(Who is John Vose?)

 

When I visited the Catholic Diocese Office in Saint John, 20 years ago, I was intrigued by this record. It states:

“On the twenty-third day of January, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, I baptized William, four days old, born of the unlawful marriage of John Vose, a Protestant and Jane Mooney, a Catholic.”

The words in italics were crossed out, and the words “of unknown parents” were written above the original. In the right-hand column, William is listed, but a second name has been crossed out. Upon close examination, the word that has been crossed out is Vose.

The Archivist explained it was rare that a priest would baptize a child of unwed parents and even rarer to do it and then cross out their names. But, the record exists. Both the Archivist and I agreed the father’s name appeared to be JOHN VOSE and the mother’s first name was JANE, the last name was harder to decipher: the fist letter looks like an M or an H and there is a Y or G near the end of the name.  Recently, Grace Brennan McCallum researched the original entry and it was clear that the mother’s name was Jane Mooney. 

James and Sarah Proud adopted my Grandfather William James Brennan (b. 19 Jan. 1884). The Brennan’s had been married 13 years before in the Church of Assumption, Saint John, N.B. The name, the date of birth, and working back from the baptism date are correct for my Grandfather. In addition in James Brennan’s obituary (1911), William is listed an adopted son.  In the 1881 Census of Canada,  James and Sarah lived at 135 Erin St. with Sarah’s parents Thomas Proud.  See my post about Will’s life at William James Brennan, Canadian Expeditionary Force, WW1

In this post I will try to answer the question: Who is John Vose?  But before I answer that question let met first ask: Who was Jane?

We know that Jane Mooney was Catholic and that the Bishop of Saint John, Thomas Connolly officiated at the baptism since the record provides us with this information.  Significantly, Bishop Connolly presided at the baptism since he married James and Sarah as well. I suspect that the Bishop may have facilitated the adoption of William through his knowledge of the many families in the area. 

We also know that Bernard Mooney and Sons was a well-known Masonry Company in Saint John at the time. Since James Proud was a mason, my best guess is that it was through the Mooneys that James and Sarah Proud adopted James William Brennan. I will write more about Jane Mooney when I have solved the puzzle of her parentage.

I have spent endless hours, in the past 20 years, trying to find John Vose. The databases at the NB Provincial Archives produced 52 records of Vose marriages, births and notices in local newspapers of the day.  A few were related to John Wells Vose (b.1833) , but many were Vose family members born in Maine who married in New Brunswick.  Upon further study, I learned that Robbinston, Me. was near the St. Stephen Border and the Vose Family was one of the earliest to settle in the area.   The Vose Family in New Hampshire (including what is now Maine) can be traced back to the early 1600s.  It is widely believed that Robert Vose (b.1599) is the direct ancestor of Vose families that has lived throughout the United States and Canada.

This past Christmas, my son Dana, gave me an Ancestry DNA kit. By early March 2018, I had my results. Imagine my surprise and excitement when I discovered I had four – 3rd Cousins, four – 4th Cousins and numerous distant cousins from the Vose Family. All of the third and fourth cousins were descendants of Elisha Vose (1796-1876).  None of my DNA matches were from the line of John Wells Vose (b.1831) who lived in Charlotte County, NB. This suggests that my John Vose is a descendant of Elisha Vose.  Elisha had three sons.  Charles, George and John. All of my Vose cousins are descendants of George Vose.  This leaves Charles and John. Charles had one son  Charles (b.1861) and a daughter Ella (b. 1859).  This leaves John Henry Vose (b. 1845) as the probable biological father of William James Brennan.

John Henry Vose (b.1845) and his wife Emma Gragg had three daughters and two sons from 1875 to 1888 while living in Portland ME. He was an Agent for J. P. Squires and Company of Boston.  In effect, he was a travelling salesman for the company.  This ad in the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier occurred numerous times in the Bangor paper as well as other papers throughout Maine..

As the Eastern Agent John H. Vose would have traveled throughout Eastern Maine and beyond selling pork products,  lard and other products to grocers in the region.  Perhaps he made a regular trip to Saint John, NB, but we may never know with any certainty.

References:

1. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/connolly_thomas_louis_10E.html
2. March 19 1896 entitled Early Days on the St. Croix and transcribed by Daniel F. Johnson : Volume 102 Number 2216.
3. Ancestry Messages from B. Lavin (Vose Descendent)  who helped me with the Vose Family Tree and helped me identify John H. Vose. I was a match on her DNA results too.