History of the Head Family

(Prepared by the late George Benn Head of Albany, NY, born August 11, 1839 - died August 28, 1903.)

"Tradition, though a little uncertain, yet is more or less reliable. According to tradition, the Head family was originally from the Highlands of Scotland, though the mother was from the Lowlands and when 102 years old went into the fields and reaped wheat and sang a Scotch ditty.

They came to this country about 1620 to 1640, during the time of the bitter struggle between King Charles I and the Parliament before the accession of Cromwall. The family consisted of the mother and three sons. One of the sons died unmarried. The other two were married and their descendants became scattered from Dartmouth, Bristol County, Mass., where they first landed, some going north into New Hampshire and some west into Connecticut. Here we must leave them about 100 years, when my great grandfather, John HEAD, was born near Guilford, Conn., about 1735 or 1736. He married his cousin Eliabetth HEAD, and raised a family of children as follows: Lovitt, born in November 1760; William, born April 15, 1762; and three daughters - Amy, Vally, and Nancy. Amy married James STITT; Vally married Richard AVERY, and Nancy married Abner VanAmy, and all three lived near Pittstown in Rensselaer County, New York.

Lovitt married and lived in Castleton, N.Y., and kept a grocery store, was Justice of the Peace and, I believe, County Judge and Deacon in the Church. He died February 3, 1824, leaving no children.

Willaim HEAD, who was my grandfather, was born April 15, 1762. He married his cousinAbbigail (Abba) daughter of Jeremiah GIFFORD. His wife was a SALISBURY, a relative of General Sylvester SALISBURY, who, with another, purchased an extensive tract of land in the town of Catskill in 1677 of the Indians. One of this family of Salisbury married a Mr. TALMADE and was one of the ancestors of Dr. T. DeWitt TALMAGE.

A memorandum was prepared July 12, 1868, by my brother Capt. John HEAD and myself from the best information we could obtain from our Uncles Jeremiah and Lovitt HEAD and from our aunts, Eliza Head STITT, Polly (Mary) HEAD BENN and from mother. Aunt Polly had an excellent memory and gave me much information of the occasion of a visit to her in February 1870. She said her grandfather, John HEAD, was living at her father's and went to visit his son Lovitt at Castleton and was taken sick and died there. I visited Castleton, May 5, 1869, and there found an old gentleman by the name of John HOUCK who remembered Lovitt HEAD very well and showed me where his grocery and provision store was -- a little above the present steamboat landing. Also, Walter OSTRANDER, a farmer living near, said he remembered him well and said he was Justice of the Peace when he was a boy. I went to the cemetery on the top of the hill directly east of the Steamboat landing and found the grave of Lovitt HEAD. The slab was marked "Lovitt Head, died Feb. 3, 1824, aged 63 years and 3 months." Close by this grave on the north side was a grave, somewhat sunken but with no stone to mark it, which I have no doubt was my great grandfather's.

There was a John HEAD who enlisted at Londonderry, N.H., in Capt. Reid's company and served under Col. John STARK in 1775 and later served three years in Capt. FRYE'S company - Col. Thorton Regiment."

(There is additional information about the Head family in this paper.)