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Kingsbury Genealogy

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Kingsbury Genealogy

Kingsbury Line

Great great grandmother Sarah Agan was born Sarah Elizabeth Kingsbury to Alfred & Ann Eliza B. (nee Newson) Kingsbury in Boonville, Oneida County, New York. Alfred's Kingsbury branch migrated to the western side of the Adirondack Mountains (Lewis & Oneida Counties) in the late 1700s, coming from Massachusetts. The Kingsbury line can be traced way back to England (Kingsbury is "of the King"). The Kingsbury line entered the US around the time of the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Our ancestors on our Kingsbury branch (Eleazer Kingsbury, Richard Haven, Jacob Towne, Mary French, Robert Smith -- those last 2 are also ancestors of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith Jr.) were English Puritans that came with the Winthrop Fleet and were among the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Alfred Kingsbury was the son of Elijah Kingsbury Jr. and an unknown spouse. Ann Eliza B. Newson was the daughter of Daniel Newson and Charlotte Chase. Daniel Newson was in the British Navy during the War of 1812, but apparently immigrated to the US after the war. The Chase line can be traced back into Massachusetts in the mid 1600s and originally came from England. Alfred & Ann Eliza Kingsbury had 8 children, Sarah was the 1st child of these 8. Sarah married Edgar Agan in 1870 in Oneida County NY.

Leonard/Chandler/Chilton Line - Mayflower

Tracing Alfred Kingsbury's line back through his paternal grandmother (Lois Leonard Kingsbury) is the Leonard line that descends from the oldest passenger on the Mayflower - James Chilton. The line descends from James Chilton's daughter Isabella Chilton Chandler (she came to the US on a later ship). Her daughter Sarah married a Solomon Leonard that was an ancestor of Lois Leonard that married Elijah Kingsbury Sr.

The lineage goes like this:

James CHILTON
Isabella CHILTON CHANDLER
Sarah CHANDLER LEONARD
John LEONARD
Josiah LEONARD
John LEONARD
Lois LEONARD KINGSBURY
Elijah KINGSBURY Jr.
Alfred H. KINGSBURY
Sarah E. KINGSBURY BROOKS AGAN
Leo B. AGAN
Vivian I. AGAN BARNHART

Towne Line - Salem witchcraft trials

Alfred's paternal grandfather was Elijah Kingsbury Sr. Elijah's maternal grandfather Israel Towne was a grandson of Jacob Towne. Jacob had 3 sisters that were accused and arrested for witchcraft during the infamous Salem witchcraft trials. Two of those sisters (Rebecca Nurse and Mary Easty) were executed during the summer of 1692, the other sister (Sarah Cloyce) was imprisoned but never executed. Jacob and those 3 sisters were part of a family of 8 children born to William Towne and Joanna Blessing. Much history can be found on these sisters. The Arthur Miller play The Crucible was partly based on them, and the movie title for Three Sovereigns for Sister Sarah is a reference to the compensation paid to Sarah Cloyce from the government for their wrongdoing.

For those that haven't read much on the Salem witch trials, it appears mostly innocent folks were falsely accused, caused by a few factors: multiple children falling ill and the doctor concluding it was due to witchcraft, some onerous teenage girls, some feuding between families, and a judicial system that allowed spectral evidence. All those factors got the ball rolling out of control until after about 6 months it looked like most of the town was arrested or going to be. The court was stopped and cooler heads prevailed, but sadly not before 19 people died.