Jr. John Willson^{[1, 2]}

1764 - 1847  (83 years)

• Name	John Willson
  Title	Jr.
  Born	16 Apr 1764	Petersham, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States   [2, 3, 4]
  Gender	Male
  Census	1790	Hinesburg, Chittenden, Vermont, United States   [5, 6]
  Census	1790	Oakham, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States   [7]
  Census	1800	Hinesburg, Chittenden, Vermont, United States   [5]
  Census	1810	Massena, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States   [5]
  Census	1820	Louisville, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States   [5]
  Census	1830	Louisville, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States   [8]
  Residence	Moved from Petersham to Vermont to Louisville, where he became one of the first settlers along the St. Lawrence; he located on Croil Island, where he was given lease of 60 acres of land   [4]
  _COLOR	3
  Died	16 Oct 1847	Louisville, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States   [2, 9, 10]
  Buried	[9]
  Notes	Historical Data for John Willson Jr. by Layne Dangerfield 1975: In Fre ch's Gazeteer of NY published in 1860 mentions that John Wilson or Wil lson was one of the first settlers of Louisville, St. Lawrence Co., NY. H e arrived from Vermont in 1801. I have cked several towns in Vermont i the 1800 census records to see if I can locate a John Willson of cour se there were several. I finally decided to follow another lead. The n ame of Elisha Barber occurs as one of the first settlers of Louisville i French's Gazeteer. Since that name is not so common, I located him i the 1800 census in Hinesburgh, Chittenden Co., Vermont. There is also a J ohn Willson and a John Willson, Jr. in the same town. As this county bo ders the NY State line of Northern N.Y. and as Elisha Barber also occu s int eh Louisville census in 1830 & 30 etc., I believe that this migh t be the John Willson I am looking for (my 4gg). Therefore, I searched t hrough the deeds in Chittenden Co., in Hindsburgh Vt. and found several t ansactions of a John Willson, Jr. John Wilson, Jr., 1764-1847 and Mary Wheeler, 1772- The manila envelope I received in March 1984 from Layne Dangerfiel d came as a very pleasant surprise. Inside it was information on the W ilsons reaching back over two hundred years! Perhaps I should have use d the word 'shocked' because when I first started working on our geneal ogy, I was not overly optimistic concerning my ability to trace the Wil son line back too far at all. How wrong I was! The search for our Wilson ancestors actually began in 1939 when Bi ll Hubbard , youngest son of Wellington David Wilson, joined the L.D.S. c hurch, hired a genealogist and began digging to find Wilsons. To say h e was successful would be something of an understatement. To this day, h is efforts are continued by his daughter, Layne Dangerfield. So where d o the Wilsons come from and how far back can we go? Quite a way it see ms. John Willson, Revolutionary War veteran from Massachusetts, is the e arliest Wilson ancestor unearthed so far. Despite our best efforts to g o beyond him, John Willson remains the earliest Wilson that we can defi itively claim as our own. The word 'definitive' is used most delibera tely in describing John Willson because there is circumstantial evidenc e identifying a father and grandfather before him. Whether the circums tantial case I present is strong enough, or persuasive enough, to convi ct them into our family tree I leave to you. At the very least they ar e the two most likely suspects in extending the Wilson line back anothe generation or two. John Willson was born 16 April 1764 in Petersham, Massachusetts. S ituated in the extreme western portion of Worcester county, Petersham h ad only a decade earlier been incorporated into a townshipthus ending t wenty years as a "plantation" named Nichewaug. The early history and o igins of Petersham are closely bound up with the men I believe to be t he grandfather and great uncle of our John Willson. In 1732 the Genera l Court of Massachusetts made a six square mile grant of land to 71 "pr oprietors" for services rendered during the "Indian wars" under the com mand of Captains John White and another named Lovell. Though few of these original proprietors ever settled in Nichewaug ( later Petersham), two that did were Joseph Wilson and Samuel Wilson. Th ey are also listed as two of the original fifteen signers of the settle ment's church covenant in 1738 when the community received a minister. P etersham town historian Delight Haines lists these two as brothers with a q uestion mark. Admittedly, there is no proof of this but in a settleme t this small and as the only Wilsons, it is logical to assume they wer e quite likely related as so much of the early pioneering experience wa s a communal one involving extended networks of family and friends. As l ocal tradition held that the Wilsons were from neighboring Lancaster co unty, a check of the early records for this county may yet reveal wheth er these two men were brothers. Occasionally referred to in the old records as Volunteertown or Vo luntown, Nichewaug's early settlers made an astute decision when they c hose to pay the neighboring Indians "all their rights and interests" fo this proprietary settlement. Thus, the infant community never suffer ed fromt he depredations and horror of an 18th century Indian attack. R ather remarkable considering the fears of such generated by the French w ars in 1744 and 1754 and their resulting tribulations for towns on the o utskirts of English settlement such as Petersham. Indeed, the greatest h ardship for these early pioneers seemed to be the great distance betwee themselves and more settled neighboring communities. Town records reveal that Samuel Wilson and his wife Mary had eleve children between 1735-1757. Joseph Wilson an his wife Rebakah Phelps a lso had eleven children during thissame approximate time period. (This w ould seem to lessen the possibility that Samuel and Joseph were father a d son.) Samuel's eldest son, John, was born 3 July 1735. It is this J ohn Wilson whom I believe to be the father of our John Willson (1764-18 47). I will present the case for this connection momentarily. Nothing else is definitely known about John Wilson, including the n ame of his wife, any other children or the exact date of his death. If t his John Wilson is indeed John Willson's father as I believe, about all t hat can be stated is that sometime after his son's birth in 1764, the f amily moved to the east across Worcester county to the town of Bolton. W ith no other information available we will skip ahead to 1774 in our st ory. In that year the Massachusetts Provincial Congress took several me asures to prepare for possible hostilities between herself and Britain. N amely, a Committee of Safety was established for each community, arms a d munitions were centrally collected for more rapid dispersal as neede d, and a new militia format created. All men aged 16-50 were enlisted i the militia, with all males between 50-70 on the "alarm" list as an e mergency backup force. At age 39, John Wilson was by law a militiaman r equired to meet on the "training field" four times yearly with the requ isite provisions: firelock musket, bayonet, 30 rounds ball and powder, p ouch and knapsack. Surely, ten year old John Willson, Jr. watched exci tedly and with great envy as his father made his way to quarterly milit ia meetings. Could he have guessed that only six years later he too wo uld be serving? In June 1780, John Willson, Jr. was selected as among the "one fro m every five men to serve in the militia for the term of six months." W ithin 72 hours he was marching for Butts Hill on Newport Island, Rhode I sland to join his regiment under the command of Colonel Howe. If young W illson began with any adolescent illusions regarding war, he probably l ost some of them with the march to Rhode Island. As it turned out, he m arched in just the opposite direction of the war's main fighting at tha t time. For most of us today, mention of the Revolutionary War conjures up p laces names such as Lexington and Concord, Boston and Bunker Hill; like wise a vague notion that the war was somehow largely contained to the N ew York-New England area. And while this is true for much of the war i the 1770's, by 1780 the most vigorous campaigning had actually moved s outh. In 1778, Great Britain shifted most of its troops to the South ( Virginia and the Carolinas) in an attempt to capitalize on the Loyalist s entiment allegedly so strong in the region and to allow for more rapid t ansport of troops and supplies from the British West Indies. In retrospect, we can see that John Willson's six months service i 1780 came at the low ebb of American fortunes during the war. Dishear tening defeats at Charleston (June) and Camden (August) were bad enough b ut Benedict Arnold's treason in September was even worse. Add to the m ix the Continental Congress' lack of financial support for troops, a fa ltering popular support and one can see that little in the way of good n ews would have reached John Willson in Rhode Island. Even George Wash ington admitted at the time, "I have almost ceased to hope." And what e xactly was John Willson, Jr. doing in Newport? In his own words, while s tationed at Butts Hill he was "principally employed in building fortifi cations, entrenchments, etc...." Manning a shovel was hardly the duty s ure to keep a new recruit's spirits high for long. Actually our ancestor had arrived smack in the middle of an ambiti ous proposal for a joint Franco-American military campaign. On May 1, 1 780 General Rochambeau had left France with 5500 men under the stewards hip of Admiral Charles Ternay in eight ships-of-the-line, two frigates a d two bomb galliots. They sailed into Newport earlier than expected o July 10th. In fact, General William Heath (Washington's representat ive to the French) was still in Roxbury, Massachusetts upon their arriv al. John Willson recalled year later that he was "stationed as a senti el upon the arrival of the French troops under General Rochambeauf." I deed, John probably watched with awe and delight as a rather colorful F ench army disembarked. The 1st Soissonais in white broadcloth and cri mson trim, the 85th Saintonga in green and white, the 13th Bourbonnais i black and white, and the Royal Deux-Ponts in blue coats with yellow t im made for an exotic spectacle of color and a wonderful diversion for m ilitia troops likely bored stiff with digging. Even without an official reception committee, the jubilation at th e French arrival was evident within the day. Rochambeau later wrote, "i 24 hours their spirits rose and last night all the streets, house and s teeples were illuminated in the midst of fireworks...." Even so, the f enchman's official report was more cautionary. "Send us more troops, ships and money. But do not depend upo these people, nor upon their means. They have neither money nor credit. Their means of resistance are only momentary an d called forth when they are attacked in their homes." Indeed, the entire plan for a joint Franco-American push against the Br itish inthe summer of 1780 was cut short when three days later, Admiral T homas Gaines arrived outside Newport with thirteen British ships-of-the -line behind him. Weeks, then months, slipped by as the American and F ench forces at Newport kept a wary eye on the stationery yet potential ly dangerous British fleet in the distance. Gradually, the realization d awned upon John Willson and the other Americans that Adm. Ternay had no i tention of challenging Gaines' fleet and that Gen. Washington was like wise indisposed to using the French troops on land without naval suprem acy for resupply. Lack of Congressional funding and the overall shift o f the war's main theater to the South combined to dash all hopes of a s ummer offensive in New England. Surprisingly enough despite the frustr ations of the situation for both sides, there were no major disruptive i cidents between the disappointed colonial troops and an equally bored F ench army. Consequently, John Willson's six month tour of duty came t o a rather desultory end in December 1780. One cannot help but imagine t hat this "veteran's" walk home in New England's winter weather was cons iderably less enjoyable than his original trip north as a recruit in Ju e. That John's wartime experience ended more with a whimper than a ba g is evidenced by the fact that military authorities did not even both er with formal discharge papers for anyone in his company of colonial m ilitia. According to the statements in his pension application filed in183 2, John Willson, Jr. did not long remain in Bolton upon his return. He " emoved to the town of Fitzwilliam" in New Hampshire with his father's f amily in "the winter of 1781." The exact reason for this move and subs equent others is not known but I will hazard a guess that the desire fo cheaper land is what led to John's ultimate destination in St. Lawren ce county, New York twenty years later. The Wilson family stayed in Fi tzwilliam for approximately seven years before moving to Putney, Vermon t around 1786-87. Described in a 1797 gazeteer as "a thriving town in W indham county" Putney was not long a home to the Wilsons. They resided t here only a few years as by time of the 1790 federal census, they were f arther north in the state at Hinesburgh. This move into Vermont is not at all unexpected as the population o f post-war Vermont exploded from 30,000 in 1781 to 85,000 a decade late and 154,000 by 1800. And where did these people come from? Overwhelm ingly from Massachusetts and Connecticut. Not only do the moves of our W ilson ancestors match the general settlement patterns for the state, th ey even reflected a more subtle move within the state. One historian n oted that "many Vermonters did not remain long in their original settle ments but rather emigrated north within the state." John Willson and h is father did exactly this with their move from Putney to Hinesburgh af ter only a few years in the former. We are actually fortunate in this m ove because we do have some good documentation on the Wilsons in this l atter community. According to the manuscript of Hinesburgh town clerk, Erastus Bost wick, "a John Willson from Massachusetts arrived in town" in 1789 and " leased land from Charles Russel." Town records further list a John Wil lson and John Willson, Jr as "qualified freemen" for voting purposes in 1 794. Both voted for representative to Congress in 1798 and 1800. Addit ionally, both appear as the head of separate households for the 1790 an d 1800 federal censuses in Hinesburgh. A genealogist who researched s ome of this information for Layne Dangerfield in the 1970's noted that " John Willson, Jr. was very active in the affairs of the town during the 1 790's" and that "he served in several capacities." I must freely admit the land dealings of which we have record for J ohn Willson are puzzling. Most particularly I refer to his purchase of 5 0 acres from Samuel Dorwin for 30lbs. On 9 June 1790 and his sale of th e same to Jonathan Weller for 21lbs. on the same day! I will not eve hazard a guess as to the purpose behind this apparently money losing v enture. At some point in 1789 John Willson married Mary Wheeler, herself b orn in Berkshire county, Massachusetts in December 1772. By the time J ohn and Mary left Hinesburgh they carried with them five children: Hira m, Lima, Luther , Peter and Cassius. During the Willsons long years i New York six more children were born between 1802-1811, Harriet, Luth er, John Wilder, Demarius, Emma and Fanny. In the Spring of 1801, Hinesburgh's John Willson, Lyman Bostwick, E lisha Barber and Griffin Place all crossed Lake Champlain into New York t o settle in St. Lawrence County along the Canadian border. At this poi t, however, I would like to pause long enough to clarify the reasons w hy I believe John Wilson (b. 1735) and John Willson (b. 1764) to be fat her-son respectively. First of all, John states clearly in his pension f ile that he traveled with his father's family to Fitzwilliam then on to P utney and Hinesburgh. Therefore, we should be finding another, and old er, Wilson where we also find John Willson. Second, the John Wilson bo in 1735 is old enough to be the father of John Willson born in 1764 i the same community. Third, when John Willson is of an age to have es tablished his own household after his 1789 marriage, we find him listed a s a separate head of household in both the 1790 and 1800 censuses for H inesburgh. In both cases we have John Willson Jr. listed to distinguis h between the John Willson also enumerated. If this were merely the s ame name though unrelated, no Jr. would have been appended to the one. L ikewise, we can safely assume the Jr. title was used to designate fathe from son. Additionally, we know that John Willson, born 1764, must b e the John Willson, Jr in this pair (rather than John Willson) as he wo uld not have been old enough to have a son of an age to form a separate h ousehold. Furthermore, it is worth noting that we definitely know tha t John Willson, Jr. left Hinesburgh for Louisville, New York in 1801. N either John Willson, Jr. nor John Willson appears in the records for Hi esburgh after this date. We can only assume that John Willson (b. 173 5) died at this approximate time because he disappears from Hinesburgh r ecords and does not appear in any in New York state. Finally, John Will son (b. 1764) dropped the Jr. at this point and no longer appears in an y records as anything but John Willson. This would coincide with eithe the death of his father or his father's having chosen to remain behin d in Hinesburgh. Ultimately, I believe this solves the dilemma of the t wo John Willsons, Jr. and Sr., who appear together in town records for P utney and Hinesburgh as well as the two censuses mentioned. Granted, m uch of this is circumstantial and even theoretical on my part but it do es seem to be the best explanation of our Wilson genealogy based upon t he available information. To return to our narrative, in 1801 John Willson and several other H inesburgh residents as mentioned earlier made the trek into upstate New Y ork. In retrospect they seem to be a portion of an advance guard of Ve monters that led the way in settling the region along the St. Lawrence R iver. In fact in the the 1820's, nearly 50% of the Vermont population e migrated to New York "clustering" around earlier Vermonter settlements s uch as that of Louisville and Massena in St. Lawrence county. And how d id this come to pass? Most important to our family's history was the 1 763 Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years War which left the upper St. L awrence nearest Lake Ontario behind an Indian Demarcation Line. The po wer of Britain's Indian ally, the Iroquois Confederation, still suffice d to keep most white settlers out of the region our ancestors would lat er settle. This illusory frontier line running down the crest of the A ppalachians, however, did little to halt the tide of American settlers a d land speculators just to the south. The British inability to stem t his human tide or pacify the natives beyond was merely one of the many g ievances American colonists pointed to as justification for their 1776 r ebellion. Ironically, victory in the Revolutionary War brought Americ a the same problems that previously vexed British administrators: how t o remove Indians from the Trans-Appalachian frontier, dispose of the la d and govern settlers. Later when New York officials purchased the land of the Mohawk Ind ians for $1600 in 1797, the last barrier to settlement of upstate New Y ork and the St. Lawrence Valley disappeared. As Western historian Ray A llen Billington has noted, land speculation in the St. Lawrence country w as on a spectacular scale. In 1792, Alexander Macomb purchased nearly 4 ,000,000 acres from the New York State Land Office at 16 cents per acre b eginning with the St. Lawrence Ten Towns Tract. Macomb then immediatel y set about selling portions to other speculator-developers including S amuel Ogden. In 1801, Ogden laid out the town of Ogdensburg and hacke d out a road leading southeast to Carthage and Utica beyond. Mr. Ogden 's advertising and the cheap wilderness land prices brought settlers su ch as our John Willson streaming out of Vermont in particular. Nearly h alf the Vermont population was lured into the region within the next tw o decades. In the Spring 1801 John Willson and family arrived in what would l ater become Louisville. Our ancestors probably followed the "winter roa d" from Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain to Malone and then on to the St. R egis River as hundreds of families yearly took this route to upstate Ne w York from upper New England. Settled in 1801 primarily by Hinesbugh r esidents, Louisville held its first town meeting in the home of John Wi llson. Published histories list Nahum Wilson (no relation) as the firs t arrival to Louisville in1800 and John Willson the second in 1801. Unfortunately, records from this time period and this region (Loui sville and Massena) are sparse. However, we do know that John Willson w as elected 'supervisor' in 1808 and again in 1810 for Massena. Addition ally, John Willson and family appear in the 1810 census in Massena. He a ppears again in the 1820-1830 censuses for Louisville. By 1840, he wou ld appear to be living in the household of his son John Wilder Wilson. H e was 76 at the time and a combination of old age and perhaps financial t oubles necessitated this move. A more interesting document from the t ime period is one involving legal action against John Willson. The Ind ex of Deeds for St. Lawrence County shows an 1825 writ whereby Sheriff C harles Raymond sold a 40 acre parcel of our John Willson's land as paym ent for a $202. 14 debt owed William Bacon and Robert Lyon. Unless Joh Willson was unlike so many in the area, he probably dabbled inland sp eculation. Successfully or not is a question we are unable to answer. By the time of this nation's second war with Britain in 1812 the W illson family had spent a decade along the river. This "second America Revolution" was certainly one of the chief excitements for them from t his era. The mundane chores of survival and raising six children undou btedly seemed more important to John Willson than the abstract principl es of high seas trade and impressment. Indeed, if our ancestors were l ike most of the farmers of northern New York, they had long been export ing grain and potash downstream to Montreal for sale. If John Willson w as like most settlers to this region the first thing he did upon arriva l at his new homesite was to clear trees for planting an initial crop. O ce the trees were downed then they were burned, remaining ash boiled a d "potash" was left. As the basic ingredient for most soaps and ferti lizers, potash was the first crop of the vast majority of settlers in t his region. And with Montreal just downstream along the shores of the S t. Lawrence, this quick cash crop was ready for resale even before the f irst corn crop could be harvested. As it turns out, a large segment of the population in that area, i f not the majority, not only opposed the war itself but had openly defi ed Thomas Jefferson's 1807 Embargo restricting such trade. Evidently t he trade in potash along the river continued relatively unabated by the p esident's edict. The reading I have done on the topic suggests that t he settlers of this region maintained good relations with their British s ubject neighbors across the river to the north despite the technical st ate of war between the two nations. I wonder how our Revolutionary War v eteran fits into this picture? What an irony if he had fought one war a gainst the British as a young man only to oppose one later as a middle- aged pioneer. Finally, I would like to discuss John Willson's application for pe sion based upon his Revolutionary War service. In 1832 the United Sta tes Congress passed legislation authorizing funds to pay for pensions t o those veterans who served in the American Revolution and their surviv ing un-remarried widows. On 24 September 1832 John Willson appeared in " open court before the Court of Common Pleas" to testify as to his warti me experiences. Based upon this testimony included in his application , John Willson was granted a pension certificate entitling him to $20 a ually. Unfortunately for him, his supporting evidence for his pensio claim was classified as "traditional" and in 1834 the government aske d him to return the pension certificate. The War Department required h im to get records from the Massachusetts Sec. of State to verify his cl aim. They said, "... regulations of the Department require the best e vidence available in every instance of which the case is susceptible." A t this time John was 70 years old and evidently in no mood to accept th is decision. His pension file contains copies of several letters writt en by prominent citizens of the region on the old man's behalf. The co espondence of Wm Ogden (Waddington, New York) and Henry Weed (Hinesbu gh, New Hampshire) was to no avail. An 1842 letter by R. H. Gillet of O gdensburgh, New York informed the Pension Department that "...the old m an is so infirm that I cannot understand much from him." By this time, h e was apparently residing inthe home of his son, John Wilder Wilson, un til his ultimate death in 1847 at the age of 83. It would appear that h e never succeeded in reversing the War Department's decision. So what are we to make of all this? Was John Willson truly a vete an of the war for independence or merely a scheming old codger attempt ing to obtain easy money from the federal government? Despite the diff iculty in setting aside personal bias, I will endeavor to objectively p esent the case for John Willson citing both its strengths and weakness es. We shall begin with the strengths of the case. First, in regard to the names and dates mentioned in his account, t hese do match the historical record. Willson claimed to be stationed a t Butts Hill in Newport, Rhode Island from June to December 1780. Butt s Hill is located there, General William Heath was in overall command a s he said in his testimony and the French general Rochambeau did arrive i this place just as Willson claimed. Secondly, let us consider the mo desty of his claims. If he was of a mind to lie and pass himself off a s a 1776 veteran, why didn't he go "whole hog" and create a more elabor ate, exciting story? He claimed he was drafted for the militia, not vo lunteered. He claims he saw no combat and further stated that most of h is service entailed little more than building entrenchments and fortifi cations. All of this smacks of the very real and mundane chores of a c ommon soldier. Third, he offers numerous specifics which also match the h istorical record. He named various officers from the ranks of Lieutena t to Captain to Colonel (Moore, Houghton, Howe) and these all do check o ut. Furthermore, he did not claim intimate knowledge of these men "oth erwise than as a soldier knows the different officers in the same encam pment." Fourth, the Daughters of the American Revolution has allowed m embership into their organization based upon his claim for service. Fi ally, the War Department did grant and paid on a pension for him. Ob viously, at some point the United States government was satisfied regar ding his claims. There are weaknesses in his claim too, however. Evidently, his na me does not appear on any lists of soldiers from Massachusetts. I have p ersonally contacted Bolton and they have no record of a John Willson ma tching the age and circumstances of ours as having served from the town . Secondly, he had no formal discharge papers or any official paperwor k with which to prove or bolster his claims later when they were contes ted by the authorities. (This, however, is not at all unusual. I have r ead numerous pension files for militia soldiers and in very few cases h ave I found anyone who was issued formal discharge papers.) Finally, he w as ultimately asked to return his pension certificate by the War Depart ment. So where does this leave us? I will offer one last, and very inte esting I believe, detail. At one point in his Declaration for pension i t states, "Deponent has some recollection of the death of one of the pr incipal french naval officers during the latter part of his term of ser vice but is not certain such was the fact." The French admiral Ternay , who delivered Rochambeau and his troops to America, died on 15 Decemb er 1780 in Newport, Rhode Island of what seemed at the time only a mino fever. Certainly, Ternay is not one of the major names of the Revolu tion and that John Willson would have recalled it, much less the man's d eath, all those years later... well, to this writer, that one innocuous s tatement has a very real ring of truth to it. With this we come to the end of our biography of John Willson, Jr. . He died on 16 October 1847 at the age of 83. In closing I offer som e various items and readings with reference to John and the Louisville/ Massena region of his lifetime. I feel these make for interesting read ing and hope you enjoy them. Sources Early Petersham history from the Petersham Historical Society; Petersha m, Mass. 01366. Town historian Delight Haines provided most informatio . 1790 federal census, Vermont, Chittenden Co., Hinesburgh, p. 142 1800 federal census, Vermont, Chittenden Co., Hinesburgh, p. 318 1810 federal census, New York, St. Lawrence Co., Massena, p. 340 1820 federal census, New York, St. Lawrence Co., Louisville 1830 federal census, New York, St. Lawrence Co., Louisville 1840 federal census, New York, St. Lawrence Co., Louisville History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, pp.200-201 Historical Collections, pp.596-98 History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, pp.333-39, 347-57 Index of Revolutionary War Pension Applicants, p.1284 French's Gazeteer, p.574, 579 Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, p.542 History of St. Lawrence County, pp.533 D.A.R. file on John Willson, #369219: "Enlisted in June 1780 and serve d 6 months as Private in Captain David Moore's Company, Colonels Howe's a d Hallett's MassachusettsReg" Revolutionary War Pension file on John Willson, #S11796 1828 land record for John Willson, Index of Deeds, St. Lawrence Co., Bo ok 9, p. 707 1823 land record for John Willson to Louis Hasbrouck, Index of Deeds, S t. Lawrence Co. December 1975 letter from Ora Marie Lambert to Layne Dangerfield detail ing various records concerning John Willson and John Willson, Jr. in Hi esburgh, Vt.
  Person ID	I1781	Megan's Big Tree
  Last Modified	31 Dec 1969

  
  

  Father	Sr. John Willson,   b. 3 Jul 1735, Petersham, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States ,   d. 12 Oct 1804, Hinesburg, Chittenden, Vermont, United States  (Age 69 years)
  Mother	Hannah Willson,   b. 16 Dec 1744, Bolton, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States ,   d. 2 Oct 1804, Hinesburg, Chittenden, Vermont, United States  (Age 59 years)
  Married	Bef 1764
  Relationship	Double First Cousins
  Family ID	F790	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Mary Wheeler,   b. Dec 1772, Williamstown, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States ,   d. Y
  Married	1789
  Children	1. Hiram Willson,   b. 12 Aug 1789, Putney, Windham, Vermont, United States ,   d. Bef 1843  (Age < 53 years)   2. Lima Willson,   b. 23 Mar 1791, Hinesburg, Chittenden, Vermont, United States ,   d. 27 Feb 1829  (Age 37 years)   3. Luther Willson,   b. 12 Aug 1793, Hinesburg, Chittenden, Vermont, United States ,   d. 27 Mar 1803, Louisville, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States  (Age 9 years)   4. Peter Willson,   b. 14 Jul 1795, Hinesburg, Chittenden, Vermont, United States ,   d. Y   5. Cassius Willson,   b. 29 Sep 1799, Hinesburg, Chittenden, Vermont, United States ,   d. Ohio   6. Harriet Willson,   b. 31 Aug 1802, Hinesburg, Chittenden, Vermont, United States ,   d. 16 Apr 1866, Burlington, Calhoun, Michigan, United States  (Age 63 years)   7. Luther Willson,   b. 19 Nov 1804, New York, United States ,   d. 9 Aug 1885, Tekonsha, Calhoun, Michigan, United States  (Age 80 years)   8. John Wilder Wilson,   b. 22 Feb 1807, Louisville, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States ,   d. 15 Jan 1893  (Age 85 years)   9. Demarius Willson,   b. 4 Jun 1809, Louisville, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States ,   d. Y   10. Emma Willson,   b. 10 Nov 1811, Louisville, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States ,   d. Y   11. Fanny Willson,   b. 10 Nov 1811, Louisville, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States ,   d. Y
  Last Modified	30 Aug 2021
  Family ID	F782	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 16 Apr 1764 - Petersham, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States Census - - 1790 - Hinesburg, Chittenden, Vermont, United States Census - - 1790 - Oakham, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States Census - - 1800 - Hinesburg, Chittenden, Vermont, United States Census - - 1810 - Massena, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States Census - - 1820 - Louisville, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States Census - - 1830 - Louisville, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States Died - 16 Oct 1847 - Louisville, Saint Lawrence, New York, United States  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Sources

  [S214] Family Group Sheets Compiled by David Alan Johnson . [S116] DAR Application of Mildred Willson Muirhead . [S679] Revolutionary War Pension Application for John Willson, Jr. . [S3652] A Standard History of Elkhart County, Indiana , online; 7 February 2020; 644-647 . [S393] Notes by David Johnson citing census records . [S2] 1790 Census . Shows John Willson (next to John Willson, Jr.) with 1 male over 16, 1 u der 16, and 6 females. John Willson, Jr., with 1 male over 16, 1 unde , and 2 females. Not sure of the identity of the 2nd female unless Li ma was actually born in 1790? [S2] 1790 Census . This John Willson listed with one male over 16, one under 16, and one f emale over 16, which would fit John's family. However, in the same lis t are a James Willson and a Robert, who, if relatives, are not known to b e connected with our John. [S393] Notes by David Johnson citing census records . Listed as "John Wilson". [S336] Letter to Mrs. Arlene McAvoy from Ken Stevens . [S3652] A Standard History of Elkhart County, Indiana , online; 7 February 2020; 644-647 . "About 1846"