52 Ancestors 2020 – 21 – Tombstone– Elizabeth (Jewett) Haseltine

Tombstone of Elizabeth (Jewett) Haseltine

Courtesy of Jack Parker, Find A Grave

Elizabeth (Jewett) Haseltine was my 8^th great-grandaunt, a older sister to my 8^th great-grandfather, Joseph Jewett. They were children of Maximilian and Ann Jewett who came to Rowley in 1639, after immigrating from England the year before. Rowley is now located in Essex County, Massachusetts. Elizabeth was born there 22 May 1650.

Elizabeth's mother died in 1667, while Elizabeth was still a teenager. The 2 oldest siblings were already married and her next sister Mary was married to David Haseltine the next year, 1668. It would be reasonable to believe that Elizabeth now had the responsibility to help care for her 5 younger siblings including Joseph. Her father remarried in 1671 to Ellen, the widow of John Boynton, so this may have lessened Elizabeth's duties around their home.

In the next year, 1672, a part of Rowley was incorporated as the town of Bradford. It was in Bradford where Elizabeth was married, at age 30, on 21 Jul 1680 to her brother-in-law Robert Haseltine, the younger brother of Mary's husband David. Robert was born in 1657, so was somewhat younger than Elizabeth.

Elizabeth and Robert had 4 children within the next 10 years, all born in Bradford: Hannah, Elizabeth, Maximilian and Dawson. They all lived to adulthood and were married. From the dates recorded it appears that Elizabeth could have attended the marriages of her two daughters in 1700 and 1706.

Elizabeth's death occurred 22 Nov 1708 and she was buried at the “Ancient Burying Ground” in Bradford. Since this happened over 300 years ago, I found it interesting that her tombstone has been photographed and it is shown on the Find A Grave website.

The inscription on her grave marker reads: “Here Lyes y Body of ElizaBeth Haseltine Who Died November y 22 1708 Aged 59 years.”

Ancestor Unbirthday - bef Oct 4 - Maximilian Jewett 1607-1684

Maximilian Jewett, one of my earliest known ancestors, was my 9th gt-grandfather. He was baptized on 4 Oct 1607 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England.

He was the son of Edward Jewett and had at least 2 brothers and a sister. He married Ann in England and they, along with his brother Joseph, came to the New World in 1638 on the ship John with a group led by Rev. Ezekiel Rogers. It was late in the year when they arrived at Boston and spent the winter in Salem and then in the spring of 1639 they helped found the town of Rowley in the colony of Massachusetts.

A book by Frederic Clarke Jewett, History and Genealogy of the Jewetts of America....was published in 1908. The section about Maximilian was 7 pages long. It described the many pieces of property that were granted to him and noted that he was representative to the General Court for 21 different years between 1641 and 1676. His occupation was that of a clothier.

He and his wife Ann had 9 children all born in Rowley. Ann died in 1667 and Maximilian married for a 2nd time in 1671 to a widow Elinor (Pell) Boynton. The book quoted his will written in 1682 and it takes over 2 printed pages. He died 19 Oct 1684 at Rowley.

Ancestor Birthday - June 1st - Rebecca Law 1655-1729

Inscription on her gravemarker at Rowley Burial Ground

HERE LIES Ye BODY
OF MRs REBEKAH JEWET
ye WIFE OF MR
JOSEPH JEWET WHO
DIED DECEMBER Ye 26th
1729 IN Ye 74th
YEAR OF HER AGE

Yesterday (31 May 2017) I wrote about my 8th great-grandfather Joseph Jewett. I did state that he had married Rebecca Law on 2 Mar 1676/77. Since Rebecca was born 1 Jun 1655 she would have been 21 years old when she married him. Rebecca was born in Rowley, Massachusetts, so lived in the same town as Joseph.

Her parents were William and Mary (Cheney) Law. She was their 4th child. They had named their oldest child, born in 1646, Rebecca. That Rebecca and the 2nd child John both died in 1652. The 3rd child, Mary, born in 1650, died in 1653. When their 5th child was born in 1657, they named her Mary. They named their 6th child John (they kept on trying) but he died at a year old. When the 7th child was born in 1662, she was named Priscilla. Apparently some time before 2 May 1666 Rebecca's mother died, because William remarried then to Faith, the widow of John Smith. So the 3 surviving daughters, ages almost 11, 8 and 3, now had a step-mother. In the will of Rebecca's grandfather, John Cheney, written 5 Jun 1666 he gave a bequest to William Lawes 3 daughters: Rebecca, Mary and Priscilla. Each were to receive 40 shillings.

Rebecca had 1 half-brother, Aquila, born in July 1667, but he died before his 2nd birthday. Both Rebecca and Mary lived to be married. I have not found information for Priscilla.

Rebecca and Joseph had 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls, and all lived to be married, before Rebecca died 26 Dec 1729. The church record wrote about her death: "who lay long in a sad disconsolate condition, but was (we hope) lifted into joy."

Ancestor Unbirthday - About 1655 - Joseph Jewett

I have decided to occasionally write about ancestors where I don't have an exact birthdate. Today I want to feature one of my 8th great-grandfathers, Joseph Jewett. Tomorrow (1 Jun 2017) is his wife's birthday so I plan to write about her then.

Much of the information I have about Joseph Jewett comes from the book, Early Settlers of Rowley Massachusetts, by George Brainard Blodgette and Amos Everett Jewett which was published by Picton Press in Camden, Maine in 1997, a third printing of the book originally published in 1933. It is a book I enjoy looking through as I had ancestors living there for almost a hundred years, and relatives for many years after that. Of course there is also a section about Joseph in the Jewett Genealogy, Volume 1, pages 24-27, copyright 1908. Now that I have downloaded to my computer a copy of that book, which would now be in the public domain, I can easily check its contents also.

So I did that. To my surprise I find that Frederick Clarke Jewett, who wrote the genealogy has assigned a birthdate to Joseph. He states that Joseph was born 1 Feb 1654. However in checking the published birth records for Rowley, I find a Joseph born 1 Feb 1656, the son of Joseph and Ann. The month and day are the same, but the year is different and my Joseph was not the son of Joseph and Ann, but he was the son of Maximilian and Ann. Maximilian and the older Joseph were the immigrants, sons of Edward and Mary (Taylor) Jewett of Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The published Rowley records do not include a birth record for Joseph, the son of Maximilian, so I will leave his birthdate as about 1655.

Both publications call my Joseph, Ensign Joseph Jewett. It is recorded that he was a soldier in King Philip's War 1675-6 and received a small pension and a land grant. This War is not well known as it was a hundred years before the American Revolution. History Bits calls it "the most devastating war in American history as measured by deaths in proportion to the population of the combatants." The English settlers and allies from the Mohegan Indians battled against the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc and other native people. After many deaths and devastation, the English had control of New England.

Apparently after the War, on 2 Mar 1676/77 Joseph married Rebecca Law. Joseph and Rebecca had 4 children who all lived to adulthood and were married and had children. Joseph became a widower when his wife died in Dec 1729. Joseph remarried in Bradford, a neighboring town, 20 Jan 1731/32 to Mary who was the widow of Nathaniel Gage and before that the widow of Thomas Green. They were married over 3 years before Joseph died 29 Oct 1735. His grandson, the Rev. Jedidiah Jewett noted that he died "in the 81 year of his age."

Ancestor Birthday - April 1st - Benjamin Jewett 1703 - abt 1766

It was February 25th when I wrote about Dorothy Rogers, who was the wife of Benjamin Jewett. They are my 6th great-grandparents. Again neither of them have much information on their person pages on my website.

Benjamin was born 1 Apr 1703 to Jonathan and Mary (Wicom) Jewett. It is quite interesting to check his birth records on Ancestry.com, since there are six entries, all a little different. It appears that his birth was recorded twice in the original records. This is one of them.

Here is the other.

But there are also two handwritten ones, which are probably transcriptions done in 1884. Again there are two since there are two in the originals.

In 1928 a printed version of the Rowley Vital Records was published. Benjamin's birth is also in that book.

The sixth entry is more mysterious. It is marked on the title as Georgetown Paupers' Records, with Births, Marriages, and Deaths. I looked up Georgetown Massachusetts and discovered that it was formed in 1838 from Rowley, so in the 1700s it would have been Rowley. Also looking at the images themselves the beginning of them says: Register of Births in the Town of Rowley.

They are arranged alphabetically and there are a number of pages for the Jewetts and goes from the 1600s up into the 1800s. And Benjamin is in there born 1 Apr 1703 as a son of Jona and Mary. In the middle of that record are marriages and then at the end there do seem to be records of paupers. The title is misleading, at least for Benjamin's record of birth.

On to his adult life. Benjamin Jewett and Dorothy Rogers were married in Rowley 18 Jan 1724/25. After the birth of one child it is believed they moved to Stratham, New Hampshire. My 5th great-grandfather John Jewett was born in New Hampshire about 1730. The family history compiled by George Anson Jewett published in 1914, states that Benjamin was a tanner but became a "large land proprietor in New Hampshire," with a number of land transactions. He died in Stratham probably in 1766.

Ancestor Birthday - Jonathan Jewett - 11 March 1678/79-1745

One of my Jewett ancestors was my 7th great-grandfather, Jonathan Jewett, who was born in Rowley, Massachusetts 11 Mar 1678/79. He was the oldest of four children to parents Joseph and Rebecca (Law) Jewett.

Jonathan probably knew his grandfather, Maximilian Jewett, who had emigrated from Bradford, England, in 1638. Maximilian died in October 1684 and Jonathan would have been about 5½ years old when his grandfather died. Maximilian's will left the homestead to Joseph, Jonathan's father. I wonder if the family including Jonathan ever lived there.

It was 24 Jan 1699/1700 when Jonathan married Mary Wicom. They had 9 children, who all lived to adulthood and married. Jonathan became a widower 21 Jan 1741/42 when Mary died while visiting in Exeter, New Hampshire. They lacked 3 days of being married 42 years.

It was a little less than a year later, 27 Dec 1742, when Jonathan, at age 63, remarried to a widow, Rebecca (Hale) Poore, from the neighboring town of Newbury. He lived about 2½ years more before he died 26 Jul 1745.

Ancestor Birthday ­ February 20th - Robert Rogers 1682-1723

It seems I may be posting this ancestor on the wrong day because my calendar shows February 28th, but in reviewing his information it appears the correct date should be February 20th, so I am a few days late, but still in the correct month.

Robert was my 7th great-grandfather, born 20 Feb 1682/83 in Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts. He was the son of John and Dinah (Chiske) Rogers. There are records in Ipswich that his father John was an innkeeper in 1693 with the tavern "The Black Horse."

There is quite a long article about Robert on the Find a Grave website. Although they have not found a gravestone for him, they have placed his information in the Rowley Burial Ground section.

Robert's father John and his uncle Thomas Rogers were "saddlers" and Robert followed that same occupation, making saddles and other equipment for horses. He continued in that occupation when he moved to Rowley.

After he had been married for a few years, apparently Robert served as a trooper during Queen Anne's War and was wounded at Dunstable 3 Jul 1706. After a couple of weeks of treatment he returned to Rowley.

The author at Find a Grave believes that Robert had three wives. I did find three marriages for a Robert Rogers in the Rowley marriage records: to Dorothy Smith (my ancestor) 4 Feb 1702/03, then after her death 17 Aug 1718, he married widow Sarah (Jewett) Prime 7 Oct 1718. The Rowley death record shows the death of a Sarah Rogers, wife of John, died 20 Nov 1722, but on Find a Grave that death date is given for Robert's wife Sarah. Early Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts also shows that date for Robert's wife Sarah. Rowley records shows Robert Rogers married widow Lydia (Leaver) Thurston 11 Mar 1722/23. That marriage was very short as he died 18 Apr 1723.

Robert had five children with Dorothy, including my ancestor Dorothy that I wrote about yesterday (25 Feb 2017), and two children with Sarah. I wonder about who was caring for the young children as the first two wives died, then Robert himself. Did Lydia care for them along with her two children from her first marriage? She married 23 Nov 1725 to Stephen Jewett, her third husband. It is interesting to consider how families may have coped with the deaths of one or both parents in a family.

Ancestor Birthday ­ February 25th - Dorothy Rogers 1703/04 - ??

from Rowley Massachusetts birth records

Dorothy (Rogers) Jewett was my 6th great-grandmother. She was born 25 Feb 1703/04 in Rowley, Essex County, Massachusetts to Robert and Dorothy (Smith) Rogers. She married Benjamin Jewett 18 Jan 1724/25 in Rowley. She had one child, Mary, in Rowley. Then it appears that the family moved north about 1727 into New Hampshire to the town of Stratham . A family history, Hunting an Ancestor by George Anson Jewett written in 1914, states she had three more children there, Benjamin, John and Jedediah and maybe more. Some on-line trees do list more children.

Evidently she received an inheritance from the death of her father in 1730 since Benjamin signed a receipt for 19 pounds 8 + 4d as his wife's share in Robert Roger's estate.

I find this time period difficult to research. I haven't yet found a good source for her date of death.

posted 25 Feb 2017

Ancestor Birthday - January 18th - Mary Wicom 1679/80–1741/42

Although I'm posting a blog about Mary today, January 18th probably isn't her birthday, but it was the date of her baptism or christening in 1679/80. Her birthday most likely was within the week before January 18th. I found that 6 of her 9 children have both birth and baptism dates recorded and all the dates are less than a week apart.

In genealogical classes we are taught to research women in the past by looking at the men in their lives: father, husband, brother, or son. Mary is mentioned in the book, Early Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts by George Brainard Blodgette and Amos Everett Jewett on page 172 in the entry for her husband, Jonathan Jewett, who she married 24 Jan 1679/1700. She is also mentioned as a child of her parents, John Wicom and Abigail Kimball, on page 409. Her children are named as a part of Jonathan's entry on page 173.

Going back 300 years to 1717, we could find Mary alive, living on Bradford Street in Rowley with her husband Jonathan, who was a tanner.  By 1717, 7 of her 9 children had been born. Before her death on 21 Jan 1741/42, the 9 children had been born, all living to adulthood and 8 were already married. One son, Jedidiah, had graduated from Harvard College in 1726 and then was ordained in 1729 and became the minister at First Congregational Church in Rowley.  Do you suppose she was more regular in attendance when her son was the minister?

There were at least 20 grandchildren born before her death, so we can imagine she enjoyed those babies and children. Mary died in Exeter, New Hampshire "while there visiting."  It is probable she was visiting her son Moses and family who lived there. Maybe she wanted to see the grandchild who was born in 1740.

Ancestors' Wedding Days 150 years apart

Two sets of ancestors were married on March 2nd, 150 years apart. My 3rd great-grandparents, William England and Mary Walker were married in 1827 in Gibson County, Tennessee. My 8th great-grandparents, Joseph Jewett and Rebecca Law were married in 1677 in Rowley, Essex County, Massachusetts.

Elizabeth Jewett and Francis Nelson Wedding Day

Elizabeth Jewett, my 1st cousin 9 times removed, was married on the 6th of June 1716 in Rowley, Essex County, Massachusetts to Francis Nelson.  You can read a little about her on my website:
http://www.joanneskelton.com/p1465.htm
I began considering the math of her life. This was the second marriage for both Elizabeth and Francis. When Elizabeth was married for the first time to Isaac Platts in 1704, she was 26 years old. When Isaac died in 1711 she was a few days short of age 33 and had three daughters ages 5 1/2, almost 3 and 9 months. It was 5 years before she remarried to Francis Nelson, who had 5 children from his first marriage, 3 boys and 2 girls. His oldest was just 12 1/2 when Francis and Elizabeth married and hers was 10 1/2. So their household had 8 children. It was a little less than 4 years later when Francis died in March 1719/20. He named Elizabeth and his 5 children in his will. Apparently Elizabeth lived as a widow for the remainder of her life, 42 years, as she died in 1762 at age 84.
Then I wondered if Elizabeth had any descendants. The book, Early Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts, shows that her 3 daughters had all married. I chose to check Roots Web World Connect project to see if anyone had posted family information. I found that the "Treadwell family" had 2 daughters listed with 5 generations of descendants totaling 598 individuals. Many of these lived in Massachusetts, New Brunswick and Maine. So yes, Elizabeth did have descendants.