52 Ancestors #50 - Conflict Among Ancestors

William Longley is my mother's 10th great-grandfather. He seems to have problems with his neighbors, the related families of Haven and Newhall. Richard Haven and his wife, Susanna (Newhall) Haven are my father's 8th great-grandparents. Susanna's husband and brothers, Thomas, Jr., and John, share their stories about altercations with William Longley in the excerpts below from The Essex Genealogist, Vol. 15. 

First Richard Haven threatened William Longley with a cudgel and accused Longley of harming his hogs. After grabbing his beard and threatening to spill his blood, Haven mocked Longley's cries and said he was foaming at the mouth. 


"The Longley and Haven families lived next to each other and had frequent altercations. In February of 1662 William Longley sued Richard Haven for coming on his land...and abusing him in words and deeds. Mary Longley, aged about 19 years, deposed: "Last summer Richard Haven came to me and asked where my father was; and I perceived that he was angry by his countenance and by his carriage. I told him I would not tell him where he was, and said Haven said I will find him and went over the rails into our lot. I saw him break off a great cudgel and go at a great pace up the lot. Fearing he would do my father some mischief, I followed him, and then I met Daniel Mathews and requested him to go with me til we came near to my father sowing turnip seed in his own lot. Haven said to my father why dids't thou lame my hogs,' and I saw Haven take my father by the beard and said 'I could find in my heart to spill thy heart blood upon the ground thou rogue thou.' My father answered...'the Lord will avenge my wrongs one day,' and the said Haven said 'Hark how he cries aloud to his God, and foames at the mouth.'"

About a year later, William Longley accused Thomas Newhall, Jr. of striking Longley's wife. Thomas Newhall, Jr., was the brother-in-law of Richard Haven. There appears to be enough blame on both sides as Longley's daughters and wife attacked Newhall with stones and a broad axe. The jury appears to have believed Longley's account that Longley's wife was struck with the pole after a tussle between the Longley women and the Newhall men. 

"In March of 1663, William Longley sued Thomas Newhall, Jr. for striking his (Longley's) wife. Thomas had been asked to hold a pole in running the boundary line between the property of William Longley and John Newhall (Thomas's brother). Longley's two daughters were said to have thrown stones at him and one of the daughters struck him with a pole, while Longley's wife struck at him with a broad axe. If he had not slipped he would have been wounded if not killed. The adverse testimony set forth that Newhall was holding one end of a long pole, with Longley's wife and daughters the other end, "and the women were too hard for the man in pulling so much that the said Newhall called his brother John and they two together pulled the pole from the said women, and then Thomas Newhall struck Longley's wife with the pole. A verdict against Newhall was brought in."

William Longley - 11th great-grandfather
Hannah Longley
Thomas Tarbell
Elizabeth Tarbell
Sybil Willard
Samuel Haskell
Martha Haskell
Mary "Sally" Houghton
Florilla Dunham
Nina King Ellingwood
Annie Florilla Gibbs
Fern Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother - Dad's side

Richard Haven - 9th great-grandfather
Mary Haven
Nathaniel Tarbox
Benjamin Tarbox
Jedidiah Tarbox (female)
Patience Smith
Sarah Shepard
Laura E. Emmons
Estes Gilbert Yates
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother - Mom's side

Thomas Newhall, Jr. - brother of my 9th great-grandmother, Susanna Newhall. Susanna Newhall was married to Richard Haven (above). 

Distraught Father Sues After Two-Year Old Daughter Dies in a Pit - 52 Ancestors #46

Elizabeth Newhall was my 1st cousin, 10 times, removed. I descend from her father's sister, Susanna (Newhall) Haven. She died when she was just two years old when she fell into a pit and drowned. Her three older brothers were Thomas Newhall (the 3rd so-named, age 12), John Newhall (age 10), and Joseph Newhall (age 7). It is a bit unclear whether they are three sons who used the pit to keep alewives for fishing or if it was her father and his two brothers, Francis and John, sons of her grandfather, Thomas Newhall, the immigrant. There were so many dangers of life in colonial times and losing a young girl to an accident seems especially tragic. 

Daughter of Thomas Newhall, Jr. 
The death by drowning of Thomas Newhall's daughter Elizabeth in November of 1665 was a tragedy that resulted in litigation. The distraught father, Thomas Newhall, brought suit against George Keaser "for damage he sustained by his digging a pit to the loss of his child." The little girl, just two years old, had been out of her mother's sight for half an hour or more, when she was found by the wife of Robert Potter and the wife of John Newhall, floating on the water of a pit near her home, dead. The pit had originally been dug by George Keaser as a tan vat, and Newhall claimed he had left it open. Testimony, however, showed that the pit had been drained by the Keasers, and had been reopened and filled with water (to keep alewives for fishing) by the three sons of Thomas Newhall, and the verdict was for the defendant. ~ The Essex Genealogist, 1995, Vol. 15, p. 42

Thomas & Mary Newhall were in Lynn, Massachusetts by 1638. They were the parents of Francis, Susanna, Thomas, John, and Mary. Thomas Newhall, Jr. was the father of Elizabeth. 

Susanna Newhall married Richard Haven before 1645. Susanna was the aunt of Elizabeth Newhall. 

Mary Haven, daughter of Richard & Susanna (Newhall) Haven, married John Tarbox. 

Nathaniel Tarbox
Benjamin Tarbox
Jedidiah Tarbox (female) 
Patience Smith
David Shepard
Sarah Shepard
Laura E. Emmons
Estes Gilbert Yates
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother