Andrew Robe Sr. (abt. 1662 - 1735)

Husband of Abigail (Unknown) Roby — married 19 Nov 1691 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut

Husband of Sarah (Barber) Robe — married 26 Nov 1701 (to 28 Sep 1735) in Simsbury, Connecticut

Descendants

Died 28 Sep 1735 at about age 73 in Simsbury, Hartford, Connecticut

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This profile is part of the Simsbury, Connecticut One Place Study.

Biography

Early Life

Andrew Robe/Roby was born in 1662.^[1] Little is known about his early life, but in 1691 an Andrew Roby settled in Hartford, Connecticut.^[2]

Andrew is believed to have been a woodworker or connected to the woodworking community.^[3] In the will of his father-in-law, Thomas Barber II, Andrew is purported to have been left half of his father-in-law's woodworking tools (including specifically a hack saw, three files, beetle rings and wedges, a shave, a drawing knife, and cooper’s adz), with the other half going to Andrew's brother-in-law Thomas Barber, III.^[3] As a result, it is inferred that Andrew Robe, Sr. was the apprentice of Thomas Barbour II.^[3]

Marriage and Children

Andrew and Abigail (Unknown) Curtis married on 19 November 1691.^[4],^[5],^[6],^[7] Andrew administered the estate of Abigail's first husband James Curtis, as Andrew had married Abigail.^[8] Abigail,as James' widow, received one third of his estate, and two-thirds of James' estate was designated to pass to his daughter Abigail Curtice (who was only two years of age at her father's death) when she came of age or married.^[8]

While residing in Hartford, the couple had daughters Mary (Robe) Fowler and Elizabeth (Robe) Case.^[9],^[10] By 1698 the couple had relocated to Simsbury and the church records of the First Church of Simsbury provide that Andrew and Abigail had a daughter, "Ammi" (Amy) Robe, born 16 May 1699 and baptized 21 May 1699.^[11] In 1700, Abigail passed away (Simsbury records note that in 1700 Goodwife Roby died).^[1],^[12]

Andrew and Sarah Barber married on November 26, 1701 in Simsbury.^[1],^[13] Although some secondary sources inaccurately state that Sarah and Andrew did not have issue, the couple had at least one son, namely Andrew Robe, Jr. (b. 1702 in Simsbury) as Andrew's will names his wife Sarah and their son Andrew.^[14] Additionally, Simsbury Church records provide that son William Robe was born in 1706.^[15]

First Church at Simsbury

Andrew's first wife, Goodwife Robe was admitted to full communion at the First Church in Simsbury, along with Rachel Pettibone, on 24 Aug 1698.^[16] Andrew Robe was admitted to full communion, along with Stephen Pettibone, in Simsbury in 1699.^[17]

Civic Life and Prominence in Early Simsbury

Andrew became well regarded in Simsbury and served as the first Town Treasurer of Simsbury, receiving an annual salary of ten shillings, an office he held for thirty-one years.^[18],^[19]

Andrew took inventories for the estates of several of Simsbury's men and also served as a witness to the will of many in Simsbury. His services included, likely among others, the following:^[20]

• Taking inventory of the estate of John Case in 1703/4 in Simsbury.
• Witness to the Will of John Barber in Simsbury, and taking inventory of the estate in 1712.
• Taking inventory of the estate of Benjamin Dibble in 1712.
• Taking inventory of the estate of John Lewis in 1713/14.
• Witness to the Will of John Moses on August 21, 1714.^[21]
• Taking inventory of the estate of John Slater in 1713.
• Taking inventory of the estate of Margaret Wilcoxson in 1714.
• Taking inventory of the estate of William Goring in 1715/16.
• Taking inventory of the estate of John Saxton in 1718.
• Taking inventory of the estate of William Gillette in 1718/19.
• Taking inventory and distributing the estate of Josiah Alvord in 1722.
• Taking inventory of the estate of John Drake in 1724/25.
• Taking inventory of the estate of Samuel Case in 1725.
• Witness to the Will of Joshua Holcomb in 1727 (noted as Andrew Robee).
• Witness to the Will of Peter Buell in 1728 and taking inventory of the estate in 1729.

Andrew was ultimately granted the administration of the estate of Thomas Barber, the estate having had difficulties in administration from the period of 1713 through 1720. During the General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut in 1724 held at New Haven, Andrew Robe requested authority to sell a portion of his father-in-law Thomas Barber's estate to cover debts, which authority was conditionally granted (upon affording Thomas' descendants time to pay the debt in lieu of land sale).^[22] Specifically:

Upon the petition of Andrew Robee, administrator on the estate of Thomas Barbor, senior, late of Symsbury deceased, praying this Assembly for liberty to sell so much of the land of said deceased as to answer a debt of five pounds twelve shllings and ten pence: This Assembly grant full power to said administrator to sell so much of a peice of said land, of twelve acres yet undistributed, as will answer said debt; provided he take the direction of the judge of the probate in the county of Hartford in said sale; provided also, that said sale be not made till six months after the rising of this Assembly, that so the heirs to said estate, all or any of them, may in that time pay said debt, which if htey do, then the deed of said land shall be made to said heir or heirs so paying the debt as aforesaid.

Simsbury Land Grant

In 1723, when the men of Simsbury had a three day meeting to determine how to divide the land of Simsbury, the meetings at night were held at Andrew Robe's home.^[12]. The 1723 listing of land ownership in Simsbury notes Andrew Robe as owning 200 acres.^[23]

Event:

Type: Land

Note: 1723 Simsbury Landowners List

"At a town meeting of the inhabitants of Simsbury regularly convened January the second 1723 the said town granted to the several persons hereafter named the quantities of land hereafter exprefsed."

Andrew Robe 200 acres^[24]

Before the Connecticut General Assembly

During the General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut in 1730 held at Hartford, it was declared that: ^[25]

Upon the memorial of Andrew Roby, Richard Case, and others of the town of Simsbury that: It is resolved, and this Assembly do hereby resolve and enact, that all the cost and charge there hath hitherto risen in fixing the places and erecting the two meeting houses in said town, shall be first born and paid respectively by the several societies, as they are ordered and bounded by the committee last appointed by this Court. That is to say: the charge that has arisen in the south society by the inhabitants of the south society, and the charge that has arisen in the north society by the inhabitants of the north society. And Mathew Allyn, John Hooker, Esquires, John Hart, James Ensign, and Joseph Barnerd, or the major part of them, are hereby authorized and impowred to receive and pass the accounts of all charges and disbursements that have arisen and been made in that affair, as also their own time and trouble in managing the business in this act committed unto them; and to levy a tax or assessment on the inhabitants of of the south society, for the defraying of all such charges and disbursements that they shall pass as aforesaid on the south society; and also a rate or assessment on the inhabitants of the north society, for the defraying the accounts of charges and disbursements that they shall pass on the north society. And if the said Mathew Allyn, John Hooker, Esquires, John Hart, James Ensign, and Joseph Barnerd, shall not, in one month after the rising of this Assembly, obtain the grand list of the polls and rateable estate of said town which was taken and made by the listers of Simsbury for the year 1729, whereon to make said taxes and assessments, tire said Mathew Allyn, [Hooker-17|John Hooker]], Esquires, John Hart, James Ensign, and Joseph Barnerd, or the major part of them, are hereby ordered and fully impowred to doom and assess the several inhabitants of the said two societies, each one his several part or proportion of the said taxes or rates by them to be made for the answering the costs and charges as aforesaid; and that a rate bill made, as aforesaid, by the said Mathew Allyn, John Hooker, Esquires, John Hart, James Ensign and Joseph Barnerd, or the major part of them, and signed with their hands, delivered to the sheriff of the county of Hartford or his deputy, with a warrant from any assistant or justice of the peace to him directed, for the gathering and collecting such rates, shall be a sufficient warrant to him to gather and collect such rates according to such precept. And this Assembly do desire the Honourable Joseph Talcott, Esquire, Nathaniel Stanly, Esquire, and Ozias Pitkin, Esquire, to warn, by some meet person or persons by them to be appointed, the inhabitants of said town to meet at the old meeting house in Simsbury, at such time as they, the saidJoseph Talcott, Esquire, Nathaniel Stanly and Ozias Pitkin, Esquires shall think best, to consider and agree amongst themselves at what place or places, and in what manner, to build for themselves a meeting house or meeting houses for the worship of God, as they, or the greater part of them, by their vote in such meeting, shall agree, conclude and determine. At which said meeting the said Joseph Talcott, Esquire, Nathaniel Stanly, Esquire, and Ozias Pitkin, Esquire, are desired to be present, and endeavour to perswade the people of said town to surcease their contentions and joyn as brethren lovingly to go on with this good work. And his Honour is desired to report to this Assembly in October next, in what manner they have succeeded in this affair; and if the inhabitants of said town shall not agree by their greater vote to the building one or more meeting houses, then to report to the Assembly, if it be best in their opinions whether they should be one or more societies, and if two, whether the places where the committees have last ordered their meeting houses to be is not most commodious for them.

Death and Estate

Andrew passed away on September 28, 1735 at the age of 73.^[1]

Will

Andrew signed a will in 1735 in Hartford, Ct.^[14] One source states that the time of his death, Andrew owned no land and possessed no glassware or ceramics, but had an impressive collection of pewter and iron.^[26] However, in 1723, Andrew was granted a "Long Lot" (Lot 36) in Simsbury, between the North Squadron Line and the South Squadron Line.^[27] Additionally, his will states that a portion of his home lot and a portion of his meadow lot was to be enjoyed by Sarah, and that after she passed the land would pass to their son Andrew.^[14] In his will, he left his wife, Sarah (Barber) Robe use of his home lot and meadow lot at Hop Meadow and appointed their son, Andrew Robe, Jr. as sole executor. Witnesses of Andrew's will included Josiah Alford, Jacob Case, and his wife's niece Abigail (Barber) Case.

The will of Andrew Robe, Sr.:^[28]

Andrew Robe Senior of Simsbury, Connecticut

Will written: 26 August 1729

Inventory taken: 27 November 1735

Will Proven: 28 November 1735

Wife Sarah

Son Andrew Robe

Daughters: Mary, Elizabeth and Amy

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Albert C. Bates, Simsbury Connecticut Births Marriages and Deaths, Transcribed from the Town Records (Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co. Hartford 1898), pp. 19, 51. Copy available at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002003207306;view=1up;seq=29.
2. ↑ Smith, W.S. Historical Notices of Connecticut, No. 1 Containing Hartford in 1640, pp. 36-39. Hartford (Elihu Geer's Press 1842). Copy available at <https://archive.org/details/historicalnotice01port/page/38?q=%22andrew+roby%22>. Notes that Andrew Roby settled in Hartford in 1691.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Lane, J.W. and White, D.P. III. Fashioning Furniture and Framing Community: Woodworkers and the Rise of a Connecticut River Valley Town, in American Furniture (2005). Copy available at https://www.chipstone.org/html/publications/2005AF/LaneWhite/Fig17.pdf.
4. ↑ The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Vital Records, 1630-1870. Transcribed copy available at http://dunhamwilcox.net/barbour/hartford_barbour_q-r.htm.
5. ↑ Hinman, R.R. A Catalogue of the Names of the First Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut, p.262 (Case, Tiffany and Company, Hartford 1854). Copy available at https://books.google.com/books?id=dt7CGDD0PsgC&q=Roby#v=snippet&q=Roby&f=false
6. ↑ New England Marriages Prior to 1700, Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, p. 631.
7. ↑ New England Historical and Genealogical Register 1859-10: Vol 13 Iss 4, pp. 343-345. Copy available at https://archive.org/details/sim_new-england-historical-and-genealogical-register_1859-10_13_4/page/344/mode/2up?q=%22Andrew+Roby%22 (from the book lettered "Records of Town of Hartford 1685 to 1709" and listing "Andrew Roby was married to Abigail Curtice on Novemb. 19, 1691."
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} Charles W. Manwaring, A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records, Volume V (R.S. Peck & Co. Hartford 1904), p. 436. Copy available at https://archive.org/details/digestofearlycon01manw?q=%22Andrew+Robe%22.
9. ↑ Historical Catalogue of the First Church of Hartford. 1663-1885 (Hartford: First Church of Christ in Hartford 1885). pp. 169-170. Copy available at https://archive.org/details/historicalcatalo00hart/page/n381/mode/2up?q=%22Andrew%22. (Listing members of the First Church of Christ in Hartford and listing the birth of Mary, daughter of Andrew Robey, in Hartford on 13 Nov 1692.)
10. ↑ Historical Catalogue of the First Church of Hartford. 1663-1885 (Hartford: First Church of Christ in Hartford 1885). pp. 169-170. Copy available at https://archive.org/details/historicalcatalo00hart/page/n381/mode/2up?q=%22Andrew%22. (Listing members of the First Church of Christ in Hartford and listing the birth of Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew Robee, in Hartford on 29 July 1694.)
11. ↑ Church records, 1697-1713, First Church in Simsbury, Conn., p. 6. Copy available at https://congregationallibrary.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/church-records-1697-1713-first-church-in-simsbury-conn./61748?item=61751.
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} Noah Amherst Phelps, History of Simsbury, Granby, and Canton: From 1642 to 1845, pp. 82, 151-152. Copy available at https://archive.org/stream/historyofsimsbur00phel#page/152/mode/1up/search/%22Andrew+Robe%22 (Andrew Robe not present and taxed in Simsbury in 1696, but present and taxed in 1701; listed as a freeman of Simsbury).
13. ↑ William Richard Cutter, New England Families Genealogical and Memorial, A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, p. 1701 (Lewis Historical Publishing Co., New York). Copy available at https://archive.org/stream/newenglandfamili04cutt#page/1709/mode/1up.
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1 14.2} Will of Andrew Robe, Sr. dated 26 Aug. 1729. Transcribed copy available at https://archive.org/stream/adigestearlycon00manwgoog#page/n227/mode/1up/search/Andrew+Robe.
15. ↑ Church records, 1697-1713, First Church in Simsbury, Conn., p. 9. Copy available at https://congregationallibrary.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/church-records-1697-1713-first-church-in-simsbury-conn./61748?item=61751.
16. ↑ Church records, 1697-1713, First Church in Simsbury, Conn., p. 4. Copy available at https://congregationallibrary.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/church-records-1697-1713-first-church-in-simsbury-conn./61748?item=61751.
17. ↑ Church records, 1697-1713, First Church in Simsbury, Conn., p. 5. Copy available at https://congregationallibrary.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/church-records-1697-1713-first-church-in-simsbury-conn./61748?item=61751.
18. ↑ John E. Ellsworth, Simsbury Being a Brief Historical Sketch of Ancient and Modern Simsbury, 1642-1935 (Simsbury Committee for the Tercentenary 1935), p. 39. Copy available at https://archive.org/stream/simsburybeingbri00ells#page/39/.
19. ↑ Barber, L.I. A Record and Documentary History of Simsbury, p.241 (DAR Abigail Phelps Chapter 1931). Copy available at https://archive.org/details/recorddocumentar00barb/page/214?q=%22andrew+robe%22.
20. ↑ Manwaring, C.W. "A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records, Vol. II, Hartford District 1700-1729. (Hartford: R.S. Reck & Co 1904), pp. 36, 153, 189, 252, 263, 296, 349, 389, 390, 429, 451, 464, 477-478, 484, 498, and 524. Copy available at https://archive.org/details/adigestearlycon02unkngoog/page/36/mode/2up?q=%22Andrew%22.
21. ↑ Moses, Z. Historical Sketches of John Moses of Plymouth, A Settler 1632 to 1640; John Moses of Simsbury, A Settler Prior to 1647; and John Moses of Portsmouth, a Settler Prior to 1640. Also a Genealogical Record of Some of their Descendants (Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co. Hartford 1890), pp. 44-45. Copy available at https://sail1620.org/images/downloads/Published_Family_Genealogies/historical_sketches_of_john_moses__of_plymouth__a_settler_of_1632_to_1640_..._also_a_genealogical_record_of_some_of_their_descendants_vol._1___z._morris__1890_.pdf.
22. ↑ Hoadly, C.J. The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 1717-1725, With the Council Journal from May 1717, to April, 1725. (Hartford: Case, Lockwood and Brainard 1872),pp. 482-487. Copy available at https://archive.org/details/publicrecordsco14hoadgoog/page/486/mode/2up?q=%22Andrew+Robee%22 and at https://books.google.com/books?id=jro-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA487&lpg=PA487&dq=%22Andrew+Robee%22+Connecticut&source=bl&ots=-CQ9bS_uAG&sig=ACfU3U3i56IbgeoNOvgonnk6iM8XsSspKw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwja9dyYhceEAxXm78kDHS7GB1kQ6AF6BAgKEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Andrew%20Robee%22%20Connecticut&f=false.
23. ↑ Simsbury Genealogical and Historical Research Library, Volume 4 Issue 1, March 1997, p. 7. Copy available at https://simsburyfreelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/1997-March-Volume-4-Issue-1.pdf
24. ↑ Source: #S302 Page: "1723 Simsbury landowners list (cont. from Dec. 1996)," 4, issue 1 (March 1997): 7. Quality or Certainty of Data: 3
25. ↑ Hoadly, C.J. The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 1726-1785, Inclusive. (Hartford: Case, Lockwood and Brainard 1873), pp. 266-287. Copy available at https://www.cga.ct.gov/hco/books/The_Public_Records_of_the_Colony_of_Connecticut_1726-1785.pdf and also at https://archive.org/details/publicrecordsofc07conn/page/286/mode/2up?q=%22Andrew+Roby%22.
26. ↑ Gerald W.R. Ward, The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820, p. 273 (Wadsworth Atheneum 1985). Available at https://archive.org/details/greatriverarts00ward/page/272/mode/2up?q=Andrew.
27. ↑ John E. Ellsworth, Simsbury Being a Brief Historical Sketch of Ancient and Modern Simsbury, 1642-1935 (Simsbury Committee for the Tercentenary 1935), p. 39. Copy available at https://archive.org/stream/simsburybeingbri00ells#page/48/.
28. ↑ A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records, available at http://archive.org/stream/adigestearlycon01unkngoog#page/n226/mode/2up/search/buell