FERRYMAN OF WINNISIMMET: Thomas Williams (alias) Harris

SMITH-Dort/WINSOR-Secord/HARRIS

Winnisimmet Ferry map detail

11^th GGFather: Thomas Harris (c1581-1634) 1630 Immigrant

THOMAS WILLLIAMS Alias HARRIS, “The Ferryman of Winnisimmet”

Genealogical lineage is typically determined by going back through the generations following each ancestor’s surname. This creates a problem in our Harris line, simply because our immigrant ancestor Thomas Harris used an alias as a last name: Williams. Why? We can only guess. He is first listed on the 1630 Massachusetts Application of Freemen as “Williams, Thomas (alias Harris).” An alias surname was not uncommon in 17th century England. The most plausible reason for Thomas to have adopted an alias is explained in the following excerpt from familysearch:

During the 16th century, many men were reluctant to abandon ancestral names, and consequently retained the forenames of their fathers or grandfathers as surnames. …These practices were not limited to "the gentry" who, because of land interests, made limited use of patronymics. According to John Chynoweth's book, "Tudor Cornwall", in the 1569 Muster Lists for St. Ives, 41% of the able-bodied men thus mustered had the forenames of their fathers as surnames.

“Thomas Williams alias Harris” was the son of William Harris. He is registered in colonial records under that name even though his children all continued to use the surname Harris.

Upon arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he and his family soon settled in a small community that would later be named Chelsea, situated directly across the Mystic River from the city of Boston. It is not known what occupation Harris left behind at Hatherop in the Cotswolds of Gloucestershire, England. But the following spring (and on the same day) fifty year-old Thomas was admitted a Freeman and recorded his intent to ply a trade:

“On 18 May 1631 ‘Tho[mas] Will[ia]ms hath undertaken to set up a ferry betwixt Winnettsem[e]t & Charlton, for which he is to have after 3d. a person, and from Winnettsem[e]t to Boston 4d. a person’ [MBCR 1:87].”

Thus began the first chartered ferry in colonial America. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority provides this history of Thomas Williams (alias Harris) who ran a ferry between his home at Winnisimmet (Chelsea) to Charlton (Charlestown) and Boston until his death in 1634, when his widow’s second husband, William Stitson, continued this ferry service:

“In the 1600s, Boston was just a peninsula, connected to Roxbury by a thin strip of land. To get to the city, farmers and residents in Chelsea had to walk through Malden, Cambridge, Brighton, and Roxbury. The journey took 2 days.

This was such a burden that the Massachusetts Court of Assistance offered a contract to anyone willing to run a ferry between the Shawmut Peninsula (now the North End of Boston) and Charlestown. In 1631, Thomas Williams opened the first chartered transit service in the United States.” 

 “1600s The shores stretching along Chelsea, Charlestown, and Boston, Massachusetts served as New England’s maritime hub for nearly 400-years. This natural estuary of the Atlantic Ocean was first discovered in 1614.
“The site of Fitzgerald Shipyard’s maritime operation dates back to May 1631 when the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony granted rights to operate the first passenger ferry in the country. The Winnisimmet Ferry was first propelled by men with oars crossing the Boston Harbor between Chelsea and Boston until 1917 — a period of 286 years. The Ferry service saved passengers the 20-mile-long day trip by land between Chelsea and Boston.”

(from website of Fitzgerald Shipyard, Chelsea, MA)

Sources:

Illustration: detail from "A plan of the town and harbour of Boston" 1775, J. DeCosta (Library of Congress)

Use of Aliases - an Overview. (2015, December 26). FamilySearch Wiki, . Retrieved 21:04, April 29, 2019   http://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/index.php?title=Use_of_Aliases an_Overview&oldid=2396274.

The History of the T. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority online https://www.mbta.com/history

[MBCR] Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1628-1686, ed. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff. Boston 1853-1854.

Online article Fitzgerald’s Shipyard “History” found at: http://fitzgeraldshipyard.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2

Fitzgerald’s Shipyard, 1 Winnisimmet Street, Chelsea, Massachusetts

NEW ENGLAND PLANTERS: The Horton Harris Connection

SMITH-Dort/Winsor-Secord/HARRIS

ASA HARRIS II (1709-1762) Seventh Great Grandfather

Before HARRIS HILL, there was HORTON.

Horton, Kings County, Nova Scotia. You may wonder how our pre-Revolution Harris family wound up so far from their Connecticut roots …well, so did I. And here’s what I discovered.

Going back one generation prior to our “Harris Hill” Asa (who married the Mayflower descendant, Faith McCall), I recall the day I found and recorded the birth and death information for his father, Asa II (son of Asaph or Asa I) and made a note to “fact check” what seemed at the time to be a mistake in the records. Although Asa II was born in Connecticut, where both his father and immigrant grandfather had set down American roots, the place of his untimely death at the age of 53 was in the far-off setting of Horton in Canada’s Maritime province of Nova Scotia where he  died in a blizzard on January 24, 1762. But why was he in Canada instead of Connecticut? And who ever heard of Horton?

Thanks to the detailed research now available online, I have been able to piece together some of Asa’s story and, by doing so, I have also learned an interesting bit of American history I was not taught in school. 

(transcribed below)

Lesson #1: Following seventy-five years of war between the French and British for territorial rights in North America, the French-Canadian region once called Acadia was now controlled by Great Britain and renamed Nova Scotia (New Scotland). In an effort to finally establish an English-speaking and allied populace there, the new provincial government generously encouraged land-seeking, hard-working families in the New England colonies to relocate and cultivate the land vacated by the 1755 expulsion of the French Acadians. They called the prospective settlers The New England Planters.

In answer to the Provincial governor’s Proclamations of 1758 and 1759, potential Connecticut grantees sent agents to first inspect the region and meet with Nova Scotian officials. It turns out that our Asa was at the head of the line, so to speak, when the “invite” came to the New London area. He had relatives in “high places.” According to Longley:

“The five agents came to Halifax by ship, and on April 18, 1759, appeared before the Council. They were men of influence and position and were treated as such. …The Council were encouraged by the fact that the aspiring immigrants seemed willing, apart from transportation, to pay all cost of removal.” (p. 19)

Among those five Connecticut agents were:

JONATHAN HARRIS,

JOSEPH OTIS, and

MAJ. ROBERT DENISON.

[Jonathan was Asa’s first cousin and also the son-in-law of JOSEPH OTIS. Joseph was the great uncle of Asa’s soon-to-be daughter-in-law, FAITH McCALL. (Coincidently, Joseph’s father was our 9^th great grandfather through the Mayflower line of the McCalls.) Robert Denison was undoubtedly related through Asa’s grandmother, SARAH DENISON. He would become one of Horton’s first elected representatives in Nova Scotia’s House of Assembly.]

Asa Harris II was among the first grantees of a promising agricultural community situated on the Bay of Fundy called Horton. And he wasn’t alone. Not only did he bring his large family, but so did other relatives. Although cousin Jonathan did not become one of the Planters, his brother Lebbeus and his son James were grantees of Horton along with Asa.

Longley describes the first wave of the New England Planters to Horton that included Asa, his wife Anna, and most of their children, including our sixth great-grandfather Asa III:

“On June 4, 1760, the main flotilla, consisting of twenty-two ships hired by the Government of Nova Scotia to transport the Connecticut Planters to Horton and Cornwallis rounded Cape Blomidon and anchored in the estuary of the Avon and Gaspereau rivers. It was escorted by a brig of war under the command of Captain Pigot. Assuming that the vessels were the usual sloops and schooners of average size, they must have carried an average of fifty passengers each, plus stock and equipment. The total cost of the Rogers and Pigot ships was about 1500 pounds.

“The Cornwallis settlers landed at what was Boudreau’s Bank, now Starr’s Point, and the Horton settlers at Horton Landing. At first they lived in tents and temporary shelter. Almost at once they held Town Meetings, or assemblies of grantees, at which the usual lot layers and other officials such as clerk, constable, and herdsmen were appointed. The lot layers divided the land which was drawn for in the usual way. Most heads of families received the regular share of 500 acres, but some were granted a share and a half, and a few a half-share. Each had a town lot and a portion of marshland, upland, and woodland. Soon all were busy building houses and tilling the soil.” (p. 26)

In a Town Plot Survey done at the time, the carefully designed town lots of Horton were divided into six divisions with Asa’s 250’x100’ parcel listed in the Third Division, Street 5, Lot #4. Unfortunately, Asa would not survive their second winter at Horton, perishing in a blizzard in late January, 1762. Asa’s widow and most of their children would soon go back to Connecticut, never to return. Of his children:

ASA III (b. 1737) returned to Connecticut where he had married Faith McCall in 1761;

DANIEL (b. 1739) stayed on in Horton where a dozen children were born including sons, Asa, Daniel, and Ely;

ELY (b. 1755) returned and raised a family in Connecticut but he and his wife Lucretia Ransom died in Ontario, Canada;

CHAMPLIN (b. 1746) returned to Connecticut; as did the youngest siblings:

MARY (b. 1750), BETSEY (b. 1752), ALPHEUS (b. 1757), and LUCY (b. 1759), who all went to Nova Scotia as the children of The New England Planters but returned to New England with their mother in 1762 or 1763.

From the HORTON Harris family to the next generation of Asa III’s HARRIS HILL family, there is a small yet lasting reminder of the New England Planters in the name given to a son of another Asa, and fellow innkeeper: Asa Ransom, early resident of Erie County, New York and founder of “Ransom Grove” near where Asa Harris III also built a tavern and inn. Likely a close relative to Lucretia Ransom who married Asa’s brother Ely, Ransom named one of his sons Asa Horton Ransom.

TRANSCRIPTION of Proclamation:

Boston, October 31, 1758

THE following Proclamation being published in Nova-Scotia, and transmitted to this Government, was read in Council, and ordered to be published in this Province. Tho's Clarke, D. Secr'y

By  His  EXCELLENCY
C H A R L E S  L A W R E N C E, Esq.

Captain-General and Governor in Chief, in and over His Majesty's Province of Nova-Scotia, or Accadie, in America, Vice Admiral of the same, &c. &c. &c.

A  P R O C L A M A T I O N.

WHEREAS by the late Success of His Majesty's Arms in the Reduction of Cape Breton; and it's Dependencies, as also by the Demolition and entire Destruction of Gaspee, Meremichi, and other French Settlements, situated on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on St. John's River in the Bay of Fundy, the Enemy, who have formerly disturbed and harrassed the Province of NOVA SCOTIA, and much obstructed it's Progress, have been compelled to retire and take Refuge in Canada, a favourable Opportunity now presents for the peopling and cultivating, as well the Lands vacated by the French, as every other Part of this valuable Province ;

I HAVE therefore thought fit, with the Advice of His Majesty's Council, to issue this Proclamation, declaring that I shall be ready to receive any Proposals that may be hereafter made to me, for effectually settling the said vacated, or any other Lands, within the Province aforesaid : A Description whereof, and of the Advantages arising from their peculiar Nature and Situation, I have ordered to be published with this Proclamation.

Given at the Council-Chamber at Halifax, this Twelfth Day of October 1758, and in the 32d Year of His Majesty's Reign.

Cha's Lawrence.

By His Excellency's Command, with
the Advice of His Majesty's Council,
    Jno Duport, Sect Conc:

GOD Save the KING.

A DESCRIPTION of the Lands ordered to be published pursuant to the foregoing Proclamation, which consist of upwards of One Hundred Thousand Acres of Internal Plow-Lands, producing Wheat, Rye, Barley, Oats, Hemp, Flax, &c.  These have been cultivated for more than a Hundred Years past, and never fail of Crops, nor need manuring.

Also more than One Hundred Thousand Acres of Upland, cleared and stock'd with English Grass, planted with Orchards, Gardens, &c.  These Lands, with good Husbandry, produce often two Loads of Hay per Acre.

The wild and unimproved Lands adjoining to the above, are well timber'd and wooded, with Beach, Black-Birch, Ash, Oak, Pine, Fir, &c. 

All these Lands are so intermixed that every single Farmer may have a proportionable Quantity of Plow-Land, Grass-Land, and Wood-Land; and are all situated about the Bay of Fundy, upon Rivers navigable for Ships of Burthen.

PROPOSALS will be received by Mr. Hancock of Boston, and by Messirs. DeLancie and Watts of New-York, to be transmitted to the Governor, or in his absence to the Lieutenant-Governor, or President of the Council of Halifax.

~~

The Coming of the New England Planters to the Annapolis Valley. R. S. Longley, Dept. of History, Acadia University, 1924-64 (Read before the Nova Scotia Historical Society, April 1960) Reprinted from the Nova Scotia Historical Society, “Collections” (Halifax, 1961), 81-101.

The Harris Families of Kings County Nova Scotia. Sanford Wilber. Accessed online at “Maritime Canada Genealogy, A Symbios-CondorTales Website” Thank you!

The Forgotten Immigrants: The Journey fo the New England Planters to Nova Scotia, 1759-1768. From the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 partnership with Western University’s MA Public History Program students. Hamilton, Littlewood, and Smithers.