William Stoughton biography
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The name Stoughton is an old English name. By 1300 the name spelling changed to Stoghton, and by 1440 to Stoughton. A descendant of this family, Thomas Stoughton, born in 1592 in England, came to America likely on the ship "Mary and John" in 1630 and settled in Connecticut. One of the brothers returned to England to fight on the side of Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War. One of Isreal Stoughton's nephews is named Oliver, probably to honor both the uncle's participation, and Cromwell, the leader of the Protestant partisans in England. The tradition continues, as an Oliver W. Stoughton was born to Mathew S. Stoughton in 1853, in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
Our Stoughtons first appear in America in New York, and later in Somerset County, New Jersey. William Stoughton married a 'Miss Voorhees' of unknown lineage, and his son John married Catherine Covert, the Coverts having also settled first in what was New Amsterdam when they arrived, and then Somerset County, New Jersey. Catherine's mother, Cornelia Van Zandt, descended from an English Waldron family. The Waldrons apparently fled England in the late 1500's and took up residence in Holland for three generations, where the men married Dutch women. It is of interest that the Stoughton family in Butler County included more than one protestant minister, and that one of the great-grandsons of John Stoughton and Catherine Covert was named Oliver. This name use began with the Stoughtons in England who were Oliver Cromwell supporters, and began a long family tradition of Protestantism, and use of the name Oliver.
As to what is known of our line, William Stoughton was born about 1742 in New York. William is reported to have been in the Revolutionary War, serving with troops from New Jersey.
William Stoughton married Miss Voorhees in about 1770. They had nine children, all born in New Jersey. The older children were of marriagable age before the family left New Jersey. The oldest son, William Stoughton Jr., is thought to have possibly married and stayed behind in New Jersey when the family migrated westward, as he has not been found in the Pennsylvania records.
The second son, John Stoughton, married Catherine Covert in about 1795, probably in Lewisburg PA area, as the Covert family had lived there since 1790.
The William Stoughton family also resided for a time in Lewisburg (then in Northumberland County, now in Union County). William 'Stotan' is recorded as an inhabitant of West Buffalo Twp. in 1796.
The Stoughtons continued west in 1802 to Butler County, Pennsylvania and by 1804 were recorded in Middlesex Township. Members of the Voorhees family also migrated westward to Butler County, part of a migration of several of the old English and Dutch families of New England, moving westward including the Stoughtons, Coverts, Wigtons, Vorhees, & VanZandts.
William was a farmer and a shoemaker, as was his grandson Barnard VanZant Stoughton. William died without a will in April of 1822, and an inquest of sudden death was held. Families besides Stoughton mentioned in his estate settlement were Timblin, Gilgrist, Badger, Thompson and Rose. Some of these names are possibly his sons-in-law.
(This biography is based on research by myself; by Jeanne Bortmes Eichelberger; on Pedigree of the Stoughton Family, prepared by Sir Nicholas Stoughton; on the oral history from Nancy Stoughton Patterson, as transcribed by Eva Coulter Conlan in her unpublished manuscript,"History of the Stoughton Family"; on Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John 1630, by The Mary & John Clearing House. The connection to Timothy Stoughton and the English line was totally based on research of James Voltz,via web sources and DNA mapping results. Written by Elizabeth Wilson Williams
