"Hang the Tory spy " John Saxe could rightly have expected to hear these words when he was in prison in Esopus-now Kingston-New York, in 1779. Then forty-seven years old, he had staunchly maintained his loyalty to the King of England, to whom he had proclaimed his allegiance when he arrived in Philadelphia in 1750. Indeed, John Saxe was already a subject of the King of England, for the young man was born in 1732 in Saxony, in the Electorate of Hanover, which was ruled by the Prince-elector who was also King George II of England. John Saxe could surely have been regarded as a spy, for he worked for the King's men-although not in uniform or with an official position in a military unit-and that would be considered spying. Perhaps he actually was a spy, or maybe he was just a German- and English-speaking guide for the Ansbach Jaegers. The truth of the matter will probably never be known, but legend has it that he escaped or was released from prison. Perhaps his employers, the Livingstons, arranged for his release. He was their miller. It is, however, known that Saxe returned to his family in Rhinebeck, on the east side of the Hudson River, and he remained there until after the end of the Revolutionary War. As a "suspected" Loyalist, his property was then confiscated by the state. John Saxe and his wife and their eight sons-one just a babe in arms-and many other families, including some of his kinsmen, then made their way up the Hudson River. They crossed the height of land into the watershed of Lake Champlain, and settled in the wilderness at the northeastern corner of that lake at what was then, and still is, called Missisquoi Bay. This book is the story of the Loyalist, John Saxe, and of his children and their descendants-some of whom were very successful, while others were ordinary men and women who eked out a living on the frontier. Some settled in Canada and were loyal to the Crown, whereas others were American patriots, heroes in the War of 1812 and the Civil War, and some who were distinguished in public service, law, business, the arts, and government. John Saxe's most famous descendant was his grandson, John Godfrey Saxe, L.L.D. (1816-1887), a poet and statesman, who wrote about The Seven Blind Men and the Elephant, in a book that is still in print today. One of the most mysterious descendants of the Loyalist was his son, Godfrey, who was named for the Loyalist's father, and about whom very little is known. Godfrey Saxe had a daughter, Anna Maria Saxe, who married Joseph Stockwell and had many descendants-including George Hill, the author of this book. Based on the documents that he discovered, Hill speculates that Godfrey Saxe may have been shunned by his father and perhaps some of his siblings because he had this child out of wedlock, and that indeed the child's unnamed mother may have been a neighbor and relative. The child, Anna Saxe, grew up in the community of Highgate, Vermont, but after she was married, she moved to New York State, and her descendants have now literally spread all over the world. Hill's book traces the descendants of John Saxe and his wife, Catherine Weaver, for five generations. Hill thus updates a genealogy of the Saxe family that was published by John Saxe's great-great-grandson in 1930. Hill adds much that is new to this earlier Genealogy of the Saxe Family. He integrates information about the Saxe family and their relatives from other histories of northern Vermont, and he includes copies of many original photographs and previously unpublished letters and documents. Hill's book includes footnotes, endnotes, several appendices, and two indexes.

This book tells the story of a yeoman farmer and ferry keeper and his wife from the time of their marriage in 1651 in Windsor, Connecticut, until they died in Simsbury, a town which they helped to found. It also tells of their eight children and their spouses, and it continues to follow this family down to the present. The author tells of the rare occupation of the right of ferriage-how it was compensated, and what was expected of the ferry keeper. The duties of the ferry keeper were well known at one time, even legendary. The ferry keeper has now all but disappeared from America, along with the telegraph operator and pony express rider. This story involves more than 4000 descendants of the ferry keeper and his wife, about whom much is known in some instances. Many are known only by name; and in recent generations, because of privacy concerns, many are anonymous. The ferry keeper's four sons and four daughters and their children receive special attention, and their lives are carefully reconstructed from the historical records. The choices they faced for survival, and the decisions they made, were by and large successful. But not all were equal. Luck apparently favored some. All married well, but some married better than others. Typical among early Colonial American families, the youngest son of the founder of this family inherited the father's estate with the proviso that he would care for his aged parents until they died. The father had already accumulated a large amount of land, and the youngest son made good use of this property. His two marriages were to the daughters of leaders of the town, and he died a wealthy man. This book is family history, based on genealogy and enriched with biography. Some of the characters are notable, such as Roger Enos, a lieutenant colonel in the Revolutionary War, who later became a Major General. Enos' son-in-law, General Ira Allen, was a founder of Vermont. He was the brother of Ethan Allen, famous leader of the Green Mountain Boys. In a later generation, Lucius Barnes Barbour, who created the Barbour Collection of Connecticut Vital Records, was one of the ferry keeper's descendants. There are many others whose reconstructed lives are interesting, and who are exemplars of their times, though they have since been forgotten. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, most were sturdy farmers and farm wives, who occasionally had another profession such as blacksmith, teacher, or doctor. Some of the men were in all of the American wars except, probably, the war with Spain. They were in the French and Indian Wars, the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. Typical of the descendants of a Connecticut Yankee, most were in the Union Army, and only a few fought for the South. Only one was known to be a slave-holder, and probably only one fought in the war with Mexico. Multiple marriages were seen in many branches of the family, usually because a husband died, or a wife, but at least two husbands deserted and their wives remarried. Several joined the Mormons, and the men had overlapping wives and families. In the late twentieth century, the records of marriage and divorce, and of child-bearing without marriage, show a family that is very different from the past. While continuing for the most part to be white and Protestant, this family is now becoming as diverse as a large American family can be. Numerous photographs, illustrations, and maps, as well as a full-name index augment the text.