Amy Pattison (Franklin)

Robert York was a soldier in the Connecticut forces during the American Revolution. A son of Robert York was Stephen York Sr. He married Amy Franklin, daughter of Asahel Franklin, who was a nephew of the famous Benjamin Franklin. Asahel Franklin lived within a mile of Bennington, Vermont, and fought in the battle there, which his daughter Amy, then eleven years old, witnessed from the paternal home. In the early period of the War of 1812, Stephen York Sr. resided with his family in Canada, close by the battlefield of Lundy's Lane, and of that conflict his wife was a witness from her own house. Two of her sons were drafted into the Canadian militia, but with their father escaped over the boundary and joined the American forces. The mother followed, leaving behind all the household effects except a few small articles which she bundled together and flung over the back of a cow. She then led the animal to the river and was ferried across. Before his departure from Canada, Stephen York Sr had incurred the displeasure of the authorities by sending information to the Americans which caused the arrest of a British woman spy. His Canadian property was confiscated. Some years after a bill to reimburse him was prepared for introduction in congress, but, owing to the death of the American commander cognizant of the facts, it was never acted on. His wife lived to be nearly a hundred years old.

http://books.google.com/books?id=oQ8WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA339&img=1&zoom=3...

http://books.google.com/books?id=oQ8WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA340&img=1&zoom=3...

Amy was possibly the daughter of Asahel Franklin, a nephew of Benjamin Franklin. She was probably born in 1766 in Rhode Island.

• ****preliminary DNA results show that a Brown/York/Cottrell descendant matches descendants of Josiah Franklin (Benjamin Franklin's father , through his brother John's lineage).