Stephen Hussey (c 1643-1718), So Far Away and Yet So Near – 52 Ancestors #22

When I started thinking about the topic of “far away” I thought I would look in my database to see how far back, how far away in time, I have direct ancestors, knowing that some of my lines do go back to the 1600s.  My 8th great grandfather, Stephen Hussey, is one of my furthest back ancestors for whom I have a reasonably good trail of evidence.   There are three others that I have a name and date for that are the generation before Stephen Hussey, however, I don’t have a paper trail for them yet.  The reason for my luck with Stephen Hussey is not my excellent and persistent research skills (although I am very persistent).  I happened, as the family historian and collector of Stuff, to receive a vellum “wallet” a number of years ago from one of my father’s relatives.  I wrote about this pocket book in March as an heirloom., and briefly covered the provenance.

Stephen Hussey was born sometime between 1630 and 1643, probably.  His father was Christopher Hussey and his mother was Theodate Bachiler.  There is a myth in some of the writings about early Massachusetts that Stephen was born and baptized in Lynn (then Saugus) Massachusetts in 1630 by his grandfather Rev. Stephen Bachiler.  There is no evidence for this in written records of the towns and passenger information supports that Christopher Hussey did not arrive in the New World until at least 1632.  The Great Migration Begins¹ summarizes the evidence and concludes that Stephen was more likely born sometime as late as the 1640s, and placed his birth at 1643.  Based on Christopher Hussey’s history, this would put Stephen’s birth in Hampton, New Hampshire.

Stephen married Martha Bunker in Nantucket, in 1676.  He had acquired his father’s portion of the original shares of Nantucket (Christopher Hussey was one of the original nine Proprietors who purchased Nantucket in 1659) around 1671, and lived there the rest of his life.  He was part of the Nantucket Insurrection (c 1673-1680) in which two factions of share-holders battled for authority.  Stephen was know to be a contentious man.  He was also well educated and very interested in the law if not an admitted attorney.  He had law books which he willed to a grandson for his use upon attaining the age of 21.  He also was a large land owner, perhaps the largest in his time.  He had not only his father’s share but had acquired others (perhaps some from his wife Martha Bunker who had a partial share).  He died in 1718, having been disowned by the Society of Friends for his engaging in litigation with members.

It is the note detailing the provenance of his pocket book that gives me a trail directly from Stephen Hussey to me.    The image shows the piece of paper found with the pocket book.  It says that the pocket book belonged to Stephen Hussey who died in 1718 and gave it to his grandson Joseph Marshall (who wasn’t born until 1720/21 which doesn’t make a lot of sense).  Joseph Marshall died in 1802 and gave it to his grandson Obed Marshall (born in 1788).  This Obed Marshall gave it to “Theodore Justice, a grandchild of one of Joseph Marshall’s grandchildren.”  The note is dated Nantucket 6 mo 29 1836.  Based on that date, I suspect that the provenance was written by this Obed Marshall, who lived on Nantucket, as had all the others in the chain of ownership, and died there in 1848.

Theodore Justice, on the other hand, was born in Clermont county, Ohio and lived all his life there and in Newport, Kentucky just across the Ohio River.  Theodore was my second great granduncle, brother to my g-g-grandmother Catherine Justice Coffin.  His mother, Susan Wilcox Justice, was a grandchild of Abigail Marshall, and Theodore was indeed a grandchild of one of Joseph Marshall’s grandchildren.  I don’t know how many other grandchildren or grandchildren there were, not having traced all the possible lines (yet!) and I don’t know why Theodore was chosen.  Certainly there had to be others who met the criteria decided on, and who lived in Nantucket.  Perhaps Obed Marshall had known Susan Wilcox as a child (they were first cousins once removed and Obed was about 9 years older than Susan), since she was born and lived as a young girl in Nantucket.

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