Robinson Genealogy

Nadene Goldfoot                                              


I just found out that of all the Robinsons on the Robinson listing at Family Tree DNA, only James Alton Robinson and my cousin match each other's haplotype of R-L21 or R1b1a2a1a1b4.  .  All my ideas of who Abiathar Smith Robinson's father was seems to fall by the wayside.  I have to connect to this tree that leads to Meppershall's John Robinson.  

I'm still stuck on the fact that a John Robinson age 51 with living with Julia Ann Tuller's family as a hired hand.  He was listed on the 1850 census of Royalton, Vermont.  Abiathar rode out of nowhere and married her in Tunbridge, Vermont, which is next door to Royalton.  .  

I found a Jonathan Pratt Robinson born 1799 in Barnstead, Belknap, New Hampshire who is on the tree of James Alton.  I have no wife listed or information about him, but I am making him the father of Abiathar. He would have been 30 years old when Abiathar was born.   He died April 18, 1863 in Roxbury, Massachusetts which is a neighborhood of Boston today.  It's possible whoever answered the census taker just said John Robinson instead of Jonathan Pratt Robinson.  If this doesn't hold water, I can still tap into this line through the wrangling I went through with another choice of a father from Royalton itself, Amos Robinson's son.  Abiathar doesn't show up on any 1850 census to give me a clue.                                            

Meppershall is a hilltop village in Bedfordshire near Shefford, Campton, Shillington, Stondon and surrounded by farmland. The Village and the Manor House are mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086.There is only one thatched cottage in the village now, which was probably built around 1690-1700. 

Our two Ydna matches of James Alton Robinson and Rick A Robinson of Canada lead to Meppershall, Bedfordshire, England where the first Robinson, John Robinson born February 9, 1611, had lived before moving to America. He was the son of John Robinson b: 1580,  and Katherine Eden b: 1583, both of Meppershall.  His parents died in England as far as I know.

A family of 9 children, John b: 1611 was the 5th.

 Before the advent of greenhouses, Meppershall, England  was a very poor community with large families living in two up, two down type thatched cottages built of brick with stone floors. However so many greenhouses were built in the village that it was known as "glass city" growing salad crops for local markets and shipped further afield via the railway.  As well as farming the village earned its income from coprolite digging. 
                                                                           
                                                   Newbury, Massachusetts  Farm

One record I have is that John  went to the Barbados Islands at age 19 which would have been in  1630.
 He married Elizabeth Pemberton in December of 1641 at the age of 30 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts.  A list of settlers in Newbury in 1642 does not list any Robinson or Pemberton. Settlers to Newbury came on ships from April 1634 to July 1635.  It was the ship, Mary and John that arrived in 1635.  This must be when he arrived, but he's not listed on this ship..  The reason for establishing Newbury, as stated above, was not in fleeing from religious persecution but to utilize vacant lands and to establish a profitable business for the members of a stock-raising company.
                                                                         

 On Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshsire:     In 1651 he moved to Exeter, New Hampshire at the age of 40 and had  had several children born in Newbury already.  John and Elizabeth had 8 children, 6 boys and 2 girls.  John died on September 18, 1675 in Exeter at the age of 63 years, 7 months and 1 day.   He was killed by Indians.    

.   This is where The area was once the domain of the Squamscott Native Americans, a sub-tribe of the Pennacook nation, which fished at the falls where the Exeter River becomes the tidal Squamscott, the site around which the future town of Exeter would grow. 

On April 3, 1638, the Reverend John Wheelwright and others purchased the land from Wehanownowit, the Sagamore. Wheelwright had been exiled by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Puritan theocracy, for sharing the dissident religious views of his sister-in-law, Anne Hutchinson. The minister took with him about 175 individuals to found the town he named after Exeter in Devon, England.

One of the four original townships in the province, Exeter originally included Newmarket, Newfields, Brentwood, Epping and Fremont. On July 4, 1639 35 freemen of Exeter signed the Exeter Combination, a document written by Reverend Wheelwright to establish their own government.[2] The settlers hunted, planted and fished. Others tended cattle and swine, or made shakes and barrel staves.

Thomas Wilson established the first grist mill on the eastern side of the island in the lower falls. This mill was established within the first season of settling in Exeter, and his son Humphrey assumed control of the mill in 1643, when Thomas died.  A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill or flour mill) grinds grain into flour. The term can refer to both the grinding mechanism and the building that holds it.

Some early Exeter settlers came from Hingham, Massachusetts, including the Gilman, Folsom and Leavitt families.[4][5] In 1647, Edward Gilman, Jr. established the first sawmill, and by 1651 Gilman had his own 50-ton sloop with which to conduct his burgeoning business in lumber, staves and masts. Although he was lost at sea in 1653 while traveling to England to purchase equipment for his mills, his family later became prominent as lumbermen, shipbuilders, merchants and statesmen.

A Declaration of Rights and Plan of Government for the State of New-Hampshire, adopted by New Hampshire Convention at Exeter, June 1779
                                                                       
   
                                                                       
The Gilman family began trading as far as the West Indies with ships they owned out of Portsmouth. It was a high-stakes business. In an 1803 voyage, for instance, the 180-ton clipper 'Oliver Peabody,' owned by Gov. John Taylor Gilman, Oliver Peabody, Col. Gilman Leavitt and others, was boarded by brigs belonging to the Royal Navy under command of Admiral Horatio Nelson. Enforcing a blockade against the French, Nelson offered ship Captain Stephen Gilman of Exeter a glass of wine and paid him for his cargo in Spanish dollars.  The trip demonstrates how far afield the ambitious merchants of Exeter reached in their trading forays.

Exeter suffered its last Indian raid in August 1723 and by 1725 the tribes had left the area. In 1774 the rebellious Provincial Congress began to meet in the Exeter Town House after Colonial Governor John Wentworth banned it from the colonial capitol at Portsmouth. In July 1775, the Provincial Congress had the provincial records seized from royal officials in Portsmouth and brought to Exeter as well. And so Exeter became New Hampshire's American Revolutionary War capital, an honor it held for 14 years until Concord assumed the role.           

                                          1862 map of Vermont and New Hampshire
                                    Vermont is on the left  or west side of New Hampshire


2.  Jonathan Pratt Robinson b: 1799 Barnstead, Belknap, New Hampshire, d: Roxbury, Massachusetts
3. Jonathan Robinson b: 1766 Stratham, Rockingham, New Hampshire d: Gilmanton, Belknap, New Hampshire
4.  Chase Robinson b: 1738 Stratham, Rockingham, New Hampshire, d: Meredith, Belknap, NH
5. Jonathan Robinson b: 1709 Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire, d: Pembroke, Merrimack, NH
6.  John Robinson b: 1671 Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire, d: Exeter, Rockingham, NH
7.  Jonathan Robinson 1645  Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts d: Exeter, Rockingham, NH
8. JOHN ROBINSON 1611 Meppershall, Bedfordshire, England, d: Exeter, Rockingham, NH.

Whoops!  One huge problem.  In finding more Robinsons on this tree all day long by googling, I find a daughter was born to Jonathan Pratt Robinson born on February 4, 1830, meaning my Abiathar born December 29, 1829, does not work.  Now all this time I didn't have a wife or siblings for Jonathan Pratt Robinson till late this evening.  This was found on http://findagrave.com.  Such is the life of a dedicated genealogist!

I then attached Abiathar to Cyrus B. Robinson b: 1808 in Royalton, Windsor, Vermont d: 1864, married to Thankful Preston.  Cyrus was on the same tree, so we still have the same ancestor of Meppershall, England.
That was fine.  He was a first child and had 2 younger sisters according to the records I have.   There is no record of this.  Cyrus is just available on the same tree.  The good thing is he was from Royalton, Vermont, where Julia Ann lived.  Interestingly, Cyrus is the son of the Amos Robinson and Elizabeth Hughes who went to Decatur, Illinois so early on, which is close to Wenona, Illinois.  He went there in 1830 and then died there in 1836 and was buried in his own apple orchard.  He also had a son named Hartwell.  .
Problem:  Susan Dudra's brother took the DNA test and we are not a match.  They are directly connected to this Amos Robinson and Cyrus.  We have very rare DNA.  I'll have to find another father.
UPDATE: 8/16/2020  This still is the most likely prospect to be our ancestor.  My 1st cousin DNA's test has been upgraded to the Big Y and we find we are also related to Fitzpatricks of Ireland in this deep analysis which the Irish were interested enough to have supported this test. 

References:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meppershall
http://newbury.essexcountyma.net/
Notes from my genealogy program.