John Defoe

The following is a portion of the research accomplished by Mr. Terry Dafoe of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His 6th greatgrandfather was John Defoe who lived in house #131 on the Rennselaerwyck Manor which extended into Pownal. House #131 is believed to be the Moore-Wright house.

I believe that my 6th great grandfather John Defoe moved to what is now Pownal in about 1750. This date is based on two facts. First, the Rhinebeck & Germantown records clearly establish that John resided at that location up to 1749. However, his second child was baptised in Albany on 14 March 1753, and all of his subsequent children were baptized in either Albany or Hoosac which indicates that that he had moved his family to the Albany/Hoosac area by this time. Second, the 1770 lease from the Manor of Rensselaerwick (Appendix A) appears to be a renewal of an earlier lease which has not survived, particularly as John Defoe's presence in Pownal prior to the date of the lease is supported by other sources such as the Pownal Town records, Bleeker's map of 1767, Wiseman Clagett's civil action and the 1765 petition prepared by Robinson & French Contary to popular belief, not all of the early Rensselaerwick settlers in what is now Pownal were Dutch. John Defoe's grandfather was Danial Thevou who emigrated from Switzerland with the 1710 'Palatine' emigration. The family resided in Rhinebeck until John moved onto the Manor of Rensselaerwick circa 1750.

The ejection action (Appendix B) commenced by Wiseman Clagett (one of the original grantees of Pownal by Gov. Wentworth) provides firm evidence that by at least 1763 John resided on what the Pownal proprietors' deemed to be the 180 acre Lot #3 - 2nd Division. I assume that the court action never proceeded further because the British government ruled the following year that Wentworth's grants were null and void.

The first mention of John in the Pownal town meetings (Appendix C) is from the meeting of 16 March 1765 where his name is spelled Dafoot. In 1768 he was chosen as a pathmaster and in 1769 & 1770 served a deer reeve. An entry in the 22 Feb. 1769 meeting minutes is particularly interesting as it would appear that the matter of New York versus New Hampshire titles had again started to become an issue as there is a note confirming that John has always paid the charges on the 180 acre Lot #3.

John Defoe's mill on the Hoosac River is first mentioned in the town records in a survey conducted on 19 April 1777 (Appendix C). As well, a town meeting in December 1777 mentions that the road to Albany is to be laid from Dafooes mill (Appendix C). During the early 1770's the situation became increasingly difficult for those persons whose land tenure was derived from New York title. John like many others living on the the New Hampshire Grants under similar circumstances allied himself with the 'tory' cause. John was imprisoned in 1776 together with his neighbor Samuel Anderson. Both escaped in early 1777. John & three of his sons joined Col. Pfister at the Battle of Bennington where John and his son Abraham were captured and another son George was killed. John was imprisoned again, but escaped to the British lines in the spring of 1778. He served as a courier and scout with Kings Rangers for the balance of the war and died at Sorel, Quebec in 1784.

On 23 April 1778 John's farm and mill were confiscated and a writ issued to put his wife out of possession (Appendix B). On 13 Feb. 1779, John Bamham (Com. of Sales) sold the 180 acre Lot #3 - 2nd Division formerly the property of John Devoe and Samuel Anderson to Nathanial Seeley (Appendix D). N.B. According to a deposition submitted by Samuel Anderson after the war, John Defoe sold him 150 acres of Lot #3 while retaining approx. 30 acres, gristmill, house and orchard (Appendix E).

My brief visits to Pownal certainly confirmed Parks' opinion that the only logical place in south Pownal for a mill dam on the Hoosac River was near the location of Wright's mill. In an effort to confirm the theory that Wright's mill was built at the same location as the early mill of John Defoe, I first searched through the land deeds and believe I have traced the property originally inhabited by John Defoe up to the mid-1800's..(i.e. from the time Nathanial Seeley obtained the property from the Commissioner of Sales up to the time the Wright's occupied the land) The deeds I used as reference are listed in Attachment D. The earlier deeds were fairly easy to track as their description included mention of a grist mill on the river. However, the later deeds of Sherman and Mooar were much more difficult to follow as both were involved in several land transaction (both leases and sales) in the area of the house.

As well as tracing the deeds, I also attempted to lay out some of the original lots in south Pownal onto a modern topographic map. My effort in this regard is included in Appendix F together with a few comments as to the methodology utilized. Of particular note is the fact that the north property line ofLot#3 - 2 Division on this map closely matches the location of Wright's mill of the 1860's...

Based on this information I have drawn several tentative conclusions - all of which require independent evaluation.

1. John Defoe likely settled in what is now Pownal circa 1750.

2. He appears to have built the first mill in south Pownal near the same location as the later Wright's mill.

3. John Defoe's corn mill (or its replacement) was known in later times as 'Seelye's mill', 'Arnold's mill' and 'Sherman's mill'.

4. If Grace Niles was correct (The Hoosac Valley pp.210) in placing Charles Wright's Tavern at the same site as Rev. Bachelder's Rural School for Boys, then the tavern was never located in the Mooar-Wright house. Beer's map of Pownal (Appendix F) clearly indicates the location of the school as well as the residences of both the Mooar and Batchelder families. N.B. As noted in Appendix D John Mooar did sell a house & lot to Matthew Batchelder in 1844, but it does not appear to have been his own residence as Beer's map indicates that it was located east of the Mooar house.

4. No evidence was found that the Wright family owned the land where the Mooar-Wright house is located until 1856.

5. If Wade Treadway's evaluation of the date of the house is correct, I believe it was originally the dwelling of John Defoe.