Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Silas Burnham and Abigail Clement of Dunbarton, New Hampshire - Tombstone Tuesday

These tombstones were photographed at the Center Cemetery in Dunbarton, New Hampshire.


SILAS BURNHAM
died
Oct. 25, 1856.
AEt. 73 yrs 7 m's
17 days. 


ABIGAIL
wife of
SILAS BURNHAM
DIED
July 18, 1844
AE. 58

Silas Burnham, son of Asa Burnham and Elizabeth Cutler, was born March 8, 1783 in Dunbarton, New Hampshire.  He died 27 January 1831 in Dunbarton.  Silas married Abigail Clement about 1808.  Silas was one of the founders of the Universalist Society in 1830 in Dunbarton.  Services were held in the old Congregational Church.

Abigail Clement was born about 1783, daughter of Captain John Clement and Elizabeth Stevens of Atkinson, New Hampshire.  She had five children:

      1.   Asa b. 1806 d. 1891

      2.  Laura b.  6 April 1811 d. 18 April 1898, married Smith D. Buswell

      3. John b. 1816 d. 1865

      4.  Mark b. 1818

      5.  Deacon Silas, b. 1822

Silas’s father, Asa Burnham, son of Nathan Burnham and Hannah Choate, was born 17 March 1751 in the Chebacco Parish, Ipswich, Massachusetts. He married Elizabeth Cutler 18 January 1774 in Goffstown, New Hampshire.  He died 27 January 1831 at Dunbarton, New Hampshire. Asa Burnham served in the Revolutionary War under Capt. William Barrows of Lyndeborough, New Hampshire. Elizabeth filed for a widow’s pension.  Asa is my 1st cousin 7 generations removed.  His grandparents, Thomas Burnham (1673 – 1748) and Susannah of Chebacco Parish, Ipswich, Massachusetts, are my 7th great grandparents.

Elizabeth Cutler was born about 1753 and died 20 July 1839 in Dunbarton.

Children of Asa and Elizabeth Burnham: 

      1.       Asa b. 26 October 1774 and died 10 March 1812 in Hamilton Township, Northumberland County, Upper Canada due to drowning. Married Sarah Lovekin

      2.       Zacchaeus b. 10 February 1777, d. 25 February 1857 Hamilton Township, Northumberland County, Upper Canada. Married to Elizabeth Choate 1 February 1801, daughter of Jacob Choate and Hannah Burnham (my 1st cousin 7 generations removed, daughter of Nathan Burnham and Hannah Choate of Chebacco Parish, Ipswich, Massachusetts). 

       3.       John b. 20 March 1779, d. 24 December 1840 in Hamilton Township, Northumberland County, Upper Canada. Married and had eight children.

      4.       Betty b. 16 February 1781, d. 6 November 1839 in Dunbarton. Married Samuel Saltmarsh.

      5.       Silas b. 8 March 1783 (see above)

      6.       Ruth b. 17 May 1785 d. 8 or 9 February 1787

      7.       Hannah b. 3 September 1787

      8.       Rachael b. 11 February 1789

      9.       Mark b. 15 February 1791, d. 21 February 1864 in Port Hope, Northumberland County, Upper Canada. Married Sophronia Gilchrist of Goffstown.

     10.   Ruth b. 23 June 1793. Married James Shepherd Kimball of Hampstead.

     11.   Azubah b. 25 March 1796

For the Truly Curious:

History of the Town of Dunbarton, New Hampshire by Caleb Stark, page 237.

Genealogy and History of the First Settlers of Dunbarton, page 183

The Burnham Family; Or Genealogical Records of the Descendants of the Emigrants of the Name who were among the Early Settlers in America, by Roderick Henry Burnham, p. 321.

The Choates in America, 1643 – 1896, by Ephraim Orcutt Jameson, p. 50, pages 87 -88, and pages 166 – 167.

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To Cite/Link to this post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Silas Burnham and Abigail Clement of Dunbarton, New Hampshire - Tombstone Tuesday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 26, 2021, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2021/01/silas-burnham-and-abigail-clement-of.html: accessed [access date]). 

5 comments:

  1. I also have a (distant) relative descended from Capt John Clement and Elizabeth Stevens: Ruel S F Clement (1873 - 1901), who married one of my 2nd cousins, 3x removed, Ada May Burnett (1877 - 1948). By coincidence, her second husband was BURNHAM Wheeler Hardy (1857 - 1925), although I have found no connection to the Burnham surname. They were all members of what we would think of today as a religious cult, Frank Sandford's Shiloh/The Kingdom. You can read about them on my blog post here:
    https://robtsfamily.blogspot.com/2013/01/logic-and-sermons-never-convince.html

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    1. That's so interesting! I must have missed this blog post earlier. I never heard of this cult. There are a lot of interesting religious communities, cults, utopian communities, and weird stuff in American history, aren't there?

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    2. That's been the most unexpectedly rewarding things for me about genealogy: learning so much about American history. Digging deeper into family stories, or trying to contextualize events in ancestors' lives has taken me into many areas we never covered in school.

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  2. Hi, My ancestors are Cutlers so I was curious about Elizabeth Cutler. Do you have any other information on her? My line of Cutlers were from Weston, Middlesex, Massachusetts. My 4th great grandfather, Ebenezer Cutler and his brother Zaccheus Cutler were Loyalists while other members of the family were Patriots. Zaccheus was "of Amherst" when he married in 1771. His wife, Hesadiah Eager Cutler, died there two years later. He died at sea in 1780. A family history compiled by Ebenezer's grand-daughter states of Zaccheus :"no-will, no- children." It may be purely coincidental, but seeing that Elizabeth's second son was given that name made me curious. Zacchues Cutler and Elizabeth Cutler were about the same age. I do not have any record of Elizabeth and the Burnham/Burham trees I found with a quick search on Ancestry, do not have any information on her parents. Do you know anything more about her?
    Another question that came to mind is why the children were born in Ontario, Canada? I wanted to be certain my memory was correct about Hamilton being a Loyalist settlement and found that it was. And in that article, I discovered that Asa and Zaccheus Burnham were listed as early settlers. (So perhaps Zaccheus was a Burnham family name?) There is mention of Hon. Zaccheus Burnham being the County Judge of Ontario County and Hon. Aza Burnham being a member of the senate. I can't say exactly what years this was so it might be a later generation. The article was written in 1878, . https://www.ontariogenealogy.com/Northumberland/hamiltontownship.html
    I did a little searching for Capt. William Burrows and it looks like it was actually Capt. William Barron d Lyneborurogh, 1805 (Headstone photograph.) I tried to find him but spent too long down the rabbit hole without any definitive information.
    And as is often the case, in researching your family, I found someone who might be a long-time dead end; a many great uncle of mine. All I knew was he was referred to as "Uncle Peter[MacCallum] living at Hardscrabble" in an 1886 letter for his great-nephew in Prince Edward Island.

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    1. I’m sorry, but I have no information on Elizabeth Cutler except that her parents were from Atkinson

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