Althought this is a Wilkinson cousin (the paternal side of my family), Manchester is also the hometown of my Allen lineage (my Mom is an Allen). The house was built in 1804 as a wedding gift from Israel Forster to his wife Hannah Lee. They were married on 8 August 1802 in Manchester. Their daughter, Hannah Lee Forster (1805- 1911) married Benjamin Leach Allen (1803-1865). The first Allen in Manchester was William Allen (1602 - 1678) who was probably from Dorsetshire, England. He came to the New World in 1623 with the Dorchester Company to fish for salt cod, but he decided to stay and join Conant's settlement at Salem, and was granted land at Jeffrey's Creek, which became Manchester, Massachusetts.
My cousin's husband is a relative of Samuel McIntire, one of the earliest architects in the United States, and the best designer of Federal style homes in New England. He was hired by some of Salem's earliest millionaires, like Elias Hasket Derby. Some of his surviving homes are the Peirce-Nichols, the Peabody-Silsbee, and the Gardner-White-Pingree homes- all in Salem. Both my cousin's husband and Samuel McIntire are descendants of Phillip McIntire, born 6 August 1630 in Glencoe, Argyle, Scotland, and died in December 1719 in Reading, Massachusetts. Phillip was a Scots prisoner of War, placed on board the ship Unity and sold into servitude in 1650. You can read more about Scots prisoners here and here.Generation 1. Phillip McIntire married Mary Nichols
Generation 2. John McIntire (1679 - 1747) m. Elizabeth Daniels
Generation 3. John McIntire (1702 - 1768) m. Mehitable Whittemore
Generation 4. Joseph McIntire (1727 - 20 Jul 1776) m. Sarah Ruck
Generation 5. Samuel McIntire (1757 - 1811) m. Elizabeth Field
My cousin's link:
Generation 1. Phillip McIntire m. Mary Nichols
Generation 2. David McIntire m. Martha Graves
Generation 3. David McIntire, Jr. m. Eunice Hayward
Generation 4. Eunice McIntire m. Isaac Parker
Generation 5. Isaac Parker, Jr. m. Nancy Dowse
Generation 6. Isaac Parker, III m. Julia Hodgman
Generation 7. Fred H. Parker m. Alice Fanny Holden
Generation 8. Clyde Holden Parker m. Lucy Abbie Sanborn (his grandparents)
*UPDATE: according to my cousin "...we discovered that the house is not attributed to McIntire. Dean Lahikainen, curator at PEM, toured the house. The mantel, cornice, frieze and moldings are McIntire's though. The former owner advertised the house to be designed and built by McIntire but alas, he was wrong."
----------------------
Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
