Archive:NEHGR, Volume 99

Archives > Archive:Extracts > Archive:The New England Historical and Genealogical Register > NEHGR, Volume 99

Jones, Theodore F., "Roster of the Expedition of 1690 to Canada," NEHGR, vol. XCIX (1945), pp. 307-314.

[p. 307]

On December 4, 1734, the House of Representatives of Massachusetts received a petition from "Shubael Sever, Samuel Newell, Thomas Gardner and sundry others of the towns of Roxbury and Brookline, for themselves, who are the representatives of the company in the publick service in the Canada expedition, anno 1690, under the command of the late Capt. Andrew Gardner, which consisted of about sixty men, who were all lost in the expedition except the petitioner Newell." The petition prayed that "in consideration of the misfortunes arisen to the families of the deceased, as well as their voluntarily entering into the publick service and performances therein, the petitioners and their associates may obtain a grant of six miles square of land for a township." The petition was referred to the Committee for Lands. On June 4, 1736, the House approved a grant to the petitioners of six miles square of land on the New Hampshire line, immediately east of Northfield; and the order was confirmed on June 15, 1736. The grant was henceforth known as Gardner's Canada, until in 1763 it was incorporated as the town of Warwick, Massachusetts.

In the custody of the town clerk of Warwick is one volume of the Proprietors' Records of Gardner's Canada from 1736 to 1771; and to the kindness of the town clerk, Miss Elizabeth S. Earle, is due the transcripts of those records upon which is based the following attempt to reconstitute the roster of Captain Gardner's company. Walter K. Watkins, in his "Expedition to Canada in 1690 under Sir William Phips" (Publication No. 4 of the Society of Colonial Wars in Massachusetts, 1898, page 183) did not use the Warwick records, and published only a list of grantees for Gardner's Canada from a petition of 1751. In consequence, any published information about the Roxbury company is almost wholly lacking.

In the Warwick records are found three very early lists of grantees. The first contains only 33 names, and is entitled, "A List of the Petitioners of Roxbury and Brookline;" it is undated, but presumably contains the names of the signers of the petition presented to the general court in December 1734. The second is entitled "A List of the Proprietors that were admitted by the Court's Committee and who gave bond on the 22nd of September 1736;" it contains 58 names. The third, although undated, is the most informative; it is called " A List of the original grantees of Gardner's Canada," contains 60 names, and in each case names the soldier of 1690 from whom the grantee derived his claim. It msut have been composed after

[p. 308]

November 27, 1736, for it includes the name of Huldah Dorringer as daughter of Caleb Lamb of Roxbury, and she was admitted to the list in that capacity only on that date, by act of the General Court.

Herewith is published the third list, that "of the original grantees," attempting in each case identification of the soldier, and of his heir, the grantee. Wherever it occurs, the name of the soldier of 1690 has been italicized. Roxbury is abbreviated as R.

[p. 309]

"Timothy Whitney of Newton, eldest brother to John Whitney."

Timothy³ Whitney (John^1,2); b. R[oxbury] April 16, 1678; d. perhaps in Warwick, was the brother of John³ Whitney, b. R[oxbury] April 1, 1672, d. in Canada.

Cf. F. C. Pierce: "Descendants of John Whitney" (1895), which does not record John³'s death in Canada.

---

Copyright © 1999, 2006, The Whitney Research Group