Jonathan Fish

From "The Fish family in England and America : genealogical and biographical records and sketches" by Lester Warren Fish:

https://archive.org/stream/fishfamilyinengl00fish/fishfamilyinengl0...

(581) Jonathan [5] Fish (Robert [4] , Thomas [3] , Alice [2] , John [1] ), son of (100) Robert and Mary (Hall) Fish, was born at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Oct. 27, 1704; m. May 26, 1726, Michael Rhodes.

Children (born at Portsmouth):

• 1. (674) Isaac [6] , b. Feb. 2, 1726/27.
• 2. (675) William, b. July 24, 1728.
• 3. (676) Robert; b. Dec. 28, 1731.
• 4. (+677) Jonathan; b. 1732; d. abt. 1805; m. Sept. 13, 1758, Ann Child; m. (2) Phebe (Perry).
• 5. (678) Michael, b. 1737; m. Samuel Margott.
• 6. (679) Martha, b. Dec. 4, 1740.

(677) Jonathan [6] Fish (Jonathan [5] , Robert [4] , Thomas [3] , Alice [2] , John [1] ). Nothing further is definitely known concerning this Jonathan, but he may have been the Jonathan Fish who in 1801 became one of the “Original Tenants of Rensselaerville, New York.”

Florence Lee Sweet Wetzel, of Utica, N. Y., genealogist of the Sweet-Williams families, states that the original settler, Jonathan Fish, was born about 1748. However, the author (L. W. Fish), and also Mr. M. E. Tracy of Los Angeles, Calif., have searched all Fish records available and failed to find a Jonathan Fish born near that time who might fit the requirements. The author believes that the above Jonathan [6] was born about 1734 (15 years earlier than the approximate date given by Wetzel), and is the Jonathan Fish who was one of the original settlers in Trenton, New York (Oneida County).

According to the earliest deeds of Oneida County, Nicolas Fish of New York City owned large tracts of land in Trenton, N. Y. There are records of a transfer of his property from 1799 to 1806. There seems to be no record that he ever lived in the vicinity. Thomas F. Fish, acting as the executor of the will of Peter Fish, of Newtown, Queens County, New York, transferred property in the town of Trenton from the years 1806 to 1818. Apparently neither these men nor any of their families ever lived in the town. As these three members of the Fish family are from Newtown and New York City it would appear that they were descendants of Jonathan [3] of Newtown, whose descendants were found in Newtown for many years and in New York City to the present day. Just what connection there is between their presence there and the coming of Jonathan is not seen. No Jonathan of the New York branch was found to fit this requirement.

According to Wetzel the branch of the family that settled in Trenton originally came from Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and this original settler was Jonathan Fish. He was a descendant, she states, of the Thomas [3] who settled at Portsmouth, through the son or grandson of Robert [4]. After leaving Rhode Island these descendants of Robert [4] moved many times, residing for a short period in the New Hampshire Grants (Vermont), the territory then under dispute between the states of Massachusetts, New York and New Hampshire, and going from there to the counties of Saratoga, Albany and Oneida in New York. Some of this family were original members of the Presbyterian Church of Holland patent, Trenton, founded 1797, of which the early records are lost, and the town of Trenton has no early vital records.

The following genealogy and history concerning Jonathan Fish, who settled at Trenton sometime after 1780 when he left Rhode Island, are given by Florence Lee [11] (Sweet) Wetzel, of Utica, and based on notes of her mother, Mary Florence [10] (Williams) Sweet:

Jonathan [6] Fish was born about the year 1748 in Rhode Island, and died at Rensselaerville, Albany County, New York, about 1805, at about 57 (if born in 1734, according to the author, at about 71). He probably married Phebe (possibly Perry), in Rhode Island. There is no proof of this marriage, however, but the oldest deeds of Oneida County leave no doubt that Phebe Fish was the mother of Gerothman Fish (Vol. XVI, p. 313). The placing of her name first and in larger letters indicates this. She deeded to her sons land in Holland Patent, Trenton, and bought and sold other land in her own right as late as 1831. That her name might have been Perry is merely suggested by her naming her third son Perry and first deeding land to him (Vol. LIV, p. 201). In 1780 Jonathan Fish emigrated, with his wife, from Rhode Island to some place in the territory under dispute between the states of Vermont, New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. According to the U. S. Census, it might have been Ashford, Massachusetts, or Saratoga, New York, or both. Some of his younger children were born at New Ashford.

In 1790 U. S. Census is recorded a Jonathan Fish of New Ashford, Massachusetts, and this may be the place referred to as the birthplace of his son John. (It must be remembered that in 1790 a Jonathan Fish, son of Daniel [5], born about 1759, was living in New Ashford, and that he had a son Jonathan [7] born there Mar. 14, 1784.) Nothing has been found concerning this family in Vermont records, but the U. S. Census at Saratoga showed a Pardon Fisk, Jonathan and Jonathan, Jr. Fisk (no doubt an error in spelling, as often happens). Pardon Fish, the Rev. War Veteran, was in Saratoga at this period.

Original Tenants of Rensselaerville, N. Y.

In 1801 he became one of the Original Tenants of Rensselaerville under the Patroon Stephen Van Rensselaer, and took up Lot No. 212, Mar. 5, 1801 (“History of Albany Co.,” by Parker, p. 469, and “History of Rensselaerville,” by Torrance). He lived there until his death about 1805, and his widow Phebe and her family joined his oldest son, Gerothman, who had moved to Trenton a few years earlier.

According to the Bible records of the Williams Family some of this family were living in Charleton, Saratoga County, New York. Five children are given as born to Jonathan and Phebe (Perry?) Fish: As this Jonathan was born about the same time as (677) Jonathan [6], son of (581) Jonathan [5], we may designate him as Jonathan [6] and his children as of the seventh generation.

Children :

• 1. (+ 680) Gerothman [7] (Jerothman), b. 1771; d. 1843; m. Lydia-.
• 2. (681) Phoebe (?); (Tradition says they had a dau. (6813^) Phebe.)
• 3. (+ 682) John, b. 1782; d. 1859; m. Jane Palmer.
• 4. (683) Perry, m. Martha-.
• 5. (684) Pardon, and perhaps others.

Very little is known concerning the last two brothers, Perry [7] and Pardon [7], except that they also migrated to Oneida County. Perry Fish is listed as a land-owner in Trenton, in 1814 (Oneida Historical Society, Utica). There is also mention of “Perry Fish and Wife Martha,” of Trenton in 1830 (Oneida Mortgages, Vol. XX, p. 275). No further records of this family have been found.

Pardon [7] Fish, the youngest son and probably the namesake of the Rev. War Veteran (see p. 94), was in the Holland Patent in 1805, and signed a paper for the First Presbyterian Church (records destroyed), with his brothers Gerothman, John and Perry. This paper is a family record by copy. Nothing further concerning him or his family.

The fact that Gerothman [7] was eldest son of Jonathan [6] would almost throw out the fact that said Jonathan was son of Jonathan [5] unless Jonathan [6] had no issue, or all daughters, by his first wife.