March 8, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes about Edward Joy Rawson and Eliza Fitch Coffin Janney, and their connections to the Edward Rawson family line. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I resume with Edward Rawson (1615-1693), first Secretary of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and his descendants.
I found a marriage between a direct descendant, Edward Joy Rawson (1826-1902) – son of Captain Edward Briggs Rawson and Sarah Joy – to Eliza Fitch Coffin Janney (1830-1907) – daughter of John Coffin and Clarissa Finch – who shared the same New England blood lines.
Edward and Eliza were abolitionists, educators, civil rights workers, and members of the Society of Friends (also known as the Quakers.)
Their pedigrees can be traced back to many other early Massachusetts pioneers, such as Tristram Coffin, George Bunker, Thomas Macy, Robert Stetson, Richard Gardner, and Samuel Shattuck.
Edward and Eliza had each previously been married and had children.
Eliza was first married to Quaker John Janney, who died in 1858. Their issue: Samuel McPherson Janney, who married Margaret Algar Miller; and Clarissa Janney.
Edward was first married to Quakeress Elizabeth Hall, who died in 1873. Their issue: Edward Briggs Rawson, who married Marianna Smith; and Helen “Nellie” Hall Rawson, who married Lewis George Janes.
Eliza’s first father-in-law, Samuel M. Janney, was a prominent member of the Quakers of Lincoln, Virginia. He was an educator and writer.
According to sources, years before Edward married Eliza, he was an instructor at Janney’s Quaker boarding school Springdale, in Lincoln.
Before Eliza married Edward she worked with Janney, as noted by her sister Mary Coffin Brooke (1833-1927) in her book Memories of Eighty Years:
Shortly before my marriage, my sister Eliza went, with the family of her father-in-law, Samuel M. Janney, to live in Omaha. He had been appointed, by President Grant, Superintendent of five of the Indian Reservations in Kansas and Nebraska, and Eliza was his secretary, and accompanied him on his semiannual journeys to pay the annuities to the different tribes. In 1875, she came East and was married to Edward J. Rawson of Brooklyn, New York. (Memories of Eighty Years, Knickerbocker Press, 1916, page 82.)
Janney’s report of the Indian Executive Committee was reported in the Alexandria Gazette in 1874.
By searching GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives I found more clips about Janney’s office, but the bullseye was one from 1869 in the Raftsman’s Journal in which Eliza is mentioned.
This article reports:
Mrs. Eliza F. Janney, a Virginian lady, distinguished for her brave loyalty during the war, has been made Chief Clerk at the Omaha Indian agency.
According to the 1880 census, Edward and Eliza were living in Brooklyn, New York, with: the two children from her first marriage (Samuel Janney and Clarissa Janney); the two children from his first marriage (Edward Rawson and Helen Rawson); and Eliza’s father John Coffin (aged 72).
In the “Profession, Occupation or Trade” column, Edward is listed as the treasurer of the New York Floating Elevator Company.
I found an announcement by Edward published in the New York Journal of Commerce in 1874 informing the public there would be an election for nine trustees and three inspectors for the company.
By 1900 Edward and Eliza were retired and living in Virginia. They were active members of the Goose Creek Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends.
Edward died in 1902 and Eliza in 1907. A tribute to Eliza was published in the Friends Intelligencer, Volume 64, which tells of her good service:
Eliza was for many years an earnest and successful teacher, and at her funeral one of her earliest pupils bore loving testimony to her valuable instruction. The impress of her strong sweet character was always felt by all classes in any community where her lot was cast and her active mind and busy hands were ever ready to relieve the suffering, to strengthen the faltering and to help with any good work. It is not often the privilege of one person to influence for good as many lives as has been this dear Friend who has just left us. (page 541)
Information on Edward and Eliza can be found in the U.S. Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935 on Family Search, and in the Friends Intelligencer published by the Society of Friends.
Stay tuned as I trace the Rawson-Coffin ancestors back each generation.
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Note on the header image: close-up of a portrait of Edward Rawson, by the Freake Painter, c. 1670. Credit: New England Historic Genealogical Society; Wikimedia Commons.
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