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John Edgerton, son of John and Elizabeth (Prentice) Edgerton.

Lydia Reynolds

Children:

1. Betsey, b. May 14, 1783; Clarendon, Rutland Co., VT.
2. John, b. March 21, 1785; Clarendon, Rutland Co., VT.
3. Asa, b. March 16, 1787; Clarendon, Rutland Co., VT.
4. Phebe, b. April 19, 1789; Clarendon, Rutland Co., VT.
5. Sally, b. ~1792; Clarendon, Rutland Co., VT.
6. Andrew Jackson, b. September 30, 1795; Clarendon, Rutland Co., VT.
7. Lydia, b. March 30, 1798; Cabot, Washington Co., VT.

John Edgerton IV was born at Norwich, Connecticut on May 23, 1756.  He was the eldest surviving son of John and Elizabeth (Prentice) Edgerton.  John was baptized at the First Congregational Church of Norwich on May 30, 1756, at the age of one week.  John was raised in Norwich.

John was probably the John Edgerton who served, along with his younger brother Stephen, in Capt. Benjah Leffingwell’s company of the Connecticut militia in 1777.  Official documentation of any military service, though, has not been found.

Circa 1780, John removed with his uncle, Capt. Daniel Edgerton, to Tinmouth, Rutland County, Vermont, where he was married on September 18, 1781 to Mrs. Lydia (Reynolds) Babcock.  Lydia was the widow of John Babcock, who had died at Philadelphia in February of 1778, during service in the Revolution.  Details on Lydia’s first marriage are found in her Revolutionary Pension File application (see below).  The marriage of John Edgerton and Lydia Babcock was recorded in the Congregational Church Record Book (Volume I, page 9) with the note, “copied from the original records of Rev. Obediah Noble”.  [Note: Edgerton Family Genealogy (Ida Ferry Welch, et.al.) reports an earlier marriage of John Edgerton IV to Hannah Abell in Norwich on December 9, 1779, but this is an error – Hannah Abell actually married John Edgecomb.]

The parentage of Mrs. Lydia (Reynolds) Babcock Edgerton has not been ascertained.  According to the family record at Clarendon, Vermont (see below), Lydia was born on September 11, 1755, presumably in Connecticut.  Although this birthdate agrees with the other known facts (eg. the age at death listed on her gravestone), corroboration has not been found in any primary records.  According to her Revolutionary Pension Files (see below), Lydia was a resident of Andover, Connecticut at the time of her first marriage.  On October 13, 1837, Elizabeth Bill, “of Columbia in the county of Tolland & State of Connecticut, aged Eighty Seven years” gave testimony that she knew Lydia and lived in the same neighborhood as her at the time of Lydia’s first marriage.

A clue to the parentage of Mrs. Lydia (Reynolds) Edgerton is found in the land records of Lebanon, Connecticut.  On November 11, 1782, “Jeremiah Reynolds, John Edgerton & Lydia Edgerton all of Clarendon in the County of Rutland in the State of Vermont & John Cook & Sarah Cook of Lebanon in the County of Windham and State of Connecticut” sold a parcel of land to Elisha Jones of Coventry (Lebanon Deeds, Volume 13, pg. 233).  The deed makes no mention of any familial relationship between the grantors, although it seems likely that Jeremiah Reynolds, Lydia Edgerton and Sarah Cook were siblings, perhaps having jointly inherited the land from their father or some other relative.  The fact that Lydia named one of her children (by her first marriage) Jeremiah supplies further evidence of a familial connection.  Unfortunately, a preliminary search of the Lebanon records failed to find any Reynolds family with the above named children.

John and Lydia Edgerton spent the first years of their married life in Clarendon, Rutland County, Vermont (just north of Tinmouth).  Their five elder children were born there – that is, Betsey, John, Asa, Phebe and Andrew.  Later burial records (see below) indicate that there was also another daughter born in Clarendon circa 1791, whose name has not been ascertained.  The family record entered in the early vital records of Clarendon includes the birthdatess of the eldest three children, as well as the birthdates of John and Lydia themselves.

The household of John “Adjutant” was recorded in the 1790 Federal Census of Clarendon, Rutland County, Vermont (pg. 37), with the following enumeration:

1 male “of 16 years and upwards”  (John);

3 males “under 16 years”  (sons John and Asa – the third was probably John’s stepson, Jeremiah Babcock); and,

5 females  (wife Lydia, daughters Betsey and Phebe; a stepdaughter and ?).

“Adjutant” (or “Adjudant”) was a common misspelling of the surname “Edgerton”.  It appears on a number of early census records and was no doubt a phonetic rendering of the name.  A cousin of John’s – Daniel Edgerton Jr. – was listed in the 1790 Rutland County Census (town of Tinmouth) as “Daniel Adjutant”.

In 1798, John Edgerton purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land in Cabot, Vermont from David Osborn.  Cabot was located further north in the state in what is now Washington County, but at the time was part of Caledonia County.  The deed was signed at Clarendon, Vermont on August 23, 1798 (Cabot Deeds, Volume II, pg. 223), and read in part:

“Know all men by these presents that I David Osborn of Kingsbury Washington County State of New York do for the consideration of six hundred Dollars in hand paid by John Edgerton of Clarendon County Rutland and State of Vermont do hereby acknowledge to have given granted Bargained and sold unto the above sd John Edgerton a certain tract or parcell of land lying situate being in the town of Cabot County of Caledonia in the state of Vermont, sd Lot or parcell of land containing three hundred and twenty acres of land Distinguised by the Lot by the name of Number fifty three Drawn to the Original Right of Frederick Leavinworth…”

On September 22, 1802, John Edgerton sold a small portion of this Lot (10 acres), to Joseph Blanchard, “of Cabot”, for the price of fifty dollars (Cabot Deeds, Volume III, pg. 85).

The household of John Edgerton was recoreded in the 1800 Federal Census of Cabot, Caledonia (now Washington) County, Vermont, with the following enumeration:

1 male “of 26 and under 45”  (John);

1 male “of 16 and under 26”  (probably stepson, Jeremiah Babcock);

2 males “of 10 and under 16”  (sons John and Asa);

1 male “under 10 years of age”  (son Andrew);

1 female “of 45 and upwards”  (wife Lydia);

1 female “of 16 and under 26”  (daughter Betsey);

1 female “of 10 and under 16”  (daughter Phebe); and,

3 females “under 10 years of age”  (daughters Sally, Lydia and a stepdaughter).

The household of John Edgerton was recorded in the 1810 Federal Census of Cabot, Caledonia County, Vermont (pg. 148), with the following enumeration:

1 male “over 45 years of age”  (John);

1 male “of 16 and under 26”  (son John);

1 male “of 10 and under 16”  (son Andrew);

1 male “under 10 years of age”  (?);

1 female “over 45 years of age”  (wife Lydia);

2 females “of 16 and under 26”  (daughters Sally and ?); and,

1 female “of 10 and under 16”  (daughter Lydia).

John Edgerton was an active member of the Cabot Church, and was elected one of the first tithing men, “whose duty it was to see that the Sabbath was not desecrated by persons hunting, fishing, or lounging about…”  He also served the town in civic affairs and was chosen selectman in 1801.

In 1812, a year before his death, John Edgerton (together with David Lyford) gave a gift of land to the town, which was laid out as the West Hill Burying Ground (aka. “West Hill Cemetery”).  John Edgerton was said to have been the first person buried there.

John’s wife, Lydia, survived him a number of years.  She later applied for a Revolutionary War pension as the former widow of John Babcock.  The pension file (#W17749) reports that she was residing in Caledonia County at the time of application, aged 80, and that she had had two children by John Babcock, and eight children by John Edgerton.  The names of the children are not listed, but the enumeration coincides well with the data from the 1800 Federal Census enumeration previously cited.  Two relevant items from the pension file are attached:  an affidavit given by Mrs. Lydia (Reynolds) Babcock Edgerton at Cabot, Verrmont on July 11, 1837; and a copy of the pension certificate issued on April 24, 1838.

John Edgerton died on March 8, 1813, at the age of 56 years.  He was buried at the West Hill Cemetery in Cabot, Vermont.  John’s wife, Lydia, survived him thirty years.  At the time of the 1820 Federal Census, she was presumably residing in Cabot with her youngest son, Andrew, whose household was enumerated with a female “of 45 years and upwards”.

Mrs. Lydia (Reynolds) Babcock Edgerton died at Cabot, Vermont on January 30, 1843, “aged 87 years”.  The following obituary notice was published in the Vermont Chronicle on February 15, 1843:

“DEATHS…In Cabot, Jan. 31 [sic], widow Leila [sic] Edgerton, who died in full assurance of inhabiting the ‘house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.’”

Lydia was buried beside her husband at West Hill Cemetery.  A number of John and Lydia’s descendants were also buried at the West Hill Cemetery, including their son and daughter-in-law, John and Olive Edgerton, two grandchildren, Sophia Edgerton and William Henry Edgerton, and a daughter (name unknown), who died on June 14, 1811 at the age of twenty years.

Original Source Documents:

1790 Federal Census – household of John Edgerton; Clarendon, Rutland Co., VT.

1800 Federal Census – household of John Edgerton; Cabot, Caledonia (now Washington) Co., VT.

1810 Federal Census – household of John Edgerton; Cabot, Caledonia (now Washington) Co., VT.

Pension Affidavit – Mrs. Lydia (Reynolds) Edgerton; July 11, 1837, Cabot, Caledonia (now Washington) Co., VT; Revolutionary War Pension Application, file #W17749.

Certificate of Pension – Mrs. Lydia (Reynolds) Edgerton; April 24, 1838, Caledonia (now Washington) Co., VT; Revolutionary War Pension Application, file #W17749.

Gravestone photo – John Edgerton; West Hill Cemetery; Cabot, Washington Co., VT.  (photo courtesy of Barb Destromp)

Gravestone photo – Mrs. Lydia (Reynolds) Edgerton; West Hill Cemetery; Cabot, Washington Co., VT.  (photo courtesy of Barb Destromp)

Obituary notice – Mrs. Lydia (Reynolds) Edgerton; Vermont Chronicle – February 15, 1843.