Updated 05/31/99
It has been fifteen years for me and many more for others, fifteen years of looking for a clue or a lead that would tell us something more about John Pipes Sr. . We have little bits and pieces that begin to form a picture of the man that has been so intriguing for me.
As you can imagine, I receive E-Mail on the internet from people who hear of the web page on the Pipes family or from people who connect to the page because of interest in the Civil War or perhaps from interest in one of the other names in my GEDCOM file. Some of the messages have been for help in connecting to an ancestor in the Pipes history and those are the most fun. I really enjoy being able to provide a clue or a lead that will help someone connect a missing link. But sometimes the messages are full of interesting clues and hints that send me off looking for new information about the Pipes name. All of that is possible because of the internet and the synergy that it provides. A great place to pool information and ideas about family history.
I received one of these great messages about the first of March of this year ( 1997). The message was from Rachel McKay. Rachel is fourteen years old and lives in Monroe Michigan. Rachel and her father, Dave McKay, were looking for family history information and left me a message saying that they were also a Pipes descendant and were from the family of Joseph Pipes in South Western Pennsylvania. We exchanged information and they started to tell me of a cousin of theirs, a lady named Jerry Pipes- Miller who lives in Ohio. They said that Jerry had been researching the family for years. In a back and forth conversation over the next few weeks it became apparent that they had uncovered a very important lead in the John Pipes story. Dave told me that Jerry had seen a record of John Pipes Sr. being married to a Susanna Hathaway. This record is in the IGI records at the LDS church. Anyone could see it at a local Family History Center. The trouble was that Jerry felt that the record may be suspect because it was an extracted record, the actual microfilm of the entry is of poor quality, and there is possibly more than one entry for this Susanna being married.
I couldn't wait to start looking for more information on this connection, so the first time I had available, I found a History of the Hathaway family. There is a very large volume published on the Hathaways titled "Hathaways of America". Two editions have been published and the second volume has more info. It was published in 1970, the first edition in 1965. The book was sponsored by the Hathaway Family Association and compiled and edited by Elizabeth Starr Versailles.
Now for the good news. There is a record in this book of the marriage of Susanna Hathaway to John Pipes. The marriage apparently took place on October 13th of 1735. The book doesn't say where they were married, but her family was living in Berkley, Bristol County, Mass. at the time. They were long time residents of the area, with their progenitor Nicholas Hathaway coming here in 1638. The town of Berkley was formed from Taunton, Mass. Taunton was in turn formed from Old Plymouth Colony when Bristol County was first formed.
Her father's name was Abraham and the most interesting part of the story is that the connection seems to be valid because Abraham and his family sold out in Berkley in 1736 and they moved to Morristown, New Jersey, arriving there the same year. The Hathaways and the Pipes' are next connected in the infamous counterfeiting episode of 1748. Several men were arrested by the local authorities for making counterfeit metal coins, among them were Abraham and Jonathan Hathaway, John Pipes, Job Allen and Tim Southerd. (The names Job Allen and Tim Southerd appear over and over in the same historical context as John Pipes, both here and in N. Carolina.) I am sure there are other connections to be made in Morristown between these two families, but the story goes even further west.
In 1770 several events allowed land to be made available in the territory south of Fort Pitt in South Western Pennsylvania. Many early settlers, trappers and French Traders had been in and through this country in the previous two decades and the end of the French and Indian wars led people to believe that it was safe and prudent to move west. The land records and tax lists tell us that the Hathaways and the Pipes' moved west also, leaving the Morristown area in 1770 for the wild country of the Monogahela River valley.
At least now it makes some sense, why the Pipes' may have moved to Morristown, why to Southwest Pa. and why Joseph Pipes returned to live there in his youth. They formed an extended family that must have maintained some relations through the years. All we have to do now is prove some of the connections with at least a few documents.
The record has now been found in the County Clerk's Marriage records for Bristol County, Massachusetts. The county seat for Bristol County is in Taunton, Massachusetts. The images of the pages from the record book are available on the web site now. They state that Susanna and John were married by Silvester Richmond Esq., a Justice of the Peace from Berkley. The records Show residence in Berkley for both of them and the date of the entry is October 13, 1735.
So now I have to try and find a marriage bond, which might add more details.
A recent development may add even more as the LDS IGI contains an entry that states John Pipes was born in Berkley, Bristol Co., Massachusetts in1708 and another that states that he was born in Philadelphia in 1710. More work to do !!