There is considerable confusion as to whether Daniel or Nathan Landon was the father of James Landon, Sr. (1685-1738), who married Mary Vail(e).
James Orville Landon, in his LANDON GENEALOGY, PART lI, records that "Dan Landon had a son, James, born at Bristol, RI 29 Mar 1685 (pg. 14), who lived in Nathan's family home from the time he was thirteen until his marriage (pg. 18), but Nathan also had a son, James, (pg. 18) with an unknown birth date." He quotes the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record article by Lucy Ackerly: "James, born prior to 1698 is PROBABLY the one who married Mary Vail. The printed town records call her Mary, but the Salem Records and Landon Bible all call her Hannah."
James is again named the son of Daniel and Ann(?) (pg. 22), and he quotes Charles G. Landon: "had James been the son of Nathan, wouldn't James have named a son after Nathan before the sixth one?" (pg. 28).
Finally, James 0. Landon states that "Nathan Landon married Hannah Bishop, as found in the family Bible, and on the gravestone in Southold Cemetery (pg. 273)", but the gravestone is marked Hannah Landon, and there is no evidence she was Hannah Bishop.
Dr. Maynard Mires of Georgetown, Delaware, in his SHORT HISTORY OF THE LANDON FAMILY names Nathan as the father of James (pg. 5), but does not reveal his source for this statement.
Dr. John W. Landon of Seattle, Washington, in his report at the Landon picnic of 1969 in Ontario, Canada, said James was the son of Daniel and Ann.
The Southold Town Records, with explanatory notes by J. Wickham Case, state that Nathan had a son, James, but no dates or other information is given, and the town's vital records from Libers B, D & E, as again noted by Lucy Ackerly, state that Nathan was DOUBTLESS the son of Nathan and Hannah.
The Long Island Historical Society of Brooklyn, in it's Landon notes, states that "various writers are correct in their assumption that James was NOT the son of Nathan Landon."
Burke's AMERICAN FAMILIES OF BRITISH ANCESTRY says Nathan left Great Britain in 1670, which would have made him four years old at the time, and confounds the matter even further by stating that he married Hannah Pettit. She could be the Hannah Landon on the Southold gravestone.
Finally, Mrs. Clifford Landon of Everett, Washington records James as the son of another brother of Nathan and Daniel, JAMES, and lists him as born in Boston 1685, but removed to Southold, L.I., and married Mary Vail.
My own records do not contain complete copies of most of the above sources named herein, so there are other pieces of evidence not available to me, but nowhere have I found an exact birth date for Nathan's son, James, and all records that I have listing James born 29 Mar 1685 state that he was the son of Daniel.
To further confuse the issue, the LONG ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY states "Nathan married Hannah Sandford, daughter of Sir Thomas Sandford of Portobago"; also a reprint from the N. Y. Sun says she married him in Portobago. This is confirmed by Mrs. Magdaline Goodrlch, Southold Town Historian, from the records there.
It occurs to me that Nathan was only 37 years old when Hannah Bishop died and he might have married again, though no date is given for a possible marriage to Hannah Sandford.
Written 22 March 1982
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