Uncategorized - Wills Family History

March 8, 2024November 27, 2024

The Meaning of Methodism for Cornish Immigrants to America; the Meaning of Intolerance to Me

Before they left the shores of England, John Albert Berriman Wills (J.A.B. Wills) and Annie Reed were married in Truro, Cornwall, England. The date was August 14th, 1866 and the church was St. George’s Anglican. John Albert was 23 years old, Annie was probably 30 years old. Although both John and Annie came from strong Methodist families, marriages were often required to be performed with Anglican rites and Methodists were required by law to support the Anglican church.

Marriage Certificate of John Albert Berriman Wills and Annie Reed, August 14, 1866

Witnesses were:

Amy Wills, a younger sister of J.A.B. Wills

Emma Jane Reed, a younger sister of Annie Reed

William Marben, a possible friend of J.A.B. Wills

Maxwell Adams, writing in 2005 described Lelant Methodists as reactionary – opposed to social reform and to Roman Catholicism. We know John Albert Berriman Wills (J.A.B. Wills) from Lelant and Annie Reed from Gwennap were raised as staunch Methodists. Like their founder John Wesley, Methodists were suspicious of Catholicism viewing it as a threat to their choice and sovereignty. The roots go back to the Tudor and Stuart reigns and the 1534 English Act of Supremacy declaring the monarch to be the head of the English church. Allegiance to the Roman pope was heresy and a sure path to hell. The Gordon Riots of 1780 in London were violent anti-Catholic reactions to 1778 laws giving Catholics some limited rights . Cornwall’s working class, miners and boatmen, were swept up in the greater current of anti-Catholicism prevalent in England from the late 18th century through the 19th century. The anti-Catholic sentiment that ran through England was also present in 18th and 19th century America. Though root causes may have differed, both were manifested in violent riots, often against Irish Catholics. I am not certain how this social trend played out in Cornwall but there was a definite bias against Catholics that J.A.B. Wills carried in his soul across the Atlantic and into his new life in North America where he found many likeminded Americans. It was only America’s Civil War that temporarily suppressed the Anti-Catholic movement in the United States. It easily resurfaced afterwards.

1894 — fter “A Picture Without Words” Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/item/2012645166/

The anti-Catholic prejudice J.A.B. Wills (1843-1919) brought with him would ultimately destroy his son John Albert Wills (1873-1937) and their father-son relationship. It also impacted the oldest son, William Henry Wills (1869-1931) and his family. The brothers, raised as Methodists, fell in love and married Franco-American women who were Roman Catholics. For this, John Albert Berriman Wills became estranged from both sons eventually wrote them out of his last will and testament. He removed his sons and their Catholic families out of his life. In many ways, writing this story is filling that void and re-establishing the relationships his descendants could have had with him had he been able to leave his religious prejudices behind in the Cornwall he left.

Tolerance was not an accepted behavior in 1900. Disinheriting your children was.

The greater lesson for his descendants is that we living today, would be so much more richer and our lives fuller if we left our prejudices behind whether they are religious, cultural, ethnic, social or racial. Cultivating tolerance isn’t an easy thing to do. We are born into a family and quickly grow into the society that surrounds us with all its inherent institutional biases. Loving our family but learning to allow members to flow across its boundaries and continue to be accepted will aid our own growth and the growth of America.

That is why I appreciate the illustration below with Uncle Sam is trying to bring two men together. In this case, the issue of school funding for Catholic schools was the divide.

“Darn Ye Both” Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.29053/

America’s history is not something I tend to brag about – the dark side of the American past is always present and should never be forgotten. However, this illustration gives hope that Americans will eventually come together with tolerance and acceptance making us a better people and a better nation.

December 29, 2023

Assessing the Impact of Disinheritance

Disinheritance often results in years of intrapersonal conflict, shame, guilt, worthlessness, overcompensation and decompression. Sometimes it leads to an emptiness that leads to dependency and chronic alcohol disease. Sometimes it may lead to rebirth and freedom. I think the latter is less often the case.

Recently, two articles appeared in the New York Times, and both address the kinds of family conflicts in 2023 that the Wills family experienced between 1900 through 1936: disinheritance and chronic alcoholic disease. Both issues vibrate throughout the Wills family history and heavily influenced the outcomes of this Cornish American immigrant family.

There is a link to the first article which may appear behind a paywall:

The Devastation of Disinheritance My father’s decision to cut me out of his will shocked me. Could the damage ever be repaired? published December 11, 2023, and written by Mary Beth Caschetta.

Caschetta writes about her father’s last will and testament which entirely removed her and not her two brothers, from an inheritance. When she was confronted with the knowledge that her father disinherited her, she was depressed, morose, and in her words, she felt “excluded, wounded and weepy.” Afterwards, she sought therapy and realized that for individuals who experienced disinheritance, very few resources exist in our society. The act of disinheritance can leave surviving children confused and angry with feelings of isolation, shame and abandonment. It is the ultimate rejection of the child by the parent regardless of their age and status. The message from the deceased parent to the child is clear: “you failed to meet my expectations.”

For the child, resolution for overwhelming abandonment and shame may never occur. If Caschetta believes there are few resources to assist children to resolve abandonment and shame now, 2023-2024, imagine what it was like in 1914 when John Albert Berriman Wills wrote his two sons out of his will. He did exactly that by writing that his sons, William Henry and John Albert, each received one dollar and nothing more. His three daughters and one granddaughter received all his earthly accumulations.

“To my son William Henry Wills of the town of ____ in the county of Washington and state of New York I give the sum of one dollar. To my son John Albert Wills of the town of Schuylerville in the county of Saratoga and state of New York the sum of one dollar.”

I strongly suspect that this disinheritance set in motion a downward trajectory for both sons and their families.

June 10, 2023June 10, 2023

The story of Iron Mining and Moriah from “Locks To Lakes”

Locks to Lakes presents an audio tour of mining in Moriah and Crown Point in poetry and prose: The Story of Iron in Crown Point & Moriah. Don’t bypass the audio narrations in each episode of the tour. The narration is fascinating and illuminate how the families and descendants of J.A.B. Wills and Elystra Berriman were both shaped and with their labor, help shape events in the Champlain Valley and the mid Hudson Valley during the 19th century.

May 6, 2023

Captain Minnie Clinton – a Wills Cousin

Recently, a Wills cousin brought to my attention a newly published biography of Mary Anne “Minnie” Clinton (1864-1939). Minnie Clinton was a soldier in the Salvation Army and daughter of John Albert Berriman’s older sister Elystra Frances Wills. Minnie made tremendous strides evangelizing and establishing the Salvation Army as a church as well as a charitable organization in Victorian England. “The Making of Captain Clinton” was written and published by Keith Mitchinson in 2020 and is available on Amazon. The first chapter is of great interest to Wills descendants in the United States and Canada because Mitchinson describes Minnie’s maternal grandparents, William Wills and Elystra Berriman and their home life in Uny Lenant, Cornwall. Using census records, the author was able to identify where William and Elystra Wills were living, which children were still at home, which had left the nest, William’s occupation and which children were at school.

Mitchinson also writes that the Wills family were committed Methodists. John Wesley evangelized in Cornwall very close to Uny Lelant and many residents, farmers and tin miners, converted to his teachings in the late 18th century. There was a natural progression from Methodism to the Salvation Army and according to Wikipedia: “The theology of the Salvation Army derives from Methodism, although it differs in institution and practice. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Salvation_Army. Accessed 6 May 2023). Indeed, William and Catherine Booth, founders of the Salvation Army, were originally ardent Methodists.

It is not surprising to learn about the devoted religious nature of individuals in the Wills family and its branches. Perhaps it was a cultural norm in 19th century Euro-American working class and its culture.

Mary Ann Clinton married David Lamb, another early captain in the Salvation Army. Their united life and mission was service to the Salvation Army. Mary Ann was not the only Wills who devoted a life to the Salvation Army. Cousins also answered the call of the Salvation Army in Canada and the USA.

April 23, 2023December 29, 2023

The story of John and Libby, my Grandparents

The story of John and Libby, my Grandparents

On August 18th, 1903, John A. Wills, a bachelor from a devout Methodist family married Marie Elisabeth “Libby” Bissonnette, a young woman from a Franco-American and Roman Catholic family in St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Cohoes, New York, USA.

The bride and groom were first generation Americans. His parents were born in Cornwall, her parents were born in Quebec, Canada. Though John never converted to Catholicism, to marry Libby he agreed to raise any child of the union as Roman Catholic. He and Libby did so with one exception – his eldest son and namesake.

John A. Wills was disowned by his parents for the act of marrying a Catholic. So too, was his older brother, William Henry Wills, and for the same reason. The painful splintering of father and sons ended in estrangement and personal tragedy. Eventually, John A. Wills descended into chronic alcoholism and died of acute alcoholic intoxication. Libby was ravaged by thyroid disease before the wide availability of thyroxine hormone. The disease eventually killed her.

Personal tragedy has its way of seeping through generations. For John and Libby Wills, their tragedy did not end with their deaths. It carried into the next generation with poverty, poor access to education and opportunity, shame, alcoholic disease, poverty and estrangement.

When I was quite young, I listened to my mother and her sister, Etta, argue about their parents the way many adult children do. It wasn’t until I was older that I began thinking about why and how the Wills family’s story reflected part of America at the beginning of the twentieth century. My great grandparents were working class immigrants; their children were first generation Americans. Some immigrants had great success stories, others did not. Some first generation Americans had great success, others did not. Why the differences? What made success and what made tragedy?

Here is the hypothesis: my grandfather, John A Wills (1873-1937), descended into alcoholic disease, poverty, and despair due to personal reasons – shame, weakness and the estrangement of his birth family. Also playing a part were social economic causes, sharp class distinctions, and discrimination. However, religious intolerance, obstinacy in religious beliefs and lack of family support may have had a bigger role. Then, when it looked liked things couldn’t get worse, the final breaking point, The Great Depression came bearing down upon the family.

As I write, in the third decade of the twenty first century, Americans are still debating race, class, social injustice, sexism, identity and religious intolerance of one kind or another. Religious institutions were the power players that created the community norms of the 19th and early 20th century. Through their teachings and customs, Catholic and Protestant institutions instilled children and adults parishioners with religious bias, fear of persons with different religious beliefs and religious intolerance. It remains present with us today, most prominently in racism, sexism and LGBT discrimination.

I hope to provide background about social issues in 19th & 20 century America such as religious bigotry and intolerance in America, social class and struggles of the immigrant working class, effects of the Great Depression, and cultural adaptation that will help put Wills Family History in context. Additionally, I would like to explore family issues, disinheritance, health and nutrition, death and disease, personal disintegration as well as adaptation, rebirth and resiliency that family members used to coped or not cope. It was never clear how the Wills family got through the decade (1929-1939). The Great Depression provided the final blow; the parents died, daughters married and sons joined the CCCs, the US Army and Marines. With one exception, Elizabeth Frances (1913-1937), the children survived.