Elisabeth (Abrahams) Wetmore (1730 - 1808)

Born 15 Mar 1730 in Rye, Westchester, New York [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of James Wetmore — married 1757 in Rye, Westchester, New York Colony

Descendants

Died 22 Dec 1808 at age 78 in Hammond River, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Kim Mills [send private message]

Biography

Elisabeth (Abrahams) Wetmore has Dutch Ancestry

J. C. Wetmore's The Wetmore Family of America (1861) says the following about Elisabeth:

Mrs. Wetmore was the daughter of a Mr. Abrahams, a wealthy West India merchant. On a visit to New York, he became enamored of a daughter of a Mrs. Bush, who was a native of Holland, whom he married, which led him to settle in that city...

Wetmore (1861) further notes that "Mr. Abrahams" moved to Rye, Westchester County, New York following the loss of his business and fortune. There are some factors complicating this narrative, however. It is often stated online that Elisabeth was born in Rye, but a 1730 christening record exists for her in New York. It records an Elisabeth Abramse, daughter of Johannes Abramse and Elisabeth Bosch.^[1] If she had been born in Rye, her christening would have, for some unknown reason, taken place in New York. It is likely that sources claiming she was born in Rye are confusing her birthplace with the place she grew up, or her family's later residence there. Indeed, numerous christening records for her siblings are all from New York.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

Inaccuracies in Wetmore's account are revealed with an examination of Elisabeth's parents. Johannes Abramse (clumsily anglicized as "Abrahams" or "John Abrahamson") married Elisabet (or Elsebeth) Bosch, but both of them were from New York.^[8][9] Indeed, both were descended from New Netherland settlers of the 17th century, and Elisabet's mother ("Mrs. Bush") was actually Annetje, daughter of Hendrick Barentszen Smit, a New Netherland settler.

It is thought that Elisabeth married James Wetmore in 1746, when she would have been around 16. James would have been around 20. By this point, her family would presumably have been living in Rye, and the last known record of them in New York is from 1737, which is ten years earlier.^[7] James' father, the Rev. James Wetmore (1695 - 1760), was a Congregationalist-turned-Episcopalian minister from Connecticut (one of the "Yale Converts") who became the rector at Rye in 1726.^[10] This was only a few years before the territorial dispute between Connecticut and New York over Rye was decided in New York's favour, and Rye became a part of the Province of New York.^[11]

Elisabeth and James had the following children:

1. Abraham
2. Elizabeth
3. Susanna
4. John
5. Izrahiah
6. Charity
7. James
8. David Brown
9. Caleb
10. Alithea
11. Esther

Their youngest child, Esther, was born not long before the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. Indeed, only a month following Esther's birth, James, his brother Timothy, and James and Elisabeth's eldest son Abraham, signed the 1774 Rye Declaration, which pledged a general loyalty to the Crown and neutrality in "the disputes" which were ongoing. This preceded a number of later Loyalist declarations.

The close of the Revolutionary War saw a large number of Wetmores evacuating with other Loyalists in 1783 aboard a transport fleet bound for New Brunswick (then a part of the colony of Nova Scotia). This included James, Elisabeth, and their children.

Elisabeth's husband James died in 1798. Elisabeth died 10 years later, in 1808, aged 79.

Name

Elizabeth /Abrahams/

Name: Elizabeth

Abrahams^[12]

Birth

15 MAR 1730

Westchester, New York, United States^[13][14]

Marriage

1747

Rye, Westchester, New York, United States^[15][16]

1757

Rye, Westchester, New York, United States^[17]

Death

22 DEC 1808

Hammond River, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada^[18][19]

Obituary^[20]
Date December 22 1808
County Saint John
Place Saint John
Newspaper Times: or True Briton
d. Hampton Kings Co, age 79, Elizabeth widow of James WETMORE

Sources

1. ↑ "New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962", , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2HY-KBN : 14 February 2020), Elisabeth Abramse, 1730.
2. ↑ "New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FDRT-3JM : 14 February 2020), Annatje Abrams, 1728.
3. ↑ "New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2HY-FZ9 : 14 February 2020), Adriaan Abramse, 1727.
4. ↑ "New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962", , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2HB-MMM : 14 February 2020), Susanna Abramse, 1732.
5. ↑ "New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962", , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2HY-ZX2 : 14 February 2020), Johannes Abrahamse, 1734.
6. ↑ "New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2HB-HFP : 14 February 2020), Maria Abrahamssze, 1737.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} "New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962", , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2HY-5SW : 14 February 2020), Rebecca Abrahamssze, 1737.
8. ↑ "New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2HY-CS9 : 14 February 2020), Johannis Abrahamse, 1703.
9. ↑ "New York Births and Christenings, 1640-1962", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2HY-QB7 : 14 February 2020), Elsebeth Bosch, 1703.
10. ↑ Wetmore, James
11. ↑ Rye History
12. ↑ Source: #S15 Page: Birth year: 1727; Birth city: Rye; Birth state: NY. Note: http://search.ancestry.ca/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=genepool&h=2740108&ti=5543&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: 19 December 1727Birth place: Rye, Westchester, NYDeath date: 1798Death place: Hammond River, New Brunswick, CanadaMarriage date: 1757Marriage place: Rye, Westchester Co, NY
13. ↑ Source: #S15 Page: Birth year: 1727; Birth city: Rye; Birth state: NY. Note: http://search.ancestry.ca/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=genepool&h=2740108&ti=5543&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: 19 December 1727Birth place: Rye, Westchester, NYDeath date: 1798Death place: Hammond River, New Brunswick, CanadaMarriage date: 1757Marriage place: Rye, Westchester Co, NY
14. ↑ Source: #S138 Page: Birth year: 1727; Birth city: Rye; Birth state: NY. Note: http://search.ancestry.ca/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=genepool&h=2740108&ti=5543&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: 19 December 1727Birth place: Rye, Westchester, NYDeath date: 1798Death place: Hammond River, New Brunswick, CanadaMarriage date: 1757Marriage place: Rye, Westchester Co, NY
15. ↑ Source: #S15 Page: Birth year: 1727; Birth city: Rye; Birth state: NY. Note: http://search.ancestry.ca/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=genepool&h=2740108&ti=5543&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: 19 December 1727Birth place: Rye, Westchester, NYDeath date: 1798Death place: Hammond River, New Brunswick, CanadaMarriage date: 1757Marriage place: Rye, Westchester Co, NY
16. ↑ Source: #S138 Page: Birth year: 1727; Birth city: Rye; Birth state: NY. Note: http://search.ancestry.ca/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=genepool&h=2740108&ti=5543&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: 19 December 1727Birth place: Rye, Westchester, NYDeath date: 1798Death place: Hammond River, New Brunswick, CanadaMarriage date: 1757Marriage place: Rye, Westchester Co, NY
17. ↑ Source: #S15 Page: Birth year: 1727; Birth city: Rye; Birth state: NY. Note: http://search.ancestry.ca/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=genepool&h=2740108&ti=5543&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: 19 December 1727Birth place: Rye, Westchester, NYDeath date: 1798Death place: Hammond River, New Brunswick, CanadaMarriage date: 1757Marriage place: Rye, Westchester Co, NY
18. ↑ Source: #S15 Page: Birth year: 1727; Birth city: Rye; Birth state: NY. Note: http://search.ancestry.ca/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=genepool&h=2740108&ti=5543&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: 19 December 1727Birth place: Rye, Westchester, NYDeath date: 1798Death place: Hammond River, New Brunswick, CanadaMarriage date: 1757Marriage place: Rye, Westchester Co, NY
19. ↑ Source: #S138 Page: Birth year: 1727; Birth city: Rye; Birth state: NY. Note: http://search.ancestry.ca/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=genepool&h=2740108&ti=5543&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: 19 December 1727Birth place: Rye, Westchester, NYDeath date: 1798Death place: Hammond River, New Brunswick, CanadaMarriage date: 1757Marriage place: Rye, Westchester Co, NY
20. ↑ Daniel F. Johnson : Volume 1 Number 966 http://archives.gnb.ca/Search/NewspaperVitalStats/Details.aspx?culture=en-CA&guid=C023C7B2-BB6D-409E-B568-E41BDC4166D8

• Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 17 April 2020), memorial page for Elizabeth Abraham Wetmore (15 Mar 1730–20 Dec 1809), Find A Grave: Memorial #144961592, citing Acadian Loyalist Cemetery, French Village, Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada ; Maintained by KAREN LOVY (contributor 47428524) .
• Source: S140 Abbreviation: Jackson, Ronald V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, Title: Jackson, Ronald V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp., New York Census, 1790-1890 (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.Original data - Compiled and digitized by Mr. Jackson and AIS from microfilmed schedules of the U.S.
• Source: S17 Abbreviation: New York Census, 1790-1890 Title: Jackson, Ronald V., Accelerated Indexing Systems, comp., New York Census, 1790-1890 (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.Original data - Compiled and digitized by Mr. Jackson and AIS from microfilmed schedules of the U.S. Federal Decennial Census, territorial/state censuses, and/or census substitutes.Orig)

See also:

• FamilySearch Person: K67L-997

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Abrahams-97 created through the import of HeacockRonald1935Asc.ged on Jul 12, 2012 by Ronald Heacock.
• WikiTree profile Abrahams-98 created through the import of marsh.ged on Aug 8, 2012 by Ronald Heacock.
• WikiTree profile Abrahams-130 created through the import of Mills.ged on Jan 14, 2013 by Kim Mills.