Our Line of Descent from
Walter Dobbs of Barren Island, Flatlands, Brooklyn
and
Thomas Hughson of the Philipsburgh Manor, Westchester Co., New York

By Marie E. Velardi
Last update: January 18, 2009

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Walter Dobbs, progenitor of our American Dobbs line, posthumously lent his name to the Hudson River village of Dobbs Ferry, once part of the vast colonial Philipsburgh Manor. It was one of his descendents (sources disagree if it was his son, John Dobbs, or one of his grandsons) who began the ferry service using a periauger -- a simple canoe carved from a hollowed-out log. Another family member, Mollie Dobbs, wife of Robert Sneden, operated the ferry on the opposite shore at Sneden's Landing, Rockland County, during the American Revolution. However, the place most closely associated with Walter himself is Barren Island, a small marsh island off Jamaica Bay in the Brooklyn Flatlands. Centuries after Walter's death, the island (now a peninsula owing to landfill) became the site of Floyd Bennett Field, New York City's first municipal airport, and is now a nature and recreation preserve managed by the U.S. Park Service. Walter's children, including his daughter and our ancestress, Maria Dobbs Hughson, were reportedly all born there -- practically a stone's throw away (figuratively speaking) from the Rockaway Peninsula, the birthplace of some of his much more recent descendents..

Another tenant family of the Philipsburgh Manor was the Hughsons. The American progenitor was Thomas Hughson, who married Maria Dobbs, daughter of Walter Dobbs, about 1694. The surname is of Scots origin (Hughson is a sept of clan MacDonald), having its highest frequency in the Shetland Islands north of Scotland. However, a recent DNA study indicated the Thomas Hughson line isn't Scots but more likely Welsh; the closest genetic matches being the Welsh families of Thomas, Rowland and HUGHES. Whatever his original ethnicity, nationality and ancestral surname, he certainly was not the "ye Earle of Warwick", as recorded in a 1723 road commissioner report. This reference has led to some fruitless nobility-chasing by Hughson genealogists, but one need only know a bit of Dobbs Ferry geography to appreciate the joke - a rather simple play on words.. That is, the domain of  Thomas Hughson, specious Earl of Warwick, was a plot of leased farmland located at Weckquaskeck ( the tribal name for Dobbs Ferry) near a small body of water the local English-speakers called Wicker's Creek. When Thomas was arrested in 1741 as a suspect in the "Great Negro Plot" of New York City, Westchester authorities recorded his real status as a yeoman (farmer) and treated him accordingly.  

But while Thomas Hughson was not an illustrious personage, a few of his descendents were people of lasting historical importance, namely:  David Bushnell, inventor of the first combat submarine (1776); the 19th century military hero, General Winfield Scott; and the legendary aviator, Charles Lindbergh.

Selected resources are included at the bottom of the page.

 

GENERATION

    DIRECT LINE ANCESTOR      SPOUSE
 

1		   Walter DOBBS
  • BIRTH: 1644 or earlier, probably in New Netherland (New York) or New England. Parents unknown..
  • MARRIAGE: About 1660 to Mary Merritt
  • ISSUE: 5-6 children -- Walter, William, Maria (see below), John, Margery, possibly Margaret Dobbs.
  • OCCUPATION: Mariner
  • RESIDENCES: Barren Island, Flatlands (now part of Brooklyn). Possibly also lower Manhattan.  His sons Walter and William lived there as adults, as did his widow. A Walter Dobs [sic] was elected constable of the Bowery on 30 September 1687. We don't know if this man was the father or the son.
  • DEATH: By 1689. His widow remarried in September 1689.

Other early spellings of the surname include Dobs, Dobbz, Dop, Dops and Dopse.  Despite some speculation the family was Dutch or Swedish, Dobbs Ferry historian, Margaret Lane, insisted they were of English stock.

 + Mary MERRITT
  • BIRTH: Unknown date in England (probably early 1640s). Parents unknown.**
  • MARRIAGE: Mary's second husband was Nathaniel Pittman, a bachelor from Dorset, England, whom she wed on 8 September 1689 in the Reformed Dutch Church of New York City.  They lived in lower Manhattan.
  • DEATH: 22 March 1737 on Barren Island, Flatlands, Kings County, New York. ***

**  She was the sister of Colonel William Merritt (~1641-1708), a wealthy English mariner and merchant who was Mayor of New York City in 1695-98, and one of the founding members of Trinity Church in lower Manhattan. Read more about him here.

*** The oft repeated claim she died at age 104 years, 9 months (i.e., born 1632), seems highly improbable since, if true, Mary would have been about 12 years older than her first husband, and 55 years old when she gave birth to her daughter, Margery, circa 1688.
   

                 
 
2   Maria DOBBS
  • BIRTH: 1670-1675 on Barren Island, Flatlands (now Brooklyn), New York
  • MARRIAGE: About 1694 to Thomas Hughson.
  • ISSUE:  10 children - Thomas, John, William (see below), Richard, Mary, Abigail, Benjamin, Walter, Nathaniel and Christina.
  • RESIDENCE: Born and presumably raised on Barren Island. Settled with her husband in the Philipsburgh Manor by 1705. Resided in the district known today as Dobbs Ferry, where her brother John Dobbs had lived since about 1700. See more at right under Thomas Hughson. 
  • DEATH: Unknown. Last record is 26 May 1714, the date she sponsored the baptism of her nephew Thomas Dobbs at the Sleepy Hollow Church.

 

 + Thomas HUGHSON
  • BIRTH: About 1670 in the British Isles (country and parents unknown) **
  • IMMIGRATION" Arrived in America about 1690.
  • OCCUPATION: Yeoman (farmer)
    RESIDENCE: Historian Grenville MacKenzie wrote of his place: "His leasehold [in the Dobbs Ferry district of the Philipsburgh Manor] would seem to have extended from the present Ashford Avenue  northward to the land of Thomas Storm. The 'lane by Hughson's house' mentioned in 1723, was undoubtedly the present Cedar Street ..."
  • DEATH: Unknown. No further trace of him after 21 October 1741, at which time he was in his early 70s. ***

** Ours was not the first man named Thomas Hughson to step foot in New York. On February 1, 1676, an earlier Thomas Hughson (also spelled Hewson and Huson), boarded the ship "John Bonny Adventure" at Gravesend, Brooklyn. He served  as boatswain and gunner for almost 18 months. He was to have been discharged in London, but was forced to leave the ship in Salem, Massachusetts. (Thomas Hughson v. Anthony Roope, Captain of the John Adventure, Ipswich Quarterly Court, August-September 1677.) 

*** In June 1741 Thomas was imprisoned in Westchester County Jail with five of his sons on suspicion of conspiring with his eldest son, John Hughson, in "The Great Negro Plot" of New York City. Thomas was pardoned and released from prison on 21 October 1741 on condition he leave New York Province. There is no further record of him.

 
   

                 
 
3   William HUGHSON (I)
  • BIRTH: About 1705/06 on the Philipsburgh Manor. Baptized on 13 August 1706 at the Reformed Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, along with his brother Richard.
  • MARRIAGE: Married Mary <Unknown> in 1725-1728.
  • ISSUE: 9 children - Abigail, Mary, John, (see below) Nicholas, Stephen, Isaac, Thomas, Nathaniel and William Hughson.
  • OCCUPATION: Yeoman (farmer).
  • RESIDENCE: Most likely  raised in present-day Dobbs Ferry. Court documents of 1741 refer to his residence as Yonkers (the southernmost district of the Philipsburgh Manor).. That same year, he was imprisoned in Westchester County Jail on suspicion of conspiring with his oldest brother, John Hughson, in "The Great Negro Plot" of New York City. Pardoned and released from prison on 21 October 1741 on condition he leave New York Province. In defiance of the court-ordered banishment, he moved to the Van Cortlandt Manor in Westchester, in or near  present-day Croton-on-Hudson.
  • DEATH: 1754.

 

 + Mary <DOBBS?>
  • BIRTH: About 1706 (parents and birthplace unknown).
  • DEATH: Unknown. After 31 March 1759, the date her guardianship of the infant Gabriel Hughson (probably an orphaned grandson) was challenged by relatives in the Chancery Court, New York.

She  has not been identified as a member of the Walter Dobbs family.

 
   

                 
 
4   John HUGHSON
  • BIRTH: 1733-1736 on the Philipsburgh Manor, Westchester County, New York. Baptized on 10 Apr 1736 at the Reformed Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow.
  • MARRIAGE: To Catherine Wells/Wills about 1759.
  • ISSUE: 11 children -- James, Mary, William (see below), Hannah, John, Walter, Nancy, Martha, Stephen, Philip and Catherine Hughson.
  • OCCUPATION: A farmer and a carpenter.
  • RESIDENCE: Born on the Philipsburgh Manor. Presumably moved to the Van Cortlandt Manor with the rest of his family in 1741. One of the early settlers of Rombout Precinct (Fishkill, Wappinger and environs) in Dutchess County, arriving there about 1759-60.   His property was near the Wappingers Creek.
  • DEATH: Before 1 May 1794, the date letters of administration were assigned to his wife Catherine.


 

 + Catherine WELLS/WILLS
  • BIRTH: About 1743. Parents and birthplace unknown. **
  • DEATH: 1801/1802. Between 28 April 1801, the date she wrote her will, and 25 October 1802, the date the will was probated.

** She was probably a close relative (sister?) of James Wells/Wills, a Fishkill schoolteacher who witnessed her will in 1801.

In 1795, after her husband's death, Catherine, her son William and his wife Penelope  purchased the land in Fishkill that would become the hamlet of Hughsonville..

 
   

              
 
5   William HUGHSON (II)
  • BIRTH: About 1762 in Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York.
  • MARRIAGE: To Penelope Codwise about 1785.
  • ISSUE: 9 children - William J., Christopher (see below), James, Maria, Nancy, John W., Jane, Benjamin and Eliza Hughson.
  • OCCUPATION: Miller (operated or worked in a mill). A prominent, publicly active citizen of Fishkill and possibly also a local magistrate. He was known as William Hughson, Esquire.
  • RESIDENCE: Fishkill, Dutchess County. In  1795, William, his wife Penelope and mother Catherine mortgaged 241 acres of land. Upon it, the family built four houses (one remains standing today) which formed the early hamlet of  Hughsonville.  Hughsonville was part of Fishkill until 1870, when it was annexed to the newly created town of Wappinger Falls.
  • DEATH: Unknown. After 1816 **

** Williams receded from public life after 1811. He was apparently still alive when his wife died in January 1816. Ownership of his house passed to William I. Hughson in 1837. There's no sign of him in the 1820-1840 censuses. Nonetheless, William Sr. may have lived to be a very old man.. On 6 August 1847 a William Hughson of Fishkill, age 85, described as "one of the first citizens of Dutchess County", testified to the Revolutionary War service of  the late Thomas Dempsy of Poughkeepsie in order to help the man's aged widow collect a government pension.

 + Penelope CODWISE
  • BIRTH: About 1761, probably in Brooklyn Ferry, Kings County, New York. Daughter of Christopher Codwise and Catherine (nee Ditmars) Remsen.
  • RESIDENCE: Her family had moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan before the Revolution, but was forced to flee when the English captured New York City in 1776.  In 1782, her father, a Continental Army officer,  purchased land in Rombout Precinct near Wappingers Creek, adjacent to the property of John Hughson, whose son William she married a few years later.
  • DEATH: 4 January 1816 in Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York.

 
   

                 
 
6   Capt. Christopher HUGHSON
  • BIRTH: 28 October 1789, probably in Hughsonville (in Fishkill), Dutchess County, New York.
  • MARRIAGE: To Phebe (Van Voorhis) Van Bramer on 28 Sept. 1816 in the Presbyterian Church at  New Hamburg (Wappingers Creek Church).
  • ISSUE: 8 children -- Sylvester, Frederick, Abraham (see below), Mary Ann, Stephen, Edward, Oscar, and Benjamin Franklin Hughson.
  • OCCUPATION: Army officer. Retired before 1850.
  • MILITARY: John Storm's Regiment and the 149th Regiment of Infantry.
  • DEATH: 24 October 1855, probably in Fishkill.
 + Femmetje ("Fanny" or "Phebe") VAN VOORHIS
  • BIRTH: 8 December 1792 in Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York.  Daughter of Abraham Van Voorhis and Marretje Philips.
  • MARRIAGE: Married first to John Van Bramer on 27 January 1814 at the Reformed Dutch Church at Fishkill.
  • DEATH: 25 Jan 1873, probably in Fishkill.
   

                 
 
7   Abraham ("Abram") HUGHSON
  • BIRTH: 17 January 1821 in Hughsonville (then part of Fishkill), Dutchess County, New York.
  • MARRIAGE: About 1842 to Frances P. Williams.
  • ISSUE: 6 children -- Anna, Manford, Benson/Benton, Mary Olivia (see below), Julia and Oscar Hughson.
  • OCCUPATION: Stage driver in Fishkill. Rail road ticket agent at Milton Ferry Station (Hudson River RR). In conjunction with the latter job, he also ran a row-boat ferry that transported passengers and mail between Milton Landing and Ulster County on the opposite shore of the River. In December 1873, he was stricken by paralysis and was unable to work the last four years of his life.
  • RESIDENCE: Fishkill (probably Hughsonville), where he dwelt in the same house as his parents circa 1850. Later, in  Milton Ferry (now Barnegat) and Poughkeepsie, all in Dutchess County, New York.
  • DEATH: 24 September 1877, probably in Poughkeepsie. 
+ Frances P. ("Fanny") WILLIAMS
  • BIRTH: June 1814 in Pancake Hollow,  New York (near New Paltz, Ulster County NY). Daughter of Henry B. Williams and Rachel Clearwater.
  • RESIDENCE: Probably raised in Mamakating, Sullivan County, New York. Lived at Fishkill, Milton Ferry and Poughkeepsie during her married life. She was blind in her advanced age and spent her final years with her daughters Mary Olivia Smith in Matteawan (circa 1880/81), and Anna  Bodden in Poughkeepsie. She died in Anna's home at 6 Cherry Street.
  • DEATH: 4 December 1882 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York. Buried in the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.

Her father came from Croton Falls, Westchester County, New York. Her maternal ancestors, the Dutch Klaarwater family (anglicized as Clearwater) were among the earliest European settlers of Ulster County, New York.

 
   

                 
 
8   Mary Olivia HUGHSON
  • BIRTH: 12 May 1848 in Hughsonville (then part of Fishkill), Dutchess County, New York.
  • MARRIAGE: To Leonard C. Smith on 8 June 1873 in the Presbyterian Church at  New Hamburg (Wappingers Creek Church)
  • ISSUE: Agnes (see below), Allan, Ralph and Elsie Smith.
  • RESIDENCE: Born and raised in Hughsonville. Spent married life in Matteawan (now Beacon), Dutchess County, New York.
  • DEATH: 18 October 1920 in Beacon. Buried in Fairview Cemetery, Wappinger Falls, Dutchess County, New York..
     
 + Leonard C. SMITH
  • BIRTH: 16 September 1844 in Peekskill, Westchester County, New York. Son of Leonard Smith and Mary Ann Carpenter.
  • OCCUPATION: Worker and later superintendent of the toy department of the New York Rubber Company.
  • RESIDENCE:  Born and raised in Peekskill. His family moved to Matteawan (now Beacon). Dutchess County before 1860, when he was still in his teens.
  • DEATH: 25 Jan. 1929 in Beacon, New York.  Buried in Fairview Cemetery, Wappinger Falls,  Dutchess County, New York.
   

                 
 
9   Agnes May SMITH
  • BIRTH: May 1874 in Matteawan (now Beacon), Dutchess County, New York.
  • MARRIAGE: To Agnes May Smith on 15 June 1905 in the Methodist-Episcopal Church, Matteawan (now Beacon), Dutchess County, New York.
  • ISSUE: 1 daughter, Elsie Bedell (see below).
  • OCCUPATION: Prior to her marriage, Agnes worked in the toy department of the New York Rubber Company. Her father was the department superintendent. .
  • RESIDENCE: Born and raised in Matteawan (now Beacon). Briefly in Brooklyn after her marriage. Settled permanently in Rockaway Beach, Queens County, New York.
  • DEATH: 4 January 1949 at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York.. Most likely buried in Rockville Cemetery, Lynbrook, New York.

 

 Charles Benjamin BEDELL
  • BIRTH: 22 May 1883 in Springfield, Jamaica, Queens County, New York. Son of Alfred Curtis Bedell and Georgianna Shaw.
  • OCCUPATION: Bridge carpenter, Long Island Rail Road. He became the foreman carpenter in charge of maintaining the wooden trestle across Jamaica Bay..
  • DEATH: 22 February 1948 in Rockaway Beach, Queens County, New York. Buried in Rockville Cemetery, Lynbrook, New York.

 
   

                 
 
10   Elsie Ritter BEDELL
  • BIRTH:  3 April 1906 in Rockaway Beach, Queens County, New York.. Baptized on 17 June 1906 in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Matteawan (now Beacon), Dutchess County, New York.
  • MARRIAGE: To Rowland Seaman on 28 October 1925 in Rockaway Beach.
  • ISSUE: 5 children -- Richard, Vivian (see below), Robert, Elsie and Harold Seaman.
  • RESIDENCE: Rockaway Beach and Far Rockaway.
  • DEATH: 6 December 1995 in Far Rockaway, Queens County, New York. Buried in the Long Island National Cemetery, Farmingdale, Suffolk County, New York.
 + Rowland Seaman PINKHAM (a.k.a. Rowland SEAMAN)
  • BIRTH: 22 June 1892 in Ozone Park, Jamaica, Queens County, New York. Baptized 1 January 1899 at the First Congregational Church, Rockaway Beach, Queens County, New York.
  • MARRIAGES: (1) To Irene Langridge, daughter of William Langridge and Hannah Selig, on 18 April 1913, in Brooklyn; (2) to Elsie R. Bedell.
  • OCCUPATION: Electrician (self-employed).
  • MILITARY: Army Aero-Squadron in France (World War I); National Guard; civilian service  at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II.
  • DEATH: 27 December 1973 in Far Rockaway, Queens County, New York. Buried in Long Island National Cemetery, Farmingdale, Suffolk County, New York.
   

                 
 
11

 

 

   Vivian Marie SEAMAN, born 1928.

8th great granddaughter of Walter Dobbs.
7th great granddaughter of Thomas Hughson.		 + Nicholas Carmen VELARDI, 1925-1994

 

Source and resources include:

  1. Bunner, Alan. The Hughson/Huson Family in America. Alexandria, Virginia: A.N. Bunner, 1998 (first draft).
    Updated electronically by the author. Also e-mail correspondence.
     
  2. Hughson, Debbie. Debbie's NY Hughsons
    http://www.gencircles.com/users/debbieann/1
     
  3. Hughson, Dean. Hughson Family History
    http://hughson.homestead.com/
     
  4. Eardeley, William A.. Manuscripts and Notes.
    Christopher Hughson family sheets based on information provided by Mrs. Ella (Terwilliger) Townsend of Putnam County, New York, undated [after 1912].
    (FHL US/CAN Film #416883 or #416891, to be confirmed.)
     
  5. Greenleese, Geraldine (descendent of Edward Hughson, son of Christopher Hughson). Peekskill, Westchester County, New York. Written correspondence.
     
  6. Lane, Margaret. "They Say: 'Dobbs Ain't Melodious'" in The Westchester Historian, vol. 49 #4 (Fall 1973) p. 77-81.
     
  7. MacKenzie, Grenville C.  Families of the Colonial Town of Philipsburgh, Westchester County, N.Y. [undated typewritten manuscript].
     
  8. MacKenzie, Grenville C. The Settlement of Philipsburgh, transcribed by MacKenzie by Lisa Shea [undated] http://www.lisashea.com/genealogy/see/westhist.html
     
  9. Nielsen, Nick.. Hughson Family Y-DNA Project.
      http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Hughson/

 

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