KENNEY-L Archives

From: "Jeff Green" <>
Subject: Part 2 - More on the Four Israel's of Massachusetts
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 20:45:11 -0500

I've been told that this post needs to be done in two parts as the list won't accept anything larger than 20k in size.

Part Two
Now for the final Israel Kenney and his "brother" Asa.

Israel Kenney #2 of Maugerville and Oromocto, New Brunswick, Canada
Israel #2 was born in Sutton, Worcester, MA on October 23, 1739 and was the seventh of twelve children born to Daniel, Jr. and Elizabeth (Stockwell) Kenney. [R-02] Israel #2 and an Asa Kenney, are both listed in the "Officers and Men from Sutton in Colonial Service from 1755 to 1761" [R-14] that served during the French and Indian War. This Israel #2 had a younger brother named Asa born October 14, 1743. [R-02] But it's not certain if this is the same Asa that served in the Colonial service or if it was their 2nd cousin Asa Kenney, born March 14, 1737/38 the son of Theophilus and Jemima (Pond) Kenney. [R-02] One of these two Asa's married a Mehitable Stockwell on July 24, 1763 [R-02] Her birth year has been estimated by others to be about 1741.

Asa and Mehitable's youngest child was named Jesse, and Theophilus and Jemima's youngest child was also named Jesse and they also had a son named Stephen. [R-02] This is the first use of the name Stephen in any of the Kenney families to this date, and both Jesse and Stephen were Israel #2 and brother Asa's second cousins, once removed. But in the early settlements of these small frontier towns, they were likely to be as close as brothers.

In the book, "The Genealogy of Henry and Anne Kinne", the author states next to Asa's name (son of Theophilus), "no further record". And she attributes Israel #2's brother Asa as being the spouse of Mehitable. Two other siblings of Israel #2 married into the Stockwell family, as well as the fact that their mother was a Stockwell. No other members of the Theophilus Kenney family married Stockwell's. [R-02]

Israel #2's brother, Asa, would have just turned seventeen at the end of the fighting in the French and Indian War in 1760. There is also an assumption that Asa was killed during the war.* This would have had to happen by the end of 1760 when the fighting ceased. This Asa would hardly have been old enough to have married and then run off for the last couple of months in the war. Not impossible, but I'd say this candidate really pushes the envelope of plausibility. After the end of the war, the only record found for Israel #2 in the vicinity of Upton is an intention of marriage to Sybil Leland, filed in the Uxbridge/Grafton area on October 24, 1761. [R-15] [R-16] If this marriage occurred, there is no record of it nor of any children born to them. There is also no record in the Sutton area of an Asa Kenney marrying an Abigail.

*According to family tradition in what is written in "Israel Kenny, his children and their families" by Edwin Wallace Bell; [R-17] Israel had a brother named Asa who married a woman named Abigail who survived him and then married a storekeeper named Richard Barlow. It also suggests that Asa died in the war, possibly at the taking of Quebec. The taking of Quebec occurred on September 13, 1759, so I would think this pretty much takes this Asa, Israel #2's brother, out of the picture. On this date, he was a month shy of his sixteenth birthday. This information presented in E.W. Bell's book has made it very difficult to determine whether the Asa that Bell speaks of was actually a brother of Israel #2 or if he was his cousin. The records that "are" available do not support this story at this time and nobody else has turned up any information that can prove this story one way or another. Over the years, family memories fade and get replaced by erroneous family lore and I think tha!
t's basically what this is.

I've found in the marriage records for Middleton an Asa Kenny that married an Abigail Putnam on October 8, 1765. [R-03] This is the only record I can find for an Asa Kenney and an Abigail anywhere, and there is no further record of them. In the Topsfield marriage records I find an entry for Israel Kinney and Susanna Hood's marriage intention and marriage on the same day of June 9, 1763. [R-04] I cannot find entries for the births of their first two children, Deborah and Sarah in the Topsfield [R-04], Middleton [R-03] or Sutton [R-02] vital records nor can I find an entry for Asa and Abigail's son, Asa, Jr. in these same volumes.

Being that Daniel Kenney, Jr., father of Israel #2, was the son of a man that owned part of an iron mill, it's quite possible that he was also trained in blacksmithing to some degree or another. Unfortunately I've been unable to locate information on this theory, but it's doubtless that he would have had something to do with Israel's following the trade of his grandfather and uncles, leading him to an apprenticeship at the Boxford Iron Works.

In the town tax records for Middleton in 1762 and 1763, there appears to be three different Israel Kenney's. I suspect that after Israel #2 returned from his Colonial Service, it's very likely he went to the iron works in Middleton to either learn or further hone his skills as a blacksmith. And what better an area for a young man to find a bride. The population was much larger and denser in the Middleton, Topsfield and Salem areas than in the remote town of Sutton.

My conclusions are that the Israel Kenney who married Susannah Hood is the Israel #2 as described above. I believe the Asa Kenney that married an Abigail is probably the son of Theophilus and Jemima (Pond) Kenney and is Israel's cousin, not his brother. Although, if this Asa was married at the time he died in battle, he couldn't have been married to Abigail Putnam because she was born about 1745 and was fourteen at the time of the taking of Quebec. This Asa (son of Theophilus) would have been twenty one and he and Abigail would have to be married before September 1759, at the time Quebec was taken. Now, if this Asa were to have survived the war and died in some other manner between October 8, 1765 and the time the families set out for Canada, then his marriage to Abigail Putnam would be more feasible. There may be a record of the birth of Abigail's son, Asa, Jr. tucked away in some obscure Topsfield or Middleton document that could be the final clue to this story.

So there it is. Take it with a grain of salt or accept what I've given you here and follow it up with more research of your own if you wish.

If any of this confuses you, you still have questions or have anything you'd like to share or add, please feel free to email me.
Jeff Green


Sources:

[R-01]
Town and vital records, 1681-1859
Boxford, Essex, MA - Vital records
Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1971
film # 0877753 and 0877753

[R-02]
Births, marriages and intentions, deaths, 1710-1877
Sutton, Worcester, MA - Vital records
Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1971
film # 0721190

[R-03]
Births, marriages, deaths 1703-1822
Middleton, Essex, MA - Vital records
Salt Lake City : Filmed by Reproduction Systems
for the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1971
film # 0876103

[R-04]
Births, marriages and intentions, deaths, 1648-1886
Topsfield, Essex, MA - Vital records
Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1971
film # 0761323

[R-05]
Publication: The Ironworks in Middleton Massachusetts
By Lura Woodside Watkins

[R-06]
The Averell-Averill-Avery Family
A Record of the Descendents of William and Abigail Averell of Ipswich, Mass.
Compiled by Clara A. Avery
Pages 211, 224, 225

[R-07]
The Richardson Memorial
Author: John Adams Vinton
1876
Call Number: CS71.R52

[R-08]
Genealogical Records: Massachusetts Genealogical Records, 1600s-1800s
Listed in: Boston Marriages from 1700-1751, Vol. I
Marriage Intentions, 1741-1751
Page number: 281
Israel Kenney & Unice White Jan. 11, 1745

[R-09]
Essex County, Massachusetts, Probate Index, 1638-1840
Old Series : Probate records, vols. 327-328, Book 27-28, 1746-1749.
Film #: 0875134
Name: Israel Kenney
File Date: 20 Apr 1747
Residence: Middleton
Type: intestate

[R-10]
"The History of Hollis New Hampshire"
From its First Settlement to the Year 1879
by Samuel T. Worcester
Pages 164, 380

[R-11]
Town and Vital Records, 1812-1892
Knox, Waldo, ME - Vital records
Salt Lake City : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1953
film # 0011041

[R-12]
Military Records: Revolutionary War Pension Lists
Listed in: Pension Roll of 1835, Volume I, Maine, Page 188
Pension Application date: April 11, 1818
Pension Commencement date: July 21, 1819
Lists date of death as: March 5, 1820.

[R-13]
Births, marriages, deaths, 1653-1890
Beverly, Essex, MA - Vital records
Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1971
film # 0760604

[R-14]
Officers and Men from Sutton in Colonial Service
For Various Lengths of Time, from 1755 to 1761
This record is included with:
Births, marriages and intentions, deaths, 1710-1877
Sutton, Worcester, MA - Vital records
Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1971
film # 0721190

[R-15]
Births, marriages and intentions, deaths
Uxbridge, Worcester, MA - Vital records
Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1972
film # 0874034

[R-16]
Births, marriages and intentions, deaths
Grafton, Worcester, MA - Vital records
Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1972
film # 0872747

[R-17]
Israel Kenny, his children and their families"
by Edwin Wallace Bell

[R-18]
Tax records, 1728-1799
Middleton, Essex, Massachusetts, - Taxation
Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1900
Film # 0968016

Other items referenced:
1790 Census - Beverly, Essex, MA
1800 Census - Beverly, Essex, MA
1810 Census - Beverly, Essex, MA
1820 Census - Beverly, Essex, MA
1790 Census - Hollis, Hillsborough, NH
1800 Census - Hollis, Hillsborough, NH
1810 Census - Hollis, Hillsborough, NH
1800 Census - Knox, Hancock, ME
1810 Census - Knox, Hancock, ME
1820 Census - Knox, Hancock, ME
1830 Census - Knox, Waldo, ME (Knox, ME became part of Waldo Co. July 3, 1827)

This thread:

• Part 2 - More on the Four Israel's of Massachusetts by "Jeff Green" <>