4: Charles and Deborah Haight

Grave of Charles Haight

While Gilbert Marten may be the longest lived person buried in the cemetery, Charles Haight may be the oldest, having died on October 3, 1799, at the age of 88 years and 1 month, placing his birth somewhere in September 1711; he was born in Rye, New York, the son of Jonathan Haight and Rebecca Gannung. (His death and age were inscribed on his gravestone, which has since deteriorated considerably. Fortunately a transcription was made in 1914.)

Charles Haight is also remarkable among the people of the cemetery for another reason. A farmer,* he once owned the land that the cemetery now occupies. He donated it to the Episcopal Church in 1761, and they built a small wooden church. That building was damaged during the Revolutionary War, when it served as a hospital for soldiers, and was torn down in 1819. The photograph below shows the church that was built in 1850, which is now gone as well. (This post shows a picture of the inside of the Episcopalian Church that exists today.)

Episcopalian Church built 1850

Not surprisingly, Charles also served as a vestryman and warden of the church. His father Jonathan was a Quaker, although he is mentioned as "on Episcopal Church records 1752," according to the Genung Genealogy. I don't know if this means he converted or, like me, was a Quaker who just liked hanging out in the Episcopalian Church sometimes.

Grave of Charles Haight

Charles's mother Rebecca was a granddaughter of Jean Guenon, a Huguenot who married into a Dutch family. Her parents were Jeremiah and Martha Gannung. Her father, who was baptized in the Reformed Dutch Church in Manhattan, moved to Westchester in the 1720s.

Charles married Deborah Sutton, who was born around 1714, in 1734 in Hempstead, New York. They had three known children: Charles Jr., James, and Hannah. None of them are buried in the cemetery. Deborah, however, is buried next to Charles, having died on November 23, 1793 at the age of 78. Her grave is in much better condition than her husband's.

Grave of Deborah Sutton Haight

Both graves are notable for being two of the fourteen sandstone markers in the cemetery. Eighteenth-century sandstone graves in New York and New England are probably my favorite type of American gravestones. I didn't see any when I was in England, but a reliable source suggests that they are there too, and presumably before they were here. They're just remarkable. The faces are primitive, yet exhibit endless variation. As one person pointed out to me, the design around the angel head on Charles Haight's grave is like the sun's rays.

There are a lot sadder stories in the graveyard than Charles Haight's, but there are few sadder gravestones. Surely the stone of the man who gave the Episcopalian Church its first home in the town deserves better than to have his last monument crumble away. Eventually, sure, they'll all crumble away, but we can certainly fix some of the damage for the moment.

There are two other Haights buried in the cemetery, both very small children. I've yet to determine how (if at all) they're related to Charles. There are Haights all over the county, many of them Quakers.

The first is Nicholas Haight, the son of Nicholas Haight and Jemima Halstead, who died on June 8, 1791, at the age of three months and 21 days.

The second is James C. Haight, the son of Stephen P. and Mary S. Haight, who died on April 22, 1850, at age two years, one month, and seventeen days.


*On the plaque in front of the cemetery, he is identified as "Charles Haight, Esq." In the U.S. today "Esq." after a person's name indicates that he is a lawyer, but apparently in the past it was simply a way of acknowledging someone of high rank (and perhaps this is still true in the U.K.?).

Sources
Nichols, Mary Josephine Genung and Leon Nelson Nichols. Genung, Ganong, Ganung Genealogy: A History of the Descendants of Jean Guenon of Flushing, Long Island. Brooklyn, NY: A. W. Heinrich's Printing Company, 1906.