Great Britain in 1783, one of the stipulations of the treaty were that all Loyalists were to leave the country. It could be because Crispus did not leave the country until 1787 might be the reason his name does not show up on any of the Loyalist rolls. Unfortunately, the only information we have to go by for now is this circumstantial evidence that these two people had to be the same person. Given the climate of the time, and the fact that five of David Trowbridge's sons: Samuel, Shubael, Job, Absalom, Joseph, and Daniel Trowbridge served in the Continental Army, if there was a son named Crispus with Loyalist sympathies, he could have easily been disowned by the family. The following document is a deed dated July 6, 1772 between Crispus Trowbridge, and his mother Lydia:

"...in persuance of Said Will the Said Lydia the Widdow of the Sd. Decd., Shubael, Dan, Samuel, & the Sd. Crispus Trowbridge and Gershom Johnson & his wife Mary-Ann being all the Divisees who were of age at that time except Joseph Trowbridge who then was and for some time past has been out of this

Province of New Jersey."

One interesting fact is that there is a gap between two children of David and Lydia Trowbridge, 1750 for Absalom, and 1754 for Job, in which Crispus could have been born. Several of Crispus' children havenames that were common in David and Lydia Trowbridge's family. And Crispus also had a son named Job, who could have been named after Crispus' possible immediate younger brother, Job Trowbridge. Since Crispus Trowbridge settled Niagara in 1774, he could have easily had been in Morris Co., New Jersey two years earlier when this deed was written. According to Francis Bacon Trowbridge, the following was his source of information on the children of David and Lydia Trowbridge:

"Children copied from family bible of David Trowbridge which was found in the mountains eight miles from Dover NJ by William A Eardeley of Brooklyn NY, a genealogist who visited that area."

It is already known that this list was full of inaccuracies, the most well known being that of the second Tabitha. Evidence from the research of Charlie Scott, indicates that she was the wife of Daniel Trowbridge's son David.

Another Trowbridge researcher, Douglas Gawron, who furnished the transcript of the above quitclaim deed transcription and first proposed the theory about the possible link between Crispus Trowbridge and David Trowbridge writes:

"David Trowbridge's will refers to his "wife and eight children", Shubael being the only one mentioned by name...When you compare the above to the list of his children you will see that there are problems with David, Joseph, Crispus and it seems Lydia who was born after his death."

FROM THE TROWBRIDGE GENEALOGY BY FRANCIS BACON TROWBRIDGE

"The family descend from David Trowbridge, born in 1762, who emigrated from near Troy, N. Y., across the Niagara frontier into Canada during or soon after the Revolution. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, being a color sergeant in the British army, and fought all through the war. He was in action at the battle of Queenston and at the battle of Lundy's Lane he was placed in the van of the regiment there in action. He came through the war unharmed. For his services he and his wife Mary received a grant of 200 acres of land from the government of Upper Canada. He died in 1816. His widow married again. He

had brothers: Crispus Trowbridge, who settled at Niagara about 1774, and emigrated to Canada, and George Trowbridge, who served twenty-one years as a lieutenant in the British army. David Trowbridge had daughters:
Elizabeth, Phebe, Keziah, Hannah, Mary, Eliza and Margaret, and one son: Lambert.
LAMBERT TROWBRIDGE (David), born (???), 1805, in (???), Canada?; died (???), 1890, in Sutorville, Ontario, Canada; married (???), 1827, in Vaughn township, Elgin county, Ontario, Elizabeth Spiker, daughter of Christopher and Margaret (Best) Spiker
born (???), 1808, in Vaughn;
died (???), 1887, in Sutorville.
Lambert Trowbridge was a farmer and a member of the Mennonite Church.

CHILDREN BORN IN MALAHIDE TOWNSHIP, ONTARIO, CANADA:
i. DAVID, b. (???), 1830. ii. HENRY, b. (???), 1858; m. Annie Stonehouse; d. 1893 in Forest, leaving no children. There were other sons who died young.

1439. DAVID TROWBRIDGE (Lambert1438, David), born (???), 1830, in Malahide township, Elgin county,

Ontario, Canada; died (???), 1889, in Sutorville, Ontario; married (???), 1854, in Malahide, Eliza

Shively, daughter of Frederick and (???) (Warner) Shively, born (???), 1837, in Malahide; resides in

Sutorville.

David Trowbridge was engaged in farming. He resided in Forest until 1880, when he sold his farm there and removed to Brooke township near the present post office of Sutorville, Ontario. He was a 'hard shell' Methodist Wesleyan, and was for many years class leader at Forest. When he moved to Sutorville he gave to the Wanstead Methodist Conference the site where the old log church now stands. He lived in that neighborhood until his death."

The following is from an email that I recently received from Jim McCallum, a descendent of Crispus Trowbridge from Canada, who writes :

"We estimate Crispus' year of birth at about 1750. His will is dated Dec. 20, 1826 in Ancaster Township, Wentworth Co., Ontario, Canada. Documents relating to the settling of his estate appear in 1828, so

he obviously died between 1826 and 1828. His wife's name was Keziah. His children were Job, David, Benjamin, Tabitha, Lydia, Elizabeth, Pheby, Menuni, Kesiah, Mary Ann and John. Crispus arrived in the province of Ontario, Canada in 1787. He petitioned the government for a grant of land in 1795. In that document, he states that he came into the province in 1787 with a wife and eight children from the Province of New York, where he had suffered greatly in his property, and was imprisoned for his attachment to the British government, as will appear by a certificate now in his possession. He also states that his family has now increased to twelve children. He signed his name "Crispus Strowbridge". Most of his descendents carry the spelling Strowbridge, but my great-great grandmother seemed to use Trowbridge. He was granted a total of 700 acres in Ancaster Township, Wentworth Co., Ontario. Crispus is mentioned in the Francis Bacon Trowbridge genealogy in the chapter: Ontario, Canada, Trowbridges (see above), but a lot of the information given there by one of his great-grandsons is incorrect. It states that Crispus was a brother of David and another brother George. We have now figured out that David was actually Crispus' son. We can't find any record of George. I have an idea crispus & does not show up in any family records except the deeds. Obviously, Crispus' political sympathies were with the British during the War of Independence and he fled to Canada which was still under British rule. Many families were split due to their allegiances during this time and perhaps even disowned. At any rate, since Crispus left the United States, probably later generations had never heard of him and therefore did not include him in the histories. Note that many of Crispus childrens' names are similar to those in the family of David & Lydia, in fact he named children David & Lydia."

The following is a chart showing the similarity of names and relations to Crispus and the family of David Trowbridge & Lydia Holmes::

Because the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming, it is my belief that Crispus Trowbridge is a son of David and Lydia Trowbridge, and I will list him as their son on this webpage.

(Special thanks to Doug Gawron for emailing me the text of the deed mentioning Crispus Trowbridge, first proposing that Crispus Trowbridge who founded the Canadian branch of the Trowbridges may have been the same Crispus Trowbridge mentioned in the quitclaim

deed, and to Jim McCallum for sending me the information on his branch of the Trowbridge family that seems to verify it.)

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