Hayton 'strays' in Canandaigua NY

from: Keith Hayton, Durham, UK 

 

It seems that many people researching their family pedigree come up against a common difficulty, where an earlier generation has emigrated from the United Kingdom to places such as the United States, Canada, Australia etc, in identifying the precise link between the families in the different countries, and finding exactly which member of the overall family emigrated.

 

Through DNA testing, I have discovered a relative living in the United States, Donald David HAYTON; and have been able to contact his daughter Sally CARRIER (late HAYTON), living near Rochester NY.  My ancestors are known back for at least eight generations, with all but the two most recent in the county of Cumbria UK, but a difficulty arises because, although we can be certain from the DNA tests that we have a common male line ancestor within five to ten generations, none of us know which member of the HAYTON family it is that went to America, and searches so far have drawn a blank.  However, these searches have identified instead a link between HAYTONs in England and America that may be of interest to people in Ontario County NY.

 

We already know that there are relatively larger numbers of HAYTONs in both Cumbria UK and East Yorkshire UK, when compared to the proportion elsewhere in England, and that this distribution was even more marked in the 19^th century, and probably before that.  Each of these two counties also has a village (two villages in Cumbria) named HAYTON, and it is possible that the surname derives from the place name in each case.  However, we know of no connection between the HAYTONs in Cumbria and the HAYTONs in East Yorkshire.

 

Sally CARRIER has information that in the 19^th century there were at least two HAYTON families in Canandaigua.  There was John HAYTON (senior) born Storewood, England; his wife Mary, born Castlehyde, Ireland; and their children William Blossom; Mary Jane; John; and Johana; all born in Canandaigua, NY.  John senior died in 1858 age 40, so must have been born about 1818.  There was also Joseph HAYTON (senior) born England; his first wife Eliza, born New York state; and their children Joseph; Mary; and Eliza; all born in New York state.

 

Along with the information obtained by Sally CARRIER, there is a photograph (shown here) which has a note on the back indicating that it is of John HAYTON of Canandaigua, formerly of Cumberland county, England.  However, the photograph is of a young man, possibly aged in his late twenties, which, if of the John HAYTON senior mentioned above, would need to have been taken in about 1846.  But this would be five years before the photographic process of fixing images like this to paper was invented in 1851, and around twenty years before it became commonplace and readily affordable for the average man!

 

So the photograph must be of a later John HAYTON.  It cannot be of John senior's son, because that John HAYTON is recorded at the Canandaigua cemetery as having died at the battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia, on 31 May 1862, at the age of 19 years.  We think that the man bears visual similarities to Sally's father and earlier generations of his family, but cannot be sure that he is a direct relative.  So who is the photograph of?

 

Turning now to the origins of John HAYTON and Joseph HAYTON, living in Canandaigua in the 1840s and 1850s.  In his Will, William Blossom HAYTON, the eldest son of John HAYTON senior, left money to his cousins Joseph HAYTON, Mary TODD, and Elizabeth ASHTON, who appear to be the children of Joseph HAYTON senior.  Consequently, William's father must have been the brother of Joseph's father.  Joseph's father (Joseph senior) is recorded as being age 35 on the 1850 US census; age 44 on the 1860 US census, and age 44 at his death on 19 Aug 1861.  These imply Joseph senior was born around 1815, although the ages stated cannot all be exact.

 

To try and identify the brothers John and Joseph, a search of the International Genealogical Index (IGI) on the Mormon Family Search website for a list of all Joseph HAYTONs in England (there are none in Scotland or Wales) born between 1810 and 1820 came up with nine.  After trying to identify what happened to each of them, six of these could be accounted for in England, leaving just three who could have gone to America.

 

Of these, Joseph HAYTON baptised at Wigton, Cumberland on 11 Nov 1812 had a brother John, but this John is known to have remained in England; and the Joseph HAYTON baptised at Heversham, Westmorland on 29 Oct 1820 seems too young to be really likely.  The other possible Joseph HAYTON, baptised at Thornton by Pocklington, Yorkshire on 2 Nov 1815 is also the only one that was baptised within a year of the implied year of birth for Joseph, from the ages stated for Joseph's death and age at US censuses in 1850 and 1860.

 

I have searched for a brother John for Joseph, and find that there is one, baptised 23 Jan 1818 at Thornton by Pocklington, Yorkshire - he is also not accounted for in England after 1818, so could have gone to America.  The John HAYTON that died in Canandaigua in 1858 was aged 40, so would have been born about 1818, and so it seems quite likely that we have the Canandaigua brothers John and Joseph - they were baptised in Thornton by Pocklington, Yorkshire in 1818 and 1815 respectively.  Their parents were John HAYTON and Mary ELSWORTH, married at Thornton by Pocklington on 4 Jun 1811.  They also had (at least) four other children; Jane baptised 13 Jan 1813; Mary baptised 5 Jul 1821 and Thomas baptised 24 Aug 1824, all at Thornton by Pocklington; and another Mary (the first presumably must have died) baptised 25 Jan 1829 at Allerthorpe by Pocklington (Allerthorpe is the next village to Thornton).

 

I have not been able to find from IGI a marriage for any of the three other surviving children in Yorkshire.  The possibility that Thomas went to America with his brothers cannot be ruled out, although assuming that elder brothers John and Joseph had gone to America before 1838 (known because each of their eldest sons were born in America about 1839), Thomas would have been only age 13 or 14 at the most.

 

Thornton is a small village located about 10 miles south east of the city of York, and about three miles south west of the small town of Pocklington.  Nowadays, both Thornton and Allerthorpe have dropped the "by Pocklington" bit of their place names used in 19^th century records.  Thornton is also only four miles from the village of Hayton in East Yorkshire.

 

Turning to the stated place of birth for John of Storewood, England, I have searched lists of all the place names in England, which goes right down to individual farms in some cases, and there is no town or village called Storewood anywhere in England.  There is a Stonewood in Kent, but that seems very unlikely, because there were no Joseph HAYTONs in Kent in the 18th and 19th centuries.  There is a Storewood Farm in Shropshire, but again that seems unlikely to be recorded as a place of birth.  Of more promise is a place in the parish of Thornton by Pocklington recorded in the 1841 UK census as "Stourwood or Storthwaite", and since this is where John HAYTON and Mary (late ELSWORTH) are living with their two younger children, Mary (age 14) and William (age 15), it seems virtually certain that we have the right family.  I have not been able to find a baptism on IGI for son William.  Nor have I been able to locate Stourwood or Storthwaite on a modern map, although it could have disappeared with the enlargement of farms that has taken place since the 19th century.

 

I have also found John HAYTON and Mary (late ELSWORTH), both age 63, living in the village of Storthwaite in the 1851 UK census.  John is described as a carrier by occupation, born at Wheldrake, Yorkshire; and Mary is listed as born at Storwood, Yorkshire.

 

So it would seem almost certain that the two brothers John and Joseph HAYTON, living in Canandaigua NY in the 1840s and 1850s, came from the parish of Thornton by Pocklington, Yorkshire UK.  But the identity of the man in the photograph remains a mystery so far.