October, 2002 Colliers of Massachusetts Research Update October 17, 2002 INDEX: 1) General Progress Notes 2) The Numbers 3) New Contributors and Areas of Progress 4) Recent Research Trips 5) Thomas (1) Collier from Plymouth, England ? 6) A Few More Items to Check 1) General Progress Notes I am somewhat tardy with this research update – my apologies to all. The day job really hasn’t been all that hectic, but I do find it difficult to focus on the genealogy during the warm months, when there is so much else to do. (Playing with my granddaughter comes to mind.) We have just had our first frost of the season, so I think that the library and writing season is nearly upon us. I am starting to edit the biographical notes in the genealogy. On some individuals, we have nothing beyond a name, but for others there is a lot of material. When that is the case, I will have to summarize or rewrite with the aim of making the material at least somewhat interesting to read. The mere listing of names and dates is extremely boring, so I am glad that in many cases we have at least some biographical material. Some of the main early figures (Thomas (1, 2), Moses (2), Gershom (3), Rev. Nicholas Loring, etc.) will perhaps have 2 pages of material, and I will also devote adequate space to those I consider to be particularly interesting or important (Harrison Gray Otis, husband of a "Collier," etc.). I also need to put my sources and bibliography into standard form. I am trying to establish a cut-off point to the genealogy. It is clear that if I try to track down every "lost" name or line of names, and to visit every village, library and cemetery that might possibly reveal some information, I will never actually finish. So, I will try not to pursue new lines too vigorously. If I am contacted by someone with 500 previously unknown individuals, I will of course add them to the work, but I am trying to stop exploring every corner. In addition to very productive correspondence with some newly found members of the family (summarized below) I have spent some time in recent months rechecking the Vital Records and other material on the South Shore towns. I have been able to carry forward several family lines simply by doing this. I am satisfied that I have located most of the Collier connections in Hull and Cohasset that are to found in the books. Looking through the larger Hingham and Scituate records will be more time-consuming, and I will not promise when I will start on that task. I have also looked again through some of the published genealogies on various sections of the family, particularly Binney and Copeland, and have again picked up a few more generations. For those receiving this update directly by email, I had anticipated having drafts of the various family sections of the genealogy ready to attach, but I am not at that stage for all of you. Perhaps within a month ?? I did send a draft on the Pratts/Colliers of Cohasset to Joel Pratt, and he has sent me quite a number of additions and corrections. My sincere thanks to Joel for his efforts on this and past matters. The work he returned to me indicates that I do need to ask you for review (as I thought I had been pretty thorough in preparing his draft section), and that I may get back more information than I bargain for. 2) The Numbers Currently the Collier descendants and spouses number about 7, 880. The family groups (husband, wife, children) total 1,500. The number of Thomas and Susannah Collier descendants traced is thus approximately 6, 400. The percentage of the total for Mass./Maine groups remains about 95 %, and the New Jersey lines only about 5 %. In terms of the book to come, a draft genealogy report -- names and dates only, no notes – now comes to 289 pages. When the introduction, biographies and so forth are included -- no matter how severely I try to edit the material – I don’t see how the complete work can be less than 600 - 700 pages. Two volumes will be needed. Publication on CD is the easy solution, and will be an option, but it really wouldn’t be the same. As I indicated above, I am trying to stop adding large numbers of "new " individuals to the work, but there will undoubtedly be some additions. Some living individuals do not want to participate in the project, or be included in the book, but I don’t think this will reduce the numbers greatly. 3) New Contributors and Areas of Progress Since April, when I sent out the last general update letter, I have been corresponding with several "new" Collier family members, many of whom have generously contributed information on their branches of the family: Lee Taylor, Brenda Beehler, and Gary, Ed and Ethel Bates have provided several generations on the descendants of Rebecca (6) Collier and James Bates, Jr. This couple married in Chesterfield in 1792, and later moved to Lafayette, Onondaga County, then Ellington, Chautauqua County, New York. Betsey Heath Howes has added a little information on some of the "Collyers" of Basking Ridge. I also have corresponded with Vikki Ireland concerning the New Jersey lines, trying to establish a connection between Thomas "Colyer," a soldier from Somerset County in the Revolution, and a Lt. Thomas Colyer of the New Jersey Continentals, who in 1835 was collecting a war pension in Butler County, southwestern Ohio. I suspect these individuals were one and the same, but there are big gaps in the records to fill in proving it. Joy Kielbasa of upstate New York has shared her very carefully researched work on the descendants of Susannah Loring - Melzar Turner of Cumberland County, Maine (later Monroe County, NY and west). This family is little touched on in either the Loring Genealogy or Old Times in North Yarmouth, but Joy has thoroughly covered the family down to the present. Also from the Loring side of the family, Pat Haddock of California has added some information on Lorings who moved West, particularly Edward Payson Loring and his son, William J. William was a distinguished mining engineer, at one time President of the American Mining Congress, and a friend and business associate of the future President Hoover. More details on William need to be taken from Who’s Who of the period. Ibrook Tower of the "Colliers of Cohasset" line has contributed some material on Capt. James Collier, Jr. and his many voyages, as well as some of the more recent generations of that line. His material nicely supplements the work of his grandfather, Gilbert S. Tower. William Voss, who posts a major work on "American Silversmiths" on the Internet, has given me permission to use photos of two Collier-related items I noticed on his site. These are silver cups, now in the possession of Yale University, donated to the Church of Hull by family member Thomas (3) Collier, who died in 1719, and by Matthew Loring, who was married to two Collier women (Experience (4) Collier and Jane (4) Baker Loring). Matthew died in 1723. Not a major breakthrough, but interesting. Finally, with the help of Mike Collier ("Gershom of Northport, ME" line), I have been able to add some new information on my own line of Ohio Colliers, particularly my great-grandfather Christopher and his brother, Hamilton, both of whom served with the Union in the Civil War. Some of this family remains "missing" -- lost somewhere in Michigan or environs, I think. 4) Recent Research Trips Although it sometimes seems that I spend all my spare time hunched over my computer keyboard, I have gotten out of the house from time to time and gone on the genealogy trail. On an April visit with my son and his fiancé in Indiana, I was pleasantly surprised to find their local library had an excellent genealogy section, covering the Midwest, of course, but also with a good deal on New England and the East. In an interesting right and left, I found some material on my great-grandfather Christopher, who served briefly in an Indiana regiment, and a 1771 census of Hull in the same room. In May, Mike Collier paid us a lengthy visit. He and I spent a productive day at the NEHGS, did a brief tour of downtown Boston, and on another day visited Walden Pond and Concord. Mike was able to do a lot of work on his Acadian ancestors while here, as well as giving me some much appreciated help on the Collier work. Alice and Ware Williams invited us to visit them in Hingham, and I was happy that my family could join us that day. Alice was gracious enough to give Mike and I a guided tour of the old family areas of Hingham and Cohasset, while my granddaughter, Madison, made her first visit to Nantasket Beach, Hull, at the age of 18 months. I was 59 before I got there for the first time ! In early July I made a day trip out to Chesterfield -- my fourth trip there. I stopped first in Williamsburg, site of the disastrous Mill River Flood of May 16, 1874, where 2 of our family and 143 others were killed following the failure of a shoddily built dam. This was 15 years before the first Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood. On over the hills in Chesterfield I was able to locate and photograph several of the family gravestones in the Center Cemetery, including that of Thomas (4), patriarch of the families which moved there from Boston and the South Shore. September arrived, and off I went to Ohio for a few days of home repair at my mother’s. What could be more natural than to go by way of Lafayette, New York (where Orange and Anna King , and James Bates, Jr. and Rebecca "removed" from Chesterfield); and Ellington, Chautauqua County, where the Bates family next moved ? And, of course, on the return trip I just happened to go through Basking Ridge, New Jersey, where many of the descendants of Moses (2) Collier lived ca. 1740 - 1900. I can report that the area is lovely, and there is indeed a Collyer Lane there, but I did not find any breakthrough documents. On the last leg home, Ed and Merrill Spaeth welcomed me and gave me a tour of the Mid-Hudson Valley. (Merrill is of the John House, Jr./Jane Collier line of Chesterfield -- Ed is the genealogist of the family.) And so home. In late September I made a first visit to the local branch of the National Archives, in Waltham. I was able to find some useful census records, and will no doubt return there soon. On some of the "lost" lines census records are almost our only hope for finding those individuals again, unless we are fortunate enough to make contact with current family members. Finally, I recently made another trip to the Worcester Public Library, and added a first trip to the American Antiquarian Society, also in Worcester. The former has the Hull Town Records on microfiche, although picking out the Collier items from the records will not be an easy task. The AAS, as they call themselves, doesn’t have the massive amount of material to be found at the NEHGS, but it has some items I haven’t found in Boston. 5) Thomas (1) Collier from Plymouth, England ? Ibrook Tower recently sent me an obituary of Captain James Collier, Jr., his great-grandfather. It was written by the Captain’s son, George W. Collier, within a few days of his father’s death. It gives a brief review of the Captain’s remarkable career, but from the genealogical point of view is most valuable for the statement that the Collier family originated in Plymouth, England. There are statements on various Internet sites that Thomas (1) was born in Prestwich, Lancashire, but I have seen no reliable source for that view. Thomas was definitely not from Hingham, England, where many of the Hingham, Mass. settlers originated. The relevant portion of the obituary of Captain Collier: "CAPTAIN JAMES COLLIER Of Cohasset, who died at his home on Wednesday at the ripe age of 77 years and 5 months, was a notable example of the Yankee shipmasters who have made our merchant service famous. He was descended from the Colliers of Plymouth, Eng., who are still a well-known family in that city, one of whom was a projector of the scheme which fitted out the Mayflower in 1620 and who later came over and settled in Scituate…." (Of course, Thomas the immigrant actually first settled in Hingham, but the "Colliers of Cohasset" line was founded by William Collier - Judith Briggs, who married in Scituate in March, 1748-49.) We need to look for confirmation of a Plymouth origin for Thomas (1), but this statement from 111 years ago has more credibility than anything I have seen until now. 6) A Few More Items to Check Although I have begun the final (??) revision, as time permits, I still need to check the following documents: Hull Town Records -- Very difficult to read on microfiche, but has already yielded some new information on our ancestors in 17th and 18th Century Hull. Binney Genealogy for Collier/Binney descendants from 18th Century Hull. AAS and NEHGS have this work. I missed some connections when I first saw the book. Charles Binney manuscript, 18th Century Hull, etc. -- not well thought of by NEHGS librarians, but there should be some new information on Collier/Binney in early Hull. Binney "is full of errors," and gives few sources that can be checked, but we need to look at the manuscript. Boston Taxpayers, 1821 -- CD from the NEHGS which might yield something about Collier-related names in early 19th Century Boston. "Captain John King" genealogy, 1993, for children and later descendants of Orange King-Anna Collier. Census records on Colliers and related families - various times and locations. Wade Collier Trumbull County, Ohio and Lunenburg, Massachusetts "Colliers of Massachusetts" Project http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/o/l/Wade-Collier-MA/ wade_collier@hotmail.com