The Genealogy of Ellen G. White

Ellen G. White

Copyright © 2018, Ellen G. White Estate, Inc.

Table of Contents

Information about this Book

Introduction

About the Author of this Report

GOULD ANCESTRY OF ELLEN GOULD (HARMON) WHITE—The Genealogist’s Report

Information about this Book

Overview

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About the Author

Ellen G. White (1827-1915) is considered the most widely translated American author, her works having been published in more than 160 languages. She wrote more than 100,000 pages on a wide variety of spiritual and practical topics. Guided by the Holy Spirit, she exalted Jesus and pointed to the Scriptures as the basis of one’s faith.

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An Update

Introduction

In 1920 Ellen White’s ancestry on her father’s side was well documented with the publication of The Harmon Genealogy, by Artemas C. Harmon. In the early 1980s, in anticipation of the six-volume biography of Ellen White, to be written by Arthur White, the White Estate contracted with a professional genealogist to trace Ellen White’s lineage on her mother’s side—Eunice Gould Harmon. The results were printed in 1983 in the form of an ancestral chart reaching back five generations to John Gold, son of Jarvis and Mary Gold, who came to Massachusetts from Kent County, England, in 1635. The genealogy traced Ellen White’s direct bloodline (mother-father-child). It did not research her siblings or the siblings of those in her direct ancestry, such as aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

In the late 1990s questions were raised as to whether Ellen White’s genealogy might be traced to New Jersey rather than New England. Consequently, in March 2000 the White Estate engaged the professional services of a certified and independent genealogist, Roger D. Joslyn, currently President of the American Society of Genealogists. His particular areas of genealogical expertise are the northeastern states of the United States from New Jersey north to New England. Mr. Joslyn was asked to review the accuracy of the earlier genealogical report, to research the possibility that Ellen White’s ancestry traced to New Jersey, and to report on any other relevant records that may have come to light since the 1980s.

Mr. Joslyn rendered his report to the White Estate in May 2002. His conclusions parallel those of the previous genealogist hired twenty years earlier. Consequently, the White Estate’s current position regarding Ellen White’s ancestry is based on two professional genealogical studies, both of which demonstrated that Ellen White was of Anglo-Saxon origin. Since no documented evidence to the contrary has been found, the White Estate accepts the conclusion of the two genealogists that Ellen White’s ancestors came directly from England to New England in 1635.

The genealogical report submitted to the White Estate as a result of the work done by Mr. Joslyn is attached, along with his introductory explanation regarding the purpose for his study, as well as his conclusions.

Ellen G. White Estate
April 2003 [2]

About the Author of this Report

Roger D. Joslyn, CG, FASG, is a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists and the Utah Genealogical Association. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Davis. A full-time genealogist since 1978, he became a Certified Genealogist in 1981. He is a member of numerous genealogical organizations, including the New England Historic Genealogical Society, where he was a part-time staff member from 1978 to 1982; the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, where he serves on the Education and Publication Committee and the Library Committee; and the National Genealogical Society, where he has served on program committees for the organization’s annual Conference in the States. For the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference held in Rochester, New York, in August 1996, he was the program chair. He is a former trustee for the Board of Certification of Genealogists, a founding member and current vice president of the Genealogical Speakers Guild, a member of the New York Archival Services Advisory Committee, and a past president, former trustee, and former Editorial Advisory Board member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG). In 1994 he received APG’s Grahame Thomas Smallwood, Jr. Award of Merit. His many lectures in the United States and Canada have included New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania topics, as well as census, naturalization, and immigration records, compiling a genealogy, and using and becoming a professional genealogist.

A genealogical writer, his articles have appeared in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, The American Genealogist, The Genealogist, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, The Mayflower Descendant, and several other national publications. He is the indexer to the first three of these journals and many of the Mayflower Families volumes, the editor/compiler of the two-volume Vital Records of Charlestown, Massachusetts, the author of the Mid-Atlantic state chapters in Ancestry’s Red Book, and a reviewer and the indexer of Robert Charles Anderson’s volumes for The Great Migration Study Project. Currently he is compiling and editing volumes of early New York tax records (with Anita Lustenberger, CG) and early vital records of Hampshire County, Massachusetts.

Much of his genealogical activities are concentrated in the northeast, but research has often taken him to other parts of the country and has included obtaining information from European countries. In recent years he has assisted Native American groups who are seeking Federal Recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Mr. Joslyn lives in the Hudson Valley of New York with his wife Barbara, two sons, and three cats. [3]

GOULD ANCESTRY OF ELLEN GOULD (HARMON) WHITE—The Genealogist’s Report

Prepared by Roger D. Joslyn, CG, FASG for The Ellen G. White Estate, Silver Spring, Maryland

Mr. Joslyn opens his report by quoting five excerpts from a book that challenges Ellen White’s previously documented Anglo-Saxon ancestry.

When James S. White and Ellen Gould Harmon married about 1848, they suddenly realized their marriage placed them under an old law which forbade Whites to marry Coloreds and in less than ten years, they found themselves gravitating toward the Ohio Colony where mulattoes had settled. [p. 13]

James White along with his mulatto wife, Ellen White also moved westward to Saratoga, to Rochester, New York to Ohio on onward to Battle Creek, Michigan where they lived among the Colored people. [p. 12]

[Ellen] could relate with the plight of the mulatto and slave groups for these were her people. [p. 13]

In Battle Creek, memorials are being erected in honor of two great women, Harriet Tubman and SoJourner Truth. It would be proper to have another erected in honor of another great African-American woman, Ellen Gould Harmon White. [p. 13]

Eunice Gould Harmon, Ellen’s mother was a mulatto; whose roots can be traced to New Jersey and the Caribbean. The roots of Robert Harmon, her father, were of the African/Moor/Nanticoke Indian and English Colored people living on the Eastern Shores of Delaware. [p. 33]

The above are just a few quotes from an interesting book published in 1999—The Genealogy of Ellen Gould Harmon White: The Prophetess of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the Story of the Growth and Development of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination As It Relates to African-Americans.Book Two[1] (Nashville, Tenn.: Dudley Publishing Services). According to its author, Charles Edward Dudley, Sr., D.D., L.L.D., pastor of the First Seventh-day Adventist Church in Shelbyville, Tennessee, Ellen Gould (Harmon) White was descended from or at least related to five Gould brothers who “came from the Dutch West Indies and settled near Salem, New Jersey,” by the mid-1680s. They established a settlement that became known as Gouldtown, just east of present-day Bridgeton in Cumberland County. Dr. Dudley follows only descendants of one brother, Benjamin, who is supposed to have married Elizabeth Ann Adams, a granddaughter of John Fenwick, an English soldier-turned-Quaker and founder of the Salem colony.[2]

Dr. Dudley’s study of the ancestry of Ellen White, and more specifically her possible connection to persons of color, developed from a curiosity about her background that has “been discussed for years,” although the “limited genealogical research which has been done on both her father’s and mother’s side of the family has not shown any such ancestry.” The interest in Ellen’s background derives from photographs of her, showing what some have called “ambiguous” features: “‘Mrs. White’s features often raise the question of whether she had any Black or Indian ancestry.’”[3]

Throughout his book, Dr. Dudley has tried to establish Ellen White’s descent from or blood relationship to the Gouldtown settlers. Besides presenting information about the Gould family of that area, he has tried to support his claim of Ellen’s connection with the Gouldtown Goulds with

[1]Endnotes The quotes are from the pages of this work indicated in brackets at the end of each. In the first quote, the author presumably meant the State of Ohio. The work is filled with many historical inaccuracies, but pointing them all out is not the purpose of this paper.

[2]Charles Edward Dudley, Sr., D.D., L.L.D., The Genealogy of Ellen Gould Harmon White: The Prophetess of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the Story of the Growth and Development of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination As It Relates to African-Americans. Book Two (Nashville, Tenn.: Dudley Publishing Services, 1999), 21, 41—42, hereafter Dudley, Genealogy of Ellen White.

[3]Dudley, Genealogy of Ellen White, 18, quoting Adventist Heritage Magazine, Spring 1982. The emphasis in the quote is probably Dr. Dudley’s.

[4]

statements about her settlement among persons of color in Ohio and Michigan, as noted in two of the above quotes. He also implies her earlier associations with persons of color, such as in a statement about her father, Robert Harmon, who “moved to many places during his lifetime seeking employment to care for his family. Historians first mention the family when they lived in Gorham, a suburb town of Portland, Maine, where transient people known as ‘Maine Indians’ lived.” This implied association between Ellen’s family and persons of color in Maine—Indians were frequently designated colored persons—is further nourished with information about James Augustine Healy, “the first Colored priest in the United States,” who “was appointed the Second Bishop of the Catholic Church in Portland, Maine, ....” “There were many families living in the Portland community who had the appearance of being White people who, in reality, were fair-skinned mulattoes. Such appears to be the plight of the Healy family of Portland and Harmon family living in nearby Gorham.”[4] There is even further implication of a connection between Ellen and persons of color made through statements about her interest in these people, such as, for example, “Ellen Gould Harmon White had a deep interest in the welfare of Colored people during her lifetime.”[5]

None of these presentations of Dr. Dudley, however, including any circumstantial evidence through Ellen Gould (Harmon) White’s associations, provide any proof that she was descended from or had any family connection with the Goulds of Gouldtown, New Jersey. And Dudley’s genealogical evidence is equally lacking.

Above all, Dr. Dudley provides no documentation to substantiate a genealogical connection between Ellen Gould (Harmon) White and the Goulds of Gouldtown, New Jersey. The case he tries to make for Ellen’s link to the Gould persons of color could be called genealogy by inference. Dr. Dudley presents information about Ellen’s Gould ancestry and about the Gouldtown Goulds on the same page, in one paragraph after another, or even together within the same paragraph, as if by discussing the two Gould families almost simultaneously they become the same family.

One element of this genealogical inference is the surname, Gould, with the all-too common implication that all persons with the same last name must be or are likely related. And that two families of the same surname living miles apart, or in this case, a few states apart, might have many of the same first names among them does not alone raise the possibility of a common bloodline, as Dr. Dudley seems to have hoped.

Dr. Dudley’s conclusions about Ellen Gould (Harmon) White’s mixed-race ancestry are most curious, since he seems to accept earlier research into her genealogy that indicates her Gould line traces back a few generations in Maine and then back to Massachusetts, with no hint of persons of color in her lineage.[6]

As mentioned above, Dr. Dudley states in his book that the possibility of African ancestry for Ellen White has been questioned for a long time, based on “ambiguous” features seen in photographs of her. Genealogy by phenotype can be misleading, just as it can by assuming a relationship between persons with the same surname.

My conclusion after studying Dr. Dudley’s book was that, while he was not attempting to argue something he knew to be untrue, he is simply not familiar with genealogical evidence and the sources needed to properly analyze and construct genealogical links. Nothing in his book even suggests that the Gould ancestry of Ellen Gould (Harmon) White was in any way connected with the Gould family of Gouldtown, New Jersey, or that any part of Ellen’s Gould ancestral line traced to persons of color, at least not in this country.

Unfortunately, Dr. Dudley has offered no evidence to show Ellen Gould (Harmon) White was of African-American descent—certainly not through her Gould ancestry, and likely not through her other ancestral lines, although they have not been studied for this report. There is the very remote possibility her Gould ancestors were in some way related to Goulds who settled in Gouldtown, New Jersey,

[4]Dudley, Genealogy of Ellen White, 25, 27. The emphasis is Dr. Dudley’s.

[5]Dudley, Genealogy of Ellen White, 23. The emphasis is Dr. Dudley’s.

[6]In discussing Ellen White’s Gould lineage, Dr. Dudley followed the same ancestry as is discussed in this report, presenting not even a suggestion that any of her Gould forebears back to the American immigrant were incorrectly identified.

[5]

perhaps generations earlier in England, but even if so, she was not a descendant of the Gouldtown Goulds.

With the hope of clarifying Dr. Dudley’s position and to ask what his best evidence was for his claims, I wrote to him 23 March 2001, explaining I had been engaged to examine the Gould ancestry of Ellen Gould (Harmon) White in connection with the material in his book. After briefly reviewing the information on Ellen’s ancestry back through her mother’s Gould family line in Maine and Massachusetts, I remarked that “Making the connection to the Goulds in Gouldtown, New Jersey, however, has me a bit baffled.”

In your book, on page 21 and elsewhere, you indicated Benjamin Gould and his brothers, Lewis, Robert, William and Salon, came from the Dutch West Indies and settled near Salem, New Jersey, and that Benjamin married Elizabeth Ann Adams about 1685. This would place Benjamin Gould of Gouldtown’s birth about the mid-1660s or earlier. Obviously, he was not the son of John Gould of Taunton (whose son Benjamin was likely the one who settled in Kittery, Maine, by 1714), but it is reasonable to suggest Benjamin Gould of Gouldtown and John Gould of Taunton were contemporaries (based on his marriage in 1673, John Gould of Taunton would have been born in the early 1650s or earlier).

You point out the parents of Benjamin Gould of Gouldtown are unknown. It is possible, of course, this Benjamin’s father was an Englishman, born perhaps in the 1640s or more likely earlier (the births or even approximate years of birth of the Gouldtown brothers not being known). This suggestion could be stretched to speculate the father of Benjamin, Lewis, Robert, William and Salon Gould was from the same area of England as Jarvis Gould and perhaps even a close relative.

As you note, however, there is no evidence of the origin of the Gouldtown brothers beyond the Dutch West Indies, and, as I pointed out above, the specific origins of Jarvis Gould are unknown. Additionally, the name Gould is found in a number of places in England in the early 1600s, so even if the Gouldtown settlers had English ancestry, it would be even more of a stretch to point to a specific place without more information or clues.

I am mystified, therefore, about your claim that Ellen Gould (Harmon) White is even remotely related to the Goulds of Gouldtown, New Jersey. While this is possible, I find no evidence for it, but perhaps I have missed something important, or perhaps you have turned up documentary proof.

Dr. Dudley replied on March [sic] 4, 2001, asking I consider several points, including the following:

I should visit Gouldtown, New Jersey, speak with present-day citizens, and read the pre-American Revolutionary grave markers in the cemetery.

I should read “Stackpole’s complete account of the Gould families” wherein the “record speaks of Benjamin and Joseph as brothers and sons of John Gould.…”

That there are “several generations with the name Benjamin Gould,” including one with “a number of children, namely John, Hannah, Lydia, Sally, Betsey, Mary, Rebecca, Samuel, Benjamin, Hannah, Eunice, and Nathaniel. Eunice was born in 1787, the year of the French Revolution. She and Robert Harmon married in 1810. They had eight children: Celestine, Harriet, John, Mary, Sarah, Robert, Elizabeth and Ellen. All were a part of the St. George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, a multiracial church.”

“Benjamin F. (Gould) Lee of Gouldtown, New Jersey, a first cousin to Ellen Gould Harmon,” became the third president of the African Methodist Episcopal Church established at Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1856 “to educate Colored youth.” [6]

“Some are appalled her [Ellen’s] lineage is spoken of as being Colored. This makes no difference as to her racial heritage, although Ellen Gould Harmon’s mother was a mulatto (a mixture of African and European); her father was Colored (a mixture of the Nanticoke Indian nation and European). In today’s terminology she was a ‘Black’ lady.”

Dr. Dudley’s points do not answer my questions; they do not provide evidence of Ellen White’s genealogical connection to the Gouldtown Goulds or for his claims that her “mother was a mulatto” or that “her father was Colored.” In fact, Dr. Dudley has, in the third point above, confused things by indicating Eunice, a daughter of a Benjamin Gould (presumably of the Gouldtown Goulds), was the one who married Robert Harmon and the mother of Ellen Gould (Harmon) White, which all evidence shows otherwise. Additionally, the Robert and Eunice (Gould) Harmon family are not known to have ever been a “part” of St. George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, much less to have lived in that city.

Furthermore, Ellen Gould (Harmon) White was not a first cousin of “Benjamin F. (Gould) Lee” of Gouldtown (that Dr. Dudley included the maiden surname of Benjamin F.’s mother in writing his name only adds further confusion).

Accordingly, I was engaged by the Ellen G. White Estate to research and properly document as much as possible the Gould ancestry of Ellen Gould (Harmon) White, to see if there was any hint of a connection between this ancestral line and the Goulds of Gouldtown, New Jersey.

To begin the research, the White Estate supplied copies of a number of items that included the results of investigations into the ancestry of Ellen White conducted in the early 1980s.[7] This information was helpful, but I was also asked to carefully examine and analyze this research for its genealogical value, how it meshed with independent research that I was asked to undertake, and whether any new or previously overlooked information might be found to support a mixed-blood ancestry for Ellen White. (In this report, I have referred to records obtained from the earlier 1980s research as materials “supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records”).

As in many genealogical pursuits, finding clear, hard evidence of the kinship links beginning with Ellen Gould (Harmon) White and tracking back through her mother’s surname line of Gould was not straightforward.[8]

A discussion of the research that was undertaken and the results of my findings and conclusions is the main subject of this report, beginning on page 7. The report is arranged by generation, beginning with Ellen Gould (Harmon) White and working backward through her parents, maternal (Gould) grandparents, and so forth. At the beginning of each generation, the basic, “bare-bones” genealogical information of names, dates, and places is presented, numbered Ahnentafel (“ancestor table”) style, with Ellen as number 1, her parents as 2 and 3, her maternal grandparents as 6 and 7, and so on.[9]

Basically, the Gould ancestry of Ellen Gould (Harmon) White remains as established in the past—that her mother, Eunice (Gould) Harmon, traces back through her father, Joseph Goold/Gould, an American Revolutionary soldier who after the war moved from Kittery to Portland, Maine; to his father, Joseph Gould of Kittery; to his father, yet another Joseph Gould, who settled in Kittery in the first decade of the eighteenth century and was likely from Taunton, Massachusetts; to his father, John Gould of Taunton and probably the one born in Hingham, Massachusetts Bay Colony, to Jarvis Gould, a 1635 immigrant from England.

The basic information on the Gould ancestral line of Ellen Gould (Harmon) White is from published sources, such as Edward S. Stackpole’s Old Kittery and Her Families (1903), Artemas C. Harmon’s The Harmon Genealogy (1920), and so forth. Additional sources—some primary—document a few vital events, such as marriages, and place some of the ancestors at particular places in certain times, but they provide only sporadic proof of specific kinship between two or more family

[7]Also sent with the genealogical material on Ellen Gould (Harmon) White was a recent submission from Dr. Dudley, which needs a few lines of correction. In the first paragraph of this paper, titled “Gould Blood-Lines,” Dr. Dudley states that the wife of Jarvis Gold was Mary Cossman. While the wife of Jarvis does seem to have been named Mary, research clearly indicates Mary Crossman was the wife of John Gould, likely the son of that name of Jarvis. Dr. Dudley also states in this paper that the children of Jarvis Gold were Joseph and Benjamin, but again, the sources show they were John and Joseph.

[8]The earlier research on Ellen’s ancestry provided a framework, but it was not possible, at least in the time spent, to properly document every link in her Gould ancestry through primary sources and primary evidence. Part of the problem is the result of inconsistent and poor record keeping prior to the twentieth century, particularly in recording the vital events of births, marriages, and deaths (fortunately, most Maine marriages were reported to the counties based on an 1828 law, although compliance was inconsistent). Other kinds of records that would have been helpful are just not available, such as the estate (probate) records for Cumberland County, Maine, which were destroyed in fires in 1866 and 1908. And while some primary records are available on microfilm (land deeds, for example) or in reputable published transcripts or abstracts, the likelihood is high that there are several other useful sources that should be consulted to better document Ellen’s Gould ancestry.

[9]This numbering is consistent with a pedigree chart of Ellen’s ancestry and the numbering used on folders of copied information provided by Ellen G. White Estate.

[7]

members. This is not unusual for the times and places in which Ellen’s Gould ancestors lived. Indeed, the genealogies in Stackpole and Harmon are likely correct, or at least are for the most part, but better documentation is needed to prove or disprove all of the lineage as given. Nevertheless, because Ellen’s immediate origins are pretty well fixed, at least when and where she was born and who her parents were, there can be little doubt she belongs to the particular Gould family of Maine.

The focus of the research was on finding primary evidence, preferably in primary documents, linking Ellen Gould (Harmon) White to her parents, her mother to her parents, and so on back through the Gould ancestral line. When primary documents and evidence were not easily found, reliance was made on secondary material, with an attempt to find supporting documentation wherever possible, testing all that could be verified, even if circumstantially. The results are somewhat mixed, so that there is not a clear, unbroken chain of Ellen’s ancestry based on solid evidence. On the other hand, the information that is presented in this report (including that supplied by Ellen G. White Estate) is fairly consistent with respect to Ellen’s Gould ancestry, with no obvious contrary evidence suggesting her Gould line could be traced in another direction. There is a high degree of confidence that further investigation to improve on the proof would be positive, although the concentration of research for the future should be through collateral relatives and other associates of the ancestors, such as siblings, neighbors, and so forth. Less-available sources such as court and church records might also yield additional positive evidence.

All in all, I have concluded there is no, or even a hint of, evidence among the material I sought independently or that was provided me from either the Ellen G. White Estate records or Dr. Dudley’s research that there is a connection between the Gould family ancestral to Ellen Gould (Harmon) White and those of the name Gould who settled in Gouldtown, New Jersey, from the West Indies.

Dr. Dudley is correct on one point, however, and that is it makes no difference what Ellen’s racial heritage was with respect to the person she was. For historical accuracy, however, it cannot be claimed she had any known ancestry that could be classified as non-white, at least not through her Gould line ancestry based on the research conducted for this report.

Ellen Gould Harmon

born Gorham, Maine, 26 November 1827

died St. Helena, California, 16 July 1915, aged 87y 7m 22d

married Portland, Maine, 30 August 1846

James Springer White

born Palmyra, Maine, 4 August 1821

died Battle Creek, Michigan, 6 August 1881

Children:[10]

Henry Nichols White, born Gorham, Maine, 26 August 1847; died in Topsham, Maine, 8 December 1863.

James Edson White, born Rocky Hill, Connecticut, 28 July 1849; died in Otsego, Michigan, 3 June 1928; married (1) Emma L. MacDearman, who died in 1916; (2) Rebecca Burrill.

William Clarence White, born Rochester, New York, 29 August 1854; died in St. Helena, California, 31 August 1937; married (1) Mary Kelsey, who died in 1890; (2) Ethel May Lacey; seven children.

Herbert White, born Battle Creek, Michigan, 20 September 1860; died there 14 December 1860.

[10]The scope of the research for this report was the Gould ancestry of Ellen Gould (Harmon) White and not her immediately family. The vital information concerning Ellen’s husband and children was furnished by The Ellen G. White Estate from records in its possession and is in part supported by sources examined for this report, including Federal censuses, Artemas Harmon’s Harmon Genealogy, and so forth.

[8]

The recording of vital events—births, marriages, and deaths—in New England slacked off considerably from about the time of the Revolutionary War until about the mid-1800s, so it is no surprise that the birth of Ellen Gould Harmon was not recorded in the town of her birth—Gorham, Maine. Her date and place of birth are known from various sketches written about her, including one provided here (Enclosure 1-1), in one published about her husband, Elder James White (Enclosure 1-2), and particularly in one by Ellen White herself (Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church [1885], 9, copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records). Ellen’s dates of birth and death and place of death are also given in Artemas Harmon’s Harmon Genealogy, page 80 (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records). Additionally, her birth is given as Maine, 26 November 1827, on her California death certificate, which also documents her death; Ellen’s son William C. provided this information for the death certificate (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records). According to a transcription of inscriptions of Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek, Michigan, Ellen’s grave marker incorrectly shows her date of death as 22 and not 16 July 1915, as given on her death certificate, and her year of birth on the marker may be incorrectly shown as 1828[11] (Enclosure 1-3).

Ellen’s age and state of birth are given in Federal Census records found for her. She and her family were not found in Maine, Connecticut, or New York in 1850—the first census to list everyone in a household, with their age and state (or country) of birth. In the 1860 and 1870 censuses, the Whites were enumerated in Battle Creek, Michigan; Ellen was 31 in 1860 and 42 in 1870, the latter being accurate for a birth in November 1827, since “census day” for these censuses was 1 June (Enclosures 1-4 and 1-5). Ellen G. White, “Lecturer,” was living with son W. C. White and his wife, Mary K., in Oakland, California, in 1880. Her husband, James White, however, was not in the household, as he was then in the family residence near church head-quarters in Battle Creek, while Ellen was meeting speaking appointments on the West Coast with her son and daughter-in-law.[12] At 54, Ellen would have been born about 1825—1826. Note her parents are shown in this 1880 Census entry to have been born in Maine (Enclosure 1-6).

Ellen might have been listed in the Federal censuses of 1900[13] and 1910, although these records were not examined for this report (practically all of the 1890 Census was destroyed by fire in the 1920s).

A copy of the marriage certificate of Mr. James S. White and Miss Ellen G. Harmon of Portland, signed by Justice of the Peace Charles Harding and given to the couple, was provided by The Ellen G. White Estate. Also, in a letter written by either Ellen or James, reference was made to their marriage intentions being “published” (information in e-mail from Tim Poirier, 7 March 2002). The place of Ellen and James’s marriage was Portland, Maine, as indicated in the above-mentioned certificate, but it is not found in the Portland marriage records (Enclosure 1-7). Perhaps the marriage was noted in a local newspaper.

One secondary source for Ellen and James’s date of marriage is Artemas C. Harmon’s The Harmon Genealogy, page 80 (mentioned above). Ellen, her husband, James, and their sons Henry N., James E., and John Herbert, as well as James’s wife, Emma L., are all buried together in Battle Creek (Enclosure 1-3).

More important genealogically is proof of Ellen’s parentage. No record was found for this report that provided primary evidence of her parents. As already noted, Ellen’s birth was not recorded, and she was not enumerated with her parents in 1850 (see below), the first year in which she would have been listed in the census by name. So far as could be determined, her parents’ estates were not settled in probate courts, with documents naming Ellen as a daughter, and she was not a party to real estate transactions of her parents, at least not in Cumberland County, Maine (research notes on Robert Harmon by James R. Nix, revised 24 October 1991, copy provided by Ellen G. White Estate).

Nevertheless, there are sources of Ellen’s parentage that are genealogically sufficient. Ellen herself identified her parents as Robert and Eunice Harmon in her biographical sketch in Testimonies for the

[11]According to information provided by The Ellen G. White Estate, Ellen’s life dates are correct on her grave marker, in which case the transcriber of the information for the cited source misread or mistyped the dates.

[12]James White’s location in Battle Creek, Mich., at the time of the 1880 Federal Census is from information provided by The Ellen G. White Estate.

[13]In a letter of 16 April 1913 (copy provided by Ellen G. White Estate), Ellen’s son William C. White wrote that the family was in Australia from 1892 to 1900, in which case they may not have been enumerated in the 1900 U.S. Census.

[9]

Church (1885), page 9, and her husband, James White, did likewise in his Life Sketches (1880), page 130. Ellen’s sister Sarah B. Belden wrote an obituary for their mother published in The Review and Herald, January 26, 1864, page 71, in which she is identified as Eunice Harmon (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records).

Somewhat removed in time from the actual events, a typed letter of 16 April 1913, by Ellen White’s son William C., then in Sanitarium, California, to Mrs. Hattie E. Potts of Rocksburg, Massachusetts, provides further evidence: “When I was a little boy, living in Battle Creek, Michigan, I knew grandpa and grandma Harmon, and I have often heard Mother speak of Aunt Gould.” William also mentioned his “Aunt Harriet McCann,” “Aunt Elizabeth Bangs,” “cousin Clarence Bangs in Portland, Me.,” “Mother’s oldest sister, Mrs. Clough at her home in Kansas,” “Aunt Mary at the New England Sanitarium in Melrose, Mass.,” and other relatives (copy of letter provided by Ellen G. White Estate). William would have known his grandparents as a young boy: He was born in 1854, his grandmother Eunice Harmon died probably in 1864 and his grandfather Robert Harmon in 1866.

Two years later, in 1915, William was the informant for his mother’s death certificate, on which her father is identified as Robert Harmon, born in Maine, but for her mother and mother’s place of birth there are question marks (copy of death certificate supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records).

Ellen Gould, born 26 November 1827, and married 30 August 1846 to James White, is listed as a daughter of Robert and Eunice (Gould) Harmon in The Harmon Genealogy compiled and edited by Artemas C. Harmon (Washington, D.C.: the compiler, 1920), 41 (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records). Although the work is not documented, Artemas Harmon presumably acquired much of the information for this genealogy from family members. Among Robert and Eunice’s children shown in this work are Caroline T. who married the Rev. Mace R. Clough, Harriet who married [the Rev. Samuel] McCann, Mary P. who married Samuel H. Foss, Sarah B. who married Stephen Belden, and Elizabeth M. (twin of Ellen G.) who married Reuben Bangs, all mentioned in William C. White’s letter.

Parents

Robert Harmon

born Standish, Maine, 28 February 1786

died Berlin, Connecticut, 6 November 1866, aged 82y

married Portland, Maine, 4 July 1810

Eunice Gould

born [probably Portland] Maine, about 1786

died Greene County, Illinois, January 1864?, in her 78th year

Children, born in Maine:

Caroline T. Harmon, born 9 August 1812; died 29 March 1883; married in Portland, 2 June 1835, the Rev. Mace Richard Clough.

Harriet Harmon, born 1814; died 21 January 1876; married (intention Gorham 16 July 1831) the Rev. Samuel McCann.

John B. Harmon, born 29 Dec. 1815; died 6 March 1883; married (1) in Portland, 1 Aug. 1836, Dorcas W. Gould; (2) Abigail Bagby; (3) Lucy—;

Mary Plummer Harmon, born 21 July 1821 in Portland; died in Maine 22 May 1912; married 5 July 1842, Samuel H. Foss. [10]

Sarah B. Harmon, born 13 Feb. 1822 in Portland; died 25 November 1868; married Stephen Belden.

Robert Harmon, Jr., born 13 July 1825 in Gorham; died at his parents’ home in Gorham 5 Feb. 1853.

Ellen Gould Harmon, born 26 November 1827 in Gorham [twin]; married James Springer White.

Elizabeth M. Harmon, born 26 November 1827 in Gorham [twin]; died 21 December 1891; married there 22 April 1849, Reuben Bangs.

As discussed above, Robert and Eunice (Gould) Harmon were the parents of Ellen Gould (Harmon) White. No birth record was found for Robert, shown in Artemas Harmon’s The Harmon Genealogy (pages 18, 19, and 41) to have occurred in Standish, Maine, 28 February 1786. That he was born in Maine about 1783—84 is evident from his entry in the 1850 Federal Census, the first to show everyone in a household (except slaves and Indians “not taxed”) by name, age, and state (or country) of birth (Enclosure 1-8).

In an article written by Ellen G. (Harmon) White of Greenville, Michigan, for the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, published 21 April 1868 (page 297), she indicated her father was at “rest in hope” in Connecticut and her mother in Illinois. “Learning that my father was very feeble and near his end, ... I left my sick husband in Brookfield, Nov., 1866, and went alone to see him. He was living with one of my sisters, in Kensington, Conn.... I immediately sent for my three sisters, living in Maine. They all came, and together we, five sisters in all, surrounded the bed of our dying father, who had then passed his fourscore years” (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records).

Kensington is in the Town of Berlin, Connecticut, and death records for Berlin indicate Robert Harmon died there of old age 6 November 1866, aged 82 years, but the columns for his occupation and place of birth were not filled in (Enclosure 1-9). From this age, a birth about 1783—84 is calculated. No record of Robert’s burial or an estate settlement was found in Connecticut records.

As noted above, Ellen White’s sister Sarah B. Belden wrote about the death of their mother, Eunice Harmon, in Green [sic] County, Illinois, in the seventy-eighth year of her age. The obituary was published in January 1864, so it is not clear just when Eunice died, but perhaps it was in December 1863. No civil death records exist in Illinois that early, and no record of a grave marker for her was found in available cemetery inscriptions for Greene County.

Eunice’s age at death calculates to a birth about 1785—86, based on a death in late 1863. Her entry in the 1850 Census indicates she was born in Maine about 1783—84 (Enclosure 1-8). Eunice may have been born in Kittery, where her father, in his 1832 application for a pension, stated that he was living when he enlisted in the Revolutionary War, although he also stated he moved to Portland after the war (copy of Revolutionary War pension file, W23123, supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records). C. L. Gould noted that Joseph moved to Portland in 1784, perhaps based on Joseph’s purchase of land there that year, as noted below (notes of C. L. Gould of Wellton, Arizona, 1975 or earlier, copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records[14]). He was clearly the Joseph Gould enumerated in Portland in the first Federal Census of 1790, with one male age 16 and upwards, four males under 16, and four females, one of whom was probably Eunice, born in the mid-1780s (Enclosure 1-10).

The marriage of Robert Harmon and Eunice Gould took place in Portland, Maine, 4 July 1810, the Rev. Joshua Taylor officiating (“Vital Records of 80 Maine Towns before 1892,” cited in a copy of research notes supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records; another record in these notes, citing “Vol. 3” (12,011)[15] births, deaths, marriages Portland, p. 152, indicates Robert Harmon and Eunice Good, both of Portland, had entered their marriage intentions in Portland 17 June 1810). The Harmon Genealogy, page 41, indicates they married 11 July 1810.

[14]Most of C. L. Gould’s information seems to have been taken from Stackpole’s Old Kittery and Her Families. According to an unidentified publication of what seems to be an account of Revolutionary War participants from Maine (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate), p. 108, Joseph Goold “[w]as living in upper part of the town [Kittery] in 1782, but removed to Portland, Me., about 1784, where he afterwards lived.”

[15]This is probably an outdated microfilm reel number at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

[11]

It is also indicated in The Harmon Genealogy (page 41) that Robert Harmon served in the Massachusetts Militia in 1814 (Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820), which suggests service in the War of 1812. Robert’s supposed military service was not pursued for this report, although it was determined he and his widow were not War of 1812 pensioners.

Research compiled by James R. Nix from deeds, directories, censuses, and other records (copy of notes revised 24 October 1991 supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records) tracks Robert Harmon’s movements from 1820 through 1853. A hatter, Robert purchased real property in Portland in 1820, moving to and buying land in the Town of Gorham in 1825. He sold his Gorham land in 1827 and may have returned to Portland for a couple of years and then bought land in the Town of Poland. In the early 1830s, Robert again returned to Portland, where he purchased a lot from Abner Goold, doubtless his brother-in-law. In 1846, he sold his Portland property and moved back to Gorham, where he was last documented in November 1853, when he loaned some money.

In September 1843, Robert and Eunice Harmon were dismissed from the Methodist Episcopal Church in Portland “For a breach.” They had been received as members there in 1840 (copy of record provided by Ellen G. White Estate).

In 1850, Robert Harmon, a farmer with $1400 in real estate, was enumerated in Gorham, Maine. With him were [wife] Eunice, [son] Robert, age 23, and Melissa M. Harmon, age 11, probably a granddaughter (Enclosure 1-8).

Robert and Eunice were not found in published indexes to the 1860 Census for Maine, Connecticut, or Michigan. Information about their children presented above is from an annotated copy of The Harmon Genealogy, page 41, and some research notes, provided by Ellen G. White Estate. No investigation has been conducted for this report to verify the information about the children.

Grandparents

Joseph Goold/Gould

born Kittery [now Eliot?], Maine, fall of 1751

died Portland, Maine, 15 November 1838

married Falmouth, Maine, 24 October 1773

Lydia Lowell

born Falmouth (now Portland), Maine, 22 December 1754

died [Portland, Maine?] about 1842

Children, born in Maine, correct order unknown:

Sarah Gould

Mary Gould

Joseph Gould, born 24 May 1779 in Kittery; living in June 1859; married (intention Portland, 10 Oct. 1802) Abigail Henshaw.

John Gould, born 1781, probably in Kittery; married 1801 Lydia Goold.

Robert Gould; perhaps the Robert, born about 1782—83, died 14 July 1825, aged 42, buried in Eastern Cemetery in Portland (Portland death record indicates Robert died 19 July); married (intention Portland, 20 October 1803) Sarah/Sally Jordan.

Lydia Gould, born 1784; married 1801 John Norwood.

Eunice Gould, born about 1786, probably in Portland; married Robert Harmon.

Dorcas Gould; perhaps the Dorcas whose marriage intentions with Jeremiah Milliken were recorded in Portland 2 Aug. 1806.

Abner B. Gould, born about 1792, probably in Portland; married (intention 25 Oct. 1807) Elizabeth Green. [12]

Charlotte S. Gould

Hannah Ricker Gould, born 8 Aug. 1796 in Portland; died 16 Jan. 1865, aged 70y 5m; married (intention 20 March 1813) William A. Green.

No primary record has been found connecting Eunice (Gould) Harmon (ca. 1786—1864?) with her purported parents, Joseph and Lydia (Lowell) Goold/Gould of Kittery and Portland, Maine. There is no birth record for her and no will or other estate record for either parent in which she was identified as a daughter.[16] She is also not mentioned in Joseph Goold/Gould’s Revolutionary War pension file.

As noted above, Robert Harmon, husband of Eunice (Gould) Harmon, purchased a lot in Portland, Maine, from Abner Gould and his wife, Elizabeth, the date of the conveyance being 31 May 1836 (Cumberland Co., Maine, Deeds, 147:108, in research notes of James R. Nix and copy of notes revised 24 October 1991 supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records). While no relationship between the Goulds and the Harmons is stated in the deed, Abner was almost certainly the brother of Eunice (Harmon) Gould and named for their mother’s father, Abner Lowell. Robert Harmon and Abner Gould, Jr., were enumerated near each other in Portland in the 1840 Federal Census (research notes of James R. Nix and copy of notes revised 24 October 1991 supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records).

Additional circumstantial evidence is noted in land records, suggesting connections among the siblings of Eunice (Gould) Harmon. Joseph Goold, Jr., of Portland, trader, in 1808 quitclaimed land to John Goold of Portland, joiner, probably his brother. Abner Goold of Portland, yeoman, with wife, Elizabeth, sold in 1826 a lot of Bridge Street, Portland, to Joseph Goold Jr. of Portland, merchant, doubtless his brother. And in 1829, Abner Goold of Portland, yeoman, sold to Joseph Goold Jr. of Portland, merchant, five lots, including three on Spruce Street, Portland (Cumberland Co., Maine, Deeds, 63:85, 104:309, and 118:347, in research notes of James R. Nix and copy of notes revised 24 October 1991 supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records).

The onomastics of the two families—that of Robert and Eunice (Gould) Harmon and of Joseph and Lydia (Lowell) Goold/Gould—provide only slight circumstantial evidence. For example, Gould was used as a middle name for Robert and Eunice’s daughter Ellen, although that was the mother’s maiden name, as is clear in the record of her marriage to Robert Harmon. That Robert and Eunice’s children John B., Mary Plummer, and Sarah B. Harmon were named for their mother’s siblings could just as easily be argued that they were named for their father’s brother and sisters.

The account of the Goold family in Everett S. Stackpole’s Old Kittery and Her Families (1903; reprint Somersworth, N.H.: New England History Press, 1981), page 462, indicates Joseph Goold, a Revolutionary soldier, born about 1752, died in 1838, aged 87 [sic], married 24 October 1773, Lydia Lowell, daughter of Abner and Lydia (Purington) Lowell of “old” Falmouth, Maine, born 22 December 1754, died about 1842, and that they had the above eleven children, including daughter Eunice. Unfortunately, this account includes no documentation, although Stackpole doubtless obtained much of his information about the various Kittery families from descendants. (The above list of children is supplemented with a few dates and marriages from various sources and notes provided by Ellen G. White Estate, but further research on these children was not conducted for this report.)

Delmar R. Lowell, comp. and ed., The Historical Genealogy of the Lowells in America from 1639 to 1899 (Rutland, Vt.: The Tuttle Company, 1899), page 330 (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records), shows Lydia Lowell, daughter of Abner and Lydia (Purrington) Lowell, was born “in Falmouth (Portland),”[17] Maine, 22 December 1754; married by Rev. Smith, 24 October 1773, Joseph Gould. No further information is given in this work about Lydia (Lowell) Gould, including whether or not she had any children. Her birth in 1754 is roughly supported by her declaration of 10 February 1839, in her husband Joseph Goold’s Revolutionary War pension file, in which she stated her age as 85, which calculates to a birth about 1753—1754. She also stated she

[16]Cumberland County, Maine, probate records were destroyed in two fires in Portland—in 1866 and 1908. An index to nineteenth-century probates survived, but there are no estates listed for Joseph and/or Lydia Gould/Goold.

[17]Portland was created from part of Falmouth in 1786 (Stanley Bearce Attwood, The Length and Breadth of Maine [Orono, Maine: University of Maine at Orono Press, 1977], 146, 223), so apparently Lydia was born in that part that was set off to form Portland.

[13]

was a resident of Portland, that she was the widow of Joseph Goold, a pensioner, who died 15 November 1838, and that they were married 24 October 1773. The pension file includes a sworn statement of the then town clerk of Falmouth, indicating Joseph Goold and Lydia Lowell were married on this date. On 15 February 1839, son Joseph Goold of Portland, age 58, stated Lydia Goold is his mother and the widow of Joseph Goold, late of Portland, who died 15 November 1838, and that he has supported his parents many years. No other children are identified in the pension file (copy of pension file, W23123, supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records). The marriage of Joseph Goold and Lydia Lowell by the Rev. Thomas Smith on 24 October 1773, is also documented in the published Cumberland County marriage records (Enclosure 1-11).

The only discovered record of Joseph Gould’s age is in his Revolutionary War pension file. On 26 October 1832, he made a declaration for a pension, stating he was age 81, which would place his birth about 1750—1751. He also stated he was born in Kittery in 1751, probably in the fall of that year, that he was living there when he served in the war, and that after the war he moved to Portland, where he has lived since. Joseph’s statement about his military service was supported by a deposition of 28 August 1832, by Alexander Gould of Eliot,[18] Maine, age 83, who was in the same regiment as Joseph (copy of pension file, W23123, supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records). According to C. L. Gould of Wellton, Arizona, Joseph moved to Portland in 1784. C. L. Gould did not indicate his source, but the migration date is probably based on Joseph’s purchase of land in Portland in June 1784, as noted his deed of 1800, discussed below (notes of C. L. Gould of Wellton, Arizona, 1975 or earlier, copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records).

The official, published roster of Massachusetts soldiers and sailors in the Revolutionary War (Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820) shows Joseph Goold/Gould, Jr. of Kittery was a private in Capt. Samuel Leighton’s Company, Col. Ebenezer Francis’s Regiment, with service at Dorchester Heights in 1776 (Enclosure 1-12). This record confirms that the Joseph Gould of Portland who applied for a pension in 1832 was indeed a resident of Kittery at the time of the American Revolution. That he was styled junior is suggestive, although not proof, that he was the son of an older Joseph, for in those times junior meant the younger of two men of the same name in the same community, regardless of relationship, if any.

As noted above, Joseph Gould was enumerated in Portland, Maine, in the first United States Census, taken in 1790. His household then included a male over sixteen, four males under sixteen, and four females (Enclosure 1-10).

On 3 December 1799, Joseph Goold of Portland, laborer, sold to “my son” Joseph Goold Jr., also of Portland, housewright, a lot in Portland, adjoining “my own land” and John Kimball’s land. His wife, Lydia, relinquished her dower (Cumberland Co., Maine, Deeds, 31:284, in notes provided by Ellen G. White Estate). The following year, Joseph Gould was enumerated in Portland—next to John Kimball—with a household consisting of one male 10—16 (born 1784—90), one 26-45 (born 1755—74), three females under 10 (born 1790—1800), one 10—16 (born 1784-90), one 16—26 (born 1774—84), and one 26—45 (born 1755—74) (Enclosure 1-13). Although this was almost certainly the household of Joseph Gould who married Lydia Lowell, Joseph seems to have been enumerated in the wrong age group. If indeed he was born in the fall of 1751, he would have been age 48 or 49 when the 1800 Census was taken. The line-up of the females, however, seems to be in harmony with the age of the mother—Lydia would have been 45—and the daughters as presented above, including Eunice, born about 1786, who would have been the female 10—16 in 1800, or born about 1784—1790. This census also suggests son Abner may have been born closer to about 1790 than about 1792.

On 20 October of that same year—1800—Joseph Goold of Portland, laborer, sold another Portland lot to Joseph Goold, Jr., of Portland, housewright, “next to a lot I purchased from Edward Watts in June 1784,[19] and by land of John Kimball and William Hans, including land I conveyed to Joseph

[18]The Goulds studied for this report evidently lived in that part of Kittery that was set off to form the new town of Eliot in 1810 (Stanley Bearce Attwood, The Length and Breadth of Maine [Orono, Maine: University of Maine at Orono Press, 1977], 144, 176).

[19]This conveyance was recorded in Cumberland Co., Maine, Deeds, 14:223, but was not examined for this report.

[14]

Goold Jr. 3 December 1799 (Cumberland Co., Maine, Deeds, 33:491, in notes provided by Ellen G. White Estate).” That John Kimball was an abutter to this piece of land clearly identifies the grantor as the same Joseph Goold who sold land to his son Joseph, Jr., in 1799, and as the same Joseph Gould listed next to John Kimball in the 1800 Census. Joseph’s move to Portland “about 1784” is given in another source, in which it is also claimed he was still “living in upper part of the town [Kittery] in 1782.”[20]

Based on the son Joseph’s 1839 deposition in his father’s Revolutionary War pension file that he had supported his parents for many years, it is likely the two sales to the younger Joseph in 1799 and 1800 were with the understanding the parents would be cared for. Joseph Goold was enumerated in Portland in the Federal Census for 1810, with one male age 45 and upwards (born 1765 or earlier), two females 10—16 (born 1794—1800), two 16-26 (born 1784—94), and one 45 and upwards. Listed nearby was the household of Robert Goold, who was 16-26, probably Joseph’s son. Also listed were two John Goolds and a John Goold Jun., all 26—45, the age group of Joseph Gould’s son of that name (Enclosure 1-14). Unfortunately, with the names arranged by first letter of surname, it is not possible to determine how close these Goulds may have lived to one another.

Ten years later, when the 1820 Federal Census was taken, the Joseph Goold household in Portland had one male 45 or older (born 1775 or earlier), one female under 10 (born 1810—20), one 16—26 (born 1794—1804), and one female 45 and older, but there seems to be no mark in one of the columns indicating Joseph’s occupation—agriculture, commerce, or manufacturing. Also listed in the census for Portland were Abner, Robert, and Joseph Goold Jr., all born 1775—1794 and no doubt all sons of the elder Joseph. The John Goold listed in Portland, however, was 45 or older, and more likely the elder Joseph’s brother (Enclosure 1-15). The names in this census were grouped by first letter of surname, as they had been in 1810, so it cannot be determined—at least not by the census—who the nearest neighbors were to Joseph Gould.

The last census in which Joseph Gould would have been listed as a head of household (assuming he was not living in the home of someone else, such as one of his children) was 1830. That year, Joseph Goold was listed in Portland with a household of two persons, a male and female both age 70 to 80, or born 1750—1760, which is in agreement with the dates of birth of Joseph and Lydia (Lowell) Gould (Enclosure 1-16).

One other record source may help document Joseph Gould’s presence in Portland, Maine. City directories for Portland were first published in 1823, and two Joseph Goulds were listed. Based on later city directories, wherein one Joseph Goold/Gould was listed as junior and with the occupation grocer, the Joseph who was a cordwainer living on Spring Street may have been the Revolutionary War veteran (Enclosure 1-17). Unfortunately, the only indication of the older Joseph’s occupation known at this time is that he was called a laborer in the two deeds by which he sold land in Portland to his son Joseph in 1799 and 1800.

Joseph Goold was buried in Eastern Cemetery in Portland, but it is unclear if the life dates for him (1752—1838) shown in a publication about the burials is from a marker on his grave. If his widow, Lydia, was also buried in this cemetery, she either had no marker, or it was illegible or gone when the inscriptions were read (Enclosure 1-18). Joseph almost certainly died in 1838, as also revealed in his Revolutionary War pension file, but some sources give the year as 1839.[21]

Joseph’s widow, Lydia, was supposedly living in 1840, when the next Federal Census was taken. No Lydia Gould or Gould was found listed in the 1840 Census for Cumberland County, Maine, however, so in that year she was likely enumerated in the household of one of her children.

Great-Grandparents

Joseph Gould

born [Kittery, Maine] about 1722

[20]Unidentified publication of Revolutionary War participants from Maine (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate), p. 108.

[21]One such source is an unidentified publication of Revolutionary War participants from Maine (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate), p. 108. The incorrect date was probably taken from Daughters of the American Revolution publications (see Enclosures 1-19 and 1-20).

[15]

died probably in Kittery (now Eliot), Maine, between 11 December 1794 and 15 May 1797

married in Kittery, Maine, 23 August 1749

Ruth Remick

born Kittery, Maine, about 1740

died probably in Kittery (now Eliot), Maine, after 11 December 1794

Children, born in Maine, correct order unknown:

William Gould, born about 1750; died perhaps 1 Feb. 1782, aged about 31.[22]

Joseph Gould, born fall 1751; married Lydia Lowell.

John Gould, born about 1754 in Kittery; died evidently in Eliot, Maine, 5 June 1840; married Margaret Remick (“a cousin probably”). John was pensioned for his service in the American Revolution in 1818, was age 66 in July 1820 and 85 in 1840.[23]

Tobias Gould, born about 1756 in Kittery, baptized there 21 Feb. 1770; died evidently in New Gloucester, Maine, 28 Feb. 1815; married (intention Kittery, 31 Oct. 1779) Rhoda Hammond. Tobias served in the Revolutionary War.[24]

Hannah Gould, born about 1760, baptized in Kittery 21 Feb. 1770; died in Monroe, Maine, 15 Dec. 1832, aged 72; married in Kittery 1 Feb. 1784, Reuben Ricker, a seaman in the Revolutionary War (Enclosure 1-21).

Dennis Gould, baptized in Kittery 21 Feb. 1770; living in Dec. 1794.

Samuel Gould, baptized in Kittery 21 Feb. 1770; living in Dec. 1794; married 28 Aug. 1793, Susannah Gowen.

Robert Gould, baptized in Kittery 21 Feb. 1770; died probably before Dec. 1794. Robert was a Revolutionary soldier.

Ruth Gould, born 23 Aug. 1771?, baptized in Kittery 12 May 1772; died in Porter, Maine, 16 Oct. 1865; married in Berwick, Maine, 7 April 1792, John Stacy.

That Joseph Goold/Gould (1751—1838) was the son of Joseph and Ruth (Remick) Goold/Gould is documented through the father’s will of 1794, in which he mentioned his wife, Ruth, and son Joseph (see below). The relationship is supported, in part, by the younger Joseph’s Revolutionary War service record, in which he was styled junior, although at the time that actually meant he was the younger of two men of the same name in Kittery at the time (1776) and not necessarily the son of a man of the same name. Additionally, it can be argued that among the children of the younger Joseph, Dorcas Gould was named for his maternal grandmother, Dorcas (Hill) Remick,[25] and Hannah Ricker Gould for her father’s sister Hannah Gould who married Reuben Ricker.

In his town history Old Kittery, Stackpole (page 462) noted the parents of the younger Joseph were Joseph and Ruth (Remick) Goold/Gould. Here the senior Joseph is also shown to have been born about 1722, the son of Joseph and Bethiah (Furbish) Goold, and to have married 23 August 1749, Ruth, daughter of Joshua and Dorcas (Hill) Remick. Indeed, that marriage is found in the published vital records for Kittery (Enclosure 1-22; a marriage year of 1779 shown on a pedigree chart provided by Ellen G. White Estate is in error). Stackpole also noted that the father Joseph served at Louisburg in 1745 and was a selectman in 1770—72. He lived “on his father’s farm” and died about 1797, aged about 75, the approximate year of his death almost certainly based on the probate of his will that year.

Little else is known about Joseph and Ruth (Remick) Gould. In 1769, Ruth joined the Congregational Church in the Second Parish of Kittery (later known as the Eliot Congregational Church). The following year, five children of Joseph “Gold” were baptized in this church—Tobias, Hannah, Robert, Dennis, and Samuel. And in 1772, Ruth, daughter of Josiah “Gold,” was baptized, the

[22]In an unidentified publication of Revolutionary War participants from Maine (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate), p. 109, William Goold is indicated to have been a soldier from Kittery, who died in the service on this date, and “a brother of Joseph, before mentioned.” The father of Joseph and William, however, named a son Williamin his will of 1794, suggesting the soldier might have been a different William Goold.

[23]Unidentified publication of Revolutionary War participants from Maine (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate), p. 108.

[24]Unidentified publication of Revolutionary War participants from Maine (copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate), pp. 108—09.

[25]Ruth Remick, her parents Joshua and Dorcas (Hill) Remick, and her siblings Joseph, Ichabod, Susanna, Grace, and Margaret, are listed in Stackpole’s Old Kittery, pp. 679—80.

[16]

name of her father almost certainly an error for Joseph, as no Josiah Gould is known to have lived in Kittery (Enclosure 1-23).

Joseph Gould was living when the first census was taken in the United States in 1790, and he was enumerated in Kittery that year, with a household of three males over sixteen and two females. In the next household was John Gould, probably his son (Enclosure 1-10).

According to a published abstract of the document, Joseph Goold of Kittery, yeoman, weak in body, made his will 11 December 1794. He named his wife, Ruth, who was to be executrix; sons William, Joseph, John, Tobias, Dennis, and Samuel; and two daughters Hannah Ricker and Ruth Stacey. Witnesses to the will were Stephen Furbish, Abigail Heard, and Joshua Hubbard, and it was proved 15 May 1797 (Enclosure 1-24).

For this report, no particular investigation of the other children of Joseph and Ruth (Remick) Gould was made beyond those listed in Stackpole’s Old Kittery, in the Eliot Congregational Church records, and in Joseph’s will.

Great-Great-Grandparents

Joseph Gould

born [probably Taunton], Plymouth Colony, about 1680 [or about 1685?]

died Kittery [now Eliot?], Maine, 10 May 1762

married about 1705

Bethia(h) Furbush/Furbish

born Dover, New Hampshire, 1674

died [probably in Kittery] Maine, before January 1747

Children, all born probably in Kittery, correct order unknown:

Mary Gould, born 22 March 1706/7 in Kittery; married in Kittery 18 Feb. 1727, Roger Mitchell.

Bethia Gould; married in Kittery 19 June 1728, Richard Chick, Jr.

William Gould; buried in Scarboro, Maine, 15 May 1751; married in Dover, N.H., 30 Oct. 1736, Anne Searle.

Samuel Gould; died 1779; married Sarah—.

Joseph Gould, born about 1722; married Ruth Remick.

Hannah Gould; married 1743 Robert Tidy.

Sarah Gould; married 1742 Samuel Chadbourne.

According to the Goold sketch in Stackpole’s Old Kittery (pages 461—62), Joseph Goold (ca. 1722—ca. 1797) was the son of Joseph and Bethiah (Furbish) Goold. Joseph, son of John and Mary (Crosman) Goold, “came [to Kittery] about 1702, aged about twenty-two.” He married about 1705 Bethiah, daughter of William Furbish, and in 1709 purchased Treworgy’s or Thompson’s Point, in the northern part of what became Eliot. Stackpole also stated that Joseph changed his surname from Gold to Goold, “following the example of relatives in Taunton,” and that he died 10 May 1762, aged “about 82.”

Essentially the same information in found in Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby, and Walter Goodwin Davis, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire (page 277), long the standard reference for early families of these two colonies. Here the entry for this Joseph Gould (Goold) indicates he was the brother of Benjamin, born about 1693, son of John and Mary (Crosman) Gold of Taunton, who came to Kittery by 1714 and married Rebecca Furbush, a Friend. The sketch of the William Furbush family of Eliot (then Kittery) in the Dictionary indicates daughter Bethia married [17] Joseph Goold in 1705. William’s other children were Daniel, John, Hope(well), Catherine, Sarah, and William (Enclosure 1-25).

Primary documentation identifying Joseph of Kittery as the son of John Gould of Taunton is lacking among the sources provided for this study. The connection is likely correct, since Cumberland County, Maine (part of Massachusetts until 1820), was heavily settled by migrants from the old Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies, and there seem to be no other known Joseph Gould candidates. Land and other records might provide better evidence that the Joseph Gould who settled in Kittery, Maine, was from Taunton, Massachusetts.

In his account of the Gould family, C. L. Gould noted that this Joseph Goold was a weaver and, in 1700, a member of the First Military Company of Taunton (notes of C. L. Gould of Wellton, Arizona, 1975 or earlier, copy supplied by Ellen G. White Estate from previously copied genealogical records).

Great-Great-Great-Grandparents

John Gould

born Hingham, Massachusetts Bay Colony, on or about 28 July 1646

died 14 December 1711, Taunton, Massachusetts

married 21/24 August 1673, Taunton, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Mary Crossman

born Taunton, Plymouth Colony, 16 July 1655

died between 11 April 1692 and 5 March 1711/12, [Taunton?] Massachusetts

Children, all born probably in Taunton:

Marcy/Mary Gould, born 19 June 1674 in Taunton; drowned 2 Aug. 1678.

John Gould; died 1731; married Lydia—.

Hannah Gould, born 9 Nov. 1677 in Taunton; living, unmarried, in Bridgewater, Mass., 1715.

Joseph Gould, born about 1685; married Bethia(h) Furbush.

Nathaniel Gould, born 1682; married Mary Makepeace.

Mary Gould; married Ebenezer Bishop.

Jabez Gould, born before 1690; married (1) Hannah—; (2) Mary—.

Benjamin Gould, born 1692 or later; died 1781; married in Kittery, 9 Feb. 1716, Rebecca Furbush. Like his brother Joseph, Benjamin went to Kittery, Maine, but evidently later.

Elizabeth Gould; perhaps living, unmarried, in Kittery in 1717.

The section on the Goold family in Old Kittery by Stackpole (page 461) shows John, son of Jarvice and Mary, was born 28 July 1646, went to Taunton, and married 21 August 1673, Mary, daughter of Robert Crossman. During King Philip’s War of 1675, he was a trooper, was a soldier again 1682, and died a widower in Taunton 14 December 1711.

The birth of John, son of Jarvis and Mary Gould, is calculated from his age of “about 33 days” when baptized in the First Church of Boston on the 30th day of the 6th month [August] 1646 (Enclosure 1-26).

That the John born to Jarvis and Mary Gould was the one who went to Taunton is established through land records. In the first land deed, dated 23 January 1656/57, the “joint administrators and executors in trust of the estate in lands and goods of Jarvis Gould late of Boston aforesaid cordwainer deceased…for the proper use and benefit of John Gould son & heir of the said Jarvis Gould deceased…[sold] all that piece or parcel of land, lying and being within the town of Boston aforesaid and lying next to the highway that leadeth from the waterside towards the new meetinghouse being in breadth sixteen foot.” Twenty years later, on 6 April 1677, Robert Crosman of Taunton, yeoman and “attorney to John Gold of Taunton aforesaid, cordwainer, and Mary Gould, wife of the said John [18] Gould,” sold to Edward Goodin of Boston “all that piece or parcel of land situate, lying and being in Boston aforesaid near unto the Second Meeting house…measuring in breadth sixteen foot and in length from the said street to the said Green’s land sixty-four foot.” On 31 August of that year, John “Gold” quitclaimed to “the within mentioned Edward Goodin…all such title, interest and demand whatsoever as I the said John Gold had or ought to have had of, in and to the land within mentioned” (Enclosure 1-26a[26]).

Taunton vital records (first published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register) include the 1673 marriage of John Gould to Mary Crossman/Crosman, her birth in 1655, and the births of two of their children—Marcy (or Mary) in 1674, and “Hana” in 1677. The Taunton town clerk at the time of the births of the Gould children was inconsistent in his recording of vital events, with many births that must have taken place not entered.[27] The birth of son Joseph and other children of this couple, however, may have indeed been recorded, but these records could have been destroyed by fire with other town records in 1838 (Enclosures 1-27, 1-28, and 1-29). The paternity of Mary (Crossman) Gould is also established in the 1696 division of the estate of her father, Robert Crossman (Enclosure 1-30[28]).

John Gold of Taunton left a will dated 11 April 1692, naming as executors his wife, Mary, and Robert Crossman, Jr. When John’s estate was brought before the Bristol County Probate Court, however, Mary had died and Crossman renounced, so administration was granted 5 March 1711 to eldest son, John Gold, who that same day presented an inventory of his late father’s taken 29 February 1711/12. On 26 June 1713, minor children Benjamin and Elizabeth chose their older brother Jabez Gold of Taunton to be their guardian. John Gold [Jr.] presented an account of the estate on 7 July of that same year, which included expenses for “Hannah Gold for her Tending her Parents in the time of their sickness,” and funeral expenses for his mother, Mary Gold, and for his father, John Gold, suggesting Mary had probably died not long before John. The final settlement of the estate was a division of the real property made by Samuel Williams, John White, and John Mason among John Gold’s children: John (eldest son), Joseph, Nathaniel, “Jabesh” [Jabez], Benjamin, and Hannah Gold, Ebenezer Bishop in right of his wife, Mary, and Elizabeth Gold (Enclosures 1-30, 1-33, and 1-34[29]).

Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandparents

Jarvis Gould

born Lydd, Kent, England? about 1604—05

died 27 May 1656, Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony

married

Mary

born

died probably after May 1656

Children, born in Hingham, Massachusetts Bay Colony:

John Gould, born 28 July 1646, and baptized in Boston 30 Aug. 1646, age 33 days; married Mary Crossman.

Joseph Gould, born 11 March 16[48/]49, and baptized in Boston 25 March 1649, age 14 days; no further record; may have died young.

Stackpole, in his sketch of the Goold family in Old Kittery (page 461), may have been the first to state in print that the John Gould who settled in Taunton by the early 1670s was the son of “Jarvice Gold,” a cordwainer, from Co. Kent, England, who came to Hingham, Massachusetts [Bay Colony], in 1635 and then moved to Boston, where he died 27 May 1656, aged 51. His wife, Mary, outlived him.

[26]Suffolk Co., Mass., Deeds, 3:130b, 30:13-14, quoted and cited in Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634-1635, 3 vols. to date (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999-), 3:122-23

[27]Robert Charles Anderson, “Focus on Taunton,” Great Migration Newsletter, 8(1999):11—14, at 11—13.

[28]An earlier abstract of Robert Crossman’s estate was published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register in 1909 (Enclosure 1-31; see also Enclosure 1-32).

[29]The estate records of John Gold presented here are from the file of original papers, some of the items recorded in Bristol Co. Probate volume 3, and published abstracts of the record volumes.

[19]

On 6 April 1635, “Gervase Gold,” age 30, a servant of Clement Bate/Bates, was enrolled in London as a passenger to sail for New England aboard the Elizabeth (Enclosure 1-35[30]). That Jarvis was from the English county of Kent is likely, since Clement Bate was baptized there in the parish of Lydd in 1595, as was Clement’s brother James Bate in 1582, also a passenger on the Elizabeth. Not documented is that Gould was from this same parish, and indeed he could have hooked up with the Bates family in the Parish of Biddenden, where Clement had children in the years just prior to emigration (Robert Charles Anderson and others, The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634—1635,3 vols. to date [Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999-], 1:195—200).

Clement Bate settled in Hingham in Massachusetts Bay Colony, where a year after arrival Jarvis Goold was granted a lot for a home by the town, which he later sold (Enclosures 1-37 and 1-38). By wife, Mary, Jarvis had two sons, the baptisms of whom were recorded in the First Church of Boston in 1646 and 1649, with the father designated a member of the church of Hingham (Enclosures 1-26 and 1-37). Jarvis died in Boston in 1656 (Enclosure 1-26[31]), intestate—without a will—but the inventory of his estate reveals he was a shoemaker (Enclosure 1-39).

What became of the widow of Jarvis Goold was not determined for this report.

This report is based upon currently available records and is subject to revision as new information warrants.

© 2002 Roger D. Joslyn. All Rights Reserved. [Pages 4, 19-22 updated April 9, 2003] Used by Permission

[30]The passenger emigration records were originally published in early volumes The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. In 1987, the Genealogical Publishing Company of Baltimore published Peter Wilson Coldham’s The Complete Book of Emigrants 1607—1660, in which the same lists were again included (Enclosure 1-36). Mr. Coldham, however, while he “surveyed many sources not used by Hotten,” “gathered all entries for a given ship, and omitted the day-by-day groupings of arrivals at dockside” (Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634—1635, 3 vols. to date [Boston: The New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999—], 1:xxx).

[31]Early Boston vital records were first published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.