Anna (q.v. Anne) Richardson, eldest child of Capt. Amos Richardson, Jr. and Ruth Stiles, b. of record Mar. 26, 1752 at Coventry, Conn. (Cov. VRs) and d. there Dec. 8, 1789 (g.s., Æ 38) [see gravestone discussion.] Although Anna was not his paternal gr.mother, her extant gravestone is of historical significance as it allows correction of a long-published error regarding the ancestral family of Gen. Ulysses Simpson Grant, 18th President of the United States.

As a matter of background, in 1859 Henry R. Stiles published his first version of The History of Ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut, which included a brief outline of the first three generations of the Matthew and Priscilla Grant family of Windsor. Stiles would later call his 1859 work that of a novice. This was followed in 1867 in the NEHGS REGISTER [21:173-179] of the purported ancestral line of General and Pres. U. S. Grant, one of Matthew and Priscilla Grant's descendants. This compilation identified the first wife of Capt. Noah Grant, 3rd as "Mrs. Anna Richardson" with no information as to Anna's date of birth or parentage. Subsequent writers assumed this identification meant Noah had married the widow Anna Richardson. In the associated era, when men of social, political or religious standing married, and who had a title of respect or military rank, the bride was often recorded as "Mrs." meaning, in this case, Anna was the unmarried "Mistress" Anna Richardson.

In 1869, six months after U.S. Grant was inaugurated as the 18th President, Edward Chauncey Marshall published The Ancestry of Gen. U.S. Grant. Based on information provided by Jesse Root Grant (Pres. Grant's father), Anna was renamed Anna (Buell) Richardson, with a footnote that she probably descended from William Buell of Windsor, Conn. Jesse Root Grant was confused, and this erroneous identification was carried forward through subsequent publications concerning Pres. Grant's ancestry, including in Stiles' revised and greatly expanded 1898 second edition of The History of Ancient Windsor.

The most egregious manipulation of this error was by Albert Welles in his 1881 History of the Buell Family in England...And in America. Welles never considered the recorded Aug. 24, 1795 will of Abel Buell of Lebanon, Conn., who died at Lebanon in 1798, the father of Welles' "Mrs. Anna Buell Richardson Grant." Abel Buell's will contains no reference to a daughter "Anna" or her purported Grant children; Abel's daughter Ann was born of record at Lebanon Aug. 27, 1738 (a Sunday in the old Julian calendar) and baptized there the same day by the name of Ann. The Buell will includes legacies to the heirs of deceased daughter Mehitable (Buell) Avery, and legacies to two other daughters, two of whom Welles failed to recognize had married. [Windham Probate District, 1798, Packet 548. Estate of Abel "Buel" of Lebanon.] In addition, in this 1881 genealogy Noah Grant, 3rd's wife "Anna Buell Richardson" was ten years older than Noah, which should have been a genealogy red flag. That Abel's daughter "Ann" is recorded to have been born and baptized on the same day should have been another red flag. She is stated to have had two children by her previous husband Richardson, who Welles never identifies, with one of the children not identified by name, the other called daughter "Clarico." The existence of the purported two Richardson children cannot be found in any extant Connecticut record. It is quite possible Abel Buell's daughter Ann either died young or never married as no factual record regarding her can be found past her 1738 baptism.[*1]

Capt. Noah Grant, 3rd's grandfather, Sgt. Noah Grant, Sr. (Samuel,3-2 Matthew,1), whose wife was Martha Huntington, d. at Tolland, Conn. in 1727 at 34 years of age. The widow Martha (Huntington) Grant m. 2) in 1729 as his second wife, Capt. Peter Buell of Coventry, Conn. At the time of the elder Noah's death, son Noah, Jr. was only eight years old and eldest child of the family. He was subsequently raised at Coventry in Capt. Peter Buell's household with his three younger Grant siblings (Adoniram, Solomon and Martha), two Buell step-siblings and his mother Martha's four surviving Buell children (Peter, Benjamin, Abigail and Elias.)

Capt. Noah Grant, Jr. m. Susanna Delano at Coventry, Conn. in 1746 but died Sept. 20, 1756 at 38 years of age while in service in the French Indian War. He and wife Susanna had three surviving children, the eldest being Noah Grant, 3rd, who was only eight years old when his father died. Susanna (Delano) Grant never remarried and d. at Coventry, Conn. in 1806 at 84 years of age. Where the surviving children of Capt. Noah Grant, Jr. were raised (Noah, Susanna and Peter) probably will never be known, but likely were raised by their mother at either Coventry or Tolland with extended Delano family. These mixed Grant-Buell family relations undoubtedly created considerable confusion 100 years later when biographical details concerning Pres. Grant's origins became important.

In 1898 Arthur Hastings Grant published The Grant Family. The Genealogy of Matthew Grant of Windsor, Connecticut, which includes more than 8,000 descendants. Between 1900 and 1902, the latter Grant Family author added additional descendants that had not be included in 1898. Both works continued the erroneous identification of the first wife of Noah Grant, 3rd.

Finally with the 1906 publication of Rosell L. Richardson's The Descendants of Amos Richardson of Boston and Stonington, was the correct identity of Anna Richardson established. And, diligent review of extant Connecticut records confirms the basis of the cited 1906 Richardson genealogy and Anna (Richardson) Grant's true identity.

Given the foregoing, at an unknown date and place before May 17, 1779, Anna, dau. of Capt. Amos Richardson, Jr. of Coventry, Conn., m. as his first wife, Capt. Noah Grant, 3rd, s. of Capt. Noah Grant, Jr. and Susanna Delano, b. of record June 20, 1748 at Tolland, Conn. [Toll. VRs.] Anna's mother Ruth (Stiles) Richardson died in 1777 and Anna was with certainty married by May 17, 1779, the date her maternal grandfather Ebenezer Stiles wrote his will at Coventry. In his will, grandfather Stiles bequeathed to the four children of his deceased daughter Ruth (Stiles) Richardson:

• Item: I give unto my grandsons Hezekiah Richardson & Zebulon Richardson, and my granddaughters Anne Grant & Ruth Richardson, five pounds lawful money each, to be paid by my Executor as followeth: viz: to said Hezekiah, in one year after my Deceas, to said Anne within two years, to said Zebulon within three years, and said Ruth within four years after my Deceas. [Windham Probate District, Packet 3589]

In the 2nd edition (1903) of Pres. Grant's Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, first published in 1885, in which the 2nd edition contains marginal notes added by his son in 1895 (Vol. 1, p. 2, para. 2):

• At the breaking out of the war of the Revolution, after the battles of Concord and Lexington, he [U.S. Grant's grandfather Noah Grant the 3rd] went with a Connecticut company to join the Continental army, and was present at the battle of Bunker Hill. He served until the fall of Yorktown, or through the entire Revolutionary war. He must, however, have been on furlough part of the time,--as I believe most of the soldiers of that period were,--for he married in Connecticut during the war,[1] had two children, and was a widower at the close. Soon after this he emigrated to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and settled near the town of Greensburg in that county. He took with him the younger of his two children, Peter Grant.[2] The elder, Solomon,[3] remained with his relatives in Connecticut until old enough to do for himself, when he emigrated to the British West Indies.

[1] marginal note, Mrs. Anna Richardson.
[2] marginal note, b. Nov. 4, 1781.
[3] marginal note, b. circ. 1779.

Anna (Richardson) Grant's son Peter would relocate to Maysville, KY and live there for the balance of his life, dying in 1829. He married in 1807 Permelia Bean at adjoining Lewis County, KY [KY Marr. Rec.] Peter named his sixth child Anna Richardson Grant and his fifth child Peter Buell Grant. The names of these two children undoubtedly added to the earlier confusion by Peter's half-brother, Jesse Root Grant, when he misidentified brother Peter's mother as Anna (Buell) Richardson.

That Capt. Noah Grant, 3rd and Anna Richardson lived in Coventry or Tolland, Conn. cannot be directly confirmed due to the lack of a vital or church baptism record for their family. However, at the time of their marriage and the birth of their two children, the Revolutionary War was in full bloom, and the urgency of a town clerk (if not actively engaged in a Patriot militia or Continental line) or the local church pastor to record births and marriages took a back-seat to more urgent social, political and military issues. But, at the death of Capt. Noah Grant, Jr. in 1756, as the eldest son Noah Grant, 3rd became the predetermined sole entailed (life estate) heir to all of his deceased uncle Lieut. Solomon Grant's property at Coventry, Conn., which in 1757 had been valued by inventory at £610. It is quite likely that property in Coventry is where the family resided and the two Richardson children were born.

Anna (Richardson) Grant's father, Capt. Amos Richardson, Jr., d. testate at Coventry in 1802, but his will includes no mention of his then 13 year deceased daughter Anna or her two children. Nonetheless, what is most interesting is a passage in Pres. Grant's memoirs regarding Anna's son Peter (Vol. 1, p. 5, para. 2]:

• My mother's family lived in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, for several generations. I have little information about her ancestors. Her family took no interest in genealogy...On the other side, my father took a great interest in the subject, and in his researches he found that there was an entailed estate in Windsor [sic, in Coventry], Connecticut, belonging to the family, to which his nephew, Lawson Grant [Lawson Bean Grant, eldest son of Jesse Root's older half-brother Peter], was the sole heir. He was so much interested in the subject that he got his nephew to empower him to act in the matter, and in 1832 or 1833, when I was a boy ten or eleven years old, he went to Windsor [sic, to Coventry], proved the title beyond dispute, and perfected the claim of the owners for a consideration – three thousand dollars, I think. I remember the circumstance well, and remember, too, hearing him say, on his return, that he found some widows living on the property, who had little or nothing beyond their homes. From these he refused to receive any recompense. [For further on the entailed Coventry, Conn. property, see the memorial for Anna (Grant) Richardson's son Solomon.]

The two children of Capt. Noah Grant, 3rd by Anna Richardson, sons Solomon and Peter, are summarized in their father's memorial.

One never knows when genealogical research may result in the correction of longstanding errors. Ironically, while Anna Richardson is the granddau. of the writer's ancestors, her husband Noah Grant, 3rd and Noah's grandson Ulysses Simpson Grant are the writer's ancestral cousins. Their immigrant ancestors, Matthew and Priscilla Grant of Windsor, Conn., are the writer's ancestors through their dau. Priscilla (Grant) Humphrey.

[*1] Welles was self-enamored with the Grant family's genealogy, despite "ex-President U.S. Grant" having no Buell blood. In addition to multiple pages within the text of his work, Welles devoted a 14 page appendix to the genealogy of the Grant family. Two pages are devoted to the purported English origins of Matthew Grant's surname (which is unproven) and 12 pages to the 8 generation descent of U.S Grant from the Windsor, Conn. founder. He also named Matthew Grant's second wife, the widow Susanna (Capen) Rockwell (daughter of Barnard Capen and Joan Purchase), by whom Matthew had no children, as Susanna "Chapin." Welles apparently was not aware that Susanna's daughter Ruth Rockwell, by Susanna's first husband William Rockwell, and Ruth's husband Christopher Huntington of Norwich, Conn., were the paternal grandparents of Martha Huntington, the paternal grandmother of Capt. Noah Grant, 3rd.

Revised 1/30/2016; edited for clarity 1/16/2017