Sunday's Stories, 52 Ancestor Weeks, Week # 29, Richard Lashbrook (Junior)

Copyright 2014, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

This is week 29 of my participation Amy Johnson Crow's, once a week challenge to blog about one ancestor a week, tell their story, biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on that one ancestor. More about the challenge can be found at her Blog, No Story Too Small.

Richard Lashbrook, Jr.  was born about 1822 in Devon England to Richard Lashbrook and his wife, Ann (nee Newcombe) Lashbrook.  Richard Jr. was christened May 19, 1822 at Thornbury, Devon, England

Baptismal record provided by the late George Lashbrook of Somerset England.

Richard traveled with his parents and siblings to Canada (around 1830) and then on to New York state. Richard applied for naturalization while he lived in Clinton County, New York.  He was granted citizenship on October 4, 1842.  He signed the paper work as Richard Lashbrook Jr, with an "X" mark, which tells us he could not write.

Richard married (no proof) one Betsey Ann Mitchell (maybe Mitchell, fairly sure, could use some more solid proof on this one.)  Date and place of marriage unknown, most likely somewhere in New York state around 1840-45.

Richard and Betsey had 11 children that we are aware of, they were:  William M. Lashbrook, Royal Lashbrook, Fannie (Fanny) Lashbrook, Edgar Lashbrook, Emma Jane (Emily) Lashbrook, Francis A. Lashbrook (died at age 1), Nellie Lashbrook, Cora Stella Lashbrook, Lina (Galina) Lashbrook, Galinus "George" Lashbrook and Emergency Lashbrook (and no, I am no way near positive that Emergency was HER correct name, she is a brick wall of sorts in my Lashbrook research.)

On the 20th of December 1848, Richard Lashbrook, Junior, was the grantee of a warrantee deed from Alexander and Harriette Brand for land located in McHenry County Illinois.  He paid $80.00 for the property which contained 80 acres, the land was described as the E 1/2 of the NE 1/4 of Section 13, Township 45.

Richard is enumerated in the 1850 US census for Hartland, McHenry County, Illinois as follows: Richard, age 28, inn keeper, born England; Betsey, age 27, born NY; William, age 7, born NY; Royal, age 5, born NY; Fanny, age 3, born NY; Emily, age 2, born NY; Edgar, age 10 months, born NY.  It is indicated that Richard and Betsey both can read and write.

Richard is listed on the 1851 Town of Marengo Election list.  Said election was held November 4, 1851.  It appears they voted for a Treasurer, Surveyor, School Commissioner and "for and against the general banking law".  Thanks to the McHenry County Illinois Genealogical Society for publishing this list in their April 2002 issue of their newsletter.

Richard appears on the 1860 US census for Marengo Village, McHenry County, Illinois as follows: Richard, age 37, day laborer, born England, cannot read or write; Betsey, age 36, born New York; Wm (William), age 17, born New York; Royal, age 15, born New York; Fanny, age 13, born Illinois; Emma, age 12, born Illinois; Edgar, age 10, born Illinois; Emigene, age 9, born Illinois, Eliza age 5, born Illinois, Carrie, age 3, born Illinois; 2 infants (twins), age 1 year, one boy and one girl, born Illinois.  This census enumeration is the last documentation I have found on Richard Jr.

Richard was not named in his father's will (1882).  In the settlement of his mother's estate (1883) he is listed as deceased and that there were 10 living children, although the administrator could only locate 8. The children were not named.   However, when Richard's brother John died in McHenry County (1891) and his estate went through the probate process, all 10 of Richard's living children were named.  One of Richard's daughter's, Emma, signed an affidavit stating her father had died "about the year 1862" and named the children.

Wish list for Richard Lashbrook, Jr.:  Marriage record.  Discover place and date of death and burial.

* Additional source data can be obtained by contacting me, see the right hand column for a yahoo email address.

** 52 Ancestors Weeks Button courtesy of Amy Johnson Crow.

*** I use many resources to research, FamilySearch.org is a free site.  Ancestry.com is a pay site for which I pay, no discounts, etc.  None of these sites have asked me to review them, or use them.  See my Disclaimers page for further details.

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Sunday's Stories, 52 Ancestor Weeks, Week # 22, Ann (nee Newcombe) Lashbrook

Copyright 2014, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

This is week 22 of my participation Amy Johnson Crow's, once a week challenge to blog about one ancestor a week, tell their story, biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on that one ancestor. More about the challenge can be found at her Blog, No Story Too Small.

Ann Newcombe was born Jun 30, 1793, give or take.  Her birth date is figured from the age at her death and her death date, as inscribed on her headstone (more on that later).  We believe she was born in Devon(shire) England.

Given these dates, one is directed to a christening record found via LDS IGI, from church records extracted, for the christening of Ann Newcombe, 7 July 1793 at West Putford, Devon, England, father Thomas Newcombe, mother Mary.

A group of researchers interested in the Newcombe family assisted in compiling the following family groups:

     Thomas Newcombe, christened 26 February 1764 at East Putford, Devonshire, England marries Mary Fishleigh on 24 December 1787 in Damerel, Devonshire, England.

      Thomas' parents are John Newcombe and Ann Jeffery, who marry 12 June 1769 at Bradford, Devonshire, England.

Additional research needs to be done, that I just have not done, and therefore these names are not represented on my data base, except by the above notes.  We do note, that Thomas' birthday is 5 years BEFORE the marriage of the supposed parents, John and Ann.  Like I said, additional research REALLY needs to be done!

On September 6, 1814 Ann married Richard Lashbrook at Thornbury, Devon, England.  By 1830 they had 10 surviving children born and baptized in Devon(shire) England.  By 1832 the family, Richard, Ann and all those 10 children, left Devon via Quebec Canada and had arrived in or around Clinton County New York.  They had two more children born in New York that survived, and possibly two more that did not, but are named by other family researchers.  Nothing further is known about those two possible children, except that they were supposedly named Jacob and Elizabeth.

Ann and Richard's children were:  John, Mary, Fannie/Fanny, Thomas, Richard, Grace, William, Aaron, Solomon, James Noah (went mostly by Noah), Ann, and Moses.

Sometime in the early 1840's the entire Lashbrook clan, Richard and Ann and all 12 children with several in-laws/spouses and some grandchildren, left upper New York and moved, lock, stock, and barrel to McHenry County Illinois where Richard and Ann lived till their deaths.

Ann left no will, however there is a probate case in McHenry County, Illinois to settle her estate. Of special interest are the following bills that were paid to settle her final affairs:

Cost of cloth casket and shroud was $ 33.50; cost of hearse and carriage for the funeral was $6.01; cost of  "digging grave and filing up" was $ 3.00.

Total expenses paid by the administrator of Ann's estate was $375.00, plus $60.00 administration fee.  Each of her heirs (children) received the sum of $46.64 in settlement of the estate.

(Below is my take on the legal papers, I am no lawyer, that is the disclaimer, meaning, I could have interpreted the papers wrong.)

The event of Ann's death before her husband's estate had been settled presented some legal problems for the administrators of both estates. There were several lengthy legal documents, court cases, orders for court appearances, and requests for re-appraisal of Richard's estate. Richard in his will had given the use of the house in town to Ann for the rest of her life and the cash amount of $4,000.00 for use towards her expenses for life.  The problem seems to stem from the fact that there was not $4,000.00 cash to give to Ann for her usage.  Richard's estate consisted of two pieces of property (including the house lot) and several outstanding loans due him.

The administrator for Richard's estate had not sold the second piece of property, nor fully collected the loans due him by the time Ann died,  therefore he had never given Ann her $4,000.00.  What he actually did was to pay several bills for Ann's food and care out of Richard's estate.

When Ann died the executor of her estate had no funds with which to pay her final bills.  He filed a court action demanding the $4,000.00 Ann was supposed to have received.  Richard's administrator argued that he could not raise that amount, and indeed he had no right to sell the house lot.  He asked the court for permission to sell the lot.

There was another factor coming into play here, Richard had left each of his children stated amounts of money, to be paid at certain intervals.  For example, Moses was to get $800.00, payable over 4 payments of $200.00 each, one payment due one year after Richard's death and the next 3 payments one year apart after that.  After all these legacies were paid, final expenses paid, and Ann's portion laid aside, if there is residue, that residue is to be paid in equal amounts to the children.

Ann died without a will, therefore from what I can make of the legal papers filed, after her final expenses were paid, any balance would be split between the children in equal amounts.

If it sounds confusing, I agree (again since I am not a lawyer). However, by studying the final accounts it appears that: 1.)  The court ordered the sale of the house lot.  John Lashbrook purchased it for the sum of $1,000.00.   2.)  The $1,000.00 was paid to Ann's administrator, who now had funds to pay her final bills and a little left over to distribute to each child, share and share alike, each child receiving $44.64.  3.) One piece of  Richard's property was sold Nov. 27, 1883 for $2,612,00 (interesting that the executor calls this property a "store") and that sum along with other funds from rents, interest, cash on hand, etc. was used to pay Richard's final bills, and the legacies to his children.  These legacies were paid in December 1883 and January 1884.  It is not clear to compiler if the "store" was the other piece of property or perhaps was on the same piece of property that the house was on.

Ann died on May 11, 1883 in McHenry County, Illinois at the age of 89 years, 10 months and 11 days.

Ann was laid to rest beside her Richard in the Jerome Cemetery, Harvard, Dunham Township, McHenry County, Illinois.

In 2004 Man and I visited McHenry County Illinois and I did a nice bit of research.  We also visited a number of cemeteries in the area, including the Jerome Cemetery.  The Lashbrook monument was extremely hard to photograph and I resorted to carefully placed artist paper to get a rubbing of the inscriptions.  Rubbings are not acceptable to many researchers and cemetery buffs.  There is a good reason for this, it has been discovered that the practice can result in serious damage to stones.  For this reason, chalking, scrubbing, scraping, and flouring stones is also considered a no no.  However, we did a rubbing.  And, the only photographs we did that we could see the inscription was with the rubbings.  Here is Ann's.  Note the farm fencing pole that is being used to keep the stone in an upright position.  SIGH.

Wish list for Ann (nee Newcombe) Lashbrook:  Prove her parentage.  Photo of Ann.  Obituary for Ann, despite several searches, including checking each local paper we could find on microfilm during our visit to McHenry County, no obituary has been found.

* Additional source data can be obtained by contacting me, see the right hand column for a yahoo email address.

** 52 Ancestors Weeks Button courtesy of Amy Johnson Crow.

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