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THE FAY FAMILY PAGE GENEALOGIES |
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| Henry Fisk Fay (8/26/1770 - 1818) And his Descendants |
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| John and Mary Fisk were married in Hardwick, and their marriage and the births of their first six children Susanna, Nathan, Caleb, Helena, John, and Henry) are all recorded in the Vital Records of Hardwick, Massachusetts. After the birth of Henry in 1770 and before the birth of Joseph in 1772, John and Mary moved north to Bennington, Vermont. There, as is well known, John lost his life in the Battle of Bennington; and Mary and the two youngest boys died with a very short space. Henry was 7; and was left to the guardianship of General Samuel Safford, whose daughter Mary married Nathan, Henry's brother, in 1783. |
| In 1790, Nathan is shown on the census in Williston, with wife and two sons (John and Henry). His next son, Nathan, is said by Orlin to have been born in Richmond; which dates his move there. With his brother Henry, he was among the first settlers of Richmond. Along with Asa Brownson (Asa and Nathan live close together in 1790), they settled in the western part of the town. It should also be remembered that Williston was adjacent to Richmond. |
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I am indebted to Harriet Riggs of the Richmond Historical Society for the following comment: "I think I should clear up one misconception - that of Nathan Fay and family moving from Williston to Richmond. They didn't move at all; the town line changed. |
| On October 27, 1794, the Vermont Legislature formed the town of Richmond from parts of Williston, Jericho, and New Huntington (now called Huntington). In 1804, a part of Bolton was added to Richmond. The area where a number of Fays lived is called Fays Corner, a part of the town of Richmond." (from a private communication, March 2005) | |
| There is a map below, dated 1876, showing Williston, Richmond, and Fays Corner within Richmond; and there is a detailed map, dated 1857, of Fays Corner on Roswell Bishop's page. |
| In 1790, Nathan was 30, Henry 20. It is not clear where Henry is in 1790; he doesn't seem to have his own household yet, and he is not living with Nathan. David Talcott had moved from Massachusetts to Williston prior to 1786, and he is listed on the Williston census of 1790 (his name is indexed 'Tolcott'). There are four males over 16 in David Talcott's household; it is possible that Henry works on the place, and is listed as part of that household. That would explain how he came to meet and marry Betsey, who would have been 15 in 1790. |
| It is not known when Betsey married Henry, but probably about 1794. Their first daughter seems to have been born in 1795. At any rate, both Nathan and Henry appear in Richmond in the census of 1800 with wives and growing families. |
| Nathan and Henry were engaged for years as clothiers at Fay's Corners, where they carried on the business of carding wool and cloth-dressing, said to have been the first works of the kind in Chittenden County. Nathan, the older of the two, served in the war of 1812. |
| According to Orlin, Henry Fisk was a lawyer in Burlington, but I think this is a mistake. Henry's brother John was a lawyer in Burlington; but there is no evidence that Henry ever lived in Burlington. All of the evidence points to the conclusion that he remained in Richmond. |
| One of the things that makes studying this line more difficult is the practice of these lines to use the names "Henry" and "Nathan" in each generation and each line. Thus we have the following people: |
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| This naming was not at all unusual, of course; the pattern recurs in most of the lines. But the presence of some or all of these at one time in Richmond, Vermont, makes it difficult to decide which of the men we find in any one given situation. |
| The early census records help a little in keeping people organized, but they are also somewhat difficult to read and follow. For a summary of the census records of Richmond, with a brief discussion of the conclusions, click here for Nathan's line, and here for Henry's line. The full version (without discussion) is here. |
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| Chittenden County, Vermont, 1876, by H. W. Burgett and Co. (detail) |
| image copyright � 2005 by Cartography Associates used with permission |
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