“Marian Drew Waitley’s ‘The Waitley Family in the United States’, self-published in 1956, documents the lineage and historical narrative of the Waitley family, tracing back to John S. Waitley, an early ancestor from Scotland. This book leverages details from a 19th-century biographical history specific to several Iowa counties to shed light on John S. Waitley’s life, including his migration from Massachusetts to Ohio and his role as a Free-will Baptist Church minister. The narrative explores his family connections, notably a disputed link to Josiah Bartlett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and outlines the broader familial contributions and movements across the United States, all while addressing discrepancies in historical and genealogical records regarding familial relations.”
John S. Waitley is the earliest known ancestor of the Waitley name in the United States. Information about him appears in a “Biographical history of Crawford, Ida and Sac Counties, Iowa” published in Iowa in 1893, page 308.1
According to this sketch, John S. Waitley was a native of Scotland. His parents came to America and settled in Massachusetts. Later his mother was lost at sea when on a return visit to Scotland. John S. Waitley married Lydia Bartlett, a daughter of Josiah Bartlett, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
He became a minister of the Free-will Baptist Church. He moved to Ashtabula County, Ohio, lived there several years and later moved to Canton, Ohio. He died in Knox County, Ohio, in 1868 at the age of 96. His wife died in 1858 in Knox County, Ohio. They had lived in Mt. Vernon most of the time.
They had a least one son, Corydon H. Waitley, who was born in Massachusetts in 1829.
The connection between the Waitley family and the famous Josiah Bartlett family cannot be definitely established through other sources. Biographies of Josiah Bartlett do not mention a daughter named Lydia.
Josiah Bartlett was born in Massachusetts in 1729 at Amesbury. He moved to Kingston, N. H., and began the practice of medicine there in 1750. 2
He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of N. H. in 1788, and was the state’s first governor, elected in 1793 under the new State Constitution. He was also the first president of the Medical Society established in 1791 through his efforts. 3
Josiah Bartlett married Mary Bartlett, daughter of Joseph Bartlett of Newton, N.H. Mary Bartlett had a sister named Lydia, younger than she.4
Another Lydia Bartlett was the daughter of Samuel Bartlett of New Ipswich, N.H., and Newton, Mass. She was born Feb. 3, 1771, so was about the same age as John S. Waitley.5
Sanderson states that Josiah Bartlett’s wife was a lady of Kingston (N.H.) who died in 1789, six years previous to the death of her husband. Josiah Bart-ltet died in 1795 at the age of sixty-six years.6
Major Surnames:
Bartlett, Bauder, Dildine, Gillings, Hoff, Howe, Nolan, Nurse, Spaulding, Waitley, and Whitney.
Notes
- 42 pages : 26 cm
- No copyright page
- No Index
Source
Waitley, Marian Drew. The Waitley family in the United States. Evanston, IL : Self Published, 1956.
Citations:
- Biographical history of Crawford, Ida and Sac Counties, Iowa : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with accompanying biographies, a condensed history of Iowa, with portraits and biographies of the governors of the state, engravings of prominent citizens of the counties, wth [sic] personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families. Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1893.[↩]
- Biography of the Signers, by Sanderson, Vol. III, p. 136-165 [↩]
- Encyclopedia Americana, 1945 ed. Vol III, p. 294.[↩]
- Genealogical and biographical sketches of the Bartlett family in England and America, by Levi Bartlett, 1875, p. 42.[↩]
- Genealogical and biographical sketches of the Bartlett family in England and America, by Levi Bartlett, 1875, p. 105[↩]
- Biography of the Signers, by Sanderson, Vol. III, p. 136[↩]