THE CHAIN OF EVIDENCE …………. Lineage of BENJAMIN MULFORD b. 1752, Essex Co. NJ

The following is the chain of evidence linking Jeremiah Mulford of Essex County, NJ, to his son, Benjamin, born in 1752, and Benjamin’s children, from whom we can each prove we are descended. The links start with Daniel Mulford, another son of Jeremiah, and brother of Benjamin.

Link #1 Daniel Mulford died young, leaving a will made 7 Dec 1771. The will leaves his estate to his "beloved wife Doritey" who "now is big" with his child. He names as executors his "father Jeremiah Mulford" and "father in law Thomas Denman". One of the witnesses is John Stites.

Link #2 Jeremiah Mulford died about 1795, leaving a will written 29 August 1791 in Newark Township, Essex Co, NJ. He leaves his property to his children and grandchildren including "bequeath unto my well beloved son Benjamin Mulford my blew coat and blew vest and black vest and it is my will that he should keep them for his son, Daniel."

Link #3 "Early Ohio Census Records" for Washington Co, OH, list Benjamin Mulford and Dan Mulford in Middletown Township in 1800.

Link #4 Daniel Mulford marries Mary Jelly in Washington Co, OH, and their family bible, which has survived, lists Daniel’s parents as Benjamin and Anne Mulford.

Link #5 Property deeds from 1801 to 1807 in Hamilton Co, OH, previously summarized on this website, show a close relationship between Benjamin, Daniel and Joseph Mulford, and Joseph Edwards, husband of Hannah Mulford, and it can be reasonably claimed that the deeds point to a father and his children.

Included in the deeds is an Andrew Jelly, witness to a transaction by Benjamin, and mortgage holders named Benjamin Stites and Matthias Denman. In That Dark and Bloody River, historian Allen W. Eckert writes that Matthias Denman, a land speculator, was from Springfield, Essex Co., NJ.

Link #6 The 1813 Warren Co, OH, marriage record of Mary Mulford shows that her "brother Joseph Mulford" attested to her legal age, and through that connection we can believe that Benjamin was her father.

This evidence not only bridges the gaps between descendents of Benjamin and Jeremiah Mulford, his father, but also, because of previous researchers’ labors, links us to the Mulfords of 17^th century East Hampton, Suffolk Co, NY, and by marriage to the colorful Lion Gardiner.

Katie Ferguson Jablonicky 3 Mar 2000