(poss) Thomas DICKERMAN

                   RESEARCH NOTE:
    -The question of Hannah Dickerman's origins remains unresolved, though many researchers and thousands of hours have been poured into it.  We know that the wife of William Ives married William Bassett after her first husband's death, and that she was the ancestor of many New England families through these two lines.  Her name is only given through secondary records, and might not be Hannah, or Dickerman. 
    -Most sources list her as the daughter of Thomas Dickerman and Eleanor Whittington, though this couple married too late to be her parents.  It is possible that she is the daughter of Thomas through an earlier marriage.  Some sources list her as the daughter of Thomas' son Abraham Dickerston, which is far too late, as Abraham's daughter Mary was married to Hannah Dickerman's son Samuel.  Abraham did have a daughter Hannah Dickerman, and this may be the cause of some of this confusion
    -This subject has been treated by many researchers, and no conclusive result has been located.  It appears that there are simply no remaining records which include information sufficient to answer this dillema.
    -An extensive treatment of this issue is given at http://billives.typepad.com/ives_family_history_blog/controversy_over_william_ives_wife/index.html and is included in the notes of this PAF file.


http://billives.typepad.com/ives_family_history_blog/controversy_over_william_ives_wife/index.html


February 23, 2007
Who was William Ives' Wife?: Part One
Prelude:

The identity of the wife of William Ives is controversial in most Ives, Dicerkman, and Bassett genealogies. Many claim that she is Hannah Dickerman. However she is, Goodwife Ives played an important role in the start of New Haven. Goodwife Ives had four children by each of her two husbands, William Ives and William Bassett; She became the matriarch of two large New Haven families. The Ives and Bassett families continued to grow, and between 1647 and 1754 there were seventy-six births recorded in the New Haven records for the Bassett family and sixty-eight births for the Ives family (5). This places them as numbers twenty-two and twenty-six in the list of families with the most births recorded in New Haven, The male descendents of these two families accounted for between two and three percent of the children born during this time period. 

I looked very carefully in to this issue and it includes the most thorough genealogy research in this blog. I examined documents for English churches I received from the Mormon genealogy service and looked at every primary evidence i could find through the New England Genealogical Society but I am sure there is more out there. What follows is a report of my findings. I welcome comments and am very eager to receive corrections that are supported by fact and primary evidence. I have seen many references to her name but they mostly end up just referring to other second hand information. I do not pretend to have the final answers. I am only reporting what I found so far to add to the conversation on this issue. 

I want to note that since I wrote this report I have seen some very interestiing work by David Allen Lower that adds an additional perspective. His work makes it more plausible the Hannah Dickerman was the daughter of Thomas Dickerman by a marriage prior to Ellen Whittington and would have been the right age to marry William Ives. However, there is no conclusive evidence to support this. Here is a link to Dickerman Ancestry, Additum for Thomas (___-1657) Part One - by David Allen Lower and to my summary in Updates on Thomas Dickerman (1597?  1657).

Finding Hannah Dickerman: the Nexus of Three New Haven Families

Goodwife Ives was seated at the March 10, 1646 New Haven general court on the opposite side as her husband, William Ives (1 - see references below). In 1648 she became Goodwife Bassett, following the death of William Ives and she is mentioned a number of other times in the early New Haven town, probate, and church records from 1644 to 1662 (2). Unfortunately, as was common then, her first and/or maiden names are not listed in any of these records. This occurs, in part, because of the dominance of male names in the early records even in such traditional female roles as child birth, e. g., John Bassett the son of William Bassett was born the 24th day of December 1652 (3). In other cases, we have the misfortune of her of her name being absent even when female names are given, such as the record of her admission to the First Church of Christ, New Haven in 1644 as simply the wife of William Ives (4). These circumstances set the stage for a genealogical guessing game that continues today. 

As I wrote in the prelude Goodwife Ives was the matriarch of two large New Haven families. Some members of both the Ives and Bassett families families moved to other locations during this period, so the total of births within these two families is greater. It approximately doubles when the families of female descendents are included. By the 1790 US Census there had been more migration, but there were still seventeen Bassett households and twenty-six Ives households in the New Haven vicinity. This article traces the attempts to find a name for the matriarch of these two families. In this process it examines the relevant early connections of a third family, the Dickermans, with the Ives and Bassett families. Before we explore these attempts to find her name, her two husbands will be briefly profiled to provide context in the next posts. (Continued)

References:

1. Hoadly, Charles J. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649 (Hartford: Case, Tiffany & Company, 1857), p 304.

2. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649 410, 431, 441; Dexter, Franklin (Ed.), New Haven Town Records from 1649 to 1662, (New Haven: Haven Colony Historical Society, 1917), p. 109, 527-528; Dexter, Franklin (Ed.), New Haven Town Records 1662-1684 (New Haven: Haven Colony Historical Society, 1919), p. 1; Alcorn, Mrs. Winfred S., Abstracts of the Early Probate Records of New Haven, Book 1, Part 1, 1647-1687, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 81, p. 121-122; Dexter, Franklin, Historical Catalogue of the Members of the First Church of Christ in New Haven Connecticut A. D. 1639-1914, (New Haven , 1914), p. 10. In her last recorded appearance before the New Haven court of August 5, 1662, she apologized to the court for her sin in meddling with that which did not concern her, the execution of William Potter, and breaking the fourth commandment. New Haven Town Records 1662-1684, p. 1. William Potter was the father-in-law of her first daughter by William Ives, Phebe, so this may have given her reason to feel connected to the event. Jacobus, Donald Lines, Families of Ancient New Haven, vols. 1-9. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1923), p. 1458.

3. Vital Records of New Haven 1649-1850 (Hartford: The Connecticut Society of the Founders and Patriots of America, 1917) p. 9.

4. Historical Catalogue of the Members of the First Church of Christ in New Haven Connecticut A. D. 1639-1914, p. 10.

5. Dickerman, Edward Dwight, & Dickerman, George Sherwood, Families of Dickerman Ancestry: Descendents of Thomas Dickerman. (Tuttle, Morehouse, & Taylor Press, 1897, updated 1922), p. 279. 

----------------------------------

Who was William Ives' Wife?:Part Two
Here is a condensed summary of William Ives (see upcoming William Ives post for more detail). On November 7, 1648, the will of William Ives was probated in the New Haven court (6). Richard Miles and Roger Allen testified that William was in a state fit to make this will & did make it. He was one of the original settlers of New Haven, arriving with the initial group in April 1638 and signing the First Civil Compact on June 4, 1639 (7). William had been a member of the same London parish, St. Stephens of Coleman Street (8), as John Davenport, the first minister in New Haven. He arrived in the Boston area by himself in 1635 at age 28 (9), two years before Davenport and the main party of New Haven settlers came to Boston. 

William reportedly lived in the Boston area (10) before joining the first New Haven group in 1638 and appears to have married shortly after arriving in New Haven. William became a freeman in 1641 (11) and was an active participant in town affairs (12). In his will, William designated his wife as the sole executor of his estate to be used to bring up their four children until they came of age. When his oldest son, John, became twenty-one he was to receive the house and land in New Haven. When the other children became twenty they were to receive one cow or the worth of a cow (13).

Next I will briefly review William Bassett.

References: 

6. His will was made in April 3, 1648 and his estate was valued at 98 pounds, 4 shillings on September, 22, 1648. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p 410. 

7. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 17-18.

8. Calder, Isabel MacBeath, The New Haven Colony (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1936), p. 30.

9. Hotten, John Camden, The Original Lists of Persons of Quality 1600-1700, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, Co.), p. 131; Savage, James, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1981), p. 525-526.

10. Ives, Arthur Coons, The Genealogy of the Ives Family, (Watertown NY: Hungerford-Holdbrook Company, 1932), p. 17. There is no clear evidence on what he did between his arrival in Boston in 1635 and his departure to New Haven in 1638 and there is no record of movement outside the Boston area.

11. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 61.

12. William Ives held several positions in the community including fence viewer, Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 155; In the first division of land in 1641, William received 6 ¼ acres in the first division, 1 ¼ acres in the neck, and 2 ¼ acres in the meadow with 9 acres in the second division, Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 93. 

13. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 410.

14. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 431. William Bassett had declined a request to provide security for his, then future, step children when William Ives will was probated since his marriage had not yet occurred but was just under contract. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 410.

--------------------------------

Who was William Ives' Wife?: Part Three
Here is a brief summary of William Bassett: Later on the same November day as his will was probated, his widow married William Bassett and on February 6, 1649, William Bassett agreed in court to honor the will of William Ives (14). William Bassetts arrival to New England is not documented and he first appears in the New Haven records on March 7, 1643 (15). After the 1648 marriage, the Bassett family continued to live in the house of William Ives at 72  160 Congress Street until William Bassett sold it in 1651/2 to the widow of Anthony Thompson (16). 

William placed eleven pounds worth of cattle as security for John Ives portion of the property. Goodwife Bassett died some time after 1662 (17) and before William Bassett wrote his last will in January 1, 1679, where he provided bequeaths to only some of his living children and step children: daughters Bia Bassett and Hannah Parker, stepdaughter Phebe (Ives) Rose, and stepson Joseph Ives (18). Abraham Dickerman and John Cooper, the father and grandfather of Mary Dickerman, his new daughter-in-law, were named as overseers of his estate. William Bassett passed away five years later, and his estate was inventoried in September 1684 (19). (Continued)

References:

14. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 431. William Bassett had declined a request to provide security for his, then future, step children when William Ives will was probated since his marriage had not yet occurred but was just under contract. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 410.

15. William Bassett first appears in the New Haven court records on March 7, 1643 when he was fined 6 pence along with several others for having a foole gun. Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 125. The court of May 1, 1644 fined William Bassett and several others for coming late to the Lords day with their arms, p. 134. These fines were common and reflect the need to be prepared against possible attack by local Indians or the nearby Dutch, and do not reflect on William Bassett being different from most other early settlers, including William Ives who had similar fines. William Bassett continued to be an active member of the community (e.g., he won a legal case in October 2, 1666 and was awarded damages for beating given to his son, Samuel, New Haven Town Records 1662-1684, p. 188; he was seated at the general court of January 7, 1667, New Haven Town Records 1662-1684, p. 220, and received land in the December 1680 division of land - New Haven Town Records 1662-1684, p. 405. There is no reliable record of his immigration. There were two others named William Bassett whose early arrival in New England was recorded but they could not have been this William. One William Bassett came to Lynn, MA in 1635 at age 9, as part of the Burt family party and remained there, Anderson, Robert Charles, Sanborn, George F., & Sanborn, Melinde, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1634-35, Vol. 1, (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999  2001) p. 190-195 and another came to Plymouth on the Fortune in 1621 and remained in Massachusetts as did his son William, Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vol. 1 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995) p. 127-130. Also, a John and Robert Bassett were part of the early New Haven community but they do not appear to be related to William Bassett of New Haven. Robert was the town drummer, Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 410. Both Ives, see Ives, Arthur Coons, The Genealogy of the Ives Family, (Watertown NY: Hungerford-Holdbrook Company, 1932), p. 23, and Smith, see Smith, Tenney, Charles Smith and Rachel Amy Bryant: Their Ancestors and Descendents (Brattleboro: The Vermont Printing Company, 1938), p. 112, suggest the William Bassett had a first wife who died before he married the widow of William Ives since a Sister Bassett is listed as seating next to Sister Ives in the 1646 New Haven town meeting, Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p 304, but there is no other evidence for the and they probably confuse her with the wife of John Bassett.

16. New Haven Town Records from 1649 to 1662, p. 109-110.

17. She last appeared before the New Haven court with William Bassett on August 5, 1662, New Haven Town Records 1662-1684, p. 1. She had also recently spoken to the court at the July 1, 1662 meeting, New Haven Town Records from 1649 to 1662, p. 527-528. There is no record of her death. She is listed as leaving the New Haven church after 1662, Historical Catalogue of the Members of the First Church of Christ in New Haven Connecticut A. D. 1639-1914, p. 10.

18. Alcorn, Mrs. Winfred S., Abstracts of the Early Probate Records of New Haven, Book 1, Part 1, 1647-1687, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 81, p. 121-122. It seems unusual that his son, Samuel, who married Mary Dickerman, is not named in this will since Samuels father-in-law is named as an overseer of the will. The marriage of Samuel Bassett and Mary Dickerman is recorded as June 21, 1677 in the Vital Records of New Haven 1649-1850, p. 43. He also left out of his will a number of his other living children and step children. 

19. Abstracts of the Early Probate Records of New Haven, Book 1, Part 1, 1647-1687, p. 121-122. His death is recorded as Augu