Bible Records for Hannah Petty Warner

In the summer I was able to locate a Will for a Daniel Petty in Suffolk County, New York that while copying, thought was probably the correct one.  I was looking for Hannah Petty Warner’s father.  This is getting back to the late 1700s and records are scarce, to say the least.  Somehow, I knew that Hannah Petty Warner had a father named Daniel Petty.  Unfortunately, this was before my days of citing my sources.  I believe I found the information on a Family Search tree about 20 years ago. As I tried to figure out if the Will was for the correct ancestor, I decided I should take a step back and see what I could first find out about his daughter Hannah.

Hannah Petty Warner is my paternal 5th Great-Grandmother:

At the Suffolk County Historical Society in Riverhead, New York I was able to find copies of pages from the Cottage Bible that belonged to David Warner and then his son David T. Warner.  David Warner was one of the 10 children of Daniel & Hannah Warner and brother of my ancestor James Warner.

On the pages I find the following:



Hannah was born 16 April 1737, I believe to Daniel and Hannah Paine.  I have no other record of her birth other than this account written in the Family Bible by her son David.

Hannah and Daniel Warner were married 16 December 1756.

Hannah and Daniel had 10 children: Daniel, Nathaniel (died at age 15), James (my 4x great-grandfather), Deborah, John (died at age 9), David, Benjamin, Hannah (died at age 2), Hannah (died at age 2), and Mehitable.

Hannah, her husband Daniel, and her family lived through the Revolutionary War.  What must life have been like for them?  How did they survive?  From the book A History of Mattituck by Rev. Charles E. Craven, I learned:

• British troops were encamped in Mattituck.  Many officers were quartered in houses of local people.  The farmers were required to give large portions of their grains, crops and all their hay and straw to the invading Army.  There were stories about the British soldiers committing outrages on defenseless local people.  Some families removed themselves to Connecticut during the War with some returning and others not.  Many of their farms will pillaged by the soldiers and many lost their land.  Young men left to fight in the War.  The families that remained were compelled to swear allegiance to King George.  Men were made to work for the army and if their loyalty was in question they were beaten and sometimes killed. There was a small pox epidemic during this time.  The British troops left Long Island in 1780.

Hannah died 19 July 1814 at the age of 77 years.  Hannah is buried in Jamesport, Suffolk County, New York. 



There were no newspapers at the time of Hannah’s death so there is no Obituary to further tell her story.  The Church records of the time reprinted in Craven’s book begin with Baptisms in 1751 (after Hannah’s birth) and the Death records end in 1809 (before Hannah’s death).  Thank goodness the family had a Bible to record the life events of the family for without this it would be difficult to know of this early family history.

If you have any corrections, additions or stories to share I look forward to hearing them.
Enjoy the journey,
Debby
More about the Will I located for Daniel Petty next time.