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Descendants of Gershom Mott and Sarah Clayton


Gershom Mott was the only son of Adam Mott of Long Island and his second wife, ____ Bowne. There are two major lines of Motts from Colonial times, the progenitors of both lines named Adam, one of Long Island and one of Rhode Island. Adam Mott of Long Island married three times, first Jane Hulett in 1647, _____ Bowne, and third the widow Elizabeth Redman about 1667. There are several disputed marriages both online and in published documents, particularly the wife of Gershom Mott, Sarah Clayton. The source here is Stillwell's Historical and Genealogical Miscellany. About that marriage he notes the mistake Kate A. Mott made in her article in 1894 in the NYGHR and provides the rather indisputable record of Gershom's marriage to Sarah Clayton, the county records of Monmouth County.  For a full description of the source, as well as the sources he consulted, see below (In parenthesis following a name is the ID number Stillwell used in his published register report.) 
1-Gershom MOTT{8} b: Abt 1663, New York, d: 1733
+Sarah CLAYTON , m: Mar 1696
|-----2-John MOTT{36} b: 1 Dec 1697, d: 1734, Hanover
|     +Charity LINDSLEY , m: 21 Dec 1731
|     |-----3-Gershom MOTT{102} 
|           +Mary DAY 
|-----2-William MOTT{37} b: 9 Nov 1699, d: 21 Jan 1760, Hunterdon Co. NJ
|     +Margaret HARTSHORNE , par: William HARTSHORNE and Catharine BOWNE
|   |----3-John MOTT{103} b: 18 Jan 1734, d: 31 Jan 1804, (Quaker Burial Ground, Trenton, NJ)
|     |     +Elinor JOHNSON , m: 17 Jun 1784
|     |     |-----4-Gershom MOTT{172} b: 12 Jul 1785, d: 14 Oct 1848, (Baptist 
|     |     |       Church Of Trenton, NJ)
|     |     |     +Phebe Rose SCUDDER b: 1792, d: 8 Sep 1834, (Baptist Church 
|     |     |       Of Trenton, NJ), m: 11 Apr 1811
|     |     |     |-----5-Elinor MOTT{208} b: 17 Feb 1812, d: 14 May 1835
|     |     |     |     +The Rev. W.D. HIRES 
|     |     |     |     |-----6-Ellen HIRES 
|     |     |     |     |     +Dr. ABEL 
|     |     |     |     |-----6-Anna HIRES 
|     |     |     |     |     +William FENTON 
|     |     |     |     |-----6-Gershom HIRES 
|     |     |     |           +Ellen Pyatt HIRES 
|     |     |     |-----5-John Scudder MOTT{209} b: 22 Jan 1814
|     |     |     |     +Martha SCHENCK , m: 9 Oct 1843
|     |     |     |     |-----6-Isabella MOTT 
|     |     |     |     |-----6-Garret S. MOTT 
|     |     |     |     |-----6-Martha MOTT 
|     |     |     |-----5-Mary MOTT{210} b: 29 Mar 1817
|     |     |     |-----5-Sarah MOTT{211} b: 16 Mar 1820
|     |     |     |     +Samuel S. HILL , m: 16 Apr 1862
|     |     |     |-----5-Maj. Gen. Gershom MOTT{212} b: 7 Apr 1822, Lamberton, 
|     |     |     |       NJ, d: 29 Nov 1884 (Buried: Riverview Cemetery, Trenton, Mercer Co., NJ)
|     |     |     |     +Elizabeth SMITH d: Dec 1895, m: 8 Aug 1849
|     |     |     |     |-----6-Kate A. MOTT{228} 
|     |     |     |-----5-Phebe Rose MOTT{213} b: 4 Aug 1831, d: 26 Dec 1857
|     |     |     |     +Caleb COLEMAN , m: 30 Sep 1855
|     |     |     |-----5-Morgan Holme MOTT{214} b: 19 Mar 1834, d: 28 Jan 1894
|     |     |           +Mary B. MORRIS b: , Trenton, NJ, m: 4 Jan 1869
|     |     |-----4-William MOTT{173} b: 29 Mar 1790
|     |           +Sarah EDGERTON , m: 2 Aug 1821
|     |           |-----5-David MOTT{215} b: 9 Oct 1822
|     |           |-----5-Mary MOTT{216} b: 17 Feb 1825
|     |           |-----5-James E. MOTT{217} b: 15 Dec 1826
|     |           |-----5-Richard MOTT{218} b: 8 Nov 1828
|     |           |-----5-Gershom MOTT{219} b: 29 Nov 1830
|     |           |-----5-Asher MOTT{220} b: 19 Oct 1832
|     |           |-----5-George MOTT{221} b: 27 Jun 1834
|     |           |-----5-Sarah MOTT{222} b: 20 Apr 1836
|     |           |-----5-Elinor MOTT{223} b: 9 Jul 1838
|     |           |-----5-William MOTT{224} b: 23 May 1841
|     |-----3-Sarah MOTT{104} b: 10 Aug 1735
|     |     +William BILES 
|     |-----3-Gershom MOTT{105} b: 18 Nov 1737
|     |-----3-Asher MOTT{106} b: 17 Feb 1739
|-----2-Gershom MOTT{38} b: 15 May 1702, d: After 1765
|     +Unknown 
|     |-----3-Gershom MOTT Jr.{107} 
|     |     +Deborah CARMEN d: 19 Nov 1755
|     |     |-----4-John MOTT{180} 
|     |     |-----4-Phebe MOTT{181} b: 26 Mar 1754
|     |-----3-Joseph MOTT (?) 
|-----2-Asher MOTT{39} b: 27 Jun 1704, d: 5 Mar 1761
|     +Deborah TALLMAN , par: James TALLMAN and Abigail HICKS
|     |-----3-Asher MOTT{109} d: 1750
|     |-----3-Abigail MOTT{110} 
|     |     +William WILSON , m: 1763
|     |-----3-Mary MOTT{111} 
|     |     +Arthur HOWELL , m: 1773
|     |-----3-Huldah MOTT{112} d: 1825
|     |-----3-Sarah MOTT{113} 
|-----2-James MOTT{40} b: 5 Apr 1707, d: 11 Feb 1787
|     +Mary HOLMES d: Oct 1749, m: Dec 1734
|     |-----3-Sarah MOTT{114} 
|     |-----3-Huldah MOTT{115} 
|     |     +Joseph SALTER 
|     |-----3-James MOTT{116} d: 1823
|     |-----3-Gershom MOTT{107} 
|     |-----3-John MOTT{118} d: 1809-1823
|           +Sarah MILLER 
|           |-----4-Elijah MOTT{184} 
|           |-----4-Ann MOTT{185} 
|           |-----4-Sarah MOTT{186} 
|     +Amey BORDEN d: Oct 1754, m: May 1752, par: Unknown and Safety BORDEN
|-----2-Huldah MOTT{41} b: 31 Oct 1709, d: 4 Sep 1784
      +Samuel HOLMES b: 17 Apr 1704, d: 23 Feb 1760, m: 7 Dec 1731

Primary Source:

Stillwell, John E. Historical and Genealogical Miscellany: Data Relating to the Settlement and Settlers of New York and New Jersey, Vol. I-V . New York, NY: [s.n.], 1903. (Volume 4: Mott of New York and New Jersey, page 71 and following.)

Also available online to subscribers of the Records Collection at Ancestry.com
http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6248 (Copy/Paste when you are logged in as an Ancestry subscriber.)
This is online as a database, not an image of the book. You will need to search Mott and then scroll to volume four.

 


Sources consulted by Stillwell

This genealogy of the Motts is not claimed to be an exhaustive account of the family, but simply an outline. The following works may be consulted, more thoroughly and advantageously, for data concerning the Mott family:
(1) Mott Ancestry by Thomas C. Cornell, who made an extensive contribution to the Mott genealogy, but who erred in his arrangement of the children of the first Adam Mott, and in his elimination of the daughter, Elizabeth. He particularly follows the lines of Richbell, Adam, William and Charles, sons of Adam Mott, the first, by his wife, Elizabeth Richbell; 
(2) Descent of Major General Mott, of New Jersey, by Miss Kate A. Mott, in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, April, 1894, who likewise has made a valuable contribution to the Mott genealogy, but who errs in giving the marriage of the first Gershon Mott to a Bowne, citing Salter's History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, as authority; 
(3) Clute's History of Staten Island, which gives a few facts concerning Adam Mott, of the third generation; 
(4) Bolton's History of Westchester; 1st Edition, which is largely wrong; 
(5) Thompson's History of Long Island, 1st Edition, Vol. ii, p. 57, which is wrong to an amazing degree, save, perhaps, in the allusions 10 William Mott and his posterity; 
(6) New York and New Jersey Wills, Deeds, etc.;
 (7) Records of the Town of Westchester, at the County Court House, White Plains, N. Y., for the descendants of Richbell, and, perhaps, James Mott. Also Town Record of Mamaroneck; 
(8) Records of the Society of Friends, and other data published in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record; 
(9) Jacob T. Bowne, of Springfield, Mass., who has for many years been actively investigating this family's history; 
(10) Printed Records of the Town of Hempstead; 
(11) Austin's Rhode Island Genealogical Dictionary, which gives the descendants of Adam Mott and Nathaniel Mott, of Rhode Island; 
(12) Thurston Genealogy, which gives accounts of the Rhode Island Motts; 
(13) Livermore's History of Block Island, which alludes to, apparently, some of the descendants of Nathaniel Mott, of Rhode Island; 
(14) Scharf's History of Westchester County, N. Y., Vol. i, pp. 830 and 876; 
(15) New York and New Jersey Marriage Licenses;
 (16) Genealogy of the Cornell Family by Rev. John Cornell; 
(17) Manuscript History of the Mott Family by Edward Doubleday Harris, of New York City. The work of Mr. Harris is so exact and so exhaustive that had I have known of its existence I would never have printed my notes on the Mott Family. Should his Mott history not be published I understand the manuscript will ultimately pass to the New York Gen. & Biog. Society. To him I owe most of the interesting data that relates to the children of Adam Mott, 15.

Stillwell's notes on John Mott from page 99. These notes are no doubt from Kate A. Mott. In red are the things that are wrong. 

John Mott was a guide to Generals Washington and Sullivan, Dec.25 177-, in the attack upon Trenton.
Feb. 9, 1776, 1st Lieut. in Capt Patterson's Co., in the Third Battalion, probably part of Maxwell's Brigade.
Nov. 29, 1776, he was Captain in Fifth Co., Third Battalion, probably part of Maxwell's Brigade. 
Served at Brandywine, Sept. 11, 1777; later at Germantown.
Winter of 1777 and 1778, at Valley Forge.
June 23, 1778, at the Battle of Monmouth.
June 23, 1780, at Springfield.
He retired Sept. 26, 1780, and the following year was recruiting officer in Hunterdon Co.
It is traditionary in the family that he had served in his youth in the British Army before Quebec.  At the opening of the Revolutionary War he was living on his farm above Trenton, now the site of N. J. Hospital for Insane, and early joining the army.  He and his wife are buried in the Quaker Burial ground, in Trenton.

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