Ashton Keynes and the Manor House which was built in 1450 has played a rather large role in Richmond History. It is now called Cove House and is run as an Inn by Maj. & Mrs. Hartland.

Before I continue with the family information, I just want to insert here that, prior to the French and English War in 1689, immigrants were coming to America in large numbers due to the fact that "Parliament and the King had come to an impasse over the issue of taxation and royal finances. The English Puritans joined the anti-monarchical forces." The gentry would not lend Charles I money. The British Civil War was then brought about when "Parliament, on 3 November 1640, repudiated the Kings concepts of absolutism and rule by Divine Right."

John Richmond(1) was apparently in the shipping and trade business and made many trips between Bristol in England and Saco, Maine before choosing to settle in Taunton, Massachusetts in 1635 because of the problems in England. He was one of the purchasers of Taunton but his name does not appear in the list of men able to bear arms in 1643. This is not surprising because he opposed the Royalists and would not bear arms for them. He chose instead to return to England and join Cromwell's army in the Civil War. He had apparently married again in Massachusetts because he had three daughters that he left in America when he returned to England to fight. His two sons (possibly more) who had been born in England were still in England when John returned. Just who their mother was or who had reared them after their father took up permanent residence in America, I do not know. They were, however, very well educated in England and finally came to America in the 1650's just before their father also returned. A family story that has made its way down the generations is about the great tragedy that concerns John and his brother Henry. John, was now Col. John Richmond with Cromwell's Roundheads. Henry, hearing that John was near by decided to call on his brother. It was the evening of the Battle of Newbury 20 September 1643 when Henry appeared at John's tent door. John did not recognize his brother but saw only the Royalist uniform of the enemy, shot and killed him. As a result, John's father had to come up with enough money to save John's life. To do this he either sold or mortgaged his home at Christian Malford. John could well have spent some time in prison because he did not go back to America until 1658 when he went bonded to Ann Arundell in Virginia. He apparently had no money to pay for his passage. For some reason, he never did arrive in Virginia but in Massachusetts instead. Perhaps his sons John or Edward who were then in America paid whatever was required so John could come back to Taunton instead. At any rate, he did come back to Taunton and lived the remainder of his life with his daughter Sarah. He died on 20 March 1664, age 70 and is buried in Taunton. Genealogists who have looked at John Richmond's Will wonder whatever happened to his "chest of writings" which he left to his eldest son, John(2). No one has ever found any of these writings which could probably give us some clues as to John's life before he came to America as well as his British Civil War Experiences. He was a wealthy man and a large landholder in Taunton. This section of Taunton is still called "Richmond Town". The old burial ground is still there. Unfortunately, it is full of poison ivy and briar bushes and overgrown to the extent I did not attempt to go in and try to look at the old stones that were over-turned, one of which I was told, was John(1) Richmond's.

John Richmond(2) was born about 1627 in England before his father came to America to live. John was educated in England and did not come to America until the 1650's. He was trained as a surveyor and spent much of his working life in America doing just this. He was married two times. First in 1654 to Susannah Hayward, daughter of Thomas Hayward of Bridgewater. They had four children. His wife Susannah died in childbirth when a daughter, Susanna was born 4 November 1661. Proof for this was found in the Middlesex County Records at Cambridge, MA [20:215; 22:69; 23:396 (two deeds), 397, 398]. These are a group of six deeds dealing with the Haywards of Bridgewater as heirs to the estate of Peter Town of Cambridge. In 1663, John married Abigail Rogers, granddaughter of Thomas Rogers of the Mayflower. They had seven children.

John was on the Town Council. He was Constable and Commissioner and Surveyor. His residence at "Neck of Land" was about three-quarters of a mile from the center of Taunton. He and his wife Abigail are buried there. He was a large land owner and one of the proprietors of the Iron Works in Taunton. During this time, he was also involved with the Indian problems and in what was called "Phillips War" which was the Indian war that was bloody and devastating in the extreme. Actually he purchased land from the Indians in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island prior to this war. As a member of the Town Council, John received, for the City of Taunton, money known as "The Irish Donation" to help ease the plight of the citizens of Taunton as a result of the war with the Indians. One of John's more ambitious projects was the survey he did in Little Compton at Duxbury, 1673-1694. That was before Little Compton became part of Rhode Island in 1747.

John Richmond(2) has always been known as one of Taunton's early leaders - who along with his father who was one of the founders of Taunton. Both were outstanding Early American citizens. John(2) died on 7 October 1715. His wife Abigail died 1 August 1727. They are buried on the property on which their residence stood at "Neck of Land".

Ebenezer Richmond(3) [John(2), John(1)] was born in Newport, Rhode Island on 12 May 1676, the son of John Richmond(2) and his second wife, Abigail Rogers Richmond. His father spent a lot of time in Newport because of the surveying work he did there. The whole family would go along since they had a home there as well as in Taunton.

Ebenezer was active in the Middleboro, Massachusetts and Taunton communities as a businessman, constable, and other elected positions. He was also a large land owner, much of it inherited from his father John(2). There was also the constant worry about the Indians, which continued for several years. In 1700 he married Anna Sproat of Scituate, granddaughter of Henry Samson of the Mayflower. Her father was Robert Sproat and her mother Elizabeth Samson of Duxbury. We know this information is correct because, in Robert Sproat's will, which is recorded in the Plymouth County Probate Records, Volume III, pages 222-224, daughter Anna is one of his heirs and "The inventory was taken by Ebenezer Richmond (husband of daughter Anna Richmond named in will)....." The six children of Anna and Ebenezer were all born in Middleboro, MA. They were: Ebenezer, Robert, Anna, Rachel, Elizabeth and Silvester. Ebenezer made his will, 7 April 1729 and the heirs signed an agreement as beneficiaries on 12 May 1729, consequently he died between those two dates. Anna Richmond lived another ten years.

(Capt.) Silvester (Sylvester) Richmond(4) [Ebenezer(3), John(2), John(1)] was born in Middleboro, Plymouth County, Massachusetts on 25 November 1711. Coming from a long line of military men as well as men who were leaders of Taunton for three generations, it is not surprising that Sylvester was not only an outstanding citizen of his community but also chose to join to fight in the French and Indian War.

The French and Indian Wars took place between 1689 and 1763. Both Great Britain and France wanted to get more possessions in North America mainly because of the fur trade. There was also a dispute as to the fishing grounds off the coast of Newfoundland plus religious differences, i.e. French Catholics vs. British Protestants. The Indians supported both groups. The first three wars were "King William's War" (1689-1697), Queen Anne's War (1702-1713) and King George's War (1744-1748). The fourth war was simply called the French and Indian War. It lasted from 1754-1763. It was the most important conflict over French and British possessions in America." The French were winning from 1755-1757 but in 1758 British victories outnumbered French victories. Considering the anti-Royalist feelings of his great-grandfather (and possibly even of his grandfather) it is interesting that Sylvester was fighting with the English in this war. He is listed on the "Muster Rolls, 1755-1756 and 1748-1763". He was a volunteer and his first rank was Sgt., when, at age 44, he fought at Ft. Edward in the Samuel Nichols Nelson Co., Thacher Regiment for only a short time because of work he needed to attend to on his farm. In 1758 he was commissioned a 1st Lieut., and for seven months fought in Canada under Capt. Benjamin Pratt in the regiment of Col. Thomas Doty. In 1759\60 he returned to active duty and was commissioned a Captain. He fought at Crown Point for nine months and then again, after a month off when he had to attend to some business in New Braintree, enlisted for another ten months.

"He was decorated for his distinguished service at Crown Point and for his kindness to his soldiers. He endured great hardship and suffering on the return from Crown Point, being at one time three days without food. However, he brought back every man in his company!"

"The fall of Quebec and Montreal signaled the end of the war in 1760. By the terms of the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, Great Britain received Canada and all the French possessions east of the Mississippi River, Spain received all French lands west of the Mississippi. Thus Spain remained Great Britain's only rival in North America"

Since Crown Point was a major battle in 1759, I felt that it might be of interest to the readers to learn about Crown Point. Crown Point is a village of Essex county, New York. "It is located about 90 miles N.E. of Albany and about 10 miles north of Ticonderoga, on the west shore of Lake Champlain. Fighting with the Indians took place here as early as 1609. This marked the beginning of the long enmity between the Five (later Six) Indian Nations and the French. The French built a fort there in 1731 called Fort Frédéric. It was the first military post at Crown Point and was, subsequently for many years, of considerable strategic importance, owing to its situation on Lake Champlain, from Canada to New York. Twice during the French and Indian War, in 1755 and again in 1756, English and colonial expeditions were sent against it in vain; it remained in French hands until 1759, when, after Lord Jeffrey Amherst's occupation of Ticonderoga, the garrison joined that of the latter place and retreated to Canada. Crown Point was then occupied by Amherst, who during the winter of 1759-1760 began the construction, about a quarter of a mile from the old Fort Frédéric, of a large fort, which was garrisoned but was never completed; the ruins of this fort (not of Fort Frédéric) still remain." "Although strategically the Crown Point Campaign Sylvester fought in was not a great success, it did serve as a military antidote to Braddock's disastrous defeat in July of 1755. It also demonstrated the capacity of the colonial government to mount a major military campaign on land without the assistance or intervention of the British regular army."

Sylvester(4) had been married 9 December 1736 to Abiah Elliot of Digton, Massachusetts. (Nickname for Abigail). They met and married before Sylvester joined the British Army to fight in the French and Indian War. Their first four children, Zephaniah, Lydia, Sylvester(5)(our ancestor),and Abiah were born in Middleboro and the rest of their children, Mercy, James, and Wealthy were born in New Braintree, Massachusetts. Just how the family came to move to New Braintree, I do not know but I suspect that Sylvester(4) discovered it about the time he joined up to fight in the war because New Braintree is in a direct line going west in Massachusetts towards New York State where the battles were. It was then, and still is, ideal farming country and Sylvester was probably finding that so many people were moving into southern Massachusetts that it was becoming more difficult to farm. Also, the British were increasing taxes and instituting more difficult rules as to the disposition of farmer's crops, etc.

Except for the roads in Eastern Massachusetts, "the earliest roads going west in Massachusetts, were Indian trails. They were little more than paths through wilderness. They could be followed on foot or on horseback, but were not yet really suitable for wagons or coaches." Considering this, one really wonders how this family could make the trip from Middleboro to New Braintree. Fortunately, the trails were gradually cleared as people went over them, turning them into dirt roads. In the bad weather they were virtually impassable because the dirt turned to mud.

On present day roads it is about 80 miles between New Braintree and Middleboro and would take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to drive. In 1749, it would have taken at least two days on horseback and, probably more with horse and wagon. Sylvester's first wife, Abiah, died 20 July 1789 in New Braintree, MA and on 23 September 1790, Sylvester married Hannah Pratt, a widow. Sylvester(4) was 79 years old but still spry and actively working on his farm. He was proud that his sons Sylvester(5) and Zephaniah(5) had fought in the Revolutionary War - keeping up the family tradition. Sylvester(4) died 9 December 1804 in New Braintree, age 93.

Since the French and Indian War and The Revolutionary War both played a big part in your ancestry, and I have already written about the French and Indian War and described one location (Crown Point) where a big battle was fought, I decided to also include a brief history relating to George Washington and leading up to the Revolutionary War. In 1754, George Washington came to fight in the French and Indian War. Some blamed Washington for starting the war. It went on for seven years and led to the American Revolution. After the Battle of Monongahela, Washington returned to Virginia to become a "Gentleman". He was elected to the Virginia House of Burgess and enjoyed the life of a Planter for about 15 years. However, in 1768 the British sailed into Boston Harbor. Washington saw this as an effort on the part of the British to collect taxes to pay for the French and Indian War. People already felt they were unfairly taxed and had no say in government so they rebelled. First came the Boston Massacre March 5,1770 which arose from the resentment of Boston colonists toward British troops quartered in the city, in which the troops fired on the mob and killed several people; then the Boston Tea Party December 16,1773 which was a raid on three British ships in Boston Harbor in which Boston colonists, disguised as Indians, threw the contents of several hundred chests of tea into the harbor as a protest against British taxes on tea and against the monopoly granted the East India Company. Then, two years later came the Battles of Lexington and Concord which were the first and second battles of the American Revolution on April 19,1775. The first major battle of the American Revolution was at Bunker Hill in Charlestown, MA on June 17, 1775. (Here one of your Walton ancestors, Lt. Timothy Walton fought). On June 15, 1775, George Washington took command of the Armed Forces of the United Colonies and, on July 3rd he arrived in Cambridge. He drove the British out of Boston in March of 1776. No British troops invaded Massachusetts for the rest of the war. The Bay State provided many soldiers and large amounts of supplies to the patriot cause. Anyone interested in more detail about this period of our history will have no difficulty in finding it in the library.

Sylvester Richmond(5) [Sylvester(4), Ebenezer(3), John(2), John(1)] was born in Middleboro, MA 3 May 1746. His parents were Sylvester(4) and Abiah Elliott. He was only about six years old when his family moved to New Braintree, MA. New Braintree was still part of a district that included Hardwick and Brookfield. On April 16,1751 New Braintree was incorporated but the town itself was not established till August 23,1775, by a general act under which districts became towns. Sylvester5 was a farmer and, except for the time he fought in the Revolutionary War, he lived and farmed in New Braintree. His first wife was Lucy Weston whom he married 8 August 1771. They had five children but only two survived: Sylvester6 born 14 March 1772 and Lucena6 born 8 November 1773. His wife, Lucy, died in childbirth on 17 September 1778. With two young children to care for, Sylvester married again in 1779. His second wife was Elizabeth Gardner who was born 17 May 1758 at Needham, MA. Her family moved to Barre, MA (about 10 miles north of New Braintree) when she was quite young. Sylvester and Elizabeth had 8 children. Sylvester was only 61 years old when he died on 10 November 1807. Since her children who were grown and married were not interested in keeping the family farm, Elizabeth sold it and taking her two youngest children (Esther and Zephaniah) with her went West. They settled in Pittstown, New York and when Zephaniah married Nancy Gardner about 1816, they moved to Lenox, NY. Elizabeth lived with them until her death in December 1851, at age 94. Jonathan Richmond(6) [Sylvester(5), Sylvester(4), Ebenezer(3), John(2), John(1)] was born 10 December 1786 in New Braintree, MA. He was the oldest child of his father's second marriage. He and his brothers had to work hard on the farm. His father believed in education but Jonathan only went through the 8th grade. He had met Hannah Harriet Duncan of Hardwick through his sister Catharine who knew and dated Hannah's brother John. Catharine and John were married 23 April 1803.

Jonathan was very excited about the prospect of exploring the country west of New Braintree. He had met people who had been as far as Albany and Syracuse, New York. They told him of the rich, fertile soil in the valley of the Mohawk River where there was talk of building a canal to encourage further migration to the west.

He was only 17 years old when he convinced Hannah Duncan to marry him and go with him west. They discovered that the trails were not the best but felt themselves fortunate to be on horseback. In some places there was a type of road where trees had been chopped down but, in bad weather, these roads were often swampy and impossible to travel on, even on horseback. Some wooden bridges had been built over small streams but generally there were only fords or ferries to cross the water ways. There were the mountains of Western Massachusetts to cross, then the Hudson River before they got to the Mohawk River near Albany and Troy, New York. If they had the money to pay for water transportation, it would have certainly been easier than overland travel. There was also a small river that went south from the Mohawk River not too far from Augusta, New York. Why they picked Augusta as their first home I do not know. There were many Richmond's settling in the Augusta area at this time and some of them could have been relatives of Jonathan's. Since I have found no deed or other evidence that they owned the farm they lived on in Augusta, it is certainly possible they were tenant farmers. After all, they were not yet in their twenties so most likely had no money to speak of, much less enough to buy a farm. In the 1810 Census for Augusta, New York. Jonathan and Hannah had four children under age ten. They left Augusta before 1820 because in the 1820 Census I found them in Onondaga, New York. Still only four children listed. I know that, of several of the ten children born to Hannah and Jonathan births Hannah had, at least four were stillborn and two others died young so most likely only the four who survived were ever found on any one Census. Roads were much improved by the time Jonathan and Hannah left Augusta. They were probably able to travel without as many hardships as they had in 1803. The Erie Canal was not yet completed so the young family still needed to go overland. By now though they probably had either a horse and carriage or a wagon pulled by horses.

When they first arrived in Onondaga, they bought some land and little by little built a house and started to grow many different crops as well as having cows and chickens. Amaziah(7), Sylvester(7), and John(7) helped to make their father's farm successful. In the 1830 Census there were no children under ten listed and only two males 10-20, two males over 20 and two females over 20. Since Amaziah had gotten married in 1827, he and his wife Caroline must have been living with Amaziah's family. By the 1840 Census, Amaziah, Sylvester and John were all married and living on the farm and children were showing up on the Census again. By the New York 1850 Census Hannah is shown to be living in Van Buren, Onondaga and Jonathan(6) in Elmira, NY. They would only have been about 65 years old by then but, conceivably, they could have been in some type of nursing facility since they were not together. After much correspondence and searching through cemeteries, I finally learned from M. Robinson that Jonathan(6) died on January 3, 1861 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, New York.

This is probably the saddest fact I have turned up in all my genealogical research. Jonathan probably had a tough life. He got married young and never seemed to do well financially but I can't help but wonder why one of his sons (John, Amaziah, or Sylvester), who all became prosperous farmers, could not have given their parents proper care in their old age and decent burials. Perhaps once reason I have never found out when or where Hannah Harriet died and was buried is because she too is in some unmarked grave. Strangely enough, their son John(7), never wrote any information about them in a notebook where he kept other family information. Now, even that notebook has disappeared.

John Richmond(7), Jonathan(6), Sylvester(5), Silvester(4), Ebenezer(3), John(2), John(1)] was born in Augusta, Oneida County, New York on May 15, 1817. He moved with his parents and brothers to Onondaga County, NY before the 1820 Census where the family appears with three children (no longer four children as in the last Census) and two adults.

It has been somewhat disappointing to not be able to get family information for some of the women who married Richmond men. Not only did I do much of this research myself but also I wrote to Albany, New York Archives, several historical societies, library's that had genealogical information and even Richmond family members still living in that area of New York State. All to no avail. Thus Hannah Harriet Duncan and Lucretia Vaughn remain total mysteries. I do at least have a birth date and place of birth for Lucretia Vaughn Richmond but Vaughn is such a common name. When I was looking through cemeteries in Augusta and Onondaga, there were more Vaughn's than any other name!! However, none of them gave me even a clue to Lucretia's family. By the time (1852) John and Lucretia and their five children left Onondaga, New York for the mid-west, the trains were running as far west as Chicago. From Chicago there was also a train that took them to Annawan, Illinois in Henry County where they decided to settle for a while. They were there ten years and became very prosperous farmers. John's brother, Amaziah, and his wife Caroline went with John and his family to Illinois. They too bought a farm and lived in Illinois the rest of their lives. Both Richmond brothers became quite wealthy in Illinois. Thus, when John and family along with their new son-in-law, Benjamin Franklin Walton who married their daughter Amie Minerva, went to Iowa and bought homesteads, John was able to build a substantial home and farm and give help to the young couple in getting started on their small homestead.

It is in Illinois where the Walton's and Richmond's join together. The information about the Walton Family is also available so please e-mail us.