Phillip Tilton 1741 1

Phillip Tilton and Tabitha Prescott

Summer 1967(Reprinted 2005, unchanged)

Dear Members of the Hyde Family, I am going to write the story of Polly Wyman Tilton and her family as a letter to you,

because of the way in which the information unfolded, and because it has been a very specialexperience for me to do this research.

The true identity of the parents of Polly Wyman Tilton has for many years been a mystery,as newly found information seemed to conflict with what was already known. Polly gave herparents’ names, at the time of her patriarchal blessing, as Phillip Tilton and Tabitha, and birthdate as 20 January 1786. In the early L.D.S. records of the 13th Ward in Salt Lake City shegave her birthplace as Moultonborough, New Hampshire. Family Records said she was thedaughter of Phillip Tilton and Tabitha Bullock.

This sounds like everything necessary is known to go on with research, and William ArleyCole began optimistically to check the known data. But it turned out to be much more difficultto verify than he had expected. An earlier report of his reads, in part:

Tracing the ancestry of Polly Wyman Tilton, wife of Heman Hyde, has been one of mymost exasperating problems. . . .

Writing to the keeper of the vital records of the State of New Hampshire, we find thatthe record of her birth was never recorded, nor is there any record of any other childrenborn to Phillip Tilton and Tabitha Bullock. There is also no record of any marriage betweenPhillip Tilton and Tabitha Bullock.

From living grandchildren of Polly Wyman Tilton, who have heard their own grand-mother bear testimony to the fact, we learn that she was partly of Indian blood. . . .

I have come to the following conclusions: for some reason her birth was not reported tothe proper authorities, perhaps because of her Indian birth, perhaps because the birth wasnot legitimate, or perhaps for both reasons. Also I conclude that her parents were eithermarried outside the state of New Hampshire, or perhaps they were never married.

Mr. Francis Theodore Tilton, of Clifton, New Jersey, has spent many years’ researchon Tilton genealogies and has a very complete record of all Tiltons of New Hampshire. Inhis record there are hundreds of Tiltons, but only one who carried the name Phillip Tilton.He was the son of Josiah Tilton and Sarah Flanders, and was born 10 Apr. 1741, in NewHampshire, in or near East Kingston. His name Philip was taken from his grandfather,Philip Flanders. Philip is a very common name in the Flanders family.

I am convinced that this Philip Tilton is the father of Polly Wyman Tilton: because heis the only person by that name in New Hampshire that we can find record of; because hewas born and lived all his life in New Hampshire, and Polly Wyman Tilton was born inNew Hampshire; and because there is no record of the birth of Polly Wyman Tilton to befound in the state records— this in connection with the fact that her mother was Indian, andthat Polly was born while Philip Tilton was legitimately married to Mary Batchelder.

At this writing (1967) nothing further has been found to prove or disprove the above sug-gestion concerning the identity of the father of Polly Wyman Tilton, and it is still felt that wehave the right man; but without proof this identity is not given on the accompanying familygroup sheet. After Brother Cole wrote the above report about Philip Tilton some “new” infor-mation came to light. Ruby Stewart, of Pocatello, Idaho, while visiting George Tilton Hyde inDowney, Idaho, he being a grandson of Polly Wyman Tilton Hyde, was shown an old record

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book kept by Rosel Hyde, son of Polly Wyman Tilton Hyde. In this book was recorded thefollowing:

Names of ancestors on mother’s sideMother’s name was Polly W. Hyde First grandfather and mother

John and Tabitha Bullock Second grand mother

Abagail Prescott(the above names have been baptized for)

Great aunts on mother’s side:Polly and Rhoda Prescott, sisters of Tabitha Bullock

This was a rather startling discovery, which seemed to disclaim Phillip Tilton, and say thatTabitha was a Prescott, not a Bullock, and that Polly’s father was John Bullock. Brother Colethen searched the records of Strafford, Vermont, where in 1810 Polly married Heman Hyde.Here he found several children born to John and Tabitha Bullock between the years 1791 and1805, their names being Joel, Ephraim, Adam, Hannah, David, Daniel, and Anna. There wasalso a John Bullock who died in 1804 age 20 years. How did Polly fit into this picture, if she fitat all?

At this point Brother Cole became so busy with his other work that he was unable to pursuethis problem further. In 1962 the Heman Hyde Family Organization asked me to see if I couldfind anything to help straighten out the seeming discrepancies. I rechecked everything BrotherCole had found, and agreed with him. It looked as though Polly was the illegitimate daughter ofPhillip Tilton and Tabitha Prescott, Tabitha subsequently marrying John Bullock; but we hadactual proof of none of these assumptions.

Rosel Hyde’s record book stated that “the above names have been baptized for.” In anotherinstance he recorded the dates of when some other family temple work had been completed inthe Logan Temple. I searched the Logan Temple records, and found the families of HemanHyde and his children, but no Prescotts, Bullocks, or Tiltons. I had previously checked theEndowment House Baptisms for the Dead and found no Hydes as proxies. I made other exhaus-tive searches in Vermont records but came up with nothing conclusive.

Then one day, in a letter, Ruby Stewart suggested that we fast and pray about our dilemma,which we did. The Lord truly answered our petition, as the next week I felt impressed to checkthe Endowment House records again. I looked at the microfilm copy of the master index to allthe Endowment House Baptisms for the Dead, and was most surprised to find several Hydeentries as proxies; all I can figure is that the first time I only looked in Book A and its index,which had no Hydes.

Upon turning to the pages with the Hyde entries I found, among other Hyde ancestors, thefollowing:

Baptisms 6 July 1870, Charles Walker Hyde as proxy [he son of Polly Wyman Tilton Hyde]

Philip Tilton Grand SonJohn Bullock Dist Relative

Baptisms 20 July 1870, Charles Walker Hyde as proxyJoel Bullock NephewHeber Holms Nephew

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Baptisms 26 Oct 1870, Martha Ann Hyde Hunter as proxy [she a granddaughterof Polly Wyman Tilton Hyde]

Tabitha Prescott Bullock Gt. Grand DaughterAbigail Prescott 2nd Gt. Grand Daughter

The baptism of Joel Bullock, to whom Charles Walker Hyde was a nephew, gives us theproof we need that John and Tabitha of Strafford, Vermont are the right people, Brother Colehaving found Joel’s birth record already. Further research showed that Heber (Eber) Holmsmarried Joel’s sister Hannah Bullock.

Brother Cole had found, in the Temple Index Bureau, the sealing of John Bullock andTabitha Prescott, but no indication on the card that they belonged to the Hyde family. I checkedthe microfilm copy of the original Sealing Records of the Endowment House and found:

Sealings 26 October 1870John Bullock b. 1749 Rhode IslandTabitha Prescott b. 1769 Vermontheir and heiress: Charles Walker Hyde and

Martha Ann Hyde Hunter

From this we can be quite certain that Tabitha Prescott was not married to Phillip Tilton,the father of her first child, otherwise her grandchildren would have sealed her to him.

From the searches already here mentioned, and from further research, we can reconstructthe following about the family of Polly Wyman Tilton:

Brother Cole was told that Polly’s mother was an Indian and that as a baby she was broughtto the door of the house of a white man. The Indians asked the white man to keep her. Whenthe family protested, the Indians said they were traveling and would not take her with them, butwould kill her if the whites didn’t take her. The family couldn’t bear to think of a baby beingkilled, so took her and raised her as their own. Perhaps this Indian baby was half white, whichis why the Indians didn’t want her.

The surname of the white family must have been Prescott, the mother’s name being Abigailand two of the daughters being Polly and Rhoda (these recorded in Rosel Hyde’s record book).Research thus far has found many Prescott families, but none that fit this description. The fam-ily was probably living in or near East Kingston, New Hampshire, where Philip Tilton lived.

Tabitha, the name her white adopted parents had given her, grew up. When she was anattractive sixteen years old (if the birth year assigned her by Charles Walker Hyde is correct—and it may well be close, as, according to the 1800 census she was born after 1755) she some-how became involved with Philip Tilton, a respected man in his community. She must haveadmired him, or her daughter probably would not have kept his name, so we can perhaps con-jecture that in order to cause him no hurt in reputation she moved a number of miles away tohave her baby; possibly he provided for her to make the move. She most likely hired out asdomestic help— maybe had even worked in the home of Philip Tilton.

Her baby, which she named Polly Wyman Tilton, was born in Moultonborough, NewHampshire, 20 January 1786. Sometime during the next couple of years Tabitha moved again,perhaps with a family for whom she worked, or by herself, this time westward to Strafford,Vermont. Here she met and married John Bullock.

John Bullock was born in 1749 in Rhode Island (according to Charles Walker Hyde; thecensus of 1800 partially substantiates this, putting him born before 1755). He was in Strafford,Vermont by 1785, the date of the first deed I can find for him there. He was a widower when

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he married Tabitha Prescott, his first wife undoubtedly being a daughter of Ezekiel Parish. InStrafford records is a quit-claim deed involving the rights of John Bullock’s children Mary andJohn to the estate of Ezekiel Parish. (This son John is the John Bullock who died in 1804.)There were very possibly two other children in this family, besides Mary and John, who wereliving in 1790 but died before 1800 (from census records). John Bullock and Tabitha Prescottwere married probably in 1789 or early in 1790, as the 1790 census lists enough people in thefamily to account for John and his earlier children, as well as Tabitha and her daughter.

John Bullock sold all his Strafford land in 1813. This is the same year that Heman Hydemoved to the town of York in New York state, and John Bullock probably moved there also.One of his sons is listed in the York 1820 census, as is Heman Hyde, but John Bullock is not.He may have died before then. Search has been made in New York and in Vermont for hisprobate record, but none has been found. When and where Tabitha died is also unknown.

At last our somewhat meager information could be submitted to the Genealogical Societyfor processing. It was now nearly one hundred years since those first few baptisms were per-formed for Polly’s mother, grandmother, father, step-father, brother and brother-in-law. Theendowments for most of these were still not done. I can testify to you that it was made knownto me that these people were thrilled that their turn had come. This was one of the most mar-velous experiences of my life, and I thank the Hyde family from the bottom of my heart forgiving me the opportunity to work with this worthy family.

Myrtle S. Hyde

1979 Note: See John Bullock.