Our Day family connections go back to Anthony Day, one of the first settlers of Gloucester, Essex County, MA.
Anthony Day was born about 1616 in England. There are indications that Anthony Day first came to Fitchburg, MA, then moved to Ipswich, MA, and finally to Gloucester where he finally settled and purchased a house. He died on 23 April 1707 in Gloucester, Essex County, MA, and was buried there.
He was married to Susannah Ring Matchett before 1657. She was born in 1623 in England. She died on 10 Dec. 1717 in Gloucester, Essex County, MA, and was buried there. She was also known as Susannah Matchett Ring , Susan Ring.
A son of that marriage, Timothy Day was born in 1653 in Gloucester, Essex County, MA. He died on 8 April 1725. He was married to Phebe Wilder on 24 July 1679 in Gloucester.
Phebe Wilder was born on 8 April 1653 in Gloucester, Essex County, MA. She died on 8 April 1723 in Gloucester.
A son of that marriage, Ebenezer Day, was born on 14 Nov. 1697 in Gloucester, Essex County, MA. Ebenezer Day and Hannah Downing were married in Gloucester, Dec. 3, 1719.
Son James, born Dec. 6, 1738, in Gloucester, married Elizabeth Bradstreet of Gloucester, July 1, 1762.
According to the National Archives and Records Administration, James Day was the original keeper of the Wigwam Point lighthouse in Annisquam when it opened in 1801. However, it appears more likely that a son, George, may have actually been doing the job of the first keeper of the Wigwam Point lighthouse. George Day was born on 27 Mar 1769 in Gloucester.
In a letter of resignation dated April 22, 1805, from James Day to President Thomas Jefferson, he states, "I the subscriber keeper of the Light House in Squam . . . being aged & infirm & not able to attend to my duty so far as I should wish, Do hereby express a desire to resign my office, & my son George Day having kept the Light under me ever since its establishment & assisted me in my duty relative thereto I would beg leave to recommend him as a fit & suitable person to take my place. & I hope he may be appointed, as I am confident he will at all times strictly & faithfully attend to his duty...My son is a good pilot for Squam harbour & for the ports in this neighbourhood & has at considerable hazard often assisted vessels in distress."
Jefferson approved the appointment of George Day as Keeper of the Annisquam light on May 8, 1805 in a notation at the bottom of James Day's letter of resignation.
A notation on the bottom of James Day's letter said, "The son lives in the house where the light is kept & is always on the spot. His father seldom visits the place & is a mile from it & is now dangerously ill with a dropsy. His recommendation has been several months at Genl. Lincoln’s office Boston. The son has been the real keeper of the light for many years & it has been faithfully kept."
Genl. Lincoln, referred to in the note at the bottom of James Day's letter of resignation was Benjamin Lincoln, Superintendent of the Lighthouses.
It was Winslow Lewis who was the contractor who built the Wigwam Point Light and many of the lighthouses along the U.S. Coast in the early 1800s. Lewis also patented a lighting system of lamps and reflectors. Likely through his friendship with Fifth Auditor of the U.S. Treasury, Stephen Pleasanton, who was in charge of lighthouses at the time, and his consistent low bids on lighthouse construction projects, that Lewis' lighting systems were used in U.S. lighthouses even after the much more efficient Fresnel lenses were being used in Europe.
Much of Winslow Lewis' work was considered very shoddy as his nephew's later report indicates saying he was using very poor construction techniques for the lighthouse structures themselves. Additionally, Lewis convinced the government, again probably through his friendship with Pleasanton, to purchase and adopt his system of lenses which were generally considered very poor in design and manufacture.
While there had been an inspection of light stations in 1838, by 1842 many U.S. lighthouses were in such poor condition that they were all but ready to collapse.
As a result of the decaying condition of the nation's lighthouses, his nephew, I.W. P. Lewis, Civil Engineer, had been appointed by Congress to make a survey of lighthouses in 1842/43. His highly critical report on the condition of the various lighthouses helped lead to reform and establishment of a new Lighthouse Board which removed the responsibility for lighthouses from the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury.
Following his inspection, I.P.W. Lewis issued a report, Doc. 183, EXAMINATION - LIGHTHOUSE ESTABLISHMENT "...on the condition of the light-houses, beacons, buoys, and navigation, upon the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts."
His scathing report on the condition of the lighthouses was especially hard on his own uncle, Winslow Lewis, who wrote a long response in his own defense.
In that inspection report is a statement by George Day that was included as a part of I.P.W. Lewis' section on Annisquam Light. In it he said, "I was appointed keeper of this light in the year of its erection, A.D. 1800, and am now seventy-two years of age..."
He described the deplorable condition of the light, "The frame of the tower is rotted in all parts, and has been shored up with spars for about twenty years. In heavy gales the tower is so shaken as to be very unsafe, and I hardly know what has kept it standing. Two years ago the walk or bridge leading from the house to the tower was swept away by a heavy sea only a few minutes after I crossed it. In winter the ice collects on the stairs so as to render passage up and down very dangerous. I expect every storm that comes the tower will be destroyed."
New England author Edward Rowe Snow also notes that George Day was the first keeper of the Annisquam Light or Wigwam Point Light as it was formerly known, and it was the oldest of four lighthouse locations off Gloucester. "The tower was lighted for the first time by Keeper George Day on March 23, 1801, and in 1850, Day was still the keeper at what is now Annisquam Harbor Light!"
Another son of James Day and Elizabeth Bradstreet, David Day, was baptised Feb. 2, 1765 in Gloucester. The records have not been researched throroughly to learn who he married or when, but the marriage produced at least one son, David, referred to as "junior" and later as "David of Annisquam" in the records.
James Day, probably died 14 Jun 1805 age between 73 and 80 yr per Third Parish Church Record. This from Gloucester Vital Records to 1849.
It is David Day Jr., who lived in the Annisquam section of what is the City of Gloucester, Essex County, MA, for which we have more detailed information.
David Day Jr. married Martha Davis, daughter of the Rev. Epes Davis and Nancy Davis, a cousin, of "Chebacco", a portion of Ipswich, Essex County, MA, now known as Essex, Essex County, MA.
Anecdotal information indicated that David Day Jr. also was, at least for a time, the lighthouse keeper of the Annisquam Light. However, thus far there has been no confirmation of that. Additionally, there is no record of his death, although in the record of the death of his wife, Martha, she was identified as the "Wid" of David Day. That would seem to indicate that, given the period and the location, Gloucester being a seafaring town then and now, he could possibly have been lost at sea.
The marriage of David Day Jr. and Martha Davis produced 10, possibly 11 children, although town records indicate 10, and John Davis of Chebacco and Some of His Decendents, by Edgar Addison Davis, John's eighth generation, seems to indicate there were 11 children.
Town records agree on at least nine of the children, with the town listing a tenth as "un-named", possibly a stillborn child.
The nine upon which both town records and the Davis book agree included Caroline Amelia, born Sept. 19, 1827; Ellen Maria, born May 18, 1823; George Warren, born Oct. 17, 1824; Martha Frances, born Dec. 11, 1821; Howard, born Oct. 6, 1830; John Quincy Adams, born April 5, 1826; Mary Augusta, born May 198, 1838, and Thalia Ann, born May 25, 1835, and my great, great grandfather, Marcellus, born July 23, 1833. The "un-named" child, born Sept. 17, 1840, may have been Eliza Jane or Abbie Franklin, who are listed in the Davis book.
The Davis book also indicates another son, Frederick Bradstreet Day, but his name does not appear in the town records as being one of the children of David Day Jr. and Martha Davis.
Marcellus Day moved to Charlestown, MA, marrying Mary Jane Wilson, also a Charlestown resident. Marcellus was a builder, like his father-in-law, John B. Wilson. Marcellus Day built the granite and chain fence around the Bunker Hill Monument. He served on the Boston City Council in 1876. A badge issued to him is in my possession.
The Wilson-Day marriage, produced three children, Marcellus Day Jr., who, according to Davis, "died young"; Rev. John Boynton Wilson Day, my great uncle; and Martha Day, my grandmother.
My grandmother, Martha, married Frank Henry Dillaby, but they were divorced, but not before the birth of my father, Edwin Frank Dillaby, on Aug. 15, 1907, in Somerville, MA.
The complete decendency from Anthony Day can be found here.
More information about Rowley, Ipswich, and Gloucester can be found in the Essex County, MA GenWeb site, and by subscribing to the Essex-Roots email list discussion.
