Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 29 May 2026 by Allen Gurney

Willis Gurney (c. 1796/98 – before 1870)

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Tailor; first Gurney of the line to leave Massachusetts for New York; settled in Flushing, Queens.

Born
c. 1796–1798, Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. Son of Amos Gurney (G8) and Ruth Gilbert. 1
Died
Before 1870 (not present in the 1870 federal census). 2
Occupation / Religion
Tailor. Listed in the 1830, 1840, and 1850 federal census returns at Flushing, Queens, New York. He did not himself attend church; his wife Eliza was a communicant of St. George's Episcopal Church, Flushing. 3
Marriage
Elizabeth "Eliza" A. Lawrence — born New York. Communicant of St. George's Episcopal Church, Flushing. 4

Highlights

  • The first Gurney of this line to leave Massachusetts. Willis appears in the 1830, 1840, and 1850 census returns at Flushing, Queens — by then a busy market town on the western edge of Long Island, well-connected to Manhattan by water. His father Amos (G8) had stayed in the Cummington–Bridgewater Massachusetts hill country; Willis's move opened the New York chapter that would last until G2. 5
  • The tailor occupation echoes John Gurney-1 across nearly two centuries. The colonial emigrant John Gurney (G13, fl. 1641 in Weymouth) is described in the surviving New England records as a tailor; six generations later in Flushing, Willis was again a tailor. The recurrence is a small but striking thread. 6
  • The most consequential of his children was his eldest son. William Gurney, born at Flushing 21 August 1821, became the Civil War colonel of the 127th New York Volunteers, brevet brigadier general, and commandant of Charleston in 1865 — the figure around whom much of the family's documented record orbits. 7
  • Whether Willis owned or rented his Flushing premises is not yet established. No deed or property transaction has been documented in sources consulted so far; Queens County deed records (city register's office, 1830–1870) have not yet been searched. 8

Children

Name Dates Notes
William Gurneyb. 21 Aug 1821G6 in direct line. Brigadier General, U.S. Civil War. 7
Sarah Amelia Gurneyb. c. 1824
Elizabeth Ann Gurneyb. c. 1825
Thomas Gurneyb. c. 1828Left "infirm in speech" by fever and operations on the neck. 9
Caroline Gurneyb. c. 1832
Ruth Louisa Gurneyb. October 1834
Willis Gurney Jr.b. c. 1844
Adelia Gurneyb. c. 1845

Narrative

Willis Gurney is the hinge between the Massachusetts farming generations of his ancestors and the New York public life of his children. He was born in Cummington, in the Hampshire County hills of western Massachusetts, around the turn of the nineteenth century — the family's third generation in Cummington after his grandfather Benjamin (G9) bought land there with Silas Reed in 1770 and settled the household. Yet by 1830 Willis was at Flushing, Queens, on Long Island, and there he stayed for the rest of his life, working as a tailor and raising eight known children with Elizabeth ("Eliza") A. Lawrence, a New York–born woman who attended St. George's Episcopal Church in Flushing.

The professional choice is small but resonant. The first Gurney to arrive in North America, John Gurney (G13), is identified in the seventeenth-century Weymouth and Braintree records as a tailor; six generations later, Willis took up the same trade. The continuity is plainly accidental — there is no evidence of any preserved family practice or apprenticeship — yet it is striking that the family's entry to America and its entry to New York were both made by tailors named Gurney.

The most documented chapter of Willis's life is the success of his eldest son William, born at Flushing on 21 August 1821. William rose from the Manhattan wholesale trade into a Civil War colonelcy, became commandant of occupied Charleston in 1865, and is the subject of the family's most extensive published research. Willis appears in that biography only at its margins, as the Flushing tailor who fathered the more famous man. But it is precisely the move from rural Cummington to suburban Flushing that made William's New York career possible.

Citations

  1. Approximate birth year derived from federal census ages and from family-tradition material in the Brigadier General William Gurney research file. See data/ancestors v26.json, G7 entry, and research/people/g07-willis-gurney-fact-sheet.research.md. ↩
  2. Absent from the 1870 federal census; widow Eliza is found with son Willis Jr. in the 1850 census household and continues to appear without Willis Sr. in later records. ↩
  3. Federal census, Flushing, Queens County, New York, 1830, 1840, and 1850 schedules (population, occupation: tailor). Family-tradition narrative on Eliza's church attendance preserved in the Brigadier General William Gurney research file. ↩
  4. Family-tradition narrative preserved in the Brigadier General William Gurney research file; St. George's Episcopal Church, Flushing, parish records not yet consulted. ↩
  5. Federal census, Flushing, Queens County, New York, 1830, 1840, and 1850 schedules. Patrick L. Cooney's history of Flushing for nineteenth-century context: Flushing Historical Society. ↩
  6. For John Gurney (G13) as tailor, see John Gurney case file and Anderson, Great Migration Directory, p. 158 (Source ID: anderson-gmd-2015). ↩
  7. For William Gurney's career, see Brigadier General William Gurney, Gurney Genealogy Library. ↩
  8. Negative result: Queens County / city register's office land records 1830–1870 not yet searched. See research/people/g07-willis-gurney-fact-sheet.research.md. ↩
  9. Family-tradition narrative preserved in the Brigadier General William Gurney research file. ↩