Nathan Tillotson (1733)

Born 24 Jun 1733 in Lyme, New London, Connecticut

Ancestors

Husband of Keziah (Gerard) Tillotson — married 29 Oct 1754 in Smithtown, Suffolk County, Province of New York

Descendants

Died [date unknown] in Middlebury, Vermont

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Biography

Nathan Tillotson, son of Samuel and Lydia Tillotson, was born on 24 June 1733 at Lyme, New London, Connecticut.^[1]

He married Keziah Gerard on 29 October 1754 at Smithtown, Suffolk, New York.^[2] Birth or baptism records of their children have not been found.

They are tentatively assigned as the parents of two sons, but there were probably more children (see the research notes below):

• John b. February 1763
• Silas b. after 1764

Because Nathan's brother Samuel reportedly also came to Long Island, and possibly a John Tillotson of the same generation, it is difficult to place the parents of John and Silas. They were reportedly brothers, and John's naming a daughter "Keziah" provides some onomastic support that John was a son of Nathan and Keziah Tillotson. See the research notes below for a detailed discussion.

Nathan Tillotson is often claimed to have married second Phebe West in 1776. Her Revolutionary War widow's pension application shows that she was born around 1761, and it seems more probably that her husband was not this man but in the next generation down. See below.

Research Notes

Unfortunately, there are very few records of Tillitsons in Long Island until the 1770s. Nathan's older brother Samuel reportedly came to Smithtown as well.

A Samuel Tillitson was one of the landholders at Islip, Long Island in 1720.^[3] This could have been Nathan's father.

Then there was the marriage of Nathan Tillotson and Keziah Gerard cited above.

Starting in 1774 is a cluster of marriages involving Tillotsons^[4]

• Keturah m. January 1774, Josiah Soper
• Nathan m. 14 january 1776, Phebe West
• Mary m. 21 May 1776, Selah Hubbs
• Elezar m. 2 October 1776, Sarah Philips
• Elizabeth m. 9 March 1778, Arthur Platt
• Susannah b. 8 May 1781, Jesse Nicols
• "Nicol" (i.e., Nicholas) m. 6 August 1782, Hannah Jackson

Most of these marriages have been attributed to children of Nathan's brother Samuel in online trees, although the basis for this is unknown.

Some online trees claim the marriage in 1776 was a second marriage of the present Nathan. However, a rejected application for a Revolutionary War pension filed by Phebe (West) Tillitson indicates she was born around 1761 and that her husband Nathan was a private during the war. For a man with a family to serve as a private while in his 40s was an unusual circumstance. Combined with the age difference, it seems unlikely that Nathan Tillotson who married Phebe West in the 1776 was the present man, and more likely that he was about 20 years younger. Whether he was a son of the present Nathan, or of his brother Samuel, or of another line entirely has not been ascertained.

There is a cluster of Tillotsons associated with Nathan and Phebe who were likely close kin, so it also seems likely that the older ones were from Long Island and just not documented there. Specifically, there are:

• John Tillotson
• Silas Tillotson
• Richard Tillotson and Nathan Tillotson, probable children of Nathan and Phebe

John Tillotson came to Middlebury, Vermont, reportedly from Long Island, in 1784. Silas Tillotson also appeared in Middlebury somewhat later, purchasing the lot just south of John's. It is reported that they were brothers, and that after staying a few years, Silas moved on. John stayed in Middlebury and died there in 1855, aged 93. A collection of death records listing his has a parenthetical note that he was originally from Long Island, although the introduction to the article providing these records indicates that the parenthetical information was secondary information provided by knowledge of the original transcriber.

In the 1800 US census at Salem in Washington County, NY are found the consecutive entries:

• Richard Tiletson
• Nathaniel Tiletson

This is the town where the widow Phebe Tilletson said her husband Nathan had died around 1792.

In the 1810 US census at the town of Boyle in Ontario County, NY are found the following consecutive entries:

• Richd. Tillotson
• Phebe Tillotson
• Calvin Kingsley Sr.
• Nathan Tillotson
• Jos. Shepherd
• David Terrill
• Silas Tillotson

In the Tillotson households, only one person is shown as over age 45: the lone woman in Phebe's household.

Then in the 1820 census, Boyle had been renamed to Pittford (the current name), and we find there households of Nathan Tillotson and Silas Tillotson. And in 1830 we find there Richard Tillotson.

There can be no doubt that Phebe in Pittsford in 1834 applying for a Revoluationary War widow's pension is Phebe West who married Nathan Tillitson in Long Island, as she described the timing of the recorded marriage almost perfectly in her pension application, and the name of her husband correlates, as does her age, loosely, with census records. And then binding these appearances of the same names together, we have:

• Silas and John appearing together in Vermont, and John reportedly from Long Island
• then Silas and Phebe/Richard/Nathan appearing together in censuses together after that, with Phebe from Long Island
• Richard and "Nathaniel" appearing together in the town where Phebe said her husband had died

all suggests these Tillotsons were close kin.

We have the following estimated birth years:

• Phebe b. 1761, inferred from her deposing to be 78 years old in November 1839
• John b. February 1763, from newspaper announcement of his death at Middlebury on 16 October1855, age 93 years and 8 months^[5]
• Silas b. betw. 1765-1775 from 1810 and 1820 censuses; also purchased land at Middlebury on 12 April 1796, so over age 21
• Richard b. 1776, inferred from gravestone
• Nathan b. betw. 1775-1885

This fits well with Richard being Nathan and Phebe's eldest son and the younger Nathan being a younger son. John and Silas are of the right age to be children of Nathan and Keziah Gerard, and John named a daughter "Keziah."

The big, seemingly unsubstantiated assumption seemingly made everywhere online is that Nathan who married Phebe west was the same man who had earlier married Keziah Gerard. Phebe's husband could easily have been a son of Nathan and Keziah born in the 1750s, and indeed it would seem reasonable likely that with a marriage in 1754 that they would have had a son during that decade. It is otherwise hard to stomach that 15-year old Phebe was marrying a man in his early 40s.

Sources

1. ↑ Nathan Tillotson Ancestry.com. Connecticut Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
2. ↑ Nathan Tillotson. Spouse Name: Keziah Gerard Genealogical Research Library, comp. New York City, Marriages, 1600s-1800s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.
3. ↑ Benjamin F. Thompson and Charles J. Werner, The History of Long Island From its Discovery and Settlement to the Present Time, 3rd edition revised and greatly enlarged, vol. 2 page 348
4. ↑ Evelyn Briggs Baldwin, "Marriages and Baptisms Performed by the Rev. Joshua Hartt, of Smithtown, Long Island, With a Sketch of his Life" The New York Genealogical & Biographical Record 42 (1911) pages 130–5
5. ↑ Boston Herald of 5 November 1855