Jonathan Carver

Jonathan Carver[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Male 1710 - 1780  (69 years)

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  • Name Jonathan Carver 
    Born 13 Apr 1710  Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 3, 4, 5, 8
    Gender Male 
    _COLOR
    _FSFTID LCG7-T68 
    _UID 76C5C322608746C8951CCD4F315B2A11A95F 
    Died 31 Jan 1780  London, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    Person ID I237  McPherson History
    Last Modified 24 Apr 2018 

    Father David Carver,   b. Abt 1669, Marshfield, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 14 Sep 1727, Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 58 years) 
    Mother Hannah Dyer,   b. 13 Feb 1683, Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Bef 1722, prob. Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age < 38 years) 
    Married 1709  Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [9
    Family ID F60  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Abigail Robbins,   b. 1726, Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 9 Nov 1802, Brandon, Rutland, Vermont Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 76 years) 
    Married 20 Oct 1746  Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 6, 7, 8
    Children 
     1. Mary Carver,   b. 8 Apr 1747, Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aft 1794, Brandon, Rutland, Vermont Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age > 48 years)
     2. Abigail Carver,   b. 29 May 1748, Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 22 Jan 1829, Brandon, Rutland, Vermont Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 80 years)
     3. Sarah Carver,   b. 8 Jun 1750, Montague City, Franklin, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Yes, date unknown
     4. Rufus Carver,   b. 14 Dec 1754, Montague City, Franklin, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 20 Mar 1840, East Troy, Walworth, Wisconsin Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 85 years)
     5. Olive Carver,   b. 19 Jul 1758, Montague City, Franklin, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 21 Apr 1789, Montague City, Franklin, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 30 years)
     6. Jonathan Carver,   b. 3 Jan 1759, Montague City, Franklin, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Yes, date unknown
     7. Mindwell Carver,   b. 1 May 1762, Montague City, Franklin, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 5 Feb 1825, Monclova, Lucas, Ohio Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 62 years)
    Last Modified 15 Mar 2020 
    Family ID F73  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • Jonathan Carver was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts on April 13, 1710. Little is known about his life until he joined the colonial militia in 1755 during the French and Indian War. Much of his time in the militia was spent at forts along the frontier. When he mustered out after eight years, Carver held the rank of Captain. By this time, he was 53 years old. With western lands opening up, Carver bought books on cartography and surveying so that he would be able to make maps of the new frontier.
      Captain Carver’s opportunity to explore the expanded frontier materialized in 1766 when a party was organized to map part of the new land and find a western water route which flowed to the Pacific Ocean. Carver was charged with documenting geography as well as the number and location of Indians. He was also told to describe the trade posts that they encountered along the way.
      Carver spent the winter of 1767 around Saint Anthony Falls and along the Minnesota River. When the rest of the party joined him that spring, they began to explore the area but quickly ran out of supplies and were forced to turn back. During the rest of 1767 and early 1768, Carver spent much of his time at the frontier Fort Michilimackinac in Michigan where he worked on his journals documenting their exploration. He then traveled to London where he found an editor to liven up his journals for wide-spread publication.
      Carver’s book, Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768 was published in 1778 and immediately found critical acclaim. Unfortunately, the book’s profits did not come soon enough for Carver. He died destitute in 1780.
      By 1789 praise for the book had faded and many were questioning the validity of Carver’s exploration claims and accused him of plagiarizing the work of other explorers. The controversy was heightened when Carver’s descendants claimed that two Dakotah chiefs had deeded the Captain thousands of acres of land in what is now southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Many, including the federal government, saw this claim as fraudulent and it has never been treated as valid.
      The controversy over Travels persisted until the original journals documenting his explorations were discovered at the British Museum in the early 1900s. The journals helped prove that his book’s inaccuracies and plagiarism were based on the work of Carver’s editor, not Carver. And while the validity of his land claim has never been fully resolved to the satisfaction of his descendants, Jonathan Carver’s work as an explorer has been exonerated by most historians. - unknown

      From HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF SUNDERLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, MONTAGUE & LEVERETT
      By John Montague Smith (1899)

      CARVER, JONATHAN, from Canterbury, Ct., doubtless descended from Robert Carver (believed to be the grand nephew of John Carver, financier of the Mayflower expedition and first Governor of The Plymouth Colony), who settled in what is now Marshfield, sometime prior to 1636. He married 1746, in Canterbury, Ct., Abigail, daughter of Nathaniel and Phebe (Sevine) Robbins; lived in Montague, perhaps also in Northfield; soldier in the last French and Indian war, and narrowly escaped with his life at the massacre of Fort William Henry; afterwards Captain. In June, 1766, at his own cost and risk, he undertook a journey into the vast territory acquired by Great Britain at the establishment of peace in 1763. "What I had chiefly in view," he says, after gaining a knowledge of the manners customs, languages, soil and natural productions of the different nations that inhabit the back of the Mississippi, was to ascertain the breadth of that vast continent which extends from the Atlantic to Pacific ocean, in its broadest part, between 43 and 46 degrees, northern latitude. Had I been able to accomplish this, I intended to have proposed to government to establish a post in some of those parts about the Straits of Annian, which having been first discovered by Sir Francis Drake, of course belong to the English." The straits of Annian are not known by that name at the present day, but Seattle and Tacoma now flourish in the region where Carver would have established his post. However, the head waters of the Mississippi was the remotest region which he reached. He was everywhere hospitably received by the natives; was five months with the Nandowissies, who made him a chief. But few of them had ever before seen a white man. He arrived at Boston on his return journey, Oct., 1768, and the next year went to London, where he published his book of travels, of which there have been about 20 editions. He entered into a project with Richard Whitworth, Esq., a man of means, to equip an expedition to carry out his original intention and not only that, but to find a passage from the Pacific to Hudson's Bay (The elusive Northwest Passage. King George II was offering a reward of 100,000 Pounds Sterling for its discovery). They were to have erected a fort at Lake Pepin by which to hold the new possessions and open them up to development, but the commencement of the Revolution thwarted their plans.He recognized the value of this section of country, which later explorers pronounced a barren region, incapable of sustaining a large population.

      He started on his expedition, from Boston in June, 1766. He travelled in all as much as 7000 miles, by canoe along the shores of the Great lakes alone with one guide, and explored much of the territory in the present State of Minnesota. He spent some time with the Indians, and as a reward for negotiating a peace treaty between them, received from two of their chiefs a deed to 12,000 acres of land on the Mississippi, east of Lake Pepin and the Falls of St. Anthony. (This account is largely thought to have been a fraud or a myth, perpetrated to generate income, but for nearly 50 years a large tract of land appeared on maps of the U.S. designated as "Carver's Tract", and areas of Minnesota still bear his name. See "The Journals of Jonathan Carver" by John Parker, Minnesota Press, for a studied treatment of this issue. ISBN 0-87351-099-2) He returned to Boston in October, 1768, and, having spent his entire fortune in carrying out his explorations, he sailed the next year for England, where he petitioned the Government for a reward for his services. He received nothing, except permission to publish his journal and charts. In 1778 the first edition of his book appeared in London, under the title, "Three Years' Travels Throughout the Interior Parts of North America." For this he received nothing except his expenses, and less than two years later he died in poverty. After his death the book had a large sale, and before the close of the century eight editions had been published.


  • Sources 
    1. [S136] Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection).
      Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection)
      Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection)


    2. [S100] Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988.
      Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988
      Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988


    3. [S46] U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970, Volume: 157; SAR Membership Number: 31323.
      U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970
      U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970


    4. [S100] Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988.
      Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988
      Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988


    5. [S100] Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988.
      Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988
      Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988


    6. [S128] Early Connecticut Marriages.
      Early Connecticut Marriages
      Early Connecticut Marriages


    7. [S135] Connecticut, Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920.
      Connecticut, Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920
      Connecticut, Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920


    8. [S139] The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, 1847-2011.

    9. [S138] U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900, Source number: 23948.003; Source type: Pedigree chart; Number of Pages: 8.