PREPARED BY
G. S. DICKERMAN
THE PLANTS IN GENERAL
THERE are many families of the Plant name. This will be seen on looking into city directories and running the eye over lists there given. Accounts show that these families have come from several progenitors who arrived in this country at different times.
Attention is paid here more particularly to the descendants of John Plant, of Branford, Connecticut. But it may be of interest to glance at certain other families.
The Plants of St. Louis, Missouri, have occupied an honorable place in the history of that city during the last fifty years. One of their number[2] tells of having traced their ancestry back some three hundred years to the County Palatine, of Chester, in England, where, about 1600, were two brothers, Samuel Plant and John Plant. From the latter of these they are descended in the following line: John,1 Thomas,2 George,3 Samuel,4 who married Ann Haigh and lived in Macclesfield, England, Samuel,5 who came to Boston, Massachusetts, between 1790 and 1800, and married there Mary D. Poignaud, a Boston lady of Huguenot ancestry.
This Samuel5 Plant was sent out by his uncle, Mr. Haigh, a manufacturer of woollen cloths at Leeds, to sell his goods, which he did, with his headquarters at Boston, though he travelled extensively, going once as far as Charleston, South Carolina. Some years later he brought over from England plans for cotton machinery and built, in 1808-9, the first cotton factory in Worcester County, Massachusetts, at Clinton.
He was the father of six sons and six daughters. The sons were George P.,6 Frederick William,6 Samuel,6 Alfred,6 William M.,6 and Henry,6 who all removed to St. Louis, and have been identified with the enterprise and development of that city since 1840. Of these sons Mr. Alfred6 Plant is the only survivor.
Another family has a representative[3] in Chicago, who writes that his branch came from Ireland to Massachusetts early in this century. His father’s name was Thomas Plant and he had an uncle Robert, who also settled in Massachusetts.
Again the name appears in the annals of Newbury, New Hampshire, where the Rev. Matthias Plant was rector of Queen Anne’s Chapel from April, 1722, till his death on December 23, 1751, a period of twenty-nine years.[4] Previous to his time the church had been weak, but under his ministry its position became secure. St. Paul’s Church was built in another part of the town from Queen Anne’s, and he officiated there also. His wife was the youngest daughter of Samuel Bartlett, of Newbury. No further knowledge of this family has been obtained.
The name occurs twice in lists of persons embarking from England in early times to settle in the colonies.[5] In one list William Plant is reported to have died on a plantation in Virginia in 1624. In another Matthew Plant, who was then twenty-three years old, was enrolled to sail on the Assurance from Gravesend for Virginia, July 24, 1635. Under the term “Virginia,” in those times, were included the New England colonies as well as those in the South, so that it is quite supposable that Matthew Plant may have settled in New England.