Embree Remembered: The Extraordinary Lives and Times of Robert and Effingham Embree

Contents

vi   Acknowledgments
viii List of Illustrations

Introduction   1

1. To readers of this book   3
   How this book came to be written   3
   The John and Margery Bassett family and Robert Embree   5
   A word about Robert Ambler, the supreme Embree genealogist   5
   A word to Embrees not descended from Robert and how to pronounce Embree   6
   What I have tried to do with this book   6



2. Explanatory comments to guide the reader   7
   The narrative structure of this book   7
   The colonial calendar, or what date did you say that was?   7
   Deciphering Puritan English   8
   Author's sources   9
   Capsule: An extraordinary historical resource   9


3. The Robert Embree Story   13
   Old England Prologue   13
   New England Prologue   14
   
   Capsule: Robert Embree, the Bassett family, the Mormons, and the Internet   15
   New Haven Prologue   16
   
   Capsule: When did Robert Embree and the John and Margery Bassett family arrive in New Haven?   16
   Capsule: Goodwife Emry, may I introduce you to Freeman Malbon, Elder Newman, Mr. Evance, and Elizabeth Smith?   20
   Robert Embree in New Haven   22
   
   Capsule: Henry Whitfield's 1639 stone house   24
   Capsule: What were the religious beliefs of the Puritans?   28
   Capsule: The Puritans and sex   35
   Capsule: A Sunday morning in New Haven, March 1646/7   37
   A Map of New Haven in 1641   42
   
   Capsule: Untie the Winds, a novel of early New Haven   46
   Stamford Prologue   47
   
   Capsule: I'm moving on.   48
   Capsule: Huntington, a famous but flawed source   48
   Robert Embree in Stamford   50
   A map of Stamford in 1651-1660   51
   
   Capsule: Witches and witchcraft   54
   Capsule: When Greenwich was part of Stamford   56


4. The Effingham Embree Story   58
   Prologue to Effingham Embree   60
   
   Capsule: Women's property rights in colonial Connecticut   60
   The White House receives a Bicentenial gift   61
   
   Capsule: Who made Effingham Embree tall case clocks?   62
   Flushing, Long Island, and a Quaker childhood   65
   
   Capsule: Where did Effingham Embree get the name Effingham?   66
   Capsule: Quaker glossary   68
   Revolution and the British Occupation   69
   Watch and clock maker   71
   
   Capsule: The Thomas Burling Connection   72
   Capsule: Mr. Embree, how much do you charge for one of your tall case clocks?   80
   Capsule: How much is that in today's money?   81
   Capsule: How many tall case clocks did Effingham Embree make?   82
   Capsule: Effingham Embree watches   83
   Capsule: When is an Effingham Embree clock not an Effingham Embree clock?   84
   The Society for the Promotion of the Manumission of Slaves and the New York African Free School   86
   Marriage, disownment, and restoration   90
   Prominent Manhattan and Flushing resident and businessman   91
   
   Capsule: An Effingham Embree puzzle   96


5. A selected bibliography of early New Haven   97



6. A selected bibliography of early Stamford   98



7. An Effingham Embree selected bibliography  100


Index  102

This information was prepared by Mary Ellen Embree LeBien.