Monday Mumblings - The Tompkins Family (Post 2 of 3)

In compiling the 3 posts on the Tompkins family (the early U.S. years, the Canadian years, and our modern day ancestor Harold Tompkins), it might be of interest to describe the history or these eras.  

The Early Years in the U.S. (see Jan. 2, 2012 post)

Ralph Tompkyns (50), his wife Katherine (58), and three children Elizabeth (18), Marie (14), and Samuel (22) came to the U.S on the ship Truelove which landed in Plymouth, MA in 1635. There is no ship record indicating when Ralph’s other sons Nathaniel, Micah, and John Tompkins came to the U.S., but it must have been at about the same time as John appears in the records of Salem, MA on March 20, 1636.  

With the English population in New England around 5,000 in 1635, why would the Tompkins (Tompkyns) come to the U.S.?  There is no specific information on why they came to New England, but we might speculate that the Tompkins family came because they were Puritans.  The years 1620 – 1640 has been called the “Great Migration”.   During these years, early English settlers came primarily to Massachusetts or to the West Indies in family groups to seek religious freedom and to practice their Puritan religion.  Ralph and his descendants lived many years in Salem, MA, home to John Endicott “a zealous and somewhat hotheaded Puritan”.  Endicott sailed for New England on 20 June 1628. 

Ralph’s grandson John Jr. was born 1644 in Salem, MA.  John Jr. moved with his family to Eastchester, NY in the 1660s probably shortly after the Dutch surrendered to the British (1664).    Albany remained under British rule until the American Revolution.  John Jr. had a son Edmund who had a son John Roger Tompkins.  John Roger enlisted in the Loyal American Regiment on 27 Mar 1777 and fought to remain an English colony.  John Roger we Has as a taken prisoner of war 16 Jul 1779.  After the war, John Roger and family moved to New Brunswick with other Loyalist in 1783.  Before leaving New York, he married Abigail Brewer of Dutch ancestry.  

The Canadian Years

      6.  John Roger (1758 – 1833) moved to New Brunswick, Canada 1783
      7.  Roger (1789 – 1885)
      8.  John (1833 – 1901) 

      9.  James Bedford/Burden/Burton/Bertram (1866 – 1957)

John Roger Tompkins (6^th Generation)

John Roger was born in 1758 in Westchester, NY.  He married Abigail Brewer in 1780.  Abigail was born in 1758 and died in 1843.  John was a Loyalist and immigrated to New Brunswick, Canada in 1783 after the Revolutionary War.  He died in 1833.

John and Abigail had 10 children:

John (1784 – 1872)

Roger (1789 – 1885)*

Abigail (1791 – 1874)

Nehemiah (1794 – 1884)

James (1796 – 1824)

Sarah (1799 – 1887)

Elizabeth (1801 – 1897)

Mary (1802 – 1871)

Joseph (1804 – 1860)

Elisha (1807 – 1878)

Roger Tompkins (7^th Generation)

Roger was born in 1789 and died in 1885.  He married Elizabeth Guiggy in New Brunswick.  Elizabeth was born before 1793 in Peel, Carleton County, New Brunswick and died in 1879.

Roger and Elizabeth (Guiggy) Tompkins gravestone can be found in the Lower Baptist East Florenceville Cemetery, Rte 105, Florenceville, Peel Parish, Carleton County, NB, Canada.

 

Roger and Elizabeth had 11 children:

William Urban (1812 - ?)

Hannah (1814 – 1893)

Mary (1816 - ?)

Ruth (1818 - ?)

Phebe (1820 – 1876)

George (1821 - ?)

James Burden (1824 – 1887)

Edmund (1826 – 1900)

Obadiah (1827 – 1885)

Kezia (1830 – 1914)

John (1833 – 1901)

John Tompkins (8^th Generation)

John was born January 1833 and died July 12, 1901 in Peel, Carleton County, NB, CAN.  He married Jane Finn January 15, 1856 in Peel.   Jane was born in 1837 and died March 13, 1906 in Peel.  John and Jane (Finn) Tompkins gravestone can be found in the Lower Baptist East Florenceville Cemetery, Rte 105, Florenceville, Peel Parish, Carleton County, NB, Canada.

John and Jane had 8 children:

Ada Elnora (1857 – 1937)

Chas W. (1859 - ?)

William Bedford (1864 – 1891)

James Bedford (1866 – 1957)*

Allen (1868 – 1894)

Samuel (1871 – 1887)

Fanny (1877 - ?)

Laura (1878 – 1879)

James Bedford Tompkins (9^th Generation)

James Bedford (aka Burden, Burton, Bertram) was born October 17, 1866 in Peel, Carleton County, NB, CAN and died April 7, 1957 in Florenceville, Carleton County, NB, CAN.  James married Mary Edna Harmon, daughter of Avard Harmon, on October 20, 1885 in Peel, Carleton County, NB, CAN.  Mary Edna left James and moved to Oakland, CA with two of her sons and opened a nursing home.  James Bedford Tompkins gravestone can be found in the Lower Baptist East Florenceville Cemetery, Rte 105, Florenceville, Peel Parish, Carleton County, NB, Canada.

James and Mary had 12 children:

Eber Maurice (1886 – 1976)

Herbert Elias (1889 – 1944)

Samuel (1891 - ?)

Harold Frederick (1893 – 1953)*

Inez Lillian (1895 – 1987)

Allan Weldon (1897 – 1978)

Willard Howard (1900 – 1930)

Edna (1901 - ?)

Willie (1902 -1902)

Grace Amanda (1906 – 1992)

Hildred (1911 - ?)

Laura (1912 – 1912)

James Bedford Tompkins

Mary Edna (Harmon) Tompkins

Mary Edna Harmon