This is a transcription of the Forward from History and Genealogy of the Ancestors and Some Descendants of Stukely Westcott by Roscoe L. Whitman, 1932, page xi.

 FOREWORD

The reader of this history and genealogy of an old family pursuing a leisurely path through succeeding generations, will undoubtedly find himself caught by innumerable light twigs of unimportant sympathetic detail, the unimportance and friendliness of which constitute their magic.

Of course, it is hard for the present-day reader to believe in the charm of the old-fashioned life. However, one is induced by one’s own Puritan strain to bear testimony. The pathos is that in the 20th century thrills afforded by airplane, radio, automobile and other absorbing achievement of modern science, memories of yesteryears are subdued if not entirely obliterated.

Should the recording of some of the ancestors and descendants of Stukely Westcott of Salem, Mass., 1635, of Providence, R. I., 1638, and Warwick, R. I., 1643, and of his great-great-grandson, Stukely Westcott, a Soldier of the Revolution who settled in Cheshire, Mass., in 1777-8 –and his sons, James, Benjamin and Reuben, pioneer settlers in the town of Milford, Otsego County, N. Y.—awaken in the breasts of those who live today, the love of their integrity and unimpeachable character, the admiration for their deeds and industry, heroism and family life and the satisfaction had from knowing the worthwhile blood which scintillates in one’s veins, as it does in mine, then these pages will find for themselves a lasting place in the archives of time.

These pages, then, must pass on down through future generations, a memorial to men and to women who contributed simply and unostentatiously, but nevertheless earnestly and successfully, to the welfare and the upbuild of America from its earliest days of colonization.

For two and a half-centuries, they were pioneers, following the frontiers as they were pushed back, blazing the trail to a new, still further-back frontier in the unbroken wilderness, and finally, emerging into a settled country, a Nation, prosperous, a leader! May their memory never perish!

* * * *

The late Hon. J. Russell Bullock of Bristol, Rhode Island, an eminent attorney and jurist, in 1886, privately published “Incidents in the Life and Times of Stukely Westcott (of Rhode Island) With Some of His Descendants.” It is the work of years of exhaustive research and it is unfortunate that it is not in the public libraries of the country. Fifty copies were printed and distributed. Through the courtesy of the late Brigadier-General James Westcott Lester of Saratoga Springs, who collaborated with Judge Bullock in tracing some of the former’s branch of the family, I have been privileged to consult this valuable work and have drawn freely to these pages from the records he compiled, with the written permission of Judge Bullock’s grandson and heir, Westcote H. Chesebrough of Cambridge, Mass.

Mr. Fred A. Arnold, in his “Account of the English Homes of Three Early ‘Proprietors’ of Providence—William Arnold, Stukely Westcott and William Carpenter” (1921), says “Judge Bullock * * had the cooperation of more than a score of persons both here and in England, who had done more or less work in the same line before him, among whom were Sir George Stuckly, Baronet, the present owner by succession, of Hartland and Affeton Castle, West Worlington, Devonshire, [page xii]  the seat of the Stuckleys in England.” Mr. Arnold, a descendant of Benedict Arnold and Damaris Westcott, his wife, eldest daughter of the Founder, published the results of his research, incorporating old private papers of the Arnold family. In these papers, the date of the arrival in America of Stukely Westcott is definitely fixed. To Mr. Arnold, the compiler is especially indebted for many illuminating facts, among them the records showing that the first William Arnold, who came to America with Stukely Westcott, is also an ancestor of the Westcotts of Cheshire and Milford.

“My hope,” Judge Bullock wrote in the Foreword of his book, “is that some descendant may resume this work where I leave it, and make it more complete. It was written, not for public circulation, but to gratify a laudable desire in some of Stukely Westcott’s posterity to know what might be ascertained of the life of their first. American ancestor.”

If the present compiler, in this humble effort, has added in any appreciable measure, to the illuminating work of Judge Bullock, then the hope he expressed has to some extent, at least, been fulfilled. No especial attempt has been made to trace other than the posterity of the three brothers who settled in Milford township; however, considerable information of other branches of the family has been found during the research and added to the lineage branching from the earlier generations.

Space does not permit naming all who have so willingly cooperated in recording the statistics of the family, but acknowledgment for unusually important assistance is due the late James Westcott Lester of Saratoga Springs, Susan Morris Ford of Pasadena, Calif., and Oneonta, Miss Jessie Westcott Davenport of Oaksville, Clarence Sextus Morris and his wife of Milford, the late Celia E. Westcott of Oneonta, Ida Westcott Craft of Pasadena, Calif., Luly Westcott Merriam of Wallingford, Vt., Esther Weatcott Mabie of Lebanon, Ohio, Margaret Chaffee Westcott and Joseph Rogers Westcott of Binghamton, the late William C. Westcott of Utica, William D. Westcott and Rufus A. Westcott of Ashtabula, Ohio, Mary VanWoert Newton of Galesburg, Mich., Frank M. Roessing and Miss Katherine M. Creighton of Pittsburgh, Penn., Lillian Rose Norton of East Orange, N. J., and others.

Also acknowledgment of numerous courtesies received is made to various State officials of New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts and to the registrars of county records at Cooperstown and Albany, N. Y., and Adams and Pittsfield, Mass., also to clerks of numerous churches, and librarians in New York City, Albany, N. Y., Pittsfield, Mass., and Cranston, Warwick, East Greenwich and Wickford, R. I., and especially the clerk of the old Baptist Church at Milford Center.

Finis can never be written to a genealogical record. As the information multiplies and better methods prevail, it becomes evident that much might be gleaned in the future that has long been desired in this investigation. But, as in life, the day finally comes when the record of relatives of yesteryears and today, must be abruptly concluded, and so I regretfully stop here.

ROSCOE LEIGHTON WHITMAN

December 31, 1932.