Edward Sears (1778 - 1831)

Born 25 Apr 1778 in Dighton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Jemima (Root) Potter — married 19 Mar 1806 (to 10 Jun 1831) in Connecticut

Descendants

Died 10 Jun 1831 at age 53 in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, United States

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Biography

EDWARD SEARS, son of CAPT. ALDEN SEARS and PHEBE WALKER; born at Dighton, Massachusetts, on 25 April 1778; died at Cincinnati, Ohio, on 10 June 1831.^[1]

He married in Connecticut,^[2] 19 March 1806, JEMIMA ROOT, daughter of Solomon and Jemima (Stiles) Root; born Connecticut, 17 October 1787, but her birth was recorded in Strafford Township, Orange County, Vermont;^[3] died in Oregon on 30 August 1876.^[4] She was married (2) by J.W. Robinson, J.P., in Clermont County, Ohio, 29 May 1833, to Rev. Matthias Potter,^[5] born in New Jersey, 1777/8. He died before 1860, when Jemima was a widow living in her son Rev. Arthur E. Sears’s household.^[6]

On 4 March 1807 Edward Sears of Bristol, County of Ontario, yeoman, sold land situated in Pittstown, New York, part of lot no. 2, 81 acres, to Ebenezer of the same place for $600. Edward and his wife Jemima both signed the deed, which was sealed and delivered in the presence of Nathaniel Fisher, Jr., and Jemima Sears. The transaction was not completed in 1807, however: “State of New York—on the ninth day of June 1810 before me came Jemima Sears who acknowledged that she executed this Indenture freely & without any fear or compulsion of her husband on being examined by me separately and apart from her husband also came Nancy Lyon to me known on oath before me made identified the said Jemima. I therefore allow the same to be recorded, Ebenr F. Norton Master in Chancery.” Myron Holley, Clerk, reported that he had recorded “a true copy of the original 9th June 1810 at 5 oclock P.M.”^[7]

In 1810, Edward and Jemima were living in Livonia Township, Ontario County, New York, neighboring Solomon, Jonathan, Ornon, and Oliver Root.

CHILDREN

Children of Edward and Jemima (Root) SEARS:[^[8]

• i. HIRAM SEARS, b. Oswego Co., NY, 18 Mar. 1807; m. SARAH LEMON.
• ii. PHILO SEARS, b. 11 Feb. 1809, Oswego Co., NY; m. MRS. JULIA A. (______) CLINE.
• iii. IRA SEARS, b. Oswego Co., NY, 29 Dec. 1810; m. AMANDA MELVINA STOCKTON. He was possibly born in Ontario Co.; look at the census above.
• iv. [REV.] ASAHEL PARKER SEARS, b. Ontario Co., NY, 1 June 1816; m. ELEANOR HALL.
• v. JULIA ANN SEARS, b. Cincinnati, Ohio, 29 Dec. 1819; m. (1) DANIEL G. PUMPELLY/POMPELLY; m. (2) CHARLES LYLE.
• vi. [REV.] ARTHUR ELLIOTT SEARS, b. at Walnut Hills, near Cincinnati, Ohio, 6 June 1823; m. (1) JULIA ARNESSA HAWKINS; m. (2) ELIZA E. DEFRANCE.
• vii. ANSON SEARS, b. Cincinnati, 18 Jan. 1826; d.y. (probably before the 1830 census).

Sources

1. ↑ May, Descendants of Richard Sares (Sears), 199.
2. ↑ It seems more likely that they married in New York.
3. ↑ Her birth was recorded there, but so many other sources say she was born in Connecticut (including two censuses taken when she was alive: 1850 and 1860) that it seems reasonable to conclude she was born in one place and recorded in another. There are plenty of precedents. Strafford Town Records, III, 28. May, Descendants of Richard Sares (Sears), 199. It is important to notice that May supplied the same dates for Jemima (Root) Sears as those from completely unrelated sources—he probably never saw the entry for her birth in the town records of Strafford, Vermont; clearly, May’s information was communicated by reliable and well-informed descendants of Jemima herself.
4. ↑ “Rev. Arthur Elliot Sears, Wright’s Station, Santa Cruz Mountains,” transcribed by Kathy Sedler, Pen Pictures from The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, ed. H.S. Foote (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1888), 300, on “The Valley of Heart’s Delight,” santaclararesearch.net (2009), at http://www.mariposaresearch.net/santaclararesearch/SCBIOS/aesears.html.
5. ↑ Marriage Records of Clermont Co., Ohio, 1800-1850, 195 [2: 477 in original].
6. ↑ [Roberts, Strafford Records]; Cs. 1850: Miami Twp., Clermont Co., Ohio 974; Cs. 1860: p.o. Milan, 1299; Cs. 1870: Elk Twp., McDonald Co., Mo.
7. ↑ Ontario Co. Deed Book 14: 457.
8. ↑ May, Descendants of Richard Sares (Sears), 199-200.

• May, Samuel. The Descendants of Richard Sares (Sears) of Yarmouth, Mass., 1638-1888 (Joel Munsell's Sons, 1890) Page 119No 416

• Edward Sears household, 1810 U.S. census, Livonia Township, Ontario Co., NY, p. 740, line 24 [between Sol. Root at line 21, Jona Root line 22, and Ornon (line 25) & Oliver Root (line 26) on the other]—2 free white males under 10 (Hiram & Philo), 1 fwm 26-45 (Edward); 1 free white female 10-16 (Jemima: apparently, a census taker’s error; Jemima was 23 and should have been in the next column).