Finding Our Signer

When I presented my family trees to the professionals, they closed in on the Flemings fairly quickly. I am all Irish on my father’s side and mostly Irish on my mother’s side. But there was one family that caught their attention in our Fleming family line: the Lelands. In short order, I would learn:

Almost all Americans named Leland trace their heritage back to Henry Leland who was born in England about 1625. He was a founding father of Sherborn, Massachusetts.
Henry and his wife Margaret (Badcock)had five children.

Henry’s son Ebenezer, born January 2, 1657/8 would be our Fleming ancestor. Other sons were two boys names Hopestill. One died in infancy and his brother was given the same upon his birth two years later. Eleazer was their fourth son and Experience was their only daughter.

Next in line would be Ebenezer’s son with Deborah Brazier, James Leland, who was born September 20, 1687. Deborah and Ebenezer had four children before Deborah died in her thirties. Ebenezer married a second time to Patience Rice having five more children with her. James, working as a farmer and Captain would marry Hannah Learned and their son Moses continues the line toward the Flemings.

Moses Leland was born in 1716 in Massachusetts. The family lived in various places which included Sherburne, Grafton and Sutton primarily. Moses married Abigail Robbins and they had nine children. Moses supported his family as a farmer.


Solomon Leland was the son of Moses and Abigail. He was born in 1742, lived in Sutton and was a farmer, church deacon and State Representative. Before he died in 1808 he would marry Lois Haven and they would have eight children.


It is at this point that the Leland family is about to accept into their ranks a relative of Josiah Bartlett, first Governor of New Hampshire and a Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Silas Leland was the sixth of the eight children of Solomon and Abigail. He would marry Lucina Bartlett. This couple would be the ones to leave Massachusetts for the midwest, living in both Wisconsin and Illinois. Silas worked as a blacksmith and “machinist” in New Diggings, Wisconsin near Hazel Green. At the time there was a lead rush in the area they settled. I believe that Silas used the plentiful supply to make metal parts for wagons and other equipment. Silas and Lucina would have five children: Candace, Lucina, Silas, Larinda and William H. Their daughter, Lucina Leland, born in 1808 would marry Robert King Fleming.


Robert and Lucina would have 6 children and would be the first of this line of ancestors to move to the Saint Louis area. Their youngest son was named after a family friend, Thomas Hart Benton Fleming would work as a printer and reporter in Saint Louis. He would marry Ellen Giblin and they would have six children, the second of which was my grandfather, John Leland Fleming born in 1875.

Here is a graph

Henry Leland = Margaret Badcock
(1625-1680)

Ebenezer Leland = Deborah Brazier
(1657-1742)

James Leland = Hannah Learned
(1687-1768)

Moses Leland = Abigail Robbins
(1716-1797)

Solomon Leland = Lois Haven
(1742-1797)

Silas Leland = Lucina Bartlett
(1781-died after 1850)

Lucina Leland = Robert King Fleming
(1808-1878) (1801-1874)

Thomas Hart Benton Fleming = Ellen Giblin
(1840-1923) (1853-1920)

John Leland Fleming = Margaret Finnegan
(1875-1919) (1880-1969)



This gets our line the families of the women who married into both the Fleming and Leland families, but it does not get us back to our Signer. So, in the next article, I will close in on Lucina Bartlett and her forebears.