Unusual first or middle names are often found to reflect a lost maternal line surname somewhere back up the family tree. Looking at the siblings of my great grandfather George Garner Wescott, two of his brothers definitely have names that were surnames of earlier female family lines - Barton Wescott and Carver Wescott.
In addition to the Barton and Carver families, there was a Gardiner family line as well. George Garner's 3X great grandfather Josiah Westcott had married Hannah Gardiner on New Year's Day 1701. Hannah was the daughter of George Gardiner (c.1650-1753) and Tabitha Teft and the granddaughter of George Gardiner (1599-1677) and Herodias Long, a couple whose true story rivals any fictional account of infidelity and scandal. (You can read about their tempestuous relationship in a story I wrote five years ago about George Gardiner and Herodias Long, also as part of a "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge.)
One of Josiah Westcott and Hannah Gardiner's sons, Caleb, married another Gardiner and they named one of their sons Gardiner Westcott (1774-1808). In turn, that Gardiner named one of his own sons Gardiner Westcott (1770-1853) who also had a son that he named Gardner (sometimes the "i" was dropped) Wescott (by now the first "t" was also sometimes dropped in some branches of the family more so than in others). The last Gardner Wescott lived from about 1813-1880 but did not seem to name any of his children Gardner. Whew! This Caleb Westcott line is a side branch in my tree, but does serve as an example of how the surname of a female ancestor can survive through the generations as a first or middle name and also of how the same given names were often recycled again and again throughout the family tree.
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| Gardner Westcott (died 1853) and wife Hannah Buried Deerfield-Schuyler Cemetery, Deerfield, New York Photo by Tom Morosco of Find a Grave Website |
We descend through Caleb Westcott's younger brother Oliver Westcott (1720-1795). Oliver had a son named John Westcott. John and his wife Amey Clark were probably the first parents in the family to name one of their children George Gardiner Westcott (1784-1815) and their lives will form the basis of this week's story as my "chosen family".
John Wescott (1745-1831) was my 5X great grandfather. He was the first-born child of Oliver Wescott and Susannah Wilkinson and spent his life at Scituate, Providence County, Rhode Island. On the 21st of October 1770, at age 24, he married 18 year-old Amey Clark and started a family with her. Seven children would eventually join them: Susannah, Christopher, Stephen (my 4X great grandfather), Artemus, Charles, Josiah, and finally the baby of the family (and the only one treated to a middle name) George Gardiner Westcott.
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| John and Amie's son George Gardiner Westcott born June 11, 1784 |
Given the lack of a middle name for the father John and the proliferation of Westcotts's descending from our immigrant ancestor Stukely Westcott at Providence, R.I., it is difficult to ascertain which records for John Westcott pertain to our John Westcott. Nevertheless, it seems certain he was a minister (probably Baptist) and is generally called Reverend John Westcott or Elder John Westcott. He was one of the first ministers in Scituate and continued his ministry into his 80s. He performed marriages in Scituate and Foster, R.I.
Although probably not a military person, John assisted in the American Revolutionary War through his work as a Justice in the Civil Service. Several of his descendants' applications for membership in the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution ("DAR") have been based on this service.
Amey died on her husband's birthday on 26 March 1814 at the age of 62. John died the day after Christmas in 1831 at the age of 87. Both are buried at the Westcott-Wilkinson Lot, Scituate, Providence, R.I.
Now, to get back to George Garner (or Gardiner) Wescott's name. When John and Amey's grandson Stephen H. Wescott and his wife Catherine Barton started their own family, it is quite likely that they were harking back to granduncle George Gardner Westcott for a name for their second son. (They had named their first son "Artimus" in memory of another of the granduncles from the John and Amey Westcott family. Sons Barton and Carver were named for female ancestral surnames.) It would be easy enough to forget the "d" in Gardiner through the passage of time. Or maybe they knew it should have a "d" or "di" but preferred the sound of the name without it.
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| 1850 U.S. Census for Farmingham, Washington Co., Wisconsin Stephen and Catherine Wescott and Children including George |
To the best of my knowledge, Garner isn't a common, or even uncommon, name except as a surname. (Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck have named their son Samuel Garner Affleck, clearly with the intention of retaining the mother's name.) It seems very likely that our George's parents Stephen and Catherine were similarly intending to carry on one of the old family names - Gardiner.
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| From the Civil War Pension File for "Garner Westcott" |
But all records for George Garner Wescott are spelled without the "d", including his Civil War Pension records in which he used Garner as his first name. I'm not suggesting any amendments are in order, or that the records are wrong, but it does seem very likely that the intention was to honour the old family name of Gardiner.
In the end, although I may have chosen to write about John Westcott and Amey Clark's family as my "chosen family" for this week, it seems the story has really developed a mind of its own - the chosen family was obviously the Gardiners!
Some Resources:
- Mayflower "Silver Book" for John Howland, Volume 23, Part 2 "Fifth Generation Descendants of Lydia Howland Brown"
- National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution webpage located at https://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search_adb/?action=full&p_id=A123353 relating to Ancestor #A123353
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