My 5th great-grandfather, Lancelot Larkham, is, to me, one of my most fascinating ancestors, because nearly everything I know of him, I’ve discovered on my own. I have a number of Lancelot's original personal documents (his apprenticeship indenture, land deeds and letters) in my possession -- items which were passed down to me from my mother's side of the family. These documents truly inspired my interest in genealogical research. I simply had to find out who Lancelot was!
The Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut Larkhams are a fairly elusive family, with no published genealogies that I’m aware of, yet evidence of them can be found throughout the records of eastern Connecticut and southern Rhode Island. They intermarried with many of the early settlers of Rhode Island and Connecticut -- the Adams, Colegrove, Crandall, Gorton, Greene, Larkin, Morgan, Palmer, and Witter families. Lancelot Larkham was the patriarch of a large number of descendants who migrated from Rhode Island and Connecticut to upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Oklahoma and further west -- wherever new land became available in the country.
In my three years of research, I have been amazed to find that virtually every Larkham who spells their name precisely this way -- Larkham -- is a descendant of Lancelot. Being the mother of boys, I suppose my connection with Lancelot began when I read his apprenticeship contract and thought of him as an 8½-year-old boy whose mother placed him in an apprenticeship to learn the trade of weaving. Here's what I have learned about Lancelot's life:
Rhode Island Beginnings
(1740-1779)
Lancelot Larkham was born November 20, 1740, the son of Thomas & Frances Larkham of South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Although Lancelot's place of birth is not recorded, his father, Thomas Larkham, witnessed land deeds in South Kingstown on August 24, 1728 and on February 26, 1739. Thomas Larkham appears several times in South Kingstown town records in the early 1740s, so it is probable that South Kingstown was the location of Lancelot's birth in 1740. Aside from his birth date in my great-grandmother's records, the earliest record of Lancelot is found in an indenture for his apprenticeship on July 7, 1749. His mother, Frances Larkham of "South Kingstown in Kings County in the Colony of Rhode Island & Providence Plantation in New England *woosted corner", indentured Lancelot, age 8 ½, as an apprentice to two weavers, Joseph Enoss and his wife Margaret (Webster) Enoss of Richmond, Rhode Island. Joseph Enoss, in his fifties at the time he took on young Lancelot as an apprentice, perhaps needed additional help because most of his own children were grown and on their own. In the apprenticeship contract, Lancelot’s term of indenture was very specific: 12 years, 4 months and 13 days. When calculated, I discovered that Lancelot's apprenticeship would be over on November 20, 1761, which I later learned was the date of his 21st birthday. It is probably significant that Frances Larkham signed the indenture and not Lancelot's father, Thomas. I suspect that Thomas Larkham was no longer present. The last record I have been able to find for Thomas Larkham is that of his service in King George's War in 1746. It is possible that he died in this war.
In 1759, when Lancelot was nineteen years old (two years before his apprenticeship was to end), he entered service in the Old French & Indian War with the Rhode Island Regiment. According to a sworn deposition signed by Jonathan Maxson, Lancelot served in Colonel Harris’ Regiment in 1760, and was at the capitulation of Montreal under the command of Jeffrey Amherst. Lancelot is also on record as having served in Colonel Rose's regiment in 1762. (I originally assumed that Lancelot's service in the war meant that he didn't complete the full term of his apprenticeship to Joseph and Margaret Enos, however several wise sources enlightened me to the fact that war service in colonial days meant going off on an expedition for a few weeks at a time, returning home to work as usual in-between.) Joseph Enoss died in November of 1762 when Lancelot was twenty-two years old.
According to my great-grandmother's records, Lancelot married Prudence Adams of Richmond, Rhode Island in 1763. Prudence was probably a member of the large Adams clan of Richmond, which descends from the Scotsman, James Adams, of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts.
Over the next ten years, Lancelot acquired at least 150 acres of land in Richmond. The records for his acquisition of land list Lancelot as a weaver and yeoman. His first deed for land took place on October 30,1765, wherein Lancelot purchased 50 acres of land from Benjamin Herrington, yeoman and his wife Mary of Richmond. On April 9, 1766, Lancelot purchased 12 ½ acres of land from Benjamin Herrington, physician, and his wife Hannah, of Richmond At superior court in South Kingstown on February 3, 1774 William Bentley, yeoman, ordered John and Barsheba Bissel to relinquish their right to 160 acres of land in Richmond, which Lancelot, along with his neighbors Nicholas Larkin and Paul Herrington, purchased for 8 pounds 5 shillings. It is presumed that the land was divided equally among the 3 men. On November 18, 1775, Lancelot purchased 49 ½ acres of land from Nathan Kinyon.
On April 16, 1766, at the age of 25 ½, Lancelot was admitted a Freeman by the Richmond Town Council. On June 5, 1770, the Richmond Town Council elected him to serve as Surveyor of Highways and Viewer of Fences for the ensuing year. On June 4, 1771, the town council granted him “eight shillings and three pence for timber to repair the Chapp’l Bridge”and “one pound sixteen shillings and two pence for the repairing of the Iron Worker Bridge” in Richmond. In 1777, Lancelot was listed in the Rhode Island census for males over the age of 21 who were eligible to serve in the (Revolutionary) war although it’s still not clear whether he actually fought in the Revolution. At the May 19, 1777 meeting of the Richmond Town Council, Lancelot was selected to serve as “Grand Juryman ... to attend on the Inferior Court of Common Pleas to be Holden at South Kingstown within and for the County of Kings County on the Second Monday in August next.”
Six of Lancelot and Prudence’s seven children were born in Richmond and are recorded in Richmond town records as the offspring of Lot lanset Larkham and Prudence, his wife:
Created from a scan of a microfilm copy of the original record from Richmond Land Evidence, Volume 1, Page 74.
Transcription
The Time of the Berth of the Children of Lot lanset Larkham
& Prudence his Wife of Richmond in Kings County in the Colony
of Rhode Island is as followeth to wit:
1 John Larkham son is the above said Larkham & his wife was
Born March 18th Day AD 1767 & the fourth Day of the Week
2 Thomas Larkham son to the above Larkham & his wife was Born
March the 15th day AD 1768 & the Third Day of the Week
3 Sarah Larkham Daughter to the above said Larkham & wife was Born May the 13th day AD 1769: & the seventh day of the Week
4 Joseph Larkham son to the above Larkham & wife was Born
September the 19th day AD 1770 & the fourth Day of the Week
5 Prudence Larkham Daughter to the above said Larkham & Wife was Born August the 24th Day AD 1772 & the second day of the Week
6 Lot Larkham son to the above said Larkham & wife was Born
March the 14th day AD 1774 & the first day of the WeekRegisted July the 6th dy 1775 pr Thos. Lillibridge T Clerk
Voluntown, Connecticut
(1779-1821)
On March 11, 1779, Lot and Prudence Larkham signed and sealed a land deed for the sale of 60 acres of land to Samuel Larkin of Richmond for one thousand two hundred pounds. This was a significant step in their move 15 miles northeast to Voluntown, Connecticut. On November 17, 1779, Lancelot and Prudence’s seventh and youngest child, Patience, was born in Voluntown. By all accounts, Lancelot and Prudence Larkham established a farm in Voluntown, and remained there for the duration of their lives. U.S. census listings place Lancelot in Voluntown, CT. from 1790 -1820. In three land deeds, dated 1794 - 1795, Lancelot continued to acquire Voluntown acreage along the southeast shore of Beach Pond, land which had originally belonged to the Winthrop family. Although the Larkhams technically lived in Voluntown, Connecticut, their Beach Pond farmland was right on (or very near) the Rhode Island border. The Larkhams maintained strong ties with Rhode Island. Lancelot (who was now going by the shortened name, Lot) and Prudence are both listed among the members of the First General Baptist of Richmond in 1770. They were later listed among the members of the North Kingston (RI) Six Principle Baptist Church: Lot joined the church on 4 September 1784 and Prudence joined in October 1786. On 17 September 1810, Lancelot, his son John, and John's family re-joined the First General Baptist Church of Richmond. The records of Prudence, (who was by then deceased), were taken from church membership on Sept. 17, 1810.
Prudence Adams Larkham died at 59 years of age October 21, 1799. A little more than two years later, on December 3, 1801, Lancelot, age 61, remarried a 53-year-old woman named Hannah Larkin. It's possible that Hannah may have been a widow and that Larkin was her married name from her previous marriage.
In the 1820 census, "Lot Lancet" Larkham of Voluntown had living in his household, one female aged 45 and older (Hannah, who would have been about 72), one male, aged 26-45 and one female, aged 10-15. It's still not clear who the young man and girl were living in Lancelot and Hannah's household in 1820.
Lancelot died less than a year after the 1820 census was taken. The date was January 10, 1821 and Lancelot was 80 years old. Lancelot's will, which he wrote on December 3, 1819 and was proved on January 1821, names his wife Hannah (for whom he gave explicit instructions in his will that she be adequately provided for); his grandson John Larkham, son of his son John Larkham, deceased; his son Thomas Larkham; daughter Prudence Hymes; daughter Sarah Colegrove; daughter Patience Witter; grandson Lot Colegrove (to whom he bequeathed his great bible); grandson Erastus R. Larkham; grandson Lancelot Larkham, son of his son Lot Larkham (to whom he bequeathed his weaving loom and accessories); and his son, Lot Larkham, who he named as executor of his estate. Lancelot and Hannah (Larkin) Larkham had been married for 19 years at the time of his death. Hannah died 4 years later, on April 24, 1825 at the age of 77. Her will, dated October 19, 1921 and proved June 14, 1825 in Hopkinton, Rhode Island names her niece, Hannah, wife of Jabez Palmer of Hopkinton.
[At various times, Lancelot's name has been spelled Lanceselot, Lott, Lasonlet, Lottanset, Lot Lancet, and Lanselot. VITAL RECORD OF RHODE ISLAND 1636-1850, Births, Marriages and Deaths, by James N. Arnold, Vol. 5., Washington County, Richmond Births, lists him as Lottanset Larkin (whereas the original record shows the spelling as Lot lancet Larkham). The Larkham surname has had just as wide a variety of spellings (Larkham, Larcom, Larkum, Larkcom, Larcomb, Larkam, as well as being confused for the surname, Larkin).
*Woosted Corner may have been a textile mill village in South Kingstown, since woosted is the old term for worsted wool. The name might be indicative of the type of fabric woven at the mill.
Sources:
The written content on this page represents many hours of research on my part. Much of the information on this page is not available in public records. Please ask my permission before using this information in any other source. Thanks!
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