The Kinneys

This material has been lifted from various sources, many of them online. I have not seen the original sources that are cited in the various accounts.

Scroll to the bottom if you want to skip the tedious detail and see the family tree down to the current generation instead.

While the Kinney name may be unfamiliar to us, Henry Kinney (or Kenney or Kenny), the earliest verified ancestor of this line, is among our great, great, great, etc., grandfathers.

We don't know where he came from, but he was born about 1624, and researchers generally accept that a man named Vincent Potter placed Henry as an apprentice with a William Parke of Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1639.

Henry eventually married a woman named Ann and settled in Salem Village, Massachusettes. Henry and Ann had eight kids. Among them, Thomas Kenny was born in 1655.

Henry was apparently a quarrelsome and litigious character. You can read much of the interesting paper trail he left behind here.

Either Henry or his youngest son, also named Henry, spoke against two of the women accused of being witches in the Salem Witch trials.

Henry is menioned in the arrest warrant for Martha Corey:

There being Complaint this day made before us, By Edward putnam and Henery Keney Yeoman both of Salem Village, Against Martha Cory the wife of Giles Cory of Salem farmes for suspition of haveing Comitted sundry acts of Witchcraft and thereby donne much hurt and injury unto the Bodys of Ann Putnam the wife of Thomas Putnam of Salem Village Yeoman And Anna Puttnam the daugtter of s'd Thomas putnam and Marcy Lewis Single woman Liveing in s'd Putnams famyly; also abigail Williams one of mr parris his family and Elizabeth Hubert Doctor Grigs his maid.

You are therefore in theire Majest's names hereby required to apprehend and bring; before us. Martha Cory the wife of Giles Cory abovesaid on Munday next being the 21't day of this Instant month, at the house of Lt Nathaniell Ingersalls of Salem Village aboute twelve of the Clock in the day in order to her Examination Relateing to the premises and hereof you are not to faile

Dated Salem. March. the 19'th. 1691/2

Mercy Lewis' sister was married to Henry Kenny Jr. and some people believe that Henry Kenny Sr.'s wife Ann was Thomas Putnam's sister.

Henry Sr. or Jr. also testified against Rebecca Nurse, the oldest of the women convicted.

Then Hen: Kenny rose up to speak

Goodm: Kenny what do you say

Then he entered his complaint & farther said that since this Nurse came into the house he was seizd twise with an amaz'd condition

You can read the transcripts of the trials here.

Thomas married Elizabeth Knight in Salem Village and among their children was Daniel Kenney, born in 1682. Daniel married Mary Richards of Salem Village and among their children was Daniel Jr., born in 1705.

This Daniel married Elizabeth Stockwell of Boxford and Sutton, Massachusetts, and he was a part owner of a small iron works in Boxford. Among Daniel and Elizabeth's children was a son, Israel, born in 1739.

In 1755 the British expelled the French, known as the Acadians, from Nova Scotia, which then included what is now New Brunswick. Some of the Acadians, of course, went to Louisiana where they became known as Cajuns. You can read about the Great Expulsion here.

On Jun. 9, 1763, Israel Kinney married Susannah, daughter of Nathaniel & Abigail (Potter) Hood, in Topsfield, Massachusetts. She had been born in Topsfield on Oct. 27, 1745. Her sister, Sarah Hood, married Alexander Tapley on Dec. 9, 1762 and her sister, Abigail Hood, married Stephen Hovey on Jul. 18, 1761.

The three sisters, with their husbands, moved from Topsfield to the Township of Maugerville, New Brunswick, as part of the British re-settlement. Alexander and Sarah Tapley, and Stephen and Abigail Hovey, came in the schooner "Eunice" which arrived at Saint John Apr. 26, 1767. Israel and Susannah Kinney arrived later the same year.

Alexander and Sarah Tapley were fortunate enough to secure land in Maugerville the year they arrived, but apparently there was none available for the Kinneys and Hoveys. They probably stayed at first with the Tapleys, or with the Barlows who had arrived in 1765. Richard Barlow was in charge of the store established in Maugerville by the Saint John River Society, and his wife was Abigail, widow of Israel's brother, Asa Kinney.

According to Edwin Wallace Bell in his book, “Israel Kenny, His Children and Their Families,” (1944),

Governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia in 1759 caused to be posted in the New England colonies a proclamation for new settlers who would occupy the lands cleared and farmed by the Acadian French as a means of preventing the latter's return. The most attractive lands were to be reserved for officers and soldiers who had fought in the late war against France.

Among other inducements offered in the proclamation was, 'Full liberty of conscience, papists excepted,' a powerful appeal to the New England people a large proportion of whom were descendants of those Puritans and the Pilgrim Fathers who had come to America seeking religious freedom.

In 1762 two or three hundred souls sailed from Newburyport in Massachusetts to the Bay of Fundy and up the River Saint John for about fifty miles where they disembarked. A township which was later given the name of Maugerville (pronounced Majorville), on the east bank on the exceedingly fertile lands was laid out.

The settlement of Maugerville was five or six years old when Israel Kenny, later spelled Kenney, arrived from Topsfield, Mass., with his wife Susannah Hood.

Bell goes on to say that Israel Kenny was a blacksmith and served as the Ruling Elder of the First Congregational Church of Maugerville, New Brunswick.

Israel Kinney was a blacksmith, and an artist with wrought iron. He made all manner of cooking utensils for use in the fireplace: long handled fry pans and skillets, trivets (stands for pots and kettles over the fire), andirons, etc. And he made builders hardware: bolts, angle hinges, nails sliced from old scythe blades; even locks and keys. He was also a gunsmith. It is said he was the first to set up a forge in Maugerville (although that seems unlikely since he did not arrive until four years after the first permanent English settlers there), and that his son Stephen, and his grandson Israel Kinney, followed the trade.

It was probably about 1768 when Israel Kinney first went to Oromocto. In 1781, the British built a blockhouse, called Fort Hughes, at the mouth of the Oromocto on its southerly bank. It was occupied by about 25 men under the command of Lieut. Constant Connors from a Loyalist regiment called the Royal Fencible Americans. The blockhouse was used to control traffic on the Oromocto water route.

This is a reconstruction of the blockhouse near where the original once stood in what is now Sir Douglas Hazen Park.

Israel Kinney had built his log house just above the site of the blockhouse, and his land stretched up the hill to where the Town of Oromocto is now located.

This is a photograph, taken by a distant cousin, Diane Murach, from Israel Kinney's land looking across the river toward Maugerville.

In his book, Bell reports that:

The Kenney family seem to have been members of the Anglican church...but Israel Kenny was moved by the evangelical enthusiasm of the Congregational people of Maugerville, joined their church and was made an elder. These people of Maugerville came from that Puritan stock that believed in witches and hung them. Their religion was too demanding for Israel and he fell from grace and was brought before the elders. He had back-slided, had indulged in rum, then universally drunk except in Maugerville.

The "Records of Chignecto" BY William Cochrane MILNER (1846-1939) is an accounting of who was living on the Isthmus of Chignecto before the Deportation of 1755 and who then settled in the Chignecto Region once the Acadians had been deported and were no longer there.

A map of the area in 1765

The rather exhaustive account, which you can read here [cancel and ignore any popup windows asking you to install anything], mentions Israel Kinney as having played a role in the failed rebellion against the British among the New Englanders recently settled there:

RECORDS OF CHIGNECTO

THE EDDY WAR

On the 24th of May, 1776, a meeting took place at Maugerville, New Brunswick, at which a committee was appointed to make application to the Assembly of Massachusetts Bay "for relief under their present distressed circumstances".

The committee consisted of Jacob Barker, a J. P., and a ruling elder of the Congregational church; Phineas Nevers, Isreal Perley, Daniel Palmer, Edward Coye, Israel Kinney, Asa Perley, Moses Pickard, Thomas Hartt, Hugh Quinton, Asa Kimball and Oliver Perley. One hundred and twenty-five signed resolutions to join Massachusetts. Nine persons at the mouth of the St. John river and three others refused, as follows:

William Hazen, Thomas Jenkins, James Simonds, Samuel Peabody, John Bradley, James White, William Mackeenell, Zebedee Ring, Peter Smith, Gervas Lay, Lewis Mitchell, --------- Darling, John Crabtree, John Hendrick, Zebalon Estey, John Tarlee, Joseph Howland, Thomas Jones and Benjamin Atherton.

The most violent animosity existed between the old settlers and the new -- between settlers from New England, who were naturally imbued with the principles of the declaration of independence and were in active sympathy with the revolutionists of Lexington and Concord on the one hand, and on the other hand the immigrants from Yorkshire, who, in their steadfast loyalty, scorned the party of rebels.

The latter, in their attempted capture of Fort Cumberland, occupied the surrounding country sufficiently long to commit many depredations on the loyalist settlers in which they were aided and abetted by the disaffected inhabitants. The position of the newly arrived Yorkshire families at this date was perilous enough to create grave disquietude.

A very large proportion of the immigrants from the Atlantic States were open and avowed sympathisers with the war against the mother country. From Cumberland to Onslow and from Falmouth to Yarmouth they formed an overwhelming majority.

When it was proposed at Halifax to enroll the militia as a measure of defence against threatened invasions, it was abandoned on account of disaffection. Montreal had been captured by the Americans and Quebec was beseiged. Two hundred Indians had gathered at Miramichi threatening an incursion into the English settlements. Halifax, itself, was not fortified and fears were entertained that the ordnance stores at the dock yard would be destroyed by incendiaries. Moreover it possessed no such body of regulars as could repel a well organize expeditionary force of invasion.

Fourteen inhabitants of Cumberland were said to have gone to the Continental Congress with a petition signed by some 600 persons asking for a force to help capture Fort Cumberland--from whence it was proposed to make a descent on Halifax and wipe out the last vestige of British authority in old Acadia. So open were the disloyal elements in their designs and so certain of success that they were accustomed to hold their meetings in a tavern within the range of guns from the Fort Cumberland and every man of prominence who did not join them was marked.

From "Carleton County Pioneers", posted on-line by the New Brunswick Genealogical Society (1996):

When the decision was taken by England at the close of the Revolutionary War to evacuate New York, several thousand Loyalists were shipped to Nova Scotia, which then included roughly the area occupied by the present provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In 1784, that part of Nova Scotia which lay north of the Bay of Fundy was set off as a new Province of New Brunswick, the dividing line being established at the Isthmus of Chignecto just north of the present town of Amherst.

During the War the settlers on the Bay of Fundy were often pillaged and plundered by Rebel privateers from down the coast, mainly out of Machias, Maine, and the trading post at the mouth of the Saint John River operated by James Simonds, William Hazen and James White, was particularly vulnerable.

Rev. William O. Raymond, LL.D., F.R.S.C., in The River St. John, ed. Dr. J.C. Webster, C.M.G., (1910; Sackville, New Brunswick: The Tribune Press, rpt. 1943), tells us that "late in the autumn (of 1778) an American sloop carrying eight guns entered the harbour. Her Captain, A. Greene Crabtree, proved the most unwelcome and rapacious visitor that had yet appeared. Many of the settlers fled to the woods to escape the vandalism of his crew.

From the store at Portland Point 21 boat loads of goods was taken. The plunder included a lot of silver ornaments, fuzees and other articles left by the Indians as pledges for their debts." "Following that incident, William Hazen proceeded to Windsor, N.S., and urgently demanded protection. Col. Small, of the Royal Highland Emigrants, accompanied him to Halifax and by their united efforts the British government authorities were convinced of the necessity of immediate action.

A considerable body of troops was ordered to the mouth of the river with directions to repair Fort Frederick, which the Rebels had burned in 1775, or build a new fort. General Massey chose Maj. Guilford Studholm as commander of the expedition. He was a capable officer and had previous experience as a former commander of the Fort Frederick garrison. His knowledge of the St. John River and its inhabitants, both whites and indians, made him particularly well fitted for the post.

Maj. Studholm arrived at the mouth of the river during the latter part of November, 1778, with 50 men, a framed block-house and four six-pounders. They came in a sloop of war, which remained in the harbour for their protection until the next spring. He decided against repairing Fort Frederick and commenced immediately to construct a new fort on a new location. It was named Fort Howe.

When the Spring Fleet arrived from New York in May, 1783, Maj. Studholm was still in command of the garrison at Fort Howe. One of the first and most urgent things to do was to find lands for these new arrivals. Much of the best land on the St. John had already been granted. However, a lot of it had been granted in large blocks to propritors who had undertaken to place tenants upon it but had for the most part not been very successful in doing so.

In June, 1783, Maj. Studholm sent a party of four men up the river from Fort Howe with instructions to determine who was settled upon the lands in various townships and what title they had to those lands, if any. Their report to Maj. Studholm, usually referred to by family historians today as "The Studholm Report" is an important historical document. It is, in effect, a heads of households census, and in addition provides information about land title, the loyalty or otherwise of many of the pre-Loyalist inhabitants on the river, etc., that can be found nowhere else.

The following is from Collections of the New Brunswick Historical Society (Saint John, New Brunswick: 1894, The Daily Telegraph Steam Book and Job Print, rpt. Lingley Printing Company Limited, 1969).") You can read the entire report here.

St. Johns River, June 30th, 1783. To Major G. Studholm, Commandant at Fort Howe, &c. Sir: -

-Agreeable to your instructions of the 15th inst. we proceeded up the River St. Johns on the 24th, and have endeavoured in the most accurate manner to collect the best information that was possible respecting the titles claims, characters, principles and deserts of those people who are settled on the lands commonly known by the appellation of Amesbury Tract, the ownships of Gage, Burton, Sunbury, New Town and the lands formerly granted to one McNutt, and after full examination report as follows:

[I’ve deleted the bulk of the report except the following notation for the Township of Burton]

24. Israel Kinney has a log house and framed barn, and about 15 acres of cleared land, which as chiefly done by the French and Indians. Has been on about 15 years and was a committee man.

[The report ends with the following summary]

The foregoing are all the claims and demands in the Township of Burton that came to our knowledge after strict enquiry. Those whose characters during the late troubles were uniformly loyal we have particularly noticed, with the claims of all who have any pretensions of title more than simple possession.

We are, Sir, &c.,
Ebenezer Foster,
Fyler Dibblee,
James White,
Gervis Say.

- - - - - -

The Genealogy

Israel & Susannah Kinney had 14 children, several of whom removed to Carleton Co. They were:

1. Deborah Kinney, b. in 1764; m. Benen Foster. They removed to old Wakefield shortly after 1800. Their farm was Lot 31 at Somerville, about three-quarters of a mile south of the covered bridge at Hartland. They had 12 children.

2. Sarah Kinney. She married Richard Kimball. They lived at Oromocto, but at least two of their sons moved to Carleton Co.

3. Stephen Kinney, b. in 1771; m. Merab, daughter of Capt. David Ives, a Loyalist from Conn. Stephen & Merab removed to Greenfield, Carleton Co., shortly after 1890. They had 10 children.

4. Israel Kinney. He married, Mar. 6, 1793, Abigail Cram. They remained in Oromocto. He died at an early age, leaving Abigail with 5 young children.

5. Nathaniel Kinney. He married, Jul. 18, 1794, Elizabeth Mills. She was born in Boston and came to New Brunswick with the Loyalists in 1783. They too remained in Oromocto where they had 9 children.

6. Susan Kinney. She married, Jul. 6, 1793, Elisha, son of John & Mary (Burrell) Shaw. They removed to what is now the Parish of Northampton, Carleton Co., shortly after 1800. They had 12 children. (see the third in this series).

7. John Kinney, b. in 1778. He married Phoebe, daughter of Edmund Tompkins of the Parish of Canterbury, York Co. They removed to Greenfield, Carleton Co., where they raised their family of 12 children.

8. Elizabeth Kinney, b. in Oct. 1780. She married, Feb. 26, 1796, Charles E. Boyer. They came to Victoria Corner, Carleton Co., and were the ancestors of the Boyers who live there these 170 years later, more or less.

9. Eunice Kinney, b. Apr. 9, 1782; m. in 1797, Nathaniel Churchill. They removed from Oromocto to old Wakefield shortly after 1800, and in 1831 they moved with most of their 12 children to Ontario.

10. Elijah Kinney. He never married; lived at Oromocto with his brother, Nathaniel. It is said he died at the age of about 26 years.

11. Asa Kinney, b. in May 1785; m. Aug. 19, 1808, Elizabeth, dau of Edmund Tompkins. He took his young bride to the log house he had built at the mouth of the Shiktehawk, just north of Bristol, and it was there that they lived the remainder of their lives. They had 8 children.

12. Mary Kinney, b. in Mar 1785, twin of Asa. She married a Sipprell, perhaps James, son of William and Sarah (Foster) Sipprell.

13. Abigail Kinney, b. May 18, 1789; m. Sep. 20, 1807, Henry A., son of John & Mary (Burrell) Shaw. They lived all their married lives at Lower Wakefield, and it was there that their 11 children were born. (see the third in this series).

14. Andrew Kinney, b. in 1792, after his father's death. He married, Feb. 22, 1815, Martha Webb. They lived in Oromocto until about 1825 when they removed to Greenfield, Carleton Co., where they lived the remainder of their lives. They had 10 children.

[Complied by George H. Hayward, C.G., on Aug. 5, 1974]

From "Carleton County Pioneers", posted on-line by the New Brunswick Genealogical Society (1996):

Family tradition has it that Susannah Kinney sailed to Massachusetts during the summer of 1791 to visit her relatives in Topsfield. She was still there Christmas Eve that year when Israel crossed to Maugerville on the river ice, perhaps to pick up a few things at Barlow's store, although another report says to deliver a set of chains that he had made for a customer. On his return, probably after dark, he got into an "air hole" as he neared home, and was drowned. He was buried in the old "Morrison Grave Yard," located near where the Baptist Church was later built in Oromocto. His youngest son, Andrew, was born in Topsfield shortly after Israel's death. His widow returned to Oromocto with Andrew, and later married her widower brother-in-law, Alexander Tapley of Maugerville.

The “Sutherland-Stephenson Family History,” Publication: http://www.pchswi.org/, repeats the story:

On Christmas Eve of 1791 Israel Kenney crossed the mile wide Saint John to Maugerville, perhaps to obtain some things from the store for Christmas, but on the way back as he was nearing his home, got into an air-hole in the newly formed ice and was drowned. The previous summer Israel had sold his lot on French Lake, and Susannah his wife had sailed on a trip to her old home in Massachusetts and was still away at the time of her husband's death. Her son Andrew, youngest of the fourteen children, was born while she was still in Topsfield. . . . Israel was buried in the "Old Morrison graveyard" near the present Baptist Church in Oromocto.

Our line flows from No. 4 above, the fourth child of Israel and Susannah (Hood) Kinney.

No. 4, Israel KENNEY

• Birth: in Maugerville, Sunbury, New Brunswick, Canada
• Death: in Oromocto, Sunbury, New Brunswick, Canada

Married: 6 MAR 1793 in Fredrickton, New Brunswick, Canada
Spouse: Abigail CRAM b: 1777 in Boston, Mass.

Abigail Cram

Children

15. Israel KENNEY b: 1796 in Oromocto, Sunbury, New Brunswick, Canada
16. James KENNEY
17. Susan KENNEY
18. Annie KENNEY
19. Betsy KENNEY

Our line continues through Israel Kinney, No. 15.

No. 15, Israel KENNEY

• Birth: 1796 in Oromocto, Sunbury, New Brunswick, Canada
• Death: 14 MAY 1858 in Jacksonville, New Brunswick, Canada

This is a picture of Israel Kinney's gravestone.

Married: 8 MAR 1816 in Oromocto, New Brunswick, Canada
Spouse: Mary TRACY b: 1798

Children

20. Aaron KENNEY
21. Enoch KENNEY b: 29 DEC 1816 in Oromocto, New Brunswick, Canada
22. Israel KENNEY b: 1818
23. Adelaide KENNEY
24. Phoebe KENNEY
25. Solomon KENNEY b: 26 DEC 1824
26. Rosanna KENNEY
27. Mary KENNEY
28. Mahala KENNEY b: died young
29. Sarah KENNEY
30. Caroline KENNEY b: 17 JUN 1834
31. Sabrina Bashebe KENNEY b: 10 APR 1841
32. Samantha Marie KENNEY b: 1843

Our line is through No. 29, Sarah KENNEY (or Kinney)

No. 29, Sarah KENNEY

Married: 29 MAR 1849
Spouse: Israel SMITH

Children

33. Jethro SMITH
34. Henrietta SMITH
35. Henry SMITH
36. Mary SMITH
37. George SMITH

Below is a rough diagram showing the family tree from Israel Smith and Sarah Kinney (sometimes also spelled Kenney):