There is a marriage notice from 1871, recorded by one Waldo Heap:
MARRIAGE NOTICES.
Russell, Hokianga, Waimate, Whangarei, Awhitu, Mahurangi, Auckland
Seward B. Guptill, 30, R.7, M. 1871, Harriet Ann Selina Shepherd, 16.
This was several years before Simon Guptill arrived in 1882, so who was Seward and what happened to his descendants? He would have been born around 1841. Why did he marry a 16-year-old?
He was the son of Thomas Holland Guptill and Emily Dinsmore, who were married in 1830 and whose son Seward was born in 1840 in Cherryfield, Washington County, Maine. He was a cousin of Stillman, Simon’s dad.
He died a few months later on 16 January 1872 in Auckland.
His ancestors were:
Seward > Thomas Holland > William > John > Nathaniel > Thomas
Does anyone have further information about him?
Not the Guptill crest
If you go to a shopping mall you might find a shop that sells “family crests”. Well, there is no such thing and they are not “coats of arms”. Note that in British heraldry, a crest is presented to a specific individual. All and sundry people bearing the same name are not entitled to a copy of it – only the original recipient and their direct descendants may do so.
Why is there a fox in these Guptill crests? When one is not sure, something is better than nothing. Here is my theory: Somewhere out there is a book about the origins of surnames, and this book is used by these shopping mall entrepreneurs. They do not know that the name Guptill was invented from Gubtail, so they find these ancient Scottish individuals whose names resemble Guptill or they say that the name derives from the French word “goupil”, which means “fox”. Some Canadian Guptills have family legends about French origins, and this might be the explanation.
Here is an example of the mumbo jumbo that purports to explain the origin of “Guptill”.
A search for a Gubtail crest is more likely to produce relevant results.
