Michelle Stone’s online genealogy

DAVID ROBERTS
1806 - 1863

 

 

 

NAME in full:  DAVID ROBERTS

 

SIGNATURE: 

 

[2]

 

 

BIRTH date:     3 June 1806? (Date calculated from death certificate)    place:  Dolgelley, Merioneth, Wales (today, Dolgellau, Gwynedd, in North Wales)

 

BAPTISM:  (if this is indeed he):  18 June 1806, parish church (Church of Wales), Dolgelley (“a native of Dolgelley” per death notice). Parents at this baptism were DAVID ROBERTS, an innkeeper, and ELLEN, his wife. This baptism has not yet been confirmed as being his, but so far it is consistent with the rest of the documentation I have on him.

 

FATHER’S name in full:  DAVID ROBERTS

 

MOTHER’S name in full:   ELLEN or ELEANOR

 

 

 

To see photos from my visit to Dolgellau, go here.

 

 

 

OCCUPATION(S):  Skinner (Mallwyd, 1827); Grocer, tea and sundries dealer (Dolgelley c. 1841-1844); Grocer (emigrating, 1846); “Truckman” (Boston, 1850); trunk manufacturer, partner with Griffith Edmunds in Roberts & Edmunds trunk “manufactory” (Boston, 1851-1863)

 

 

MILITARY SERVICE:  None known

 

 

MARRIAGE date:   18 May 1827 place:  in the parish (Church of Wales) of Mallwyd, Merioneth, Wales, by Edward Evans, Curate; Hugh Evans and Robert Griffiths, witnesses. They were married by publishing of banns (not by a marriage license). They were both 20 years old and I believe she was pregnant with their son David at the time.

 

Record of marriage of David Roberts, Bachelor,
and Catharine Humphreys, Spinster

 

 

SPOUSE’S name in full: CATHERINE HUMPHREY or HUMPHREYS 

 

 

 

To see photos from my visit to Mallwyd, go here.

 

 

 

DEATH date:   28 November 1863            place:    Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts       cause: died age 57 years, 5 months, 25 days of Dropsy with Chronic Pericarditis (edema/chronic inflammation of the lining of the heart).[12]  “Died…. ROBERTS—In this city, 28th ult, [Boston, 28 November 1863] Mr. David Roberts, father of the late David Roberts, M.D., of South Boston, 57 yrs 5 mos. a native of Dolgelly, North Wales.” [11]

 

 

BURIAL date:     1 December 1863          place:  Grave 649 in a family plot owned by him, Cypress Vale section, Mt. Hope Cemetery, 355 Walk Hill Street, Mattapan, Massachusetts 02126.

 

[Originally part of neighboring Dorchester, Mattapan was incorporated in 1870. It is a part of greater Boston today and the cemetery is administered by the Boston Parks and Recreation authority.]

 

 

 

Gravemarker commemorating David Roberts, his son, Dr. David Roberts, and his grandson, Albert C. Roberts, in Mt. Hope Cemetery, reads: “In memory of / DAVID ROBERTS / Died 28 Nov. 1863 Aged 57 Years / Born at Dolgelly in North Wales; Also his son / DAVID ROBERTS M. D. / Died 13 August 1864 [sic; 1863] Aged 36 [sic] Years / Born at Mallwyd, North Wales; Also his son / ALBERT C. ROBERTS / Died 23 Sept. 1863 Aged 2 years and 2 mos.” Photo courtesy Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, August 2007.

 

 

RESIDENCES:

Town                                      County           State               Dates

 

Birth - Dolgelley, Merioneth, North Wales, 1806 - Said to be a native of Dolgellau, North Wales at the time of his death; there was a baptism of a boy who could have been him in Dolgellau at the right time to coincide with his reported birth info given on death certificate.

 

Age 20 - Mallwyd, Merioneth, North Wales, May 1827 – confirmed presence/inhabitant in marriage record

 

Age 21 - Mallwyd, Merioneth, North Wales, October 1827 – confirmed presence/inhabitant (as a Skinner) at time of his son David’s birth/baptism

 

Mid-20’s - Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts, February 1831? – son Lewis said to have been born there; did the family stay in Boston until c. 1840-41?

 

Late 30’s - Waterloo Street, Dolgelley, Merioneth, North Wales, c. 1841 (census) – 1844 (city business directories) – circumstantial evidence implies this was him and his wife and family, running a grocery/tea/sundries shop

 

Age 39 - Caernarfon to Boston, April-May 1846 – emigrating with wife and family on the barque “Hindoo”

 

Early 40’s - 9 Carroll Place, Boston, Massachusetts, 1847-1851 (city directories and 1850 census) 1851 cd: “Roberts (David) & Edmunds (G) trunk manufactory Haverhill near Causeway, h[ome] 9 Carroll pl,” [today Boston’s North End]

 

Late 40’s - 109 Endicott Street, Boston, Massaschusetts, 1852-1853 (city directories) [Boston’s North End]

 

Late 40’s-50’s - 5 Bartlett Place, Boston, Massaschusetts, 1854 (city directory; David Roberts Sr. was still listed as a “trunk manufacturer” working at 69 Haverhill and living at 5 Bartlett place); 1858 city directory same home address, work address 11 Richmond [Boston’s North End]

 

Boston, Massachusetts, Nov. 1863, died age 57 (married at the time?), buried in plot he owned at Mt. Hope Cemetery, Mattapan (then part of Dorchester, South Boston, near where his son David had lived, at the corner of 4th St. & Dorchester Ave.)

 

 

 

RELIGION:  Church of Wales in Wales; Protestant in the U.S. (Methodist Episcopal?)

 

 

CHILDREN:

 

1.   Dr. DAVID ROBERTS, physician/apothecary, baptized 31 October 1827 in Mallwyd, Merioneth, North Wales; died 15 August 1863 in South Boston, Massachusetts.

 

2.   LEWIS HUMPHREY ROBERTS, machinist, soldier, born 26 February 1831 in Boston, Massachusetts? and died 24 December 1915 in Watertown, Jefferson Co., New York.

 

3.   MARGARET ROBERTS, born 1835-1838 (in Boston? Or Wales?)

 

4.   JOHN ROBERTS, born 1838-1841 (in Boston? Or Wales?)

 

5.   ROBERT ROBERTS born 1845 in (Dolgellau?) Wales?

 

 

Descendants’ Chart

 

 

 

REFERENCES AND SOURCES:

 

1.  Email message (“Re: Born in Dolgellau 1806-07?”) from Gwynedd Archives at Dolgellau (ArchifdyDolgellau), Wales to M. Stone, regarding possible 18 June 1806 baptism record of David Roberts in Dolgelley, Wales, 17 May 2007.

2. Roberts-Humphreys marriage, no. 117, 18 May 1827, in “Register of Mallwyd Marriages (Counties of Merioneth and Montgomery) 1813-1837” (Church of Wales), microfilm A417, Gwynedd Archives, Dolgellau, Wales.

3. Baptism record of David Roberts, son of David and Catherine Roberts, 31 October 1827, page 30, no. 240 in “Church of Wales, Parish of Mallwyd, Counties of Merioneth & Montgomery, Register of Mallwyd Baptisms, 1813-1894” (microfilm), Gwynedd Archives, Dolgellau, Wales.

4. David Roberts household, 1841 Welsh census, Merionethshire, population schedule, Parish and part of the township of Dolgelley (in the Hundred of Talybont and Mowddwy), Enumeration District 2, Folio 33, Page 22 (lines 8 through 12, and neighbor Catherine Roberts, line 7), last dwelling on Waterloo Street, British Public Record Office publication HO 107/1432/4, as part of the U.K Census Collection, online database, Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., http://www.ancestry.com.

5. “The North Wales Directories 1818-1936,” Clwyd Family History Society, CD-ROM, Wrexham, Wales, 2004. (Dolgelley business directory, 1844, page 24; ibid., 1850, page 28).

6. Photos of Dolgellau and Mallwyd, Wales taken by M. Stone 15-16 April 2007.

7. David Roberts and family, “List of Passengers taken on board the Barque Hindoo of Carnarvon,” arriving in Boston 15 May 1846, reproduced from NARA microfilm M277, Roll 20, at Ancestry.com “Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1943,” Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2006, http://www.ancestry.com.

8. Boston, Massachusetts city directories, 1834-1858, viewed at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, as follows:

Stimpson’s Boston City Directory, 1834, p. 300;

The Boston [Massachusetts] Directory 1848-1849; Adam’s New Directory of the City of Boston containing a general directory of the citizens, and a special directory of the trades, professions, &c with a variety of miscellaneous matter, and an almanac, from July 1847, to July 1848, p. 227;

The Boston [Massachusetts] Directory... 1849, p. 243

Ibid., 1851, p. 212

Ibid., 1852, page 218

Ibid., 1853, page 239

Ibid., 1854, page 261

Ibid., 1858, page 312

9. David Roberts household, 1850 U.S. census, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, City of Boston (1st Ward), page 93 (lines 1 through 5), dwelling no. 1073, family no. 1583, National Archives micropublication M432, roll 334.

10. David Roberts household, 1860 U.S. census, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, City of Boston (Ward 3), page 142 (lines 5 through 9), dwelling no. 531, family no. 1232, National Archives micropublication M653, roll 521.

11. Newspaper death notice for David Roberts, Sr., Boston Daily Advertiser, Wednesday, December 2, 1863, as viewed online at the “19th Century U.S. Newspapers” database accessed via the Godfrey Memorial Library online research service, http://www.godfrey.org/, August 2007.

12. David Roberts death certificate (died 28 November 1863, volume 167, page 166, no. 4209), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Office of the Secretary of State, Archives Division, Boston, Massaschusetts.

13. Letter from Mount Hope Cemetery (355 Walk Hill St., Mattapan, MA 02126) to M. Stone, 23 June 2000, conveying information and photocopies of burial cards on Roberts buried in the cemetery.

14. Photos of gravestones in Mount Hope Cemetery, ibid., emailed to M. Stone on 26 August 2007 by a volunteer photographer with the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness website, http://www.raogk.org/.

15.  Record Proof of Marriages, Births, and Deaths, Claim of Ellen A. Roberts, wid. for Lewis Roberts, Late 7th Regt. Wis. L. Arty., dated April 11, 1916, states Lewis’ mother’s and father’s names and places of birth.  Part of General Pension Records, Lewis Roberts, Claimant (Application No. 613.475 filed June 16, 1887; Certificate No. 407.358), and Ellen A. Roberts, Widow (Application No. 1057.975 filed Dec. 29, 1915; Certificate No. 814.368).  National Archives.

 

16. Correspondence/notes from Barbara Payne Citron, 1994 to present.

 

 

WISH LIST:

 

Would like to find out whatever happened to his wife and three youngest children.

 

Would love to discover a photograph of him and/or his wife, family, etc.

 

Would love to confirm and find out more about his Welsh ancestry and home, as well as why he emigrated to Boston (not once but twice?).

 

Would like to find out more about his “trunk manufactory” in Boston. Did this Victorian-era trunk, handed down through our family from his granddaughter, Nellie Roberts, come from Roberts & Edmunds’ Boston factory?