..a Godly Maid..

Remember the recent PP account of family history in which it was necessary, for reasons of historical purity, to mention the wayward daughter of one of our first immigrants, Thomas Lewis? The irrascible Mary Lewis whose husband spent his fame and a lot of fortune defending her sullied honor in New England's Puritan courts?

Well, thankfully, our family escutcheon has been unbesmirched by our Lamb ancestors, also residents of New England in the 1600s.

(To those of you unfamiliar with the word escutcheon used in this sense it has multiple meanings, according to Wikopedia's wiktionary: One being a shield displaying a coat of arms representing a family's honor and two: ..the distribution of pubic hair. You may have only been using it in the latter definition while in this instance I use it in the former.)

Anyway, as indicated by the record from Early New England Migrations below, we are vindicated.

MARRIAGE: (1) By 1624 Elizabeth _____ ; "Elizabeth the wife of Thomas Lamb" was buried at Roxbury 28 November 1639 [NEHGR 6:183].

(2) "He afterwards married Dorothy Harbitle, a godly maid,

Recent family history aside, I choose to believe we are descended from "the Godly Maid".. So there!!

One Hundred Forty Eight Years Ago

By the time the Civil war broke out my Great Grandmother Fannie Lamb’s family had been in New York State for 150 years. In 1863 she was thirteen years old and had three sisters, two brothers and her mother was pregnant. Her father, Harlow D. Lamb was thirty-three years old. His brother, Adin Lamb, was thirty five and also had a wife and children. Late that summer, August 14, 1862, Harlow and his brother Adin were mustered into F Company in Marcellus, New York in the Union Army.

Henry Lamb, either a cousin or a younger brother, was the youngest of the three Lambs to also be mustered into F Company on August 14 and 15, 1862. He was twenty-two years old.

That July, prior to the Lambs’ August, 1862 enlistment, General McClelland’s (USA), four month long Peninsular Campaign that focused on taking Richmond, the Confederate Capital, ended when General Lee (CSA) threw McClelland’s forces back across the Chickahominy in a disastrous rout.

The Seven Days Battles was a series of six major battles fought over the seven days from June 25 to July 1, 1862, that drove the Union Army into retreat. These battles were within ear shot of the residents of Richmond and it was not unusual for a Confederate officer to go home for supper. This Northern defeat probably initiated a more urgent recruitment of enlistments in New England and all over the North.

The Lambs were not drafted. The Union draft did not pass into law until March of 1863. The puzzle of why two almost middle aged men with large families would walk off to war may have more to do with their poverty than their patriotism. They could have been, and probably were, “bought”. It was common practice..and legal..to pay someone $300 and get them to go fight for you. If you were trying to farm rocky New England ground and having a hard time feeding a family $300 would have been a lot of money.

It was common for men to get a crop in (they enlisted at summer’s end) and figure the “Bonus Money” would last the family until they got back. But they didn’t always get back.

My Grt Grt Grandfather Harlow Lamb’s war lasted about seven months. He died of disease, probably dysentery, at Falmouth, Virginia on March 8, 1863. His brother, Adin, also at Falmouth, Virginia where the Union hospital was located, stuck it out another three weeks and packed up and left.

His record says he deserted and he probably did. He lived to bring his family and children to Missouri and they were all farming in Breckenridge by 1970. He probably also brought some of his brother’s children. My Grt Grandmother Fannie Lamb Stock and her husband, Aaron Stock, also were farming in Breckenridge by 1870 and that is where my Grandfather James Harlow Stock was born, as was his brothers and sister.

Henry, who was just 22 years old when he mustered in, stuck it out through the May 8,1863, Battle of the Wilderness, one of the most horrific of the Civil War battles wherein the woods were set ablaze by gunfire so heavy that it mowed down trees a foot thick. The fire killed more than the gunfire and wounded survivors crawled to save their lives. Many could not crawl fast enough and were burned alive. Henry Lamb was wounded, lived to fight other battles and discharged in 1864.

I believe he went home to his family and remained in New York.

Family History

Well, it's almost Thanksgiving and our thoughts turn to a day of cooking or a day of eating, whichever end of the stick you're on, but either way it's nice.

Also we might pause and adjust our thinking a little bit about that original old American holiday and the people responsible for it. If you believed everything they taught in school, that totally Godly, warmly dressed, well tooled and well armed men and women stepped off the boat, bid fond farewell to the captain and immediately joined a feast of turkey, venison, succotash, (that's a corn thing,) and pumpkin pie all over the place, Not So!

Starvation, disease and ignorance killed far more than were ever saved by pumpkin pie and family prayer. I just want you to know that our family was well represented during those hard times and the following centuries before we were finally liberated by the invention of frozen pizza and instant hair remover.

So lest we forget:
Our grandparents were Lewises, Lambs, Allans and an unknown. These predecessors had been infiltrated by the Bakers, Shaws, McDonalds/McDaniels and Wiskersons/Wiskerchen/Whiskersons.

Our first Lewis's got off the boat in 1628. This trip included a sixteen year old young lady by the name of Mary Lewis but she was so obstreperous she was threatened with a dunking. Yes, they actually dunked people, mostly women who did not act godly or talked too much or criticized someone's stupidity, and they had Mary's tank ready. But in her defense, her old Dad, Tom Lewis, had been co-owner of a thriving tavern in London Town and what sixteen year old wants to leave a party place like that for a bunch of dancing savages and pickled succotash ?

But in a document still readable in the Winthrop papers,a kindly and godly older gentleman was moved by her, (how so moved we can only guess) and petitioned Governor Winthrop for her hand in marriage, notwithstanding the age difference , in order to save her from perdition and subsequent lawful punishments.

Permission was granted for her release and marriage to the gentleman. He spent the next several years in the new world's courts trying to protect her from a multitude of defamatory charges against her "character and reputation", one of which was inspired by a gentleman who stated publicly that she "lifted her skirts" for him on several occasions. This particular defamation charge was thrown out of court because the judge said, "there can be no defamation if all statements are true and fact." Well, what can a girl do? Ultimately the nice gentleman gave up and took his girl back to merry old England where heaven only knows what trouble she got into.

So begins our family saga in the new world.

And for all you unbelievers out there..these transactions are documented in 17th century court records, the Winthrop Papers and a wonderful historical publication:,

Appendixes of the Real Founders of New England, Appendix A page 155