Waterman · Marshfield → Halifax → Cummington → Plymouth, Michigan
One man in Marshfield,
four lines out
Robert Waterman, 1638, and the fourteen generations to Roseville, California
Capt. John Waterman of Halifax (1685–1761) had two sons who matter here. Anthony’s line went west to Michigan and farmed. Perez’s line went to Nantucket and went to sea. Four generations later the two men at the ends of those branches were born four years apart, one on a Berkshire hill farm and one in a Hudson River port town.
Lee Jay Waterman is a third cousin, five times removed, to Capt. Robert H. “Bully” Waterman, founder of Fairfield;
a sixth cousin, three times removed, to Lewis Edson Waterman, who invented the fountain pen;
and a sixth cousin, four times removed, to Robert W. Waterman, 17th Governor of California.
Robert Waterman
c. 1608, England – 10 Dec 1652, Marshfield, Plymouth Colony
Elizabeth Bourne, 11 Dec 1638
Bought land at Green’s Harbor from Edward Holman in 1639 and was the last of the original settlers to build on Marshfield Neck. Proprietor 1643, militia 1643, deputy 1646. His English origins are genuinely unknown. The “son of Thomas of Sedbergh” claim is a debunked internet myth. Elizabeth remarried Thomas Tilden in 1653, which is why many trees mislabel her.
The first fork: two of Robert’s sons
Stays in Plymouth Colony
John Waterman
19 Apr 1642 – 14 Sep 1718
Anna Sturtevant (1647–1720)
The trunk continues below. Both Lee’s line and Bully Waterman’s descend from him.
Leaves for Connecticut → column three
Thomas Waterman
30 Nov 1644, Marshfield – 19 Jun 1708, Norwich, Conn.
Miriam Tracy, Nov 1668, Norwich
John’s younger brother. Went to Saybrook, then to Norwich, and was one of the first settlers of that town. The Governor descends from him, which is why that branch is the distant one.
Generation 3: two brothers and a cousin
John’s line: Halifax, Mass.
Capt. John Waterman
23 Sep 1685, Marshfield – 8 Jun 1761, Halifax
Lydia Cushman (13 Dec 1687 – 7 Jul 1771), 29 Dec 1709, Plympton
The common ancestor of columns one and two, and the Mayflower door. Lydia’s sons include both Perez and Anthony. Her father was Eleazer Cushman, son of Elder Thomas Cushman and Mary Allerton.
Samuel’s line: to the fountain pen
Samuel Waterman
Capt. John’s brother, and the head of the fourth column. Six generations on, this branch produced the man who made the fountain pen work.
Thomas’s line: Norwich, Conn.
Thomas Waterman
of Norwich, Connecticut
Son of Thomas² and Miriam (Tracy) Waterman, first cousin to Capt. John opposite. The Governor descends through him.
Note what this costs the third column. The Mayflower blood arrives with Lydia Cushman, who married into John’s side only. Thomas’s branch had already left a generation earlier. So Lee and Bully Waterman descend from Mary Allerton, and the Governor, on this line, does not.
Where the Mayflower enters: through Lydia
Mary Allerton
June 1616, Leiden – 28 Nov 1699, Plymouth · Burial Hill
Elder Thomas Cushman, c. 1636
She crossed on the Mayflower at about four years old with her parents Isaac and Mary (Norris) Allerton. Her mother was pregnant on the voyage, delivered a stillborn son aboard ship in Plymouth Harbor on 22 December 1620, and died that February. Mary lived in Plymouth Colony the rest of her life and died at 83, the last surviving passenger of the Mayflower. Her husband Thomas Cushman came over on the Fortune in 1621 at thirteen, was raised in Governor Bradford’s household, and succeeded William Brewster as Ruling Elder of the Plymouth church, serving more than forty years.
Mary Allerton → Eleazer Cushman → Lydia Cushman → Anthony Waterman → … Lee is her 9th great-grandson; the fourteenth generation, her 11th great-grandchild.
Anthony’s line → Lee
Anthony Waterman
23 Jun 1716, Plympton – 1 Dec 1769
Hannah Vaughan (1717–1798)
Anthony Waterman II
21 Mar 1743, Halifax – bef. 6 Aug 1770
Sarah Curtis (1742–1816)
Died at 27. Calvin, his second and last child, was about two. Sarah outlived him by 46 years and remarried a Whitman.
Calvin Waterman
1768/69 – 19 Oct 1823
Olive Bates, May 1791, Cummington
Housewright at Cummington with his brother James in 1790; later a millwright who owned a gristmill on the Westfield River and taught vocal and instrumental music. Ten children, named Solon, Orris, Zerial, Venila, Manley and Eratious. Three followed each other to Wayne County, Michigan: Orris (no. 807) at Van Buren, Zerial (no. 812), and Adeline (no. 814), who married Eliphalet Thomas and named a daughter Venila after her sister.
Eratious Waterman
21 Oct 1804, Cummington, Mass. – 17 Aug 1876, Plymouth, Mich.
(1) Diantha Packard, b. N.Y. c.1807, d. c.1850 · (2) Susan, b. N.Y. c.1826, m. 15 Feb 1851, Livonia
Bought 77.94 acres, the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 2, T2S R8E, from the Detroit land office for $97.43, patented 1 September 1826 under John Quincy Adams, five months before the settlers voted to name the place Plymouth. Listed as “of Monroe County, New York” at purchase, and he stayed in New York another six years: the first two children were born there, the rest in Michigan.
Six children by Diantha: Zerial (c.1829, N.Y.), Esther (c.1831, N.Y.), Eratious J. (c.1833), William A. (c.1836), Henry C. (c.1840), Charles F. (c.1850). Recorded as Eracious in 1850 and Erastus in 1860.
Probate, Wayne Co., Mich., File No. 8175. His will named his wife Susan and his son Henry.
Henry C. Waterman
10 Apr 1841, Plymouth Twp. – 25 Jan 1913, Northville
Farmer. Named as heir in his father’s will. Five siblings: Zerial, Esther, Eracious J. (1833–1854), Charles F. (b. c.1850), and 1SGT William A. Waterman (1837–1864), Co. H, 1st Michigan Cavalry, Custer’s Michigan Brigade, wounded in the head at Salem Church, Va., 28 May 1864 and dead of meningitis in Washington. His headstone reads Son of D & E Waterman.
Charles A. Waterman
26 Aug 1865, Plymouth – 27 Dec 1943, Northville
Kate Antonette Hughes (1880–1980)
Informant on his father’s death certificate. Kate lived to 100.
Donald H. Waterman
1921 – 2007
Wanitta Emma Miller (1921–1964)
Recorded at Northville, Wayne County in the 1950 census, aged 29, the last of this family on the ground Eratious bought in 1826. Wanitta died in 1964, and Donald took the five children west to Phoenix, Arizona, by way of Detroit.
Five children: Bill, Ilene, Brian (the middle child), Cheryl and Dennis.
Brian Waterman
b. 1949, Michigan
Middle of Donald’s five. Raised and schooled in Phoenix after the family left Michigan, then joined the military. His postings carried the family to Florida, then overseas, then to southern California. He is the one who broke a hundred and twenty years of this family living within a few miles of one Michigan township.
Lee Jay Waterman
b. 1975, Jacksonville, Fla.
Born at Jacksonville while his father was stationed there; then Okinawa, Japan, 1982–85; then San Diego and Imperial Beach; Chula Vista from 2001; Roseville from 2009. The Okinawa years are the only time this line has left North America since Robert Waterman arrived by 1638. San Diego is also where Gov. Robert W. Waterman, in the third column, died in 1891.
Living descendants
Two further generations, born in 2001 and 2026. Names and details withheld for privacy. The fourteenth generation arrived 388 years after Robert Waterman married at Marshfield, and is a third cousin, seven times removed, to Capt. Robert H. Waterman.
Perez’s line → Bully
Perez Waterman
b. 8 Oct 1713
Abigail Bryant (1716–1782)
Anthony’s brother. Abigail was a descendant of Mayflower passenger Joseph Rogers.
Thaddeus Waterman
b. Halifax, c. Feb 1743/4 – Nantucket vital records say 5 Apr 1745
Hephzibah Coffin · fourteen children, born at Nantucket
Residence Bridgewater; Perez and Abigail removed there in 1755. Enlisted 27 Feb 1760, aged 17, for the reduction of Canada, giving Perez Waterman as father or master. At Sherburn, Nantucket by the 1790 census. Jacobus fixes him as Peres⁴’s son in the lineage line of all five of his documented children.
Thaddeus Waterman
25 Mar 1772, Nantucket – Hudson, N.Y., before 1820
Eliza Coffin
A mariner at Hudson; he and Eliza mortgaged property there in November 1810. Commanded New York ships; lost at sea about 1816. Eliza died soon after, recorded at Bridgeport as relict of Capt. Thaddeus Waterman, aged 35, leaving a minor daughter under guardianship. Jacobus lists their children as born at Hudson, beginning at entry 772.
Capt. Robert H. Waterman
“Bully Waterman”
4 Mar 1808, Hudson, N.Y. – 8 Aug 1884, near Fairfield, Calif.
Cordelia Sterling
To sea at twelve. Sailed the Sea Witch from Hong Kong to New York in 74 days in 1849, a record never beaten under sail. Tried after the Challenge mutiny and nearly lynched in San Francisco. Retired to Suisun Valley and laid out the townsite of Fairfield in 1856, naming it for his Connecticut home, then gave sixteen acres to move the county seat there in 1858.
Line ends: no children
Thomas’s line, cont’d → the Governor
John Waterman
Son of Thomas³ of Norwich. See the Generation 3 row above.
William Waterman
b. Conn., 13 Jul 1724 – d. 1793?
Rebecca Gladding, 7 Aug 1755, Lebanon, Conn.
Of Lebanon, Connecticut; bought land there 12 Nov 1754. Rebecca was born at Bristol, Rhode Island, 14 Aug 1734, daughter of Nathaniel and Jemima (Cary) Gladding, and her surname became her son’s first name.
Gladding Waterman
11 Sep 1757, Lebanon, Conn. – 14 Oct 1834, Akron, Ohio
Charlotte Dean (1764–1841), 6 Feb 1782, Spencertown, N.Y.
Served as a Marine from 10 January 1778 aboard the Connecticut man-of-war Oliver Cromwell. Married by Charlotte’s brother-in-law, Rev. Jesse Clark, at his own house. Lived ten years at Hillsdale in Columbia County, then Dalton, Massachusetts, then Salisbury, New York. His pension file preserves the family Bible bought thirty years earlier. The old one burned with their house.
John Dean Waterman
16 Oct 1785, Kinderhook, N.Y. – 10 May 1837, Fairfield, N.Y.
Mary Graves Waldo, 31 Dec 1810, Pittsfield, Mass.
Gov. Robert Whitney Waterman
15 Dec 1826, Fairfield, N.Y. – 12 Apr 1891, San Diego, Calif.
Jane Gardner
Went overland to California in 1850, mined, and made a fortune in silver at the Waterman Mine. 17th Governor of California, 1887–1891. Born in a Fairfield; the captain in the middle column founded one.
Samuel’s line → the fountain pen
Samuel Waterman
Son of Samuel³. See the Generation 3 row above.
Samuel Waterman
Jacobus prints this name with a question mark, ?Samuel⁵, in every lineage string on this branch. It is the one uncertain link in the four columns, and he flagged it himself rather than smoothing it over.
Elisha Waterman
Capt. Daniel Waterman
Head of the family group Jacobus numbers 573, under which the whole pen family is printed.
Elisha Waterman
d. 7 Feb 1841, aged 26 yrs 11 mos 12 days
Amanda Perry Washburn, 5 Apr 1835, Cooperstown, N.Y.
The most successful wagon-maker in his vicinity, at Decatur, New York. He died at twenty-six, leaving Amanda to raise the family. Administration on his estate was granted to her on 12 February 1841.
Lewis Edson Waterman
20 Nov 1837, Decatur, N.Y. – 1 May 1901
(1) Sarah A. Roberts, 1858 · (2) Sarah Ellen Varney, 1872
Three years old when his father died. His mother became the village tailor; he studied by tallow candle beside the saw-buck while cutting the winter’s firewood. Taught himself Pitman shorthand from books with no teacher, well enough to teach it at the University of Virginia. Sold books, then life insurance, until failing health ended that too.
At forty-six he went into the pen business. Nearly two hundred fountain pens had already been patented and all of them leaked. He devised and patented the Waterman Ideal Fountain Pen, solving the capillary feed, and it became the first commercially successful fountain pen in the world.
His brother Elisha Silas⁹ (no. 573-4-2), born at Decatur three months after their father died, was a wagon-maker in his turn and the father of the man below.
Frank Dan Waterman
20 Jul 1869, Altorf, Ill. – 6 May 1938, New York
Helen Louise Huson, 16 Feb 1898, Englewood, N.J.
Lewis Edson’s nephew. His own father died in 1883 leaving a wife and four children with nothing; the wagon shop could not support a wagon maker, so his mother opened a millinery shop. Frank left school for a confectionery job at three dollars a week, added a night job at the skating rink, and pumped the church organ on Sundays for two dollars a month. He was the family’s chief wage earner as a boy.
He took over the L. E. Waterman Company on his uncle’s death in 1901 and ran it to a thousand pens a day. Jacobus lists “Collection of Frank Dan Waterman” among his sources: the pen family supplied records to the same book that documents Eratious at entry 810.
Four famous Watermans, four different branches
All of them descend from the same man at Marshfield, and none of them from each other. The lineage strings are Jacobus’s own notation. Read them against Lee’s: Eratious⁷ (Calvin⁶, Anthony⁵, Anthony⁴, John³, John², Robert¹). Wherever the strings stop matching is where the families parted.
| Who | Jacobus lineage | Parts at | Relationship to Lee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capt. Robert H. “Bully” Waterman 1808–1884 · clipper captain; founded Fairfield, California |
Thaddeus⁶, Thaddeus⁵, Peres⁴, John³, John², Robert¹ | Gen 4 Anthony / Peres |
3rd cousin, 5× removed |
| Lewis Edson Waterman 1837–1901 · invented the Waterman Ideal Fountain Pen Jacobus no. 573-4-1 |
Elisha⁸, Daniel⁷, Elisha⁶, ?Samuel⁵, Samuel⁴, Samuel³, John², Robert¹ | Gen 3 Capt. John / Samuel |
6th cousin, 3× removed |
| Frank Dan Waterman 1869–1938 · Lewis Edson’s nephew; ran the pen company after 1901 Jacobus no. 573-4-2-1 |
Elisha Silas⁹, Elisha⁸, Daniel⁷, Elisha⁶, ?Samuel⁵, Samuel⁴, Samuel³, John², Robert¹ | Gen 3 Capt. John / Samuel |
7th cousin, 2× removed |
| Gov. Robert Whitney Waterman 1826–1891 · 17th Governor of California |
John Dean⁷, Gladding⁶, William⁵, John⁴, Thomas³, Thomas², Robert¹ | Gen 2 John / Thomas |
6th cousin, 4× removed |
A footnote worth having. Jacobus cites “Collection of Frank Dan¹⁰ Waterman” among his sources. The pen family supplied records to this genealogy, so the book that documents Eratious at entry 810 was built partly on material handed over by the Watermans who made the pens. Frank’s brother Fred Silas was secretary of the L. E. Waterman Company; it was the nephews who ran it, not Lewis Edson’s own children.
The pen brand itself left the family long ago: the American company was liquidated in 1954, Bic took it in 1958, Gillette in 1987, and it sits with Newell today. The relationship is to the man, not the marque.
How to read the lines
Counting. Anthony and Peres were brothers, so their children were first cousins, their grandchildren second, and so on. Eratious and Robert H. both sit four generations below those brothers, making them third cousins. Lee is five generations further down; the fourteenth generation is seven.
The Governor’s line parts one fork earlier, at John² and Thomas², so every degree stretches: Gov. Waterman at Generation 8 against Lee at Generation 12 gives sixth cousins, four times removed. The two generations after Lee are five and six times removed. The two famous Californians are roughly fifth cousins to each other.
Still open
- Thaddeus Sr.’s birth date. Halifax and Nantucket records disagree; the 1760 enlistment, aged 17, favours the Halifax reading of Feb 1743/4.
- Eratious’s burial. His wife and two sons lie in Waterford Cemetery, Northville Township. He is not there, and has no known grave.
- Diantha’s death. Jacobus says about 1850; her stone says 1 April 1851, after Eratious remarried in February.
- Charles F. Waterman, b. about 1850, appears in the 1860 census aged 10 but on no gravestone. Henry’s youngest brother, and untraced.
- Degory Priest. WikiTree’s Mayflower Project cites Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, vol. 8, making Lydia Cushman a descendant of a second Mayflower passenger through her mother, Elizabeth Coombs. Unverified here, but if it holds, three passengers in one marriage.
- Robert H. Waterman’s own entry. Jacobus begins Thaddeus and Eliza’s children at no. 772 (Emma⁷). Bully sits a few numbers on.
- The service years. Dates and postings for Generation 11 are not recorded here.
- Detroit to Phoenix. The year Donald moved the family west, and where in Detroit they lived in between. Same source.
- A photograph of Donald. None in the tree. Brian, Bill, Ilene, Cheryl or Dennis will have one.
Principal source
Donald Lines Jacobus, comp., The Waterman Family, for Edgar Francis Waterman. Vol. I, Descendants of Robert Waterman of Marshfield, Massachusetts, Through Seven Generations (1939), entries 346, 371, 409; and Vol. II, From the Seventh Generation to Date, entries 807, 810, 812, 814. With Cummington and Halifax town vital records, U.S. land patent certificate no. 2134, Michigan death certificates, and Waterford Cemetery.