The Hamiltons: William & Selina Beatty Hamilton

One of the most interesting and dominant lines in the Mannon-Hickson family tree is that of the Hamiltons. Our great-grandmother was Susanna Maria Hamilton Hickson. She was Marion Hickson”s (Nana’s) mother and lived with her daughter almost all of Nana’s life. Susan lived to be 101 years old. We Mannon cousins knew her as “Grandma”. This is the story of her family …….

Here is what we have reconstructed of the family of William Hamilton, a shopkeeper in Clabby, Northern Ireland and his spinster bride, Selina Beatty, of Cordromedy.

We know very little of these individuals other than what can be gleaned from their marriage certificate.  They wed in a church on June 6, 1859 in the Parish of Kilskeery, County of Tyrone.  Selina was a minor (under 21) and the daughter of George Beatty, a farmer in Cordromedy.  William was of full age and living and working in Clabby as a Shopkeeper.  His father was John Hamilton, a farmer.  Records in Northern Ireland are such that we have not been able to research the Hamilton and Beatty families with any certainty.

From a few very fragile letters from her elder sister, Eliza, we have surmised that Selina was one of 6 children, and possibly the youngest.  We don’t know their mother’s name, but Eliza indicates she died sometime after Selina left Ireland (1868) and before Selina herself died (1881).  The family seems to have scattered in the 1850s.  Eliza relocated to Scotland and Selina to New York.  Margaret, George, John, and Stephen remained in Ireland.  Eliza’s letters mention Trillick as being a place where some of her family lives.  Interestingly, Eliza infers there is some estrangement among the siblings as some of them do not know her address and that seems to be by design.  Another letter by cousin Robert Beatty references a family who moved to Australia.

At this time, we know almost nothing of William Hamilton’s family in Ireland.  There was a Francis Hamilton who witnessed the marriage, but his relation is unknown.

William and Selina had three children in Ireland:  George Alexander, born  in October 1859 (four months after their marriage);  Susanna Maria was born January 1864; and Ella Jane was born July 1865.  Ella was the only birth recorded in the Irish Civil Registration, which began in 1865.  It says she was born in Tempo, County of Fermanagh.

In 1868, the family emigrated to the United States.  We haven’t found a passenger manifest yet to confirm this.  However, in later censuses George and Ella consistently stated their date of arrival in the United States was 1868.

The young family settled in Corona on Long Island, in Queens County.  William John was born in September 1870 and Selina E (probably Elizabeth) was born in February 1876.

The family appeared in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census living in the 19^th ward of the 22^nd Election District of New York.  I have not found as yet a map or description of this enumeration district.  I can find nothing in the 1875 New York State Census. 

Tragic Death of Selina Hamilton

In April, 1881, the family matriarch, Selina Beatty Hamilton, was killed by a Long Island Railroad train while walking on the track near Winfield station.  This is reported in the New York Times on Thursday, April 21, 1881 and referred to the death occurring on Monday night, which would have been April 18, 1881.  It also lists her name as Mary Hamilton.  She was struck by the 6:35 train from Hunter’s Point.  I have been unable to find any other online newspaper accounts of this tragedy, even in the Brooklyn Eagle.  However, there are many microfilm resources yet to be consulted. 

Note: See Subsequent Post Titled New Information on the Death of William and Selina Beatty Hamilton.

[The later account of William Hamilton’s similar death states that Selina died walking on the tracks while returning from a trip to the court to get an arrest warrant for William on the grounds of cruelty.  Selina’s sister, Eliza McGregor, upon hearing the news of her sister’s death wrote:  “I received ­­­­­your long and satisfactory letter informing me of the lamentable particulars of your Dear Mamma’s Death.  It was a deplorable sight.  I do be often thinking what kind of a mind your Father must have had her on such an errand that it was by him she met her Death.  Alas when I think of it, it makes my heart shrink within me.  I would not (like?) he was near me for I would die for him.  My poor mother prevailed on her to not go to America.  I remember well I heard my mother telling her he would kill or poison her.  If she had taken my mother’s advice it would have been better for her.”]

In November, 1881, Selina’s husband, William Hamilton, submitted a petition to Surrogate’s Court as Administrator of Selina’s estate for a Judicial Settlement of Accounts (probate).  In this document, William’s deposition stated that Selina died on April 25, 1881 (a week after what was implied by the New York Times).  He stated that she died without a will and her property did not exceed the sum of $900.   He stated that George resided in Suffolk County, New York and that the remaining children resided with him in Newtown.

Eighteen months later, in  May, 1883, the Surrogate’s court convened on the matter of Administration of Goods, Chattels, and Credits of Selina Hamilton, deceased.  All the children have been served with a citation to appear in court on the 31^st of May, 1883 and 9:00 a.m.  At this point in time, Susanna, William, and Selina are living in Corona with brother George, who is an adult (older than 21).  Ella would have been 18 and is living at an address on North Clinton Place in the City of New York.

The estate account papers are filed by William Hamilton.  There is a total of $1,021 in “inventory” (taken to mean cash).  William credits himself with several funeral and burial expenses, “leaving in his hands” a balance of $920.94 to be distributed.  Attorney and court fees of $42.50 were deducted from this amount and William was allowed to retain a “Commission as Administrator” of $50.52.  The remaining $827.92 was divided 3 ways:  1/3 to William as the surviving husband ($275.97), and the remaining 2/3 to the surviving 5 children.  1/5 of the remaining 2/3 ($110.39) was paid immediately to George because he was already above the age of majority.  The rest was to be held by the County Treasurer* unless within 30 days a General Guardian should be appointed for the minor children and the Administrator would pay the money to be held by the Guardian.  I’m assuming they would receive the moneys when they turned 21.  *The part that said “to be held by the County Treasurer” was crossed out.

So, William received over $400 of Selina’s estate (including expenses) and apparently disappeared.  We do not know that he was ever seen again by his children.  From what has been passed down, the children built a life together with eldest brother George as the head of the family and claimed their father had died before their mother.  Susanna (Aunt Susie) stayed home and kept house.  William went to work as a telegrapher at the Railroad, and later the station manager.  Selina was the only child to receive a high school diploma, and she worked as a ‘typewriter’.   Unfortunately, there was no 1885 New York Census and no 1890 Federal Census.  It is hoped that perhaps microfilmed city directories may help locate the family during the 1880’s and 1890’s.

Ella was the first of the siblings to marry.  She wed Leslie Ariel Ware in September 1886 when she was 21 and had two sons in 1888 and 1889.  George Alexander married Anna Isabella Jones in  December 1889.  They had a son, Harold, in 1890.  Susanna married William Hickson in February 1891.  In the 1892 New York State Census, she and William still lived in Newtown  with her brother William and sister Selina.    They had their only daughter, Marion Rosalind  Hickson in December 1895 – by which time Ella and Leslie had another daughter Hazel born 1892.  It would be 7 more years before Ella had her youngest daughter, Rosalind, in 1899.

William Hamilton meets his fate

On December 29, 1893, the family patriarch William met his death in Newtown.  According to an article in the Brooklyn Eagle, William, aged 65, of Corona was struck by the engine of the Flushing Express of the L.I.R.R.  He had been to see his son, who is the agent and operator of the road at that station (William J.).  He had just left his son to return home when he stepped in front of the train.  His son saw events unfold and called out to his father, but the elder man either did not hear or did not understand or possibly intentionally stepped into the train’s path.  It is in this article that the coincidence of his death and Selina’s death 11 years earlier are noted and explained.  It says that William Hamilton was regarded as eccentric and had lived away from the family for years.

The probate of William Hamilton was executed in 1894 and 1895.  George A Hamilton was the executor of the estate.  He reported moneys of $758.65.  There was $476 in the bank and the estate had received $175 from the Long Island Railroad for “Release”, possibly a release from liability for the death.  The rest of the money was from the sale of various household items.  George credited himself with Administration and funeral/burial expense.  In addition, Selina, the youngest daughter, was paid $176.67 from the Selina Hamilton Estate account, since she was the only child who had still not reached the age of majority.  Total credits to George were $374.39 leaving a balance of $384.26.  From this George received an administrator’s commission of $47.93 and the rest was divided among the five children – each receiving $67.27.

William John Hamilton married Charlotte Richardson in 1900 and had their three sons in 5 years:  Edward Douglas (1900), William John, Jr. (1902) and George Alexander (1905).   Selina married Charles K. Roe in 1906 at the age of 30.  She had previously been working as a Typewriter in Manhattan in the 1905 New York State Census.  She and Charles had one son in 1907 who died in infancy.

This is the extent of the facts we have to date of the lives of William and Selina Beatty Hamilton.

My comments and observations:

This family has been so interesting to me because of the unfathomable hardships it endured and the resulting secrets which were propagated well into the 20^th century.   It was common and maybe even necessary for 19^th century families to bury unpleasant facts and try to ensure that they were not discussed or passed down to future generations.  This endeavor by our Hamiltons was very successful, at least in all the branches of the Hamilton family which have survived into the late 20^th  century, when family members became interested in their genealogy.  I only have to begin at letters written in 1968 and later in 1986 to see that the chronology of events in this family had been seriously distorted and that a false story had been passed down to its descendants and believed for more than a century.

Now we have so much information right at our fingertips and we can find things which were believed to have been buried forever.  And we are in a time where these stories reveal the character and resilience of our ancestors and do not diminish the family honor or reputation, as was so feared back then.

In March of 1968, William Land, Jr. (grandson of Ella Jane Hamilton Ware) wrote a one-page biography of William and Selina Hamilton as he understood it from stories passed down to him.   He believed that William was sullen, uncommunicative and an alcoholic.  William Land understood that his great-grandfather had died being struck by a train BEFORE his wife met the same fate.  He guessed the date was about 1876.  This version of family history was also passed down by my Hamilton line (Susanna Hamilton Hickson) and Douglas Hamilton indicated the same impression in 1986 .  From everything we have learned from the newspapers and the Eliza McGregor letters, William Hamilton was abusive and Selina was afraid of him.  It seems he deserted the family, reappeared to take a portion of Selina’s estate after her death (which was potentially by suicide), and then disappeared again.  It also seems the family wanted to perpetuate the reality that they were orphans and their father was dead and gone early in their lives, which was true for all practical purposes.  Douglas Hamilton remembered in a letter of 1986 that his father (William John Hamilton – 4^th child) remembered that “there were many family conferences after his mother’s death and he was not included because he was so young.  Young William was afraid that he would end up in an orphanage and decided to run away if such a decision was made.  But the ultimate decision was that Susan would keep house and George would work and the others as soon as possible”.

A genealogical study was commissioned in 1986 by Douglas Hamilton with the Ulster Family Research Services to locate ancestors William Hamilton and Selina Beatty.  They had to pour over parish records which were damaged, disorganized, and misindexed.  They were able to find the marriage certificate for William and Selina, with which I began this history.  Due to time and money constraints, they were unable to locate any other records.  Today, in the age of the internet, we may be able to further their work and find more records which might help narrow a search which ultimately needs to be accomplished in Ireland. The letters of Selina Beatty’s sister, Eliza McGregor, which add so much to our understanding of the troubled marriage of William and Selina, and that of her cousin, Robert Beatty, were found in the papers of my father, Alfred Mannon, after his passing in 2007.  They were undoubtedly passed to him through his grandmother, Susanna Hamilton Hickson.  She, being the eldest daughter, was probably the one who wrote to her Aunt Eliza to tell her of her mother’s death and she would have saved the letters she received in return.

Leslie Mannon Pilcher
March, 2019