Can anyone identify the "Widow Clark" in Maugerville, Sunbury Co, Nova Scotia (now new Brunswick) 1765+/-?

Question

 https://minerdescent.com/2012/10/15/new-england-planters-in-new-brunswick/  “The list of the grantees of the Township of Maugerville, …, includes the following names: ... Joseph Clark, Widow Clark. "

1) The widow seems not once to be named but is listed separately in minerdescent.  Possibly the mother of Joseph?  Still why call her out separately?

"Above Oromocto Island we find the lots of … Joseph Buber, … and the Widow Clark. Thence to the upper boundary of the township, a distance of two miles, there were at first no settlers, ….”

29 January 1795 (but subsequent entries in the book are dated 1785!) https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-69YW-3XD?i=18&wc=M698-4ZW%3A13841701%2C13841702%2C13841703&cc=1392378 …Joseph Sr gives his land to Joseph Jr.

Unless Joseph Jr was in Maine when he inherited the land, he is not the ancestor I am seeking, but to know that requires to know the widow, the Sr, and the Jr...

Comments

Its possible she was Joseph's mother, or the widow of a fourth brother.  But its also possible she was unrelated.  

At least one widow Clark came to NB.  You might want to look at Desire (Gardiner) Clark, daughter of Jeremiah and Grace Gardiner of Rhode Island.  In 1763, she married Elisha Clark Sr, son of Elisha Clark and Susannah Reynolds.  He died during the Revolution, and Desire came from NY to NB as a widow with her children in 1785.  She settled in Hampstead, but she may well have gone to Maugerville first.  Maugerville was established, and I don't think Hampstead was formed yet in 1785.

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Thank you.  The widow in question was granted land under the perley promotions round 1761~1769, so she was a widow then if I interpret the historical texts right.  Of course it could be that Joseph and his widow received one grant and that she became well documented after his death as "the widow".  The histories were written after the fact, not contemporaneously.

Two things I'd love to lay hands on:

The actual records of the settlers...

The list of the 200 names of rebels that Parker Clark gave up when he was interrogated as a POW after Ft. Cumberland attack.

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Yeah, that would be an interesting list for sure!

Have you alread found the Widow Clark listed among the grantees on 2 New Brunswick land grants in the Nova Scotia Records? 

• https://novascotia.ca/archives/landpapers/archives.asp?ID=260&Doc=warrant
• https://novascotia.ca/archives/landpapers/archives.asp?ID=262&Doc=report

These grants may well may reflect the renewal of previous grants, updated to reflect the 1784 people.  Everything before that was rescinded and re-issued when the Loyalists arrived, but you may be able to find the original info in the Nova Scotia Archives in Halifax.

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first link has her as widow, unnamed:

Names listed in the documents: John Curry, John Hanson, Henry Bowen, Jott Bonney, John Cannock, Jonas Dyer, James Cochron, James Chaffey, Calel Boynton,John Pace, Stever Witham, William Alderade, John Fountain, Joseph Dinbow, Jonathan Stover, Samuel Leighton, (Widow) Wilson, Abial Sprague, Joshua Bridges, William Ricker, Edmund Meagher, Benjamin Walton, Hatfield Leighton, John Miller, Samuel Huckings, Jeremiah Young, Nathan Preson, John Fountain Jr., William Ellwell, James Sprague, (Widow) Clark, Alexander Hoage, Simeon Woodard, James Mailer, John Lawless, John Snowden, Calven Holmes, (Widow) Oliver, Ephraim Young, Stephen Fountain, William Crow, Daniel Laha, James Dyer

Warrant to Survey. Surveyor's Report. Surveyor's Certificate. Map. Draft Grant: 15,250 acres. Passamaquoddy Gay, on the River Digdequash. Bounded in part by land granted Lieut. Thomas Fitz Simons and Colin McNabb. The number of acres to each indivicual may be found in the Draft Grant, on which are the following names: John Curry, John Hanson, Henry Bowen, Jott Bonney, John Cannock, Jonas Dyer, James Cochron, James Chaffey, Calel Boynton, John Pace, Stever Witham, William Alderade, John Fountain, Joseph Dinbow, Jonathan Stover, Samuel Leighton, (Widow) Wilson, Abial Sprague, Joshua Bridges, William Ricker, Edmund Meagher, Benjamin Walton, Hatfield Leighton, John Miller, Samuel Huckings, Jeremiah Young, Nathan Preson, John Fountain, William Ellwell, James Sprague, (Widow) Clark, Alexander Hoage, Simeon Woodard, James Mailer, John Lawless, John Snowden, Calven Holmes, (Widow) Oliver, Ephraim Young, Stephen Fountain, William Crow, Daniel Laha, James Dyer

photo says unto widow Clark 300 acres and I have the lot maps showing Joseph in the place above Oromocto as described with Joseph Bubier nearby.  No mention of Joseph in the document, but I previously found the will passing land to Joseph Jr in 1795 (swear it's a mistake since next page was 1785!) .  This suggests she was a widow and the land was hers, so more questions.

The second page has Loyalist arrival Alexander Clark(e).

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There were a lot of Clark's!  UELAC lists 41 Clarke and Clarke in the, including 4 Alexanders. But there is one who looks interesting, the first on their list, as he has proven descendants in Hamilton, NB.   

I do have a couple of ancestors who were already New England Planters in Nova Scotia Colony, and then went to fight with the English as Loyalists.  In that case, the widow may have already been in NB. Is that what you're thinking?

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I know they were there in the initial waves of Planters 

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->1765 – most of the grants are entered in https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-69YW-3XD?i=18&wc=M698-4ZW%3A13841701%2C13841702%2C13841703&cc=1392378

Wierd that a 1795 transfer from Joseph Sr to Jr is on pages 17-18 but the 1765 petition is on pages 19-20 and a transaction 1786 on the page before???

·         https://minerdescent.com/2012/10/15/new-england-planters-in-new-brunswick/  “The list of the grantees of the Township of Maugerville, …, includes the following names: ... Joseph Clark, Widow Clark. [ It is possible she was not a widow then and he died later, but that the histories later called her Widow even before he died…]

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·         <!--[endif]-->… “Above Oromocto Island we find the lots of … Joseph Buber , … and the Widow Clark. Thence to the upper boundary of the township, a distance of two miles, there were at first no settlers, ….”

<!--[if !supportAnnotations]-->

What I do know is that the five Clarks I am really trying to sort out were in/near Bangor Maine by 1790 and at least one of the five is in the Studholme Report as a rebel.  The Widow and Joseph were a lead, since the Bubiers were family by a (later) marriage. 

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Hm, there was a later settler in Maugerville named Joseph Clark (and his son Joseph Jr), who came from CT via NY in 1783 with the Loyalists, and he's clearly not the same person you're referring to, nor is it the same widow.  

SInce NB was simply a part of NS until 1784, my best suggestions for finding info are both in Nova Scotia, and not online: the NS Archives in Halifax, and the Esther Clark Wright Archives at Acadia U. If you can't get there, you may be able to hire an Acadia student to do some research.

Another thought is the author of the blog you linked to, who writes that he has records of the church at Maugerville from 1773 to 1824. It seems to me those records may provide insight into the early Josephs and the Widow Clark.  

Keep me posted!

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There is a later Dr. Joseph Clark, a CoE figure and a Loyalist, arrived 1784, with son Joseph.  That may well be the one whose will I found.  That makes sense.  Now that I have learned that the grants list is the reformulated list of 1784 and I know that the family listed in Studholme were dispossessed or antagonized off, I have to assume Joseph bears no relation to the Widow.  The Widow is mentioned without Joseph as being up the river when there was no one past her... Her and her sons look like my warm lead.

I do have a connection in Frederickton, but other than seeking the grave, there is not much to do there... it was not New Brunswick and the fire in 1825 would have been strike 2.

Given the Bubier (Marblehead, Mass) ties I am probably looking for a Widow from Essex Co, Mass with sons Aaron, Joseph, and Ichabod and grandsons Joseph and Ichabod born c. 1777...

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Do you have access to MA vital records?  American Ancestors may be helpful.

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Access, sure, or I'd pay for it if not... but the persons of interest are known in 1800 with a birthdate and origin that places them in the backwoods.  One of the five are in the Studholme report.  He was born c. 1756~1774 (26~44 in 1800).   Now, there is no small number of Joseph Clarks to choose from in that range.  Since his wife was 45+, I can narrow it down that he was likely born 1756~1760.  This could have him born in Mass or Conn. and going over as a child, or he could have been born in Cornwallis, etc.  So far no search has found a Joseph with a widow and the right brothers to flesh out the story.  Without that I may as well choose the ones descended from Plantagenets, right?  :)

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Aren't we all descended from the Plantagenets?

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found some of the Church records from the time and nary a Clark ever signed on to the covenants... interesting since Seth Noble later married my ancestor, whose birth he just missed in 1777, while a preacher in Bangor, Maine 1789...

Answer 1

In Fredericton, NB main library there is a small book "Maugerville 1763-1963" from which I had made the following notations: 1) ....Joseph Clarke was chosen as a Vestryman of the Church of England 2) it incl Map 127 in the Crown Land Office at Fredericton a) Nova Scotia Grants- Lot 51 Joseph Clark (1767) and Lot 57 Widow Clark b) New Brunswick Grants 1784-85 Lot 47 Joseph Clarke & George Hayward and Lot 48 Joseph Clarke & Benjamin Atherton.

Comments

"a) Nova Scotia Grants- Lot 51 Joseph Clark (1767) and Lot 57 Widow Clark" are relevant to my rebel ancestors.  The others came after 1784 while my Clarks got the boot.  

I believe this Joseph was the Widow's son, came of age and got a lot.  She got hers in the first wave of settlers.

Married Sarah (Holbrook?) and son Joseph Clark Jr. (12 Dec 1768) in Sheffield.