Person:Benoni Twitchell (2)

  1. Benoni TwitchellAbt 1682 - Aft 1749
  • HBenoni TwitchellAbt 1682 - Aft 1749
  • WHannah Allen1679 - Aft 1744/45
m. 18 Apr 1705
  1. David Twitchell1706 -
  2. Josiah Twitchell1707 -
  3. Nehemiah Twitchell1708 -
  4. Seth Twitchell1710 - Bef 1711
  5. Seth Twitchell1711 - Bef 1791
  6. Hannah Twitchell1712/13 - 1801
  7. Jeremiah Twitchell1715 -
  8. Abigail Twitchell1718/19 -
  9. Sarah Twitchell1721 - 1740
Facts and Events
Name Benoni Twitchell
Gender Male
Birth[2] Abt 1682 Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States[likely born out of wedlock to Abiel Twitchell, age abt 19]
Marriage 18 Apr 1705 Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United Statesto Hannah Allen
Property[7] 23 Jan 1721 Oxford, Worcester, Massachusetts, United StatesDeed to Thomas Gleason
Military[1][4] 1745 Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canadaage 63 - served in King George's War - Siege of Louisbourg (1745)
Other[5] 8 Mar 1744/45 Worcester, Massachusetts, United Statesdeeded land to son Seth and daughters Hannah and Abigail in case he did not return from Cape Breton
Death[1] Aft 1749 Killingly, Windham, Connecticut, United States

Research Notes

  • Pittman3 gives the meaning of the name "Benoni" as “Son of my sorrow or “Alas, my son” and concludes that it was used by Puritan families for sons born of unfortunate or regrettable circumstances. In this case, it appears likely that Benoni Twitchell was born out of wedlock to his mother Abiel.

Who was the father of Benoni Twitchell?

  • THEORY A: Possible Father of Benoni Twitchell = William Allen, who was married to Abiel's sister Elizabeth at the time, making him Abiel's brother-in-law.
    • Source: Anderson and Smith (2009)6 who cite Smith and Sanborn.
    • Analysis: I have not been able to verify this yet to see what their source is. More research is needed. --Cos1776 00:46, 30 September 2014 (UTC)
    • Status: pending...
References
  1. 1.0 1.1 Family Recorded, in Daniels, George F. (George Fisher). History of the town of Oxford, Massachusetts: with genealogies and notes on persons and estates. (Oxford, Massachusetts: G.F. Daniels, 1892)
    pp 30, 33, 36, 37, 38, 49, 51, 83, 194, 272, 275, 276, 280, 729, 785 .

    p 729-30 -
    TWITCHELL, BENONI, b. about 1684, supposed son of Abiel of Dorchester, believed to have been early left an orphan and adopted by John Rockett of Medfield, who m. Bethia, sister of Abiel, Benoni's father [sic*] ; thus Joseph Rockett and Benoni Twitchell were cousins. It is said they came here together, and we know their home lots joined. Benoni came from Medfield among the 30 proprietors, settled on the west side of 8-rod way between the two commons, sold 1728 100 acres, bounded east on the 8-rod way, south on a 4-rod way [road over Camp Hill], north on John Wiley and Peter Shumway. In 1733-4 we find him on "Manchang farm near Oxford," tradition says at H. 10, then Dudley's. In 1736, '39 and '40 he was of Ox. In 1732 he was one of the grantees of land at Pequoig, Athol, probably in consideration of services of his father and grandfather in the Indian war. In June, 1784, he drew 10 lots there. In 1745 he deeded a portion to his son Jeremiah, he then residing at Thompson, Conn., and was preparing for the expedition against Cape Breton, in which he went, it is said, as commissary. He deeded also the same year ("since by divine providence I am engaged in the present expedition against Cape Britton") to his son Seth of Thompson, to his dau. Hannah, w. of Phinehas Dana of Ox., and Abigail Buship [Bishop], w. of John of Attleboro', in case he should not return, as follows: to Seth his husbandry tools, household goods, and notes and accounts, and to his daughters all his lands in Ox. equally. He returned from the expedition and in 1749 was here in the full confidence of the publick, having been employed by the proprietors to the final allotment of all the lands then remaining undivided in the town. On 18 Sept., 1749, the town voted L6 to Capt. Elijah Moore, innkeeper, for "dyeting him" while in this service. he is supposed to have d. at Killingly, Conn., the owner of large tracts of land. He was early in the town's history, much in public life, in 1713-14 selectman, in 1714 town clerk, later constable, and to 1725 repeatedly moderator and selectman. He was a constituent member of the Church, "evidently a man of character and enterprise, and engaged somewhat in land speculation."
    He m. 18 April, 1705, Hannah Allen. ... [Children listed]

    * Correction p viii -
    Page 729, under Benoni Twitchell, 3d line, for "Benoni's father" read Benoni's mother.

    [NOTES, ETC.]
    p 785 -
    Ancestry of Benoni Twitchell. PAGE 729. BENJAMIN of Dorchester removed probably before 1663 to Medfield. Of his children were Mary, who m. Josiah Rockwood, Bethia, who m. John Rockwood, and Abiel, b. 1663 at Medfield. The latter "and her child," in 1683 lived with her brother-in-law, Josiah Rockwell, at Medfield. This child is supposed to have been Benoni - the son of my sorrow.

  2. Family Recorded, in Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. Genealogy of the Twitchell family: record of the descendants of the Puritan Benjamin Twitchell, Dorchester, Lancaster, Medfield and Sherborn, Massachusetts, 1632-1927. (New York: Private printing for H.K. Twitchell, 1929)
    p 13.

    ... The Rockets at that time were in very poor circumstances financially, and inasmuch as Benoni so soon after his majority was able to make purchase of a large tract of land (approximately 2,500 acres), a part of the old Huguenot holdings near Oxford, and inasmuch as it appears that Joseph Twitchell, eldest brother of Abiel, was instrumental in the purchase of these lands, it is not at all improbable that Benoni was the son of Joseph rather than of Abiel. Be this as it may, Rev. Abner Morse and all writers of earlier and later periods state that the child of Abiel Twitchell was Benoni, of Oxford and Killingly. ...
    -----
    [cos1776 Note of Caution: Twitchell gets confused when identifying "Abiel Twitchell" - the parent of Benoni. He incorrectly identifies her as being Benoni's father, while at the same time, he demonstrates that he knew that she was a sister to Mary (Twitchell) Rocket and was living in the household of Mary's husband, Joseph Rockett.]

  3.   Pittman, Grace M. O My Son Benoni: A Personal Name as Marker of Family Circumstances, in NEHGS Nexus. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
    Vol 7 (1990), pp 17-21.

    "... A recent NEXUS (5[1988]:32) ran a query from Henry Twitchell, Jr., of Winchester, Mass., reading in part: “Seeking true ancestry of Benoni Twitchell, b. at Medfield?, Mass. ca. 1682...Father may not be Abiel Twitchell of Medfield as per 1929 TwitchelI genealogy.” The published Medfield vital records give the birth of an Abiel Twitchell, daughter of Benjamin and Marie, on 1 November 1663. The birth of Benoni Twitchell is not recorded, but his marriage in 1705 and the births of his children duly appear (Vital Records of Medfield, Mass., to the Year 1850 [1903], pp. 99, 100, 179, 239). Because of my interest in children named Benoni, I suggested to Mr. Twitchell that he read through the Medfield town meeting records for mention of a female Abiel with an illegitimate child. Some months later Mr. Twitchell wrote that he had acted on the suggestion and found that “For six summer months in 1683 the Medfield town selectmen met to consider one and only one matter: Josiah Rocket was harboring one ‘Abiel Twichel' and her child in his house, who continuing there may have become chargeable to the [constable] to forbid said Josiah Rockett any longer to entertain ye said Abiel and also to warn her out of ye town. Josiah Rockett was fined 20 shillings for not obeying these orders promptly.” Josiah was the husband of Abiel's sister Mary, which may be why Abiel was living in his house. Although the name and sex of her child were not stated, it is almost certain that the child was Benoni."

  4. Mentioned, in Morse, Abner. A Genealogical Register of the Descendants of Several Ancient Puritans. (Boston, MA: H.W. Dutton & Sons, 1861)
    Vol 3, p 88.

    "... the energetic Benoni Twichell of Thompson, who as captain or commissary from T., joined the expedition to Cape Breton that year [1745] ..."

  5. .

    Worcester Co. Deeds, 23:339
    -----
    [cos1776 Note: this is the reported location of this record. Needs verification.]

  6.   Family Recorded, in The Genealogist (American Society of Genealogists). (New York, New York: Organization for the Promotion of Scholarship in Genealogy, 1980-)
    Vol 23 (2009), p 138.

    THE GENEALOGY OF EDWARD RIGGS OF ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS, REVISITED, by Robert Charles Anderson, F.A.S.G., and Alvy Ray Smith.
    -----
    ... She [Abiel Twitchell] had a child, probably Benoni ("son of my sorrows") Twitchell, b. just after Feb. 1681/2, out of wedlock with her brother-in-law William Allen.63 ...
    63 Smith and Sanborn, Eva Marie [sic] Kempton [supra note 36], 34-35.
    -----
    [Note: Smith and Sanborn refers to Dean Crawford Smith, ed. Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton, 1878-1908, Part III: The Ancestry of Henry Clay Bartlett, 1832-1892 (Boston: NEHGS, 2004, ISBN 0-88082-177-9), 34-38, 424-37.]

  7. Jan. 23, 1721, Thomas [Gleason] bo't of Benony Twitchell, a husbandman of Oxford, for £24, a sixty acre division or tract of land situated in Oxford upon Prospect Hill, being the 16th lot in number of the 2nd division in the 3rd range. (Source:Wilson, Lillian May. Genealogy of the Descendants of Thomas Gleason of Watertown, Mass., 1607-1909, p. 33, deed here.)