Jonathan Maltby Data

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JONATHAN MALTBY (OR MOLBY)

OF SALEM AND OF CAMILLUS, NY

For several reasons about fifteen pages have been added to this compilation since the Foreword was written, among them some pages of "Correct History" by Reverend Jonathan (4) Maltbie, Yale 1779. Hitherto I had tried too seriously to fit the traditions of Molby to fewer genera tions than they belonged. Also an idling memory has recalled conversa tions that are indicators that our Molby or Maltby line coming into New York State had been established in Western Massachusetts at a prior time. On page 86 I have mentioned a book by an able authority, George Richard Minot. More recently I have come upon a book, "Western Massachusetts In The Revolution" by Robert Joseph Taylor, Brown University Press, 1954. I earnestly commend these books to any reader who may not be conversant with that part of our heritage, be it either true or untrue that Jonathan Maltby had a part in the insurrections. I am unaware that any roster was kept of the names of thousands of protesting citizens in six western counties of the state. In view of what I was told, I think it probable that our Jonathan moved out of the state at the time when the insurrec tions were suppressed.

A short summary follows of the traditions, as I heard them. Our ancestor who came, either to America or to New York, I know not which, was a Scotsman. He had fought against a king, and had been in a rebellion before he came. He had four sons. One son was lost at sea. One son went to the south and was untraced afterward. He was descended from a Lord Maltby. He had a Coat of Arms. In various parts of the compilation I have touched upon these points. The Lordship may have had the title Sir Knight, but not the title of Lord. The Scotch blood may well have come through Jonathan's maternal line, the Foote line, a very early family in the colonies. The Coat of Arms was said to have had the heads of three cows, or of three deer. That there was a Maltby Coat of Arms with heads of three kind is a well established fact.

William Maltby (called by Mrs. Verrill in her histories, "The Emi grant") had a brother John who was lost at sea: he had a son, William (2), who was lost at sea or died in the West Indies when on a trader's voyage. There were left four sons. William (1) had a brother, Robert, who was an applicant for lots in Charleston and land near Charleston, South Carolina in 1680. These brothers, William, John and Robert came from Nottinghamshire (or Notts), England.

If one compares the given names of children in the first generations of Maltbie (or Maltby) in Connecticut with names of children of Jonathan of Camillus and descendants, pp. 1, 5, 8, 10, 24, 62, 78, 79, 81, he must see that Biblical names were used largely, and the same names on down through the generations, (as they were in some other branches of the family not given here. For example my grandniece, Linda Susan Molby, has the lineage, Samuel James (9), Samuel James (8), Samuel James (7), Samuel (6), Chester (5), Jonathan (4), Samuel (3), Samuel (2), William (1).

Mrs. Verrill's MS. has records extending back a long time in the century or longer, prior to 1650. In fact she makes it seem very proba ble that a Knight, founder of the Maltby Family in England, came to England with William The Conqueror in 1066. In America the family as a whole has supplied many clergymen and college presidents and college teachers. In reading the MS. one is impressed that many Maltby maidens have wished their maiden name onto their sons in later life, as Maltby Davenport Babcock, a well known clergyman in his day. William Lyon Phelps, late Professor in Yale University, had a Maltby mother.

                                       FAM, April 1961

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