Photo Album: Coffin-Standish-Nickerson and Allied Families

Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry shows photos from an old Nantucket photo album and provides genealogy. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I cover some family photographs and daguerreotypes from the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association that include scions of Nantucket settlers, Plymouth’s Mayflower passengers, and Connecticut’s first families.

Early Nantucket Families

Here is a photograph taken 12 August 1886 on the front steps of the Simpson House at 25 Pearl Street (now known as 25 India Street) in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Here is an enlargement of the above photo showing more clearly the six people on the front steps. They are:

• John Newton Standish Jr. (1858-1930), son of John Newton Sr. and Abigail Maria (Churchill) Standish. He was married to Mary Louise Pollard (Simpson) Standish.
• Mary Louise Pollard (Simpson) Standish (1858-1900), daughter of George Riddell and Mary Abby (Coffin) Simpson. She was married to John Newton Standish Jr.
• Caroline Frances “Aunt Fannie” Simpson (1865-1889).
• Keziah Joy Coffin (1825-1920), daughter of John Gayer and Rebecca Luce (Joy) Coffin.
• Rebecca Luce (Joy) (Coffin) Nickerson (1798-1894), daughter of Obed and Anna (Cartwright) Joy. She married first John Gayer Coffin, and 2nd Capt. John Hopkins Nickerson (1811-1885).
• Mary Abby (Coffin) Simpson (1828-1916), daughter of John Gayer and Rebecca Luce (Joy) Coffin. She was married to George Riddell Simpson (1814-1864), son of William and Sally Coffin (Riddell) Simpson.

The Nantucket Historical Association has a collection of daguerreotypes associated with the above families.

Standish Mother & Son

This is a photo of Abigail Maria (Churchill) Standish (1832-1913), daughter of Levi Belden and Abigail (Griswold) Churchill, with her son John Newton Standish Jr. (1858-1930). She was married to Captain John Newton Standish Sr. (1831-1888), son of James Tryon Sr. and Cynthia (Welles) Standish.

I found an obituary for Abigail in the Bridgeport Evening Farmer. She died 13 May 1913.

This article reports:

Death came to Abigail Churchill, widow of John Newton Standish, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Rose M. Fuller [born Rose Maria Standish, married 1st Thomas Jefferson Jennings, and 2nd Elbert Asher Fuller] in Wethersfield [Connecticut], Tuesday. Mrs. Standish was 80 years of age and was a native of Wethersfield. She was a resident of this city for many years and was well known and highly respected here. Upon the death of her husband in 1888 Mrs. Standish went to Wethersfield to live with her daughter. Mrs. Standish is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Fuller and Mrs. Harriet [“Hattie” Isabella Standish] Griswold [wife of Arthur Harry Griswold Sr.], both of Wethersfield, and three sons, John N. Standish and George [Welles] Standish [married Margaret E. “Maggie” Hearn] of this city [Bridgeport], and Miles [Stephen] Standish [married Florence May Bouton] of Wethersfield.

Simpson Mother & Daughter

Here is a photo of Mary Abby (Coffin) Simpson (1828-1916), daughter of John Gayer and Rebecca Luce (Joy) Coffin, and her daughter Mary Louise Pollard Simpson (1858-1900) through her marriage to George Riddell Simpson. Mary Louise descends from Tristram Coffin, Peter Folger, Richard Gardner, Samuel Shattuck, Jone Coleman, Richard Swain, Edward Rawson, and Joseph Grafton.

Nickerson Father & Son

Here we see Captain Joseph Hopkins Nickerson (1807-1885), son of Samuel and Rhoda (Hopkins) Nickerson, and his son Charles Jasper Nickerson (1836-1911) through his marriage to Rebecca Luce (Joy) (Coffin) Nickerson (1798-1894), daughter of Obed and Anna (Cartwright) Joy. Charles Jasper Nickerson married Mary McConnell and 2nd Henrietta Len, leaving descendants.

Captain Nickerson was a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers Stephen Hopkins and William Brewster, and Plymouth Governor Thomas Prence. Below is a watercolor of his daughter Frances and a photograph of her with classmates.

Watercolor Portrait of the Daughter of a Sea Captain

Here is a watercolor portrait of Frances “Fannie” Teresa (Nickerson) Kingman (1838-1910), daughter of Captain Joseph Hopkins and Rebecca Luce (Joy) Nickerson. She married Gardner Josiah Kingman, son of Josiah Washburn and Margaret “Polly” (Packard) Kingman. The couple lived in Brockton, Massachusetts, and summered in Nantucket at 39 Main Street.

Frances Nickerson with Coffin Schoolmates

Here we see “Les Demoiselles of the Graduating Class of the Coffin School in Nantucket Taken May 15, 1886.” From left to right: Mary Waitt, Miriam F. Sandsbury, Barrie J. Austin, Frances Nickerson, Evelyn Morris, John Stockley Barey, and Emily R. Coffin.

Stay tuned for more on these family lines.

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Note on the header image: flag of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Credit: NuclearVacuum; Wikimedia Commons.