May 2021 - Paul Cuffe

Wainer and Cuffe descendant George Wortham and historian Mary Beth Start present a geographically wide-ranging conversation about the Wainer family and their connections to New York State and Upper Canada. The Wainer family became closely intertwined with Paul Cuffe and his family through marriage, business partnerships and property ownership. The Wainers helped Paul Cuffe build his connections with the Native American community. The Wainer farm is located on Drift Road, Westport. This conversation will focus on Wainer family members who, in the early 1800s, moved to New York State and further afield to Ontario, Canada.

George Hugh Wortham Jr. has collected Wainer family stories, copies of deeds, cemetery locations, family member names, and relationships to pass on to the next generation. George was born and raised in New Bedford and is a Wainer and Cuffe descendant. George moved to Syracuse to start his long sales career and found himself living 30 miles east of his 3rd great-granduncle, Gardner Wainer, and 30 miles west of his 3rd great-grandfather Michael (Micah) Wainer Jr.

Mary Beth Start will contribute information on the families of Thomas and Gardner Wainer focusing on the period following their move to Upper Canada in the late 1820s and early 1830s. She will explore the primary source material available and some of the details that these documents reveal of the Wainers’ experiences in Upper Canada. She will also provide some information on the known descendants of Thomas and Gardner Wainer after 1850.

Mary Beth Start is from Woodstock, Ontario, Canada. Her interest in local history and the Wainer family began as curator of the Norwich and District Historical Society. This interest continued into her graduate studies at the University of Western Ontario where her research focused on the construction of local historical narrative in a rural Canadian Quaker community. She now farms with her family in the Township of Norwich.