John Albert Berriman Wills (J.A.B. Wills) and Annie Reed: A miner and his wife

John Albert Berryman Wills, 1843-1919 is the patriarch of the Wills Family immigrating with Annie Reed, his wife,  from Cornwall to North America in 1866/1867.

John Albert Berriman Wills ( J.A.B. Wills) was born in St. Uny Lelant Cornwall, England in 1843 and died in Hoosick Falls, New York, USA in 1919.  His lifespan covered tumultuous times and places mid-19^th century Cornwall, Canada, Pennsylvania, and 20^th century New York, and Vermont.  Near the end of his life, his signed his Last Will & Testament will with an “X”.  He likely had minimal education, learned life could only be successful with hard labor and trusted a belief that he could make a better life in Canada or the United States.  A Methodist, he trusted in a higher authority.

There are few details about his childhood but there is  information about his family and the Lelant community he grew up in.  The 1841 Census recorded 2 years before the birth J.A.B. Wills gives a glimpse of the Wills family.  William Wills, head of the household and tin miner is 40 years old as is Lysha, his wife.  The children are:

• Mary Ann 15 years,
• William Francis 9 years,
• Sarah Jane 6 years,
• Zuba F 4 years, (presumably, this is Elystra Frances)
• William Henry 1 year.

Josiah Hill, a 12-year-old tin miner boards in the home which is in the rural settlement of Tevarrack outside of Lelant proper.

In the 1851 Census, William and Lystra are both 51. Mary Ann has left the household and two children were added, John Albert (J.A.B. Wills) 8 years old, and Amy, 3 years old.  Three children are attending school: Lystra Frances, 14 years, William Henry 11 years and J.A.B.  Josiah Hill, now 21  years old has remained a lodger in the family.  The family is living in a different settlement called “The Bowl”.  According to Maxwell Adams writing on his  Lelant website, “The Bowl” had ‘a few houses and a Methodist Chapel (Lelant Downs Methodist Chapel)’.

The community was composed primarily of working miners both tin and copper.  Mr. Maxwell Adams cites the 1841 census tallied  one third of Lelant males worked in mining, tin miners outnumbering copper.  Cornwall was built on mining which began in the Bronze Age and the Lelant economy was dependent on the industry.  About the time J.A.B. Wills was born that industry started a downward trajectory and struggled on almost to the end of the 20^th century.  The last mine closed in 1990s. The work was grueling, and the life of a miner was harsh.  Elystra was widowed on May 1, 1860 when William, 60 years old died.

According to the 1861 census, widowed Elystra Wills is farming on an acre on Beersheba Lane in Lelant.  John A. Wills, 18 years old and  the only son remaining in the household, is a tin miner.  His younger sister, Amy is going to school.  His sister, Lystra, her husband Joseph Clinton, also a tin miner,  and their first child are all in the household.

It was known that the Wills family and the Lelant community were committed Methodists during this period. Keith Mitchinson, writing in The Making of Captain Clinton, (a biography of Lystra Wills Clinton’s daughter ‘Minnie’) noted the Wills family “had early connections with that element of Methodism …” (page 3).  The connection  to Methodism was not unusual for the working class of Cornwall in the early 19^th century.

The Cornwall Family History Society notes that in Cornwall after the coming of the Methodist church in the late 1790s “Many left the Anglican Church to join this new church leading to its tremendous growth in the 1800s. In Cornwall, for example, there were 55 Methodist Churches in 1801 but by the end of the century this figure had risen to over 600”.  Cornwall Family History Society, Church Records.

There is little doubt, J.A.B. Wills grew up in a Methodist household and followed the teachings of John Wesley, the Anglican cleric who evangelized throughout Cornwall in the late 18^th Century.

At this point, it’s worthwhile to detail the Methodist teachings in Cornwall.  John Wesley was an ordained cleric in the Anglican Church who, with his brother Charles,  led a revival movement in England in the 18^th century that came to be known as Methodism.  He was known for open air evangelizing, not at the pulpit inside a church structure and often traveled throughout Cornwall spreading his doctrines to crowds. He helped organize societies of converts who believed in personal accountability and personal salvation in contrast to Calvinism that believed in predestination.  His messaging struck a chord with the working-class of Cornwall who were struggling with the rapid changes brought on by the industrial revolution.  The working conditions of underground miners were not dismissed by Methodism.  Quite to the contrary, John Wesley addressed thousands of tin miner and spoke to their spiritual needs  at Gwennap, Cornwall on September 6, 1762.  The site, known as Gwennap Pit, became known as John Wesley’s favored site to preach in Cornwall.  It may be no coincidence that Annie Reed, the future wife of J.A.B. Wills was born and raised in Gwennap.  Methodism presented Cornish miners with an alternative spiritual path than the long standing class structure of the high Anglican Church.

In 1866, J.A.B. Wills, now 26 years old, was able to save enough and wed. His marriage certificate notes he is now a railroad laborer.  On August 14, 1866 at the parish church, St. George’s, in Truro, Annie Reed , from Gwennap, and J.A.B. married “according to the rites and ceremonies of the established church”.  Annie’s sister, Emma Jane and J.A.B.’s younger sister, Amy, witnessed, as well as a gentleman named William Marten.

Soon afterwards, the couple set off for North America together leaving Cornwall behind and becoming a part of what is now called the Cornish Diaspora.

Although the exact record  of their voyage, a document call a shop’s manifest, has not been found, it is probable they set sail for Canada, which at the time, was the newly created Dominion of Canada and part of the British Empire.  The first documentation in North America is the birth and baptism of a daughter, Elystra Emma Wills in April 1868.

The hand written record from St Matthews Anglican Church, South Stukely, Town of Bolton, Quebec is on microfilm in the National Library and Archives of Quebec/ Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

J.A.B. Wills is again noted to be a miner on his daughter’s baptismal record.  He would follow the miner’s trail throughout his adult working life to support his family.  There’s more about the copper mine in Bolton, Quebec here.

Soon, they moved on to the Pennsylvania coal fields where William Henry Wills was born in 1869. It is possible J.A.B. Wills had a distinct Wills cousin working in Pennsylvania. Their time in there was brief and the only documentation supporting their time in Pennsylvania is the 1880 US Federal Census Essex County, New York that states “William is 10 years old” and his place of birth is “Penn”.

John Albert Berryman and Anne Reed did not remain long in Pennsylvania.  We know this because in 1871, their third child, Annie was born in the mining town of Moriah in the Adirondack Mountains.  Unfortunately, Annie died in infancy but J.A.B. and Anne remained probably because they had family nearby and there was steady, though difficult, work in the ore beds. John’s older brother, William Henry Wills, a Civil War veteran and his wife also lived and worked as a miner in the ore beds of Moriah.  During the 19th century the iron ore beds in Moriah supplied the nation with the ore to build cannon and artillery for the Civil War at the US Arsenal in Watervelit, NY.  The ore was shipped down the Champlain Canal and also made Troy famous for producing iron parlor stoves and bronze church bells.

In the Essex County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, John Albert Berryman Wills filed his Declaration of Intent to become an US citizen on January 19^th 1872. He stated he resided in the town of Moriah.  This is the document that made him and his family American…

We do not have a photograph of J.A.B. Wills but there is a photograph of Annie Reed – later in her life.  She was 2 to 6 years older than J.A.B. depending on which census record you consult.  When J.A.B. Wills was naturalized as a US citizen, she and their children were automatically included.

J.A.B. and Annie Reed Wills would continue to have more children in Moriah while he continued mining in the ore beds.

Annie Elizabeth Wills was born April 22, 1872. She later married Patrick White and lived in Greenwich, New York.

John Albert Wills was born September 2, 1873.

Henrietta or Wills, the youngest was born June 2, 1875. She later married Abraham Grover and lived in Massachusetts and Maine.

J.A.B. and Annie Wills remained in Moriah for almost 20 years.  On January 4th, 1888, William Henry Wills, J.A.B.’s older brother who was a Civil War veteran, died in Moriah.  Sometime after his death and 20+ years working in mines, J.A.B. and Annie Wills left Moriah and moved to Petersburgh, Rensselaer County, New York.  They created a small vegetable farm.  John A. Wills, their son peddled the produce to local factory workers.  Here is chronology of their journey:

• 1888 Jan – death of brother, William Henry Wills, in Moriah, NY.
• 1890 December J.A.B. Wills purchases land in North Pownal, Vermont with an indebtedness/mortgage for $1446.28.  J.A.B. Wills is noted to be of Petersburgh, Rensselaer County, New York. The property was formerly called “The Hastings Stand” and formerly the site of  “The Pownal Hotel” Property.
• 1894 J.A.B pays off his indebtedness/mortgage
• 1900 J.A.B. and Annie are living in Petersburg, Rensselaer County New York (US Federal Census).  John Albert Wills, their 26 year old son is also living in the household. The 1900 census required the enumerator record the month and year of birth of individuals and that provides us with new information:  Annie was born in March 1836 and J.A.B. Wills in April 1843, making Annie older than her husband by 7 years.
• 1900 Daughter, Elizabeth Wills is married to Patrick White and  living in Pownal, Vermont (US Federal Census).
• 1900 Son, William Henry Wills,  and wife Amelia, are also living in Pownal with their children (US Federal Census).
• 1903 August John A. Wills, son of J.A.B. and Annie Wills, marries Elizabeth Bissonnette in Cohoes Albany County New York without the approval of his parents.
• 1905 J.A.B. Wills and Annie Reed are living in Petersburgh, Rensselaer County, New York (New York State Census)
• 1905 October Annie Reed Wills dies in Mechanicville, Saratoga County, New York at the home of her oldest daughter, Emma Wills Ricker and buried in North Pownal Cemetery, Vermont.
• 1908 October 8th Purchases one acre of property in North Pownal, Vermont.
• 1910 J.A.B. Wills, widower is living in North Pownal, Vermont in the household of his daughter Emma, and son-in-law, George Ricker (US Federal Census).
• 1914 October 5th  J.A.B. Wills writes his Last Will & Testament.
• 1919 March 22nd  J.A.B. Wills dies in Hoosick Falls, Rensselaer County, New York.  he is buried next to Annie Reed, his wife, in the North Pownal Cemetery, Vermont.

Thanks to our late cousin, Regina Cranney Atchison, a Wills descendant, for researching and finally finding the location of J.A.B. Wills and Annie Reed graves.

Here are links to stories of John Albert Berriman Wills and Anne Reed written over a decade ago on FrancoAmericanGravy.blogspot.com