Amos Townsend ~ 52 Ancestors #32

I am not fully convinced of all the details that I shared in the Surname Saturday post about this ancestral line and I am trying to find additional information on my Townsend ancestors.

While I work on the Townsend family, I will share two brief advertisements that I found that mentioned my 4th great-grandfather, Dr. Amos Townsend (1779-1862), of Norridgewock, Maine.

Kennebec (Maine) Journal, 20 August 1830, p. 4

Davenport's Celebrated Eye Water!
   Which needs only be used, to be highly approved
of for all sorts of weak and sore eyes. From among
the numerous certificates offered in favor of this
excellent collyrium, one only will be published
from Dr Amos Townsend of Norridgewock.
   This may certify I have used Davenport's Eye
Water in a number of cases and have never known
it to fail in one instance.           AMOS TOWNSEND.
   February 23, 1830.

And I guess Dr. Townsend continued to support this "Eye Water" because two years later, he is still mentioned in the advertisement in the Kennebec Journal.

Surname Saturday ~ Townsend of England, Massachusetts and Maine

My Townsend line is a crumbling brick wall. I am working to find additional primary source evidence confirming the following line.

Norfolk County, England
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

The immigrant Townsend ancestor appears to be Thomas Townsend. He was the third son of Henry Townsend and Margaret, baptized at Bracon-Ash, Norfolk County, England, on 8 January 1594/95.

He probably had at least two and possibly three wives.

He was in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts by 1638, when he was granted 60 acres at Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts. He arrived too late to be included in the Great Migration Study Project (which goes through 1635).

He is found in various records in Lynn, serving on a jury, signing various petitions and deeding land to a couple of his sons.

Thomas Townsend married Mary (possibly Newgate) as his second or third wife but it's unclear as to who is the mother of the children:
Thomas (b. about 1636 or about 1640)
Samuel (b. 1638)
John (b. about 1644)
Elizabeth (b. about 1648)

Mary is identified as mother of youngest son Andrew, born in 1654.

(Interestingly, there is also a theory (note: only a theory, no evidence) that he might be the father of Lydia Townsend, who married Lawrence Copeland, the immigrant Copeland ancestor. See Surname Saturday ~ Copeland. And Lawrence and Lydia's first child was named Thomas.)

Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Immigrant Thomas Townsend died in Lynn on December 22, 1677. His wife, Mary, died February 28, 1692/93. I descend from his son Thomas.

This Townsend line seemed to move to a different community in every generation. Following is my Townsend line which includes a series of maps showing Thomas' descendants' westward movement within Massachusetts.

Julia Elvira (Townsend) Copeland of Maine - 52 Ancestors: #7

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is "Love," which can be interpreted in a variety of ways. I am going with the "who do I love to research" angle:

What ancestor do I love to research? When I am working on breaking down a brick wall, it is the ancestors and family in that line whom I love to research.

Last week, I wrote about my 4th great grandfather, Doctor Amos Townsend. I don't yet have enough information on his Townsend line to write about his ancestors, so I thought I'd share more about his daughter, Julia Elvira Townsend, my 3rd great grandmother.

Julia Elvira Townsend was born on November 1, 1808, in Norridgewock, Somerset County, Maine, the second of eight children of Amos Townsend and his wife, Tryphena Ellis. [Source: Norridgewock, Maine, "Town and vital records, 1774-1891," index at FamilySearch.org.]

Doctor Amos Townsend - 52 Ancestors: #6

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is "So Far Away." I decided to use this theme to share what I have been learning about a 4th great-grandfather, previously a brick wall ancestor, but one whose family ended up pretty far away from each other (in early 19th century United States).

Amos Townsend was born in October 1779, to Isaac Townsend and Rachel Crosby and baptized in New Salem, Franklin County, Massachusetts. I have found seven siblings born in New Salem, but other, secondary sources indicate that there were likely more.

According to Henrietta Danforth Wood's book Early Days of Norridgewock (Freeport, Maine: The Freeport Press, 1933), Amos Townsend moved with his father, Isaac Townsend, to Oneida County, New York, when he was about 20 years old (so about 1800). It was in Oneida County that Amos studied medicine and became a doctor. I have not been able to find the family in the 1800 U.S. Census.

Most of this Townsend family moved farther west in upstate New York, (Genesee County, later Wyoming County) and at least one brother to Michigan.

Created using Google Earth, showing locations where Townsend family members lived 1779-1850's.

Amos, however, moved from Oneida County, New York, to Maine, where he married Tryphena Ellis on June 23, 1805, in Winslow, Kennebec County.

Winslow, Kennebec, Maine, "Town and vital records, 1771-1892"

By the Rev'd Joshua Cusman~
Doctor Amos Townsend of Fairfield and Miss
Tryphena Ellis of Waterville June 23, 1805~

Thomas Jefferson Copeland, 1801-1877

Thomas Jefferson Copeland is my 3rd great grandfather. I am descended from the oldest of his four children, Henry Clay Copeland, whom I wrote about last year. As I noted at the time, much of my knowledge of the Copeland Family history is from The Copeland Family: A Copeland Genealogy by Warren Turner Copeland, published by The Tuttle Publishing Company, Rutland, Vt. (1937). This is where I find that he was born on April 26, 1801, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Nathaniel Copeland and Mary (Page) Copeland.

He married Julia Elvira Townsend on October 10, 1830, in Norridgewock, Maine.

I first find Thomas J. Copeland in the 1840 U.S. Census in Norridgewock, Somerset County, Maine.

Detail from 1840 US Census, Norridgewock, Somerset, Maine; Roll: 151; Page: 131.

Line 18 has Thomas J. Copeland with a household of six. His household indicates that he is employed in "Manufacture and Trade."
Line 21 has Amos Townesend with a household of 7. Amos is Julia's father and therefore, the father-in-law of Thomas. His household indicates that he is employed in "Learned Professions and Engineers." (He was a physician.)

According to the Copeland genealogy, the family moved to Calais, Washington County, Maine, about 1843, where he lived for the rest of his life.

~~~~~~~