Tombstone Tuesday ~ Deacon John Davidson and his wife Mary (Lancaster), Windham, New Hampshire

These tombstones were photographed at the Cemetery on the Plain, Windham, New Hampshire.

In memory of

DEA. JOHN

DAVIDSON

Died Oct. 25, 1835

AEt. 85

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord

In Memory of

Mrs. Mary Davidson

wife of 

Dea. John Davidson

who died Jan 31, 1829

Aged 81 years

Blessed are the poor in spirit for

theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Deacon John Davidson was the son of John Davidson, and the grandson of William Davidson, a Scots Irish immigrant.  He was born 5 March 1750 in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, and died 25 October 1835 in Windham, New Hampshire; married on 10 November 1774 to Mary Lancaster, daughter of Henry Lancaster and Dorothea Harvey.  She was born 16 June 1747 in Amesbury, Massachusetts. 

John Davidson was one of the first settlers in Belfast, Maine in 1770 along with other men from Windham including Deacon John Tuffts, Lieutenant James and John Gilmore.  He returned to Windham several times because of the hardships of life in Maine.  He married and lived with his wife in Maine, but when the Revolutionary War broke out they returned to Windham again, but they were very poor having left their possessions in Maine.  He served in the Revolutionary War.  Later in life he was made an elder in the Windham Presbyterian church, under the Reverend Samuel Harris. 

Children:

1. John, born in Belfast, Maine 1775, m. Abigail Prouty

2. Dorothy, born in Belfast, 1777 m. Thomas Tuffts

3. Sarah, born in Belfast 1779 m. Allenson Senter

4.  James, born in Windham, 1781 m Jan Davison, daughter of Francis Davidson

5. Henry, born in Windham, 1783 m. Jane Wear Dinsmoor

6. Mary, born 1785, m. Samuel Senter

7. Anna, born 1787, m. John Armstrong

8. William, born 1790, m. Clarissa Dinsmoor

The History of Windham in New Hampshire, by Leonard Morrison, 1883, pages 428 – 432 for a sketch of the John Davidson genealogy.

See also Reminiscences of John Davidson, a Maine Pioneer: Communicated to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register by Alfred Johnson, 1916 (available online at Google Books).  

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Deacon John Davidson and his wife Mary (Lancaster), Windham, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 7, 2017, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/03/tombstone-tuesday-deacon-john-davidson.html: accessed [access date]).