Surname Saturday ~ WEEKS of Greenland, New Hampshire

The Weeks Brick House
built circa 1710 by Samuel Weeks, my 9th great uncle

WEEKS / WEEKES /  WICKES

Much of the information about my 9^th great grandfather, Leonard Weeks (1633 – 1707) is from an 1889 book.  Not many people realize that this information has been researched, updated, and published at the journal of the New Hampshire Society of Genealogists.  See below for the information on this book and the journal article. There is also an active Weeks family association that maintains updates on the family genealogy (see below for links to the family association webpage.)

Leonard Weeks is of unknown origins, but he was born about 1633, probably in England, and first appears a Maine record as a witness in 1655.  By 29 June 1656 he received his first grant of land in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  In 1660 he received more acreage, and by February 1660/61 he had settled in what is now the town of Greenland, on the Winnicut River

. 

My ancestor married three times.  First to a daughter of Deacon Samuel Haines, then to Mary Redman, the daughter of John Redman, and third to a woman known only as “Elizabeth”.  He had eight children with Mary Redman, my 9^th great grandmother. 

In 1655 the court found Leonard Weeks guilty of swearing and fined him 10 shillings plus court fees of 3 shillings.  However, he must have been respected in the community because the very next year he was elected selectman, and later as the constable and as the sheriff.  His seat in the church at Portsmouth was “No. 4 in front of the pulpit”. 

I descend from his son Joshua Weeks (1674 – 1758) who married Comfort Hubbard.  My 8^th great grandparents had nine children and lived in Greenland.  Comfort was the sister of Thomas Hubbard, a wealthy resident of Boston and treasurer of Harvard College.  They lived on the “Bay Side” of Greenland. Joshua was the colonel of the local militia, and was also a justice of the peace.  

In the next generation I descend from the eldest daughter, Mary Weeks (about 1700 – 1765) who married Jonathan Chesley, and they resided in nearby Durham, New Hampshire.

The Weeks Brick House was built by Samuel Weeks, son of Leonard Weeks and brother of Joshua, in 1710 in Greenland, New Hampshire is operated by the Weeks family association, as a organizational member of Historic New England.  This is one of the earliest brick homes build in New England.  It is open for tours by appointment 603-436-8147. See the website www.weeksbrickhouse.org    The family association has an annual family reunion every September.  The WEEKS DNA project is at this link:  https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/weeks-weekes-wicks/about  

Some WEEKS resources:

Leonard Weeks, of Greenland, N. H. & Descendants, 1639 – 1888, by Jacob Chapman, 1889 (available online at HathiTrust, Archive.org, and at Ancestry).

“New Thoughts on the Family of Leonard Weeks”, by Janet Ireland Delorey and Melinda Lutz Sanborn, New Hampshire Genealogical Record,  Vol. 19, Numbers 2 and 3, April and August 2002.

The Leonard Weeks and Descendants in America, a family association  www.weeksbrickhouse.org  and their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/WeeksBrickHouse/  

My WEEKS genealogy:

Generation 1:  Leonard Weeks, born about 1633 in England; died about 1707 in Greenland, New Hampshire; married about 1667 to Mary Redman, his second wife, daughter of John Redman and Margaret Knight.  She was born 15 December 1649 and died about 1694.  Eight children. 

Generation 2: Joshua Weeks, born 30 June 1674 in Greenland, and died 13 June 1758 in Greenland; married on 7 November 1699 in Boston, Massachusetts to Comfort Hubbard, daughter of Richard Hubbard and Martha Allen.  She was born 17 January 1682 and died 20 March 1756.  Nine children.

Generation 3:  Mary Weeks, born about 1700 in Greenland, died about July 1765; married on 17 November 1720 in Greenland to Jonathan Chesley, son of Phillip Chesley and Sarah Rollins.  Three children.

Generation 4:  Comfort Chesley m. Stephen Perkins

Generation 5:  Mary Perkins m. Nathaniel Batchelder

Generation 6:  Jonathan Batchelder m. Nancy Thompson

Generation 7:  George E. Batchelder m. Abigail M. Locke

Generation 8:  George E. Batchelder m. Mary Katharine Emerson

Generation 9:  Carrie Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 10:  Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ WEEKS of Greenland, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 17, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/11/surname-saturday-weeks-of-greenland-new.html: accessed [access date]). 

The Oyster River Massacre, 1694 (and two lucky uncles)

The Falls at Oyster River

The Oyster River Massacre happened on 18 July 1694 at Durham, New Hampshire, then part of the town of Dover.  There had been a period of peace with the native Abenaki tribes following the Cochecho Massacre and the Seige of Pemaquid, Maine in 1689.  The government at Boston entered a new trade negotiation with the Abenaki and the French wished to end this agreement.  They didn't want the Abenaki to ally with the English.  The New England settlement at Oyster River was attacked by about 250 Abenaki led by Claude-Sebastien de Villieu of Quebec.   About 100 inhabitants were killed and 27 taken captive to Canada.   Half the town was destroyed, along with crops and animals, which left the survivors destitute.   Five out of twelve garrisons were destroyed.  Many of the refugees fled to Massachusetts.  It was the worst massacre of King William's War. 

The settlement eventually rebuilt, and was protected by troops from Massachusetts.  By 1716 Oyster River Plantation was a separate parish of Dover, named after Durham in England.  The town of Durham was incorporated in 1735 and included parts of Dover, Madbury, Lee and Newmarket.  

Oyster River from the footbridge below the historic marker

I could not find a complete list of deaths or captured individuals from the Oyster River Massacre.  According to the New Hampshire Provincial and State Papers, Volume 2, pages 125 – 128, some of the surnames mentioned as killed were  Dean, Adams, Drew,  and Davis.   

List of some of the captured individuals of the massacre was found in the book New England Captives Carried to Canada, by Emma Lewis Coleman, pages 253-254 and the names include the following people:

Mercy Adams

Two daughters of John Davis

John Dean’s wife and child

Peter Denbow

John Derry

Deliverance Derry

John or Joseph Derry

Thomas Drew

Tamsen Drew

Thomas Edgerly, Sr.

Joseph Edgerly

A daughter and some children of Thomas Edgerly, Jr.

Judah (Davis) Emerson

Ann Jenkins and three children

Samuel Rand

Remembrance Rand

Mrs. Hannah Watson

Joseph Watson

Abigail Willey/Willis, daughter of William Pitman of Dover

There are many interesting stories from this event.  John Bickford (about 1625 - 1697) married my 8th great aunt, Temperance Hull, the daughter of Reverend Joseph Hull.  An unrelated man, Thomas Bickford, had a garrison house. I can only imagine that my great aunt and uncle Bickford were sheltering at this fortunate garrison because John Bickford did not die in this attack, but he died three years later in 1697.  According to The History of New Hampshire, by Jeremy Belknap, ed. John Farmer (Dover, N.H.: S.C. Stevens and Ela & Wadleigh, 1831):

"Thomas Bickford preserved his house (12.)  in a singular manner. It was situated near the river, and surrounded with a palisade. Being alarmed before the enemy had reached the house, he sent off his family in a boat, and then shutting his gate, betook himself alone to the defense of his fortress. Despising alike the promises and threats by which the Indians would have persuaded him to surrender, he kept up a constant fire at them, changing his dress as often as he could, shewing himself with a different cap, hat or coat, and sometimes without either, and giving directions aloud as if he had a number of men with him. Finding their attempt vain, the enemy withdrew, and left him sole master of the house, which he had defended with such admirable address."

Another great uncle was lucky.  Robert Burnham (about 1614 - 1691), my 9th great grand uncle, built a garrison house at Oyster River in 1654.  The Burnham Garrison was about a mile below Durnham Falls.  It sheltered the Burnham descendants and the Pitman family, and none were lost. Seven garrisons were defended: Burnham, Bickford, Smith, Bunker, Davis, Jones and Woodman.  Robert Burnham's daughter, Sarah was married to John Woodman (about 1634 - 1706), who also successfully defended the Woodman Garrison, the largest garrison in the Oyster River area.  

The state historical marker is on the south side of Route 4, just east of the intersection with Route 108, by the bridge over the falls at Oyster River.

OYSTER RIVER MASSACRE

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On July 18, 1694, a force of about 

250 Indians under command of the

French soldier, de Villieu, attacked 

settlements in this area on both

sides of the Oyster River, killing

or capturing apporximately 100

settlers, destroying five garrison

houses and numerous dwellings. It

was the most devastating French and

Indian raid in New Hampshire during

King William's War.          1993

Oyster River Massacre links:

http://minerdescent.com/2013/02/01/oyster-river-massacre-1694/ 

http://www.seacoastnh.com/history/as-i-please/digging-into-the-oyster-river-massacre/ 

“The Great Massacre of 1694: Understanding the Destruction of Oyster River Plantation”, by Craig J. Brown, Historical New Hampshire, Volume 53 (1998), pages 68 – 89.

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Copyright © 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo