Genealogy Story – James Pierpont Siblings and Cousins

I’ve written before about my great*7 grandfather, James Pierpont, and his family, i.e. his many children (http://ramblinrussells.blogspot.com/2017/02/genealogy-story-james-pierpont.html). He is the ancestor of the majority of those who are part of the Pierpont Family Association and his long association with New Haven, CT, and being the principal founder of what is now Yale University are the reasons why the PFA still meets every year in that part of Connecticut. But James, who was born in 1659, was not the first Pierpont to settle in America. That honor goes to his father, John Pierpont and his uncle Robert Pierpont who both came to America in about 1640. So I thought it might be interesting to report on them and James’ siblings and cousins. Those in bold were males who had children and so could have passed on the family name.

John (1617-12/7/1682) – initially settled in Ipswich, MA, later Roxbury, married Thankful Stow who had come to America with her family in 1634, they had 11 children:

·       Thankful (11/26/1649-12/16/1649) – died at age 20 days

·       John (7/22/1651-7/28/1651) – died at age 6 days

·       John (10/28/1652-12/30/1690) – died in Roxbury, never married

·       Experience (2/4/1654-1698) – married to Jon Hayward, had 6 children

·       Anne (8/4/1657-8/9/1657) – died at age 5 days

·       James (1/4/1659-11/22/1714) – went to Harvard, moved to New Haven, CT, married 3 times, had 9 children

·       Ebenezer (12/21/1660-12/16/1696) – married to Mary Ruggles, had 3 children

·       Jonathan (-10/23/1663) – died young

·       Thankful (11/18/1663-7/11/1664) – died at age 8 months

·       Joseph (8/8/1666-2/25/1686) – died in Cambridge, never married

·       Benjamin (7/26/1668-1/3/1698) – went to Harvard, died in Charleston, SC, never married

Robert (1621-5/16/1694) – married Sarah Lynde, they had 13 children:

·       James (11/30/1657-11/30/1657) – died at birth

·       Margaret (3/13/1659-3/24/1659) – died at age 11 days

·       Margaret (3/14/1661-3/28/1661) – died at age 14 days

·       Jonathan (11/8/1663-10/23/1663) – died at age 15 days

·       Jonathan (6/11/1665-6/3/1709) – went to Harvard, married to Elizabeth Angier, had 8 children

·       Thomas (7/7/1667-1690) – died in Canada, never married

·       Ezra (7/30/1669-10/10/1669) – died at age 2 months

·       Sarah (11/29/1671-11/29-1671) – died at age 1 day

·       Margaret (4/30/1673-7/23/1713) – married Benjamin Swayne, had 10 children

·       James (10/28/1675-10/14/1676) – died at age 1 year

·       James (8/27/1677-12/4/1721) – married twice, had 6 children

·       Robert (12/31/1678-2/2/1679) – died at age 1 month

·       Sarah (5/24/1680-aft. 1745) – married Gershom Davies, had 3 children

Of the 24 children that John and Robert had between them, 13 died as infants and 4 died without being married or having children. While I had always understood that dying at a young age was more common in those days, these statistics put some faces to that fact. Of the remaining 7 children, 3 were girls who would not carry on the Pierpont name. Only James (my ancestor), his brother Ebenezer, and his cousins Jonathan and James had offspring to carry on the Pierpont name in America. There were other family members back in England, but they still had the Pierrepont family name.

The family of James has been reported on extensively. Let’s look at him as well the other three who had families who could have carried on the Pierpont name.

James

·       Abigail – married Joseph Noyes, had 9 children

·       James – married twice, had 5 children (all boys)

o   Evelyn, Robert, James, David, William

·       Samuel – died at age 23 without having married

·       Mary – married William Russell, had 9 children

·       Joseph – married Hanna Russell, had 12 children (2 died young, 4 girls, 6 boys)

o   Samuel, Joseph, James, Benjamin, Giles, Hezekiah

·       Benjamin – died at age 5 months

·       Benjamin – died at age 28 without having married

·       Sarah – married Jonathan Edwards, had 11 children

·       Hezekiah – married Lydia Hemingway, had 2 children (1 unmarried)

o   John

Ebenezer

·       John – married, no children

·       Ebenezer – went to Harvard, headmaster at Roxbury Latin, married twice, had 12 children (4 died young or without children, 3 girls, 5 boys)

o   Ebenezer (ancestor of Samuel Pierpont Langley, astronomer), Benjamin, William, Nathaniel, Joseph

·       Mary – never married

Jonathan

·       Elizabeth – married Tobijah Perkins, had 2 children

·       Jonathan – went to Harvard, married but had no children

·       Sarah – married Enoch Sawyer, had 8 children

·       Thomas – went to Harvard, never married

·       Anna – married twice, had 2 children

·       Joseph – never married

·       Mary – married Jonathan Bancroft, had 2 children

·       Edward – died at age 20 of smallpox, no children

James

·       Thomas – married twice, had 10 children (7 girls, 3 boys)

o   Thomas, Jonathan, Joshua

·       Robert – married twice, had 4 children (3 girls, son died without children)

·       Sarah – married Joshua Davis, several children

·       Joseph – married, moved to Nova Scotia, had 2 children (1 girl, 1 boy)

o   Joseph

·       Abigail – married Ebenezer Newell, no known children

·       James – married Sarah Dorr, 3 children (1 girl, 2 boys)

o   Joseph, James

Again, the majority of these died young, had no children, or were female and thus did not carry on the family name. But despite this, by having such large families, the number of males carrying on the family name through these four generations still was increasing – from 2 to 4 to 7 to 23.  But 12 of the 23 in the fourth generation were grandchildren of my great*7 grandfather, James, which is why so many of the current members of the PFA trace their family line back to him.