t is agreed by almost all the authors who have studied
the family that Crossetts
came to America from County Antrim
in the north of Ireland.
Furthermore, they agree that the original patriarch was a French
Huguenot named Antoine du Crozat. It is said that he
probably left France for Ireland about 1640 and settled in Antrim.
Documentary evidence of this is not available. In 1937 Edward Clark Crossett commissioned and published Crossett Genealogy
by Frances Plimpton. No references were added for the Irish material in
the book except this statement: "..a search was made in Ireland, 1927,
for the ancestors of the Crossetts in America. The results of this work
has been most valuable and convincing."(p. 1)Attempts to discover
Edward Clark Crossett's papers have so
far been unsucessful. One other source says there were Crossetts in
Scotland in the 13th century, but, again, no proof. Of great
interest for future study is an inquest document from 1561 in
London that
describes how one Jacques Fyschett purchased of Stephen Craskett,
a building that had previously belonged to the "Crossett ffreyers"
(meaning brothers in French with Elizabethan spelling.) Who were the
Crossett brothers? Is Craskett also an Elizabethan variant of Crossett?
There
is a legend among the Crossetts in Ireland today that Antoine, or
Anthony and his brother were each given a bag of gold coins and sent
away from home in Dauphine' by their father, a Huguenot vinyard owner,
when an employee warned him that all were about to be arrested. This, too is obviously undocumented.
Earliest original Crossett
family records other than letters, I have seen date from about 1870 and were edited and
added to over the years. They are comprised of seven pages from a
Crossett family Bible now in possession of the Swift River Valley
Historical Society in Salem, MA. I will refer to them later in more
detail as SRVHS. They, too, mention an Irish origin. I have some trouble with the French Huguenot connection.
Charles Lart in his Huguenot
Pedigrees
mentions one Marc Antoine du Crozat as among Huguenots in
Dublin. He died at Chiswick and his daughter Jean Suzanne married
Col. Paul de Blosset in 1714 (who d. 1719). Their son was Solomon
Stephen de Blosset. This Marc Antoine is not to be confused with his
uncle, Marc Antoine Du Crozat de la Bastide. The latter was born
about
1624. He was a bachelor and had no known children. He is not our Anthony. Although a Huguenot
he acted as agent for the French monarchy and resided in London.
Ms. Penny Ewles-Bergeron, who has made a study of this family has
clarified the relationship and supplied the following information. The Dublin Marc Antoine was son of La
Bastide's older brother, Estienne. He moved from France to Dublin and
was an elder of the Peter Street Church. He married Charlotte de la
Tour. They had five children. He also is not our Anthony. John O'Hart mentions the DuCrozat family
on a list of those who
came to Ireland before the reign of Louis XIV (1642). (O'Hart, Irish Pedigrees , Genealogical Publishing
Co. Baltimore, 1999) Jacques de Crosat is listed in a 1702 list of
pensioners of the army of William III. He was an ensign and served ten
years in Ireland and in Flanders in the late 1600s. He was a brother of the older Marc Antoine. (Proceedings of the
London Huguenot Society vv. 6&14, pp.231&311, 1901).
Marc Antoine du Crozat de la Bastide does not mention any other
Crozats in his will except Jacques. Recent information via email from
Ms. Ewles-Burgeron, reflects a question asked of Ms. Vivien
Costello, a prominent expert on Irish Huguenots. She asserts that our
family is likely not related to the Du Crozats discussed above. If a
third Antoine du Crozat was in Northern Ireland, he was of another
family and ,if his date of birth is accepted as 1622, he was a
contemporary of the Marc Antoine du Crozat de la Bastide, and probably
also of the other Marc Antoine in Dublin. It is possible that the name
Crozat could occur there but the "du" implies noblesse and there were
already several holders of the name. The family name of Marc
Antoine de Crosat de la Bastide was de Crosat de Creissel from Milhau
in Languedoc. This is an entirely different name from Du Crozat and
carries a diffent coat of arms from the one I have reproduced here.
The following is material from
Crossett Genealogy by Frances Plimpton, 1937. This is the study
commissioned by Edward Clark Crossett. The Irish material is presented with the above in mind.
Anthony wooed and won a
Scotch-Irish girl named Laura Thompson. He was probably a handsome and
winning fellow if today's Crossett men are any indication. They married
in 1647 and lived on a farm in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, just
outside Belfast. They had six children:
- Anthony Jr. b.1648
- William b. 1650
- James b. 1653
- Laura
- Mary
- Alice
Anthony Jr. went to Belfast and
married Lucy Graham. He spelled his name Crossitt and several families
of that name still reside in Antrim. William never married. There is no
record of the girls.
James b. 1653 inherited the farm on
his father's death in 1689. He married Elizabeth Rogers from the town of
Dungannon, County Tyrone in 1679. They spelled the name with one "t".
They had eight children:
- James Jr. b. 1680
- Anthony III b. 1682
- Edward b. 1683
- William b. 1684
- Elizabeth
- Mary
- Anna
- Grace
There is no clear record of
what became of James. It is likely he came to America. Anthony III
joined the English army. Edward married a Miss Hastings of Larne, County
Antrim. He was a seaman and where they went is unknown. (Ms. Plimpton
thought they travelled to Australia in 1708 but since the continent was
not developed until after 1754 this is highly unlikely.) The girls all married
the sons of local farmers.
William b. 1684 was only five years
old when his father inherited the farm and had three older brothers.
There was no chance he would get it. Even if he did, the landlord might
"rack" the rent when the lease was up. Racking, or sharply increasing,
the rent was a common complaint among Scotch-Irish tenants. This fact
and the state of the country at the time led William and many others to
look for greener pastures. William married Mary Masterson of Lurgan,
County Tyrone in 1705. They had two children:
- Robert b. 1706 d. 1708
- Margaret (Hannah) b. 1710
Mary died in 1712 and William
married secondly, about 1714, Martha Hamilton of Cookstown, County
Tyrone. According to family records they had four sons: (The dates attached below are not those of Ms. Plimpton.)
- Archibald b. 1715
- John b. ------
- William b. -------
- Robert b. 1723
There is controversy about this and
what happened next. Frances Plimpton, who wrote Crossett
Genealogy
claims that Martha, then a widow, William having died in 1722, came to
America in 1727 with four sons and a step daughter. She mentions a son
Frank who is otherwise totally unknown. As far as can be determined she
lists birthdates of the other boys in accordance with her belief that
William died in Ireland in 1722 . No references are cited for any of
the dates. The fact that Martha
was a widow when she came here has been
repeated many times since. I believe William was alive
when the family came to America and that 1727 was not the year that they
came.
I
must admit that the family records (Swift River Valley Historical
Society Crossett file) gives 1711 as the emigration year and says
she was a widow. The recorder of that information was also initially
unsure about the number and names of the children. Subsequent family
members who edited the record corrected some parts of it in an effort
to insure that the Bible record be correct for their posterity. In
family research I will always give this kind of family record the
advantage over others. It is family records that lead me to state that
the Crossetts came here in 1716 and that William was with them. I think
he died soon after arriving, probably in 1722 when Martha was pregnant
with Robert. My reason for this is the following story told in Ms.
Salome Hamilton's 1894 Genealogy of the Hamilton Family (p.v.)
"Mrs.
Adeline Crossett Stockwell, who was also a granddaughter, (her mother
was Martha, daughter of John) gave me the following. (Mrs. Stockwell
said her mother often related to her children, for their amusement, the
story of the Hamilton and the Crossett families coming together to this
country). She said "The Hamilton and Crossett families came together to
America. When they left the old country there was an infant son in one
of these families and while on the ocean an infant son was born into
the other family (Mrs. S. did not know which was born on the ocean).
When they came to travel by land these babes were each placed in a
basket and the baskets strapped on a horse's back and thus they
traveled, and Mrs. Crossett would say, these two babies are now your
grandfathers; grandfather Hamilton and grandfather Crossett." In 1876 I
met another of the Hamiltons, Mrs. Austin Lawrence, in Waverly, Iowa. I
was relating this incident and remarked I did not know which babe was
born on the ocean. "I can tell you, exclaimed Mrs. Lawrence. Turning to
her husband she said "old aunt---(forgotten the name), used to say
grandfather was born on the ocean." Then to me she said, "by the law of
nations one born on the ocean can claim as the place of
his nativity either the country the parents come from or that to
which they go, and grandfather chose to be called an American." We
learn from this that the parents came to this country. I think I have
not even the shadow of a doubt that this testimony of Mrs. Lawrence and
Mrs. Crossett is correct. I knew Mrs. Crossett well, and know that in
her artlessness. and simplicity she could never have fabricated such a
story. And from the record in the old family Bible and on the grave
stone of John Hamilton we learn the year the family came to this
country." (ed. 1716)
This has the ring of truth
about it. No mention is made of Martha's widowhood and this is clearly
the family of William and Martha Crossett. If Archibald was born in 1715
and Robert not until 1723 then he, and his brothers, John, and William
were born in America not in Ireland. The Hamilton Genealogy goes on to
say that James Hamilton was the father of the boy born at sea. Hamilton
family members today believe James was the brother of Martha
Hamilton Crossett. (e-mail of researcher, Kelley Hamilton) Another convincing piece
of evidence comes from the Minutes of the Selectmen of Boston for the
year 1716. Several ships arrived from Ireland but one, the
America, was said to carry passengers from
Lisburn, Ireland, which is not a port city. I believe it referred to the
point of origin of the people not of the ship. It arrived in May,
and allowing for a long passage, time was perfect for the birth of the
Hamilton baby.
It was
1739 when William Crossett purchased land in the Lisburne
Proprietary now called Pelham, MA. Here is my speculation. James
Hamilton was fairly wealthy. His estate is valued in several hundred
pounds at his death and he has five votes in the Worcester Massachusetts
council. Most others had one or two. I believe he brought his
brother-in-law and his family with him in 1716 and possibly indentured
them for the cost of the passage. This was a common practice. Only a
relative would have taken on a whole family, however. Indenture would
usually last for a period of four to six years. Such people would be
landless and would not show up in most records. If William died in 1722
then his oldest son would be Archibald, then aged seven. Martha would
have to remarry or fall upon the charity of family. I think the last
case is likely. In 1739 the indenture would have been fulfilled and the
boys would be between 24 and 16 years of age. They would have had a
chance to gather some money, and go on their own. Of course, it is
possible that Martha also died. There is no evidence of her presence
after 1723. In such a case the boys would continue in the care of their
uncle and his family until coming of age.
James Hamilton was prominent in
Worcester in the 1720's. He was given charge of seeing a bridge built
and was on the committee to oversee the roads. This probably means that
he was engaged in the builders craft. When Archibald Crossett and his
brother Robert are mentioned in Pelham, Massachusetts land records they
are called"housewrights". The Crossett family of this line has at least
six generations of stone masons and master carpenters, beginning in
Pelham. These men apprenticed somewhere for these crafts. I believe
it was likely with James Hamilton.
One
detail remains. Why were there no church records of the Crossett family
in these years? They were certainly staunch Presbyterians. I believe
the question can be explained by the fact that there was a great deal
of religious tension between the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and the
Puritan settlers of Massachusetts Bay Plantation although both were
Calvinists. Indentured people sat in galleries in church, having no
assigned pews. They may also have sat in the rews of Mr, Hamilton.
Interdenominational stress was particularly acute in Worcester,
Massachusetts in the first quarter of the 18thC. While many S-I came to
America in the 17thC most of them went to New Jersey and then to
Virginia and the Carolinas. Colonists here invited settlers to come
over. Rev. Cotton Mather urged the Huguenots in Northern Ireland to
emigrate. Even though Protestant, they did not enjoy freedom of
conscience in Ireland. The Church of Ireland, an offshoot of the
English Anglican Church, was dominent. Presbyterians could have their
worship but they had
to pay to support the clergy of the Church of Ireland as
well. In addition, at various times they were barred from holding any
public office and the legitimacy of their clergy's ministry were
questioned. As a result they left Ireland in their thousands, carrying
with them a hearty dislike for the English. Those who could not afford
passage indentured themselves, sometimes to the ships Captain who would
sell them off in America. Servants were greatly in demand. One of the
motives of the Puritan colonists and, indeed of the governor, was to
grant these people land on the frontier as a buffer between themselves
and the Native Americans who, at that time, were still fiercely
defending their land. They settled first in places like Worcester,
Coleraine, Salem, and the inlands of Maine. Later they gathered in their
own settlements largely due to the rejection they experienced when in
contact with the Puritans.
Difficult times beset the Scotch
Irish group inWorcester, where I believe the Crossetts first settled The
area was first settled in the 1650s by Puritans but had to be abandoned
due to Indian raids. It was taken up again in the early 1700s by some of
the old settlers and some new S-I immigrants. Joseph "Hambleton" was
among them. Things went fairly well although the English did not like
the newcomers accent or their "cloddish" ways. They did like the fact
that they were armed and ready to resist the Indian threat. They were
accepted to worship in the Puritan Church as long as they accepted the
service and agreed to pay tax to support the Puritan minister and the
church building. There are pew lists from this time that show S-I names
in some prominent pews. However, as time went on a number of the S-I
families grew dissatisfied with the arrangement. They petitioned the
village council for the opportunity to bring in their own pastor, Rev.
Mr. Johnston. The 1737 records of the Proprietors of Worcester deal with
it at length:
" In
answer to ye request of ten persons Desiring to be Dismist and Released
from the Suport of ye Rev. Mr. Isaac Burr, Pastor of the church of the
Town, or from any other except Mr. Johnston, etc, the Town Came into the
following vote, vizt.The Town upon meture Consideration think that the
request is unreasonable and that they ought not to comply with it upon
meny Considerations: "
