Shearers of upstate New York

William Shearer and Letitia Langdon were married in May 1773 at the Dutch Reformed Church in Fishkill, Dutchess Co., NY. They soon moved to Saratoga County, NY, where William enlisted as a soldier in the Revolutionary War in January 1776. He served one year under Capt. James Rosecrans and Col. James Clinton.

My list of the children of William Shearer and Letitia Langdon:

1. Phebe, b. 2 Mar 1774, d. 7 Nov 1848, m. James Baker. 7 children.
2. Thomas, b. 19 Dec. 1775, d. 17 Sept. 1776
3. James, b. 6 Oct 1777, d. 1863, Tippecanoe, IN; m. Elizabeth Ingersoll. 10 children.
4. John, b. 6 Oct. 1777, d. 8 Aug. 1808
5. William, Jr. b. 7 May 1780, m. June 1805, Polly Hosier (we think). Several children.
6. Peter, b. 6 May 1782; married (---). 5 children.
7. Mary, b. 21 May 1784; m. (---) Brundage; d. 19 Dec. 1825
8. Thomas, b. 17 Sept. 1786 at Stillwater, NY; d. 23 May 1866 in Crown Point Center, NY. m. Sally Aldrich. 8 children.
9. Jason (or Jesse), b. 2 July 1789 in Stillwater; d. ca 1854 near Auburn, NY; m. Mary Bumpus. 8 children.
10. Daniel, b. 30 Aug 1791 in Stillwater, NY; d. 18 Apr 1874. m. by 1818 to Jane McCutcheon Latimore. 2 children.
11. Joel, b. 30 Aug 1791 at Stillwater, NY; d. 7 Oct. 1859; m. Phebe Blackwell. 12 children.
12. Catherine, b. 17 May 1794 in Stillwater, NY; d. 28 June 1828; m. Abram Thompson. 6 children.

I have further details on the descendants of Thomas, which is my line. Most of them lived for the next generation in Essex County, where Thomas settled, at Crown Point. Father William joined him late in life and died there on March 5, 1852. His tombstone gives his birth date as May 1, 1752. Both William and Thomas are buried in the cemetery at Crown Point Center.

For over a century descendants of William Shearer have been looking for proof of his ancestry. In the "Thomas" line, there was a family tradition that the line was "Dutch" and that his father was called "Towalty" or "Towaltz" and was a friend of the Indians. Who knows how much truth there is in this colorful idea regarding the Indians? But as to the name "Towalty" which initially sounded strange to my ears, I can now recognize it as a cognate of the German for David: Theobald, sometimes written as Tebald, Tewald, Dewald. This came about when I stumbled across a reference to Johannes Theobald Scherer, a Palatine immigrant to New York. The tradition of being "Dutch" may derive from the common confusion of "Dutch" for "Deutsch", i.e. German.

Now the immigrant Johannes Theobald is certainly not William's father, but may be his grandfather. Henry Z. Jones' book The Palatine Families of New York, discusses this family on p. 854-857. Johann's children are given, including a David. Of his, Jones writes: "He was known as Theobald also, as was his father." Could this be our legendary "Towalty?" Unfortunately, Jones doesn't have details on David's children except a daughter born in 1746. At the end of the section is the instruction: "The N.Y. City Luth. Chbk. should be checked 1750-1776 for additional 3rd generation ch. in this family."

Thus far, no documentation identifying a William born in 1752 has turned up to link him to this or any other family, though claims have been made for an English-originating family in Saratoga County, in which William's father would be James. But again, no documentation proves this, and it's clear that William's first documented residence was in Dutchess County, not Saratoga. So for the time being, my hypothesis stands that William is of the Palatine family aforementioned, probably the son of David.

Maybe someday an obscure Dutch or German record of his baptism will emerge from the forgotten files of some church; until then, this is all we have to go on. --KR, Dec. 29, 1999

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