Tombstone Tuesday- West Tisbury Burial Ground (Martha's Vineyard)

Memento Mori

In Memory of

Mr. Bartlet Allen who

departed this Life

Oct. ye 28 1781 Aged

27 Years & 11 Months

In Memory of

Mr. JOSEPH ALLEN

decease'd Jan 5th 1798

Aged 74 Years & 6 Mo

Mr. ZADOCH ALLEN

Son of

Sd. JOSEPH & PATIENCE his wife

deceas'd in Auxcayes, Hispanola

Feby 15, 1797 Aged 35 Years

This Monument is jointly erected.

In Memory of

Mrs. PATIENCE widow of

Mr. Joseph Allen

who died

Feby 13, 1817

in her 89 th year

JOSEPH ALLEN

died

April 15 1852

AE 87 y'rs. 3 mo's.

& 7 d'ys.

---0----

We are passing away

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Amanuensis Monday- Reverend I. E. Bill’s Memoirs

Ten years ago a distant cousin sent me a photo copy of Reverend Ingraham Ebenezer Bill’s memoirs. He was my 3x great grandfather, who had a grade school education, never attended Divinity School, yet became a Baptist preacher who spoke all over Canada, the Eastern United States and England. The original journal is in the archives at Acadia University in Wolfeville, Nova Scotia. He was part of the original committee of Baptist ministers who founded Acadia College in 1839, and they later granted Rev. Bill an honorary doctorate. I’ve transcribed his memoirs, and will post in several parts over the next few Amanuensis Mondays.

a photograph of Reverend I. E. Bill
from the Bill Genealogy by Harry Bill

 Ingraham Ebenezer Bill, son of Asahel Bill and Mary Rand, born 19 February 1805 at Billtown, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, died on 4 August 1891 at St. Martin’s, New Brunswick; married on 20 April 1826 to Isabella Lyons, daughter of Thomas Ratchford Lyons and Ann Skinner. Five children born in Billtown.

Children:
1. Asahel Bill, born 14 May 1827 and died 20 July 1848 shortly after graduating from Acadia College.
2. Mary Anne Bill, born 27 April 1829, died 17 November 1865; married on 14 September 1851 to Thomas McHenry
3. Edward Manning Bill, born 27 March 1831, died on 18 December 1904 in Boston, Massachusetts; married on 6 June 1857 to Charlotte Grace in Australia. Please see my blog post http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/02/missionary-to-new-zealand.html for more information on E. M. Bill, who lived for a while in Australia.
4. Caleb Rand Bill, born 30 May 1833, died on 30 December 1902 in Salem, Massachusetts; married on 7 June 1858 to Ann Margaret Bollman in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Please see my blog post http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/10/bill-family-reunion.html for more information on Caleb R. Bill, my 2x great grandfather, the music professor at Salem, Massachusetts.
5. Rev. Ingraham Ebenezer Bill, Jr., born 8 April 1836, died after 1887; married on 23 November 1871 to Eleanor Pike in Maidstone, Kent, England.

See my blog post http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/tracing-your-minister-ancestors.html for more information on the Bill family lineage.

For my BILL lineage, see this link:

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/03/surname-satruday-bill-of-boston.html  

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"A Personal Sketch

By the Reverend I. E. Bill

Having been mercifully preserved amid manifold dangers and temptations by sea by land, at home and abroad, for more than half a century in the ministry of the gospel of the blessed Lord, it is deeply pressed upon my soul as a solemn duty which I owe to my covenant God and Father to record his wondrous goodness and rich grace as made manifest in what I have seen, heard and experienced during these years of protracted ministerial service. Not indeed that self may be exalted but that Christ the Saviour may be glorified and his church benefit. A few paragraphs regarding my ancestry will not be inappropriate.

In a history of the Bill Family edited by Mr. Ledyard Bill of Connecticut and published in 1869, I find the Bill ancestry traced back to 1490. The first name in the list is Dr. Thomas Bill, a physician of great eminence, and an attendant of the Princess Elisabeth in 1549. He took the degree of M. D. at the celebrated university founded by the Emperor Charlemagne at Paria in Italy. He was one of the physicians to Henry VIII and Edward the VI and from these sovereigns received distinguished honors.

William Bill L.L.D was another distinguished name in the annals of Britain. He was born in Hartfordshire England about 1505. Subsequently as a literary man he was elevated to very high positions one of which was master of St. John’s College and soon after he became vice chancellor of the university. In 1551 he was appointed Master of Trinity College, and became one of the Kings Sir Chaplains. He had with many others high in office to suffer bitter persecution under the cruel reign of Mary and was compelled to go into retirement for safety, but on the secession of Queen Elisabeth he was restored to his former honors and became Fellow to the famed Eton College. He was also appointed a member of the Royal Ecclesiastical Commission, consisting of the distinguished Bishop Cramer and others, to revise the calendar of sermons and homilies to be used in the church service throughout the year. On the 15th of June 1560 he was installed Dean of West Minster being the first incumbent of that office.

He died on the 15 of July 1561, and was interred on the 20th of that month in the Chapel of St. Benedict in Westminster Abbey where there is an altar tomb having thereon a brass with an outline portrait of the deceased with an inscription round the verge noting the honors conferred upon this eminent man. It seems that no other person ever held at the same time the three important positions of Master of Trinity, Provost of Eaton and Dean of Westminster.

Having thus briefly noted two prominent members of English ancestry we ?? on to say that the first mention of any of the Bill family in America is found in the ancient records of the town of Boston, where says Ledyard Bill in his history, we read John Bill died Nov 10 1638. The writer of the history assumes for good reasons that John Bill and his wife arrived in the New World prior to 1635. They had sons and daughters, who in their turn married, multiplied and passed into other generations. These are very sketched by the author of the history giving names, dates, marriages, births, callings, positions, professions, offices, residences, purchases, sales, deeds, and deaths ?? of our relatives in America for eight generations.

Before proceeding with our own parentage justice demands that we should make a panning reference to our cousins, whose ancestors adopted the teachings of the American revolution and who pledged their fortunes and their lives to the cause of freedom from what they regarded as British tyranny of the darkest shade, many of these were men of high ???, of bold adventure and of brave instincts they believed they were right and rushed with others to the mighty conflict determined to conquer or to die. We have the result; a nation was born that is now mighty in its numerical strength, boundless in its resources of material wealth. Rich in its political institutions, enriched in its agencies for mental and religious cultures, and filled with the treasures of learning and of a God given Christianity. A nation whose ships traverse very sea, and whose commerce extends to all the towns and cities of the world. A nation that has given birth to intellectual giants in all realms of thought, invention and progress, and whose statesmen, generals, poets, orators, theologians, ministers and missionaries take rank with the greatest and the best of nations.

We have seen that the Bill family was of British origin, and that English blood courses in the veins of its numerous generations, but what is America to day in all its high and noble instincts, but the expansion and growth of British blood, language, energy, ???, education, intelligence, freedom, and Christianity on this broad American continent. It is the daughter of the grand old mother struggling by her side for the diffusion of light, liberty and salvation among all nations, peoples, and ?? for the ushering in of that age of gold when the knowledge of the glory of God shall fill the whole earth. We have therefore no political quarrels with our cousins across the lines, but heartily offer the prayer God bless them and their nation and prosper them in every good word and work!..."

This is part one of his memoir
For part two, posted on 25 October 2010, click this link:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/amanuensis-monday-more-from-rev-bills.html

For part three, posted on 1 November 2010, click this link:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/11/amanuensis-monday-more-from-rev-i-e.html

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To Cite/Link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Amanuensis Monday- Reverend I. E. Bill’s Memoirs", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 18, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/amanuensis-monday-reverend-i-e-bills.html: accessed [access date]). 

Caverly Family Portraits

Charles and Comfort Caverly Family and Cat
by Joseph H. Davis, ink and watercolor, 1836

Joseph H. Davis (1804-1845) was an itinerant painter in rural New Hampshire and Maine from 1832 througth the 1840s. His paintings are ink and watercolor on paper. He is called the “left-handed painter” because he signed at least one portrait with that name. In 2006 an 1836 watercolor by Joseph H. Davis of Asa and Susannah Caverly sold for $76,375 at a Skinner auction. The watercolor of Charles and Comfort Caverly sold for $127,000 in August 2006 at Northeast Auctions in Manchester, New Hampshire to art dealer David Wheatcroft.

The Charles Caverly and Comfort Boodey lineage:

Generation 1. William Caverly, married Mary Abbott, daughter of Walter Abbott and Sarah Steward, and widow of Thomas Guptill. She married a third time to Leonard Drown, 4 November 1707 in Boston, Massachusetts to her sister Elizabeth’s widowed husband.  William Caverly and Mary Abbott are my 7th great grandparents.

Children:
1. Moses (see below)
2. Elizabeth Caverly, born about 1696 married Thomas Wilkinson (my 6th great grandparents)

Generation 2. Moses Caverly married on 30 January 1714 in Portsmouth to Margaret Cotton, daughter of John Cotton and Sarah Hearle. He removed to Barrington in 1746.

Children:
1. William
2. Moses (see below)
3. John
4. Thomas
5. Hannah
6. Nathaniel

Generation 3. Moses Caverly, born 1719 in Portsmouth, died 17 March 1795 in Barrington, New Hampshire; married in 1741 to Hannah Johnson, died in 1802. He was a merchant, barber and hairdresser in Portsmouth until about 1754 when he removed to Barrington.

Children:
1. Charles, born 15 June 1741
2. Philip, born 17 March 1745 (see below)
3. John, born 25 June 1747, died young
4. Hannah, born 12 January 1749
5. John, born May 11, 1752
6. Abigail, born 11 June 1754
7. William, born 2 February 1757, died young
8. Charles, born 15 December 1760

Generation 4. Philip Caverly, son of Moses and ???, born 17 March 1745 at Portsmouth, died 1 April 1813; married to Bridget Pendergast, born 24 Feb 1745, and died 28 April 1818

Children:
1. Moses, born 3 April 1771
2. Samuel, born 23 June 1773
3. Stephen, born 18 May 1775, died 15 September 1778
4. John, born 7 November 1777
5. Polly, born 2 July 1779
6. Edmund, born 15 January 1781
7. Stephen, born 28 October 1782
8. Charles, born 27 September 1784 (see below)
9. Solomon, born 11 February 1778.

Generation 5. Charles Caverly, son of Philip Caverly and Bridget Pendergast, born 27 September 1784 in Strafford, died 6 June 1872; married Comfort Boodey, born 10 February 1791 in Strafford, and died 30 March 1876. Charles was a blacksmith in Strafford, New Hampshire and served in the legislature in 1845 and 1846.

Children:
1. Eliza J. born 1 November 1812, d. 3 March 1826
2. Joseph B., born 21 April 1815
3. Leonard W., born 7 November 1818
4. Charles H., born 26 May 1823
5. Cyrus G., born 25 November 18125
6. Isaac L., born 31 May 1835, died 31 January 1864 (in the portrait with his parents)

Sources:

Genealogy of the Caverly Family, by Robert Boodey Caverly, 1879, reprint by Higginson

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

History in my own Backyard!

The Boyd Farm painting in the Morrison House

Last August, on Old Home Day, I was helping out in the Londonderry Historical Society's Morrison House Museum. I sat in the dining room for several hours, helping with a weaving demonstration. My husband snapped a few photos of the weaving, and then he also snapped a few photos of artifacts inside the museum. Later he asked me if I had noticed the painting behind our table. I had to laugh when I turned around to look. It was a painting of the house that used to stand our own backyard!

The Boyd Dairy Farm is now the Rolling Meadows Condominiums, built over forty years ago. It is an open area of about sixty acres, bordered by forest land and surrounding three good sized ponds. I had blogged about this land last year at the post http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/08/boyd-and-towne-families-of-londonderry.html

The photo above was taken yesterday, of the same piece of property. The old homestead and attached barn are no longer standing. Boyd Road, on the right, is still there, and so is the pond. Many trees have grown up along the edge of the pond. The modern townhouses sit just about where the homestead was, and if you walk along the road you can still see a stone wall. In the back, the hill is still covered with dark green pine trees. Just a little bit further up the road you will find our maintenance shed, which used to be the calving shed when this was all a dairy farm. The original painting was probably done before 1950, and you can see the changes in the landscape.

There are a few paragraphs about the Boyd family in the book Early Londonderry: Tidbits and Sketches, Volume II, by the Londonderry Historical Society, pages 136 -7. Before becoming condominiums in the 1960s, the land was known as the Thomas Boyd estate, and then owned by the Harrington family. The Harringtons built a newer, modern home on Boyd Road, but I'm not sure which one house might be the Harrington House.

This is the link to the post I did for Old Home Day...
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/08/londonderry-old-home-day-2010-weaving.html
If you look close you can see the painting right behind us as we are weaving!

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Not So Wordless Wednesday- Dublin, New Hampshire

Last week we took the little red convertible for a ride to Vermont. It was a beautiful fall day, and the foliage was just beginning to show its autumn colors. To get there, we passed through many picturesque towns in New Hampshire, including Dublin. Although it had been laid out as a land grant earlier, it was settled in 1760 by Scots-Irish settlers, just like Londonderry, Derry and Antrim, New Hampshire. These are just some of the towns given names to reflect their Scots-Irish heritage.

Although it is a tiny little town, Dublin is famous as the home of the Dubin Prep School, and the home of Yankee Publishing (Yankee magazine, the Old Farmer's Almanac, and countless other books on New England life and culture). It is a summer community for many families, with summer cottages along Dublin Lake, which is at the base of Mount Monadnock. Mark Twain summered here for two years in a row.

The community blackboard on the Yankee Publishing building

Just because I'm nosy, I looked up the name on the community blackboard, and you can find the obituary here at the New York times archives (click on the photo above to enlarge it). Mrs. Nitzburg was obviously a well known and much loved summer resident of Dublin. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=patricia-nitzburg&pid=145772353



Dublin Public Library

For more information:

http://www.townofdublin.org/Pages/index The website for Dublin, New Hampshire

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Not So Wordless Wednesday- Dublin, New Hampshire", Nutfield Genealogy, posted 13 October 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/10/not-so-wordless-wednesday-dublin-new.html: accessed [access date]).

Tombstone Tuesday- Some Allens at Spring Street Cemetery, Essex, Massachusetts

Alden Gaston Allen, born 6 September 1873, in Essex

died 22 July 1896 in Essex, unmarried

Albert Willard Allen, born 23 December 1878, in Essex

died 25 Mar 1903 in Beverly (was married to Lillian M. Dorsett in 1900)

Buried at Lot 283

Alden and Albert were brothers to my great grandfather, Joseph Elmer Allen (1870-1932)

Gilman P. Allen, born 25 October 1809 in Ipswich

died 11 April 1892 in Essex

Elizabeth Collins, born 28 February 1819 in Newbury

died 20 May 1888 in Essex (married to Gilman in 1840)

Leveritt Perkins (Gilman's son in law), born 22 December 1839 in Essex

died 28 September 1881 in Essex

Elizabeth C., (daughter of Gilman and Elizabeth Collins, 2nd wife)

born about 1841

died 1911

Buried at Lot 127

Gilman P. Allen was a brother to my 3x great grandfather, Joseph Allen (1801 - 1894)

Follow this link for a story posted last year about the large Allen family Plot, Lot 456,  with my grandparents,  great grandparents and other Allens at the Spring Street Cemetery in Essex, Massachusetts
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/tombstone-tuesday.html

Spring Street Cemetery, Essex , Massachusetts
Coordinates      Latitude 24.6373692 24° 38' 14" N

                    Longitude -70.7799953 70° 46' 47" W
Operated by the Town of Essex Cemetery Department (978) 768-6262
http://www.essexma.org/Pages/EssexMA_Cemetery/index
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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Amanuensis Monday - A Horrific Accident!

My 7x great grandfather, George Flint, lived in what is now Reading, Massachusetts. It was considered a frontier town, on the edge of the wilderness, when he settled there in about 1682. He built a garrison house, for his family and to protect his neighbors.

From “Genealogical History of the Town of Reading, Massachusetts”, pages 72-3.

“Tradition says that his was the first framed house in the Precinct, and that it was early used as a garrison house in the Precinct, while there were hostile Indians in the Colony. Another circumstance connected with this family is, that on a certain Sabbath all the family were absent at church (five miles distant) but two daughters of Sergt. Flint, who were left at home in charge of the house. During their absence, one of the daughters took a pistol, and aiming it at the other, said: "Suppose you were an Indian, how easily I could shoot you!" At that moment the pistol went off and lodged its contents in the shoulder of her sister, which crippled her for life. Mary, the wounded daughter, is listed as a cripple in her father's will. Sergt. Flint was selectmen of the town and a very influential citizen.”

Grandfather, Nathaniel Putnam also gave Mary Flint a double portion in his will “because she hath a lame arm”. Mary Flint never married. It is unknown which sister caused the accident, or how old the girls were when this horrific accident happened.

This story is also repeated in “New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial” by William Richard Cutter, Volume II, page 1384; in “The Vermont Historical Gazeteer” Volume II, page 1024, 1871, in the article “Deacon Samuel Flint” by Mrs. Mary A. Flint Keyes; and also in “Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire”, Volume II, page 629, by the Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1908.

The Flint Family:

Generation 1. Thomas Flint, born about 1603 in Wales, died 15 April 1663 in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts; married in Salem about 1644 to Ann (maiden name unknown), who died 1710. She remarried after Thomas’s death to John Southwick, who is my 9x great Grandfather in a different lineage. Thomas Flint is my 8x great grandfather.

Generation 2. George Flint, born 6 January 1652 in Salem, died 23 June 1720 in the North Precinct (now Reading, Massachusetts); married in Salem on 2 March 1679 to Elizabeth Putnam, daughter of Nathaniel Putnam and Elizabeth Hutchinson, born 11 August 1662 in Salem, died 6 March 1697 in Salem Village. George is my 7x great grandfather, and his brother Thomas is also my 7x great grandfather. George remarried after Elizabeth’s death to Susannah Gardner on 2 March 1699, she was the granddaughter of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Frier, my 9x great grandparents in another lineage.

Elizabeth’s second cousin, Thomas Putnam married Ann Carr in Salem in 1678. She was the infamous “Ann Putnam” who was the most outspoken witness against her neighbors in the 1692 witch trials. Ann Putnam, Jr. was one of the “afflicted” teen aged witnesses against many Salem citizens. She begged for forgiveness in 1706 and read a confession in front of the Salem Village congregation.

Children:

1. Elizabeth Flint, born 19 August 1685, married Ebenezer Damon

2. George Flint, born 1 April 1686, married Jerusha Pope (my 6x great grandparents)

3. Anna Flint, born 18 April 1687, married Jonathan Parker (he was the grandson of Thomas Kendal and Rebecca Payne, my 9x great grandparents in another lineage)

4. Ebenezer Flint, born 16 December 1689, married Tabitha Burnap

5. Nathaniel Flint, born 21 Oct 1690, died young

6. Mary Flint, born November 1691(the crippled child)

7. Mercy Flint, born 7 October 1692, married Benjamin Damon (brother to Ebenezer above)

8. Nathaniel Flint, born January 1694, married Mary Stearns

9. Hannah Flint, born 12 February 1695, married John Hunt

10. John Flint, born 4 March 1696, died young

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Sentimental Sunday- Autumn in New Hampshire

These apples are huge! They didn't seem affected by the drought in Londonderry



Mack's Apples, Londonderry

Kendall Pond, Londonderry



The Saco River near Conway, New Hampshire

Silver Cascade, Crawford Notch, New Hampshire

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo