Update [Nov 2011]: Here is how these families are connected in Colonial America, which I apparently suspected, but only just now demonstrated:

1. Rev. Samuel Stowe 1623
2. his son, Ichabod Stowe 1652
3. Ichabod Stowe's daughter, Hope Stowe c. 1694, who married Jehiel Hawley
4. their daughter, Hope Hawley, who married John Lyman
5. their daughter, Esther Hawley Lyman, who married David Henry Beecher
6. the son of Esther Hawley and David Henry Beecher, Rev Lyman Beecher
7. the daughter of Rev. Lyman Beecher, Harriet Beecher, who married Calvin Ellis Stowe
8. Harriet Beecher and her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe are thus both descendants of John Stowe 1581, of Roxbury, with various Lymans, Beechers, and Hawleys thrown in the mix!

I am named Hatte for Hattie (Harriett) Hawley Stowe, my great grandmother. My 5th great grandfather was Stephen Stow (Stowe), the Martyr of Milford. I knew we were related somehow to Harriet Beecher Stowe and using Geni, found out that both Harriett Beecher Stowe and her husband Calvin Ellis Stowe were Stowe descendants so we are related to both of them through separate paths. Along the way, I saw a number of Hawley relatives as well of course as the Lyman and Beecher families. Harriett Beecher Stowe's paternal grandmother was a Lyman and her ancestors were Hawleys who were descendants of Stowes!

I want to use this project to clean up these families and find out how they are interrelated through multiple cousin marriages and what that tells us about their community and their era. Who did they marry? Where did they live? What professions did they choose?

Both John Stowe and Richard Lyman settled first in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Both may have come on the Winthrop Fleet as well. Richard Lyman moved to Hartford. Lyman Beecher was from New Haven. There is a Yale connection between the Stowe family and the Beecher family. Lyman Beecher attended Yale, graduating in 1797. What are the other connections between these families? A good place to find connections is Albion's Seed, around which book there is a Geni project (see related projects).

Stowe Family

Calvin Ellis Stowe is a descendant of John Stowe, the founder of the Stowe family in America as follows.

1. John Stowe 1581, of Roxbury married Elizabeth Bigge
   
2. their son Nathaniel Stowe 1621 married Elizabeth ?
   
3. their son Nathaniel Stowe c.1663 married Lydia Walker
   
4. their son Thomas Stowe 1698 m. Anne Wetherby
   
5. their son Samuel Stowe 1742 married Abigail Dana
   
6. their son Samuel Stowe married Hepsibah Bigelow
   
7. their son Calvin Ellis Stowe, married Harriett Beecher
   

Calvin Ellis Stowe (1802–1886) was an American Biblical scholar who helped spread public education in the United States, and the husband and literary agent of Harriett Beecher Stowe.

His ancestor, founder of the American line of the Stowes, John Stowe, with his wife and six children emigrated to New England on the ship Elizabeth, arriving at Boston, according to the record of Rev. John Eliot, on the 17th of May 1634. He was admitted freeman Sept. 3, 1634, and was a proprietor at Roxbury, Representative to the General Court, two sessions, joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co. Boston 1638, together with his son Thomas. He was early a teacher in the Roxbury Grammar school, and was granted eighty acres of land for transcribing the Roxbury public records.

The Stows came from Maidstone, Kent County, England, and settled in Roxbury, Mass. Among the first settlers of Massachusetts was John Stow, the Puritan of Roxbury. He was the grandfather of Stephen Stow of Milford. Three of John Stow's descendants were presidents of Yale College and one is named among the founders of Yale. Stephen Stow was also a descendant of John Hopkins, one of the founders of Hartford, and of the Stockings, Moulds, and Bronsons, all of noble name and deed.

Hawley Family

Beecher Family

Lyman Beecher is known as the "father of more brains than anyone in America". He and his wife, Roxana Foote, had 9 children, the most famous of which was Harriet Beecher Stowe. A number of her siblings were also well known, including:

1. Henry Ward Beecher, the 8th of the 9 children, was a prominent Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, and speaker in the mid to late 19th century. An 1875 adultery trial in which he was accused of having an affair with a married woman was one of the most notorious American trials of the 19th century.
   
2. Harriet's sister Isabella Beecher Hooker (February 22, 1822 – January 25, 1907) was a leader in the women's suffrage movement and an author.
   
3. Sister Esther Beecher (September 6, 1800 – May 12, 1878) was an American educator known for her forthright opinions on women’s education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's education.
   
4. Brother Thomas K. Beecher (February 10, 1824 - March 14, 1900) was a preacher and the principal of several schools. He was a traveling man, living in many places such as: Litchfield, Connecticut, Boston, Massachusetts, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Elmira, New York. There is a memorial statue built in Elmira, New York were he spent a large portion of his life. He was a close friend of Mark Twain and married him to Olivia Langdon Clemens.
   

Lyman Family

Richard Lyman was from High Ongar, Essex. He immigrated in 1631, settling first in Roxbury, Massachusetts in September 1631. He later moved to Hartford, CT in 1636. He was admitted to Roxbury church as member #11.

Lyman Beecher was the son of Esther Lyman and David Henry Beecher. His mother was a descendant of both the Stowe family and the Hawley family as follows:

1. John Stowe (founder of Stowe family in America) m. Elizabeth Biggs
   
2. their son Samuel Stowe m. Hope Fletcher
   
3. their son Ichobod Stowe m. Mary Atwater
   
4. their daughter Hope Stowe m. Jehiel Hawley
   
5. their daughter Hope Hawley m. John Lyman
   
6. their daughter Esther Lyman m. David Henry Beecher
   
7. their son Reverend Lyman Beecher m. Roxana Foote
   
8. their daughter Harriett Elizabeth Beecher m. Calvin Ellis Stowe
   

My Williams family which intermarried with the Stowe family

I am a descendant of John Stowe as well, as follows

1. Elizabeth Bigge
   
2. their son Mary Griggs of Roxbury, MA
   
3. their son Thomas Stowe Jr. married Bethia Stocking
   
4. their son Samuel Stowe married Esther (Hester) Mould
   
5. their son Stephen Stowe, the Martyr of Milford, married Freelove Baldwin
   
6. their son John Stowe married Sarah Gillett
   
7. their son Elisha Stowe married Hannah Northrop
   
8. their son Henry Stowe married Susan Folliat
   
9. their daughter Hattie (Harriett) Hawley Stowe married Arthur Williams
   
10. their son Arthur Williams married Hazel Johnson
    
11. their daughter Anne Williams married Richard Rubenstein
    
12. their daughter Hatte Rubenstein married Daniel Blejer
    

Note that my sister is Jayne Stowe Rubenstein. And I am Hatte Rubenstein for Hattie Hawley Stowe Williams.

Branches of the Stowe Family

• Marlboro, Mass. branch of the Stowe family was founded by Samuel Stowe 1645 and Elizabeth Stone.

Places

Litchfield, Connecticut

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, Edward Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, and Catharine Beecher all grew up in Litchfield where their father, Lyman Beecher was the minister.

During its "Golden Age" (1784–1834) Litchfield had an unusual number of college educated inhabitants. In 1791 Samuel Miles Hopkins, a student at the Litchfield Law School, described Litchfield in his journal as a town of "hard, active, reading, thinking, intelligent men who may probably be set forth as a pattern of the finest community on earth."

More about Famous Members of the Stowe / Beecher / Lyman / Hawley Families

• Read about Stephen Stowe, Martyr of Milford
• Read about Calvin Ellis Stowe
• Read about Harriett Beecher Stowe
• Read about Reverend Lyman Beecher

Sources

• Genealogy of the Lyman family in Great Britain & America : the ancestors and descendants of Richard Lyman, from High Ongar in England, 1631
• Genealogy of Harriett Beecher Stowe
• Discussion of lineage of Calvin Ellis Stowe
• The Beecher family
• Lyman Beecher family tree
• Beecher family involvement in fighting slavery, a dynasty
• [http://www.hawleysociety.org/ The Hawley family site
• Discussion of Hawleyville and the early Hawley immigrants to Connecticut