Our Seaman Family Line

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The exact origin of our particular branch of Seamans is difficult to trace due to the many progenitors of the name. The surname has likely been in use since the 8th century AD, when Danish Norseman (i.e. Vikings) sailed the North Sea. They raided the eastern and southern coasts of England many times over the ensuing centuries, and were often called by the uninspired name of "Sea Men". The result being that the surname is now spread far and wide across eastern and southern England (See Ref. 1, p.6).

Once settled in England, the various Seamans spread prolifically, and the surname is now found with a number of spelling variations. Of note, the Old English word Symond meant what Seaman means today, but was pronounced Simmon (Ref.1, p.8). In some areas of England it has been further corrupted to Simmonds, but all of these spellings are of the same origin. 

The earliest known American ancestor of our line that can be confidently traced is that of Thomas Seamans of Swansea, MA. There seem to have been 2-4 main lines of Seamans that came to America from England. We do not know for certain which of these lines our Thomas came from, and different researchers have claimed each of these sources as the origin of our line (Ref 1, p.9; Ref. 2, p.xii), though some can be easily refuted (See Note 1). An intriguing possibility is that of a Thomas Seaman who had been banished from the early colonies to Barbados for an unknown political or religious crime (a somewhat common punishment at that time). In 1679, he was released with a group of prisoners and allowed to return to New England (Ref 1, p.9; Ref 2, p.x). Some accounts claim that our Thomas' grandson Revered Job Seaman (son of his son Charles) left written papers stating that his grandfather Thomas had jumped this ship in Maryland and then made his way to Massachusetts where he settled (see Note 4).

One final possibility, with no proof whatsoever, I share only because it has some small resemblance to family lore I have heard passed down our own family line. Supposedly, a member of the royal Stuart line in England at the time of King James I (1603-1625), renounced his catholic faith and was banished to Virginia. He prospered in the new world, and had property, a wife, and three sons (always the 3 sons in these stories), however, he died at a relatively young age. His widow remarried, began a new family, and was anxious to fully remove her ties to the banished Stuart line. She convinced the boys' stepfather to bribe a Captain to take then to Plymouth Rock under the surname of Seamans, and to find them a home there in which they could be provided for. Only the eldest brother was old enough to understand why they had been sent away, but he explained it to the youngest two and told them he was going to try to go back to claim his birthright. Instead, he drowned at sea. Two years later the second brother tried the same with similar results. The third brother then decided to stay put and retain the name of Seamans. Far-fetched, but who knows, our Seamans could be Stuarts in disguise (Ref 2, p.xii)!



The exact birthdate/place of our Thomas Seamans is unknown, but was likely southeastern England around 1660. The Swansea, MA area he settled in has the notoriety of being the origination site of the first Indian War (also known as King Phillip's war). The area was once called Mattapoisett ("place of resting") by the Wampanoag Native Americans, and portions of the land were sacred to their people and central to their native government at the time (Ref 5). A fragile peace had been brokered between the Pokanoket Wampanoag and the Plymouth colony settlers since their arrival in 1620. But tensions flared as the settlers slowly pushed further westwards into native territory. The town's official formation in 1667 was carried out by a group of Baptists led by Revered John Myles, who had been forced out of nearby Rehoboth due to their religious beliefs (Ref 6, Ref 9). By Jun 20, 1675, the date of King Phillip's (the Wampanoag leader) attack, there were at least 5 main areas of new English settlement in the area containing about 40 houses (Ref 7, p.2).

As the attack began, residents fled to the Miles (Myles) and Bourne garrison properties for protection (Ref. 7, p.4). That first day, nineteen residents were killed and all of the homes between Swansea Corners and the Borne Garrison (now known as Gardner's neck) were destroyed. Over the next year, while war waged across the colonies, many families relocated back to Rehoboth and into RI for a time. Eventually the English gained the upper hand, and by Aug 20, 1676, King Phillip was captured, hung, beheaded, drawn, and quartered. And then for good measure, his head was placed on a spike and displayed at Plymouth colony for two decades. (Bitter much?) Residents returned and the new Baptist English town prospered. And in 1687, perhaps a few years after jumping a ship, this is where Thomas chose to marry Susannah Sailisbury and settle down. (Many of their children later settled in northwestern RI as well, where it is said that the Seaman family owned most of the land in that area at the time (Ref 2, p.1).)

Susannah Sailisbury, originally from nearby Dorchester, MA (now part of Boston), moved to Swansea in her youth. Sadly, her father and eldest brother were among the casualties of that first day of King Phillip's war. Thomas and Susannah were well documented citizens of Swansea, MA in the late 1600's, where they had a family of 11 children (Ref 2, p.1, Ref 16). He was a teacher, a shoemaker, and a carpenter. Interestingly, our Kent family ancestors lived in this same town during the same time period. Given the size of the town during this period, it seems likely that Thomas Seamans and Joseph Kent (b.1665) knew one another at least in passing.

Thomas and Susannah's eldest son (b.1693) was given the namesake of Thomas as well. In 1716, this son married a woman named Mary Pierce, with whom he had a daughter, also named Mary (b.1717). Unfortunately, his wife seems to have died in childbirth, or soon after. A year and a half later, he married again to Martha Wood, and they had 10 more children in Swansea (Ref 2, pp.2-3, Ref 17). Their eldest son was again given the name of Thomas (b.1722), from whom we are descended. In later life, Thomas and Martha may have joined his siblings in RI for a time, but he is said to have died in Northampton, MA (See Note 3).

Elder Thomas Seamans (b.1722) became a pastor of the Hornbine Baptist Church in SE Rehoboth, MA, then called the Church of Christ (Ref 6, pp.108-111). This church was originally formed in Swansea a few years after the death of Pastor Myles. Ironically, due to religious disagreements over tithes, in 1753 they chose to remove themselves to Rehoboth, from which that had been ousted just under a century prior for other religious disagreements. Elder Thomas married Sarah Miller in Rehoboth, MA in 1745, and had 6 children there (Ref 2, p.7, Ref 17). He was also a farmer who lived to the age of 104 years, was said to have great "physical vigor", and preached at the Sunday pulpit through his 100th year. He lived the final years of his life on the farm of his son Comfort Seamans, where he is buried, about a mile north of the church where he used to preach (Ref 9, pp.203-204)(See Note 3).

Elder Thomas' third son Josiah (b.1752) was our ancestor. He married Penelope Baker in Rehoboth in 1772 and then moved to western MA where he settled in Lanesborough. They raised a family of 7 children as the Revolutionary war was beginning, in a town strongly supportive of the move towards British Independence (Ref 10, pp.24-25). In what few town records remain after the Town Hall fire of 1828, the family is listed by the surname of Simmons (Ref. 18). Our ancestor Gardner Simmons (b.1787) was their 6th child and youngest son. At some point after 1790 the family seems to have relocated to Vermont (Ref 11, p.96) (See Note 2).

Perhaps it was because of his position as the youngest son in a large family that Gardner chose to set off for new lands at the age of only 20. Post-war expansion of the colonies opened up lands in northern Pennsylvania for settlement. However, it was a notoriously difficult area to draw settlers to due to the combination of dense forests, hostile natives, and poor roads (Ref 13). In 1806-7, an East-West Road began construction across the new north central counties, helping to attract settlers at last. Gardner arrived in Sullivan Twp., Tioga County, PA in 1807, becoming only the 8th family of settlers to the area (Ref 12). Gardner was one of the original teachers of the town, as well as a farmer (Ref 14).

Gardner and his wife Mercy Howes (of VT) had 7 children (Ref 19). Their second born son, Henry Gilbert, died at the relatively young age of 31, and although his wife was still living, Gardner and Mercy took in 2 of their 3 children for a number of years. Their youngest child, Orrin, was born to them unexpectedly late in life, and it was with him and his family that they lived during their elder years in nearby Richmond Twp. Gardner and Mercy's first born son, Samuel (b. 1810), was our direct ancestor.

Unlike many of his siblings, Samuel chose to leave north central PA and settle into the south western town of Wilmore, Cambria, PA instead. He married Anne Amsbaugh from nearby Wheatfield, Indiana, PA in 1839 and was a cabinet maker by trade. He was also ordained as a Free Will Baptist reverend in 1844 (Ref. 15, p.590). He and his wife Anne had 8 children, including a set of fraternal boy/girl twins born in 1850. Unfortunately, Rev. Samuel passed away at the age of only 43, just 3 weeks before his youngest child Daniel Gardner was born. Their oldest child, Thomas, was but 14 years at the time.

It's unclear how Anne managed to hold the family together through this time, yet all but one of her children went on to settle in the nearby area and raise families of their own. The twins, John and Mary, ended up marrying siblings from the same family, Louisa and William Knepper, about 4 years apart. Samuel and Anne's second oldest son, Albert Franklin (b. 1841), was our direct ancestor. 

Albert remained in Wilmore, PA, initially working as a farm laborer. At the age of 20 he enlisted into the Union side of the civil war where he served for a year and a half as a blacksmith in a Calvary unit in Virginia. A year later, in 1866, he married Virginia Chestnutwood/(Kestenholtz). Virginia was from a line of Swiss-German's that were prevalent in PA at this time, brought in back at the turn of the century to help build the roads and other infrastructure of the expanding state (Ref 13). Albert continued his work as a farmer and blacksmith and they had a family of 9 children.

Albert's second born son, Emory Samuel (b. 1869), is our direct ancestor. Like his father and grandfather before him, Emory lived in Wilmore, Cambria, PA. In 1899, he married Martha Anna Dean from Huntingdon, PA and they had 3 children. He owned a grocery store on the main street of town. His wife passed at the age of 58 from pneumonia, though she was said to have been sick for about 3 years before that time (see obit). Their youngest child, Ruth, born late in their marriage, was 14 at the time. In 1930 Emory was living with his middle son Alfred and his daughter Ruth, but by 1940 Ruth was married and Alfred was serving time in a DC prison(?!). Thus, Emory had moved in with his oldest son Ellsworth Franklin's (b. 1901) family, in the DC area where he was stationed for military work. Later Emory moved back to PA and lived with his daughter Ruth. He is buried in the Wilmore United Brethren Cemetery along, with many other Seaman family members of this line.

Research Notes

(1) Perhaps the most easily disproven is that of Capt. John Seaman of Long Island, NY. His descendants are well documented in "The Seaman Family in America as descended from Captain John Seaman of Hempstead, Long Island" (Ref. 1) and our Thomas is not one of them (though he did have a son named Thomas as well). 

Another less likely source is that of Moses Simmons/Symonson, who settled in Plymouth, MA in 1621. His family was originally from England, but seems to have settled in Holland in about 1605 due to conflicts with the Crown, after which various branches set out at different times to America. His early descendants are less well documented than that of Capt. John Seaman, but what is available does not seem to match with our Thomas (Ref. 3).

Some researchers say he was one of 4 brothers from Chilton, England who were banished due to their participation in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 (Ref. 4), but this is too late to correspond to the prisoner release of 1679 on the ship "Thomas and Sarah".  Of note, the rebellion is said to have been planned from Holland, so perhaps the descendants of the Moses line were involved on that end?

(2) I have not been able to find any original source documentation of Gardner's time in VT. There is unsourced data of his father Josiah having died there. His wife is listed on census records as having been born there (VT) and in PA sources (Ref 11, p.96) he is described as being from there (except for one source which states NJ??). On census records he states his birthplace as MA, except for the last one in 1870 in which he states VT. All of his father Josiah's children were born in Lanesborough, MA and he was still living there during the 1790 census. But by 1807, Gardner was in PA. I have not been able to locate any census records for the family in 1800, so my best guess is that this was about the time that they relocated to VT.

(3) There are a few claims in "The Seamans family in America as descended from Thomas Seamans of Swansea, Massachusetts 1687" that I am a bit skeptical of and one of them is whether or not Thomas moved to RI or Northampton, MA. Certainly some of his siblings did, and there are records to show that, but none for him in either place that I am aware of (please email me if you find some!). One thing that is definitely wrong in this source is the claim on p.7 that Elder Thomas died in 1818 and is buried in RI. As shown in Ref. 9, p.204, Elder Thomas died in Rehoboth in 1826, where he also raised his family and served as a pastor for many years. The Thomas of the 1818 RI grave was no doubt one of the offspring from the other branches of the family that moved to RI previously.

(4) Job definitely did leave journal papers after he passed, but I have not yet been able to find the one that verifies this claim. Other researchers claim the Thomas of the ship to be a different line, though without any explanatory reason (Ref 1, p.9).

References

(1) Seaman, Mary Thomas. The Seaman Family in America as descended from Captain John Seaman of Hempstead, Long Island. Long Island, NY : Tobias A. Wright, Inc., Printers & Publishers, 1928, pp.2-9. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/14230/images/dvm_GenMono000472-00002-1?pId=2 :2022.

(2) Lawton, John Julian. The Seamans family in America as descended from Thomas Seamans of Swansea, Massachusetts 1687. Syracuse, NY: Privately Printed, 1933. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/13:14243?ssrc=pt&tid=9623519&pid=332336408087 : 2022.

(3) Simmons, Lorenzo Albert. History of the Simmons Family from Moses Simmons, 1st. (Moyses Symonson) Ship Fortune 1621, to and including the eleventh generation in some lines, and very nearly complete to the third and fourth generations from Moses 1st. Lincoln, NB: Lincoln Herald Print, 1931. https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/574280/?offset=9#page=4&viewer=picture&o=&n=0&q= :2022.

(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monmouth_Rebellion :2022.

(5) https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/king-philips-war :2022.

(6) Wright, Otis Olney. History of Swansea Massachusetts. Swansea, MA : Publicly published by town, 1917. https://archive.org/stream/historyofswansea00wrig/historyofswansea00wrig_djvu.txt : 2022. 

(7) https://www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc/mhcpdf/townreports/SE-Mass/swn.pdf : 2022.

(8) http://www.swanseahistoricalsociety.org/townhistory/colonydistricthouses.html : 2022.

(9) Tilton, Rev. George H. "A History of Rehoboth Massachusetts : Its History for 275 Years 1643-1918". Boston, MA : Privately Published, 1918. https://books.google.com/books?id=hyjMIY-vxX8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false : 2022.

(10) Palmer, Charles J. "History of town of Lanesborough, Massachusetts 1741-1905". Publisher not identified. https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/427504-history-of-town-of-lanesborough-massachusetts-1741-1905-part-1?offset= : 2022.

(11) Seaman, George. "History of the Seaman Family in Pennsylvania". Reading, Pa. : Bright Printing, 1911. v.1, p.96. https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/431920-history-of-the-seaman-family-in-pennsylvania-with-genealogical-tables?viewer=1&offset=0#page=1&viewer=picture&o=&n=0&q= : 2022.

(12) "Sullivan Township Immigrants - Where our people came from and when" http://www.joycetice.com/towns/sullivan.htm : 2022.

(13) “Tioga County: A Last Frontier”. http://paheritage.wpengine.com/article/tioga-county-last-frontier/ : 2022.

(14) "Schools of the Tri-Counties". https://www.joycetice.com/schools/1889rep3.htm : 2022.

(15) Burgess, Gideon Albert and Ward, John T. "Free Baptist Cyclopaedia: Historical and Biographical". Free Baptist Cyclopaedia Company, 1889. https://books.google.com/books/about/Free_Baptist_Cyclopaedia.html?id=3GXiAAAAMAAJ : 2022.

(16) Book A, records of the town of Swansea, 1662 to 1705. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/19:10129?ssrc=pt&tid=9623519&pid=332336408087 : 2022.

(17) Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915.

(18) Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/30786917?h=82b3fd : 2022.

(19) US Federal Census Records of MA, PA, DC.