Ellen (French) Whitten (abt. 1800 - aft. 1854)

Born about 1800 in Newfoundland [uncertain]

Wife of William Whitten — married 26 Oct 1816 in St. John's, Newfoundland

Descendants

Died after 1 May 1854 after about age 54 in Newfoundland

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Biography

According to a family tree on Ancestry.com, Ellen (French) Whitten was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, around 1795. Records of her early life are scarce, but there is a record of her marrying William Whitten at the Roman Catholic Basilica, St John's, Newfoundland, on October 26, 1815. Presumably the estimated birth date of 1795 derives from assuming she was about twenty years old at the time of the marriage, but any time between 1790 and 1805 would be plausible, as her new husband is believed to have been in his early thirties at the time of the marriage, born about 1782, also in St. Johns.

The marriage record indicates that the witnesses were Patrick Welsh and Mary Hunt. The same page contains a marriage record for a James French, and there are many entries for people with the surname French in the St. John's Catholic church records around this time. It is likely that studying them would reveal more about about Ellen's family, including possibly the identity of her parents.

It is likely the French and Whitten families were of mixed Scottish or Irish and English (including Norman) ancestry. William Whitten's ancestors were primarily Anglicans, but his mother's side appears to have had some Presbyterians. Given their marriage in the Catholic Church, it seems likely that Ellen French was raised Catholic, and perhaps had some times to the French-Canadian culture.

Church records in Newfoundland and other records indicate that the Whittens had six children over sixteen years of marriage, all born in St. John's, including oldest son William Whitten (Jr.), later known as Captain William Whitten, who was born in 1818.

Jane Whitten, born about 1820, may have died in childhood, and the same is probably true of Ellen Whitten, born in 1829.

George F. Whitten (abt 1824-1894) married Maria Flynn in 1851 after relocating to Boston, where he died later died at about seventy years of age. The widow of his brother, Captain William Whitten, and most of the latter's children and grandchildren also relocated to Boston.

I have not been able to verify that John Whitten, born about 1832 in St. John's, was the son of William and Ellen, but a tree on Ancestry.com makes that claim, and it seems likely. John married Sarah Jane Moore in St. John's in 1859, and after having several children in St. John's, they relocated to Massachusetts, where John died in 1918, aged 86.

Ellen Whitten, later Ellen Alsop, who was born in 1829, married Robert Alsop and had two children before dying at the age of 34.

That the William and Ellen's last known child, Elizabeth, was born 40 years from 1795, suggests that this estimated birth date for Ellen is pretty accurate, but possibly a few years too late. Elizabeth died young, around age 19, in St. John's in 1854, and Ellen herself died there only about five years later, circa 1860, in her late 60s.

Most of the known Whitten descendants relocated to Boston and assimilated to the Irish-Catholic community centered in South Boston.

Note: The Newfoundland Church Records indicate that Ellen French Whitten was sometimes referred to as Eleanor French, Ellen Frasch, and Ellen Wetton/Whetton/etc., which may provide some clues as to how to find records about her early life.

Sources

• http://www.angelfire.com/blues2/jackiedavid/Families/W/RobertWhitten.html
• Public family tree maintained by descendant Kerry Ellard and associated Ancestry.com research.
• Ellen French in the Newfoundland, Church Records, 1793-1899.
• Marriage record for Ellen French and William Witten [Whitten] in the Newfoundland, Church Records, 1793-1899 .