Mary Todd Lincoln Group of Todds

and the

Todds of New Jersey and Pennsylvania:

July 2005, rev Oct 14, Mar 2006, Aug,  Oct 2006

Richard K. McMurtry

Incomplete draft

 

Much to our surprise, the Mary Todd Lincoln group of Todds, consisting of the half-brothers Robert Todd 1697-1775 and Andrew Todd d 1791, who eventually settled in Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania, were part of a much larger family of five brothers and a sister that originally settled in Somerset County and then Hunterdon County New Jersey.  This group included the ancestor of Mary Todd Lincoln.  Equally surprising and confounding was the appearance in Somerset County, around the same time or slightly later, of a set of four brothers or two sets of two brothers –distant cousins to the Mary Todd Lincoln group of Todds.

 

Arrival in New Jersey and Relationships between the Various Branches

 

In the early days of the settlement of northwest New Jersey, two different branches of the Todd family settled in Somerset County.   One was a group of five brothers, William, John, James, Andrew and Robert and an unnamed sister, who appeared in records as early as 1735/1736 in Peapack and Baskingridge.[1]   These brothers and most of their descendants (though not all) eventually moved on to other counties and other states.   A second group was a set of four brothers or close cousins of virtually identical names to the first group:  William, Andrew, John and James.  William d 1760 and Andrew Todd d 1781 appeared in Peapack, Bedminster Township, in landlord and court records as early as 1744 – and remained in the county.[2]  James’ arrival date can not be placed precisely but James appears in records by 1755 in Bernards Township.  John lived most of his life in Somerset County.[3]  Based on DNA genetic analysis, the four Todds seem to have been either brothers or close cousins to each other and distant cousins to the five brothers.[4]

 

Fate of the “Five Brothers”

 

Three of the five brothers, William, John and Robert, appear to have moved 30 miles SW to Bethlehem Township, Hunterdon County sometime after 1744.[5]  William appears in a trespass case there in 1745/1746.  John appears on a court docket in 1743[6]; he later encumbered a debt in 1748 and was summoned to court in 1757 to pay it off.  John also was served some time between October 1754 and March 1755 with an ejectment order for land he apparently leased in Bethlehem Township.[7]  Robert appears on a court docket in July 1743[8] and later encumbered a debt in 1753 and been summoned to pay it in 1755.

 

After 1749, the family appears to have dispersed.  By 1750, William had moved to Augusta County, Virginia[9]; by 1756, Robert had moved to Pikeland Township in Chester Co, PA[10];  by 1760, David Todd and Robert Todd Jr, both sons of Robert Todd Sr had begun to get land grants in Philadelphia County[11]; by 1760, Andrew Todd had bought land in Chester County, PA[12];   by 1766, John Todd appears to have moved to Mecklenburg Co, NC and John’s daughter Elizabeth had a son Thomas McClure in 1764 in Lancaster Co, PA.   Only James can not be found in later records.  ( There is also a John Todd in Sussex County in 1764[13], but we do not know if he is part of the “Five Brothers” family of Todds or the “Four Brothers” who arrived a bit later in Somerset Co.)

 

Curiously, the three in Hunterdon Co, William, John and Robert, appear to have all been associated with the Abington Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia County, PA, even during the period when they lived in Somerset County – 60 miles away from Abington.  John and William baptized their children at Abington Church between 1723 and 1738, though they both seem to have switched churches to the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Philadelphia, 12 miles further south of Abington, during an interlude between 1729 and 1734.[14]    Also, Robert’s son David was married in Abington in 1749 when the family was living in Hunterdon County.[15]

 

How and why William and John managed to travel so far in the 1730s to Abington Church and to downtown Philadelphia to have their children baptized is a bit puzzling.   And why David Todd traveled so far to be married in 1749 in Abington is also puzzling.   We assume this had something to do with the “Great Awakening” that split Presbyterianism into factors during the 1730s.

 

DNA evidence for 4 of the 5 brothers (Robert b 1697, Wm b abt 1700, John b abt 1712, Andrew b abt 1715) shows that they were genetically virtually identical (with only one mutation difference in the line of Andrew).   Similary, the later 4 brothers are within one mutation of each other, but 3 mutuations from the “Five Brothers”.  This suggests that the “Five Brothers” and the “Four Brothers” were with a common ancestor several generations back before their migration to America.

 

            Fate of John Todd b 1712

 

The August 2006 evidence that John Todd b 1712 d 1799 Mecklenburg Co, NC was an exact genetic match with Robert and William Todd suggests strongly that John was one of the “Five Brothers”.

 

Comparing the birth data of the first four children of John of Mecklenburg Co with the births of John Todd in the Abington and First Presbyterian Church shows a marked similarity.  The first name for the Todd birth entry for 1736 was a blank usually indicating a repeat of the name above, but on one microfilm the name John was written in.  So we are not sure if the name of this child was Alexander or John[16].

 

Abington Pres & 1st Pres	John Todd 1712-1799 Family History
James Todd, 2 May 1725 at Abington	James abt 1733
Elizabeth Todd, 29 Jan 1726/27 at Abington	Elizabeth abt 1731
Mary Todd, 7 Dec 1729 at First Presbyterian to John and Jane	Polly abt 1736
Alexander Todd or John Todd,  2 Oct 1736, at Abington	John abt 1738
	William H abt 1742
	Hugh abt 17
	Joseph 1749
	Hannah abt 1750
	Adam 1751

 

If we accept that the 1736 birth was for John and not Alexander, then the first four names of the birth registers match the first four names of the family history.  We also note the 7 year gap between Mary b 1729 whose mother was Jane and John b 1736 whose mother is not identified but may be Margaret Russell identified in the family history as the wife of John Todd in Mecklenburg Co.  This would suggest that Margaret was a second marriage about 1735.

 

 

            Fate of James Todd

 

Though 4 of the 5 brothers left New Jersey, there were two second generation branches that remained in New Jersey who were virtually identical genetically to the dominant pattern of the “Five Brothers”.  These were:  David Todd 1730-1809 who lived in Tewksbury Township about 15 miles  from Bethlehem Township in Hunterdon Co and John Todd 1729-1802 who was in Hunterdon in 1780 but removed to Bridgewater Twp, Somerset Co where he died.    Since 4 of the 5 brothers (Robert, William, John and Andrew) had sons named John who migrated with them, it seems very likely that John 1729-1802 was the son of the fifth brother James.  Since David was brother to John, then David also would have been a son of James

 

We suspect that there was another brother, a third son of James Todd.  David Todd had a daughter Jane who married a cousin John Todd 1755-1820 and since John Todd 1729-1802 did not have a son John, it would appear John 1755-1820 must be the son of a brother of David and John.  There is also evidence for other siblings of this John 1755-1820.  There is a James Todd of the 1778 Hunterdon Co tax list may be the James Todd who bought land in Hardwick Twp, Sussex Co in 1779 and sold it in 1789 and died there in 1790 with young children.  Further there is an Elizabeth Todd who married David Wiley in 1768 and a Jane Todd who married Robert Caskey in 1777.   These two females may or may not be siblings to James and John.

 

The James Todd who died in Hardwick Twp, Sussex Co in 1790 had a son James who sold land in Hardwick in 1811-1813.  No wife for this young James Todd was mentioned and it is presumed he left the county.  A DNA sample for a John Todd who married in an area near Hardwick Twp in 1826 did not match any Todd family; so we have no DNA evidence to support James Todd being descended from the James Todd, immigrant, family, but the circumstantial evidence supports this connection.

 

            Other Lost Branches

 

There are two branches of the Todds who have identical DNA patterns to the “Five Brothers” pattern whose connection to the NJ Todds is uncertain.  They may be a family with common origins in Ireland but which migrated independently of the “Five Brothers” or they might be children of an unknown fifth child of James Todd, the immigrant brother or they might be descendants of the “Five Brothers” that we can not discern.  These are Andrew Todd b abt 1758 d 1801 Tazewell Co VA and James Todd b abt 1750 d 1799 Augusta Co, VA.  

 

Andrew Todd b abt 1758 was a single man on tax lists in Hamilton Bann Twp in York County in 1779 and 1781 and a married man in 1783.  In 1782, he married Elizabeth Sipes in Frederick Co MD and he is probably the Andrew living in Rockingham Co, VA by 1787.   By 1789, he was in a portion of Washington Co, VA which later became Tazewell Co where Andrew died in 1801.  Curiously, the year that Andrew lived in Rockingham Co, VA (1787), there was also a James Todd living there who soon afterwards moved to Augusta Co and died there in 1799.   

 

(There is also a Patrick Todd (on the same 1781 York Co, PA tax list as Andrew) who moved to Harford Co, MD who is considered to be a brother of Andrew though no DNA for Patrick’s descendants has been obtained despite Patrick still living in Harford Co in 1820.)

 

James Todd was in Rockingham Co, VA in 1787 (same year as Andrew) and in 1789 was in Augusta Co where he died in 1799.  James’ birth is estimated at 1750 based on his son George being born 1770-1775.

 

The James d 1799 does not appear in York Co with Andrew and Patrick in the 1779, 1781 though James was a married man with children by this time.  Also, there is a slight difference in the DNA pattern.  I believe they are from different branches of the family.   And I believe that Andrew and Patrick are from an independent migration since we can find no evidence of parentage in colonial PA.

 

            Conjectural Synthesis for the family of James Todd, the fifth brother

 

So putting all the above together, we would have the following family

James b 1705

            John Todd 1729-1802 d Somerset Co NJ

            David Todd 1730-1809 Hunterdon Co, NJ  

            Unknown brother  b 1730

                        James Todd b 1750s d 1790 Sussex Co md Elizabeth

                                    James Todd  b abt 1783

                                    Jane Todd

                        John Todd 1755 – 1820 md Jane Todd (a cousin)

                        Elizabeth Todd md 1768 David Wiley

                        Jane Todd md 1777 Robert Caskeyarford Co MD 1789)

 

 

            Other Todds of unknown origin in New Jersey

 

There is a John Todd that appears in a Sussex County record in 1764[17].  This could be a John the immigrant brother, John 1729-1802 or another John.

 

            Todds of the Janeway Store Records

 

The  five Todd brothers and an unnamed sister were listed in the Janeway Store account books in Bound Brook, Somerset County, New Jersey as early as Oct/Nov 1735 for William, John and James, the following Feb for the Andrew and Robert and in 1737 for the sister.[18]   William, John and Robert lived in “Papack” (Peapack)  for certain years and James lived in Baskenridge for certain years.  Andrew delivered goods to John and William and received goods from James, John and William; so his residence is ambiguous.

 

William and John were closely associated with each other.  For the almost two year period Oct 1735 to September 1737, they were named on a joint account at the Janeway Store.  Afterwards, from Dec 1737 to March 1743, they appeared individually except for jointly getting a bond in March 1738 and paying it off in full in December 1744. 

 

James Todd appears in the Janeway Store records in November 1735, only one month after William and John.  He last appears in July 1737.

 

Both Robert and Andrew appear a few months later than the previous three brothers – in February 1735/1736.  Neither takes out an account at the store at this time, but rather deliver goods to or receive goods from others.  Andrew continues to appear until January 1737/1738, but Robert gets his own account and records purchases in May to July 1739.

 

 

Bedminster Todds

 

The Todds of Bedminster Township are best known for the battles of William Todd against his landlords in the 1750s.[19] 

           

William Todd d 1760

 

The first time they came to evict William and his family in 1753, they relented because William’s wife was still in bed after childbirth[20].  But this was only a brief respite.  They returned and despite William and his friends and neighbors threatening violence, William and family were eventually evicted and their home demolished.  Undaunted, William was determined to return to his land.  He returned and rebuilt their home and renegotiated a lease with the landlord.  They stayed on the land til 1760 when tragedy struck again.  William died, probably only in his 40s and left a widow with many resources and a family of young children, including John, George and William Todd.[21] 

 

George and William served in the Revolution and remained in the county.[22]  William died in 1845; George in 1830.[23]

 

John seems to have left no records and it is tempting to wonder if he may have been the John Todd who settled in Washington County in upstate New York prior to the arrival in that county of his cousin John Todd b 1756, son of Andrew Todd d 1781.[24]

 

            Andrew Todd d 1781

 

Andrew Todd who lived only a mile away from William Todd of the landlord battles seems to have fared much better.  He negotiated leases and eventually purchased over 200 acres of land which he divided when he died in Bedminster Township in 1781 amongst his sons, Samuel and John.[25]

 

John b 1756 md Jane Caldwell 1779 d 1829 moved to Washington County in upstate New York in 1782. His children were:  Martha 1780,Martin Luther 1782, Stephen 1784, Betsy 1787, John 1789,Samuel 1792,James C. 1795, Archibald S. 1798, Hiram 1800, Jane 1803.  Many of his descendants later migrated to SW Pennsylvania and Ohio.[26]

 

Samuel b abt 1758 d 1816 (check date).  His children according to his will were: Nancy, Daniel, Samuel, Andrew, John F., James S., Jos W.  Daniel Todd was in Somerset as late as 1840.  Descendants of this family have not been traced.

 

Bernards Township Todds

 

This group of Todds consists of James Todd who died in Bernards Township in 1781 and John Todd 1739-1823 who married Sarah Ismay who lived in Bedminster Township.  DNA indicates that they were brothers or close relatives.

 

This pair is only distantly related to the James Todd who lived in Baskingridge in 1735-37, though it is possible that the earlier James Todd settlement in 1735 drew the two cousins (James d 1781 and John d 1823) to settle there.

 

            James Todd d 1781

 

Their arrival date in Somerset County is not known, but James first appears there on a road survey record in 1755.[27]    He also appears on tax lists for the years __________.  His will in Bernards Township in 1781 lists his wife Jemima (who died in 1809) and the following children:  James, Joseph, John (md Sarah Kirkpatrick), David (d 1799 md Mary McCollum), Robert, Mary (md MacTire), Ann, Elenor, Dau? (m Alan Cameron?).

 

Later deed and mortage records in the 1780s show that the family lived near Greater Crossroads adjacent to the Dead River.[28]

 

Son Robert seems to have migrated to Ulster Co New York where he married in the 1770s in a Dutch Reformed Church.[29]

 

Son John seems to have had a son John b 1782 who went to Tompkins County, New York prior to 1810.[30]

 

Son Joseph MAY be the Joseph b ca 1740-45 who moved to Warwick, Orange County, New York by and married there by about 1764.[31]

 

            John Todd md Sarah Ismay

 

Though John Todd 1739-1823 died in Bedminster Township, DNA shows he was closely related to James Todd who died in 1781 in Bernards Township; so we are including him in this grouping of “Bernards Township Todds”

 

Their children were:     Eliz 1768, Jane 1770 (md Welsh), Elanor 1771 (m James Morrow), Mary 1773 (m John Van Doren), John 1776-1857  (m Ann Phenix), Ann 1778, Rebecca 1781 md Mullen, Sarah 1782 md John Royer, Esther 1785, Lydia 1787, Robert 1789, William J. 1792-1870 md Rosannah Melick.

 

 

Lost Branches

 

Several of the “lost branches” of the family are discussed above.  There are also branches with children identified whose fate is not known:  the children of Low Todd 1723-1793, son of William Todd b abt 1700.

 

Conclusion

 

This essay has sorted out the origins and relationships between the six lines of Todds of colonial Somerset and Hunterdon County.  It has also listed the second generation so that researchers trying to connect their New Jersey origin Todds can see the possible points of connection to the larger family tree.  It has also pointed to branches that stayed in New Jersey and branches that left New Jersey which have not been traced down and which are a fertile ground of research for Todd family historians. 

 

Acknowledgements

 

I would like to acknowledge the Todd historians that have gone before us and paved the way for this research: 

 

Rev. Isaac Todd 1796-1885, descendant of David Todd 1731-1809

George W. Todd, descendant of David Todd 1731-1809

Emily Todd Helm, descendant of Robert Todd 1697-1775

Dr. Seymour Simeon Todd, descendant of Robert Todd 1697-1775

Arthur McFarland, descendant of Robert Todd 1697-1775

Carrie McLaughlin, descendant of John Todd 1755-1820

John Emmett Todd, 1853-1901,  descendant of John Todd 1755-1820

Deanne Moreau Jackman, descendant of Andrew Todd d 1781

Kenn Stryker Rodda, descendant of William Todd d 1760

Bruce Baker, desc of John Todd 1712-1799 Mecklenburg Co, NC.

 

Also, to all those current researchers and DNA donors: Carol Langford, George J. Todd, Adair Shephard, Kay Newland (Kotch), John Stratton Todd, Richard Todd, Grantland Todd, Constance Christie, Morris Todd, Stephen Thompson, Olive Todd (Mrs George W Todd), Kathryn Gardner, G Peter Todd, Miles Todd, Dorothy Strafford.  Also to “anonymous” Todd who doesn’t like me to use his name because he disagrees with my conclusions and methods but who has been of immense assistance in providing me with the information that served as a point of departure in the research leading to the results of this essay.