6. Dramatis Personae II: A Will & A Way
"I, Robert Neilson, of the City of Philadelphia..."
My early investigations into the life of Robert Neilson (1781-1867) frequently took the form of idle digital wandering. I was in the ascendant phase of my profession during the blossoming of the internet age, and by the time I started to become disillusioned with what I was doing for a living, the digital reach of an average person sitting at a computer terminal had become vast. Some days, I was that average person.
My mind wandered. I would think of something that I wanted to know more about...and the next I knew, the rest of the day had been lost to a journey down some internet rabbit hole.
Two modes of inquiry were required to understand Robert Neilson’s early life. On the one hand, history provided a broad-based frame, a background. On the other, details of Robert Neilson’s life arrived in a jumble: assembling the picture of each different era in his story was like opening a box containing the pieces from three or four puzzles and trying to put them all together.
Historical information provided a suggestive context, a set of conditions that helped to explain choices and motivations obscured by the passage of time. But specific detail was essential to establishing the where, when, how and why of Robert Neilson’s own story.
Armed with a few keywords, names and dates, I could summon an indiscriminate torrent of search engine-generated information in either category. Some material sat waiting on the open internet, and other items were squirreled away behind paywalls and in special interest databases. I would look for the birthplaces of Neilsons I found in census documents: “Trinidad” or “West Indies” signaled that I’d made another find. I learned always to try “Nelson” in addition to “Neilson” because the same confusion I’d encountered in my own life communicating with call centers and DMVs, it turned out, had dogged my family for centuries. With the passage of time, I found that I got pretty good at finding information. Soon I was also flooded with the stuff.
Through repetition, certain names came into focus. Dates pegged events in the sequence, creating narratives. And places established setting and created context. All of these accretions of detail lined up with historical information—some of which I knew well because I’d taught, and some—like…say, the Crimean War—that was obscure to me.
I discovered some of the genealogy message boards and social media subcultures concerned with family history. I’d type in “Neilson” (or “Nelson”) and some of the other surnames in my family just to see what would come up. Most of these forums were places where someone would post a query along the lines of, ”I’m looking for information about the Dawson family who settled in or around Sheboygan, Wisconsin in the late 19th century.” Responses ran the gamut—from semiliterate reminiscences about a great uncle or aunt, to detailed pdf fact sheets that even sometimes included sources cited.
I noticed that a frequent contributor of responses connected to the name, “Neilson,” was a guy named Brian Darracott. I knew from browsing Ancestry.com that “Darracott” was possibly the married name of Robert Neilson’s second daughter Eliza Neilson (1820-1885). A name was coming into focus, resolving into a connection.
This Brian Darracott seemed to be plowing the same ground I was, and I thought he might be able to help me piece together some of the concrete documentation I was after. So I reached out to him using an email address shown on a post from some years back.
Months passed, and I heard nothing. Like most of what I was doing in this vein of research at that time, I’d sent the email on an impulse and quickly forgot about it. So Brian’s return email months later came as a welcome surprise.
Our projects did indeed overlap, particularly in one intriguing area, which I will cover in a later post. Brian’s general interest was in the Darracott family, of which Thomas Bligh Darracott (1798-1852) and Eliza Neilson Darracott represented one branch. Eliza Neilson had been Thomas Darracott’s second wife and she then became his widow in 1852.
For now, what is important about this connection was that Brian Darracott had come across Robert Neilson’s Last Will and Testament, executed on February 19, 1866, a year before his death. This document not only provides a clear picture of Neilson’s prosperous status as he approached the end of his life, but it also gives thumbnail sketches of family and friends in his life at that point, along with tantalizing hints as to how he felt about each.
I will spend more time on the contents of the will in later installments, but I mention it here because it provided me with a “look-back” and a scorecard of people to watch that complimented information on the flyleaf of the Neilson Bible. Where the Bible notations give information especially about the exact birth dates and places of the Neilson offspring, the Last Will and Testament, executed on February 19,1866, told who survived, how long, and the place each occupied in Robert Neilson’s life. Moreover, there were other persons mentioned beyond just the family members recorded on the bible’s flyleaf.
I’ve since acquired a number of other wills, largely through the Ancestry.com databases which now include the Pennsylvania State Will and Probate records from 1683 to 1993. But few rival that of Robert Neilson for the glimpse they provide into his character and the people whom he loved, trusted, and viewed with paternal concern.
Listed below are the names of the people that appear in the will. Most are legatees; all direct descendants are. Some are simply mentioned by way of explaining a relationship. (NB: I will publish the text of the will in full at a later time; right now we’ll just be using the names to flesh out Robert Neilson’s family connection, along with some subtler, more suggestive inferences.)
The names occur in the order of their first mention in the document. I have noted dates of birth and death where I have them, and I’ve classified each individual by their relationship to Robert Neilson. The names and information for Robert Neilson’s living children are in boldface type; the entries for in-laws and grandchildren are not in boldface. Children in boldface may be cross-referenced with their listing in the Neilson Bible post.
By February of 1866, four of the ten children of Robert Neilson were deceased: Emma Neilson Clark (1817-1853), 1st daughter/1st child; the first Robert Neilson, Jr. (1818-1828), 1st son/2nd child; Esther Neilson (1822-1828?), 3rd daughter/4th child; and Henry Brooke Neilson (1839-1864), 6th & last son/10th & last child.
Robert Neilson, Last Will & Testament: Mentions & Legatees
February 19, 1866
Emma Davis Neilson (1798-1865), wife
William Neilson (1824-1894), 2nd son/5th child
Thomas Neilson (1826-1910), 3rd son/6th child
John Neilson (1828-1884), 4th son/7th child
Harriet Neilson Colcord (1831-1867), 4th daughter/8th child
Horace Colcord (1828-1873), son-in-law
Henry Neilson Colcord (1855-1875), grandson
Davies Colcord (1856-1940+/-), grandson
Eliza Neilson Darracott (1820-1885), 2nd daughter/3rd child
Thomas Bligh Darracott (1798-1852), son-in-law
Robert Neilson Jr. (1834-1901), 5th son/9th child
Henry Brooke Neilson (1839-1864), 6th son/10th child
Charles Dutilh (1803-1882), president, Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives and Granting Annuities
Gertrude E. Williams (1823-1906), friend/legatee
Rev. Charles Williams (1791-1859), friend
Maria Williams, friend/legatee
Anne Neilson Carolan, sister/legatee
Frederick Carolan, brother-in-law
Surname of his sister and her husband misspelled in the original (“Carolin”).
Charles Davies Clark (1847-1935), grandson/legatee
Robert Neilson Clark (1848-1894), grandson/legatee
Ephraim Clark, Jr. (1810-1885), son-in-law
Emma Neilson Clark (1817-1853), 1st daughter/1st child
Surname of his daughter’s family misspelled, “Clarke,” likely because of confusion caused by the surname of William Hislop Clarke and son.
William Hislop Clarke (1807?-1863), friend
Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke (1846-1881), son of friend/legatee
Dr. Thomas Neilson (1789-1866), brother
Constant Guilloû (1812-1872), attorney
Victor Guilloû (1776-1842), attorney
William McElroy, witnessing attorney
E. Greenough Platt, witnessing attorney
William B. Astor (1792-1875), friend/investment advisor
John H. Brower (1801-1881), friend/investment advisor
H. M. Guilloû, witnessing attorney
Samuel Dickson, Witnessing attorney
Michael Dunn, legatee by way of a codicil, 12/26/1866