Saturday, March 21, 2015

Surname Saturday ~ RANDALL of Saco, Maine

1872 Map of Cape Porpoise, Maine

RANDALL

My 8th great grandfather, Richard Randall (about 1633 – 1713) is a mystery to me.  There are no new articles about him listed in Martin Hollick’s New Englanders in the 1600s, nor are there any Randall family articles in the journals in the NEHGS database collections.   He arrived too late to have a sketch in The Great Migration series.  He has brief mentions in local histories of Saco and York County, Maine.   There are brief mentions in books like The Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire (page 576).

I’ve had to piece together the life of Richard Randall from vital records, court records and the local histories.  My line daughters out right away, since I descend from his daughter Priscilla, but it was a struggle to learn anything about the Randall family.

Richard Randall settled in Cape Porpoise by 1658.  He was in the town records for serving as constable in 1688 and selectman in 1688 – 1689.  He married Elizabeth Irons and had three children.  His daughter Sarah was married with children when she was captured by Indians and taken to Montreal. She became a Catholic, and her daughters took the names Madeleine and Therese and married two French Catholics and stayed in Montreal.  Sarah returned, and remarried.  Later, when Sarah was widowed, she lived with her widowed sister Priscilla, my 7th great grandmother, in Beverly, Massachusetts.  

In 1727 these two widowed sisters went to court as the only heirs of Richard Randall.  The record states they were “…the Children & only Heirs of Mr. Richard Rundal late of Cape Porpus Mariner…”.   [From York Deeds, by the Maine Genealogical Society, Book 12, Part 1, page 177.   They inherited his land.  This is interesting, because it also means that their brother was dead and left no heirs.

Priscilla Randall (about 1661 – 1752) married William Preston of Beverly and had nine children.  I descend from two sons, Nehemiah and Randall Preston. 

My RANDALL genealogy:

Generation 1: Richard Randall, born about 1633 probably in England, died after 1713 in Saco, Maine; married to Elizabeth Irons, daughter of Matthew Irons and Anna Brown.  She was born 15 April 1641 in Boston, Massachusetts, and died about 1701 in Saco, Maine.  Three children.

Generation 2:  Priscilla Randall, born about 1661 in Saco, Maine, died 23 April 1752 in Beverly, Massachusetts;  married to William Preston/Presson/Presbury, son of John Presbury and Dorcas Besse.  He was born about 1664 and died about 1718 in Beverly, Massachusetts.  Nine children.

Lineage A:

Generation 3:  Nehemiah Preston married Abigail Allen
Generation 4:  Hannah Preston married Robert Woodbury
Generation 5:  Molly Woodbury married Westley Burnham        

Lineage A1:

Generation 6:  Asa Burnham married Polly Bray
Generation 7:  Lydia W. Burnham married Samuel Mears
Generation 8:  Samuel Mears married Sarah Ann Burnham
Generation 9:  Sarah Burnham Mears married Joseph Gilman Allen
Generation 10: Joseph Elmer Allen married Carrie Maude Batchelder
Generation 11: Stanley Elmer Allen married Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandmother)

Lineage A2:

Generation 6: Henry Burnham married Sally Poland
Generation 7:  Sarah Ann Burnham married Samuel Mears (see above)

Lineage B:

Generation 3: Randall Preston married Susanna Stone
Generation 4:  William Presson married Abigail Sargent
Generation 5:  Lucy Presson married James Andrews
Generation 6:   Orpha Andrews married Joseph Allen
Generation 7: Joseph Gilman Allen married Sarah Burnham Mears (see above)

The 1872 map of Cape Porpoise, Maine is from the website http://www.mykennebunks.com/revolution.htm   

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The URL for this post is
 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/03/surname-saturday-randall-of-saco-maine.html

Copyright © 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

5 comments:

  1. Great post as always Just curious/ do you know who the daughters of Sarah Randall married in Quebec?

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    1. Hi Monte, I have notes on the daughters: Madeline Cole born 9 Oct 1698 married Simon Sequin, and Therese Cole was born 28 April 1701, no name listed for her husband. According to the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and NH, Sarah Cole entered the Roman Catholic church in Montreal in 1704, and returned to New England to marry Thomas West in 1710.

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  2. Interesting. I have Richard and Elizabeth having a son Richard b. 6 Mar 1659 in Biddeford (Cape Porpoise) and d. 1713 in Dover, NH. I am descended from the younger Richard. Young Richard's birth is documented in The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, 1847-2011. So I can confirm that he had passed before the 1727 record, but he did have several sons who likely had claim as heirs as well.

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  3. In building my tree, I am finding connections to this Richard Randall, but in the various other geneaology websites, the Richard line gets mixed up with a Robert Randel line which settled in Weymouth, MA (which I am also connected to). Do you have any good info about Richard's parents or his birthplace? Is there any connection to a Matthew Randall or any Randalls coming from Somerset? There's a lot of confusion out there!

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    Replies
    1. As far as I know, there is no proof of Richard Randall's parents. Be careful about mixing him up with any other Randall lines in New England (such as the Weymouth Randels), they are not proved to be kin.

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