A family history mystery for my maternal cousins and me:
Miriam Treat (1748-1822), of Middletown and Seymour, is our 5th great grandmother, and granddaughter of our 8th great grandfather, Robert Treat, who was Governor of Connecticut Colony from 1683 to 1698. One of her daughters was Catherine Fowler (1780-1859), our 4th great grandmother, who married Sebe Moulthrop, who kept an Inn on the corner of Maple and Pearl Streets in Seymour.
There is a mystery concerning Miriam’s marriages. She was married either 3 or 4 times. First, to Abraham Ranney, of a prominent family in Middletown Upper Houses (Cromwell), on 16 Oct 1769. Abraham died in 1775. Merriam had three Ranney children: Lydia, Huldah, and Luther, the last two died young. Next, the Middletown Congregational Church records show that she married Elijah Fellows, of New York, 20 March 1777. By now, the Revolutionary War was underway, and Middletown was engaged in accepting refugees from Long Island via ships sailing up the Connecticut River. I have examined the microfilm of the church record, in the minister’s own hand, and it definitely says Elijah Fellows. I have found no other record of Elijah Fellows, and herein lies the mystery. On 30 July 1778, Miriam had her fourth child, Luther, by one William Fowler. Luther is buried in the Great Hill Cemetery in Seymour. If we back up nine months from Luther’s birth, we see that he was conceived about October 1777, or about 7 months after Miriam married the Elijah fellow. I have found no record of a marriage between Miriam and William, or anything else that would explain the situation. However, the records clearly show that Miriam had two Fowler Children, Luther and Catherine, before William Fowler is said to have been lost at sea in 1783. Her children, Lydia, Luther, and Catherine, were baptized at Saint James’s Episcopal Church in Derby on 28 August 1783, shortly after Miriam married her last husband, the Seymour widower Asahel Johnson, on 6 April 1783. They later moved to West Haven where they lived until death. Miriam had four Johnson children: Polly, Fowler, Dolly, and Miriam, for a total of 10 in all.
We can only speculate about Miriam’s husbands, Elijah Fellows and William Fowler. We have only a single record for Elijah—his marriage. For William, we have sufficient records to be sure of his children but only a speculation of his death. Of course, there was a war going on and Elijah might have died. But during that war it was also common for men to use an alias so Elijah and William may have been one and the same. If so, which name is the real one? One thinks about the relationships between Tories and Patriots, Congregational versus Episcopal Churches, the Long Island-Middletown connection, the sea and the Connecticut River, a possible husband who ran away from one marriage to marry another under an assumed name, and so forth. Whatever the case, Miriam must have been one tough cookie, a trait still common among the women in our family.
See Bill Warnock’s family tree on Ancestry.com.
Uncle Jack's Comments:
I will second the description of "one tough cookie". Every passing year I am more astounded that it took Women so long to get the right to vote and still struggle for full equality. For too long this country has not taken full advantage of the intellectual capacity and potential of the Women of our society. Having strong Women in a society able to exercise their full potential is a plus for all of us. One would presume the Patriots would be more associated with the Congregational and similar sects being as the Episcopal Church was in essence the Church of England.
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