This website captures some of the ancestry of the Richard and Adelaide Bissell family, for non-profit educational purposes. Richard is a descendant of Captain John Bissell, colonial settler of Windsor, CT.
Richard Meredith Bissell (1910-2003) and Adelaide Lyon Boutelle (1908-1997) were married in 1930. After a few years in Goshen, Mass. in the Berkshire mountains and beginning a family, in 1935 they moved to Adelaide's hometown of West Groton, Mass., where they first lived in the Boutelle House on Kemp Street. In West Groton, they raised their 11 children: Joyce, Meredith, George, Gwendolyn, Roger, Arthur, Eleanor, Norman (Chip), Carolyn, Betsy and Clyde.
In June 2023, I joined the Facebook Group "Descendants of Captain John Bissell Windsor Connecticut." As of that date, I am trying to update my page to reflect some of the more accurate information about Captain John Bissell that is found in that Group's pages.
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To members of the "Descendants of Captain John Bissell" group, welcome. While most of what's here may be specific to the Richard and Adelaide Bissell family, there is much that might be of interest to anyone who descends from the earliest settlers of Windsor and nearby towns in the Connecticut River Valley, including Hartford, Springfield, Northampton, Hadley, Hatfield and others. Like many other Bissell descendants, I imagine, my wife Betsy Bissell Parker has several dozen other Great-grandparents from the families who were neighbors of Captain John Bissell in those early days of Windsor -- Alvord, Vore, Rockwell, Bascomb, Dewey, Ford, Griswold, Capen, Holcombe, Loomis, Moore, Phelps, Pomeroy and Strong, among others. I have genealogy charts on this web page (under the heading "More" on the masthead) showing Betsy's connection to all these families which might be useful to others.
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You can find what I've learned about each of them in these web pages. Perhaps the easiest way to look for that information is to click on the "Early Settlers" heading in the green masthead at the top of the page, and after selecting a town, you'll see that I've linked to individual couples in a town and you can just jump directly to that couple.
I'd also commend for those with Windsor ancestors a piece under "Amazing History" about the history of woodworking in Windsor, https://craigwhitmoreparker.wixsite.com/bissell-history/woodworkers-of-windsor
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The information on this website focuses on the genealogies of the women (early members of the "Bissell Family Outlaws," the people who marry into the family) who married the men in the 10 generations of Bissell men stretching from Captain John Bissell through Nathaniel, David, Noah, Noah, Solomon, Benoni, John and Herbert to Richard Bissell. (The list of these Bissell men and their wives appears below.)
The number of generations counted for purposes of this website starts from the grandchildren of Richard and Adelaide Bissell (known in the family at the present time as the "3G" generation), so a "10th Great-grandfather" starts with the first Great-grandfather being the same as Richard's father, Herbert Hunt Bissell; the second G-G being John Hatch Bissell's generation, and so on.
That quote in the masthead at the top of each page on this website, "As luck would have it, there are a thousand stories to be told...", comes from the page on this website called Armstrong's Corner. That particular page is about Armstrong's Corner in Canada, what was a small farming village on the Nerepis River in New Brunswick, Canada where members of the Lyon family -- including Adelaide Bissell's mother Eliza Lyon -- were born and lived for generations. In the early 1950's, every physical trace of Armstrong's Corner and nearly a dozen other nearby small towns was wiped completely off the map -- only the cemeteries were left -- when the Canadian government created a new military base there, Base Gagetown. In a song about those events half a century later, Bissell second cousin, the late Sterling Nickerson, would sing that even though all traces of that hometown were gone, "As luck would have it..." The story of Armstrong's Corner is only one of the many great stories to be told about the Bissell Family history.
Since Adelaide Bissell was the top "Outlaw" in her generation of the Bissell family ("Top Gun" as she was affectionately known among the Outlaws), the web page will naturally also include the genealogy available at this point regarding Adelaide Lyon Boutelle's ancestry, including Hepzibeth Betts and the Lyon family from New Brunswick, Canada. The Lyon story is the tale of a family who originally came from France to Great Britain; came early from there to colonial Connecticut; sided with the British during the Revolutionary War; and as a result fled to Canada in 1783 and settled the town of Kingston, New Brunswick.
Speaking of top Outlaws, the Bissell Family History website must pay special tribute to George Parker Carpenter, who died in March 2014. Parker, as he was known by all, was the leader of the Bissell Family Outlaws for half a century and proudly wore the title, "Grand Poobah of the Outlaws." Parker was a man of extraordinary good humor, always with a smile for everyone and a sparkle in his eye.
George Parker Carpenter and Joyce Bissell Carpenter
When discussing his own family's genealogy, he inevitably claimed to have had pirate ancestors, with a quizzical look on his face that suggested no one could possibly challenge such a reasonable claim. He was a consummate gentleman and someone who was always fun. He was deeply loved, will be missed and will always be remembered. As Parker would say, "Amen!" Fair winds and full sails, Parker brother. There's a little bit more about Parker under the link to his name above or among "Ancestors A-H".
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The Bissell family heritage is an incredible slice of American history, the family’s story woven through the first four centuries of America. The direct ancestors and blood cousins of today’s Bissells are an amazing reflection of this country’s past, the people who made the history and influenced the culture of the nation. There is still work to be done on some of these genealogical trails but I have confidence in what I’ve found. And we know there’s still much more history – other generations of Bissells and other ancestors – waiting to be tracked down out there.
The ancestors, their descendants, cousins and other relatives descended from Captain John Bissell of Windsor and from the ancestors of the "Outlaw" women who married into the Bissell family over the centuries were the people who helped build America.
These relatives were pioneers who sailed on ships bringing the first settlers; settlers who founded towns and cities of New England, including several influential ministers, lawyers and many tradespeople; Revolutionary War heroes and Founding Fathers (like cousin Samuel Adams, above) who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution; governors, Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the U.S. Congress, state and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justices and Associate Justices, Vice Presidents and 11 U.S. Presidents; military heroes who fought at the side of George Washington throughout the Revolutionary War, helped Lewis and Clark on their Expedition and showed their courage in the War of 1812, the Mexican American War, the Civil War (including heroes at the Battle of Gettysburg), World War II and more recent military conflicts; authors, poets and philosophers who led an American cultural revolution in "the flowering of New England;" people who won the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize and were among America’s greatest writers, explorers, journalists, artists, composers, builders, singers, movie stars, publishers, bankers, industrialists, philanthropists, inventors and scientists; and people whose friends or acquaintances included other major figures in American life like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Boone, Abraham Lincoln and many others. Many of these ancestors and Notable Cousins were women at a time in history when it was extraordinary for a woman to have achieved as they did, as revolutionary leaders, pioneer "single moms," poets, sculptors, composers, educators, authors, playwrights, explorers, actresses and more. There were, of course, a few notable cousins and ancestors who never lived in America -- including Winston Churchill and Princess Diana Spencer.
Ancestors and Cousins.
Here's how the Ancestors and Notable Cousins parts of the website are organized. The key element for grouping people here is whether they are a direct ancestor -- i.e., a great-grandparent (and though they're not direct ancestors, I've included great-aunts and great-uncles with this group because they're siblings of ancestors) -- or whether they are someone who has a common ancestor with the Bissells, that is, someone who has some shared DNA and is a cousin. An example of one of the Bissell direct ancestors and 10th Great-grandfathers in the earliest days of Springfield, Mass. was Anthony Eames (born in England in 1595). He and his wife Margery had a daughter Persis (b. 28 Oct 1621) whose direct descendants include Richard Bissell, his children and grandchildren. Thus, Anthony and Margery are Bissell ancestors.
This painting is of John Hancock. It was painted by John Singleton Copley in 1765.
An example of a cousin would be John Hancock, the signer of the Declaration of Independence and a leader of the Revolutionary War. We know one of the Bissell direct ancestors was Anthony Eames and his wife Margery along with their daughter Persis. Anthony and Margery also had other children, including a daughter Margery (born in 1630). Daughter Margery's descendants four generations later include John Hancock (b. 12 Jan 1735). So Anthony and Margery (the mother) are also Hancock ancestors. With those shared common ancestors between John Hancock and Richard Bissell -- Anthony and Margery Eames -- John Hancock is a cousin. (Since he was a fourth cousin to the Bissells at the time he was alive, Hancock is counted as a "fourth cousin, seven times removed," that is, he lived seven generations back from today's 3G generation).
This picture is available in a beautiful 13 X 19 in. print on archival watercolor paper from artist David Wells Roth, by visiting theheritageartgallery.com/israel-bissells-ride/ or by email at theheritageartgallery@gmail.com or call (617) 391-7432.
Similarly, as a relative of the Bissell 3G generation, Israel Bissell is about the same "distance" as John Hancock, in Israel's case a third cousin seven times removed. Israel, of course, was the 23-year old postrider who on April 19, 1775 carried the message "to arms, to arms, the war had begun," spreading the alarm that the Revolutionary War had begun with the British attack earlier that day at Concord and Lexington. At age 23, Bissell rode day and night for four days, six hours and some minutes, covering 345 miles from Watertown, Mass. to City Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This lengthy trip is likely apocryphal; the best current documentation seems clear that Israel rode the very first leg of the trip and other postriders rode different sections along the way.
Along the way, his stops included Pomfret, Brooklyn, Plainfield, Norwich, New London, Lyme, Saybrook, Killingsworth, East Guilford, Guilford, Brandford, New Haven, Milford, Stratford, Fairfield, Sagatuck Bridge, Norwalk, Stamford and Horse Neck, CT.; New York City; Hackensack, Passaic, Newark, Elizabeth Town, New Brunswick, Kingston, Princeton and Trenton, New Jersey; and ultimately Philadelphia. At each town, the message was copied and troops headed off toward Boston. Within a few days, 20,000 militia men were gathered in Boston, ready to face the British.
Israel Bissell returned to his home in East Windsor, CT. and served briefly in the militia. He lived out his years as a sheep farmer in Massachusetts and died in Hinsdale, Mass. in 1823. (Information from Boston Sunday Globe 4/20/1997).
It may take a little searching to find specific ancestor information on this website. For example, if you click on "Ancestors A-L"or "Ancestors M-Z," at the top of the page you'll find a complete alphabetical listing of all the Bissell direct ancestors I've been able to identify. Once all the links are completed, click on the name and you'll connect to the correct "Family Tree Chart" that shows where that ancestor is found in "the family tree." (All those ancestors were discovered by building a family tree for each woman who married one of the Bissell men descending from Captain John Bissell to Richard Meredith Bissell, see chart below.)
If it's a person about whom I've been able to find more information, after their name, click on "BIO" and you can connect to any biographical information I've found. In some cases, that information is linked to a separate page (e.g., Great-grandfather Captain John Bissell); most often it is a few paragraphs linked on one of the "Early Settlers" pages; or it may be a paragraph or just a sentence or two (e.g., 10th Great-grandfather Thomas Dewey) on the Ancestors page. For many of these ancestors, I don't have any information other than date and/or place of birth that is found in their Family Tree Chart.
Likewise, if you click on "Notable Cousins A-H" or "Notable Cousins I-Z," you'll find links to a sub-page about a particular cousin. Each page on a particular cousin will eventually have some kind of abbreviated "family tree" connection at the bottom of the page, showing that cousin's biological connection to the Bissells. For example, descendants of Richard and Adelaide Bissell can find their blood relationship connection to President Ulysses S. Grant, poet Emily Dickinson, philosopher Henry David Thoreau, actor Humphrey Bogart or one of many other "Notable Cousins."
After the Notable Cousins pages, there's a separate page on "Richard & Adelaide" Bissell with links to their genealogy charts; a page on Adelaide's ancestral home of the Lyon family in Armstrong's Corner, New Brunswick, Canada; a collection of Richard Bissell's weekly newspaper advertising column when he owned the Red & White grocery store in West Groton, Ma.; eventually a page about the Kemp Woods in West Groton; and more pages with individual history about Richard and Adelaide.
Finally, clicking on "More" at the top of any page, the drop-down menu also shows all of the main family tree pages, such as "TREES - Bisbee, Myrtie Ella." Going to that page will provide links to each of the many sub-pages that are part of the Myrtie Bisbee branch of the family tree, which will eventually be linked in sequence making it easier to move back and forth on a particular branch of the family tree.
Early Settlers.
In the earliest American colonial days, groups of ancestors would often be founders or early settlers of the same town (naturally enough, given the intermarriage among a relatively small group of pioneers). So, the "Early Settlers" section describes the founding of several towns in New England -- Plymouth, MA; Springfield, MA; Windsor, CT; Northampton, Hadley and Hatfield, MA; Scituate and Hingham, MA; and a few others -- by grouping information about individual Bissell family ancestors who happened to be in the same town with some brief history about the town and the ancestors' role there. The first piece in this section, "The First Comers," describes the ancestors who came over on the Mayflower in 1620 and the other three early ships (the Fortune in 1621 and the Anne and Little James in 1623) who settled Plymouth, Mass. This "town by town" approach may provide a little more context for any individual's story and also avoids repeating the same town history over and over! "Settlers of Springfield" includes many interesting ancestors, including a few entries from early Court records. "Settlers of Windsor" probably has the largest number of ancestors.
Amazing History.
The "Amazing History" section is simply a few summaries of some things I think are interesting aspects of Bissell family history that seem to fit together under the topic "amazing." They include:
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the early colonial period involving several Witchcraft Trials in which Bissell ancestors were either accused witches, judges, jurors or witnesses in America's first witch trials, beginning 50 years before the witch trials in Salem;
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a piece about the Woodworkers of Windsor, CT. in the 1600's and how our many Great-grandparents in Windsor pooled their talents and resources to improve their lives;
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Founders of American Government summarizes the role of many ancestors and Notable Cousins in developing the guiding documents of our country, from "the first constitution" that was the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut to the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
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a contemporary description by Rev. Increase Mather (a significant figure in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a Bissell first cousin) of several truly remarkable events called "Illustrious Providences" in the lives of the Captain John Bissell family; and other information on religion in the early colonies;
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a description of 8th Great-grandfather Capt. Ephraim Sprague's early colonial home that was the subject of a recent extensive archealogical study in Connecticut;
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This page shows the contributions to the American Renaissance in literature and the arts in the 1800s known as "the Flowering of New England" and to American culture by Bissell Notable Cousins Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Harriett Beecher Stowe, George Ripley and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
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a summary description of the military service of the current Bissell family and Bissell ancestors; and
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Songs of the Family -- YouTube links to videos of songs which were either American classics written by Bissell Notable Cousins ("Home on the Range," "My Wild Irish Rose," and "Blessed Assurance" among them) or were family favorites of Dick and Addie and their family.
A Word About Dates Used on this Web Page.
(From The History of Hatsfield, Massachusetts in Three Parts.) The dates of birth (and sometimes other dates) in the family trees on this web site are sometimes given in the "old style reckoning," which was used by the first settlers in New England. The error in computing the length of the solar year which existed in the so-called "Julian Calendar" was corrected by Pope Gregory in 1582, but the new style of reckoning was not adopted in England or her colonies until the year 1752. In the old style reckoning March 25 was the beginning of the year. After the adoption of the new style, or "Gregorian Calendar," January 1 was taken as the beginning of the year. As a result, double dates are often used to indicate the time of dates that fall between January 1 and March 25 for years from 1582 up until 1752. So for example, Jotham Bisbee's date of birth is listed as 18 Mar 1750/51 -- because depending on whether one used the old style of reckoning (Julian Calendar) or the new style (Gregorian Calendar), the 18th of March could be either in 1750 or in 1751.
Acknowledgments.
Finally, some disclaimers and acknowledgments. Craig Parker is the creator of this website and takes sole responsibility for the materials used and for any mistakes in the ancestry trees or in the material regarding any of the ancestors or cousins noted herein. Most of the material on this page (particularly dates of birth, marriage and death) comes from various family history websites and genealogy books that have been put on the Internet or from other publicly available sites like Wikipedia. I have then tried to verify information by checking sources such as The Great Migration Begins, (three volumes, covering 1620-1633) by Robert Charles Anderson; Anderson's more recent The Great Migration Directory, Immigrants to New England 1620-1640; James Savage's Genealogical Dictionary; New England birth, death and marriage records, etc; or by determining that the information appears to come from a reliable and well-documented source. Where the bold letters "GMD" appear after a person's name on one of the Tree Charts, that indicates that that person is identified in The Great Migration Directory.
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The two databases with the most reliable official vital statistics records from colonial New England are the New England Historical Genealogical Society (400+ databases available online) and the Ancestry.com databases. On "Documentation Records" for the genealogy charts, I have marked the source of a record (e.g., Massachusetts Vital Records for a birth or a marriage) where I could find it for each individual to establish that the chart is correct; and have marked where I was unable to find any record more reliable than something like a undocumented date on a family website.
I have attempted generally to properly attribute the sources of the material throughout and I have obtained permission to use pictures which I thought might require such permission. If anyone finds any mistakes, please let me know -- there are bound to be some errors in genealogy and related stories.
Note the two wonderful resource centers that I have used which have much more information on this family's history. One is The New England Historic Genealogical Society (99-101 Newbury St, Boston, MA 02116-3007) online at AmericanAncestors.org (617) 536-5740. They have extraordinary database resources online. The other is the Windsor Historical Society, 96 Palisado Ave., Windsor, CT, windsorhistoricalsociety.org (860) 688-3813. They have a research library with lots of information on the descendants of Captain John Bissell and I presume (although I haven't yet looked) on many of the nearly 20 other founders of Windsor who are also Bissell Great-grandparents. I also confirmed the Henry Sampson ancestry at the General Society of Mayflower Descendants Library in Plymouth, MA. All three resources have helpful staff members.
I am grateful to George Bissell for preserving and promoting the Bissell family's interest in its history and for freely sharing the information he has found. Similarly, thanks to Eleanor, Carolyn and Meredith Bissell and Joyce Bissell Carpenter for their feedback and encouragement. Thanks to Trevor and Spencer Parker and Kate Parker Horigan for their interest and to Spencer for suggestions in getting this web page going. And a big special thanks to Betsy Bissell Parker for her constant interest and support, for being the "spark plug" for so many occasions in the Bissell family and for making it possible for me to join this family in the first place!
Here's the list of Bissell ancestors (Adelaide Boutelle Bissell's family tree is elsewhere) from whom the genealogical history on this page comes:
Bissell “3G” Generation
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Joyce, Meredith, George, Gwen, Roger, Arthur, Eleanor, Chip, Carolyn, Betsy, Clyde
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Adelaide Lyon Boutelle b. 1908 --- Richard Meredith Bissell b. 1910
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Mertie Ella Bisbee b. 1884 --- Herbert Hunt Bissell b. 1878
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Julia Ann Richardson b. 1865 --- John Hatch Bissell b. 1841
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Mercy Ann Searle b. 1815 --- Benoni Bliss Bissell b. 1813
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Tirzah Pierce b. 1787 --- Solomon Bissell b. 1789
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Eunice Olcott b. 1752 --- Noah Bissell b. 1753
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Silence Burt b. 1721 --- Noah Bissell b. 1716
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Ruth Warner b. 1675 --- David Bissell b. 1681
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Mindwell Moore b. 1643 --- Nathaniel Bissell b. 1640
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Captain John Bissell b. 1591 –-- Mary
