| Back to Book Corner | Home Page |
|---|
Candee Genealogy.. by Charles Candee
Baldwin, available at Amazon & eBay
To goto Amazon.com, click on the book
A reproduction of the book written by Charles Candee Baldwin in the late 19th century, now available on eBay and Amazon in hardback.
The Candee family have been in the United States at least since the 1650s and possibly as early as 1639, the year before one Zaccheus Cande was born. He is the earliest recorded Candee as fortunately the dates of his birth and marriage from contemporary times are still existent. Hence the name has been present in the United States almost since its beginnings. However, the origins of the Candee family seem to be lost, the earliest contemporary reference to the family is dated to the latter part of the middle of the seventeenth century, when the family resided in the town of West Haven in New Haven county, Connecticut.
Charles Candee Baldwin uses his genealogy to trace the family history from Zaccheus Candee, the earliest recorded ancestor, whom he shows to be the originator of that branch of the Candee family. The spelling of the Candee seems to be unusual in that it seems to be unique to the United States: The most common spelling for the name is 'Candy' in both the US and the UK and it differs from the French spelling of the name Cande (a town in France from which the name may derive) by having an extra 'e'.
In the 19th century the tradition seems to have arisen that the Candee name in the US was probably of Huguenot origin, this seems to have been reasoned out from the spelling of the name in a number of local histories as well as the Genealogy written by Charles Candee Baldwin. The term Huguenot is simply a name meaning French protestant, specifically they who were persecuted in the late 16th and early 17th centuries by the main catholic religion of France, causing a great migration of a substantial proportion of the Huguenot population to Britain to escape persecution. However there does not seem to be a hint of a Huguenot connection to the Candee family in any of the earlier documentation of the family from the 17th and 18th centuries, and they do not seem to have any of links with the earliest Huguenot communities that moved to the United States. So the link does seem to be based on the origin of the name alone. The Candee name in the US is probably French in origin, but not necessarily due to Huguenot immigration. Charles Candee Baldwin ultimately does not promote the link to a 'Prince of Conde', a prominent and leading Huguenot as some articles had elaborated. He does however accept that a Huguenot connection is likely. Yet in consideration it is more likely, however, that the first Candee immigrants to the US were of British origin whose distant ancestors probably moved from France to Britain in the 11th or 12th centuries. This can be reasoned from the likely origins of the earliest spellings of the name and from where it originated.
The Candy name in all its variation of spellings is thought to be of old French origin and arrived in Britain after the Norman conquest (after 1066), and from these early arrivals many generations bearing the name could have evolved over the centuries. The name may have come from the old French Cond(u)it, a name for someone who lived by a water channel, this being derived from the Latin "conductus", a derivative of "conducere". The other likely origin is that it derives from the location name Conde, of which there are several locations with this name in France. The earliest recorded version of the Candy name in England is of a Robert de Cundi in 1150, in the "Chartulary of the Abbey of Rievaulx", during the reign of King Stephen (1135 - 1154). Then there is a William atte Conduit who is noted in the 1340 Assize Rolls of Cambridgeshire and then the more recognisable spellings begin to emerge with entries such as January 31st 1551, John Candye married Helene Fyssher at St. Stephan's, Coleman Street, London, and Ralphe Candy married Basill Cummyn on November 25th 1563, at Allhallows, London Wall, also in London. There are other origins of the name that have over the centuries thought to have emerged as the same or similar spellings, for example the Saxon origin name Gandow is also thought to have merged into the Candy spelling, in 1327 it is referenced in the estates held by John 'Gameday' in the county of Suffolk. Hence there are most probably several unrelated origins of the name that have grown up in Britain such that by the time the first migrants from England arrived in the New World the name Candy was already a long established and quite common name. With this in mind it would be a safe bet to assume that it was one of these ancestor who was the originator of the Candee family in the US.
LEFT: A 19th century photograph of an early homestead in West Haven, Connecticut
Doubtless there were other migrants to the Americas with such variants as Candy, Conde and others of the name, but the names used for Zaccheus and his family seem to have given rise to a new variant. Baldwin points out that Zaccheus is entered into the records with many different variants of his name being used, such as Kamdee, Kembee and Cambee, which also helps to confuse any search for earlier ancestors. Baldwin begins his Genealogy with Zaccheus Candee, but he does speculate on a tradition of an earlier generation, two brothers, who arrived in Hartford (possibly as early as 1639), one of which stayed in Connecticut and the other went south. The one who remained may have been Zaccheus Cande, in which case he would probably have arrived in New Haven sometime after 1660. This would make sense as it was around this time he married. However if Zaccheus arrived with his father when he was a child then the time he arrival would probably be earlier, i.e. probably sometime between 1640 and 1655. However there is no record of his parents or any mention of their grave which makes the latter suggestion less likely. So it seems that sometime after 1660 Zaccheus settled in West Haven, and the majority of the next three generations of Candees would make this their dwelling until the latter part of the 18th century. Zaccheus' eldest son, also Zaccheus, settled in Middleton, Connecticut while his second son, Samuel Candee remained all his life in West Haven. Most of the third generation of the Candee family were still residing in West Haven after the 1750's, hence West Haven in Connecticut is an important part of the Candee family history.
West Haven was first farmed in 1648, about ten years after the settlement of New Haven was settled, and was essentially a farming and fishing community that was closely connected with New Haven. The painting below was painted in 1938, depicting the first settlers to cross the West River and begin the West Haven settlement, originally known as West Farms.
IMAGE: Fording of the West River to Settle West Haven by Elizabeth Shannon Philips, 1938
Zaccheus Candee may well have arrived at West Haven shortly after it started to be a permanent settlement. Settlement was slow - by 1670 the number of permanent settlers was still barely one hundred, of which Zaccheus Candee must have been one.
New Haven meeting house around the mid 18th century
Zaccheus Candee became a freeman of New Haven town and his son Samuel Candee went on to become a sea captain and held many offices as described by Baldwin. Several of Samuel Candee's sons also seem to have prospered in West Haven and went on to become office holder's in West Haven, including his youngest son, Caleb. The New Haven meeting house shown opposite is probably typical of the meeting house in West Haven during the 18th century, where civil meetings were held as well as sermons. By the mid eighteenth century West Haven became an independent parish after years of being considered a part of New haven.
The map below is a Dutch drawing of what was then called the New Netherlands in 1655. At this time New York was called New Amsterdam, but Newhaven town (shown above the name Milford) can be seen on the map. At this time Farming had begun in West Haven but settlement there was probably yet to get fully underway. The English settlers of New Haven and other nearby settlements were in competition with Dutch, Swedes and other independent settlements for local resources and there was no guarantee of an assured future. By 1655 other European colonies being established close by were probably a bigger threat to the English settlement then the native Americans, who also had cause to feel threatened as they were being slowly driven from their homelands. Connecticut, written Conittikock in the 1655 map, was an area made up of growing English settlements that both competed with each other for resources, being independently established by private or religious ventures, but also could still provide mutual support to each other when certain threats emerged. Starting a new settlement such as West Haven would require as much support that could be found, such as another well established colony to provide assistance in hard times, for this reason it seems to have begun as a temporary colony with the first farmers spending the winter time in New Haven, returning each year across the West River when warm weather returned.
Nieuw Nederlandt' A Dutch map of New England and Long Island in 1655, then described by the Dutch as New Netherlands
By the 1720s West Haven was looking for independence from New Haven on one side and Milford on the other. The map below shows New Haven along the Long Island sound in 1729, but West Haven is still considered to be a part of New Haven and therefore is not shown as a separate colony, by now a long established farming and fishing community in its own parish. There were by this time several Candee families established in New Haven and West Haven, while others were now establishing families in other parts of Connecticut and other parts. About 1730 Caleb Candee, Zaccheus' grandson, married and moved to neighbouring Oxford.
New England in 1729, showing New Haven
The writing is very small, but West Haven can just be seen on the 1780 map below. Drawn during the war of the revolution this map shows the location of West Haven, then approximately several miles to the west of New Haven. West Haven was by 1780 well established as an autonomous community, a position its population went some way to gain. Today West Haven is considered a suburb of New haven due to the rapid expansion of the built up areas in the twentieth century, such that there is no longer an open boundary between the two built up areas.
West Haven in New England in 1780, showing New Haven and West Haven