Shafter Genealogy

Name Origins

While circumstantial evidence and family tradition suggests the Shafter name is of late 17th- or early 18th-century English extraction, primary sources have not been found to confirm this with any certainty, and the name is not known to have existed on the British mainland. It is also unlikely that the name originates from the German “Schäfer” (Shepherd) and its Anglicized derivatives “Schaefer,” “Schaffer,” and “Shaffer,” as some online genealogies have proposed, as the appearance of the name does not line up with known Palatine migration locations in the early 18th century. More likely is the theory of English origin that was popular among the family in the early 19th century.

In the late 1870s and 80s, during research for an entry on the history of Athens, Vermont, for the Vermont Historical Gazetteer’s comprehensive history of the towns of the state (published in Brandon, VT, 1891), my 2nd great grandmother Mary Lovell Shafter Edminster forwarded the authors a short genealogy written by her father, Judge William R. Shafter, in April of 1857. In an addendum to his text, she explains that Rev. Dr. Edmund F. Slafter of Boston had visited her father while conducting research for his upcoming genealogy of the Slafter family in America, Memorial of John Slafter with Genealogical Record of His Descendants, published after a long delay in 1869:

"Rev. Edmund SLAFTER, of Boston, a few years since got up a genealogical account, and visited us in Townshend. He, as well as my father, thought the original name was SLAUGHTER, abbreviated for convenience, and that in after years it appeared as SLAFTER and SHAFTER; they came to the conclusion that they were second cousins."

— Mary Shafter Edminster, undated manuscript ca. 1880

While hard evidence that Edmund Slafter and William R. Shafter were in fact second cousins has not been found, we shall see later that the possibility remains entirely plausible. Rev. Slafter convincingly discusses the theory at length on pages 133-135 of his book, but admits that he doesn’t have the hard evidence to confidently include the Shafter genealogy as part of the wider Slafter history in America.

In the absence of evidence, the next step is to determine if there are in fact any historical Slafter figures whose dates and life details could make them candidates for the parents of the orphan James Shafter Sr. (1730 - 1766) and his sister Molly. To do this we must line up what little we know of early Shafter history with what is known of the Slafter family in Massachusetts, where the young Shafter orphans were found at an almshouse.

"It seems that our paternal ancestors came from the west of England. On the mother's side is inherited pure Welsh blood. Our great grandfather, with his wife, emigrated to this country, landing at Boston."

— William R. Shafter, 14 Apr 1857, as quoted in the Vermont Historical Gazeteer, 1891

Disregarding the assertion that the orphan James Shafter Sr.’s parents were the generation that emigrated to America—probably false—it is of note that the historical English surname Slaughter, a geographical name denoting someone who lived near a wetland or slough, has its roots in Gloucestershire in the west of England, near the border with Wales along the River Severn. It is now generally accepted that the name Slaughter—which was variously pronounced with and without an F sound like the modern words “drought”, “draught”, and “draft”—became the modern names Slater and Slafter, among other variations in Britain and America.

The Slafters

The original ancestor of Slafters in America, as discussed in Edmund Slafter’s 19th-century genealogy, was the emigrant John Slafter (1665-1739) who purportedly lived in Lynn, Massachusetts before moving to Connecticut in the early 1700s. His parents and wife are unknown, and there are no direct records of him in Massachusetts, though there are records of some of his children in Lynn, so genealogists have generally accepted the story about him originally settling in Massachusetts as true.

In his 1869 book, Edmund Slafter explains that the will of Benjamin Slafter (b. 1706), son of original emigrant John Slafter, references nine siblings besides himself, making a total of ten second generation children, of which only nine have been positively identified. The author goes on to theorize that this tenth mystery child, whom we shall call “James Slafter”, was the ancestor of the Shafter family in America, as no Shafters were known to exist in England or America before that time:

"By the will of Benjamin Slafter, of the second generation, it appears that his father, the emigrant ancestor, had ten children, and at the time the will was made, 1756, they were either living, or were supposed to have living issue, as he left the reversion of his estate to his nine brothers and sisters and their heirs. In the body of this work, as will appear on page 4th, we have only included nine children, not having found absolute evidence to identify the tenth. Many circumstances, however, point to James Shafter, the ancestor of the Hon. Oscar-Lovell and the Hon. James-McMellen Shafter, of San Francisco, as the son of John Slafter, our emigrant ancestor."

— Edmund F. Slafter, Slafter Memorial, pp 133-135, published 1869

Noting the similarities between the names, Rev. Slafter recounts his own experiences with people mistakenly reading the L in his name as an H:

"The names Shafter and Slafter are so near alike that they are frequently confounded. The writer has often been addressed by those not entirely familiar with his name, as if it were spelled with an H instead of an L. James Shafter, being left without father or mother when a small child, might easily have had the L of his father's name changed to H, especially as his guardian may have been an entire stranger to his father."

— Edmund F. Slafter, Slafter Memorial, pp 133-135, published 1869

James Slafter (b ~ 1708)

While concrete evidence of a 10th child of John Slafter has still not been found, modern genealogists have taken Edmund Slafter’s assumption of an unaccounted for son seriously, and it is now common among Slafter genealogists to postulate a 10th son named James Slafter, born in 1708 two years after the birth of the last known child, Benjamin Slafter (b. 1706). While this is far from certain, it remains the most likely scenario concerning the parentage of the orphan James Shafter and his sister Molly, so until specific evidence discounting it is produced, this website will defer to the 19th-century hypothesis that the Shafter name in America likely originates with a James Slafter, the youngest son of the emigrant John Slafter (1665-1739), of Lynn, MA and Connecticut.

James Shafter Sr. (~1730 - 1766)

James Shafter Sr., the first confirmed ancestor of all known Shafters, was born in Massachusetts around 1730 and had one known sibling, Molly (a common nickname for Mary). After their parents died in the 1730s, James and his sister Molly were sent to an unnamed almshouse in Massachusetts, where they were eventually adopted by a farmer from Framingham:

"A farmer from the town of Framingham, Mass., visited the almshouse for the purpose of procuring a boy to assist him in his business. The SHAFTER boy was recommended to him, and he decided to take him on trial. When they attempted to separate him from his sister, who was his only associate and relative, the evidences of attachment were so strong as to become overpowering, and the benevolent feelings of the good man, silencing all consideration of pecuniary loss, he charitably concluded to take them both. So James and his little sister Molly went to Framingham, though we have no knowledge of dates." 

— William R. Shafter, 14 Apr 1857, quoted in Vermont Historical Gazetteer, 1891

Little is known of the orphans’ time with the farmer. By the time he was 20, James Shafter had married Esther Mellen (“McMellen” in William R. Shafter’s 1857 text), and his sister Molly supposedly married a Mr. Chubb and moved to Vermont, although nothing else is known of her. Judge Shafter’s 1857 letter goes on to assert that James and Esther continued to live in the vicinity of Framingham for a time, though evidence suggests that they moved west to Oxford and Dudley, MA, south of the town of Worcester, where most of their eldest children were born before their move to Richmond, New Hampshire in late 1760:

1. Simon Shafter - birthdate unknown, usually listed as the eldest by his nephew William R. Shafter. Stayed at home to help raise his younger siblings after his father died, then at the age of 24 joined in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, attaining the rank of captain. According to his nephew, he died of smallpox at Valley Forge, George Washington's famed Dec 1777 - Jun 1778 winter encampement.

2. Lois Shafter White (13 Apr 1753 - before 1850) born in Oxford, MA, married John White on 13 May 1773 in Claremont, NH and had at least one daughter, Louisa White Cunningham. Lois died in Utica, New York.

3. Mary (Molly) Shafter Thayer (16 Apr 1755 - 4 Sep 1840) born in Oxford. Married Ellis Thayer at Richmond, NH and had 7 children.

4. Esther Shafter Thrasher (circa 1756 - 2 Nov 1841) born in Oxford or Dudley, married Benjamin Threshere (Thrasher) and had at least three children: Esther, Benjamin Jr., and Aaron. Esther and her husband Benjamin Thrasher are buried at the West Athens Cemetery in Athens, Vermont. Her maiden name is mistakenly recorded as Slafter on findagrave.

5. James Shafter Jr. (~15 Sep 1759 - 9 Jan 1816) born in Dudley, MA, married Abigail Johnson and had 5 children, three of which lived to adulthood: William Rufus, John Lock, and Mary Shafter Lovell. As the only male son to leave issue, all subsequent Shafters are descended through James Jr. He was given to various strangers after his father died, eventually living with a tavernkeeper named John Alexander in Winchester, NH, across the Connecticut River from Brattleboro, until he came of age, at which time he was drafted into the New Hampshire militia and served in the Revolutionary War before settling in Athens, Vermont, and serving in the State Legislature. The following pages in this series will deal with his family and descendants in more detail.

6. Lydia Shafter Phillips (31 Aug 1760 - 1841) born in Dudley. Married Enoch Phillips and had at least three children: Wealthy Phillips, Amaziah Phillips, and Levi Phillips.

7. Prudence Shafter Barrows (abt. 1764 - 20 Mar 1835) born in Richmond, NH, married Jeremiah "Barrus" Barrows and had at least five children: Mellen (Millen) "Barrus" Barrows, Abigail Barrus Blending, Prudence Barrus Allen, Jeremiah Jr., and Alvan/Alvin Barrus. Prudence and her husband Jeremiah Barrus are buried at the Barrus Cemetery in Richmond, NH.

8. Charity Shafter Whipple (abt. 1765 - unknown) married Jabez Whipple and settled in Athens, Vermont.

 Around 1760 James Sr. and Esther Mellen Shafter moved the family from Oxford and Dudley in southern Massachusetts to Richmond, New Hampshire under a land grant issued by New Hampshire governor Benning Wentworth. James Sr. worked at improving his land for about 6 or 7 years before in 1766 he was killed by a falling tree, after which the family was eventually forced to disperse. The elder sisters married and began lives of their own, and the younger siblings were given off to others who had the means to raise them. As mentioned above, James Jr. ended up with a tavernkeeper in Winchester, NH. The next installment in this history will explore his activities during the Revolutionary War, settling of Athens, VT, and service in the Vermont State House.

Homestead of James Shafter Jr. and Abigail Johnson at 52 McCusker Road, Athens, VT, photographed mid-1800s

Homestead of James Shafter Jr. and Abigail Johnson at 52 McCusker Road, Athens, VT, photographed Oct 2024