THE COATES / PEARCE - CANOUNE / JENNINGS FAMILIES -- Illustrated. 21 February 2008 Assembled by Russ Chenoweth from materials supplied by Elizabeth Morse, supplemented by web searches, personal testimony, and other sources. In addition to the photos included here, we have other photographs of many relatives back into the 19th century. I. GRANDPARENTS (2) 1. Robert Pearce Coates, b. 11 Dec 1911 New York, N.Y.; d. 1983 Plainfield, N.J. - Graduated from Plainfield High School in 1929 as Valedictorian; B.S. Mathematical Physics Princeton University 1933, Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude, 4th in his class. He received an award for the highest grades in the Freshman Class. He was a member of Arbor Inn eating club. He spent the summer of 1933 studying in Jena, Germany. We have his Int.. Student ID Card, and Passport. Robert was offered a graduate fellowship to Yale but chose to marry and work for the Equitable. He was an Actuary for Equitable Life Assurance Society, NYC, from 1933 to 1 Sep 1977, when he retired as Vice President and Actuary. He had many accomplishments, but his greatest was not to be. He had designed a health insurance plan for the elderly, when Medicare came along. He co-authored an article about using IBM calculators to actuarial calculations which foreshadowed computers. “Use of punched-card equipment in calculating group annuity rates,” Robert P. Coates and Morton Miller, The Record, Am. Inst. of Actuaries, June 1941. He also attended the organizational meeting of the Association for Computing Machinery and heard John von Neuman speak about programmable computers. He was a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. He was active in both the Episcopal and Baptist Churches. He served as a trusted advisor to a number of the elderly in Plainfield. I came to know him, particularly after the death of his wife in 1977, as a highly intelligent, kind, and gentle man who was interested in many things. He was particularly fond of nature study and spent much time walking the trails in North Western New Jersey. He took our daughters to stay with him at his cottage on Swartswood Lake. He also took them on a wonderful trip to England in 1983. He loved art and took many courses in art history and drawing at Union County College. Married 3 Oct 1936 at the Monday Afternoon Club. The bride was given in marriage by her brother, Howard L. Canoune. Elizabeth Coates was a bridesmaid. Dr. Sibley Hoobler was best man, and Eugene Pike (“Pike”, “Uncle Pike”) was an usher. The wedding was attended by Mrs. Joshua Loizeaux, an aunt of the bride who also attended the wedding of Frederick C. Jennings in Vinton Iowa in 1882. The couple will live at 904 Watchung Avenue. (from NY Herald Tribune 4 Oct 1936.) 2. Alice Louise Canoune, b. 16 Sep 1911 Plainfield. N.J.; d. 8 Sep1977, Plainfield, N.J. Was taken to Europe in the 1920’s. Graduated from Plainfield High School 1929; Abbott Academy, Andover Mass. 1930; B.A. Barnard College 1934. Member Monday Afternoon Club, Daughters of the Holland Dames, Kings Daughters, Women’s Auxiliary of Muhlenberg Hospital, North Plainfield. Historical Society, Plainfield Symphony Society, etc. She was active in Republican politics and ran the Eisenhower campaign in Plainfield. She was very social and had many friends. Robert and Alice are buried in Hillside Cemetery, Plainfield. We have a photo of the combined gravestone. Alice’s brother Howard Legrand Canoune, (“Bop” and “Uncle Bop”) b. 15 Jun 1914, graduated from the Hill School, Pottstown, Pa. He was Captain of the Princeton swimming team in 1937 and set a number of records. B.A. Princeton University, 1935. Taught English and History and coached at Mercersburg Academy. Princeton varsity swimming coach. Taught at Eaglebrook School, Deerfield Mass., and at schools in Spartanberg, N.C. and Belle Aire, Md. Married Eleanor Morrison (“Aunt Nell”) 3 Sept 1947. II. GREAT GRANDPARENTS (4) 1. John Ora Beverly Coates, b. 28 Feb 1874 in Newtown, New Brunswick, Canada, to Herbert and Elizabeth Jane (“Eliza”) Coates, the youngest of 13 children. [The following is from a 5 page account by Elizabeth Morse.] At 15, Ora left home and went first to Boston and then to Philadelphia. He worked for Armour and Co. in Philadelphia around 1900. He moved to New York City by 1905 and started O.B. Coates and Co., selling flour wholesale on commission to NYC bakers. After he married, the family lived in a 7-room apartment at 5 West 82d. Street. Ora was a slim, good-looking man with a sparkling wit and was widely read although not formally educated beyond age15. Ora was brought up a Free Baptist in Newtown, N.B. and disapproved of alcohol. He was a deacon in the Calvary Baptist Church in N.Y. (In Plainfield, the Coates attended the First Park Baptist Church.) He did well in business and built a 5-bedroom house in Watchung, N.J., called “The Oakes”, where he owned 52 acres of land, including giant old oaks and an ancient Indian trail. “The house which my dad had built in 1905 was designed by Mr. Hollingsworth, a noted architect who lived in Scotch Plains. Its ground floor consisted of a huge living room with a beautiful fieldstone fireplace with a Hickory wood mantel. There were six hanging lamps with Tiffany shades around the outside of the large living room (33 feet long with an entrance way of 15 feet). Double doors with amber pebbled panes separated the living room from the dining room. The light of the fire could be seen from the walnut paneled dining room as dinner progressed. A beautiful Tiffany chandelier provided light and atmosphere at a round oak expandable table for dinners which at that time were served by a maid. On the second floor there were six bedrooms, a sewing room which served also as my brother’s bedroom and three baths. Mother’s bedroom had a brick fireplace. There was a guest room to accommodate the aunts and visitors who came frequently. Life was so lively in the Watchung house, with many New York visitors, and Plainfield friends for dinner and bridge. All this changed after the stock market crash in 1929.” E. Morse. The family lived there in the summer and in New York City in the winter. Robert went to Trinity School in New York. When his son Robert (b. 1910) reached High School age, the family moved permanently to Watchung. The daughters Elizabeth (b. 1918) and Margaret (b. 1920) commuted to the Hartridge School and Robert to Plainfield High. – In the late 1920’s Ora sold several carloads of grain before he had purchased it, and when the price rose, he went bankrupt. He was very honest and paid all his obligations, having eventually to sell his house and much of the land in Watchung. The family moved to a smaller house at 827 Madison Avenue in Plainfield, where Elizabeth and Harold Morse later lived in the third floor apartment after they were married. Robert, played no sports and couldn’t get a scholarship to Princeton. The family pooled funds and were able to send him. Ora Coates died 28 May 1949 at his home a 827 Madison Avenue of a heart attack. He had been reported to the police as missing but was found in his bed by his son-in-law, Harold Morse. On O.B. Coates, by Elizabeth Morse, 15 April 2003, Gambier, OH. Ora Beverly Coates was one of eleven children born to _____________ in Newtown, New Brunswick, Canada. In 1905 he married Emily Letitia Pearce in New Brunswick. He followed his sister to the USA. Francis Coates (Aunt Frank) had come to Philadelphia and then to New York City where she became part of two corporations dealing with handicrafts (Aird, Coates, and Carter) and (Coates, Carter, and Metzger). [N. remembers visiting Aunt Frank and then going to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.] Ora Beverly Coates built a country house of good size in Watchung, NJ, designed by Mr. Hollingsworth of Berkeley Heights, 4 bedrooms, a guest room, and a maid’s room, 3 baths, beautiful central stairs opening in to 33 foot living room wit a large foyer. The driveway came in under an ancient oak, 5-6 feet in diameter. A dining room was divided from the living room by large paneled double doors. When there was a fire in the slate stone fireplace with a walnut mantel, there were reflections dancing on the pebbled amber colored glass windows in the double doors. Both rooms had French doors leading to the 33 foot porch, overlooking a view of the first ridge of the Watchung Mountains. The hedge of bayberry above the apple orchard defined the farm areas, garden, and house. Grape vied were interspersed with rows of apple trees. There was a trail out form the kitchen past a cluster of five dogwood trees and on down through teh woods to the Eaton land. Above the house an old Indian trail led through the woods and up onto he top of the hill where there was grass. The property was called “The Oaks”. The sock market crash forced him to sell his love and joy in order to support Robert through Princeton. Robert Pearce Coates graduated from Princeton in 1933, Summa Cum Laude, the pride, love, and joy of our family, the iorst to go to college. We all went to college, private school, and piano lessons with Miss Florence Nichols. Margaret Emily (1942) and Elizabeth Leah (1940) graduated from Wilson College, Chambersberg, PA. Bev Coates commuted to New York City for his flour business all the rest of his life on the Jersey Central. The aunts, mother’s two sisters Geta and Mauda and dad’s sister Frances regularly visited Plainfield or Watchung and always came for Chirstmas and holidays. Greta dn Maude trained as nurses at thel old New York Hospital. Dad’s sister Frances used her ingenuity with crafts and later renting safe rooms to young women. Elizabeth Morse. Robert’s sisters Elizabeth Leah Coates Morse and Margaret Emily Coates are your great aunts Elizabeth and Margaret. Aunt Elizabeth (b. 1918) graduated from Hartridge School and Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., class of 1940, with financial assistance from her aunts Maud and Greta Pearce and the New York Times Agency. She earned Master of Education and MLS degrees from Rutgers, and eventually coordinated all the elementary school libraries in Plainfield. She served as President of the New Jersey School Library Association. Elizabeth married Harold G. Morse, the grandson of Henry Gardner Morse of Fitchburg, Mass., a nephew of Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872) U.S. painter and inventor, June 26, 1944. They lived first at E. 21st St. Brooklyn, where Harold was base photographer for the U.S. Maritime Service at Sheepshead Bay. Harold was a graduate of Plainfield High School and the American Institute of Banking. Harold learned photography in the merchant marines in World War II and was a commercial and industrial photographer for 45 years. He knew Richard Avedon. He was active much of his life in the Boy Scouts of America. He was a Rotarian, and he and Elizabeth were active in the Clan Blaire Society. Harold died 9 Feb 1996 at the Hospital of the Univ. of Pa. They had four children. Obituary: Elizabeth Leah Coates Morse, 87, died on May 5, 2006 in Fort Collins, CO, after a stroke. Elizabeth moved to Fort Collins in 2003 and previously lived in Gambier, OH; Monroe Lake, PA, and Plainfield, NJ Elizabeth was born on August 3, 1918, in New York City and was the daughter of John Ora Beverly Coates and Emily Pearce Coates. She lived in New York City and later moved to Plainfield, NJ where she resided for almost 60 years. Her early education was conducted at the Wardlaw-Hartridge School in Plainfield from which she graduated in 1936. She later received her undergraduate degree from Wilson College in 1940 and earned Masters degrees in Education and Library Science from Rutgers University in 1961 and 1963. She was a librarian for the Plainfield Public School system for over 25 years and served in 1968 as President of the New Jersey School Library Association. On June 23, 1943, she married Harold G. Morse in Plainfield. He died in 1996. Elizabeth was passionate about art, music, and creative writing and truly appreciated how art bridged people and cultures together. She was a gifted poet and wrote throughout he life. Elizabeth was a member of the New Jersey Choral Society for many years. Her students over the years, plus her children, Nieces, and nephew saw her as a loving counselor. Elizabeth avidly pursued genealogy, tracing her ancestry to the Blair Clan of Perth, Scotland and her husband Harold’s lineage to Ulysses S. Grant and Samuel F.B. Morse. Elizabeth enjoyed reading and always had a book or two with her at all times. She never turned down a chance to play a hand of bridge. She had a lively spirit. For many years Elizabeth was a member of the First Park Baptist Church in Plainfield. She was preceded in death by her husband Harold; her brother Roberts Coates; her sister Margaret (Bay) Coates and brother Andrew Coates. She is buried in Hilside Cemetery, Plainfield, N.J. See www.allnutt.com Aunt Margaret (“Miggot” and “Bey”) (b. 1920) graduated from the Hartridge School in Plainfield, and from Wilson College. She earned a nursing degree from New York Hospital and an MSW from Columbia. She became a psychiatric social worker in New York City. She lived with Herbert Wright who worked for Phillip Morris Tobacco Company. Margaret was in poor health after Herbert’s death in the early 1980’s and lived in Miami with her son and daughter-in-law until her death in 1985. On Margaret Coates (1920-1984), by Elizabeth Morse, ca. 2003. My sister Margaret was a dreamer and in love with a dream even as a child. She loved to role-play and to dream up make-believe and imaginative stories. She loved to read fantasies and fairytales. She was passionately in love with a dream all her life and never could distinguish reality from fiction in a real sense. We competed even in this sense. I was the common sense one and she the idealist, whenever that was worth arguing about. And when it came to true love, she would only marry one for true love and as for me I was not sure what she was talking about. She was a very bright child and learned everything very quickly. When she was in first grade she started to read and just took off with books. Mother was presented a bill for 21 books part way through the first year. In private school you paid for books, and Margaret gobbled up books. Soon we started to use the public library. Before she started school I played school with her, teaching her the capitals and the states using a big wall map. Migit was pretty with golden-red hair cut short and with bangs, rosy cheeks, and a round face. We argued about whether a round face or a thin narrow one was prettier. She was artistic and drew well. She made a charcoal drawing of me at 12 which Bev has. We did everything together. We were paired always, dressed alike and taken to movies, church ,etc together. Sometimes this ended in anger, which I forgot, but she never did. She was my sister for whom I would do anything. When she was about to graduate from college I came for the weekend and found her in her room typing her graduation thesis. We stayed up all night typing. The paper was given to Miss Copp, and Migit got her diploma on time. Migit had found a little dog and adopted him. She kept him in the dorm against rules, fed him and walked him at night. When she came home she brought the fox terrier with her, but dad would not let her keep him. Tears and pleas did not move hi. Heartbreak! One time dad told Migit that she could earn money by digging dandelions from the lawn. He would pay her 10 cents per hundred. She eventually presented him with the evidence and a bill for $10. [i.e. 10,000 dandelions] He paid in full. We always had cats and dogs in Watchung, where there was plenty of room. We had special trees which we watched grow. Migit had a red Japanese maple, and I had a pink dogwood. Migit was tenderhearted and kind to any animal. As a little girl I can remember standing on the front lawn and talking about love. Margaret would marry only for true love. We talked about infinity (our brother’s influence), stars, heavens, plants, woods. We would walk in the fields and pick apples and concord grapes. We would climb the big trunk of the sawed off chestnut tree and play house. We would walk the Indian trail for miles beneath the big forest trees. In life and in acting Bey assumed many roles. She was accepted in Equity. Her beautiful hair and bark brown eyes and fair skin, her wit and intelligence and artistic flair gave her a special appeal. She got away with a lot. We all loved her for herself. Bey won a full scholarship to college but did everything at her own pace. Bey lived her life in roles of her own making, as a child in Watchung and private school, as a nurse, as a wife and mother. Elizabeth Morse. NOTE: “Aunt Ruth” and “Uncle Pike” were purely honorary relations, but they were very important to Nancy when she was growing up. Eugene Pike was a good friend of Bob Coates at Princeton, and often came to Plainfield on his motorcycle (named Theophilos, as it made “the awfulest” noise) for a good meal. Pike got his PhD in physics and worked on the Manhattan Project and later at Lincoln Labs. She below in Appendix 1 for the obituary of Ruth Pike. [from Dorothy King, in 1983: The Coates probably came from Yorkshire to Cumberland in 1774 and to Smith Creek in 1804. His son Lemuel is our ancestor. The Coates, Pearce, King, Blair, and Stockton families lived in the area. The Blairs and the Kings came from the same part of Scotand on the ship Rosina in 1803, with financial assistance from the government and settled near Sussex, New Brunswick. Ora Beverly Coates was born 1874, the youngest child of Robert H. Coates and Jane E. Coates.] M. 5 Oct 1905 2. Emily Letitia Pearce, b. 1876; d. 1961. Elizabeth Morse remembers the zest, modesty, wit, logic, and strength of her parents and that they were always ready to listen, read, and talk to their children. After the death of her husband, Emily became ill and eventually blind and continued to live with the family of Harold and Elizabeth Morse in the Madison Avenue house until her death. We have a photo of the combined gravestone for Ora Beverly, Emily Letitia, and Andrew Beverly (1906-1909) Coates and Ella Maud (1885-1946), Greta May (1874-1946), Margaret (1920-1985 “Aunt Margaret”, and Frances M. Coates (1871-1057) “Aunt Frank” in Hillside Cemetery. 3. Howard Masten.Canoune, b. 5 Aug 1873, New York, N.Y.; d.19 Sep 1934, Plainfield, N.J. Graduated from Columbia University in 1898 and from New York Law School. He practiced real estate law in New York City and was a Republican candidate for city council in 1931. Much of his wealth was in NY rental property, which lost value during the depression. Howard was a member of the Plymouth Brethren, a conservative Protestant denomination. He had long suffered from a heart condition and died in 1934. Their large house on Denmark Road had to be sold. The family moved to an apartment. Alice was able to graduate from Barnard with the help of a scholarship from the Holland Dames. Robert and Alice Coates supported his wife Annie until her death. Married 9 Dec 1908 in North Plainfield, N.J. at 6 Rockview Ave. 4. Annie Louise Jennings, b. 15 Sep 1883, on Sherman Avenue in Plainfield, N.J.; d. 1970, Plainfield, N.J. Known as “Nan Nin” to her grandchildren. As a child she lived with her parents, Frederick Charles and Louise Jennings, at 6 Rockview Avenue in North Plainfield, which later became the N. Plainfield Library. She was educated at the Plainfield Seminary for Young Ladies, where she learned deportment and the arts. She became a good writer and musician. Her education was “finished” at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Conn., where Edith and Alice Hamilton, the Greek scholar and well-known physician, also studied. She went to Europe several times and made the Grand Tour. Her husband, Howard M. Canoune, built a large house at 1275 Denmark Road in Plainfield, where they lived 26 years. They also had a large summer house on Shelter Island, where Robert Coates and Olivia Jennings visited in the 1920’s. This house had been owned by an eccentric dentist who cemented teeth into the foundation and claimed to have invented the telephone but was beaten to the Patent Office by A.G. Bell Bell. Annie joined the Monday Afternoon Club in 1912, for which she wrote her “Short History of Plainfield.” in 1921. She was active in the Kenyon Players. Life member of the New York Historical Society, active in early women’s suffrage movement and was a charter member of the League of Women Voters. She won prizes for her writing. She had some difficult years after her husband’s death and the loss of their considerable fortune. As a child, her granddaughter, enjoyed visiting her at her Plainfield apartment. I knew her, from 1964 to 1970 as an intelligent and cheerful woman with a good sense of humor. She lived in good spirits in the Villa Maria Nursing Home in Watchung before her death. III. GREAT GREAT GRANDPARENTS (8) 1. John Coates M. 2. Jane ____. They had 8 children: Clifford, Sterling, Hazel, Mary, Jane, Matti, Freeman, Frances May, and the youngest, John Ora Beverly Coates who ran away from home at age fifteen to marry Leah King and become your great great grandfather. _____________ 3. Andrew Steven Pearce, b. 4 Feb 1845; d. 19 May 1901 M. 1 Oct 1872 4. Leah Maria King, b. 24 Sep 1844; d. 23 Sep 1899. They had 8 children: Chesley Herbert, Greta May, Emily Letitia, Archibald Thomas, Margaret Matilda, Edwin King, Walter Blair, Ella Maud, and John Andrew. Their daughter Emily Letitia Pearce married John Ora Beverly Coates. Their daughter, Margaret Matilda Pearce, married Jacob Elbridge Cosman “Uncle Ned”, who’s son is Blair Pearce Cosman, b. 8 Sep 1918, “Cousin Blair”. Blaire has a Master’s Degree from the Eastman School of Music and taught piano there for many years. Elizabeth Morse said that her mother, Emily L. Pearce, said that her mother, Leah King was a strong woman and that the women in the pioneer families of New Brunswick, such as Leah Gilles, Leah Maria King Pearce, and Mary Baxter Blair had to be strong. ______________ 5. Newton Cannon, b. 20 July 1838 in New York City.; d. 10 May 1894 in Brooklyn, N.Y. We have a photo of Newton Cannon, taken in 1863 by W.C. Crum, NYC. He looks tall, slim, fit, and saturnine, with long hair, long down-curled mustaches and a goatee. M. 8 Nov 1860 in New York City 6. Louise Masten Hall, b. 25 Apr 1843 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; d. 18 July 1917 in New York City _________________ 7. Frederick Charles Jennings, b. 3 Dec 1847 in Calcutta; d. 17 April 1948 at Plainfield, N.J., at 101; buried in Hillside Cemetery, Plainfield. His parents were British, his father in government service in India. He was sent to England as an infant, sailing around Cape Horn. He became a tea taster in Mincing Lane, London. With a sip, he could tell the difference between the most closely related teas. He came to the United States in 1871 to be tea valuer and general manager of E. Pavenstadt & Co while the owner was away in the East. But Pavenstadt died, and Frederick established his own business as a tea importer in New York. F.C. became interested in the Plymouth Brethren in the late 1870’s. In 1881 he moved to Plainfield. The business prospered, and he retired from commercial life around 1898 to spend his time in Christian study, writing, and ministering. He wrote a number of books and articles on biblical subjects and knew Greek and Hebrew. He was the author of Studies in Isaiah, Neptune, N.J., Loizeaux Brothers, 1935, 784p., in which he attempt to demonstrate that there was a single author for the Book of Isaiah. He became a noted preacher, with a commanding voice. The Jennings lived at 6 Rockview Avenue, North Plainfield and later at 143 East 7th Street Plainfield. Frederick’s brother, Arthur Oldham Jennings, was the father of Phyllis, b. 1892 at Hove; d. 1974; Olivia b. 1907 at Hove, d. Mar 1991(?); and Sir Raymond, b. 1897 at Hove, d. 1995. Invalided out of the Royal Fusiliers at the end of WWI, went up to Oriel College, Oxford, and was called to the Bar. Active member of Lincoln’s Inn; became a bencher in 1951. Queen’s Councilor and Master of teh Court of Protection 1956-1970, (before 1947 called “Master in Lunacy”), and largely responsible for the Mental Health Act of 1959. Knighted in 1968. We have his long obituary from The Independent, March 16 1995. Married Sheila Grand (d. 1972) in 1930. Parents of Andrew, b. 1932 at Mickelham, and Caroline, b. 1936 at Mickelham, who married Peter Carmichael in 1957. Caroline and Peter have 4 children: Anna, Alister, Roderick, and Alison. -- See Raymond’s Obituary from The Independent, March 18 1995. Olivia looked after him after his wife’s death. -- Nancy and I visited Olivia at Hove in 1965 and our whole family visited Olivia and Raymond in 1985. Miss Olivia Christine Jennings was presented at the Court of St. James Buckingham Palace in May 1930. We have to official photo, by Raphael, 1 Wilton Place, Knightsbridge. Obituary: Independent March 16, 1995, by A.B. MacFarlane. Raymond Winter Jennings, barrister: born 12 December 1897; QC 1945; Master of the Court of Protection 1956-70; Kt 1968; married Sheila Grant (died 1972; one son, one daughter); died 6 March 1995. Sir Raymond Jennings QC was the Master of the Court of Protection between 1956 and 1970. Until 1947, the title of this office had been Master in Lunacy and it was a measure of Jenning’s modernity that the old title would have been so inappropriate for him. This was shown in his work leading up to the Mental Health Act 1959, which many commentators have considered to be more significant and more liberal in its effects than the Mental Health Act 1983, and his contribution in applying provisions for the benefit of those it was designed to help. To everything he did, Jennings brought an acute but kindly eye. He was invalided out of the Royal Fusiliers towards the end of the First World War, went up to Oriel College, Oxford, and was then called to the Bar. An active member of Lincoln’s Inn, he became a bencher in 1951. He was an advocate of distinction and charm as a junior at the Chancery Bar. In 1945 he took the silk and was a most successful leader. Disappointed of a judgeship in the Chancery Division (vacancies were rarer in those days) he was offered the appointment as Master of the Court of Protection and devoted himself to the task with zeal and flair. In 1968 he was rewarded with a knighthood. Raymond Jennings was an enthusiast for the complex cases which came before him. Many were in bulky dossiers, tied up with canvas straps. He would rub his hands at the approach of a two-strap dossier and once said that every case which came to his desk was a Christmas present, the larger the better. He felt privileged to be allowed to take such a part in many people’s lives. Although he often appeared shy, and some of his staff were rather in awe of him, he was a man of many different interests and anyone who talked to him about fishing or tennis would soon be on easy terms; his tennis parties were famous. He was an early member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists and he often said (perhaps wryly) that in life, as well as on the road, one must take care to be in the right lane at the right time. His family life was of central importance in his life, first in Mickleham, where he was a pillar of the village and chaired the Management Committee of the Box Hill area for the National Trust; and later in Hove, where his sister Olivia looked after him devotedly after his wife’s death. He was sympathetic to younger people and is remembered as a distinguished Master of the Moots at Lincoln’s Inn. Up to the end of the Second World War, no one under 21 was employed by the Court of Protection, because of the confidential nature of the work, but the staff shortage after the war led to recruitment at 16, and Jennings was keen to help train this new group. He made few allowance for aging however; when a middle-aged solicitor complained to Jenning about a lift out of action, he took pleasure in pointing out that he, at 72, had climbed the four fights to his chambers without difficulty. M. 1 June 1882 at Vinton, Iowa, his second wife Louise Helene Loizeau. The first was Anna (or Annie) Beatrice Pond who married in 1873 and who died in 1876. His third marriage, 4 March 1940, was Mrs. Mary Carter Tyler (Mrs. George Tyler), 70, of Seven Mile Ford, Virginia, who he married at the age of 93. They had been friends for 40 years since they met at the Brethren Meeting House at Seven Miles Ford, where F.C. was preaching. 8. Louise Helene Loizeaux, b. 16 Sep 1846 in Leme, Aisne, a small French village near Lyons; d. 9 Feb 1938, age 91 while living at 143 East 7th St. in Plainfield, N.J. Buried in Hillside Cemetery. She was the last surviving member of the Loizeaux family of five brothers and 3 sisters that came to the United States from France in 1852 with their parents, Jean Jacques Loizeaux and Mary (or Marie) Susanne Duse (or Dusse). The family set up a homestead near Vinton, Iowa. (We have a modern picture of the still standing house.) Mrs. Jennings and several members of her family had dinner with Abraham Lincoln at Iowa City. IV. GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDPARENTS (16) 1. Coates M. 2. ____ ----------------------------------------- 5. Thomas Craft Pearce, born 1813 (or 1811) in Norton, New Brunswick; died 1884 in Newtown. M. 20 Feb 1839 in Sussex, N.B. 6. Margaret Blair, b. 2 June1816; d.3 Nov 1887, Newtown, N.B.. They had 7 children: Oliver, David Albert, Andrew Stephen, Chesley Herbert, John Blair, Charlotte Matilda, and Ella May. Their 3d child, Andrew Stephen Pearce (1845-1901) was your ancestor. Andrew’s brother, John Blair Pearce (1850-1898), Elizabeth Morse’s mother’s favorite uncle, went west in 1881, settled in Tacoma with his wife Cora Norton, became an accountant, and went to Alaska. His partner in the Chilkoot Tramway Supply Company was ill, so John Pearce went into the field to bring supplies to the miners. He was killed in an avalanche on Palm Sunday, 1898. John Pearce had a ring made for him from a gold nugget by a Chinese man returning a favor. Blair Cosman gave the “Chinaman’s ring” to John Blair Morse. ---------------------------------------- 7. John King, b. 21Mar 1813 in Sussex; d. 16 Jan 1878 at Smith Creek M. 30 Nov 1837 8. Emily Gilles Hayes, b. 19 Dec1819 at Norton, N.B.; d. 19 Dec1898 at Smith Creek, N.B. -- They had 10 children: James, Leah Maria, Mary Jane, Charlotte Elizabeth, Emily Letitia, William Johnson, Edwin Vail, Helen Maud, and Elmer Ellsworth. Leah Maria married Andrew Steven Pearce. ------------------------ 9. Mott Smith Cannon, b.12 Jan 1792 in New York City; d. 27 July 1849 in New York City, during a cholera epidemic. – [A pair of pewter candlesticks that belonged to the Mott Smith Cannons is on our mantle at Runway Lane. They were on the mantle of the Canoune house on Shelter Island. RMC, Jr.] M. 18 Aug 1833 in Morristown, N.J. 10. Eleanor Conover Wyckoff, b. 18 Mar 1813 in Morristown, N.J.; d. 1 Apr 1908 in Brooklyn, N.Y. We have a photo of Eleanor Cannon in a floor length clack silk dress, not looking pleased. ------------------------------ 13. Frederick Jennings, b. 1816; d. 17 June 1878 at Framlingham, Suffolk, England, age 62. He was the author of “Journal of a Voyage to India on Board the Reaper.” He sailed in the brig of 500 tons, under Captain Gordon, leaving London Docks 28 Sept 1841 and arriving in Calcutta on 23 Feb 1842, a voyage of almost 5 months. We have the journal. The handwriting is elegant and the illustrations charming. The text concerns mostly the weather and the state of F.J.’s health. We also own a tall silver presentation pitcher, inscribed: “Presented to Worshipful Brother Fred Jennings by the Members of Lodge Anchor & Hope, Calcutta No.284 or England in acknowledgement of the zeal and ability which distinguished his career as Maser of the Lodge and in testimony of that sincere attachment and esteem which his kindness and urbanity has justly merited. July 1847.” M. 26 Jan 1847 at St. John’s Cathedral, Calcutta 14. Rebecca Newson, b. 1820; d. 31 July 1876 at Framlingham, age 56 of dropsy (pathological accumulation of lymph) while Frederick was on his way home from India. Rebecca was greatly respected for her genial and happy temperament and acts of benevolence and charity among the poor [from Obituary in the Framlingham Weekly News.] They had 5 children: Frederick Charles (1847-1948); Elizabeth Rebecca (1853-1940); Arthur Oldham (1855-1934), father of Raymond, Phyllis and Olivia; Mary (1856-1941); and Alice Ellen (1858-1949). Frederick and Rebecca are buried in the Cemetery at Framlingham, Suffolk, on the right side of the main entrance, 100 yards from the gate. ---------------------------- 15. Jean Jacques Loizeaux M. 1838 16. Marie Dusse V. GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDPARENTS (32) 9. Henry Pearce, b. 1759; died Aug 1820 in Norton, Kings County, New Brunswick. M. Martha Dickie, b. 23 Oct 1777 in Ninety-six District, South Carolina; died 5 Jan 1852 in Norton, Kings County, New Brunswick, daughter of Hector Dickie and Sarah Walker. She is on the 1851 census of Norton, as Martha Doyle, 78, next door to the two houses of John Pearce and Thomas Pearce, hers being a "log house". Henry's will gives her life access to the house. I guess that it is another house of the same property. This gives her a birth date of 1773, which is reasonable. It also shows her as born in N.B. The birth date I have used is from "Loyalist Lineages of Canada." Her death (as Martha Doyle) is recorded in the Norton Parish Burials. They had 9 children, of whom Thomas Craft Pearce is our ancestor. ---------------------- 11. John Blair, b. 1778, Perthshire, Scotland; d. 1861 in Sussex, N.B.; father John Blair, b. Perthshire, Scotland. M. 1804, in Norton, N.B. 12. Mary Baxter, daughter of Joseph Baxter d. before 1851 -------------------------- 17. Mott Cannon, b. 28 Jan 1756 in New York City; d. 14 Aug 1824 in New York City M. 23 Sep 1790 in NYC 18. Mary Smith, b. 10 Oct 1772 in Great Egg Harbor, N.Y.; d. 16 Sep 1844 in NYC ----------------------------- 25. Charles Jennings, b. 9 Sep 1777; d. 28 June 1823 M. 26. Rebecca Moore, b. 1820; d. 31 July 1876 at Framlingham -------------------- 31. Jean Dusse M. 32. Marie Gential VI. GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDPARENTS (64) John Cannon, b. 18 Dec 1734 in NYC; d. 26 Dec 1774 in NYC John Cannon’s will of 1762 (photostat) M. 14 Nov 1756 Jemine Mott, b. 26 Nov 1737 in Hempstead, N.Y.; d. Aug 1827 in NYC ------------------ Thomas Jennings, b. 1737, Spalding, Lincolnshire; d. 1820. Had 13 children, of whom Charles (1777-1823) was the seventh. VII GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GRAND PARENTS (128) Pierre Canon, bap. 11 Mar 1711 in NYC; d. 7 July 1747 in NYC M. 6 Mar 1732 (256) Wilhelmina Schermerhorn, bap. 14 Oct 1713 in NYC; d. ? VIII GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT (512) Jean Canon (Jan Konon), ap. 3 Nov 1677 in Port Richmond, S.I.; d. 5 Aug 1748 in NYC. We have a photostat of John Canon’s will of 5 Oct 1748. M. 23 Sep 1697 in Dutch Church, N.Y. Marie (or Mary) Legrand, b. ap 19 May 1680 in Zeeland; d. 8 Mar 1758 in NYC IX GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT (1024) Andre Canon, b. 1651, in Leyden, Holland; d. 3/23-4/7 1711 in Port Richmond, D.I. Letter of 18 April 1666 on the occasion of Andre Canon’s withdrawal from the French Church (eglise Wallon) at Leyden (photostat). Naturalization papers of Andre Canon 15 July 1701. He had already lived in New York for 28 years and most of the time held public office (photostat). Appointed Justice of the Peace for Richmond County, N.Y. on October 14, 1690 by Governor Jacob Leisler (photostat). Governor Banjamin Fletcher appointed Andre Cannon Captain of a Militia Company on Foot in the County of Richmond, Aug. 29, 1693 (photostat). Instructions of 31 July 1693 for the regulation of the militia. Reputed to have been Harbor Master of the New York Harbor (photostat). Andre Canon’s Will of 12 Dec 1710 (superseded by Will of 12 Mar 1711). M. < 1673 Jeanne Pecee We have the photostat of a document from 8 April 1718, in which Anne Cannon of the county of Richmond, widow of Captain Andre Canon, leases a farm to Peter Roose. Also an indenture 21 May 1723 of Anna Cannon to William Paterson. [Note, from French Baptisms New York French Church Baptisms 1688-1802: 1698 Oct 02; Jean Canon, Marie Legrand; Jeanne; Andre Canon, Jeanne de Wendell APPENDIX 1 Obituary : Ruth Gottemoller Pike, 94, died June 12, 2004 at Sunrise Senior Living Center, Weston. She was the wife of the late Eugene W. Pike. A native of Indiana, she was a longtime resident of Lexington. She moved here with her husband in 1950. Mrs. Pike had a long and esteemed career as a professional social worker providing and supervising clinical services to families and children. After earning a master’s degree in social work from Smith College School of Social Work, she became a caseworker and supervisor in Indianapolis and Cleveland. From 1943-1949, was an associate professor of social casework at the Boston College School of Social Work