Chapter 58 - Our Wood Family Ancestors

Map showing Yorkshire, England

It probably should not be surprising to learn that the surname Wood may have originated when an individual or family lived in or near a woods or a forest. It is also possible we suppose, that the name may have originated as an occupational surname such as naming a man "Wood" to reflect that he was a woodcutter or a forester. Whatever the origins of the name might be, the earliest of our confirmed Wood ancestors was a man by the name of Richard Wood, my 12th great grandfather, who was born in 1515 in the parish of Halifax in County Yorkshire, England. There is some speculation that Richard's father was also named Richard Wood although we know little about the life of our Richard born in 1515 and almost nothing at all about the life of his possible father. In any case, if the origins of the name Wood were a result of nearby woods or the wood business, the family must have lived in the Yorkshire area of England for many, many generations.

Sheep on the poor lands of Yorkshire, England

When the first settlers arrived in Yorkshire around 7,000 BC the land was covered with a thick forest, however in the thousands of years following the earliest settlement the forests were cut down and thus by the early years of the first century AD the land was being used primarily for farming and the raising of sheep with the eventual rise of the wool industry. Exactly what Richard Wood did for a living is unknown but we have to believe that he was probably in the woolen industry or at the very least a farmer and raiser of sheep. From what we have learned the soil in the land surrounding Halifax was poor at best which encouraged the ancient people away from the growing of crops to the raising of sheep and the weaving and selling of their sheep wool. Halifax is approximately 170 miles north of London and in the 16th century and earlier, the area where my Wood family ancestors lived was rural and scarcely populated. Life would have been very difficult or impossible were it not for the wool business. It is said that the wool products made in the Halifax area were sold throughout England and as far away as northern Europe.

Halifax Parish Church in early 1800s

Richard Wood (1515-1548) married my 12th great grandmother Margaret Ambler (1520-1599) on the 26th day of November in 1540. Their marriage took place most likely in their local Halifax Parish Church which was dedicated to and called the St. John the Baptist Church. (Some people believe that following the beheading of John the Baptist around the year A.D. 28 his head was actually buried under the original church). The church was constructed around 100 years before their marriage and surprisingly this same church, significantly modified of course, still exists today. All of the children of Richard and Margaret Wood were probably baptized at this church including my 11th great grandfather, Edmund Wood, who was baptized on 6 March 1546. Again, we know very little about the life of Richard Wood other than it is believed that he may have been fairly well off financially especially if he sucessfully operated in the woollen cloth industry. We also believe that at least four or five generations of his ancestors were born, lived and died in the Halifax area of Yorkshire including at least three generations who attended the same church where he and Margaret were married and where their children were baptized.  Richard Wood is believed to have died at the young age of 33 in 1548 meaning that his son Edmund, my great grandfather, was only around two years old when his father died. The records are not clear but if his death date is accurate, it must have been very sad for his family. We found no records that might suggest that my great grandmother Margaret remarried although this would seem likely. In any case, Margaret Ambler Wood's death date is believed to have been in 1599.

Edmund Wood most likely continued in his father's wool trade business as he reached adulthood. On the 4th of May in 1573 at the age of 27, he married my 11th great grandmother, Jenet Hurst, and together they had at least three or four children before Janet's rather early death in 1583 at the age of around thirty-three. The exact number and names and ages of their children is very unclear other than the name and birth year of my 10th great grandfather, Edmund Wood Jr., who was born around 1578. While nothing is particularly known about the lives of Richard Wood and his son and grandson what is known is that they all lived in rather controversial times in England particularly with respect to the ruling kings and queens and their control of the churches and the acceptable forms of worship. While very early England was mostly Pagan in a religious sense, following the invasion of England by the Roman armies beginning around 43 AD, religious worship eventually changed in prominence by the mid-first century to Roman Catholicism under the leadership of the Roman Pope. The English Church remained under the control of the Pope for almost a thousand years until the year 1531 when the then current king, Henry VIII, declared himself "Supreme Head of the Church of England" thus making the Church of England independent of the Pope. Despite this rather arrogant move on the part of King Henry VIII, very little changed with respect to how the church was operated. On the other hand, the Pope was very upset and almost immediately excommunicated the King of England. This arrogant action on the part of King Henry VIII took place only nine years prior to the marriage of Richard Wood and Margaret Ambler thus showing that the Wood family and the St John the Baptist Church in Halifax had been Roman Catholic up to this point.

King Henry VIII and his three children who were Queens and a King of England

King Henry VIII died in 1547 and the crown was then passed to his son Edward VI. King Edward VI only ruled for a few years as he died of tuberculosis in 1553. During his short reign there were unfortunately both economic as well as social unrests within England nor did it help that England and Scotland were at war between the years 1543 and 1550. There is no evidence that any members of my Wood ancestors were soldiers in the war and most likely they continued in the manufacturing of woolen cloth despite the economic downturn. One major change did occur during this period of history which was the rise of Protestantism which most likely had a major impact on the local Halifax Church. Unfortunately for those individuals who were converting to Protestantism, when Queen Mary was crowned Queen of England following the death of her step-brother Edward VI in 1553, she insisted that the English church be restored to Roman Catholicism. What followed was that many religious dissenters, upwards of 300, at the direction of the Crown were burned at the stake between the year 1555 and the year of Mary's death in 1558. Most of the turmoil was taking place in the London area which was fortunate for our Wood ancestors although it certainly did not help the economy considering that she supported her Spanish husband, Philip of Spain, when he encouraged her to send English military forces to join with the Spanish forces in their war against France.

Queen Elizabeth 1

Fortunately perhaps for both our Wood ancestors and for England, Queen Elizabeth I, another daughter of  King Henry VIII, assumed control of the English throne upon the death of Queen Mary in 1558. It was during Elizabeth's 45 year reign that religious tolerance became the norm and as a result, at least in England, there was a strong decline in Catholicism.  Furthermore during this period both the English population as well as the economy grew as did the rise of Puritanism which is noted as having begun in the late 16th century. The Puritans were strong believers in changing the Protestant church by ridding it of any and all features that were Catholic in nature.  Things were not perfect however during Elizabeth's reign what with major plagues hitting London in 1563 (20,000 deaths) and again in 1592 (17,000 deaths), wars in France and the Nine Years' War with the Irish, and then in the early 1600s an economic recession that certainly did not help the woolen cloth business. But generally speaking these problems while awful by todays standards, were more the norm in this period of English history.

My 10th great grandfather, Edmund Wood Jr. (1578-1660) married my 10th great grandmother, Martha Lum (1581-1635) on the 21st day of May in 1611 at the St John the Baptist Church in Halifax. Somewhat surprisingly considering this period of history, they were, according to many sources, both in their early 30s at the time of their marriage. It is possible however, if not probable, that their birth dates are both wrong which certainly suggests that neither of my ancestors came from prominent families where birth and death records may have been better recorded. What is known about Edmund is that he was for at least a few years, a Church Warden at the St John the Baptist Church in Halifax and a devoted Puritan as were no doubt many of the other families in Halifax. Edmund and Martha are believed to have had five children who survived before Martha's early death sometime before April of 1635.

King Charles 1

Following Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603, King James 1 of Scotland assumed the crown and ruled England and Scotland from 1603 until 1625. It was during his reign that the bible was translated into English, now known as the "King James Version." Also during his reign he did his best to avoid religious disputes and wars and the nature of his leadership resulted in a strong rise in the number of Puritans in England including a large number of Puritans who were members of the English Parliament. Unfortunately upon his death in 1625, the crown was assumed by King Charles 1 whose leadership dramatically differed from his predecessor. We wrote the following about Charles 1 in our previous chapter: "Unfortunately, life for families in England beginning shortly following the coronation of King Charles 1 in 1625 was very difficult from a religious standpoint as well as from an economic standpoint. King Charles' disagreements with the English Parliament on issues like raising taxes to cover the cost of foreign wars and the like, forced him, perhaps foolishly, to dissolve Parliament beginning in 1629. As it turned out many members of the Parliament were Puritans. Furthermore, his insistence on the Devine Right of Kings, his demands that everyone must attend the Church of England against the wishes of the Puritans, his foreign wars against both Spain and later France, and the recurring rise in the cost of land in England and other displeasures, resulted in many English citizens leaving their country for the New World. By some estimates as many as 80,000 people migrated to America and other places from Britain between 1620 and 1640. These families and individuals who left for a better life and opportunities in America were not for the most part poor and uneducated individuals. Quite the opposite."

Voyage to America in 1635

It should not be surprising to understand why our Edmund Wood and so many other Puritan families choose to abandon their English homeland in the early 1600s. Considering the religious persecution of Puritans and the failure of the Puritans to reform the Church of England, the failing economy especially in the wool industry, the rising taxes, and the constant wars with both Spain and France, it should not be surprising to learn that Edmund left England with other members of his family in addition to his five children. His half-sister (different mothers) Susan Wood Mitchell and her "wealthy" husband, Matthew Mitchell, were the first of Edmund's family to push the idea of immigrating to America. Some sources, although they may not be accurate, say that Edmund Wood and his brother-in-law Matthew Mitchell got together with the former and non-conformist minister of the church in Halifax, a man by the name of Rev. Richard Denton, and together they planned their exit from England. This exit ultimately took place when they all boarded along with their families a ship by the name of the "James" and departed England in June of 1635 headed for the "New World." Apparently this particular voyage was not to pleasant for as the ship approached New England a hurricane struck and while the ship ended up heavily damaged they all survived, eventually landing in Boston on August 15, 1635.  Unfortunately no records survived that can verify that our great grandfather, Edmund Wood, and his children including his son and my 9th great grandfather, Jonas Wood (1614-1689), were actually on this particular ship, but what we do know for certain is that they did travel to New England sometime in the year 1635.

Wood Family travels from 1635 (Boston) through 1637 (Wethersfield)

What is known is that the Wood and the Mitchell families originally settled in Watertown (or some historians report their settlement to be in Charlestown), Massachusetts, located near Boston, but apparently the quality of the land, the politics, and the local Puritan leadership, as well as the awful weather during their first winter encouraged them both to seek land elsewhere. They soon learned of "ideal" land on the Connecticut River and in early May of 1636 they joined with other adventurers and walked around 100 miles to the west on an old Indian trail, eventually arriving ten days later at what would be named a few years later the village of Springfield. Our great grandfather, Edward Wood, is credited with being one of the eight original founders of Springfield, Connecticut. Somewhat surprisingly the Wood and Mitchell families remained in Springfield for only a few months since apparently the leader of these original settlers, a man by the name of William Pynchon, allocated a poor section of land to both of them that would often flood, or so they were told by the local Indians. Both Edward and Matthew were also told by Pynchon that they could not operate their own trading business as apparently Mr. Pynchon lay claim to all such operations and asserted that he alone was the sole decision maker. My great grandfather and his brother-in-law quickly decided to leave the area.

The Wood and Mitchell families soon moved southward down the Connecticut River to what was then called Fort Saybrook (now named Old Saybrook) located just off the Long Island Sound. Their arrival in July of 1636 soon proved to be ill-timed as beginning in the fall of 1636 the Pequot Indians attacked Fort Saybrook therein forcing the families to remain inside the fortification. When the war finally ended in June of 1637, the Wood and Mitchell families again elected to relocate this time they moved north again up the Connecticut River and here again they are often listed as among the earliest settlers of the present day city of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Incidentally, one of the very first settlers of Wethersfield was a man by the name of Nathaniel Foote who settled there in 1635. Nathaniel Foote is my 10th great grandfather and hopefully he was good friends with my other 10th great grandfather, Edmund Wood. I wonder if it ever occurred to them that they might eventually have a common great grandson, myself of course. By the way, the story of the Pequot War and my Foote ancestor is told in Chapter 48 of this blog titled "My Churchill Ancestors."

Wood Travels from 1640 (Stamford) to Huntington (1656)

We were honestly quite surprised to learn that Edmund Wood and his children moved once again in around 1640, this time to Stamford, Connecticut where here again they are listed among the original settlers. To say that Edmund moved with his children might be a little misleading in that by 1641 at least three of his five children were already married. Unfortunately due to the lack of church records since the family kept moving to new communities where churches did not yet exist or were just beginning, many of the family trees found online and in history books are inconsistent with respect to the exact marriage dates and locations. For example, Edmund Wood's oldest daughter, a girl named Martha, is often noted as marrying a man named Thurston Raynor in Southampton on Long Island sometime between 1635 and 1639. Besides the fact that the Wood family were never near this community during this time period, it is also an unlikely location in that Southampton was not founded until the year 1640. More likely is that then 25-year old Martha Wood married her new husband in Wethersfield in 1637. Another daughter named Susannah Wood is believed to have married a man named Samuel Clark around 1640 also in Wethersfield although here again marriage records providing exact dates and locations do not exist. What is really interesting is that as the small groups of settlers kept relocating and organizing new communities, the children within these groups of settlers made friends with one another and then often married at relatively young ages. In the case of Jeremiah Wood, Edmund's 4th child, he married around 1640 the daughter of one of his father's closest friends and soon after both families relocated to and helped found Stamford. Both families, parents, sons, and daughters, soon after relocated to Hempstead on Long Island in 1644. In the case of my 9th great grandfather, Jonas Wood (1614-1689), he is believed to have married Elizabeth Strickland (1620-1683) in Stamford on the 25th day of February in 1642 and they too moved to Hempstead, Long Island with the rest of their family in 1644. We should also not be surprised to learn that another one of the original founders of Hempstead, Long Island is a man by the name of the Rev. Richard Denton, who its seems our family followed from England to the New World and then around Massachusetts and Connecticut until their arrival on Long Island almost a decade later. It is said that they were all in search of a place where they could more freely express their particular brand of Protestantism. It appears that the land they purchased from the local Indians in Hempstead was to be such a place and it is reported that the Presbyterian church that they founded shortly following their arrival is "the oldest continually active Presbyterian congregation in the nation." At last our Wood family had found their home or so they may have thought.

Despite the rather positive comment made about the early Presbyterian Church in Hempstead as it turned out, by 1656 Edmund and some other members of his community as well as his son Jonas were unhappy with Hempstead, and once again they moved to and help establish another community on Long Island, this one later to be called Huntington. We must admit that it amazing when reviewing all of the histories of these early Connecticut and New York communities including these two on Long Island, to find the name of my great grandfather Edmund Wood or in the case of Huntington his son Jonas Wood listed among the names of the original founders. In the case of Huntington, a history of the township written in 1902 it was noted that "Another tract of land was in 1656 sold by Asharoken, Marttinicock Sachem, and the rest of the Indian owners with him to Jonas Wood, William Rogers and Thomas Wickes . . . "  This sentence was particularly interesting because it not only added another of my Wood ancestors as a founder of an early settlement in America, but it also lists as a founder a man by the name of Thomas Wickes who just happens to be another of my 8th great grandfathers. Such exploratory genes we must have. Anyway, the spelling of the name Wickes is often seen spelled as Weeks. In 1656, Edmund Wood was in his 70s when he and his son and his family moved to Huntington, so not surprisingly only a few years later around 1662, he died. Unfortunately his burial stone and its location have been long ago lost.

My 9th great grandparents Jonas Wood and Elizabeth Strickland Wood were still living in Stamford (Connecticut) when their first of four children was born in 1643, my 7th great grandfather, Jonas Wood Jr. It must have been quite an experience considering the young age of their child when they up and moved to Hempstead on Long Island in 1644. Historians report that somewhere between thirty to forty families left Stamford at this time with most of them being Puritans wanting to "freely express their particular brand of Protestantism." No doubt that Jonas Wood and the other Wood family members were all part of this group and their religious beliefs. What is interesting is that this part of Long Island was at the time under the control of the Dutch so it is very interesting, assuming that they had a choice, that they allowed English families to settle in their area. They apparently did allow the English settlers, unlike their English counterparts in New England who had very strict rules regarding who was allowed to settle in their area. Their tolerance may have ultimately backfired and caused their loss of their Dutch colony of New Amsterdam for in 1664 the English took control of all of the land then under the leadership of the Dutch. Incidentally, the Indian natives living in this area might very well have disputed any statements that the land in the Hempstead area was under the control of the Dutch for they in fact take credit for selling the land to the English. Their sale was for approximately 64,000 acres for which they were paid in todays dollars a total of around $10. Such a deal!

Here again Jonas Wood, his wife, and their now four children moved once again, this time in 1650 to the future village of Southampton located way out at the eastern end of Long Island. His motives for moving along with other members of his family including his father and his brothers and their families are unclear, although they may very well have been motivated by their desire for more religious freedoms and perhaps more likely, they simply wanted to get as far away as possible from the Dutch. While the First Anglo-Dutch War which began in 1652 did not take place in their area, the growing antagonism between the two countries must have made life in Hempstead more difficult. In fact, a treaty that took place in 1650 in Hartford between the Dutch and the English, mistakenly perhaps, turned the town of Hempstead over to the Dutch. In any case, this was a strong motive to move and dozens of families did so.

Map shows Huntington, Hempsted, Jamaica, and Newtown

All places where out Wood family lived on Long Island

Perhaps for the first time since arriving in America, our Wood ancestors are not credited with being among the original settlers of a new area, this time Southampton. Southampton was originally founded around ten years earlier in 1640 by a group of around forty English immigrants who had left the town of Lynn, Massachusetts and moved to Long Island. Southampton is usually credited with being the first English Colony on Long Island followed by Hempstead in 1644 and Huntington in 1653. The eastern end of Long Island was closer to Connecticut than it was to the Dutch controlled western end which accounts for the reason as to why the Dutch did not have control over this part of the island. Their early settlement may very well have been on the part of the English an effort to limit the growth of the Dutch colony. Incidentally, one of these original settlers of Southampton was my 8th great grandfather, Thomas Sayre, whose family story which includes a brief description of the early settlement of Southampton, is told in Chapter 13 of this blog. In a listing of the Southampton settlers as of 1650 we find Jonas Wood's name along with the name of his brother-in-law, Thurston Raynor. Not included in this listing however, was Jonas's father, Edmund Wood, who as of 1650 would have probably been in his late 60s and was undoubtedly living with one of his sons. Despite our efforts to learn more about Jonas Wood's time in Southampton we could uncover very little including the motives as to why he and his family relocated once again in 1656, this time to the new community of Huntington also located on Long Island. This was to be, at least for our Jonas Wood and his father Edmund, their final home. Jonas was at this point around 44 years old. Here once again he is listed as one of the earliest settlers of Huntington being among a group of three men who purchased land from the Asharoken, Marttincock, and Sachem Indians in 1653. Also in the list of early settlers in Huntington is my 9th great grandfather, Robert Seeley,  and my 8th great grandfather, Thomas Weeks. Later records show that Jonas Wood made numerous other purchases and sales in the local area and in March of 1666 there is a record of his father-in-law, John Strickland, deeding him his land before he left the area and moved westward to Jamaica near the present day City of New York.  This new settlement fixation must have been in the genes of our early Wood ancestors but at least our Jonas Wood finally decided not to again move.

Huntington town records tell us that our great grandfather Jonas Wood whose occupation was undoubtedly that of a farmer, was elected as a town magistrate in 1660 and subsequently he and other members of the town voted to become part of the Connecticut Colony thus placing Huntington under their jurisdiction. In 1662, Jonas was also listed as part of a committee along with their local church leader the Rev. William Leverch, who made the decisions as to whether or not to accept new settlers into their community obviously based largely on their origins and their religion. This control obviously made many of the residents happy as many like the Wood family, had moved from community to community obviously seeking a place where they could live and worship as they pleased. At this point the Dutch still controlled much of the western part of Long Island and parts of the future State of New York, however in 1664 this quickly changed when the English military gained control over New Amsterdam and ended the Dutch leadership. In 1665, our Jonas Wood was one of two members of his town elected to represent Huntington at an assembly meeting of all of the local English communities that was to take place in Hempstead. The purpose of the meeting was to establish a new English government for their area. Apparently Jonas Wood and the other residents of Huntington still supported their relationship with Connecticut, however at the meeting in Hempstead they were soon overruled and a new government was set up that basically was to control what was now to be part of the Colony of New York.

Jonas Wood's name is mentioned dozens of times in a book titled Huntington Town Records which was published back in 1887. His name is also mentioned in many other historical accounts most of which are realistic and show clearly that he was a respected and fairly prosperous man. There are a few records however, that are confusing especially considering his age and it makes us wonder if perhaps Jonas Wood, my 8th great grandfather, was being confused with his son and my 7th great grandfather, Jonas Wood Jr. For example, Jonas Wood Sr. is reported to have been licensed to practice surgery in October of 1677. If accurate he would have been around 63 years old which would seem to be totally unrealistic. In his will however, made out on February 20, 1688 he mentions his son Jonas, leaving him "all my chirurgeons' instruments and concernments of that kind . . " confirming that he was indeed a surgeon.  In 1682 he is listed as a Justice of the Peace and then in 1684 he is recorded as a lieutenant in the Suffolk County Troops. If accurate he would have been in his late 60s and then 70 years old as a military leader.  Whether accurate or not Jonas Wood was obviously an important resident in the early years of Huntington, Long Island. Records of Jonas Wood's death note that he died on 12 June 1689. He would have been around 75 years old. His wife and my great grandmother, Elizabeth Strickland Wood died earlier than her husband as her name did not appear in her husband's will although the exact date of her death is unknown.      

The Wood Family surgeon tools

Despite spending quite a bit of time doing online research trying to uncover more about the life of my 7th great grandfather, Jonas Wood Jr., we did not learn much of anything. Based on his father's will, Jonas Jr was granted land so it is probably safe to assume that he was a farmer most of his life as were almost all who lived in this area during this time period. He was also willed his father's surgeon's tools so it is likely that he too was a surgeon. Surgery during his lifetime was still very crude and being a surgeon in the 17th and early 18th centuries probably did not require much if any training other than learning how to cut something off the body like a broken arm or leg. We have to believe that deaths as a result were all to common. We also learned that Jonas Wood Jr married my 7th great grandmother, Elizabeth Conklin, around 1668 and their first child was born around 1669. In total they had eight children including their 7th child and my 6th great grandfather, a son named Timothy Wood who was born or baptized on July 10, 1683. As far as we could determine Jonas and Elizabeth Conklin Wood spent their entire lives living and raising a family in Huntington. My great grandmother Elizabeth died at the age of around 48 years old in 1697. Her youngest child at the time was only around 10 years old. My great grandfather died in 1712 at the age of 69. My 6th great grandfather, Timothy Wood was around 23 years old when his father died and considering that he was their youngest son, it seems unlikely that he had the benefit of a large inheritance.

Unfortunately we know almost nothing about Timothy Wood including for certain the name of his wife and children. One problem is that the name "Timothy Wood" was quite common on Long Island back in his day and many of his cousins and second cousins carried the same name, hence the confusion. During our research we found a number of different women listed as his wife including a Hannah Oakfield, Hannah Conklin, Judith Conklin, Judith Lawrence, or just plain Judith. The added problem is that depending on whom he married, the names of his children differed. What does not help a bit is that Timothy's mother's surname was Conklin so the implication might be that he married one of his cousins. Anyway, what we are going to summarize below is what we strongly believe to be the accurate facts about our Wood ancestry and how Timothy Wood ties into my own family tree.

Timothy Wood was a cordwainer or a shoemaker

Timothy Wood was undoubtedly born in his parent's home in Huntington on Long Island and at some point he moved to Jamaica, Long Island located about 28 miles or so west of Huntington. As we previously mentioned his great grandfather John Strickland had moved to Jamaica and it is possible that at his death his property in Jamaica was willed to the Wood family. What is known is that around the year 1706 at the age of 23, he married a girl by the name of Judith who some believe was Judith Lawrence whose parents lived in nearby Newtown, Long Island (now Elmhurst) located about seven miles west of Jamaica. How they met is unknown although it is very possible that they both attended the same church which was most likely the First Presbyterian Church of Newtown that was founded in 1664. This same church was where their daughter Judith (or Judah) Wood was married in 1738 and where Timothy's wife's death records are on file. Also in these same church files are the names and marriage dates of five other children with the surname of Wood although there is no sure way of confirming for certain that they were children of Timothy and Judith. Their marriage dates range from 1728 to 1741. It is believed that Timothy and Judith may have married around the year 1707 for the record shows that Timothy "sold off his father's farmland (in Jamaica) and purchased a home lot suitable for a tradesman" in Newtown around that same time period. Timothy in this same record is reported to have been a "cordwainer" or in less archaic terms, a shoemaker. There are no records that we could find that list Timothy Wood in any governmental positions or serving in a major church role which helps explain why so little is known about my great grandfather. Judith Wood died in the year 1751 at around the age of 69. Timothy died 12 years later in 1763 at the age of 80. Where they are buried is unknown.

Judith (Judah) Wood, daughter of Timothy and Judith Wood married my 6th great grandfather, Matthes Baker, in the First Presbyterian Church in Newtown on 27 August 1738. Their story is told from this point forward in Chapter 28 "My Baker Ancestors - Part III." At first it was hard to understand how these two individuals may have met since Matthes Baker grew up in Maidenhead Township in New Jersey  (now Lawrenceville) and Judith as we have seen lived in Newtown in New York (now Elmhurst) and the two areas are at least 60 miles apart which was a rather long distance in the early 1700s. We have to believe it possible that their two families had known one another or were related. As it turns out there was a relationship although very distant in nature. Their common ancestor was a man by the name of John Strickland (1584-1672).

                        John Strickland (1584-1672)
                         |                                 |
      Elizabeth Strickland        Susannah Strickland
           (1620-1683)                     (1632-1712)
                         |                                 |                                  
            Jonas Wood               Susannah Matthews  
             (1643-1712)                    (1703- ?)
                        |                                  |
           Timothy Wood               Matthes Baker
             (1683-1763)                  (1710-1788)
                        |
            Judith Wood
             (1710- ?)

Their family relationship if the above family tree is correct, means that Matthes Baker is Judith Wood's second cousin once removed. We also note that Matthes' mother Susannah Matthews was born and grew up in Jamaica on Long Island and she may very well have known her cousin Jonas' son Timothy Wood who also lived for a period in Jamaica. We also suspect that it is very likely that Timothy would have known that Susannah's mother was his grandmother's sister. Anyway, with that said it might help to explain how Judith Wood and Matthes Baker met and were married although it is entirely possible that it was an arranged marriage by their families.

We are related to Judith and Matthes Baker as follows:

6th Great Grandparents:   Judith Wood         m    Matthes Baker
5th Great Grandparents:   Timothy Baker     m   Deborah  ?
                                           (1742-1810)              (1753-1817
4th Great Grandparents:   Francis Baker      m   Sarah Bogart
                                           (1787-1864)              (1793-1827)
3rd Great Grandparents:   Elijah Baker        m   Susan Osborn
                                           (1812-1876)            (1812-1868)\
2nd Great Grandparents:  Charles S Baker  m  Hannah Harpending
                                          (1835-1891)              (1842-1891)
Great Grandparents:         Asbury H Baker    m  Helena Rappleye
                                          (1860-1933)             (1860-1944)
Grandparents:                  Charles S Baker   m  Helen Spaulding
                                          (1885-1952)              (1887-1937)
Parents:                          Charles A Baker  m  Marian Patterson
                                          (1916-2000)              (1916-1973)
Living Generation             Charles A Baker Jr
                                        Anne R Baker
                                        Joan P Baker

And that is the end of another family history story . . . .