Surname Saturday ~ HART of Watertown, Reading and Lynnfield, Massachusetts

Examination of a Witch
T.H. Matteson, 1853

HART / HARTT / HARTE

There was a Samuel Hart living in Lynn, Massachusetts at the same time as Isaac Hart, but they are not known to be kin – even though Isaac Hart had a son named Samuel.

Isaac Hart, my 8th great grandfather, arrived in Watertown aboard The Rose in 1636 as the servant to Richard Carver.  In 1642 he had five acres in Watertown. He then removed to Reading by 1648 when his wife was listed as member of the church.  He had married Elizabeth Hutchinson, sometimes recorded as Hutchins, the daughter of Thomas Hutchins and Anne Browne.  Isaac bought land from his father-in-law near the border of the Saugus, Reading and Lynnfield lines, which he later left to his son Samuel.  The Isaac Hart homestead is still standing in Lynn. 

Elizabeth was brought before her church in Reading in 1652 for not harboring travelers that had requested aide.  In 1655 she was brought before the Puritan church deacons again for “contempt of authority”.   Elizabeth Hart was accused of being a witch in March of 1692.  In October her son, Thomas, petitioned for his mother’s innocence, but she was not released until December.

I descend from Isaac’s son Adam.  Adam’s sister, Deborah Hart, married my 7^th great uncle, Benjamin Proctor. I descend from Benjamin’s two siblings, Abigail Proctor Varney (1639 – 1732) and John Proctor (1631 – 1692) who was hanged as a witch during the witch hysteria.

Adam Hart, my 7th great grandfather,  married Elizabeth Collston, daughter of Adam Collston and Mary Dustin.  Elizabeth, her mother, aunt, and grandmother were all accused and arrested for witchcraft in 1692.  Elizabeth, only sixteen years old, escaped imprisonment twice!  Adam married second to Abigail Deal, and third to Dorcas Brown. .  You can read more about Elizabeth and the Collston family at this link: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/06/surname-saturday-collston-of-reading.html

Adam Hart was named the father of Elizabeth Collston's illegitimate baby a short time before they married.  After marriage about 1704, he was named the baby's guardian, but the child was known in records as Mary COLLSTON not Mary Hart.  See Genealogical History of the town of Reading, Mass., by Hon. Lilley Eaton, page 85. 

Witchcraft accusations abound in this family!  In 1692 Adam Hart's mother, his wife and the women of her family were all accused of witchcraft and imprisoned.  And these families of witch trial victims tended to intermarry.  Adam and Elizabeth’s grandson, Jonathan Flint (my 5^th great grandfather) married Lydia Proctor, the great granddaughter of the John Proctor, mentioned above, who was hanged in 1692.  But strangely, Jonathan’s own grandfather was William Dounton, who was infamously known as the cruel jailor of the Salem Gaol where many victims were imprisoned.  Some intermarriages cannot be explained.

Some HART resources:

Genealogical History of Samuel Hartt from London, England to Lynn, Mass., 1640 And Descendants, by James Morrison Hart, Pasadena, CA, 1903

“Isaac Hart and Samuel Hart”, The Essex Genealogist, Volume 18, pages 40 – 46.

My HART genealogy:

Generation 1:  Isaac Hart, born about 1614 in England, died 10 February 1699 in Lynnfield, Massachusetts married about 1650 to Elizabeth Hutchinson, daughter of Thomas Hutchinson and Anne Browne.  She died 28 November 1700.  Seven children.

Generation 2:  Adam Hart, born 4 February 1666 in Lynnfield, died 17 September 1745 in Reading; married about 1703 to Elizabeth Collston, daughter of Adam Collston and Mary Dustin.  She was born 9 October 1676.  Two children.

Generation 3:  Mary Collston, born 22 September 1704 in Reading; married on 18 February 1723 in Reading to Jonathan Flint, son of Thomas Flint and Mary Dounton.  He was born 8 November 1689 in Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts).  Two children.

Generation 4: Jonathan Flint, born 11 August 1730 in Reading, died 1800 in Reading; married on 1 August 1751 in Salem to Lydia Proctor, daughter of John Proctor and Lydia Waters.  She was born 31 March 1730 in Salem.  Eight children.

Generation 5:  John Flint, born 3 April 1761 in North Reading, died 26 August 1836 in North Reading; married Phebe Flint as his second wife.  She was the daughter of George Flint and Hannah Phelps, born 8 March 1763 in North Reading, died December 1846 in North Reading.  Eight children.

Generation 6: Olive Flint, born 27 July 1805 in North Reading, died 26 November 1875 in Peabody, Massachusetts; married on 3 September 1826 in Reading to Luther Simonds Munroe.  He was the son of Andrew Munroe and Ruth Simonds, born 10 May 1805 in Danvers, died 23 December 1851 in Danvers.  Six children.

Generation 7: Phebe Cross Munroe m. Robert Wilson Wilson

Generation 8:  Albert Munroe Wilkinson m. Isabella Lyons Bill

Generation 9: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

UPDATE 26 October 2022 - 

Click here for a link to "My Hartt - The Descendants of Isaac and Elizabeth Hartt"  http://www.myhartt.com/  

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ HART of Watertown, Reading and Lynnfield, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 19, 2016, (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/11/surname-saturday-hart-of-watertown.html: accessed [access date]). 

Rosetta Munroe Spencer

This is a post for the Second Great American Local Poem Genealogy Challenge sponsored by Bill West at his blog “West in New England”.

The cover of a 1900 Outlook children's magazine

as seen on e-Bay

What's In a Birthday?
(originally published in the "Outlook Illustrated Magazine" 2 January 1897, page 272)
By Rosetta Munroe Spencer

Monday is the day we wash.
If all the clothes get dry,
We iron them on Tuesday
Then fold and put them by.
On Wednesday mamma makes her calls,
But Thursday afternoons
She stays at home and lets our Jane
Go visit the Muldoons.

We always sweep on Friday,
And give the rugs a shake,
And dust and mop the morning long;
But Saturdays we bake,
And that's the reason why I think
That Saturday's the best;
But mamma chooses Sunday.
For that's the day of rest.

Now, I was wondering last night,
When I was tucked in bed,
If people born on Monday
Out to earn their daily bread
By washing clothes; but then I soon
Remembered brother Will
Was born on Monday, and he says
He's going to run a mill.

Ned says he heard the baker's boy,
Around the corner say,
The reason he's a baker-
He was born on Saturday.
Perhaps because on Wednesday
My papa's birthday falls
Is the reason he's a doctor,
And makes so many calls.

On Thursday was my mamma born
At home she has to stay
To see that everything goes well.
But brother Ned's birthday
On Friday comes- the day we sweep;
And just to sweep the snow,
From off the steps makes Ned so cross,
He hates to sweep, I know.

But mamma says if Ned will sweep
The cobwebs from his brain,
And study more and frolic less,
His rightful place he'll gain
When he's a man; but brother Will
Must wash his hands so neat
That Monday's never be ashamed
If she and Will should meet.

Sweet baby Bess may sleep and rest,
For she's a Sunday child
Now I was born on Tuesday-
My own dear mother smiled,
And said she hoped hereafter,
When she tried my hair to curl,
That I'd iron out my forehead
And be a pleasant girl.

Rosetta Mary (Munroe) Spencer was the daughter of Luther Simonds Munroe and Emily Louise Wiley. She was born on 22 March 1868 in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. Her father was the nephew and namesake of my 3x great grandfather Luther Simonds Munroe ((1805 – 1851) of Danvers, Massachusetts. Rosetta married the Reverend George Hazelton Spencer in 1892, and they had six children. According to census records, they lived in Newton, Everett and Boston, Massachusetts.

Her husband, Rev. Spencer, graduated from the Montpelier Seminary in Vermont in 1890 and Boston University School of Theology in 1890. He was a pastor at Methuen, Massachusetts; Somersworth, New Hampshire; Newton, Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts; Everett Massachusetts; and Cambridge, Massachusetts according to the 1916 “Who’s Who in American Methodism”. I was able to find a history of the Greenwood Memorial Church in Boston online, and it listed Rev. George Hazelton Spencer as the pastor from 1917-1919.

I found many poems by Rosetta Spencer in online copies of the children’s magazine “Outlook Illustrated Magazine”. I also found her name and poetry in the “Bostonia” journal by Boston University during the same time period. Her mother was the subject of a blog post earlier this year, because a wool quilted coverlet by Emily Wiley Munroe was on display at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, and also featured in the book, Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth.

For more information:

Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth, by Lynne Zacek Bassett, editor, University Press of New England, 2009

The New England Quilt Museum http://www.nequiltmuseum.org/

My blog posts about Emily Wiley Munroe’s Quilt
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/google-your-way-to-quilt-sometimes.html

And also
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/05/emily-wiley-munroes-quilt-circa-1860.html

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo