USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume II > Part 96
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(XVII) Zachariah, son of Rev. Experience Mayhew and his second wife, Remember (Bourne) Mayhew, was born May 14, 1718, and graduated from Harvard College in 1737. At the death of his father in 1758 he became pastor of the church at Chilmark, and lived to the age of eighty-nine years, dying March 6, 1806. He was married November 25, 1738.
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to Elizabeth Allen, daughter of John and Mar- garet (Holmes) Allen. She was born Sep- tember 29, 1720, and was the mother of six children, namely : Nathan, William, Elizabeth, Jonathan, Zachariah and Rebecca.
(XVIII) Nathan, eldest child of Rev. Zachariah and Elizabeth (Allen) Mayhew, was born May 18, 1741, in Chilmark, and died March 13, 1791, near the close of his fiftieth year. He was married in 1761, in Tisbury, to his cousin, Susannah, daughter of Jethro and Mary (Mayhew) Altheam, whose descent is given below :
(1) Simon Altheam came to Dover, New Hampshire, about 1660, and settled on Mar- tha's Vineyard in 1690. His wife, Mary But- ler, was a daughter of Simon Butler, and granddaughter of Nicholas Butler, who came from Eastwell, county of Kent, England, in the ship "Hercules," of Sandwick, July II, 1637, accompanied by his wife, Joyce, three children and five servants. He settled at Dorchester, Massachusetts, where he was made a freeman in 1639, and removed thence to Martha's Vineyard in 1651. Simon Altheam went to Martha's Vineyard in 1690, and was representative to the general court in 1692.
(2) Jethro, son of Simon and Mary ( But- ler) Altheam, was baptized in 1700, and was married in 1724 to Mary, daughter of Rev. Experience Mayhew and his first wife, Thank- ful Hinckley ( see Hinckley above).
(3) Susannah, daughter of Jethro and Mary (Mayhew) Altheam, was born 1735, and be- came the wife of Nathan Mayhew, of Chil- mark (see Mayhew, XVIII). She died De- cember 30, 1758. Their children were : James, Abigail, Hebron, William, Susannah, Mary and Nathan.
(XIX) William, third son of Nathan and Susannah ( Altheam) Mayhew, was born July 30, 1769, in Chilmark, and became a sea cap- tain, engaged in trade along the New England coast. He went to Bangor, Maine, about 1792. In 1800 he removed to Belfast, same state, and died there in 1819. He was married at Vinal Haven, in 1794, to Alvira, daughter of Hon. William Vinal, whose ancestry is traced as below :
(1) John Vinall, of Vine Hall, was liv- ing there in 1538.
(2) Thomas, son of John Vinall, resided at Vine Hall in 1550.
(3) William Vinall resided at Vine Hall in the time of Queen Elizabeth.
(4) John (2) Vinall resided at Vine Hall in the time of James 1. He had sons, John and Stephen.
(5) Stephen, son of John (2) Vinal, dropped one "1" from the end of his name, and died in 1635. His widow, Ann, with her daughter and two sons, settled at Scituate, Massachusetts, in 1636, and died there in 1664. The children were named : Mary, Stephen and John.
(6) John (3), youngest son of Stephen and Ann Vinal, was born in 1632, and resided at Scituate. He married, 1664, Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Rev. Nicholas Baker, who was ordained as minister at Scituate in 1660. He was born 1603, matriculated at St. John's College, Cam- bridge, in 1628, graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1632, and Master of Arts in 1635. In the same year he came to Boston, Massachusetts, and soon settled at Hingham, where he was made freeman March 3, 1636. He represented that town in the general court from 1636 to 1638, and died at Scituate in 1663. His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1661. Their children were : Samuel, Nicholas, Elizabeth, Sarah, Deborah and Mary. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, born 1635, became the wife of John (3) Vinal, as above noted.
(7) John (4), son of John (3) and Eliza- beth (Baker) Vinal, was born 1665 and re- sided in Scituate. He was married in 1690 to Mary, daughter of Joseph Woodworth. Her mother, Hannah, was a daughter of John Stockbridge, who came to Scituate in 1638.
(8) Elijah, son of John (4) and Mary ( Woodworth) Vinal, was born 1694, and settled in Boston, where he was married Au- gust 13, 1717, to Elizabeth, daughter of Rob- ert and Elizabeth ( Pemberton) Ellis. Their children were: William, Anna, Mary, Eliza- beth and John.
(9) John (5), youngest child of Elijah and Elizabeth (Ellis) Vinal, was born May 30, 1736, in Boston, and made his home in that city. He was married January 3, 1756, to Ruth, daughter of John and Anna (Deane) Osborne, and they were the parents of William, John and Ruth.
(10) William (2), elder son of John (5) and Ruth ( Osborne) Vinal, was born Septem- ber 29, 1757, in Boston, and settled in Maine in 1780. He laid out the town on Vinal Haven in 1789, and it was incorporated the same year. He was selectman of that town in 1791- 2-3-4-5-6 and in 1800 and 1805; was member of assembly in 1808-9-10-II, and was ap- pointed judge of the court of common pleas for Hancock County, May 1, 1790. He died at his father's house in Boston in 1821. He was married, first, in 1780, to Peggy, daughter of David Wooster, who was born in 1732, in
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England, and came to Bangor, Maine, in 1760. Ilis second wife was Penelope Dyer, who bore him two daughters, Peggy and Charlotte. The first wife was the mother of: Alvira, John, William and David.
(11 ) Alvira, eldest child of Judge William and Peggy ( Wooster ) Vinal, was born 1781, and was married in 1796 to William Mayhew, as before related. Their children included : Alvira, a daughter who married a Tewksbury ; William and Vinal.
( XX) Vinal, younger son of William and Alvira (Vinal) Mayhew, was born in 1801, in Belfast, and was a sea captain, like his father, trading along the New England coast. lle died in 1879-80. He was married, first. December 16, 1823, by Manasseh Sleeper, jus- tice of the peace, to Lydia Day, of Waldo Plantation, who died the next year, at the birth of her child, William. He married, sec- ond, June 17. 1828, Martha Cates, of Morrell. She bore him: Charles, Martha. Jane. Lydia, Mary, Allura, Eliza, Vinal and George.
(XXI) Martha Jane, eldest daughter of Vinal and Martha (Cates) Mayhew, was born December 16, 1831, in Belfast, and was mar- ried, February 9. 1852, to George W. Patter- son, of Belfast (see Patterson, \').
Among the large number of
JAMESON families that
came from Northern Ireland to Massa- chusetts in the fall of 1718 was that of Will- iam Jameson, which included, at least, one son. He spent the ensuing winter at Worcester, Massachusetts, and was later a resident of Londonderry, New Hampshire, whence he went to Saco, Maine, in 1735.
( 1}) Martin, son of William Jameson, was born in 1705, in Ulster, Ireland, and died in Saco, Maine, in 1760. He was married in the latter place in 1733, to Grizzle, daughter of Robert ( 1) Paterson. She was born in 1711, in Ulster, Ireland ( see Paterson, 1). They had children named: Mary, William, Samuel, James. Hannah and Jane.
(III) Hannah, second daughter of Martin and Grizzle (Paterson) Jameson, was born 1744 in Saco, and was married September 20. 1770, to Nathaniel Paterson, immediately set- tling at Belfast. same state (see Patterson, III).
GILMORE This is a common name among the Scotch-Irish immi- grants who settled in this country early in the eighteenth century. It was carried from Scotland to northern Ireland
about a century previous to its arrival here, and has contributed many excellent citizens to the United States.
(I) Robert Gilmore was a native of Coler- aine, County Derry, Ireland, and there married Mary Ann Kennedy. Together they came to America with the large colony of settlers in 1718, and settled the next year in Londonderry, New Hampshire. He died there, at the age of eighty years, in 1750. His children in- cluded four sons, William, Robert, John and James.
(II) James, youngest son of Robert and Mary Ann ( Kennedy ) Gilmore, was born in 1705, in Coleraine, Ireland, and died in 1755, aged fifty years. Ile married a French Hugue- not named Jeanne Baptiste, and they were the parents of eight children, namely : John, Jona- than. James, Jean, Margaret, Elizabeth, Agnes and Mary Ann.
(Il) Jean, eldest daughter of James Gil- more, was married in 174f to Robert (2) Pat- terson, of Saco (see Patterson, II ).
Numerous people bearing this WILSON name were among the pioneer settlers at Londonderry, New Hampshire, which makes it rather difficult to distinguish in some cases. Reliable records seem to show the line herein traced. The sev- eral families were similar in character, and have contributed their share to the progress and moral development of the nation.
(1) James Wilson was born in 1639. in Londonderry, Ireland, and came to this coun- try when about eighty-six years old, accom- panying some of his children. He settled in Chester, New Hampshire, in 1725, and there testified that his age was one hundred years in 1739.
(Il) James (2), son of James (I) Wilson, was born about 1665, in Londonderry, Ireland, and settled in Chester, New Hampshire, in 1725. He had sons William, James, Robert and Hugh.
(IN) William, eldest son of James (2) Wilson, was born about 1690, in Londonderry, Ireland, and died in Stratham, New Hamp- shire, in May, 1764. He came with his father and grandfather to Chester, New Hampshire, in 1725, and settled in Stratham as early as 1727. He owned home lot No. 40, and was fence-viewer in 1728 and selectman in 1729- 30. His will was dated August, 1761, and proved June 27, 1764. His wife's name was Elizabeth ; children : Robert, Martha, James, Elizabeth, Jane, Mary and William.
(IV) Robert, eldest child of William and
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Elizabeth Wilson, was born about 1730, in Stratham, New Hampshire, and settled in Chester, same colony, locating first on addi- tional lot No. 100, whence he removed to No. 102. He was a member of the committee of safety during the revolution, and also served as a soldier in that struggle, and was repre- sentative in the assembly from 1776 to 1780. He died October 2, 1791. He married, No- vember 13. 1759, Jane Aiken, who died Sep- tember 29, 1821, aged eighty-six years, hav- ing lived a widow nearly thirty years. Their children : John, Jonathan, Mary, Susannah, William, Margaret, Anna. Nathaniel, Sarah and Elizabeth.
(V) Jonathan, second son of Robert and Jane (Aiken) Wilson, was born in 1762, in Chester, New Hampshire, and was drowned in Eastport Harbor, Maine, April 13, 1833. He settled at Belfast, Maine, in 1785, and was selectman of that town from 1790 to 1800, and town clerk for the succeeding fourteen years. He was colonel of militia in the war of 1812. He married, in 1784, Eleanor, daughter of John Mitchell, junior. She died February 12, 1846, surviving her husband nearly thirteen years. Their children : Alice, Jane, Nathaniel, Elizabeth, Nancy, John Mitchell, Henry K., George Washington, Caroline and Jonathan Dayton.
(VI) Alice, eldest child of Jonathan and Eleanor ( Mitchell) Wilson, was born March 22, 1785, in Chester, New Hampshire, and was married December 7, 1800, to Martin Pat- terson ( see Patterson, IV).
John (2) Mitchell, father of Mrs. Eleanor Wilson, was a son of John ( 1) Mitchell. The last named was born in Londonderry, Ireland, and arrived in Boston, August 4, 1718, with the Scotch-Irish immigrants who came that year. He settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire. His son John (2) was then five years old, and became a joiner by trade. In 1768 he became the founder of the town of Belfast, Maine, where he cleared up land and engaged in agriculture, and died in 1801. He took up lots Nos. 1. 12, 21, 27, 35 and 51. He married in Chester, in 1735, Elizabeth, second daughter of William and Elizabeth Wilson (see Wilson, III). Their children : John, George, Samuel, Robert, Joshua, Anna, Mary, Elizabeth, Eleanor and Hannah. The fourth daughter, Eleanor. was born in 1760, and be- came the wife of Jonathan Wilson, as above noted.
John Aiken was born in 1689, in London- derry, Ireland, and came to America, landing in Boston in 1724. He settled in Chester, New
Hampshire, in 1730, and died there December I, 1750. His real estate was valued at four thousand pounds, and his personal estate at one thousand nine hundred eighty-two pounds. He married, in Ireland, Jane Karr, and they were the parents of John, James, Jane, Mar- garet, Martha. Elizabeth and Mary. The eld- est daughter, Jane, was born in 1739, and was married in 1759 to Robert Wilson, of Chester (see Wilson IV, above ).
WADSWORTH This family, by reason of its achievements in war and letters has secured a
niche in the hall of fame second to none other in American history. It has undergone trans- mutation of orthography twenty-two times, but it is still the same blood that existed in the Yorkshire valleys. The storm-center of non- conformity in England in the seventeenth cen- tury was in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire. York- shire bordered it on the north, from which the Washingtons dated. This was the Wadsworth homeland. The flames of persecution reached over into that county and drove the unortho- dox away. The name Wadsworth means literally wood-court. Some old fellow in the dim remotely past held court in the woods, and thereby hangs a name. The family was orig- inally Norman. It had a coat-of-arms dating from the battle of Cressy, fought August 6, 1346. It was "Wadsworth: Yorkshire, gules, three fleur d'lis, stalked and slipped, argent." The wreath is two stripes of gold lace twisted into a circular cord. The crest, a terrestrial globe, winged pp', an eagle rising, or. From the shield rises the closed hamlet, which by its shape and position indicates that the Wads- worths were neither king, noble or knight, but plain esquire. The wreath is placed over the hamlet, from the center of which springs the crest, the winged globe, and the golden eagle rising therefrom, while the scroll below the shield bears the legend "Aquila non captat mu- sicas." In the time of Cromwell some of the family decided with the Republicans and a part stood by the Royalists. The Cromwellians went to America and founded a family, and the supporters of the House of Stuart to York- shire and became woolen manufacturers. There were Wadsworths at the battle of Waterloo. Of course the first to be mentioned in this line is the great poet, Longfellow. Others are Captain Joseph, of Charter Oak fame, who preserved the liberties of Connecti- cut, the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Wadsworth, presi- dent of Harvard College, and General James S. Wadsworth, of New York.
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(1) Christopher Wadsworth came over in the ship "Lion," Captain Pierce, eight weeks from England, and landed on Sunday, Sep- tember 16, 1632. He resided in Duxbury, and was a great man for those days, extremely passionate and eccentric withal. It is said that after he got his hay in the barn one season, a bolt of lightning descended and set fire and consumed it. The next year, when he got his hay all housed, the appearance of the heavens threatened another tempest similar to the one of the year before. He ran into the house, got a firebrand and ignited his own hay, swearing "he meant to get ahead of the Almighty this time." He was a blunt, honest, peppery man. Xtofer, as he signed his name, was a Puritan, and not a Pilgrim Father. The distinction is that the latter belonged to the poorer and la- boring class and were Separatists in religion, while the Puritans were of the more well-to-do portion, with some literary culture, and clung to the National church, though breaking away from some of its forms and ceremonies. He early took a prominent part in the affairs of the town. He was a deputy, selectman, repre- sentative, surveyor, constable, was on the board of commissioners to revise the ordinances of the colony, all of which shows him to have been a man of worth and consequence. His will bears date of July 31, 1777. He married Grace Cole. Children : Samuel, Joseph, Mary and John.
(II) Deacon John, the youngest son of Christopher and Grace (Cole) Wadsworth, was born in 1638, and died in 1700 in Dux- bury. He lived on the homestead of his father. He married Abigail Andrews, born in 1667, died in 1723. Issue: Mary, Abigail, John, Christopher, Ichabod, Isaac, Lydia, Sarah, Grace, Hopstill and Mercy.
(111) John (2), eldest son of Deacon John (1) and Abigail ( Andrews) Wadsworth, was born and always lived in Duxbury, his birth being in 1671, and his death in 1750. He mar- ried Mercy Wiswell in 1704. She died in 1716, at the early age of thirty-six, and he married (second) Mary Verdie in 1718. Chil- dren : John, Urrah, Dorothy, Ichabod, Peleg, Mary by second wife.
(IV) Deacon Peleg, fourth son of John (2) and Mercy (Wiswell) Wadsworth, was born in Duxbury in 1715. died in 1774. He mar- ried Susannah Sampson; children: Zilpha (died in infancy), Sephas. Jeptha, Zilpha, Peleg, Uriah, Ira, Welthea, Dura and Lucy.
(V) General Peleg (2), son of Deacon Peleg (1) and Susannah (Sampson) Wads- worth, was born May 6, 1748, in Duxbury, and
died in Hiram, Maine, in 1824. He gradu- ated from Harvard College in 1769, being then twenty-one. A classmate of his was Chief-Justice Theophilus Parsons, of the Mas- sachusetts supreme court. Following gradua- tion he taught school in Plymouth, Massachu- setts. The murmurings of discontent had long been heard in the colonies, and now broke out in open revolt against the unbearable oppres- sion of the mother country. Young Wads- worth's bosom was fired with the sense of in- justice prevailing, and he was elected a com- mittee of correspondence in Plympton, Septem- ber 26, 1774. He recruited a company of minute-men, of which he was made captain, and joined Colonel Cotton's regiment to dis- lodge Balfour's army at Marshfield, who re- treated. Captain Wadsworth was with Colo- nel Cotton at Dorchester Heights, and his de- tachment assisted in the throwing up of en- trenchments there. In March, 1776, he was appointed aide to General Ward. It was the heroic bearing and intrepid soldiery of these troops, and the unassailable character of the breastworks at the Heights, that caused the evacuation of Howe from Boston, and in the construction of these works our young hero bore a leading part. In 1776 Captain Wads- worth was engineer under General Thomas, and was made adjutant-general of Massachu- setts in 1778. The next year the British sent a fleet to occupy Bagaduc, now Castine, Maine, at the mouth of the Penobscot. A sea force under Commodore Saltonstall, of Connecticut, and a land detachment under General Lovell, with General Wadsworth second in command, was transported there to intercept the enemy. The land attack of the Americans upon the British was one of the most daring and truly heroic achievements of the whole war. In 1780 General Wadsworth, with a force of six hundred men, was placed in command of the entire Maine coast, to protect it from the occasional assaults and inroads of the British, to which it was subject by reason of its ex- posed situation and the long-unguarded coast- line. In this arduous, trying and comprehen- sive position he performed the duties thereof with remarkable fortitude, unceasing vigilance, completeness of detail and fidelity to military tactics, the Torys gaining no permanent foot- hold with him watching the coast. The terms of enlistment of his men having expired, they returned to their homes, and he was left with a paltry guard of six soldiers. The British at Castine hearing of his precarious predicament, sent Lieutenant Stockton with twenty-five men to capture him. He was attacked at midnight.
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February 18, 1781. In his night clothes, with a brace of pistols, a fusee and a blunderbuss, he defended himself single-handed against his overpowering assailants, driving them off at first. They approached by another entrance. He headed off a score of men with his bayo- net, but on being hit by a bullet in the elbow, his ammunition exhausted and himself dis- abled, he surrendered. Lieutenant Stockton congratulated him on his stubborn resistance against fearful odds. He was hurried on foot to a vessel. It was intensely cold and he became exhausted from overexertion and loss of blood, and was placed upon a horse until he reached the boat-landing. He was impris- oned in Fort George. For two weeks he was in terrible suspense, as he knew not the fate of his family, but was allowed to write to the governor of Massachusetts, and thus learned of their complete safety. After two months' imprisonment he was visited by a friend of his, and informed that it was hinted he was to be tried and executed. He gave his barber one collar for a gimlet, with which he bored holes around a pine ceiling, filling them up with chewed bread. On June 18th, after four months' confinement, during a terrific thunder- storm that drove the sentinels to cover, he cut the holes he had bored with a penknife, and with a companion, Major Burton, escaped. He let himself down the walls of the fort, twenty feet high, by means of his blanket, torn into strips and tied together. In the darkness he became separated from Major Burton, and waded a mile across the cove, which was up to his armpits. The next morning he found the major, and they soon reached Fort George settlements. In 1784 he removed to Portland, Maine, and built the first brick house ever erected in the Forest city, the bricks having been shipped from Philadelphia. The house, of colonial pattern, is still standing on Con- gress street, and is owned by the Maine His- torical Society, which keeps it open for visit- ors, and its contents and condition are pre- served as it was when the poet Longfellow lived there. In this house the Hon. Stephen Longfellow, the poet's father, lived, and the poet himself, though he was born elsewhere in the city. General Wadsworth was a trader in Portland. He was president of the con- vention that met to consult on the expediency of a separation from Massachusetts. In 1792 he was in the Massachusetts senate, and elected to congress from the Maine district the same year, with which he was honored with seven consecutive re-elections. In 1790 he purchased of Massachusetts seven thousand
acres of land which now comprise the present township of Hiram, Maine, and thither he re- moved in 1807, building a mansion which is still standing. He named the town Hiram in honor of King Hiram of Tyre, who was the most excellent grand master of the Masonic body. General Wadsworth was a Free Mason. There he engaged extensively in agriculture, raising one thousand bushels of corn in one season on burnt ground. General Wadsworth and his wife were members of the Congrega- tional church. On a plateau along the sinuous and sea-bound Saco stands the family mansion, and near it sleeps in his last long sleep the hon- ored and battle-scarred veteran whose watch- word had been duty, to which he ever, in whatever circumstances in life he found him- self placed, bent all his might and energies to faithfully fulfill.
He married Elizabeth Bartlett, who traced her lineage to the "Mayflower." The sons and daughters of this noble and fame-abiding couple were numerous, as became the custom of the age, who were strong in the manly strength and womanly graces of their fore- bears. Children: Alexander S., died in in- fancy ; Charles Lee; Zilpah, married the Hon. Stephen Longfellow and was the mother of the poet ; John, Elizabeth, Lucia, Henry, Alex- ander, Scammel, George, Samuel B. and Peleg.
(VI) Samuel Bartlett, seventh son of Gen- eral Peleg (2) and Elizabeth ( Bartlett) Wads- worth, was born September 1, 1791, in Port- land, and died at Eastport in 1874, where he resided. He married Elizabeth Harrington, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1823. Children : Elizabeth H., Annie H., Mary N., Samuel L., Edward H. and Lucia.
(VII) Mary N., third daughter of Samuel Bartlett and Elizabeth (Harrington) Wads- worth, was born in 1827, and married Charles C. Norton, of Eastport, in 1848. Children : I. Minnie Wadsworth, married Oliver E. Wood, formerly military attache to the em- bassy at Japan, and who now resides in Wash- ington, District of Columbia. 2. George Winterton, who lives in New York City. 3. Carroll. 4. Jenny Ritchie, married Charles A. Paine, and is now postmistress at Eastport.
It is stated that the Connor CONNOR family probably exceed in an- tiquity that of any other in America. They derive their origin from and were of the royal line of Ancient Kings of Ireland, and show a lineage unequaled in any other nation save the Chinese and Hebrew. Their records were necessarily preserved with
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the greatest care, because the candidate for election as king was obliged to show and prove his origin by the registers of his family and the Pealter of Tara. Ilistorians of ancient Ireland concur as to the origin of the name Connor. When surnames were adopted in the eleventh century, they were established in Con- naught, Ireland, under King Teigh, who as- sumed the surname O'Connor in honor of his grandfather. The meaning of the name is: "the chief of men," "powerful among men," "a leader." King Teigh, or Tiege Mor O'Con- nor, wrote a poem lamenting his old age and inability to fight for his country. John O'Con- nor, of Killishie, Kings county, Ireland, the only son of Donough O'Connor, born about 1650, who probably came to America early in 1700, became the founder of the Connor fam- ily of New York, but the ancestry of the Maine branch is not as yet clearly traced.
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