Notes on Notes from Ellen Chase

Having just transcribed Notes from Ellen Chase, below, I am astounded. This was a browned piece of typed papers, two stapled together, single space, probably typed by Frank Leverett in the late 1930's. He gives his spin on the notes from Ellen Chase. But the central question I had going in, namely whether Joseph Leverett married a cousin when he married Mary Turner, went unanswered, or rather, answered contradictorily. I will explain.

Joseph married Mary Turner, who he met in Maine, and who was descended from a John Turner of Medfield, Mass. But now it appears that his mother, Lydia Fuller, had a grandfather, Captain Robert Fuller, who married twice: first, to Mary Turner, and second, to Deborah Williams. Ellen Chase at some point says that we are descended from Deborah ("from whom we come"). Frank, the author, seems to think we come from Mary Turner, in which case, it is relevant that this Mary Turner comes from a John Turner of Medfield. This is a subject I will delve into when I get time.

One possible clue is to look at their son, William Fuller, and the way he named his children. At the moment I'm not sure who his children were, besides Lydia, though I have dug it up in the past. But William, who was the Revolutionary War soldier of our line, would have reflected the family of either Deborah or Mary in the naming of his children, possibly. I look for independent verification. I see here the possibility of both Frank and Ellen imposing their own conclusions on the situation.

There is also a contradiction in the general characterization of Lydia. In this passage she is maternal, calming, commanding, and careful. I see her many years earlier, left widowed with six children under eight, sending 6-yr.-old Joseph up to Maine to live with his paternal aunt. Maybe it was me who was imposing a sense of desperation, or inability to handle a growing boy? He comes back through Boston on his way to Illinois, now 30, and visits a mother he hasn't seen in 24 years, as far as I know. To me it's like visiting a birth mother who gave you up for adoption. It's not just like that, it is that.

There are a number of other interesting stories in Ellen's account. One is the connection to John Eliot, worth exploring. Another is the story of John Eaton, who married Alice (Unknown), and was mentally ill. Somewhere in there the Eaton family, who had owned the ridge above the Charles River, in Dedham, where Powder House Rock now stands, gave that land over to the Fullers. Capt. Robert Fuller apparently built that Powder House. It is now one of the oldest standing buildings in Dedham, but it owes its survival to the fact that the woods surrounding it, on a ridge above the Charles downtown, is basically a park, left alone for its historical value. I would like to know why Robert built that Powder House. It has been speculated that it was because he knew trouble (the Revolution) was coming.

Another surprise is that we are related to the Bunkers of Bunker Hill, apparently, and to the Parkers of Muddy River. Of the Parkers of Muddy River I'll say this: Somehow Leverett land moved over to the Parkers in the late 1600's, and I was never able to discern why. But being related would be a good explanation. Parker is one of those names that is so common, that in looking them up you encounter warnings: Don't confuse this John Parker with that one; there are too many of them; it's too hard to tell them apart. Well, as most genealogists do, I'll accept what's given to me, and I'll probably even repeat it, but I'll try to source it and I won't necessarily believe it. One thing I've found is that just because something gets repeated frequently, doesn't necessarily make it true.