Olive Gorton was born between 1781 and 1790* in West Greenwich, Rhode Island. She was the daughter of Hezekiah and Patience (Wood) Gorton of West Greenwich. Olive's third great-grandfather was Samuel Gorton, the founder of Warwick, Rhode Island.
On November 28, 1816, Olive married Lot Larkham of Voluntown, Connecticut. The Baptist Elder, Stafford Greene of West Greenwich, performed the marriage ceremony, which was recorded in Voluntown town records as:
(Scan of a microfilm copy of the original record from Voluntown town records, p.14)
"Lot Larkham Junr. and Olive Gorton were
lawfully Joined in mariage Nov. 28th AD 1816
by Stafford Green Elder".Olive was between 26 and 35 years old, and Lot was a 42-year-old widower whose first wife, Elizabeth Kennedy Larkham, had died barely two years earlier. He had four children between the ages of 6 and 19 still living at home and a sizeable farm to maintain in Voluntown. If Olive had been married prior to this marriage, there were no children. Lot and Olive's first child, a son, was born two years later. They had four children together during their seventeen-year marriage. They were:
- John Alfred Larkham, born February 4, 1819
- William H. Larkham, born May 31, 1820
- Betsey Olive Larkham, born May 24, 1824
- Edwin Larkham, born January 26, 1828
Olive died on May 25, 1834. She was between 44 and 53 years of age, and all of her children were still living at home: Edwin was only 6 years old, Betsey was 8, William was 14, and John, the eldest son, was 15. Less than one year after Olive's death, Lot Larkham married a third time.
One of the biggest thrills in my genealogical research experience was searching through West Greenwich probate records and finding in the will of Hezekiah Gorton, (written in 1841 and proved in 1842) the following bequest:
I give and bequeath to Betsey Olive Larkham one Chest with a drawer one bed and bedsted and one pair of flannel sheets and with This is what I allotted for your Mothers portion that is deceased
With this bequest, I finally had proof of the father of Olive Gorton!
* This is based on information from the 1830 census. Judging from her birth order among the children of Hezekiah & Patience (Wood) Gorton, I suspect she was born about 1785.
SOURCES
NSDAR Patriot Index - Centennial Edition, Part 2, page 1195
(listing for Hezekiah Gorton, which names his wife as Patience Wood)The records of Sarah Clark Burdick
(birth dates of Lot & Olive's children; Olive's date of death)1830 U.S. Census, Voluntown, CT., (household of Lot Larkham, p. 92)
Voluntown, Connecticut Vital Records, Volume 2, page 14
(from LSD FHL microfilm # 1311196)West Greenwich, Rhode Island Probate Records, Volume 9, page 74-75
(Hezekiah Gorton's will, naming Betsey Olive Gorton)
(from LDS FHL microfilm # 0925977)
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The Gortons of Rhode Island & ConnecticutGo back to
My New England AncestryContact me, Sally, at cscox@gci.net
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