Esther's Journey

I attended the New England Regional Genealogical Conference this past week with a specific goal in mind. That goal was to discover Esther Agard's journey. Esther is the wife of John the Elder Agard, purported to be the founding father of the Agards in America. The only information we have of John in America is that he either died on the ship or upon arrival in Boston. Is that true? And if so, then it is actually Esther that is the founding member of the Agards in America. The research so far has them landing in Boston in April 1683 with the birth of their son, John the Younger in July 1683. Two years later we find Esther in Barnstable, MA marrying Samuel Storrs. The couple had three childre, Thomas Storrs b: 1686, Esther Storrs b: 1688, and Cordial Storrs b: 1692. That information isn't enough. I want to know if John made it onto America soil before he died. I want to know how Esther got to Barnstable, and why. I want to connect with her and learn about what her life was like. I realized through the conference that to get these answers, I'll need to read about the early history of Boston, try to find a death record for John, and trace Samuel Storrs. Finding out when and why he settled in Barnstable might give me a hint as to that migration pattern. The Massachuetts Genealogy Society staff were helpful and gave me some ideas. They also said Barnstable has great records. That historical society will be opening mid-May. The Fall River Historical Society will have information. I will have to bone up on Massachusetts laws at that time. A lot of work ahead of me, but at least I can now design a new research plan. The Mormons believe your ancestors want you to find them. I've learned that is true. You just have to work at it.

I’d Like to Meet - Esther Agard - #52 Ancestors

I imagine that Esther Agard was a strong and remarkable woman. Strong because at the age of forty-three and pregnant, she survived a spring Atlantic crossing in 1683. Strong because with the death of her husband John, either during the crossing or shortly after arrival, it was Esther who is the founding member of the Agard family line in America. Remarkable because she survived and thrived. Two years after her son, John, was born, Esther married Samuel Storrs. She raised his five children, plus John and three of hers and Samuel’s. Those children are: Thomas Storrs b: 1886; Esther Storrs b: 1688; and Cordall Storrs b: 1692.

In his book, “Agards in America,” Frederick Browning Agard details the issues surrounding the origin of that family.  He starts with John the Elder coming from “somewhere in the British Isles in the mid-17^th century.” John dies at sea or in Massachusetts between 1683 and 1685.” There are various accounts: Phelps Leach’s “Lawrence Leach and some of his Descendants,” D.H Van Hoosear’s “Fillow Family Genealogy,” and a statement of E.V. Carrithers, professional searcher in Brighton, Sussex, England that the family sprang from England, Scropton in Derbyshire.

I imagine Esther was a strong and remarkable woman. I would love to hear her story.

Agard Family Do-Over – Researching the Storrs Family of Tolland County, Connecticut

It's a cold rainy day in Virginia, but the bluebirds and hummingbirds still come for some refreshment, entertaining us as we sit at our computers researching our family lines.

In 1685 Esther Agard (founding member of the Agards in America), married Samuel Storrs of Barnstable, MA. In 1698, Samuel, Esther and her son, John Agard, along with Samuel’s six children moved to Mansfield, Connecticut. It was there that Samuel and Esther had three more children, Thomas, Esther and Cordial, and those are the ones I have been working on today – especially Esther.

I had written down that she married William Hall. To verify that has been a challenge. I find birth and baptismal records for the children of William and Esther, but none of the records I came across said it was Esther Storrs. Until I found a USGenWeb Project document of Tolland County, Connecticut, Family Outlines, Hall Family of Tolland, Connecticut that lists the Hall family with a William Hall marrying Esther Storrs. The list of children in this document matches other lists I have seen.

In the meantime, I sent a note off to the Tolland County Historical Society to see if there might be other resources that confirms the union of William and Esther. And I, too, will keep searching.

Genealogy by the States – Massachusetts

Sturgis Library, Barnstable, MA
Home built for Rev. John Lowthropp

I am fortunate.  Ancestors on my maternal side arrived on the shores of Massachusetts during the 1600s.  The religious sects, including the one of my ancestor Rev. John Lowthropp, felt the need to keep track of everyone.  We genealogists benefit from that philosophy.

Following his release from London’s Newgate prison, and under the direction to leave the country, Rev. John Lowthropp and his congregation sailed on the Griffin to Boston.  This group arrived in Boston on 18 September 1634. They first settled in Scituate, MA, and then dissatisfied with the quality of the land, the congregation moved to Barnstable.  Originally called Mattakeese, which meant “old fields,” or “planted fields,” the congregation found the land on the Cape more habitable.  The Lowthropp name took on variations as it became Lothrop and then Lathrop.

Reverend John Lowthropp died on 8 November 1653; his will was administered on 7 March 1654:

• To his wife the new dwelling house
• To his oldest son, Thomas, the house first lived in, in Barnstable
• To John in England and Benjamin here, each a cow and ₤ 5
• To Jane and Barbara – they had their portions already
• To the rest – a cow, and one book chosen according to their ages
• “The rest of the library to be sold to any honest man who can tell how to use it, and the proceeds to be divided.” The library’s estimated value was ₤ 5. 

Rev. John Lowthropp is buried in the Lothrop Hill Cemetery, Barnstable, MA.

So, what was it really like for John “The Elder” Agard and his pregnant forty-two year old wife Esther as they crossed the Atlantic in 1683?  What drove them to take that journey? Was it the political climate or the beckoning of a fresh start in the New World?  And did they know that John was dying when they boarded the ship? We may never know the answer.  But arrive they did in April 1683; John either died on route or shortly after arrival.  I do not know whether they arrived at Boston harbor, or near Barnstable, MA. At any rate, it is in Barnstable that we find Esther and her son, John “The Younger,” Agard(b: 16 July 1683).  Esther and John “The Elder” Agard are credited with being the founding members of the Agards in America.

Wedding Anniversary Celebration
Arthur and Jessie Tucker Agard
with Adeline Agard Tamburino, Ed and Carol Nunn
Taughannock Farms Inn

I am descended from these two Barnstable, Massachusetts ancestral lines with the marriage of Arthur Charles Agard and Jessie May Tucker on 26 June 1901.

Sources I used in developing their family story are:

Otis, Amos, Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families, C.F. Swift, 1888, Vol II, p. 173

Huntington, Rev. E.B. and Mrs. Julia Huntington, A Genealogical Memoir of the Lo-Lathrop Family in this Country Embracing the Descendants as far as known – Rev. John Lothrop of Scituate and Barnstable, MA and Mark Lothrop of Salem and Bridgewater, MA, The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, Hartford, CT 1884.

Trayser, Donald G., Barnstable: Three Centuries of a Cape Cod Town, 1971

Taber, Helen Lathrop, A New Home in Mattakees, Yarmouthport, MA 2006

Berger, Josef, Cape Cod Pilot, Federal Writers Project, 1937

Thanks to Jim Sanders at Hidden Genealogy Nuggets for this prompt.

Genealogy by the States – Connecticut

John Agard was only 2-1/2 when his mother Esther married Samuel Storrs.   We shall never know how John felt about joining a family of five girls and one boy all older than he. And we shall never know how he felt about his mother and stepfather adding three more children, Thomas b: 1686, Esther b: 1688, and Cordial b: 1692 to the already large family.

John was fifteen when he and his family moved to Mansfield, Connecticut where his stepfather, Samuel, became a landowner and prominent member of the community.

For instance, in 1702 Mansfield residents were not happy about the distance they had to travel for church and town business.  A town meeting was held and a vote conducted to apply to the General Court for authorization to divide the territory from the Town of Windham. This was approved, and Samuel was instrumental in getting this accomplished.  Samuel and Esther’s house is thought to have stood near the southern boundary of “Ponde Place” cemetery on Mansfield Street.

Storrs Monument located at Mansfield Center Olde Cemetery
First Cemetery in Tolland County 1693
Storrs family listed; John Agard not included

On 8 June 1709 John Agard married Mehitable Hall in Mansfield, and they had seven children: James b: 1710, John b: 1712, Joshua b: 1714, Benjamin b: 1716, Mahitabell b: 1718, Hezekiah b: 1722, and Judah b: 1724.

Little more is known of John.  He left no land records, no death or burial record; sadly no stone marks his grave. But he left his legacy as I am descended from his son John who moved to Litchfield, Connecticut and then on to New York State.

In tracing this family I utilized the following Connecticut resources:

Chronology of Mansfield 1702-1972, Mansfield Historical Society

Connecticut Nutmegger, Connecticut Society of Genealogists; C.H. Booth Library, Newtown, CT

Partial Genealogy of John and Esther Agard, by Roberts, Daniel; Godfrey Memorial Library in Middletown, CT

Agards in America, Agard, Frederick Browning; privately held and also at Godfrey Memorial Library

Mansfield, Connecticut, Town and Church Records, 1703-1850, copied from the records by Susan W. Dimock

The Settlers of the Beekman Patent, Vol. II. Doherty, Frank; C.H. Booth Library

The Storrs Family Genealogical and Other Memoranda, Storrs, Charles; Godfrey Memorial Library.

Thanks to Jim Sanders at Hidden Genealogy Nuggets for suggesting this blog topic.