Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

Abigail Stevenson

Female Abt 1642 - 1715  (~ 73 years)


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  • Name Abigail Stevenson 
    Born Abt 1642  of Newtown, Long Island, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Buried 15 Oct 1715  Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I2954  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Family Daniel Denton,   c. 10 Jul 1632, Coley, Halifax, Yorkshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Bef 13/13 Mar 1695/6, Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 63 years) 
    Married Abt 1659  , , New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Divorced Yes, date unknown 
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F1581  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. The periodical "The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record," 120[1989]:10-17, 94-97, 160-163; 121[1990]:221-225, etc., "Descendants of the Rev. Richard Denton," by Walter C. Krumm. I have divided up this article and included each generation with the individual detailed (see notes of Rev. Richard Denton for summary of all other publications and researchers prior to this publication):
      "Daniel2 Denton (Richard1) led a life that was varied and adventuresome by anybody's standard. Baptised in 1632 in Yorkshire, he certainly accompanied his father's family in its migration to Long Island...
      About 1659 or 1660 Daniel did undertake household responsibilities by marrying Abigail Stevenson from nearby Newtown, after which were born his first son and his first daughter, the only children of this marriage. Abigail (born say 1642 - died 15 October 1717 at Jamaica [Rec. 19:59]) was the daughter of Thomas and Anne (___) Stevenson. Daniel Denton was appointed co-administrator of the estate of Thomas Stevenson and guardian of his children 9 July 1668 (New York Co. Wills 1:55; WNYHS 1:25). Anne Graves, Stevenson's remarried widow, made a will 31 December 1670 naming Abigail Denton as her daughter (original will #47 [unrecorded], Historic Documents Collection, Queens College; WNYHS 1:467)....
      At the end of the decade unspecified business took Daniel back to England...
      By late 1670, Daniel was back on Long Island, where on 5 December his signature appeared for the first time on the Jamaica records as Daniel Denton, Senior (JTR 1:45 & 184). But his absence from home cost him his marriage; he discovered that Abigail was pregnant. She had to admit her infidelity, naming Daniel Whitehead of Jamaica (Daniel2, son of Daniel1). Presented by the constable and overseers at the Court of Sessions in June 1672, she stood "accused for her incontinency, & committing Adultery in ye absence of her Husband, then about his Occasions in Europe." From 9 July 1668 when he was appointed co-administrator of the estate of Thomas Stevenson, until 6 September 1670 when as Jamaica Town Clerk he copied a deed, there is no official record of Daniel Denton's whereabouts. We can assume his visit to England occurred during part or even most of that time interval.
      With the evidence against her, Abigail confessed. The lower court sent the case up to Governor Francis Lovelace and his Council, from whom Daniel obtained a bill of absolute divorce on 16 June 1672.*
      The divorce may have motivated Daniel's departure with his two children from Long Island for the next decade. First he moved to Piscataway, New Jersey, near New Brunswick (CEM 23:343), where on 25 August 1673 he was appointed a magistrate (CDNY 2:587). Then on 20 Dec. 1674 he sold out his land interest in Piscataway (Deed Book B:1) and removed to Springfield, Massachusetts (Springfield Town Records 11:121-henceforward STR).
      His arrival at Springfield coincided with an acute Indian crisis; King Philip's War broke out in mid-1675, and many frontier settlements suffered from severe Indian attacks. Springfield's turn came on 5 October; the town and its inhabitants came close to annihilation. Daniel and the two children most certainly were living there already, perhaps in rented accommodations. Less than seven months later on 24 April 1676 he remarried, this time to Hannah Leonard, the 17-year old daughter of John and Sarah (Heald) Leonard of Springfield...
      Despite (or because of) this great flurry of achievement (which included fathering three more children with his new wife), Daniel once again experienced family trouble. His firstborn, Daniel, Jr., as a teenager, was proving troublesome, perhaps in part because his stepmother was not much older than he. The first indication came when young Daniel was baptized in the Flatbush (Long Island) Dutch Church (1679); his sponsors were a Dutch couple, and his family in Massachusetts seems not to have participated (Flat. Fr. Baps. 1:12). Two years later he eloped to Rhode Island and married without his father's knowledge (Old Hampshire [Co., Mass.] Probate and Court Records 1:216)...
      Daniel, Sr.'s sojourn at Springfield ended as abruptly and inexplicably as his stay in New Jersey. By April 1682, Daniel's name reappears in the Jamaica Town Records... He was appointed a town commissioner (JTR 1:138), and he and Hannah, his wife, witnessed numerous documents, land agreements and the like...
      The exact date of Daniel's own death is unrecorded, but this item from the Jamaica Town Records (1:390) supplies a clue: "13 March 1695/6 Daniell Denton, latte of Jamaica Seanor now deseast..." Like his brothers he, too, died intestate and there was no administration on his estate. It is unknown when his wife Hannah died, but it is possible she remarried and is the Hannah "Simon" [read "Seaman?"], deceased, named in the 1718 estate settlement of her mother (Donald L. Jacobus and Edgar F. Waterman, "Hale, House and Related Families," 1952, p. 678-682).
      Children of Daniel and Abigail (Stevenson) Denton:
      i. Daniel, Jr.3, b. say 1661 or 1662.
      ii. Abigail, b. say 1663, d. 4 Aug. 1689 (Reg. 5:353); m. Benjamin Stebbins of Spring-field, Mass., 9 Oct. 1682 (Frank Farnsworth Starr &James J. Goodwin, Various Ancestral Lines of James Goodwin and Lucy (Morgan) Goodwin, 1915, 2:44 identifies Benjamin.).
      Children of Daniel and Hannah (Leonard) Denton (birthdates are from Burt, op.cit., p. 131):
      iii. Hannah, b. 5 Aug. 1677, prob. living 1719; according to Combes (p. 13) she m. (1) say 1697 John Seaman of Hempstead, (2) 1699 Samuel Smith of Jamaica. The first marriage is apparently based on the 1698 census (see below), but is not in Mary Thomas Seaman, "The Seaman Family in America" (1928), and may be confused with her mother's remarriage. For the Smith marriage and possible children see "The American Genealogist" 25:67, 77-8.
      iv. Samuel, b. 29 Sept. 1679.
      v. Sarah, b., d. Nov. 1681 (Burt, loc.cit.).
      Eardeley and Combes list three additional children of Daniel and Hannah: vi. Elizabeth, vii. Thomas, and viii. Alice, but William Derel Denton reports that George Combes after checking the original Eardeley manuscript found no basis for including them. These three putative children would have been born in Jamaica. The "Return of Marriages, Christenings & Burials in The Town of Jamaica F[or] 7 Years Preceding 1688" (DHNY 3:197) shows no christenings or burials in Daniel's household, but there may have been reasons why none of these children was christened. A special case can be made for Alice, since such a person does appear in two records. In the Hempstead Census of 1698 (page 1, column 4) appears the name "Els Denton" below "John Seman Jr" and "hannah seman" Alice Denton "of Jamaica" was married on 26 Dec 1709 to Thomas Thurston at the Newtown Presbyterian Church (Newt. 29).
      Footnotes:
      *On the first Wednesday of October 1672 Mrs. Denton petitioned the New York General Court of Assizes concerning remarriage. Expressing a great sense of grief and sorrow for her miscarriage against her "late" husband, she had undergone the censure of the law. But she pointed out that since the divorce he was at liberty to remarry. Citing the temptations of a single life, and the need of support for herself and three children on five shillings a week plus what she could earn, she pleaded that in a short time she would become a charge to the town. For that reason she asked permission to remarry. The court acceded, and that same month Abigail married Whitehead, bringmg their firstborn child with her. Her two Denton children stayed with their father. Abigail bore at least six children to her second husband. (ECM 1:132 n. 1, which also contains further references.) This was not the end of the Whitehead/Denton connection, for in his will, proved 1704, Whitehead left bequests to his three Denton step-grandchildren: Daniel £6, and Abigail and Deborah each £12. Then in the next generation a member of another branch of the Dentons, Jacomiah, married Abigail Waters, whose maternal grandmother was Elizabeth Whitehead, daughter of Daniel and Abigail."

      2. Unsourced from Family Search "Life Story" for Abigail Stevenson:
      "DANIEL WHITEHEAD was born about 1642, of Newton, Long Island, to Daniel Whitehead (1620-1668) and Susan Armitage (1632-1673.) He married Abigail Stevenson, 2 October 1672, Jamaica, Queens, New York. He was a justice of Queens County, New York, member of assembly, and county treasurer. Daniel Whitehead died in October 1704, and was buried 13 November 1704, Grace Episcopal Church, Jamaica, Queens, New York, at about age 62.
      ABIGAIL STEVENSON was born about 1638, of New York, to Thomas Edward Stevenson (1615-1668) and Anne Unknown (1614-1670.) She married (1) Daniel Denton in 1660; (2) *Daniel Whitehead 2 October 1672, Jamaica, Queens, New York.
      In 1672 Daniel Denton returned home after a long absence and discovered Abigail was pregnant. She had to admit her infidelity, naming Daniel Whitehead of Jamaica as the father. Presented by the constable and overseers at the Court of Sessions in June 1672, she stood "accused for her incontinency, and committing adultery in ye absence of her Husband, then about his Occasions in Europe." The lower court sent the case up to Governor Francis Lovelace and his Council, from whom Daniel obtained a bill of absolute divorce on 16 June 1672. On 5 October 1672, Mrs. Denton petitioned the New York General Court of Assizes concerning remarriage. Expressing a great sense of grief and sorrow for her miscarriage against her husband, she had undergone the censure of the law. Citing the temptations of single life, and the need to support herself and 3 children on five shillings a week, plus what she could earn, she pleaded that in a short time she would become a charge of the town. For that reason she asked permission to remarry. The court acceded, and that same month Abigail married Whitehead, bringing their firstborn child with her. Her two Denton children (Daniel born in Queens in 1661 and Abigail born about 1663 in Queens) stayed with their father.
      Abigail Stevenson passed away 15 October 1717, at Jamaica, Queens, New York.
      Children of Daniel Denton and Abigail Stevenson:
      1. Daniel Denton, b. 1661, Queens.
      2. Abigail Denton, b. 1663, Queens.
      Children of Daniel Whitehead and Abigail Stevenson:
      1. Mercy Whitehead, b. 10 Jan 1668, Jamaica, Queens, New York; md. Thomas Betts, 3 April 1683; d. 23 Nov 1743, New Haven Connecticut.
      2. Jonathan Whitehead, b. 1672, Jamaica, Queens, New York; md. Sarah Field, 23 July 1696; d. 26 July 1737, New York, New York.
      3. Thomas Whitehead, b. 1674, Jamaica, Queens, New York; d. 30 November 1732,
      4. Deborah Whitehead, b. 1675, md. Thomas Hicks, 1689; d. 14 June 1712.
      5. Mary Whitehead, b. 1677; md. William Urquhart; d. 3 Sep 1713.
      6. Amy Whitehead was born 17 August 1679, in Flushing Queens, New York, to Daniel Whitehead (1642-1704) and Abigail Stevenson (1638-1717.) She married Jacob Doughty. Amy Whitehead passed away in about 1742, of Bethlehem Township, Hunterdon, New Jersey, at about 62 years old.
      7. Elizabeth Whitehead, b. 1681, Queens, New York; md. Anthony Waters, Jr., 1695; d. 1712."