The Dexter and Hibbard Connection: Tracking the Old Folks
As difficult as it can be tracking ancestors, our best options are working forward and backward. Our clan, like many others, uses many of the same common first names, but bear with me and I will try to walk you through.
I started through validating my 2x Great grandfather’s parentage, George James Dexter. His father was James Dexter, my 3rd great grandfather: the 10th child (and 7th son) of Thomas and Susanna (Trotter) Dexter (4th great grandfather), who had a long-established business in Staines, Middlesex, England as a corn dealer.
The crest of the Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers – from their website[1]
Thomas Senior inherited his father George’s business, originally that of a tallow chandler, and in turn, refined and evolved it into the corn and coal dealership it eventually became. It must have been some evolution, although corn oils were often used in creating tallow, so perhaps that is how it started. This then, is the 4 generations leading to our contemporary family. George, Thomas, James and George James.
The first George (so far as we know!)
George Dexter (my 5x great grandfather) did his indentured training through the Tallow Chandlers’ Guild. This was traced by my cousin, (another George Dexter – see our other authors here!) around 2010, and the information is now available online at the Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers.
George Dexter the first’s (as far as we know!) occupation was what connected us to him through his last Will and Testament which is the foundational image for this website. The document gave me his surviving children’s names.
The Children of George Dexter and Mary Cowell
The family of GEORGE Dexter and his wife Mary (nee Cowell) was small – it was just George and Mary, and daughter Elizabeth Dexter (b 1763, m. Edward Taylor, d. 1849); William (lived just 6 years), another son George, that lived about one year, and THOMAS, my 4x great grandfather, born in 1773. Ultimately, the only surviving children were Elizabeth and Thomas.
George’s daughter, Elizabeth Dexter was married quite young – with her father’s permission – to either George’s partner or his partner’s son. Their family was traced using the wills of George Dexter (tallow chandler) and her husband, Edward Taylor. Their family is easily traced using Elizabeth Dexter Taylor’s will and includes 4 daughters and 3 sons, all named in my family tree.
After George passed away, Thomas inherited his father’s tallow chandler business. He altered the chandlery to begin a generational career with his sons as a corn dealer, then including coal dealings as well.
In 1899, son Thomas took as his wife, Susanna Trotter. They had ten children that lived to adulthood to carry on their legacy.
Thomas Dexter and Susanna Trotter’s Youngest
Of the 10 children that survived to adulthood in the Thomas and Susanna Dexter family, there likely wasn’t much left for the youngest son, James. There was also so much going on around the area they lived, that historically speaking, the turmoil might well have encouraged James to take his young family to the New World for new opportunities and safety.
In 1843, at 30 years of age, James marries Elizabeth Hibbard, a daughter of William Hibbard and second wife Elizabeth (nee Dobbins). “Hibbard”, in and of itself, is a fairly common name in the UK, so at first it was difficult connecting these dots and verifying Elizabeth’s parentage. I was able to do that by following breadcrumbs they left.
First, James Dexter and Elizabeth Hibbard married by license at St. John’s Church in the parish of Paddington, Middlesex County on 7 November 1843[2]. Both were of full age, and never previously married. James was listed as a corn dealer from Staines, his father Thomas Dexter, listed as corn dealer.
More info from the marriage license: Elizabeth was living at 13 Grosvenor St, and her father listed as “William Hibbard, Farmer”. Those witnessing the ceremony and recorded on the registry were Thomas Hibbard and his wife, Maria Hibbard. I discovered Maria to be Maria “Knapp”. This direct connection is very important to remember and will be addressed in a later story.
James and Elizabeth started making babies right away – they had 5 between 1844 and June of 1851, all of whom survived into adulthood. All of the baptisms are recorded.
The Family Moves Across The Pond
One record that indicated “things were up” was the 1851 UK Census itself, which had oldest son George James – my 2x great grandfather (age 6) at the home of Thomas, his grandfathers’ home in Staines. Was George James spending some last precious time with his grandpa before this great trek?
This was surely a last, very special visit by George James with his Grandpa and namesake, his aunts Mary and Elizabeth and Uncle William. Grandmother Susanna had passed away the same year that George was born (1844), and I can imagine – as a grandparent and as a parent – how much I would want to spend time with my dear ones before they went to a new land across a dangerous ocean.
The rest of the family was still in their own home in Chertsey at the time of the 1851 Census. Surely, they were preparing for the journey to America! The Census came out in June of 1851. The ship they were to embark on was in London’s harbor in July of that same year. By September 1851, they were in America.
Elizabeth Hibbard’s Beginnings
Other notes of interest in the 1851 UK census include Elizabeth Hibbard Dexter’s birthplace of Oxford, Clanfield, England. I later discovered her father was considered a person of some local importance there – a yeoman and gentleman farmer.
Willam Hibbard’s will names wife Elizabeth (nee Dobbins) and the following children: William, (Thomas Siddons or perhaps Higgens, son-in-law – spouse to daughter Mary), Charles, Thomas, Joseph, Elizabeth (who married James Dexter) and Ann, discovered to be Elizabeth’s twin sister through baptismal records.
His testament includes notations regarding his “farming business”, and how it will go to the youngest child when they attain full age. Later, his will specifies he has “seven children”. [3] The will included a secondary codicil as well. Original will and codicil signed 24 December 1825.) William Hibbard Sr. passed away on January 4, 1826, just a couple of weeks after completing his will.
As mentioned, I was able to locate the manifest of the ship Southampton, which left London in early July 1851. It arrived in New York harbor on 3 September 1851, with James and Elizabeth Dexter and 5 children. In early 1852, sixth child, Henry was born in Elmira, Chemung County, New York. All future children were born in Indiana. This means that a pregnant Elizabeth traveled across the Atlantic with her husband and 5 children! What a tough lady!
But of all the places they could go from New York Harbor, why would they go to Chemung County? Why Elmira? Is it possible they knew someone there? Perhaps someone who knew them, or who sponsored them? Perhaps they wrote to them about the opportunities in America?
Next up, we will trace more of the adventures of the Dexter and Hibbard families in America.
[1] https://www.tallowchandlers.org/
[2] (Paddington, Middlesex County registry #307 page 154)
[3] (Source: England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858, PROB 11: Will Registers 1826-1828 Piece 1730: Hober, Quire Numbers 501-550 (1827).
