A Thief in the Family Tree!

A thief in the family tree is not unexpected because most of the family is from Ireland and the Potato Famine was notorious for creating thieves out of starving people.  Little did I know that many of the American colonies were populated by thieves and worse as England emptied their jails into the American Colonies.  I never learned that in History class.

I have long searched for some kind of proof as to who Abner Fish's parents are, but I did have the same problem with finding his wife's parents.  Abner married Sally Featherston(e) on October 18, 1816, in Washington County, Ohio.  The town was probably Waterford, but I don't have proof that either family was in Waterford before May 15, 1817, so I can't be sure.  Even this I wouldn't have proof of without the Google Project to digitize out of copyright books.

1788 History of Washington County Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches published by H. Z. Williams and Bro. in 1881 is what broke the block on Sally's father. Apparently, this publisher used mostly in-house employees to write about what they actually knew, so there are a wide variety of authors -- not all recognized in the usual fashion.

On May 15, 1817, Andres Powers sold his grist mill and sawmill and 30 acres of land adjoining Thomas Featherston's land to Thomas Featherston.  Thomas used his son John and his son-in-law Abner Fish as the millers for his new grist mill. Thomas hired Andrew McClure to manage the sawmill.

From the 1788 History of Washington County Ohio under the section on Waterford Township, "Federal Bottom" is the following paragraph:

But there is more to Thomas Featherston than what he became in Ohio. Harvard University has published much of the records of the "Old Bailey" court records from London, England.  And we can trace Thomas back to those court records.

 On July 6, 1774, Thomas Featherston was convicted of theft (Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 6th July 1774, page 47).  Thomas was indicted for breaking and entering the home of John Zeidler on the 21st of May (1774) at about 9 PM and stealing a "hair trunk 1s, a plain gold ring, value 7s, a silk gown, value 10s, a pair of women's stuff shoes, value 3s, a cloth cardinal, value 10s, a camblet gown, value 5s, a pair of worked muslin ruffles, value 4s, a muslin apron, value 2s, a pair of spotted muslin ruffles, value 4s, four pair of linen shift sleeves, value 2s, three linen handkerchiefs, value 3s, three linen caps, value 3s, three pair of women's leather gloves, value 18 d, five yards of thread lace, value 1s".  So a total value of 55 shillings and 18 pence.

In the proceedings at Old Bailey, we find some more information.  "The prisoner called his sister, who said that the prisoner had been to sea; that she kept him till he got another ship, but that he had run away from her for a fortnight; in which time he had got himself into Clerkenwell Bridewell."

Not that Thomas had found himself in a good place, but the prison at Clerkenwell Bridewell (north of London) did not have as terrible a reputation as the one at Newgate in London.

So we can assume that Thomas at this time is an orphan as his sister is responsible for him. Also that he is most likely a "cabin boy" or "ship's boy" for the English Navy.  Boys could start as young as 8 years old and continue until about 15 years old. At 16, they could qualify for the lowest rank in the English Navy.  Based on Thomas's revelations about his age later in life, we may assume that he is about 15 at the time of this theft.

England at this time had no police force and poor theft laws.  There was also a large influx of people into the cities -- but no jobs as the Industrial Revolution had not yet started.  Crime was a huge problem and what value constituted enough for a death conviction was being continually reduced -- without any effect on the crime levels.  In an earlier year, Thomas probably would have warranted the death penalty -- public hanging.  But by this time, England had passed a new law that allowed judges the discretion to banish felons to America instead of jail or death.  Options allowed were 7 years of indentured service, 14 years of indentured service, or life sentence of indentured service in the American colonies.  It was a good way to empty the English jails and get the bad elements out of England for good.  None of those transported to the American colonies were allowed to return to England.  Now as long as the criminal element was banished from England and not allowed to return, the English government didn't really care what happened to them.  So those who had money, could buy their own freedom and special accommodation on the trip to America.  As far as I can tell, Thomas was not able to afford any special accommodation.

Juries were notorious for reducing sentences to avoid the death penalty at whim.  So Thomas was declared not guilty of the breaking and entering, and guilty of theft of 59s. This would keep him in the lower (7 year) level of punishment and out of the potential of death by hanging.  This was not unusual in convictions of children.

Unless a convict was able to buy their own freedom, they were sold at auction in the same fashion as a slave or an indentured servant, usually in Virginia or Maryland.  Shipping companies would "buy" the convicts from the English government, then pay the fee to have them released from prison, and then transport them to the American colonies.  Those shipping companies with government contracts were given 3 s for provisions for each prisoner in addition to what they could earn from selling the prison at auction, the others had to rely just on the value at auction.  Maryland and Virginia were the best place for the selling of convicts (at least from the point of view of the sellers) because not only did those colonies pay more for labor, but the ships could also fill their holds with Tobacco for the return voyage.

Thomas, and all the other convicts from Old Bailey, spring 1774 court session, were sold to Duncan Campbell, London Merchant; Alexander Mackenzie, London Oilman; and John Oligory (Olgilvy), London Mariner.  Capt, John Olgilvy would be written up about this time in the Virginia Gazette for his cruel treatment of prisoners in 1773.  Thomas was in the company of 54 prisoners sentenced for 7 years, 14 for 14 years, and 2 for life.

Transportation Contract - Including Thomas Featherston

Apparently Thomas ended up in Maryland as that is where he married his wife and had several children, but what happened between the assignment to the ship captained by John Olgilvy and his eventual appearance in Ohio is still a mystery to be solved.

Abner Fish in the War of 1812

Abner Fish is my 3rd-great-grandfather.  There are strong rumors around the internet about who his parents are but a significant lack of facts.  Bernd and I took a research class this past week in Washington, DC to learn how to use the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Daughters of the American Revolution Library.  One of my goals was to figure out Abner's parents but no luck on that yet.

The National Archives have the payroll, muster records, bounty land, and pensions for the War of 1812. So I decided to see what family information I could find in those records.  And although I found one very small clue that might lead me to parents someday, I mostly found a new puzzle.  If we have any kids in the family that need a history research project, I could use some help on this new puzzle.

Ohio drafted men into the Ohio Militia and into the Continental Army.  Abner was drafted into the Militia rather than the Continental Army, and I think he stayed in the Militia for the duration of the war. In all the official records about the Ohio Militia, each man was drafted into a District or Division which was subdivided into Regiments which were subdivided into companies.  So at any individual level, each man reported to the Captain of his Company and may or may not have paid any attention to the rest of the organizational structure.

If the man served the entire war, he was entitled to a pension and to "bounty land".  Bounty land was free land (40-80-160 acres) depending on a variety of laws and the man's rank in the military.  But for the Revolutionary War just a few years earlier, pensions were for those men or their widows that "needed" the help.  Although the financial need was not a criterion for the War of 1812 pension, there may still have been some sensitivity to need since none of the Fish who served in Ohio took a pension.

Ohio had some Regiments that were called "Odd Regiments" not because there was anything particularly odd about the people in the Regiment but because they were created from areas that couldn't supply enough men to fill a complete Regiment.  So these "Odd Regiments" were used to augment other larger Regiments who needed extra people for a particular battle.

18-year-old Abner was not in an "Odd" Regiment but he was definitely in some truly unusual military positions. At first, I thought there were two Abner Fish who served in the Ohio Militia from around the same area because there were two complete military service files.  But strangely enough, the files made it very clear that both service files belonged to the same man.

For the entire War, Abner was officially in two different Regiments and as many as four different companies -- at the exact same time! One of the genealogists teaching the research who was a war expert had never heard of such a thing.  The archivists at the National Archives were even more perplexed -- not only did Abner have these strange duty records, but he also filed twice for bounty land and received it twice!  The second time even notated that he was getting a second allotment of bounty land, implying that the second allotment was due to his strange service records.

So far I have only been able to dig up one clue on what Abner was doing.  He was drafted into the Militia on Aug 24th or so in 1812.  He was immediately registered into two Regiments and two Companies.  Depending on whose records are to be believed, on September 17th  or 23rd Abner was sent off to a third Company under Captain Cotton.  (This is just a scribbled note on his records from the second Regiment.)

There is a recently released report that Captain Cotton was responsible for leading a battle against Indians that had massacred all the people in a fort on "The Peninsula" in Ohio on September 29th. Although Captain Cotton won the battle, it was not without injuries to his troops and a significant loss of life. Abner survived to continue his mysterious military service, but does have some lost time marked as "furlough", "sick", and "absent" after that battle.

Pay Roll Card from Col William Rayen's Regiment

So was the Company that Abner considered his primary "home" a special skills company?  Was 18-year-old Abner a skilled Indian fighter?

Instead of getting questions answered about Abner on this last trip, I ended up with more questions.

Fish in Nebraska

Researching our family is always tricky for a couple of reasons -1) They continuously move and have for hundreds of years, and 2) they re-use first names to a ridiculous degree. And then we have the Fish and Work problem.  Since those are common English words, it is challenging to search out the names because the search becomes swamped by all the uses of those ubiquitous words.
But I am beginning to get a handle on at least part of the Fish family because of the homestead records I talked about in the previous post.

My great-great-grandmother Harriett B Fish married Enoch Parr August 20, 1857, in Wayne, Iowa, where both families temporarily resided.  Harriett and Enoch's first four children were born in Wayne, Iowa but the youngest, my great grandfather Elmer Clyde Parr, was born on the homestead in Oak Grove Township, Franklin, Nebraska.  The closest town is Bloomington.

Harriett was the youngest child of Abner Fish and Sally Featherstone, who resided in Washington County, Ohio, at the time of their marriage and possibly until Sally died.  I think Abner & Sally had about 10 children -- not all of which I have been able to trace.   Harriett, her sister Silence, and brother Robert all ended up in Franklin, Nebraska.  Until I was able to find Robert Fish's homestead records, I wasn't sure he actually survived the journey from Iowa to Nebraska.  But as it turns out, Robert came to Nebraska before his other siblings.  He was a Postmaster, first in Iowa and later in Nebraska.  But he also was a homesteader.  His homestead was in Turkey Creek Township, which was the township northwest of Oak Grove.  He completed his home on March 16, 1873, which started the 5-year proving period for the homestead.  He bought a significant amount of land in Oak Grove Township along the Republican River in October 1873.  Not many people actually bought property from the government at that time, so he must have been reasonably prosperous.

 Robert's homestead paperwork was fascinating because he died while homesteading.  As far as I can tell, the only record of his death is in the homestead records.  His wife Julia took over the farming part of "proving" the homestead and raising their five children: Wallace, Mary, Laura, Lavinia, and Rufus.  Not only did the homesteader have to make declarations in that they met the requirements to "prove" a homestead, but they also had to come up with two or three other people who could attest to all the same questions.  One of the men who filed an affidavit to testify to the homestead was Silence's son John Swaney.