Molly Reid Memorial, Londonderry, New Hampshire

 

BIRTHPLACE OF

MARY WOODBURN

WIFE OF

GEN. GEO. REID

1735 - 1823

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GEN. STARK SAID OF HER

"IF THERE IS A WOMAN IN

NEW HAMPSHIRE FIT FOR

GOVERNOR, IT IS

             MOLLY REID."

ERECTED BY MOLLY REID

CHAPTER D.A.R.

1899

This monument to Molly Reid is located on High Range Road in Londonderry, New Hampshire, on private property (but visible by the roadside) between Parmenter Road and MacIntosh Road.  She was the wife of General George Reid, who lived in Londonderry (now the part that is Derry) and who fought the American Revolution in Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, Trenton, Saratoga, Monmouth,  and with George Washington in Yorktown.  

George Reid was a farmer, who married Mary Woodburn in 1765.  They had five children, Mary Boyd Reid Dinsmoor (d. 1834), James Reid (1767 - 1827), John Reid (1771 - 1834), George Reid (1774 - 1848), and Elizabeth Reid McGregor (1776 - 1847).  The Reid family is buried at Forest Hill Cemetery, and follow the link below to see a blog post with photographs of the Reid family plot.  

Mary Woodburn was the daughter of John Woodburn, an Irish immigrant, and Mary Boyd of Londonderry.  Their farm and homestead was located near the memorial on High Range Road. Their home was a garrison, which was never needed because Londonderry was never attacked by the French or the native people of the area.  Mary (Molly) was born 7 April 1734/5 and died on her birthday in 1823, aged 88 years.   John Woodburn is also buried at Forest Hill in Derry. 

For the truly curious:

The Molly Reid Chapter DAR website:   http://mollyreid.nhsodar.org/    

A 2012 blog post with the gravestone of General George Reid and Mary Reid, buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Derry, New Hampshire:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/04/tombstone-tuesday-revolutionary-war.html    

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To Cite/Link to this post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Molly Reid Memorial, Londonderry, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 15, 2021, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2021/06/molly-reid-memorial-londonderry-new.html: accessed [access date]). 

WEIR - Early Nutfield Settler

The Governor Shute Petition for Nutfield

[Note:  I will be doing a series of genealogical sketches on the early Nutfield settlers in advance of the 300th anniversary of Nutfield for Founders Day, April 12 - 14, 2019 in Derry, New Hampshire.  If you have additional notes on the first few generations of this family, please comment below or send me an email at vrojomit@gmail.com, and I will edit this sketch.  These sketches will be used and distributed to the public and to descendants at the Founders Day activities.]

WEIR – Descendants of Nutfield Settler Robert Weir

Alternative spellings WEIR / WEAR / WARE

Robert Weir, a Scots Irish settler from Northern Ireland, arrived in New England with the Rev. James McGregor in 1718.  This group of Ulster Scots first went to Casco in Maine, but spent a miserable winter there.  In the spring they went up the Merrimack River to Haverhill.  Robert Weir and James Gregg petitioned the Governor of Massachusetts for permission to settle on land fifteen miles north of Haverhill in New Hampshire.  He was one of the sixteen men who accompanied Rev. McGregor to see the land, which they called “Nutfield”.  The New Hampshire general court called them (24 September 1719) “a company of Irish at Nutfield”.  In 1722 this land was chartered as Londonderry.   Robert Weir became the first sheriff of Londonderry.  His lot was adjacent to the meetinghouse and Robert MacGregor’s lot.

Robert Weir was born about 1682 in Northern Ireland and died 1726 in Londonderry, New Hampshire.  He was married to Martha Reid (?) about 1706 in Ireland. 

Children: 

      1.       John, born about 1700 in Northern Ireland, died in Warrington Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; married to an unknown spouse. Three sons:  Samuel, Hugh and James

      2.       Robert, born in Northern Ireland, died after 1789 in Sevier County, Tennessee.  Married to Rebecca Carrell in 1740 in Northampton, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  Children:  John (married Nancy Moore), Samuel (married Polly Thompson and Margaret Gilliland), Rebecca (married John Moore and Robert Lowry), and Elizabeth.  Buried at the Fort Wear Cemetery in Tennessee.

      3.       Elizabeth, born in Londonderry 4 November 1723 [Vital Records of Londonderry, New Hampshire, 1719 – 1910]. She married William Thone. Children:  Agnes, Jennet, John, William, Samuel, Isaac, and Benjamin

      4.       James, married Jane.  Children:  Robert (married Mary Walker), Jane (married Thomas Kelso), Hannah (married Edward Hay), John, Mary (married Robert Flack in Pennsylvania), and Ann.    

      5.       William

For more information:

Notable Southern Families, by Zella Armstrong, 1918, Volume 1, pages 16 – 19.

Scotch Irish Pioneers in Ulster and America, by Charles Knowles Bolton, 1910, pages 248,  264

“Scotch Irish Settlers in New Hampshire, 1719 – 1776”, by William Copely, in Historical New Hampshire, New Hampshire Historical Society, Volume 50, pages 213 – 228.

Clan Douglas Society of North America (septs Blackwood and Weir)

http://clandouglassociety.org/weir/     

Click here for links to the sketches of all sixteen first Nutfield settlers: 
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/p/nutfields-first-16-settlers.html 

---------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "WEIR - Early Nutfield Settler", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 26, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/01/weir-early-nutfield-settler.html: accessed [access date]).

Tombstone Tuesday ~ 14 year old John Reid, died 1738, Londonderry, New Hampshire

This tombstone was photographed at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Derry, New Hampshire.  

In 1738 this was the town of Londonderry. 

HERE LYETH THE BODY OF

JOHN REID WHO DEPARTED 

THIS LIFE IN THE YEAR OF OUR

LORD 1738 BEING 14 YEARS

OLD. 

Ledger stones (which lie flat, sometime on a pedestal like this one) are usually reserved for clergymen and prominent citizens.  This one was erected for a 14 year old boy.  There must be quite a story behind this death, but I have been unable to uncover it.  He could not be a son of James Reid, who born in 1695 in Scotland and came to Londonderry and had four sons- Matthew, b. 1728; Thomas, b. 1730; George, born 1733; and John, born 1745. (Unless James Reid had two sons named John- one named for a sibling who died young?)  John's tombstone is carved with typical 18th century symbols: crossed bones, a coffin, a skull and an hour glass. 

---------------------------------

\

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ 14 year old John Reid, died 1738, Londonderry, New Hampshire",  Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 25, 2015 (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/08/tombstone-tuesday-14-year-old-john-reid.html:  accessed [access date]). 

Governor Samuel Dinsmoor

Samuel Dinsmoor was born near this plaque on 1 July 1766 in Windham, New Hampshire.   This is located near the corner of Governor Dinsmoor Road and Mockingbird Hill Road.  He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1789.   He was the grandson of Scots Irish immigrants from Northern Ireland, Robert Dinsmoor and Margaret Orr, who settled in Nutfield.  Robert Dinsmoor arrived with his father, John, in 1723. 


Samuel Dinsmoor served in the New Hampshire House twice from 1811 to 1813, and was Governor of the state of New Hampshire from 1823 to 1831.     He was married to Mary Boyd Reid, the daughter of General George Reid of Londonderry (Derry) and his famous wife, Molly (Woodburn) Reid. 

Samuel Dinsmoor died on 15 March 1835 in Keene, New Hampshire.  His son, Samuel Dinsmoor, Jr., was also Governor of New Hampshire for three one year terms in 1849, 1850 and 1851.   

Governor Samuel Dinsmoor was a brother of the “Rustic Bard”, Robert Dinsmoor, who I blogged about in 2011 at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/01/amanuensis-monday-robert-dinsmore.html 

FindAGrave.com   photograph and epitaph of the grave of Governor Samuel Dinsmoor and his wife:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6964820

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday ~ A Revolutionary War General

The Reid Family Plot at Forest Hill Cemetery in Derry, New Hampshire

A plaque given by the Molly Reid Chapter of the DAR, in Derry

GEORGE REID
DIED
Sept. 17, 1815  aged 82 yrs.
MARY REID
Relict of George Reid
DIED
April 7, 1823 aged 88 yrs
JAMES REID
DIED
London, May 6, 1827 aged 60 yrs
JOHN REID
DIED
Philadelphia Dec. 8, 1844, aged 68 yrs
Sons of George & Mary Reid
------------------------
Erected by Elizabeth MacGregor

 George Reid was born in Londonderry (in the part now known as Derry, New Hampshire) and married Mary Woodburn in 1765.  She ran the farm with much success during her husband's long campaigns in the American Revolution, and was the mother of eight children.   General John Stark said of Molly Reid "If there is a woman in New Hampshire fit for governor, 'tis Molly Reid."

George Reid responded to the Lexington Alarm on 19 April 1775 by marching the men of Londonderry, New Hampshire on foot to Medford, Massachusetts to join General John Stark (another Londonderry man).  His 1st NH Regiment was formed at the Battle of Bunker Hill on 17 June 1775 .  This 1st NH Regiment also participated in the Invasion of Canada, the Battle of Trenton and the Battle of Princeton.  He was apponted Lieutenant Colonel in 1777, and then took command of the 2nd NH Regiment and led them to Saratoga and the Battle of Monmouth.

He was made Brigadier General after the war and then put down the Exeter Rebellion in 1786, which was a mob opposing the use of paper money in the then capitol of New Hampshire.  He was also made Sheriff of Rockingham County in 1791.

The Molly Reid Chapter of the DAR in Derry, New Hampshire
http://www.freewebs.com/mreiddar/ 
(this website has more information on the Reid family)

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Colonel William Gregg of Londonderry

William Gregg was the son of Captain John Gregg, and grandson of Captain James Gregg, who both emigrated from Northern Ireland to Londonderry, New Hampshire. He was born here in Londonderry on 23 October 1730.

The Bennington Monument

Before the American Revolution, William Gregg was the head of the local Londonderry militia. Upon the Lexington alarm in 1775, he went to Boston until he was called to muster a regiment from New Hampshire for the Continental Army in New York. In 1777 he went to Baltimore to bring back money to help New England fight the war, and then later that year to the Battle of Bennington with General Stark, who was also from Londonderry.

After the war Colonel William Gregg retired back home to Londonderry, where he died on 16 September 1815.

Londonderry and Derry have produced many famous officers of the American Revolution, including General John Stark, Colonel George Reid, and Colonel William Gregg. Also, six early governors were from Londonderry, including Dr. Matthew Thornton, who signed the Declaration of Independence.  Robert Rogers of the Rogers' Rangers regiment spent much time in Londonderry among the Scots Irish settlers, and his father, James Rogers is buried in Derry's Forest Hill Cemetery.

In Parker’s history of the town of Londonderry, he waxed eloquently about the fighting spirit of the Scots Irish warriors, who fought first at the siege of Londonderry in Northern Ireland and then here in the New World. Some of what he writes is highly racist and stereotypical of the Scots Irish.   However, it is very interesting to note that such a tiny township produced so many officers and soldiers for our War of Independence. It is probably due to the rigors of living on the frontier (Londonderry was the frontier between English territory and French territory in the 1700s), more than their being from Ireland and Scotland.

-----------

For more information see:

Rev. Edward L. Parker’s History of Londonderry, pages 220-1.

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Gregg Family Lineage:

Gen. 1. Captain James Gregg, born about 1670, and emigrated from Ayr, Scotland to Northern Ireland in 1690, and was an original grantee of Londonderry, New Hampshire in 1719, died in January 1762 at Peterborough, New Hampshire; married Janet Cargill, born in Illa Scotland, the daughter of Captain David Cargill. James Gregg received a captain’s commission and commanded the first militia recruited in Londonderry. He also built the first grist mill.

Gen. 2. Captain John Gregg, born about 1702 in Ireland, left at age 16 with his parents for Boston; married 1 March 1724 in Londonderry, New Hampshire to Agnes Rankin, daughter of Hugh Rankin.

Gen. 3. Colonel William Gregg, born in Londonderry on 21 November 1730, died on 16 September 1815 in Londonderry. He married three times, first Barbara Aiken, second to Agnes McClure and third to the widow Abbott. Five children.

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Another Gregg Family Lineage (this Gregg family lived in Nutfield (later Windham) but they were Irish in ancestry, not Scots-Irish like the other Gregg’s):

Gen. 1. John Gregg, son of David Gregg, born at Ballarynet near Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He was killed with his parents during a raid on his homestead in April 1689, but his wife and children were safe inside the walled city of Londonderry.

Gen. 2. John Gregg, born about 1680, merchant in Londonderry, Ireland; married to Mary Guage.

Gen. 3. Children of John Gregg include:

     1. Samuel, b. about 1682, immigrated to Boston, had descendants in Windham, New Hampshire

     2. David, b. 1684 near Londonderry, Ireland. He settled first in Watertown, Massachusetts and then in the part of Londonderry, New Hampshire that is now known as the town of Windham. He married in Ireland to Mary Nevins.

     3. Rachel, b. about 1686; m. in Ireland to Solomon Walker, settled in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

     4. Andrew, b. about 1688, also settled in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

     5. Jacob, b. about 1710, removed to Groton, Massachusetts

     6. William, b. about 1715, removed to Pennsylvania

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Pinkerton Tavern Ghosts!

Pinkerton Academy, Derry, New Hampshire

Pinkerton Tavern Ghosts
A Post for Halloween!

In October, thoughts of ghosts and witches come to mind. There were plenty of accused witches, even one who was found guilty in the 1600’s, and New Hampshire has its share of ghosts. When we first moved to Londonderry over 25 years ago, the first ghost we heard about was the one haunting the Pinkerton Tavern, in Derry. At the time, this building was an unfinished furniture store, and then a series of restaurants, now “The Pinkerton Tavern.”

The Pinkerton Tavern building is 270 years old, built by Elder James Pinkerton. James and his brother, Major John Pinkerton, were merchants in Derry. John started as a peddler, and soon owned a store. James was an influential man, a deacon of the church, a representative to the General Court, and Major John served in the American Revolution. They were quite wealthy for the time, and often made loans to the people of Derry, before there were formal banks. In 1814 the Reverend Edward L. Parker asked the merchant brothers to donate money to start a school, which is now known as Pinkerton Academy.

Pinkerton Tavern, Derry, New Hampshire

The Pinkerton family homestead lost its barn in a fire, and the land was later sold to the Hood Dairy Farm. Later it became the unfinished furniture store, and then restaurants. According to the Pinkerton Tavern website www.thepinkertontavern.com the resident ghost is called “Rachel”. I remember when it was a furniture store, and the clerk explained to me that the best place to see the ghost was on the stairway. The current owners say that “Rachel” is a friendly ghost.

When the restaurant used to be called “Neets”, about five years ago, the owners said that the ghost was often seen in the basement. Other restaurant staff said the ghost of “General Pinkerton” would slam doors, even though Major (not General) Pinkerton never lived there. You can read about the ghost at http://www.neghostproject.com/casefiles/neets.htm and how some ghostbusters apparently photographed this spirit!


Pinkerton Family Genealogy:

1. John Pinkerton, born about 1690 in Ireland, died 10 February 1780 in Londonderry; married about 1722 to Mary Elizabeth Farmer. Both are buried at the Hill Cemetery, Londonderry.

Children:

1. David, born 1732 in Ireland, died 8 May 1808 in Londonderry
2. Major John, born 1735 in Ireland, died 1 May 1816; married first about 1760 to Rachel Duncan, five children; married second 18 December 1801 to Polly Tufts, no children.
3. Matthew, born about 1738 in Londonderry, New Hampshire, died about 1814; married first to Ann McCurdy; married second to Mary Unknown.
4. Samuel
5. Elder James, born about 1747, died 6 January 1829; married first about 1771 to Elizabeth Nesmith, daughter of John Nesmith and Elizabeth Reid, born 19 April 1762 in Londonderry; married second 15 May 1809 to Susan Wallace, born 8 November 1741, died before 1835. (see children below)

Children with Elizabeth:

1. Betsey, born about 1780, died 1837; married 26 April 1807 in Boston to her first cousin John Aiken, son of James Aiken and Elizabeth Pinkerton.
2. Isabella, born about 1785
3. James, born about 1790, died young.
4. Mary B, born 10 May 1791; married William Choate.
5. Clarissa, born 1793; married Robert E. Little.
6. Jane, born 1796, died 1875; married 28 July 1815 in Londonderry to her first cousin, Joshua Aiken, brother to her sister Betsey’s husband.

Children with Susan:
John Morrison Pinkerton, born 6 February 1818, died 6 February 1881; unmarried
6. Mary, born 1740, died 23 September 1807.
7. Elizabeth, born 1748, died 1793; married May 1768 in Londonderry to Deacon James Aiken.
8. Rachel, born 1749, died 17 November 1796.
9. Jane, born about 1753, died 14 February 1809, buried at the Valley Cemetery in Londonderry; married about 1774 to Deacon David Brewster.

Sources:
Londonderry Vital Records
"History of Londonderry" by Rev. Edward L. Parker
www.thepinkertontavern.com


Copyright 2009, Heather Wilkinson