THE SUTTON FAMILY OF NEW JERSEY

By Edward F. H. Sutton

(Printed for Circulation)

New York, T..A. Wright, Printer and Publisher - 1900

THE FAMILY

In the New Jersey of a hundred years ago, one family of Suttons was so numerous, that, in the writer's opinion, to bear the name and to derive ancestry from the State is almost proof of membership in it. There were, for the most part, farmers and artisans, attached to the Baptist or Presbyterian creeds, and located chiefly in the northern half of the State-- The East Jersey of colonial times. The townships of Piscataway in Middlesex, Tewkesbury in Hunterdon and especially Bernard in Somerset, with the village of Basking Ridge, may be mentioned as particular family centers. The name is comparatively rare in New Jersey today, as the later generations have scattered in all directions. Canada has its representatives, and there is probably not a State in the Union but has been planted with shoots from this old New England Stock.

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WILLIAM SUTTON

The first of the family of whom we have record was William Sutton, who appears in Massachusetts in 1666, at Eastham on Cape Cod. As the stream of Puritan immigration had almost dried up twenty years before this date, it is extremely probable that he represents the second generation in New England. Their proximity suggest a relationship to one or the other of two families of Suttons, respectively, of Hinghamland Scituate, small towns of old Massachusetts and Plymouth Colony directly across the bay from Eastham. Careful investigation, however, has failed as yet to establish a connection with either or to suggest any other line of research. Our history opens, therefore, at Eastham, on the eleventh of July, 1666, with the marriage of William Sutton, yeoman (aged probably twenty-five years), of either English birth or descent, to Damaris, daughter of Alice and Richard Bishop.

* See Bancroft's History of the United States, "vol.1., page 468."

*1 John Sutton, who settled in Hingham, came from Attleborough, in Norfolkshire, arriving in the ship Diligent in 1638, with his wife Julien, a son John , and three other children. He also lived in Rehoboth. He died June 1, 1670; his wife in 1678. From "Vital Records of Rehoboth" the present writer infers that among his children were three, named Esther, Anne, and Margaret.

*2 George Sutton, of Scituate, arrived in 1634, from Sandwich in Kent. He had a brother Simon, of Scituate, of whom nothing further is known. George married Sarah Tilden, and had children (according to Savage), John*, Lydia, Sarah, and Elizabeth.

*3 See opposite page for results of recent (1936) investigation of William Sutton's parentage. E. F. H. Sutton (In his own handwriting put in the book in 1936). Thus Savage, copying Deane; but the records prove that this is the above John 2, of the Hingham line. George Sutton had no son John. (In his handwriting put in as a note in 1936)

*4 Richard Bishop is noted as a soldier of the colony, in the "Genealogical Register of New England", vol.iv, page 255, second column. When William Sutton removed to New Jersey, Bishop sold his property at Descbury, Mass., and came to live with him.

The following was written in his own handwriting in the book in 1936; (making corrections and adding to).

" William Sutton first appears in 1666 at Barnstable on Cape Cod, a town that was settled by a mass emigration from Scituate led by the Rev. John Lotrop. It is at Barnstable that the earliest Church records of Scituate are still preserved. William Sutton's sole appearance at this place shows him on trial for stealing the Bible from the meeting-house. Convicted, he was fined one pound for the crime, "and for telling a lie about the same, ten Shillings."

William Sutton the son of George Sutton of Scituate." The historian of Old Piscataway Town, O. E. Monnette, who has been somewhat unduly hospitable to the genealogical vagaries of persons subscribing to his books, states, on the authority of such a subscriber, that William Sutton was one of the seven sons of John Sutton of Hingham, and follows with a fanciful pedigree from the Barons of Dudley. Upon investigation, this statement proved to have been taken from a manuscript pedigree, the recent compilation of several hands, which only touches incidentally upon the Suttons, and is, upon this point, entirely devoid of authority. As a matter of fact, recent (1936) researches by William A. Whitcomb of Boston (a Sutton descendant) have shown that in all probability William Sutton was a son of George Sutton of Scituate. (See article in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. 1937.) George apparently became a Quaker. He removed about 1668 with most of his family to what is now Perquimans County, North Carolina, where he left a numerous posterity, and the name of "Sutton's Creek" still figures on the map. There his death and that of his wife Sarah Tilden are recorded, and the marriages of two sons and two daughters. (North Carolina Genealogical and Historical Register, Winslow's History of Perquimans County, N. C.) "Of these children, all born at Scituate, we have only the birth records of the daughters in the archives rendered imperfect by time and use. One of the sons is only known to us from the North Carolina records. Similarly, we consider that the birth entries of two other sons, William Sutton and Daniel Sutton, both Quakers--the one of Eastham, Mass., and Piscataway, N. J., the other of Charlestown, Mass. and Burlington, N.J.-- have been lost. As for John Sutton of Hingham, the researches of Mr. Whitcomb show that so far from having the "seven sons" so generously provided by Mannette, he had only one, also named John, and for this reason often confused with the father. This second John settled at Scituate, and is said both by Savage, (Dict. of New England) and Deane (Hist. of Scituate) to have been the son of George Sutton of that town. Fortunately, the records conclusively prove that he was son of the first John, and it follows, oddly enough that the Suttons of Scituate, who survived in the town until the second quarter of the 19th century, were all of the Hingham line. George Sutton's children went to North Carolina or New Jersey. We state his family record as follows:

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GEORGE SUTTON

Died in Perquimans County, N. C. Apr. 12, 1669. Sailed from Sandwich, Kent, 1634, settled at Scituate, Mass. married there March 13, 1636, Sarah Tilden, dau. of Nathaniel Tilden who came from Tenterden in Kent and was of ancient Kentish Family. She was baptized at Tenterden June 13, 1613, and died in Perquimans County, N. C., March 20, 1677, whither she and her husband had removed about 1668. Children of George and Sarah Sutton (all born at Scituate)

Nathaniel, b. abt. 1637, d. N. C. 1682, m. Deborah Astine
Joseph b. abt. 1639, d. N. C. 1695, m. Deliverance Nicholson
William b. abt. 1641, d. Piscataway, N. J. 1718, m. Damaris Bishop
Daniel b. abt. 1643. d. Burington, N. J. 174-, m. Mary Cole
Lydia bapt. Sept. 13, 1646
Sarah bapt. Dec. 3, 1648, died an infant
Sarah bapt. Sept. 15, 1650, md. John Barrow in NC
Elizabeth bapt. 28 Aug. 1623, died NC 1700, married N. C. Ralph Fletcher.

(End of Edward Sutton's Handwriting.)

(Starting back from book where I left off with Richard Bishop's name)

Eastham, originally called Nausett, after the name of a local Indian tribe, was at this date a settlement of some twenty year's standing, and numbered some four or five dozen souls--- a tiny out post of English life and civilization, planted upon the "narrow neck of land" between the bleak bay and the bleaker Atlantic. It was in this very year of 1666 that tidings began to spread through New England of the founding of another colony down in the southwest, between the Great North and South Rivers, (The Hudson and the Delaware), where settlers were welcome, the Indians friendly, the soil and climate excellent, and civil and religious liberty guaranteed. Many people from all parts of the land of the Puritans migrated to this new country of "the Jerseys"; and about the year 1672, William Sutton also removed, and became a landholder under Berkely and Carteret. As Cape Cod was one of the few districts in New England where Quakerism gained a footing, and as William Sutton in his New Jersey home was an influential Quaker, it is very probable that matters of religious belief had much to do with his departure from Eastham. In the year 1666 a "plantation" of some forty thousand acres was laid out upon the banks of the Raritan, within the bounds of the present Middlesex County, and not far from the spot where a few years later New Brunswick was founded. Its possession was confirmed not only by the white man's title, but by deed from Canackawack and Thingorawis, chiefs of the Naraticong Indians, who were a branch of the Lenni Lenape. As some of the first settlers were from those parts of New Hampshire and Maine which border the Piscataqua River, they called it Piscataqua or Piscataway, in memory of their old home. Here William Sutton pitched his tent, and prospered; for, thanks to fair dealings with the Indians, the wolves and the forest were the only enemies. In 1682, when the town and township numbered some four hundred souls, he was owner of two hundred and forty nine acres of land, burdened only by the nominal quit-rent of one-half penny per acre annually. Small items of his life, grave or humorous, we glean from the records of more than two centuries ago. A Quaker, he was a pillar of the congregation that met in the neighboring town of Woodbridge. We see him a person of some honor in the little community: chosen freeholder at one time, constable at another, town- clerk at another, and we find that, with advancing years, his services were desired upon boards of church discipline and inquiry. It is recorded that he contributed " a year old steer" toward the proposed erection of the Friends' Meeting House at Woodbridge-a donation that seems to have been a thorn in the flesh of the finance committee. For two years they were unable to convert the animal into cash, and were obliged to board it during three winters at exorbitant rates, varying from six to eight and one-half shillings per winter. The growth of son's to man's estate and matrimony, is marked in the records by such entries as this:

   William Sutton hath, in consideration of fatherly love and
 
   affection given and granted to Daniel Sutton, his son,
 
   75 acres of land."

Finally, in 1713, William is spoken of as an aged man, and we hear of him no more. Doubtless another year or two through the end of his homely and laborious life, and rest in the little Quaker Churchyard at Woodbridge. (William Sutton died 28 April 1718, age about 77 years. [Friends' Records at Woodbridge] In his Handwriting.) Damaris Bishop, first wife of William Sutton, died in Piscataway, Feb. 6, 1682-3. He married in that town, Jane Barnes, Jan. 9, 1684-5.

Children:

Alice 2, b. in Eastham, Mass., May 13, 1668.
Thomas 2, b. in Eastham, Mass., Nov. 11, 1669.
Mary 2, b. in Eastham, Mass., Oct. 4, 1671; m. Dec. 23, 1689, Daniel McDaniel.
John 2, b. in Piscataway, N. J., April 20, 1674.
Judah 2, b. in Piscataway, N. J., Jan 24, 1674-5.
Richard 2, b. in Piscataway, N. J., July 18, 1676.
Joseph 2, b. in Piscataway, N. J., June 27, 1678; d. Dec. 19, 1682.
Benjamin 2, b. in Piscataway, N. J., Feb. 24, 1679-80; d. Dec. 22, 1682.
Daniel 2, b. Piscataway, N. J., Feb. 25, 1681-2.
Joseph 2, b. in Piscataway, N. J., Sept. 11, 1693.

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THOMAS 2 (William 1)

Lived at Piscataway. Married, April, 1693, Mary Adams of Woodbridge.

Children:

Joseph 3, b. about 1694.
Rachel 3, b. March 27, 1695.
Benjamin 3, b. Jan. 19, 1696-7.
Samuel 3,
Hannah 3, b. March 16, 1698-9 (twins).
Nathaniel 3, b. May 23, 1701.
Thomas 3, b. about 1705.

In handwriting again this:

John 2, becomes John 3, son of William 2, if we count from George 1, of Scituate. See Sutton Whitcomb line on opposite page.

John 3, Sutton (William 2, George 1) Descent from-of William A. Whitcomb of Boston, whose researches indicate that William Sutton of Eastham and Piscataway was a son of George Sutton of Scituate.

George 1, Sutton m. Sarah Tilden.
William 2, Sutton m. Damaris Bishop.
John 3, Sutton m. Elizabeth ----.
David 4, Sutton m. Sarah Trembley
Rev. David 5, Sutton m. Ann Winter.
James 6, Sutton m. Susannah Buckingham.
Ann 7, Sutton died at Clinton, Indiana, near Terre Haute, m. Benjamin Raymond Whitcomb.
John 8, Whitcomb m.Lydia Amelia Parks.
William 9, A. Whitcomb of Boston, Mass., (b. Clinton, Indiana m. Grace Edna Merrall.)

End of Handwriting.

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