In my earlier search for David Fish, Dee and I found records in the Monroe County Historical Society. Later my husband and I went to the Northampton County Historical Society and then the Northampton County Archives. In the time period I was researching, Monroe County did not exist – Northampton County was quite large and covered all of current Northampton and much of Monroe County. As I had mentioned in an earlier post I had gotten so frustrated trying to sort out my Fish family, I just started researching all the Fish in Northampton County. And strangely enough, it all connected down to John.
John first appeared in Dansbury records in 1745. Dansbury was named by Daniel Broadhead and in 1745 was in Bucks County, later Northampton County, and eventually Monroe County with a new name of East Stroudsburg.
In this first record, John marries Rebecca Herrys (Harris?). At this time I am presuming that is his first wife. If that presumption is reasonable, then John was likely born around 1720. In multiple references for the time John is mentioned as a loner, a frontier man, a tracker. Of the children that were still alive when John died, it appears that William, Robert, and Asahel were from his marriage with Rebecca. The records about Sara are inconclusive at this time. She could have been Rebecca’s child or wife #2.
On 24 September 1760, John marries again. This time to Sarah Scott. John and Sarah have about 7 children who were alive at the time of John’s death: David, John Jr, Rebecca, Joseph, Eleazar, Abner, and Samuel.
On 27 Apr 1791, John and his wife “Catherine” sell some land that John had purchased in 1745. So when did John marry Catherine? Are any of the children I have attributed to Sarah really Catherine’s children?
And then in 1793, John marries again! This time to a young Margaret Williams. John’s daughter Rebecca is married to Jacob Williams. Are Jacob and Margaret siblings? John and Margaret have two children who are alive at the time of John’s death: Else Hyckson and Nancy Ann.
So John had at least 4 wives and had 13 children who were still alive at the time of his death in 1798. Quite a surprise since his Revolutionary War pension record shows a dispute between a Michael Fish and the two youngest of John’s children. Michael said he was the only child of John and the two girls, Else and Nancy, said they were the only children. But that is another story.
I have not found any Fish in what was Northampton County in the 1700s that was not one of John’s wives or children or grandchildren.
