GEORGE ELDRIDGE; HYDROGRAPHER AND ELIZA JANE HIS WIFE; THEIR ANCESTORS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS Compiled by Henry James Young FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY 35 NORTH WEST TEMPLE ST SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84150 Carlisle, Pennsylvania 1982 Grateful acknowledgment is made to all who have contributed information for this book, especially to Pauline WixonDerick, Brice Eldridge. Marie Vail Fuse. Timothy H. Gridley, Gratia Eldridge Harrington, Angenette Vail Martin, Priscilla M. Pereira, David S. Tappan. Marion Jewett White, and Hazel Chase Witherell. The map on page‘ 2b is from Barber's Qglleglipns, hereafter cited; that on pages lla and llb is from the Atlas o§_Bg§h§table,Cognty (1880); and the E1dridnes' map of Chatham TT890) was made available by David S. Tappan. FromJohn W. Barber; historical Qgllections... Relating to the History agg_Antiggitie§_g£_fiNery”:own in_Massachg§etts...(1&39) wehave taken the illustrations appearing on pages 91 and 95;:from Samuel A. Drake, monks and Corners of the NewEnaland_goast-(1575), those on pages 11, 25} 37, HOand 8*; from Charles A. Goodrich, fihefiqgivggsal Traveller...(1336‘, those on 32 and 320. The photographs on pages 2h,and‘lR were contributed by David S. Tappan; those on pages 24a, 26b; 30a and 32b, by Jane Thornton Banci; the one on 33b, by Ruth Phillips Polackg those on pages 10a, 23, 23a, 25 and 26 are from the Polack family papers at The Historical Society of York County, York, Pennsylvania. Part I. Isaiah Eldridge of Chathamand His Descendants. Pages 3- 37 Index to Part I. 38- U0 Part II.Ancestral Lines of "Chart" George Eldridge and Eliza Jane (Nickerson) His Wife. Pages 41- 76 Index and Notes to Part II. 77-93 2a In the smithy. William Perry; the town blacksmith; and Chart George Eldridge Courtesy of David S. Tappan 2b‘ 2b g§Rg_ggqis the next presents it self, which is onely a headland of hinh hils, ouer nrownewith shrubby Pines, hurts and such trash; but an excellent harbour for all weathers. This Cape is made by the maine Sea on the one side, and a great Bay on the other in forme of a Sickell; on it doth inhabit the people of Bawmet, and in the bottome of the Bay them of ghawum. Towards the South and South-west of this, is found a lone and dangerous shoule of rocks and sand, but so farre as I incercled it. I found thirty fathome water and a stronv currant, which makes mee thinke there is a chanell about this shoule, where is the best and greatest fish to he had winter and summerin all the Country; but the Saluages say there is no Chanell, but that the Shoales bepinne from the maine at Pawmet to the Ile of Nawset, and so extends beyond their knowledgeinto the Sea. -- Captain John Smith, 1616 v . .‘\“'r,"_'* J “‘~.'}M§.v-.’Q‘ 1 :2(:.is".c.Aa1rus:uu'u'c ' M .|‘A' --V ihrr-n \I'un-.-an-r r..I.l..I..-.I I-_.-In... u...|.....I.\ 4'... III!!!‘ .,'A _‘_, ;. ’\ l/my , , — '1­ ._ “ " Pm‘/u../» . fur ‘V,’ /1‘ ” o ‘ ‘ ./4/..;.,a.‘\ , 1 4'. [WWW _ _V /, Ilurr‘ \ J. >. ,,,j_ . ‘ "-X :3 ’-r W­‘-4 -.. 1 s rm,V‘ "V" X ‘ ...-/...,.. _ ‘ \ A a \ /..m..:/1' - I 7 m_ - nI|_;,’ * * '4.)[pr fully‘ \ " _,,,,/gr/m ~. “vn/I:1/. .1....,../1'.’ , um...~ ~ L.’ fauna Y I H N _ iv. 11.4,-..-.._.),s.._, .'m . 0's.. ‘I";—.‘3 ,.,H.A I’IuJm.—mv,..'3» .V: ‘I--in //../. The name ELDRIDGE,which has the local variants ELDREDGE and ELDRED,is distinctly Anglo-Saxon. Its precise origin is not easily stated, as it evidently evolved in someplaces from the ba tismal name AE1dred ("old counsel"), or AE1fric ("elf ruler" or AEthelric ("noble ruler") and in other places from Elrett ("alder grove"). It represents therefore not a single stock but a number of unrelated families (P.H. Reaney, A Dic­ tionary of British Surnames, 1961. p.h). Although the English home of the Cape Cod Eldridges is not known. it has been speculated that they came from Great Saxham. a parish and vil­ lage in western Suffolk where an Eldred family was socially prominent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As more of NewEngland's early pioneers came from Suffolk than from any other shire, that would be a good place to search the sur­ viving parish registers, which date from 1555. It has been as­ serted that one Samuel Eldred of Rhode Island came from Laven­ ham (pronounced Lennum). a dozen miles southeast of Great Sax­ ham (Charles E. Banks, To 0 ra hical Dictionar of En lish Emigrants to NewEngland, l937, p.157). The Eldreds of Great wasSaxhambelonged granted a coat—of—arms(described to the East Anglian gentry; as Or, in on 1592 a bend one ragulé brancfl Sable 3 bezants) and in l6h1 they acquired a baronetcy which, all too soon, in 1653. became extinct for want of a son. Judging from the somewhat dubious evidence of heraldry, how­ ever, collateral branches of the same family survived in Suf­ folk, Norfolk and London. On Cape Cod today the prevailing form of the name seems to be Eldredge. and the numberretaining the spelling Eldred is very small. Although the family that we are studying has con­ sistently spelled the namewith an i for more than a century and a half, their neighbors use either the e or the i spellin_ standableconsistently because in referring of the great to them: number a custom of interrelated which is under- members 1 in the same community. Despite the varying origins of the surname, it is generally believed that all the Eldredges, E1­ dridges and Eldreds of Cape God have been descended from either Robert or William Eldred, both of whomsettled at Yar­ mouthin the sixteen forties; and it is often asserted, though without direct evidence. that these were brothers. Both left large numbers of descendants, whose genealogy remains in a very imperfect state, partly because of someloss of county and town records over the last three centuries. In the direct male line the ancestry of "Chart George" Eldridge has been traced only to his grandfather Isaiah. of Chatham, and even Isaiah is a shadowy figure. as there were contemporaneous Isaiahs on Buzzard's Bay and in nearby Har­ wich. Three years ago we supposed the whole line had been established. whenwe discovered in the Sturgis Library at Barnstable a thirty—four-volume manuscript. "Genealogical Notes on Cape Cod Families". compiled in 1967 by Lydia B. Brownson. Grace W. Held and Doris V. Norton. Their compilatigy is in general extremely helpful, but in this instance error crept in. In VolumeXIVthe ladies indicated that Isaiah of Chathamwas son of another Isaiah (in the latter case an ob­ vious error for Isaac), son of William, son of William, son of the emigrant Robert Eldred. But unfortunately the autho­ rities that the compilers cited, YarmouthVital Records and Paine's History of Harwich, nowheresubstantiate the state­ ment, whereas other and undisputed records contradict it. Our sense of triumph was short-lived, and we mention the matter here to help others avoid repeating our mistake. Some day, when more of the ancient records of New England are in print, a solution mayarise through a pooling of prob­ lems suggested by data from the Census of 1790. In that year the town of Chatham, with a total population of 1140, or 193 households, had an Eldred and Eldridge population of 141 souls, and Isaiah was one of 27 heads of Eldridge families listed: every sixth person in Chathamwas an Eldridge. Al­ though most of these can be identified genealogically, among the stubborn exceptions are Anthony, Benedick and Isaiah, and the close order in which the census-taker listed their names suggests that they were near neighbors: Eldridge, Anthony Eldridge, Isaiah Stetson. Crowell Eldridge, Benedick The other Eldridges clustered in the same part of Chatham (the peninsula called Stage Neck) were chiefly descendants of the first Robert. There was also an unidentified ThomasEld­ ridge two doors from Anthony, one of three Thomases in the town, who may possibly be part of the same mystery, but the names of Anthony, Isaiah and Benedick appear only once among Chatham's householders and maytherefore prove ultimately less difficult to trace. Aclose relationship amongthese near neighbors is especially likely because Isaiah namedhis fourth son Benedick. It is known that an Anthony Eldridge was married on 31 Dec 1772 to Deborah Arey, and that he and Benedict Eldridge of Chatham served for a few days in September, 1778 as active militiamen (William C. Smith, Histor of Chatham, 1971, p. 399). As for Anthony, in 1790 his household consisted of him­ self and one other male above the age of sixteen. and six fe­ males. In 1800, whenthe census used a different set of cate­ gories of age; it was implied that both he and his wife were born before 1755, and that they had a boy born between 1790 and 1799, two girls born between 1775 and 178k, and another girl born between 1785 and 1790. In 1790 the same Anthony married Susanna Bearse and had a son Anthony born 21 Jan 1795 The date of his death is unknown, but letters of adminis­ tration on his estate were granted to Isaac Hardy, merchant, on 21 Apr 1823. Another Anthony, born about 1818, was mar­ ried in 1841 to Mary Smith and was listed in the 1850 Census as a stage—driver. The Benedick or Benedict (let us for the momentcall him Benedict I) who was neighbor to Isaiah in 1790, had in that year a household consisting of himself himself and two other males above the age of 16, one male under that age.