Introduction
This article seeks to connect Soule researchers with General Society of Mayflower Descendants (GSMD) proven individuals of the Fairfield, VT, Soule family cluster. Also, it seeks to provide a brief background history of both the location and the founding generations of this town.
About Fairfield
Directly to the east of Lake Champlain, and the city of St. Albans, is the town of Fairfield. Within the boundaries of this community, the grave sites of up to six generations of George Soule descendants can be found. The progenitors of this group are Joseph Soule and his wife Eunice Hungerford (married ca.1766, prob. in CT). Eunice was a daughter of Samuel Hungerford (and Mary Graves) who held the original royal land grant for the area and managed to hold onto it through the American Revolution, the fourteen years during which Vermont was a separate republic and her entry into the Union as the first state to join after the War of Independence. Samuel’s original investor group for Fairfield numbered about sixty people. Joseph and his son Timothy are both listed in Fairfield for the first US Federal census. New York was still trying to claim VT, so they are listed in the 1790 NY record; VT did its first census in 1791 upon becoming a state and they are listed there as well. The town’s current economy is largely agricultural and it is a significant producer of maple syrup.
About George Soule
Copious sources exist to document the arrival of George Soule, listed as a manservant to Edward Winslow, to the New World on the Mayflower. He was one of those who signed the Mayflower Compact, settled in Plymouth and later Duxbury, married Mary Bucket, produced a family and never returned to England. Nothing survives in the way of stories about him that would help to know him as an individual, but many records survive of his presence and participation that lead to the impression of a sturdy yeoman who met, quite adequately, the challenges of his day—which were considerable. Only 51 of the original 102 Mayflower passengers survived the first year. Fewer still lived to reach prosperity and old age, let alone to be remembered as a founder of a nation. George Soule’s grave site is located in the Old Burial Ground, Duxbury, MA.
Essential Sources for the Fairfield Cluster
The following lineage can be found for documentation in the Mayflower Families in Progress series, compiled and edited by Louise W. Throop and available through the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. This is the most up to date and thoroughly researched. Readers may also look at much earlier work done by Ridlon. He is to be credited with being an early pioneer of Soule lineage preservation; however, many errors in his book prevent it from the modern researcher’s first choice. Gilbert Doane did work profiling the cluster in his December, 1922 article in the New England Historic Genealogical Society publication known as the Register. The original Doane Manuscripts are at the New England Historic Genealogical Society Library in Boston, MA.
Lineage
The direct line goes as follows: George the Pilgrim, George2, Nathan3, Timothy4, Joseph5. It was Joseph and his family that removed from Dutchess County, NY, to Fairfield following the Revolution. This was a good idea because, not only was his wife’s father the holder of a grant to Fairfield, but because Joseph had fought on the side of the British and was forced to leave Dover, NY, which had been his home. The children of Joseph5 Soule and Eunice Hungerford are: two girls—Sarah/Sally6 and Cynthia6, plus seven sons—Joseph6, Timothy6, Hiram Barlow6, Salmon6, Isaac Newton6, Anson6 and Henry/Harry6. Most of the children appear to have been born in Dover, NY, with the possible exceptions of Anson, Salmon and Isaac Newton who may have been born in Connecticut where their mother Eunice was born.
In order of birth, they are:
Timothy, b. 1768, Dover, NY, m. Betsey Elliott
Salmon, b. 1771, m. Sarah Bradley
Isaac Newton, b. ca. 1774, m. 1) Rhoda Merrill, 2) Lelia Beals
Anson, b.1776,
Joseph, b. 1779, m. Esther Whitney
Sarah/Sally, b 1782, m. 1) Joseph Merrill, 2) Capt. Joab Smith
Cynthia, b. ca 1785, m. Ebenezer Phelps
Henry/Harry, b ca. 1788, m. spouse’s name unknown
Hiram Barlow, b. 1790, m. Lucretia Olmstead
Written by Sue Fogg Eisendorfer December 6, 2008 s.fogg@utoronto.ca
