Polly Richmond (1794-1873)

Regarding the ancestry of Mary 'Polly' Richmond:

I have not yet found anything definite on Mary 'Polly' Richmond's ancestry. But I have found what appears to be a high probability indication of the family from which she was born.

According to the Red Bird Cemetery site she was born Nov 9, 1799 Madison, Madison Co, NY. Also given is data that would place her birth about Nov 30 1794, which is more likely correct (see further information below). Nathaniel Richmond was born 14 Oct 1733 Taunton, Bristol, MA, and died 1813 at Camillus, Onondaga Co, NY. Onondaga Co borders on Madison Co to the west. Nathaniel married a Mary Richmond, his cousin—both (tentatively, see below) descended from John Richmond b. 1629 Taunton, Bristol MA and Abigail Rogers b. 1641 Duxbury, Plymouth, MA.

Nathaniel's parents are believed to be Nathaniel Richmond and Alice Hackett, both born in Taunton, Bristol Co, MA, and married there 2 Nov 1732. (The elder Nathaniel is a known descendant of Mayflower passenger Thomas Rogers.) This parental link between the two Nathaniels has evidently come into dispute in recent years. I haven't yet studied it enough to make any worthy comment. The son of Nathaniel and Mary Richmond, Abeizer Richmond, was born 11 Jun 1764 in Taunton, Bristol Co, MA, but settled and died (1837) in Madison, Madison Co, NY, which is the village where Polly "Mary" Richmond is said to have been born 9 Nov 1799.

Abeizer's wife Lydia Eaton was born in Herkimer Co, NY, and died at Madison, Madison Co, NY. The earlier children of Abeizer and Lydia, including Philena, Amarilla, Hannah, Merrick were born in Herkimer Co, while their later children were born at Madison, Madison Co. Their daughter Lydia was born 14 Mar 1798 Madison, Madison Co, NY, and their daughter Kezia was born 19 Jan 1800 Madison, Madison Co, NY. Madison is a small village, 2003 estimated population: 312. The family of Johannes Pickard, including Adam Pickard, was located in Big Flatts, Herkimer Co, before they moved to the Chautauqua Co area about 1816. They also spent some time in Madison County, as mentioned below If all these dates are correct, they rule out Polly "Mary" Richmond, b. 9 Nov 1799, being the daughter of Abeizer and Lydia Richmond due to conflict with the birth date of Kezia on 19 Jan 1800. But the dates and locations are close enough to raise the question of whether there may have been other related Richmonds who were located in the same Madison, Madison Co area along with Nathaniel's son Abeizer at the same time. Or could there be an error in the commonly listed dates? One more possible clue is that another son of Nathaniel, Gideon b. 1765 Taunton, Bristol, MA, and his wife Rebecca (Hannah) Whitney, had a daughter, Rebecca Cynthia Richmond, born in Madison, Madison Co, NY 22 Jun 1802 (per RichmondAncestry.org; another source places her birth at Chautauqua Co, where Rebecca Whitney's parents were located). Gideon & Rebecca & family later moved further west to OH. So Abiezer Richmond and wife Lydia Eaton have two daughters born at Madison, Madison Co, NY: Lydia b. 14 Mar 1798 and Kezia b. 19 Jan 1800. And Abiezer's brother Gideon and wife Rebecca (Hannah) Whitney have a daughter Rebecca Cynthia Richmond b. 22 Jun 1802 possibly at Madison, Madison Co, NY. And Polly "Mary" Richmond who married Adam I. Pickard is said to have been born 9 Nov 1799 Madison, Madison Co, NY. (her correct birth date was more likely about 30 Nov 1794, per tombstone data; and birth location not known). Was she perhaps a daughter of Gideon and Rebecca? That would seem unlikely, for they moved on to OH, and would have taken her with them, and she would have been unlikely to have met and married Adam Pickard in NY. Was she a daughter of Abiezer, who settled in Madison, Madison Co, NY? There appear to be conflicts with her birth date and the birth dates of Abiezer's listed children. Could there be an error? Were there other Richmonds in the village of Madison, Madison Co, NY at this time? (the estimated population of Madison in 2003 was 312; what was it in 1800? The entire county of Madison had a population of a little more than 70,000 in 2003).

A second Red Bird Cemetery site gives a different date for the birth of Mary 'Polly' Richmond -- and this one is likely more accurate. It says"PICKARD, Polly spouse of Adam ... died Feb. 6, 1873 age 78y 2m 7d "

This would make her birth about 30 Nov 1794. The data on this list is taken from the actual tombstones.

The question is, did/does historian Loraine C. Smith have knowledge that caused her to associate Mary 'Polly' (Righmond) Pickard with the Richmonds of Madison, Madison Co, NY?

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If the data on the Abiezer Richmond page is correct, this would rule out Abiezer and Lydia (Eaton) Richmond as the parents of Mary 'Polly' Richmond, for they had a child Hannah born 4 Aug 1794 at Fairfield, Herkimer Co, NY. This conflicts with a birth date of 30 Nov 1794 for Mary. If either date is in error (perhaps a baptism date given for a birth date, or some other error) Mary could be a daughter of Abiezer and Lydia.

Since the birth date (Nov 9, 1799) on the first Redbird Cemetery site mentioned above is incorrect, perhaps it is likely that the birth location (Madison, Madison Co, NY) is also incorrect. And the question then is, on what basis does Ellery, NY historian Loraine C. Smith associate Mary 'Polly' Richmond with the Richmonds at Madison, Madison Co, NY? And this would be the family of Abiezer and Gideon, sons of Nathaniel Richmond. It at least merits further investigation. Were there other Richmonds at Madison?

Lydia Eaton was born at Fairfield, Herkimer Co, NY, and she and Abiezer Richmond were married there abt 1790. They had 4 children there from 1790-96, with their son Merrick being born 18 May 1796. Fairfield was very near (within 10 miles) to the German Flatts/Little Falls area where Adam Pickard was born, and where his father's family was located before moving to Madison County and eventually to Chautauqua County.

There was at least one other Richmond family at Fairfield during that time. Preserved and Mary (Olin) Richmond had a daughter Polly there 26 Dec 1796 who married Millins Farley. They also had other children there. Their ancestry traces back into Rhode Island, and so they are not of the same immediate ancestral line as Abiezer and Gideon, sons of Nathaniel Richmond.

A genealogy wiki entry on Adam's father, Johannes Pickard, says that the family moved to Cazenovia, NY in 1796. Cazenovia is in Madison County, less than 20 miles from the village of Madison. It was about this same time that the Abiezer Richmond family moved to Madison, for their daughter Lydia was born at Madison in March 1798. Were there other members of Abiezer's extended family (including Mary 'Polly') who made the same move at the same time? Gideon was still at Massachusetts, for his son Henry was born there in 1798. Then his next son Hiram was born 1800 in NY.

What about Nathaniel Richmond III, who died in Indiana in 1829? At least 7 of his children are listed as being born in Herkimer County between 1788 and 1805. He also has a daughter Mary listed as born at Washington, NY (possibly a mistake?) on 27 Nov 1790. She married a Willaim Draper, and so cannot be our Mary Richmond. Nathaniel III is recorded as having a daughter Lydia b. 22 Jan 1794, and a son Nathaniel IV b. 29 Mar 1795, which dates also conflict with having a Mary born 30 Nov 1794.

Were there family, church, business, or some other relationships developed at Herkimer County between the Pickard and Richmond families that were continued once they both moved to Madison County? Relationships that later brought Adam and Mary together?

These are all questions built around the premise that Ellery historian Loraine C. Smith had a basis to associate Mary 'Polly' Richmond with the Richmonds of Madison, Madison Co., and that this is the family out of which she was born.

Adam and Mary (Richmond) Pickard's first (known) child was born abt 1816; and so one might assume their marriage to have taken place at Madison County prior to their move to Chautauqua County abt 1816.

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========================================= If this is the family out of which Mary 'Polly' Richmond was born, and if Nathaniel Richmond b. 1733 at Taunton, MA was the son of Nathaniel Richmond b. 1702 at Taunton, MA, then the ancestry is traceable back through Mayflower pilgrim Thomas Rogers (establishing Mary Richmond's offspring as Mayflower descendants) and beyond.

It should be noted that it has been disputed in recent years whether or not Nathaniel Richmond b. 1702 Taunton, MA and his wife Alice Hackett left any verifiable offspring. It appears that the Mayflower Society and the Thomas Rogers Society no longer accept their descendants for membership because there is no documentation of their offspring. That is unfortunate, because there have been many people over time who for many reasons did not have their births officially documented. Record-keeping was not always as fastidious as it is today. Perhaps one day these (now orphaned) descendants can be either proven or disproven through DNA analysis.

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After an examination of as much relevant information as I can find online (I've yet to read any of the Richmond books), as described in the notes above, I think that the weight of probability weighs in favor of Mary Richmond having likely been born out of the descendants of Nathaniel Richmond b. 1733 Taunton, MA., who is likely the true son of Nathaniel Richmond b. 1702 Taunton, MA. The probability is by no means absolute, but is sufficient to include this line in the family tree, with reservation -- and subject to removal if additional information shifts the weight towards improbable. I've yet to find a suggestion of who were her actual parents, and there are difficulties with placing her into any of the families of the sons of Nathaniel b. 1733. But the close proximity of those Richmonds with the Pickards in Herkimer County, along with the fact that both the Richmond and Pickard families moved into Madison County at nearly the same time (within less than two years), along with the small size of the village of Madison in Madison County to which the Abiezer Richmond family moved (and where Abiezer's brother Gideon and his family evidently spent some time along their sojourn to Ohio, including possibly the birth of at least one child), and the placing of Mary at Madison by Ellery Historian Loraine C. Smith (even though the birth date and location seem to have been incorrect, they suggest that Mary was from that Richmond family) -- all of which facts taken together oughtweigh the apparent difficulties, of course subject to change as further information becomes known. Add to that the fact that it would not be right to indiscriminately leave out a Mayflower line that has that much weight of probability in its favor.

All of the foregoing data is of varying degrees of certainty, and is given here in the hope of obtaining further clarification where it may be incorrect.