Notes

Tree:

Matches 2,601 to 2,650 of 122,413

#	Notes	Linked to
2601	The 1850 Census finds his family living next to the John C. Stafford and David Stafford families.	STAFFORD, Cornelius VanHorn (I46222)
2602	The 1850 Census finds his family living next to the John C. Stafford and David Stafford families.	STAFFORD, Cornelius VanHorn (I46222)
2603	The 1850 Census finds his family living next to the John C. Stafford and David Stafford families.	STAFFORD, Cornelius VanHorn (I46222)
2604	The 1850 Census finds his family living next to the John C. Stafford and David Stafford families.	STAFFORD, Cornelius VanHorn (I46222)
2605	The 1850 Census finds his family living next to the John C. Stafford and David Stafford families.	STAFFORD, Cornelius VanHorn (I46222)
2606	The 1850 Census finds his family living next to the John C. Stafford and David Stafford families.	STAFFORD, Cornelius VanHorn (I46222)
2607	The 1850 Census finds his family living next to the John C. Stafford and David Stafford families.	STAFFORD, Cornelius VanHorn (I46222)
2608	The 1857 Death Regis ter available online through WV Archives has Mary Rogers, who died 2 Nov 1 857 of consumption, in Calhoun Co., VA, age 46, wife of Seth Rogers. That would make Mary's birth year 1811. Mike Stafford shows the date of birth of her mother, Lucretia Reins, as 22 July 1755, which would make h er 56 years old at the time of birth of this Mary in 1811. Further information will be sought.	STAFFORD, Mary (I2753)
2609	The boundary line between DE and MD -- particularly the line between present day Sussex County, Delaware and Dorchester County, Maryland -- was long disputed. Maryland claimed much of what is now present day Sussex County, DE until the 1760's and completion of the Mason-Dixon Survey. For this reason, it is not clear whether DELIGHT STAFFORD was born in Sussex County, DE or in Dorchester, MD. Delight Stafford, daughter of Henry Stafford II, married John Pegg.	STAFFORD, Delight (I3107)
2610	The boundary line between DE and MD -- particularly the line between present day Sussex County, Delaware and Dorchester County, Maryland -- was long disputed. Maryland claimed much of what is now present day Sussex County, DE until the 1760's and completion of the Mason-Dixon Survey. For this reason, it is not clear whether DELIGHT STAFFORD was born in Sussex County, DE or in Dorchester, MD. Delight Stafford, daughter of Henry Stafford II, married John Pegg.	STAFFORD, Delight (I3107)
2611	The boundary line between DE and MD -- particularly the line between present day Sussex County, Delaware and Dorchester County, Maryland -- was long disputed. Maryland claimed much of what is now present day Sussex County, DE until the 1760's and completion of the Mason-Dixon Survey. For this reason, it is not clear whether DELIGHT STAFFORD was born in Sussex County, DE or in Dorchester, MD. Delight Stafford, daughter of Henry Stafford II, married John Pegg.	STAFFORD, Delight (I3107)
2612	The boundary line between DE and MD -- particularly the line between present day Sussex County, Delaware and Dorchester County, Maryland -- was long disputed. Maryland claimed much of what is now present day Sussex County, DE until the 1760's and completion of the Mason-Dixon Survey. For this reason, it is not clear whether RACHEL was born in Sussex County, DE or in Dorchester, MD. Was Rachel the "Rachel' listed in Nicholite records (Caroline, Dorchester and Kent County, DE): Solomon Wilson Sr. and Rachel Safford of Caroline 11-13-1788.	STAFFORD, Rachel (I3105)
2613	The boundary line between DE and MD -- particularly the line between present day Sussex County, Delaware and Dorchester County, Maryland -- was long disputed. Maryland claimed much of what is now present day Sussex County, DE until the 1760's and completion of the Mason-Dixon Survey. For this reason, it is not clear whether RACHEL was born in Sussex County, DE or in Dorchester, MD. Was Rachel the "Rachel' listed in Nicholite records (Caroline, Dorchester and Kent County, DE): Solomon Wilson Sr. and Rachel Safford of Caroline 11-13-1788.	STAFFORD, Rachel (I3105)
2614	The boundary line between DE and MD -- particularly the line between present day Sussex County, Delaware and Dorchester County, Maryland -- was long disputed. Maryland claimed much of what is now present day Sussex County, DE until the 1760's and completion of the Mason-Dixon Survey. For this reason, it is not clear whether RACHEL was born in Sussex County, DE or in Dorchester, MD. Was Rachel the "Rachel' listed in Nicholite records (Caroline, Dorchester and Kent County, DE): Solomon Wilson Sr. and Rachel Safford of Caroline 11-13-1788.	STAFFORD, Rachel (I3105)
2615	The first person by the name of Durfee in America, of whom any record can be found, was Thomas Durfee, who came to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island previous to the year 1664, and by traditional information we are led to believe in the year 1660.	DURFEE, Thomas (I61999)
2616	The first person by the name of Durfee in America, of whom any record can be found, was Thomas Durfee, who came to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island previous to the year 1664, and by traditional information we are led to believe in the year 1660.	DURFEE, Thomas (I61999)
2617	The first person by the name of Durfee in America, of whom any record can be found, was Thomas Durfee, who came to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island previous to the year 1664, and by traditional information we are led to believe in the year 1660.	DURFEE, Thomas (I61999)
2618	The first person by the name of Durfee in America, of whom any record can be found, was Thomas Durfee, who came to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island previous to the year 1664, and by traditional information we are led to believe in the year 1660.	DURFEE, Thomas (I61999)
2619	The first person by the name of Durfee in America, of whom any record can be found, was Thomas Durfee, who came to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island previous to the year 1664, and by traditional information we are led to believe in the year 1660.	DURFEE, Thomas (I61999)
2620	The first person by the name of Durfee in America, of whom any record can be found, was Thomas Durfee, who came to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island previous to the year 1664, and by traditional information we are led to believe in the year 1660.	DURFEE, Thomas (I61999)
2621	The first person by the name of Durfee in America, of whom any record can be found, was Thomas Durfee, who came to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island previous to the year 1664, and by traditional information we are led to believe in the year 1660.	DURFEE, Thomas (I61999)
2622	The first person by the name of Durfee in America, of whom any record can be found, was Thomas Durfee, who came to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island previous to the year 1664, and by traditional information we are led to believe in the year 1660.	DURFEE, Thomas (I61999)
2623	The first person by the name of Durfee in America, of whom any record can be found, was Thomas Durfee, who came to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island previous to the year 1664, and by traditional information we are led to believe in the year 1660.	DURFEE, Thomas (I61999)
2624	The first person by the name of Durfee in America, of whom any record can be found, was Thomas Durfee, who came to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island previous to the year 1664, and by traditional information we are led to believe in the year 1660.	DURFEE, Thomas (I61999)
2625	The first person by the name of Durfee in America, of whom any record can be found, was Thomas Durfee, who came to Portsmouth in the colony of Rhode Island previous to the year 1664, and by traditional information we are led to believe in the year 1660.	DURFEE, Thomas (I61999)
2626	The following info on MARTIN and his family was furnished by Marsha McWilliams : Martin Pegg, b: ca. 1745, Mispillion, Kent Co., MD., d: 1812, Guilford Co., NC. He married, ca. 1765, REBECCA ADDAMS (1st wife) and LOVINGIA STAFFORD (2nd. wife) on Nov. 12, 1809, Guilford Co., NC. In 1810 Martin and Lovingia (Lovey) are listed on the Guilford County, NC census, both in the age group of 45 yrs. and up with no children. Apparently, theirs was a "late-in-life" marriage. ---- MARTIN was a Nicholite and, unlike his brother VALENTINE, apparently did not become a Quaker. He died about 1812, NC. Martin apparently did not become a Quaker like his brother, Valentine did. -- Martin & Rebecca (Addams) Pegg had children: 1. William, b: abt 1771, md. Sophia Dial/Dyal on Nov. 15, 1789, Rowan Co, NC; 2. Reuben Pegg, b: March 28, 1772 who md. Rachel Chamness in 1796, Guilford Co, NC.; 3. Isaac, b: abt. 1775, md: Mary (Phoebe) Chamness on March 10, 1790, Rowan Co, NC and 4. Mary, b: abt. 1777 who md. Fred Mangrove.	PEGG, Martin (I33508)
2627	The following info on MARTIN and his family was furnished by Marsha McWilliams : Martin Pegg, b: ca. 1745, Mispillion, Kent Co., MD., d: 1812, Guilford Co., NC. He married, ca. 1765, REBECCA ADDAMS (1st wife) and LOVINGIA STAFFORD (2nd. wife) on Nov. 12, 1809, Guilford Co., NC. In 1810 Martin and Lovingia (Lovey) are listed on the Guilford County, NC census, both in the age group of 45 yrs. and up with no children. Apparently, theirs was a "late-in-life" marriage. ---- MARTIN was a Nicholite and, unlike his brother VALENTINE, apparently did not become a Quaker. He died about 1812, NC. Martin apparently did not become a Quaker like his brother, Valentine did. -- Martin & Rebecca (Addams) Pegg had children: 1. William, b: abt 1771, md. Sophia Dial/Dyal on Nov. 15, 1789, Rowan Co, NC; 2. Reuben Pegg, b: March 28, 1772 who md. Rachel Chamness in 1796, Guilford Co, NC.; 3. Isaac, b: abt. 1775, md: Mary (Phoebe) Chamness on March 10, 1790, Rowan Co, NC and 4. Mary, b: abt. 1777 who md. Fred Mangrove.	PEGG, Martin (I33508)
2628	The following info on MARTIN and his family was furnished by Marsha McWilliams : Martin Pegg, b: ca. 1745, Mispillion, Kent Co., MD., d: 1812, Guilford Co., NC. He married, ca. 1765, REBECCA ADDAMS (1st wife) and LOVINGIA STAFFORD (2nd. wife) on Nov. 12, 1809, Guilford Co., NC. In 1810 Martin and Lovingia (Lovey) are listed on the Guilford County, NC census, both in the age group of 45 yrs. and up with no children. Apparently, theirs was a "late-in-life" marriage. ---- MARTIN was a Nicholite and, unlike his brother VALENTINE, apparently did not become a Quaker. He died about 1812, NC. Martin apparently did not become a Quaker like his brother, Valentine did. -- Martin & Rebecca (Addams) Pegg had children: 1. William, b: abt 1771, md. Sophia Dial/Dyal on Nov. 15, 1789, Rowan Co, NC; 2. Reuben Pegg, b: March 28, 1772 who md. Rachel Chamness in 1796, Guilford Co, NC.; 3. Isaac, b: abt. 1775, md: Mary (Phoebe) Chamness on March 10, 1790, Rowan Co, NC and 4. Mary, b: abt. 1777 who md. Fred Mangrove.	PEGG, Martin (I33508)
2629	The following notes are based primarily on (a) John Monroe's will, (b) the publication entitled "Pathfinders Past and Present: A History of Davidson County, North Carolina" (c) The Monroe File in the McCubbins Collection, Rowan County Library, Salisbury, NC. and (d) research done by Hattie Ree Lanier Snellings of Lexington, NC. Much of this information was collected by Stephen Pate and supplemented by additional info furnished by Chris Morgan. Both Stephen and Chris are direct descendants of John Monroe. Ms. Snellings' research suggests that John Monroe married a Sally Sheperd ( ? Shepherd/Sheppard) on Feb. 8, 1787 when he was nearly31 years old. His age at this marriage indicates the strong possibility that John may have been married even earlier. Following his marriage to Sally Sheperd he is known to have married Sally Daniel on Jan. 25, 1806. Sally, at the time of their marriage, is believed to have lived in Clemmonsville Township(now part of Forsyth County). Her parents were Randal (Randolph ?) Daniel and Lucy Smith Lanier. John Monroe is buried in the cemetery behind the Old Mount Vernon Church located on the south side of Friendship-Ledford Road--approximately one-fourth of a mile from the intersection of Friendship-Ledford Rd and Old Lexington Road (near the Forsyth County-Davidson County Line. Based on information in the McCubbins Collection, it is apparent that John Monroe, known to have emigrated from Scotland in Great Britain, was a respected, well- educated gentleman --the owner of considerable property. He was an active participant and served with distinction in the affairs of his adopted land. The McCubbins Collection ( Book 9, Page 388) states that on Oct. 10, 1783 John Manrow (Monroe) received a State of NC grant of 250 acres on the Sand Run waters of Abbots Creek located in the northeast corner of present-day Davidson County and southwest Forsyth County. Could this be the land John owned at his death near Dobson's Cross Roads. Other land entries show that John Monroe bought and sold several tracts of land in the Abbots Creek area between 1783 and 1815. It is believed that John settled in this area (then part of Rowan County) in the early 1780's. By 1775 a small settlement had been built, at the site of present-day Lexington, on the road leading from Salisbury to Greensboro. Abstracts of early land records reveal that as early as May 7, 1783 John Monroe was overseer from the Guilford Line to Brushy Fork (an arm of Abbots Creek). He was qualified repeatedly by the Court, as early as Feb. 4, 1784, to serve as a Deputy Sheriff under John Brevard, Esq. He was listed, on Nov. 6, 1784 and repeatedly thereafter, as a collector in Captain Davis' Company. On Feb. 8, 1787 it is recorded that "James Cra(n)ford, James Daniel and John Monrow(e), Esquires appeared in Court and in consequence of a Commission to Them Directed took the Oath prescribed for the Qualification of Public Officers and an Oath of Office as Justices". It appears that John Monroe served as a Justice of the Peace until his death in 1831. John Monroe, according to "Pathfinders Past and Present-A History of Davidson County, NC", had an integral role in the founding of Davidson County, NC (1822). The area from which the new county was formed was not heavily populated. There were only two villages, Lexington and Clemmonsville. John and one of his sons, Henry, are listed as two of the first 36 Justices of the Peace who met in Lexington, NC in Jan., 1823 to serve as Davidson County's first Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions. It is recorded that John Monroe was unanimously elected to serve as Chairman of the new county's first Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions, a position he held for three years. In March, 1824 John, in his capacity as Chairman of the Court, received 25 acres of land adjoining the village of Lexington for construction of a courthouse and a jail. The listing of John Monroe's children--by Sally Sheperd(? Shepherd/Sheppard) and Sally Daniel--is based primarily on his will, probated in 1832, and by additional information collected by Hattie Ree Snellings (referenced above). Information concerning the ties between John Monroe's descendants and the MARKLAND family was furnished by several researchers, including B. Zimmerman and Billy Markland.	MONROE, John (I74289)
2630	The following notes are based primarily on (a) John Monroe's will, (b) the publication entitled "Pathfinders Past and Present: A History of Davidson County, North Carolina" (c) The Monroe File in the McCubbins Collection, Rowan County Library, Salisbury, NC. and (d) research done by Hattie Ree Lanier Snellings of Lexington, NC. Much of this information was collected by Stephen Pate and supplemented by additional info furnished by Chris Morgan. Both Stephen and Chris are direct descendants of John Monroe. Ms. Snellings' research suggests that John Monroe married a Sally Sheperd ( ? Shepherd/Sheppard) on Feb. 8, 1787 when he was nearly31 years old. His age at this marriage indicates the strong possibility that John may have been married even earlier. Following his marriage to Sally Sheperd he is known to have married Sally Daniel on Jan. 25, 1806. Sally, at the time of their marriage, is believed to have lived in Clemmonsville Township(now part of Forsyth County). Her parents were Randal (Randolph ?) Daniel and Lucy Smith Lanier. John Monroe is buried in the cemetery behind the Old Mount Vernon Church located on the south side of Friendship-Ledford Road--approximately one-fourth of a mile from the intersection of Friendship-Ledford Rd and Old Lexington Road (near the Forsyth County-Davidson County Line. Based on information in the McCubbins Collection, it is apparent that John Monroe, known to have emigrated from Scotland in Great Britain, was a respected, well- educated gentleman --the owner of considerable property. He was an active participant and served with distinction in the affairs of his adopted land. The McCubbins Collection ( Book 9, Page 388) states that on Oct. 10, 1783 John Manrow (Monroe) received a State of NC grant of 250 acres on the Sand Run waters of Abbots Creek located in the northeast corner of present-day Davidson County and southwest Forsyth County. Could this be the land John owned at his death near Dobson's Cross Roads. Other land entries show that John Monroe bought and sold several tracts of land in the Abbots Creek area between 1783 and 1815. It is believed that John settled in this area (then part of Rowan County) in the early 1780's. By 1775 a small settlement had been built, at the site of present-day Lexington, on the road leading from Salisbury to Greensboro. Abstracts of early land records reveal that as early as May 7, 1783 John Monroe was overseer from the Guilford Line to Brushy Fork (an arm of Abbots Creek). He was qualified repeatedly by the Court, as early as Feb. 4, 1784, to serve as a Deputy Sheriff under John Brevard, Esq. He was listed, on Nov. 6, 1784 and repeatedly thereafter, as a collector in Captain Davis' Company. On Feb. 8, 1787 it is recorded that "James Cra(n)ford, James Daniel and John Monrow(e), Esquires appeared in Court and in consequence of a Commission to Them Directed took the Oath prescribed for the Qualification of Public Officers and an Oath of Office as Justices". It appears that John Monroe served as a Justice of the Peace until his death in 1831. John Monroe, according to "Pathfinders Past and Present-A History of Davidson County, NC", had an integral role in the founding of Davidson County, NC (1822). The area from which the new county was formed was not heavily populated. There were only two villages, Lexington and Clemmonsville. John and one of his sons, Henry, are listed as two of the first 36 Justices of the Peace who met in Lexington, NC in Jan., 1823 to serve as Davidson County's first Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions. It is recorded that John Monroe was unanimously elected to serve as Chairman of the new county's first Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions, a position he held for three years. In March, 1824 John, in his capacity as Chairman of the Court, received 25 acres of land adjoining the village of Lexington for construction of a courthouse and a jail. The listing of John Monroe's children--by Sally Sheperd(? Shepherd/Sheppard) and Sally Daniel--is based primarily on his will, probated in 1832, and by additional information collected by Hattie Ree Snellings (referenced above). Information concerning the ties between John Monroe's descendants and the MARKLAND family was furnished by several researchers, including B. Zimmerman and Billy Markland.	MONROE, John (I74289)
2631	The following notes are based primarily on (a) John Monroe's will, (b) the publication entitled "Pathfinders Past and Present: A History of Davidson County, North Carolina" (c) The Monroe File in the McCubbins Collection, Rowan County Library, Salisbury, NC. and (d) research done by Hattie Ree Lanier Snellings of Lexington, NC. Much of this information was collected by Stephen Pate and supplemented by additional info furnished by Chris Morgan. Both Stephen and Chris are direct descendants of John Monroe. Ms. Snellings' research suggests that John Monroe married a Sally Sheperd ( ? Shepherd/Sheppard) on Feb. 8, 1787 when he was nearly31 years old. His age at this marriage indicates the strong possibility that John may have been married even earlier. Following his marriage to Sally Sheperd he is known to have married Sally Daniel on Jan. 25, 1806. Sally, at the time of their marriage, is believed to have lived in Clemmonsville Township(now part of Forsyth County). Her parents were Randal (Randolph ?) Daniel and Lucy Smith Lanier. John Monroe is buried in the cemetery behind the Old Mount Vernon Church located on the south side of Friendship-Ledford Road--approximately one-fourth of a mile from the intersection of Friendship-Ledford Rd and Old Lexington Road (near the Forsyth County-Davidson County Line. Based on information in the McCubbins Collection, it is apparent that John Monroe, known to have emigrated from Scotland in Great Britain, was a respected, well- educated gentleman --the owner of considerable property. He was an active participant and served with distinction in the affairs of his adopted land. The McCubbins Collection ( Book 9, Page 388) states that on Oct. 10, 1783 John Manrow (Monroe) received a State of NC grant of 250 acres on the Sand Run waters of Abbots Creek located in the northeast corner of present-day Davidson County and southwest Forsyth County. Could this be the land John owned at his death near Dobson's Cross Roads. Other land entries show that John Monroe bought and sold several tracts of land in the Abbots Creek area between 1783 and 1815. It is believed that John settled in this area (then part of Rowan County) in the early 1780's. By 1775 a small settlement had been built, at the site of present-day Lexington, on the road leading from Salisbury to Greensboro. Abstracts of early land records reveal that as early as May 7, 1783 John Monroe was overseer from the Guilford Line to Brushy Fork (an arm of Abbots Creek). He was qualified repeatedly by the Court, as early as Feb. 4, 1784, to serve as a Deputy Sheriff under John Brevard, Esq. He was listed, on Nov. 6, 1784 and repeatedly thereafter, as a collector in Captain Davis' Company. On Feb. 8, 1787 it is recorded that "James Cra(n)ford, James Daniel and John Monrow(e), Esquires appeared in Court and in consequence of a Commission to Them Directed took the Oath prescribed for the Qualification of Public Officers and an Oath of Office as Justices". It appears that John Monroe served as a Justice of the Peace until his death in 1831. John Monroe, according to "Pathfinders Past and Present-A History of Davidson County, NC", had an integral role in the founding of Davidson County, NC (1822). The area from which the new county was formed was not heavily populated. There were only two villages, Lexington and Clemmonsville. John and one of his sons, Henry, are listed as two of the first 36 Justices of the Peace who met in Lexington, NC in Jan., 1823 to serve as Davidson County's first Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions. It is recorded that John Monroe was unanimously elected to serve as Chairman of the new county's first Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions, a position he held for three years. In March, 1824 John, in his capacity as Chairman of the Court, received 25 acres of land adjoining the village of Lexington for construction of a courthouse and a jail. The listing of John Monroe's children--by Sally Sheperd(? Shepherd/Sheppard) and Sally Daniel--is based primarily on his will, probated in 1832, and by additional information collected by Hattie Ree Snellings (referenced above). Information concerning the ties between John Monroe's descendants and the MARKLAND family was furnished by several researchers, including B. Zimmerman and Billy Markland.	MONROE, John (I74289)
2632	The Staffords, particularly brothers John and Spencer, were prominent in the changes brought on the New World Dutch town of Albany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their father, Job/Joab Stafford, moved from the Rhode Island coast to the Berkshire Mountain town of Cheshire, where he became a wealthy landowner. Job was appointed to oversee the division of New York State land grants after the Revolution and thus settled with his family in the unofficial state capital city of Albany in 1783 In their young adulthood, John and Spencer were attracted to the hardware business. John was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Spencer and had his own business by 1793.Â The Staffords and Spencers shared several businesses under the organization of Staffords, Spencer & Co. Account books for the company reveal a vast range of metal goods being made or dealt.(3) There were stoves of many types as well as industrial parts, farm implements, kitchen utensils and other household items. There was a branch operation in Ballston Spa, New York, and they had clients in Buffalo and New York City. Of the Staffords' businesses, Henry Benedict says "On this small frontage on the east side of South Broadway between State and Beaver streets, long known as Hardware Row, the heaviest business in this line north and west of New York was transacted ... At the close of the war [of 1812] which assured the fortunes of the brothers, John left the firm." They were "â€¦men of extensive business connections" and "â€¦principal merchants of the city - those who gave life and character to its business interests."Â In personal matters, John Stafford was far less fortunate. His first wife was Margaret Denniston, the daughter of a local inn-keeper. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Margaret. This may have led John to leave his baby and his business interests to embark on a sea voyage. He is said to have been shipwrecked on a barren island, where he slept under a boat and managed to catch seals for sustenance.Â John returned to Albany having survived his mysterious venture, and in 1802 he re-joined Spencer in the hardware firm. He married again and had a son whom they named John, Jr. The second Mrs. John Stafford died several months later. A letter to Staffords, Spencer & Company from Citizen Edmond Genet, the French diplomat and inventor, reports that a city-wide sickness at the same time prevented him from paying a debt to the company. Within a space of only ten years, John found himself twice widowed and with two small children. He then married Catherine Smith, who did not bear any children and lived to be John's widow.Â With his children growing and a "fortune" gathering, John decided to build a new house. In October of 1810 he bought land at the corner of Lydius and Frelinghuysen Streets. The names of these streets honored colonial era Albanians, but changes in Albany in the early 1800s included renaming streets to reflect a new national patriarchy. Thereafter, that corner was at Madison Avenue and Franklin Street. Spencer Stafford and George Spencer, John's partners, had already built houses on Madison Avenue. This was a newly developing part of Albany, once a communal grazing area owned by the Dutch Church called "The Pastures." Streets there were laid out in 1794 in the familiar grid pattern of planned development, but substantial houses appeared only after Spencer Stafford and George Spencer built there in 1807.(5) John Stafford followed, but made a much bigger impression on the landscape. In this effort he probably worked with the local architect-builder Phillip Hooker.Â The concept of John Stafford's house was in the tradition of attached British townhouses that were large and elegant, but also space-conscious in an urban area - in a sense, a highly glorified rowhouse. Wealthy families apparently chose to build such houses to be closer to their mercantile or governmental concerns in town rather than (or in addition to) free-standing houses in the country. Although The Pastures had a rural character, it was a stone's throw from downtown Albany, and Stafford surely thought that a wave of construction would soon come. He didn't even bother to have windows put in one side of the house. He owned the adjoining lot and may have planned to develop the property himself.Â Stafford's optimism was clearly indicated by his house. Unlike the two relatively modest but ample homes of his partners next door, John's rose some sixty feet above the street. Narrow as well as tall, this towering presence on the floodplain was like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge others to join him.Â The size of the Stafford House allowed for other luxuries. As noted in the previous chapter, the front room on the second floor was probably a multi-purpose room for the family, leaving the first floor rooms unruffled by constant use and ready for entertaining. The floor-to-ceiling windows (shown above, railing design based on other Stafford-type houses) in this room would have let in a range of cooling breezes during the hot days of summer. When entertaining, the Staffords may have used this as a ladies sitting room while the men used the front parlor downstairs. The back, first- floor room was likely the dining room. The doors between the front and back rooms could be opened to provide a linked area for events. What a stir this apparent premiere of urban sophistication must have caused in decidedly non-metropolitan Albany. Wealthy families built houses emulating the Stafford House, but rarely in The Pastures, where floods are said to have reached eight to ten feet high. Despite its towering nature, such a flood would still reach beyond the sills of the Staffords' first- floor windows, and that house remained the area's largest for sixteen years. Particularly severe floods in 1818 and 1819 spurred the Common Council to order the streets raised.(6) The park in front of the newly built Albany Academy on Capitol Hill was excavated (which, according to a local newspaper, became a "perfect pond" after a rain shower(7) ), and the soil was used on flood-plain streets. For that reason the present curb-level downtown is about two feet above that of 1811, and part of the Stafford House and some of its neighbors still lie buried.Â John Stafford didn't have a chance to dismay over the disappearance of part of his home. He contracted tuberculosis and died in October of 1819. He was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard under the grim epitaph "be ye also ready." He left a legacy of extensive debts to his heirs. The wealth that allowed for a sumptuous townhouse and the "fortune which was assured" during the War of 1812 had quickly vanished. John, Jr.'s, education at the Albany Academy ended abruptly in the year his father died, and he and his mother moved out of their house. The family was forced to rent all of their major property holdings, and the situation worsened in 1828 when the heirs divided into two opposing camps.(8) The courts ruled that the properties would be sold at auction to settle the matter.Â With the apparent aid of Phillip Hooker, a lot of money must have gone into creating the grandeur of the Stafford House, but the Staffords had only eight years in which to enjoy it. In the mean time, variations of this house were appearing all over Albany and Hooker was surely associated with most if not all of them. When Gov. Joseph Yates of Schenectady rented the Stafford House in 1822 for use as his official residence in Albany, the style of the changes he made to the house point once again to Hooker. A great enigma in Albany's history, Hooker was nevertheless prominent in molding the physical appearance of the city as it changed in the early 1800s, funded by the Stafford family and their fellow mercantile and political elite.Â Biographical information and quotes are from Joel Munsell, ed., Collections on the History of the City of Albany..., (hereafter "Collections") vol. 3 (Albany:1865), pp. 452-453. Also printed separately as: Henry M. Benedict, A Contribution to the Genealogy of the Stafford Family in America (Albany:1870). The drawing of the Staffords Benedict store is from Munsell's Collections, vol. 3, p. 447.	STAFFORD, Col. John (I18820)
2633	The Staffords, particularly brothers John and Spencer, were prominent in the changes brought on the New World Dutch town of Albany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their father, Job/Joab Stafford, moved from the Rhode Island coast to the Berkshire Mountain town of Cheshire, where he became a wealthy landowner. Job was appointed to oversee the division of New York State land grants after the Revolution and thus settled with his family in the unofficial state capital city of Albany in 1783 In their young adulthood, John and Spencer were attracted to the hardware business. John was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Spencer and had his own business by 1793.Â The Staffords and Spencers shared several businesses under the organization of Staffords, Spencer & Co. Account books for the company reveal a vast range of metal goods being made or dealt.(3) There were stoves of many types as well as industrial parts, farm implements, kitchen utensils and other household items. There was a branch operation in Ballston Spa, New York, and they had clients in Buffalo and New York City. Of the Staffords' businesses, Henry Benedict says "On this small frontage on the east side of South Broadway between State and Beaver streets, long known as Hardware Row, the heaviest business in this line north and west of New York was transacted ... At the close of the war [of 1812] which assured the fortunes of the brothers, John left the firm." They were "â€¦men of extensive business connections" and "â€¦principal merchants of the city - those who gave life and character to its business interests."Â In personal matters, John Stafford was far less fortunate. His first wife was Margaret Denniston, the daughter of a local inn-keeper. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Margaret. This may have led John to leave his baby and his business interests to embark on a sea voyage. He is said to have been shipwrecked on a barren island, where he slept under a boat and managed to catch seals for sustenance.Â John returned to Albany having survived his mysterious venture, and in 1802 he re-joined Spencer in the hardware firm. He married again and had a son whom they named John, Jr. The second Mrs. John Stafford died several months later. A letter to Staffords, Spencer & Company from Citizen Edmond Genet, the French diplomat and inventor, reports that a city-wide sickness at the same time prevented him from paying a debt to the company. Within a space of only ten years, John found himself twice widowed and with two small children. He then married Catherine Smith, who did not bear any children and lived to be John's widow.Â With his children growing and a "fortune" gathering, John decided to build a new house. In October of 1810 he bought land at the corner of Lydius and Frelinghuysen Streets. The names of these streets honored colonial era Albanians, but changes in Albany in the early 1800s included renaming streets to reflect a new national patriarchy. Thereafter, that corner was at Madison Avenue and Franklin Street. Spencer Stafford and George Spencer, John's partners, had already built houses on Madison Avenue. This was a newly developing part of Albany, once a communal grazing area owned by the Dutch Church called "The Pastures." Streets there were laid out in 1794 in the familiar grid pattern of planned development, but substantial houses appeared only after Spencer Stafford and George Spencer built there in 1807.(5) John Stafford followed, but made a much bigger impression on the landscape. In this effort he probably worked with the local architect-builder Phillip Hooker.Â The concept of John Stafford's house was in the tradition of attached British townhouses that were large and elegant, but also space-conscious in an urban area - in a sense, a highly glorified rowhouse. Wealthy families apparently chose to build such houses to be closer to their mercantile or governmental concerns in town rather than (or in addition to) free-standing houses in the country. Although The Pastures had a rural character, it was a stone's throw from downtown Albany, and Stafford surely thought that a wave of construction would soon come. He didn't even bother to have windows put in one side of the house. He owned the adjoining lot and may have planned to develop the property himself.Â Stafford's optimism was clearly indicated by his house. Unlike the two relatively modest but ample homes of his partners next door, John's rose some sixty feet above the street. Narrow as well as tall, this towering presence on the floodplain was like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge others to join him.Â The size of the Stafford House allowed for other luxuries. As noted in the previous chapter, the front room on the second floor was probably a multi-purpose room for the family, leaving the first floor rooms unruffled by constant use and ready for entertaining. The floor-to-ceiling windows (shown above, railing design based on other Stafford-type houses) in this room would have let in a range of cooling breezes during the hot days of summer. When entertaining, the Staffords may have used this as a ladies sitting room while the men used the front parlor downstairs. The back, first- floor room was likely the dining room. The doors between the front and back rooms could be opened to provide a linked area for events. What a stir this apparent premiere of urban sophistication must have caused in decidedly non-metropolitan Albany. Wealthy families built houses emulating the Stafford House, but rarely in The Pastures, where floods are said to have reached eight to ten feet high. Despite its towering nature, such a flood would still reach beyond the sills of the Staffords' first- floor windows, and that house remained the area's largest for sixteen years. Particularly severe floods in 1818 and 1819 spurred the Common Council to order the streets raised.(6) The park in front of the newly built Albany Academy on Capitol Hill was excavated (which, according to a local newspaper, became a "perfect pond" after a rain shower(7) ), and the soil was used on flood-plain streets. For that reason the present curb-level downtown is about two feet above that of 1811, and part of the Stafford House and some of its neighbors still lie buried.Â John Stafford didn't have a chance to dismay over the disappearance of part of his home. He contracted tuberculosis and died in October of 1819. He was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard under the grim epitaph "be ye also ready." He left a legacy of extensive debts to his heirs. The wealth that allowed for a sumptuous townhouse and the "fortune which was assured" during the War of 1812 had quickly vanished. John, Jr.'s, education at the Albany Academy ended abruptly in the year his father died, and he and his mother moved out of their house. The family was forced to rent all of their major property holdings, and the situation worsened in 1828 when the heirs divided into two opposing camps.(8) The courts ruled that the properties would be sold at auction to settle the matter.Â With the apparent aid of Phillip Hooker, a lot of money must have gone into creating the grandeur of the Stafford House, but the Staffords had only eight years in which to enjoy it. In the mean time, variations of this house were appearing all over Albany and Hooker was surely associated with most if not all of them. When Gov. Joseph Yates of Schenectady rented the Stafford House in 1822 for use as his official residence in Albany, the style of the changes he made to the house point once again to Hooker. A great enigma in Albany's history, Hooker was nevertheless prominent in molding the physical appearance of the city as it changed in the early 1800s, funded by the Stafford family and their fellow mercantile and political elite.Â Biographical information and quotes are from Joel Munsell, ed., Collections on the History of the City of Albany..., (hereafter "Collections") vol. 3 (Albany:1865), pp. 452-453. Also printed separately as: Henry M. Benedict, A Contribution to the Genealogy of the Stafford Family in America (Albany:1870). The drawing of the Staffords Benedict store is from Munsell's Collections, vol. 3, p. 447.	STAFFORD, Col. John (I18820)
2634	The Staffords, particularly brothers John and Spencer, were prominent in the changes brought on the New World Dutch town of Albany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their father, Job/Joab Stafford, moved from the Rhode Island coast to the Berkshire Mountain town of Cheshire, where he became a wealthy landowner. Job was appointed to oversee the division of New York State land grants after the Revolution and thus settled with his family in the unofficial state capital city of Albany in 1783 In their young adulthood, John and Spencer were attracted to the hardware business. John was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Spencer and had his own business by 1793.Â The Staffords and Spencers shared several businesses under the organization of Staffords, Spencer & Co. Account books for the company reveal a vast range of metal goods being made or dealt.(3) There were stoves of many types as well as industrial parts, farm implements, kitchen utensils and other household items. There was a branch operation in Ballston Spa, New York, and they had clients in Buffalo and New York City. Of the Staffords' businesses, Henry Benedict says "On this small frontage on the east side of South Broadway between State and Beaver streets, long known as Hardware Row, the heaviest business in this line north and west of New York was transacted ... At the close of the war [of 1812] which assured the fortunes of the brothers, John left the firm." They were "â€¦men of extensive business connections" and "â€¦principal merchants of the city - those who gave life and character to its business interests."Â In personal matters, John Stafford was far less fortunate. His first wife was Margaret Denniston, the daughter of a local inn-keeper. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Margaret. This may have led John to leave his baby and his business interests to embark on a sea voyage. He is said to have been shipwrecked on a barren island, where he slept under a boat and managed to catch seals for sustenance.Â John returned to Albany having survived his mysterious venture, and in 1802 he re-joined Spencer in the hardware firm. He married again and had a son whom they named John, Jr. The second Mrs. John Stafford died several months later. A letter to Staffords, Spencer & Company from Citizen Edmond Genet, the French diplomat and inventor, reports that a city-wide sickness at the same time prevented him from paying a debt to the company. Within a space of only ten years, John found himself twice widowed and with two small children. He then married Catherine Smith, who did not bear any children and lived to be John's widow.Â With his children growing and a "fortune" gathering, John decided to build a new house. In October of 1810 he bought land at the corner of Lydius and Frelinghuysen Streets. The names of these streets honored colonial era Albanians, but changes in Albany in the early 1800s included renaming streets to reflect a new national patriarchy. Thereafter, that corner was at Madison Avenue and Franklin Street. Spencer Stafford and George Spencer, John's partners, had already built houses on Madison Avenue. This was a newly developing part of Albany, once a communal grazing area owned by the Dutch Church called "The Pastures." Streets there were laid out in 1794 in the familiar grid pattern of planned development, but substantial houses appeared only after Spencer Stafford and George Spencer built there in 1807.(5) John Stafford followed, but made a much bigger impression on the landscape. In this effort he probably worked with the local architect-builder Phillip Hooker.Â The concept of John Stafford's house was in the tradition of attached British townhouses that were large and elegant, but also space-conscious in an urban area - in a sense, a highly glorified rowhouse. Wealthy families apparently chose to build such houses to be closer to their mercantile or governmental concerns in town rather than (or in addition to) free-standing houses in the country. Although The Pastures had a rural character, it was a stone's throw from downtown Albany, and Stafford surely thought that a wave of construction would soon come. He didn't even bother to have windows put in one side of the house. He owned the adjoining lot and may have planned to develop the property himself.Â Stafford's optimism was clearly indicated by his house. Unlike the two relatively modest but ample homes of his partners next door, John's rose some sixty feet above the street. Narrow as well as tall, this towering presence on the floodplain was like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge others to join him.Â The size of the Stafford House allowed for other luxuries. As noted in the previous chapter, the front room on the second floor was probably a multi-purpose room for the family, leaving the first floor rooms unruffled by constant use and ready for entertaining. The floor-to-ceiling windows (shown above, railing design based on other Stafford-type houses) in this room would have let in a range of cooling breezes during the hot days of summer. When entertaining, the Staffords may have used this as a ladies sitting room while the men used the front parlor downstairs. The back, first- floor room was likely the dining room. The doors between the front and back rooms could be opened to provide a linked area for events. What a stir this apparent premiere of urban sophistication must have caused in decidedly non-metropolitan Albany. Wealthy families built houses emulating the Stafford House, but rarely in The Pastures, where floods are said to have reached eight to ten feet high. Despite its towering nature, such a flood would still reach beyond the sills of the Staffords' first- floor windows, and that house remained the area's largest for sixteen years. Particularly severe floods in 1818 and 1819 spurred the Common Council to order the streets raised.(6) The park in front of the newly built Albany Academy on Capitol Hill was excavated (which, according to a local newspaper, became a "perfect pond" after a rain shower(7) ), and the soil was used on flood-plain streets. For that reason the present curb-level downtown is about two feet above that of 1811, and part of the Stafford House and some of its neighbors still lie buried.Â John Stafford didn't have a chance to dismay over the disappearance of part of his home. He contracted tuberculosis and died in October of 1819. He was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard under the grim epitaph "be ye also ready." He left a legacy of extensive debts to his heirs. The wealth that allowed for a sumptuous townhouse and the "fortune which was assured" during the War of 1812 had quickly vanished. John, Jr.'s, education at the Albany Academy ended abruptly in the year his father died, and he and his mother moved out of their house. The family was forced to rent all of their major property holdings, and the situation worsened in 1828 when the heirs divided into two opposing camps.(8) The courts ruled that the properties would be sold at auction to settle the matter.Â With the apparent aid of Phillip Hooker, a lot of money must have gone into creating the grandeur of the Stafford House, but the Staffords had only eight years in which to enjoy it. In the mean time, variations of this house were appearing all over Albany and Hooker was surely associated with most if not all of them. When Gov. Joseph Yates of Schenectady rented the Stafford House in 1822 for use as his official residence in Albany, the style of the changes he made to the house point once again to Hooker. A great enigma in Albany's history, Hooker was nevertheless prominent in molding the physical appearance of the city as it changed in the early 1800s, funded by the Stafford family and their fellow mercantile and political elite.Â Biographical information and quotes are from Joel Munsell, ed., Collections on the History of the City of Albany..., (hereafter "Collections") vol. 3 (Albany:1865), pp. 452-453. Also printed separately as: Henry M. Benedict, A Contribution to the Genealogy of the Stafford Family in America (Albany:1870). The drawing of the Staffords Benedict store is from Munsell's Collections, vol. 3, p. 447.	STAFFORD, Col. John (I18820)
2635	The Staffords, particularly brothers John and Spencer, were prominent in the changes brought on the New World Dutch town of Albany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their father, Job/Joab Stafford, moved from the Rhode Island coast to the Berkshire Mountain town of Cheshire, where he became a wealthy landowner. Job was appointed to oversee the division of New York State land grants after the Revolution and thus settled with his family in the unofficial state capital city of Albany in 1783 In their young adulthood, John and Spencer were attracted to the hardware business. John was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Spencer and had his own business by 1793.Â The Staffords and Spencers shared several businesses under the organization of Staffords, Spencer & Co. Account books for the company reveal a vast range of metal goods being made or dealt.(3) There were stoves of many types as well as industrial parts, farm implements, kitchen utensils and other household items. There was a branch operation in Ballston Spa, New York, and they had clients in Buffalo and New York City. Of the Staffords' businesses, Henry Benedict says "On this small frontage on the east side of South Broadway between State and Beaver streets, long known as Hardware Row, the heaviest business in this line north and west of New York was transacted ... At the close of the war [of 1812] which assured the fortunes of the brothers, John left the firm." They were "â€¦men of extensive business connections" and "â€¦principal merchants of the city - those who gave life and character to its business interests."Â In personal matters, John Stafford was far less fortunate. His first wife was Margaret Denniston, the daughter of a local inn-keeper. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Margaret. This may have led John to leave his baby and his business interests to embark on a sea voyage. He is said to have been shipwrecked on a barren island, where he slept under a boat and managed to catch seals for sustenance.Â John returned to Albany having survived his mysterious venture, and in 1802 he re-joined Spencer in the hardware firm. He married again and had a son whom they named John, Jr. The second Mrs. John Stafford died several months later. A letter to Staffords, Spencer & Company from Citizen Edmond Genet, the French diplomat and inventor, reports that a city-wide sickness at the same time prevented him from paying a debt to the company. Within a space of only ten years, John found himself twice widowed and with two small children. He then married Catherine Smith, who did not bear any children and lived to be John's widow.Â With his children growing and a "fortune" gathering, John decided to build a new house. In October of 1810 he bought land at the corner of Lydius and Frelinghuysen Streets. The names of these streets honored colonial era Albanians, but changes in Albany in the early 1800s included renaming streets to reflect a new national patriarchy. Thereafter, that corner was at Madison Avenue and Franklin Street. Spencer Stafford and George Spencer, John's partners, had already built houses on Madison Avenue. This was a newly developing part of Albany, once a communal grazing area owned by the Dutch Church called "The Pastures." Streets there were laid out in 1794 in the familiar grid pattern of planned development, but substantial houses appeared only after Spencer Stafford and George Spencer built there in 1807.(5) John Stafford followed, but made a much bigger impression on the landscape. In this effort he probably worked with the local architect-builder Phillip Hooker.Â The concept of John Stafford's house was in the tradition of attached British townhouses that were large and elegant, but also space-conscious in an urban area - in a sense, a highly glorified rowhouse. Wealthy families apparently chose to build such houses to be closer to their mercantile or governmental concerns in town rather than (or in addition to) free-standing houses in the country. Although The Pastures had a rural character, it was a stone's throw from downtown Albany, and Stafford surely thought that a wave of construction would soon come. He didn't even bother to have windows put in one side of the house. He owned the adjoining lot and may have planned to develop the property himself.Â Stafford's optimism was clearly indicated by his house. Unlike the two relatively modest but ample homes of his partners next door, John's rose some sixty feet above the street. Narrow as well as tall, this towering presence on the floodplain was like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge others to join him.Â The size of the Stafford House allowed for other luxuries. As noted in the previous chapter, the front room on the second floor was probably a multi-purpose room for the family, leaving the first floor rooms unruffled by constant use and ready for entertaining. The floor-to-ceiling windows (shown above, railing design based on other Stafford-type houses) in this room would have let in a range of cooling breezes during the hot days of summer. When entertaining, the Staffords may have used this as a ladies sitting room while the men used the front parlor downstairs. The back, first- floor room was likely the dining room. The doors between the front and back rooms could be opened to provide a linked area for events. What a stir this apparent premiere of urban sophistication must have caused in decidedly non-metropolitan Albany. Wealthy families built houses emulating the Stafford House, but rarely in The Pastures, where floods are said to have reached eight to ten feet high. Despite its towering nature, such a flood would still reach beyond the sills of the Staffords' first- floor windows, and that house remained the area's largest for sixteen years. Particularly severe floods in 1818 and 1819 spurred the Common Council to order the streets raised.(6) The park in front of the newly built Albany Academy on Capitol Hill was excavated (which, according to a local newspaper, became a "perfect pond" after a rain shower(7) ), and the soil was used on flood-plain streets. For that reason the present curb-level downtown is about two feet above that of 1811, and part of the Stafford House and some of its neighbors still lie buried.Â John Stafford didn't have a chance to dismay over the disappearance of part of his home. He contracted tuberculosis and died in October of 1819. He was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard under the grim epitaph "be ye also ready." He left a legacy of extensive debts to his heirs. The wealth that allowed for a sumptuous townhouse and the "fortune which was assured" during the War of 1812 had quickly vanished. John, Jr.'s, education at the Albany Academy ended abruptly in the year his father died, and he and his mother moved out of their house. The family was forced to rent all of their major property holdings, and the situation worsened in 1828 when the heirs divided into two opposing camps.(8) The courts ruled that the properties would be sold at auction to settle the matter.Â With the apparent aid of Phillip Hooker, a lot of money must have gone into creating the grandeur of the Stafford House, but the Staffords had only eight years in which to enjoy it. In the mean time, variations of this house were appearing all over Albany and Hooker was surely associated with most if not all of them. When Gov. Joseph Yates of Schenectady rented the Stafford House in 1822 for use as his official residence in Albany, the style of the changes he made to the house point once again to Hooker. A great enigma in Albany's history, Hooker was nevertheless prominent in molding the physical appearance of the city as it changed in the early 1800s, funded by the Stafford family and their fellow mercantile and political elite.Â Biographical information and quotes are from Joel Munsell, ed., Collections on the History of the City of Albany..., (hereafter "Collections") vol. 3 (Albany:1865), pp. 452-453. Also printed separately as: Henry M. Benedict, A Contribution to the Genealogy of the Stafford Family in America (Albany:1870). The drawing of the Staffords Benedict store is from Munsell's Collections, vol. 3, p. 447.	STAFFORD, Col. John (I18820)
2636	The Staffords, particularly brothers John and Spencer, were prominent in the changes brought on the New World Dutch town of Albany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their father, Job/Joab Stafford, moved from the Rhode Island coast to the Berkshire Mountain town of Cheshire, where he became a wealthy landowner. Job was appointed to oversee the division of New York State land grants after the Revolution and thus settled with his family in the unofficial state capital city of Albany in 1783 In their young adulthood, John and Spencer were attracted to the hardware business. John was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Spencer and had his own business by 1793.Â The Staffords and Spencers shared several businesses under the organization of Staffords, Spencer & Co. Account books for the company reveal a vast range of metal goods being made or dealt.(3) There were stoves of many types as well as industrial parts, farm implements, kitchen utensils and other household items. There was a branch operation in Ballston Spa, New York, and they had clients in Buffalo and New York City. Of the Staffords' businesses, Henry Benedict says "On this small frontage on the east side of South Broadway between State and Beaver streets, long known as Hardware Row, the heaviest business in this line north and west of New York was transacted ... At the close of the war [of 1812] which assured the fortunes of the brothers, John left the firm." They were "â€¦men of extensive business connections" and "â€¦principal merchants of the city - those who gave life and character to its business interests."Â In personal matters, John Stafford was far less fortunate. His first wife was Margaret Denniston, the daughter of a local inn-keeper. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Margaret. This may have led John to leave his baby and his business interests to embark on a sea voyage. He is said to have been shipwrecked on a barren island, where he slept under a boat and managed to catch seals for sustenance.Â John returned to Albany having survived his mysterious venture, and in 1802 he re-joined Spencer in the hardware firm. He married again and had a son whom they named John, Jr. The second Mrs. John Stafford died several months later. A letter to Staffords, Spencer & Company from Citizen Edmond Genet, the French diplomat and inventor, reports that a city-wide sickness at the same time prevented him from paying a debt to the company. Within a space of only ten years, John found himself twice widowed and with two small children. He then married Catherine Smith, who did not bear any children and lived to be John's widow.Â With his children growing and a "fortune" gathering, John decided to build a new house. In October of 1810 he bought land at the corner of Lydius and Frelinghuysen Streets. The names of these streets honored colonial era Albanians, but changes in Albany in the early 1800s included renaming streets to reflect a new national patriarchy. Thereafter, that corner was at Madison Avenue and Franklin Street. Spencer Stafford and George Spencer, John's partners, had already built houses on Madison Avenue. This was a newly developing part of Albany, once a communal grazing area owned by the Dutch Church called "The Pastures." Streets there were laid out in 1794 in the familiar grid pattern of planned development, but substantial houses appeared only after Spencer Stafford and George Spencer built there in 1807.(5) John Stafford followed, but made a much bigger impression on the landscape. In this effort he probably worked with the local architect-builder Phillip Hooker.Â The concept of John Stafford's house was in the tradition of attached British townhouses that were large and elegant, but also space-conscious in an urban area - in a sense, a highly glorified rowhouse. Wealthy families apparently chose to build such houses to be closer to their mercantile or governmental concerns in town rather than (or in addition to) free-standing houses in the country. Although The Pastures had a rural character, it was a stone's throw from downtown Albany, and Stafford surely thought that a wave of construction would soon come. He didn't even bother to have windows put in one side of the house. He owned the adjoining lot and may have planned to develop the property himself.Â Stafford's optimism was clearly indicated by his house. Unlike the two relatively modest but ample homes of his partners next door, John's rose some sixty feet above the street. Narrow as well as tall, this towering presence on the floodplain was like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge others to join him.Â The size of the Stafford House allowed for other luxuries. As noted in the previous chapter, the front room on the second floor was probably a multi-purpose room for the family, leaving the first floor rooms unruffled by constant use and ready for entertaining. The floor-to-ceiling windows (shown above, railing design based on other Stafford-type houses) in this room would have let in a range of cooling breezes during the hot days of summer. When entertaining, the Staffords may have used this as a ladies sitting room while the men used the front parlor downstairs. The back, first- floor room was likely the dining room. The doors between the front and back rooms could be opened to provide a linked area for events. What a stir this apparent premiere of urban sophistication must have caused in decidedly non-metropolitan Albany. Wealthy families built houses emulating the Stafford House, but rarely in The Pastures, where floods are said to have reached eight to ten feet high. Despite its towering nature, such a flood would still reach beyond the sills of the Staffords' first- floor windows, and that house remained the area's largest for sixteen years. Particularly severe floods in 1818 and 1819 spurred the Common Council to order the streets raised.(6) The park in front of the newly built Albany Academy on Capitol Hill was excavated (which, according to a local newspaper, became a "perfect pond" after a rain shower(7) ), and the soil was used on flood-plain streets. For that reason the present curb-level downtown is about two feet above that of 1811, and part of the Stafford House and some of its neighbors still lie buried.Â John Stafford didn't have a chance to dismay over the disappearance of part of his home. He contracted tuberculosis and died in October of 1819. He was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard under the grim epitaph "be ye also ready." He left a legacy of extensive debts to his heirs. The wealth that allowed for a sumptuous townhouse and the "fortune which was assured" during the War of 1812 had quickly vanished. John, Jr.'s, education at the Albany Academy ended abruptly in the year his father died, and he and his mother moved out of their house. The family was forced to rent all of their major property holdings, and the situation worsened in 1828 when the heirs divided into two opposing camps.(8) The courts ruled that the properties would be sold at auction to settle the matter.Â With the apparent aid of Phillip Hooker, a lot of money must have gone into creating the grandeur of the Stafford House, but the Staffords had only eight years in which to enjoy it. In the mean time, variations of this house were appearing all over Albany and Hooker was surely associated with most if not all of them. When Gov. Joseph Yates of Schenectady rented the Stafford House in 1822 for use as his official residence in Albany, the style of the changes he made to the house point once again to Hooker. A great enigma in Albany's history, Hooker was nevertheless prominent in molding the physical appearance of the city as it changed in the early 1800s, funded by the Stafford family and their fellow mercantile and political elite.Â Biographical information and quotes are from Joel Munsell, ed., Collections on the History of the City of Albany..., (hereafter "Collections") vol. 3 (Albany:1865), pp. 452-453. Also printed separately as: Henry M. Benedict, A Contribution to the Genealogy of the Stafford Family in America (Albany:1870). The drawing of the Staffords Benedict store is from Munsell's Collections, vol. 3, p. 447.	STAFFORD, Col. John (I18820)
2637	The Staffords, particularly brothers John and Spencer, were prominent in the changes brought on the New World Dutch town of Albany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their father, Job/Joab Stafford, moved from the Rhode Island coast to the Berkshire Mountain town of Cheshire, where he became a wealthy landowner. Job was appointed to oversee the division of New York State land grants after the Revolution and thus settled with his family in the unofficial state capital city of Albany in 1783 In their young adulthood, John and Spencer were attracted to the hardware business. John was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Spencer and had his own business by 1793.Â The Staffords and Spencers shared several businesses under the organization of Staffords, Spencer & Co. Account books for the company reveal a vast range of metal goods being made or dealt.(3) There were stoves of many types as well as industrial parts, farm implements, kitchen utensils and other household items. There was a branch operation in Ballston Spa, New York, and they had clients in Buffalo and New York City. Of the Staffords' businesses, Henry Benedict says "On this small frontage on the east side of South Broadway between State and Beaver streets, long known as Hardware Row, the heaviest business in this line north and west of New York was transacted ... At the close of the war [of 1812] which assured the fortunes of the brothers, John left the firm." They were "â€¦men of extensive business connections" and "â€¦principal merchants of the city - those who gave life and character to its business interests."Â In personal matters, John Stafford was far less fortunate. His first wife was Margaret Denniston, the daughter of a local inn-keeper. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Margaret. This may have led John to leave his baby and his business interests to embark on a sea voyage. He is said to have been shipwrecked on a barren island, where he slept under a boat and managed to catch seals for sustenance.Â John returned to Albany having survived his mysterious venture, and in 1802 he re-joined Spencer in the hardware firm. He married again and had a son whom they named John, Jr. The second Mrs. John Stafford died several months later. A letter to Staffords, Spencer & Company from Citizen Edmond Genet, the French diplomat and inventor, reports that a city-wide sickness at the same time prevented him from paying a debt to the company. Within a space of only ten years, John found himself twice widowed and with two small children. He then married Catherine Smith, who did not bear any children and lived to be John's widow.Â With his children growing and a "fortune" gathering, John decided to build a new house. In October of 1810 he bought land at the corner of Lydius and Frelinghuysen Streets. The names of these streets honored colonial era Albanians, but changes in Albany in the early 1800s included renaming streets to reflect a new national patriarchy. Thereafter, that corner was at Madison Avenue and Franklin Street. Spencer Stafford and George Spencer, John's partners, had already built houses on Madison Avenue. This was a newly developing part of Albany, once a communal grazing area owned by the Dutch Church called "The Pastures." Streets there were laid out in 1794 in the familiar grid pattern of planned development, but substantial houses appeared only after Spencer Stafford and George Spencer built there in 1807.(5) John Stafford followed, but made a much bigger impression on the landscape. In this effort he probably worked with the local architect-builder Phillip Hooker.Â The concept of John Stafford's house was in the tradition of attached British townhouses that were large and elegant, but also space-conscious in an urban area - in a sense, a highly glorified rowhouse. Wealthy families apparently chose to build such houses to be closer to their mercantile or governmental concerns in town rather than (or in addition to) free-standing houses in the country. Although The Pastures had a rural character, it was a stone's throw from downtown Albany, and Stafford surely thought that a wave of construction would soon come. He didn't even bother to have windows put in one side of the house. He owned the adjoining lot and may have planned to develop the property himself.Â Stafford's optimism was clearly indicated by his house. Unlike the two relatively modest but ample homes of his partners next door, John's rose some sixty feet above the street. Narrow as well as tall, this towering presence on the floodplain was like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge others to join him.Â The size of the Stafford House allowed for other luxuries. As noted in the previous chapter, the front room on the second floor was probably a multi-purpose room for the family, leaving the first floor rooms unruffled by constant use and ready for entertaining. The floor-to-ceiling windows (shown above, railing design based on other Stafford-type houses) in this room would have let in a range of cooling breezes during the hot days of summer. When entertaining, the Staffords may have used this as a ladies sitting room while the men used the front parlor downstairs. The back, first- floor room was likely the dining room. The doors between the front and back rooms could be opened to provide a linked area for events. What a stir this apparent premiere of urban sophistication must have caused in decidedly non-metropolitan Albany. Wealthy families built houses emulating the Stafford House, but rarely in The Pastures, where floods are said to have reached eight to ten feet high. Despite its towering nature, such a flood would still reach beyond the sills of the Staffords' first- floor windows, and that house remained the area's largest for sixteen years. Particularly severe floods in 1818 and 1819 spurred the Common Council to order the streets raised.(6) The park in front of the newly built Albany Academy on Capitol Hill was excavated (which, according to a local newspaper, became a "perfect pond" after a rain shower(7) ), and the soil was used on flood-plain streets. For that reason the present curb-level downtown is about two feet above that of 1811, and part of the Stafford House and some of its neighbors still lie buried.Â John Stafford didn't have a chance to dismay over the disappearance of part of his home. He contracted tuberculosis and died in October of 1819. He was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard under the grim epitaph "be ye also ready." He left a legacy of extensive debts to his heirs. The wealth that allowed for a sumptuous townhouse and the "fortune which was assured" during the War of 1812 had quickly vanished. John, Jr.'s, education at the Albany Academy ended abruptly in the year his father died, and he and his mother moved out of their house. The family was forced to rent all of their major property holdings, and the situation worsened in 1828 when the heirs divided into two opposing camps.(8) The courts ruled that the properties would be sold at auction to settle the matter.Â With the apparent aid of Phillip Hooker, a lot of money must have gone into creating the grandeur of the Stafford House, but the Staffords had only eight years in which to enjoy it. In the mean time, variations of this house were appearing all over Albany and Hooker was surely associated with most if not all of them. When Gov. Joseph Yates of Schenectady rented the Stafford House in 1822 for use as his official residence in Albany, the style of the changes he made to the house point once again to Hooker. A great enigma in Albany's history, Hooker was nevertheless prominent in molding the physical appearance of the city as it changed in the early 1800s, funded by the Stafford family and their fellow mercantile and political elite.Â Biographical information and quotes are from Joel Munsell, ed., Collections on the History of the City of Albany..., (hereafter "Collections") vol. 3 (Albany:1865), pp. 452-453. Also printed separately as: Henry M. Benedict, A Contribution to the Genealogy of the Stafford Family in America (Albany:1870). The drawing of the Staffords Benedict store is from Munsell's Collections, vol. 3, p. 447.	STAFFORD, Col. John (I18820)
2638	The Staffords, particularly brothers John and Spencer, were prominent in the changes brought on the New World Dutch town of Albany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their father, Job/Joab Stafford, moved from the Rhode Island coast to the Berkshire Mountain town of Cheshire, where he became a wealthy landowner. Job was appointed to oversee the division of New York State land grants after the Revolution and thus settled with his family in the unofficial state capital city of Albany in 1783 In their young adulthood, John and Spencer were attracted to the hardware business. John was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Spencer and had his own business by 1793.Â The Staffords and Spencers shared several businesses under the organization of Staffords, Spencer & Co. Account books for the company reveal a vast range of metal goods being made or dealt.(3) There were stoves of many types as well as industrial parts, farm implements, kitchen utensils and other household items. There was a branch operation in Ballston Spa, New York, and they had clients in Buffalo and New York City. Of the Staffords' businesses, Henry Benedict says "On this small frontage on the east side of South Broadway between State and Beaver streets, long known as Hardware Row, the heaviest business in this line north and west of New York was transacted ... At the close of the war [of 1812] which assured the fortunes of the brothers, John left the firm." They were "â€¦men of extensive business connections" and "â€¦principal merchants of the city - those who gave life and character to its business interests."Â In personal matters, John Stafford was far less fortunate. His first wife was Margaret Denniston, the daughter of a local inn-keeper. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Margaret. This may have led John to leave his baby and his business interests to embark on a sea voyage. He is said to have been shipwrecked on a barren island, where he slept under a boat and managed to catch seals for sustenance.Â John returned to Albany having survived his mysterious venture, and in 1802 he re-joined Spencer in the hardware firm. He married again and had a son whom they named John, Jr. The second Mrs. John Stafford died several months later. A letter to Staffords, Spencer & Company from Citizen Edmond Genet, the French diplomat and inventor, reports that a city-wide sickness at the same time prevented him from paying a debt to the company. Within a space of only ten years, John found himself twice widowed and with two small children. He then married Catherine Smith, who did not bear any children and lived to be John's widow.Â With his children growing and a "fortune" gathering, John decided to build a new house. In October of 1810 he bought land at the corner of Lydius and Frelinghuysen Streets. The names of these streets honored colonial era Albanians, but changes in Albany in the early 1800s included renaming streets to reflect a new national patriarchy. Thereafter, that corner was at Madison Avenue and Franklin Street. Spencer Stafford and George Spencer, John's partners, had already built houses on Madison Avenue. This was a newly developing part of Albany, once a communal grazing area owned by the Dutch Church called "The Pastures." Streets there were laid out in 1794 in the familiar grid pattern of planned development, but substantial houses appeared only after Spencer Stafford and George Spencer built there in 1807.(5) John Stafford followed, but made a much bigger impression on the landscape. In this effort he probably worked with the local architect-builder Phillip Hooker.Â The concept of John Stafford's house was in the tradition of attached British townhouses that were large and elegant, but also space-conscious in an urban area - in a sense, a highly glorified rowhouse. Wealthy families apparently chose to build such houses to be closer to their mercantile or governmental concerns in town rather than (or in addition to) free-standing houses in the country. Although The Pastures had a rural character, it was a stone's throw from downtown Albany, and Stafford surely thought that a wave of construction would soon come. He didn't even bother to have windows put in one side of the house. He owned the adjoining lot and may have planned to develop the property himself.Â Stafford's optimism was clearly indicated by his house. Unlike the two relatively modest but ample homes of his partners next door, John's rose some sixty feet above the street. Narrow as well as tall, this towering presence on the floodplain was like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge others to join him.Â The size of the Stafford House allowed for other luxuries. As noted in the previous chapter, the front room on the second floor was probably a multi-purpose room for the family, leaving the first floor rooms unruffled by constant use and ready for entertaining. The floor-to-ceiling windows (shown above, railing design based on other Stafford-type houses) in this room would have let in a range of cooling breezes during the hot days of summer. When entertaining, the Staffords may have used this as a ladies sitting room while the men used the front parlor downstairs. The back, first- floor room was likely the dining room. The doors between the front and back rooms could be opened to provide a linked area for events. What a stir this apparent premiere of urban sophistication must have caused in decidedly non-metropolitan Albany. Wealthy families built houses emulating the Stafford House, but rarely in The Pastures, where floods are said to have reached eight to ten feet high. Despite its towering nature, such a flood would still reach beyond the sills of the Staffords' first- floor windows, and that house remained the area's largest for sixteen years. Particularly severe floods in 1818 and 1819 spurred the Common Council to order the streets raised.(6) The park in front of the newly built Albany Academy on Capitol Hill was excavated (which, according to a local newspaper, became a "perfect pond" after a rain shower(7) ), and the soil was used on flood-plain streets. For that reason the present curb-level downtown is about two feet above that of 1811, and part of the Stafford House and some of its neighbors still lie buried.Â John Stafford didn't have a chance to dismay over the disappearance of part of his home. He contracted tuberculosis and died in October of 1819. He was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard under the grim epitaph "be ye also ready." He left a legacy of extensive debts to his heirs. The wealth that allowed for a sumptuous townhouse and the "fortune which was assured" during the War of 1812 had quickly vanished. John, Jr.'s, education at the Albany Academy ended abruptly in the year his father died, and he and his mother moved out of their house. The family was forced to rent all of their major property holdings, and the situation worsened in 1828 when the heirs divided into two opposing camps.(8) The courts ruled that the properties would be sold at auction to settle the matter.Â With the apparent aid of Phillip Hooker, a lot of money must have gone into creating the grandeur of the Stafford House, but the Staffords had only eight years in which to enjoy it. In the mean time, variations of this house were appearing all over Albany and Hooker was surely associated with most if not all of them. When Gov. Joseph Yates of Schenectady rented the Stafford House in 1822 for use as his official residence in Albany, the style of the changes he made to the house point once again to Hooker. A great enigma in Albany's history, Hooker was nevertheless prominent in molding the physical appearance of the city as it changed in the early 1800s, funded by the Stafford family and their fellow mercantile and political elite.Â Biographical information and quotes are from Joel Munsell, ed., Collections on the History of the City of Albany..., (hereafter "Collections") vol. 3 (Albany:1865), pp. 452-453. Also printed separately as: Henry M. Benedict, A Contribution to the Genealogy of the Stafford Family in America (Albany:1870). The drawing of the Staffords Benedict store is from Munsell's Collections, vol. 3, p. 447.	STAFFORD, Col. John (I18820)
2639	The Staffords, particularly brothers John and Spencer, were prominent in the changes brought on the New World Dutch town of Albany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their father, Job/Joab Stafford, moved from the Rhode Island coast to the Berkshire Mountain town of Cheshire, where he became a wealthy landowner. Job was appointed to oversee the division of New York State land grants after the Revolution and thus settled with his family in the unofficial state capital city of Albany in 1783 In their young adulthood, John and Spencer were attracted to the hardware business. John was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Spencer and had his own business by 1793.Â The Staffords and Spencers shared several businesses under the organization of Staffords, Spencer & Co. Account books for the company reveal a vast range of metal goods being made or dealt.(3) There were stoves of many types as well as industrial parts, farm implements, kitchen utensils and other household items. There was a branch operation in Ballston Spa, New York, and they had clients in Buffalo and New York City. Of the Staffords' businesses, Henry Benedict says "On this small frontage on the east side of South Broadway between State and Beaver streets, long known as Hardware Row, the heaviest business in this line north and west of New York was transacted ... At the close of the war [of 1812] which assured the fortunes of the brothers, John left the firm." They were "â€¦men of extensive business connections" and "â€¦principal merchants of the city - those who gave life and character to its business interests."Â In personal matters, John Stafford was far less fortunate. His first wife was Margaret Denniston, the daughter of a local inn-keeper. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Margaret. This may have led John to leave his baby and his business interests to embark on a sea voyage. He is said to have been shipwrecked on a barren island, where he slept under a boat and managed to catch seals for sustenance.Â John returned to Albany having survived his mysterious venture, and in 1802 he re-joined Spencer in the hardware firm. He married again and had a son whom they named John, Jr. The second Mrs. John Stafford died several months later. A letter to Staffords, Spencer & Company from Citizen Edmond Genet, the French diplomat and inventor, reports that a city-wide sickness at the same time prevented him from paying a debt to the company. Within a space of only ten years, John found himself twice widowed and with two small children. He then married Catherine Smith, who did not bear any children and lived to be John's widow.Â With his children growing and a "fortune" gathering, John decided to build a new house. In October of 1810 he bought land at the corner of Lydius and Frelinghuysen Streets. The names of these streets honored colonial era Albanians, but changes in Albany in the early 1800s included renaming streets to reflect a new national patriarchy. Thereafter, that corner was at Madison Avenue and Franklin Street. Spencer Stafford and George Spencer, John's partners, had already built houses on Madison Avenue. This was a newly developing part of Albany, once a communal grazing area owned by the Dutch Church called "The Pastures." Streets there were laid out in 1794 in the familiar grid pattern of planned development, but substantial houses appeared only after Spencer Stafford and George Spencer built there in 1807.(5) John Stafford followed, but made a much bigger impression on the landscape. In this effort he probably worked with the local architect-builder Phillip Hooker.Â The concept of John Stafford's house was in the tradition of attached British townhouses that were large and elegant, but also space-conscious in an urban area - in a sense, a highly glorified rowhouse. Wealthy families apparently chose to build such houses to be closer to their mercantile or governmental concerns in town rather than (or in addition to) free-standing houses in the country. Although The Pastures had a rural character, it was a stone's throw from downtown Albany, and Stafford surely thought that a wave of construction would soon come. He didn't even bother to have windows put in one side of the house. He owned the adjoining lot and may have planned to develop the property himself.Â Stafford's optimism was clearly indicated by his house. Unlike the two relatively modest but ample homes of his partners next door, John's rose some sixty feet above the street. Narrow as well as tall, this towering presence on the floodplain was like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge others to join him.Â The size of the Stafford House allowed for other luxuries. As noted in the previous chapter, the front room on the second floor was probably a multi-purpose room for the family, leaving the first floor rooms unruffled by constant use and ready for entertaining. The floor-to-ceiling windows (shown above, railing design based on other Stafford-type houses) in this room would have let in a range of cooling breezes during the hot days of summer. When entertaining, the Staffords may have used this as a ladies sitting room while the men used the front parlor downstairs. The back, first- floor room was likely the dining room. The doors between the front and back rooms could be opened to provide a linked area for events. What a stir this apparent premiere of urban sophistication must have caused in decidedly non-metropolitan Albany. Wealthy families built houses emulating the Stafford House, but rarely in The Pastures, where floods are said to have reached eight to ten feet high. Despite its towering nature, such a flood would still reach beyond the sills of the Staffords' first- floor windows, and that house remained the area's largest for sixteen years. Particularly severe floods in 1818 and 1819 spurred the Common Council to order the streets raised.(6) The park in front of the newly built Albany Academy on Capitol Hill was excavated (which, according to a local newspaper, became a "perfect pond" after a rain shower(7) ), and the soil was used on flood-plain streets. For that reason the present curb-level downtown is about two feet above that of 1811, and part of the Stafford House and some of its neighbors still lie buried.Â John Stafford didn't have a chance to dismay over the disappearance of part of his home. He contracted tuberculosis and died in October of 1819. He was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard under the grim epitaph "be ye also ready." He left a legacy of extensive debts to his heirs. The wealth that allowed for a sumptuous townhouse and the "fortune which was assured" during the War of 1812 had quickly vanished. John, Jr.'s, education at the Albany Academy ended abruptly in the year his father died, and he and his mother moved out of their house. The family was forced to rent all of their major property holdings, and the situation worsened in 1828 when the heirs divided into two opposing camps.(8) The courts ruled that the properties would be sold at auction to settle the matter.Â With the apparent aid of Phillip Hooker, a lot of money must have gone into creating the grandeur of the Stafford House, but the Staffords had only eight years in which to enjoy it. In the mean time, variations of this house were appearing all over Albany and Hooker was surely associated with most if not all of them. When Gov. Joseph Yates of Schenectady rented the Stafford House in 1822 for use as his official residence in Albany, the style of the changes he made to the house point once again to Hooker. A great enigma in Albany's history, Hooker was nevertheless prominent in molding the physical appearance of the city as it changed in the early 1800s, funded by the Stafford family and their fellow mercantile and political elite.Â Biographical information and quotes are from Joel Munsell, ed., Collections on the History of the City of Albany..., (hereafter "Collections") vol. 3 (Albany:1865), pp. 452-453. Also printed separately as: Henry M. Benedict, A Contribution to the Genealogy of the Stafford Family in America (Albany:1870). The drawing of the Staffords Benedict store is from Munsell's Collections, vol. 3, p. 447.	STAFFORD, Col. John (I18820)
2640	The Staffords, particularly brothers John and Spencer, were prominent in the changes brought on the New World Dutch town of Albany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their father, Job/Joab Stafford, moved from the Rhode Island coast to the Berkshire Mountain town of Cheshire, where he became a wealthy landowner. Job was appointed to oversee the division of New York State land grants after the Revolution and thus settled with his family in the unofficial state capital city of Albany in 1783 In their young adulthood, John and Spencer were attracted to the hardware business. John was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Spencer and had his own business by 1793.Â The Staffords and Spencers shared several businesses under the organization of Staffords, Spencer & Co. Account books for the company reveal a vast range of metal goods being made or dealt.(3) There were stoves of many types as well as industrial parts, farm implements, kitchen utensils and other household items. There was a branch operation in Ballston Spa, New York, and they had clients in Buffalo and New York City. Of the Staffords' businesses, Henry Benedict says "On this small frontage on the east side of South Broadway between State and Beaver streets, long known as Hardware Row, the heaviest business in this line north and west of New York was transacted ... At the close of the war [of 1812] which assured the fortunes of the brothers, John left the firm." They were "â€¦men of extensive business connections" and "â€¦principal merchants of the city - those who gave life and character to its business interests."Â In personal matters, John Stafford was far less fortunate. His first wife was Margaret Denniston, the daughter of a local inn-keeper. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Margaret. This may have led John to leave his baby and his business interests to embark on a sea voyage. He is said to have been shipwrecked on a barren island, where he slept under a boat and managed to catch seals for sustenance.Â John returned to Albany having survived his mysterious venture, and in 1802 he re-joined Spencer in the hardware firm. He married again and had a son whom they named John, Jr. The second Mrs. John Stafford died several months later. A letter to Staffords, Spencer & Company from Citizen Edmond Genet, the French diplomat and inventor, reports that a city-wide sickness at the same time prevented him from paying a debt to the company. Within a space of only ten years, John found himself twice widowed and with two small children. He then married Catherine Smith, who did not bear any children and lived to be John's widow.Â With his children growing and a "fortune" gathering, John decided to build a new house. In October of 1810 he bought land at the corner of Lydius and Frelinghuysen Streets. The names of these streets honored colonial era Albanians, but changes in Albany in the early 1800s included renaming streets to reflect a new national patriarchy. Thereafter, that corner was at Madison Avenue and Franklin Street. Spencer Stafford and George Spencer, John's partners, had already built houses on Madison Avenue. This was a newly developing part of Albany, once a communal grazing area owned by the Dutch Church called "The Pastures." Streets there were laid out in 1794 in the familiar grid pattern of planned development, but substantial houses appeared only after Spencer Stafford and George Spencer built there in 1807.(5) John Stafford followed, but made a much bigger impression on the landscape. In this effort he probably worked with the local architect-builder Phillip Hooker.Â The concept of John Stafford's house was in the tradition of attached British townhouses that were large and elegant, but also space-conscious in an urban area - in a sense, a highly glorified rowhouse. Wealthy families apparently chose to build such houses to be closer to their mercantile or governmental concerns in town rather than (or in addition to) free-standing houses in the country. Although The Pastures had a rural character, it was a stone's throw from downtown Albany, and Stafford surely thought that a wave of construction would soon come. He didn't even bother to have windows put in one side of the house. He owned the adjoining lot and may have planned to develop the property himself.Â Stafford's optimism was clearly indicated by his house. Unlike the two relatively modest but ample homes of his partners next door, John's rose some sixty feet above the street. Narrow as well as tall, this towering presence on the floodplain was like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge others to join him.Â The size of the Stafford House allowed for other luxuries. As noted in the previous chapter, the front room on the second floor was probably a multi-purpose room for the family, leaving the first floor rooms unruffled by constant use and ready for entertaining. The floor-to-ceiling windows (shown above, railing design based on other Stafford-type houses) in this room would have let in a range of cooling breezes during the hot days of summer. When entertaining, the Staffords may have used this as a ladies sitting room while the men used the front parlor downstairs. The back, first- floor room was likely the dining room. The doors between the front and back rooms could be opened to provide a linked area for events. What a stir this apparent premiere of urban sophistication must have caused in decidedly non-metropolitan Albany. Wealthy families built houses emulating the Stafford House, but rarely in The Pastures, where floods are said to have reached eight to ten feet high. Despite its towering nature, such a flood would still reach beyond the sills of the Staffords' first- floor windows, and that house remained the area's largest for sixteen years. Particularly severe floods in 1818 and 1819 spurred the Common Council to order the streets raised.(6) The park in front of the newly built Albany Academy on Capitol Hill was excavated (which, according to a local newspaper, became a "perfect pond" after a rain shower(7) ), and the soil was used on flood-plain streets. For that reason the present curb-level downtown is about two feet above that of 1811, and part of the Stafford House and some of its neighbors still lie buried.Â John Stafford didn't have a chance to dismay over the disappearance of part of his home. He contracted tuberculosis and died in October of 1819. He was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard under the grim epitaph "be ye also ready." He left a legacy of extensive debts to his heirs. The wealth that allowed for a sumptuous townhouse and the "fortune which was assured" during the War of 1812 had quickly vanished. John, Jr.'s, education at the Albany Academy ended abruptly in the year his father died, and he and his mother moved out of their house. The family was forced to rent all of their major property holdings, and the situation worsened in 1828 when the heirs divided into two opposing camps.(8) The courts ruled that the properties would be sold at auction to settle the matter.Â With the apparent aid of Phillip Hooker, a lot of money must have gone into creating the grandeur of the Stafford House, but the Staffords had only eight years in which to enjoy it. In the mean time, variations of this house were appearing all over Albany and Hooker was surely associated with most if not all of them. When Gov. Joseph Yates of Schenectady rented the Stafford House in 1822 for use as his official residence in Albany, the style of the changes he made to the house point once again to Hooker. A great enigma in Albany's history, Hooker was nevertheless prominent in molding the physical appearance of the city as it changed in the early 1800s, funded by the Stafford family and their fellow mercantile and political elite.Â Biographical information and quotes are from Joel Munsell, ed., Collections on the History of the City of Albany..., (hereafter "Collections") vol. 3 (Albany:1865), pp. 452-453. Also printed separately as: Henry M. Benedict, A Contribution to the Genealogy of the Stafford Family in America (Albany:1870). The drawing of the Staffords Benedict store is from Munsell's Collections, vol. 3, p. 447.	STAFFORD, Col. John (I18820)
2641	The Staffords, particularly brothers John and Spencer, were prominent in the changes brought on the New World Dutch town of Albany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their father, Job/Joab Stafford, moved from the Rhode Island coast to the Berkshire Mountain town of Cheshire, where he became a wealthy landowner. Job was appointed to oversee the division of New York State land grants after the Revolution and thus settled with his family in the unofficial state capital city of Albany in 1783 In their young adulthood, John and Spencer were attracted to the hardware business. John was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Spencer and had his own business by 1793.Â The Staffords and Spencers shared several businesses under the organization of Staffords, Spencer & Co. Account books for the company reveal a vast range of metal goods being made or dealt.(3) There were stoves of many types as well as industrial parts, farm implements, kitchen utensils and other household items. There was a branch operation in Ballston Spa, New York, and they had clients in Buffalo and New York City. Of the Staffords' businesses, Henry Benedict says "On this small frontage on the east side of South Broadway between State and Beaver streets, long known as Hardware Row, the heaviest business in this line north and west of New York was transacted ... At the close of the war [of 1812] which assured the fortunes of the brothers, John left the firm." They were "â€¦men of extensive business connections" and "â€¦principal merchants of the city - those who gave life and character to its business interests."Â In personal matters, John Stafford was far less fortunate. His first wife was Margaret Denniston, the daughter of a local inn-keeper. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Margaret. This may have led John to leave his baby and his business interests to embark on a sea voyage. He is said to have been shipwrecked on a barren island, where he slept under a boat and managed to catch seals for sustenance.Â John returned to Albany having survived his mysterious venture, and in 1802 he re-joined Spencer in the hardware firm. He married again and had a son whom they named John, Jr. The second Mrs. John Stafford died several months later. A letter to Staffords, Spencer & Company from Citizen Edmond Genet, the French diplomat and inventor, reports that a city-wide sickness at the same time prevented him from paying a debt to the company. Within a space of only ten years, John found himself twice widowed and with two small children. He then married Catherine Smith, who did not bear any children and lived to be John's widow.Â With his children growing and a "fortune" gathering, John decided to build a new house. In October of 1810 he bought land at the corner of Lydius and Frelinghuysen Streets. The names of these streets honored colonial era Albanians, but changes in Albany in the early 1800s included renaming streets to reflect a new national patriarchy. Thereafter, that corner was at Madison Avenue and Franklin Street. Spencer Stafford and George Spencer, John's partners, had already built houses on Madison Avenue. This was a newly developing part of Albany, once a communal grazing area owned by the Dutch Church called "The Pastures." Streets there were laid out in 1794 in the familiar grid pattern of planned development, but substantial houses appeared only after Spencer Stafford and George Spencer built there in 1807.(5) John Stafford followed, but made a much bigger impression on the landscape. In this effort he probably worked with the local architect-builder Phillip Hooker.Â The concept of John Stafford's house was in the tradition of attached British townhouses that were large and elegant, but also space-conscious in an urban area - in a sense, a highly glorified rowhouse. Wealthy families apparently chose to build such houses to be closer to their mercantile or governmental concerns in town rather than (or in addition to) free-standing houses in the country. Although The Pastures had a rural character, it was a stone's throw from downtown Albany, and Stafford surely thought that a wave of construction would soon come. He didn't even bother to have windows put in one side of the house. He owned the adjoining lot and may have planned to develop the property himself.Â Stafford's optimism was clearly indicated by his house. Unlike the two relatively modest but ample homes of his partners next door, John's rose some sixty feet above the street. Narrow as well as tall, this towering presence on the floodplain was like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge others to join him.Â The size of the Stafford House allowed for other luxuries. As noted in the previous chapter, the front room on the second floor was probably a multi-purpose room for the family, leaving the first floor rooms unruffled by constant use and ready for entertaining. The floor-to-ceiling windows (shown above, railing design based on other Stafford-type houses) in this room would have let in a range of cooling breezes during the hot days of summer. When entertaining, the Staffords may have used this as a ladies sitting room while the men used the front parlor downstairs. The back, first- floor room was likely the dining room. The doors between the front and back rooms could be opened to provide a linked area for events. What a stir this apparent premiere of urban sophistication must have caused in decidedly non-metropolitan Albany. Wealthy families built houses emulating the Stafford House, but rarely in The Pastures, where floods are said to have reached eight to ten feet high. Despite its towering nature, such a flood would still reach beyond the sills of the Staffords' first- floor windows, and that house remained the area's largest for sixteen years. Particularly severe floods in 1818 and 1819 spurred the Common Council to order the streets raised.(6) The park in front of the newly built Albany Academy on Capitol Hill was excavated (which, according to a local newspaper, became a "perfect pond" after a rain shower(7) ), and the soil was used on flood-plain streets. For that reason the present curb-level downtown is about two feet above that of 1811, and part of the Stafford House and some of its neighbors still lie buried.Â John Stafford didn't have a chance to dismay over the disappearance of part of his home. He contracted tuberculosis and died in October of 1819. He was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard under the grim epitaph "be ye also ready." He left a legacy of extensive debts to his heirs. The wealth that allowed for a sumptuous townhouse and the "fortune which was assured" during the War of 1812 had quickly vanished. John, Jr.'s, education at the Albany Academy ended abruptly in the year his father died, and he and his mother moved out of their house. The family was forced to rent all of their major property holdings, and the situation worsened in 1828 when the heirs divided into two opposing camps.(8) The courts ruled that the properties would be sold at auction to settle the matter.Â With the apparent aid of Phillip Hooker, a lot of money must have gone into creating the grandeur of the Stafford House, but the Staffords had only eight years in which to enjoy it. In the mean time, variations of this house were appearing all over Albany and Hooker was surely associated with most if not all of them. When Gov. Joseph Yates of Schenectady rented the Stafford House in 1822 for use as his official residence in Albany, the style of the changes he made to the house point once again to Hooker. A great enigma in Albany's history, Hooker was nevertheless prominent in molding the physical appearance of the city as it changed in the early 1800s, funded by the Stafford family and their fellow mercantile and political elite.Â Biographical information and quotes are from Joel Munsell, ed., Collections on the History of the City of Albany..., (hereafter "Collections") vol. 3 (Albany:1865), pp. 452-453. Also printed separately as: Henry M. Benedict, A Contribution to the Genealogy of the Stafford Family in America (Albany:1870). The drawing of the Staffords Benedict store is from Munsell's Collections, vol. 3, p. 447.	STAFFORD, Col. John (I18820)
2642	The Staffords, particularly brothers John and Spencer, were prominent in the changes brought on the New World Dutch town of Albany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their father, Job/Joab Stafford, moved from the Rhode Island coast to the Berkshire Mountain town of Cheshire, where he became a wealthy landowner. Job was appointed to oversee the division of New York State land grants after the Revolution and thus settled with his family in the unofficial state capital city of Albany in 1783 In their young adulthood, John and Spencer were attracted to the hardware business. John was apprenticed to his cousin Thomas Spencer and had his own business by 1793.Â The Staffords and Spencers shared several businesses under the organization of Staffords, Spencer & Co. Account books for the company reveal a vast range of metal goods being made or dealt.(3) There were stoves of many types as well as industrial parts, farm implements, kitchen utensils and other household items. There was a branch operation in Ballston Spa, New York, and they had clients in Buffalo and New York City. Of the Staffords' businesses, Henry Benedict says "On this small frontage on the east side of South Broadway between State and Beaver streets, long known as Hardware Row, the heaviest business in this line north and west of New York was transacted ... At the close of the war [of 1812] which assured the fortunes of the brothers, John left the firm." They were "â€¦men of extensive business connections" and "â€¦principal merchants of the city - those who gave life and character to its business interests."Â In personal matters, John Stafford was far less fortunate. His first wife was Margaret Denniston, the daughter of a local inn-keeper. She died shortly after giving birth to their daughter Margaret. This may have led John to leave his baby and his business interests to embark on a sea voyage. He is said to have been shipwrecked on a barren island, where he slept under a boat and managed to catch seals for sustenance.Â John returned to Albany having survived his mysterious venture, and in 1802 he re-joined Spencer in the hardware firm. He married again and had a son whom they named John, Jr. The second Mrs. John Stafford died several months later. A letter to Staffords, Spencer & Company from Citizen Edmond Genet, the French diplomat and inventor, reports that a city-wide sickness at the same time prevented him from paying a debt to the company. Within a space of only ten years, John found himself twice widowed and with two small children. He then married Catherine Smith, who did not bear any children and lived to be John's widow.Â With his children growing and a "fortune" gathering, John decided to build a new house. In October of 1810 he bought land at the corner of Lydius and Frelinghuysen Streets. The names of these streets honored colonial era Albanians, but changes in Albany in the early 1800s included renaming streets to reflect a new national patriarchy. Thereafter, that corner was at Madison Avenue and Franklin Street. Spencer Stafford and George Spencer, John's partners, had already built houses on Madison Avenue. This was a newly developing part of Albany, once a communal grazing area owned by the Dutch Church called "The Pastures." Streets there were laid out in 1794 in the familiar grid pattern of planned development, but substantial houses appeared only after Spencer Stafford and George Spencer built there in 1807.(5) John Stafford followed, but made a much bigger impression on the landscape. In this effort he probably worked with the local architect-builder Phillip Hooker.Â The concept of John Stafford's house was in the tradition of attached British townhouses that were large and elegant, but also space-conscious in an urban area - in a sense, a highly glorified rowhouse. Wealthy families apparently chose to build such houses to be closer to their mercantile or governmental concerns in town rather than (or in addition to) free-standing houses in the country. Although The Pastures had a rural character, it was a stone's throw from downtown Albany, and Stafford surely thought that a wave of construction would soon come. He didn't even bother to have windows put in one side of the house. He owned the adjoining lot and may have planned to develop the property himself.Â Stafford's optimism was clearly indicated by his house. Unlike the two relatively modest but ample homes of his partners next door, John's rose some sixty feet above the street. Narrow as well as tall, this towering presence on the floodplain was like a gauntlet thrown down to challenge others to join him.Â The size of the Stafford House allowed for other luxuries. As noted in the previous chapter, the front room on the second floor was probably a multi-purpose room for the family, leaving the first floor rooms unruffled by constant use and ready for entertaining. The floor-to-ceiling windows (shown above, railing design based on other Stafford-type houses) in this room would have let in a range of cooling breezes during the hot days of summer. When entertaining, the Staffords may have used this as a ladies sitting room while the men used the front parlor downstairs. The back, first- floor room was likely the dining room. The doors between the front and back rooms could be opened to provide a linked area for events. What a stir this apparent premiere of urban sophistication must have caused in decidedly non-metropolitan Albany. Wealthy families built houses emulating the Stafford House, but rarely in The Pastures, where floods are said to have reached eight to ten feet high. Despite its towering nature, such a flood would still reach beyond the sills of the Staffords' first- floor windows, and that house remained the area's largest for sixteen years. Particularly severe floods in 1818 and 1819 spurred the Common Council to order the streets raised.(6) The park in front of the newly built Albany Academy on Capitol Hill was excavated (which, according to a local newspaper, became a "perfect pond" after a rain shower(7) ), and the soil was used on flood-plain streets. For that reason the present curb-level downtown is about two feet above that of 1811, and part of the Stafford House and some of its neighbors still lie buried.Â John Stafford didn't have a chance to dismay over the disappearance of part of his home. He contracted tuberculosis and died in October of 1819. He was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church graveyard under the grim epitaph "be ye also ready." He left a legacy of extensive debts to his heirs. The wealth that allowed for a sumptuous townhouse and the "fortune which was assured" during the War of 1812 had quickly vanished. John, Jr.'s, education at the Albany Academy ended abruptly in the year his father died, and he and his mother moved out of their house. The family was forced to rent all of their major property holdings, and the situation worsened in 1828 when the heirs divided into two opposing camps.(8) The courts ruled that the properties would be sold at auction to settle the matter.Â With the apparent aid of Phillip Hooker, a lot of money must have gone into creating the grandeur of the Stafford House, but the Staffords had only eight years in which to enjoy it. In the mean time, variations of this house were appearing all over Albany and Hooker was surely associated with most if not all of them. When Gov. Joseph Yates of Schenectady rented the Stafford House in 1822 for use as his official residence in Albany, the style of the changes he made to the house point once again to Hooker. A great enigma in Albany's history, Hooker was nevertheless prominent in molding the physical appearance of the city as it changed in the early 1800s, funded by the Stafford family and their fellow mercantile and political elite.Â Biographical information and quotes are from Joel Munsell, ed., Collections on the History of the City of Albany..., (hereafter "Collections") vol. 3 (Albany:1865), pp. 452-453. Also printed separately as: Henry M. Benedict, A Contribution to the Genealogy of the Stafford Family in America (Albany:1870). The drawing of the Staffords Benedict store is from Munsell's Collections, vol. 3, p. 447.	STAFFORD, Col. John (I18820)
2643	The will of Abraham's father, JAMES Stafford, dated 1771 , Dorchester Co., MD provides: Item: I give unto my son Abraham Safford one hundred acres of Land called "Parrish" and the said Land I have already deeded two him and if he dies without heirs or issue of his one two to his two brothers James Safford and Reavel Safford and no more of my Estate neither personally nor real. Note: Maryland State Archives MARYLAND INDEXES (Assessment of 1783, Index) 1783 Caroline County MSA S 1437 Abraham Stafford. Robinhood, pt, 190 acres. CA Lower Choptank District Hundred, p. 56. MSA S 1161-3-6 Location: 1/4/5/46 Note: The will of JAMES STAFFORD, father of Abraham (see above), mentioned a tract called "Robin Hood". --------------------------- Caroline County was created in 1773 from Dorchester and Queen Anne's counties. I believe Abraham lived in that part of Dorchester which was split off to for Caroline County. MARYLAND INDEXES (Census, Index) 1776-1778 MSA SSI 1419-14 Stafford, Abraham Date: 1778 Caroline County Great Choptank Hundred Source: Land Record A, p. 264. MSA S 1419-14-15292 1774, Abraham Safford (Stafford) and Michael Todd are sureties to Mary Safford (Stafford), executrix of James Safford (Stafford), dec'd, of Dorchester County. (DCGM Vol. V #1, pg. 3, MD Accounts Lib. 70 fol. 231) Maryland State Archives , MARYLAND INDEXES, (Assessment of 1783, Index) --1783 Caroline County MSA S 1437 (the following) Abraham Stafford. Robinhood, pt, 190 acres. CA Lower Choptank District Hundred, p. 56. MSA S 1161-3-6 Location: 1/4/5/46	STAFFORD, Abraham (I67168)
2644	The will of Abraham's father, JAMES Stafford, dated 1771 , Dorchester Co., MD provides: Item: I give unto my son Abraham Safford one hundred acres of Land called "Parrish" and the said Land I have already deeded two him and if he dies without heirs or issue of his one two to his two brothers James Safford and Reavel Safford and no more of my Estate neither personally nor real. Note: Maryland State Archives MARYLAND INDEXES (Assessment of 1783, Index) 1783 Caroline County MSA S 1437 Abraham Stafford. Robinhood, pt, 190 acres. CA Lower Choptank District Hundred, p. 56. MSA S 1161-3-6 Location: 1/4/5/46 Note: The will of JAMES STAFFORD, father of Abraham (see above), mentioned a tract called "Robin Hood". --------------------------- Caroline County was created in 1773 from Dorchester and Queen Anne's counties. I believe Abraham lived in that part of Dorchester which was split off to for Caroline County. MARYLAND INDEXES (Census, Index) 1776-1778 MSA SSI 1419-14 Stafford, Abraham Date: 1778 Caroline County Great Choptank Hundred Source: Land Record A, p. 264. MSA S 1419-14-15292 1774, Abraham Safford (Stafford) and Michael Todd are sureties to Mary Safford (Stafford), executrix of James Safford (Stafford), dec'd, of Dorchester County. (DCGM Vol. V #1, pg. 3, MD Accounts Lib. 70 fol. 231) Maryland State Archives , MARYLAND INDEXES, (Assessment of 1783, Index) --1783 Caroline County MSA S 1437 (the following) Abraham Stafford. Robinhood, pt, 190 acres. CA Lower Choptank District Hundred, p. 56. MSA S 1161-3-6 Location: 1/4/5/46	STAFFORD, Abraham (I67168)
2645	The will of Abraham's father, JAMES Stafford, dated 1771 , Dorchester Co., MD provides: Item: I give unto my son Abraham Safford one hundred acres of Land called "Parrish" and the said Land I have already deeded two him and if he dies without heirs or issue of his one two to his two brothers James Safford and Reavel Safford and no more of my Estate neither personally nor real. Note: Maryland State Archives MARYLAND INDEXES (Assessment of 1783, Index) 1783 Caroline County MSA S 1437 Abraham Stafford. Robinhood, pt, 190 acres. CA Lower Choptank District Hundred, p. 56. MSA S 1161-3-6 Location: 1/4/5/46 Note: The will of JAMES STAFFORD, father of Abraham (see above), mentioned a tract called "Robin Hood". --------------------------- Caroline County was created in 1773 from Dorchester and Queen Anne's counties. I believe Abraham lived in that part of Dorchester which was split off to for Caroline County. MARYLAND INDEXES (Census, Index) 1776-1778 MSA SSI 1419-14 Stafford, Abraham Date: 1778 Caroline County Great Choptank Hundred Source: Land Record A, p. 264. MSA S 1419-14-15292 1774, Abraham Safford (Stafford) and Michael Todd are sureties to Mary Safford (Stafford), executrix of James Safford (Stafford), dec'd, of Dorchester County. (DCGM Vol. V #1, pg. 3, MD Accounts Lib. 70 fol. 231) Maryland State Archives , MARYLAND INDEXES, (Assessment of 1783, Index) --1783 Caroline County MSA S 1437 (the following) Abraham Stafford. Robinhood, pt, 190 acres. CA Lower Choptank District Hundred, p. 56. MSA S 1161-3-6 Location: 1/4/5/46	STAFFORD, Abraham (I67168)
2646	THOMAS MARRIED ANNA STAFFORD 3 APRIL 1796. (S34)	TAYLOR, Thomas (I20678)
2647	THOMAS MARRIED ANNA STAFFORD 3 APRIL 1796. (S34)	TAYLOR, Thomas (I20678)
2648	THOMAS MARRIED ANNA STAFFORD 3 APRIL 1796. (S34)	TAYLOR, Thomas (I20678)
2649	THOMAS MARRIED ANNA STAFFORD 3 APRIL 1796. (S34)	TAYLOR, Thomas (I20678)
2650	THOMAS MARRIED ANNA STAFFORD 3 APRIL 1796. (S34)	TAYLOR, Thomas (I20678)

Maintained by Michael Stafford.