Cummings and Converse

1590–1889

The line in brief

In June 1692, on what Cotton Mather called the longest day of the year, Capt. James Converse of Woburn held Storer’s garrison at Wells, on the Maine frontier, with fifteen men, and about fifteen more in two open sloops, against some five hundred French and Indians. In the night the besiegers called out, “You ly, you have none but Converse, and we will have him too before Morning!” When one of his soldiers spoke of surrender, Converse vowed he would lay dead the man who so much as muttered that base word again; offered terms under a flag of truce, he sent word “That he wanted for nothing, but for men to come, and Fight him.” The attackers drew off, and Mather called it “the Bravest Act in the War.” Converse was later Speaker of the Massachusetts House, and in 1702 commander of all the province’s forces in the field. His grandfather, Deacon Edward Converse, had come in Winthrop’s fleet in 1630, was granted the first ferry from Charlestown to Boston, and in 1643 moved to Woburn, where he was one of the first deacons. His father, Lt. James Converse, was probably the ensign of Woburn’s company in King Philip’s War, and his own wife, Hannah Carter, probably the daughter of its captain.

The major’s son Josiah married Hannah Sawyer at Woburn in 1706 and about 1727 went to Leicester, and later to Brookfield. Their son Lt. Josiah Converse married Eleanor Richardson at Leicester in 1732 and by 1737 had settled at Stafford, Connecticut, where Eleanor bore triplets in 1752, and from where, at sixty-five, he answered the Lexington Alarm. His son Israel, a sergeant at the Alarm and later a militia captain, married in 1771 Hannah, daughter of Capt. Amos Walbridge of Stafford. Hannah’s great-great-grandfather Samuel Porter, a son of John Porter of Windsor, had been one of the first settlers of Hadley, Massachusetts, and in King Philip’s War took care of most of the wounded soldiers there at his own cost, nearly two hundred pounds by his account. His granddaughter Theodia married Amos Walbridge of Preston, who settled at Stafford in 1735 and lived to within a few weeks of ninety-five. Their son, Maj. Amos Walbridge, was a captain at the Lexington Alarm, wintered at Valley Forge as major of the 2nd Connecticut, was at Monmouth, and was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati; his son Porter and his three sons-in-law served with him. After the war Israel and Hannah Converse went north to Randolph, Vermont, where he was judge of probate and died in 1806.

Leonard Cummings, of Litchfield and Londonderry, New Hampshire, died in 1758, leaving his young children under a guardian. His son Jerahmeel married Deborah Kendall of Dunstable in 1771, lived first at Amherst and by 1781 at Windsor, Vermont, and was a lieutenant of the Vermont militia in the Revolution. Deborah’s nephew Amos Kendall, later Postmaster General under Andrew Jackson, walked over from Dartmouth College to visit them, and two of the Cummings sons took him up Mount Ascutney; the students set out “With a lunch and a bottle of rum” and had to be helped down by their cousins. Jerahmeel’s son Joseph Cumins married Hannah Converse at Randolph in 1808. About 1840 they went west to Geauga County, Ohio, where her widowed mother had died at Parkman in 1830, and later to Grand Detour, Illinois, where both died; their son Theron, who reached Dixon with “but $3 in his pocket,” became president of the Grand Detour Plow Company. Their daughter Marion Orinda, born at Randolph Center in 1818 and named for her aunt Orinda Converse, married Dr. Marvin Chapin, a physician from Winfield, New York, at Parkman on 11 February 1847. Her daughter Ella Persis Chapin, who married Edward Browne, became the family’s historian: she joined the DAR in 1900 partly on the service of her Converse, Walbridge and Cummings ancestors, and in 1903 answered readers’ queries on all three families.

Where it went

  1. From Felsted, Essex1630Charlestown, MassachusettsEdward Converse
  2. 1639Windsor, ConnecticutJohn Porter
  3. By way of Leicester, Massachusetts1643Woburn, MassachusettsEdward Converse
  4. From Amherst, New Hampshireby 1737Stafford, ConnecticutJosiah Converse
  5. From Stafford, Connecticut, after the warby 1781Windsor, VermontJerahmeel Cummings
  6. West from Vermont with her parentsby 1785Randolph, VermontIsrael Converse
  7. c. 1840Parkman, OhioMarion Orinda Cumins

Eight generations

The Cummings name, four generations

  1. 3Leonard Cummings 1714–1758Of Litchfield, New Hampshire, in 1742, and later of Londonderry, where he died in 1758, leaving young children under a guardian.
  2. 2Jerahmeel Cummings b. 1750Lieutenant of the Vermont militia in the Revolution, born in New Hampshire in 1750, probably a son of Leonard Cummings of Litchfield and Londonderry, who died when he was about eight.
  3. 1Joseph Cumins 1781–1851Probably the father of Marion Orinda Cumins, who married Marvin Chapin.
  4. 0Marion Orinda Cumins 1818–1889Mother of Ella Persis Chapin, who married Edward Browne.

The line down the left is drawn as the tree draws it: solid where a record shows the link to the parent above, dashed where it rests on compiled accounts, dotted where it is reasoned from the evidence, grey where it is only possible. A bar fades where a birth or death year isn't known.

Everyone in the line, 29 people

Still being worked on

Research thread

Open questions

  • Leonard Cummings’s parents: the Litchfield and Londonderry deeds and his probate of 1758.
  • Lt. Josiah Converse’s parents: the Leicester town records.
  • Col. Israel Converse’s death, 28 March or 28 May 1806 (his gravestone at Randolph).
  • When the Converses left Stafford for Randolph.
  • Hannah Walbridge’s birth: 11 Oct 1752 or 1751.
  • Margaret Walbridge’s maiden name.
  • Lt. Jerahmeel Cummings’s death: Windsor, Vermont, or Champion, New York, in 1817.
  • Hannah (Carter) Converse’s death.
  • Deacon Edward Converse’s English origin.
For the record: the line at a glance and how sure it is

The line at a glance

  • Converse: Deacon Edward Converse (d. 1663), of Charlestown and Woburn > Lt. James Converse (c. 1620-1715) = Anna Long > Maj. James Converse (1645-1706) = Hannah Carter > Josiah Converse (1684-1771) = Hannah Sawyer > Lt. Josiah Converse (1710-1775), of Stafford = Eleanor Richardson > Col. Israel Converse (1743-1806) = Hannah Walbridge (1752-1830) > Hannah Converse (1785-1856) = Joseph Cumins (1781-1851) > Marion Orinda Cumins (1818-1889) = Dr. Marvin Chapin (1821-1907) > Ella Persis Chapin (1848-1936).
  • Walbridge and Porter: John Porter (d. 1648), of Windsor = Anna White > Samuel Porter (d. 1689), of Hadley = Hannah Stanley > Experience Porter (1676-1750) = Abigail Williams > Theodia Porter (1699-1760) = Amos Walbridge (1693-1788) > Maj. Amos Walbridge (1727-1793) = Margaret > Hannah Walbridge, above.
  • Cummings and Kendall: Leonard Cummings (1714-1758), of Litchfield and Londonderry, New Hampshire = Jane > Lt. Jerahmeel Cummings (b. 1750), of Amherst and Windsor, Vermont = Deborah Kendall (1751-1815), daughter of John Kendall of Dunstable and Hannah Whittemore > Joseph Cumins, above.

The scope walks every ancestor of Marion Orinda Cumins. Her husband’s side is the Browne and Chapin line, which stops at her. Joseph’s family wrote the name Cumins; the generations before him, Cummings.

How sure it is

Everything here reaches the Hattens through one doubtful step. Marion’s daughter Ella Persis Chapin married Edward Browne, and Henrietta (Browne) Hatten as their daughter rests on the Ancestry tree alone (compiled, possible), against two family genealogies that give the couple no children (see the Browne and Chapin line; research/to-decide.md, item 22). The line is Ella’s ancestry whatever is decided. Marion as Ella’s mother is documented, proven: Ella’s own DAR application, “Daughter of Dr. Marvin Chapin and Marion O. Cumins, his wife,” with her father’s obituary of 1907 and the two genealogies. Her marriage to Dr. Marvin Chapin at Parkman on 11 Feb 1847 is Kith and Kin’s (compiled, probable).

Above Marion the line is well supported, by Ella’s DAR application of 1900 and the family genealogies she helped with (research/hatten/Browne_Chapin_Cumins.md):

  • Marion to Joseph Cumins and Hannah Converse: compiled, probable: Kith and Kin, by her nephew, The Chapin Book, the DAR application, and the History of Lee County (1881), which names the same parents for her brother Theron; her husband’s obituary of 1907 calls her “a sister of Theron Cumins.” The research report rates it proven, but no record yet names her parents.
  • Hannah Converse to Col. Israel Converse and Hannah Walbridge: compiled, probable. Kith and Kin lists her ninth among their children, and Ella’s DAR application and her note of 1903 agree. Their marriage, at Stafford on 27 June 1771, is in the town records as the Wallbridge genealogy (1898) gives them (documented, proven).
  • Israel to Lt. Josiah Converse and Eleanor Richardson: documented, probable: his birth is recorded at Stafford among “the chi. of Josiah and Eleanor Converse.”
  • Lt. Josiah to Josiah Converse (1684) and Hannah Sawyer: compiled, probable (Kith and Kin, WikiTree, and Ella’s note of 1903, “Lieut. Josiah Converse, son of Capt. Josiah”). The Richardson Memorial (1876) and A. C. Vinton’s Converse genealogy make Eleanor’s husband a son of John Converse and Abigail Sawyer (possible), probably a confusion of father and son; either way the line goes back to Maj. James Converse and Hannah Carter and to Joshua and Sarah Sawyer. Kith and Kin‘s “Capt. Josiah” for the elder Josiah is doubtful: the Woburn records’ Capt. Josiah, who died in 1717, was his cousin.
  • Up the Converse line: Josiah (1684) to Maj. James Converse is documented, proven (“Josiah, s. of James, Jr.,” in the Woburn births), and to Hannah Carter compiled, probable, since the record names only his father. Maj. James to Lt. James is documented, proven, and to Anna Long documented, probable. Lt. James to Deacon Edward is documented, proven, by Edward’s will of 1659, which names his son James; his mother, Sarah, is possible. That the Wells captain was this James rests on Wikipedia, Kith and Kin and the editor of Lincoln’s Narratives (1913), who names him “James Converse of Woburn”; and that the ensign of Woburn in 1675 was Lt. James rather than his son is probable (research/king-philips-war/King_Philips_War_Register.md).
  • Hannah Walbridge to Maj. Amos Walbridge and Margaret: compiled, probable (the Wallbridge genealogy, from the Stafford records). Maj. Amos to Amos Walbridge and Theodia Porter is documented, probable: the Newent (Lisbon) church baptized “Amos,” child of Amos and Theodia Wallbridge, on 16 Dec 1727. Theodia to Experience Porter and Abigail Williams, Experience to Samuel Porter and Hannah Stanley, and Samuel to John Porter and Anna White are compiled, probable (Judd’s History of Hadley, 1905; Stiles’s Ancient Windsor, 1891). John Porter’s English origin rests on statements Stiles reports from Henry D. White.
  • Joseph Cumins to Lt. Jerahmeel Cummings and Deborah Kendall: compiled, probable (Kith and Kin; Mooar’s Cummings Memorial, 1903). Jerahmeel to Leonard Cummings is compiled, probable: when Leonard died in 1758 a guardian was appointed for his children “Jerahmeel, Rachel and Silas” (Mooar, from the probate); Jerahmeel’s mother is known only as Jane. Deborah to John Kendall and Hannah Whittemore is compiled, probable: Kith and Kin states it, Mooar says “perhaps,” and her nephew Amos Kendall called her husband “a Mr. Cummings who married a sister of his father.” Hannah Whittemore’s dates and parents are WikiTree’s.
  • Above Leonard Cummings: Kith and Kin carries the line on through Samuel Cummings of Groton to Isaac Cummings of Topsfield, but the Cummings Memorial it cites does not place Leonard; Samuel and Elizabeth (Shedd) Cummings stay names at possible, and the generations above them are not brought in (the research report rated the chain probable).

The dates disagree in places: Jerahmeel’s marriage is 30 Apr 1771 in Mooar, 13 May in Kith and Kin; Maj. Amos Walbridge’s birth is 1727 in the Norwich records, 1724 in Kith and Kin. The pages keep the records’ dates, with the other readings in their notes.

Left out: Kith and Kin’s royal pedigree for Edward Converse from the Conyers of Sockburn, which no document links to him; the Ancestry tree’s surname Washburn for Margaret, wife of Maj. Amos Walbridge, which has no source.

Their families and the files

+ 2 husbands, wives and children

Research filesresearch/hatten/Browne_Chapin_Cumins.mdresearch/gedcom/report-dwyer-hatten.mdresearch/king-philips-war/King_Philips_War_Register.md

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