Jabez Beers (1722 - 1777)

Born 1722 in Middletown, Monmouth, New Jersey, British Colonial America

Husband of Catherine (Monroe) Beers — married 1750 in Morristown, Morris, New Jersey

Descendants

Died 7 Apr 1777 at about age 55 in Morristown, Morris, New Jersey

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Bob Beers [send private message] and Jenn Howe [send private message]

Biography

The mystery of Jabez Beers' Parents

Mary Louise Reagan was descended from a Beers, and ended up authoring a six-volume Beers Genealogy over 22 years. She tackled the chore by geography, organizing early Beers in New England by the state in which their most distant Beers relative lived. She found most came from two men in Connecticut - so many that they took four of the six volumes to describe.

Only the fifth and sixth volumes have Beers not tied to those two Connecticut men, who, by the way, are two of the three men named in an 1882 article published by the New York Genealogy Society offering the story that the two Connecticut men were brothers, and the third man their uncle, all emigrating from a family in Kent, England. However, there was no evidence offered in the article.

Jabez Beers, our ancestor, is a lost Beers, not yet tied into any of the known major lines. He died in 1777 in Morristown, New Jersey of smallpox, during an epidemic. We know from his recorded death he was aged 55 - ergo, about 1722 was the year he was born. There are no records, and no records of any parents or siblings. Good records exist for his descendants, but those seeking to follow their family tree back beyond Jabez Beers can so far only speculate.

There are three "leading" theories amongst the tiny handful of descendants who follow this mystery:

Mary Louise Reagan seemed to tend toward a theory that our Jabez was descended from one of the Connecticut Beers, Anthony Beers of Fairfield. She was never able to find any proof, and tended to get a little testy with folks who sought to push it. Today, you'll see many family genealogists who have recorded Jabez Beers as Anthony's descendent (as presented on Wikitree today).

Mary Louise Regan on Nathan Beers as Jabez' father

Mary Louise Reagan wrote (in the first issue of her periodic Beers Genealogy newsletter published in January 1982, discussing her planned Volume 4 of what turned out to be six volumes of Beers Genealogy):

The oldest son of Barnabas Beers was Nathan Beers, b. Connecticut 1691, a resident of Middletown, Monmouth County, New Jersey by 1722. Earlier family historians tentatively assigned 5 sons to this Nathan Beers, but the only evidence yet found to verify any is a bible record for son Nathan Beers which was given to me by the late Miss Harriet Beers of Rahway, New Jersey. Nathan's descendants will be included (in Volume 4 of Beers Genealogy).

And they are. Included is mention of Jabez Beers, b. circa 1722, who lived in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey and died (from natural causes) as the Revolutionary War got underway. Mary Louise confessed doubts about him in Volume 4, and wrote of him in Volume 6, listing no parents.

A Second Theory

A second theory she posits is based on looking for other Beers with the same unusual first name who were older than Jabez Beers. Perhaps an earlier Beers with that name would end up related to the later Beers by that name. And sure enough, there's a perfect candidate:

A Jabez Beers was born in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1651, son to the emigrant Richard who settled there. At his death in Watertown, administration of his estate was granted to a nephew, a later Richard Beers, on 12 February 1724/25 and there is no indication that he left any children.

And with that, she dismissed that theory. What if she's wrong?

This Jabez Beers had two wives, and should have had children by at least one. They may have all preceded him in death, but they may easily have gotten old enough to have their own children. Perhaps our Jabez Beers is the grandson of this obscure, strangely dead-end Jabez Beers, through a father also named Jabez, as the older Jabez would be 71 when our Jabez was born.

MLR recounts her knowledge of Richard's descendants in Volume 1 of her set. Richard's seventh son was named Jabez, born in 1651. Here is what MLR wrote:

vii. JABEZ, b. 4 October 1651; d. probably 1724; married (1) at Boston 17 May 1694, ELIZABETH BARBER; married (2) ELIZABETH RUSH, b. Dorchester 24 October 1653, a daughter of Jasper and Elizabeth Rush. He is not known to have had any children and was probably not survived by a wife because the administration of his estate was granted to his nephew, Richard Beers, 17 February 1724/25.

His name appears on the list of Watertown men taking the oath of fidelity before Capt. Mason in December 1677. While nothing is known of his military career, he is referred to as Sgt. Jabez Beers in a town record of 1710. On 17 May 1698 he and his brother Richard sold to Samuel How, 300 acres of land in Marlborough, which, according to Bond, had been granted to Capt. Richard on 14 October1664. This was apparently the land finally granted to his heirs in 1682 or later, after many years of negotiations.

The Grantor Index of the Suffolk Co. Registry of Deeds shows the sale of lands in Dorchester and adjacent areas by Jabez and Elizabeth Beers in 1700, 1720, 1722 and 1742. These deeds have not been read and would probably contribute some additional material.

In 1714 Jabez Beers and his wife Elizabeth, sold land in Watertown to Joseph and Mary Shattuck. At this time Jabez Beers was referred to as a 'tailor'.

A Third Theory

MLR's third possibility is that he was a recent immigrant, and not related to any of the US Beers. As of 2019, two known paternal descendants of Jabez Beers (this author is one) have very close YDNA matches. Midyear, a third person with a Beers surname drew a match. He is related to one of the other "short-line" Beers in MLR's 5th volume. With that match, two of the unknown lines have been matched up, but there is still no YDNA match from any of the larger and older Beers lines in MLR's first four volumes.

And in the Second Ring...

In 2021, a descendent of Timothy Beers (1749-1825) did a DNA test that makes it very likely that he and the known Jabez Beers descendants share a common recent paternal ancestor.

1777 Death Name: Jabez BEERS, Age 55 Died: 7 April 1777 Place: Morris County, New Jersey, USA Bill of Mortality ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njmorris/cemeteries/bom/bill-b.htm

SECONDARY SOURCES:

• Ancestry Family Tree Ancestry Family Tree 72750903 (Paywall)

• Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=1152390&pid=-120351998 (Paywall)

• Regan, Mary Louise. The Beers Genealogy. Palentine, IL: Regan Genealogical Publishing, 1994. She references family records of Frank T. Beers III as the source for the lines of descent from Jabez Beers.

• Current bio maintained by Bob Beers.

Acknowledgements

This person was created through the import of Stout - Trask - Cowan .ged on 19 April 2011.