Archive:NEHGR, Volume 168
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Frederick C. Hart, Jr., "Early Austins of Greenwich and Stamford, Connecticut" NEHGR 168 (April 2014) 85-100.
[p. 88]
Children of JohnG1 and Catherine (-----) Austin, place of birth unknown and order uncertain:
iii. ELIZABETH AUSTIN, b. say 1650; d. perhaps 1693;[19] m. Stamford 23 Nov. 1670, JOSEPH FINCH,[20] son of John 1 and Martha (-----) Finch,[21] d. Greenwich before 1 April 1714 whebn his inventory was taken.[22] The following heirs of Joseph Finch Sr. of Greenwich made and agreement on 9 April 1714: Joseph Finch eldest son, additional sos Samuel, Jonathan, and Benjamin Finch, son-in-law Joseph Reynolds, daughters Elizabeth Whitney and Sarah Finch and son-in-law Jonathan Mead.[23] Joseph Finch [Sr.] m.(2) before 1712.3 RUTH (HARDY) MEAD, daughter of Richard Hardy, and widow of John Mead.[24] Children of Joseph and Elizabeth (Austin) Finch, all born in Greenwich between ca. 1671 and ca. 1695, although none recorded there:[25]
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19 Family Group Sheet for Joseph3 Finch, in "Manuscripts and Notes of William A. Eardeley," (microfilm, Long Island [now Brooklyn] Historical Society), reel 2 of 14. Eardeley gave this date of death without any qualification, but his source was not stated, and I have not been able to cobnfirm or disprove his statement.
20 Finch, Stamford Records [note 8], 127, citing the original, 1:113.
21 Paul W. Prindle, Ancestry of Elizabeth Barrett Gillespie (Mrs. William Sperry Beinecke) (New York: New York Public Library, 1976), 141-42.
22 Fairfield District Probate Records, 5:296, as cited in numerous places including by Donald L. Jacobus in his "Source Material for a FInch Genealogy," The American Genealogist 19 (1942-43):50-61, 118-25, 188-92, 249-56 et seq., at 119.
23 Fairfield District Probate Papers, File 2204; Fairfield District Probate Records, 5:296; Jacobus, "Finch Genealogy" [note 22], The American Genealogist, 19:119.
24 Prindle, Elizabeth Barrett Gillespie [note 21], 328; Paul W. Prindle, "Some Early Finch-Mead Problems," The American Genealogist 48 (1971):93-99, at 96.
25 Unless otherwise noted, all information is based on Claude B. Thummel, "Descendants of Abraham, Daniel, and John Finch of Connecticut," 2 vols., typescript (1955), copy at the Connecticut State Library, 1:260-63, 279-86. Various authors including Thummel have had difficulty determining the exact birth dates for these various children, and no list of those dates or birth order
[p. 89]
1. Joseph Finch, d. Greenwich 1727; m. ca. 1701, Elizabeth Close. 2. Samuel Finch, d. Greenwich 1728; m. Mercy Whelpley. 3. Jonathan Finch, m.(1) Abigail Rundle; (2) Abigail Butler. 4. Benjamin Finch, d. Greenwich before Sept. 1741; m. Greenwich 23 Dec. 1727, Susanna Peat/Peatt. 5. Abigail Finch, d. Greenwich 1715; m. 1698 (as his first wife), Joseph Reynolds.[26] 6. Elizabeth Finch, d. Norwalk, Conn., 1745; m.(1) Norwalk 4 March 1709/10, John Whitney, d. Norwalk 3 Feb 1712/3.[27] Perhaps she was the Elizabeth Whitney who m. Greenwich 8 May 1723, Samuel Hurley.[28] 7. Sarah Finch, m. Stamford 1 Dec. 1714, Jonathan Newman.[29] 8. ----- Finch, m. Jonathan Mead.[30]
3. iv. THOMAS AUSTIN, b. say 1654, m. -----.
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seems well enough proven to repeat here. The order of children herein follows Thummel and also Spencer P. Mead, Ye Historie of the Town of Greenwich (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1979), 547-49, both of whom simply list the children in the order of naming in the 1714 agreement that listed sons first, followed by daughters, followed by a son-in-law whose unnamed wife appears to have been deceased.
26 Marion H. Reynolds and Anna C. Rippier, The History and Descendants of John and Sarah Reynolds (1630?-1923) of Watertown, Mass., and Wethersfield, Stamford and Greenwich, Conn. (Brookllyn, N.Y.: Reynolds Family Association, 1924), 45-46. See also Prindle, "Finch-Mead Problems" [note 24], The American Genealogist 48:97.
27 S. Whitney Phoenix, The Whitney Family of Connecticut, 3 vols. (New York: privately printed, 1878), 1:15; Prindle, "Finch-Mead Problems" [note 24], The American Genealogist 48:97.
28 Robert L. Ward and the Whitney Research Group, "Family:Whitney, John (1677-1713)," 1-2, online at www.whitneygen.org/wrg; Barbour Collection, citing Greenwich Vital Recods, 1:49 an ER 190.
29 Prindle, "Finch-Mead Problems" [note 24], The American Genealogist 48:97; Finch, Stamford Records [note 8], 119, citing the original, 1:106.
30 Although many sources (including Thummel [note 25]) give this daughter's name as Martha Finch, Prindle has demonstrated that the Jonathan Mead, who left a widow named Martha in 1714, could not have been the husband of Joseph Finch Sr.'s daughter, and therefore that the name of that fourth daughter is still unknown (Prindle, "Finch-Mead Problems" [note 24], The American Genealogist 48:98-99). It is curious that her given name did not appear in the agreement of 1714, suggesting that she was deceased when Jonathan Mead participated. The slight possibility that this Jonathan Mead was rather a stepson of Joseph Finch Sr. through his second marriage to Ruth (Hardy) Mead does not seem to have been considered by the earlier writers and ay still remain to be investigated. Ruth (Hardy)(Mead) Finch is said to have had a son named Jonathan Mead, "b. abt. 1684, unm., d. in 1712" (Spencer P. Mead, History and Genealogy of the Mead Family [New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1901], 211). However, if that Jonathan Mead died in 1712, then he could not have signed an agreement in 1714.
[p. 96]
v. JOHN AUSTIN, b. ca. 1728; bp. as an adult from Stanwich, aged 21, at St. John's Episcopal Church, Stamford, 10 Sept 1749;[81] d. before 3 May 1774, when Denham Palmer was named to administer his estate, his widow ELIZABETH having declined.[82] He m. Elizabeth ca. 1748, [83] and she appears to have been Elizabeth Hurley,[84] b. Greenwich 8 or 29 March 1727, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Hurley.[85] Samuel's wife was perhaps Elizabeth (Finch)(Whitney) Hurley, for whom see above.
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81 S. P. Mead, "Abstracts of Stamford, Conn., Church Records," typescript (1924), 1983, St. John's Episcopal Church. At page 41 of these abstracts is the adult baptism of a John Austin, with no age given, at the Stamford Congregational Church two years earlier on 27 August 1747. his was probably the same John Austin since he appears to be the only candidate.
82 Stamford District Probate Recoreds, 4:102.
83 Their oldest known child, Samuel Austin, the future Loyalist, was baptized 6 December 1749 at St. John's Episcopal Church in Stamford (Mead, "Stamford Church Records" [note 81], 185).
84 Their second son was Hurley Austin, baptized 5 April 1752 at St. John's Episcopal Church in Stamford (Mead, "Stamford Church Records" [note 81], 191).
85 Barbour Collection citing Greenwich Vital Records, 1:49 and ER 190. Only two events are listed: the marriage of Samuel and Elizabeth in 1723 and the birth of their daughter Elizabeth in 1737.
Copyright © 2015, Robert L. Ward and the Whitney Research Group.
