Samuel Granger 1701-1739

Happy Birthday great times 6 grandfather!

BIRTH 12 APRIL 1701 • Andover, Essex, Massachusetts Colony 

DEATH 27 SEPT 1739 • Andover, Essex, Massachusetts Colony 

A modern warf with fishing boats

Samuel was the youngest of eight children of Captain John Granger and his wife, Martha Poor Granger.   The eldest sister had died before he was born, so he never knew her.  Several brothers never married, but most of his siblings married while he was a child.  His mother and a brother died when he was 22, and his father died when he was 23.

He didn't marry until he was 27, to Martha Marston Granger (1694-1753 or 1759). They had 6 children,  only one of whom (Martha II, the oldest) was a girl and who died at 16 years. The others all lived to be adults, but they didn't all marry.  My ancestor was Jacob Granger (1735-1895).

Samuel may have also been on ships, like his father and probably his brothers.  He didn't live a very long life, and his wife who was actually 7 years his senior, lived 14 years as a widow after he died. All his children were still alive when he died in 1739...the youngest just 2 years old.  My ancestor, Jacob, was just 4 years old.  Mother Martha's parents were gone by 1739 as well as her siblings except one brother who died the year after Mother Martha...1754.  I am just trying to guess who helped these children with their widowed mother.  Her oldest daughter Martha II, was still a young girl of  9, so she could only do so much to help with the other 5 chidren.

I probably will never know who helped with raising these children.  Perhaps there were a lot of people in the community who didn't live very long lives.  And we must remember these communities were founded around a church.

So I just googled (actually using Duck Duck Go) churches in Andover MA, and found another blogger from that area, so someone else to follow who knows genealogy! Not to mention the 1645 parish church is now The North Parish Unitarian Universalist Church!  I love these things (being a UU personally).  So here's some pics from Barbara Poole.

 Founded 1645 in Andover, MA

And somewhere in my ancestry, there's mention of how some people living in south Andover wanted a church closer to their homes, and thus formed the South Parish Church in 1711.

South Parish Church, Andover, MA

Happy anniversary of birth to...

Sarah Farnam Granger, Feb. 15, 1732.  She was my 5 times great grandmother.
Sarah had 10 siblings growing up in the Farnam (Farnham) household in Andover, Massachusetts.

Her great great grandfather, Ralph Farnham II, had come to the American colonies in the 1630's and was one of the founding fathers of Andover.

Sarah married at age 24 to Jacob Granger. His great grandfather, Capt. John Granger, a seaman, had moved from Connecticut to Andover MA.  The seaman was the son of an immigrant to Connecticut from England, Lancelot Granger.

Jacob Granger (1735-1797) himself would go on to fight in the American Revolutionary War.  Unfortunately I don't know what kind of work he engaged in. I briefly shared about him HERE.

The Grangers had 8 children, one of whom I know died in his 4th year.  Another has no known date of death, but there are 15 hints (over on Ancestry) which I'll now wade through to make certain they are talking about the Jacob Granger born Feb. 9 1759.  There was one Jacob Granger who lived in Connecticut, and one who died in New York.  I can't see exact connections between this one and either of those, so haven't added their details to my tree.

The other Granger children all lived to adulthood, and their son, Joseph became a blacksmith, and my 4x great grandfather.

I've written about Joseph Granger, before HERE.

 Sarah Granger's marker

Sarah died May 3, 1806 and is buried in the Old North Parish Burying Ground in Andover, MA, next to her husband Jacob.  He is definitely honored as a Revolutionary War participant.

A note about the 69 years between birth of myself and the woman I was named after, Eugenia Booth Miller.  That's why I named my blog "When I was 69", though I was really 69 at the time.  Then I looked for an ancestor who had been born 69 years before Eugenia.  And then I did it again. And Jacob Granger came to my attention.  It was a fun trivial thing to look at.  There are certainly a lot more serious things happening in life these days.

Editor's note: If you happened to read this before 12:00 on Saturday 2.16.19, I had the wrong dates for Jacob Granger's life.  Somehow I'd used his son's or grandson's dates.  Now they are correct.

Who was his wife? Martha who married John Marston.

I've been sharing about the Marston family from early settlement in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

We had Martha Marston who married Samuel Granger, my 6th great grandparents (posted about HERE)

Martha's father Jacob Marston was also mentioned, as having moved from New Hampshire to Massachusetts.

His father was John Marston (1630-1708) who had been born in Ormsby, Norfolk, England on June 20.  His wife was named Martha, but different records give her different maiden names, so at this date I'm not sure who her family of origin were.

He arrived from England in Massachusetts in 1641. At this point the birth date from various marriage records might not be accurate either, especially since one marriage record says he was born in 1625. That would make his sailing date a bit more realistic, than being just 11 years old. (Record of Arrival: U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, Source Pub. code 6435.60, page 18, Source bibliography, Paige, Lucius R, List of Freemen of Massachusetts, 1630-1691. Baltimore: Clearfield Co, 202.)

There are 3 records of John Marston's marriage on Jan. 15, 1652 to Martha (?Fulton/Moulton/Fuller).

According to US and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900, published in 2004, (source number 1069.000, Submitter Code: SAK) John Marston (b. 1630) married Martha Moulton (b. 1652). Since he and Martha, his wife, started having children in 1653, it's unlikely that her being 1 year old would have made that possible!

But there are more than one John Marston who married in that same source...about 11 of them.  Another one has a John Marston, born in 1625, who married Martha Fuller in 1652, in New Hampshire.  It sounds pretty likely to me to be the couple who are my ancestors. (Source number 3367.000, submitter Code:GRG)

But back to that first source (New England Marriages Prior to 1700) and that list (very similar, many John Marstons) has him born in 1630, married 15 Jan. 1652 to Martha Marston, on the index, but the actual citation says "?Moulton/Fulton" and also says her death date was 1723, ae 87.

Yep, there's no knowing at this point for sure, who her parents were, Moulton, Fulton or Fuller.  So she's an end of the line for now.  I could put one set of parents into my tree and see what comes up, but I won't leave them there to muddy the waters which are already sluggish.

I just checked on John Marston on Ancestry, and found parents for him, which hadn't appeared on my tree until tonight when I was playing with "hints" (which all kinds of people have attached to their place on my trees.)  So now I've got William and Sarah Goody Marston as his parents, and he has siblings who also were born in England and died in Rockingham County NH, which is a good link for me.  He probably arrived in America with family members.  Now I can start looking at the sources given for his brothers (and maybe sisters.)

So I think this deserves another post, don't you?

The Marstons, Martha Marston Granger's family

Earlier I posted (Here) about Samuel Granger. His wife was Martha Marston Granger, b. 23 Jan 1694, d. 19 or 9 Mar 1753...she lived all her life in Andover, Essex County, MA, (which I gave some history about on Samuel's post)

The old Abbot homestead, built in the 1600s and pictured here in the 19th century, was still standing in 2016.  

She was the 4th of 7 children born to her parents, Jacob Marston (1658-1727) and Elizabeth Poor Marston 1662-1700).

In 1700, the year her youngest brother was born and died in 3 days, her mother also died, though there's no specific date of her death,. That meant Martha was 6 years old, and her oldest sister was 13, with a 4 year old brother and 2 year old sister, and perhaps 9 year old twins as well.  But there were many aunts and uncles around, both in her mother's and her father's families, so I'm sure someone helped with the children's care.

Great Boar's Head, Hampton NH 1920

Though Martha's mother was born (and died) in Andover, MA, her father, Jacob Marston (1658-1727) had been born in Hampton, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, which is not far north along the Atlantic from the northernmost coast of Essex County MA (see below) .  The marriage of her parents has been listed as both in Andover MA and Hampton, New Hampshire.  It's possible that they may have had 2 ceremonies, to satisfy her strict church dictates in Andover MA. Or it's possible that the records just reflect the documentation for that particular church. But remember, Massachusetts was the colony name.

Jacob Marston (1658-1727) born in...

Hampton (Rockingham County) New Hampshire  

First called the "Plantation of Winnacunnet", Hampton was one of four original New Hampshire townships chartered by the General Court of Massachusetts, which then held authority over the colony. 

In March 1635, Richard Dummer and John Spencer of the Byfield section of Newbury, came round in their shallop, coming ashore at the landing, and were much impressed by the location. Dummer, who was a member of the General Court, got that body to lay its claim to the section and plan a plantation here. The Massachusetts General Court of March 3, 1636, ordered that Dummer and Spencer be given power to "To presse men to build there a Bound house."^[3]

The town was settled in 1638 by a group of parishioners led by Oxford University graduate Reverend Stephen Bachiler, who had formerly preached at the settlement's namesake: Hampton, England.^[4] The town, incorporated in 1639, once included Seabrook, Kensington, Danville, Kingston, East Kingston, Sandown, North Hampton and Hampton Falls. On the 18th of September 1679, the Acts of Privy Council records that Stephen Bachiler's son-in-law, "Christopher Hussey of Hampton, Esquire", was appointed by King Charles II to "govern the provence of New Hampshire" as a member of the newly established council of seven men.

Source: Wikipedia:
footnotes:

1.  Sawyer, Roland D. (August 31, 1950). "The Pre-Bachiler Days of the White Men at Hampton. Some Account of the History of Earlier Hampton and its Daughter and Neighbor Towns. Hampton Union. Retrieved December 18,2009.
2. Jump up ^ Boyd, M. "Stephen Bachiler". © 2004 by Michelle Boyd, All rights reserved. Retrieved 7 November 2017.

Now I've checked the Historic Society of Hampton NH and even found a 1882 book History of Rockingham New Hampshire, here's the link.  So I looked through it to see if it told me more about the Marstons, but unfortunately it did little except say that they were early settlers there.  It focuses on lists of people mainly in the 19th century. But it's a great resource for that!

Marshes of Hampton, Rockingham County NH 1905

New Hampshire only has about 17 miles of coast along the Atlantic, and Hampton is one of the towns on that shore. John Marston moved from Hampton NH to Andover, MA, which is about 25-30 miles away by land, but it's more likely that a water journey would have been the easiest way to travel in the 17th century.

Hampton NH beach 1910

Hannah Aslett Brown 1644–1721

Hannah Aslett Browne
1644–1721
Birth 21 DEC 1644 • Andover, Essex, Massachusetts, USA
Death 1721 • Ipswich, Essex, Mass

wife of Joseph Browne Sr. (1638-1694)

mother of Benjamin Brown

5th great grandmother of Ada P Swasey Rogers, thus my 7th great grandmother

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Contributed to Ancestry by "Oldsinger":

Settlement of estate of Joseph Brown "Our honored father Joseph Browne, being Dyed these many years since intestate we, all the children of said Joseph Brown, named Joseph, John, Thomas, Samuel, Benjamin, Hannah, Elizabeth, Sarah" etc. Date 1723. 

"Inventory of the estate of Joseph Brown, who died September 30, 1694. House and homestead L100, 18 acres of village and meadow L95, one horse and tackling L4-12, four head of cattle L9, 36 sheep and lambs L12-12, three guns and one sword L4-8, 10,000 of brick L4-10, sheep and wool, flax and bedding L15-10, books, table linen and one pillion, L2-10, pewter brass L4-10, total L275-5: debts due L20-13, debts due in money L52-3. Hannah Browne, administrator made oath to the above as a true and perfect inventory of the estate of her late husband Joseph Browne, deceased, January 2, 1695." (Essex County Record)

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So the children gathered in 1723 to acknowledge the inventory that Mrs. Hannah Browne had made back in Jan, 1685...following the Sept. 30, 1694 death of her husband.

At least that is what is given here, and I do like having names of the children.  It is however, not a primary source.

There are 3 sources of the marriage of Joseph to Hannah Aslett, though one said "Hannah/Anna? (called Abigail in 1684, error) Asselbie/Aslett?; 27 February 1671, Ipswich"

I quickly figured out the error of her death date which was given for the widow of "farmer John Browne" in a couple of trees.  

I won't even begin to count how many children were born to each of my relations in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  There are many listed, and records of marriages but people's names were spelled many ways. As were the parents' names.  It really can give one a headache!

But I did enjoy spending an afternoon learning a lot about one family, these Browns. 

Many of my ancestors lived in Ipswich MA.  Unfortunately the dates and names were written in beautiful and most of the time legible script.  But sometimes the transcriptions weren't that accurate, or legible.  And there were the problems of different cousins with similar names being married into the families of others with similar names.  Brown could easily be one of those names, but it turns out Aslett is more difficult, sometimes being considered Aslebee, and Ayer could have been Eyer, or Ayre, or Ayers. 

Hannah's parents were Rebecca Ayer and John Aslett. Both of them were born in England, but Hannah was a first generation daughter born in America.

There were no colonists in Ipswich until after 1635 or so. (See Wikepedia HERE.) That is why it's doubtful how many people on this ancestry tree are listed as having been born in Ipswich.  A 1600 birth just couldn't have been there, unless it was a Native American. And none of these ancestors who were Native Americans according to the records.  They were immigrants at one time or another.

So the fact that Hannah's father is said to have died in England, but her mother and Hannah herself died in Ipswich, makes me scratch my head.

But Hannah married a man who was also born in Ipswich, Joseph Browne, Sr. whose parents were immigrants from England. Their son Benjamin was to become my ancestor.

There were 8 children of Hannah and Joseph Browne mentioned in the will above.  In my Ancestry trees, Benjamin was listed as either born in 1669 or 1680 or 1681 or 1683.  I find that just because one source says one date, and another has another date, I can't use them all in my tree.  The poor little program can't list him as having been born unless I just choose one, and the others can remain in the background as alternate dates of birth.  So I chose 1681, because it is in the midst of the other children born between 1672 and 1684.  One child has no dates given at all.

Joseph Browne Sr. is listed as a Turner,( in Genealogical and personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Vol III,) which means someone who turns wood or metal on a lathe...in case you didn't know like me.


The children of Joseph and Hannah Aslet Brown were:
Joseph Brown, a cordwainer 1672-1742
John Brown, a yeoman and turner, 1673-1758
Hannah Brown Pinder 1674-1740
Thomas Brown 1678-1767
Elizabeth Brown Holland 1680-1739
Benjamin Brown, yeoman and miller, 1681-1733
Lt. Samuel Brown, house carpenter, 1684-1763
Sarah Brown Rindge, 1692 - ?

These are dates available on Ancestry, but often may be within 5-10 years of actual events.

Hopestill Tyler 1646–1734

Hopestill Tyler

1646–1734

Birth 28 JAN 1646 • Andover, Essex, Massachusetts Colony

Death 20 JAN 1734 • Preston City, New London, Conn

Hopestill was one of twins born to Job Tyler (his life in this blog HERE) and Mary Horton Tyler, (She's in this blog here) but his twin, John, didn't live through his birth.  Hopestill was thus the second son born in the family in which 6 of the 9 born lived to adulthood )

His father, Job Tyler (1617-1700) apprenticed him to Thomas Chandler and father Job decided for some reason to back out of the agreement.  He even stole the document of the apprenticeship from the home of Nathan Parker where it was being kept.  And this dispute was in various courts over a 10 year period, with the conclusion that, due to Job Tyler being poor, he would need to pay "not more than six pounds", and write an apology to be posted in both Andover and Roxbury, to be legible, and to remain up for 14 days, starting Jan 25, 1665.  The confession is transcribed in the source document North America, Family Histories 1500-2000, p 7. It is amusing in that he continues to slander Thomas Chandler by repeating his derogatory comments about him, while asking his forgiveness.

Hopestill married by 1667 when he was 20 or 21 years old.  Since the court case was finally adjudicated in 1665, he could have completed an apprenticeship easily in that time, and started his own business. (NOTE: SEE BELOW!)

He married Mary Lovett, who's father Daniel Lovett performed the ceremony.  The Hopestill Tylers had 10 children, of which at least the last birth was twins.  They lived either in Mendon, Roxbury or Andover, MA at different times.

However, this family was caught up in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, with his wife, Mary and three of their daughters being accused of witchcraft. 

I will dedicate a separate post to Mary Lovett Tyler.  But Hopestill and his whole family moved away from Andover MA to Preston, CT as a result of the hysteria and defamation of his family. He sold his Andover property in 1697.  (Source: Pequot Plantation: The Story of an Early Colonial Settlement, Richard A. Radune)

In 1698 Hopestill joined the church in Preston, CT, and a year later his wife did. 

His headstone once said something, but the Preston City Cemetery record only says:

Hopestill Tyler, died Oct. 7, 1762, age 78 (SEE BELOW FOR ANOTHER LISTING)

Preston Cemetery, CT

I just found a great description of Hopestill's life at the Find a Grave site...and I'll include it here to answer some of my questions.  More of it is also saved for other family member's histories.

Third of eight children, third son and twin of fourth son of Job Tyler (1619-1700) and Mary Horton (1619-1700). Husband of Mary Lovett married 28 Jan 1668 in Menden, Worcester, MA.  Father of: * Mary Tyler 1669-1733 * Daniel Tyler Sr. 1673-1734 * Martha Tyler 1676-1741 * John Tyler 1677-1754 * Hannah b abt 1679 * Johannah/Joanna Tyler 1681-1717 * James Tyler b 1683 * Hopestill Tyler Jr. 1685-1762 * Abigail Tyler 1687-1771 * Mehitable Tyler 1687-1771 Hopestill would move from Andover to Roxbury when driven away from their forest home by Indians, yet returned within a few years with their eight children and returned to the business of black smithing. In 1692, Mary and her daughter, Joanna were among the women accused of witchcraft and confessed after torture, were arrested in August, January 13, 1693 were released for one hundred pounds guarantee, found guilty and finally released in February. Several Tyler men of Andover did their fair share of accusations as well. After all was said and done, Hopestill sold all their belongings and moved to Preston, CT where they lived until he died. Found and shared by Findagrave volunteer Richard Chichester: Hopestill Tyler was the village blacksmith and resided in the forest a mile east of the church. A part of the dwelling-house erected by him, including the stone chimney, still remains, the rest of the building having been burned and rebuilt. He was the son of Job and Mary Tyler of Andover, Mass., where he was born in 1645. The father, according to tradition, was from Shropshire, England, and first appears in Andover about 1640. Hopestill Tyler was made a freeman in Mendon, Mass., in 1673, was driven by the Indians to Roxbury, and at length returned to Andover. An old record says that he was apprenticed a blacksmith, and in 1687 his native town "granted him liberty to set up a shop in ye street near his house." Soon after this the witchcraft persecution began, and Mrs. Tyler and two daughters were imprisoned at Salem. They were acquitted, however, in 1693. Perhaps, in part, because of this persecution, in 1697 he sold his land and removed to Preston. The value of the smith's craft to the community in the early days is illustrated by the vote of Preston [Andover more likely] in 1693, offering fifty acres of land to a smith who should settle there, upon certain conditions, one of which was that "he doe ingage to supply the town with smith work five yere." That Mr. Tyler availed himself of this offer, when he removed to Preston four years later, does not clearly appear. He survived his wife, who died March 3, 1732, and died at Preston Jan. 20, 1733. Both were interred in the public cemetery at Preston City. ~The Bi-centennial Celebration: First Congregational Church of Preston, Connecticut, 1698-1898. Together with Statistics of the Church Taken from the Church Records; Conn Preston First Congregational Church; Richard H. Gidman; The Society, 1900. Family links:  Parents:   Job Tyler (1619 - 1700)   Mary Horton Tyler (1619 - 1700)  Spouse:   Mary Lovett Tyler (1653 - 1732)*  Children:   Mary Tyler Farnum (1669 - ____)*   Martha Tyler Geer (1676 - 1741)*   James Tyler (1683 - 1754)*   Hopestill Tyler (1685 - 1762)*   Abigail Tyler Fitch (1687 - 1771)*  Siblings:   Moses Tyler (1641 - 1727)*   Hopestill Tyler (1646 - 1734)   Samuel Tyler (1655 - 1695)*   John Tyler (1659 - 1742)* *Calculated relationship Inscription: 'In memory of Mr. Hopstill Tyler who dyed January ye 20th 1734 in the 89th year of his age.'
Burial: Preston City Cemetery Preston New London County Connecticut, USA Plot:
Maintained by: Anne Shurtleff Stevens Originally Created by: LindaCh5 Record added: Mar 10, 2007 Find A Grave Memorial# 18323382

Hopestill Tyler is my 8th great grandfather on the Swasey Family tree.

Today's Quote:

The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to help the world; I am like a snowball -- the further I am rolled the more I gain. Susan B. Anthony