Nutfield Genealogy: Kelly

Showing posts with label Kelly. Show all posts

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Surname Saturday ~ KELLY of the Isles of Shoals

The Isles of Shoals
straddling New Hampshire and Maine

My ancestor Roger Kelly’s story is similar to the story of John FROST posted on June 11^th. Not much about him is known except for court records and deeds. Both men lived on the Isles of Shoals, where there is a dearth of vital records, but plenty of court records because most of the inhabitants crossed the law because of physical altercations, drunkenness or other petty crimes. It was known as a lawless place, and because of this Roger Kelly was often in the records because he was not only the local constable, but he was also a judge, and he found himself on both sides of the law.

Diane Rapaport wrote about Roger Kelly. She is a lawyer, and a genealogist, and Roger Kelly’s story must have fascinated her. Much of what I know about Roger, my 10^th great grandfather, came from Diane Rapaport’s article on him in the New England Ancestors journal, and from the book Pioneer Irish in New England (see below for both sources). There is no proof that Roger Kelly was from Ireland, but he is generally thought to be of Irish origins. It would be nice to have at least one Irish ancestor in my family tree, but so far the closest I can prove is two Scots Irish ancestors.

Some books and articles claim that Roger Kelly came from Ireland with two brothers. There is no proof of this although William Kelly lived at Great Island (New Castle, New Hampshire) and Charles lived at Kittery, Maine, both places close by to the Isles of Shoals. Roger Kelly’s first record in the New World was a civil suit naming him as the mate of the Hope in the West Indies. He served 15 weeks in a prison in Boston in 1664 for this suit for damages.

Next, Roger shows up in the Isles of Shoals with his wife, Mary, as a tavern owner on Smuttynose Island, with frequent lawsuits. So he moved to Hog Island (now Appledore Island in Maine) to be out of the jurisdiction of the New Hampshire court (yes, the Isles of Shoals are in both New Hampshire and Maine). In 1666 he was in court for selling wine without a license. He was a land owner and made constable in 1667, and later selectman. He became the representative for the islands at the Massachusetts General Court. Because of his influence on Smuttynose Island he was made Justice of the Peace. He was both litigant and defendant on several occasions.

Being a magistrate on the Isles of Shoals made Roger Kelly an unpopular figure. He suffered a lot of verbal abuse, and even physical attacks by the islanders who preferred to live freely in a state of drunkenness and disorder. In his old age he suffered from blindness, as described by his son Charles in a 1698 deed transferring land in Kittery from Roger. His daughter, Sarah Kelly, my 9^th great grandmother, married John Frost of Star Island. His grandson, John Frost, Jr. was in the court records in 1705 for a disagreement with Roger Kelly over a church bell.

Some KELLY resources:

“Off shore Antics: The Case of the Smuttynose Sailor Who Became Judge”, by Diane Rapaport, New England Ancestors, 2004, Volume 5.3, pages 48 -49.

Pioneer Irish in New England, by Michael O’Brien, New York, New York: P. J. Kennedy & Sons, 1937.

Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, by Charles Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby and Walter Goodwin Davis, 1939, page 396.

Also see Suffolk County, Massachusetts Court Records, New Hampshire Court Records, York County, Maine deeds.

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My KELLY genealogy:

Generation 1: Roger Kelly, born about 1629, origins unknown; married Mary Unknown, six children.

Generation 2: Sarah Kelly married about 1674 to John Frost. He was the son of John Frost and Rose Unknown, and died 7 April 1677 in York County, Maine. Four children.

Generation 3: Ithamar Frost m. Unknown

Generation 4: Sarah Frost m. John Mace

Generation 5: Ithamar Mace m. Rachel Berry

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 ~ KELLY of the Isles of Shoals", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 2, 2016, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/07/surname-saturday-kelly-of-isles-of.html: accessed [access date]).

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Surname Saturday ~ FROST of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire

The Isles of Shoals

FROST

John Frost, my 10^th great grandfather, may be the son of George Frost, an early settler at Winter Harbor (now Biddeford), Maine. There is no proof, and there are no further records of George having descendants, although there are records of John and William Frost in this area. John Frost received grants of land in York in 1663 and 1669. He was killed by the Indians and his estate was divided between his widow, Rose, and children: John, Phillip and Annis, wife of Alexander Maxwell.

John Frost, Jr., my 9^th great grandfather, was presented at court for “abusing his father-in-law, Roger Kelly”. He lived, along with the Kellys, on the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire. These islands were notorious for violence and lack of order. Roger Kelly was the local constable assigned to the Isles, and he was often abused by the drunken sailors and Shoalers who were resisting arrest. He was extremely unpopular on the Isles.

There is also a dearth of records on the births, marriages and deaths on the Isles. What I have on these generations that lived there comes from court records or local history. Ithamar Frost, my 8^th great grandfather, has very few records and I don’t know the name of his wife. But he had two children, including Sarah, my 7^th great grandmother, who married John Mace, another native Shoaler. Their son, Ithamar Mace, my 6^th great grandfather, left the Isles of Shoals to live on the mainland in Rye. That makes a total of four generations of FROSTs who lived on the Isles. Today no one lives year round on the Isles of Shoals and the village of Gosport is gone.

This is not the FROST family which can claim the poet Robert Frost as a descendant. The poet descends from Nicholas Frost (1592 – 1663), who also lived in York County, Maine after being banished from Massachusetts in 1634. There is a good sketch of Nicholas Frost in the Great Migration books.

My FROST genealogy:

Generation 1: John Frost, born in England and died 7 April 1677 in York County, Maine; married to Rose Unknown. Three children.

Generation 2: John Frost, born about 1635, and died 1718 on Star Island at the Isles of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire; married in 1674 in York to Sarah Kelly, daughter of Roger Kelly. Four children.

Generation 3: Ithamar Frost, born about 1678 in the Isles of Shoals, married to Unknown. Two children.

Generation 4: Sarah Frost, married first about 1726 to John Mace, son of Robert Mace and Hannah Gibbons (three children). He was born about 1693 on the Isles of Shoals and died before 1737; married second on 17 March 1737 in Gosport on the Isles of Shoals to Arthur Randall, three more children.

Generation 5: Ithamar Mace, born about 1729 on the Isles of Shoals and died before 9 November 1806; married on 6 December 1764 in Rye, New Hampshire to Rachel Berry, daughter of Jotham Berry and Mary Bates. Three children.