Joseph & Miriam (Lyon) Spurr

Joseph & Miriam (Lyon) Spurr are my 5X great-grandparents. They moved to Otisfield, Maine in 1779 after short stints in Westbrook (Saccarappa) and Windham. Joseph was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts on November 19, 1731 and died in Otisfield on June 17, 1805. He was the son of Capt. Robert & Jemima (Foster) Spurr. Miriam was born in Stoughton, Massachusetts on April 4, 1731 and died in Otisfield on November 6, 1811. She was the daughter of Elkanah & Meredith (Wyatt) Lyon. 

Joseph Spurr served in the Revolutionary War as a Captain in Perez Cushing's Co., Col. Crafts Artillery Regt. from November 9, 1776 to May 8, 1777. He was a matross (gunner's assistant). Like many Revolutionary War soldiers he served several enlistments. He was a Corporal in Capt. Israel Trows Co., John Daggets Regt. from January 12, 1778 to March 31, 1778. 

On April 21, 2016, I took these photos from the Cedar Crest Cemetery in Otisfield. The History of Otisfield,  says that Joseph is buried "in the yard south of Spurrs Corner." However, I found this marker in the Cedar Crest Cemetery where there are many other Spurr family members and other interconnected families from early Otisfield. It is quite possible that it is a memorial placed at a later date. 

Joseph & Miriam (Lyon) Spyrr

An overview of the Spurr section where Joseph & Miriam's stone is found

Joseph & Miriam (Lyon) Spurr
Enoch Spurr
Roxanna (Spurr) Stanley
Mary Frances (Stanley) Carter
Edward Mellen Carter
Thomas Richard Carter - my grandfather

Moving in an Oxcart
Enoch Spurr - Revolutionary Service


Spurr, William Samuel. A History of Otisfield: Cumberland County, Maine from the Original Grant to the Close of the Year 1944 by William Samuel Spurr. Otisfield, Me.: Published by the Otisfield Historical Society, 1994. PDF.

Enoch & Abigail (Wight) Spurr

Enoch Spurr is my 4X great-grandfather. He was the son of Joseph & Miriam (Lyon) Spurr. He married twice and I descend from his family with his second wife. He was born on January 28, 1761 in Dorchester, Massachusetts and died in Otisfield on May 2, 1843. His first wife was Patty Druce of Wrentham, Massachusetts. She died on November 11, 1782 at the tender age of 21. Roxana, the only daughter of Enoch & Patty died on December 15, 1782. Both Patty and Roxana were buried in Wrentham. 

Enoch's second wife was Abigail Wight. According to the Ware Genealogy, she was born in Wrentham, Massachusetts on May 31, 1767 to Joseph & Abigail (Ware) Wight. Her parents were also early settlers of Otisfield. 

Enoch Spurr fought in the Revolutionary War and his pension file states that he was at the Battle of Monmouth, wintered at Valley Forge, and was present for the surrender of General Cornwallis. 

Enoch and Abigail are buried in the Cedar Crest Cemetery in Otisfield, Maine. I visited on April 21, 2016 and found that his stone continues to degrade. Another picture from a few years ago can be found on his Findagrave memorial. 

 

Children of Enoch & Abigail (Wight) Spurr

1. Martha Druce Spurr was born on September 12, 1789 and died on March 27, 1831. She married James Cheever on December 8, 1822. 
2. Roxana Spurr was born on February 29, 1792 and died on February 10, 1863. She married Edward Stanley on November 2, 1815. 
3. Abigail Spurr was born on March 5, 1794 and died on February 20, 1871. She married George W. Longley on March 2, 1826. 
4. Ann Spurr (twin of Abigail) died on December 28, 1873. She married Abel Longley on March 21, 1815. 
5. Margaret T. Spurr was born on July 15, 1796 and died on May 9, 1870. She married James Wight. 
6. Lydia Spurr was born on August 14, 1798 and died on November 25, 1870. She married Louis Jewel. 
7. Mary Spurr was born on August 15, 1800 and died on December 8, 1891. She never married. 
8. Enoch Spurr, Jr. was born on August 6, 1802 and died on November 3, 1883. 
9. Betsey Spurr was born on December 27, 1805 and died on January 6, 1889. She married Samuel Scribner on September 22, 1830. 
10. Sophronia Spurr was born on February 4, 1807 and married David L. Perley on October 27, 1885. 

Enoch & Abigail (Wight) Spurr
Roxana (Spurr) Stanley
Mary Frances (Stanley) Carter
Edward Mellen Carter
T. Richard Carter - my grandfather 

Revolutionary War Service
His parents journey to Maine

Information on Abigail (Ware) Spurr from Ware genealogy: Robert Ware, of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1642-1699, and his lineal descendants. Boston, Mass.: Charles H. Pope, 1901. 

Information on Enoch Spurr from: Spurr, William Samuel. A History of Otisfield: Cumberland County, Maine from the Original Grant to the Close of the Year 1944. Otisfield, Me., Otisfield Historical Society, 1994. PDF.

52 Ancestors #42 - Isaac Cousins

Isaac Cousins was the 7th great-grandfather of Clayton Leonard Blake. He seems to have been a wanderer. I don't have any other colonial era ancestors who lived in as many places as he did. His occupation is listed as gunsmith and locksmith. Tracing his steps we find him in: 

Rowley in 1651, Haverhill in 1652, Ipswich about 1654, Boston in 1656, Portsmouth in 1659, Great Island in 1661, Boston in 1668, North Yarmouth, Maine in 1678, Dorchester in 1691, Boston in 1696-1702

Isaac Cousins married three times. His first wife was named Elizabeth and we don't know her maiden name. His second wife was Ann Hunt, whom he married in 1657. His third wife was Martha Priest. He seems to have been seeking to better his lot in life as he moved around and perhaps his best chance was when he became associated with the proprietors in North Yarmouth in Maine. However, Indian attacks doomed this settlement and the he moved back to the Boston area. In 1691 he was warned out of Dorchester and in 1696 he stated in a lawsuit against Richard Priest that he was "an ancient inhabitant of this country...fallen much into decay and waxen so poore." He claimed Richard Priest was withholding his household goods. By the time he died on July 23, 1702 he was a ward of the town. 

Isaac & Elizabeth Cousins

Thomas & Hannah (Goodale) Cousins

George & Hannah (Cousins) Jacobs

Joshua & Priscilla (Jacobs) Bartlett

Joshua & Lydia (Bartlett) Ripley

Micajah & Nancy (Ripley) Blake

Galen & Dolly (Moody) Blake

Charles & Isabelle (Brown) Blake

Harriet May Blake

Clayton Leonard Blake - my grandfather 

Thanks to the research of Walter Goodwin Davis, The Ancestry of Lydia Harmon, for the basic information in this post. 

52 Ancestors #34 - Humphrey Atherson's Quaker Curse?

First published on March 16, 2012 ~
Humphrey Atherton, my 9th Great Grandfather, was a prominent man in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He became assistant governor and in that capacity he was part of the prosecution and execution of Quakers who had been banished from the colony by law. Sources provide modern researchers with two Quaker trials associated with Humphrey Atherton. I started researching because I struck by the unusual manner of death described in accounts online. 

Humphrey Atherton died September 16th (or 17th), 1661 after being thrown from his horse. Various accounts list the reason for the fall as either the horse tripped over a cow or was startled by a cow. Either way he suffered a serious head injury that resulted in his death. Wikipedia provided a starting point for my research and provided most of the pictures and Google books was a great resource for checking original sources. 

First Case: 

Mary Dyer was a Quaker who was executed in 1660 for repeatedly returning to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in violation of a law banning Quakers. Mary and her husband, William, were supporters of Anne Hutchinson (not a Quaker) and followed her to the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It is unclear why Mary returned to Massachusetts Bay Colony as a Quaker. She was in the company of William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson. They were caught once and warned that the punishment for getting caught again would be severe. Stevenson said he felt called and sent by God to be in Boston and both he and Mary returned and were soon jailed. Mary refused pleas of her family to recant. She was spared from gallows by a last minute reprieve on October 27, 1659. Stevenson was not so fortunate and was hanged. Still Mary chose to disobey orders and returned to Boston again in May of 1660. This time there was no reprieve and she was hanged. Humphrey Atherton was on the court that sentenced her and present at her execution. "General Atherton cracked the silence, 'She hangs there like a flag,' he said." (Plimpton, p.188)

Wenlock Christison was another Quaker who repeatedly returned to Massachusetts despite banishment. He was put on trial in May 1661 and sentenced to death. However, the law was changed before his sentence was carried out. Several sources state that Wenlock Christison warned Atherton that he would soon face God's judgment. 

"Wenlock Christison Defying the Court"

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1213844

Joseph Besse, Quaker author, provides the following account of Atherton's death: 

"Humfray Adderton, who at the trial of Wenlock Christison, did, as it were, bid defiance to Heaven, by saying to Wenlock, 'You pronounce Woes and Judgements, and those that are gone before you pronounced Woes and Judgements; but the Judgements of the Lord God are not upon us yet,' was suddenly surprised: having been, on a certain day, exercising his men with much pomp and ostentation, he was returning home in the evening, near the place where they usually loosed the Quakers from the cart, after they had whipped them, his horse, suddenly affrighted, threw him with such violence, that he instantly died; his eyes being dashed out of his head, and his brains coming out of his nose, his tongue hanging out at his mouth, and the blood running out at his ears: Being taken up and brought into the Courthouse, the place where he had been active in sentencing the innocent to death, his blood ran through the floor, exhibiting to the spectators a shocking instance of the Divine vengeance against a daring and hardened persecutor; that made a fearful example of that divine judgment, which, when forewarned of, he had openly despised, and treated with disdain.' "  (Besse, Woodward)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow includes the following in the final scene of his play, John Endicott. Governor Endicott is speaking to Richard Bellingham and asks if it is true that Humphrey Atherton is dead. Bellingham replies. "His horse took fright, and threw him to the ground, so that his brains were dashed about the street." Endicott's response is "I am not superstitious, Bellingham, and yet I tremble lest it may have been a judgment on him." 

So was it God's judgment for Atherton's persecution of the Quakers that caused his death? Was it a clumsy horse? Was it a wayward cow? Whichever scenario you prefer to believe, it is an unusual death. 

Humphrey Atherton is buried in the Dorchester Old North Burying Place in Boston. 

Descent:

Humphrey Atherton & Mary 

Mary Atherton & William Billings

Mary Billings & John Whiting

Jemima Whiting & Jonathan Wight

Joseph Wight & Abigail Ware

Abigail Wight & Enoch Spurr

Roxanna Spurr & Edward Stanley

Mary Frances Stanley & Augustus Mellen Carter

Edward M. Carter & Fannie Mae Capen

T. Richard Carter

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Atherton 

http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/enquirer/mary_dyer.htm

http://www.readbookonline.net/read/3002/12410/ 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. John Endicott. Act V Scene III.

The following were accessed using Google Books: 

Woodward, Harlow Elliot. Epitaphs from the Old Burying Ground in Dorchester. Boston Highlands. 1869. p.6 

Mary Dyer: biography of a rebel Quaker by Ruth Talbot Plimpton p.188.

Besse, Joseph. William Sewel. The history of the rise, increase, and progress of the Christian people called Quakers: intermixed with several remarkable occurrences. J. Sowle. 1722. p. 343

Mappy Monday - Moving in an Oxcart

The migration of the Spurr family from Massachusetts to Maine

From A History of Otisfield p. 589 (see citation below). 
"They (the Spurr family) moved from Dorchester to Wrentham, previous to 1774 and lived there seven years. It is said they lived in Mansfield, Me. or Mass. for a time. They came to Maine in 1776 and lived one year in Saccarappa, a year and a half in Windham, and moved to Otisfield, September 3, 1779. They settled on lot 16 a little south of Spurrs Corner on the west side of the road. Some lilac bushes and the ruins of the old foundation remains (1930). John Spurr lived in the house afterward and then Joseph Knight moved it to his place on the opposite side of the road and occupied it for a woodhouse. It is said that the first night they spent in Otisfield, they camped beside a large stone near the road. (A portion of that stone has since been moved to Spurr's Corner and a memorial tablet placed upon it.) He is buried in the yard south of Spurr's Corner. Through a mistake of the stonecutters the name is spelled Spyrr, instead of Spurr. They had nine children living, all born in Dorchester, and all came to Maine unmarried. They came to Windham in an oxcart and were the fourth family in town."

Going to Otisfield to photograph the stone and tablet is on my genealogy road trip list. 

Joseph Spurr was born November 19, 1731 in Dorchester, MA and died June 17, 1805. He married Miriam Lyon on September 13, 1753. They were my 5th great-grandparents. 

Enoch Spurr b. January 28, 1761 in Dorchester, MA married Abigail Wight b. May 31, 1767 in Wrentham, MA. 

Roxanna Spurr married Edward Stanley on November 2, 1815. 

Mary Frances Stanley married Augustus Mellen Carter. 

Edward Mellen Carter married Fannie May Capen. 

T. Richard Carter was my grandfather. 

Source: 
Spurr, William Samuel. A History of Otisfield: Cumberland County, Maine from the Original Grant to the Close of the Year 1944 by William Samuel Spurr. Otisfield, Me.: Published by the Otisfield Historical Society, 1994. PDF.

Surname Saturday - Bernard Capen

Bernard (or Barnard) Capen was a shoemaker who came to America in 1633 from Dorchester, Dorsetshire, England. He took the oath of a freeman on May 25, 1636. In some old records his names is written as Barnard and his surname is recorded as "Gapin." His stated age at his death on November 8, 1638 was 76 which would put his birth about 1562. He married Joan Purchase on May 31, 1596. She was the daughter of Oliver Purchase and one of four Purchase siblings who emigrated to the American colonies.

Photo courtesy of Don Blauvelt - posted at Findagrave

There is an article about the Barnard Capen house on the Dorchester Atheneaum site. It tells the history of the house which was restored in 1909 and seems to have been dismantled and moved twice. I couldn't find anything about the current status of that house. However, the parsonage house of Rev. Joseph Capen, son of John and grandson of Bernard, is located in Topsfield, Massachusetts and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Rev. Joseph was my 8th great-uncle.

Parson Capen House - photo from Wikipedia

Two of Bernard Capen's descendants are President Calvin Coolidge and President Ulysses S. Grant.

President Calvin Coolidge - photo from Wikipedia
He is my 8th cousin, twice removed

President Ulysses S. Grant
He is my 7th cousin, 4 times removed

Children:

1. James was born about 1598 and is called a "scrivener" in his will. 
2. Ruth was born on August 7, 1600 and there is no further record of her.
3. Susanna was born on April 11, 1602 and married twice. On April 14, 1624, she married William Rockwell and on May 29, 1645 she became the second wife of Matthew Grant. 
4. Dorothy was born about 1608 and she married Nicholas Upsall on January 17, 1630 at the Holy Trinity Church in Dorchester, Dorsetshire, England. 
5. Elizabeth was born about 1610 and she married Thomas Swift on October 18, 1630 in the same church as Dorothy. 
6. John was born January 12, 1612. He married twice. On October 20, 1637, he married Redegon Clap and on September 20, 1647, he married Mary Bass. In 1680, John served on the jury for the witchcraft trial of Elizabeth Morse of Newbury. She was found guilty but given a reprieve and released to her husband. She was not allowed to travel more than a few yards from her house unless accompanied by a minister. 
7. Honor was born about 1616 and she married William Hannum. 

Line of Descent

John Capen m. Mary Bass
James Capen 1654-1718 m. Hannah Lawrence
James Capen born 1683 m. Elizabeth Call
James Capen 1709/10-1763 m. Sarah Pinson
Thomas Capen born 1739 m. Mary Wyman
Thomas Capen 1762-1808 m. Mary Abbott
Timothy Capen born 1793 m. Sarah K. Abbott
Edward Abbott Capen 1839-1930 m. Mary Jane Abbott - First cousins, once removed - See below
Fannie May Capen born 1878 m. Edward Mellen Carter
Thomas Richard Carter - my grandfather

Sister of Timothy Capen - Deborah Capen born 1796 m. William Ackley
Sarah Ackley born 1820 m. John Abbott
Mary Jane Abbott - same as above

Sources:
The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. (Online database: American Ancestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010), (Originally Published as: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, 3 vols., 1995).
Findagrave
Dorchester Atheneum
Wikipedia