Person talk:Jerusha Doolittle (2)

questions [12 September 2015]

Check locations for marriage and death (Phil Dascola claims Warwick, MA for both). I tend to believe that Doolittle children would not have remained in Warwick after 1778. O.P. Allen (p. 20) claims that she first married 1795 Squire Fletcher, son of Gen. Samuel Fletcher of Townsend, VT by whom she had seven children between 1796 and 1811.

The first question to answer is who she married as all questions about where and when she did this, or died, are dependent on that answer.

The age at death of the wife of Willard Taft is posted on this page and is one day off, which discrepancy is often simply based on the method of calculation. Plus her name is Jerusha (see gravestone. So that seems to be the most likely answer. No marriage record is found on familysearch.org. This has decent coverage of Warwick, so the marriage probably did not happen in Warwick. Certainly no intentions are found in Warwick here. Willard Taft died before 1850, apparently based on the census entries (1845 per gravestone).

The marriage to Squire Fletcher is not found either, but appears to originate with the Fletcher Genealogy here but no date or location is given, nor has one been found, and so the basis for this is unknown. The marriage would have to be before 1797 when daughter Fanny born. In 1850 census, Squire Fletcher has no wife listed, so she apparently died before 1850. No record has been found that shows his wife's name is Jerusha?

These appear to be mutually exclusive cases, i.e., "she first married" should simply be "she married". --Jrich 16:16, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

Nice find, Jrich, on the VT vital records finding her death, with the age of death that calculates back to within a day of her documented birth date. The birth place on her death record, though, is inaccurate. Her parents were from Northfield, originally (pre Warwick), but Jerusha D was born in Warwick. She was the youngest child, the last to be born before the "spiritual wifeism" controversy erupted a few years later-- culminating by 1781 when Jerusha's mother was tried and found guilty of adultery... Daughter Jerusha most likely went with father Amzi D and the rest of her siblings to Townsend, VT by 1782.

In addition to the Fletcher genealogy you mention, Doolittle Family in America, pp. 284-285 (see here if you've got an Ancestry.com account) also makes the claim she was first married to Squire Fletcher. If so, then they divorced about 1805/6 because supposedly Squire Fletcher went on to live until 1856. Now, divorce was present in Jerusha's family (her parents divorced), so it's not impossible.

What we don't know is if Allen's and Fletcher's claims are independent of each other.

But we should be able to find some evidence of Squire Fletcher's children's births... Might require a visit to the Townsend, VT town clerk (which I could possibly do during the holidays or next summer if we can't find a local).

Jillaine 17:16, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

Regarding Northfield, I have seen the confusion before a person of Warwick described as of Northfield, being neighboring towns. Anyway since it is a death record, it is second hand based best case, a survivor relating what Jerusha told them, and there is a huge question whether you can consider a person a credible witness to their own birth. Many times people say they are born in places they moved to, or names that only came into being later.

Doolittle Family in America is also online [1]

This biography of Charles Fletcher says he was born 1811 to Squire Fletcher, s/o Samuel Fletcher, and says his father died about 1814, Charles living with his mother. This son and his mother would be incompatible with the marriage to Willard Taft unless Squire also remarried. But a death in 1814 is at odds with the 1850 census and 1856 death in New York. (History of Townshend puts his death in 1854).

Secondary sources aren't real helpful when there is this much confusion. Finding the marriages records would seem to be important. --Jrich 21:00, 12 September 2015 (UTC)