#9375. 4. AYRES. “Nyumps,” Nov. 6, 1922. I am very grateful for this aid, and hope that someone will fill out a few more items while this is fresh in their minds. The list of old tombstones at Milford and New Haven often aid one, and I find at New Haven these Osbornes: Joseph Osborne, Jr., who died December 1724, aged thirty-two, and “Mr. Joseph Osbone,” [sic] died Nov. 19, 1735, aged sixty-eight years. The footnote says “Son of Jeremiah and Mary, born Dec. 15, 1667; left widow Mary.” And of Joseph, died 1724, says, “born July 23, 1692, left widow Experience,” and nothing further there. Then in early published records of New Haven, from 1638 are many references to Jeremiah, senior and junior, the elder being a tanner. I presume that Experience Tolles was a daughter or grand-daughter of Henry Tolles, in New Haven at an early day, and that Hester (Esther) Mallory was descended from Peter Mallory, and wonder if you can aid further on these families, or if anyone else can add to this.
Americn Ancestry, Vol. 1, gives Jeremiah as son of Richard, but the Spirit of ‘76 says he may be his brother. I wonder if anyone has proof on his father. Did Captain Joseph Osborne serve in the Revolutionary War, as he did not die until 1797 - and his son Joseph might have been in that war, not dying until 1794.
He was rather old when he married Sarah Smith, unless she was a second wife. As she was the daughter of John and Abigail (Gunn) Smith of Derby, am wondering how she traces back to the Gunns of Milford. In the New England Register, July 1891, the line is given in part of descendants of John Smith of Milford, who was first in New Haven, married Grace Hawley, who died in 1690. Four children were left at her death; Ephraim, John, Mehitable, and Mary, baptized Jan. 8, 1648, died December, 1691, married, Oct. 29, 1667, Abel Gunn, son of Dr. Jasper Gunn (1606-1670) of Milford. The will of Dr. Abell [sic] Gunn dated May 11, 1688, is found on page 7, vol. 2, New Haven Public Records, leaving property to his wife, Mary Gunn, no children mentioned.
Then Ephraim (2) her brother marries Abigail Briscoe of Milford, and has daughter Mercy, who married, Nov. 11, 1698, Lieutenant Samuel Gunn. She has six children, one daughter, Abigail, married Samuel Riggs of Derby. Son Samuel Gunn married Sarah Clark; and the other sons die unmarried, so it seems very probable that Abigail Gunn comes from Samuel.
Then it seems probable that John Smith is also from this family, for Ephriam, brother of Mercy (Smith) Gunn, lived in Derby and is so recorded in Probate Records of New Haven. Had wife Susanna, and left four children, Ephraim, Joseph, Susanna and Samuel, but none of these carried out in record printed 1891. But searching on these Gunns and Smiths will likely give the line of ones above mentioned. John Smith and wife Grace are on the stones of Milford Bridge, and so is Jasper Gunn and wife Sarah [sic]. He was the first physician at Milford, and there is good reason to think he practiced at Hartford. He died 1670. In his will he calls John Smith his brother (brother-in-law?) and John and Joseph Pech are witnesses, and borth are called “brothers.” Senator Miles Gunn gave this Gunn stone in bridge.
Another prominent settler was Richard Miles, whose second wife Katherine was Widow Constable, and she died at Wethersfield, 1683, aged ninety-five. From which of his sons can the ancestry of Hannah Miles, wife of Ebenezer Hurd, be traced? I am interested in several of these families, for many of my own ancestors are names on that Memorial Bridge, and many are among the founders of Milford, Hartford, New Haven and other early towns of Connecticut.
Does not the Hurd Genealogy give Ebenezer? It does not give Sarah, wife of Ransom Osborne, or the copy I saw eight years ago did not. I shall appreciate further clues, on above families.