Stickney Stories from Newburyport, Massachusetts

There are also records of John Stickney of Newburyport as part owner of the privateer brigantine Resolution in 1782 ~ Bethany Dorau

The Museum of Newbury's Bethany Dorau has another Stickney story for us. In our post "An Early Stickney Story that Bears the Telling" Bethany told the story of our Uncle Amos Stickney's (9U) bawdy widow Sarah Morse. This post will follow the life of our cousin John Stickney (4C7X) who was a great-great grandson of Amos and bawdy Sarah. John was indentured at 19 to learn the "art, trade and mystery" of cabinet making.

Caleb Stickney

We'll begin John's story with his father Caleb (3C8X). Our cousin Caleb Stickney was born in 1720 in Newbury, MA. In 1740, he married our cousin Sarah Titcomb (4C7X). Sarah descended from our aunt Sarah Moore Greenleaf (9A). Sarah Moore was our Grandma Anna Moore Kidder's aunt. Stickneys and Greenleafs abounded in Newbury and Newburyport.

Caleb and Sarah had six children, five sons and one daughter. Bethany found land transactions which indicated that Caleb made his living as a shipwright, a common profession in Newbury by the sea:

In 1757, Caleb left his family to fight the French in Canada during the final French and Indian War. His son John would have been ten years old at the time. From Bethany's Museum of Newbury post:

Then, a deeper dive still, and I find Caleb Stickney signing up in 1766 for the "Total Reduction of Canada." Caleb Stickney, as it turned out, had been fighting the French in New York and Canada with his neighbors since 1757. The muster records have him as a private at Lake George, Quebec, Halifax, returning home to Newburyport once that I can find, in 1762 for 12 days before heading out again. He is last listed in the document below, age 45, signing up for yet another tour of duty.

I cannot yet conclusively prove it, but I believe that the reason John Stickney was under the care of the Overseers of the Poor in 1769, is that his father was killed, deserted, or otherwise disappeared in Canada between 1767 and 1769.

John's Stickney's indenture

After the disappearance of Caleb, Sarah and her children were made wards of the Overseers of the Poor of Newburyport. The poverty of the family is what led to John's indenture.

From Bethany's post:

The story of John Stickney, who was 19 at the time of his indenture, and promised "at Cards, Dice, or any other unlawful Game or Games he shall not play: Fornication he shall not commit: Matrimony, he shall not contract: Taverns, Ale-Houses, or Places of Gaming he shall not haunt or frequent", is one of tragedy, resilience, courage, and care, as much as can be gleaned by the 18th century record of an ordinary man. In the end, it seems that, despite the upheaval and poverty of a life touched by three brutal wars, he was, indeed, a good and faithful apprentice.

Let's begin with the document itself.

This Indenture Witnesseth,

That John Stickney the fourth of Newbury-port in the County of Essex and Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England a Minor, son to Caleb Stickney late of Newbury Port deceased

Hath put him self, and by these Presents doth voluntarily, and of his own free Will and Accord, and with the Consent of His Mother Sarah Stickney & with the Overseers of the Poor of Newburyport put and bind himself Apprentice to Sewall Short of said Newburyport . . .Cabinet Maker and Jane his Wife to learn his Art, Trade or Mystery, and with them the said Sewall & Jane after the Manner of an Apprentice to Serve from the Day of this Date till heShall arrive to the full Age of twenty one Years to be compleate and Ended 17 Novemr 1771 —

During all which said Time or Term, the said Apprentice his said Master and Mistress well and faithfully shall Serve, their Secrets he shall keep close, their Commandments lawful and honest every where he shall gladly obey: he shall do no Damage to his said Master or Mistress nor suffer it to be done by others, without letting or giving seasonable Notice thereof to his said Master or Mistress he shall not waste the Goods of his said Master or Mistress — nor lend them unlawfully to any: At Cards, Dice, or any other unlawful Game or Games he shall not play: Fornication he shall not commit: Matrimony ______he shall not contract: Taverns, Ale-Houses, or Places of Gaming he shall not haunt or frequent: From the Service of his said Master or Mistress by Day nor by Night he shall not absent himself; but in all Things and at all Times, he shall carry and behave himself towards his said Master and Mistressand all Others as a good and faithful Apprentice ought to do during all the Time or Term aforesaid. — Till he arrives to the age aforesaid —

AND the said Sewall & Jane Short for them-selves ______doth hereby Covenant and Promise to teach and instruct, or cause the said Apprentice to be instructed in the Art, Trade or Calling of a Cabinet Maker by the best Way or Means They may or can (if said Apprentice be capable to learn) and to find and provide unto said Apprentice good and sufficient Meat Drink washing Lodging Mending & appariel Both in Sickness & in Health during the said Term; and at the Expiration thereof shall give unto the said Apprentice two Suits of Appariel Neither of which is to be New But Decent and Fitting for Such an Apprentice One fit for Sabath Dayes the Other for Working Dayes and to give unto him four Months Schooling at the Evening Schools also to Lern him to set Glass in sashes if he is capable to Lern —

. . .Signed, Sealed and Delivered

in Presence of

Matthw Perkins

Edmund Morse Jun'r

Sewall Short

John Stickney

John Stickney

Nathl Knapp

Tristram Dalton

Stephen Hooper

Sarah Stickney

The small world of Newbury

Of the nine people that signed John's indenture form, four are related to us by blood and four others related in other ways.

Mathew Perkins was married to our cousin Anna Greenleaf (4C7X)

Edmund Morse was undoubtedly related to bawdy Sarah Morse who married our uncle Amos Stickney.

Sewall Short was named after the maiden name of his grandmother, Ann Sewell Short. Before marrying Henry Short, Ann had been married to William Longfellow. Ann and William were the third great grandparents to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Ann and William's daughter Anne married our cousin Abraham Adams (1C10X).

The two John Stickneys that signed the indenture form were the indenturee, John and his uncle John (3C8X), brother to the deceased father.

We wrote about our cousin Tristram Dalton (2C8X) in our "Tristram Dalton" post. Tristram, a politician who had once dined with George and Martha, was an entrepreneur and shipbuilder in Newburyport. He was married to Ruth Hooper, the sister of Stephen Hooper who also signed the indenture form.

Our cousin Sarah Titcomb Stickney (4C7X) was John Stickney's mother.

life goes on for Cousin Sarah

About ten years after Caleb's disappearance, Sarah married Deacon Benjamin Coleman. Benjamin, who was an early abolitionist, was well known for his confrontations with Reverend Moses Parsons of the Byfield Church over the question of slavery. Byfield was a suburb village of the town of Newbury. From an account by one of Benjamin's granddaughters:

The deacon was suspended for indecorous language respecting his pastor, and the discussion continued until after the clergyman’s decease, when at a church meeting on the 26th of October, 1785, Deacon Colman, after having acknowledged, “that in his treatment of the Rev. Moses Parsons, the late worthy pastor of the church, he urged his arguments against the slavery of the Africans with vehemence and asperity, without showing a due concern for his character and usefulness as an elder, or the peace and edicfiation of the church,” he was restored to the church and the deaconship.

Before Benjamin's reinstatement, however, a group of parishioners formed a new "society."

This society consisting of some of the most prominent and wealthy families, the Moodys, Longfellows, Titcombs, Adams, and Pearsons continued several years. At length the talent and fame, coupled with the genial humor of the celebrated Dr. Parish, drew the seceders back to the old church. Their meeting-house was sold to Deacon Benjamin Colman, who removed it near his residence and fitted it up for a school. A female seminary was established there, which for a number of years enjoyed an enviable celebrity.

Note: The female seminary in Byfield was established by our cousin Rebecca Haseltine (3C7X) and her husband Joseph Emerson.

. . .Miss Rebecca Hazeltine succeeded as principal, and her younger sister, Ann (3C7X) , afterward Mrs. Judson, one of the first American missionaries to India, acted as assistant. A school of from forty to fifty pupils was gathered, young ladies from the wealthier families in the neighborhood and surrounding country, with others from places more remote. Some of the older pupils were affianced to clergymen, and had placed themselves under Miss Hazeltine’s instruction, the better to qualify themselves for the dignified and responsible position of a minister’s wife.

Benjamin Coleman was a shoemaker and during the Revolutionary War supplied boots and shoes for the army. From his granddaughter's account:

These with other clothing [his son] Moses had taken in mid-winter to New. Jersey in a covered cart, drawn by a span of horses. During dinner Mr. Colman gave a graphic description of the ragged and desolate appearance of our troops, on his arrival at Morristown, just at the close of that winter so memorable for suffering, and the joy with which his arrival was hailed.

Sarah, who had no children with Benjamin, died in 1791 at age 66.

Four years after her death, her nephew Benaiah Titcomb (5C6X) was drowned at sea. Benaiah was a sea captain who made many trips to the Island of Guadalupe, off the coast of Mexico. He brought back news of the war raging at the time between the British and French over slavery. In 1795, however, he began sailing to Port Au Prince, now Haiti. On May 11, 1795, a report reached Newburyport about a yellow fever epidemic raging.

Just a month after this report, Benaiah Titcomb and his ship were cleared to leave Newburyport for Port-au-Prince. While moored in the waters off Boucassin, Titcomb’s ship was robbed in late September by men from Leogane (the source of the yellow-fever report) and lost both clothes and provisions, though no one was hurt. The Nymph remained there to trade, leaving in mid-October.

Benaiah did not make it back to Newburyport from this return trip. He died on the voyage home on October 25, 1795 and his body was buried at sea. Thirty years after his death, when a gravestone was erected for his wife, Benaiah was memorialized and  the location of his death given as  Latitude 28’00” North, 74’30” West.  

From Bethany's post:

The Nymph of Newburyport had finally returned from Port-Au-Prince. Readers would have noticed that no captain was listed with the vessel -- and they would have known why.  A week earlier, the town had learned that the captain, Benaiah Titcomb Jr., (5C6X) had died at sea. 

News of his death reached the town before the Nymph arrived, likely coming on a ship from Philadelphia, where the Nymph had stopped to sell its goods before returning home. On December 1, 1795, The Impartial Herald had reported:

Benaiah was 36 years old, married with four young children. Born in 1759 in Newburyport to Jonathan Titcomb (4C7X) and Mary Dole, he must have been known by most in the town. He’d been master of the Nymph since it was launched in late 1792, as documented in Ship Registers of Newburyport. The vessel was one of many owned by Moses Brown, a man who made his fortune from the import of sugar and molasses to Newburyport. 

Both of Benaiah’s sons followed his footsteps and went to sea. His oldest son, Capt. Paul Titcomb (6C5X), died on the ship Independence in the Bay of Bengal at age 31. The younger son, John Hancock Titcomb (6C5X) , captained ships to Buenos Aires and lived to be 65.  A remarkable image of this son survives. A copy of Bowditch’s “Practical Navigator” appears on the table beside him. Thought to be taken in the 1840s, he holds a sextant and stares into the distance.

The further adventures of John Stickney

From Bethany's post:

. . .John Stickney marched out with the Newburyport men when they heard of the fighting at Lexington and Concord, and continued to serve in Newburyport "for the defense of the seacoast", and as far away as Bennington, Vermont. He enlisted repeatedly, both for Newburyport and Newbury, until 1779.

There are also records of John Stickney of Newburyport as part owner of the privateer brigantine Resolution in 1782, and he is involved in numerous court cases, including a case involving the privateer Ranger, as well as land transactions and probate cases.

Though the information on these documents may seem fragmentary, what we glean from them is the outline of a life from centuries ago. John Stickney, fatherless apprentice, became John Stickney, Surveyor of Lumber and Clerk of the Market, both positions of trust and esteem in Newburyport civic life. He married Sarah Woodwell, daughter of Capt. Gideon Woodwell, in 1773, and had six children.

And the indenture seems to have paid off. Though there is no record of his ever mastering the art of "setting glass in sashes", as the contract suggests, he is listed in 1778, and thereafter for the rest of his life, as a cabinet-maker, joiner, and merchant.

John Stickney died on June 1, 1828, having outlived his first wife and two of his sons.

John's son and granddaughter

In a sad note, John's son Caleb (5C6X), like his cousin Beniah, died by drowning, a common fate of many young Newbury men who took to the sea.

On May 9, 1811, John Stickney's son Caleb, age 25, was aboard the Washington, resting at anchor and waiting for the tides to cross the bar at Plum Island. According to contemporary reports, he was "knocked overboard by the foreboom", and drowned. The newspaper's lengthy obituary noted his "amiable disposition" and his "active and enterprising spirit".

In a final note on John's Stickney's family, we have a picture of a puzzle box that belonged to his granddaughter Sarah Elizabeth Stickney (6C5X).

According to a note inside, the box was given to Sarah by an unnamed ship captain. The captain, perhaps a member of the Brown family, took his wife on a voyage to China, and Sarah took care of their children while the couple was away.

The ivory game pieces inside are carved with intricate designs of dragons, flowers and people. The games include Tangrams, Nine Linked Rings and Interlocking Burr.