Anna Kenney

For my recent "Sutton's Revolutionary War" presentation, I was given permission to look through Sutton's town records. Our town is lucky that the early meeting and treasurer records are well preserved, and have been rebound so they are accessible for any researcher to leaf through without worrying about damage. 

Although I was looking for soldiers, I took photographs of any page that caught my eye, knowing that those rabbit holes are the ones that often lead to the most interesting places. 

​This was one such page. 

This page, dated 1776, begins and ends with monies paid to refurbish the "grate gun" - a cannon which was received as a replacement for the one we sent with John Sibley on 19 April 1775, which was never returned. As an aside - this replacement was not a good one and pages of the treasurer's records are devoted to payments to replace or fix up parts of it. 

The entries in between relate to payments for caring for the poor. 

1. Caleb Chase is paid one pound, five shillings and four pence for a cow for the Widow Kenney. 

2. Edward Putnam is paid three pounds, 12 shillings to support Hannah Wakefield "a non compos child"

3. Daniel Buckman is paid nine pounds, six shillings and two pence for suporting "Anna Kinney a non compos child with food and rament from the fifteenth day of May 1775 to the 7th of June 1776"

"Non compos" was a term used to describe those who were considered incompetant to manage their own affairs. It is most often seen in documents relating to the elderly. Steps would be taken to place the "non compos" person under guardianship arrangements to ensure their property was managed, and their needs cared for. 

In this case, we have two "non compos" children being cared for by men who are, at first glance, unrelated to them. This article outlines the likely identity of Anna Kinney. 

Abigail Davis of Western (now Warren) married Daniel Kenney Jr. in Sutton on 29 April 1751.  The couple had four children, with Rose-Ann being the youngest, born on 11 December 1757. This is our Anna Kinney. Less than a year after her birth, Daniel Kenney was killed in battle in Albany, New York during the French and Indian Wars. His wife charged his estate to bring her husband's body and wages home - paying Deacon Gould and Edward Lyon to provide this service.

Within four years, Abigail had remarried. There are no guardianship documents for her children, so we can assume that they were still being cared for by their mother. Abigail's second husband, Jabez Pratt was also widowed, with six children from his first marriage and the couple would have two more children before Jabez' death in early 1774. Once again, no death record has been found, but we can assume a death date from probate documents. 

Abigail was bound to administer Jabez' estate on 8 March 1774. The process was complete on 8 April of the same year, and ten days later Abigail married Daniel Buckman. Abigail gave birth to her final child, Russell, on 2 February 1775. 

Daniel Buckman is the man named in our treasurer record above, charging the town for taking care of Anna Kinney. In 1775, Rose-Ann Kenney would have been 18 years old, so technically still a child. Daniel himself was 77, with grown children making their own way in the world. He died in 1783, leaving the majority of his estate to his wife and youngest son.  Abigail died in Millbury in 1814. 

Rose-Ann's fate is unknown. 

References

"Non compos mentis, or, The law relating to natural fools, mad-folks, and lunatick persons inquisited and explained for common benefit / by John Brydall, Esq." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A29951.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed December 30, 2025.

Vital records of Sutton, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849. Worcester : Franklin P. Rice, 1907. 

Worcester County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1731-1881. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) Administration documents for Daniel Kenney, 1758. Case: 34783.
https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1635/rd/30222/34783-co1/682825217 : accessed 30 December 2025)

Worcester County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1731-1881. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) Administration documents for Jabez Pratt, 1774. Case 47679. 
(https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1635/rd/30216/47679-co1/682665000 : accessed 30 December 2025)