Frances Stanton Willet - 52 Ancestors #18

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, I am writing about my third great-grandmother, Frances Stanton Willet who was born on January 20, 1807, either in Connecticut or in Massachusetts (depending on the source).

The 1951 privately published Pyle, Smith and Allied Family Histories states that her parents are Jedidiah Willet and Mary Stanton. The frustrating thing is that I have found no primary source that confirms the birth place. (Her birth date is on her tombstone.) There is no record of a birth of Frances Willet in Ancestry.com's Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, nor in the Connecticut Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection). I do find, in Norwich Vital Records, record of her father's first marriage to Frances Rogers, and the list of their children. This first wife died in 1805.

It appears that she grew up as the youngest sister of several half-siblings, some much older than her. I don't know if she had any full siblings, or if she was her mother's only child.

There is an 1806 newspaper wedding notice for her presumed parents, Jedediah Willet and Mary Stanton, which I shared here.

At not quite 21 years old, Frances (possibly named for her father's first wife?) married Joseph Rose, Jr. on October 23, 1827, most likely in New York City. (Joseph's obituary refers to their golden wedding anniversary celebration in 1877.)

Frances and Joseph had six children:
  Frances Adelaide Rose (1829-1870)
  Josephine Rose (1832-1920)
  Joseph Rose (1835-1905)
  George Lodowick Rose (1837-after 1920)
  William Rose (1840-????)
  Cordelia Maria Rose (1845-1927)

The first U.S. Census where I find her named is 1850, where I find her and Joseph living in New York City with their four youngest children. (And next door to her oldest daughter, Frances Adelaide (Rose) McAlpin, her husband, David H. McAlpin, and their oldest son.)

U.S. Federal Census. Year: 1850; Census Place: New York Ward 4, New York, New York;
Roll: M432_536; Page: 264B; Lines: 35-41; Record for Joseph Rose family

By 1860, the Rose family had settled in Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey, where I find her in the U.S. Census for 1870 and 1880. Her eldest daughter and namesake, Frances Adelaide (Rose) McAlpin died in 1870, and her beloved husband Joseph died in 1877.

Frances was 86 when she died "suddenly" on October 26, 1893, in Morristown, New Jersey. This same death notice (with the same wording) is found in several New York newspapers within a day or two after her death. This one is from the October 28, 1893, New York Times (from Ancestry.com's Historical Newspapers database):

  ROSE - Suddenly, at Morristown, N.J., Oct. 26, 1893, FRANCES STANTON ROSE, widow of Joseph Rose, in the 87th year of her age.
  Funeral services at Presbyterian Church, Matawan, N.J., Saturday, 11 A.M. Trains leave via Pennsylvania Road at 9:10 A.M.

A couple of summers ago, we visited Rose Hill Cemetery in Matawan, where there is a large Rose family plot. (See her FindAGrave memorial here, including links to her husband and four of her six children.) The following close up of her gravestone provides a lot of information, including her full maiden name and birth date!

Joseph Rose

Born

Oct. 25th, 1809

Died

Dec. 4th, 1877.

His wife

Frances Stanton Willet

Born

Jan. 20th, 1807,

Died

Oct. 26th, 1893.

~~~~~~~~~

I descend from Frances Stanton (Willet) Rose as follows:

Frances Stanton Willet (1809-1893)

|

Frances Adelaide Rose (1829-1870)

|

Frances Adelaide McAlpin (1860-1937)

|

Charles McAlpin Pyle (1893-1966)

|

Charles McAlpin Pyle, Jr. (1924-1993)

|

Me