Benjamin Underhill

Grandfather of Sarah (Underhill) Frost, through his son Thomas. A Quaker of Westbury Meeting on Long Island who married Hannah Townsend in 1728.

His parentage is only possible, and with it the family’s descent from Capt. John Underhill. The Underhill Genealogy calls him “son of (9) David and Hannah (Forman) Underhill” (2:94), but the evidence, in the words of George W. Cocks quoted by the book itself, is that Benjamin and Samuel Underhill held property near the land David gave his son Peter, and were “not the descendants of John” (the Captain’s elder son), which “places them as children of David” (2:77-78). Both of David’s wives are theories too. So Capt. John Underhill, the soldier of the Pequot War, and Elizabeth Feake are only possible ancestors of the Frosts. The record that would settle it is the Westbury Friends’ certificate of Benjamin’s marriage in 1728, which may name his parents (source).

What the records do say of him (source, 2:94-95): he declared his intention of marrying Hannah, daughter of Thomas Townsend, at Westbury in March and April 1728 and married her on the 29th of the 3rd month (May). He witnessed the will of Ichabod Hopkins in 1730, and in 1731 “a Benjamin” bought 265 acres at Hempstead “adjoining the property of Thomas Townsend.” The Westbury records show him paid for work “towards the stable” of the meeting house in 1730 and on a committee in 1731; “in 1738 he acknowledged too much strong drink, and again in 1740, when he was disowned for it.” His wife and children moved to the Purchase Meeting in Westchester; in 1763 she took a certificate there, “having removed there some years ago.”

His children, “order not known and probably others”: Elizabeth, who married first a Hill and then, on the 15th of the 5th month 1771, David Tuthill of North Castle, the Purchase record calling her “Elizabeth Hill … daughter of Benjamin Underhill” (source); Thomas, born 6 June 1735; John, who married Deborah Dickinson, daughter of Zebulon, on the 19th of the 12th month 1771, as “John Underhill, of New Castle, son of Benjamin”; and Daniel, who died at New Castle in 1824 aged 73. Thomas and John married sisters.

Research: research/mcmillan/Frost_Underhill_Bowne_Feake.md.

Open questions

• His father: the Westbury Monthly Meeting marriage of the 29th of the 3rd month 1728 (Hinshaw, vol. 3, or the original at Swarthmore) may name him.
• His birth and death.