The Hatfield Bible: Family of Aaron Bonnell and Anne Brotherton

The Hatfield Bible is commonly cited as proof for the children of Aaron Bonnell and Anne Brotherton. When Margaret Watson Cooke and Lola Bonnell were doing their research it was in the possession of Mrs. Ruth Amer, Medford, Oregon. It came to her from her mother, Susan Hatfield England, daughter of John Sherid and Joanna M. Bonnell Hatfield.

I have only seen transcriptions, though one was certified by a notary when submitted to the DAR. The copy posted here came from Claude Bonnell and is also on his database as source E867 (thanks to Charlie Bonnell for maintaining Claude's site for us.) 

The birth dates of Joanna Bonnell Hatfield’s siblings were written on a sheet of paper that was part of an old letter signed by S. Bonnell. It was tucked into the bible. 

Births etc of Aaron Bonnell & Ann Brotherton & children were written in the Bible. Dates for Aaron & Anne Brotherton Bonnell & their children are written in the Quaker way, where the months are numbered rather than using months’ names based on heathen gods. 

The transcription has been typed here on the blog so the names will come up in an internet search.

If anyone has copies of the original letter and bible pages, please let us know. We'd love to post images of them.

Recorded in the Bible
Aaron,son of Benjamin & Eleanor Bonnell, was born 3 mo 30th 1749
Anne, wife of Aaron Bonnell & daughter of Henry & Mercy Brotherton, b. 9th mo 7th, 1753

Elizabeth, daughter of Aaron & Anne Bonnell born 1st M. 21, 1773
Moses son of Aaron & Anne Bonnell, born 4th M. 3rd, 1774
Henry son of Aaron & Anne Bonnell born 7th M 29th, 1776
Mary daughter of Aaron & Anne Bonnell born 6th M 23rd, 1778
Sarah daughter of Aaron & Anne Bonnell 1st M. 31, 1780
Anne daughter of Aaron & Anne Bonnell 11th M. 22, 1781
Mercy daughter of Aaron & Anne Bonnell born 2nd M 25, 1784
Benjamin son of Aaron & Anne Bonnell born 4th M 12th, 1786
James son of Aaron & Anne Bonnell born 9th M. 13th, 1788
John son of Aaron & Anne Bonnell born 4th M 29th, 1791
Eleanor daughter of Aaron & Anne Bonnell born 4th M. 29th 1793
David son of Aaron & Anne Bonnell born 6th M. 17th 1795
William son of Aaron & Anne Bonnell born 7th M. 28th 1797

Rachel wife of Benjamin and daughter of Christian & Ann Mongsmith born 11 M. 22nd, 1803
Aaron son of Benjamin & Rachel Bonnell born 10th M. 13, 1820
Christian son of Benjamin & Rachel Bonnell born 6th M. 29, 1822
Elizabeth daughter of Benjamin & Rachel Bonnell born 9th M. 10th, 1824
Isaac son of Benjamin Bonnell born 9th M. 26th 1826

Recorded on the Sheet of Paper
Mehetable Bonnell born 16 Mar 1812
Anne Bonnell born 4 Oct 1814
Harriet Bonnell born 7 July 1816
Elizabeth Bonnell born 30 Nov 1817
Aaron Bonnell born 2 Dec 1819
Henry Bonnell born 9 July 1821 *
Simeon Bonnell born 6 Apr 1823
Joanna Bonnell born 16 May 1825
David Bonnell born 18 May 1827
John A. Bonnell born 31 Oct 1828
Eunice Bonnell born 21 Jan 1831
William S. Bonnell born 21 July 1833

* On the transcription the 9 in Henry Bonnell's birth date is circled and a handwritten note says, "7/6 in the Brotherton Gen." This probably refers to “Genealogy of Brotherton, Bonnell Families of Morris County, New Jersey and Hamilton and Claremont Counties, Ohio,” compiled by Margaret Watson Cooke in the 1960s. It reports the descendants of Aaron Bonnell and Anne Brotherton based on information provided by many correspondents, including Mrs. Lee Amer (Ruth Amer).

I inherited many of Margaret's early versions of this work and they all show Henry's birth date as 7-6-1821. Between early drafts and her final version she dropped everyone who didn't live to adulthood. I prepared a revised version that includes all these lost children, if anyone wants a copy.

Family Bibles: Moses Bonnel-Hannah Buckingham and Henry Bonnell-Amelia Mattox

This post refers to an article published in the Bunnell/Bonnell Family Newsletter Vol. 3 No. 3, July 1989. Marilyn Lynch, Sayre, OK submitted copies of the family record pages from two Bibles that had been sent to her, but were not of her own line. One Bible recorded the family of Moses Bonnell and his wife, Hannah Buckingham. The second recorded the family of their son Henry Bonnell and his wife, Ameila Mattox.

The article contained transcriptions of the pages. Family Bibles are not always accurate, especially if births, deaths and marriages weren't recorded when they occurred. They need to be supported by other information. Transcribers can misread handwriting or make typographical errors.

One date in these Bibles was wrong and another may be.

Is the William B. Buckingham's death date in the Moses Bonnell & Hannah Buckingham Bible right? The transcription and the original Bible both say 1841, but this can't be correct if his youngest child, Sarah Ellen, was born in 1846.

Albert Bonnell did not die on Oct. 28, 1937 as reported in the transcription of the Henry Bonnell & Amelia Mattox Bible:, but Oct. 28, 1936, in Sarasota County, Florida.

Here are old photostatic copies of some of the Moses Bonnell-Hannah Buckingham Bible pages.

If anyone has better copies, please let us know and we'll put up the better images.  Notes on the back of one copy say these pages came from Lola Bonnell, but they aren't the Bible pages the Cincinnati Museum Center sent when copies of Bible pages were requested.  There is a Bible in her collection there, but it was "too big to copy." The staff may have assumed the loose pages they found among Lola's papers were copies from that Bible. My guess is they weren't because they show the family of Lee Andrew Bonnell, Henry and Amelia's nephew (son of his brother Aaron).

This is another reason it would be nice to have a reader who lives near Cincinnati and is willing to spend a few hours in an archive for us.

Query: Elizabeth Bonnell Brannen's father John Bonnell of Georgia

Our first query! Can anyone help her out? If you can, click on the Comments button below this article and type in any information you have. 

I thank you so very much for doing this!  

I'm not a good researcher and haven't done too much with my Bonnell's from Columbia County, Florida.  They were John Bonnell and daughter Elizabeth that married a John Milledge Brannen.  She was my grt-grt-grandmother.  I'm going to be 80 in October.  John was a Jr.  

I'm just curious to know where the John Bonnell, Eliza's father, originated.  I know it was Georgia.  He had a son, John also.  Eliza's brother.  I know the brother's  lineage somewhat.  It's the John Sr. I was wondering about.

It's hard to bring up information after being away from it for awhile.  But I'm so glad that there's a place I can go and remember the Bonnell name.

My mother was Agnes Brannen, her father was David Ulee Brannen, his father was John Milledge Brannen Jr., and his father was John Milledge Brannen Sr. whose wife was Elizabeth Bonnell, and father was John Bonnell from Georgia.   So somewhere down the line one of my grandmother's was a Bonnell!

Thank you so much.