Prince Tobey (1741 - 1810)

Born 7 Jun 1741 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Husband of Jane (Delano) Tobey — married 5 Jan 1765 in Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts Bay

Descendants

Died 7 Jul 1810 at age 69 in Conway, Franklin, Massachusetts, USA

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Biography

Prince Tobey, son of Zacheus and Sarah (Pope) Tobey, was born 7 June 1741 at Dartmouth, Bristol Co., Massachusetts.^[1] He married Jane Delano 5 Jan. 1765 at Dartmouth, Massachusetts.^[2] Jane was the daughter of Thomas and Jean (Peckham) Delano.

“’Prince Tobey, mariner of Dartmouth’ bought land in Rochester, June 18, 1771.”^[3]

During the Revolution

“Prince Tobey appears as private on a pay abstract of Capt. Benjamin Dillingham’s co. for service on sea coast at Dartmouth for 3 months; enlisted April 15, 1776; also, as first lieutenant among a list of officers of the Massachusetts militia in the 12th company of the 2nd Bristol co. regt.”^[4]

Prince’s younger brother Noah bought land in Conway, Hampshire (now Franklin) Co., Massachusetts 29 and 30 Mar. 1777. Prince’s eldest brother Elnathan bought land in Conway 27 Dec. 1777. Several days later, on 1 Jan. 1778, Prince Tobey “of Dartmouth” bought most of Lot 66 in Conway for 700 pounds.^[5]

“’Prince Tobey, gentleman of Dartmouth,’ sold land in Rochester to Zaccheus Tobey, Jr., March 2, 1778.”^[6]

Prince Tobey appears as “private on muster and pay roll of Capt. Simeon Fish’s co., Col. Freeman’s regt., Sept. 1778; service on alarm at Dartmouth and Falmouth.”^[7] During this alarm, British raiders based in Rhode Island burned down the town. Presumably this is when Prince Tobey brought his family to Conway, where they lived in the Broomshire neighborhood in the northern part of the town.^[8]

Before Shays' Rebellion

Prince Tobey and his brother Noah were members of a 46-man committee from Conway in 1782 which “took a stand against the general government in the controversies which led to the Shays rebellion, and in April, 1782, voted ‘that the Interior Court, at its last sitting at Northampton, did go contrary to the orders of the General Court and the County Convention.’…

“This committee did service at Northampton as a element in the mob raised by Samuel Ely to disturb the sessions of the courts there, and later, when Ely was in prison at Springfield for that offense, Capt. Abel Dinsmore, of Conway, was arrested as one of the leaders of another mob, which sought to rescue him from durance vile. Still later, Capt. Dinsmore took a prominent and active part in raising men for Shays, and obtained not a few from Conway.”^[9]

“The great uprising among the discontented people of New England, commonly called the Shays rebellion, which occurred at the close of the war of the Revolution, has scarcely yet been given its proper place in history…Agitations began in Western Massachusetts as early as in the year 1781. The prime-mover in these first efforts to subvert the authority of the government was Samuel Ely. He had been for some years an irregular minister of the gospel at Somers, Conn. He was now suspended from his ministry and a resident of Hampshire Co., Mass. In the year 1781 conventions began to be held, principally upon the instigation of Ely, in Western Massachusetts, to consult upon the subject of grievances. These conventions were made up of delegates from several towns, and their action tended greatly to excite the spirit of rebellion.

“In the month of April, 1782, Ely succeeded in raising a mob at Northampton of sufficient force to disturb the holding of the Supreme Judicial Court and the Court of Common Pleas there. For his complicity in this disturbance Ely was arrested, indicted, and, pleading guilty upon trial, was sentenced to imprisonment at Springfield. Soon after, at a time when the people of the town were mostly absent, a mob assembled and set him at liberty. Capt. Densmore, Lieut. Paul King, and Lieut. P. Bardwell were arrested as ringleaders of the rescue, and put in jail at Northampton. Another mob of three hundred men gathered in Hatfield for the release of the ringleaders. The sheriff of the county, Gen. Elihu Porter, called out twelve hundred militia to protect the jail. The rioters sent a committee to Gen. Porter with a demand for the release of the three prisoners. Gen. Porter so far complied with their demand as to release the three men on parole, conditioned for the delivery of their bodies or that of Samuel Eli on demand of the General Court.

“The General Court treated this matter with a leniency that seemed to intensify rather than pacify the excited feelings of the populance.”^[10]

During this time of unrest, Prince Tobey was a representative from the town of Conway to the Massachusetts General Court in 1782, 1783 and 1785 (Conway didn’t send a representative in 1784).^[11] Prince Tobey was also a town selectman in 1781, 1782, 1785 and once more in 1802.^[12]

Later Years

Prince Tobey’s brothers Noah and Elnathan were members of the Baptist Church in neighboring Ashfield; they joined the Baptist Church in Conway at its founding in 1788. Prince Tobey may have been a member at Ashfield, too, or he may have been one of the original eight people baptized in October 1788 (whose names weren’t recorded).^[13] Prince Tobey was definitely an early member of the church, involved in the construction of the church building.^[14] In the first two months of the church’s existence, eight Tobeys were baptized, including Jane Tobey, presumably Prince’s wife.^[15]

"Capt. Prince Tobey" was listed in the 1790 census in Conway with two males over 16 (Prince and son Elijah), five males under 16 (sons Ezra, Elisha, Joseph, Benjamin and Prince), and seven females (wife Jane and daughters Deborah, Elizabeth, Jane, Sarah, Christiana, and Pamelia).^[16]

On 3 Nov. 1808 Prince Tobey deeded his farm to his son Benjamin for $300.^[17]

“Prince Tobey of Conway, in the county of Hampshire, made his will May 1, 1809; it was probated Sept. 11, 1810. He bequeathed to his wife Jane the improvement of one-third part of his homestead farm and buildings, all his household furniture, one horse, side-saddle, cutter, harness and a third part of his neat stock, to be used and improved by her during her life; the furniture to be then divided between his daughters. He bequeathed to his son Elijah and his daughters Deborah, Elizabeth and Sarah, one dollar each; and the same sum to each of his grandchildren, Pollisa, Richard, Jane and Cordelia Bond. To his sons Elisha and Prince $400 and all the land in Lot 67 in Conway which was owned by the late Ezra Tobey, deceased, to be divided between them. To daughters Christiana and Pamelia $200 apiece when they arrive at the age of 21. The remainder of the estate to his son Benjamin whom he appointed executor.”^[18]

Prince’s widow Jane accompanied her son Benjamin when he moved west to New York. She died 5 June 1837 and is buried at Forks Cemetery in York, Livingston Co., New York. The gravestone identifies her as the wife of “Capt. Prince Toby.”^[19]

Children

Children of Prince and Jane (Delano) Tobey^[20] :

1. Silas, b. 10 Oct. 1765; d. 21 Aug. 1769.

2. Elijah, b. 31 Jan. 1767; m. Sarah ---; lived in Ashfield; will proved 1822; no children.

3. Deborah, b. 22 May 1768; d. 1 Sept. 1768.

4. Deborah, b. 9 Mar. 1770; m. ---- Faxon; d. 1842.

5. Elizabeth, b. 22 May 1772; m. Rev. Josiah Goddard.

6. Zoeth, 28 May 1774; d. July 1774.^[21]

7. Jane, b. 26 Aug. 1775; m. 5 Mar. 1796 Consider Bond; d. 7 Jan. 1804.

8. Ezra, b. 8 Apr. 1777; d. 17 Mar. 1807.

9. Elisha, b. 22 Feb. 1779; m. (1) Mrs. Mary Ann Gambier; m. (2) Sophia Chapin Ferrey; of Springfield, Mass.; d. 29 June 1840.

10. Joseph (twin), b. 23 Jan. 1781; d. 22 Sept. 1800.

11. Benjamin (twin), b. 23 Jan. 1781.

12. Sarah, b. 27 May 1783; m. William Holloway. She died 4 May 1814 at Conway.^[22]

13. Prince, b. 22 Jan. 1785.

14. Christiana, b. 4 May 1787; d. 9 Sept. 1809.

15. Pamelia, b. 23 Mar. 1789; m. Cyrus Holloway of Sherburne.

Sources

1. ↑ Vital Records of Dartmouth, Massachusetts to the year 1850, vol. 1 – Births (Boston, 1929), p. 277.
2. ↑ Per Phyllis Schmeeckle's “Tobey Family History”, based on a transcript of Mary (Tobey) Laughlin's family Bible sent to her by Bessie (Tobey) Rasmussen. The marriage intention is recorded on August 2, 1764, per Vital Records of Dartmouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, vol. 2 – Marriages, p. 501.
3. ↑ The Tobey Genealogy (1905), by Rufus Babcock Tobey and Charles Henry Pope, p. 77.
4. ↑ The Tobey Genealogy, p. 77.
5. ↑ Per land record cited in The Tobey Genealogy, p. 77.
6. ↑ The Tobey Genealogy, p. 77.
7. ↑ The Tobey Genealogy, p. 77.
8. ↑ History of Conway, Massachusetts 1767-1917. ed. Rev. Charles Stanley Pease (1917), p. 35.
9. ↑ History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Vol. II (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1879), p. 874.
10. ↑ History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Vol. I (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1879), p. 75.
11. ↑ History of Conway (Massachusetts) 1767-1917, ed. Rev. Charles Stanley Pease (Springfield, Mass.: Springfield Printing and Binding Company, 1917), p. 69.
12. ↑ History of Conway, p. 87.
13. ↑ History of Conway, p. 136.
14. ↑ History of Conway, p. 139.
15. ↑ History of Conway, p. 137.
16. ↑ United States Census, 1790 at familysearch.org, accessed 2 Sept. 2015.
17. ↑ Per land record cited in The Tobey Genealogy.
18. ↑ The Tobey Genealogy, p. 77.
19. ↑ Photocopy of a gravestone card in the files of the Livingston County Historian’s office, sent to John Schmeeckle by Alberta Dunn of the Livingston County Historical Society.
20. ↑ All information, unless otherwise noted, from The Tobey Genealogy, the compilers of which appear to have had access to a family Bible record. Phyllis Schmeeckle's "Tobey Family History" independently gives much the same information.
21. ↑ Zoeth is listed simply as “a son” in The Tobey Genealogy with birth date and the notation that he died “35 days after.” His name and death date appear in Vital Records of Dartmouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, vol. 3 – Deaths, p. 74.
22. ↑ Per Franklin Herald, 24 May 1814.

See also Ancestral Memories: Prince Tobey and Jane Delano.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to John Schmeeckle for creating WikiTree profile Tobey-187 through the import of Tobey.ged on Dec 4, 2013.