Tombstone Tuesday - Alice Ayers (1664 - 1717)

HERE LYES ENTTRD

Ye BODY OF ALLICE

AYERS WIFE TO

EDWARD AYERS AGED

53 YEARS DIED Ye

9 OF FEBRUARY

1717/8

Alice Shapleigh was the wife of Edward Ayers, a Portsmouth blacksmith.  She was born about  1664, and may have been the daughter of John Shapleigh and Sarah Withers (granddaughter of Alexander Shapleigh and Elizabeth Tellman).  Edward Ayers was the son of Captain John Ayers and Susannah Symonds, married in Ipswich about 1644.  Edward was born 12 February 1658 in Ipswich, and died before 27 June 1723 in Greenland (near Portsmouth), New Hampshire.  His second wife was Hannah Martyn, and his third wife was Margaret Williams.

Edward and Alice had eight children:  Elizabeth (married Moses Ingraham), Edward, Susannah, Abigail, Mary, Hannah, Phebe, and John.

I love the spelling on this tombstone, and the finely carved death's head that has survived the ravages of time, even though this burial ground is withing a few yards of Portsmouth harbor with it's salty air and weather.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday - Alice Ayers (1664 - 1717)", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 27, 2019 ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/08/tombstone-tuesday-alice-ayers-1664-1717.html:  accessed [access date]).

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Daniel Farmer, hanged 1822, buried at Derryfield, New Hampshire

This tombstone was photographed at the Derryfield Cemetery, also known as the Center or Huse Cemetery, on Mammoth Road in Manchester, New Hampshire.

SACRED

to

The memory of

DANIEL D. FARMER

Who died Jan. 3rd

1822   4.28

When I stopped to take a photo of this tombstone, I never expected to find such an interesting and tragic story!  

Daniel Davis Farmer was born 28 March 1793 at Derryfield, now Manchester, New Hampshire, the son of Joseph Farmer and Dorcas French; married on 10 August 1813 in Goffstown to Abigail Hackett of Dunbarton, the daughter of Josiah Hackett and Abigail Rathborn.  They had four children and lived first in Goffstown and then in Manchester.  

On 5 April 1821 Daniel Farmer had an ongoing dispute with a woman named Anna Ayer.  She accused him of being the father of her unborn child.  He went to her house in Goffstown to discuss this with her, and out of anger (and they had been drinking rum) he beat her and her 14 year old daughter with a shovel, and burned their house.  The daughter recovered and the mother died on April 12th.  He was arrested and found guilty in October 1821 at the courthouse in Amherst, New Hampshire.  He was hanged on the common in Amherst on Thursday, 3 January 1822.  His body was given to his family and buried at the Derryfield Cemetery on the following Saturday.  According to The History of Goffstown  "A large audience attended his funeral, and a sermon was delivered by Rev. Mr. Paige, from Psalms XCII, 1, 'The Lord Reigneth'".  

The books listed below say that Farmer was executed at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  I'm not sure why his tombstone has "4.28" after the date.  

Sources:

From Archive.org  you can read the full book online:  The Life and Confessions of Daniel Davis Farmer: Who Was Executed at Amherst, N.H. on the 3d day of January, 1822 for the Murder of the Widow Anna Ayer, at Goffstown, on the 4th of April 1821: To Which is Added His Valedcitory Address and Some of His Correspondence During His Imprisonment, by Daniel Davis Farmer, published 1822.   https://archive.org/details/lifeconfessionso00farm   

You can also read the entire trial online at Google Books The Trial of Daniel Davis Farmer for the Murder of the Widow Anna Ayer, at Goffstown, On the 4th of April, A. D., 1821, reported by Artemas Rogers & Henry B. Chase, Counsellors at Law, Concord, NH, 1821.  This book is also on the shelves of the New Hampshire Historical Society library in Concord, New Hampshire. 

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Daniel Farmer, hanged 1822, buried at Derryfield, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 4, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/09/tombstone-tuesday-daniel-farmer-hanged.html: accessed [access date]).  

Surname Saturday ~ AYER of Salisbury and Haverhill, Massachusetts

AYER, EYRE, AYRES, and other variations (The Essex Antiquarian article listed below* has 29 spelling variations found in New England records).

My 10^th great grandfather was John Ayer, whose arrival in New England is unknown despite the fact that several online and print sources claim he arrived on the Mary Anne in 1637 or the James in 1635.  He is not listed on the passenger lists of either ship.  John married a Hannah, maiden name unknown, around 1620 somewhere in England and they removed to Salisbury, Massachusetts about 1637.   He is on a list (undated) of men who were granted land in the first division of Colchester (renamed Salisbury).  His youngest child, Hannah (my 9^th great grandmother) is the only Ayer child of John’s listed in the Salisbury vital records.  She was born 21 December 1644.

In 1645 John and his son, John Jr., owned land in Haverhill, Massachusetts in an area now known as Ayers Village.  They were both made Freemen at Ipswich on “4^th day 9^th month 1645” ( 4 October 1645). 

Some people claim that John’s wife Hannah was a Webb or an Everard.  There is no proof that she is a sister of John Everard alias Webb.  She is not listed in his will even though she was alive when the will was proved.  Her children were listed as cousins and as the children of John Ayer, so there is a possible kinship somewhere.   The Ayer family is not listed on the James, which brought John and Stephen Everard from England.  You can read more about John Everard alias Webb at the website http://www.webbdeiss.org/webb/johnwebb_aliasevered.html by Jonathan Webb Deiss.  This website has a great list of sources.

John and Hannah Ayer’s daughter married Nathan Parker and was living in Ipswich.  She was hanged for witch craft on 22 September 1692 during the Salem witch hysteria. 

There are several famous AYER descendants including Laura Ingalls Wilder and President Gerald R. Ford.  A locally famous descendant, James Cook Ayer (1818 – 1878) was the namesake of the town of Ayer, Massachusetts.  He was the brother of the wealthy industrialist Frederick Ayer (1822 – 1918) and grandfather of Beatrice Banning Ayer, wife of General George S. Patton. 

Some AYER resources:

Ayer is not listed in the Great Migration series, so we know that Anderson did not consider John Ayer as a passenger on the James.  Besides the vital records, court records, and the usual Genealogical Dictionary of New England by Savage or Pioneers of Massachusetts by Pope there are two other good sources for more information on the Ayer family.

* “The Ayer Genealogy”, in The Essex Antiquarian, October 1900, Volume IV, No. 10, pages 145 – 150 (available online at www.americanancestors.org for members of NEHGS).

The Ayer Genealogy “Descendants of the Immigrant John Ayer of Haverhill, Massachusetts” compiled by Janson Ayer  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ayergenealogy/index.html

My AYER Genealogy:

Generation 1:  John Ayer, born about 1582 and died 31 March 1657 in Haverhill, Massachusetts; married about 1620 in England to Hannah Unknown. She was born about 1598 and died 8 October 1688 in Haverhill.  Nine children.

Generation 2: Hannah Ayer, born 21 December 1644 in Haverhill; married on 24 March 1662/3 in Haverhill to Stephen Webster as his first wife.  Six children.  He remarried to Judith, widow of William Broad. 

Generation 3: Abigail Webster m. Samuel Berry

Generation 4: Jotham Berry m. Mary Bates

Generation 5: Rachel Berry m. Ithamar Mace

Generation 6: Abigail Mace m. Simon Locke

Generation 7: Richard Locke m. Margaret Welch

Generation 8: Abigail M. Locke m. George E. Batchelder

Generation 9: George E. Batchelder m. Mary Katharine Emerson

Generation 10: Carrie Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 11: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ AYER of Salisbury and Haverhill, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 16, 2016,  (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/07/surname-saturday-ayer-of-salisbury-and.html:  accessed [access date]).

Surname Saturday ~ SHATSWELL of Ipswich, Massachusetts

SHATSWELL, SITCHELL, SHOTSWELL, SATCHELL, SATCHELLS

A widow named Judith Shatswell (my 11^th great grandmother), with five children under the age of 21, died in Sibbertoft, Northampton, England around 1616.   Four of these five children all removed later to the New World.  The name of Judith’s husband is unknown.   Her sons, John and Theophilus, removed to Ipswich, Massachusetts.  A daughter, Margaret, married Mathias Corwin in 1620 and removed to Southold, Long Island.  Mary, born about 1605, the youngest, married John Webster in England about 1630, and they removed to Ipswich, too. 

A long article in the NEHGS Register describes the will and the court records dated as late as 1627 in which Judith’s estate was still being investigated in the chancery court.  It describes how she died intestate, but an extensive inventory was taken by relatives and neighbors.  These court records give an account of the extended family.  Matthew Curwen and his wife, Margaret Shatswell, and her three siblings Theophilus, Sibyl and Mary,  filed a complaint that a man named Smith had with held their portions of Judith’s estate.  Curwen vs. Smith helps with the ages of the Shatswell siblings, and states that Judith died eleven years earlier.

There was a William Shatswell (relationship unknown) who came to Ipswich with four of the siblings named above around 1633.  He could be one of the mysterious, unnamed uncles in the chancery case Curwen vs. Smith.   Mary, my 10^th great grandmother, had married John Webster and they had eight children, including Stephen Webster (about 1636 – 1694), my 9^th great grandfather.  John Webster died in 1646 and Mary remarried to John Emery as his second wife, and had two more children.

It is interesting to note that Sarah Platts (1735 – about 1803), my 5^th great grandmother, who was the wife of George Southwick (about 1726 – before 1808), my 5^th great grandfather, was previously married to Francis Shatswell (1731 – before 1760), the  great great grandson of John Shatswell, the brother to Mary (Shatswell) Webster. 

More SHATSWELL resources:

“A New Look at the Corwin and Shatswell Families”, by David A. MacDonald, New England Historic Genealogical Register, April 1996, Volume 150, page 180 -189.

Genealogy WEBSTER Revised, Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, page 152

There is a sketch of the immigrant John Shatswell in the Great Migration Begins, which outlines his siblings, too.

UPDATE - A post by Gordon Harris "Early Homes of the SHATSWELLs" in the Stories from Ipswich blog:  https://storiesfromipswich.org/2016/08/31/the-early-homes-of-the-shatswells/

My SHATSWELL genealogy:

Generation 1:  Unknown Shatswell, born about 1574 in Sibbertoft, Northampton, England, died about 1606 in Sibbertoft; married about 1595 to Judith Unknown, born about 1578 and died about 1616 in Sibbertoft.  Five children.

Generation 2:  Mary Shatswell, born about 1605 in England and died 28 April 1694 in Newbury, Massachusetts; married about 1630 in England to John Webster.  He was born about 1606 and died before 29 September 1646 in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  Eight children.

Generation 3: Stephen Webster m. Hannah Ayer

Generation 4: Abigail Webster m. Samuel Berry

Generation 5: Jotham Berry m. Mary Bates

Generation 6: Rachel Berry m. Ithamar Mace

Generation 7: Abigail Mace m. Simon Locke

Generation 8: Richard Locke m. Margaret Welch

Generation 9: Abigail M. Locke m. George E. Batchelder

Generation 10:  George E. Batchelder m. Mary Katharine Emerson

Generation 11:  Carrie Maude Batchdelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 12: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ SHATSWELL of Ipswich, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 9, 2016.  ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/07/surname-saturday-shatswell-of-ipswich.html: accessed [access date]). 

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Mary (Ayer) Spofford, d. 1781 Beverly, Massachusetts

This tombstone was photographed at the Abbott Hale Cemetery in Beverly, Massachusetts

Near this place lye the remains

of Mrs MARY SPOFFORD

late CONSORT

to ISAAC SPOFFORD Physician

Deceased 6th Decer 1781

AE. 25 

Unblemished innocence, ingenious truth

Religion pure & rational & mild

Engaging manners, charity & all the

affections that embellish & exalt

the human heart.

SPOFFORD            J. CHANDLER SPO

d.  ye Nov.              Deceased J. --  6th 

1781                             1783

                              AE. 3 1/2 years

Mary Ayer was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts on 10 May 1756, the daughter of John Ayer and Elizabeth Hale.  Mary is my 3rd cousin, 8 generations removed.  We are both descendants of immigrant ancestors, John Ayer (1582 - 1657) and Hannah Webb (1598 - 1688), early settlers at Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Mary Ayer married Dr. Isaac Spofford as his first wife.  She died of complications of childbirth on 6 December 1781, after giving birth to a daughter, Sally, on 1 July 1781.   Their son, John Chandler, died young in 1783 at age 3 1/2.  He was baptized in Beverly on 11 July 1779.

You can see Dr. Isaac Spofford's elaborate tombstone here at his link:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/02/tombstone-tuesday-mr-isaac-spofford.html


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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Mary (Ayer) Spofford, d. 1781 Beverly, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 16, 2016, (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/02/tombstone-tuesday-mary-ayer-spofford-d.html:  accessed [access date]),

Surname Saturday ~ WEBSTER of Ipswich, Massachusetts

WEBSTER

John Webster’s origins are unknown.  He was a freeman in Boston, Massachusetts on 4 March 1635. He was in Salem in 1637 and settled in Ipswich by 1639.  In the records he was described as a baker “John Webster the Baker was admonished for brewing and tipleinge” [1640].  He was married to Mary Shatswell, whose brothers Theophilus and John Shatswell also immigrated to Ipswich. 

John Webster had died by about 29 September 1646, when his estate was administered in court.  It is the long untangling of his estate in court records that give us the best glimpses into his life and property.  Mary’s will, as his widow, also continued the court records with many pages of descriptive information on the children and property. In the Great Migration sketch for John Webster, Robert Charles Anderson includes many pages of untangling based on these court records, including indentifying the married names of the daughters.

After John Webster’s death, Mary remarried on 29 October 1650 in Newbury to Sergeant John Emery, who was also my 9^th great grand uncle.  I descend from his brother, Anthony Emery (1601 – 1680) who settled in Boston, Massachusetts; Dover, New Hampshire; and Kittery, Maine.

John Webster and Mary Shatswell had eight children, including a daughter Hannah who was the mother of Hannah Duston (See this link for the story of Hannah Duston’s kidnapping and escape).  I descend from the son Stephen Webster (1636 – 1694) and his wife Hannah Ayer.

Some WEBSTER resources:

The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634 – 1635, by Robert Charles Anderson, Volume VII, pages 261 – 268.

Pillsbury Family manuscript, by Mary Lovering Holman, in the collections of the New England Historic Genealogical Society MSS 779.

Ancestry of Charles Stinson Pillsbury and John Sargent Pillsbury, by Mary Lovering Holman, 1938, Volume 1, 

A Genealogical History of the Clark and Worth Families, by Carol Clark Johnson, 1970

Genealogical Records of Descendants of John and Anthony Emery ,by  Rev. Rufus Emery, 1890

Historical and Genealogical Shatswells of Ipswich., No 1., Augustine Caldwell, [A typed manuscript available to read online at Ancestry.com]

Some of the Descendants of John Webster of Ipswich, Massachusetts, compiled by John C. Webster, MD, 1912.  [Available online at Google book search] – a revision of an earlier work by Dr. John Ordway Webster in 1884.

My WEBSTER lineage:

Generation 1:  John Webster, born about 1606 in England, died before 29 September 1646 in Ipswich, Massachusetts; married about 1630 in England to Mary Shatswell, daughter of John Shatswell and Judith Dillingham.  She was born about 1610 in England and died 28 April 1694 in Newbury, Massachusetts.  Mary married second to John Emery,  my 9^th great grand uncle.  He is the son of John Emery and Alice Banet, my 10^th great grandparents through John’s brother, Anthony Emery (1601 – 1680).  Eight children.

Generation 2:  Stephen Webster, born about 1636 in Ipswich, died 10 August 1694 in Haverhill, Massachusetts; married on 24 March 1662/3 in Haverhill to Hannah Ayer, daughter of John Ayer and Hannah Webb.  She was born 21 December 1644. Six children.   Stephen married second to Judith Unknown, widow of William Broad.

Generation 3: Abigail Webster, born about 27 May 1676 in Haverhill, died 19 June 1750; married Samuel Berry, son of James Berry and Eleanor Wallis.  Four children.  Abigail was first married to James Marden on 23 October 1693.

Generation 4: Jotham Berry m. Mary Bates

Generation 5: Rachel Berry m. Ithamar Mace

Generation 6: Abigail Mace m. Simon Locke

Generation 7: Richard Locke m. Margaret Welch

Generation 8: Abigail M. Locke m. George E. Batchelder

Generation 9: George E. Batchelder m. Mary Katharine Emerson

Generation 10: Carrie Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 11: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Published under a Creative Commons License
Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ WEBSTER of Ipswich, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 28, 2015, (   http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/11/surname-saturday-webster-of-ipswich.html:  accessed [access date]).