Miller
Documents and Records
Family
John, the oldest son of John and Florence Carman, the immigrants to America, was born July 8, 1633 at Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was to have one sister and two brothers to survive to adulthood. Early family researchers believed that his parents had another John, born in England. As in case of many colonial families, if the first-named child dies, then the next of the same sex was given the same name. At Roxbury, John was recorded as born in the first month, but this was by the old-style calendar.
John was still a boy of twelve when his family arrived on Long Island, and many years later he stated that he watched the negotiations of his father with the Indians for the land on western Long Island (Traditional story in the family).
Let us see what John said about this in his own way: He said that he had seen his father deliver a broad ax that was Mills Mores (Miles Moore's) to the I'ed (one-eyed) Sachem for part of pay for the first purchase of land Hempstead men bought of the Indians. (John's spelling is as interesting as his account of the purchase.)
Finally " a bill of sale from the injuns to Mr. Fordham and Mr. Carman in the year of our Lord 1643. . …(they being) butt agents for the tound of Hamsted. . . . "
This bill of sale (or deed) was signed December 13, 1643 and its contents are still preserved in the official records. (quotations from: Thomson’s History of Long Island section on Colonial Hempstead.)
As a footnote to the 1643 negotiation, in 1657 John Carman (2) was to be in the same process with the Indians as there was much misunderstanding between the settlers and the tribesmen.
John had a wife named Hannah, who is assumed by many to be a member of the Seaman family. The supposition is a likely possibility. The marriage was about 1655
Bowing to family tradition and assuming it plausible, 'Hannah was a daughter of Captain John Seaman who came from Essex, Norfolk county, England, young and unmarried. During his life he was twice married: his first wife, Hannah Strickland; the second, Maria Moore of Newton, Long Island. Captain Seaman was a Quaker and his family in England had suffered religious persecution. At Hempstead, Seaman became a large land owner and served as a Magistrate. He died in 1695.’ (In subsequent generations, there were a number of Carman-Seaman marriages. The name of his wife has not been verified - a number of other Hannahs nave been suggested and from the old records it is difficult to which John Carman is under discussion: there were several of that name.)
John (2) Carman was a miller of grain, a sawmill operator, and possibly a farmer too. A mill of his stood on the west side of Hick's Neck, a Long Island landmark. He acted as a townsman of Hempstead in 1663.
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The date of John Carman's death is established by his Will dated September .14, 1654 and probated one month later. He owned part of the original Hempstead grant which his father had received as payment for his negotiations with the Dutch and Indians. On this site he operated a 'tide mill' using the sea tides to saw lumber and grind grain.
From his Will we learn the names of his children: John, Caleb, Benjamin, Hannah. Abigail, Samuel, Thomas, Joshua and Joseph. (His daughter Hannah had married in c.1654 therefore not given property.)
John Carman's Will gave some very specific instructions: "to his sons, John and Caleb, the field called Tylsan , (an important landmark used in locating other boundaries. Could have been ‘toilsome)they to take my brother Joshua Carmans estate into their hands and to provide for him, if he -wishes. To son Benjamin the house and field that were Battens' and all land in the old field at the south. Two younger sons, Joshua and Joseph to have my part of the two mills, when they come of age. Meanwhile, the mill to be managed by John and Caleb, both grinding and sawing. Goods to daughter Abigail. Sons Samuel and Thomas to have meadow that lies against the lot that was Robert Jackson's. Sons John and Caleb, Executors. Witnesses: Nathaniel Pearsal and Joseph Petit. Overseers Samuel Emory and John Pine. (The Pine (Pyne) family related by marriage.)
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This Will (abbreviated) is an important document and very useful for Carman researchers. During John’s lifetime the family began to spread over Long Island and from the records of the town of Jamaica, 1656 - 1661, we learn of his brother, Caleb.
John's concern for his family is shown by having his brother Joshua looked after. Joshua was blind. (Joshua's estate at the time of the Will consisted. of six cows worth six pounds each, a horse worth 14 pounds, a mare and colt valued at 22 pounds, in addition to his land.) In regard's to the Mills he made. certain that the children would have their grinding done free as long as the mills operated. Apparently his Wife was dead. The complete text for this Will can be found in the materials placed in the Ill. State historical Library, Springfield.
We can fallow John through various land records., for instance in 1680 the boundary of a plot was established by referring to his land. In 1666 there is a record of a home lot being sold to him. Again in 1666 be sold to Matthew Bedell, ‘one steer with a swallow tail on ye ear and a slit in it.’
In 1668, two years after his death, his sons honored a bargain John had made earlier: 'In conformity of a bargain John Carman and John Tredwell said Carman's sons, John and Caleb, of Hempstead, conveyed to John Tredwell by deed dated the 18th.day of March, 1686, …certain lands.., etc...'
Actually, the two principals had bargained to exchange some of their lands.
In 1683, the tax assessor (possibly for both church and state), noted that John and his sons had ownership in land and farm animals. Most interesting is the record in 1682 of John Carman and his sons John and Caleb agreeing to pay Jeremy Hobart, the minister, yearly. The elder John giving two pounds annually: the sons ten shillings each. This was to the Anglican church, indicating that the Carmans were not dissenters.
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John named one daughter Hannah after his wife: his second daughter Abigail for his sister who had married Benjamin Coe. The relations with Coe were good and in Coe's estate was listed some of the land of the family, inherited through Abigail. John's brother, Caleb, was exceedingly active and led a migration of Carmans to Cape May, New Jersey.
An idea of how early in Long Island (and American) history John Carman lived can be gained from the record of a 1681 transaction of his brother, Caleb, who obtained some land from the Indians. We have noted that he had a brother who was blind: he was to have a grandson, son of Benjamin, who was a mute. There is record of another family descendant, a woman, who was also a mute.
There is some evidence to support the fact that he had a brother. Caleb, born in Massachusetts, who died and that his living brother, Caleb, was the second member of his father’s family by that name. John’s son, named for him, was called Captain John Carman and was perhaps a militia officer. John and his brother Caleb were also militiamen and may have been in some Indian skirmishes.
Only one of John’s sons left Long Island. Samuel Carman removed from Hempstead to Monmouth county, New Jersey, where he died in 1729. He is the ancestor of the Carmans who lived across from Long Island in central New Jersey. Samuel was to be the forbearer of a distinguished line of Carmans. who were Patriots, serving in the Revolutionary War. (Phineas Carman, Major in New Jersey Militia and others.) A g-g-g son, Ezra Ayers Carman, 1834-1909, became the highest ranking officer of the Carman family in the Civil War. (See: Carmans in the Civil War.)
Much can be learned of the Carmans on Long Island, not only through their trails left in church and legal records, but from histories of other families had inter-married with them. By the time of John Carman (2) the list of kin. was beginning to grow rapidly.
It can be said that the Carman family was well established in its second generation on Long Island. They were townsmen, farmers, mill operators and following the sea. They were scattering out, becoming identified with the new towns being founded on the island. They had taken roots in America.
Militiamen. A number of Carman descendants have proven their membership in the society of Colonial Wars by establishing lines from the early Carman militiamen.
From: The Springfield, Ill. City Directory, 1855/56
PRITCHAFD & CARMAN, (Wm. H. Carman family lineage unknown) Auctioneers
No. 8 south side Public Square
"Auction sales every night at early candle 1ight,"
“Sales of horses and furniture every Saturday."
all generations
| | Capt. John Carman (Cooper) | 1656 -
| | Caleb Carman (Seaman) (Anna) | 1658 - 1691
| | Hannah Carman (Smith) | 1659/60
| | Benjamin Carman (Townsend) | 1661 - 1691
| | Abigail Carman (Halsted) | 1662 -
| | Samuel Carman | 1665 -
| | Thomas Carman (Stites) (?) | 1668 - 1761
| | Joshua Carman | 1770 -
| | Joseph Carman | 1771 -
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The reader is advised that since this is a family history, not a genealogy, all dates given, names of families married into, etc., are only approximated in most instances. Family searchers do not agree on all information, In general, the names of children are correct. Those family researchers looking into specific branches of the family will generally use dates and other information that most closely fit their own findings.
As will be noted, the large families were inductive to a growing list of Carman descendants in America. Also, that the use of given names without the use of distinguishing middle names or initials increased the difficulty of keeping the families and generations straight.
In case of the women, their tracing becomes increasingly difficult as they adopted their husbands surnames. While divorces did not occur in the earlier generations, death -- because of the shorter life spans -- did give rise to second and even third marriages.
In most instances, the author used the latest of family charts in as much as more recent researchers have made many corrections to the earlier findings.
In 1881, The Association of the Descendants of John and Florence promoted the 250th Anniversary Celebration at Hempstead, L.I. Upon the payment of two dollars each member was entitled to all the privileges of the Association and received a Certificate of membership, viz:
A tide mill is a kind of water wheel utilizing the difference in the height of tidal basins or streams at high and low tide. It was devised for low regions along the coast where streams had insufficient drop for water power. At high tide the water was impounded behind a dam and upon being released at low tide gave the effect of a waterfall.
Tide mills were used in early England and Holland. They were built along the eastern seaboard of colonial America. The first tide mill in colonial America was built at Salem, Massachusetts in 1635.
The economic deficiency in the older mills of this type of water power utilization was the intermittency in the power possibility and the continuous change in the height of the fall. Hence tidal mills have never been much of a factor in production.
In modern times, the use of the energy of the tides has seen some redesigning of such mills so as to use both the ebb and flow of the tides. Tidal power plants have been built in France and the Soviet Union. By improvement in design of the mills, by using innumerable combinations of filling, emptying, and pumping according to the height of the tide and the value of energy at different periods during the day, energy can be produced according to man's needs without the limitations imposed by depending on the lunar tidal rhythm alone. Tidal energy is converted to electrical energy and not used directly for milling purposes.
The milling tradition carried over into a long period of Carman family history. In addition, to their early operations on Long Island, members of the family operated mills water and steam power nearly the beginning of the twentieth century. They carried their operations into upper New York state, possibly into Canada.
The Illinois Carmans operated mills, carding and grain grinding and lumber sawing at various points in the Sangamon-Illinois river system and at various inland towns.
In 1688 Caleb Carman (3), being a millwright, built the first tide mill there, Burlington, N.J. (He was likely a son of Caleb, brother of John (2). American Genealogist, Vol. 21, p 116
From the Petersburg, Ill. Observer, 11 Apr. 1924 ‘The Petersburg Flour Mill’ dates back to 1869. In this mill….Charley Carman learned the milling business. This mill has been in service as long as any in central Illinois.’
During the 1890’s, ‘Charley’ Carman, above was a leading miller in central Illinois. He operated the mills at Petersburg and at Athens, generally under the name Carman & Co.
From the Petersburg, Ill. Observer, August 24, 1924
Best Carman Flour
65c per sack
Buy it at Salyasen Brothers
Charles Carman, the miller, was an important citizen of his home community where he served as alderman several terms (1846 - 1928).
While not a miller, a Joseph Carman, platted the village of Carman in Carman Township, Henderson County, Illinois (1870). Today, the village still exists mainly as a grain-barge shipping center on the Mississippi River.
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