“From this house went forth seven sons to fight in the Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion.” This sign remained on the wall of the Fran­cis and Lucre­tia Barnard house, one of the old­est homes in Bloom­field, Con­necti­cut. Dick Clark is one of Fran­cis and Lucre­tia Barnard’s descen­dants. When I learned that from my cousin last night, I took a look at Dick Clark’s geneal­ogy, and dis­cov­ered he too descends from my Fran­cis and Lucre­tia Barnard!

I knew about the Seven Sons, so searched around the Web for pho­tos of the house. I found a new cousin, Amy Po (Amy Pol­lien) who grew up very close to the Barnard house. First, let’s remind you who Dick Clark is, then we’ll share some of Amy’s mem­o­ries, and close out with Mark Twain.

Accord­ing to WikiPedia:

Richard Wagstaff “Dick” Clark (Novem­ber 30, 1929 – April 18, 2012) was an Amer­i­can radio and tele­vi­sion per­son­al­ity, best known for host­ing television’s longest-running vari­ety show, Amer­i­can Band­stand, from 1957 to 1987. He also hosted the game show Pyra­mid and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, which trans­mit­ted Times Square’s New Year’s Eve cel­e­bra­tions worldwide.

Amy Pol­lien writes:

My favorite of the Barnards has always been Fran­cis. Referred to as “Dea­con” Fran­cis in the lore, he mar­ried Lucre­tia Pin­ney in 1740 when she was 19 and he was 21. Start­ing  in 1743 they had 13 chil­dren: Lucre­tia, Lydia, Irana, Aaron, Moses, David, Sara, Eliz­a­beth, Eli­jah, Ebenezer, Samuel, Elihu, Car­o­line and Fran­cis, Jr. They lived in the same town I grew up in, and my mother often told me of the sign on the side of the house that proclaimed:

The house stood on Dun­caster Rd. until 1989. I have a vivid mem­ory of the sign, but now I can’t remem­ber if I saw it myself or sim­ply heard the story often enough to make it real. In ’89 they took the house down and the Win­ton­bury His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety put up a plaque in honor of the sons.

In giv­ing me per­mis­sion to use her pho­tos for Strong geneal­ogy, Amy tells me that she always heard a great deal about the “seven sons sent to war” while grow­ing up but it was only as an adult doing research that she dis­cov­ered the Dea­con and his wife also had six daughters!

Accord­ing to “Ances­try of Dick Clark com­piled by Robert Bat­tle,” Dick Clark’s mother is Julia Fuller Barnard (1897–1973). Dick is a descen­dant of Edward Fuller of the Mayflower. Dick’s 4th great grand­par­ents are Aaron Barnard (b. 1750) and Lucy Phelps (b. 1747), who mar­ried in 1770. Aaron is one of the Seven Sons.

Moses Barnard (1750–1811) was Aaron’s twin brother. Moses mar­ried his first cousin Han­nah Barnard (1745–1848) in 1766. They had nine known chil­dren, includ­ing Olive Barnard (1772–1812). Olive mar­ried Edward Lewis. Olive had a daugh­ter named Olivia Lang­don, who was born in 1904.

Olivia Lang­don mar­ried in 1870 in Elmira, NY, Samuel Lang­horne Clemens. Samuel Clemens was born Novem­ber 30, 1835 in Florida, Mis­souri. He died April 21, 1910 in Red­ding, Con­necti­cut. He was bet­ter known as Mark Twain, one of the best and most pop­u­lar writ­ers of Amer­i­can literature.

Dr. Walther M. Barnard, author of sev­eral of our “Notable Kin” arti­cles, descends from Samuel Barnard, one of the Seven Sons. I descend from the old­est of the Seven Sons, Fran­cis. Amy Po descends from Ebenezer Barnard.

That accounts for five of the Seven Sons. Let’s not for­get that Lucre­tia also had six daughters!

As for our Strong con­nec­tion, accord­ing to Strong Updates Vol­ume III revised:

1. Elder John Strong (ca. 1610–1699) & Abi­gail Ford (1619–1688)
2. Sarah Strong (1656–1733) & Joseph Barnard Sr. (1650–1695)
3. Sgt. Joseph Barnard Jr. (1681–1736) & Abi­gail Gris­wold (1685–1747)
4. Dea­con Fran­cis Barnard (1719–1789) & Lucre­tia Car­roll nee Pin­ney (1722/3–1805)

The chil­dren of Fran­cis Barnard and Lucre­tia Pinney:

i. Fran­cis Barnard Jr. (1741–1828)
ii. Lucre­tia Barnard (1743–1775)
iii. Lydia Barnard (1746–1746)
iv. Irana/Irane Barnard (b. 1747)
v. Moses Barnard (twin) (1750–1811)
vi. Aaron Barnard (twin) (b. 1750)
vii. David Barnard (b. 1752)
viii. Eliz­a­beth Barnard (twin) (1755-after 1787)
ix. Sarah Barnard (twin) (b. 1755)
x. Ebenezer Barnard (1757–1829)
xi. Samuel Barnard (1759–1815)
xii. Elihu Barnard (b. 1762)
xiii. Car­o­line Matilda Barnard (b. 1765)