04/29/10

Lineage of the English Family Whitmore derives from: John, Lord of Whytemere, in the reign of Henry III, Edward I, was father of : Phillip De Whytemere, who died in 1300, and was S. by his son, :John De Whytemere, living in 1361, show son,: Richard De Whytemere, of Claverley and Whytemere, married Margery, daughter and heir of William Atteral, of Claverley, and dying about 1368, left a son and heir,: Richare De Whytemere, father of another,: Richard De Whytemere, who married a lady named Joan, but of what family is not ascertained, and was S. at his decease, in 1442, by his son,: Thomas Whytemere, of Claverley, she died 1483, his son,: Richard Whytemere, left at his demise in 1504, by his wife Agnes, who died 1522, a son and successor,: Richard Whitmore, of Claverley, born 1495, who married Frances Barker, and had 2 sons,: Wiliam his heir, Thomas, ancestor of the Whitmores of Ludstone, in Claverley. Richard Whitmore died 1549, and was S. by his son, : William Whitmore ESQ. of London, merchant, who married Anne, daughter of Alderman William Bond, of that city, and by her (who died Oct., 1615) had issue: William (Sir) his heir; Thomas, George (Sir) Knight of Balmes, in Hackney parish, Middlesex. He died Dec 12, 1654.

Thomas Whitmore 1615-1681, came to America in 1635 married Sarah Hall had son ,Izrahiah Wetmore 1656-1742 married Rachael Stow had son, Judge Seth Wetmore 1703-1778 married Hannah Edwards had son, Deacon Oliver Wetmore 1752-1798 married Sarah Brewster had son, Chauncey Edwards Wetmore 1790-1872 married Rebecca Hubbard had daughter, Harriet Wetmore 1823-1901 married John Wesley Jones had son, Walter Brewster Jones 1856-1939 married Annie Katharine Hall had daughter, Ruth 1900-1989 married Jacob Eugene Heintz had son, Walter George Heintz 1927- married Beatrice  had son, Michael  Heintz,  married Patrica, have 3 sons Adam Brewster Heintz, Patrick Michael Heintz and Eric Walter Heintz.

If you are interested on the Wetmore genealogy there is a book that can be ordered about Wetmore family. It is available from Higginsons Books and you can visit them on line by clicking on their name. The book was printed in 1861 and starts with Thomas Whitmore and his descendants. Over time I will be relaying some of the information found in this book in my Wetmore Facts.

Another place on the web to find Wetmore information is at http://www.genforum.com/wetmore/

You can visit my other genealogical web site on William Brewster by clicking on the name.

The Mormon Church is on line with their great genealogical records click on highlighted text.

I have extensive information on the Wetmore family. I have visited the home of Judge Seth in Middletown CT. The Wetmore family is related to Aaron Burr, Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, and Cotton Mather. Feel free to contact me if you are a relative.

This is the carved newel post at the bottom of the stairway

This wall was originally paneled from floor to ceiling when the current owners took possession from the Wetmores. The sons of the owners found a hollow wall behind the panels and while the parents were vacationing they removed them.

Behind the panels they found a fireplace with a dutch oven on each side. Inside the fireplace they found a sword which belonged to a beau who died in the Mexican war who customarily left his sword with his betrothed. In the dutch oven they found some scalps which were well preserved in some kind of alcohol mixture.

View of the Wetmore home from the right side. The rooms added onto the back were servants quarters. This house was used to hide runaway slaves. The underground railroad ran here. Outside this side we can see where wells were. They held water about 5 feet deep. The slaves would hide in the water up to their noses when people came to look for them. The wells are filled in now but one can see the depressions in the earth where they were.

The brownstone chimney here is an example of the architecture of the day. The house was built in 1746 by Judge Seth Wetmore.

Here is some more history about the home:
Seth Wetmore, born in 1700 and the fifth son of Israiah Wetmore, followed in his father’s footsteps in public service and the law.  He did not attend any college but was an educated man.  He was first appointed Tax Collector and Constable in 1733; then, Surveyor of the Highway in 1735 and in the 1740’s selectman and Moderator of the Town Meeting.  He also represented Middletown in several regional and intercolonial disputes.  He served as a Deputy of the General Court of Connecticut for forty-eight terms from 1738 to 1771 as well as Magistrate of Middletown, Judge of the County Court of Hartford County and, with Jabez Hamlin, Judge of the Quorum of Hartford County 1761-1768.
During his lifetime, Middletown changed from a small community of farmers into one of the wealthiest towns in Connecticut.    The Connecticut River had always been a highway that transported people and goods to and from the interiors of Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut and the rest of the world via Long Island Sound.  Business districts were beginning to form near the ports of all the river towns by the end of the seventeenth century and shipbuilding had started in Middletown as early as 1670.  By 1713/14 Middletown already had two wharves and ships operating from them.  The ports provided an outlet for excess crops grown in the rich soils left by the glacier north of Middletown.  Commercial farming developed rapidly and wheat, corn, tobacco and livestock were shipped off to coastal cities and, later, as far as the West Indies. Two schooners operated out of Middletown in 1730 but by 1770 fifteen ships called this port home.
Most of the increase in the port’s business came from the local merchant’s involvement in the triangular trade.  Several Middletown men made fortunes by working all three sides of the triangle; selling local products to the West Indies and importing sugar. Rum, molasses and slaves while at the same time accumulating credits with British merchants who wanted access to markets in the interior.
This new wealth created a taste for luxury and the ability to pay for it. The Middletown elite indulged themselves.  Estate inventories show large amounts of silver, mahogany furniture, vast wardrobes, expensive clocks and items from the China trade.
The slave trade made a genteel life possible for these wealthy merchants and most of them participated in it both by importing and owning slaves.  Slave ownership was common but few had more than one.  The 1756 census listed a white population of 5664 and 218 black residents of Middletown; the third highest number in the state.  Seth Wetmore’s probate inventory shows that at the time of his death in 1778 he owned 6 Negro slaves.  Connecticut passed a “Gradual Emancipation” law in 1784 which was intended to phase out slavery.  No slaves were reported in the 1850 Connecticut census.
The Wetmore family later became ardent abolitionists. The house is said to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad but this has not been documented.
The town grew around the port and the new wealth provided new jobs for shipbuilders and other maritime trades, housewrights and joiners for new construction, tailors, silversmiths and goldsmiths including Connecticut’s only known woman silversmith, Minerva Dexter. This increase in population brought with it a diversity of culture and opinion that the old Congregationalist Puritans did not like but could not stop.  By the 1750’s Episcopalians, Methodists and Baptists all had places of worship in Middletown.
The year 1746 was an important one for Judge Wetmore.  In that year he was not only made Moderator but he also married his third wife, Hannah Edwards and built his mansion at Staddle Hill.  Hannah was the sister of Johnathan Edwards, the well known Massachusetts minister.   Seth’s marriage to Hannah connects him to the “River Gods,” a group of 13 interrelated families, a “…self conscious gentry elite” who controlled,   “…the military, the magistracy and the ministry” in the pre-Revolutionary Connecticut River Valley.   Edwards was related to both the Stoddards and the Williamses who were the most powerful of all. These families exerted nearly total control on every aspect of life in the Valley including taste and culture.   Judge Wetmore already had the wealth and power to qualify for this exclusive group and now he had married into it.  In fact, Jonathan Edwards refers to him as “Brother Wetmore” in a letter to a friend.  The judge may have gained a pedigree by his association with the river Gods but he gave them a way to display their power that is still with us.
By 1746 the threat of serious Indian attack in this part of the Valley had virtually vanished and many towns, including Middletown, had torn down the palisades they once used for defense. This not only opened up land beyond the old defensive perimeter to build bigger houses than could be constructed in town but it also demonstrated control of countryside.   People began to think outside the narrow bounds of Puritan communal life.  The towns were crowded with new people who had brought new ideas and new (still English protestant, of course) religions.  Business and politics started to rival religion in people’s lives.  Puritans were becoming Yankees.
Judge Wetmore’s new house would embody this conscious break with tradition and would also reinforce the power and prestige of the owner.  The most prominent men had always built the largest and most stylish houses, of course but this one was unprecedented in the Connecticut River Valley.  His new home would be at least twice the size of any other house in Middletown. It would stand two and a half stories high on a hill overlooking the river two miles from town and it would be painted.  (Few, if any buildings in Middletown would have been painted in 1746.)  it would be two rooms deep and have a center hall with two inside chimneys.  The center hall was a major break from the old center chimney house where each room led to the next and privacy was unheard of. It was not unusual for there to be bedding in every room in the house.  With the center hall, visitors could be brought into any room in the house without disturbing any other.  Rooms began to have specialized uses.
The only traditional regional element Wetmore retained was the gable end door on the “hall” side of the house.  Even this door was another way of controlling traffic flow into and out of the house.  It opened directly onto the informal, family side of the house could be used by those who did not rise to the level of a formal entrance under that impressive pediment.
The house also originally had a large gambrel roof and an elaborate scroll pediment above a double leaf doorway.  All of these features had, in this region, only been seen on meeting houses and government buildings.  They immediately gave an air of power and authority to the building and its owner.
Seth and Hannah built the earliest known example of what would become the defining architectural form for generations of grand houses.  For many years, a “Mansion” would have to be 2 ½ stories tall, have a gambrel roof and a double leaved door with an elaborate (usually scroll) pediment, a central hall and be two rooms deep.  As Hosley says, it, “…transformed the architectural landscape of the Connecticut River Valley.”
It didn’t take long for the River Gods and other powerful men to start applying Wetmore’s formula of architectural intimidation.  Their hold on power, based on an extended network of intermarriage and family, required constant reminders of status and living in a mansion house was very effective method of communication.  In the next fifteen years the River God’s network had built eight new houses using the major new elements of the Wetmore House and remodeled two more to resemble it.   The style spread from East Hartford Connecticut, just a few miles from Middletown, to as far as Stockbridge, Massachusetts, ninety miles away.
The Wetmores must have been comfortable in their new house.  As was the custom among the River Gods, they often entertained traveling clan members. Among them were Reverend Jonathan Edwards (among other things, president of New Jersey College which became Princeton), Timothy Dwight, future president of Yale, and Aaron Burr who studied law under the Judge.  Family tradition also has it that General Lafayette visited the Wetmore home but there is no documentation of this.
Judge Seth Wetmore died of smallpox in 1778 but the Wetmore family continued to live in the house for the next six generations.

To see more Wetmore information click HERE

Wetmore Facts

The other day while looking through some of my grandmother’s stuff that was hastily thrown
together when we cleaned out her house a few years after she died, I found a scrapbook compiled
by my great-great grandfather John Wesley Jones.  In it, I believe, are 3 articles written in 1891 by
him?  My grandmother used to tell us of their journey from New York to San Francisco but this is
from “his” mouth.  I will put these up in 3 installments leaving the previous one up so newcomers
may enjoy the entire story.  It starts at the end of the journey goes to the beginning and then the
middle.  A brief synopsis: The ship sailed from New York, unloaded passengers and cargo at the
Isthmus of Panama where they crossed on foot and by boat to the other side and were picked up
to continue to San Francisco.

Days of ‘49

Mr. Editor:
An article in the Century Magazine by Wm. T. Coleman, and other articles in various papers have
awakened reminiscences of the early days of California.  The writer well remembers entering the
harbor of San Francisco on the steamer California on the 15th day of July 1849.  We came in
through the Golden Gate just as the evening shadows were stealing over the landscape and the
sight to the sea-sick and weary-worn voyagers, was one of entrancing beauty.  We had been fifty
days from New York and more than twenty from Panama.  The steamer, at first intended but for
few passengers, was, as usual at those times, overcrowded, and there was hardly a place anywhere
on deck or below, where one could lie down at length and enjoy a night’s rest.  To add to the
discomforts, not to say the horror of the situation, a few days from Panama, cholera, which had
been epidemic there, during our two weeks stay, appeared on the steamer, and before we reached
the cooler regions of the North, we had consigned to the Pacific waves, eight of those who had
started out with us, with hopes as high and expectations as brilliant as any of us who survived
them, and some few of us who still remain to hope on.  We said that we arrived on the 15th day of
July 1849.  The steamer anchored off the east side of Telegraph Hill, at about eight o’clock and it
was but a few minutes later when a fusillade commenced on the hill, that resembled something
more than a miniature battle.  For an hour or more the firing continued then all became quiet and
in the morning all seemed as peaceful and silent as if all the world were at rest.  We landed just
between Montgomery and Sansome street, near Washington, and proceeded to explore the
wonderful town of board shanties and canvass houses, and in the afternoon finding a small sail
boat going to Sacramento, we paid $15 for fare to Benicia and were landed here just at dark,
finally getting something Christian to eat and a chance to sleep on the floor of a house, which, by
the way is still standing.
We started to write something of the early and later impressions of the Vigilance Committees, but
as our pencil has run away with us, we will have to defer it until some other time.

Last week we gave some of our experiences in the latter part of the voyage in 1849, from New
York to San Francisco.  We did not think at the time of  writing anything except our impressions
of the acts of the various vigilance committees of California, but instead, we went back to personal
reminiscences and told a very few things of our recollection of the latter part of our journey.
It may be of no interest to most readers to know of the early trials of the pioneers, or argonauts as
they are sometimes called, but having been asked to go back  in our memory and say something
beyond, we have been trying to throw, some small light into the dim shades of the past and call
forth the ghosts of memory that have been haunting us for years.
We have but a dim recollection of the events that occurred from the time of embarkation at New
York, on the 15th of May, 1849, till our arrival at Chagres some fifteen days later.  We however
well remember that we called in at Havana, that we thoroughly explored the city and the public
gardens, and that the crowd drank several bottles of very bad wine and were very glad when we
were once more on our way towards the Isthmus.  Arriving at Chagres we had the pleasure of
waiting a few days and exploring the surrounding swamps and the ancient fortifications on the
opposite side of the river.  At that time the steamer came to the mouth of the river, and was pulled
up along side of the shore and discharged her cargo of passengers and  freight on the bank.  We
remember distinctly of walking a few dozen yards from the alleged hotel into the chaparral and
seeing a lizard, or something of that species, from two to three feet in length.  We shipped back as
rapidly as possible and did not venture again outside of what we considered safe limits.  Nest day
eight of us hired a “bungo” and three men to propel the primitive craft and started on our
dubious journey.  The first day everything went well and we really enjoyed the dolce far niete of
the Isthmus climate and the lower reaches of the Chagres river.  Our crew, or boatmen as we
might call them, were somewhat of a primitive kind; our captain was a dude, when in full dress
had on a stovepipe hat and a vest discarded by some overheated traveler.  The others were even in
more primitive costume, but they had not the civilized sense of impropriety, even in the presence
of ladies.  The first night we stopped at Dos Hermanos, a town of two shanties.  The writer, going
up the bank saw a snake about six feet long, not in boots, and again beat a hasty retreat to the
boat.  The next day was through a forest and jungle, occasionally a clearing with a plantation of
bananas or palm trees around it the luxurious growth of which showed the wonderful
productiveness of the soil.  Another thing we saw, that perhaps many will sneer at, was that the
branches of the trees that had dipped into the water were covered with oysters.  The woods were
alive with chattering monkeys, screaming parrots, beautiful paroquettes and brilliant macaws.
The second night we stopped at Gatun, quite a little village, where we were hospitably entertained
and given the best place afforded, and as we paid a large price for all we had, parted in the best of
friends with many a Bon dios, adios senores, from our well satisfied hosts.
 
 

I believe this is a picture of my great great grandmother Harriet Wetmore. If any of you have any photos or pictures from the Wetmore family about 1850 see if there is a resemblance.
 
 

This is a Picture of Chauncey Edwards Wetmore II circa 1850, Son of Chauncey, and his son William Brewster Wetmore. Courtesy of my new found cousin Wendie Richardson.