Our Fickett Families: Scarborough to Woodstock

• Seventeenth century English Maine was settled primarily through the speculation of English investors and merchants sending planters and fishermen. Our own immigrant James Nute was a member of the Captain Mason party of planters to settle Dover, New Hampshire, as one of these enterprises. So, too, were the Ficketts and Libbys and Balls of our coastal Maine families who came as fishermen, became shipwrights and mariners, and eventually moved inland to become farmers.

Christopher Fickett 

Maine coastal waters were rich fishing grounds and temporary fishing huts gave way to permanent settlements in the area in the 1630’s. According to an early Scarborough histories, Christopher Fickett was living at Black Point, Scarborough, Maine in 1652, likely engaged in fishing and trading with local Native Americans. Black Point Neck in Scarborough was one place to dry fish, and here Christopher’s acquisition of 100 acres indicates he may also have been a planter. 

Scarborough, including Black Point, was incorporated as a town by Massachusetts in 1658, when it had about 50 homes, and Christopher’s would have been one. Given the salt marsh landscape, the town didn’t develop around a town center.

Both Christopher and his son, John, were listed as inhabitants of Black Point prior to the Indian War of 1675. Nothing else is known of his immigration, wife, or other children.

John Fickett (1645-1730)

John’s birth is calculated from an estimate that he was 25 years old in August 1670. He married Abigail Libby, daughter of John Libby of Scarborough, in 1670 according to Torrey. Abigail was not named in the 1883 Libby Family of America, although the author and family historian noted John Libby might have had a couple unnamed daughters. In the 1928 Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, the same author acknowledges Abigail as a daughter of the Scarsborough John Libby.

John Fickett was a Black Point farmer and fisherman whose home was destroyed in the 1675-76 Indian wars. He retreated to Portsmouth with other Black Point residents, returning to Scarborough in 1677 after Massachusetts militia were sent to secure the settlement. A garrison was built at Black Point in 1681, but increased Indian raids in 1689-1690 led to residents abandoning the town. The town did not again have organized government until 1720 although small groups returned earlier.

John Libby was born about 1602 in England, possibly in the Cornwall area, and died in Black Point, Scarborough, in 1682. A frequently reported age of 80 years old at time of death gave rise to the 1602 date, but a date closer to 1614 would be more reasonable as he started a family about 1636 just before coming to Maine. 

John came with the Plymouth (England) Company from County Kent to Richmond Island off the southern coast of Cape Elizabeth to work a fishery for English merchant Robert Trelawney. He arrived on the Hercules in 1636 under contract for three years service which expired in 1639. Once his contract was up, he settled onshore and sent for his family to join him, likely making his living as a fisherman. By 1663, he acquired 200 acres and built a homestead just inland at Black Point on Libby’s River in Scarborough, a planter and “a man of considerable wealth.” John lost all but his land in King Phillips’ War of 1675-76. His house and the dwellings of his sons were burned and cattle shot. The family took shelter in the Black Point garrison and shortly after evacuated to Boston along with others of the area. 

Two sons died in the 1675-76 Indian war while stationed in defense of the Black Point garrison - James was killed and Samuel ill was removed to his parents in Boston where he died in July 1677. John petitioned the Massachusetts governor in 1677 for the release of two other soldier sons - Henry and Anthony - from defense of the garrison, saying he depended on them for support. Exaggeration of his age in the petition seeking sympathy may have led to the earlier birth date. The Libby family returned to Scarborough by 1681 when John Sr. and sons John Jr., Henry, and Anthony are on the tax list.

 Aside from the two sons who died defending the garrison, John had at least 12 children with two wives; the first is unknown, mother of the first 10 children, and she died before 1663; the second named Mary who bore two more children. Our Abigail Libby was born to the first wife.

 The Libby Farm is now in Scarborough Land Trust and open for hiking.

John and Abigail had only three children, a small family for the time. Their kids grew up and married in the vicinity of Portsmouth.

Children of John Fickett and Abigail Libby:

• John Jr. m. Susannah Ball of Portsmouth, NH
• Rebecca m. Henry Guy of Marblehead, MA
• Mary m., Samuel Snell of Portsmouth, NH

John Fickett, Jr. (1675-1730)

The only son of John and Abigail, 7th GGF John Fickett, Jr. married Susannah Ball, daughter of a fisherman, before 1700 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, or Kittery, Maine; no records of the marriage are available.

Susannah’s father, 8th GGF Peter Ball (1645-1725), a fisherman, bought 20 acres in Portsmouth in 1672, the same year he married Margaret Jackson. He signed a petition of inhabitants to Massachusetts in 1689 to set up a temporary government in Portsmouth.

John’s first record is 1703 when he witnessed a note and later when he bought land in 1708. John Fickett from Portsmouth, whether John I or John II, signed a petition to Massachusetts from “we four poor towns daily exposed from French and Indian enemies” asking for “equal privileges with Massachusetts.” 

Otherwise, John Jr. left a small record footprint in history. Of his six children, he had only two sons  - Thomas and John III.  A deed transfer of their grandfather’s land between the brothers dated 1731 shows the boys living in Kittery and Portsmouth respectively.

Children of John II and Susannah Ball:

• John Fickett, III, a tanner in Portsmouth, NH, inherited land in Scarborough from grandfather, John Fickett, Sr.
• Thomas, a shipwright of Kittery in 1731 when he purchased his brother’s portion of land in Scarborough
• Daughters: Margaret, Sarah, Abigail, and Rebecca

Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth

Thomas Fickett (1700-1787)

Leaving troubled Scarborough in 1690, the Fickett family found itself living on one of the world’s deepest harbors with Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on one side of the Piscataqua River Kittery, Maine, on the other. Portsmouth’s economy was growing based on shipbuilding, fishing, and trade. No wonder Thomas became a shipwright and founder of a ship building dynasty.

6th GGF Thomas Fickett was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1700. 

Thomas’ marriage to Mary Moulton is generally given as 1720 and his birthplace as Scarborough even though Thomas was living in Kittery until after 1731. Mary is a mystery given the frequency of her given name, no findable marriage record, or identification in town or family histories. 

Thomas inherited a portion of Libby lands in Scarborough. In 1731, he also bought out Scarborough land originally belonging to their grandfather, John Fickett Sr., from his brother and his Aunt Rebecca Guy from Marblehead.

The first record of Thomas in Scarborough is an appearance in the York Court of Common Pleas in 1734 when he presents as the defendant in a debt case. 

The next record shows Thomas’ admission to communion at the First Congregational Church of Scarborough along with “Mehetable, daughter of Thomas and Mary Fickett" on July 18, 1736, and two weeks later “John, Mary, Benjamin, children of Thomas and Mary Fickett.” Nowhere in the church record is mentioned Thomas’s wife, Mary, being admitted to the church. The church was established in 1728 with admission and baptism records extending back to 1730.

Another mystery: First child, John, has a birth date listed in the Ficketts of Cape Elizabeth as 1722 in Kittery, but the next child listed is Mary in 1736, followed by another eight children until 1754, childbearing totaling 32 years. It seems more reasonable that Thomas had a first wife who had John, and a second wife, likely Mary Moulton, in the 1730’s who had the next nine children.

Thomas moved the family to Cape Elizabeth about 1737 after exchanging his part of the Scarborough land for Barren Hill in Cape Elizabeth. He was involved in the York Court of Common Pleas in Falmouth (Portland) in 1752, 1757, and 1758 for debt cases, and was on roll call for training soldiers in Falmouth in 1757.

All of Thomas and Mary’s sons and a number of grandsons served in the American Revolution, including Valley Forge, the ill-fated Penobscot Expedition, and the burning of Falmouth. Available information indicates the boys signed for three years in the Continental Army.

Three of Thomas’ sons  - John, Benjamin, and Jonathan - became shipwrights like their father. Jonathan’s son, Samuel, and Samuel’s nephew, Francis Fickett, moved to New York after the War of 1812 devastated their Portland shipbuilding business, and were builders of the SS Savannah, the first Trans-Atlantic steamship in 1818.

Thomas died in Cape Elizabeth in 1787.

Benjamin Fickett (1737-after 1812)

5th GGF Benjamin Fickett was baptized at First Church of Scarborough on September 25, 1737. The Benjamin Fickett, baptized in 1736 with the rest of the Fickett children died and our Benjamin Fickett was born to the Thomas Fickett and Mary family soon after. His family moved to Cape Elizabeth when he was young, perhaps in 1737. 

Gorham, Scarborough, Portland, and Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Two Benjamin Fickett’s lived in Cape Elizabeth/Falmouth during the mid-1700’s. Our Benjamin, son of Thomas, was born in 1737, became a shipwright, married Sarah Sawyer and lived in Cape Elizabeth/Stroudwater until about 1795 when he purchased land and moved to Gorham, Maine. The other Benjamin, nephew of our Benjamin, was born in 1750 in Cape Elizabeth, a farmer/wheelwright, married Deborah Sawyer, and lived in Cape Elizabeth.

Benjamin married 5th GGM Sarah Sawyer in February 1760 and they started a family soon after - eight children in all, including five sons. 

The Sawyer family were early settlers of Falmouth (later Portland) and there are no clear records identifying this Sarah’s parents. Ficketts of Cape Elizabeth, however, states Sarah’s parents are Isaac Sawyer and Sarah Brackett.

Benjamin was a Captain of Cumberland County militia in the American Revolution, at the time nearly 40 years old.

After a full career as a shipwright, Benjamin and his son Moses purchased 70 acres and a homestead in Gorham, Maine, in 1795. His sister, Mary, was already living in Gorham with her husband, Charles Patrick, a plasterer. We don’t have a death date for wife Sarah, but she was deceased by1804 when Benjamin married widow Hannah Roberts Parker in Gorham. Benjamin’s Gorham house burned in 1802.

Benjamin's death is not located in Gorham town records or histories, but Gorham death records at that time were sparse. His last record was on a quitclaim deed with son Moses in 1812 for the property in Gorham. His second wife lived until 1833, so it is unlikely -as some have reported - that he joined his other sons in Harrington. 

Sarah died sometime between the birth of her last child in 1775 and Benjamin’s remarriage in 1804. Given the size of the family, Sarah was probably around to raise the children or Benjamin would have remarried earlier. Very likely her death was close to the time Benjamin relocated to Gorham where he had a sister and three adult children, Mary, Ezra, and Moses; the move may have been precipitated by the loss of his wife.

Benjamin and Sarah's family were born in Cape Elizabeth, but scattered over the years:

• Zebulon (1759-1854) enlisted in the American Revolution at age 16 and was on the disastrous Penobscot Expedition. He married first cousin Sarah Fickett in 1780 and moved the family from Falmouth to Plantation No. 5, later to become Harrington, Maine, in 1789, and set off to form Milbridge in 1848. Early Harrington’s industry was harvesting Maine timber and shipbuilding to transport lumber, and the Ficketts were in the thick of it. Zebulon received a Revolutionary Pension in 1832. 

• Jonathan (1761-1850) married Judith Cox in Cape Elizabeth in 1788, and they moved the same year to Poland, Maine.

• Abigail (1762-1839) married first cousin and Quaker minister William Fickett, brother to Zebulon’s wife, and lived in South Portland.

• Moses (1766-1863) bought a 70-acre homestead with his father in Gorham, Maine, in 1796, but moved to Harrington/Milbridge by 1823. He had a store, M. Fickett & Co. in Harrington and seemed more civically involved than most of the family, serving town posts of treasurer and town clerk for several years. The Fickett families lived on the east side of Narraguaguis River where today there is a Fickett Point, Fickett Wharf, and Fickett Point Road not far from the 1A.

• Benjamin Jr. (1767-1851) was a shipwright who settled in Portland.

• Nathaniel (1771- ) may have remained in Cape Elizabeth, but little information can be found on him. He appears to be on the 1810 Cape Elizabeth census.

• Ezra (1773-1855) married in Gorham in 1796 - around the same time Moses and Benjamin, Sr. bought land in the area - but moved to Poland, Maine at an unknown date. He was living in Poland by 1845 when his first wife died.

• Sally (1775- ) married Charles Smith, a blacksmith from Gorham, so likely she moved away from Cape Elizabeth with her father and brother, Moses.

Ficketts on the 1798 tax list for Gorham, Maine, were Jonathan, Samuel, Asa, and two Benjamins.

Thus, the family spread like seeds to the wind, landing in Milbridge, Gorham, Poland, and Portland.

Revolution service for Captain Benjamin Fickett of Cape Elizabeth:

Three Benjamin Ficketts were living in Cape Elizabeth during the Revolution - Benjamin, Sr. (1737 - 1820), son Benjamin Jr. (1767-1851), and nephew Benjamin, Jr. (1750 - ), son of John. Two Benjamin Ficketts are listed by Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the American Revolution. 

Benjamin's son can be excluded as the Revolution soldier due to his age. One of the two remaining Benjamins was a Captain of the 8th Company, 1st Cumberland Regiment of Mass. militia; the second, a corporal who served building a fort on Falmouth neck and belonged to a company stationed on the seacoast at Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough. Of these, the senior Benjamin is more likely to be the Captain. Further, Maine Families in 1790 identifies Benjamin Jr., husband of Deborah Sawyer, as the corporal.

Jonathan Fickett (abt 1761-1850)

4th GGF Jonathan Fickett was born in Cape Elizabeth, the second of Benjamin and Sarah’s children.  Twenty seven year-old Jonathan was residing in Falmouth when he married 23 year-old Judith Cox (1764-abt 1804) from Cape Elizabeth in January 1788. Poland birth records show the first child born there in 1788.

Judith was the seventh of 14 children born to mariner 5th GGF Ebenezer Cox (Beverly, MA 1728-Bristol, ME 1795) and his second wife, 5th GGM Lydia Woodbury ( -1775 Bristol, ME) of Falmouth. Her brother, Israel, was a master mariner and soldier in the Revolution. Four of her siblings were twins.

Within the year, Jonathan and Judith moved to Poland where their first child, Charlotte, was born in December 1788. They had another three children over the next 8 years, Woodbury, Betsey, and Salley. Jonathan built a log house on White Oak Hill, Poland, in 1797, the first settler on the hill. He was received by baptism in 1798 at the First Free Will Baptist Church in Poland in 1798. He and Judith had another two children before she died. 

Children with Judith Cox:

• Charlote Fickett (1788-1854), born and died in Poland, married Zenas Briggs, farmer, brother of Luther Briggs in Paris and Lucy Briggs who married Samuel Bryant in Woodstock.
• Woodbury Fickett (1791-1862), War of 1812 veteran, named after Judith’s mother, Lydia Woodbury.
• Betsey Fickett, our 3rd GGM, married Samuel Nute (1792-1855) in Woodstock.
• Salley Fickett (1796- ), nothing more than birth record located.
• Simon Fickett (1799-1856), married Ruth Chase, “an enterprising and industrious citizen” who lived in Curtis neighborhood and moved across the line to Paris, according to History of Woodstock. He drowned in Little Angroscoggin River in West Paris.
• Judith Fickett (1802-1874) married Thomas J. Dunbar, shoemaker from Poland, moved to Springfield, MA.

No death information is available on Jonathan’s first wife, Judith, but she would have died at about age 38 years between the birth of her last child in 1802 and Jonathan’s marriage to 35 year-old 5th GGM Betsey Bryant, widow of Peter Brooks, in 1804.

Jonathan had two more children with Betsey Bryant Brooks:

• Joanna Fickett (1805-1869) born in Poland, married John Herrick, a farmer from Poland. She must have had a hard life as 1840-1860 censuses show 10-16 people and three generations living in their household.
• Jonathan Fickett, Jr. (1810- after 1850, died young), farmer, married Betsey Fuller.

Jonathan Sr. and Betsey moved to Woodstock by 1810 where his eighth child, Jonathan Jr., was born.

In June 1814, for “five dollars in hand,” Jonathan and wife Betsey (Bryant Brooks) Fickett sold 25 acres in Poland formerly owned by Peter Brooks to Seth Hilborn, except for a 10 rod square “at the place where the said Peter Brooks and others are buried.” Presumably, this the cemetery now known as Cousens Cemetery.

Jonathan’s occupation was identified as “yeoman” when he sold 30 acres of his Poland land in 1816 to Alexander Thurston; he purchased another 30 acre farm in Poland the same year. This would be the year New England had “no summer," instead experiencing snow in June, a hard frost every month, crop failures, drought, and wildfires.

The family moved from Poland to Woodstock in 1818 and settled “on what has been known as the Nute farm.”

2016 photo of hilltop meadow "the Nute farm" where Jonathan and Betsey lived

A 30 acre farm in Poland belonging to Jonathan Fickett was sold at public auction in 1819 for failure to pay taxes.

Jonathan was chosen by Woodstock townspeople as a “tithing man” in 1818. Among a tithingman’s duties are enforcing church rules, keeping order in church, and policing people who should be in church. In early days, the tithingman had a long pole to poke people who fell asleep during the sermon!

Jonathan and Betsey are believed buried in the Nute-Stevens cemetery in Woodstock in unmarked graves.

Betsey Fickett (1794-1826)

3rd GGM Betsey Fickett was born in Poland, Maine, the third of Jonathan and Judith’s four children. She was nine years old when her mother died, and 11 when father remarried to Betsey Bryant Brooks, daughter of Solomon Bryant and second wife of Peter Brooks. 

Betsey married Samuel Nute (1792-1855) in Poland in 1816, the year of dreadful weather, and their first two children were born there. Betsey and Samuel moved to Woodstock in 1820, relatively latecomers. 

Betsey had four children, spaced regularly every two years before her early death at age 32 in Woodstock, even younger than her mother at death. The second child of Betsey and Samuel was our 2nd GGF Orsamus Nute, only six years old when his mother died.

Children of Betsey and Samuel Nute:

• Harriet Nute (1818-1899) m. step-cousin Charles Brooks Davis, son of our 4th GGPS Aaron Davis, Jr., and Lucinda Oraing Brooks. The couple had at least five children and were living in Woodstock until the 1870’s. By 1880, they were both living in Paris with an adult daughter. Charles died in Paris in 1889 age 63, and Harriet in Lancaster, MA, in 1899 with senile debility and la grippe, age 80. She is interred in South Paris with Charles.
• Orsamus Nute (1820-1907) m. Lovina Dunn Davis, granddaughter of Aaron and Lucinda.
• Phebe Wentworth Nute (1822-1875), born in Woodstock, m. Asa Smith, farmer, and the couple resided in Woodstock in their early years. In the 1850 census, Phebe’s aunt and uncle, Zenas Briggs and Charlotte Fickett, are living with the Smith family. By 1870, Phebe and Asa had moved to Malden, MA, where Asa was working as a street waterer. Malden is about five miles north of downtown Boston where brother-in-law Orsamus moved and set up street sprinkling as a first business when he left Woodstock in 1864. Asa died in 1871 with heart disease, age 53, and Phebe died in 1875 with tuberculosis, age 52.
• Mary Jane Nute (1824-1904) m. Eleazer Cole Billings in Woodstock, farmer. Mary Jane died in 1904 in Woodstock with breast cancer, age 79.

After Betsey’s early death, Samuel remarried to Polly Davis, half sister of his son-in-law Charles Brooks Davis, and daughter of our 5th GGP’s Aaron Davis and Thankful Strout.

Samuel Nute, his two wives Betsey Fickett and Polly Davis; Polly’s brother, Aaron Davis, Jr. and his wife Lucinda Oraing Brooks; Orsamus and his two wives, Emma Stephens and Lovina Dunn Davis; and five of Orsamus’ children are buried in the Nute-Stevens cemetery in Woodstock.

Nute obelisk and headstones at Nute-Stevens cemetery, Woodstock, Maine

Sources: 

1.  Maine Genealogy Archives: First Church of Scarborough Admissions and Baptisms

http://archives.mainegenealogy.net/2008/06/first-church-of-scarborough-admissions.html

2.  Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder, V. 1 No. 4, 1884, p. 164  (bapt. of Benjamin, son of Thomas and Mary Fickett)

3.  Collections of the Maine Historical Society, V. 3, 1853, History of Scarborough, 1633 to 1783.

4.  Genealogy of Edward Small, p. 1336, (1775 sale by James Dyer to Benjamin Fickett, Barron Hill).

5.  The Libby Family in America, 1602-1881, Charles T. Libby, 1882

6.  Genealogical dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, Charles T. Libby, 1928

7.  New England Marriages prior to 1700, Torrey

8.  Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis. Vol. II. Gardner-Moses, 1996

9.  The Milbridge Register, 1905

10. Cumberland County Deeds https://i2a.uslandrecords.com/ME/Cumberland/D/Default.aspx#

11. 1816: The Year without a Summer. New England Historical Society. 

12. Massachusetts Soldiers & Sailors, vol 5, p. 642-6443.

13. History of Paris, Maine: From Its Settlement to 1880, WB Lapham, SP Maxim, 1884.

14. History of Woodstock, ME, with Family Sketches and an Appendix, WB Lapham, 1882.

15. History of Poland: embracing a period of over a century, HA Poole, 1890.

Woodstock: Our Davis Family, Colonial to Civil War Era

Our Colonial Davises in Gloucester

Our Maine Davis line first showed up in the colonies in 1638 some 30 miles north of Boston at Ipswich, Massachusetts when John Davis appeared in an Ipswich court, perhaps to take his freeman’s oath. 

His actual arrival is speculative, but all agree he came from England during the period of the Great Migration of Puritans (1620-1640). Religious motivation for immigration is highly probable given that his sons and many of the subsequent generations have biblical names, every family seeming to have an Aaron, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, and Mary. All Davises in Gloucester were descendants of John until 1700 when various other Davises came into the area.

Our Davis families lived in Gloucester, nearby Ipswich, and Attleborough, Massachusetts for 4 generations before making the leap to Bakerstown Plantation - now Poland, Maine - and then to Woodstock. 

The Davises and Days were among the 50 settlers living in the Gloucester area in 1650 where the Town Green is now a traffic rotary on Mass Rt 128.  Our Haskells, Browns, Brays and Tybotts arrived in the latter half of the century. They were mainly farmers, leaving it to the next generations to take advantage of fishing and commerce. As the little community grew and spread, in 1718 a Second Parish Church was established to make Sunday meeting attendance easier and it is here Davis births and marriages can be found. 

John¹ Davis  (Abt 1608, England - 1680 Ipswich)  was a young man about 27-30 years old when he came to New England. The date and ship of his immigration is unknown, but likely mid-1630’s.

Ipswich was a Puritan settlement started in 1634 by John Winthrop, son of the Governor John Winthrop of the Winthrop Fleet which brought over thousands of colonists.

Some speculate our John Davis was a follower of Rev. Richard Blinman who brought members of his Welsh congregation to the small fishing village of Marshfield in 1640 and within a year moved to Ipswich, just on the border of Gloucester. Review of NEHGS papers of Rev. Blinman’s congregation, however, does not mention a Davis.

John may have married Alice (1612-1682), identified as Newman, in England before immigration as no Newman families are found in the early settlers of Gloucester. They had two sons who survived to adulthood, James and our 9th GGF Jacob; the daughters are unknown.  

John made a living as a shoemaker and town herdsman with land in both Ipswich and Gloucester. He may also have been a house builder as a record in 1640 shows he was hired as a “joiner” to build a new house for another individual.

John bought a house, barn, orchard, and land near Walker’s Creek in Gloucester in 1656. He was a selectman of Gloucester for several years, twice a constable, and lieutenant of the military company.  In later years, he returned to Ipswich where he died in 1680, age 72.

Jacob² Davis (1640-1685) was born and raised in Gloucester, but lived off and on between Gloucester and Ipswich. He married Elizabeth Bennett (1641-1685)  of Gloucester in 1661 at age 21 and the following year received a grant of land at the head of Long Cove in Gloucester. In 1682 Jacob “and others have the liberty of the stream at the head of Little River to set up a sawmill.”

Jacob may have been a potter as well as a farmer and sawmill owner.

Elizabeth’s parents were both English immigrants who arrived by the 1630’s. She and Jacob had 8 children over a span of 22 years, all born in Gloucester - Jacob (our 8th GGF), Elizabeth, Susanna, Moses, Mary, and Aaron; two sons named John died in infancy.

Jacob was drafted in the town’s quota for King Phillip’s War in 1675, but most draftees hired substitutes to do the actual soldiering.

Jacob and Elizabeth both died young in 1685, age 45 and 44 respectively, seven months apart, most likely from infectious causes. They left six children age 18 and under; only our GGF Jacob Jr. was over 18 and may have had to assume responsibility for some of the children. An article in NEGHR shows at least one of the children, Joseph, 11 years old when their parents died, was placed under the guardianship of brother Moses for the first two years until guardianship was transferred to an uncle. Jacob Sr. left an estate that included a house, upland and meadow, cart yoke, half of a sloop and four canoes, cattle, sheep and swine, and gun, cutlass and belt, so he and Elizabeth had worked hard and done well before their early death.

Jacob³ Davis (1663-1717) was 22 years old when his parents died. Two years later he married Mary Haskell from a nearby farm. He carried on his father’s mill in Gloucester, and also lived back and forth between Gloucester and Ipswich.

Mary’s grandfather - our 9th GGF- William Haskell, immigrated about age 20 from Charlton Musgrove, Somerset, England to Beverly, MA, with his mother, stepfather, and two brothers in 1635.  He was a mariner and fisherman who moved his family to Gloucester in 1645 and purchased land on the west side of Walker’s Creek. Son, William Haskell, Jr., inherited the family farm, but was also a fisherman and owned saw and grist mills in what is now Rockport, MA. He married Mary Walker from a neighboring farm and our Mary Haskell was the first of their 9 children. Both William Sr. and William Jr. left considerable estate. The family home built in the mid 1600’s is on the National Register of Historic Homes and operates as a bed and breakfast.

William Haskell House, Gloucester
built c. 1700

Jacob³ and Mary married in 1687 in Gloucester and had 8 children. Their first, a son Jacob, died soon after birth. The second son, Captain Moses Davis, was a mariner who moved to Rowley, Massachusetts. Third son, William, had the tragic loss of three children within a week’s time in the winter of 1729, very likely from an influenza epidemic. Fifth son, Joseph, apprenticed to a cabinet maker and became a well known furniture maker in Boston.

Jacob acquired land at the head of Little River and built a house and mill by 1712. The house has been variously occupied as a hostel, tavern, home of a descendant of Gloucester slaves, now restored and serves as a homeless shelter. This house is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jacob Davis House, Gloucester, 1712

Jacob died age 53 in the winter of 1717, a year of severe influenza epidemic in New England. Mary experienced a lifetime of losses, including a brother who died when she was 13, a son when she was 20, two sisters within 5 days when she was 22, another son when she was 35, death of her father when she was 40, her mother at 47, husband at 48, and a brother at 49. Mary remarried to Ezekiel Woodward with whom Jacob had done business in Gloucester but she, too, died two years later at age 53, leaving 7 minor children, including Aaron⁴.

Aaron⁴ Davis (1704 - abt 1743), 4th son of Jacob³ and our 7th GGF, was born while Jacob and Mary were living in Ipswich. Aaron was 12 years old when his father died.

In 1725, 21 year-old Aaron married 19 year old Phebe Day (1706-1791), descended from the Day settlers of Gloucester. By 1728, the family was living in Attleboro, documented by a sale of land Aaron and his brothers inherited from their father, and by the birth location of their 7 children. Attleboro is a fair distance from Gloucester, about 80 miles south, due west from Plymouth, just north of Fall River. 

Like his father, Aaron⁴ died young at age 39 in Attleboro. Phebe lived to be 71 years, acquiring another three husbands along the way - Benjamin Hoppin, Nehemiah Ward, and John Hoppin - the last when she was 70 years old. 

Phebe married second husband, mariner Benjamin Hoppin, in 1745 and had a son, also Benjamin Hoppin. The elder Benjamin was lost at sea soon after. She died in Providence, RI, in 1791 as Phebe Hoppin. 

The Davis family moves to Poland

Captain Zebulon⁵ Davis (1733-1820), the eldest son of Aaron⁴ and Phebe, was 9 years old at his father’s death. His mother remarried in Attleborough in 1745 and Zebulon’s guardianship was assigned by Essex County court in 1748 to Abner Day (cordswainer), Ezekial Woodward (shoreman), both of Gloucester, and Joseph Marshall of Ipswich. Ezekial's son, Davis Woodward, also moved to Poland Maine, and the Day family were early settlers of New Gloucester, Maine (not to be confused with Gloucester, MA) as well as a pioneering family of Woodstock.

Several of Aaron and Phebe’s children may have been taken into Gloucester families as Zebulon’s brother, Aaron, was living in Gloucester at the time of the Revolution and fought at Bunker Hill with a company of Essex men, “by the rail fence, in the thick of fight all day covered only by scattering trees, they poured the most destructive volleys on the enemy.” Zebulon’s youngest brother, Timothy, was a shipmaster who drowned in the Little River in 1769 at age 27 when his boat upset.

Apprenticed into sea faring families, Zebulon took up the mariner’s life. At 18, he married Mary Bray (1730 - ) from the Gloucester Bray family in the Second Parish and their 7 children were all born in Gloucester.

Sometime between 1768 and 1776, Captain Zebulon gave up the sea and moved his family to Bakerstown Plantation, Maine, a wilderness at the time. Two sons remained behind in Gloucester - Eliphalet who was successful in trading and commerce, and Zebulon Jr.  Young Zebulon Jr. served in the Revolution in 1776 while still in Gloucester, and soon after removed to Bakerstown Plantation in the Minot area with a fellow soldier. 

The area of Bakerstown Plantation that is now Poland began to settle in 1767, and at the 1790 census there were still only 7 permanent settlers here. One of these 7 families was Zebulon’s. 

The whole of Bakerstown Plantation had 217 households in the 1790 census. Bakerstown was incorporated in 1795 as Poland, but various towns were set off over the next 100 years, including Minot, Mechanic Falls, and part of Auburn. The entire area of Bakerstown/Poland was in Cumberland County until it became part of Androscoggin County in 1854. 

On July 21, 1776, Zebulon and 21 other male Bakerstown settlers signed an agreement setting up a town militia to serve in the American Revolution. 

History of Poland states Zebulon Sr. was held prisoner and endured suffering and hardship confined at Halifax by the British, but corroborating evidence is not available. He was a Captain in the Bakerstown Company of militia assigned to Isaac Parsons’ nearby New Gloucester regiment from at least 1781-1786. That he was in the militia or naval service and captured in these intervening years is likely, but not documented other than in the history of Poland. He died in 1820 before Revolution pensions were available to other than disabled Revolution veterans.

Three sons, Zebulon, Eliphalet, and our 6th GGF, Aaron, also served in the Revolution.  Zebulon Jr. served 9 months as a drummer in 1776, assigned to protect the Gloucester coast. He married the same year, and moved to Minot, ME. Eliphalet served 3 years from 1777-1780. Aaron was in the Bakerstown militia of which his father was Captain.

First wife Mary died sometime after the birth of her last child in 1766 and 1779. Zebulon married second time around 1779, widow Hannah Sawyer Marble, and started a second family of an additional 3 children.

The 1790 census shows Zebulon, 2 males under 16, and 2 free white females living in Bakerstown Plantation.

Zebulon and Mary’s children

• Zebulon, Jr. (1753-1838) married Tryphosa Herrick in Gloucester as soon as he finished his Revolution service, and moved to Minot, Maine. They had 7 children, all born in Bakerstown Plantation (Minot), one of whom was named Zebulon (1785 - ). His son, Benjamin, served in the War of 1812.

• Moses (1755-1841), moved to New Gloucester, then to Bakertown, lived on Pigeon Hill (Mechanic Falls) and married Olive Bodwell at age 24. They had two children, but she died within a couple years. At age 33, he married 15 year old Deborah Marble from nearby New Gloucester, Maine, and they had an additional 9 children.

• Eliphalet (1756-1804) was born, raised, and died in Gloucester. He served as a drummer in the Revolution, but subsequently enlisted in the Continental Army and rose to the rank of General according to History of Gloucester. Eliphalet settled in Harbor Parish of Gloucester where he kept a shop and engaged in foreign commerce. He married 16 year old Hannah Somes at age 23, and they had at least 8 children.

• Aaron⁶ Davis (1757-1837), our 5th GGF, married Thankful Strout.

• Molle  “Mary Polly” Davis (1761-1820) married Joshua Dunn of Bakerstown who served in the Revolution. Joshua enlisted at Falmouth in 1776 as a 15 year old and served in New York City at the time Washington lost to the British. Joshua and Molle were married in 1783 by Isaac Parsons in nearby New Gloucester under whom Molle’s father served in the Revolution. Joshua gave the name of “The Empire” to the area of Poland in which he lived. He was described as  “possessing a fine physique, and a noted wit and practical joker.” Molle and Joshua had 8 children born in Poland over a period of 19 years. She died at age 43, three years after the birth of her last child.

• William (1763-1845) was born in Gloucester and still a child when the family moved to Poland. In 1786, he married step-sister Hannah Marble, a skilled midwife, and they had 5 children, one of whom was named Zebulon. William lived on Pigeon Hill, but moved in with his father and stepmother/mother-in-law in 1791 when he was 28 years old. He built another house on the property the following year to accommodate the large family. William had 4 young children; step-mother Hannah Sawyer Marble and father Zebulon had 3 young children.  Total = 11 people. Needed a bigger house!

Altogether, Zebulon Sr. and Mary had 48 grandchildren. Among these were five Pollys, four each Williams, Eliphalets, and Benjamins; and two each Aarons and Zebulons, almost all of whom lived in the Poland, Minot, Woodstock area. Imagine Christmas.

Zebulon died in Poland in 1820, age 87. What a life!

And on to Woodstock . . .

Aaron⁶ Davis (1757-1837), fourth son of Zebulon and Mary, was born and lived in Gloucester until his early teens when Zebulon moved the family to Bakerstown Plantation. Aaron married Thankful Strout (1757-1825) in 1784, both age 27. Thankful was from the prominent seafaring Strout family of Gloucester. Even starting their family at relatively late ages, Aaron and Thankful managed to have 11 children over a period of 22 years. According to Lapham’s Woodstock history, all were born in Poland, I verified the births in early vital records of Poland as Thankful’s age of 50 at the last birth is unusual.

Aaron signed the 1776 Bakerstown Agreement establishing a militia and served as a private in the regiment commanded by his father, Zebulon. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors indicates he was on the disastrous Penobscot expedition of 1779.

Aaron and Thankful's children

• Hannah (1785-1860), married farmer William Faunce of Paris in 1804 in Hebron, ME, died age 75, in Oxford, ME; 11 children.

• Aaron⁷, Jr.,  (1786-1870), our 4th GGF married Lucinda Oraing Brooks.

• Thankful (1788-1863), married lumberman Robert Stockman; at least 2 children.

• Sally (1791-1885), married farmer Seth Curtis, sergeant in War of 1812; they lived in Woodstock until his later years, then moved to Paris; 4 children.

• *Polly (1792-1873), married Samuel Nute; 3rd step-great aunt to the Nute family; see below.

• Phebe (1795-1835), died age 40, unmarried, likely lived with Aaron and Thankful as an “old maid.”

• Benjamin (1797-1870), married Ruhamah Chase; 9 children.

• Eliphalet (1799-), married Lydia Lurvey; children and death date unknown.

• Eliza (1801-), married Richard Lurvey who was a representative to the state legislature in 1836.

• Nehemiah Strout Davis (1804-1832), never married, died in Woodstock a age 28. His estate was appraised by brothers-in law, Seth Curtis and Samuel Nute, and consisted of $260, a bridle, a 3 year old colt, and wearing apparel.

• Julia Marie (1807-1887), married Benjamin Stephens (1807-1890), son of our 4th GGP’s Captain Samuel Stephens and Emma Swan, and brother to Jane Stephens, our 3rd GGM who married Joseph Davis, son of Julia’s brother and our GGF Aaron⁷. 

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*Polly Davis ( 1792-1873): Polly, was the 2nd wife of our 3GGF Samuel Nute (1792-1855). Samuel’s first wife died at a young age, leaving him 4 young children; a year later he married Polly who was also in her mid-30’s and she raised the children - including our Orsamus - but they had no children of their own. Samuel died in Woodstock at age 62, and in 1860 she was living with Orsamus and his first wife, Emma Stevens. Emma died in 1860, and Orsamus took a second wife, Lovena Dunn Davis, our 2nd great-grandmother and grand daughter of Aaron⁵ Davis, Polly’s father. That is to say, Polly was the great-aunt of Lovina. In any event, Orsamus and Lovina took Polly with them when they moved to Boston in 1862 and she died there at age 73, outliving Samuel by 18 years. Pretty confusing, eh?

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Davis memorial in Curtis Hill Cemetery, Woodstock
Aaron Davis and wife Thankful Strout

Thankful died age 68 in 1825, leaving Aaron a widower for 12 years. Aaron applied for and was granted a Revolution pension in 1832, age 72, and died five years later. They are both buried in Curtis Hill Cemetery, a beautiful little cemetery on a hill overlooking Woodstock.

Aaron Davis⁷ (1786-1870), like the rest of his sibs, was born in Poland, and we know he was living in Woodstock by 1811 as his son, Joseph, was born here. As a private in the War of 1812, he was ordered to the defense of Portland in September 1814. History of Poland notes Aaron Jr. was in Woodstock before his father who arrived by 1815, and both Aarons were at a Woodstock town meeting in 1815.

Aaron married Lucinda Oraing Brooks, daughter of our 5th GGP’s Dr. Peter Brooks and Betsey Bryant, before 1809. They had 11 children between the years 1809 - 1830. Lucinda died in 1839 at the age of 52, and Aaron married 43 year old Eliza Dudley in 1843. 

Aaron's and Lucinda’s children:

• Cynthia (1809-1887) married shoemaker Alexander Bryant, grandson of our 5th GGF Solomon Bryant, and they had 11 children.

• Joseph Davis⁸ (1811-1886), our 3rd GGF, married Jane Stephens (1812-1893).

• Stephen Denning Davis (1813-1864) was a boot  maker in Ashland, MA, three times married per record at his third marriage. His first wife, Abigail, was “injured at a tent meeting in the rage of Millerism in 1843. During the meeting someone threw a hemlock knot at the minister and it struck Mrs. Davis. The injury finally resulted in her death ,” per Libby notes. He moved the family to Ashland, Massachusetts where he died age 51 from a “canker rash” and scarlet fever.

• Charles Brooks (1815 - 1884), farmer, married Harriet Nute (1818-1899), daughter of our 3rd GGP’s Samuel Nute and Betsey Fickett. They had 6 children. Charles and Harriet were living in Woodstock through the 1870 census. By 1880 they were living in Paris and are both buried in South Paris.

• Phebe (1817 - after 1855) married Joseph Cotton and had 4 children.

• Lorenzo (1820 - 1902), a farmer, married Eleanor Packard in Woodstock. She died from tuberculosis while they were living in Ashland, MA, in 1856. He married second Laura Upton in Ashland, MA, in 1857 and returned to live in Woodstock. He died from a stroke at age 84 in Auburn, ME. 

• Betsey (1821 - 1898) married shoemaker Aaron Thurlow and they lived in Paris. She died in Mechanic Falls with heart disease in 1898.

• Thankful (1823 - ) has left no footprints.

• Aaron (1825-1870), married Lucy Fickett; died age 44 from consumption within a month of his father’s death and his land was sold at auction to pay debts. Lucy took up nursing and lived with her mother in Paris to support herself and her daughter.

• Seth C. (1828 - 1902), carpenter and farmer, married Almira Herrick; died age 73 in Auburn, ME, from “gastric catarrh,” stomach gastritis, perhaps a bleeding ulcer.

• Lucinda ( 1830 -) lived with her father until his death in 1870. Two years later at age 50, she married 80 year old farmer, Jeremiah Curtis, from Rumford.

According to  the 1850 census, 62 yr old Aaron, 50 yr old Eliza, 27 yr old Betsey, 25 yr old Aaron, 23 yr old Seth, and 20 yr old Lucinda Davis are living in the family home. Son, Joseph, is living on the farm next door. Eliza died before 1854 when intentions to marry third wife Nancy H. Stephens of Paris were published, likely a widow so we do not know her birth surname. In any event, the 1860 census shows Aaron is a 74 year old “gentleman” living with only 65 yr old Nancy. Aaron died in Woodstock, age 84, in March 1870 from a stroke and his son, 40 year old Aaron, died from tuberculosis the following month.

Aaron Davis Jr. and wife Lucinda

Nute Stephens Cemetery, Woodstock

In the background is the Nute obelisk and row of Nute headstones

Joseph⁸ Davis (1811-1886), our 3rd GGF and oldest son of Aaron and Lucinda, grew up on the Davis farm in South Woodstock and married Jane Stephens, daughter of Captain Samuel Stephens and Emma Swan. Joseph was a farmer and had a saw mill with his brother, Seth, on a brook in Woodstock. Joseph and Jane had 5 children, all born in Woodstock, and the oldest married into our Nute line. 

Joseph's and Jane's children

• Lovina⁹ Dunn Davis (1835-1880) married Orsamus Nute.

• Joseph Henry (1837-1908) enlisted in the Maine 23rd Infantry Regiment in 1862 and went with his regiment to Washington during the Civil War, assigned to guarding the forts of the upper Potomac, but never under fire. He married Juliett Irish and lived out his years in Woodstock as a farmer until 71 years of age.

• Antonett Davis (1839-1922) married Charles Chase and lived in Paris where he was a farmer.

• Jane Lurvey Davis (1842 -) was 18 years old living at home in 1860 but left no further footprints.

• William Stephens Davis (1847-1922), farmer, married Georgianna Irish. He died age 74 with influenza and parkinsonism.

Joseph Davis and Jane Robbins Stephens are both buried in South Woodstock Cemetery

South Woodstock Cemetery

Twenty five year-old Lovina⁹ married 41 year-old Orsamus Nute (1820-1907), a widower with 5 children, in 1861. In the 1860 census she was living at home with her parents, working as a teacher, and this may have been her connection to Orsamus, also a teacher in Woodstock. Lovina and Orsamus had another 6 children, including our GGF Joseph¹⁰ Nute. The first two, including Joseph, were born in Woodstock. The last four were born in Boston but two of these did not survive infancy. She died with pericarditis at age 45. Lovina and Orsamus are both buried in the Nute Stephens cemetery in Woodstock. 

Nute momument and markers
Nute-Stephens Cemetery
Woodstock, Maine

Even though Lovina died in Boston and Orsamus in Monsey, New York, they both came home to Woodstock to be buried. Orsamus made his fortune in Boston and built an obelisk memorial for the Nute family in the Nute Stephens Cemetery. Along with Orsamus are buried,

Samuel Nute (1792-1855), his father

Betsey Fickett (1794-1826), Samuel’s first wife

Polly Davis (1792-1873), Samuel’s second wife and daughter of Aaron⁷ Davis, Jr.

Rebecca Wentworth (1765-1828), Samuel’s mother and Orsamus’ grandmother

Emma Stephens, (1822-1860), Orsamus’ first wife

Lovina⁹ Dunn Davis( 1835-1880) Orsamus’ second wife

Children of Orsamus and 1st wife Emma

     Emma F, died in infancy, 1857

     Samuel, died age 20, 1864

     Ruth Anna, unmarried, died in 1880, age 28, in Boston 

Children of Orsamus and Lovina

     Ernest, died in infancy, 1868

     Frankie, died in infancy, 1870

We have two hundred fifty years of history with our American Davis family, through wars, hard times, huge families, tragic losses, all with that New England work and survival ethic to become the hardy "stock" of Woodstock. They funneled from Gloucester, up through Maine and into the wilderness, and finally returning to "civilization" in Boston.

Woodstock: The Remarkable Captain Samuel Stephens, Mayflower descendant and son of a Revolutionary

 Captain Samuel Stephens and Emma Swan, our 4th great-grandparents, were relative latecomers to Woodstock with their arrival in Woodstock around 1815.

Samuel Stephens in Plymouth, Massachusetts

Samuel was born to Edward Stephens and Mayflower descendant Phoebe Harlow in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 

Birth and death records are not available for Samuel but his gravestone indicates he died at age 90 in 1856, which puts his birth at about 1766. A 1913 SAR application by a great-grandson, Harold Ellsworth Stevens, MD, in Lewiston, ME, gives a birth date of September 16, 1768, but the source of that date is unclear unless from family records. Indeed, the Revolutionary War pension application of his brother, William, makes reference to a family Bible with birth dates.

Both parents were in their 40's when Samuel was born, the 9th of ten children. Three of the 10 died young - a brother at age 3 before Samuel was born, and two sisters at ages 21 and 27.

Samuel grew up in a revolutionary age and family. When but eight years old, his father and three brothers marched with a Plympton military company to nearby Marshfield on April 19, 1775, the day of the Lexington alarm. While surrounding areas were revolutionary bent, Marshfield was a hotbed of Loyalists. Brother William spent 7 months in the young colonial Navy on the brigantine Hazard in 1777-78.

Samuel had several losses before he turned 22 with the death of an older sister in 1786, his mother in 1787, father in 1788, and another sister in 1791.

The earliest record of Samuel occurs with his 1788 marriage to a young woman from the neighboring farm, Desire Harlow, just months after his father’s death. Their first child, Samuel Jr., was born 7 months after the marriage. They had another two children by 1798, the year Samuel purchased a lot in Paris, Maine.

Samuel is again mentioned in his father’s probate papers in 1789. Although his father owned significant land in the Plympton/Plymouth/Marshfield area, he died insolvent and his land was sold off to his sons and sons-in-law to cover his debts. A small, but nice parcel at Hobbs Hole went to 21 year-old Samuel, perhaps made possible with money from the his new wife’s family. Farming soil in Plymouth was acidic, porous, and downright poor for farming except for a few patches, one of these being Hobbs Hole, “a 15 minute walk from Burial Hill in Plymouth.” Even with a workable piece of land, Samuel’s attention turned to other opportunities in the expanding colonies.

Samuel and Desire in Paris (great name for a movie)

Still a young man at age 31, Samuel and Desire and children joined a host of others migrating from the Plymouth, Plympton, and Marshfield areas to inland Maine in the years after the Revolution. Samuel’s brother, Sylvanus, became an early resident of nearby Sumner although it’s not clear when he arrived.

We know Samuel purchased the 100 acre “Center lot” in Paris, Maine, in 1798, from Lemuel Perham and the family finally traveled the 188 miles from Plymouth to Woodstock in 1800. Tragically, Desire died in 1801, leaving Samuel with three young children. Samuel married our 4th great-grandmother, Emma Swan, the following year.

Emma’s father, William Swan, a Revolution soldier who fought at Bunker Hill, moved his family to Paris by 1790 and was an early settler of Woodstock by 1802, about the time Emma married our Samuel in Paris.

Samuel had another six children with second wife Emma. Desire must still have been on his mind as their first child was named Jesse Harlow Stephens. One of their children, Oren, died young, perhaps only two years old.

Samuel took an active role in the early Paris community. He and another Paris resident, Nicholas Smith, built a grist mill on Smith Brook. He was on the committee to build a Baptist Church in the town, treasurer for the town 1803-04, and selectman/assessor in 1806 and 1810. He cast musket balls to arm the town's War of 1812 militia.

Samuel and Emma in Woodstock

By 1815, Samuel once more moved his family, this time to Woodstock and - again - he was a prominent member in the community. He was a Selectman in 1817 and Overseer of the Poor in 1818. At a town meeting in 1817, “old Mrs. Lucy Swan was set up at auction and struck off to Samuel Stephens at $1.09/week.” The town handled their old folk in those days by auctioning off care to the lowest bidder. Old Lucy, indeed, was Emma’s mother, our 5th GGM; she died the following year. 

After moving to Woodstock, Samuel bought a grist mill afterwards known as the Captain Stephens Mill, and businesses built up around the area, including a blacksmith shop, hotel, and a circus ground. Stephens Mills was the business center of Woodstock for several years. The unreliable water source allowed the mill to operate only intermittently and it was dismantled in 1834.  

Woodstock Corner about 1830, from Woodstock Chamber of Commerce

Samuel and Emma built a beautiful home that was the last of the original Stephens Mills settlement when it burned down in 1968.

Captain Samuel Stephens house, built in 1815, photo in 1955, from Stephens Mills website

School areas were redistricted in 1820 and Samuel's farm was in the First district along with the Swan and Bryant families, also grandparent ancestors.

Samuel served two terms in the Maine legislature, elected in 1827 and 1831 to represent Woodstock which meant trips to Portland until the state capital was moved to Augusta in 1832. In 1845, he voted with the minority in favor of liquor licenses in Woodstock.  Most of the town, including another GGF Orsamus Nute, voted for prohibition.

Samuel's oldest son, also Samuel, died tragically at age 43, crushed in a mill accident in Woodstock in 1832, and wife Emma died 4 years later, leaving Samuel a widower for the next twenty years. His oldest son by Emma, Jesse Harlow Stephens, a Methodist minister, hung himself in 1843, reportedly influenced by Millerism.*

*William Miller developed a national following for preaching the Second Coming of Christ would occur sometime in 1843.

In 1850, eighty-two year old Samuel was living with Sam Jr.'s widow and 36 year-old spinster daughter, Mary. He died in 1856 at the age of 90.

Samuel was a "highly respected citizen," clearly involved in the community and did well for himself, particularly given his father's insolvency and no inheritance from the family.  In addition to his property and home, probate inventory showed he had two cows, 10 sheep, a ton of hay, and 5 bushels of potatoes and turnips each, among other sundry things. One of the appraisers of his estate was our Orsamus Nute.

Samuel's family:                                                                                                                                   

Desire Harlow, 1st wife, died in Paris, age 32

• Samuel Stephens, Jr. (1789-1832), private, War of 1812; m. Mayflower descendant Elizabeth Doten; killed in mill accident at age 43, 2 children.
• Captain Eleazer Stephens (1792-1852), War of 1812 Navy veteran; m. Nancy Stevens, 5 children.
• Desire Stephens (1798-1869), m. Artemus Felt, 8 children.

Emma Swan, 2nd wife, died in Woodstock, age 66

• Jesse Harlow Stephens (1802-1843), m. Abigail Lurvey, 5 children; Methodist minister, hanged himself at age 41. 
• Benjamin Stephens (1807-1890), m. Julia Maria Davis; 5 children; son Orin became a doctor.
• Orin Stephens (1809 - ), died young, possibly in 1811.
• Jane Stephens (1812-1893), m. Joseph Davis; 5 children; daughter Lovina Dunn Davis married our Orsamus Nute.
• Mary Stephens (1815 - died after 1870), unmarried, lived with father until he died, then on the "town farm."

In total, Captain Samuel had 30 grandchildren.

Samuel, Emma, and Samuel Jr. are buried in Curtis Hill Cemetery. Many other Stephens are buried in the Nute-Stephens cemetery, including son Benjamin and his family, and there appears to have been a close connection between the Nute and Stephens families.

The Mystery of Captain Samuel Stephens 

Paris and Woodstock town histories often refer to Samuel as Captain Stephens even when the rank of other Revolution veterans in these towns is rarely mentioned. The source of Samuel's captainship is not documented from the Revolution, nor is he listed as one of the Paris men training for the War of 1812.

The Woodstock Samuel Stephens has been generally accepted as a Revolution privateer:

• From Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors: Samuel Stevens, Gloucester. Descriptive list of officers and crew of the ship “America” (privateer), commanded by Captain John Somes, sworn to in Suffolk Co., June 8, 1780; age 14 yrs; stature 3’10 “; residence Gloucester.
• Maine Veterans Cemetery Records documents the same information under his name, associating the information with our Samuel’s gravestone, and citing Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors as the source information.
• His gravestone has an American Revolution veteran marker.
• Stephens Mills website sources the Woodstock Samuel Stephens as this young Gloucester teen.

Here are the problems with this claim:

• There is no doubt our Samuel is from Plymouth, and not Gloucester. Paris and Woodstock town histories refer to Samuel as being from Plymouth, he married a young woman from the Plymouth Harlow family, he is listed in the Plymouth Edward Stephens probate papers, and brother Sylvanus from Plymouth lived in nearby Sumner.
• Gloucester had an extensive Stevens family headed by William Stevens, famed as a master ship carpenter in the 1600s, and rampant with Samuel named offspring. They spell their name Stevens, whereas our Plymouth family were Stephens.
• If his gravestone is correct, Samuel would have been 12 and not 14 years old at the time this young sailor took to sea harassing the British.
• The Gloucester teen was 3’10” tall and would have had to grow another 12” to be out of the category of dwarfism. American Revolution men were tall, averaging three inches taller than the British soldiers. An average American adult male would have been 5’8” in those days, about an inch less than the contemporary American male. If we extrapolate to 14 year old boys of that era, an average Revolution era 14 yr old boy would be about 5’3 1/2”. A 3’10” fourteen year old sailor would have stood out, so much so that the stat got put into the listing in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors.

In order for our Woodstock Samuel to be the Gloucester teen privateer, he would have had to make his way 75 miles north from Plymouth to Gloucester by age 14, back to Plymouth before age 20 to impregnate and marry the Plymouth Desire Harlow, and grow another two feet.

More likely, the connection between the Woodstock Captain Samuel Stephens and Gloucester privateer is incorrect. Quite possibly, our Samuel attained his Captainship post-Revolution in the local militia, following the footsteps of his Revolution father and brothers, rising up the ranks as he seemed to do most of his life. Even more likely, he was in the seafaring business in Plymouth as many in the area were wont with poor farming quality in the area. He was set with the family house on the property at Hobbs Hole and until age 30 captained his own boat. This would explain why he continued to use the title Captain in later life when other Revolution veterans in the Woodstock/Paris did not. As in, aye, aye Captain.

Next up, The Stephens family before Woodstock . . .

Sources:
The Old Village of Woodstock, Maine, 1808-1840-50, Woodstock Chamber of Commerce.

A History of Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine from the earliest explorations to the close of the year 1900.
History of Woodstock, Me. : with family sketches and an appendix, William Berry Lapham, 1882.

History of Paris, Maine, from its settlement to 1880, William Berry Lapham, 1884.
History of the town of Gloucester, Cape Ann : including the town of Rockport, Babson, 1860.

Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War
Woodstock Cemeteries, compiled  by Joyce Howe

Stephens Mills webside, http://www.stephensmills.net/