David Shapley Sr.

1742-1815

Born 1742, Thompson, Windham Co, Connecticut

Died 1815

Mother: John Shapley

Children include David

Born at Thompson in Windham County, Connecticut in 1742, and baptized in the West Thompson parish of Killingly on 9 May 1742, a son of John Shapley. Brian J. L. Berry's histories of the family, Westward the American Shapleys (1987) and The Shapleigh, Shapley and Shappley Families (1993), make him the grandson of David Shapley of Marblehead and Killingly and Hephzibah French.

In June 1768 at Somers, Connecticut, he married Rebecca Bishop, born 9 September 1745. His brother John married her sister Hannah. Their son David was born at Somers on 8 June 1771, and Berry's 1993 book says "They moved to Jericho," in Vermont. That son became a ruling elder of the Shakers at New Lebanon, and his other children Dunham and Sally went into the Shaker community too.

He died in 1815, the grandfather of Rebecca Shapley. He and a Mr. Wheeler together gave the land for Smith Valley Cemetery, which is the plain reason the Benedicts, the Nileses and the Shapleys all lie in the same ground: three families here share a burying place because one of the donors was theirs. Wheeler was a miller, killed by his own mill wheel on Christmas morning 1806, aged 35.

Parents

John Shapley

Children

David Shapley Jr. (1771-1839)

Sources

Brian J. L. Berry, Westward the American Shapleys (1987), archive.org westwardamerican1987berr; Brian J. L. Berry, The Shapleigh, Shapley and Shappley Families (1993), archive.org shapleighshapley00berr, citing the Somers vital records and the Killingly and Thompson church records

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Cite: Heirology, "David Shapley Sr. (1742-1815)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/david-shapley-sr-1742-1815-cfddcc.