Descendants of Stafford

Generation No. 1

1.  THOMAS¹ STAFFORD¹ was born 1605 in Warwickshire, England¹, and died 1677 in Warwick, Kent County, Rhode Island¹.

More About THOMAS STAFFORD:

Emigration: 1626, To Plymouth, New England (now Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts)¹

Child of THOMAS STAFFORD is:

2.                i.    SAMUEL² STAFFORD, d. Unknown.

Generation No. 2

2.  SAMUEL² STAFFORD (THOMAS¹)¹ died Unknown.

Child of SAMUEL STAFFORD is:

3.                i.    THOMAS³ STAFFORD, d. Unknown.

Generation No. 3

3.  THOMAS³ STAFFORD (SAMUEL², THOMAS¹)¹ died Unknown.

Child of THOMAS STAFFORD is:

4.                i.    COLONEL JOAB⁴ STAFFORD, d. 23 Nov 1801, Cheshire, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.

Generation No. 4

4.  COLONEL JOAB⁴ STAFFORD (THOMAS³, SAMUEL², THOMAS¹)¹ died 23 Nov 1801 in Cheshire, Berkshire County, Massachusetts¹.

More About COLONEL JOAB STAFFORD:

Emigration: 1767, To Rhode Island¹

Military service: Captain in the Revolutionary War¹

Residence: one of the earliest and principal settlers of the town of Cheshire, Berkshire County, Massachusetts¹

Child of COLONEL JOAB STAFFORD is:

5.                i.    SPENCER⁵ STAFFORD, b. 10 May 1772; d. Unknown.

Generation No. 5

5.  SPENCER⁵ STAFFORD (JOAB⁴, THOMAS³, SAMUEL², THOMAS¹)¹ was born 10 May 1772¹, and died Unknown.  He married DOROTHEA HALLENBAKE¹ 07 Sep 1790 in Albany, Albany County, New York¹, daughter of BERNARDUS HALLENBAKE and ELLEN CLARK.  She died Unknown.

Notes for SPENCER STAFFORD:

"Henry Marvin Benedict, The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America,  (Joel Munsell, 82 State Street, Albany, NY, 1870), page 228."

Mr. Stafford and a brother engaged in the hardware trade, and they soon became "men of extensive business connections" and are mentioned in the Recollections of Albany, as among the "principal merchants of the city, those who gave life and character to its business interests." See Contribution to a Stafford Genealogy.

Residence: 1783, Albany, Albany County, New York¹

Child of SPENCER STAFFORD and DOROTHEA HALLENBAKE is:

6.                i.    SUSAN⁶ STAFFORD, b. 01 Jul 1791, Albany, Albany County, New York; d. 30 Dec 1869.

Generation No. 6

6.  SUSAN⁶ STAFFORD (SPENCER⁵, JOAB⁴, THOMAS³, SAMUEL², THOMAS¹)¹ was born 01 Jul 1791 in Albany, Albany County, New York¹, and died 30 Dec 1869².  She married LEWIS BENEDICT³ 14 Jan 1812 in Albany, Albany County, New York⁴, son of URIAH BENEDICT and RUTH ROCKWELL.  He was born 07 Nov 1785 in Milton (now Malta), Saratoga County, New York⁵, and died 15 Jul 1862⁵.

Notes for SUSAN STAFFORD:

"Henry Marvin Benedict, The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America,  (Joel Munsell, 82 State Street, Albany, NY, 1870), pages 232-233."

The 14th of January, 1862, was the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage, and he commemorated it by a golden wedding. Notwithstanding the expectation of life reasonably justified by his high physical and mental condition on that evening, in six months thereafter Lewis Benedict had no existence save in memory. He died July 15th, 1862.
    Mrs. Benedict survived more than seven years, dying Dec. 30, 1869. She was a woman whose prominent characteristics were of the kind that command respect and win regard. She devoted herself to the duties that belonged to the varying relations of her life. As a daughter she was dutiful to a degree that evoked the blessing of her father on his death-bed, because she had never caused him an anxiety in all her life. As a wife and mother she was a model of tenderness and fidelity toward her husband, and of love and thoughtfulness for her children. She assumed the obligations of religion, and confessed those she owed to the world around her; discharging the one class with diligence and fervency of spirit, and the other with charity for the infirmities of the weak and erring, sympathy for the afflicted, help for the needy, encouragement for the struggling, and applause for such as did well. She was singularly discreet in speech, and always mindful of the interests of peace, so that she lived encompassed by friends, and died without an enemy. (See Memorial of Lewis and Susan Benedict.)

"Henry Marvin Benedict, The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America,  (Joel Munsell, 82 State Street, Albany, NY, 1870), pages 228-233."

278. LEWIS7 (Uriah,6 Uriah,5 Thomas,4 Thomas,3 John,2 Thomas1), b. Nov. 7, 1785, at Milton, Saratoga Co.; m. at Albany, Jan. 14, 1812, Susan, dau. Spencer and Dorothea (Hallenbake) Stafford,(*) who was b. July 1, 1791, in Albany. He received from nature a physical organization of rare perfection and vigor, and his intellect was after the fashion of the body it animated, robust, masculine, and active even to restlessness. An uncommonly inquisitive spirit led him to scrutinize closely whatever passed within his notice, and when, at the age of twenty, he left Milton to reside in Albany, there were few things in rural economy, or in business as then done, that he did not perfectly understand. In 1806, having attained legal age, he was admitted a partner in the firm of Marvin Benedict & Co., which his father had established in Albany the year before. In 1813, this firm was dissolved by the death of Uriah Benedict. In 1815 he became a partner in the firm of his father-in-law, Staffords, Spencer & Co. The hardware business proved especially agreeable to him, and he never forsook it during his business life. His connection with his father-in-law, in mercantile relations, ceased in 1825, and never was renewed. Thenceforth, he was senior in all his partnerships, and they were numerous. Although he was, himself, always a resident of Albany, he had partners and establishments elsewhere, at various times, especially in Utica, Rochester and New York. His activity, enterprise and public spirit, soon placed him in the front rank of the leading men of the city; and every project designed to increase its business, wealth, population or attractiveness, found in him an energetic supporter. Having taken an active part in establishing the Commercial Bank, in 1826, he was appointed one of its first board of directors, and he remained one, so long as he was in business. He was, also, a director of the Albany Insurance Company. About the same time he became greatly interested in promoting steam navigation on the Hudson river, and was stockholder and director in several associations formed for that purpose. In 1833, the Utica and Schenectady rail road company was incorporated, and he was named a corporator. He was also chosen director on the organization of the company, and was continued in the board until 1847, when he declined to serve longer. The construction of this road was attended with difficulties hardly to be imagined now. There was no precedent for anything; a very few short lines of rail road only having been built in the country at that time. As a member of the executive committee of the board, he devoted days and nights to the service of the corporation. The then engineer of construction, and, subsequently, superintendent for fifteen consecutive years, William C. Young, writing in 1862, of Mr. Benedict's connection with the enterprise, says: "His influence was positive and effective in the organization and management of the Utica and Schenectady rail road, and contributed to a successful result in general and in detail, and that inaugurated a system of economy and practicabilities in the rail road system, which was the prevailing one for the time." The Albany and West Stockbridge rail road received his support from its inception, and he served it as a director for many years. He held the same relation to the Saratoga and Schenectady rail road, and took a leading part in its location, construction and management. The public works of internal improvement, especially the canals, were objects of much interest and solicitude to him. Ex-canal commissioner, Asa Whitney, says: "The canal system of the state was then (1839) occupying a prominent place in the public mind, particularly the enlargement of the Erie canal. Mr. Benedict was among the most prominent and efficient advocates of prosecuting the enlargement to completion. My connection with the project as a canal commissioner, brought me in contact with the most prominent men of the state, who interested themselves in the question; and the opinions of none were more respected and deferred to, than those of Lewis Benedict."
    It would not consist with the limits or the design of this paper to recount with even an approximation to completeness, the multiform labors Mr. Benedict performed, the sacrifices of business and money he offered, the anxieties and trials he endured through long years, in order to advance the cause of good government and universal freedom. To do that, would require a history of all the phases of faith that parties exhibited, and the vicissitudes of fortune they encountered during his long life, together with a narrative of his personal experiences that alone would fill a volume. It is enough to say that, in devising, recruiting, and cherishing the political organizations whose course, at times, seemed erratic and its aims shifting, to such as knew not of a certain steady purpose, of which the farsighted statesmen who shaped its ends never lost sight; and which finally disclosed its true mission in the sublime exhibitions of force and patience made by the republican party of the Civil War, he was efficient and faithful; and although darker days than the liberal party saw in the course of its protracted struggle never dawned upon the country, neither the hope nor the spirits of its leaders ever flagged. The day is past when any can contemn the wisdom, doubt the patriotism, or deny the services of that illustrious triumvirate, "Seward, Weed, and Greeley," and escape the imputation that themselves are neither wise, patriotic, nor truthful. of the little company who shared in the councils of which this party was born, who framed its issues, organized its forces, planned its campaigns and then fought them, who moderated its triumphs and retrieved its defeats, by all of which its growth was first protected and then assured, next to those eminent men, who comes, if not Lewis Benedict, with his fertile brain, his tireless and gratuitous industry, his invincible courage?
    Three of Mr. Benedict's colaborers, fitted by long and intimate association to speak of his qualities, and from their position the best acquainted with the nature, extent, and value of his services, have recorded their opinions of him and his works. On an occasion which made it proper for Mr. Weed to speak in this behalf, he said: "In the darkest days of Jacksonism and Van Burenism, when the Albany regency wielded with an iron despotism the power of the general, state, and city governments, Mr. Benedict was foremost, in services and sacrifices, among the few who upheld the whig banner. As chairman of the whig state committee, for six memorable years, he was the political engineer who organized and guided the whig phalanx. To him there were no terrors in defeat. Beaten in one campaign he immediately set about a reorganization for another. In 1837 he established the Jeffersonian, a paper which contributed largely to the successes which followed. In the great presidential conflict of 1840, Mr. Benedict, abandoning his own business, gave himself up to the whig party. * * * Further back, in 1824, he aided essentially in carrying this state for John Quincy Adams, as President. After our success in 1837, Mr. Benedict was invited to take the office of state treasurer, but he declined that and other stations." Governor Seward, addressing him in 1843, wrote: "* * * there would have been no successful whig party without your energetic and indomitable efforts." Mr. Greeley, in an obituary notice, said: "He was probably more influential in the politics of our state for a series of years, than any other private citizen."
    In domestic and social relations, Mr. Benedict revealed softnesses and sympathies which a somewhat brusque manner, and a positiveness in statement quite common with him, gave no token that he possessed. He had a high respect for science and learning, but to his desire to promote their diffusion was added an equally strong one to patronize every means devised by religious thoughtfulness for the spread of the gospel, and especially for every means of instruction that promised to increase the knowledge and elevate the morals of the youth of the country. His conspicuous connection with public questions and party management, made him acquainted with men of parallel pursuits and position, of all shades of political belief, and it was one of his pleasures to assemble them in his own home, as if to demonstrate how completely he excluded from the sacred retreats of private life, the asperities and antagonisms in which he so freely indulged outside of those enclosures. These hospitable modes characterized his social life during his long career as a politician and merchant.
    The 14th of January, 1862, was the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage, and he commemorated it by a golden wedding. Notwithstanding the expectation of life reasonably justified by his high physical and mental condition on that evening, in six months thereafter Lewis Benedict had no existence save in memory. He died July 15th, 1862.
    Mrs. Benedict survived more than seven years, dying Dec. 30, 1869. She was a woman whose prominent characteristics were of the kind that command respect and win regard. She devoted herself to the duties that belonged to the varying relations of her life. As a daughter she was dutiful to a degree that evoked the blessing of her father on his death-bed, because she had never caused him an anxiety in all her life. As a wife and mother she was a model of tenderness and fidelity toward her husband, and of love and thoughtfulness for her children. She assumed the obligations of religion, and confessed those she owed to the world around her; discharging the one class with diligence and fervency of spirit, and the other with charity for the infirmities of the weak and erring, sympathy for the afflicted, help for the needy, encouragement for the struggling, and applause for such as did well. She was singularly discreet in speech, and always mindful of the interests of peace, so that she lived encompassed by friends, and died without an enemy. (See Memorial of Lewis and Susan Benedict.)

Residence: Albany, Albany County, New York⁶

Children of SUSAN STAFFORD and LEWIS BENEDICT are:

                   i.    SPENCER STAFFORD⁷ BENEDICT, b. 19 Oct 1812, Albany, Albany County, New York; d. Unknown.

                  ii.    CAROLINE MATILDA BENEDICT, b. 13 Aug 1814, Albany, Albany County, New York; d. 21 Jun 1850, Albany, Albany County, New York.

                 iii.    LEWIS BENEDICT, b. 02 Sep 1817, Albany, Albany County, New York; d. 09 Apr 1864, Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.

                 iv.    EDMUND AUGUSTUS BENEDICT, b. 11 Feb 1820, Albany, Albany County, New York; d. Unknown.

                  v.    MARY ELLEN BENEDICT, b. 17 Oct 1823, Albany, Albany County, New York; d. Unknown.

                 vi.    WILLIAM MARVIN BENEDICT, b. 01 Oct 1825, Albany, Albany County, New York; d. 06 May 1831.

                vii.    HENRY MARVIN BENEDICT, b. 16 Sep 1827, Albany, Albany County, New York; d. Unknown.

               viii.    SUSAN ROCKWELL BENEDICT, b. 13 Feb 1830, Albany, Albany County, New York; d. Unknown.

Endnotes

1.  Henry Marvin Benedict, The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America,  (Joel Munsell, 82 State Street, Albany, NY, 1870), page 228.

2.  Henry Marvin Benedict, The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America,  (Joel Munsell, 82 State Street, Albany, NY, 1870), page 232.

3.  Henry Marvin Benedict, The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America,  (Joel Munsell, 82 State Street, Albany, NY, 1870), page 171.

4.  Henry Marvin Benedict, The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America,  (Joel Munsell, 82 State Street, Albany, NY, 1870), page 228.

5.  Henry Marvin Benedict, The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America,  (Joel Munsell, 82 State Street, Albany, NY, 1870), page 171.

6.  Henry Marvin Benedict, The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America,  (Joel Munsell, 82 State Street, Albany, NY, 1870), page 229.

[Stafford Family Tree]

This page was last updated on 05/28/2006