Clarke Archives - Ahnentafel

Category: Clarke

J Is for…Justice of the Peace

Posted on September 7, 2025August 23, 2025 by spuddled

Today we are examining one of the more familiar occupational titles, that of Justice of the Peace. I tend to think of this title in terms of 19th century weddings (surely you remember that episode of Little House on the Prairie where Nellie Oleson was married and un-married all in the same night), but as we shall see, Justices of the Peace have a much longer history than that.

I was able to locate a number of relatives in our family tree who held this position. We’ll take a look at four of them. Andrew J. Slatten, my third cousin four times removed, was born sometime between 1831-1833 in Illinois. He was the son of John and Nancy (Adams) Slatten and a descendant of our Sweeney line. In 1850 he was 17 years old and living with his parents and six younger siblings (Rebecca, Statirah, Margaret, Xantippe, Zarilda, and Benjamin) in Clinton, Illinois. Andrew was then a college student, and his father was a merchant. On 4 November 1858 Andrew married Clarinda S. Bassett in Warren County, Iowa. By 1860 Andrew and Clarinda had moved to Des Moines. He was then 38 years old, and Clarinda was 16. The census lists Andrew’s occupation as Attorney at Law. Clarinda and Andrew had two children: Douglas A., born between 1860-1861; and Shastebutte, born between 1862-1863. On 4 May 1861 Andrew enlisted in the 2nd Iowa Regiment. Less than a year later he was wounded in the right leg and left temple at Fort Donelson, and he died of his wounds on 18 April 1862 in St. Louis. Centennial History of Polk County, Iowa, by J. M. Dixon, has an account of his military service and death, and it is here that we learn that Andrew was “at one time Justice of the Peace in Lee Township.”¹ We also learn that he was an “eccentric young lawyer,” for what that’s worth.

Amos Bee, my first cousin 5 times removed, was older than Andrew Slatten but outlived him by more than 40 years. Born 28 February 1828 in Harrison County in what would become West Virginia, he was part of our Seventh Day Baptist contingent of relatives, and his mother was one of the long line of SDB Davises. In 1850 he was still living at home with his parents Ephraim and Catharine and numerous siblings. He was then working as a tanner. On 20 March 1856 in West Union, (West) Virginia, Amos married Melissa Welch. Between 1860 and 1880 Amos and Melissa were enumerated in West Union along with their growing family. Amos was listed in 1860 and 1870 as a farmer, and in 1880 as a tanner once again. Their children were Genevra, Amos Alonzo, Anna B., James A., Clara Virginia, Ephraim E., Kate, and Mary. In 1900, still in West Union but now living with just his wife and daughters Clara and Mary, Amos’s occupation was listed as Justice of the Peace. Amos would die four years later and is buried in West Union’s Blockhouse Cemetery. He shares a headstone with his wife and sons James and Ephraim that I photographed there in 2010.

Robert C. Childers, second cousin five times removed, was also a Sweeney descendant. He was born 21 November 1815 in Grant County, Kentucky and was the son of Thomas Goolsberry and Mary Elizabeth (Thomas) Childers. By 1836 he had moved to Falls County, Texas, and in 1840 in Milam County, Texas, he married Sarah Adeline Moore. In 1850 Robert and “Adaline” were enumerated in Milam County, and Robert is listed as a hotel keeper, but according to Moses Sweeney Descendants, by J. Harvey Sweeney, Jr., in August 1850 Robert was Justice of the Peace in Bell County.² From 1860 to 1880, the family is in Bell County, Texas, and Robert is engaged in farming. According to the obituary of Robert and Adeline’s son Joe, Robert’s farm was the first to operate in Bell County.³ Robert died on 20 June 1895 in Temple, Texas, and is buried in Temple’s Hillcrest Cemetery. The Childers family has one of the more amazing gravestones I’ve seen (though I’ve only seen this one virtually).

*Find a Grave*, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16024935/robert-childers: accessed August 23, 2025), memorial page for Robert “Bob” Childers (21 Nov 1815–20 Jun 1895), Find a Grave Memorial ID 16024935, citing Hillcrest Cemetery, Temple, Bell County, Texas, USA; Maintained by Imagraver (contributor 47349450).

For our final Justice of the Peace, we have to jump back in time by a couple of centuries. Joseph Clarke, my 11th-great-grandfather, was born 9 December 1618 in Westhorpe, Suffolk, England, which Mom and I visited in 2014. By 21 February 1639, he had immigrated to America, as on that date he was admitted as an inhabitant of Portsmouth, Rhode Island.⁴ He became a member of the First Baptist Church in Newport in 1644, married a woman named Margaret,⁵ and then on 22 March 1661 was one of the group of individuals who purchased Westerly, Rhode Island.⁶ In 1667 he is listed as being a Justice of the Peace.⁷ From 1668-1672 he was a deputy in Westerly, and then in February 1680 he moved to Newport. He died there on 1 June 1694.⁸

I still think my favorite Justice of the Peace story, however, is one told by Grandma Hoffmann. She relayed to me the story of a Justice of the Peace in Peoria, Illinois. Every time she would cross the bridge into Peoria, she would see the sign for his office: “Herman J. Bridegroom, Justice of the Peace.” For years Grandma had seen his sign and thought how neat it would be to be married by someone named Bridegroom. As Grandma said next, “And I was!” She believed many people must have felt the same way she did, as next to his office was a neat little parlor, fixed up with carpet and soft lighting. Herman J. Bridegroom’s fitting name even landed him in a humorous cartoon, as well as articles about his own wedding in 1947. Though apparently he wasn’t sold on the idea of a wedding by a Justice of the Peace himself. Was he thinking ahead about Little House on the Prairie?

The Orangeville [Illinois] Courier, 8 August 1941, p. 8

Ancestry.com. Centennial history of Polk County, Iowa [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.Original data: Dixon, J. M.. Centennial history of Polk County, Iowa. Des Moines: State Register, print., 1876. ↩︎
J. Harvey Sweeney, Jr. Moses Sweeney Descendants. n.p: 2006, n.d. ↩︎
The Waco [Texas] News-Tribune, 8 October 1940, pg. 1 ↩︎
Cyrus Clarke Van Deventer, Henry Clarke–Catherine Pendleton: Ancestry & Descendants (n.p: 1902, n.d). ↩︎
Earl P. Crandall, Crandall Web Pages. ↩︎
Cyrus Clarke Van Deventer, Henry Clarke–Catherine Pendleton: Ancestry & Descendants (n.p: 1902, n.d). ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎

The Double Event: John and Joseph Clarke

Posted on February 11, 2024June 29, 2025 by spuddled

For any true crime buffs out there, I’m sorry, this post has nothing to do with the “Double Event” of Jack the Ripper. Long before the Whitechapel murders, John Clarke, my 13th great-grandfather, was born, probably in 1542 in Suffolk, England. I don’t know the date of his birth, but he was christened 482 years ago today. He was the son of another John Clarke (born in Westhorpe, Suffolk in about 1503) and his wife Margaret (born in Finningham, Suffolk). He was one of at least 6 children born to John and Margaret. On 12 October 1567 in Westhorpe he married Katherine Cooke who, interestingly, was christened 483 years ago tomorrow.

It is possible that John was christened in St. Margaret’s Church, Westhorpe, which may date back to the 11th century, and certainly to the 14th. If so, I walked in the elder John and Margaret’s footsteps when I visited Westhorpe, Finningham, and Saxstead (another Suffolk family village) in 2014. I wrote a bit about this trip in an earlier blog post. St. Bartholomew’s Church in Finningham was not built until 1560, so John could not have been christened there, though both he and Katherine died in Finningham in 1598, 8 days apart. Interestingly, John died 344 years to the day before my dad was born, and 376 years to the day before I was.

John and Katherine had at least 7 children. Their second, Thomas, was born in Westhorpe and married Rose Kerrich in Saxstead. Thomas and Rose had at least 12 children; the third of these was Joseph Clarke, though not one of our 11 February Clarkes. He was, however, the first of this Clarke line to emigrate to America. He was born in Westhorpe in 1618 but was “admitted as an inhabitant of Portsmouth, Rhode Island” in 1639. In about 1658 in Westerly, Rhode Island, he married a woman named Margaret, and they had ten children.

Their eldest child, my 10th great-grandfather, was named Joseph, and he was born on 11 February 1642 in Newport, Rhode Island, exactly 100 years after his great-grandfather was christened. Of course, some sources differ and give his birth date as 11 February 1643, which kind of ruins the fun of the centennial celebration. In 1664 Joseph married Bethiah Hubbard; their eldest child, Judith, married John Maxson. In turn their daughter Elizabeth married John Davis, which is where our Davis line comes in.

It’s interesting to hear the echoes of all these repeating dates. They continue in our more recent family history as well since, as noted above, I was born in my dad’s 32nd birthday, and then my nephew was born the day after I turned 37. I may not be sure about the 100 years separating John’s christening and Joseph’s birth, but there is another 100-year coincidence on the Hoffmann side of the family. That one is kind of sad, though, so for now I’ll focus on the christening and birth double event. And maybe go find some celebratory cake.

Longevity: the Kerrich Family

Posted on January 20, 2018July 17, 2022 by agnette

This week’s #52Ancestors prompt is “Longevity.” I’ve already written about Sophie (Roberg) Wilson, the only great-grandparent still alive when I was born, who lived to the age of 97. So instead, I’ll write about the branch of our tree that has been traced back the farthest: the Kerrich family.

If it weren’t for the original investigations of second cousin David Johnson, I might never have heard of the Kerriches, but he passed along a treasure trove of information that helped me get started on my research in earnest. Part of this treasure trove included many families that originated in Suffolk, along the east coast of England, then eventually moved to the New World and became associated with the Seventh Day Baptist Church. The Kerriches were one of these families.

William Kerrich, my 17G-grandfather, was born in Saxtead, England, in 1418. His son, also named William, was born in Saxtead around 1450, and his son, a third William, was born about 1480, again in Saxtead. Still in Saxtead, this William’s son, Robert, was born about 1505 and died in 1578 in Bedfield, Suffolk. Robert’s son (another William) was born about 1540, in Saxtead once more. Here we finally know the name of a Kerrich wife: Robert’s wife was named Margery.

William and Margery had a daughter, Rose, my 12G-grandmother. This is where the Kerrich name itself ends in my line. Rose’s husband, though, was Thomas Clarke, born in 1570 in another Suffolk village, Westhorpe. Most of Rose and Thomas’s numerous children emigrated to America. Joseph Clarke, our direct ancestor, was born in Westhorpe in 1618. Joseph’s brother, John, was was part of the group responsible for the founding of Rhode Island and, later, with a group of dissenting leaders, the town of Newport; by 1639, Joseph had been admitted as an inhabitant of Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Joseph was the only one of the Clarke brothers emigrating to America to leave children. His son Joseph, born in Westerly, Rhode Island in 1643, married Bethiah Hubbard, whose parents, Samuel and Tacy (Cooper) Hubbard, hailed from another Suffolk village, Mendlesham. Joseph and Bethiah’s daughter Judith was born in Newport in 1667, marrying John Maxson when she was twenty. Their daughter Elizabeth, born in Westerly in 1695, my 8G-grandmother, married John Davis in 1715. Here we finally link to a more familiar surname. John and Elizabeth’s 4G-granddaughter, Lucinda Blanche Davis, was the mother of Carl Ozro Wilson, who, in 1907, married Sophie Roberg, whom I would one day meet in her nursing home in Winner, South Dakota.

A few years ago Mom and I went on a pilgrimage of sorts to Suffolk, managing, in spite of the relative remoteness of some of the villages as well as a bus that forgot to drop us off in the correct place, to visit churches in Saxtead, Westhorpe, Mendlesham, and also Finningham, an early residence of the Clarkes. It was a little unreal to visit the churches where our direct ancestors lived so many centuries ago and where, it seems likely, they still rest in peace.