Difference between revisions of "William Stoughton biography"

Revision as of 08:23, 7 June 2008

The name Stoughton is an old English name, said to derive from the Anglo-Saxon word "Stoctun", which means a large fenced dwelling (as a stockade perhaps). The Stoughton line in England is traced back to one Godwin de Stocton, born in Normandy France in 1125 and died in Stocton, Surrey, England in 1200. The Stocton name was adopted because the family owned the manor of Stocton in Surrey. 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 on the ship "Mary and John" in 1630 and settled in Connecticut. The second son of this Thomas Stoughton, named Isreal Stoughton, came with his father to America in 1630 but returned to England to fight on the side of Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War. Israel Stoughton died there in 1644, but his parents and siblings remained in America. One of his nephews named a son Oliver, probably to honor both the uncle's participation, and Cromwell, the leader of the Protestant partisans in England.

The Stoughtons of Butler County, Pennsylvania, have not as yet been traced back to a connection with the Stoughtons of England, nor to those who arrived in 1630 on the ship "Mary and John". Our Stoughtons first appear in the 1740s in Connecticut, then migrate to New York and New Jersey. The community in New York and New Jersey included Dutch families with whom the Stoughtons intermarried (William Stoughton married a Voorhees; John Stoughton married Catherine Covert). Furthermore, Catherine Covert's mother, Cornelia VanZandt, was the granddaughter of one Maria Waldron, and the Waldron line appears to trace back to English landholders in the early 1500's. (Significance unknown: there is a Waldron "castle" listed on the British website,CastleUK.net. It lies in Sussex, and is described as a medieval earth ringwork fortress founded by the de Walderne family. It lies in an area known as the Walderne Forest.) Our Waldron family apparently fled England in the late 1500's and took up residence in Holland for three generations, where they married Dutch women. It is possible that while there they lived within a community of expatriate Englishmen, who may have immigrated with their Dutch neighbors and families to America in the mid-sixteen hundreds, and maintained the Dutch-English community in New Amsterdam and New Jersey. The Stoughtons of New Jersey certainly lived among Dutch families. Finally, it is interesting to note 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 may be coincidental, or it may signify a long family tradition of English Protestantism.

As to what is known of our line, William Stoughton was born about 1742 in New York. His parents are unidentified, but were from Connecticut, per the research of Jeanne Eichelberger. William is reported to have been in the Revolutionary War, serving with troops fron New York until the close of the war. Per Eichelberger, "He served in Washington's Army in the battle of Monmouth and was with Lee's division when Lee ordered a retreat. He is said to have related afterward that the only time he ever saw Washington angry was when he came upon Lee's retreating division. He asked "What means this ill timed prudence?" They were turned back to the charge and victory finally was won."

William Stoughton moved to New Jersey where in about 1770 he married a Voorhees woman who was also originally from New York. It is possible that these two families knew each other in New York and migrated together to New Jersey, although that is speculation. William and his wife 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 famiy migrated westward, as he has not been found in the records in Pennsylvania. The second son, John Stoughton, married Catherine Covert in New Jersey. Catherine was of Dutch heritage, though her famiy had lived in America for two generations. Catherine's father, Lucas Covert, moved westward to Northumberland County, PA, after the Revolution, and in 1796 settle near Slippery Rock Creek in Butler County, PA. He was one of the first white settlers in the area. The Stougnton parents and children, excepting possibly the oldest son, followed his lead. They resided for a time in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania (then in Northumberland County, now in Union County). The Stoughtons continued west in 1802 to Butler County (six years after the arrival there of Lucas Covert), and by 1804 were in Middlesex Township. Members of the Voorhees family also migrated westward to Butler County. They were part of a migration of several of the old English and Dutch families of the northeast, moving westward in search of land for their growing families.

William was a farmer, and a shoemaker. He 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 no doubt his sons-in-law.
(This biography is based largely on the research of Jeanne Bortmes Eichelberger; 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 "History of the Stoughton Family", unpublished manuscript; and on Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John 1630, by The Mary & John Clearing House.) Written by Elizabeth Wilson Williams