Name: Benajah Tomson
   Born: 
  Place: 
   Died: Dec 1778
  Place: Morristown, NJ
 Buried: 
Married: 
  Place: 

Benajah Thompson descendant, Michael Carpenter, has found two affidavits by veteran soldiers (Lemuel Paterson and Jeremiah Towser) who both state they had served in New Jersey under Captain Benajah Thompson. That Christiana Corson was Benajah's daughter is well-proven. Although the memoir of J W Fisk misses the mark on dates, names and generations, it brings together several facts that are confirmed in the record.

In summary of the proof of descent, we have...

• Document of 6 July 1795 that states "Eli Corson and Christiana, his wife, late Christiana Thomson, daughter of said decd."
• The will of Benajah Corson, grandson of Benajah Thompson, names sister Charity (Corson) Wood.
• Marriage of Charity Corson and John Wood, 20 Dec 1818, Clark county, Ohio.
• The memoir of J W Fisk states "My grandmother was married a second time...She married a man by the name of Woods," referring to the marriage above.
• Fisk further says, "Uncle Edward Fisk married Aunty Minty Wood." Minty Wood being the daughter of John and Charity.
• The death record for Susan Isabel Fisk names parents, Edward C Fisk and Araminta D unk, "unk" being "unknown."

...which provides sufficient evidence for the following lineage:

Benajah Tomson (1720-1780) m1 Prudence Eldredge (-1778)
Christianna Thompson (1755/62-1841) m Eli Corson (1757-1813)
Charity Corson (1780s-) m2 John Wood (1775-1830)
Araminta D Wood (1821-1904) m Edward Curtis Fisk (1821-1895)
Susan Isabel Fisk (1842-1919)

The following is posted at genforum.genealogy.com:

Posted by: Warren Rule (ID *****6314)
Date: September 03, 2002 at 21:15:11
In Reply to: Re: Thompson, Benajah, b. 1720, NJ by Jennifer

[snip]

Some mildly tantalizing information is buried away in some convincing letters by [Benajah Thompson's] great granddaughter in the files of the Cape May County (NJ) Historical Society. In addition to being a Captain during the revolution, he was "English" and a preacher of sorts, and, by the way, "Prudence" was not an "Eldredge" -- she was an American Indian, sister to the chief of the local Lenni Lenape Indians. I suspect that the name "Prudence" was given to her at baptism, and the surname "Eldridge," a common one in that area, was attached by a genealogist in the 1930's.

The records in the DAR Library suggest that Benajah's brother was Richard (Benajah was a witness to his intestate papers in 1773)

From http://groups.yahoo.com/group/handcousins/message/4137 with some slight editing for form and readability:

Info from Appendix A in book "While My Country is in Danger, The Life & Letters of Lt. Col. Richard S Thompson, Twelfth New Jersey Volunteers"

The Thompson family of CM [Cape May] descended from Benajah Thompson (Thompson's great-grandfather), who married Toudl-Hkiligo (Snowflower) sister of King Nummis or Nummy, chief of the Kechemeche tribe of the Lenni Lenape Indians, a class of the Algonquin group. She was baptized and given the name, Prudence Eldridge. Benajah Thomson was a captain in a NJ militia unit in 1776. He died in 1780; Prudence died in 1778. They had 8 children: James, Nehemiah (1766-1796) Richard 12-Feb-1768-12 Dec 1824, Constant (1770-1793, Anson (d 1817), Christiana, Manley (1775-1848) and Warren (1778-1853)

There are serious holes in the Native American connection. See my article for Benajah's wife, Prudence Eldridge, for more information. But to that matter, the following post is interesting.

From: Glenn Bingham
Subject: Re: Benejah Thompson
Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2002 00:27:42 -0500

[snip]

I have this document.¹ It deals with the family of Nora Thompson Dean of Oklahoma. She was a wonderful soul who tried to preserve the native Lenape language and was, according to Dick Quiet Thunder Gilbert, one of the last 16 speakers of the language. They are all gone now, I think, so the language is dead. I had come across her name as a linguistics student, and devoted some time to understanding the (very different!) structure of Lenape.

Although the family seems to trace to New Jersey, there is no claim made for (nor denial of) a connection to Benajah and Snowflower. Although some genealogy appears in the article, it does not go back far enough to connect to other records I have seen. It is unlikely that the family does connect, since the native blood in the Benajah Thompson line (that married at least twice into the Binghams) was rather watered down by the earliest generation given in the Rementer article. However, there is always that possibility that the families join somewhere. Someone needs a lot of original research to make the connection.

The article that does contain some information and conjecture on Benajah Thompson was written by Charles Tomlin in his genealogy of the Thompson and Tomlin families. My copy is buried somewhere now, but if anyone is interested enough, I will unearth it for a better description. Or maybe someone else has it handy.

Descendent Jeff "Hawkeye" Thompson has sent some comments to me that point out some inconsistencies in Tomlin's data that might lead some to the conclusion that Benajah Thompson himself was a native Lenape from Burlington County. Since his work was a pre-publication article, I will leave it to him to expose what detail he will to the public.

By the way, Abel Corson shows in the accounting of Benajah Thompson's estate. This information was courtesy of Jeff Thompson.

Glenn Bingham
Pilesgrove, NJ

The following, lifted from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/njgf/message/9398, proves that Christiana Corson was the daughter of Benajah Thomson. I've edited slightly for form and readability:

[snip]

I went to the Surrogates office in Cumberland and CMCo. to look at documents re: this young lady. One I found in Cumberland County dated 6 July 1795...

To David Davis and Elizabeth his wife late Elizabeth Thomson, administrix of ..Benaijah Thomson, late of the county aforesaid. It read, "At the instance of Eli Corson and Christiana, his wife, late Christiana Thomson, daughter of said decd...you are invited to appear...

Adm, granted Benjamin Thompson intestate, 725F in Cumberland Co., Lib 24, Page 167, names him Benajah, dated 19 Dec 1780 Elizabeth Thompson (of CC) and David Edwards (of CMCo.), adm. of Benajah Thompson, 19 Dec 1778.

The account of David Davis and Elizabeth his wife adm, of Benaijah Thomson decd, 19 Dec 1780, clear estate 95-19-10, widow's third, 31-19-11, children's share 63-19-11, allowed for the maintenance of Manley Thomson 35-0-0, 5 legitimate children, each child's share 5-15-11.

[snip]

The mention of five legitimate children, considering that at least seven of his children were still alive in 1780, suggests that some of his children might have been illegitmate. Benajah usually has eight children attributed to him. Were the other three born out of wedlock or, for other legal reasons, found not to have been his rightful heirs?

I received the following email from Michael Carpenter in February, 2011.

Subject: Benajah Tomson
From:    "Michael Carpenter via Web Mail"
Date:    Tue, February 8, 2011 7:51 am

Hello Michael,

I am a descendant of Benajah Tomson from his son Manley and have been researching Benajah tirelessly over the last two years. Finally I stumbled upon your information regarding his passing in battle in 1780. I put all of the pieces together and this makes perfect sense.

In the DAR registry they only have Benajah serving from 1776-78 and have his passing as of Dec 1778. I believe they have mistaken Snowflowers death with his as we know he married Elizabeth Peters in Dec. of 1778 which is not listed in the DAR. If Benajah had been taken prisoner on the British prisoner ship in Feb. 1780 it would make sense that he does not show up on the DAR for additional service because he was likely part of a prisoner trade and signed the oath to not take up arms against King George which would have allowed him to go back into circulation as a Captain again. In my research I have found no other Captain Tomson,Thomson or Thompson serving for New Jersey that died in 1780. All of the other Thompsons passed after the war and were mostly privates or from other regiments or regions of NJ.

Once you tie the fact that an Elizabeth Thompson was the housekeeper for Washington to the same vicinity of where Benajah would have died, it all pulls together because the battle of Connecticut Farms was fought on June 7th, 1780 and Springfield on June 23rd. I know that Gen. Starks unit was present at Springfield. Anyway. Thank you for all of your hard work and information.

Regards, Michael.

Benajah and Prudence had the following children. Benajah's second wife and widow, Elizabeth Peters, married David Davis.

Anson Thompson	1760-1817	m1 Martha Hildreth m2 Elizabeth Eldredge, daughter of Silas and Hannah (Hildreth) Eldredge3
Christiana Thompson	c1762-1841	Married Eli Corson
James Thompson	1764-	Married Milicent ___
Nehemiah Thompson	1766-1796	Married Synthia E Stillwell
Richard S Thompson	1768-1824	He apparently died in Goshen NJ. He m1 Charlotte Eldredge daughter of Aaron Eldredge and Elizabeth Stillwell, m2 Sarah Price in Goshen, m3 Judith Swain. Aaron Eldredge was, through his mother, of Mayflower descent.2
Constant Thompson	1770-1793
Manley Thompson	1775-1848	He married Jane Shropshire. His son Dare S Thompson was born 1818.
Warren Thompson	1778-1853	Married Elizabeth Carll Williams.

One might wonder if the two Eldredge marriages were to women related to Prudence.

Benajah Thomson's DNA

A patrilineal descendant of Benajah has had his Y chromosome tested. The results show that the lineage is of haplogroup subclade R-U106, which is shorthand for R1b1a2a1a1a. The short form of a haplogroup is named for its "terminal" SNP. In this case:

Haplogroup	SNP
R	M207
R1	M173
R1b	M37
R1b1	M415
R1b1a	P297
R1b1a2	L265
R1b1a2a	L23
R1b1a2a1	L51
R1b1a2a1a	L11
R1b1a2a1a1	U106

1. A Lenape Family Named Thompson, by James Rementer.

2. Aaron Eldredge was born in Cape May 2 Feb 1735 and died there 2 Jul 1785. His wife, Elizabeth Stillwell was born in Middletown, Monmouth, New Jersey on 27 Jun 1735 and died at Cape May on 23 Apr 1790. They're both buried at the Cold Spring Presbyterian Cemetery.

2. Silas Eldredge (1755-1796) was also of an old Cape May family, the son of Ezekiel Eldridge and Elizabeth Rider.

Note to myself: John Williams and Thankful Barlow - Benajah Tomson & Prudence Eldredge, compiled in 1931 by Charles Tomlin and Clarence R. Brooks.