The Forster Flag, 1775

The Forster Flag, 1775

Over the past few years I have blogged several posts about my cousin's long renovation project of the Israel Forster house.  You can read some of the posts at this link HERE.  A few months ago she told me that an interesting artifact from the house was up for auction.  It would be fun to bid on this object and return it to the Forster house, but unfortunately this was expected to sell for millions of dollars!

The Forster Flag was created in 1775.  It is red, with seven white stripes on one side, and six white stripes on the reverse.  This flag was carried by the men of Manchester, Massachusetts when they answered the Lexington alarm on 19 April 1775.  According to oral tradition, it was created from a flag from a British ship. The flag was flown by Captain Samuel Forster of Manchester, and preserved in his family for two centuries. For a long time it was kept at the Israel Forster house, built in 1804, in the center of Manchester.  In 1975 it was acquired by the Flag Heritage Foundation in Winchester, Massachusetts.

The Israel Forster House, Manchester, MA

The Doyle Auction House in New York City auctioned off the Forster Flag yesterday.  The proceeds from the auction were being donated to the Whitney Flag Research Center Collection in the Dolph Brisco Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.

And the big news?  Who won the auction and how much did they pay?

At this auction of priceless historical items, a Babylonian cuneiform clay cylinder was sold for a record setting $605,000.  Other items included a full multi volume set of Birds of America illustrated by John James Audobon and Reverend Cotton Mather's book Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New England  published one year after the Salem witch hysteria in 1693 (sold for $8,750).  These are very historic items at impressive sales prices.

I called the Doyle Auction house in New York City at 3 pm yesterday, well after the morning auction.  I was told that the flag remains UNSOLD.  I don't know if this means there were no bidders, or if a reserve price was set and never met.  According to an article at Fortune magazine's website, the University of Texas at Austin was holding out for a minimum reserve (see this link:  http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2014/04/03/texas-holdem-a-university-bets-big-on-a-high-profile-auction/ )

The story is apparently not finished!

US Flag stamps, 2000

The Forster Flag is in the top row, 

second from the right

Pre-auction press release by the Doyle auction house:
http://www.doylenewyork.com/content/more.asp?id=317 

A story about the flag from the Gloucester Times, 8 April 2014 (before the auction)
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x1445030495/Manchester-flag-could-fetch-3M

A story about the Forster Flag from the Brisco Center for American History
http://www.cah.utexas.edu/news/press_release.php?press=forster_flag

UPDATE  29 April 2014
http://www.jtfrancis.com/news5.html

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

The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-forster-flag-1775.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Weathervane Wednesday ~ National Wildlife Refuge

Every Wednesday for more than two years Vincent and I have been photographing weather vanes located in or near the Nutfield area (Londonderry, Derry, Windham and Manchester, New Hampshire).  Today's weather vane was photographed by a reader and permission given to post it as a featured weather vane for my blog.  If you know an interesting or historical weather vane, please send me an email or leave a comment below.

Do you know the location of weather vane #146?  Scroll down to see the answer...

Today's weather vane was spotted by reader Gerry Savard.  It was seen atop the visitor's center at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport, Massachusetts.  I know that Gerry is a birding fanatic, as well as a locally known genealogist.  He was here at Plum Island in Newburyport photographing the snowy owls and other wildlife this winter. Gerry also provided a photo of another weather vane last year, an antique fire engine seen at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.

This weathervane is a three dimentional replica of the symbol for the National Wildlife Refuges.  You may have seen this symbol on signage, maps and brochures.

Plum Island is on the Atlantic flyway, a pathway for migrating birds on the East Coast of the United States and Canada.  It is a fantastic place to spot migrating birds, as well as a beautiful coastal barrier island of dunes and salt marshes.

The Parker River National Wildlife Refuge website http://www.fws.gov/refuge/parker_river/

Click this link to view a historic Parker River visitor guide written by conservationist Rachel Carson in 1947
http://www.fws.gov/uploadedFiles/Region_5/NWRS/North_Zone/Parker_River_Complex/Parker_River/ConservationInAction.pdf 

Click here to see the entire series of Weathervane Wednesday blog posts

----------------------
The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/04/weathervane-wednesday-national-wildlife.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Jane Meserve, 1747, Portsmouth, NH

This tombstone was photographed at the Point of Graves, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Here lyes interred ye

Body of Mrs. JANE

MERSERUE, Wife to Collo.

NATHANIEL MERERUE,

Who Departed this LIfe

June ye 17 Anno Domi 1747

in ye 30th Year of Her Age

Jane Libby is a mystery. She does not appear in the compiled genealogy The Libby Family in America: 1692 - 1881 by Charles Thornton Libby, 1882.

Jane Libby married Nathaniel Meserve on 16 December 1725.  They had ten children.  He was the son of Clement Meserve and Elizabeth Jones.  Nathaniel was a shipwright in Portsmouth, and built the warship HMS America in 1749 for the British Royal Navy.  He served as a Colonel during the first capture of Louisbourg in 1745.  He and his son went on the second attack of Louisburg in 1758, where they both died of smallpox.


--------------------------
The URL for this post is:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/04/tombstone-tuesday-jane-meserve-1747.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

1805 Legal Complaint against my 5th Great Grandmother

To the Honr. Saml. Walton Esq.

Complains Wm. Coffin of Gloucester
that the widow Mary Carter of said
Gloucester holds an Estate belong-
ing to her former husband Levi
Younger formerly of sd. Gloucester, Decd.
that She will neither administer nor ???
the Debts of the sd. Levi Younger
We therefore begs you honor ??  ??
order her to conduct as xxxxxx
you may think proper-  ????
Duty bound wife ever ????

                      Wm Coffin

Glo -  Sept. 2d, 1805

Sept. 2nd 1805
I wrote to Mrs. Carter

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

from the Salem Gazette, March 11, 1806, page 4
"Notice is hereby given that the subscriber has been duly appointed administratix of the estate of Levi Younger of Gloucester, mariner, deceased, and has taken upon herself that by giving bends, as the law directs.  All persons having demands against the said estate, are requested to exhibit them for settlement - and those indebted to make payments to: Mary Carter, Admin'x
Gloucester, Feb. 4th, 1806"

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

Levi Younger and Mary (Wotten) (Younger) Carter, both mentioned in the legal complaint above, are my 5th great grandparents.  Levi was born 7 February 1756 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the son of William Younger and Lucy Foster.  He served in the Revolutionary War as a seaman, and was captured and sent to the prison ship Favorite in New York harbor.  He was later exchanged for a British prisoner and returned to Massachusetts.   He died intestate at some unknown date, and was listed in the Essex County Probate dated 9 October 1806.

Levi married Mary Wotten, daughter of John Wotten and Mary Hall, on 17 July 1784 in Gloucester.  She remarried on 24 October 1801 in Gloucester to John Carter.

Apparently, after the complaint by William Coffin, she served as administratix of Levi's estate and put the notice in the newspaper in March 1806, and the notice of his intestate status was filed in court in October of the same year.  I can see why the complaint was filed.  Apparently Levi died some time before 1801, and William Coffin was probably owed money or services for about five years before all the accounts were finally settled.

UPDATE:  Thanks to Barbara Matthews, reader and fellow genealogist, who reminded me that the Essex County. Massachusetts Probate File Papers 1638 - 1840 are available online at the New England Historic Genealogical Society website (by subscription)- also Middlesex County, Barnstable County, and Worcester County:
 http://www.americanancestors.org/Blogs.aspx?id=29665&blogid=124069

---------------------------------
The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/1805-legal-complaint-against-my-5th.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Surname Saturday ~ WARREN of Naseby, Northampton, England

My great grandmother, Emma Frances (Warren) Roberts
She was born about 1870 in Peterborough, Norhtamptonshire, England
and died 1927 in Lynn, Massachusetts

My great grandfather Obed Thomas Warren was a flour miller in the village of Naseby in Northampton, England.  I have traced him in the census records and in several vital records.  My grandmother, Bertha Louise (Roberts) Wilkinson, told several oral histories about growing up in England, and mentions Obed, her grandfather, several times.

Obed married his wife, Betsey Hannah Stimson, in the nearby city of Peterborough, Northampton.  She was from the village of Walton.  They had seven children, including my great grandmother, Emma Frances, and two sons who went to New Zealand.   Apparently Obed traveled around quite a bit because he had children born in Southorpe, Wimblington, Peterborough, and Mansfield.  He was enumerated in censuses at Naseby, Warrington, Peterborough, Mansfield and Leeds.  In the last two censuses his occupation was listed as “commercial traveler”.

Obed's daughter, Emma Frances Warren, was my great grandmother. She was born in Naseby and married my great grandfather, John Peter Bowden Roberts, in Leeds in 1890.  They came with their children through Ellis Island to Beverly, Massachusetts in 1915.  She never saw England again.

I have an oral history on tape of my grandmother, recorded in the 1970s.  She spoke about visiting cousins in Peterborough when she was little, before leaving England.  These cousins must be children of some of Obed’s children. She also mentions that some Warren uncles who went to New Zealand weren't heard from for years and years until a letter arrived in Massachusetts in the 1920s saying that one of them had died. 

Most of my ancestors came from England in the 1600s, and hearing from my grandmother about how much she missed England, her cousins and family was very bittersweet.  I'm sure that the ancestors who came on the Mayflower, with the Winthrop Fleet, and on other ships to America still felt the same way about their family back home.  We don't often think about this today while we are so accustomed to email, Skype and airplane tickets.
 

My Warren genealogy:

Generation 1: John Warren, born about 1788 at Naseby, Northamptonshire, England; married on 18 May 1817 in Naseby to Elizabeth Adnitt, daughter of John Adnitt and Elizabeth Garrett.  She was baptized on 14 December 1800 in Naseby.

Generation 2: Obed Thomas Warren, born 28 March 1818 in Naseby, died before 1891; married in June 1853 in Peterborough to Betsey Hannah Stimson, daughter of James Stimson and Mary Cooper.  She was baptized on 7 July 1833 in Walton, Northamptonshire.  Seven children.

Generation 3: Emma Frances Warren, born about 1870 in Peterborough, Northamptonshire, died 1927 in Lynn, Massachusetts; married on 24 May 1890 in St. Clement’s church, in the neighborhood of Sheepscar, Leeds, Yorkshire, England to John Peter Bowden Roberts, son of Samuel Roberts and Mary Anne Stott.  He was born in August 1865 in Leeds, died 23 August 1925 in Beverly, Massachusetts.  Four children.

Generation 4: Bertha Louise Roberts m. Donald Munroe Wilkinson (my grandparents)

Generation 5: John Warren Wilkinson (my father) named for his 2nd great grandfather

Click here to read about Emma's in-laws, the ROBERTS family of Leeds:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/04/surname-saturday-warren-of-naseby.html 

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

The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/04/surname-saturday-warren-of-naseby.html

Copyright © 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

200th Anniversary of Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire

Pinkerton Academy was founded in 1814 by Major John Pinkerton and Elder James Pinkerton, who had previously been financial supporters of the classical high school in eastern Londonderry, New Hampshire (now Derry, New Hampshire).   The new academy opened on December 4, 1815 with the Pinkerton's contribution of $16,000.    This new school accepted both girls and boys. Later, when the Adams Female Seminary opened in 1821, Pinkerton stopped accepting girls.

In 1881 the academy received another financial contribution from John Morrison Pinkerton, the son of Elder James. The school was expanded with new buildings and a library. 

Pinkerton Academy was an independent school until 1948 when it entered into a new agreement with the town of Derry to educate all the high school students.  The town paid tuition and the academy remained a private school. Over the years students from Chester, Hampstead, Auburn, Londonderry and Windham all went to Pinkerton Academy under the same agreement.  Over time, Londonderry and Windham eventually built their own public high schools and withdrew from the Pinkerton agreement.  

The campus of Pinkerton Academy is 170 acres with 23 buildings.  Their mascot is "Astroman" in memory of astronaut Alan Shepard, who was born in Derry and attended Pinkerton Academy (class of 1940).  Other famous alumni are Samuel Colcord Bartlett, president of Dartmouth College; Samantha Brown, TV host on the Travel Channel; and Tricia Dunn-Luoma, Olympic ice hockey player. The poet Robert Frost was a teacher at Pinkerton Academy 1906 - 1911.

Old postcard of Pinkerton Academy

This year the academy is celebrating it's bicentennial year with special events for students, alumni and the community.  Click here for a calendar of bicentennial events:
http://www.pinkertonacademy.net/announcements/200th%20Calendar%20of%20Events_112113.pdf 

Pinkerton Academy 200th Anniversary Store online website:
http://pinkerton.geigerstore.com/staging/store.html?cid=10112&pcid=10112&vid=20130729001

The Pinkerton Academy website http://www.pinkertonacademy.net/  You can take a virtual tour of the campus from the link on the home page.

A previous blog post about the Adams Female Seminary in East Derry:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/03/adams-female-academy-1824-derry-new.html

------------------
The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/04/200th-anniversary-of-pinkerton-academy.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Weathervane Wednesday ~ The Lion Killer

Every Wednesday for more than two and a half years Vincent and I have been posting photographs of weather vanes located in or near the Nutfield area (the former name for the land where Londonderry, Derry and Windham, New Hampshire are now located). Most are historically interesting or just whimsical and fun weather vanes. If you know an interesting weather vane, please send me an email or leave a comment below.

Today's weather vane was found over the border in Vermont. Have fun guessing where you may have seen this weather vane.

Do you know the location of weather vane #145? Scroll down to see the answer....

Click to enlarge, it's easier to read!

Today's weather vane was photographed at the Stage Coach Gallery at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. There are many weather vanes that portray Indians, but this one also shows an unusual Indian legend.  It is a two dimensional weather vane cut from sheet metal.  I spent a long time Googling and searching for information on this Indian legend online, but never found it.  If anyone knows the story, please pass it on to me via email vrojomit@gmail.com or in the comment section below!

Click here to see the entire collection of Weathervane Wednesday posts!

The Shelburne Museum - www.shelburnemuseum.org 

Silhouettes in the Sky: The Art of the Weathervane, by Jean M. Burks, The Shelburne Museum, 2006 [available at the main gift shop at the Shelburne Museum - this is the only book on their collection of weather vanes]

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

The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/04/weathervane-wednesday-lion-killer.html

Copyright 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Eliza (White) Treadwell, d. 1801, Ipswich, Massachusetts

This tombstone was photographed at the Old North Burial Ground, Ipswich, Massachusetts

In memory of

Eliza

wife of Jacob Treadwell

and

daughter of John White deac.

who departed this Life

Aug. 20, 1801

Aged 47.

Elizabeth White was born about 1755 and died 20 August 1801 in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  She was the daughter of Deacon John White.  On 2 October 1782 she married Jacob Treadwell, my first cousin 7 generations removed.  Jacob was baptized on 27 October 1734 in Ipswich, and died there on 3 December 1814.  He was previously married to Martha Rogers by whom he had no children.  Jacob had at least four children by Eliza.

--------------------
The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/04/tombstone-tuesday-eliza-white-treadwell.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo