Page
Records of Jonathan Maltby before 1790.
About the year 1913, I had some correspondence with Dorothy Maltby Verrill (Mrs. C. S. Verrill), whose mother had compiled and published the Maltby-Morehouse Genealogy. She at once noted that Samuel_3_ (Samuel_2_, William_1_), had a son, Jonathan, born at Branford, Conn., 1751. The mother of Jonathan is No. 1957 in the Foote Genealogy by Nathaniel Goodwin, Hartford, 1849, "The Descendants of Nathaniel Foote." Jonathan is No. 2084 in that record. Up to 1913, Mrs. Verrill, compiler of the Maltby-Maltbie Family History, published in 1916, had only the manuscript of Rev. Jonathan_4_ Maltby to tell her what became of this Jonathan, 1751, after he sold his inheritance in his father's estate to his brother, James, in 1781. Rev. Jonathan_4_ Maltby said that Jonathan, 1751, married a Culver and went to Lenox, Mass. Having heard from me (I am a great-great-grandson), and also from Jonathan's descendants, two grandsons, and several great grandchildren, Mrs. Verrill devoted a half page to records of the family of Jonathan Maltby of Camillus, N.Y., in the belief that he was Jonathan, 1751, of Branford, Conn. This appears in the Maltby-Maltbie Family History, p. 376, published by Maltby Assoc., 1916. From that time she felt certain, and the more she studied the positive records that we found, the stronger her conviction became that the lost Jonathan had been found.
On one or more occasions, Jacob Maltby, son of Jonathan of Camillus, stated to the census takers that he was born in Connecticut. We have been unable to find a record of the place at which he was born.
In a letter from Marjorie E. Case (Local History and Genealogy), Conn. State Library, Hartford 1, Conn., dated Sept. 3, 1952, she says:
"In reply to your letter of August 28, we are sorry not to be able to help you prove the identity of Jonathan_4_ Maltby (b. 1751 Branford) and Jonathan of Camillus, N.Y., as one and the same person. Our general indexes of Conn. vital and church records show the birth in 1751, Branford, but no mar. to Polly Foote or Lucy Culver, or birth of son Jacob in 1782; Lucy Culver, dau. Benjamin & Lydia (Tuttle), b. Oct. 10, 1754, Wallingford, but no record of her mar. ...." /s/ Marjorie E. Case.
Knowing that Jonathan of Camillus had a daughter named Lucy and that son Jacob has a daughter Lucy, Mrs. Verrill reasoned that the wife of Jonathan may very well have been the Lucy Culver mentioned by Marjorie E. Case, as above given. The histories of the Town of Salem, N.Y., state that the settlers of that region came largely from the area about Wallingford and Branford, Conn. Another source of settlers was a colony of Scotch origin who had sojourned awhile in Ireland; following their spiritual leader, who acquired rights to a considerable tract of land, they founded the village of Salem, N.Y. Several histories have been written about Salem and Washington County, N.Y.
We have not been able to determine positively that our Jonathan Maltby belonged in either of these groups, but circumstantial evidences seem to favor the view that he came from Branford with a sojourn of a few years in the towns of Lenox and Pittsfield, Berkshire Co., Mass. The fact that several of his descendants said that Jonathan came from Salem, Mass., to Camillus, N.Y., lends credence to our belief that these descendants knew that he came from Salem and that they had heard much about his years in Massachusetts and so they confused Salem, N.Y., with the much better known Salem, Massachusetts.
HOME