Probates: Abijah Merritt

This week, as part of the research for my thesis paper, I'll be examining some 19th-century probate records from the Westchester County Archives. Probate records can capture an extremely vivid portrait of a person's material life at the time of his or her death, as well as the personal relationships implicated in the distribution of property.

Abijah S. Merritt died on February 5, 1847, at the age of 61 years and 3 months. His gravestone in the cemetery is an ordinary marble marker with no iconography, a short biographical inscription, and an epitaph. He is buried in the front section of the cemetery, i.e. the Episcopal section, not far from the earliest graves (which you can see in the background of the photograph on the right). Like the earliest markers, Abijah's faces west, in the direction of the old St. George's Church, despite the fact that the church had been absent from the cemetery for two decades at the time of his death.

Given the fact that he was fairly advanced in age (61 certainly wasn't young by mid-19th-century standards), it's somewhat curious that Abijah died intestate - that is, without a will. It's possible his death was relatively sudden. He would have been born in 1785, just a few years after the American Revolution, and just one generation after the establishment of St. George's Anglican Church. His wife, Ruth Carpenter, was born August 1, 1787, the daughter of Morris Carpenter and Abigail Lawrence. The Carpenters had moved to New Castle two years before Ruth was born, according to History and Genealogy of the Carpenter Family, where they purchased a 161-acre farm. The family had originally come from Musketa Cove, Long Island. This is a particularly interesting detail because the original settlers of North Castle - back in the 1720s - were described as "descendants of the Long Island Quakers" by a contemporary visitor. Were Quaker families still migrating from Long Island into Westchester into the 1780s? According to the Carpenter genealogy book, Ruth's father belonged to the Methodist Church whose property adjoined that of the Episcopal cemetery on its southern border. Perhaps they were like many other families in the region who were originally Quakers, or had Quaker ancestry.

As for Abijah himself, several family trees on Ancestry.com name his parents as Caleb Merritt and Deborah Lyon, but I can't confirm it. The earliest record in which I have found Abijah Merritt is the 1820 federal census of New Castle, in which he appears as the head of a household of six people, including one white male age 26-44 (Abijah himself), one white female age 26-44 (presumably Ruth), three white males under the age of 10 (possibly their sons), one white female age 10-15 (possibly their daughter), and one person engaged in manufactures (most likely Abijah).

Twenty years later, the 1840 census shows Abijah Merritt as the head of a household of five people, including a male and female age 50-59 (Abijah and Ruth), one free white male age 20-29, one free white male age 15-19, and one free white male age 10-14. Two people were engaged in manufacture and trade. If I had to guess, I'd venture that these five people represent Abijah, Ruth, and their three sons, and that the oldest son likely engaged in the same trade as Abijah. Abijah and Ruth's daughter had likely married and left the household at this point.

In the inventory of Abijah Merritt's property taken at the time of his death, three relatives are named: Ruth Merritt, his widow; Elizabeth, wife of Isaac Sherwood; and Caleb Merritt, administrator of his estate.

A Caleb Merritt of New Castle enumerated in the 1870 federal census was 58 years old, making him the right age to be Abijah and Ruth's oldest son (the one age 20-29 in the 1840 census). The Caleb Merritt in the 1870 census was a house carpenter with a wife Mary and children Maria, Abijah, and Sarah. He had real estate worth $5,000 and personal estate worth $625.

Abijah Merritt's probate record contains further indirect evidence that this Caleb was Abijah Merritt's son. Among Abijah's property was a full set of carpentry tools and a large amount of lumber. Presumably, Abijah was a carpenter and had taught the trade to his son.

Elizabeth C. Sherwood, the wife of Isaac Sherwood, is listed in the 1850 census as 40 years old, making her the right age to be the girl listed in the 1820 census as age 10-15. She is, most likely, Abijah and Ruth's daughter. Isaac was a farmer with an estate worth $8,000 and they had five children: Caleb M., Ruth A., William, Elizabeth, and Isaac S. Presumably, Elizabeth named her daughter Ruth after her mother, just as Caleb named his son Abijah after their father.

Thus we are able to build a picture of the family in 1847: Abijah died, perhaps suddenly, leaving his 60-year-old widow, 37-year-old daughter, and 35-year-old son to contend with his estate. The estate inventory taken by Caleb Merritt on April 10, 1847, records what that estate contained and how it was apportioned to his survivors.

The Inventory
The first section of the inventory deals with the "personal property assigned to the widow," Ruth Merritt. This property was held separately and was not considered part of Abijah's estate. It included:

• Family library
• Pork of two swine
• Cooking stove
• One large and one small wheel
• One cow, four beds & bedding, and cooking utensils
• Six chairs, six knives & forks, six plates, six tea cups and saucers
• One sugar dish, one milk pot, one teapot, and six spoons

This was followed by "articles of personal property assigned to the widow and appraised and not exceeding in value of $150." Since Abijah's entire estate was judged to be worth no more than $300, it seems that Ruth was entitled to no more than half of her husband's property. 

• Two tables
• One dozen chairs
• 1/2 dozen knives & forks
• Fifteen Liverpool plates
• Two oval dishes
• Six blue-edged plates
• Two [illegible] dishes
• One large oval dish
• Three tablespoons [illegible] silver
• Three teaspoons [illegible] silver
• One pair white & [illegible] pitchers
• Six tumblers and two decanters
• One brass clock
• One secretary
• One willow basket
• One large clock
• 1/2 dozen china cups & saucers
• One looking glass
• One tea bord [?]
• Pork & beef [illegible]
• Two chest of drawers

The next section, dated May 16, 1846 - that is, more than six months before Abijah died - is titled "Book account against Richard Kirby." I am not sure what this means, but Richard Kirby was a farmer of about Abijah's age who lived in the same region and is also buried in the cemetery. The following property is listed in this section, totaling a value of $239.49:

• Bank notes
• One silver watch
• One pair silver spectacles
• Three pair brass spectacles [?]
• Lot of carpenter tools consisting of planes, saws, augers, chisels, and one pair adze & broad ax
• One grindstone
• One ten plate stove [?]
• Two cast iron wheels and [illegible] in shop
• Blacksmith bellows & [illegible]
• One tool [?] chest
• Lot of plank in blacksmith shop
• Two iron bars and two wrenches belonging to saw mill
• One cart hook, one ax
• 18 oak boards
• Maple and oak plank
• Lot of cherry and birch plank
• Lot of ash plank, beach blank, and butternut [?] boards
• Six flour [illegible]
• One lumber [illegible] spring wagon
• One set one horse harness
• Two old wagon tire and old [illegible]
• One bay mare
• One yearling colt
• One red cow
• One corn plough
• Twenty fowls
• Shovel and [?]fork & spade & [illegible]

This list is proceeded by two items:

• Note against Solomon Classer [?] dated April 24th, 1834 for $24.25 Bad
• Note against Floyd G. Cox dated January 7th 1840 for $10.04 Bad

On the next page, Ruth Merritt has signed a note renouncing her right to letters of administration on the estate of her deceased husband, witnessed by Isaac and Elizabeth C. Sherwood.

The Aftermath

Ruth Merritt died in October of 1859 at the age of 71 of consumption. Her death is recorded in the federal mortality schedules for 1860. I haven't been able to determine where she is buried; if it's in the Episcopal cemetery (the most likely location), I haven't seen her gravestone. Nor have I found her name in the county probate index.

While there are several Sherwoods buried in the cemetery, Elizabeth Merritt Sherwood doesn't seem to be among them. I last find her in the federal census of 1860, living in Bedford.

I last find Caleb Merritt in the federal census of 1880, living in New Castle. He and his wife Mary may be the Caleb and Mary Merritt buried in the Anderson Cemetery in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1894 and 1886, respectively.

1. Abijah Merritt (1785-1847) m. Ruth Carpenter (1787-1859) 
1. Elizabeth Merritt (1810-after 1860) m. Isaac Sherwood (1802-)
1. Caleb M. Sherwood (1836-)
2. Ruth A. Sherwood (1838-)
3. William Sherwood (1845-)
4. Elizabeth Sherwood (1847-)
5. Isaac S. Sherwood (1849-)
2. Caleb Merritt (1812-1894) m. Mary E. (1819-1886)
1. Maria Merritt (1845-)
2. Abijah Merritt (1847-)
3. Sarah Merritt (1854-)