, Richard de Burton, Ralph Gypsmere, John Alney, Will iam de Heton of Suthwell, Richard Touk of Lincoln, 'marchaunt,' Thomas de Nokton, 'marchaunt,' Henry de Staynwerd, 'marchaunt,' Hugh de Beuver, 'marchaunt,' William de Walesby, 'marchaunt,' Robert Nye, 'deken,' Henry Aune, ' deken,' and others broke their houses at Suthwell and carried away Io sacks of wool worth I ool. "By fine 10s. Nottingham." Three hundred years later another mention of the name is found, though this too might be classed as doubtful. On the tenth of June, 1635, the ship "Truelove," of London, Robert Dennis master, embarked for the" Bermoodes or Somer-Islands." On board this ship was the Rev. John Oxenbridge, of the Hampshire family, the ancestor of the Bermuda Outerbridges. Most of the passengers were very young, and among them was a boy of thirteen, who is 12 STANWOOD FAMILY. entered in Hotten's "Lists" as " Hen: Stonword." The ship arrived in Bermuda, but Henry either died unmarried or disappeared, for he founded no family there. All the Stanwoods by birth in America are descendants of Philip Stainwood, whose name appears in Gloucester in 1652, when his second son was born. Although there is no direct proof, it is certain that Philip was an Englishman in the broader sense of the .word. Leaving out of con sideration the fact that the name Stanswood appears in England, it is certain that it would be an almost unpre cedented occurrence for any but a British subject to hold an office in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay so early as I 6 54. But in that year Philip held the office of fence-viewer,. and three years later was elected a selectman of the town. He was active all his life in town affairs. Many stories of the origin of the family have arisen in its various branches, through ignorance of the fact that the lineage of all the Stanwoods is from Philip of Glouces ter. One report has it that "Ebenezer Stanwood, a Frenchman," settled in Brunswick; an impossible nation ality, since Ebenezer's birth and the birth of his two eldest sons " in Brunswick" are recorded in Gloucester. He was a grandson of Philip. There are other stories which assert a Dutch or German origin for the family. Among the Brunswick Stanwoods is a tradition that two brothers came to this country who had been English sheep-growers in Ireland. These two are represented to have been younger brothers of one Sir Ralph Stanwood, and they adduce as evidence a coat-of-arms. The date of Ebenezer's going to Brunswick, I 7 I 9, the year of the Irish Emigration, might easily give rise to this idea, and also the fact that his eldest son married the daughter of an Irish emigrant. The relationship to Sir Ralph is the first reason for INTRODUCTION. 1"'.) questioning this story. If Philip of Gloucester were the brother of Sir Ralph, what became of the other brother that tradition tells us came with him? If it is Ebenezer of Brunswick and his brother John that they have in mind, the Gloucester record of their births is sufficient proof of its untruth.