The Remarkable Orsamus Edson Nute (1820-1907), 2nd GGF

This is the story of an extraordinary, selfless man who endured tragedy and hardship with resilience and courage that would make proud our Nute forebears. It’s as though he called on the strength of all the Nute generations beginning with 18 year-old James who crossed the Atlantic in 1631. At the relatively old age of 44, he took his family out of backwoods Maine and re-invented himself, a farmer who made a fortune in Boston that allowed him to comfortably care for his large family even into their adulthood. His regard for and love of learning led him to teach the children of Woodstock and send his own children to institutions of higher learning, including our great-grandfather who graduated from M.I.T. in 1885. This is the story of Orsamus Edson Nute.

Orsamus Nute (1820-1907)

2nd GGF Orsamus Nute was born in the spring of 1820 in Poland, Maine, the second child and oldest son of Samuel Nute and Betsey Fickett. Orsamus was just a toddler, if that, when his parents moved the family from the Poland farm to Woodstock, Maine, bringing Grandma Rebecca Wentworth along with them.

Before Woodstock. Orsamus’ father, 3rd GGF Samuel, bought the Poland property from his father, Josiah, for $400 but the1814 deed gives little clue to its location in Poland, “a certain piece of land bounded as follows, beginning at the southeasterly corner of lot No. 4 in the second division of lots in said Poland, thence running southeast to the southeast corner of said lot, thence from there two bounds on two lines each extending northwest until it shall contain fifty acres of land, including the roads that now run through said land.”

Six years later, Samuel bought land in Woodstock from his father-in-law, 3rd GGF Jonathan Fickett, perhaps as Jonathan was on hard times. Jonathan’s property in Poland where he had been for 20 years foreclosed in 1819 for failure to pay taxes. Jonathan and family possibly remained in a cabin on the farm after sale to Samuel. Having left the large extended family on Nute’s Ridge, his father dying in 1820, and being an only child, Samuel had no other extended family to help him with clearing and working the Woodstock farm. Samuel’s father, Josiah, may have been ill even when he sold the Poland land to young Samuel, leaving Samuel to do most of the work on that farm. Equally puzzling was why Josiah sold the land to Samuel, his only son, rather than bequeathing it to his only heir. 

One thought is that 22 year-old Samuel moved to Poland on his own and Josiah and Rebecca remained behind in Falmouth until Josiah died in 1820. A bit of support for this alternative is a later deed that identifies Josiah as still being of Falmouth. 

Who's related to who

Move to Woodstock. Samuel married 3rd GGM Betsey Fickett of Poland in 1816 and they had two children over the next four years. Orsamus was but an infant when the young family removed to the hilltop farm on Twitchell Road in Woodstock sometime in 1820.

Samuel and Betsey had two more children in Woodstock, spaced two years apart like the others. Two years later, in 1826, Betsey died leaving Samuel with four young children. Orsamus was but six years old. His grandma living in the home, 56 year-old Rebecca Wentworth, died two years later. 

A step-mother, 34 year-old Polly Davis, entered the family in 1827. Her dad was 5th GGF Aaron Davis and granddad 6th GGF Zebulon Davis, both Revolution veterans.

Like his father, Orsamus was hard-working and resourceful. Lapham’s 1882 History of Woodstock describes him,

Orsamus Nute, born in this town, received his education mostly in the common schools. He was naturally a good scholar, and early became an instructor of the school of his town. He was also a good farmer, and successfully cultivated the old homestead of his father for many years. He filled the office of Selectman and Superintending School Committee, but, being always a Democrat, he could not be elected to any office where party principles were involved.

Marriage to Emmy Ann Stevens. In 1843, Orsamus married 21 year-old Emmy Ann Stevens, daughter of Joseph, also a farmer, from nearby Norway.

Children of Orsamus and Emmy Ann

Samuel Ambrose, b. 1844, died unmarried in Woodstock in 1864, age 20

Mary Elizabeth, b. 1845, m. Willis Tappan Emery, a solicitor, in Boston in 1873, d. 1914 in Boston, uterine cancer, buried in Sanford, Maine

Ellen Maria, b. 1849, m. 1) George Leavitt in Boston, 2) Luther Covington, clergyman in Boston and moved to Seattle, Washington where she died in 1924

Ruth Anna, b. 1852, died unmarried in Boston in 1880, age 28, rheumatic valve heart disease

Emma Frances, b. 1856, died Dec 1857 in Woodstock, age 19 months

The 1850 census shows Orsamus and Emmy Ann living on the farm with Samuel, age 58, and Polly (Samuel’s second wife) as well as the first three children of Orsamus and Emmy. The farm appears to belong to Samuel.

In 1854, Orsamus served as administrator for the insolvency of his father-in law, Jonathan Fickett’s estate on behalf of the widow, 3rd GGM Betsey Bryant Fickett, and her 15 year-old daughter. Indeed, Jonathan remained in debt until his death, leaving Betsey having to ask the court for enough money on which she and her daughter could live.

Orsamus’ dad, Samuel, died in 1855, leaving him the Woodstock hilltop farm. The following year a daughter was born, and Orsamus was instrumental in erection of the a Woodstock church conjointly built by the Methodists and Free Baptists. Orsamus was Methodist.

Photo courtesy of Woodstock Historical Society

Life was good for the 36 year-old Orsamus in 1856. He was the owner of a nice hilltop farm. He taught school and was active in the community. He and Emmy Ann had four young children. Then tragedy begins to strike. Nineteen month-old Emma Frances died in December 1857 and wife Emma died in July 1860 at age 38.

Marriage to 3rd GGM Lovina Dunn Davis. Life seems to get back on track when the 41 year-old Orsamus marries 25 year-old Lovina Dunn Davis 10 months after wife Emma’s death. Lovina was a teacher in Woodstock, the granddaughter of 4th GGF Aaron Davis, Jr. and niece of Orsamus’ stepmother, Polly Davis, who raised Orsamus from age seven.

Orsamus and Lovina soon started their family with the birth of Henry Orsamus in 1862 and our GGF Joseph Edson in 1863. Tragedy struck again with the death of Orsamus’ oldest son, Samuel Ambrose, at age 20 in June 1864.

It seems enough was enough for Orsamus who suffered repeated losses on the hilltop farm, starting with the death of his mother at age six, followed by the deaths of his father in 1855, young daughter in 1857, wife in 1860, and eldest son in 1864.

Very possibly, 20 year-old Samuel Ambrose had been ill for a while and death expected as Orsamus picked up his family, sold the farm, and moved everyone, including step-mom Polly, to Boston within a few months. What a bold move for a 44 year-old who had known only farm life in a backwater Maine town in the mid-1800s! The same could be said for Lovina who had a household of the three offspring from Orsamus' first marriage, two very young children from Orsamus, and was pregnant with the third. Polly, who was also Lovina's aunt, died in Boston in 1873.

By moving the entire family, no more Nutes of the Josiah-Samuel-Orsamus line were left in Woodstock or, indeed, in Maine at all.

Children of Orsamus and Lovina Dunn Davis

Henry Orsamus Nute, b. 1862 in Woodstock, m. Ella J. Ford, died 1924 in Manhattan; attended Boston University School of Law and became a drug merchant with an apothecary in Boston.

JOSEPH Edson Nute, b. 1863 in Woodstock, m. Harriet Gove Wilkins in Boston, d. 1949 in South Dartmouth, MA, graduated M.I.T. in mechanical engineering, head of Fall River Gas Works Company for most of his career.

Edith Rivers Nute, b. 1865 in Boston, m. Clement Milton Hammond, journalist and associate editor of Boston Globe, whom she divorced. She lived with her half-sister Ellen Maria in Seattle and worked as a stenographer until her later life when she went to Ramapo, New York, to live with a sister, Mabel Lavina. They were both chicken farmers; d. 1934 in Monsey, NY.

Ernest Nute, b. 1867, d. 1868 in Boston, inflammation of brain, age eight months

Frank Earnest Nute, b. 1869, d. 1870  in Boston, age 11 months, buried in Nute-Stevens cemetery

Mabel Lavina Nute, b. 1871 in Boston, graduated with a B.A. from Smith College in Monsey, NY, and was to be at Boston University Medical School in 1898-1899. In the 1900 census, Mabel is living in Boston with her father, unmarried. In the 1910 census, she owns a farm in Ramapo, NY, still single with a servant and three hired men. This is evidently the chicken farm above, and where Orsamus spent the last couple years of his life.

A second successful career for Orsamus. What possessed Orsamus the farmer to bring his family to Boston is anyone’s guess. In the 1865 Massachusetts census a year after he arrived in Boston, his occupation is listed as a street sprinkler. Orsamus started with a street watering cart whose important task was to water the graveled streets of Boston, to wet down the mess of horse shit which would otherwise dry, turn to dust, and aerosolize - not to mention what it would do to the gown hems of the Victorian ladies.

From this humble business beginning, Orsamus built a lucrative and prosperous water sprinkler contracting business that would go the way of dinosaurs with the advent of cars. In the 1870 census, 50 year-old Orsamus lists his occupation as street contractor with a business called Nute and Billings and an office at E. Dedham and W. Albany Streets.

The great fire of 1872 in Boston must have caused a fright as it burned within blocks of his business building. The fire is still ranked as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history, consuming 65 acres of downtown Boston and 800 businesses and warehouses. 

By 1872, Orsamus was living at the prestigious address of 335 Columbus Avenue in Boston.

335 Columbus Street, Boston, the corner five-story townhouse that belonged to Orsamus

An 1873 Boston Business Directory lists Orsamus’ middle initial as E, perhaps a clue to the origin of Edson as a middle name in the family. The Edson middle name was passed down another four generations to Joseph Edson Nute, Raymond Edson Nute Sr., Jr., and III.

Orsamus owned most of a block on Dorr Street in 1873. In 1889, his son Henry and son-in-law, Willis Emery, joined him in a project to “drive 12 piles on the northerly side of the sea wall in Charles River, at the foot of Hereford Street in the city of Boston…for the support of a water tank.”

Tragedy revisited Orsamus and Lovina in 1868 with the death of an eight month-old son and 1870 with the death of an 11 month-old son. A little over ten years later in December 1880 he lost his 28 year-old daughter Ruth Anna from rheumatic heart disease and wife Lovina, 40, from pericarditis within two weeks of each other.

Home invasion robbery. The Boston Globe reported two "notorious and successful burglars" were arraigned and pleaded guilty to breaking and entering the 335 Columbus Avenue address at nighttime and stealing silverware and clothing. One was sentenced to 3 years prison and the other to 6 years.

Business reversals. All was not smooth sailing for Orsamus in Boston. He declared insolvency in 1875 and bankruptcy in 1894. A tenant renting the 335 Columbus Avenue building had fitted the ground floor as a drug store, but was probated as insane in 1899, and the family filed to restrain the Nutes (Orsamus and Henry O.) from foreclosing and evicting him. The Nutes were apparently successful as Henry O. is listed in the 1902 Boston directory as running a drug merchant business out of the 335 Columbus Avenue address himself.

Another marriage. Censuses show Orsamus usually had one to two servants living in the 335 Columbus Avenue home with whatever kids needed a home. He married again in 1890 at age 69 to widow Lydia Beal Collamore Smith, age 45, but 72 year old Orsamus was no longer at the 335 Columbus Avenue address. The 1900 census shows Lydia living in a boarding house and no longer with Orsamus. 

The last years. The marriage relationship with Lydia seems to have been brief. Boston directories show 72 year-old Orsamus living with daughter Mary Elizabeth as early as 1892, and the 1900 census shows 80 year-old Orsamus living at 32 Yarmouth in Boston with Mary Elizabeth; her husband, Willis Emery, Orsamus' former business partner; Orsamus' divorced daughter, Edith; and unmarried daughter, Mabel. Mabel was supposed to have entered Boston University Medical School in 1898, but the census does not show she is either a student or working.

Sometime between 1900 and 1905, daughters Edith and Mabel moved to Ramapo, New York, where Mabel bought a chicken farm. It is noteworthy that Mabel was living at her chicken farm in Ramapo within seven years of graduating from Smith College seven miles away.

 A 1901 Boston directory lists Orsamus as “removed to Woodstock.” His son, Henry Orsamus, is using the 335 Columbus building, probably the ground floor, for his pharmacy. An August 1902 Fall River Daily Evening News article reported "the family of Joseph E. Nute recreating at South Paris, Maine." A reasonable assumption could be they went to visit 80 year-old Orsamus who returned to his hometown to live with family, probably his sister Mary Jane Billings and her daughter, Ladusca Wing. The relationship must have been close as Mary Jane had named one of her sons after Orsamus.

Mary Jane died in 1904, and by 1905 Orsamus is living with daughters Edith and Mabel in the hamlet of Viola, part of Ramapo, New York, where he died in 1907, age 87, with interstitial nephritis. The year after Orsamus died, Edith and Mabel went on holiday by steamship to Panama. Edith died in 1934, age 69, and Mabel, the baby of the family, in 1956 at age 84.

Not surprisingly, Orsamus maintained ties with Woodstock after leaving for Boston. He had a lifetime of friends in Woodstock, and was a local boy made good. His photo was featured in the 1882 History of Woodstock by Latham.

Burial in Woodstock. Orsamus’ and Lovina’s strong ties to Woodstock are manifest in their decisions to be buried in the family cemetery on the farm rather than in Boston, and to bring their three deceased children back to Woodstock for burial.

Nute Obelisk and 12 foot stones at Nute-Stevens cemetery in Woodstock

Family member names inscribed on obelisk, many poorly legible

Sometime before his death, Orsamus arranged for an obelisk to be erected in the Woodstock Nute-Stevens cemetery. One side of the monument lists his name and those of his two wives, Emma and Lovina, with birth and death dates. Another side lists names that are mostly illegible, but one is the name of his grandmother, Rebecca Wentworth. From either side of the monument is a line of 12 small foot stones with initials of family members buried here: Samuel, Betsey, Polly, Rebecca, Orsamus, Emma, Lovina, Emma F, Samuel A, Ernest, Frankie E, and Ruth A. The latter three died in Boston and must have been brought back to Woodstock for internment with their father and mother. 

Current house on Nute farm at end of Twitchell Road

We are fortunate to have the original form completed by Orsamus in his own handwriting at the request of GGF Joseph Nute when he was working on the Nute Genealogy. A copy of the Nute Genealogy is at the New Hampshire Historical Society and I have a copy. Joseph's papers from his work on the Genealogy with Percy Nute and Orsamus' granddaughter, Amy Emery, were donated to the New England Historical and Genealogical Society in Boston.

Samuel Nute (1792-1855), 3rd GGF, Another Mystery

Samuel was born on Nute’s Ridge, the only child of Josiah Nute and Rebecca Wentworth. The 1850 census indicated he could read and write, so he had some education along the way. His occupation is listed as farmer whenever there is a written record, as was that of his father, Josiah, and his son, Orsamus.

At age 13, Samuel’s family left Nute Ridge and moved to Falmouth, Maine, where his father continued farming as an occupation. Doubtlessly, Samuel helped out on the farm until the 22 year-old purchased land from his father in 1814 about 30 miles north in Poland, Maine.

Poland was originally part of the Bakerstown Plantation with settlement beginning in 1767. The original town incorporated in 1795 included not only Poland and Poland Springs, but also Minot and Mechanic Falls. 

Samuel settled early in the Poland’s development and a couple years later married a young lady, 22 year-old 3rd GGM Betsey Fickett (1794-1826), whose father, 4th GGF Jonathan Fickett, came to Poland from Cape Elizabeth with a new bride, 4th GGM Judith Cox, in 1788. Betsey’s mother died when she was nine, and her father married another one of our GGM’s, Betsey Bryant (1769-1854), widow of 5th GGF Dr. Peter Brooks.

In the 1820 census when Samuel was 28, the household consisted of Samuel, Betsey, two children under 10, and Samuel’s mother, Josiah’s widow Rebecca Wentworth. One of the two children was 2nd GGF Orsamus Nute. The following year, Betsey’s father sold Samuel a tract of land in Woodstock, yet another 30 miles north, and the family moved there by 1822.

Woodstock is a wooded, hilly-valleyed area with the beautiful Bryant Pond, brooks and mountain streams. Some settlers began to arrive in surrounding areas after the close of the French War in 1760, more looking for land in the wilderness after the close of the Revolution as they had been paid in worthless money. A road to Woodstock was cut from Paris to Woodstock in 1795 even before her settlement, and families began to arrive. The first were the Bryant boys, including our 6th GGF Solomon Bryant, followed by numerous other grandparent ancestor families - including those of the Davis, Stephens, Swan and Brooks, and their wives from the Robbins, Curtis, Brooks, Strout, and Fickett families.

The town incorporated in 1815 and the following years were tough for the hardy inhabitants. Winters were cold, crops failed, and fires swept through the hills. Amid this, 6th GGF Jonathan Fickett, Betsey's father bought the land in 1818 that was later to become the hilltop Nute farm, and sold the lot to Samuel in 1821.

A February 1821 letter from the town clerk to the Woodstock proprietors looking for taxes and payment on notes held on the inhabitants illustrates the dire straits of the town,

Dear Sir: - We are very sorry that we are not able to forward to you any money in this letter, and extremely sorry to state the little prospect we have of any large payments this season. Money with us is the most scarce it has ever been since the town has settled…. Mr. Jonathan Fickett has sold his lot to a son-in-law by the name of Samuel Nute, who says he can pay the money down, but wishes to have the deed when he pays the money. Mr. Fickett’s lot is number 44….

The Ficketts lived in Poland before moving to Woodstock in 1818. Betsey's dad, Jonathan, already had his land in Poland foreclosed in 1819 for failure to pay taxes. He was, likewise, probably having trouble with payment on his Woodstock land when he sold that beautiful hilltop farm to Samuel. What a chore it must have been for Jonathan to clear the property for planting and grazing!

Samuel and Betsey had four children, all spaced 2 years apart. In 1826, two years after the last child, Betsey died at age 32, leaving 34 year-old Samuel with four children under the age of ten.

Children of Samuel and Betsey:

Harriet Nute, b. 1818 in Poland, m. Charles Brooks Davis (son of our 4th GGPs Aaron Davis and and Lucinda Oraing Brooks as well as brother to our 3rd GGF Joseph Davis), d. age 80 in Lancaster, Massachusetts

ORSAMUS Nute, b. 1820 in Poland, m. 1) Emmy Amy Stevens and 2) Lovina Dunn Davis, granddaughter of our 4th GGF Aaron Davis, Jr. and 5th GGF Dr. Peter Brooks. Lovina is a Mayflower descendant of passenger Richard Warren.

Phebe Wentworth Nute b. 1822 in Woodstock, m. Asa Smith, d. 1875 in Malden, Massachusetts

Mary Jane Nute b. 1824 in Woodstock, m. Eleazer Cole Billings, died in Woodstock in 1904, breast cancer

The year after Betsey’s death, Samuel married Polly Davis, daughter of Revolution soldier 5th GGF Aaron Davis and granddaughter of Revolution privateer, 6th GGF Zebulon Davis. They had no children together. She became a widow in 1855 with the death of Samuel, but continued to live with Orsamus and his family, even moving to Boston when the family migrated out of Woodstock.

Samuel died in 1855, age 62, in Woodstock. His 1846 will left Polly the new part of his house, one third of the income from his real estate, and use of the principal of the estate if needed “to make her comfortable.” He left Harriet $5.00 and “if she becomes of sound mind and capable of taking care of the same for her comfort and support $60 more, and if she does not, then said sixty dollars is to be divided equally among said Harriet’s children." To daughters Phebe and Mary Jane, Samuel left $65.00. Orsamus inherited the residence and farm.

The will indicates the eldest child, Harriet, may have had some mental difficulties. She was mid-twenties, married with children. The problems may have been transient as she raised six children, two of whom went on to become dentists.

The beautiful hilltop location must have reminded Samuel of his childhood home on Nute’s Ridge. The original farmstead is no longer standing, but a local historian believes it to be a short distance behind a stately home built on the hilltop. 

Samuel Nute's hilltop farm with mountains in the distance

The Nute kids visited the Nute farm in 2018. 

Nute Kids at the Nute farmstead, June 2018

Samuel, Betsey, Polly, and Samuel’s mother Rebecca, are buried just down the hill in the Nute-Stevens cemetery, an idyllic setting

Nute/Stevens cemetery

The Nute plot has the obelisk erected by Orsamus, and has a row of small headstones for each Nute known to be buried there. When I visited in 2016, Samuel’s small headstone had flowers, a flag, and a War of 1812 star marker.

Samuel Nute's headstone with War of 1812 marker

We have no family records that indicate Samuel fought in the War of 1812, and none can be located online. On the other hand, he would have been about the right age in 1812, he was on coastal Maine in those years, and the 160 acres mentioned in Joseph Nute’s notes as being granted to Josiah may have been for Samuel’s service. Another mystery waiting to be tracked down.

The Mystery of 4th GGF Josiah Nute (1775-1820)

Josiah has been a mystery in the family lineage. He would have been in late childhood when 5th GGF Samuel Nute moved the family from Dover to Nute Ridge in what was then Rochester, New Hampshire. We know he was Samuel’s son as he was listed in the 1820 will, but he seemed to drop off the face of the earth after his marriage to Rebecca Wentworth in Rochester in 1792. His son Samuel - yes, another Samuel - ended up in Poland where he married Betsey Fickett in 1816. Other Nute researchers, including our GGF Joseph Nute, weren’t able to locate him. Well, mystery solved, thanks to digital records, when I located land deeds in Falmouth, Maine, signed by both he and Rebecca.

Josiah was born in Dover in approximately 1775, one of 5th GGPs Samuel Nute and Phebe Pinkham’s sons. His birth order is unknown. Few of Samuel and Phebe’s children have birth dates except by extrapolation. By the time Samuel cleared the land and had a dwelling adequate for the family on Nute Ridge, Josiah was probably about 11 years old.

Josiah married 4th GGM Rebecca Wentworth (1765-1828) from the illustrious Wentworth family in 1792. Rebecca was descended from immigrant William Wentworth who arrived in Boston in the Great Migration in 1636 and located in Dover. Several of elder William’s descendants were governors of colonial New Hampshire. Rebecca’s grandfather, 6th GGF Richard Wentworth, and his son, 5th GGF Josiah, were early proprietors and settlers in Rochester. Rebecca’s mother, Abiah Cook, was the daughter of 6th GGF Abraham Cook, also an early settler of Rochester.

Josiah and Rebecca had only one child, 3rd GGF Samuel, born in Rochester in November 1792, two months after their marriage. Why they had no further children given their young age and the culture of having large families is puzzling and cause for speculation.

Milton was yet to be set off from Rochester in 1802.  Josiah and Rebecca likely lived on family land on Nute Ridge until their migration to Maine.

The 1800 census shows Samuel, Rebecca, and young Samuel living in Rochester. The 1810 census shows the family living in Falmouth, Maine.

Land deeds have solved the mystery of what happened to Josiah as he next shows up in 1805 in Maine where he bought a tract of land in Falmouth. Maine, though, was not a state in 1805, but still Maine, District of Massachusetts, until 1820. 

Josiah would have been in Falmouth during the War of 1812, an unpopular war with coastal Mainers whose shipping commerce was affected. The British occupation of eastern Maine prompted a split from Massachusetts due to the latter’s lack of military support. Indeed, some parts of Maine continued under British control for four years after the war ended.

What prompted Josiah and Rebecca to leave the Ridge and a fairly large family network of Nutes and Wentworths is puzzling. Granted, the Nute land was quickly being snatched up by the numerous male offspring of Samuel and Jotham Jr., and there may have been little opportunity left for Josiah. 5th GGF Samuel had eight sons and his brother, Jotham Jr., had nine sons - 17 sons on Nute Ridge among whom to distribute property. Ordinarily the land would have gone to the oldest son, but family wills seemed to show land was being distributed among all sons. Samuel’s 1820 will left Josiah $1.00 “and what I have already given him.” Was there some kind of family estrangement?

Falmouth was largely engaged in farming, fishing, and harvesting timber for ship masts at the time Josiah relocated. A land deed in 1814 identifies Josiah as a “yeoman,” i.e., a farmer, in contrast to a husbandman who raises cattle and sheep.

Josiah bought another 50 acres of land in Poland, Maine in 1810, approximately 30 miles north of Falmouth. The land may have been just an investment although Josiah may have moved to Poland briefly with his son, Samuel. Family records show Josiah received a grant of 160 acres in the West around 1812-14 which could have been for military service. Service records have not been located, nor is War of 1812 service mentioned in family records.

At age 39 in 1814, Josiah sold his tract of land in Poland to his 22 year-old son, Samuel, for $400. The deed identifies both Josiah and Samuel as yeomen of Poland, so Josiah may have moved temporarily to Poland with Samuel, or Josiah, Rebecca, and Samuel may have moved as a family unit and the parents conducted further land transactions at a distance. Josiah would have been only 39-40 when these land sales were going on. Had he determined to leave Falmouth for the burgeoning area of Poland, or perhaps developed some disability that he needed to live with his son? He did die only five years later.

At age 40 in 1815, Josiah sold one acre in Falmouth. The deed was also signed by Rebecca and identifies Josiah as living in Falmouth at the time of the deed.

Josiah’s death year can be extrapolated to after January 28, 1820, when he is named an heir in his father’s will and the census enumeration date of August 7, 1820, when only Rebecca is counted in Samuel’s household in Poland. He was 45 years-old at the time of death. No record of a will or probate has been located.

The mystery of what happened to the 48 year-old widow Rebecca was solved when I visited the Nute-Stevens cemetery in 2015 and found her name on the obelisk erected by her grandson, 2nd GGF Orsamus Nute. The birth date was very difficult to discern, and likely the 1765 date listed in the Woodstock Historical Society cemetery book is incorrect. This date would have made her 10 years older than Josiah, her mother 14 years old when Rebecca was born, and placed several years between her birth and that of the next sibling.

Soon after the 1820 census in Poland, Rebecca’s son Samuel and his young family moved to Woodstock, taking Rebecca with them. She died in Woodstock having followed her men from Rochester, New Hampshire, to Falmouth, Poland, and finally Woodstock, Maine, where she died at the age of 56.

Rebecca's small headstone marked R. N. in the Nute-Stevens cemetery

Samuel Nute Moves to Nute's Ridge

Samuel’s childhood was marked by the death of his mother when he was ten and entry of a stepmother into the family a year later. He grew up in Dover on the family farm, and married at age 20. Altogether, he and Phebe Pinkham had ten children born in Dover and Rochester. He and half-brother, Jotham, must have been best buds as they cleared the land and settled together on Nute’s Ridge, Rochester, now Milton, NH, in 1784 after Jotham returned from the Revolution. Samuel already had several children and Jotham married soon after and started a family. Between them, they had 21 children. Two brothers, three of Jotham’s sons, and one of Samuel’s sons served in the War of 1812. One of Jotham’s sons attended West Point and was killed in the Mexican-American War. Both brothers signed the petition for incorporation of Milton in 1803.

Samuel was born in Dover March 2, 1749, the first child of Jotham and Mary Hayes. Mary died when Samuel was 10 years old and his father remarried to widow Mary Canney within the year.

Samuel married Phoebe Pinkham in Dover at age 20 in August 1769. The first of their 10 children was born five months later in January 1770.

Family records indicate Samuel did not move to Rochester until 1784 when his half brother, Jotham Nute, Jr. returned from the Revolution. 

“Returning to Dover at the close of his army service, Jotham with his half-brother Samuel moved in 1784 to tracts of land in the Northeast parish of Rochester which became Nute’s Ridge in Milton and here they cleared space for their future homes from land provided by their father.”

The story of Jotham Nute, Jr. Jotham Sr’s’s first child with his second wife, not yet 16-year old Jotham, Jr. (1760-1836) enlisted in the Revolution at Dover on April 1, 1776 for eight months, stationed first at Newcastle and at Portsmouth. He re-enlisted in the Continental Army on January 27, 1777 for the duration of the war and was assigned to the 2nd New Hampshire. 

Jotham was at Ticonderoga in the summer of 1777 and was captured at the Battle of Hubbarton on July 7, 1777 when the British and Indians fell on the troops retreating from Ticonderoga in a surprise dawn attack as they were eating breakfast. Jotham was taken prisoner, but escaped a few days later and returned to his regiment. Family records describe his escape happening when he heard the sunset gun in the American camp, noted the direction and ran for it, securing a horse in his flight. He swam a body of water under fire and arrived at the American camp naked and wounded. A petition to the State of New Hampshire in 1833 describes he lost “my gun and a cartridge box, 1 pair deer skin breeches, 1 fur hat, 3 shirts, 1 blanket, shoes, buckles, silk handkerchief knapsack, 3 pairs stockings, 2 pairs thin trousers, waist coat pocket handkerchief.”

As his wound was not serious, he continued to fight at Stillwater, Saratoga, and was with his regiment at the surrender of Burgoyne in October 1777. Jotham was at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-78 and at the battle of Monmouth in June 1778. At the Battle of Kings Bridge near Tarrytown on July 3, 1781, Jotham was wounded by a musket ball to his right hip that caused a limp the rest of his life. Nevertheless, he remained in service until 1783.

Jotham entered the Revolution as a not yet 16 year-old private and left in 1783 with the rank of Sergeant. Family records relate Jotham would have rapidly advanced in rank were it not that as a minor his father would not allow him to draw his own pay. “So when he becomes 21, he was advanced very rapidly. He never became reconciled to his father.”

Samuel and Jotham on Nute Ridge. According to family tradition in records, the brothers lived the first season on Nute's Ridge in a crude cabin which stood on the west side of the road about where a stone wall later divided the Jotham and Samuel’s grandson, Lewis Nute’s, farms. They constructed permanent structures the following year, and Jotham Jr. married his bride, Sarah Twombly of Dover.

Jotham and Samuel's two brothers and Jotham's three sons served in the War of 1812. One son, a Lieutenant in the War of 1812, changed his name to Jeremy Washington Orange in 1820 and all his descendants go by the surname Orange. Another of Jotham's sons, Captain Levi Nute, was a West Point graduate, served in the West, and died at Point Isabel, Texas, in 1846 during the Mexican-American War.

The Rochester 1790 census shows Samuel had 12 people living in his household! These likely were Samuel, Phebe, nine of their children, and Samuel’s father, Jotham Sr.

1800 census shows the Samuel Nute family in Rochester with 9 household members. The two older boys, including 4th GGF Josiah, were married with their own households in Rochester, and Samuel’s father, Jotham Sr. is no longer living with the family, but had returned to Dover where he died the following year.

The first public road from Rochester to what was to become Milton was laid out in 1787. Jotham and Samuel both signed the petition for the Incorporation of Milton in 1803, setting off Milton from Rochester.

Children of Samuel Nute and Phoebe Pinkham

Francis Nute (1770-1812) m. Mary Clements

JOSIAH  (1775-1820) m. Rebecca Wentworth

Jotham (1778-1817) m. Olive Tuttle

Stephen (1779-1843) m. Anna Furbush

Mary ( 1784-1851) born in Milton, m. Thomas Young

Nicholas (1781-1862) m. Elizabeth Bickford Hayes

Hayes (1789-1875) m. Mehitable Goodwin

Ezekiel (1794-1859) m. Dorcas Worcester and lived in a house on the Nute farm in Milton; private in War of 1812 under Waldron’s Command; father of Lewis Worcester Nute

Samuel ( - 1836), no birth, death or marriage records available, but he is identified as a son in Samuel Sr’s will.
Susan, birth date unknown, never married; Samuel’s will provides she can live in the back of the house after his demise.

Samuel’s will written in January 1820 gave Phebe one third of his real estate; to son Hayes 40 acres, part of which was originally Samuel Hayes and the other part adjoining the farm on which Ezekiel Hayes was living. To daughter Susan Nute use of one back room in the house and $50 when she marries; to son Samuel, $1 as he had already been given his share of estate; to daughter Mary Young $1; to son Josiah $1 with what he had been given before, to Stephen $1, to Nicholas $1; he gives $1 to various grandchildren; to son Ezekial all the residue and remainder of his estate. His will is signed with his mark; likely he could not read or write. He identifies himself as a husbandman, i.e., raising livestock. The will indicates sons Francis and Jotham are deceased. Probate was March 2, 1826.

Phebe was still living when Samuel's will was written in 1820, but her death date is unknown.

The other Samuel Nute in Rochester. 7th GGF Samuel (1689-1765) had two sons, John and our 6th GGF Jotham (1724-1801) and left land in Rochester to both. John opted to move to Rochester at least by 1749 when his son Samuel was born. Jotham, on the other hand, inherited the family homestead and land in Dover and elected to stay in Dover. Jotham passed his land onto his sons, Jotham Jr. and 5th GGF Samuel (born March 2, 1749) and moved to Rochester in 1784. These guys - Captain Samuel and our Samuel - were first cousins born within months of each other. 

Captain Samuel Nute, born in Rochester to John Nute on August 18, 1749, was a soldier in the Revolution from his enlistment in May 1775 after the alarm at Lexington, and served two years in the 2nd New Hampshire. He was deployed to Morristown in the winter of 1776 and engaged in the battles of Trenton in December 1776 and Princeton in January 1777.  Captain Samuel sold his Rochester farm in 1800 and moved to Dover. As such, between the years 1784 and 1800 two Samuel Nutes, cousins the same age, were living in Rochester. As an aside, Captain Samuel’s son, Isaac, was killed at the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.

Which Samuel signed the Rochester Association Test? On April 12, 1776 New Hampshire required all men to sign or refuse an Association Test, promising they would to the utmost of their power, “at the risk of their lives, their fortunes, and with arms” oppose the British fleets and armies. The signatures for Rochester were completed and signed off by Ebenezer Tebbets on October 15, 1776. Grandfather signers included our GGF’s Abraham Cook, Richard and Josiah Wentworth, John Nute (father of Captain Samuel) and a Samuel Nute.

Family records and DAR accept our 5th GGF Samuel as the signer of the Rochester Association Test. Evidence indicates the signer of the Rochester Association Test was Captain Samuel Nute and not our 5th GGF:

• 5th GGF Samuel Nute was living in Dover and did not move to Rochester until 1784. He may have signed the Dover Association Test, but those records have been lost.
• Captain Samuel Nute was born in Rochester and did not move to Dover until 1800.
• Captain Samuel enlisted as a volunteer in the 2nd NH Regiment, but was not deployed out of Rochester until winter 1776.

Nute Ridge. The New Hampshire Historical Society recently acquired two 1880 Frank Shapleigh paintings of the Nute farm in Milton, NH,  and I had the privilege to be allowed into the curator’s “vault” to see the painting of the farmhouse of Lewis Worster Nute built in the 1850’s after he made his fortune in Boston. 

Nute Ridge. The site of Samuel's farm is to the right of the road, and Jotham's to the left.

The original Samuel Nute (1745-1829) house is no longer there, but likely close to same site as this house when he settled here in 1784. In 2018, I visited the property and its current owner, George Bube, who has nicely restored the home. He told me the old barn where our father collected some wood has been torn down.

Home built in 1850 on the site of Samuel's farm

Samuel's grandson via Ezekial, Lewis Worster Nute who made his fortune in Boston, retired to the family homestead and built the current house endowed a high school and library as well as the Nute Chapel on the Ridge. The Nute Cemetery where Jotham and likely Samuel and family are buried lies alongside the Chapel.

Nute Ridge runs the length of Nute's Road from Hayes to Dodge Cross Road

Nute Bible Chapel

Nute Bible Chapel, built 1890

Nute Cemetery alongside Nute Bible Chapel

Jotham's headstone placed by Judge Eugene Nute, Samuel and Jotham's original stones not present but undoubtably they are buried here.

Our line left Nute Ridge about 1805 when Samuel’s son, 4th GGF Josiah, moved to Falmouth, Maine, but Samuel's legacy remains in Milton, descendants of his ten children.

James, Martha, Samuel and Jotham Nute: Three Generations in Colonial Dover, New Hampshire

Our Nute line remained in Dover for another three generations after James Sr. immigrated to the New World. James Sr.’s two children, James Jr. (1643-1691) and Martha (1653-1718), are both grandparent ancestor lines, but they would converge two generations later when a grandchild of each, i.e., second cousins, marry each other.

We have a plethora of James, Williams, Elizabeths, Leahs, Sarahs, and Samuels, a bane to family history writers and readers alike. Bear with me. I'll try to make it as painless as possible.

Martha Nute, 8th GGM and the Dam Garrison

Martha (1653-1718) was the 4th child of James Nute Sr. In 1780, she married William Dam (1653-1718), son of 9th GGF John Dam (1611-1690) who was an early immigrant to Dover around the same time frame as our James Sr. Both James Nute and John Dam received land grands on the Back River; indeed, their lots were adjoining and Martha married the proverbial boy next door. 

William and Martha’s daughter, Leah (1695-1750) married 7th GGF Samuel Hayes (1695-1777) and their daughter, 6th GGM Mary Hayes (1728-1759) married second cousin Jotham Nute (1724-1801). Thus, the full circle comes back to the Nute family line.

Things weren’t, however, all peachy-keen between the two families. A 1709 row between the Nutes and the “whole Dam family” over a thatch bed was described as,

William Dam, Jr. (Leah’s brother) testified - “say we see James Nute (James Jr.’s son) throw our father (8th GGF) William Dam down and also call him thief and threaten to cut off his legs and bid him kiss his ass and also Richard Pinkham by violence thrown our father William down several times and hold him and called him thief.” Richard Pinkham further testified “(9th GGF) William Dam Sr. and William Dam Jr. and Jacob Allen (8th GGM Martha Nute’s son-in-law) and Martha Dam (daughter) and Sarah Dam (daughter) carry away ye thatch which James Nute had mowed and further saith he hear William Dam Jr. say he would run his pitchfork into ye James Nute’s belly or guts.” 

No love lost here between the Dam and Nute families.

Martha’s father-in-law, 9th GGF John Dam, was a carpenter and joiner. In 1656, he purchased Back River Lot 13 adjoining his Lots 11 and 12 and the Nute Lot 10, and gave the land to son William Dam on turning 21. Just before their marriage in 1675, John built a palisaded garrison for Martha and William, Jr. The garrison was spared in the 1689 Cochecho Massacre, likely due to its location across the Back River. 

Visiting the Dam garrison housed in the Woodman Institute, 2015

Dam-Drew garrison before removal to the Woodman Institute in 1915, pulled on log rollers several miles and across a bridge

The original garrison houses had no windows, only slits for rifles. The windows in the photo were likely added around the time of the Civil War. The large attic overhang had openings that allowed the women to pour boiling water on the attackers. Many had a palisade inside which about 100 people could fit if needed.

The couple lived in the garrison house for several decades and passed it down to their daughter, 7th GGM Leah Dam, who married Samuel Hayes in 1720. Samuel and Leah lived in the garrison until 1770 when it passed to Leah’s granddaughter, Leah Nute, who married Joseph Drew the following year. Joseph and Leah Nute Drew lived in the garrison until 1810 when they moved into a mansion. The garrison, however, remained in the Drew family until its removal to the Woodman Institute on the other side of the Bellamy River (Back River) in 1915. The garrison was in the Dam-Nute-Drew family for 240 years, and is today’s direct connection to the first families to settle Dover - our Nute and Dam families.

8th GGF William Dam died in March 1718, age 64, and Martha followed two months later in May 1718, age 65. They are both buried in the Nute-Dam Cemetery on the bank of the Back River with graves marked by etched stones. Daughter, Leah, is also buried in the cemetery, originally with an etched stone, but someone has placed a relatively recent headstone.

Leah in Nute-Dam cemetery

James Nute Jr. (1643-1691), 8th GGF

The eldest son of James the Immigrant lived on the Nute homestead his entire life, begat four children, and died at the young age of 48. Town records show James' level of involvement in the growing community was less than his father’s, perhaps as the Farm was across the Back River from town.

James married Elizabeth Heard (1653-1705), daughter of 9th GGPs Captain John Heard (1612-1688) and Elizabeth Hull (1628-1710), both English immigrants. Captain Heard built a defense garrison in the Cochecho area, but died just before the massacre of 1689.

The story is told that the widow Elizabeth, a daughter, and three sons were returning by boat to the settlement from Portsmouth the night of the massacre. As the family approached the Waldron garrison, they spotted trouble and fled. Elizabeth was unable to keep up with the others and ordered them to leave her behind. While hiding in the thicket through the night, she was spotted by a young Abanaki Indian who raised his gun, aimed, then turned away. It is said Elizabeth had saved this Indian’s life as a youth several years earlier.

James and the younger Elizabeth Heard married in 1675 and raised four children on the Nute farm:

Sarah (1675-1762) m. William Furber IV

Leah (1680-1748) m. 1st, Jethro Furber, brother to William, and 2nd, Hatevil Nutter

James III (1687-1759) m. Prudence, last name unknown 

SAMUEL (1689-1765) m. ELIZABETH Pinkham (1688-1765)

Father James Jr. died at the young age of 48 in 1691, leaving a 38 year old widow, Elizabeth, with  four young children, ages two to 16 years old. 

Elizabeth remarried three years later to Lt. William Furber whose wife had also just died, leaving him with  several young children as well. Lt. Furber’s first wife was from the Starbuck mariner family who founded the whaling industry on Nantucket. His father, an early Dover settler, was a survivor of the wreck of the Angel Gabriel off the coast of Maine during a hurricane in 1635; a brother and nephew were lost at sea in 1686.  Lt. William ran the Furber ferry service from his house at Welchman’s Cove (Bloody Point), Newington, to Oyster River.

James III was only four years old and our 8th GGF Samuel two years old at the time of their father’s death. James Jr.’s will left two thirds of the house and land to the eldest son, James III, when he came of age. The other three children, including Samuel, were only to have equal shares of the “moveables.” The widow was ordered to have the children’s estate bound out to “prentice” until she remarried in which case her one-third of the estate would be secured for the good of her children.

James III lived in the family homestead in Dover, but acquired land in Rochester, New Hampshire, the community north of Dover. At his death, he bequeathed the land to his sons Paul and James IV. This acquisition shows the Nute family was already getting land outside Dover by the third generation. Incoming immigrants to Dover and the rule of primogeniture giving almost everything to the first born son was clearly making the land situation tight in Dover, particularly for the lower born sons. Disease and Indian wars had well decimated the Native population in New England by the 1700’s, making land acquisition easier for the white colonists.

The two daughters, Sarah and Leah, married their Furber step-brothers, William and Jethro. Jethro died in 1715, five years after marriage to Leah. Several months later, the widow Leah took her sister’s husband to court on a boundary dispute. Not much love lost here.

Elizabeth died at the young age of 52 after “five days of extreme sickness with fever and malaise.” The burial of Elizabeth and Lt. William Furber is presumably on the Furber family homestead at Welchman’s Cove.

The burial site of James Nute, Jr. is unknown. As he lived and died on the Nute farm, internment in the Nute-Dam cemetery with an unmarked or lost stone would be a reasonable assumption.

Samuel Nute (1689-1765), 7th GGF

Samuel was two years old when his father died, five years old when his mother remarried, and 18 when his step-father, Lt. Furber, died. He may well have grown up on the Furber homestead at Welchman’s Cove, but the town history of Dover shows he had a home in Dover as an adult.  A 1707/8 notation in James Jr.’s probate indicates guardianship of Samuel Nute, age about 18, was granted to Jethro Furber, his future brother-in-law. This would have been about the time his step-father, Lt. William, died. The notation appears to be an addendum. The guardianship may have been an apprenticeship.

In 1718, Samuel married Elizabeth Pinkham (1688-1765), age 30, old for a woman’s first marriage in those days, but there is no record of a previous marriage. Elizabeth, our 7th GGM, was a direct descendant of Henry III, King of England and Eleanor of Provence through her grandmother, Rose Stoughton, wife of Richard Otis. Henry III is, thus, our 21st GGF to my generation.

Elizabeth’s grandparents, Richard Pinkham and Richard Otis, were both early arrivals in Dover and both families had garrison houses. 9th GGF Richard Otis, and two of his children were killed in the Cochecho massacre in 1689. Her 39 year old uncle, Stephen Otis, was killed in the garrison fight. Elizabeth’s young cousin, three-month old Margaret, was taken captive to Canada, renamed Christine, and raised by French nuns in Quebec. Elizabeth’s mother, 8th GGM Martha Rose Otis was taken captive, but released in Conway, New Hampshire.

Indians ambushed Elizabeth’s uncles, Nicholas and Richard Otis, and cousin while they were returning home from public worship in 1696. Nicholas, was killed, Richard wounded, and Nicholas’ son was carried away to Penobscot.

Scales’ History of Dover indicates Samuel and Elizabeth lived “on the north side of the road leading from the main road to the old Pascataqua bridge to Capt. Thomas Nute’s (the original Nute homestead).”

Children of Samuel Nute and Elizabeth Pinkham:

JOTHAM (1724-1801) m. Mary Canney, 6th GGPs. Their son Jotham, enlisted in the Revolution at age 16; son, William, fought with the 3rd New Hampshire in the War of 1812.

John (1728-1800) m. Hepzibeth last name unknown; their son, Samuel (1749-1828) was a Captain in the Revolution and fought at Bunker Hill.

Sarah (1729-aft 1777) m. Josiah Clark

Martha (1732-1783) m. Benjamin Dam

Elizabeth (1736-bef. 1765) m. unknown Nute; her son, Obed, likely served three years in the Continental Army from Massachusetts.

Samuel and Elizabeth died the same year in 1765, he at age 75 and she age 77. His will written the year before indicates he had “homestead lands,” pasture land, corn, hay, and fruit orchard. The property had a barn and cellar under the house. Son, John, received 60 acres of the first division in Rochester on which John was already living, as well as title to Samuel’s acreage in the third division. Son, 6th GGF Jotham, received the Dover homestead land, barn, and farm equipment, 12 additional acres in Dover, and land in the second division in Rochester. He left 50 pounds cash each to daughter Sarah and grandson Obed, and a feather bed and livestock to his granddaughter Elizabeth.

As an aside, there is a curious story about the grandson, Obed. Samuel’s first will in 1749 left property to his youngest daughter, Elizabeth, but he changed his will in 1764 leaving money to Elizabeth’s son, Obed. Evidently, Elizabeth, the youngest daughter, married an unknown Nute after 1749 and was deceased at the time of the second will. Obed married and moved near Casco Bay, Maine. He had a son, also Obed, then suddenly disappeared when the child was three-weeks old. Obed, Sr. was last seen sitting on a log beside the trail between his home and Casco Bay where he had gone for provisions. He appeared ill, but refused assistance. It is believed Obed did not die, but absconded from his family responsibilities. A man by the same name enlisted in the Continental Army in Framingham, Massachusetts, two years later (1776) and served 3 years. The Goodspeed genealogy identifies the wife as Thankful Bangs who moved to the Cape Cod area with young Obed and married John Goodspeed.

Jotham Nute (1724-1801), 6th GGF

Indian attacks continued in the Dover area, with the last foray at Knox Marsh in 1725 when members of a Quaker family who refused to use the garrisons for shelter were killed or captured.

6th GGF Jotham Nute was born around the time of the Knox massacre and remained in Dover most of his life. His father’s will indicates Jotham inherited the land referred to in Scales History of Dover on which his father Samuel and Phebe lived.

Jotham married 6th GGM Mary Hayes (1728-1759) in Dover before 1749, the year our 5th GGF Samuel was born to the couple. No marriage records have been located. Jotham and Mary were third cousins with shared great-grandparents, immigrants James and Sarah Nute.

Mary Hayes’ paternal grandfather, 8th GGF John Hayes, immigrated from England or Scotland about 1680 and settled in Dover. Mary’s maternal GGF, 9th GGF William Horne, immigrated as early as 1630, settled in Dover by 1659, and was killed in the Cocheco massacre in 1689. Her mother, 9th GGM Elizabeth Cough, was taken captive by Indians in 1707 while walking along the road.

8th GGM Mary Horne, daughter of William and Elizabeth who died so tragically, married 8th GGF John Hayes when she was but 13 years old and he 25. The couple had their first child within the year. She died at age 30.

Jotham’s children with 1st wife Mary Hayes:
SAMUEL Nute (1749-1825) m. PHEBE Pinkham
Leah (1752-1815) m. Joseph Drew and lived in the Dam Garrison until 1810; Joseph is a DAR patriot for his service of signing the petition to request formation of committee of safety.
Mary (1754-after 1820 in Athens, Maine) m. James Tuttle; James served in the Revolution.

Jotham's children with 2nd wife Mary Canney (1724 - ), widow of Daniel Canney:
Jotham Jr. (1760-1836) m. Sarah Twombley, served in Continental Army in Revolution (see below)
Elizabeth (1763- ), no marriage or death records located
William (1764-1812) m. Mary Polly Davis; served in War of 1812
Jonathan (1768- ) m. Charity Smart; served in War of 1812 as an artificer (skilled in working on artillery devices in the field)

The list of Rochester proprietors shows Jotham’s father, (7th GGF Samuel), uncle (James III) and Thomas Tuttle shared an original 1722 proprietorship in Rochester just north of Dover. Samuel’s 1765 will bequeathed Rochester property in the first division to his son John and land in the third division to Jotham, indicating additional Rochester land had been acquired during the senior Samuel’s lifetime. John was already living on his property in Rochester by 1765. Jotham opted to stay on the family homestead in Dover and leave it to 5th GGF Samuel to settle the Rochester property.

In 1760, Jotham was elected Constable of Dover, but refused to serve. The family of Joseph Nute, compiler of our genealogy, had a receipt for the five pounds he had to pay for the refusal.

The death date of Jotham’s wife, widow Mary Canney, is unknown, but census evidence in Rochester indicates she died before 1790 and that Jotham was living with his son, 5th GGF Samuel, in Rochester. The 1800 census indicates Jotham is still living with Samuel before his death from palsy in 1801.

Jotham was the last generation to live in Dover. His son, Samuel, married and had several children in Dover before moving north to the new town of Rochester, NH, and carving out a farmstead on Nute's Ridge with his half-brother, Jotham.

Sources:

The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants, https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/49324/FLHG_RoyalDescentsof600Immigrants-0480/93937?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/13190951/person/12568336064/facts/citation/602150460772/edit/record

John Scales, Colonial Era History of Dover, New Hampshire, 1932

George Wadleigh, Notable Events in the History of Dover, New Hampshire, 1913

James Nute (1613-1691), our Nute Immigrant

Our surname Nute extends from modern-day descendants and our grandfather, Raymond Nute Sr., through multiple geographic migrations back to the first Nute immigrant to southeastern New Hampshire in 1631.

Sporadic fishing and trading settlements had been in the area of modern day Dover Point and Portsmouth between 1603 and 1630. Serious permanent settlement began when Captain John Mason, one of the Grantees of New Hampshire, sent over two men to manage settlement of the area - Captain Thomas Wiggin responsible to the upper settlement (Dover and north) and Captain Walter Neal to run the lower settlement (Portsmouth, Rye, and Newington). 

Map of Dover/Portsmouth Landmarks

An unsourced list of settlers brought to the area by Captain Neal in 1631 includes our 9th GGF James Nute and 10th GGF Thomas Canney. The immigrants who settled at Strawberry Banke (now Portsmouth) were described as a “rag-tag group of adventurers, servants, and planters.” Captain Wiggin, governor of the Upper Plantation of New Hampshire, brought over a group of Puritan settlers on the ship James to the Dover area in 1633, and more carpenters and millwrights followed in 1634.

Wadleight’s Notable Events in the History of Dover, New Hampshire names heads of families in Dover in 1633, including James Nute, John Dam, Thomas Canney, Richard Pinkham, William Pomfrett, and Henry Tebbetts, all grandparent ancestors.

The reliability of all these passenger lists is called into question as there are no direct records. In any event, when the people of Dover established a formal government in 1640 with the Dover Combination, signers included ancestors James Nute, Richard Pinkham, John Heard, William Pomfret, and Thomas Canney.

The New England Indian Wars began in 1675 and continued for 50 years, ending at Knox Marsh in 1725. The first of 15 garrisons, or fortified houses, in Dover were built in 1675, and more constructed after tension with local Indians increased in the 1680s. The Pinkham, Dam, Tibbitts, Hayes, Otis, Wentworth, and Heard ancestor families were among those with garrison houses built in defense against Indian attacks. The original Dam garrison is housed in the Woodman Institute in Dover.

Coordinated Indian attacks against the garrisons in 1689, known as the Cocheco Massacre, resulted in the deaths and kidnappings of dozens of Dover inhabitants. The treachery began on the part of white settlers in Dover in 1676 when peaceful Indians fleeing the war in Massachusetts were deceived, rounded up for return to Massachusetts, and hanged or enslaved. Hostilities worsened in Dover between settlers and natives over the next several years.

On the evening of June 27, 1689, Indian women requested shelter in several garrisons. During the night the women opened the gates to the attacking Indians. Twenty three people were killed and 29 taken captive.

Ninth great-grandfather Richard Otis, 72, and his children, Hannah, 2 (and yes, that age is correct), and Stephen, 39, were killed. His wife, infant daughter, 3 daughters from his first marriage, and 2 grandchildren were taken captive to Canada. The garrison was burned to the ground.

Ninth great-grandfather William Wentworth, 76, was guarding the Heard garrison while neighbor 8th great-grandmother Elizabeth Heard was away. He was wakened by dogs and able to close the gates against the attack.

Tenth GGF Thomas Canney and 9th GGF James Nute who arrived at Strawberry Bank in 1631 and 9th GGF John Dam who arrived in Dover in 1633 appear to be our earliest ancestor settlers in Dover. Over the next twenty years numerous other grandparent ancestors arrived. These included Richard Otis and wife Rose Stoughton, Richard Pinkham, Henry Tibbitts and wife Elizabeth Austin, Joseph Austin, Thomas Canney and wife Mary Loame, Thomas Cook and wife Katherine Preece, Thomas Downes, John Heard, John Hayes, Thomas Nock, William Pomfret, Edward Starbuck and wife Catherine Reynolds, William Hackett, William Horne,  and William Wentworth. Several immigrant or first generation women from the coastal families of Maine and Massachusetts married men of 17th century Dover, including grandmother ancestors Mary Horne, Elizabeth Knight, Martha Miller, Elizabeth Hull, Elizabeth Clough, Sarah Taylor, Mary Atkins, and Elizabeth Kenney.

All told, we have not just the Nute progenitor from Dover, but at least 30 ancestor families who converged on Dover, New Hampshire in the 17th century. 

James Nute Sr, Immigrant

James’ birth is estimated to be about 1613, extrapolated from the age scratched into his tombstone. He is believed to be from Tiverton, Devonshire, where a distinguished family with this surname lived during the reign of Elizabeth. The first two generations in New Hampshire spelled the name “Newte.”

At least three immigration scenarios are possible:

• James was with the group of "stewards and servants" sent by Captain Mason to work the settlement of Strawberry Banke, now Portsmouth, in 1631. He would have been 18 years old at the time of arrival in the New World. With the death of Captain Mason in 1635, arrival of settlers on Dover Point, and opportunity to own land in Dover, James crossed the river at Bloody Point and settled in Dover, likely around 1635.

• James arrived with Captain Wiggin on the ship James in 1633, and settled directly into Dover.

• James arrived with a later group of immigrants, but was in Dover by 1640 when he signed the Dover Combination.

The first scenario has been the most popular, but direct evidence is lacking. Dover was in political and religious turmoil during the 1630s and no records of the time are available in the town itself. Further, some believe that records may have been destroyed related to a lawsuit brought by the heirs of Captain Mason. 

In 1640 at age 27, James had enough stature in the town that he was a signer of the Dover Combination to establish a formal government. He received a 20-acre land grant in town in 1642. His home was on Low Street of Dover Neck just west or northwest of the Meeting House, on the current Neck Road at Little Johns Creek which flows into the Back River. His lot is at the angle of the creek and river on the south side. His neighbors on Low Street were Captain Wiggin, 10th GGF William Pomfrett, and 9th GGF John Damme.

He married before 1643, age 30, to Sarah, last name unknown, and started his family.

James bought 20 acres (Lot 10) on the west side of Back River in 1650 and received another land grant of 40 acres in 1656. He was a proprietor of communal ox pasture land bordering Low Street in 1652. He moved from “town” to the Back River farm in about 1661. In 1671, he conveyed the family farm of 60 acres to his son, James II, and the 12 acres in Dover Neck to son Abraham. The conveyance indicates he and his wife Sarah would continue to live on the farm as well. The Nute farm remained in the family at least until the 1920’s, at the time thought to be the oldest land in continuous family possession in the country.

James was on a tax list in Dover in 1648, and several tax lists as late as 1685. He was an upright citizen, served on the Grand Jury in 1643, and a Petit Juror at Strawberry Bank on August 8, 1650.  He served as Selectman in 1659-1660, but was fined in 1663 for missing church meetings and entertaining Quaker missionaries.

Children of James Nute Sr. and Sarah:

1. JAMES Jr. (1643-1691) m. ELIZABETH Heard

2. Abraham (1644-1724) m. 1st, unknown; 2nd, widow Joanna Stanton

3. Sarah (1646 - ) m. James Bunker

4. MARTHA (1653-1718) m. WILLIAM DAM

5. Leah (1656-1726) m. 1st, John Knight; 2nd, Benedictus Tarr

James Jr./wife Elizabeth Heard and Martha/husband William Dam are both grandparent ancestors.

The population of Dover dropped to 146 in 1675, likely due to the Indian wars.

Family lore has been that 78-year old James Sr. was killed in his garden by Indians in 1691, two years after the Cocheco massacre. Supposedly, he left his gun in the house when he went to work the fields and became involved in an altercation with three Indians. He killed two Indians with a hoe before being killed himself by the third.

James is buried in the Nute-Dam cemetery on the banks of the Back River on the Bellamy Wilderness Preserve. The cemetery is not easily accessible, as I learned during a visit in 2015. The visitor would be wise to use mosquito repellent and wear boots to get through the marsh between the entry point at the Bellamy Wilderness Preserve and the woods where the cemetery lies.

Marsh leading to woods of the Nute-Dam Cemetery

James’ original gravestone in the Nute-Dam cemetery reads Mr. J. Nute, age 78.  A photo on file at New England Historical and Genealogical Society shows the headstone in 1915.

Mr. I Nute Ae 78

A modern-day headstone placed by E.F. Nute in 1968 reads,

James (Newte) Nute

Born 1613

Landed in Portsmouth 1631

Settled in Dover 1640

Killed by Indians 1691

Original and new gravestone for James Nute, Sr.

Other burials in the Nute cemetery  include daughter Martha, and her husband William Dam,  Leah Dam, wife of Samuel Hayes. In a field closer to the main road is a small cemetery, unkept, with headstones for Paul Nute, Ephraim, Nute, Greenleaf Nute and his wife Susan.

Personal communication with Lee Nute who has extensively researched the family histories and been in communication with others who have researched our common ancestor shows that James Sr., not James Jr., was killed by Indians, although James Jr. also died in 1691. James Jr. left a will when he died at age 48, indicating most likely that he had a potentially terminal illness.

According to Lee, he learned from Judge Eugene F. Nute in Farmington that academics at the University of New Hampshire decided to excavate the grave of James and the two Indians. The Judge “stopped the foolishness,” had the remains reinterred, and placed the granite marker over the grave to prevent any further intrusion.

The short Nute Road off Spur Road (may have been the old Low Road) on Dover Neck may be the location of James’ 20-acre lot on Dover Neck bordering the east bank of the Bellamy River.

Next installment: Our Nute line from Dover to Woodstock, ME.

Sources: 
John Scales, Colonial Era History of Dover, New Hampshire, 1923
Dover Historical Society, Vital Records of Dover, New Hampshire, 1686-1850
George Wadleigh, Notable Events in the History of Dover, New Hampshire, 1913
Mary Thompson, Landmarks in Ancient Dover, NH, 1892
John Scales & Alonzo Quint, Historical Memoranda Concerning Persons & Places in Old Dover, NH, 1900