John BENNION

                   The birth of this John Bennion has been a source of question for sometime.
See explanations below.
CHRISTENING: 8 Aug 1723, Capenhurst, Shotwick, Chester, England.
               By Correspondence from a researcher in Chester,
               England, to Howard S. Bennion.
MARRIAGE: G.S. Film #275,781, Page 105, Hawarden Parish Records.
DEATH: "Walked out of home and was never seen again - about 1744.  Ill
       fortune fell upon him."  John Bennion's notes.

BAPTISED: (See note at end of notes for explanation.
John was rebaptized 11 Sept 1950 SL under the 8 August 1723 birth date.
Subsequent ordinances were also performed.  THIS IS THE DATE WE USE.
Located on G.S. Film #445,745.

BAPTISM:  Film #1,149,522 (Refilming of Endowment House Records.
#19621 is John Bennion, Bannel, Flint, No. Wales (They thought this
was our John)  (Samuel R. Bennion listed himself as 3rd great-grand
son for him)  #19620 is John Bennion, Bannel, Flint,  b. Mar 1719
Bannell, Flint, N. Wales..  This is not our direct line John Bennion.
See notes on Bannel.    On Film #170,854, 29 Feb 1881 SG he was
rebaptized.  Listed as John Bennion b. 1719, Flint, N. Wales.
Samuel thought this was the birth date for the John Bennion
who was his great-grandfather.  Because he was not sure, or did not have
the record with him, Samuel had the baptism performed again prior to
having this John's endowment work and sealing to Ann Griffith performed.
Re-baptized again 8 Mar 1904, SL.  G.S. Film #184,096 SL.  Bannel.
When all the entries form the Church FREP program are compiled and entered
into the IGI we will, no doubt, find the ordinances for our ancesters
performed many times, some with correct dates, some with incorrect dates.

ENDOWED UNDER 1723 BIRTHDATE G.S. Film #445,745, THE DATE WE USE.
ENDOWED: G.S. Film # 170,544 SG.  Also endowed 3 Mar 1904 SL G.S. Film
#184,096, page 335, #12046.  Both for the 31 Mar 1719 John.  Listed also
on IGI Endowed 10 May 1904, S to P 9 July 1986 DA  IGI 002 1986.
This identical information is repeated on the 1988 IGI showing John
Bennion and Alice Street as the parents.  John and Alice Street Bennion's
last child was born in 1707, so this is clearly not a valid entry.

SEALED TO PARENTS.  G.S. Film #456,696 SL.  This John Bennion is listed
as son of John Bennion and Susannah Baxter, born 23 Aug 1723 Capenhurst,
Chester, England.  Clearly the correct John Bennion.
SEALED TO SPOUSE:  G.S. Film #170,597 SG, Page 410, #11063.  This entry
lists John as 1719, Flint, North Wales.  Ann Griffith, listed by her
full name, only has Flint, North Wales entered by her name, but the couple is
clearly identified, both by full name, and Samuel Bennion stood proxy for
him, Elizabeth Cooper Pixton, a long-time friend, stood proxy for
Ann.  The sealing is valid on this date. Also sealed 4 Mar 1910 SL.
G.S. Film #184,593 SL.  However, on the IGI for 1988 there is
a John Bennion and Mary Griffith listed, marriage date 22 April 1746,
sealed 4 Jan 1973 in the Los Angeles Temple.  The Marriage Records for
Hawarden Paraish on that date clearly list John Bennion and Ann Griffith.
No Mary Griffith is listed at all.

SOME FURTHER EXPLANATIONS:
Some family members have taken the entry from the Hawarden Parish Records, Film
#944,003 as follows:  Mar 1719  31  Johannes fil Johannes Baneon de
Bannel to be the John Bennion for this family group sheet.

" Bannel Township is on a sharp point of Hawarden parish far to the south,
projecting far toward Hope.  Many of its people went to church in Hope and
I shall look for their records there.  It is south of Pentrobin."  Howard
S. Bennion Research Journal, page l3.

Because of the distance from Hawarden, and as it is another township, and
all of our Bennions appear to have been from Mancott, we can discount this John
Bennionas our progenitor.  However, when Samuel Bennion went to St. George to do
the endowments for his ancestors, he knew of this John Bennion of Bannel
and had the work done for him.

In a copy of talk given by Enow Bennion to a Bennion Family Reunion,
date not given, but probably in the early 1900's, he has made the
assumption that the John, March 1719, of Bannel, is probably our
direct line ancestor.  (Copy of the report given by Enos Bennion
included, but further study by Howard S. Bennion dispoves that
theory.  Copy of Howard's research, with results of his studies
are listed below.)

"Baptisms for the dead were performed in Nauvoo 1840-45 and in Salt Lake
City (in the Endowment House) 1867-76.  The first endowments for the dead
were performed in the St. George Temple in 1877.  Many early members of the
Church who were proxies for their ancestors for baptism were dead by 1877,
or if alive lived too far from the St. George or a later temple, or other-
wise neglected to have endowments done.  Therefore, ancestors' names are
recorded in the baptism books of the Nauvoo Temple or the Endowment House
and in no other temple records (including the TIB).  Stephen K. Kendall,
Tenth Annual Priesthood Genealogy Seminar Syllabus 1975, p. 224.

With the above information it became very important for Samuel to go to
St. George to take care of the rest of the endowment for his ancestors.
He travelled to St. George in February of 1882.  There many baptisms were
done, or done again, toward the end of February.  The first several days
of March were then spent in the temple doing the endowment work for many of
his Bennion ancestors.  A listing of names of ancestors for whom the work
was performed is located elsewhere.

"In the registers of Hawarden, G.S. Film #275,781 (transcribed by Mr. Bell
Jones, J.P., F.S.A., Parish Clerk and Secretary of the Flintshire Histori-
cal Society.  "He made them about 1912 or 1913, about the time of the war
because the Welsh Disestablishment Act threatened to take the records from
them (the Welsh churches) to store them England and he wanted copies of [the]
record.  He has a wonderful collection of old maps and charts and miscellan-
eaous data and notes.  He copied the records just as they were spelled and page
for page as they were written.  He still has the originals but I did not ask
for them.  He evidently had to struggle to decipher the writing in the first
volume, 1585-1632, and has gone back and changed some names two or three times
(crossing out and writing the next names as he guessed them after having seen
the name many times later and getting on to the particular names and hand
writing of the several clerks & curates.  I think his transcription is more
accurate than would be the guesses of those who copied the records back
in 1870 to get Bennion names.  I have failed to find some of the births &
deaths that were noted on the records of earlier searches.  Either they got
their information somewhere else, or they misread names or Mr. Jones has
omitted them.  He has checked his work so carefully that I am inclined to
some of the earlier interpretations of name entries.  The important dates I
searched for carefully going over the pages time and again.

"There are quite a number of Bennion entries at the beginning.  Then comes
a period when the records were poorly kept.  They are evidently fragmentary.
But in the period 1658 to 1688 the family seems to have been careless about
making entries as they were  also during the period 1700 to 1746.  Of course,
sometimes the parson just didn't bother to fill in.  But the burial records
are very deficient during this stretch of time.  As for marriage records,
I am going to hunt in adjoining parishes for marriage records - assuming
the wife sometimes came from another parish and the ceremony was performed
there.

"These notes are written at Hawarden June 18, 1937.  I have spent all day today
and yesterday evening delving in the records.  Yesterday I visited the Historic
places, saw Mr. Jones, Joseph Bennion's wife, the widow Bennion on Moors
Lane, took pictures of the Moors Lane farm where Grandfather jJohn Bennion
lived, visited the wife of Mr. S. Iball & arranged for the work on the records."
Howard S. Bennion's Journal, pages 21-23.  Friday, June 18, 1937

The above exerpts are included to help explain the difficulty in locating
the names we search for.

John Bennion and Susannah Baxter had four sons named John Bennion.
1.   John Bennion Chr. 29 Aug 17l4 Chorlton, Backford, Chester England
            buried 29 Nov 1714
2.   John Bennion Chr. 5 Oct 1716  Hawarden, Flints, Wales
            buried 28 June 1717
3.   John Bennion Chr. 29 June 1719 Hawarden, Flints, Wales
            buried 29 June 1719
4.   John Bennion Chr 8 Aug 1723 Capenhurst, Shotwick, Cheshire, England
            No death date located.

Of the four John Bennions listed (plus the one from Bannel) it would
have to have been #4 who married Ann Griffith.

                                              Oct. 18, 1950
                                                New York 28
                                                49 E 9d6th Street

"Dear Ivy,

During the past few weeks I worked up the pedigree charts of our grandfather
John Bennion as far as I knew and could surmise the data.  I put question marks
where there were surmises.  In making this chart I marshalled together what
I consider to be rather convincing evidence of a larger family group sheet
for the John Bennion who was born 7 Dec 1690, the son of John Bannion and
Alice Street of Mancott township in Hawarden Parish.

This John married Susannah Baxter, daughter of Thomas Baxter of Chorlton in
Backford Parish, county of Chester, about 5 miles southeast of Hawarden across
the Dee River.  They were married 8 Oct 1713.  Susannah's mother (or, barely
possible, stepmother) had died the previous February.  The first child of
John and Susannah was christened 29 Aug.  1714 in Backford parish and the
entry lists the father, John Bennion as `of Chorlton,' the township where his
father-in-law, Thomas Baxter, yeoman, lived.  I conclude that the first year
of their married life John & Susannah lived with her father on his farm.

John Bennion, Senior, died 23 Apri 1714.  The will of John Senior left the
farm to his son John.  The Hawarden regsiter shows the burial in Hawarden
on 29 Nov. 1714 of John, son of John Bennion of Mancott [son of 1723 John].
This indicates that the family moved in the meantime from Chorlton to Mancott.

There is no doubt of the identity of John Bennion who married Susannah Baxter
in another county.  Since the young couple came from different parishes
they had to get a license from the Chester Diocesan Registry or to wait upon
an expensive banns publishing program, and they had to have bondsmen; and
these bondsmen were the respective fathers - John Bannion, yeoman [gentle-
man farmer] of Mancott and Thomas Baxter, yeoman of Chorlton.  John
Bannion the groom in this transaction is described as `Son of ye bounden
John Bannion ye elder, of Mancott, parish of Hawarden, Co. Flint, Yeoman.'
The marriage was an event.

After the burial of the first child, John, the Hawarden register for the
next five years shows several christenings and burials of children of John
and Susannah.  Then there are no more entries for this family in the Hawarden
register until 36 years later when is recorded 11 Apr 1755 the burial of Susan
Bennion, widow of Pentrobin, a township 3 miles south of the town of Hawarden
and 4 1/2 miles south of Mancott.  She left an administration leaving her
personal property to her son John Bennion of Mancott (the husband of Ann
Griffith).  The burial of her (Susannah's) husband is not shown but I have
a photograph of a document he signed as a member of a jury panel to survey
the Dee River and mark the boundary between Flintshire and Cheshire.  It
was signed 19 Apr 1740.  COPY ENCLOSED.

Beginning in 1723 the Shotwick parish register, just across the river Dee
from Mancott, has a record of Christenings and burials of Children of John
and Susannah Bennion of Capenhurst, parish of Shotwick.  The record runs
to 1733.

Thomas baxter, yeoman, died in Capenhurst in 1729 and was buried, not in
Shotwick, but in Backford, his old home parish.  The record of Backford
indicates that a son of Thomas was raising a family on the Chorlton farm
during the intervening years.  Later a grandson of Thomas Baxter raised a
family in Capenhurst, Shotwick parish.  Chorlton & Capenhurst are about
three miles apart.

I conclude that having lost all but one child in Mancott John and Susannah
moved over to Capenhurst to have their children.  The father-in-law, with
whom they lived their first year, had moved to Capenhurst.  The years for
child bearing are conformable.  There is a good fit among the records on
this family.  It is most improbable that there would be two John and
Susannah families bearing children in these years.  The name John was
common to the family but not Susannah.

Here is the John and Susannah Bennion family as I see it:

John Bennion born 7 Dec 1690 of Mancott Married Susannah Baxter of Chorlton,
Backford, Co Chester  Married 8 Oct 1713   Susannah died 11 Apr 1755 at
Pentrobin, Hawarden Parish.

John       Chr 29 Aug 1714 at Backford buried 29 Nov 1714 Hawarden Parish
Mary       Chr 30 May 1715 at Hawarden   (evidently died)
John       Chr  5 Oct 1716 at Hawarden buried 28 June 1717 at Hawarden
Mary       Chr 30 May 1718  buried 25 June 1723 at Shotwick
John       Chr 29 Jun 1719 at Hawarden buried 29 Jun 1719 at Hawarden
John       Chr  8 Aug 1723 at Shotwick
William    Chr 27 May 1726 at Shotwick
Jane       Chr 30 Jan 1730 at Shotwick
Mary       Chr 15 Feb 1733 at Shotwick

John the son of John and Susannah was married 22 Apr 1746 to Ann Griffith.
This conforms well with a birthdate in 1723; though his wife was born in
1721.  The Mary buried in Shotwick in 1723 probably was another Mary
born in 1720 or 1721 or 1722."  Letter written by Howard S. Bennion.

This John's  death date is not known.  From John Bennion's
   (born 9 July 1820) notes: "Walked out of home & was never seen
again.  About 1744."  Because of the above information we have taken the
baptism and endowment dates for the John Bennion born in Capenhurst.

Whatever turns out to be the correct dates for the correct John Bennion
several of them are baptized several times, well endowed, and well sealed.
The efforts of so many Bennions will be appreciated on the other side -
but those that we are missing must be looking on with longing and desire
for us to find them even just onceThe birth of this John Bennion has been a source of question for sometime.
See explanations below.
CHRISTENING: 8 Aug 1723, Capenhurst, Shotwick, Chester, England.
               By Correspondence from a researcher in Chester,
               England, to Howard S. Bennion.
MARRIAGE: G.S. Film #275,781, Page 105, Hawarden Parish Records.
DEATH: "Walked out of home and was never seen again - about 1744.  Ill
       fortune fell upon him."  John Bennion's notes.

BAPTISED: (See note at end of notes for explanation.
John was rebaptized 11 Sept 1950 SL under the 8 August 1723 birth date.
Subsequent ordinances were also performed.  THIS IS THE DATE WE USE.
Located on G.S. Film #445,745.

BAPTISM:  Film #1,149,522 (Refilming of Endowment House Records.
#19621 is John Bennion, Bannel, Flint, No. Wales (They thought this
was our John)  (Samuel R. Bennion listed himself as 3rd great-grand
son for him)  #19620 is John Bennion, Bannel, Flint,  b. Mar 1719
Bannell, Flint, N. Wales..  This is not our direct line John Bennion.
See notes on Bannel.    On Film #170,854, 29 Feb 1881 SG he was
rebaptized.  Listed as John Bennion b. 1719, Flint, N. Wales.
Samuel thought this was the birth date for the John Bennion
who was his great-grandfather.  Because he was not sure, or did not have
the record with him, Samuel had the baptism performed again prior to
having this John's endowment work and sealing to Ann Griffith performed.
Re-baptized again 8 Mar 1904, SL.  G.S. Film #184,096 SL.  Bannel.
When all the entries form the Church FREP program are compiled and entered
into the IGI we will,