|
Volume 1: Aaron Stark [1608-1685], Progenitor of our Stark Family in North America and the First Three Generations Part 2: The Second Generation; Children of Aaron Stark [1608-1685]
Chapter 2: Aaron Stark (Junior) & Mehitable Shaw 2nd Edition; October 2006; by Clovis LaFleur, with Editorial Assistance by Donn Neal; Copyright © August 2006, Clovis La Fleur Major contributors: Pauline Stark Moore & Gwen Boyer Bjorkman [Home] [Table
of Contents]
|
||||||||||||||||
|
[Previous: Part 2 Introduction] [Next; Chapter 3: John, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Anna Stark] An entry in the New London County records for June 3, 1685, informs us Aaron Stark (Junior) was the son of Aaron Stark (Senior):49
Aaron (Junior) was most likely born between 1653 and 1658. The earlier estimate is based on the probable arrival of his parents at the John Mason land grant in Stonington in 1653, and the later estimate based on his being reported as an inhabitant of New London April 11, 1678. (He had to have been twenty-one years of age to appear on the list.)50 There are few surviving records in Connecticut related to Aaron Stark (Junior) during his lifetime. The earliest record is a November 27, 1676 Thomas Minor diary entry: “"The Ninth moneth is November … monday the .27. Aron Start Junior and mehitabel shaw were married..." 51 Mehitable Shaw was the daughter of Thomas and Mary Shaw, residents of Stonington Township, New London County, Connecticut – most likely where the marriage rites were performed. The extant record of Aaron Stark (Junior) came when he received a bounty for killing wolves on November 28, 1691.50When Did Aaron Stark (Junior) Die? There has been considerable speculation by Stark Family researchers, both past and present, attempting to establish the time of death of Aaron (Junior). This is important because there could have been two men named Aaron Stark in the New London County records after 1691: Aaron Stark (Junior) and his son of the same name, hereafter referred to as Aaron Stark (the third). Most genealogists seem to agree Aaron (Junior) was deceased no later than April 24, 1721, but many records dated before that year suggest that he was in fact deceased well before then; they also help us by revealing the names of his children. A thorough review of the pertinent records will help us to sort out which Aaron Stark is which. An especially important one is a Groton Deed book entry dated April 24, 1721, which states:52
This document tells us: Cozen Aron Stark was the son of a deceased father named Aron Stark; the deceased father of Cozen Aron Stark was the brother of William Stark; and the two brothers were sons of a deceased father named Aron Stark. Undoubtedly, the deceased father of the two brothers was Aaron Stark [1608-1685] (hereafter referred to as Senior); the deceased father of Cozen Aron Stark was Aaron Stark (Junior); and Cozen Aron Stark was the nephew of William Stark (Senior). Assuming this deduction is correct, then we can confidently state that Aaron Stark (Junior) was deceased before April 24, 1721, and had a son with the same name: Aaron Stark (the third). Are there other records showing that Aaron Stark (Junior) was deceased at an earlier date? May 29, 1716, the Groton Deed Books reported the siblings of Aaron Stark [the third] acknowledged receiving their fair share of there deceased father’s estate:53
The subscribers who signed this document could not have been children of Aaron Stark (Senior), for his sons were named in his 1685 probate record. All those mentioned were children of Aaron Stark (Junior), accept for Joseph Collver, who was married to their sister, Mary Stark. This document provides persuasive evidence that Aaron Stark (Junior) was the deceased father of the siblings named in this deed record. Another Groton Deed record suggest Aaron Stark (Junior) may have been deceased before February of 1713/14:54
This deed indicates that another son of Aaron Stark (Junior), Stephen Stark, had sold the property inherited from his deceased father. This was the same Stephen Stark who on May 20, 1751, sold a “Tract of Land which did formerly belong to my Honoured Grand Father Thomas Shaw Late of Said Stonington Deceasd.”55 Thomas Shaw of Stonington was most likely the father of Stephen’s mother, Mehitable Shaw – suggesting that Stephen was the son of Aaron Stark (Junior). But there is other evidence Aaron Stark (Junior) was deceased even earlier. Helen Stark in a 1937 article entitled, " Aaron Stark Family, Known Facts & Authorities," wrote:56
Helen's source for this document was the New London Probate Records in Hartford, Connecticut, but the document itself has not been found. If such a document did exist – and there is no reason to doubt its existence – then Aaron Stark (Junior) was deceased before 1707. Who, then, was the Aaron Stark mentioned in the following deed that sold a lot in Voluntown March 22, 1709/10?57
If Aaron Stark (Junior) was indeed deceased before June 9, 1707, then the Aron Starke who sold the above property must have been Aaron Stark (the third). We know his parents did not marry until November 1676, which means that Aaron Stark (the third) was not born until after King Philip’s War (1675-1676). How did this property come into the possession of Aaron Stark (the third) if he was not one of the volunteers granted land in Voluntown? The Voluntown deed records provide a probable answer to this question:58
Perhaps this was Aaron Stark (Junior) who Helen reports was deceased before June 9, 1707. But further review of the Voluntown records suggest that if the above was Aaron Stark (Junior) then he was most likely deceased before 1701. In October of 1696, the Court of Connecticut approved a land grant of six square miles to be divided among those men who had fought in King Philip's War. On October 14, 1697, Captain Samuel Mason, Mr. John Gallop, and Lieutenant James Avery were appointed as a committee to view the tract, and in October 1700 a committee was selected to manage the affairs of the new town named Voluntown. On July 1, 1701, at a meeting in Stonington Township, the committee chose Captain Richard Bushnell as clerk. He was charged with making a list of the volunteers in King Philip's War; a separate committee was appointed to review Bushnell’s recommendations. The next day, the list of names was presented and approved by the committee. Two of those approved were Aaron Stark and John Stark, both described as deceased on the day the names were approved by the committee.59 If the above Voluntown lot was the property of Aaron Stark (Junior) – as the earlier discussion suggests – then Aaron (Junior) was the deceased Aaron Stark approved in 1701 to receive a land grant for his service in King Philip’s War. However, Charles R. Stark’s 1927 publication entitled The Aaron Stark Family, Seven Generations may dispute the validity of this hypothesis, as follows:60
According to this publication, three men with the surname Stark were awarded lots in Voluntown for their volunteer service in King Philip's War. Yet, as described above, the surviving Voluntown records report only two men with the surname Stark were approved to receive lots (Aaron Stark & John Stark). Therefore, unless one of these men named in the Charles R. Stark publication was overlooked, one of these three men did not receive a Voluntown lot. Can we determine which of these three men did not receive a lot in Voluntown? The New London court records show that Aaron Stark (Senior) died before June 1685 and that the estate of John Stark, deceased, was inventoried on September 16, 1690.56 This would appear to confirm they were the two men reported in the Voluntown record. However, William Stark (Senior), the son of Aaron Stark (Senior), did not die until 1730. If William was an heir to the Voluntown lot, why was his name not recorded with the other heir, Aaron Stark (the third), when the Voluntown lot was sold in 1709/10? Perhaps the deed suggests that William was not an heir because the property had been granted to his brother, Aaron Stark (Junior) – not to Aaron Stark (Senior). Helen Stark speculated further in her article:56
Although Aaron Stark (Junior) was most likely deceased before 1701, could he have been deceased as early as 1696? Charles R. Stark reported that Hannah Stark the daughter of Aaron Stark and Mehitable Shaw, was baptized by Reverend James Noyes on September 12, 1697, at the Stonington Road church.60 But baptisms are not birth dates, and on page 10 of Charles R. Stark’s book Hannah Stark is shown to have died on April 27, 1734, at the age of fifty-six – suggesting she was nineteen years old when she was baptized in 1697. In her essay titled More Theories and Some Questions, published in the 1937 Stark Family Association Yearbook, Helen Stark ask the question:
This property was clearly part of the land that Aaron Stark (Senior) purchased from Reverend William Thompson. Surviving records to not show that Sarah, the spouse of Aaron Stark (Senior), received any portion of her husband’s estate. By excluding Sarah as the Widow Stark, we see that the widow in question in 1696/7 had to have been the spouse of one of the three sons of Aaron Stark (Senior) named in his probate record. But which son – Aaron, William, or John? William Stark’s spouse is easily disposed of, for he did not die until much later (1730). What about the wife of John Stark? New London County Court Records, dated February 6, 1693/94 mention her as follows:61
Helen Stark’s article identifies the former Widow Stark married to John Weeks as the spouse of John Stark:56
Thus we can say with certainty the former Widow Stark (subsequently the wife of John Weeks) could not have been the Widow Stark mentioned in the 1696/97 deed record because she was no longer a widow in that year. That leaves us only the spouse of Aaron Stark (Junior) as the Widow Stark mentioned in the 1696/97 deed. Although this statement must still be regarded as somewhat speculative, the arguments are very strong that the Widow Stark was Mehitable Shaw, wife of Aaron Stark (Junior). And if Mehitable Shaw was indeed the widow mentioned in the records, this would be a strong argument that Aaron (Junior) died between November 1691 and January 1696/97. In support of this hypothesis, we know Aaron (Junior) and Mehitable were married on November 27, 1676 (as reported in the Thomas Minor diary). If their first child was born late in the year 1677, that child, according to Connecticut law at that time, would have been a minor (under the age of twenty-one) in January 1696/97. Any other children born after 1677 were of course also minor children when this deed was recorded. Court procedure of that day would have allowed the Widow Stark to hold the property in her name until the male children became adults, at which time ownership references would have been in their names. Therefore, the courts would probably have recognized the property of Aaron Stark (Junior) as belonging to his widow, Mehitable Stark, until the children were twenty-one years of age. Owing to a paucity of records, there is little to say about the life of Aaron Stark (Junior). What we know from them is that he was a participant in King Philip’s War; married Mehitable Shaw on November 27, 1676; was a resident of New London as of November 28, 1678; inherited a portion of his father’s estate in 1685; and received a bounty for killing wolves in 1691. Although there is documentary evidence that Aaron Stark (Junior) was deceased before 1707, circumstantial evidence suggests that he was most likely deceased before 1701 – and could have become deceased between 1691 and 1697. The lengthy review here of the year of death of Aaron Stark (Junior) has provided us with certain tentative conclusions about the three men named Aaron Stark who appear in the early colonial Connecticut records.
[Previous: Part 2 Introduction] [Next; Chapter 3: John, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Anna Stark] [Return to Table of Contents] [Top of Page] [Scroll Down to Sources, References, & Footnotes]
Sources, References, & Footnotes
Minor, John A., The Minor Diaries, Stonington, Connecticut: Thomas 1653 to 1684, Manasseh 1696 to 1720 (Reprint 1976). Original publishers of the Diaries: Sidney H. Minor and George D. Stanton, publishers of Thomas’ Diary in 1899; and Frank Denison Minor and Hannah Minor, publishers of Manasseh’s Diary in 1915. Page 138 (Church of Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ microfilm # 1036221). Return to Text Groton, New London County, Connecticut; First Book of Records, 1705-1723. Church of Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ Family History Library Film #4293, pages 551 &552 (Transcribed by Gwen Boyer Bjorkman). Return to Text Ibid. Page 310. Return to Text Groton, New London County, Connecticut; First Book of Records, 1705-1723. Church of Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ Family History Library Film #4293, page 203). Return to Text Stonington, New London County, Connecticut Deeds, Volumes 5 & 6. Church of Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ Family History Library Film #5595; Volume 6, page 217 (Transcribed by Gwen Boyer Bjorkman). Return to Text Helen Stark, "Aaron Stark Family, Known Facts & Authorities," Unpublished typed manuscript dated 1937. Archived Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Connecticut. Call Number 929.2 St. Return to Text (Groton, New London Co, CT First Book of Records 1705-1723. Church of Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ Family History Library Film #4293 , page 77 (Transcribed by Gwen Boyer Bjorkman). Return to Text Voluntown, New London County, Connecticut Deed Records. Church of Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ Family History Library Film #5881, page 69, Lot #124 (Transcribed by Gwen Boyer Bjorkman). Return to Text Bodge, George M., "Soldiers in King Phillip's War," Boston, 1906. "Narragansett Township Granted to Connecticut Volunteers in the Narraganset War, now Voluntown, Connecticut." Pages 441-442. Return to Text Charles R. Stark, “The Aaron Stark Family, Seven Generations of the Descendants of Aaron Stark of Groton, Connecticut.” (Wright and Potter, Boston, Massachusetts – 1927). Pages 1 & 2. Return to Text New London County, Connecticut Court Records, Volume VII, page 119. Return to Text [Previous: Part 2 Introduction] [Next; Chapter 3: John, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Anna Stark] [Return to Table of Contents] [Top of Page]
| ||||||||||||||||
|
Other than that work created by other acknowledged contributors or sources, the articles and genealogical data presented in this publication were derived from the research of Clovis LaFleur; Copyright © 2007. All rights are reserved. The use of any material on these pages by others will be discouraged if the named contributors, sources, or Clovis LaFleur have not been acknowledged. Disclaimer This publication and the data presented is the work of Clovis LaFleur. However, some of the content presented has been derived from the research and publicly available information of others and may not have been verified. You are responsible for the validation of all data and sources reported and should not presume the material presented is correct or complete.
|
