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Subject: [GENMASSACHUSETTS] Some Later Stearns Families of Massachusetts -Part 1.
Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 18:44:39 EDT

Stearns Families
Source: Genealogical & Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State
of Massachusetts by William Richard Cutter & William Frederick Adams.
p.138
Five hundred years ago, more or less, when the population of England had
become
sufficiently dense to make surnames necessary, some Englishman assumed the
name
of Sterne. He may have taken it from the sign of the Sterne, or starling,
(which
is the symbol of industry), which he displayed in front of his place of
business,
or it may have been taken from some event in which a starling was concerned;
but
of this there is no means or record knowing.

In England the name was, as it seems still is, spelled Sterne, two notable
in-
stances of which are Richard Sterne, Lord Archbishop of York, and Lawrence
Sterne,
the distinquished novelist of "Tristam Shandy" and other works; but in
America,
it is spelled Stearns, Sternes, Sterns or Starns, and Starnes, the last two
forms
being distinctly southern. The changes probably commenced in the
pronounciation,
and extended to the writing of the name, which in Winthrop's Journal and in
the
early town and county records of Massachusetts appears as Sterne.

In every instance where the lineage of this family has been traced back, it
has
been to one of the following: Isaac, Charles or Nathaniel. What relationship
existed between the three is not known. Isaac in his Will calls

p.139
Charles "My kinsman." It is noticeable, however, that all three named their
sons,
Isaac, Samuel and John, while the sons of Isaac named their sons Nathaniel.
The
belief is entertained by many of the Stearns descendants that three Sterne
brothers,
Isaac, Daniel and Shubael, came to America together, that Daniel died
unmarried, or without issue; that Shubael and wife left two sons, Charles and
Nathaniel, to the care of their uncle, Isaac. Research in England has thus
far
failed to find parents, brothers or sisters of Isaac Stearns, the emigrant
from
England.
College Graduates.

In the genealogy of the Stearns family, published in 1901, over eleven
thousand
persons are mentioned. Among these were two hundred and thirty-two graduates
of
colleges, universities, etc; eighty-three clergymen, eighty physicians,
fifty-nine
lawyers, twelve principals of academies and high schools; twelve professors
of
colleges; one chancellor of a state university; one dean of a divinity
school;
three presidents of colleges; one superintendent of instruction (Argentine
Re-
public); eleven authors; five editors; one bishop of Pennsylvania; one
general
manager of railroads; one president of railroads; one president of a
telegraph
company; twenty farmers; two governors; three lieutenant governors; two
secretaries
of State; eleven state senators; thirty-six colonial or state repre-
sentatives; two speakers of the house; two supreme court judges; five
mayors; two
generals; twenty-two colonels; eleven majors; fifty-six captains; and one
hundred
and eighty-two private soldiers.
Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth

To be continued Part 2



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