Phillips Orphans: November 1848 to August 1850

Lovecraft's Grandfather: The Business Career of Whipple van Buren Phillips

Appendix

"The Phillips Orphans: November 1848 to August 1850."

Below is a listing from the 1850 census, asserted to have been taken 8 August 1850, but the question asked was data as of 1 June 1850.

This writer draws from this document {facsimile from Mormon Genealogy online source}, Faig. [See below for reference], and cemetery references.

Jeremiah Phillips died in a grist mill accident on 20 November 1848. James Wheaton Phillips was at that time 18, and of age. However, due to debts, he did not inherit the property which went into complicated receivership. The time between the death of Jeremiah and the Census was 21 months. We have minimal data on these months. WVP was attending school as was his sister Abbey.

Faig did a review of the estate proceedings in August 1990. This can be summarized below.

• Raymond G. Place, husband of Jeremiah Phillips' niece Eliza Lyon Fry and already in place as Cashier at the Mount Vernon Bank, was appointed administrator of the estate by Daniel Howard, Clerk. This was on 4 December 1848. (Note this was a very quick 14 days.)
• Inventory was taken by Albert Foster, Abraham Place (a relative listed on the 1850 census), and John Vaughn on 18 December 1848. (28 days after Jeremiah's death.) The inventory was extensive, but insufficient to pay debts. It was typical corn, animals or animal products of pig, goose, horse, ox, bees, cow, turkey. Wheat was rare and not listed. Total $637.75, a not insignificant sum.
• Inventory submitted 1 January 1849. Committee confirmed Raymond G. Place to liquidate inventory except for wearing apparel of the children.
• The preliminary report was submitted on 4 March 1849.
• 2 July 1849 Samuel Tillinghast and Jason T Place went before the probate court (Peleg Place had died in the interim).
• After a notice, the estate was sold at The Mount Vernon Bank on 30 June 1849. At that time it was seen that debt was $1252,21, of which Jeremiah's brother had $495.49 outstanding.
• 27 August Raymond G Place presented his report.
• 1 October 1849 the Committee met all real property was ordered sold. The farm first.
• 17 November 1849 it was reported that 73 acres were sold in Foster and 12.5 acres in Coventry.
• Final report was submitted on 4 December 1849.

In summary, the orphans became penniless. Their uncle, Whipple Phillips, Raymond G. Place, Job W Place, and others in the community met legal obligations and still allowed James W Phillips a piece of land to set up farming. WVP went to school and assisted.

"James W Phillips" is listed twice on the Census with two different ages.

@@@ further research @@@@

Reviewing the data from the U.S. Census of 1850 and starting with the entries at Job W Place, the assumed clan patriarch, the Phillips orphans seem to have come quickly under his umbrella. If dollars are a place keeper for wealth and influence, Peleg Harrington and Jason G Place had the highest business values, and every other land owner were on a relatively equal landing.

If we conclude that the Phillips orphans were under the Job W Place umbrella, we can make a decision on what role "Mary E Stanton" played. She was not listed as a landowner, and perhaps could not be a landowner in Foster. If this were her property (i.e. she was a widow), it can't be determined by any additional data at this time. Therefore, she must have been a housekeeper and appointed guardian.

This brings up an additional piece of data that might be relevant. There is a very early burial in the Place-Battey (FR090) Foster cemetery: Sally Stanton (1790c - 12 APR 1815). This one single pieces of data, of only one "Stanton" buried in Foster makes Mary E Stanton a very elusive individual. If she married a Place, or other citizen, her name would have not been Stanton. If she was a widow, no sign of ancient Stantons can be found, other than one Joseph Stanton, rather famous at his time.

James W Phillips was the elder of the family, and of age. He was a farmer, and he was the head of the house both officially, by age, and by community designation. James did not need a guardian, and certainly not by a female resident in 1850 Rhode Island. This writer will follow a thesis that Mary E Stanton was an assistant to the family. It may later be found, looking at the 1840 census data, that Jeremiah Phillips had her under his household, but this, of course, is untenable speculation as of now. What the census data seems to make clear, and will be the thesis here, is that the Phillips orphans were not specifically living under Mary E Stanton's roof. She shows no ownership of property, and despite the reforms after the Dorr Rebellion, she may not have been able to own property.

References:

The Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project Index, p. 380.

Internet http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rigenweb/cemetery/cemetery340.html accessed on 18 Januaryt 2012, and when this was recorded, the following data was pertinent located 10 ft south of MOOSUP VALLEY RD at TEL pole # 56; 2521 burials with 25 inscriptions from 1822 to 1944; 40 ft x 40 ft in fair condition enclosed with a stone wall]. No other Stanton in the database is buried in a Foster cemetery. Job W. Place was buried in Foster cemetery FR083, so we cannot make a direct correlation between Mary E Stanton and the Place family, but some vague connection is allowable as she appears to be an isolated "Stanton" on Phillips and Place land in 1850. There are four listings for burials of "Mary E Stanton" and 13 other "Mary Stanton". One comes close to to match her officially noted birthday of 1812, indicated by her age of 38y in 1850. This is Mary Moore {Bell} Stanton 1814 - 20 APR 1887 NT001 which is in Newport. This is an unlikely candidate. Sadly, this writer cannot find any additional notes on Foster's Mary E Stanton in any online databases.}

Kenneth W. Faig, Jr, Mahossauk Review, Candlemass, 1992. "Lovecraft's Last Yeoman Farmer Ancestor, p. 7 ff. Provided by author.

In this publication, Faig stated, "The household seems to be next south of the homesteads of Job W. Place and Abraham Place of Johnson Road. Perhaps Mary E. Stanton was keeping house for the children. One would normally expect that Susan Esther Phillips, the elder surviving daughter, would undertake this function, but she may by this time have already been ailing, since she died on July 28, 1851, aged only twenty-four. James Wheaton Phillips (1830-1901) married Job W. Place's daughter Jane Ann Place (1829-1900) in 1853 and probably purchased the farm of Job's deceased brother Abraham Place (1800-1852) at about this time."

Schedule I. - Free Inhabitants in The Town of Foster in the County of Providence State of Rhode Island enumerated by me, on the 6^th day of August 1850. Elisha Johnson Ass't Marshall

(The data above, itallics are handwritten. There are 13 columns of data, and below are columns 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. For item 1 and 2, I have placed a #, and for item 4 I have placed a y afterwards. For item 9, all are "Rhode Island" unless noted.}

{in the margin is a "1"}

#1 #1 Samuel Greene 67y M Farmer $1000

Polly 54y F

#2 #2 Peleg Harrington 66y M Farmer $2300

Harriet 45y F

Betsey F 10y F

James W Phillips 17y M laborer

#3 #3 John Johnson 41y M Farmer $1000

Susan 36y F

Elizabeth 11y F

Wanton 69y M Farmer

#4 #4 Job W Place 54y M Farmer $900

Asenath 56y F Massachusetts

Lester 10y M

Jane A 21y F

#5 Aaron B Place 27y M Carpenter $900

Hannah 20y F

Manford 1y M

#5 #6 Abraham Place 49y M Farmer $1200

Nabby 54y F

Lydia 83y F $12

Fanny Card 10y F

#6 #7 James W Phillips 20y M Farmer {no $ amount recorded}

Susan E 23y F {not in school}

Whipple VB 16y M Farmer {has attended school}

Abby E 10y F {has attended school}

Mary E Stanton 38y F

#7 #8 George Place 57y M Farmer

Giffey 58y F

#8 #9 Sally Place 63y F

Jason G 29y M Farmer $9000

Rhoby A 23y F

Leander T 11y M Connecticut

#9 #10 Albert Foster 47y M Farmer $1000

Cynthia 47y F

John C 22y M laborer

Meelrum M 19y M laborer

#11 Otis Foster 42y M Farmer $1000

Rushee 50y F

Fanny 19y F

Angeline 18y F

Louise 14y F

Oliver 12y M

{Below is a portion for the next page included to show the proximity of Casey B Tyler to the Phillips orphans}

{in the margin is a "3"}

#19 #21 Casey B Tyler 30y M merchant $0

Betsey 28y F

#20 #22 Dean Burgys 48y M Farmer $700

Dolly 45y F

Jared H 22y M black smith

Job G 24y M stone mason

#23 Esther Jenks 68y F

Julia 38y F

1. Dwelling house numbered in the order of visitation.
2. Families numbered in the order of visitation.
3. The name of every Person whose usual place of abode on the first day of June, 1850, was in this family.
4. Age
5. Sex
6. Color (all were white listed)
7. Profession, Occupation, or Trade of each Male Person over 15 years of age.
8. Value of Real Estate owned.
9. Place of Birth, Maning the State, Territory, or Country.
10. Married withing the year
11. Attended School within the year
12. Persons over 20 years of age who cannot read or write.
13. Whether deaf and dumb, blind, pauper, or convict.

Daniel Howard: Democrat

For our purposes of increasing the circumstantial evidence of Jeremiah Phillips being a democrat, we add the evidence of Daniel Howard, a significantly important individual in Foster, Rhode Island.

Foster Centre is a later name for the area believed to have been the general area within the township that the Philips family lived prior to 1848.  See map from circa 1890's, the only one currently available at this writing.

We now quote freely from: History of Isaac Howard of Foster, Rhode Island, and his descendants who have borne the name of Howard, bt Daniel Howard, privately printed at Windsor Locks, CT, 1901

HON. DANIEL HOWARD was born in Foster, R. I., March 15, 1787. His education was ol)tained in the common schools of his town, where he was especially fortunate in having as his instructor for one year Benjamin Dolton, a graduate of the University of Dublin, Ireland, a teacher famed for his learning, and especially for his penmanship, Under the training of this master he became the most expert penman in his town, and when in 1803 his father was elected town clerk of Foster he rendered much aid as assistant. His father died in September, 1827, and on the first day of October following he was elected to the vacant office of town clerk, which office he held continuously for twenty-five years. During this time he served thirteen terms as Representative in the State legislature, a term being at that time half a year. On his journey home from Providence at the close of each week, a distance of nearly twenty miles, which he usually made on foot, it was his custom to stop at the wayside inns, where the people would be gathered to hear from him what had been the business of the week.

In 1834 he became one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, serving nine years between that time and 1848, being the choice of his party whenever it was successful at the polls. He was off the bench in 1835 and on again in 1836 and '37; off till 1842; then on again till 1848. From 1844 to '48 he sat as associate with the judge of the Supreme Court.

In politics he was a Democrat. During the Dorr troubles of 1842 he favored the extension of the suffrage, but could not countenance the course pursued by the Dorrites to accomplish it. Hence he allied himself with the Law and Order men.

In local public affairs he was the most prominent man in Foster. He served fifteen years as justice of the peace; was assessor of taxes; was called upon to administer upon thirty-one estates; was a practical surveyor; was much in demand as a conveyancer and to draft wills and write all forms of legal papers for his townsmen and the citizens of adjoining towns; was much resorted to for legal advice, and, in short, was looked upon for half a century as a sort of legal umpire for his section of the state.

In 1811 he purchased his brother Gorton's interest in the farm which for seven years they had owned together, about two miles south of Foster Center, and on which they had already built a house and barn.

In 1856 Judge Howard built another and larger house, uniting it to the older one. These were his home from 1811 till his death, except that from 1838 to '41 he lived with his son Horace at Foster Center and again in 1843, after the death of Horace, he moved there to look after the interests of the estate, remaining till the spring of 1846, when he sold the property and returned to his farm.

On September 24, 1809, he married for his first wife Betsey Phillips (b. August 22, 1789), daughter of Asaph and Esther Phillips of Foster. She died December 16, 1849.

For his second wife he married, April 21, 1851, Lurana Howard (b. March 11, 1815), widow of his nephew, William Howard, and daughter of Saiimel and Elizabeth (Whipple) Wilbur of Seituate, R. I. He died July 15, 1879. His widow now lives with his grandson, Pardon T. Howard.

He had one son by his first wife: Horace, born Jan. 31, 1810.

That Howard was critically influential is an historic fact.  There is some interest that Howard Phillips Lovecraft derived his first name from this local legend.  This despite that Whipple Van Buren Phillips was a life long Republican.  We do not know when he converted, but as James Wheaton Phillips was also a life long Republican, it was possibly after their father's death.  Alternatively, the split may well have occurred at the Dorr Rebellion convention as some "Democrats" were more radical, and Howard was a civilized "Law and Order" man.

We have one more piece of testimony, from Casey B. Tyler.  It parallels the same details with more genealogy.  (Here).  He reports Howard was a member of the East Greenwich, R.I. committee (1842) after the Dorr Rebellion (more on this in a future blog essay) to make the new constitution guaranteeing male suffrage.

Most notable, see that Judge Howard was married to Betsey Phillips (1789-1849) ** who was Jeremiah Phillips' older sister.

As pointed out elsewhere, Foster, Rhode Island can be considered a tribal community from an anthropological and sociological perspective.  They tended to associate by clans, and marriages were at least partially arranged through elders - at least approval was sought and given in many cases.  It was not unusual to have first cousin marriages in New England. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt are later examples of this.  These types of marriages tended to cement and secure social hierarchies and political connections.  The same types of marriages currently happen in the Middle east, the Near East, and in other third world and second world cultures.

This said, if Judge Howard was a Democrat, it is highly probable that Jeremiah was influenced by this great man to also be a Democrat..




**[dates courtesy of Ken Faig, Some of the Descendants of Asaph Phillips and Esther Phillips of Foster, Rhode Island. Mr. Faig may not have been aware at the time of the exact date of ]

Judge Daniel Howard's (the younger) Obituary

1850 Census with James Wheaton Phillips listed as head of family