Man and Wife A History by Henrik Hartog pages 128-129 Contributed by Charlott Wells Jones

Marytie (Maria) Wendell was the daughter of John J. Wendell and Hannah Van Den Bergh. She was born in Schagticoke, New York on 17 September 1786, but apparently lived in Otsego, Otsego County at the time she married Elisha Chadwick, who had been born in Conneticut.

However, they resided in Petersboro which was a part of Smithfield, New York with their four daughters, two of whom were probably Susannah and Elizabeth.

The following article concerning Maria Chadwick has to do with "settlement". The system that was used in the early 19th century to determine "poor relief" was called settlement. It was based on where you were from, not where you resided when the problem arose. If you did not have settlement where you resided, meaning that you had moved from your original location you did not have any claims to relief in that location. If you became indigent that town would issue a "warning". This simply stated that you must return to your original home where you might have had settlement. If you were an unwed mother, the place you were located might actually transport you there.

When a woman married she would loose her settlement in her hometown, if she removed to another place with her husband that had coverture there. If a man did not provide for his wife or family then his settlement would take over.

The following is from "Man and Wife" A History by Henrik Hartog page 128-129.

Overseers of the Poor of the Town of Otsego vs. Overseers of the Poor of the Town of Smithfield 5 cow 760 (no doubt court file number)

Elisha Chadwick -- Maria Wendell

"But what if the husband lacked a settlement in any town in the state? Maria Chadwick, originally from Otsego, New York, lived in Smithfield, New York with her husband Elisha, who's settlement was in Conneticut.

Elisha was a drunkard and did not provide for his wife and children and in 1823 had lost their house.

When Maria turned to the charity of her neighbors, the town warned her out and ordered her removal to Otsego. The town of Otsego responded that her settlement there was suspended during coverture (her marriage). She remained a member of her husbands community. The law, Otsego argued, should not tolerate the dispertion of families. But Cheif Justice John Savage of the New York Supreme Court held that the Smithfield's order of removal was right legally, although he concluded that it was a close and difficult question. Marriage should not put a woman in "worse" position than she was in before marriage, should not leave her without settlement because her husband had none. Savage insisted that he appreciated the importance of "rights of marriage to the individuals concerned and to society. However, he saw no reason why a town should be compelled to support paupers, who had a settlement in another "merely to accomodate a vagabond intemperate husband with the society of his wife and children, whom he had by misconduct reduced to pauperism.

Maria Chadwick, in asking for relief, revealed that she was no longer "under the power and protection of her husband", and so in order to keep the itinerate poor from acquiring effective settlements in their places of residence, and in order to give Maria a settlement somewhere in New York, Chief Justice Savage ruled against a care of coverture - that a wife's place was with her husband within his household.

Maria Chadwick would be returned to Otsego.

With so many family members in that area she and her girls were probably provided for, as the Wendell family was a very close knit one.

Maria would eventually marry Joshua Gustin / Gustine who was born in Rockingham, Vermont and move to Assyria, Berry County, Michigan.

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Maria Wendell was the daughter of my 4th great-grandfather John J. Wendell and brother of my 3rd great-grandfather Jacob Wendell.

Charlott Wells Jones