Our Blanchard connections, like many of our family lines begin in England with John Blanchard. He was born around the year 1622 in England, possibly the son of Joseph and Ann Blanchard, who are believed to have arrived in Massachusetts in the mid to late 1630s.
John Blanchard married first Elizabeth Hills, who was baptised 21 Oct 1627, Great Burstead, Billerica, Essex, England, the daughter of Joseph & Rose (Clark) Hills. She died about 1662, in Malden, Middlesex County, MA.
He married, second, about 1663, possibly in Braintree, Norfolk County, MA., Hannah (Brackett) Kinsley (Kingsly), who was baptised 4 June 1634 or Nov 1634, in Boston, MA., a daughter of Richard and Alice Brackett. She died 3 Jul 1706, in Dunstable, NH. She first married, Samuel Kinsley, who died 21 May 1662, in Billerica, Middlesex County, MA.
A daughter of the marriage of John Blanchard and Hannah Kinsley, Mary, was born 23 Sep 1674, in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, MA.
John and Hannah Blanchard sold the Chelmsford homestead, 27 Dec, 1680, moving to Dunstable, Middlesex County, MA, (now Nashua, Hillsborough County, NH).
Mary Blanchard married John Darbyshire (Darby), son of Edward Darbyshire, about 1696 in Dunstable, Middlesex County, MA (Nashua, nee Dunstable, Hillsborough County, NH).
A son of that marriage, William Darby, was born 14 Aug. 1698 in Dunstable, MA.
The family moved from Dunstable, Middlesex County, MA (Dunstable, nee Nashua, Hillsborough County, NH) to Groton, CT.
We do not have any factual information indicating the John Darby or Darbyshire who moved to Groton in about 1695, married Mary Blanchard, became the father of our ancestor James Darby of Canterbury, is the same John Darby recorded as the son of Edward and Susanna Darby who married in Boston in 1659. However, it appears he is the only John Darby in this area at this time so it seems likely, and family history which says our Darby's descended from the line of Edward and Susanna has been around since at least 1925.
A newspaper article for the Cortland Standard in 1925, indicated that James Darby, father of Eleazor, both from Canterbury, CT., descended from Edward and Susanna Darby married in Boston in 1659. When her husband, Chester C. Darby, died in in 1930 she recorded with the cemetery that he "came from a Quaker background, a fine old religious family - the same family that Rev. Jonathan Darby descended from."
We do not yet know who Rev. Jonathan Darby might be, but we do know that the Barbour Collection of census for early New England, states that Edward and Susanna had a son "Eleazor, who had Eleazor, and the first Eleazor was the grandfather of Rev. Jonathan Darby, minister of Scicuate, who was in H.C. in 1747."
Thus, it appears that our ancestor, John Darby or Darbyshire, is the son of Edward and Susanna of Boston.
William Darby married Elisabeth Spaulding, 9 june 1718 in Canterbury, CT. She was the daughter of Ensign Spaulding.
There were eight children from that marriage born before they moved from Canterbury to Norwich, CT, about 1734.
One was Blanchard Darby, born 1734 in Canterbury. He married Priscilla Longbottom on 10 April 1763 in Norwich, CT.
We only know of one child of that marriage, a son, Rufus Darby, born 16 July 1774. He married Polly Jones, who was born 9 April 1773, and died 18 May 1858. Rufus Darby died 29 July 1830.
Rufus and Polly had eight children bewtween 1800 and 1811. Despite such a large family, he enlisted in the US Army on 19 Feb. 1814 as a member of the 25th Infantry Regiment, Samuel Ketchum, commander, and was discharged at the expiration of his enlistment on 17 May 1815.
The first of the children of Rufus and Priscilla Darby was a daughter, Harriet, born 3 April 1800, along with her twin brother, Harry.
Harriet married Charles Dillaby, son of Philip and Abigail Dillaby on 17 March 1825, in Norwich. They had seven children, all
born in Norwich, CT.
The complete decendency from Joseph Blanchard can be found here.
More information about Dunstable, MA (now partially Nashua, Hillsborough County, NH) can be found in the Nashua, Hillsborough County, MA GenWeb site, and by subscribing to the NHHillsb-Roots email list discussion.
Web site questions or comments to ddillaby@myfairpoint.net