I have
previously written about the Marshall line on my maternal grandfather, Angus
Grant’s side (for a refresher go to January 31, 2017 and May 13, 2016 blog
posts). Today I want to focus on my 7th great grandfather, Daniel
Robbins. Daniel connects to the Marshall line via his daughter, Mary Robbins (my
6th great grandmother). She married Isaac Marshall (my 6th
great grandfather) on May 6, 1772. They connect to the Grant line by their
descendant, Samantha Marshall (my 3rd great grandmother) who married
John Grant, the grandfather of my great grandfather, George Angus Grant. Okay,
now that that’s clear (I hope), back to the Robbins…
Once I found
documentation for Isaac Marshall, I was able to find evidence for his marriage
to Mary Robbins, which then led to finding a record for her birth. This
document gave us her date and place of birth: February 2, 1752 in Norton,
Massachusetts, as well as her parents’ names: Daniel and Mary Robbins.
From there I
looked for a marriage record for her parents. I found two documents. One document’s
heading reads, “Intentions of Marriages Entred” and contains the following
information, “Daniel Robins of Walpole and Mary Fisher of Dedham, Jan. 23d
1750/51”. The second, a transcribed record with the heading, “Walpole
Marriages” reads, “ROBBINS…Daniel and Mary Fisher, May 7, 1751”.
With this new information in hand to search with I was fortunate enough to find a photo
of Daniel and Mary’s shared gravestone on ancestry.ca:
 |
The photo was taken by M Shearer at Lakeview Cemetery,
Kennebec County, Maine on June 24, 2011.
|
It can be a little tricky to read so here is what it says on their gravestone:
DANIEL ROBBINS
1722 – 1803
Settled in Winthrop
Before 1778
Soldier in Rev. War
His Wife
MARY FISHER
1731 – 1804
The next
step was to search through applications for membership to the Sons of the
American Revolution. (A big shout out to my Aunt Sis for her help with this!)
I found a
few documents containing matching information about Daniel Robbins and Mary Fisher.
Here is a breakdown:
MARY FISHER
BIRTH
·
1731
(Sources: SAR Membership #s 6411, 45750)
·
August
29, 1731 (Sources: SAR Membership #s 28324, 60475)
DEATH
·
1805
(Source: SAR Membership # 45750)
·
February
25, 1805 (Sources: SAR Membership #s 6411, 28324, 60475)
DANIEL ROBBINS
BIRTH
·
1722
(Sources: SAR Membership #s 6411, 45750)
·
August
17, 1722 (Sources: SAR Membership #s 28324, 60475)
DEATH
·
1804
(Sources: SAR Membership #s 6411, 45750)
·
March
4, 1804 (Sources: SAR Membership #s 28324, 60475)
MARRIAGE of MARY AND DANIEL
·
May
1, 1751 (Sources: SAR Membership #s 28324, 60475)
·
1751
(Sources: SAR Membership #s 6411, 45750)
From these
different applications, we are able to confirm that these are the same people
on each application, and from that I was able to find out more information for
Mary and Daniels’s ancestors and descendants! However, there are some
discrepancies between the SAR member applications and information from other
sources. Let’s have a look…
The first
discrepancy is in regards to their date of marriage. Since the first record’s
heading is “Intention of Marriage” and is from shortly before their actual date
of marriage, I don’t see this as a discrepancy. The second record regarding
their marriage (May 7, 1751) and the date given on the Sons of the American
Revolution Membership Applications (May 1, 1751) are so close that I am not
concerned that they are different. It seems likely that there was an error when
transcribing the information. Even with the differences, we at least can be
confident that Daniel and Mary were married in May of 1751.
Taking a closer look
at the Sons of the American Revolution, we find some important military
information regarding Daniel Robbins. According to these applications he was a
private in the Militia of Massachusetts “in active service in the defence of
Lincoln County” under Major William Lithgow in Captain Timothy Foster’s
Company. His detachment served between September 1, 1779 and November 4, 1779,
“27 days defending frontiers of Lincoln County”.
Four
applications give us the name of a son of Daniel and Mary’s (which means he is
my 7th great uncle). His name is Asa Robbins. He was born in 1759
and died in 1840. His wife’s name was Olive Clark (1762-1827) and they married
in 1788 (one says 1888 which I am confident is a clerical error given their
dates of death).
Three of the
applications provide us with the names of Daniel Robbins’ parents: William
Robbins, born 1650, “Soldier in King Phillips War of 1675”, died August 18,
1725 at Reading, Massachusetts; and Priscilla Gowing, died March 5, 1745. They
married in January 1680.
Armed with
all of these fantastic new leads, I can’t wait to do some more research!
Until next
time, happy hunting, fellow gene geeks!
SOURCES:
·
History
of the County of Annapolis: including Old Port Royal and Acadia, William Arthur
Calnek, 1897 (https://archive.org/details/cihm_00386)
·
MA,
Compiled Marriages, 1633-1850 (americanancestors.org)
·
MA,
Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 (americanancestors.org)
·
MA,
Vital Records, 1620-1850: Norton Births, Vol: Norton-V1, p.122
(americanancestors.org)
·
MA,
Vital Records, 1620-1850: Walpole Marriages, p.168 (americanancestors.org)
·
New
England Marriages to 1700, Vol.2, p.1281 (americanancestors.org)
·
U.S.,
Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current (ancestry.ca)
·
U.S.
Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970
(ancestry.ca)
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