THE MOTT FAMILY

Pages 134-136

The will of Ebenezer Mott, yeoman, of Northampton township, Burlington county, New Jersey, was dated August 11, 1770, and proved December 3, 1770, indicating that he died between those two dates. The will provided that his son Ebenezer Jr. was to have five pounds, his wife Sarah the use of his home, land and personal estate until her death, when the household goods would be divided among the six daughters, and the rest of the real and personal property would then go to his son John. John was doubtless the eldest son, as he inherited practically the entire estate, in accord with English law and custom.

The six daughters of Ebenezer Mott were named in the will: Sarah Downs, Barsheba Jones, Martha Fenimore, Abigal Rodes, Ruth Barnes and Huldah Mott. John Woolman, the famous Quaker writer, was one of the witnesses to this will.

Ebenezer Mott is reported to have been a staunch Quaker, and one of the first permanent settlers at Barnegat, New Jersey, in or about 1745.^(*) Bamegat is located on the Atlantic coast, between Monmouth and Little Egg Harbour. The minutes of the Little Egg Harbour Monthly Meeting contain the following entry, showing that Ebenezer and his wife came from Rhode Island: "At a Monthly Meeting of friends ye 10th day of ye 8th mo 1745 Ebenezer Mott and his wife produced each of them certificate from South Kingstone in Rhode Island." In 1746 Ebener and his wife Sarah moved to the neighborhood of Mount Holly; they were received on 7 mo. 1, 1746 by the Burlington meeting on a certificate dated 5 mo. 10, 1746, from the meeting at Little Egg Harbour. In 1750 Ebenezer Mott was a witness to the will of Samuel Gaskill Jr., but there is no other record of him until his death twenty years later.

The children of Ebenezer began getting in trouble with the Burlington meeting soon after their arrival in its district. Abigail Mott was disowned (reason not given) on 4 mo. 5, 1756. Ebenezer Jr. was disowned on 4 mo. 4, 1763 for engaging in military service, John was disowned for marrying out of unity 2 mo. 7, 1774, and on 6 mo. 6, 1774 the minutes show that Ruth Barnes, formerly Mott was disowned for marrying contrary to discipline, and Huldah Gaskill, formerly Mott, was disowned for marrying out of unity.

Disownments for marriage out of unity or contrary to discipline were very frequent, and it was not unusual for them to occur several years after the marriage had taken place. Ruth Barnes had been married for at least four years when disowned, for she was married when her father's will was made in 1770 and was not disowned until 1774. Huldah was not married in 1770, but it cannot be determined how long she had been married when the meeting disowned her, as there is no record of her marriage. The disownment of Ruth and Huldah on the same day leaves no doubt that they were sisters, as the meeting frequently took action against several members of the same family on the same day. Furthermore the family of Ebenezer is the only Mott family mentioned in the Burlington min??fes of this period.

Ebenezer Mott, pioneer of Barnegat. New Jersey was clearly the father ??f Huldah, who married Daniel Gaskill and became the mother of the ??lathan Gaskill who was the pioneer settler in Lexington township, Stark County, Ohio. He was probably descended from one of two Mott fam??ies which settled in Massachusetts at the time of Governor Endecott, one in Boston and one in Scituate, both later moving to Rhode Island, where their descendants lived in the same localities. A relationship be??ween these two families, of Adam Mott and of Nathaniel Mott, cannot ??e established, but seems not unlikely. A third Mott family, that of another Adam Mott,settled in Manhattan ?? the same period, and is later found in New Jersey, but none of the ??scendants of this Adam Mott are known to have gone to Rhode Island, ??d the descent of Ebenezer is through a Rhode Island family. The Amercan settlement of the two Adam Mott families is related by Stillwell Historical and Genealogical Miscellany":

The Motts had been seated in the adjacent counties of Essex and Cambridge, England, for several centuries, when two of the name of Adam ??tt, one from each county, emigrated to America. Adam Mott from ??mbridge, called the taylor, came with his family to Boston, in 1635, and ??m Mott from Essex, left several years later and settled in New Am??rdam. It is singular that these two Adam Motts, each with sons Ger??m and Adam, should have lived contemporaneously in the early his??y of this country, and it would have been confusing had they resided in ?? same locality, but, fortunately, they dwelt apart, one in Rhode Island, ?? while the other, . . . resided first in New Amsterdam, and later on ?? Island.

Adam Mott from Cambridge arrived in America on the ship Defence ?? 635 at the age of 39, accompanied by his wife Sarah, aged 31, and ??eral children of his first wife, and a step-daughter, Mary Lott, daughter ??f his second wife's first husband. He lived in Boston and Roxbury, Mas??husetts until 1638, when he moved to Rhode Island, probably for reli??s reasons. In Rhode Island he was apparently joined by his aged ??r, from England, and his father had the unusual distinction of being ??town pauper of Portsmouth, R. I., in a day when town paupers were ?? Minutes from the town meetings in 1644, 1648, 1649 and 1656 are ??ed in a book "Certain Comeovers," showing the provision made for ??eeping of Old John Mott. In May 1649: "Adam Mott haveing of?? a Cowe for ever and 5 bushels of corne by the year so long as the ?? man shall live towards his mayntenance that so he might be dis??ed from any further charge; the towne, every man that was free ??to settinge downe what corne they would give for this present yeare ?? up that 5 bushels to 40 bushels and so it was concluded that Mr.  William Balston should have 40 bushels of corn and the use of the aforenamed cowe this present yeare for which Mr. Balston undertake to keep ould father Mott this present yeare and alowe him house roome dyate lodging and washinge." In 1656: "It is ordered that John Treft shall have L 13 6s 8d peage pr penny or black 3 pr penny, to keep ould John Mott this yeare for dyat lodging washing and looking to besyde the Cowe and the corn that the ould man's son Adam is ingaged to give."

The grandson of the pauper John, Jacob Mott of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, became a Quaker, and his son Jacob married a Cassandra Southwick, daughter of Josiah and Mary Southwick, in 1689. Several other lines of descent from the pauper John and his tailor son Adam, have been traced, but there is no record of Ebenezer. He may have been descended from Nathaniel Mott, first found in Scituate, Massachusetts, in 1643. Nathaniel served against the Narragansett Indians in 1645, and was one of four men of Braintree, Massachusetts (where he had moved) who were killed by the Indians when they made an incursion into the town on February 23, 1675-6. He married Hannah, widow of Peter Shooter at Braintree 10 mo. 25, 1656. His son, Ebenezer, born 10 mo. 7, 1675 (after his father's death), had a son Ebenezer born September 26, 1700 in Braintree, who might be identical with the Ebenezer of Barnegat, although it seems more likely that the later was born nearer 1715 than 1700. Nathaniel Mott and Hannah Shooter had several other children (listed in Pope, "Pioneers of Massachusetts) including a son, Nathaniel, born 6 mo. 30, 1661, who settled in New Shoreham, Rhode Island, and had a large family. Ebenezer may have been his grandson. Another son of the first Nathaniel, John, lived for a time in New Shoreham, but moved to Connecticut before his children were of adult age. There seem to be no published records which would determine the descent of Huldah Mott; no attempt has been made to trace the family of Ebenezer back through the Quaker minutes in Rhode Island, where the missing information might be located.