Seventh Day Baptist Clarke/Clark Family

 In 2018 I discovered that the father of Dr Adam Clark (1790-1860) was Rev Adam Clark (1764-1837), a Seventh Day Baptist minister in Albany County, New York who was born in Rhode Island.  He was the Great Great Grandson of Rev Joseph Clarke (1618-1694), born in Suffolk, England who arrived in Massachusetts in 1637 and settled in Rhode Island with his wife Margaret Turner who was born there.

This small religious group lived close to each other and moved from Newport to Hopkinton and Westerly, often intermarrying.  By the late 1700s some of them moved further west to New York and eventually some of them settled in Wisconsin.  Some other SDB family names:  Babcock, Burdick, Hiscox, Hubbard, Maxson, Pendleton.

Our line:

Rev Joseph Clarke b Eng  1618-1694        Margaret Turner  b RI  1621-1694

                                                       their son

Rev Joseph Clarke Jr b RI  1642-1726       Bethia Hubbard  b Mass  1646- 1707

                                                        their son

Rev Thomas Clarke b RI    1686-1767        Elisabeth Babcock b RI   1691-1728

                                                        their son

Joseph Clarke  b  RI  1728-1795                  Deborah Pendleton b RI  1737-1793

                                                        their son

Rev Adam Clark b RI 1764-1837                Olive Burdick  b RI  1770-1838

                                                        their son

Dr Adam Clark  b NY  1790-1860               Harriet Watson b  NY  1800-1865

                                                        their son

George Watson Clark b NY 1821-1877         Julia Comfort  b NY 1826-1910

                                                        their daughter

William Hill b NY  1847-1910                      Eliza Clark b  NY  1849-1924

                                                        their daughters

Elsworth McDole b  NY  1866-19109            Julia Hill b  NY  1877-1947

Junius Craddock b VA  1889-1976                 Gertrude Hill b NY  1887-1967

FAMILY FOCUS: John I Hill 1801-1884

John was a lumberman in Wawarsing, Ulster County, New York, born to unknown parents possibly in Shawangunk.  About 1830 John married Esther Furman (1808-1902), daughter of Joseph Furman and Polly Sheeley.  My challenge this year is to identify John’s parents and siblings.

Interestingly one of Esther’s sisters, Catherine (1816-1880) married Isaac Dubois Hill (1812-1888).  I’ve been wondering if Isaac (who often seems to have gone by his middle name) and John might have been brothers or cousins.  Isaac reported that he was born in Orange County and John reported Ulster. They were born 11 years apart and the 2 counties are adjacent. Some unsourced online records show John as the son of John W and Charlotte Mullaney Hill; I have not been able to confirm this.

Assuming that John was in fact born in Shawangunk, I checked the 1810 census and found two families with boys under 10, headed by Isaac and Sturgis Hill.  But that trail goes cold in 1820 when neither Isaac nor Sturgis show up as head of household in Ulster County. Might they have moved to Orange County? There was a family headed by Isaac but it’s almost impossible to know if it is the same household.

John and Esther had 8 known children – perhaps one of their descendants knows something of John’s birth family and will stumble upon this post. That would be my lucky day !! The children and spouses are listed here.

1833   JOHN  + Phebe

1835   JOSEPH + Mary (moved to VA)

1837   LUCINDA (unmarried)

1840   JANE + James Cutler

1843   ALMIRA + August Stangle (Brooklyn)

1844   EMILY + Francis Sheeley

1847   WILLIAM + Eliza (moved to VA)

1850   MARY A + Lorenzo Low (moved to CT)

I don’t know where else to look. I’ll search out church records for Shawangunk and see if they show up. If you have another suggestion, please drop me a note 

Who was Alice Hill's Mother ?

While working on the Comfort Family of Catskill, NY I was tracing Hiram and Julia’s daughter Hellen, born in 1828.  She appeared as married in the 1860 census with husband Henry Hill and a daughter, Alice, aged 9. I had confirmation that Henry and Hellen had married in 1859 which made it seem obvious that Alice was not Hellen's daughter.  But who was Alice's mother?  Both Henry and Hellen had appeared in the 1850 census as single living with their parents. Had Henry married soon after and had his 1st wife died before 1859? 

I could find no evidence.

Although it is not available online, I was able to purchase a copy of the 1855 State Census for Greene County NY. There I found Hellen living with her mother, listed as single, and assumed I would find Henry as head of household with Alice and her mother. I did not. So I looked for his parents. His mother, now widowed, was listed as head with Henry and two of his sisters ... no Alice, no wife.

Bryan Craghill: A Liverpool Butler

The family always knew that many of their ancestors were " in service" and even knew that Bryan was a butler. They knew he had married Fanny Krebs and that their daughter Rosina was born in 1842.  That was about all they knew. 


The only census where Bryan was found was 1851 stating that he was born in Yorkshire about 1813 and was a servant in Liverpool. In attempting to build a story, a family history, it is tough when you have such limited information. But, with some curiosity and a little investigation, a tale can emerge.