What the Washington County Historian's Office Knows About the Norton Family

Louisa Norton, wife of Adoniram Davis, belonged to the Norton family headed by William Norton and Amaryllis Andrews of Granville, Washington County, New York.  I wrote to the Washington County Historian's office and they kindly sent me their files on William Norton.  They also sent me information on Josiah Norton of Granville.  William's father was named Josiah Norton, and he also had a brother named Josiah.

The first piece of information is from the Boston Transcript, May 18, 1931.  The Boston Transcript was a newspaper which ran a regular and well-known genealogy column.  

"Solomon Norton, an early settler in Poultney, Vt., is said to have been the Solomon NAUGHTON who was a member of Col. William Whiting's 17th (Albany Co., NY) Regt. in the Rev. altho I have no records to substantiate this belief.  Josiah and William Naughton were also in the same Regt. and all were then living in Canaan, Col. Co., NY and supposedly bros.  William, Josiah, Stephen and Thode Naughton were in Canaan and in 1790 census (sic).  Solomon Norton with his family was in Poultney, Vt. when the 1790 census was taken and prob. settled there shortly after the Rev.  He built the 1st saw--& gristmill on the Vt. side of the river in Poultney opposite Hampton Corners, NY.  

I have seen somewhere the statement that John Norton, the oldest child of Solomon was b. in Poultney, this I believe to be an error as birthdate was Feb. 17, 1775 & the name of Sol. Norton does not appear in any Rev. records of Poultney area.  If Solomon Naughton and Solomon Norton are the same, he apparently was a resident of Canaan at the time of the Rev. 

Solomon Norton md. Sarah Rexford.  Sarah died Nov. 18, 1815 and is bur. in old cem. at East Poultney, Vt.---aged 59 (from t.s.)

Children:

1. John, b. Feb 17, 1775

2. Mercy, Sep. 21 1776

3. Sarah, Aug. 12 1778

4. Solomon, Apr. 27 1782

5. Lois Mch. 2 1784

6. James Dec. 6 1789

7. Hannah May 8 1791

8. Rachel Jan 18 1794
9. Joel May 15 1796

10. Aaron Sep. 25 1798

11. Amos Apr. 7 1801

Note:  Marva Norton Ralph believes the above Josiah Naughton to be her Josiah Norton of Granville, Wash. Co. NY.

***

Josiah Norton, Rev. War, Canaan, Col. Co. NY;  md. c1777 Margaret BENNETT.  Aft. 1790 lived in Granville, NY.

Some of their children:

1.  Nancy Norton b. Canaan, NY 8 Mch. 1781;, m. Samuel HALE prob. at GranvilleNY c1800

2. Josiah Norton Jr. b. Wash. Co. NY 1795;  md. Thirza TANNER and mov. to Indiana

3.  Elijah (twin) md. Lucinda WEBSTER--moved to Warsaw, NY in 1805

4. Elisha (twin) (believe he did not marry)

5. Sarah (Sally) Norton b. Wash. Co. NY 10 Sept. 1797;, md. Daniel Rhodes abt. 182.  Lived Wash. Co., then Clymer, NY till c1840

6. Amanda Norton b. Granville 5 Jan. 1802;  md. Ira Foster

7.  Hiram Norton md. Julia Steele, dau. of Sylvester & Carlotta STEELE 

8. Sylvia Norton md. Titus Andrews & had son Lewis Andrews who md. Harriet Andrews who md. Loami Norton."

Another record they sent me is from the Goodspeed Collection, which is housed in the Washington County Historian's office:  

Aaron Goodspeed of Granville, Washington County, NY lived from 1862 to 1932. He 

made a hobby and a business of gathering genealogical data on local people of his 

area and Vermont. He collected newspaper articles, wrote hundreds of letters 

requesting information from families and spent a lifetime pursuing his love of 

genealogy.

These are Goodspeed's notes on the Norton family:

"Margaret, wife of Josiah Norton d. Jan 26, 1823 Ae 65 yrs.

William son of William and Amaryllis Norton d. Mar 17, 1825 Ae 3 m.

Elvin Norton d. Feb 2, 1831 in his 42d year."

Another genealogist, Mrs. Marva Norton Ralph, collected the following information and deposited it at the Washington County Historian's office.  Notice that William was not the only child of Josiah and Margaret to marry an Andrews.  The oldest child, Sylvia, marries a Titus Andrews after her first husband dies.  I'm guessing that Titus is a brother of Amaryllis.  The ninth child, Charles Norton, marries Amaryllis' sister Julia Andrews.

" NORTONS OF GRANVILLE

I assume that Josiah Norton married Margaret Bennett at Canaan, Col. Co., NY because he was serving in the Rev. War from that area at the time they would have been married.

Josiah Norton was b. 18, Nov. 1753 in Farmington, Hartford Co. Conn.  He came to Granville before 1800 from Canaan, Col. Co, (then Albany) N.Y.

Chil.

1. Sylvia Norton, b. 31 Dec 1779, md. 1st Ira Parker;  2nd: Titus Andrews 

2. Nancy Norton, b. 8 March 1781, md. Samuel Hale

3.  Rhoda Norton, b. 4 March 1783; md. Giles Parker, bro. of Ira;, d. Spring Township, Crawford, Pa.

4.  William Norton, b. 7 May 1785, md. Amaryllis Andrews; d. Granville, NY

5.  Allen Norton, b. 11 Feb. 1787, md. Lucy Wilkinson; d. March 11, 1842 at Candice, Ontario Co. NY

6. Elvin Norton, b. 27 Dec. 1789, d. unm. 2 Feb 1831 at Granville NY

7.  Elijah Norton (twin) b. 2 July 1791, md. Lucinda Webster;  d. Warsaw, Wyoming Co. NY

8.  Elisha Norton (twin) b. 2 July 1791, md. 1st Mary Beckwith;  2nd Nancy M. Best;  d. 21 Jan 1881 at Brady, Kalamazoo, Mich.

9.  Charles Norton, b. 14 Sept. 1793;  md. Julia Andrews, sister of Amaryllis Andrews;  d. 14 March 1882 at Granville

10.  Josiah Norton Jr. b. 1795;  md. Thirza Tanner;  moved to Ind. 

11. Sally (Sarah) Norton, b. 10 Sept. 1797;  md. Daniel Rhodes

12.  Hiram Norton, b. 29 Dec. 1799;  md. Julia Steele;  d. 1882 Granville 

13.  Amanda Norton b. 5 Jan. 1802;  md. Ira Foster"

The historian's office also included some correspondence from previous researchers in the file they sent to me. One correspondent writing in 1987 stated that Josiah Norton served in the Revolutionary War and that three of his sons served in the War of 1812.  She doesn't say which ones.  

The office also sent an index of land records which shows that Josiah Norton bought more than 65 acres of land in the Thomas Bridges Patent in Granville for $180.81 on June 20, 1801.

Taken together, this information gives me a lot of clues for further exploration.  I love the idea of having a county historian--what a great American initiative to preserve and share local history!  They're not everywhere--but New York state has one for every county, and Indiana does too.  

William Norton in the War of 1812

I find the War of 1812 genealogically interesting since we have ancestors who fought for the American side and others who fought for the British/Canadian side. I recently received a package of records relating to William Norton's involvement in the war from the American National Archives. The package consists of papers submitted by William after the war to claim land and pension rights as a military volunteer during a time of war.  William Norton was the husband of Amaryllis Andrews and the father of Louisa (Norton) Davis, who married Adoniram Davis.  The Davis family, by the way,  were United Empire Loyalists. 

Here is William's application for bounty land, dated April 6, 1852:

"State of New York, Washington County.  On this sixth day of April A.D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, personally appeared before me a Justice of the Peace within and for the County and State aforesaid William Norton aged sixty seven years a resident of the Town of Granville in the county and state aforesaid who being duly sworn according to Law declares that he is the Identical William Norton who was a private in the Company of Artillery commanded by Captain Jehiel Dayton in the Regiment of Artillery commanded by Lieut. Col. Stephen Thorn detached from the second and third Brigades of New York Artillery in the war with Great Britain declared by the United States on the 18th day of June 1812.  That he volunteered on or about the month of July A.D. 1812 for the Term of six months that he with the said Company mustered at Whitehall on the Eleventh day of August 1812 and march (sic) to Plattsburgh and continued in actual service in said War until the 24th day of November 1812 when said Company were allowed by Order of General Dearborn to return home allowing them six days rations to arrive at home making it the first day of December 1812 and making an actual service of three months and twenty days. That said Company were again called into actual service in said War by an Order of Lieut. Col. Pliney Adams to whose Regiment of New York militia the said Company of Artillery was attached being the 154th Regiment of said militia that this declarant mustered with said Company under said Order of Col. Adams on the Eleventh Day of September A.D. 1814 at Whitehall in said County of Washington and marched to Burlington in the State of Vermont, where they were verbally discharged honorably on or about the twentieth day of September A.D. 1814 after having continued in actual service for the Term of thirteen --- days including four days to return home....He makes this Declaration for the purpose of obtaining the bounty Land to which he may be entitled under the act granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers of the United States passed September 28th 1850.  (signed) William Norton.

 Under this application, William was awarded a warrant for 80 acres of land.  In 1855 act was passed which made it possible for William to apply for additional bounty land, which he did.  He was awarded another 80 acres, making 160 acres altogether.  It's interesting that the April 1852 application states he is sixty-seven years old, and the application in May of 1855, three years later,  says he is sixty-eight. Was he not keeping track of his age?

William made one more application on the strength of his War of 1812 service, for a military pension, in 1871.  He had to go to Vermont to apply, and he had to swear an oath of loyalty to the United States on top of declaring his service.  Here is part of the application:

"  State of Vermont, County of Rutland.  On this 15th day of March A.D. One thousand eight hundred & seventy one before me a Judge of the County Court a Court of Record within and for the County and State aforesaid William Norton, aged 85 years, a resident of Middle Granville County of Washington State of New York who being duly sworn according to law declares that he is married that his wife's name was Amarillus Andrews to whom he was married at Middle Granville aforesaid on the 25th day of December A.D. 1816 that he served the full period of four months and twenty days in the military service of the United States in the War of 1812...that he was in said service stationed and employed at & in the vicinity of Plattsburgh N.Y. part of the time with his Company & Regiment that for his military service aforesaid he received & had issued to him two land warrants for 160 acres of land in all under acts of Congress.  That in September 1814 he served in the same company & Regiment about half a month being called out for the defense of Plattsburgh..."

William was granted a pension of eight dollars a month, retroactive to February 1871.  His land bounty warrant numbers were 32206-80-50 and 24218-80-55.  William enjoyed his pension for eight more years, dying in 1877 at the age of 92.