Category Archives: Tower

Phinney/Finney, Tower

Benjamin Tower & Anne Phinney, New Brunswick, Canada, 1700s

2 Comments

Benjamin Tower is a Pre-Loyalist who moved from Rhode Island to Nova Scotia, Canada in the 1760s. He was born 22 September 1744 in Cumberland, Providence, Rhode Island, as the first child born to Joseph Tower and Judith Briggs.

Benjamin married Anne Phinney/Finney on 1 May 1766 in Sackville, (now) New Brunswick, Canada. She was the daughter of Nathaniel Phinney. Nathaniel married widow Judith (Briggs) Tower (Benjamin’s mother) as his second wife.

Although there is a lengthy list of children purported to be those of Benjamin and Anne, little is known about what happened to most of them. Sackville town records record the marriage of Benjamin and Anne and the births of their first four children.

It’s possible that the Tower family removed from Sackville as the Revolutionary War opened in the American colonies, although they remained in Westmorland County, where Benjamin petitioned for land in 1787.

Children:

  1. Joshua, born 2 May 1768, Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada; no further record
  2. Benjamin, born 3 May 1770, Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada; apparently petitioned for land in 1807 with Ann, Gideon and Joseph Tower [likely his widowed mother and two brothers]
  3. George, born 30 April 1772, Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada; no further record
  4. Nathaniel, born 31 October 1774, Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada; no further record
  5. Phebe, born c1777, probably New Brunswick, Canada; reportedly married Edward Buck; may have died on 1 March 1822
  6. William, born c1779, probably New Brunswick, Canada; no further record
  7. Ann, born c1784, probably New Brunswick, Canada; died c1815; married Charles Delesdenier, 3 January 1805, Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada
  8. Joseph, born c1786, New Brunswick, Canada; died 15 January 1857, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada; married (1) Sarah Maxwell, 14 January 1808, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada (2) Mary Ward, 26 September 1822, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada
  9. Ruth, born c1788, New Brunswick, Canada; died 29 May 1869, Lubec, Washington, Maine; married Israel Thornton, 28 July 1807, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada
  10. Gideon, born c1790, New Brunswick, Canada; died 21 July 1866, Queens, New Brunswick, Canada; married Catherine McFarland, 1 January 1815, Queens, New Brunswick, Canada

Given that there aren’t even any land petitions found for Joshua, George, Nathaniel and William, it appears they may have died young and unmarried.

Benjamin Tower reportedly died in July 1804 in New Brunswick, Canada. Widow Anne was apparently the “Ann Tower” who made a land petition with her sons in 1807, but no further information has been found regarding her death.

Briggs, Tower

Joseph Tower & Judith Briggs, Attleboro, MA, 1700s

Leave a comment

Joseph Tower was baptized on 13 September 1720, Attleboro, Bristol, Massachusetts, the son of Benjamin Tower and Deborah Whipple.

He married Judith Briggs on 9 April 1743, also in Attleboro. She was born c1722, the daughter of Nathaniel Briggs and Judith Guild.

This family established the Tower family as Pre-Loyalists who settled in (then) Nova Scotia in 1761. Sadly, Joseph died at sea and never made it to their new home.

Little else is known about Judith, except that she may have died c1790 in the area of Nova Scotia that became the province of New Brunswick, Canada, but was alive and mentioned in her father’s 1773 and called Judith Phinney.

Another fun family fact is that my cousins and I are descended from the Hicks and Thornton families, also from Cumberland, and who also became Pre-Loyalists c1761. It is likely that the Hicks and Thornton families knew my cousins’ Tower families back in Rhode Island. However, they went on to settle in different counties in New Brunswick, Canada.

Children (All born Cumberland, Providence, Rhode Island):

  1. Benjamin, born 22 September 1744; died July 1804, New Brunswick, Canada; married Anne Finney, 1 May 1766, Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada
  2. Joseph, born 28 April 1746; died 6 September 1822, Rutland County, Vermont; married Eleanor Mason, 18 May 1768, Rutland County, Vermont
  3. Nathaniel, born 28 June 1748; married Lucy Tingley, 10 June 1774, Attleboro, Bristol, Massachusetts
  4. Joshua, born 30 June 1750; died 8 November 1753, Cumberland, Providence, Rhode Island
  5. Lucy, born 13 October 1752; died 5 January 1822, Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada; married Gideon Smith, 18 October 1770, Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada
  6. William, born 6 March 1755; died c1783; no further record
  7. Nancy, born c1757; married Gershom Maxwell, 19 January 1778, Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada

Judith Briggs remarried not long after arriving in Canada. Interestingly, her second marriage was to the father-in-law of her son, Benjamin, who married Anne Phinney/Finney. Her second husband was Nathaniel Phinney, whom she may have known in Rhode Island, as he was born 3 January 1720 in Swansea, Bristol, Rhode Island. It was the second marriage for Nathaniel, too. They were the parents of one daughter, Mary, born 7 April 1763 in Dorchester, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada. Mary married Daniel Fletcher on 7 May 1782, also in Dorchester, and died there at the young age of 46 years old on 5 September 1809.

Tower

David Whipple & Wives, Sarah Herendean & Hannah Tower

Leave a comment

As I work through the Tower family connections, David Whipple has tied into the family both through his marriage to Hannah Tower and through the marriage of his daughter, Deborah, to Benjamin Tower, her cousin.

David Whipple was born c1656, apparently in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the son of Captain John Whipple and Sarah (MNU). This John Whipple is not the John Whipple who settled in Ipswich, although they have been often confused.

What is fun with this family is that my cousins and I are all descended from John Whipple of Ipswich, Massachusetts. With this connection to the other John Whipple, my cousins are descended from both men! You can’t make this stuff up!

David Whipple married (1) Sarah Herendean, 15 May 1675 in Rehoboth or Providence, Rhode Island. Sarah died soon after giving birth to her first child, David, c1677. Sarah died 2 April 1677, in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island.

Many online trees place Deborah Whipple as a daughter of Sarah, but, given the timeline of Sarah’s marriage and death, it isn’t possible.

David Whipple married (2) Hannah Tower, 11 November 1677 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island. Hannah was the daughter of John Tower and Margaret Ibrook, who were recently featured in a family sketch.

David and Hannah became the parents of six more children, of whom at least four grew to adulthood and married.

Children (All born in Providence, Rhode Island):

  1. Israel, born 16 August 1678; died 13 June 1720, Attleboro, Bristol, Massachusetts; married Mary Wilmarth, c1697, probably in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts
  2. Deborah, born 12 September 1681; died 26 March 1755, Cumberland, Providence, Rhode Island; married Benjamin Tower, c1698
  3. Jeremiah, born 26 June 1683; died 14 May 1721, Attleboro, Bristol, Massachusetts; married Deborah Bucklin, 22 November 1711, Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts
  4. William, born 27 May 1685; died 12 November 1746, Attleboro, Bristol, Massachusetts; married Elizabeth (MNU), c1715
  5. Sarah, born 18 November 1687; died 27 September 1727, Attleboro, Bristol, Massachusetts; married Joseph Razey
  6. Hannah, born 9 January 1690; no further record
  7. Abigail, born 20 October 1692; no further record

David Whipple died 18 December 1710 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts. Hannah lived many more years, dying about November 1722 in Cumberland, Providence, Rhode Island.