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Bethia (Brundage) Knapp (abt. 1638 - aft. 1685)

Bethia "Bertha" Knapp formerly Brundage aka Brundish, Brandish
Born about in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticutmap
Ancestors ancestors
Daughter of and
Sister of , [half], , [half], , [half], and [half]
Wife of — married about 1658 [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Mother of
Died after after about age 47 in Wethersfield, Connecticut or Westchester County, New Yorkmap [uncertain]
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Profile last modified | Created 18 Apr 2013
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The Birth Date is a rough estimate. See the text for details.

Contents

Biography

Bethia Brundish (spelled "Brundish" by Anderson)[1] Brandish[2] or Brundage

About Bethia Brundish, Perry Streeter says the following:[3] Bethia Brundish, of the age of sixteene or thereabouts, maketh oath, as they wer goeing to execution of goodwife Knapp, who was condemned for a witch by court & jury at Fairfield, there being present herselfe & Deborah Lockwood and Sarah Cable, she heard goodwife Steplyes say, that she thought the said goodwife Knapp was no witch, and goodwife Gould presently reproved her for it. Perry Streeter says that the source for this information is as follows:[4] A thorough and chilling account of legal proceedings regarding accusations of witchery is given in "The History of Fairfield, in the section about the suit of Thomas Staples against Roger Ludlow. Ludlow has accused Mrs. Staples of being a witch and questioning the court's condemnation for witchery on the day they executed a Mrs. Knapp. Bethiah Brundish and others gave damning testimony about Mrs. Staples based on a misconception of something they had overheard. Ludlow swore the deceased Mrs. Knapp had called Staples a witch. Thomas Staples provided evidence convinced the court that his wife was not a witch and that Mrs. Knapp refused to condemn others. Ludlow paid damages to Mr. Staples. [5]

In The Colonial Ancestry, Perry Streeter says that Bethia Brundish/Brundage (John, Thomas) is the sister of the following: James, b. England; Mary, b. England; Anne, b. England; Stout Old John of Rye b. either at Watertown, MA or Wethersfield CT; and Posthume b. Unknown. Mary's father was John Brundish (Thomas), b. 1593 in England. He is "The" Brundage Immigrant Ancestor, and he lived in Wethersfield, CT circa 1635, and he died in Wethersfield, CT. Some of his children were born in England, and some in the Colonies, but probably most or all of them died in Westchester, CT.

Origin

Bethia was born about 1638 at Wethersfield, Connecticut, a daughter of John Brundish and his wife, Rachel[1] or Rachel Hubbard.[6] Birth date is a guess; she was about 16 years old in 1654.

She is listed as Bertha on page 595 of "Ye historie of ye town of Greenwich".

According to Thomas William Brundage,ref>A Brundage Family Genealogy, An Account of Some of the American Descendants of John Brundish (1593-1639), Who Came from England to Massachusetts in 1635 by Thomas William Brundage, 1989:[7] Bethia was b. 1638 in Wethersfield. m. 1658? Timothy Knapp, b. 12/14/1632, d. at Rye.

Uncertain Marriage(s)

Bethia may have married once or twice, to Timothy Knapp, Sr or Joseph Taylor, or both.[8] Torrey in "New England Marriages before 1700" reports two different marriages: c. 1658 to Timothy Knapp (2:904) and after 1654 at Rye?, Westchester Co, NY to Joseph Taylor (p 730).[2] Doherty in Settlers of Beekman Patent ... reports only the marriage of "Bertha" to Timothy Knapp,[6] and Jacobus reports only the marriage [possibly] to Joseph Taylor, of Westchester Co, NY.[9]

Since we have no specific date of death for Timothy Knapp, and the possible marriage to Joseph Taylor was after 1654, it is reasonable to assume that Bethia may have married both men.[8]

So little is known about the descendants of John Brundish, because most of his children removed to the Westchester County, New York area, which has not yet been studied in detail. However, as Anderson points out, our evidence for these marriages to Knapp and Taylor rests solely on the fact that both men married a woman named "Bethia."[1] The marriage to Timothy Knapp is additionally supported by the existence of a man named "Brundage Knapp" in the 1800 Census for Salem, Westchester County, NY [NYGBR 58:18].[1]

Perry Streeter lists 3 husbands of Bethia Brundish, as follows:[10] 1) Timothy Knapp, b. 10/14/1632, d. bef. 1685; 2) Joseph Taylor; 3) John Malove.

Child

Timothy Knapp (and Bethia) had only one known son:[8]

  1. Timothy Knapp, Jr, b before 1680 at Greenwich, CT, d after 1768 in Rye, Westchester Co, NY.

Death and Legacy

Bethia died after 1685 at Wethersfield, Connecticut or Westchester County, New York.[citation needed].

Sources

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Anderson, Robert Charles, (1995) "John Brundish" Featured name, Great Migration 1634-1635, A-B. AmericanAncestors.org (Volume 1, A-B, Pages 445- ).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700, Vol 2. Boston: NEHGS AmericanAncestors.org. [1] (Vol 2, Page 904).
  3. ↑ The Colonial Ancestry, p. 12, which may be found at http://www.perrystreeter.com/brundage.pdf compiled by Perry Streeter
  4. ↑ The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut (1647-1697) by John M. Taylor.
  5. ↑ The History of Fairfield, page 325
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Doherty, Frank J, (1990–2003 ) Beekman Patent, ... ten volumes. AmericanAncestors.org (Vol 2, Page 819).
  7. ↑ The following web site appears to contain 13 pages of Chapter 2, and a couple pages of Chapter 3, that is, 3-33 and 3-34. There appears to be a total of 54 pages in Chapter 2 that is not in this web site. So, apparently there are only 13 pages out of 54 pages. https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/73570863?p=21538652&returnLabel=John%20Brundage%20(LDBV-TG7)&returnUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.familysearch.org%2Ftree%2Fperson%2Fmemories%2FLDBV-TG7
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Descendants of Nicholas Knapp: Generation No. 1." CTGenWeb.org.
  9. ↑ Jacobus, Donald Lines, (1930) History & Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield, 2 vols. AmericanAncestors.org I:250; 575; 660.
  10. ↑ The Colonial Ancestry, p, 12, which may be found at http://www.perrystreeter.com/brundage.pdf compiled by Perry Streeter

See also:

  • "Pedigree Resource File," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:3CY4-1R8 : accessed 19 November 2018), entry for John /Brundage/; "Martindale Demond" file (2:2:2:MMD5-9J1), submitted 27 May 2016 by melmmart [identity withheld for privacy].
  • "American Ancestors," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:3:MMVN-J1P : accessed 18 December 2019), entry for Bethia Brundage, cites sources; "User:alanfrancis99 Tree:Francis" file (2:3:2:MMM9-PX3), submitted 16 January 2019 by alan francis.






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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Bethia by comparing test results with other carriers of her mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known mtDNA test-takers in her direct maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Bethia:

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[Living Anjou]
The profile currently states:

"However, as Anderson points out, our evidence for these marriages to Knapp and Taylor rests solely on the fact that both men married a woman named 'Bethia.'"

Anderson's exact words are hedged with the magic word "apparently," meaning, he's guessing, because this is the usual basis for inferring wives:

"The existence of two candidates for the husband of Bethia Brundish apparently arises simply because these two men had wives name Bethia."

Anderson cites no source because none exists. Joseph Taylor's wife was never named as Bethia. Instead, the inference springs from an entirely different misunderstanding.

On 24 May 1667, Bethia's brother, John Brundish, confirmed the sale of his Fairfield land to the heirs of their stepfather Anthony Wilson (Fairfield Land Records, Vol. 1, p. 524). John specified three exceptions to the sale including: (1) "such lands as ye hiers of frances purdy hath and doeth now possese"; (2) "a small parsell of land in ye new feild I except that Joseph Taylor now poseseth." Francis Purdy married John's sister Mary Brundish. By parallelism, people infer that Joseph Taylor married another sister, with Bethia being the best remaining candidate.

The parallelism is an illusion. John Brundish conveyed land to his brother in law Francis Purdy, but never to Joseph Taylor. Instead, Francis Purdy and Anthony Wilson sold a small parcel they had received from John. Somebody sold that small parcel to somebody who sold that small parcel, and so on. At the date of the deed above, 24 May 1667, Joseph Taylor happened to be the owner, thus the language: "parsell ... Joseph Taylor now poseseth." John Brundish exempted the land because he didn't want to confirm the sale of something that the heirs of Anthony Wilson no longer controlled. No kinship with Joseph Taylor was implied.

For anyone interested in the details, the parcel in question was a 3 acre partition of a 7 acre home lot in the new field, aka the mill plain. You can trace (some of) the long chain of title between John Brundish (bef. 17 Jan 1653) and Joseph Taylor (abt. 1664) via records on the following pages of the first volume of Fairfield land records: John Brundish (page 80), Anthony Wilson & Francis Purdy (105), Thomas Bassett (162), Robert Beacham (162), Simon Couch (144, 164), Joseph Taylor (121, 122, 152). Note, the order of records does not always match the order of ownership. For the latter, focus on the names of the parties and abutters.

posted by [Living Anjou]
edited by G (Ymous) Anjou

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Categories: Witchcraft Accusers of New England | Estimated Birth Date