The information that Jane Ireland married Daniel Whitehead is based on the
following:
Jeanne Whitehead was not a Skidmore. Her family was not correctly identified
until 1970 when an abstract of the inventory of Daniel Whitehead’s estate at
Newtown, Long Island was found and published. It mentioned “a cow given to his
son Adam by his grandfather Ireland.”5 Harry Macy, Jr., promptly saw the original
inventory which added a bit more: “One cowe which was a calfe ten yeres ago it
being then given to his son Adam by his grandfather Ireland.”6 This made it certain
that Whitehead had married Jane Ireland by 1659 and that their son Adam was
probably born by that date as well.
6I
am indebted to Henry Macy, Jr., for a photocopy of the original inventory.
Smith Pelletreau, Early Long Island wills of Suffolk county, 1691-1703, an unabridged
copy of the manuscript volume known as “The Lester will book;” being the record of the Prerogative
court of Suffolk, New York, with genealogical and historical notes. (New York, F. P. Harper, 1897).
8As recorded, they were John [Jr.] Ingersoll, born 11 May 1674; Jane , born 9 June 1676; Simon,
born 31 August 1678; and Daniel, born 13 September 1680.
9Huntington town records, including Babylon, Long Island, N.Y. With introduction, notes and
index, by Charles R. Street. (Huntington, L. I., 1887-89), II, 179.
10Winthrop Papers (Massachusetts Historical Society, 1929-1947), Merrymount Press, Boston, vol. 5
7William
Daniel Whitehead had married Jane [Jeanne], the eldest daughter of Thomas and Joan Ireland
of Hempstead as his third wife, by whom he had four additional children. Adam (ca. 1660-1681) was
clearly the eldest. He died a young man at the end of August in 1681 leaving a small estate. The
administration of it was granted to Adam’s father-in-law [stepfather] John Inckison [Ingersoll].7
Ingersoll was ordered to distribute the estate to Adam’s brother Thomas Whitehead “he being under
twenty-one,” and to two unmarried sisters Jemima and Elizabeth Whithead both under eighteen. Two
years later Jonathan Lewis gave his receipt for Jemima’s part of Adam’s estate since she had now
become his wife, and on 12 January 1682/3 Thomas Skidmore II (1627-1683?) confirmed a deed
which his son Thomas III had given a day earlier to Jonathan Lewis for a house and home lot with 17
1/2 acres of land at Freshpond Neck in Huntington.
Jane Ireland, as Whitehead’s widow, had married John Ingersoll of Huntington about 1673 as
her second husband. She had four more children by Ingersoll whose births are recorded in the
Huntington Town Records.8 Since Jane Ireland was the mother of four Whitehead children born soon
after 1660, and her four Ingersoll children were born from 1674 to 1680, it would seem that she was
a second wife born soon after 1640 and was much younger than her Whitehead husband. When she
died is unknown, but she was living as late as 29 July 1695 when she and her son John Ingersoll
deeded eight acres (bounded by Simon Ingersoll) to their half-brother Thomas Whitehead.9
Thomas Skidmore III of Huntington continued his interest in Jane Whitehead’s posterity. On
15 December 1702/3 he petitioned for and was granted the administration on the estate of Simon
Ingersoll who had died at Huntington on 8 January 1702. It seems probable that it was the several
items of Skidmore-Whitehead transactions that led Cornell (and then Hawley) to wrongly think that
Jeanne Ireland, the third wife, was a Skidmore. With adjustments in time and sequence the evidence
can be just as convincing for the identity of Whitehead’s first wife as a Skidmore.
1Many
of the most valuable evidences cited in this paper are the work of Harry
Macy, Jr., the Associate Editor of The New York Genealogical and Biographical
Record, who is himself a Skidmore descendant. I have borrowed heavily from his
excellent article “The family of Daniel Whitehead: a century and a half of fact and
fiction” published in the Record for October 2000, pages 263-275.
One of the problems with this information is that Jane Ireland, the second
daughter of Thomas and Joan Ireland, was under the age of 18 when her father
died in 1668. Their other daughter, Joan, was over the age of 18 but still living
with her parents. See will of Thomas Ireland below:
The brief will of Thomas Ireland is recorded (New York Historical Society Collections, 25:13) as follows:
The last Will and Testament of Thomas Ireland of Hempstead, being weake in his body, but sound in his
understanding.First, I commend my soule to God.Secondly, I do give to my eldest daughter, Joan, one
cowe, besydes what she is already possessed of, to be delivered when she departeth from living with her
mother.And also, I do give to my second daughter, Jane, D10, to be paid her when she is full eighteene
years of age, besyde what she is already given to and
nominated hers.Also I give to my sonne Thomas, my housing and lands with all ye priviledges thereunto
belonging, he to have ye said housing and lands at ye decease of my wife, or if my wife do marry again,
he is to have them when he comes to be one and twenty years of age, besydes what he hath in
nomination already with my other children.Also I give to my youngest daughter, Elizabeth, D20, to be paid
to her when she comes of age, that is of eighteen years of age, besydes what is already nominated to her
with ye other children.All ye rest of my estate I do give to my wife, she paying my debts out of it. I leaving
my wife Executrix of this my will, to order things becoming to it.
Hempstead, the 30th of September, 1668.
Witnesses: Jonah Fordham, John Smith
Thomas
his T.I. mark
his x mark
Ireland
Daniel Ireland and I have copies of the actual written document. He believes
the name of the eldest daughter reads “Jane” I think it says “Joan”. The above
transcription is what is on the Long Island genealogy website.
The only item that places a daughter of Thomas Ireland as the wife of Daniel
Whitehead and later John Ingersoll is this reference to “grandfather Ireland”,
everything else is jumping to conclusions. I can make several alternative
guesses as to what this could mean: 1. Thomas is elderly and is referred to in
the community as “grandfather Ireland” and gave a 10 year old cow [pretty old
and not worth much, take this from a farm girl whose family had milk cows,
that got butchered in favor of younger cows long before they were 10 years old],
to a neighbor kid who worked for him or whatever. 2. The reference is to
another man with the last name of Ireland. There were other Irelands in New
England at the time. 3. Thomas Ireland had an older daughter named Jean
who is not mentioned in the will because she is, at the time of the writing of the
will, already married with children and been given her share of the estate at the
time of her marriage. Maybe you can thing of other meanings. This is just too
thin a thread to declare with absolute authority the truth that Jeanne
Whitehead was nee Jane Ireland.
Joan Best