Samuel was born at Woodbury on 22 May 1756 in the Barbour transcription; the family account gives 23 May. He was about fifteen when the family moved to Lenox in 1771. The family histories describe Revolutionary service, followed by medical study and a career as a physician and surgeon. He died at Brimfield, Massachusetts, on 23 August 1808.

His first wife was Sarah, surname unknown, married before the birth of their son Samuel in 1782. Her death before the second marriage is inferred; the tree’s 1784 death date needs documentation. On 9 August 1789 at Stafford, Connecticut, Samuel married the widow Anna (Bicknell) Wickmal. The research tree also notes a 29 February 1796 transaction with Thomas Cooley, deed book 34, page 16.

1. Dr. Samuel Guthrie, 1782 Massachusetts–19 October 1848 New York; married Sibyl/Sybil Sexton in 1804; children. This is the physician, chemist, and inventor associated with chloroform.
2. James Guthrie, 1784 Massachusetts–1860 Ohio; married Elizabeth Ainsworth in 1813, then Anna Byram in 1851; children.
3. Rufus Guthrie, 1792 Connecticut–1871 Massachusetts; married Abigail “Nabby” Bradley in Connecticut in 1817; children.
4. Alfred Guthrie, born 1798 Massachusetts; reported to have entered medicine. Death, marriage, and children remain unknown. He is distinct from the younger Dr. Samuel’s son Alfred, born in 1805.
5. Anna/Anne, adopted daughter: the will dated 16 August 1808, printed in Dunn & Dunn’s descendant account, expressly calls Anna adopted and leaves her ten dollars. The tree’s 1802 birth date is not established by that bequest.

The family histories assign Samuel and James to Sarah, and Rufus and Alfred to Anna. Dunn & Dunn’s printed will also records medical books and surgical instruments, useful context for the elder Samuel’s profession.

James Jr. was born 19 November 1757 at Woodbury; the family study also reports baptism on 5 March 1758. He was about fourteen when the family moved to Lenox. His wife was Elizabeth, also called Betsey, surname unknown. The James Guthrie who married Mehitable Hickox was a different man. That family remains ungrouped in the corrected study pending Y-DNA evidence; a possible genetic connection must not be assumed.

The separation matters for military research: the Hickox widow’s Connecticut pension belongs to that other household. Massachusetts service under the name James Guthrie may belong to James Sr., James Jr., or both in different terms. Mike Guthrie’s specific comparison of Ticonderoga payroll and Lenox meeting minutes is preserved under Mike’s research notes.

The working reconstruction proposes James Jr. as the 1790 Chemung, Montgomery County, New York householder near his uncle William’s family. It then follows the family into Herkimer County records after that county’s formation in 1791, and Sherburne in Chenango County after its formation from Tioga and Herkimer in 1798. The changing jurisdictions do not by themselves establish every migration.

1800 Sherburne household: one male and one female aged 26–44; one male 16–25; two males 10–15; two males and three females under ten—ten people. These are unnamed household members, not a proved list of children.

James and Elizabeth sold their Sherburne land on 6 April 1812 and moved to Avery Township, Huron County, Ohio, later Milan in Erie County. James and David B. died within a short period about 1812–1813; no cause has been established. The tree abstracts identify 13 October 1813 administration granted to John Guthrie in Chenango County for James, intestate at Avery, and a 5 March 1816 complaint to Joseph Guthrie from Jonathan Sprague and his second wife Elizabeth concerning James’s estate and their care of his child “Bula.”

1. Unidentified male, born about 1774–1783: inferred from a census age bracket; relationship and birthplace unproved.
2. David B. Guthrie, born about 1785–1794 New York; died December 1812 Ohio; married, with one daughter reported.
3. Erastus, also rendered “Rassatas,” Guthrie, born about 1785–1800 New York; died 1817 Ohio; probably unmarried.
4. Dr. Anslem Guthrie, born about 1785–1790 New York; later in Ontario, Canada. Married Amanda Perry, with one daughter and a reported divorce, then an unidentified Dolsen.
5. Unidentified male, born about 1791–1800: a census lead, not a proved son.
6. Unidentified female, born about 1791–1794: a census lead, not a proved daughter.
7. Elisa Guthrie, born about 1791–1794 New York; died about 1821–1822 Ohio; married Jacob Bouck in Ohio in 1821.
8. Abigail “Abby” Guthrie, 12 August 1798 New York–23 April 1820 Ohio; married Daniel Sherman in Ohio in 1813; children.
9. Beulah Ann Guthrie, 9 April 1808 New York–15 December 1898 Illinois; married William H. Sly in Ohio in 1827; children.

This nine-entry working roster preserves three unidentified census people without assigning them invented Sherburne birthplaces. Read the mistaken-identity study and its original FamilySearch and Ancestry discussions before importing the Hickox family’s records.

The family study gives 8 October 1761 at Kent, Connecticut, for Joseph’s birth; other accounts give 1760 or 1759. He moved to Lenox with his parents and reportedly enlisted as a drummer at sixteen, serving seven years. A tree entry giving enlistment in 1776 conflicts with that age if the 1761 birth is correct. The original rolls are needed to reconcile the chronology.

Joseph married Phoebe Abbott (1768–1833) on 10 November 1784. The family account places their move to Sherburne in 1792 and credits Joseph with twenty-eight years as justice of the peace, beginning with the county’s first election. His reported appointment as lieutenant on 11 April 1796 and captain of the 105th Regiment in 1803 concern postwar militia service. These ranks must not be described as Revolutionary commissions.

Joseph died at Sherburne on 20 January 1845, aged eighty-three; the tree notes probate on 8 March. Joseph and Phoebe are buried at West Hill, with several children.

1. Elizabeth “Betsy” Guthrie, 4 October 1785–17 July 1855; unmarried.
2. Sarah Guthrie, 8 January 1787–March 1859 New York; unmarried.
3. Diantha Guthrie, 3 October 1789–24 October 1840 New York; unmarried.
4. Chauncy Abbott Guthrie, 11 October 1790–April 1828; farmer; married Eliza Dunn; children.
5. Justus Smith Guthrie, 14 October 1792 New York–22 December 1854; no children reported.
6. Almira Guthrie, 5 January 1795 New York; married James Green; children. The family study gives death on 10 September 1884; the tree gives 1874. The year remains unresolved.
7. Phoebe Satira Guthrie, 14 March 1798 New York–4 July 1822 or 1823; unmarried.
8. Joseph Guthrie, 9 January 1801 New York–9 February 1837; unmarried; counselor of the New York Supreme Court.
9. Lauren Lucian Guthrie, 6 May 1804 New York–15 June 1829 New York; unmarried; violinist.

Possible additional child: a James Guthrie buried nearby has been proposed as a son. No birth or death dates were supplied. Burial proximity is a lead, not proof of parentage.

The Kent birth entry cited in the family research identifies Abigail, daughter of James and Abigail, born 1 August 1762. The proposed marriage to Thomas Morehouse at Danbury on 23 January 1773 would make her ten years old. Morehouse’s wife’s gravestone instead records death on 22 September 1830, aged seventy-nine, pointing to a birth about 1751, before James and Abigail’s marriage.

One Morehouse child’s middle name, Knapp, prompted Ann’s question: could this older Abigail belong to John Guthrie III and Patience Knapp, whose proposed child list includes unresolved identities? The name is a research lead, not proof of that alternative parentage.

James and Abigail’s actual daughter would have been nine at the 1771 move to Lenox and about thirty at the family’s 1792–1793 move to New York. If she survived and married, Lenox and Sherburne are useful places to search. Her marriage, death, and adult residence remain unidentified.

Biographical and cemetery research contributed by Mike Guthrie, with Ann Guthrie’s documentary comparisons. Mike’s sketch gives a birth about 1762 and death at sixty-six; the family study gives 24 November 1763. Those figures do not agree. Sarah reportedly died at Springfield, Otsego County, New York, on 10 February 1828.

Mike suggested that Sarah was named for her father’s sister Sarah, wife of Reuben Murray and an ancestor of Winston Churchill. He also proposed that Sally remained with her parents as a companion and that the $82.25 left to her might have been intended as a dowry. These are interpretive possibilities; the will does not state her role or the purpose of the money.

The earlier account placed her marriage to Josiah Averill, sometimes called Joseph in the research notes, in 1809 at about forty-seven. Ann’s deed research establishes that Sally was already Josiah’s wife by 11 May 1805. That discovery changes the chronology of this blended family. His children’s mothers must be assessed through the books, census returns, deeds, and estate evidence together; the detailed comparison is preserved below.

Working first-family roster: the study tentatively groups the following six with Josiah’s first wife, Phebe Allen. Published counts disagree, so this grouping is not uniformly proved.

1. Beersheba Averill, born about 1785–1800; married John Ward; in Missouri in 1833; children unknown.
2. Ruth Averill, born about 1785–1800; presumed to have died before the 1831 will, but her omission alone does not prove death.
3. Evander Averill, 1785 New York–1842 New York; married about 1815 in New York to Isabella Clendening McChesney (also rendered McChessey); children.
4. Lucia Averill, 1788 New York–1864 New York; married Thomas Cook Sawdy in New York in 1805; a child reported.
5. Stephen Averill, 1790 New York–1879 New York; married about 1822 in New York to Jane B. Bower; children.
6. Celinda Averill, 1791 New York–1875 Michigan; married James H. Patchin; children.

Working later-family roster: Eliza Minerva is explicitly identified as Sarah’s daughter in the Allen genealogy. The other placements require the source comparisons below.

7. Eliza Minerva Averill, 10 February 1810 New York–1838 New York; married William Rufus Allen on 25 June 1833; children.
8. James Deloss Averill, born about 1805–1810 New York in the earlier reconstruction, versus 1811 in the tree; died 1838; married about 1830 in Michigan to Elizabeth Rudd; children.
9. Nelson Josiah Averill, born about 1805–1810 New York in the earlier reconstruction, versus 1812 in the tree; named in the 1831 will and reportedly in Michigan in 1833. The will date is not a death date.
10. Sarah Lucretia Averill, 1812 New York–1893 Michigan; married Benjamin Curtis; children.
11. Nancy O. Averill, born about 1815–1820 New York; reportedly a minor in 1833 and named in the 1831 will. Neither a death in 1831 nor maternity is established merely by these dates.

Mike’s cemetery notes: Sarah is reported buried with Josiah and a daughter Lucretia in Middle Village Cemetery, near Springfield, at 42.83648, −74.83358. He described taking Route 20 about a mile east of Springfield, turning north at the Presbyterian church on Van Alstine Road, and finding the cemetery about a quarter-mile along, west of the road, in trees behind a stone wall and fence. He described Sarah’s marker as abutting a tree. These are contributed location notes, not newly checked access directions. The reported Lucretia burial should be compared with the descendant entry giving Sarah Lucretia’s 1893 death in Michigan.

John’s birth is estimated about 1763 in Connecticut in the family study, but 1766–1774 in the tree. He married Polly Purdy, identified in the supplied history excerpt as a daughter of Abner Purdy. Her reported dates are 1777–30 April 1821.

The family account identifies John as Sherburne’s second postmaster and an original member of the Calvinistic Congregational church. After Polly’s death, he reportedly moved from his home near the south town line into Sherburne village. His death is placed between 1840 and 1850 in New York, without a settled exact date.

1. Minerva Guthrie, born about 1794 New York; died at Thomasville, Georgia; unmarried.
2. Mariah Guthrie, born about 1798 New York; later life unresolved.
3. Gloriann Guthrie, born about 1809 New York; married Nelson W. Carpenter in New York in 1829.
4. John Guthrie, born about 1816 New York; died 8 July 1873 Michigan; married Lucinda Hall in 1861.
5. William Henry Guthrie, born about 1817 New York; died before 1880 in Michigan in the earlier account, versus 1880 in the tree; married Sarah Maria (Dimick) Adams; children.
6. Albert Guthrie; dates and later life unresolved.

His father’s will, dated 5 December 1803, explicitly names John as son and executor. After settlement of the debts and bequests, John was to receive the remaining lands, improvements, buildings, farming utensils, debts owed to James, and other undisposed estate. Harvey Talcott’s witness testimony was sworn on 26 August 1805.

Family Finder kits 411863, 336643, and V1590 follow John and Polly through William Henry and Sarah Maria, then Millie Guthrie and Charles Earl Royce. John is the intervening generation between James and William Henry; a shortened roster path must not make William Henry James’s son.

The family study gives Benjamin’s birth as 11 July 1763 at Kent, a date that conflicts with Sarah’s proposed November birth in the same year. He moved to Lenox with his parents and married Milly Milke (1766–1840) at Woodbury on 17 July 1785.

Benjamin belonged to Sherburne’s First Congregational Society. Dunn & Dunn describes a move to Pennsylvania; later records in the family research indicate a return to New York. His death is reported in 1836, but the Pennsylvania location in the earlier study conflicts with the tree’s “Woodbury, Nassau, New York.” That modern place label is not proof of his death location.

1. Chauncey Guthrie, 1790–1828; farmer; married Fanny Salisbury; children. Competing placement in another Branch F household remains unresolved.
2. Elsie Guthrie, born 1792; reportedly unmarried; death unknown.
3. Abigail Guthrie, 1792 New York–1824 New York; married Amasa Sprague; children.
4. Clarissa Guthrie, 1795 New York–16 April 1841 New York; married Nathaniel Beckwith, a farmer; children.
5. Lewis Guthrie, born 1796 New York; later life unresolved.
6. Almond Guthrie, 1797–1868 New York; farmer; married Elizabeth Salisbury in 1820; children.
7. Philemon Guthrie, 1801 New York–1887 Missouri; married Harriet Louise Leonard in Pennsylvania in 1825.
8. Samuel Guthrie, born 1802 New York; later life unresolved.
9. Charles Guthrie, born 1807 New York; living after 1850; shoemaker and unmarried in the 1850 account.

The Philemon line supplies Y111 kit 1017666, also associated with AncestryDNA participation, and Family Finder kit 88319.

Esther’s birth at Kent is given as 15 July 1765 in the family study and 15 June 1765 in the tree. She married Thomas Jenks, probably at Lenox, where the family study places them in the 1790 census, and subsequently moved to Sherburne.

The earlier reconstruction interprets an 1810 “Widow Jinkes” household as Esther and places Thomas’s death between 1800 and 1810. The tree instead gives Thomas 1751–1828. These competing identities and dates need resolution. Esther was living on 22 July 1822, when she and her adult children reportedly conveyed Chenango County land to Stephen Harrington for $300.

1. Belinda Jenks, 22 March 1786 Massachusetts–21 July 1850 Michigan; married Ebenezer Jackaway/Jakways in 1808; children.
2. James Lawrence Jenks, 1787 Massachusetts–1839 New York; married Susan Godfrey; children.
3. Elmer Dickerson Jenks, 1789–1877 in the tree; married Abigail Gardinier, then Matilda Hawley Wallace; children.

James’s will calls his daughter Easter and provides money to obtain title to the ten-acre lot where she lived. The historical DAR pedigree through Belinda is discussed with the military sources below.

Nathan was born 14 October 1767 at Kent, spent his youth in Lenox, and became a physician associated with Sherburne. Dunn & Dunn and American Guthrie and Allied Families describe his intelligence, understanding of people’s physical and mental needs, and the confidence and affection of his community. He died in 1820.

He married Mabelle Patterson (1768–1805) on 28 November 1792. His second wife was the widow Abi (Richardson) Hale, reportedly married in 1807 at Scottsville and deceased in 1816. Tree references to DeRuyter in 1800, Jericho in 1802, and Caledonia in 1810 are leads for tracing his movements, not a fully established sequence of residences.

Children assigned to Mabelle:

1. Luman Guthrie, 1793 New York–1848 New York; married Sophronia Shepard; children.
2. Aurelia Guthrie, 1796 New York–1858 Michigan; married Chester Savage in New York in 1822; children.
3. Harvey Guthrie, 1799 New York–1876 Ohio; blacksmith; married Mary Beach in New York in 1822; children.
4. Francis “Frank” Guthrie, 1801–1881; minister; married Elizabeth Hughes in 1821; children.
5. James Guthrie, 1803 New York–1871 Ohio; blacksmith; married Harriet Shepard in 1832, then Theria Shepard before 1850; children.

Children assigned to Abi:

6. Jesse Guthrie, 1811 New York–1893 New York; teamster; married Hannah R. Crean in New York by 1836; children.
7. Joseph A. Guthrie, 1815 New York–1892, reportedly Michigan; physician; married Eunice Town in New York in 1844, then Emma Convos in Michigan in 1847; children. His death location remains to be checked.

Y111 kit 996753 follows Nathan’s son Jesse, whose mother was Abi. Family Finder kits B538614 and B667790 follow Francis and James respectively, sons assigned to Mabelle. The Y-DNA descent itself runs father to son through Nathan.

Barbour Collection, Woodbury Vital Records, 1674–1850, printed pages 130 and 156: both surname entries record James Guthrie and Abigail Betts’s marriage on 17 July 1755, citing volume 1, page 3.

Page 156 also lists Samuel, son of James and Abigail, born 22 May 1756 (volume 1, page 21), and James, son of James and Abigail, born 19 November 1757 (volume 1, page 36). These are published transcriptions of the town records. The original entries are the next step when resolving a copied date.

• Deed book 6, page 63: the executors of Joseph Dwight’s estate convey 123 acres in Lenox to James Guthrie for £61 10s. The supplied page does not contain the execution date. Its continuation is needed; the companion image supplied with it shows page 66 and a different transaction.
• Deed book 20, pages 642–643: James to Samuel Northrup, 24 acres for £96, 23 March 1786; with a highway reserved; acknowledged the same day and recorded 22 April 1786.
• Deed book 33, pages 54–55: James and Abigail to Thomas Keith, 99 acres for £200, 25 January 1793; recorded 12 March 1793. John and Levi Stoughton witnessed the deed. This is direct evidence of Abigail’s continued presence in the family’s affairs.
• Court volume 3A, pages 63–64: Jacob Parsons of Richmond brought a promissory-note action against James Guthrie of Lenox in 1773. Judgment followed nonappearance; execution issued 17 January 1774. The reported judgment was £6 12s 11d, with costs of £1 8s 9d. This documents a debt action, not a complete picture of James’s finances.
• Court volume 8, pages 376–378: James appears among Lenox plaintiffs with Caleb Hyde and others in a proceeding against coroner John Nash concerning an earlier, 1784 execution against Smith and Dewey, in a proceeding recorded in 1786. James is a plaintiff here, not the debtor. Other cases share these scanned openings and must be kept separate. Likewise, the unrelated White–Brown transaction on deed page 66 must not supply the date for the Dwight estate deed on page 63.

The two supplied register pages identify James Guthrie of Sherburne, in declining health but declaring himself of sound mind. He signed the will on 5 December 1803. Its provisions include:

• Wife Abigail: his wearing apparel and household furniture, six good merchantable sheep, a good merchantable cow, a colt worth twenty dollars, and forty dollars annually during her natural life.
• Daughter Sarah: $82.25, half payable one year after his death and the other half after three years. The sum alone does not establish a dowry or prove that she was unmarried.
• Daughter Easter: a sum sufficient to pay for the ten-acre lot where she lived and procure title for her and her heirs.
• Son Nathan: lifetime use of fifteen acres adjoining Thomas Jenks’s north line, followed by a provision for Nathan’s heirs.
• Other children not particularly mentioned: $1.25 each.
• Son John: after settling and discharging the debts, legacies, and other specified obligations, he receives the remaining lands, improvements, buildings, farming utensils, debts due to James by note, book, or otherwise, and all other estate not already disposed of. James appoints John executor.

Execution and witnesses: page 51 concludes with the date 5 December 1803, the recorded signature and seal of James Guthrie, and witnesses Joshua Talcott, Hawkins Woodruff, and Harvey Talcott. Talcott also appears with doubled letters in the clerk’s copy.

Witness proof: Harvey Talcott appeared before John L. Mersereau, Chenango County surrogate, and swore that he saw James sign, seal, publish, and declare the instrument as his will; that James was of sound mind and memory; and that all three witnesses subscribed at James’s request, in his presence and each other’s. The jurat is dated 26 August 1805. This is the date of the witness’s oath, distinct from the will’s execution and James’s reported death on 22 April 1804.

What this establishes: the conclusion identifies John’s inheritance and executorship. The will expressly names wife Abigail and children Sarah, Easter, Nathan, and John; its collective provision for other children does not individually identify the rest of the reconstructed family. Sarah’s marital status and the reason for her larger cash bequest remain unstated.

Record status: these are images of the probate register copy, including the witness proof, rather than proof that the separately signed original will survives. Further estate records may explain how John carried out the bequests.

The Lenox Covenant: the historical society explains the agreement dated 14 July 1774 and identifies the Lenox Library as the location of the original. The supplied images show both sides of the surviving document.

Revolutionary Soldiers of Berkshire: the supplied compiled entry combines the 1771 church admission with a James Guthrie’s service under Capt. Oliver Belding, 21 September–14 October 1777, and cites Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, volume 6, page 968. Compare the underlying rolls before deciding whether the soldier was the father or son.

DAR Lineage Book, volume 150 (1919), page 84, member 149266: the printed pedigree runs through Easter Guthrie, Thomas Jenks, Belinda Jenks, and the Jakways family. It attributes service in Capt. Erastus Sergeant’s company to James (1732–1804). This historical application account is useful, but it does not settle the competing same-name service assignments or establish present DAR acceptance.

Connecticut–Massachusetts mistaken identities: retain the distinction between James and Abigail’s son James Jr., husband of Elizabeth, and the James who married Mehitable Hickox. Their movements and estate records are essential to the separation.

This instruction to the town’s representatives is a separate document from the 14 July 1774 non-importation Covenant. It supplies the explicit independence language that had become blended with the Covenant in the family narrative. The text below is from the transcription Ann shared in her research tree, not a fresh diplomatic transcription of the town manuscript.

“These are to direct you to use your Best Endeavours to suppress the Tyranical measures that have or may take place from Great Britain; and as likewise to take as much care that you do not set up anything of a Despotick Power among ourselves; but let us have freedom at home although we have war abroad. We do Further Direct you to use your utmost abilities and interest with our Assembly, and they theirs with the Continental Congress, that if they think it safe for the Colonies, to declare independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain. And in your so doing, we Do Declare in the abovementioned thing. We will stand by you with our lives and fortunes.”

Elias Willard
James Guthrie
James Richards, Jr.
Committee

The Lenox Library’s “Revolutionary Spirit in Lenox” corroborates the 3 June 1776 town-meeting date and committee, and includes a manuscript excerpt. It identifies Caleb Hyde as the representative selected to deliver the resolve. This supports James’s civic role without determining which James appears in every military roll.

Abigail’s parentage and birth remain unproved. The repeated 21 July 1742 date would make her twelve at the 17 July 1755 marriage. Ann’s research has not found an original record establishing that birth date.

The proposed parents Elias Betts and Abigail Birchard had a daughter reported born 7 February 1746, baptized 23 March 1746 at Wilton, and deceased 21 October 1783, according to the linked Connecticut Church Record Abstracts. That child would have been nine in 1755, and the 1783 death conflicts with the wife Abigail’s participation in James’s 1793 deed.

The 1800 Sherburne census research identifies “James Guthery” with one male and one female aged forty-five or older and one female aged ten to fifteen. This is consistent with an older wife still living, but the unnamed woman cannot be identified by the age tally alone. James’s will of 5 December 1803 names his wife Abigail directly. Dunn & Dunn reports her death in 1814; Laurence R. Guthrie largely repeats that earlier account, so the two books are not independent confirmation. Her death record and burial remain to be found.

Contributed by Mike Guthrie. These observations are retained with the distinctions needed to test the conclusions.

1. Lenox town minutes: Mike identifies James as a member of the Committee of Correspondence and a town selectman on several occasions during the Revolution. Dated minutes provide a local chronology against which military absences can be compared.
2. The 1774 Covenant: Mike identifies both James and his eldest son Samuel as signers. Compare the surviving images, the Lenox Historical Society account, and the published account on page 523. This was a non-importation agreement, not itself a declaration of independence.
3. West Hill: Mike locates James near the site of the church he and Joseph helped found, and Joseph, Phoebe Abbott, and most of their children in the cemetery’s northwest Guthrie section. His note that Abigail was not buried there is better expressed as no identified burial or marker for Abigail; absence from an index cannot exclude an unmarked burial.
4. 1794 purchase: Mike reports a purchase from Colonel William Stephens Smith, John Adams’s son-in-law, also buried at West Hill. The research tree associates 1794 purchases and subsequent conveyances to brothers with James Jr. The grantor, parcel, signatures, and later transfers must establish which James was the purchaser before the transaction is assigned to the father.
5. Ninety-seven days at Ticonderoga: Mike reports a payroll card placing a militiaman James Guthrie at Ticonderoga in the winter of 1777, while selectman and other meeting minutes place James Guthrie Sr. in Lenox during that period. This is a specific argument favoring James Jr. as the soldier. The exact service dates and meeting dates need to be aligned from the originals before treating that assignment as conclusive.

The supplied research-tree abstracts preserve these references for further examination. They are not substitutes for reading the complete instruments.

• Herkimer G:123: purchase dated 12 September 1794 in the tree, with a later recital giving 20 September 1794. Resolve the date against the original.
• Herkimer K:104–105: James to John Guthrie, 23 December 1794.
• Herkimer L:76–77: James to Joseph Guthrie, 23 December 1794.
• Herkimer L:477–479: James to Benjamin Guthrie, 23 December 1796.
• Chenango BB:350–351: James and Elizabeth to John Guthrie 2nd, 1808; Anslem appears as a witness.
• Chenango P:61–62: a purchase entered in the research tree under 1810.
• Chenango P:276–278: James and Elizabeth to Asa Gifford, 6 April 1812, for $3,000, preceding their Ohio move.
• Chenango administration, 13 October 1813: John Guthrie appointed for the estate of James, deceased intestate at Avery, Ohio.
• Sprague complaint, 5 March 1816: Jonathan and Elizabeth Sprague address Joseph Guthrie about the estate and care of Bula. Compare the original letter with Ohio probate and guardianship papers.

Ann’s comparison illustrates why the family histories must be read alongside records. Their accounts were assembled from different family correspondents, and they disagree about the children of Josiah Averill’s marriages.

• Dunn & Dunn, Records of the Guthrie Family: Sarah married Mr. Averill and had Delos, Nelson, and Lucretia.
• The Averell–Averill–Avery Family: the account reviewed in the family study assigns three children to first wife Phebe and eight to Sarah. This differs from both other books and the working six-plus-five reconstruction.
• A. L. Allen’s 1895 history, page 77: Phebe Allen, born 1770, married Josiah of Pomfret, son of her stepfather Stephen Averill by his first wife. They settled near the head of Otsego Lake in Springfield, adjoining her brother Nathan Allen’s farm. Phebe died young, leaving five young children: Evander, Stephen, and three daughters.
• Allen, page 78: Josiah later married Miss Guthrie and had Eliza Minerva. It reports Josiah’s death at Springfield on 7 January 1833, aged sixty-nine, with burial in the local church burying ground.
• Allen, pages 94–95: Eliza Minerva, born 10 February 1810, is explicitly identified as Josiah’s daughter by his second wife, Sarah Guthrie. She married William Rufus Allen, Nathan Allen’s son, on 25 June 1833. Phebe Allen was William’s paternal aunt. This is explicit maternal attribution, stronger than inferring maternity solely from Eliza’s birth year.

What the deeds change: the earlier study used 1809 as a possible wedding year and questioned how Sarah could have had eight children afterward. Otsego G:166, 11 May 1805, names Sally as Josiah’s wife, moving the latest possible marriage date four years earlier. It does not supply the wedding date. The absence of a wife from Josiah’s 1802 sale suggested that Phebe had died and Josiah had not yet remarried, but omission alone cannot prove either point. Likewise, James Guthrie’s bequest to “Sarah” does not establish that she was unmarried when he wrote his will.

Josiah’s will: the linked image is the source trail for the following names transcribed in Ann’s notes: daughter Beersheba Ward; granddaughter Sally Ann Van Brunt; son Evander Averill; daughter Lucy Saddy; daughter Celinda Pateherin; son James Delos Averill; son Nelson Josiah Averill; daughter Celira Minerva Averill; daughter Sarah Lucretia Curtis; daughter Nancy O. Averill; and son Stephen Averill. The unusual surname and given-name readings are retained for comparison with Sawdy, Patchin, and Eliza Minerva, rather than silently normalized.

The will helps establish family relationships but does not by itself identify every child’s mother. Nancy’s reported minority in 1833 led to birth estimates after 1812 if under twenty-one, or after 1815 if under eighteen. That is a useful age question, not independent proof of her mother. The entries giving Nelson and Nancy a death in 1831 should not be accepted merely because they appear in a will dated that year.

These household tallies preserve Ann’s research notes. The original images, neighbors, and jurisdiction must be correlated before assigning each unnamed person to a child in the books.

The household structure prompted the search for another daughter beyond the familiar Guthrie-book list. It does not justify treating every resident as Josiah’s child or every young resident as Sarah’s biological child.

Ann’s preserved research log links each abstract to its record image. Amounts, acreage, names, and dates below retain the working readings and should be checked against the full instruments where disputed. FamilySearch access may require sign-in.

Otsego County deed collection, 1791–1901 · Grantee index, FHL 007173146, image 56 · Grantor index, FHL 0007173137, image 55

The two conveyances naming Sally, in 1805 and 1820, are especially useful for following Sarah’s married life. The remaining transactions establish a wider land and neighborhood trail for the Averill household.

Dunn & Dunn, Records of the Guthrie Family (1898): printed pages 10–12 introduce James’s family, with later descendant sections. Valuable for family tradition and research leads, but its Hickox marriage and child list require the corrections described here. Its reported 1814 death for Abigail remains a later account.

Dunn, Harriet Nancy, and Eveline Guthrie Dunn (1898), Records of the Guthrie Family, of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Virginia: With Ancestry of Those Who Have Intermarried with the Family. Also available in the Google Books edition.

Avery, Clara A., The Averell–Averill–Avery Family: A Record of the Descendants of William and Abigail Averell of Ipswich, Mass., two volumes. Internet Archive digitized volume. Compare its maternal assignments with the Allen and Guthrie books.

Allen, A. L. (1895), A Brief History of the Family of Nathan Allen and Mary Putnam, His Wife, Late of Fort Plain, Montgomery County, New York, and of the Families of Rev. Aaron Putnam, of Pomfret, Conn., the Bulkeley, Prescott, Hall, Grosvenor, and Other Families with Which the Allen Family Were Connected by Blood or Marriage, Poughkeepsie, New York. Google Books, especially pages 77–78 and 94–95.

Laurence R. Guthrie, American Guthrie and Allied Families: compare with the earlier volume and independent records. Repetition of a relationship in two books is not necessarily independent evidence.

James Guthrie’s Find a Grave memorial 66059111: identifies Sherburne West Hill Cemetery and includes monument photographs. The memorial’s attached biography and relationship links are separate from the inscription. Its proposed Betts parents and Morehouse connection must not override the conflicts in the family records.

Lenox Library, “Revolutionary Spirit in Lenox,” Amy Lafave, 18 June 2026: an accessible account of the 3 June 1776 resolve, with a manuscript image and identification of its committee and representative.

California Genealogical Society, Hale Collection finding aid, pages 12–13, box 3, folder 021: lists James’s will dated 5 December 1803 and probate on 26 August 1805. The same Guthrie folder lists family sheets, wills for William and Justus Guthrie, and a certified Gratiot County death record for Joseph Guthrie dated 3 December 1892. These are leads to copies held in the collection; the finding aid is accessible online, but the underlying items have not been examined here.

Ossian Guthrie, Memoirs of Dr. Samuel Guthrie (1887): the Wellcome Collection provides an accessible digitized copy supplied through Yale’s medical library. This concerns the grandson born in 1782. The Fort Drum biographical article offers an accessible introduction to his military and scientific career.