Stephen Haviland (abt. 1764 - 1839)

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 2 Apr 1839 at about age 75 in Monmouth County, NJ

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Christopher Haviland [send private message] and Marilyn Current [send private message]

Biography

Birth & Parents

Stephen Haviland, son of Joseph Haviland & __?__, was born ca 1764. (Birth year calculated from his Gravestone in the early 1900's, which is now very faded.) ^{[1] [2]}

Corrections

• Genealogist Josephine C. Frost placed Stephen as the son of "Stephen B. and Zilpha Haviland" in The Haviland Genealogy (1914). (See 118m on p. 163.) ^[3] We believe this to be an error, as calculation of ages demonstrate. For example, Frost lists Archibald who married Sarah Tabor Parker as the son of Stephen & Rebecca Haviland. According to the 1850 Federal Census, Stephen was 60 years old in that year, giving us his birth in ca 1790. But Frost placed Stephen as the son of Stephen B. Haviland & Zilpha, and Stephen B. was born ca 1771. That would have made Stephen B. only 19 years old with a grandson named Archibald.
• Some researchers have mistaken his Gravestone as reading "aged 85" years, which coincidentally calculates a birth date that is close to a different Stephen Haviland (son of Stephen Haviland & Sarah Throckmorton, who was christened on 16 Jul 1753). ^[4]

Marriage

He married ca. 1789 to Priscilla Rebecca Haviland, a cousin. ^[3]

Children:

1. Archibald Haviland (b. 1790)
2. Rebecca Haviland (b. 1793; married White)
3. Elizabeth Haviland (b. ca 1793)
4. Louisa Haviland (b. 1797)
5. Joseph Haviland (b. 1801)

Life

Tax Records

• 1784 Stephen Haviland, Freehold Twp
• 1789 Stephen Haviland, Shrewsbury Twp
• 1793 Stephen Heaviland, Shrewsbury Twp
• 1794 Stephen Hevaland, Shrewsbury Twp
• 1795 Stephen Heaveland, Shrewsbury Twp
• 1796 Stephen Heyelon, Shrewsbury Twp
• 1797 Stephen Havelon, Shrewsbury Twp
• 1808 Stephen Heviln, Shrewsbury Twp

Death & Burial

He died ca 2 Apr 1839 (aged 75 years) and is interred in the Rumson Burying Ground, Monmouth County, NJ. ^{[1] [2]}

Research on "Four Stephen Havilands"

There are four Stephen Havilands (and possibly one or two others not accounted for) whose wives, parents, and/or children have been confused with one another in various secondary sources. They are:

• Haviland-36: Stephen Haviland
• Haviland-512: Stephen Heaviland
• Haviland-607: Stephen Haviland
• Haviland-611: Stephen B. Haviland (the most difficult)

One of the major challenges with New Jersey genealogy is that most Federal Census records prior to 1830 in New Jersey have been lost. While Wills and Tax Lists help, the census lists are among the most useful resources for establishing family units, and when there are multiple individuals with the same names living in the same area at the same time, some of them with similar children or parents, it becomes very confusing. Compounding the issue are erroneous transcriptions, assumptions that pass into secondary sources as "fact," and other human interventions which, while well meaning, pave the way for incorrect family trees by those who do not carefully study the data. Once "tradition" has been established, even if it has erroneous origins, it is very hard to change.

As a general rule, Primary Evidence (evidence recorded at the time of the event) trumps all other forms of evidence, but of course some Primary Evidence does not establish a relationship, just a person existing at a certain place and/or a certain time. In that case various Primary Evidences can be grouped to "prove" relationships, but this relies on logic (such as names of children, ages of children, date of marriage, names of executors on Wills, etc). In fact nothing can be really proven, but rather a theory develops with the highest degree of probability. Transcribed Primary Evidence is common amongst online researchers who must rely on indexes and sources that transcribe the Primary Evidence, and these can substitute for the original documents with the caveat that they could have introduced an error in the transcription. Secondary Evidence (research that was written long after the event, such as published genealogies) can be used in citations, but so much of this material does not properly cite Primary Evidence and is based on human assumption (based on dates, etc) that can be incorrect. While a lot of it might be right, especially if the book is written by a professional genealogist, it still must be accepted as opinion, and challenged by researchers if there are contradictions.

Another issue is that, for some reason, several New Jersey branches of the Havilands established for themselves (either accidentally or on purpose) a different official spelling of their surname. As in many documents that record surnames prior to the establishment of the first Dictionary of the English Language in 1755, the Haviland surname was spelled in variant ways, such as Hevelen, Heavilon, Havilin, Heaviland, Heviland and Heavilin. Most of the time, the names were written down by a third party who spelled them phonetically, not because they didn't know how to spell, but because our culture did not expect anyone to ask. (This offers us a glimpse into how the name might have been pronounced by an accent of the time.) There were no "official" spellings of a name except potentially amongst the family as they passed it down, and only then if they were literate. (Of course literacy was far less common than it is today, but a vast majority of the Haviland ancestry was literate and well educated, possibly due to its noble origins.)

The Haviland family were generally careful to keep the spelling of their name "official" as they passed it down, even if it was spelled differently in records. Historically they were armigerous bearers, meaning they were entitled to bear a Coat of Arms as granted by the Heralds of England or by Heraldic inheritance custom. But in some cases, especially during the time period leading up to and during the separation of the American colonies from Britain, variant spellings of the surname were adapted and passed down to become the official spelling. (Today, it is perfectly legal to decide on the own spelling of your surname, or even change your surname entirely, provided that spelling it is registered with the court. Technically surnames cannot be "misspelled.")

And so some New Jersey branches, for their own reasons, explored these variant spellings and held them in the official record. One reason could have to do with legal squabbles between various cousins that caused one or the other to "disassociate" themselves by changing their surname. We will never know for sure. For years this has caused some descendants to become confused as to their connection with the Haviland / de Havilland genealogy, however Y-DNA testing has validated without question that they are of the Guernsey de Havilland genealogy, and almost certainly descendants of William Haviland of Newport, RI. ^{[5] [6]}

Sources

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Gravestone, Stephen Haviland, Rumson Burying Ground.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Frost, Haviland, p. 57.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Frost, Haviland, p. 163.
4. ↑ Christ Church, Shrewsbury records.
5. ↑ The Haviland - de Havilland Heritage Society.
6. ↑ The Haviland - de Havilland Y-DNA Study

Documentation

• Primary:1793 Military Census, Shrewsbury Twp.
• Primary:Gravestone of Stephen Haviland, Rumson Burying Ground, Monmouth County, NJ.
• Primary:Tax Records, Freehold Township, NJ 1784
• Primary:Tax Records, Shrewsbury Township, NJ 1789-1808
• Secondary:Frost, Josephine C. The Haviland Genealogy : Ancestors and Descendants of William Haviland of Newport, Rhode Island, and Flushing, Long Island, 1653-1688 : with special records of the allied families of Field, Hull, Torrey, Willett-Willis. New York, NY: The Lyons Genealogical Co., 1914.