UPDATE: This saved in a weird way, so I’ve fixed it up.

Loyalist Peter Stover is not one of my direct line ancestors, but I do have two collateral lines connecting us through my Carlisle and Stewart families, both of whom were also Loyalists.

There is information available online about Peter Stover and his family and, while some of it matches documents that I’ve come across, other pieces – including children – either don’t have any basis in fact or are repetitions of the same child with slightly different birth and death years.

Because of those discrepancies, I’ve put together a short family sketch about Peter Stover, his wives Mathilda and Cynthia, and children that were born to each.

Peter Stover was born c1758. Although his Revolutionary War service was in New Jersey, I haven’t seen positive proof as to whether he was born in the colonies or in Europe, although he was of German ancestry.

Peter served with the 5th Battalion of  New Jersey  Volunteers and, at the close of the war in September 1783,  sailed on the Duke of Richmond from New York to Canada. He petitioned for land in York County, New Brunswick, Canada in 1785, Kings County in 1786 (when he was granted 200 acres), Kings County again in 1812 and 1815, when he received an additional 290 acres, and Queens County in 1814.

The age of 25 years was typical for colonial men to consider marriage and it so happens that Peter was just about 25 years old in 1783. I haven’t seen evidence that Peter was married during the time of the American Revolution and it is thought he likely married soon after arrival in Parrtown, Nova Scotia, which soon became St. John, New Brunswick, Canada.  The few written records created in Peter’s life time – land deeds – are all from the 1790s and spell the name of Peter’s wife as Mathilla and Mathilda.

Mathilda’s birth year is a complete guess, but she was likely younger than Peter by at least a few years, given that she was having children into the very early 1800s. Therefore, I’d estimate her birth year as between 1760 and perhaps as late as 1770 if she married around the age of 18.

Let’s estimate that Peter and Matilda married c1788, almost certainly in New Brunswick, Canada.

Mathilda makes her last appearance in Canadian records on 16 October 1795, when she released dower rights in a land sale with Peter in Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada. However, as gaps in the births of Peter’s children don’t appear until after 1804, it is likely that she lived a number of years past 1795.

However, Peter’s second wife, Cynthia (MNU), doesn’t appear in records until 6 May 1814, in another land sale in Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada.

All of the Stovers found in early New Brunswick are descended from Peter, as he was the only man with that surname living there.

NOTE: The birth order of Peter’s first set of children is uncertain because no birth or baptismal records have been located.

Children: (Mother is likely Mathilda):

1. Elsie/Elcey/Alison, born c1789, New Brunswick, Canada; died after 1840, possibly in La Porte County, Indiana if she is the female aged 50-59 in the home; married Daniel Carlisle, probably c1809 and definitely before 1816, when she released dower rights in a land sale. He was born c1788; died after 1840, possibly La Porte County, Indiana, where he is last found living.
2. Elizabeth, born c1791, New Brunswick, Canada; died after 4 February 1819; married Joseph Hall, c1807, probably Kings County, Canada. Online (undocumented) information says Joseph Hall was from Nova Scotia and born c1772, but that seems a bit early unless Elizabeth was a second wife; died after 4 February 1819. Neither Joseph nor Elizabeth has been found in the 1851 census. William Hall, living in Howard, Kent, Ontario, Canada was born c1808, New Brunswick, and is attributed as their child. Because of the time period, records are difficult to find for this couple. On 4 February 1819, Joseph and Elizabeth Hall sold land in Sussex, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada to William Graves Jr., who also lived in Sussex. Joseph doesn’t buy any new property after that time. Perhaps they also made the trek to Ontario, like the Carlisles.
3. Elisha, born c1792, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada; died 26 July 1857, Harwich, Kent, Ontario, Canada; married Mary Stewart, 16 August 1814, Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada. She was born c1792, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada; died ?
4. Susannah, born c1793, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada; died between 1851-8161, probably Elgin, Albert, New Brunswick, Canada; married William Graves, 14 June 1824, New Brunswick, Canada. He was born c1785; died after 1871, probably Elgin, Albert, New Brunswick, Canada. Susannah was reportedly William’s second wife, but I haven’t verified that.
5. Peter, born c1795, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada; died 1846, Kent Ontario, Canada; married Martha Bury, c1818. She was born c1799; died c1871, Kent, Ontario, Canada. The Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of Kent, Ontario by J.H. Beers & Co included a biographical sketch of the family.
6. ?Reuben, born c1804, New Brunswick, Canada; died 1873, Kent, Ontario, Canada; married Sarah Delaney, 1 August or 5 September 1830, reportedly Shediac, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada. She was born c1805, Nova Scotia, Canada (per 1851 census). NOTE: For now, he is listed as a child of Mathilda. There is no death certificate. Although he had four daughters, none is named Matilda or Cynthia, so the name of his mother is a mystery for now.
   Children: (Mother is likely Cynthia):
   1. Matilda, born c1809, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada; died 1881, probably Shediac, Westmorland, Canada; married Abraham Taylor, 21 June 1827, Dorchester, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada. He was born c1805; died before the 1851 census.
   2. Eliza Ann, born c1811, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada; reportedly died 22 June 1885, Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada, but I find no documentation; married James Gray, 29 July 1832, Shediac, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada. He was reportedly born 8 October 1808, Sussex, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada; died 17 February 1865, no place given and no documentation found. They lived in Upham, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada in 1861. James is not found there in 1871.
   3. William C., born c1813, Kings, New Brunswick, Canada; died 17 February 1898, Kent, Ontario, Canada; married (1) Rebecca Collins, 7 October 1883, Shediac, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada. She was born c1812, New Brunswick, Canada; died between 1861-1871, Kent, Ontario, Canada. (2) Ellen (MNU). She was born c1823, Ontario, Canada; died after 1871.

If you can any details about the lives of Loyalist Peter Stover, either of his wives or his children (sources cited, please), I would love to have them.

Although he is not my direct ancestor, he is part of my collateral family through the Carlisle and Stewart families.