DOWNS AND LAKE FAMILY GENEALOGY

 

STANCLIFF FAMILY GENEALOGY

From book "Descendants of James Stanclift of Middletown, Connecticut and Allied Families", By Robert C. and Sherry [Smith] Stancliff

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                                                      DOWNS/LAKE FAMILY

(75) ANNIS5 STANCLIFT (George4, James3, William2, James1)

Daughter of George and Sarah [Chidsey] Stancliff born South Britain Ecclesiastical Society Southbury, Litchfield County, CT Feb. 25, 1774(1), baptized with brother, George, in South Britain Church July 13, 1777, "children of Sarah Standclift"(2). Annis died Wasco, Kane County, IL Mar. 25, 1840, buried Wasco Cemetery, married 1. Southbury, CT July 7, 1794 REUBEN DOWNS(3) son of David and Sussanah [Dawson] Downs of Woodbury, Litchfield County, CT, married 2. probably at Clarkson, Monroe County, NY ELIJAH LAKE son of John and ____ [Van Vorhees] Lake born Aug 18, 1786 probably in Ernestown, Ontario, Canada, died Wasco, Kane County, IL Feb. 18, 1837, buried Wasco Cemetery.

Annis' father died in the Revolutionary War when Annis and her brother were very young. Her mother married again to Gideon Allen, and they were brought up in his household until they married.

At least two of Reuben Down's siblings lived at Granville, Washington County, NY and they along with Reuben migrated to the "Cayuga Reservation Lands". Annis and Reuben moved about 1800 to Scipio, Cayuga County, NY where they lived next to her uncle, James Stancliff, and his family(4), and within a community where many others from the Woodbury, CT area lived. Reuben purchased land in an area even further west in 1808 and 1809. Reuben and Annis moved to an area near Rochester, which would become Monroe County, NY. The land was part of Township Number 3 in the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, in "the Genesee Country" and they settled at Clarkson, NY where Reuben kept a Tavern, east of "Ladd's Corners"(5). This was a frontier area and vital records were not yet being recorded, but Reuben probably died within a year or so after they moved to this new area, and Annis married again to Elijah Lake.

Elijah Lake and a Nicholas Lake(6) also purchased land in the same Township Number 3, and in the adjoining township Number 4 in 1809. The Lakes seem to own land just west of Clarkson in what became Orleans County, NY. Elijah and Annis returned to Elijah's birthplace in Ernestown, Ontario, Canada in 1820(7), but moved in 1836 to yet another frontier area that was being settled in the North West Territory. The first claim was staked in the new area in 1835(8) and Elijah and Annis purchased in that year an already established claim and arrived in the area by 1836. They settled in a place that became known as "Canada Corners" in Campton Township and later was known as Wasco. Kane County was established in that same year, 1836. Elijah died in Feb of 1837 and their son, Ansel, moved from Canada to Illinois to take up his father's land and to care for his mother. Ansel Lake became one of the leading citizens of the area, developing a large Dairy Farm in Campton Township which was carried on in turn by his son.

Annis may have had children while married to Reuben Downs, but the only child known is after her marriage to Elijah Lake.

CHILDREN: Elijah and Annis [Stanclift] Lake

1. ANSEL LAKE born "Genesee"(9), NY Oct. 26, 1811, died Wasco, Campton Township, Kane County, IL Jun. 10, 1890, buried Wasco Cemetery, married Ernestown, Lennox and Addington County, Ontario, Canada 1830 CATHERINE BONHAM daughter of Elam and Elizabeth [____] Bonham or Banham born Ernestown, Canada Mar. 16, 1806, died Wasco, Kane County, IL 1884(10). They had several children born in Ernestown, Canada and in 1837 they followed Ansel's parents to the area that had become Kane County, IL the previous year. Ansel spent the rest of his life in this area.

See Appendix A: DOWNS

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Footnotes:

1. .The Church of the Latter Day Saints International Genealogical Records, Ancestral File. The place of birth and death stated as Wasco, Kane County, IL, but Illinois was obtained after the Revolutionary War as part of the Northwest Territory and Kane County was not organized until 1836. Annis was born in Connecticut.

2. .SOUTH BRITAIN SKETCHES AND RECORDS, by W.C. Sharpe, Seymour, CT, 1898, South Britain Church Records, page 18.

3. From the Private Records of Justus Johnson, Justice of the Peace of Southbury, CT, registered Middletown VR p. 188. That same year, step father, Gideon Allen, acting as the attorney for both Annis and George, sold land in East Middletown inherited by entailment from their Great Grandfather, John Wood, of East Middletown, father of Martha Wood. The power of Attorney had been granted by Annas Stancliff before marriage.

4. .CAYUGA COUNTY, NY Land and Property Records, Book Z, pages 351, 353.

5. .HISTORY OF THE PIONEER SETTLEMENT OF THE PHELPS AND GORHAM PURCHASE by O. Turner, Rochester, NY 1873, page 564.

6. .PIONEER LIFE ON THE BAY OF QUINTE, Mika Publishing Company, Belleville, Ontario, page 488 indicates that Daniel Lake, the Loyalist settler from Gravesend or Staten Island, NY had among his sons two named John and Nicholas. Elijah was the son of John and the man named Nicholas in Genesee may have been an uncle or even a brother bearing the family name, Nicholas Lake.

7. .COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL RECORD OF KANE COUNTY, ILLINOIS, Beers 1888, page 672 Speaking of Ansel Lake "....a native of Orleans County, NY born Oct. 26, 1811, the son of Elijah and Annis (Stancliff) Lake....Was but nine years of age when his parents moved to Canada."

8. .HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY, ILL. by R. Waite Joslyn and Frank W. Joslyn, Volume II, page 853.

9. .Probably in the area that became Orleans County, NY after being taken from Genesee in 1824.

10. .Kane County Biographical Record says she died in the spring of 1884.

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