WRITE IN THE THICK OF THINGS: Josiah Todd (1778-1853), and his elusive ancestors, pt 3

(The third and final in a three-part blog series.)

In the previous posting, I reported my research establishing and identifying Thomas Todd's mother, either Frances Todd or else Averilla Todd, both daughters of Maryland planter and merchant Thomas Todd Sr and his wife Anne Lovelace Gorsuch, based on a combination of genealogical records and DNA matches with 15 living, direct descendants of this Todd+Gorsuch line.

The next step was to determine the father, which follows.

Thomas Todd’s father, my 4GGgrandfather and the great-grandfather to Josiah Todd

Y-DNA suggests my 3xGGgrandfather Thomas Todd’s patrilineal heritage comes from the Goforth line rather than the Todd line. My test results confirm that I have substantial Y-DNA matches with members of the Goforth family, as do the two other Josiah Todd descendants who have also taken the FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA test, and they also show these same Goforth matches.

We even know the specific family, William Goforth and Anne Skipwith, arriving in West New Jersey in 1677 as part of the Quaker movement in the New World, with their six sons: George Goforth (1663-1732), William Goforth (1665-1748), John Goforth (1667-1750), Miles Goforth (1673 to before 1734), Zachariah Goforth (1675-1736), and Thomas Goforth (dates of birth and death unknown, but presumably died quite young).

William Goforth Sr died in 1778, within months of arriving in the New World, but his sons lived their entire lives during the window of time that would have made a liaison between one of them and a daughter of Thomas Todd Sr and Anne Lovelace Gorsuch feasible. (See the previous blog post for those findings, and my high confidence that this daughter is Frances Todd.)

The following brief quoted excerpts and highlighted summaries for each of William Goforth Sr and Anne Skipwith's sons all come from Goforth family historian and genealogist George Tuttle Goforth’s (GTG) excellent and well documented manuscript The Goforth Genealogy: A History of the Descendants of George Goforth of Knedlington, England, 2001:

George Goforth (1663-1732)
Born 1663 in Yorkshire, England; died 1732 [about 10 miles from Trenton] in Burlington, New Jersey; eldest son; married JANE ROBINSON; “called himself a ‘Mariner,’ having been a Captain of a boat on the Delaware River, he owned a farm for many years. In 1681, George Goforth was apprenticed to George Hutchinson, and in 1682 he carried dispatches to New York City from the Acting Governor Markham of PA., protesting the action of Lord Baltimore” (GTG p. 8). Spent his whole life in New Jersey farming. “He named in his will his wife, Jane, and son, William as his heirs, but as neither was then ‘in the province [New Jersey],’ the condition was set forth in the will that unless they returned to claim the property within 5 years, it was to pass into the possession of his brothers, John and William” (GTG p.8).

George is not a strong candidate for the father of our GGgrandfather Thomas. Despite George’s self-designation as a “mariner,” his work was clearly farming in Delaware, and both his lifestyle and activity do not reveal a likely proximity to or affiliation with the Maryland Todds.
William Goforth (1665-1748)
Born 1665 in Yorkshire, England; died 1748 in Talbot County, Maryland; married 1694 to Sarah Preston, daughter of John and Joan Preston of Talbot County, Maryland, [near St. Michaels and Oxford, Maryland.] “[E]ngaged in seafaring (possibly privateering, to some extent). He was denounced in a Quaker monthly meeting at Falls, New Jersey in 1682 because of his alleged activities in connection with privateering. In his sailing trips he must have visited often the ports on the Chesapeake Bay, for in 1694, he married Sarah Preston, who lived near old Oxford, some 30 miles across the bay from Annapolis, on the Eastern shore of Maryland (GTG p. 8).

William is a strong candidate for fathering our GGgrandfather Thomas (see further rationale below).
John Goforth (1667-1750)
Born 1667 in Yorkshire, England; died 1750 in Newcastle, Delaware. Lived most of his life in Philadelphia and Red Lyon, New Jersey (GTG p. 9). Further, GTG’s account of John relates a lengthy record of his dealings as a farmer. Married twice—first to a “Hannah” and after her death to a “Lydia.”

John is not a strong candidate for the father of our GGgrandfather Thomas. No believable proximity for association with the Maryland Todds.
Miles Goforth (1673 to before 1734)
Born in Yorkshire, England, and died in Kent County, on the eastern shore of Delaware (on the Dover Bay). “Miles Goforth was living in Philadelphia in 1704 [where he operated a transfer business, arranging for passengers and freight]. He removed into what became Delaware sometime later in life, as he was in Kent County [Dover] during and before 1734” (GTG p. 10). Of note, his first wife was named Frances, but not Thomas Todd Sr's daughter Frances, who died prior to 1706 and Miles's wife Frances died prior to 1734.

Miles is not a strong candidate for the father of our GGgrandfather Thomas. No believable proximity for association with the Maryland Todds.
Zachariah Goforth (1675-1736)
Born 1675 in Yorkshire, England; died 1736 in Kent County, Delaware. “Lived in Philadelphia when a youth…. Zachariah was living in New Castle Hundred, Delaware in 1696. [Early Delaware Census, 1665‑1697] About 1700, or somewhere around that time, Zachariah bought a tract of land in Dorchester County, Maryland adjoining Talbot County, on the Eastern shore, where his brother William had settled. About 1707, Zachariah moved to Kent County in what is now Delaware, where he became a land owner and prominent citizen” (GTG p. 10).

Zachariah’s association by locality with his brother William places him closer to the Maryland Todds, but by then both Frances and Averilla had likely died, so Zachariah is not a candidate.
Thomas Goforth (dates of birth and death unknown)
Presumably died quite young, so not a candidate for the father of my GGgrandfather Thomas.

Of these six sons, William seems the best candidate for a number of reasons:

* By 1682, William Goforth was engaged in seafaring and “[i]n his sailing trips he must have visited often the ports on the Chesapeake Bay, for in 1694, he married Sarah Preston, who lived near old Oxford, some 30 miles across the bay from Annapolis, on the Eastern shore of Maryland,” (GTG p. 8). These facts suggest that William was affable or credible enough to win approval for marriage from a reputable family—or even visiting rights in the Maryland Todd household.

* Frances Todd’s father Thomas Todd Sr was a planter and merchant, holding a share in the ship Augustine, and the family lived in Baltimore, which has a major harbor opening onto the Chesapeake Bay (Biographical Dictionary at Archives of Maryland online). In fact, Thomas Sr died at sea in 1677 during a voyage to England to sell tobacco from his plantation (see letter attached to his 1677 will). These facts suggest a not unreasonable opportunity for William to have become acquainted with the Todds of Baltimore.

* The Goforths were Quakers, and the family of Frances and Averilla Todd’s mother, Anne Lovelace Gorsuch, became converts to Quakerism by 1652, only five years before Anne married Thomas Todd Sr, again providing an opportunity by religious affiliation for William Goforth to have become acquainted with the Todd family since he was also likely to have frequented major ports such as Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay.

* According to George Tuttle Goforth, William “was denounced in a Quaker monthly meeting at Falls, New Jersey in 1682 because of his alleged activities in connection with privateering” (p.8). That William Goforth received this rebuke reveals a moral latitude for the time that could account for his ungentlemanly relationship with either Frances or Averilla.

* Biographical facts for William’s other brothers do not reveal any details that suggest they had ever visited Baltimore nor would their occupations or business engagements have taken them to places other than Delaware or Pennsylvania.

Since Y-DNA evidence suggests these brothers represent the family and generation that would have fathered our 3GGgrandfather Thomas Todd, William Goforth Jr seems the most likely candidate for our Goforth 4GGgrandfather, and paternal great-grandfather to Josiah Todd.

In conclusion, genetic genealogy suggests the parents of Thomas Todd, and the paternal great-grandparents of Josiah Todd, were William Goforth Jr, son of William Goforth Sr and Anne Skipwith, and either Frances or Averilla Todd, sibling daughters of Thomas Todd Sr and Anne Lovelace Gorsuch.

The next post explores selected Quaker ancestors and their experiences during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Colonial America, including the ancestors of my third great-great grandfather Thomas Todd discussed above.

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Here are links to the WikiTree profiles for the key ancestors I discuss above, which includes additional documentation and sources.