TWAIN-L Archives

Mark Twain Forum

TWAIN-L@YORKU.CA

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Condense Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Sender:
Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 2 Feb 2011 17:32:46 -0500
Reply-To:
Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
MIME-Version:
1.0
Content-Type:
text/plain; charset="utf-8"
In-Reply-To:
Content-Transfer-Encoding:
quoted-printable
From:
Warren Brown <[log in to unmask]>
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (73 lines)
This response was directed to (Frank) George F. Emerson, but his email was returned as undeliverable. Any of the forum may respond to this review of his generous MT Ancestry.pdf:

Hi Frank,

Thanks for forwarding the Mark Twain genealogy paper. I enjoyed reading your research. Had briefly looked earlier into his line, but with little discovery or substance. I believe I recall reading John Marshall Clemens was one of twelve sons (obvious error on my part) and now I see at least three sisters. 

Do you have the family information for Samuel B. Clemens,1770-1805(wife, wives, children)? Is the wife Parmelia or Pamelia? SLC's sister was a Pamelia. Pamielia GROGGIN is the daughter of Steven GROGGIN Jr. and Rachel Clark MOORMAN.

Mark Twain Essentials, A-Z by R. Kent Rasmussen shows: John Marshall CLEMENS, the oldest son of Samuel B. CLEMENS and Pamelia MOORMAN. After John Marshall CLEMENS died in 1805, his mother resettled in Adair CO., KY; in 1809 she married Simon HANCOCK (1774-1856), with whom she had four more children. (I think this an error, MOORMAN was Jane LAMPTON’s relation.)

The Singular Mark Twain by Fred Kaplan shows: Jane Clemens, at least privately, enjoyed boasting that her family had aristocratic lineage. Many of the American Lamptons came to believe, without evidence except a similarity in name, that they were related to the English Earls of Durham. For many of the Lamptons it was not a tentative belief. At best, the main use the Clemens ancestry had in a boasting contest, once one put aside the king killer, was that a spurious argument could be made that the Virginia Clemenses were FFV (belonged to the First Families of Virginia), and thus the nineteenth-century Clemenses were akin to colonial royalty. "My mother knew all about the Clemenses of Virginia, and loved to aggrandize them to me," Twain recalled. But the record is clear that they were nothing of the sort. In fact, the longest and most distinguished lineage can be traced on Samuel Clemens' grandmother's side. The Goggin family, whose ancestors were tradespeople in England in the sixteenth century, came to Virginia in the seventeenth century and married into a Quaker family, the Moormans. The Moormans rose from farmers to wealthy planters. In 1775 Charles Moorman manumitted thirty-three of his slaves. In 1773, his daughter, Rachel Moorman, Twain's great-grandmother, married a non-Quaker, Stephen Goggin, Jr., whose father, an Anglican, had emigrated from Queen's County, Ireland . Their daughter, Pamela Goggin, born in 1775, married Samuel B. Clemens in Bedford County in 1797, the first recorded appearance of any Virginia Clemens. Of their five children, John Marshall Clemens was the first. 
 
From an internet search:
Samuel B. CLEMENS and Pamela GOGGIN, mar. 29 Oct 1797, Bedford, VA
Samuel B. CLEMENS, died 7 Aug 1805, Madison, Boone, WV
Children:
John Marshall CLEMENS, 11 Aug 1798, Lynchburg, Campbell, VA
Pleasant CLEMENS, 1800, Campbell, VA
Elizabeth(Betsy) CLEMENS, 6 Sep 1801, VA
Hannibal Clemens, 6 Nov 1803, VA
Caroline CLEMENS, 27 Mar 1805
 
Also from internet the internet: http://www.concentric.net/~pvb/GEN/meato.html 
Lydia's Mother was Lydia Day* (1676-1739) who was the daughter of John Day* and Sarah Pengry*, Sarah Pengry is the daughter of Moses Pengry*(1611-1695/6) and Lydia Clements*(c1618-1695/6), and Lydia Clements* is the daughter of Robert Clements* and Lydia Drummer* (1595-1658) who emigrated from Croft, Leicestershire, England to New England and settled in Haverhill, MA. Robert and Lydia Clements are direct 
 
Clemens (Clements) ancestors of Mark Twain. From the Mark Twain Museum web page. 
Generation 1 is Samuel L. Clemens, Mark Twain. The other numbers refer to generations before Samuel L. Clemens.
11. Richard Clements married Elizabeth in 1535 ,b. 1506 Leicestershire, England,d. February 1571 in Croft, England
10. Robert Clements married (1) Alice in 1561 (2) Margaret, b. 1536 in England, d. June 1606 in Croft, England
9. Richard Clements married Agnes Fellows 2 March 1595 (she d. 1619), b. 1570 in Croft, England, d. July 1617 in Cosby, England
8. Robert Clements married Lydia Drummer, b. December 1595 in England, d. 29 September 1658 in Haverhill, MA
came to U.S. in May 1642 after wife's death in March
7. Robert Clements (Jr.) married Elizabeth Fawne (or Fawn) in 1652 (more in Lampton), b. 1634 in England, d. 1714 in MA
6. Abraham Clements married Hannah Gove 10 May 1683 (more in Lampton), b. 14 July 1657 in MA, d. 1716 in Bucks County, PA
5. Ezekiel Clemens married Christina Castell in 1725, b. 1 February 1696 in MA, d. 1778 in VA
4. Jeremiah Clemens married Elizabeth Moore in 1763 (more in Lampton), b. 1732 in NJ, d. 17 November 1811 in VA
3. Samuel B. Clemens married Pamela Goggin 29 October 1797, b. 1770 in VA, d. 1805 in Mason County, WV
2. John Marshall Clemens married Jane Lampton 6 May 1823, b. 11 August 1798 in Campbell County, VA, d. 24 March 1847 in Hannibal, MO
1. Samuel Langhorne Clemens married Olivia Langdon 2 February 1870, b. 30 November 1835 at Florida, Missouri
d. 21 April 1910 at Redding, Connecticut
This genealogical information is from the book The Genealogy of Mark Twain by Lucius Marion Lampton, M.D., copyright 1990, pages 78-79.
 
 
Frank,
 
With a final review of this short summary, I recall doing extensive microfiche reading sometime ago and started a file, but alas, like Mark Twain said, “Have a place for everything, and keep it somewhere else. This is not custom, it’s habit.”
 
I’m fond of the Hannibal museum, but not certain of the documents which were reviewed for verification or if the lineage was merely presented from Dr. Lucius Marion Lampton and graciously accepted. I tend to prefer source documents that sway argument. “How absent a theory is in the presence of a fact.” – MT
 
I like your Vital records and Probate records references, but have genealogical reasons to doubt published history without showing the specific link to the event. “We believe, but can’t prove,” is a statement I prefer. The family detail of Samuel B. CLEMENS, Jerimiah CLEMENS, and Ezekiel CLEMENS are of particular intrigue. If you have some of these, I’d thoroughly enjoy reviewing them.
 
Thanks again,
 
Warren Brown
[log in to unmask]



-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Twain Forum List Administrator <[log in to unmask]>
To: TWAIN-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tue, Feb 1, 2011 8:23 pm
Subject: Mark Twain and his Connection to the Clemenses and Emersons of Haverhill (Mass.)


Frank Emerson has graciously furnished a PDF file of his article "Mark Twain
nd his Connection to the Clemens[es] and Emersons of Haverhill [Mass.]"
hich was published in the _Essex Genealogist_ in August of 1999.
You may access the article by using the direct link below:
http://www.twainweb.net/filelist/mark_twain_ancestry.pdf

-Kevin B.

ATOM RSS1 RSS2