The Robert Clark Letter - Part 1

Robert Clark  (previously discussed) wrote a long letter describing his genealogy in 1927.  He was 83 at the time.  It was difficult to read. The writing grew progressively worse and it was written with pen and ink which tends to be messy. Many spellings are known to be wrong. Others could be spelled incorrectly and I would not be aware of it. Keep in mind this was written in 1927. Modern research has made a significant number of corrections to the Clark and Isgrig information.  I am not familiar with his maternal line. 

The letter covers various lines and will be presented in several parts along with auxiliary information such as William Isgrig’s transportation record. 

Information for a sketch of family records must necessarily be obtained by conversing with or corresponding with other persons, or from wills or other writings when they are made matters of record, and sometimes from county histories or from one’s own personal knowledge of dates and events and from many other sources.

The information received from one source will often conflict with that received from some other source, so that there may be some errors especially among the earlier generations. Even obituary notices are not always absolutely correct.

County histories are not always a very reliable source of information. A great deal of that which they contain is taken from statements of persons who gave the information from their best recollections and which is not always correct. I personally know of some errors in the Sangamon and Logan Co. Ill. histories, and also in the Miami 0. history and I have no reason to believe that these are exceptions.

Wills, when they are recorded, are more reliable as they usually give the names and dates of most, if not all, of the members of the family and often the names of some of the descendants and ancestors as well.

Family records which give only the names of the immediate family are also reliable.

Jonathan Winans, the father of Sarah (Winans) Scudder, in his family record, which is still extant, gives the birth dates of all the members of his family. These dates are no doubt correct. I have copies of a number of wills which were made by persons who lived in N.J. by the name of David Clark but I am not sure that any one of them is the will of the David Clark who married Mrs. Sarah (Winans) Scudder. Their son, David Clark2 made his will in Sangamon County, Illinois.
The father of David Clark1 may have been a soldier in the American Revolution but that is very doubtful for if he was living at that time, he was quite aged.

Jonathan Winans, the father of Sarah (Winans) Scudder, died in 1774 just before the American Revolution and none of his descendants in the Clark line, except those of David Clark2 have Winans ancestors who were Revolutionary soldiers although some of them have in other lines.

The second wife of David Clark2 was a daughter of Samuel Winans, who was a son of Jonathan Winans, and a brother of Sarah (Winans) Scudder, the wife of David Clark.1

Samuel Winans was a Revolutionary soldier. There were others by the name of Winans who were soldiers in the Revolution.

In an early day there were at least two separate families in N.J. by the name of Clark that were not related.

We are probably the descendants of Richard Clark who came from England to the New Haven colony and went from there to Long Island and then to Elizabeth, N.J. with his wife, Elizabeth, and a daughter, Elizabeth, and three sons about 1678. Two sons were born in N.J. (This has been disproven. David Clark who married Sarah Winans – not to be confused with their son David Clark who also married a Sarah Winans – is the first proven Clark in this line.)

Mr. J. C. Cox, of Miami Co. Ohio, who was a very enthusiastic searcher of family records once gave this as a guess which may or may not be correct.

Richard1, Samuel2, Jonathan3, David4 who married Mrs. Sarah (Winans) Scudder, whose first husband was Jacob Scudder by whom she had one son, Matthias.

After the death of Jacob Scudder, she married David Clark and they had a family of five sons and four daughters in N.J.

If Mr. Cox’s guess is correct, it would place this David Clark as of the 4th generation of his Clark line in America.

His wife, Sarah, was the 4th in the Winans line.

My father, David Ward Clark, in his family record has the following as showing who were the ancestors of his mother, Ann Isgrig, in America.

William Isgrig was born in England April 13, 1721. His third wife was Hannah Wolsey who was born April 13, 1716. (William Isgrig was transported to America in 1740. He married Hannah Clixbay and they had at least five children.)

Daniel Isgrig, born December 26, 1756, was their only child. Daniel married Margaret Cole, born June 14, 1751. Daniel and Margaret had a family of three boys and three girls.

Daniel and Margaret came to America and settled in Maryland, where their children were born. Their children were:
1 – William, who married Elizabeth Rutter
2 – Daniel ” ” Mary Currant
3 – Michael ” ” Margaret Currant
4 – Hannah ” ” William Pattison
5 – Margaret ” ” Peter Stephens
6 – Ann ” ” John W. Clark