So Close, Yet So Far Away - 52 Ancestors #9

David McClure was a Scottish immigrant who moved to New Hampshire after a brief time in Boston. He married another Scottish immigrant, Martha Glenn and together they braved the wilds of the colonial frontier. The book, History of Candia, paints a colorful picture of the challenges from wild animals, to Indian attack, to extreme weather. What follows is the account of the death of David McClure, the first settler in Candia. 

About the winter of 1770, while returning, an old man (David McClure), from a visit to his daughter, in Raymond, he became bewildered in a severe snow storm, and sunk exhausted but a few rods from the path he had lost. His voice, borne by the fitful gusts over the drifting hill sides, was heard at a mile's distance. Ere he was found, he had perished. A pine, at whose foot he fell, had its bark bruised off as far as an old man could reach, in the vain effort to keep off the chill which bound his aged limbs in death. 

Such was the melancholy fate of the first settler in Candia. So perish multitudes whose restless spirits send them, in advance of civilization, to encounter the dangers of the frontier, or plunge into the unexplored recesses of the wilderness. 

What seems the most tragic to me is that they could evidently hear his cries for help but couldn't get to him in time to save him! He was so close, yet so far away! 

I wrote about his wife, Martha Glenn, for the "One Tough Woman" prompt.

My Line
David McClure
Jane McClure

Elizabeth Simpson
David Philbrick
Oliver Smith Philbrick
Benjamin Perley Philbrick
Lizzie Philbrick
Ray Everett Cotton
Fern Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother

I Hope to See You There!

I am so excited to attend the New England Regional Genealogy Conference in Providence, R.I. in April! The dates are April 15th-18th and you can attend one day or the whole conference. My registration and hotel were a Christmas gift so I'm all signed up and set to go. However, the early-bird registration deadline is February 28th so if you haven't registered and you like to save money (who doesn't?), you should submit your registration now. You can find all you need to know here. 

This year's theme is awesome! There are so many wonderful speakers and really something for everyone, regardless of your research experience or areas of interest. You can see all the hard work of the volunteers and get the latest updates on their Facebook page. They also send out e-zines with all the latest info. 

I learned at the last NERGC in 2013 that one of the best experiences was getting to meet all the other people crazy about all things related to New England history, genealogy, and family stories. Networking is a great resource and I have stayed in touch with many people I met in Manchester, N.H. in 2013. So I'll be networking and blogging about the conference this spring. I hope to see you there! 

A Friend Delivers a Warning - 52 Ancestors #8

A Good Deed - Indeed! 

John Perkins was the son of John & Judith (Gater) Perkins. He was baptized on September 14, 1609 in Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England and died in Ipswich, Massachusetts on December 14, 1686. 

Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England

In September 1633 was living on a island that belonged to his father when he was warned by a friendly Indian, named Robin, that he was being targeted for an ambush. A small group of Indians were planning to come to see him as if they wanted to trade with him. However, there were forty canoes of Indians just waiting for him to come forward so they could attack. 

John decided that he didn't want to face this alone and sought the advice of John Winthrop. Winthrop told John that when the small group arrived, John should "carry it roughly towards them, and threaten to shoot them, if they would not be gone, and, when their backs were turned, to strike the drum he had with him, besides his muskets, and to discharge them; so that six or eight young men, who were in the marshes hard by a mowing, having their guns ready charged, might take alarm, and the Indians would perceive their plot discovered, and hast away to sea again." 

And it worked! He did as instructed and was happy to see the forty canoes go "fast as they possibly could to sea..." (History of Ipswich).

I guess he was pretty happy that Robin gave him a warning of what was supposed to happen. I hope he was able to repay the favor in some way. 

John Perkins

Mary Perkins

Abigail Wells

Joshua Bartlett

Lydia Bartlett

Nancy Ripley

Galen Blake

Charles Galen Blake

Harriet May Blake

Clayton Leonard Blake - my grandfather

Romantic Encounter - 52 Ancestors #7

Jeffrey & Sarah (Vinson) Parsons are my 10th great-grandparents. The story of their meeting and romance is detailed in the following story. 







From The History the Town and City of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Massachusetts, by James R. Pringle, 1892. 

"Jeffrey, according to tradition, gained his wife in a romantic manner. While journeying to town on a sultry summer day, weary and footsore, he sat down at Vinson's spring to rest and refresh himself. The house of William Vinson was hard by, and his beautiful daughter Sarah, observing the traveler, approached him with a drinking cup, the better to slake his thirst. Jeffrey was susceptible, and nothing unwilling, Sarah won a husband at the fountain, and they were married happily, Nov. 11, 1657." 

My Line:

Jeffrey Parsons, son of Jeffrey Parsons

Jeffrey Parsons, the third Jeffrey in a row! 

Jonathan Parsons

Abigail Parsons

William Rowe

William Rowe, Jr. 

Stephen B. Rowe

Charles H. N. Rowe

Anna J. Rowe

Eva Delphinia Hayes

Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

Tombstone Tuesday - Hezekiah Moody & Hannah R. Estes Moody

My grandfather, Clayton Blake's 2x great-grandparents in East Bethel Cemetery, Bethel, Maine

Birthday Matches - Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Randy Seaver issues a weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge. This week it is about birthdays. Just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my direct line ancestor with the birthday closest to mine. You can read about John Whiting here. 

The challenge this week is to find out if any of your ancestors or their siblings (your cousins!), were born on your birthdate?   

1)  What is your birth date (not the year, only month and day)?

My birthday is July 18th.    

2)  Review your records, or use your genealogy management program to create a list of persons in your database born on your birthdate.  Are any of them your ancestors or siblings of your ancestor?  Tell us how you figured it out too.

I ran a report using RootsMagic to determine which ancestors, both direct and collateral lines, shared my birthday. There are no direct ancestors with my birthday, but I do share my birthday with a number of cousins. 

I came up with the following:

Eleazer Scott - b. 18 July 1654 - my sixth great-granduncle & my earliest match
Jonathan Gardner - b. 18 July 1669 - my first cousin, 10 times removed
Ephraim Ford - b. 18 July 1693 - my first cousin, 10 times removed
Sarah Whiting - b. 18 July 1703 - my first cousin, 10 times removed, twin 
Mary Whiting - b. 18 July 1703 - my first cousin, 8 times removed, twin
Dorcas Chandler - b. 18 July 1727 - my second cousin, 9 times removed
Michael Foster - b. 18 July 1727 - my second cousin, 7 times removed
Lydia Abbott - b. 18 July 1809 - my third great-grandaunt
John S. Morgan - b. 18 July 1832 - my first cousin, 5 times removed
Rebecca Williamson - b. 18 July 1838 - my first cousin, five times removed & my closest match

3)  List one or more of those born on your birthdate in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or on Facebook or Google+.  

Not Far Enough - 52 Ancestors #6

I'm going to stretch the meaning of the prompt again this week to tell the tale of a bad man who tried to outrun his past but it caught up with him anyway! 

The bad man in this case was the Rev. John Lyford and he wasn't my ancestor but connected to my ancestor's family (I'll explain later). 

On the surface, Rev. John Lyford appeared to be a Godly man who traveled to the Plymouth Colony to minister to the Pilgrims in that community. However, the colonial leaders soon discovered that he was allied with the Church of England and maligning the Separatists in his letters to England. Once Governor Bradford found out, Rev. Lyford apologized. A little while later, it became evident that he hadn't changed his ways and he was banished. 

But that was just the start of Lyford's secrets. His wife, Sarah, came forward to tell of his infidelity, even fathering a child out of wedlock with another woman before she married him. She couldn't keep any maids because of his sexual harassment and molestation of them. 




Eventually, the BIG secret was revealed. The reason Rev. John Lyford had to leave his previous ministry in Ireland and come to the colony was that he had raped a girl in the parish while she attended pre-marital counseling with him! The woman's husband "tooke some godly friends with him, to deale with Liford for this evill" (Bradford's Journal). He had to leave in fear of even greater punishment. 

After leaving Plymouth, Lyford bounced around from Nantasket (Hull, MA) and Cape Ann to Virginia, where he died in 1638. He was a truly evil and despicable man! He could run but he could not go far enough to outrun his bad behavior! 

So what's my connection to this scoundrel? His wife, Sarah, married as his second wife, my 11th great-grandfather, Edmund Hobart. 

Edmund Hobart & Margery Dewey (first wife)

Line 1:
Nazareth Hobart - daughter of Edmund & Margaret (Dewey) Hobart
Martha Beals
Samuel Dunham
Ebenezer Dunham
John Dunham
James Dunham
James Dunham 
Florilla Dunham
Nina King Ellingwood
Annie Florilla Gibbs
Fern Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother

Line 2:
Rev. Peter Hobart - son of Edmund & Margaret (Dewey) Hobart
Elizabeth Hobart
Joshua Ripley
Hezediah Ripley
Joshua Ripley
Joshua Ripley
Nancy Ripley
Galen Blake
Charles Galen Blake
Harriet May Blake
Clayton Leonard Blake - my grandfather

NEHGR 1848
Wikipedia
http://minerdescent.com/2012/01/19/17th-century-premarital-sex/