Betts

Mahlon Betts 1795–1867

Third Cousin Six Times Removed

Mahlon Betts was born on Mar. 16, 1795 in Pennsylvania. Mahlon married Mary Richards Seal on Nov. 8, 1818. He passed away on Mar. 4, 1867 in Wilmington, Delaware at age 71. He was buried in Wilmington.

State Office Party
Delaware Representative
Delaware Senator

Mercy Denton Sackett

Eighth Great Grandmother

Mercy Denton became a Whitehead in 1672. Mercy married Thomas Betts on Apr. 3, 1683 in New York. She married Joseph Sackett in 1711.

The Family Record [Newburgh] Jan. 1897. Web.
CAPT. JOSEPH SACKETT, of Newtown, Long Island, N. Y., married, about 1678, Elizabeth, dau. of Capt. Richard Betts. ... For his third wife he married Mercy, widow of Capt. Thomas Betts

The Family Record [Newburgh] Feb. 1897. Web.
Mrs. Mercy Whitehead Betts, who became the third wife of Capt. Joseph Sackett, was the daughter of Major Daniel Whitehead, of Jamaica, and Abigail, daughter of Thomas Stephenson. Major Whitehead served several years in the magistracy of Queens County and was a member of the Colonial Assembly of the province from 1691 until his death in 1704.
When in 1711 Capt. Joseph Sackett and widow Mercy Betts were married, the former was 55 years of age and had eleven children, while the latter was about 48 and had nine children, making an even score. Each had a daughter Abigail, each had a son Richard, and each had a daughter Elizabeth. Sixteen of the number married and had children, and nearly all the sons, as well as the husbands of the daughters, became men of prominence in their day and generation; while among their descendants have been Governors of States, Cabinet Officers, Bishops, Judges, Generals and Ministers of the United States to the principal Courts of Europe.

Elizabeth Ann Betts Comfort

Seventh Great Grandmother

Elizabeth Ann Betts was born in New York. Elizabeth married Robert Comfort on Oct. 9, 1722 in New York.

Cooke, George H. Vol. LXXI. New York: American Society of Civil Engineers, 1911. 452. Web.
Robert Comfort, the son of the first Robert Comfort, married Elizabeth Betts

Thomas Betts 1662–1709

Eighth Great Grandfather

Thomas Betts was born in 1662. Thomas married Mercy Denton Whitehead on Apr. 3, 1683 in New York. He passed away in 1709 in New York.

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. 1987. Rpt. in Long Island Source Records. By Henry B. Hoff. Baltimore, 2001. 138-39. Web.
Betts, Thomas of Newtown 29 June 1709. Devised to wife Mary life use of his estate & lands between the road to Capt. Betts & the road to Hell Gate; she to pay £50 to two eldest daus. Mercy Hazard & Abigail Betts, when Abigail is eighteen. To son Richard the land willed me by my father Richard at Mespatt Kills. To sons Thomas & Daniel the homestead, when of age, they to pay £25 to each of their sisters, viz :—Mercy Hazard, Abigail Betts, Joannah Betts, Mary Betts, Elizabeth Betts, & Deborah Betts, when they reach 21. Exrs: wife & son Richard. Overseers: John Berrien & John Stevenson. Wits: Joseph Sackett, Philip Ketcham, & John Denman. Pro. 23 Sept. 1709.

Wolfe, Janet Chevalley, and Robert Wolfe. "Notes for Thomas Betts and Mercy Whitehead." U of Michigan. Web.
1698 Thomas Betts was listed as an inhabitant of Newtown, Long Island with a family of 12 persons and 4 negros in a census taken in August.

Richard Betts 1613–1713

Ninth Great Grandfather

Richard Betts was born in 1613 in Hertfordshire, England. Richard passed away on Nov. 18, 1713 in Long Island, New York. He was buried on Nov. 20, 1713.

"Abstracts of Wills." Collections of the New-York Historical Society. Vol. XXVI. 1894. 113-14. Web.
In the name of God, Amen. I, Richard Betts, of Newtown, in Queens County, on Nassau Island, yeoman, being in good health. I leave to my wife Johanah, all my homestead and buildings and lot of land belonging to the same, lying between the lands of John Scudder and Richard Betts, son of Thomas Betts, deceased; Also my tract of land between the way that leads to the narrow passage and the land of Samuel Albertus, and the meadow adjoining to the same; Also all my movable estate, and liberty to get what hay she may have occasion for during her life. After the decease of my wife I leave to my son, Richard Betts, my Camlet cloak, for his birthright, and all my right and interest in lands in Plunder neck; Also my house and home lot and buildings; Also ½ of the lands and meadows that lyeth below the road, that leads from the English Kill to the Dutch Kills, bounded by Samuel Albertus and John Allen, with all the appurtenances; Also ½ the meadow land above the homestead, situate between the lands of John Scudder and Richard Betts, sons of Thomas Betts, deceased. I leave to my grand son, Richard Betts, son of Thomas Betts, my tract of land lying between the way that leads to the narrow passage and the land of Samuel Albertus, up to Newtown spring; Also ½ the meadow and upland, that lyeth between the road that leads from the English Kills to the Dutch Kills, bounded by Samuel Albertus and John Allen. All movable estate after my wife's death to my daughters, Johanah Sander, Mary Swazy, and Martha Ketcham, and the children of my daughter, Elizabeth Sackett, deceased, and the children of my daughter, Sarah Hunt, deceased. I appoint my sons in law, Joseph Sackett and Phillip Ketcham, executors.
Witnesses, John Donan, Hannah Field, John Gould. Proved, November 26, 1713.

The Family Record [Newburgh] Feb. 1897. Web. Poyer was rector of Episcopal churches.
CAPT. RICHARD BETTS, the father of Elizabeth, the first wife of Capt. Joseph Sackett, was born Hertfordshire, England, in the year 1613. He came to New England about the year 1635, and in 1636 settled at Newtown, Mass., from which place, prior to 1642, he removed to Ipswich, where he remained until about 1654, when he became a permanent resident of Newtown, Long Island. There he soon acquired prominence and influence, and for upwards of half a century participated largely in public affairs. In the revolution of 1663 he bore a zealous part, and after the conquest of New Netherlands by the English he was a member from Newtown of the Provisional Assembly, held at Hempstead in 1665. He was "High Sheriff of Yorkshire, upon Long Island" from 1678 to 1681. For a long series of years he was a magistrate, and several times a member of the "High Court of Assize," then the supreme power in the province. His name is honorably mentioned in upwards of thirty distinct paragraphs on the pages of "Riker's Annals of Newtown," the last of which reads as follows: "The last survivor of the original purchasers, Capt. Richard Betts, died on Nov. 18, of this year" (1713), "at the patriarchal age of a hundred years. None in the township has been so eminent as he for commanding influence and valuable public service. His remains were interred on his own estate at the English Kills, on the 20th, with a funeral service by Mr. Poyer, rector of Jamaica Parish."

O'Gorman, William. Long Island Star. Rpt. in A History of Long Island. By Peter Ross. Vol. I. 1902. 709. Web.
He became a bitter opponent to Director Pieter Stuyvesant and the little town of Bushwick, which he had founded. Under leave from the Governor, the English settlers had planted their town, but were refused the usual patent, and in 1656 Richard Betts administered a severe blow to Stuyvesant by purchasing the land for himself and fifty-five associates, from the red men, at the rate of one shilling per acre. The total cost amounted to £68 16s. 4d. which, with the sum of £76 9s. paid to the sachems Pomwaukon and Rowerowestco, extinguished the Indian title to Newtown.