Lewis (Lawsons) Mulford

  General Notes:

This first Lewis Mulford, of the family's third generation in America, m. 2/9/1716 Hannah Parsons, at East Hampton [Records of Rev.Nathaniel Huntting]. He died at age 26, drowned on a winter whaling expedition in the waters off Long Island. Many of the Mulford's on Long Island were whalemen and seafarers; both the East Hampton and Cape May branches of the family were instrumental in establishing the whaling industry in America. Lewis left two infant children, Lewis and Jane, and a widow who was little more than 20 years old.
William Remsen Mulford, writing for NEHGR in 1879, called Lewis Mulford a son of Jeremiah of East Hampton - overlooking the existence of this man, his real father, Lewis 1693-1719. Rattray, writing about 1950, reported the correct descent shown here. According to Rattray, the first Lewis Mulford to live in Essex County was baptized at East Hampton in 1718 and "removed to NJ about 1740." Were the young, fatherless Lewis Mulford and his sister Jane (and perhaps their first cousins Jonathan, Ezekiel and Mary from Cape May, also fatherless after 1721) raised in the home of their uncle Jeremiah at East Hampton? Is that what misled W. R. Mulford into thinking Jeremiah was Lewis father?
The given name Lewis apparently honored his mother's brother, Lewis Conkling.

Lewis married Hannah Parsons on 25 Feb 1716 in East Hampton, Long Island, Suffolk, New York. (Hannah Parsons was born about 1697 in East Hampton, Long Island, Suffolk, New York and died on 8 Aug 1775.)