Quoting Magdalena Gorrell Guimaraens to NHROCKIN-L on 6 Oct 98, > Can anyone shed any light on the WHICHER/WHITCHER family in NH? A little. I think a more appropriate subject would be WHITTIER/ /WHICHER/WHITCHER in view of the following. There exists an article "Descendants of Thomas Whittier in New Hampshire" by Rev. W.F. Whitcher printed in The Granite Monthly, volume 4, 1881. The author brings up an interesting comment about the name WHITTIER. He believes it was originally pronounced as two syllables, Whit-tier, the "ti" of the second syllable having the sound of "ch" as the "ti" in "patient." He goes on to say the name was found to be spelled thirty-one different ways, the most common of which were WHITTIER, WHITCHER and WHICHER; and in some cases, the name for a single person was found spelled in all three ways. > I have Reuben Whicher b. Northfield NH April 19 1794, died > ca. 1869 age 75 years m. Dorothy Osgood. He is son of William > Whicher b. Nottingham NH and Anna Sanborn Confirmed in the article. > One of his brothers, Benjamin, became a Shaker, gave his farm > to that body and the first settlement of Canterbury Shakers was > built on his land. In 1889, one of his granddaughters, Mary > Whicher was a prominent Shakeress. All the article says about Reuben's brother Benjamin is: b. Aug 7. 1903; died unmarried Feb. 21, 1869. > Reuben and Dorothy had at least 2 children: Horace Whitcher > and Clarissa (Clerisa - in the family Bible) b. April 5 1816 d. > Apr 22 1903 m. Albert Armour Gorrell b. April 16 1817 > Northfield NH d. Dec 28 1893 Northfield NH. The article says five children; (1) Clarisa as you have it above with no further details; (2) John M. b. 1817; (3) Horace, b. 1825; (4) Abbie, b. 1830; (5) Mary J. b. 1831. > William Whicher was first married to a Miss Elliott of Epping > and their children were David, Jonathan, William & Polly. Confirmed by the article. > William lived to be 73 years old. The article only says that William was born in 1758. I descend from William's sister Abigail who married Nehemiah BARTLETT son of John BARTLETT and Zipporah FLANDERS. -- John Clement 6940 E. Girard 205, Denver, CO 80224-2917 Email: jclement@m2.sprynet.com Voice: 303-691-0613