John Clover of Connecticut and New York was born
before 1755 according to the 1800 census when he and his wife were over
45. We don't have sure ages for William Clover or we might have a
better idea when they married. I have suspected that he was born
1776 because his brother, John Clover, was born ca. 1778. William
was the first to marry before 1800. Various guesses here have
John and wife married ca. 1775 or thereabouts.
Likewise, we do not have a death
date for either of them. However, John and an older female were
in the 1820 census in Oneida County, so presumably both were stil
alive. Although the Greene County History refers to a Clover male
who died of freezing, they cannot be our John Clover because he moved
to Oneida. I don't know who that might be.
1782-1788
Our earliest
records of John Clover are in
Connecticut. I found them by searching the deed records. It has been my
experience that deed records can be more
helpful that one might casually assume. Since I had run
low on early evidence in regards to the John Clover family of
Connecticut, I decided to do some deed browsing. I thought that even a
tidbit of information on this family would be welcome.
Since the earliest place where we are
sure he was
living was Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut in the 1790
census, I checked this area first. In Connecticut, records
are
kept by town. Middlesex County was not formed until 1785 from portions
of Hartford and New Loudon Counties. The town of Durham is also in
Middletown.
Middletown, Connecticut Deed Book 22:
414-5,
FHL microfilm 4802: 16 January 1782, James Bartlit of Middletown, sold
½ acre of land, for £3 to John Clover of
Middletown. The
land was described as being in triangular form, in the town of
Middletown and in the Parish of Middlefield, easterly on Jonathan
[illegible Tum~~] land southerly on highway and Westerly on "my own
land." The deed was signed by James Bartlit, in the presence of Philip
Mortimer and Sarah Camp.
Middletown, Middlesex County,
Connecticut Deed Book
29: 13, FHL
4806: 11 February 1788, John Clover sold a lot in the Parish of
Middlefield, Town of Middleton, to Hezekiah Johnson, for £35
pounds containing about ½ acre, same land he had of James
Bartlit together with a dwelling.
No mention is made of a dwelling in the
1782 deed so
he may have built a house on the land, and that is why he sold it for
so much more. It would have been unusual not to mention the
dwelling on the first deed if there was one. I was
disappointed
to see that John’s wife did not sign the deed.
Unfortunately, Connecticut did not require the signature of the wife at
this time. Many of the deeds did include the wife, but not
all of
them. The important item here is that we know exactly where
the
family was living during those years. And since John was described as
being of Middletown when he purchased the land, he was living in the
same area before he bought the land. This is also the first time that I
have seen Middletown as his residence.
We can draw few conclusions from these
deeds except
that he was living there. I did note that the date of 1782 is
towards the end of the American Revolution. This fuels some
speculation in my mind as to why he bought land and started building a
house in 1782. He had at least two children by then. There
are no
later deeds for any Clovers in the county which gives us no
reason
to believe that he
remained in Connecticut very long after the 1790 census was taken.
I am told that the 1782 purchase price
was pretty
normal for a piece of town land with no dwelling. So I don't think
anything can be deduced from the difference between the purchase and
sale price. Since he sold the land in 1788 and was still living in the
area in 1790, I wonder where he was living. If anyone has the deeds
nearby I still think that they should be checked to see if it is a
normal price.
1790
In 1790, the family left two records. The first was the 1790
Connecticut census.
John Clover Middlesex County, CT page 88
Middletown 01 04 02 00 00
[1 Free white male over 16/4 under 16//2 free white females//0 other
free persons// 0 slaves]
This particular census shows the four boys who were baptized, the
father, the mother and a daughter who was probably born after the
baptism and before the census.
Children
of John Clover
On
27 April 1790, 4 of the
children of John Clover were
baptized.
Christ's Church, Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut
This scan
is a copy of a
church record from the Holy Trinity Protestant Episcopalian Church in
Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticu, which was originally
named Christ's Church when it was formed in 1750.
The other
name was adopted in 1858. The copy was sent to
me from the Connecticut State Library. Consequently, the following
numbers apply only to their system. The page was on LH 4097,
4217-4218, roll 76 according to what was written on the page.
This
church record is of special
interest to descendants of New York Clovers. John, William, Frederick,
and Colley Clover, the children of John Clover were baptized on 27
April 1790. The sponsors were the parents and John Wetmore.
These
children all turn up in New York records although some move on to other
places.
Please note that this is a baptismal date, not a
birth
date. I
keep receiving information that all four of these children were born on
17 April 1790. This is not correct.
This
particular entry deserves
some consideration. The first thought is, of course, why is no mother
listed? Mothers are listed for most of the other children.
The
sponsors for the Clover children are
“Parents and John Wetmore.” Since this
says parents,
one has to assume that the mother was alive if not there. It is odd
that all of
these children are baptized at the same time. One possible
reason
is that the family members were converts from another
religion.
An expert
in Connecticut research suggested to me that they might have been
German or Dutch Catholics converting. I thought this sounded great
until I realized that the parents were sponsors. The parents
would have been included in the baptism if this was a conversion.
Sponsors are normally church members. Clearly, the reason for the
multiple baptism is something else and I do not know what it is. The
identity of John Wetmore is unknown but there is a John
Wetmore living close to
John Clover in the 1790 census and he may be associated with the church
in some way.
The 1790 CT census shows John Clover in Middletown, Middlesex County,
CT page 88 and there is a John Wetmore, II on page 89.
My most recent
theory on why the
mother is not there has to do with her daughter Betsey Clover who was
born shortly after this baptism. The mother may not have been
able to attend church due to an illness associated with the
pregnancy. This still does not explain why all were baptized
together.
The records from Christ's Church/Holy
Trinity Protestant
Episcopalian Church
in
Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut have
been microfilmed by
the LDS Church. They are available on microfilms 4841 through
4846. The early baptisms are all on roll 4841. I
ordered this, and laboriously looked at every page of it.
There were absolutely no other Clovers. There was
one set of
data which were interesting. Item no. two in the volumes was
Christenings from July 1764 to November 1790. This is the same set of
records which includes the christenings of William, John, Frederick and
Colly.
On page 16 of this record there was another multiple
baptism: Sunday, 17 July 1768, Christened: Cornelia, William,
Tobias, John, children of William Clever.
At one point I hoped that these
would have a Clover connection. And in fact, the names in this
family show up with numerous spellings. It is possible that they
are connected to John Clover, but right now the evidence suggests
otherwise. I found a Baptism for what I think is this same family
where John was born in 1761, way too late to be our John.
1795-1820
I was recently sent all this lovely material on tax records. We
have from 1799 to 1803. They
are from https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nygreen2/ They are very
important to researchers of this family. Remember
that William and John Clover junior probably married in Greene County.
This gives us more information about the families in the area.
About 95% of the time, young people married others who were neighbors
or church members. The rest of the time, it was a relative
visiting a neighbor or church member. Draw a circle with a 30
mile diameter around where one was living and you will usually find the
home of
the other. Traveling long distances was just too hard.
The 1799 lists John as the
possessor of 288 acres of land. The 1801 tax record
suggests that John Clover was the possessor of some land, ie, perhaps
renting the land. The land was owned by a Carpenter who was apparently
not a resident. In 1802, it is owned by Carpenter Heirs. Note he
is the
only Clover on the list in 1801. So if any of his sons were
married, they
did not have their own household yet. The real estate was
valued
at $658.
I find it interesting that John
Clover sold his land in Connecticut and moved to New York and did not
buy land. It suggests that hard times had hit him for one reason or
another. It might be interesting to read about the times to see if
there was some depression. If you note the real estate records of
Greene County below, his sons
did shortly own land.
1802 Possessor, owner, value of Real Estate, value of personal property
[blank], tax $1.13
In the 1803 tax record, John Clover
junior is also listed so presumably he was now in his own
residence. I think that non resident means that the owner of the
land John
was on was a non-resident. We need to keep an eye open for more of
these tax records. I didn't know they still existed.
1800 John Clover Greene, NY page
1096
Freehold 02201-00101
[two males 10-16/2 males 16-25/ one male over 45/1 female 16-26, 1
female over 45]
1810 John Clover Greene NY
page 326
Windham
00101-00001 [Indexed as John C. Lauer]
[1 male 16-26/1 male over 45/1 female over 45] [The young man is
probably Cornelius Clover who joined up in the war of 1812 from
Oneida Co.]
http://oneida.nygenweb.net/
1814 Westmoreland, Oneida
County, New York list of owners of land
Claver, Collins
Claver, John
Claver, John Jr.
Claver, William
The
letters o and a are very very difficult to differentiate in this early
writing. I have not seen the list myself but I feel quite
sure
from the names that these are our Clovers.
1820 John Clover
Oneida
NY
213
Westmoreland 000001-00001-0000
[Living next to Collins Clover]
[1 male over 45/1 female over 45]
This 1820 census is the last time I can be reasonably sure that a John
Clover record belonged to John Clover sr. The problem is
that his son John
and a John/Jonathon from the Nicolas Claver line live in the same area.
We do not know his date of death. The
1814 Oneida
County tax list has a John and a John junior so we can be pretty sure
he was still alive then and that he had moved with his sons to Oneida
County from Greene County by 1814. Cornelius Clover stated in
his
application for a pension for the War of 1812, that his original
discharge papers were thought to have been lost in the burning of his
father's house. He did not give a date or place for that
event.
He was discharged in 1813.
I have only located two references to the Clover family in the Greene
County history books:
F. A. Galt, Dear Old Greene County
[New York], (Catskill, New
York, 1915),
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nygreen2/dear_old_greene_county_section_9.htm
The comment seems to have been taken in part fom the Beers Book which
was published much earlier.
"West Durham was settled by John Clover, William Rood, and Captain
Daniel Shepherd. Clover was frozen to death while taking food to his
family."
This is a Conundrum.
The statement in the Greene
County History
that a Mr. Clover froze while going for food for his family raises
some questions.
Clearly, whoever this was, it was not our John Clover senior if
he
moved
to Oneida and was still living there in 1820. If the John Clover
in the 1820 census is not our John Clover, who on earth was he?
History of Durham and its Early Settlers
Extracted from J. B. Beers and Co, History
of Greene County, published in 1884, pages 260-274 by
Celeste MacCormack
Page 270: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nygreen2/beers_early_settlement_durham.htm
West Durham was settled by a number of Connecticut
people in 1790-7. Some of them did not remain long, and have left only
their names. There was a Mr. Clover who settled on the south part of E.
E. Newman’s farm, who froze to death in trying to carry
provisions home to his family; also a Mr. Rood and Captain Daniel
Shepherd, and probably others whose names are forgotten. Benjamin
Hubbard, sen., settled on the farm belonging to William McLean. His
native place was Haddam, Connecticut, where he was born in 1761. He had
a large family of children, and his descendants are widely scattered.
He was active in the church, was a deacon, and was much respected. He
died in 1853, aged 92 years.
There is a lot of information on this
page about various early settlers of the area who were surely friends
and neighbors of John Clover. There is a note about Augustus Shue.
His son, Mathew Shue, married Betsy Clover, daughter of John
Clover. Note that he moved to Onondaga County, New York and is buried
there.
Augustinus Shue probably came to this town in 1782,
and settled on the flat lands near the Field homestead, and finally
where William Baldwin lives. His wife was Maria Merkel. He also held
slaves and was quite wealthy. He had, or claimed to have, a patent of
several hundred acres in the vicinity and sold the right of soil to
many of the settlers. Roswell (or Rozel) Post, for instance, bought his
farm of him, for L1 6s. 5d. per acre. But many of the settlers resisted
his claims, and the result was the commencement of a tedious and costly
litigation in the Supreme Court, which resulted unfavorable for Mr.
Shue. He finally sold his farm and left the town in quite reduced
circumstances. He had a son Peter Shue, who lived where H. B. Kirtland
now does. He, too, removed out of town, so that for many years there
have been no representatives of this family residing here.
Page 39: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nygreen2/beers_history_of_greene_county_outline_of_greene_county.htm
CENSUS OF 1810.
The
manuscript “cencus" of 1810, the earliest census of Greene county
existing among its records, is now in a dilapidated condition, and
within a few years will probably become illegible, and beliving [sic]
that a list of the names of those who were heads of families at that
early period will be of much interest to future generations, we copy it
entire. This list contains the names of all white persons, heads of
families, at that time living in the towns of this county as they then
existed, with the number of persons in each family, not including
colored servants or slaves.
Under the town of Windham, the list includes John
Clover with 3 persons in his household.
Note that this
is a copy of the 1810 census which is well known to us and is luckily
not alphabetized. If you go to look at the original, John
Clover is indexed as John C Laur. We know that this is John Clover
senior from the age. John Clover junior was already in Oneida County.
I have been wondering about the neighbors of John. This is from
an old manuscript copy of the census in the courthouse. Since it
is easier to read, I have copied the names which are close to the name
of John Clover. I have compared the names on the page
of the published version and this is not exactly the same. I
don't know why. This is not all the names in this list of
Windham, just the ones closest to John Clover.
John Barber 3, John Barber jr. 5,
Jeseman Smith 8, Aaron Clafland 5, Nathaniel Lewis 6, Henry J. Brandow
12, Amos Cooke 6, John Hensen 9, John Groat 7, Jonathan Preston 10,
Samuel Brandow 6, Russel Gladden 7, Amaziah Doolittle 3, Ezekial Tuttle
8, Samuel Tuttle 2, Nathan Osborn 15, Benjamin ---------- 6, David
Freng 8, Stephen Freng 4, Joses Munson 8, Ira Smallen 5, John Smallen
6, Eben Osborn 8, John Clover 3, William Johnson 5, Henry Davis 6, Elum
French 11, Orrin Cole 3, Sylvester Andres 5, Gad Andrews 3, Elnathan
Munroe 5, Jason Peck 3, Nathan White 7, Silas S. Fordham 4, Abijah
Wolcott 11, Asa Richmond 5, Nathaniel Butler 10, Asahel Crandell 3,
Bostwick Tuttle 10, John Fraer 5, John Sneathen 8, Solomon Wolcott 10,
Enoch Blakesley 8, Silas Lewis 11, Esther Brunson 7, Zachariah Cayill
9, Josiah Chatfield 7, Enos Osborne 6, John Rice 6, Abel Blakeley 3,
Benjamin Blakeley 3, Smith Palmer 4, John Stedman jr. 7
This is the US. Census Bureau version of the 1810 census copied from
Ancestry. You can see why he is indexed as John C. Laur.
We have
records for this family in Windham, in Freehold, in Durham.
Durham was named after the town in Middlesex County,
Connecticut
because so many people came to the area from there. The
several
towns always confused me. After looking at these maps, I
realize
that they didn't move. This is another case of the boundaries moving
around them. This was originally published in Greene Genes,
which is the newsletter for the local society. One of the
people
who is very involved with it, checked the indexes in all the issues for
Clovers for me.
Greene, Albany and several other counties of interest.
Deed
Searches in Greene County, New
York
We cannot be sure
exactly when this
group moved to Freehold, in Greene County, New York.
I
printed part of an article on this area in a previous
issue. “West Durham was settled by a number of CT
people in
1790-1797. A Mr. Clover located on the southern part of E. E.
Newman’s farm and froze to death trying to carry provisions
home
to his family.“ There is no further information nor is there
a
date for this tidbit. The town was originally called Freehold, but the
name was changed to Durham in 1805. It was changed because so
many settlers had come from Durham, Middlesex County, Connecticut.
(1)
The problem with this comment is that
John Clover
moved to Oneida County before the census in 1820. So this Mr.
Clover is not our John and I have no idea if he is a
Clover unknown to us or
a Glover or what.
We could reasonably assume that John
Clover came
to the area between 1790 and 1797, before Greene
County had been formed from Albany and Ulster Counties. The first
tax list that has been found for Greene County was for 1799. He
is listed on this tax list.
Cornelius
Clover,
the youngest son, is always said to have been born in New York.
According to his bible record, Cornelius was born in March 1794.
All
of his census records, all of the county history articles, all of the
family records have him born in New York. So I think that
they
may
have moved from Connecticut to New York between 1790 and 1794. If
Greene County had not yet been formed, they could appear in records of
Albany or Ulster Counties. I mention this because I have not
searched Ulster
County and I don't think that I totally searched Albany between 1790
and 1800. It would be interesting to see early tax records or
something like that. I believe that we ought to search every area
in which we believe an ancestor lived. We just don't know what
we will find until we look.
I searched the
deed records in Greene County,
New York, where we know that John Clover and his family were living in
Windham at the time of the 1800 and 1810 censuses and where
John’s daughter, Betsy Clover, married Matthew Shue. One of
the
reasons for searching the deed records was to find out when the members
of the family moved to Oneida County, New York. I had not known
for
sure where to look for the marriages of John, William, Frederick,
Collins, and Cornelius Clover. Girls usually marry close to
home. But I was never sure if the boys went off to a new
county
before or after they were married. Unfortunately, all of the
deed
records in the books refer to John Clover, Junior and his wife
Mehitable, instead of to John Clover, Sr.
Greene County, New York, Volume C: 172:
14 November
1807, John Clover, Junior, and Mehitable, his wife, of the town of
Windham, Greene County, New York, sold land to Joel Kelsey of the town
of Fothington, [sic] State of Connecticut. Joel Kelsey paid
$750.50 for 108 ½ acres of land in the town of Windham,
Greene
County, New York. Part of the land description reads: Beginning at the
Southeast corner of John Clover’s Lot, a stake and stones,
thence
92 degrees West, seventy five chains to a stake and stones the South
west corner of Wm Clover’s lot... Signatures read John
Clover, Jr
and Mehitabel Clover. Witnesses, John Newel, Asahel Hough, Thos E.
Barker, judge of the Court of Common Pleas.
Greene County, New York, Volume C: 245:
14 September
1808, John Clover, Junior, and Mehitable, his wife, of Oneida County,
New York, sold land to Henry Davis, of Durham Town, Greene County,
Ohio. Henry Davis paid $100, for 19 acres, 20 rods, of land
in
the Town of Windham. Part of the land description reads: Beginning at a
stake and stones, the southeast corner of a piece of property, surveyed
for William Clover,..... Signatures read John Clover, Jr and
Mehitable Clover. Witness, Thomas Barker, judge of the Court of Common
Pleas.
I found no entries in the Grantee Index
for Clovers.
There were some Claver entries but they were 40 years later and had no
connection that I could see.
We can make several deductions from
these two
deeds. We can see that John Clover, Junior, moved to Oneida
County about the time of the two deeds. Since both
deeds
mention land
surveyed to William Clover, William Clover probably still owned land
there and thus might still have been living there. However, since we
have no deed records on the land which was surveyed to William we
cannot draw any sure conclusions. It is very unfortunate from
our
viewpoint that there was no legal requirement to register
deeds.
Since both William and John Clover were
apparently
living in Windham, in Greene County in 1807 and 1808, and were married
by then, we can assume that they married in that area before they moved
to Oneida and Madison Counties. I did check for the surname Hammond in
the Greene County deed index and found none at all. At least, we do
know that we are looking in this area for wives and not in Oneida
County. No other Clover entries were found in the grantee or grantor
indexes.
Albany County, New York Deed Records:
I wondered exactly where John Clover,
Junior, got
the land. Greene County, New York was formed from Ulster and
Albany Counties in 1800, so I checked the Albany deed
records. Unfortunately, the only possible Clover
entries in
the Albany deed
records were for Nicholas and Susannah Claver. Since their children
changed the spelling of the name to Clover, I have also been
interested in this Claver pair. I have periodically tried, with
absolutely no success, to find out if John Clover of Connecticut was
connected with them. All records I have so far found for
Nicholas
and Susannah have their name as Claver. See the New York page
for
these deeds. New
York Research
See Oneida
Deeds
for an index to deeds in that county. There are some entries
which may belong to John Clover sr. I cannot be certain one way or
another.
I like to know church membership on families that I am researching. I
can zero in on likely places to search for records. It is interesting
here that John and his children left records in three different
churches in three different denominations. This may be a
matter
of attending the closest church. It was difficult to go many
miles to church. In 1790, the children were baptized in Holy Trinity Protestant
Episcopalian Church
in
Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut. In 1801, Frederick, son of
John, joined the
First Presbyterian Church Record, in Durham, New York. In
1810, Betsey, daughter of John, was married in the Oak Hill Dutch
Reformed Church. These three records only prove that every
church
record in sight needs to be searched. Bear in mind that
members
of German and Dutch Reformed Churches sometimes had lapses between
pastors. It was common for the members to then go to a
Presbyterian Church. They did not commonly go to an
Episcopalian
Church.
I previously
published a
note in the Clover Family Exchange,
7: 2/3: 26 about a J. Clover who commanded the schooner
“Nimble
Shilling” in 1781. I found this in the New England Historical and
Genealogical Society publication. Unfortunately, it has recently
been brought to
my attention that this was probably a John Cloon who lived in
Marblehead and has no Clover connection.
Since I have
basically
been unable to find any Clover records in Connecticut before the 1782
deed, I really think it is likely that he was originally from somewhere
else. There is a very interesting book in the Salt Lake City
Library entitled, Refugees of
1776 from Long Island to
Connecticut. There were two
volumes, indexed. There were
no
Clover entries in the index, but it was an interesting book.
I
had not been aware that people from Long Island fled to Connecticut
during the English occupation in the Revolution. Long Island
is
very close to the New Jersey Clover group. I had
wondered if
John Clover could have been connected in some way to John Peter
Clover. Long Island is basically just across the river from
other
Clover
groups. However, recent DNA evidence has shown no connection
between the descendants of John Clover of New York and Connecticut and
any other Clover group which has so far been tested.
Just as we do not know the exact age or
origin of
John Clover Senior, we do not know to whom he was married. The Sarah
Collins marriage is a myth. Please see New
York Myth of John Clover's Marriage for more on this
subject.
I have,
however, thought about
something a lot. I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but
the
oldest daughters of two of John's sons, Collins and Cornelius,
were named Armenia. I certainly have no evidence that John
was
married to an Armenia, but it is so common to name first sons and
daughters after mothers and fathers that I have to wonder how it
happened that these two men named their first daughter with the same
name. As to William and John, they may have had childen whose names we
do not
know because they died young. If you spend some time with
google as I did, you will
discover that none of the name books list Armenia as a first name.
I did finally find the name male name Armen which is derived
from
the
country of Armenia. I don't know if Armenia is a female form
of
Armen. To
find it
twice as the eldest daughter of two brothers is highly suspicious. I
don't know the connection, but I think it has to be looked for.
However, research in Connecticutt shows a number of families with an
Armenia in it.
I have heard speculation that John
Clover was Dutch
because he had a son named Cornelius, but I have also heard speculation
that he was English because he had a son named Collins. The
same
person who thought he was Dutch said that Armenia is a Dutch name but I
can find absolutely no evidence of this. I really don't have any
evidence that either John or his wife were Dutch or German or English.
I would point out that early in the 20th century there was a serious
prejudice again Germans because of the wars. Consequently,
lots
of families decided that they were Dutch or English instead of German.
This complicates current research where we are just after the
truth.
I also wonder about
the estate records in
Connecticut. I wonder if John and his wife might appear in
some
estate record there. I have not searched for this.
At the
time I was searching these were not easily available for me.
It
may be that sometime the records will be transcribed and fully indexed.
Found
by Robert Bowles
John W Clover and his wife, Mehetible, sold land at Hastings,
Oswego County, New York on 16 August 1844, liber 40 page 595 to a
Darius Olcott. They were living there at the time.
1843 libber 39 page 252, et al next to John W Clover name in a
transaction from a Mathew Shue and wife. [Note from Bob: I didn't have
time to follow up on this, but if I am not mistaken this would mean he
came by the land through a will. If so perhaps Mehetible family was
Shue. Very exciting, I must spend a day in the records up there.] We
need to track down the source of this land. Mathew Shue was
married to John Clover's sister, Betsy. They may have inherited
something.
(1) “Early CT Settlers of Greene County, New York,”
Connecticut
Nutmegger, Volume
24: 426 (1991), reprinted from the
History of Greene County, New York, published in 1884.
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