Stone
"[T]hey fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element.
"What could now sustain them but the spirit of God and His Grace? May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: 'Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity.'"
--William Bradford, governor of Plymouth Plantation, writing about the first Puritans to reach the New World's shores in 1620
My STONE line (see below) are putative descendants of Puritan DEACON SIMON STONE, who emigrated from England to Watertown (near Cambridge/Boston), in the Massachusetts colony of New England, in 1635.
This Deacon Simon and Deacon Gregory Stone were two brothers from County Essex, England who emigrated to Massachusetts in that year and became the forefathers of most of the Stone families in Massachusetts.
I have traced and documented my own ancestry backwards in time to CAPT. SIMON STONE(7) (c. 1769-1818), who, along with his son, Orren (also my ancestor) is mentioned as the modern end of a line of seven Simons in J. Gardner Bartlett’s classic book, Simon Stone Genealogy: Ancestry and Descendants of Deacon Simon Stone of Watertown, Mass. 1320-1926 (published for the Stone Family Association, Boston, 1926). While I believe Gardner's research on this line from Simon Stone(7) back to the original immigrant, Deacon Simon Stone, is substantially true, it has not yet been independently verified by my own research, so I do not definitively claim this line earlier than Capt. Simon Stone(7) yet.
My entire (possible) line of Stones is listed below. The information on the lineage of the six earlier Simons (c. 1584 to 1818) comes mainly from Gardner's book, and a couple of weak and problematic links are highlighted by me in bold and italic. Orren Stone (1795-1888) is the most recent of my ancestors who appears in Gardner's book. He and the more modern descendants on my list (1795-1990) have been confirmed by documentation gathered by me.
UPDATE -- For new information on current Y-DNA testing results on this STONE line, CLICK HERE.
For more information:
See my photo tour of the Stone family churches of Great Bromley and Boxted in Essex county, England
See the website of the Stone Family Association.
See the Facebook page for Simon and Gregory Stone descendants.
See the online books and biographies on Stone genealogy.
See more English documents and photos of the Gregory and Simon Stone line.
See an explanation and a chart of the immigrant Deacon Simon Stone's English forebears, as well as an explanation of English STONE DNA and "Our Patrilineal Heritage."
See The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton, a well-written historical novel set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay colony and featuring Deacon Simon Stone and his wife as minor characters.
See Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick, an evocative non-fiction recreation of what the Puritans experienced in emigrating from England to New England in the early 1600's.
See images of the Stone brothers monument (Old Burial Ground, Arlington Street), and Deacon Simon Stone's homestead and his "Great Pear Tree" in Watertown, Massachusetts. According to the Watertown Free Public Library which hosts these images, the pear tree was "said to be 285 years old when it was cut down in 1921. Was located on the Stone Farm, now Mount Auburn Cemetery."
The above two photos were taken and contributed here by Stone cousin Sally R. Chandler, and are of the painting of Deacon Simon Stone's homestead which hangs in the Watertown, Massachusetts library. The plaque below the painting reads: "Deacon Simon Stone Homestead / Burned Down 1844 / Formerly on what is now the Cambridge Cemetery / Loaned by the Stone Family Association."
The photos on this page, unless otherwise noted, were taken in 2006 by Paul Stone at the Old Burial Ground at Arlington Street in Watertown (Middlesex Co.), Massachusetts, and are used with his kind permission. Above is the plaque on the Stone brothers' monument in this small cemetery; in the top photo you can see the monumental boulder in the background, left, and the nearby parking garage. The monument's plaque reads as follows:
In memory of Simon Stone 1586-1665
and Gregory Stone 1592-1672
sons of David and Ursula Stone
born in Great Bromley, Essex County, England
who emigrated to New England in 1635
and settled in Watertown.
This memorial is erected by the Stone Family Association
in grateful remembrance of these early settlers who
in their love of civil and religious liberty, left their
homes and so much that was dear to them in England and
by their courage, toil, and sacrifice helped to found
this Commonwealth.
My (putative) line of descent:
1. DEACON SIMON[1] STONE (c. 1584/5-1665?), “a Pioneer of New England in 1635,” was born in the parish of Great Bromley, County Essex, England [northeast of London], and baptized there 9 Feb. 1585/6, the eighth of eleven children of DAVID STONE and the eldest by the latter’s second wife, URSULA ---. For at least three centuries his English ancestors bearing the family name STONE had resided in and around Great Bromley, tilling as yeomen lands they leased from the lords of various manors.
Simon[1] Stone seems to have been brought up in the ancestral occupation of farming and to have resided in his native parish of Great Bromley until about 1622 when he removed to Boxted, County Essex, a parish about six miles northwest of Great Bromley and on the south side of the River Stour which separates it from Nayland, County Suffolk; in this latter parish Deacon Gregory Stone, the youngest brother of Deacon Simon[1] Stone, had located about five years earlier.
Apparently Simon[1] Stone lived in Boxted until the spring of 1635 when he joined in a large Puritan emigration that year from Suffolk and Essex to New England. [According to Pope’s Pioneers of Massachusetts, Simon Stone (age 50) and his wife Joan (age 38) came to America on the ship Increase on 15 April 1635, settling in Watertown, Massachusetts. –MS.]
Deacon Simon[1] Stone married first, at Great Bromley, County Essex, England, 5 Aug. 1616, JOANE CLARK, born about 1596, daughter of William Clark; she accompanied her husband and children to New England in 1635 and died before 1654, having had at least seven children.
He married secondly, in New England, about 1655, an acquaintance of old England, Mrs. SARAH (BAKER) LUMPKIN, widow of Richard Lumpkin of Ipswich, Mass.... By his second wife, Sarah...Deacon Simon[1] Stone had no children, and she died in July 1663.
Children of Deacon Simon[1] and Joane (Clark) Stone:
i. Frances (1618- )
ii. Mary (1621, died young)
iii. Anne (1624- )
iv. SIMON[2], born in Boxted, England about 1630
v. Mary (1632-1684)
vi. John (1634- )
vii. Elizabeth (1639; probably died young)
Simon[1] Stone’s grave in the Old Cemetery in Watertown has on it a shiny new monument “erected by descendants,” which reads:
In memory of
Simon Stone
Born in England 1585
Came to America 1635
Died in Watertown 1665
Aged 80
His wife
Joan Clarke Stone
Born in England 1599
Died in Watertown
Erected by descendants
2. DEACON SIMON[2] STONE (c. 1630-1707/8), was born in Boxted, County Essex, England about 1630, and was brought to New England by his parents in 1635. He was brought up as a farmer on the paternal homestead at Mount Auburn in Watertown, Mass., to which he succeeded on his father’s death in 1665. In 1662 he became a proprietor of lands in Groton, Mass., totalling 88 acres...; these lands he eventually settled on his two eldest sons, Simon[3] and John Stone who located there. But Deacon Simon[2] Stone always resided on the homestead in Watertown and became more prominent in local public affairs than his father had been.
From 1672 to 1679 (inclusive) and 1681 to 1686 (inclusive) he was elected a selectman; in 1672, 1673, 1676, 1677, 1679, 1681, 1682, 1684, 1687 and 1690 he was chosen town clerk, and from 1678 to 1684 (inclusive) and in 1686, 1689 and 1690 he was deputy for Watertown to the Massachusetts General Court. In his later years he was a deacon of the Watertown Church.
During his lifetime, Deacon Simon[2] Stone divided all his property, both real and personal, among his large family of children, giving the homestead at Mount Auburn to his youngest child, Ens. Jonathan Stone, and a 100-acre farm adjoining on the west to another son, David Stone; so at his death he left no will and no administration was taken out on his estate. He died in Watertown, 27 Feb. 1707/8 and was buried in the Old Watertown Cemetery where his gravestone remains with the following inscription:
HERE LYES YE
BODY OF SIMON
STONE, DIED FEBRY
YE 27TH 1708
AETALIS SUAE 77
THE MEMORY OF
THE JUST IS BLESSED
Deacon Simon[2] Stone married about 1655, MARY WHIPPLE, born in Bocking, County Essex, England about 1634, daughter of Elder John and Susanna (----) Whipple....Mary (Whipple) Stone died in Watertown, 2 June 1720 and was buried beside her husband in the Old Watertown Cemetery; her gravestone bears this inscription:
HERE LYES YE BODY OF
MRS. MARY STONE (LATE
WIDOW OF MR. SIMON
STONE) WHO SLEPT IN
JESUS, JUNE 2D. 1720, IN YE
86TH YEAR OF HER AGE
Gravemarker of Mary Whipple Stone, Old Burial Ground, Watertown, Massachusetts.
The Whipple House, Ipswich, Massachusetts, where Mary Whipple grew up.
Photo by Sally R. Chandler, used with permission.
Children of Deacon Simon[2] Stone and Mary (Whipple) Stone, born in Watertown, Mass.:
i. Simon[3] born 8 Sept. 1656
ii. John (1658- )
iii. Matthew (1659- )
iv. Nathaniel (died in infancy)
v. Ebenezer (1662/3- )
vi. Mary (1664/5-1735)
vii. Nathaniel (1667- )
viii. Elizabeth (1670- )
3. DEACON SIMON[3] STONE (1656-1741) was born on the Stone homestead at Mount Auburn in Watertown, Mass., 8 September 1656 and lived in that town until after he became of age. When he was nineteen years old, the war with the New England Indians, known as King Philip’s War, broke out, in which Simon[3] Stone rendered active service. During the autumn of 1675 and the winter of 1675/6 he was in the garrison houses at Mendon and Groton, Massachusetts.... He also served in the spring and summer of 1676 in Capt. Joseph Scyll’s company on an expedition against the Indians in central and western Massachusetts.... He was one of the claimants for rights in the Narragansett Townships granted by the Province of Massachusetts in 1735 to the soldiers (or their heirs) in King Philip’s War; and on 24 June 1735 drew Lot 15 in Narragansett Township No. 6, which became Templeton, Massachusetts.
A few years after King Philip’s War, Simon[3] Stone settled in Groton, Massachusetts, on land given to him by his father, who was one of the early proprietors of that town. Here he became a prosperous farmer, held various town offices, was representative to the Massachusetts General Court in 1706, and like his father and grandfather, was also a deacon in the church, being elected such at Groton, 22 April 1715, an office indicating that he was held in esteem by the community. During his lifetime he settled his estate upon his children, so at his death he left no will and no administration was taken out on his estate. Surviving to the ripe old age of 85 years he died in Groton, 19 December 1741. His gravestone in the old Groton Cemetery bears the following inscription:
HERE LIES BURIED
YE BODY OF DEACN
SIMON STONE
WHO DEPARTED
THIS LIFE
DECEMB’ YE 19TH
A.D. 1741
AGE 85 YEARS
3 M. & 11 D.
Deacon Simon[3] Stone married about 1685, SARAH FARNSWORTH, born in Groton about 1663, daughter of Matthias and Mary (Farr) Farnsworth; she had ten children and died in Groton, 16 September 1731.
Children born in Groton, Massachusetts:
i. Simon[4] born 1 Aug. 1686
ii. Sarah (1688- )
iii. Abigail (1690-1757)
iv. Mary (1690-1766)
v. Susanna (1694-1774)
vi. Isaac (1697-1723)
vii. Hannah (1699-1723)
viii. Joseph (1701/2- )
ix. Benjamin (1706- )
x. Lydia (c.1708-1723)
4. CAPTAIN and DEACON SIMON[4] STONE, was born in Groton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 1 August 1686, and was given that portion of his father’s lands which lay in the part of Groton which in 1732 was set off as the new town of Harvard in Worcester County, Massachusetts. Like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, he became a prosperous, successful yeoman and influential member of the community, succeeded them in the office of deacon in the church, was commissioned captain of the Harvard military company and for several years was a selectman of that town. On 3 March 1723/4, Simon[4] Stone and his wife Sarah were admitted to the Groton Church, and on 14 September 1733, were dismissed to the new church in Harvard, Massachusetts.
On 29 June 1732, the Massachusetts General Court passed the act incorporating the town of Harvard, Massachusetts, and ordered that “Simon Stone, one of the Principal Inhabitants of the Town of Harvard, be and hereby is fully impowered to Assimble and Convene the Inhabitants of said Town to Chuse Town Officers to Stand untill their Anniversary Meeting in March next.” On 3 July 1732 Simon[4] Stone issued his warrant for the first town meeting of Harvard at which he was chosen moderator and first selectman; he held the latter office also in 1735, 1736, 1738-1740 and 1746. Capt. and Deacon Simon[4] Stone died in Harvard, 22 October 1746, aged 60 years.
Capt. Simon[4] Stone married about 1712 SARAH ---, born about 1689, whose parentage or family name are unknown; she died in Harvard, Massachusetts, 30 May 1767, aged 78 years, according to her gravestone there.
Children, i.-viii., recorded in Groton, Massachusetts, and ix.-x recorded in Harvard, Massachusetts:
i. Simon[5] born 10 September 1714
ii. Ephraim (1715/16-1734)
iii Oliver (1719/20- )
iv. Sarah (1721/22-1809)
v. Isaac (1723/24- )
vi. Hannah (1726-1811)
vii. Elias (1728- )
viii. Amos (1729- )
ix. Solomon (1732-1755)
x. Micah (1735- )
5. DEACON SIMON[5] STONE (1714-1785) was born 10 September 1714, in that part of Groton, Massachusetts which in 1732 became Harvard, Massachusetts. As the eldest son of the family he succeeded in 1748 to two-thirds of his father’s lands in Harvard, by paying his brothers and sisters in money for their interests. He continued in Harvard until about 1756, when he disposed of his property there and moved westward about 40 miles to the then recently incorporated town of Greenwich, Massachusetts, and is called 'of Greenwich' on 27 October 1767....On 3 February 1771 he was elected a deacon in the Greenwich Church, being the fifth consecutive Simon Stone to hold this office; on 3 March 1771, he was chosen town treasurer; and he died in Greenwich, 17 April 1785, aged 70 years. [Note: The former town of Greenwich no longer exists; today it is beneath the Quabbin Reservoir, which provides the Boston area's water supply. --MS]
He married about 1739, EUNICE ---, born about 1716; she died in Greenwich, 12 July 1791, in her 76th year.
Children i.-ix. born in Harvard, Massachusetts, and x.-xi born in Greenwich, Massachusetts:
i. Eunice (1740-1752)
ii. Simon[6] born 22 December 1741
iii. Lydia (1743- )
iv. Aaron (1745- )
v. a child (died in infancy)
vi. Moses (1748- )
vii. Tabitha (1751- )
viii. Abner (1753- )
ix. Eunice (1755-1774)
x. Thankful (1757-1829)
xi. Israel (1760- )
6. DEACON SIMON[6] STONE (1741-1818), was born in Harvard, Massachusetts, 22 December 1741, and when a boy of 15 years was taken by his parents in their removal about 1756 to Greenwich, Massachusetts, and was the only one of his father’s five sons to remain in Greenwich after the Revolution....
He was a soldier in the Revolution, appearing as sergeant in Capt. Joseph Hooker’s company of Greenwich Minute Men which marched to Boston on the Lexington alarm of 19 April 1775, serving eleven days; also enlisted for eight months on 1 May 1775, as sergeant in Capt. Isaac Gray’s company, Col. Jonathan Brewer’s regiment; appears on roll of company at Prospect Hill, dated 6 October 1775; this company fought in the battle of Bunker Hill, 17 June 1775; also served from 23 September to 17 October 1777 as sergeant in Lieut. Josiah Wilson’s company, Col. Porter’s Hampshire County regiment, in the Saratoga campaign culminating in the surrender of Gen. Burgoyne’s army.
In 1791 he was elected town clerk of Greenwich and he succeeded his father as deacon, being the sixth successive Simon Stone to hold this office. In the United States Direct Tax of 1798, Simon[6] Stone was assessed in Greenwich, Massachusetts for a dwelling house valued at $230 and 150 acres of land valued at $540. He resided in that part of Greenwich set off in 1816 as Enfield, Massachusetts, where he died in 1818. [Note: The former town of Enfield, like Greenwich, no longer exists; today it is beneath the Quabbin Reservoir, which provides water to the Boston area. --MS]
Although the Census of 1790 makes it seem probable that Simon[6] Stone had several children, neither the town nor church records of Greenwich record any of them; it is probable that his eldest son was named Simon. [This may be the weak link in my ever being able to prove definitely that my own line connects to Deacon Simon[1] Stone, the immigrant. --MS]
He married first, about 1768, but the record of this marriage has not been found. [Another weak link. --MS] He married secondly, in Brookfield, Massachusetts, 2 June 1773, DOROTHY HARWOOD, born there about 1745, daughter of Ebenezer and Dorothy (Hubbard) Harwood; she was living in 1814, but probably died before 1818.
Child by first marriage
i. Simon[7] born about 1769
7. CAPTAIN SIMON[7] STONE (c. 1770-1818), born in Greenwich, Massachusetts about 1769 [Bartlett, p. 327], settled in Windsor, Massachusetts, where he attained the rank of captain and died 23 or 24 December 1818, in his forty-ninth year (according to his gravestone). According to Barlett, "Most of his children who attained adult age apparently removed from Massachusetts" -- but not Oren. Simon married about 1791, CHARLOTTE HALL, daughter of Asa and Abigail (Converse) Hall of Windsor; it seems she moved to Monroe Co., NY with all of her still-living children except Oren after her husband died in 1818 (between 1820 and 1829). Her death and burial information have not been discovered, but many of her children settled in Riga and Churchville, NY.
Children [births/deaths recorded in Windsor, Massachusetts* and others listed in Simon Stone's probate file]:
i. Nathan* (1792-probably died young)
ii. Lyman* (1793-1818) died in Windsor, Mass.
iii. Oren* born 8 Aug. 1795
iv. Ira* (1797- ) moved to Monroe Co., NY
v. Spencer* (1799-1801) died in Windsor
vi. Melinda* (1801- ) moved to Monroe Co., NY
vii. Ward* (1803-1829) moved to Monroe Co., NY
viii. Ashley* (1805-1806) died in Windsor
ix. Philander (c.1806-1890) moved to Monroe Co., NY
x. Almira (1811-1870) moved to Monroe Co., NY, never married
8. OREN STONE (1795-1888), was born in Windsor, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts on 8 August 1795. He resided in Hinsdale, Savoy, and Windsor, Massachusetts, all in Berkshire County. He died in Windsor 25 February 1888; death records say he was buried in Savoy. On 9 September 1820 he entered his marriage intentions with JOANNA TURNER, daughter of Elijah and Hannah (Austin) Turner of Savoy, Massachusetts. Joanna died 18 March 1846, age 46 years 6 months, according to her tombstone in the Turner Cemetery at Savoy Center.
Children of Orren and Joanna Stone:
i. Henry H. (1824-1882) died a bachelor in Ashfield, MA; buried next to Joanna
ii. Ward N. born (9 September?) 1831 (or 1830?), Savoy, MA
iii. Francis E. (c. 1833-1906) Civil War veteran, liveryman, married Amanda L., had one daughter, Ada; lived in Becket, MA
iv. S. Elizabeth (1841-1914) mar. c. 1862 Charles A. JANES; no children; lived in Worcester and West Brookfield, MA
v.? N.J. or Newell P. (c. 1841/2-1863) (possibly their son, buried in Savoy with Joanna and her son Henry), 34th Inf. Mass. Volunteers, died of disease at Fort Lyon, Virginia during the Civil War
9. WARD N. STONE (1831-1914), born in Savoy, Massachusetts in 1831 (or 1830), became a farmer in nearby Peru, Massachusetts. He married MARY E. ACKERT ASCHA, a divorced mother of three who was born about 1817 (alt. c. 1827) in (Chatham?) Columbia County, New York to John and Sarah Ackert; she died of apoplexy 10 November 1881 in Peru at the age of 64 and was buried in Peru Center Cemetery.
Children born in Peru, Massachusetts to Ward N. and Mary Stone:
i. Edwin Bosworth born 26 April 1858On 30 January 1882 Ward married ELLEN J. GLEASON (aka Jane Ellen Gleason, born 1849 or 9 Dec. 1847 in Austerlitz, New York to Lyman Clement and Harriet (Tyler) Gleason).
ii. John Burdick ("Bert") (1863-1932); mar./div. Jennie L. REED (1866-1913); they had two daughters, Ruth A. Stone/Reed NEVINS (1899-1849) and Gladys Mildred STONE (1902-died young)
iii. Walter Lincoln (1865-1905) farmer in Cummington, MA; married Nellie L. SYLVESTER in 1891, they had 5 children.
Children born in Peru, Massachusetts to Ward N. and Ellen J. Stone:
iv. Joseph Turner (1883-1933); he married Gertrude Schwarz and lived in Austerlitz, NY; they had 7 children.
v. Elizabeth Harriet aka Harriett Elizabeth ("Hattie," "Lizzie") (1886-1960); she mar(1). Frederick Sherman MacDUFF and had 5 children; she mar(2). Frederick EASTERBROOKS.
Jane / Ellen Gleason Stone died 3 June 1908 in Peru at the age of 59 and was buried in Austerlitz Cemetery, Austerlitz, New York. Ward Stone died 3 January 1914 in East Providence, Rhode Island while he was living with his daughter, Hattie MacDuff, and her family. He was buried in Peru Center Cemetery, Massachusetts.
10. EDWIN BOSWORTH STONE (1858-1946), farmer and shoeworker, was born in Peru, Massachusetts on 26 April 1858. Around 1885 he relocated from Massachusetts to Nyack, New York to (it would seem) work in the shoe industry there. Around that period he met and married MARGARET DeMARE (who was born 1 October 1863 in Savannah, Georgia to Sophia (LANDSMAN) and Peter DEMARE, and moved with her family to Nyack, New York after the Civil War). At one time (c. 1896-1900) Edwin made a living as a farmer in Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, renting a farm adjacent to that owned by his brother, Walter; the family lived in Plainfield, Massachustts in 1902 to circa 1910, then in Pittsfield in 1914. In later years Margaret and several of the children lived in Northampton, Massachusetts; but at times Edwin lived elsewhere (in an Easthampton, Massachusetts boarding house in 1920 and in the Easthampton Town Infirmary in 1931-1932). As a widower he lived in Northampton, Massachusetts with a daughter in 1930, and while living with another daughter in his old age in West Springfield, Massachusetts, he played the violin every night (it was said he had used to play for square dances). He died 4 August 1946 in West Springfield, Massachusetts and is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Florence, Massachusetts (outside Northampton) next to his wife Margaret, who died of diabetes in Northampton on 7 May 1923 (age 59 years).
Children born to Edwin and Margaret (Demare) Stone:
i. Philip Nelson (1886-1974)
ii. Evelyn(e) Cordelia (1887-1954)
iii. Davis Handy (1891-1961)
iv. Katherine Belle (1896-1991)
v. Charles Hobson (1898-1974)
vi. Susan Tracy Rice (1902-1981)
11. PHILIP NELSON STONE (1886-1974), soldier, railroad brakeman, BWS Policeman, prison guard and deputy warden, was born in Nyack, Rockland County, New York on 26 June 1886; died age 88 years on 30 November 1974 in Mission, Hidalgo County, Texas. Married LORETTA ELSIE EHMANN (1890-1988) on 1 July 1914 at 4187 Third Avenue, New York City, Borough of the Bronx, New York.
Children born to Philip Nelson and Loretta Elsie (Ehmann) Stone:
i. Muriel Adele (1924-2013)
ii. Davis Philip (1925-1990)
12. DAVIS PHILIP STONE (1925-1990), electronics design engineer, was born 12 December 1925 at 2128 Valentine Avenue (maternal grandfather's house) in the Bronx, New York City, New York; died age 64 years on 7 October 1990 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. Married in 1950, his wife, four daughters, and 11 grandchildren survive him.
NEW INFORMATION on the current Y-DNA testing results on this STONE line:
In the summer of 2012 a male of this Stone line, a descendant of Walter Lincoln Stone (9.iii above), submitted Y-DNA 37-marker test kit results to the STONE project at Family Tree DNA and at YSearch. So far we have found no matches. We are eagerly awaiting other DNA samples to be submitted for possible matches, especially from males with the STONE surname in Massachusetts and England. Please consider joining the STONE surname project and help us all learn more about our lineage and its origins.
Updated 29 March 2015
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