Saturday, October 29, 2011

Surname Saturday- Brown

BROWN

There are conflicting bits of information on John Brown of Maine in reference books.  In the book Maine Made Guns & Their Makers by Dwight B. Demerritt, Jr. John Brown is described as a blacksmith.  In Savage he is described as a mason.  A James Phipps was apprenticed on March 1, 1625/6 to John Brown and his wife Joan for 8yrs as a blacksmith in Bristol, England.  In 1625 land was sold by Samoset to a fur trader named John Brown, including Damariscotta and Bristol, Maine, according to the History of Bath, Maine.

In 1639 John Brown and Edward Bateman signed a deed with the Indian Manowomet of "Negwasset, in America" for all the land between Sagadahoc and the Sheepscot River.  John Brown's family lived there for seven years and then removed to New Harbor. There are depositions and deeds by Brown's grandchildren which show they knew the Indians and early settlers of this region by name.  There are references to the family in Pioneers on Maine Rivers, by Wilburn Daniel Spencer, 1992.

The Brown Family Genealogy:

Generation 1: John Brown, born 12 April 1604 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, died in 1670 in Damariscotta, Maine; married in 1628 to Margaret Hayward, daughter of Francis Hayward. Seven children:
      1. Francis, born about 1632, sold land in 1666, mentioned in a deed in 1674
      2. John, born about 1635, had a son John Brown
      3. Margaret, born about 1638 (see below)
      4. Mary, born about 1641, m. Richard Redding
      5. Elizabeth, born about 1642, m. Richard Pierce
      6. Emine, born about 1645
      7. Emma, born about 1645, m. Nicholas Dennan

Generation 2. Margaret Brown, born about 1638 in Pemaquid, died about 1675 in New Harbor, Maine; married first about 1659 in New Harbor to Alexander Gould.  Four children.  Married second to Morris Chamblet, one son, Samuel Champney. This name can be found spelled many ways in the records: Champett, Champrise, Chamlet, etc.

I have two lineages from Margaret Brown and Alexander Gould, by two of their daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth.  See the blog post on the Surname GOULD for these two lineages at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/10/surname-saturday-gould.html

There are no books on John Brown of Maine, and the only genealogical article that references him in in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume 51, page 29.  He is mentioned in the history of Bath, Maine and Savage's Genealogical Dictionary.  There is a short sketch of John Brown in the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire,  page 115.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

1 comment:

  1. Heather, Thanks for this blog information. I came across a Brown in Windham. An old history states he may trace back to this John Brown. It appears that there is no recorded lineage to verify this connection.
    The ancestor of this Windham family was Ezra Brown. His
    origin has been a matter of question among his descendants,
    some claiming Rehoboth, INIass., as his birthplace. While this
    may be true, it cannot now be verified. It seems more than
    likely that he was a descendant of that John Brown, who was
    the first settler of Bristol, Me., in 1625, by virtue of a deed from
    that famous old chieftain, Samoset. It is also a matter of his-
    torical record that John Brown and Edward Bateman purchased
    of Robin Hood, another Indian chief, the territory then com-
    prised in the present town of Woolwich, Me. ; and the old records
    of that town state that Ezra Brown married Mary Boobier, of
    Georgetown, and moved to New Marblehead.
    http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/samuel-thomas-dole/windham-in-the-past-elo/page-27-windham-in-the-past-elo.shtml

    It would seem the speculation of Rehoboth is more accurate when looking at records available today.

    ReplyDelete