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.