52 Ancestors Week #4: Phebe Horton

I kind of feel that I am speed dating with my ancestors each week as I randomly select a name from my jar and then I have one week to write something related to the topic that also gets selected.  In some cases I will know a lot about them but so far I have had to do some rather fast digging to gather information to be able to write something about that person. This week I selected Phebe Horton; the topic of focus is what is his/her immigration story or the lack of one.  Needless to say -- this week was no different.  For the most part Phebe Horton has just been a name in my tree and I've known some basic general information about how she fits so this week was a challenge.  I feel like I might be writing more fiction than not this week as I haven't been able to prove a lot of my findings with specific documents so that I have a higher degree of proof then just a hunch.  So if anyone out there can clear up any of my theory PLEASE do so!!!

Fact or Fiction?  My working theory:

I believe Phebe Horton is one of my 4th great grandmothers in my father's paternal line.   She was born between 1800-1803 in New York.  She was married to Stephen McFarland and they resided in Duchess County, New York.

My theory has her as the daughter of William J Horton and Hannah Ackley.  Her siblings were James, Joseph, Esther, Daniel and David.

In terms of her immigration story my theory has the "Horton" family coming to America between 1630 and 1640.  Her ancestor that came and settled in America was Barnabus Horton originally from Mowsley, England.  Barnabus was one of the initial twelve pilgirms to settle Southold, Suffolk, New York.  There is even a lighthouse named after the family that sits on Barnabus' land.

Barnabus had a son Joseph that married Jane Budd, daughter of John Budd who was one of the founding fathers of Southold and Rye, NY.  Joseph and Jane lived in Southold for part of their life but later moved to Rye with her father.  Joseph had at least two sons - John and Joesph.  My current line of research is in the notion to prove that John Horton married Rachel Hoit.  They had three sons; John, Caleb and James.  I believe John married Elizabeth Lee.  They had a son William who married Sarah Wright.  They in turn had a son William which I believe to be Phebe's father. 

That is a lot of speculation --I know that there are definite facts that I can prove with documentation but there are things in the dots that can't be connected with solid evidence.  It is amazing to me that it is almost easier to prove things that happened in the 1600's than things that happened during the 1700 and early 1800's. 

So my search will continue, my curiosity has been peaked but now it is time to shift to yet another leaf in the tree.