Journey Through the Hull Branch

Yesterday I wrote about my 3x great grandparents, John William Hull (1810-1881) & his wife, Sophia C. Kelley (1815-?), in an attempt to manage my research on the Hull Family. JW Hull was the son of William Little Hull (1786-1836) and the third child of seven siblings. His mother was Lydia Packard (1788-1870)

William Little Hull [4th great grandfather] was born on February 2, 1786 in Willington, Connecticut. On December 29,1805 he married Lydia Packard [4th great grandmother] in a service by the Reverend Stephen Gano in Rhode Island. They had seven children:

• William Sterry (1806-1843)
• Joseph Augustus (1808-1852)
• John William (1810-1881)
• Cornelia Augusta (1812-1851)
• Charlotte (1814-?)
• Harriett (1822-1885)
• Alexander (1824-1884)

 William and Lydia moved at some point to the Rochester, NY area and he died when he was 50. He is buried at the Brighton Cemetery in Monroe County. Lydia had moved in with her son Alexander in Brooklyn by the 1855 NYS census and she was also living in Brooklyn in the 1865 census at her daughter Cornelia's home. Cornelia [4th great aunt] was married to Washington Van Zandt (1809-1868). She died in 1870 and was buried with her husband at the Brighton Cemetery.

I came across some interesting information regarding the Reverend Washington Van Zandt. He and Cornelia lived in upstate Rochester, New York. According to several books, Van Zandt, rector of St. Paul's Church, was the subject of a trial involving the seduction of 16 year-old Sophia Murdock in 1941. He was found guilty and assessed with damages of $3000. A very hefty fine in those days. It was quite scandalous for the era and was covered by many newspapers across the region. Van Zandt maintained and protested his innocence and there were several articles in the following years regarding appeals. He was dismissed from ministry by the Episcopal Bishop Delaney in 1848. A disgraced Washington & Cornelia were residents of Syracuse during the 1850 census and had moved to Brooklyn by 1865.

Portrait of Cornelia Augusta Hull Van Zandt

By 1856 Washington Van Zandt had become a newspaper editor of The Daily Star. There was a scathing column against him in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle which states, "That a creature with a character so foul and leprous; whose deeds have been recorded in the genial columns of The Police Gazette ; whose transition from the ministry to the purlieus of a three-cent grog cellar was in accordance with the natural gravitation of his character, should invite the lash of personalities by attacking others is a mystery which can only be explained by acknowledging the truth of the quotation, "Quem deus vult perdere prius dementat" ("Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad"). Quite the wordsmiths over in Brooklyn!

According to a Brooklyn Daily Eagle article from 1937, there is a portrait of Rev. Washington Van Zandt at the Zion Episcopal Church of Douglaston-Little Neck. It was unveiled at their 107th Anniversary. It turns out that Washington was the 11th son of Wynant Van Zandt who founded the church in 1830.

Working in the Opposite Direction

In the past, I have started discussing a branch of the family at its furthest point and brought the family tree back to me. I am going to go with the opposite approach with this branch of three because of its reach and distance.

As a child I was told that that one of my ancestors was famed US Navy Commodore Isaac Hull of the USS Constitution who had fought in the Quasi War, the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. Before the days of the internet, I had seen hand written family trees where it showed my second great-grandmother was named Sophia Kelley Hull. She was married to John Guttridge Wright. I had discussed them a few years ago in this post but we explored the Wright side of the family. Now, I will escort you on my journey to reveal if Isaac Hull was actually in my family tree or is one of those long told family lore that cannot be verified.

Commodore Isaac Hull

Sophia Kelley Hull (1838-1927), born in New York City to John William Hull (1810-1881) and Sophia C. Kelley (1815- ?). She married John G. Wright when she was 19 years old and had three children (Frederick Harriman Wright, William John Wright, and Madeleine Wright) by the time she was 25. John was a successful grain merchant and they seemed to be doing well before 1880. In the 1880 Census it appears that John and Sophia were living separately. Sophia and her son William, a book keeper, were living in Park Slope, Brooklyn at 401 Third Street. John was living a few blocks away at 426 Sixth Street with Frederick, 16 years old. They were all listed as "boarders". John died in 1908 in Chaptico, MD. Sophia was located in the 1910 census in Washington DC with her son William, who had become a minister. In 1920 she was with her son William & wife Lucy Hayden Gough (1881-1969) in Statesville, North Carolina according to a local newspaper article but was also listed in the census as residing with her daughter Madeleine and her husband Cheever Newhall Ely (1849 - 1929) at 289 Madison Ave, NYC (with their two maids). She died on March 11, 1927 in Washington, DC and was buried in NYC on March 27th.

John William Hull, Sophia's father, was a railroad iron dealer according to the 1860 census. He & his wife, Sophia Kelley, lived in 21st Ward. This was the area of Sixth Ave to East River from E 25 St to E 40 St. They also resided in the same building as their daughter Sophia & John G Wright along with 2 servants. Their "Personal Estate" was worth $14,000 according to the census record. John Hull died in 1881 at 71 years old. I wonder if The Hull's were on hand for the grand opening of Central Park in 1858?

Sophia C. Kelley (my 3rd great-grandmother) was born in Philadelphia in 1815. I have not found any records indicating who her parents were. I am not sure how she came to live in NYC or how she met John W. Hull, however, after his death she lived with her daughter Sophia Wright in the Brooklyn apartment on Third St... and no servants!