Mehitable McKay Buck

Most of the time, the lives of our female ancestors are hidden by the activities of the men in their lives. I found a document in the Vermont State Papers that gives a glimpse of the challenges faced by one of my female ancestors. Here is the story of Mehitable McKay, wife of Samuel Buck.

Samuel and Mehitable lived in Arlington, Vermont.  They moved there sometime after the birth of their daughter Mary, born in New Milford, Connecticut in October 1768 and before the birth of their son, Daniel Anson born about 1770. Samuel was a blacksmith and according to his claims, he owned 10 acres of improved land including a 4 acre plot in town, with a house and barn, an orchard of 100 trees and a nursery of over 2000 trees.[i] Samuel was a Loyalist and felt compelled to fight for the British. So in 1777 he joined Jessup’s Corps and fought with Burgoyne in Upper New York State. Men go off and fight wars and leave the women at home to cope.

The Colony of Vermont, through the Committee of Correspondence, began proceedings to confiscate the land of Loyalists. On April 23, 1778 the order to confiscate was given.[ii] At this time, Mehitable was living in Arlington with her children. She had 3 stepdaughters from her husband’s first marriage, Eunice age 21, Molly age 20 and Phebe age 19 and 6 or possibly 7 children of her own, Sally age 16, Daniel Dayton age 11, Mary age 10, Daniel Anson age 8, Stephen Walker age 5, Samuel Miles age 1 and possibly a newborn daughter Asenath. We are unsure where and when Asenath was born - 1778 or 1779 and either Vermont or Canada. Asenath is my third great grandmother. Having her husband’s property confiscated forced changes in the family. Phebe chose to remain in Vermont and married her second cousin, Lemuel Buck, probably immediately since their first child was born in 1779. Lemuel fought on the Patriot side during the war. A woman named Molly Buck died on May 2, 1778 according to Vermont Vital Records and is buried in the West Arlington Cemetery. This may be our Molly since we have no further information about her. All the rest of the family can be found in Sorel, Quebec after the war.

So here they are, homeless, in Vermont. Mehitable has 7 or perhaps 8 children depending upon her. The next document pertaining to this Buck family found in the Vermont State Papers is a bill for 12 pounds sterling for transporting the wife and family of Samuel Buck to enemy (British) lines[iii]. That would have been somewhere in Upper New York State. We don’t know where they went after this or how much of their personal belongings they were able to take with them. I would bet that like most refugees, they had little left. A large number of wives and children of soldiers were sent to Niagara for the duration of the war. Did Mehitable go there or did she go to Quebec? According to testimony given by Samuel Buck to the Claims Commission, they were in Sorel, Quebec in 1783[iv]. Often when our ancestors are involved in fighting a war, we concentrate on the men - the battles they were in, the injuries they received. We don’t often pay attention to the hardships endured by the women. But wars took as great a toll on the women as the men. It was a privilege to have this view of Mehitable and know that she was a strong woman who coped with her changing circumstances and kept her family intact.

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[i] Ancestry.com. Canada, Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data: American Loyalist Claims, 1776–1835. AO 12–13. The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, Surrey, England.

[ii] State Papers of Vermont, Vol VI, Vermont Office of Secretary of State (1941), Mary Greene Nye, ed., p. 16.

[iii] State Papers of Vermont, Vol VI, Vermont Office of Secretary of State (1941), Mary Greene Nye, ed., p. 299.

[iv] Ancestry.com. Canada, Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data: American Loyalist Claims, 1776–1835. AO 12–13. The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, Surrey, England.