Stephen Haviland (abt. 1702 - 1772)

Born about 1702 in Westchester County, NY

Ancestors

Husband of Unknown (Unknown) Haviland — married about 1731 (to before 1748) in Monmouth County, NJ

Husband of Sarah (Throckmorton) Haviland — married 30 Apr 1748 in Monmouth County, NJ

Descendants

Died 29 May 1772 at about age 70 in Freehold, Monmouth, New Jersey

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This profile is part of the Haviland Name Study.

Biography

Birth & Parents

Stephen Haviland, son of Joseph Haviland & Mary __?__ ^[1], was born ca 1705, possibly in Westchester County, NY.

1st Marriage

Stephen's first wife is not known. Josephine C. Frost believed it was Ann Craig, daughter of Major James & Esther __?__ ^[1], however this has been disproven. It is possible his first wife's surname was Craig, but even if that is true, she was not a daughter of James Craig. See His First Wife's Profile for more information.

The marriage date is guessed to be ca 1731, possibly in Monmouth County, NJ.

2nd Marriage

Per Frost: He "may have married first or second April 30, 1748, Sarah Throckmorton." ^[3]

Unlike Frances Sitherwood (Throckmorton History), Josephine Frost (The Haviland Genealogy) does not seem to distinguish between the children of Stephen's first wife and those of his second.

Court Case

""New Jersey Supreme Court Case # 7242"" ^[11]

""Summary""

[William] Cook vs Haviland [Stephen] ; Monmouth Co, 1766 ; November Term 1766 ; Filed 12 March 1767 ; Trespass [default on debt repayment, along with Hendrick Johnston and Mindert Johnston] ; Name given in document with 5 different spellings: "Stephen HEVILAND otherwise called Stephen HEAVILAND", "Stephen HAVILAND otherwise called Stephen HAVILIN of Shrewsbury", and twice, without explanation, "Stephen HEAVILIN".

Death & Burial

Stephen died 29 May 1772 in Freehold, NJ. ^[2]

Will of Stephen Haviland

I, Stephen Heviland of Freehold Tp. in the Co. of Mercer, Eastern division of the Province of N.J., being weak in body but of sound and disposing mind and memory....My just debts and funeral expenses paid out of my movable estate--- 'Tis my will that such remainder shall be Equally divided between my three daus., Mary, Eleanor, and Catherine. All goods in Mary's household shall be hers and her heirs forever. Item--to son Stephen one feather bed and furniture and one small trunk. Item--to son Job one feather bed and furniture and one warming pan. Item--to son Benjamin 1/2 of all my lands to be equally divided in Quantity and Quality intending all wise to be understood that said land is encumbered with the legacies following Viz--to my dau. Eleanor 20 pounds at 81 per ounce to be paid to her by my son Benjamin at the expiration of one year after my decease the land above being encumbered for the payment of the same. Item--to son Stephen 17 pounds-ten shillings Current Money of N.Y. State to be paid to her by my son Benjamin when he reaches the age of twenty-one, encumbering the above land for the payment of the same. Item--to son Joseph the remaining half of all my land to be divided equally in Quantity and Quality intending all wise to be understood that same land is encumbered with the payment of the following Legacies--Viz--to son Stephen 17 pounds-ten shillings Current money of N.Y. City--to be paid by my son Joseph when my son Stephen arrives at the age of twenty one--the part of land willed to my son Joseph being encumbered for the payment of the same. Item--to son Job 35 pounds current money of the City of N.Y., to be paid unto him by my son Joseph when he reaches twenty-one, etc. (as above). If either of my sons Stephen and Job should die before the respective legacy is paid the Survivor of these sons shall enjoy descental's legacy--and it is my will that my sons Benjamin and Joseph shall bear equally all expenses for clothing, victualling and schooling of my son Stephen for six months--and that Stephen should learn some trade; my sons Benjamin and Joseph shall be at equal expenses in providing suitable Apparel for my son Stephen to attend Divine worship on the Sabbath Day. Item--son Job shall be schooled clothed and victualled till the age of sixteen years at the equal expense of my sons Benjamin and Joseph, etc. Extrs.: son Joseph and son-in-law Hendrick Johnson.

Will made Feb. 21, 1772.

Stephen Heviland ^[2]

Research on "Four Stephen Havilands"

There are four Stephen Havilands (and possibly one or two others not accounted for) whose wives, parents, and/or children have been confused with one another in various secondary sources. They are:

• Haviland-36: Stephen Haviland
• Haviland-512: Stephen Heaviland
• Haviland-607: Stephen Haviland
• Haviland-611: Stephen B. Haviland (the most difficult)

One of the major challenges with New Jersey genealogy is that most Federal Census records prior to 1830 in New Jersey have been lost. While Wills and Tax Lists help, the census lists are among the most useful resources for establishing family units, and when there are multiple individuals with the same names living in the same area at the same time, some of them with similar children or parents, it becomes very confusing. Compounding the issue are erroneous transcriptions, assumptions that pass into secondary sources as "fact," and other human interventions which, while well meaning, pave the way for incorrect family trees by those who do not carefully study the data. Once "tradition" has been established, even if it has erroneous origins, it is very hard to change.

As a general rule, Primary Evidence (evidence recorded at the time of the event) trumps all other forms of evidence, but of course some Primary Evidence does not establish a relationship, just a person existing at a certain place and/or a certain time. In that case various Primary Evidences can be grouped to "prove" relationships, but this relies on logic (such as names of children, ages of children, date of marriage, names of executors on Wills, etc). In fact nothing can be really proven, but rather a theory develops with the highest degree of probability. Transcribed Primary Evidence is common amongst online researchers who must rely on indexes and sources that transcribe the Primary Evidence, and these can substitute for the original documents with the caveat that they could have introduced an error in the transcription. Secondary Evidence (research that was written long after the event, such as published genealogies) can be used in citations, but so much of this material does not properly cite Primary Evidence and is based on human assumption (based on dates, etc) that can be incorrect. While a lot of it might be right, especially if the book is written by a professional genealogist, it still must be accepted as opinion, and challenged by researchers if there are contradictions.

Another issue is that, for some reason, several New Jersey branches of the Havilands established for themselves (either accidentally or on purpose) a different official spelling of their surname. As in many documents that record surnames prior to the establishment of the first Dictionary of the English Language in 1755, the Haviland surname was spelled in variant ways, such as Hevelen, Heavilon, Havilin, Heaviland, Heviland and Heavilin. Most of the time, the names were written down by a third party who spelled them phonetically, not because they didn't know how to spell, but because our culture did not expect anyone to ask. (This offers us a glimpse into how the name might have been pronounced by an accent of the time.) There were no "official" spellings of a name except potentially amongst the family as they passed it down, and only then if they were literate. (Of course literacy was far less common than it is today, but a vast majority of the Haviland ancestry was literate and well educated, possibly due to its noble origins.)

The Haviland family were generally careful to keep the spelling of their name "official" as they passed it down, even if it was spelled differently in records. Historically they were armigerous bearers, meaning they were entitled to bear a Coat of Arms as granted by the Heralds of England or by Heraldic inheritance custom. But in some cases, especially during the time period leading up to and during the separation of the American colonies from Britain, variant spellings of the surname were adapted and passed down to become the official spelling. (Today, it is perfectly legal to decide on the own spelling of your surname, or even change your surname entirely, provided that spelling it is registered with the court. Technically surnames cannot be "misspelled.")

And so some New Jersey branches, for their own reasons, explored these variant spellings and held them in the official record. One reason could have to do with legal squabbles between various cousins that caused one or the other to "disassociate" themselves by changing their surname. We will never know for sure. For years this has caused some descendants to become confused as to their connection with the Haviland / de Havilland genealogy, however Y-DNA testing has validated without question that they are of the Guernsey de Havilland genealogy, and almost certainly descendants of William Haviland of Newport, RI. ^{[12] [13]}

Sources

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Frost, Haviland, p. 56.
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11} Sitherwood, Throckmorton, p. 77.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8} Frost, Haviland, p. 57.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} (Corrected from secondary sources: Both the Frost and Sitherwood books accidentally list Mary as having married Johnson instead of Eleanor).
5. ↑ New Jersey Marriage Records.
6. ↑ New Jersey Colonial Documents. NJA. Vol 22, pp. 71-75. (Marriages with some Monmouth/Essex names, 74 New Jersey Colonial Documents. Cooper, Benjamin, Monmouth, and Catherine Heaviland, Monmouth 1753 Oct. 31
7. ↑ New Jersey Census, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1789. (Benjamin Cooper, Monmouth County, Shrewsbury Township, p. 3.
8. ↑ Nelson, Documents, p. 5, 198.
9. ↑ Frost has Stephen Heaviland as "Stephen B. Haviland" which we believe to be an error.
10. ↑ (John's baptismal record is found in Christ Church of Shrewsbury, but he's not listed in the Throckmorton Bible. Our assumption is that he died very young, because no other record for him has been found.)
11. ↑
12. ↑ The Haviland - de Havilland Heritage Society.
13. ↑ The Haviland - de Havilland Y-DNA Study

Documentation

• Primary:Will of Stephen Haviland. Monmouth County Wills. FHL film 545487.
• Primary (transcribed):Nelson, William. Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. Paterson, NJ: The Press Printing & Publishing Co., 1900. Vol XXII, Marriage Records 1665-1800.
• Primary (transcribed):New Jersey Marriage Records. WPA. FHL film 542540.
• Primary (transcribed):Marriage Licenses. New Jersey Colonial Documents. FHL 974.9a Ser 1 v.11 (see transcript at archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com)
• Primary (transcribed):New Jersey, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1643-1890. (NJ Early Census Index.)
• Secondary:Frost, Josephine C. The Haviland Genealogy : Ancestors and Descendants of William Haviland of Newport, Rhode Island, and Flushing, Long Island, 1653-1688 : with special records of the allied families of Field, Hull, Torrey, Willett-Willis. New York, NY: The Lyons Genealogical Co., 1914.
• Secondary:Sitherwood, Frances Grimes,. Throckmorton history: being the record of the Throckmortons in the United States of America with cognate branches, emigrant ancestors located at Salem, Massachusetts, 1630, and in Gloucester County, Virginia, 1660. Bloomington, Ill.: Pantagraph Printing & Stationary Co., 1929.