Leonard Genealogy - Henry

Descendants of Henry Leonard 1618 - 1678, Ironworker, of Massachusetts and New Jersey

Henry was the older brother of James, also the son of Thomas Leonard, fyner.  He worked at the Lynn/Saugus Ironworks and later at the iron works at Rowley, MA.  Father and sons had numerous run-ins with local authorities and ultimately moved to New Jersey, where they were involved in setting up the Tinton Falls Ironworks and became wealthy, politically connected landowners. Some of these Leonards two generations later moved to North Carolina and from there spread to South Carolina and across the South.

 Descendants of Henry test in Haplogroup J2, virtually indistinguishable from descendants of James.  This descendancy is compiled from notes left by Elisha Clark Leonard 1819-1894, Bill Barton’s research (a descendant of Henry), Oliver B.Leonard 1839-1917, Sally Toomey, several living descendants, and a great variety of other sources for specific branches.  

Two major sources of confusion in researching this family are that descendants of James Leonard (thru his grandson, Stephen) and Solomon Leonard (thru his grandson Benjamin) also inhabited Morris County, New Jersey,where many descendants of Henry also lived. The branches of Henry’s descendants who went to North Carolina are sometimes confused with the descendants of Joseph S. Leonard, b. bef. 1730 in Ireland, and those of Valentine Leonard 1718-1781, both of which include large families.