Last Page Activity: 20 Jan 2016         
Samuel THORN

 

Birth:   abt 1771   Dutchess County, New York

Death:   abt 1836   Hillier, Ontario

Father:   Robert THORN (abt 1734-1819)

Mother:   Sophia PELS (~1750-)

 

Spouse:   Phoebe CHASE

Birth:   abt 1772   Duchess County, New York

Death:   abt 1840   Hillier, Ontario

Father:   James P. CHASE

Mother:   Elizabeth [Betty] DOUGLAS

 

Marriage:   10 Feb 1794   Gagetown, New Brunswick

 

Children:

Robert (1794-1866)  

Esther (1797-1797)  Buried October 23 1797.

Seth (1802-) 

William (1808-1885) 

Joseph (bapt. 16 Mar 1809 - 1810) Killed by accidental gun shot. Buried Aug 10 1810

Edward (1809-1809) Baptized Mar 9 1809. Buried Mar 19 1809.

Elizabeth (1809-)  Married (10 Feb 1825) Henry Babbitt.

Catharine Ann (1814-24 Jul 1870)  Married (16 Jan 1833) George Hendry

Sophia (1815-)

Samuel Michael (~1817-1889)

Mary T. (~1822-)

 
Further information for Samuel Thorn:

 

  • Samuel's marriage to Phoebe Chase is recorded in Queen's County, New Brunswick Marriages VolA 1812-1861 p39. (The second printing of Pioneer Life on the Bay of Quinte notes them as being married before he left New York [which is highly unlikely]. See below.)

 

  • Samuel Thorn, (from notes of Bircham & Mary Van Horne) with his parents (Robert & Sophia) moved from New York with the Loyalist migration of 1783. As a child of a Loyalist, he would have been awarded property in New Brunswick, when of age. Because of this, he (or his descendants) considered himself to have been a Loyalist.  The 'Bay of Quinte' history notes that he was a Loyalist. It is usually believed one must be at least 18 years of age to have one's name appear on the 'Old UE (United Empire) List'. The name of Samuel Thorn is noted on said list from the same place of settlement as Robert Thorn. This would suggest  Samuel was much older or Robert (Samuel's father) had a brother Samuel (which he did not) who settled nearby. There were many cases where fathers and sons were Loyalists; however, until more research is done, the Loyalist ancestor should only be Robert (Samuel's father). 

    On 10th Feb 1794, at Waterborough Parish, Gagetown NB, Samuel Thorn married Phoebe Chase (her sister became the grandmother of Sir S. L. Tilly* of NB). Phoebe was born in the early 1770s in Duchess County New York, also from a Loyalist family who later settled in Gagetown NB. Samuel & Phoebe's children (and at least one grandson) were born in Gagetown area. Later (around 1826 or earlier), the family removed to the Bay of Quinte vicinity of Hillier, Prince Edward County, Ontario, (settled by Loyalists in 1784).

    * Sir Samuel 'Leonard' Tilly was one of the "Fathers of Confederation' and served as Premier of the colony of New Brunswick from 1861 - 1865.

  • UE Loyalist - Samuel Thorn settled in Gagetown, New Brunswick, 28(?) years before moving to Hillier.  All children born in Gagetown. Son Robert's oldest son (also named Robert) was 4 at time of the move (abt 1826 or earlier).

 

 

 

 
           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                       

  • Excerpt from Pioneer Life on the Bay of Quinte published by Rolph & Clark Ltd. 1904 reads: 

"The Thorns are an old family in Prince Edward County who find their common progenitor in Samuel Thorn, an United Empire Loyalist who migrated during the Revolutionary War from Duchess County, New York, to New Brunswick, where he settled for a number of years and reared a family of eight children [eleven children born of which 3 died within their first year]. Before leaving New York he married Phoebe Chase, who was a sister of the founders of the Chase family in Prince Edward County. [The foregoing sentence is probably incorrect.] Her sister Mary was the grandmother of the late Sir S. L. Tilly, of New Brunswick.

Samuel Thorn lived about twenty-eight years in New Brunswick, and then removed to Prince Edward County and settled in Hillier.

The Thorns came accompanied by such well-known county families as the Babbits, Morgans and Giles. Samuel Thorn and his son Seth, who had married Rhoda Babbit before leaving New Brunswick, worked a two hundred acre lot, on which they lived in two small houses. Robert, the eldest of the family, had married Miriam Cyphens and had a son four years old at the time he came to Prince Edward. He procured a hundred acres of virgin forest land in the third concession of Hillier, now owned by the Kirk and Nethery families. The pioneers were not only subjected to the encroachments of the forest, but to the depredations of the wolves, who occasionally wrought sad havoc among their flocks. Deer, partridge and many kinds of the best game abounded; and mink, muskrat and duck were to be had in plenty by the creek which ran through the farm and turned Trumpour’s mill-wheel."

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