Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume III, Part 40

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry Sweetser, 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 818

USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume III > Part 40

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(IV) Deacon Nathaniel (2), second son and child of Captain Benjamin Putnam, was born in Salem Village, August 25, 1686, and died October 21, 1754, aged sixty-eight. He was a yeoman, and lived in Danvers, perhaps part of the time in North Reading. He was elected deacon of the First Church at Danvers, November 15, 1731. He married, in Salem, June 4, 1709, Hannah Roberts, who died about 1763. Their children, born in Salem Village, were: Nathaniel (died young), Jacob, Na- thaniel (died young), Sarah, Archelaus, Ephraim, Hannah, Nathaniel, Mehitable and Kezia.

(V) Jacob, second son and child of Deacon Nathaniel (2) and Hannah (Roberts) Put- nam, was born in Salem Village, March 9, 17ÎI, and died in Wilton, New Hampshire, February 10, 1781. He was a pioneer of Salem, Canada, now Wilton, New Hampshire, and it is claimed that he was there in 1738. It is known that in June, 1738, Ephraim and Jacob Putnam and John Dale, all of Danvers, made the first permanent settlement in Wil- ton, and the remains of a cellar mark the site of his house. This house was of two stories in front and one in the back. For three years the wife of Jacob Putnam was the only woman

who resided permanently in the town. During one winter the depth of the snow and distance from neighbors prevented her from seeing any one but members of her immediate family for six months. It is said that the brothers- Jacob, Ephraim and Nathaniel-were all early at Wilton, and finding the Indians trouble- some returned to Danvers, then a second time settled at Wilton and Lyndeborough, both of which towns were parts of Salem. Jacob Put- nam settled on second division, lot number three. He was a man of great industry, and at one time operated a saw mill, besides his farm. In his old age he employed himself in making cans. He was a leading citizen, and filled the office of selectman. He married (first) in Salem, July, 1735, Susanna Harri- man (written Henman on the Salem records), of Danvers. Married (second) Susanna Styles, who died January 27, 1776. Married (third) Patience, mentioned in his will proved February 28, 1791. His children were : Sarah, Nathaniel, Philip (died young), Stephen, Philip, Joseph, Mehitable, Jacob, Archelaus, Caleb, Elizabeth and Peter.

(VI) Stephen, third son of Jacob (I) and Susanna (Styles) Putnam, was born in Wil- ton, Hillsboro county, New Hampshire, Sep- tember 4, 1741, and settled in Temple, same state, later coming to Rumford, Maine. He married Olive Varnum, of Dracut, Massachu- setts. Children : Stephen, Olive, Samuel, Esther, Mary, Elizabeth, Israel, Abigail, Rachel, Jacob Harriman and Ruth.

(VII) Stephen (2), eldest son of Stephen (I) and Olive (Varnum) Putnam, was born in Temple, New Hampshire, August 31, 1765. He removed to Rumford, then New Penna- cook, which was settled from Concord, New Hampshire, and according to the usual cus- tom the original inhabitants bestowed upon the infant settlement on the banks of the turbulent Androscoggin the name of the old home they had recently forsaken on the banks of the musical Merrimac. He was the first black- smith to locate, and accordingly he prospered. He married Sally Elliott, who was also of New Hampshire stock, having been reared in Newton, Rockingham county. The Rev. John Strickland is reported to have officiated. Sally wove the first web of cloth in New Penna- cook. Children : Stephen, Sally, Jacob, Pamelia, Nehemiah, Abiah, Benjamin, Peter, Harriman, Abigail, Webster, Daniel Fillemore and Betsey Abbott.

(VIII) Jacob (2), second son of Stephen (2) and Sally (Elliott) Putnam, was born in Rumford, September 7, 1790. He married

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Lucy Cobb, whose pedigree has been traced back to the "Mayflower." Children : 1. Susan C., married Benjamin Whitehouse ( see White- house ). 2. Peter. 3. Eunice Waite. General Israel Putnam, who left the plow standing in the furrow when "the shot heard around the world" was fired, was of this genealogy, also Rev. George Putnam, D.D., a celebrated divine of Boston, George P. Putnam, the New York publisher, and Judge William L. Put- nam, of the United States circuit court, of Maine.

WIGHT This ancient English name was early planted in the New Eng- land colonies, and has been sub- " sequently identified with every movement cal- culated to promote their progress. It has been connected with the pioneer settlement of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, as well as many other states.

(I) Thomas Wight, who was of English birth and parentage, is first known on record in this country at Watertown, Massachusetts, where he spent the winter of 1635-36. With eleven others he was an admitted inhabitant of Dedham, July 18, 1637. At that time he had a wife Alice ( sometimes written Elsie), and three sons: Henry, John and Thomas. He was first granted twelve acres of land for a homestead, and with his wife was received into the church of Dedham, September 6, 1640. On October 8 of the same year he was made a freeman. He was selectman of the town for six years, beginning with 1641, and was often otherwise engaged in the public service, his name appearing frequently in the records. His name is fourth on the list of those pledged to support schools, and as a result of this pledge the first free school in Massachusetts was es- tablished. In 1650 he was a member of a committee to erect a village for the Indians at Natick. He was identified with a movement in 1649 for the establishment of the new town of Medfield. and soon after removed to that town. He was a deacon of the church there in 1677, and was one of a committee ap- pointed November 4, 1669, to frame a plan of government for the town. In 1654 he was elected a selectman of the town, continuing the service, with the exception of the years 1656- 57, until his death, March 17, 1674. He re- ceived a grant of twelve acres in the first regi- ment at Medfield, of which town he was one of the wealthiest citizens, and subsequently received numerous other grants. He was also among the proprietors of the town of Medway, where some of his children settled. The valu-

ation of his property in 1660 was two hundred sixty-six pounds. He and all his surviving sons in Medfield, as well as his son-in-law, subscribed for the new brick college at Cam- bridge, now known as Harvard University. ITis wife Alice died July 15, 1665, and he was married (second) December 7, same year, to Lydia (Eliot) Penniman, widow of James Penniman and sister of John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians. The children of Thomas Wight were: Henry, John, Thomas, Mary, Samuel and Ephraim.

(II) Ephraim, youngest child of Thomas and Alice Wight, was born January 27, 1645, in Dedham, and was baptized there February 8 of the same year. He was one of the execu- tors of his father's will, and residuary legatee in that instrument. He had previously re- ceived a deed of the homestead on Green street in Medfield, where he resided. He was among the proprietors of Medfield in 1675, and was among those who subscribed two bushels of "Endian Corne" to the building of the new brick college at Cambridge. He was an owner of property in Medway, where some of his children lived, and with his wife was a member of the church of Medfield in 1697. He died there February 26, 1723. He was married March 2, 1668, in Medfield, to Lydia Morse, who was baptized in Dedham, April 13, 1645, and died July 14, 1722. Their chil- dren were: Lydia, Esther, Ephraim, Miriam, Nathaniel, Daniel, Bethia, Deborah, and Ruth.

(III) Ephraim (2), eldest son of Ephraim (I) and Lydia (Morse) Wight, was born Jan- uary 25, 1672, in Medfield, and settled in the northern part of that town, on what is now Farm street, in or before 1722. He was a selectman of the town in 1732, and died Feb- ruary I, 1744. He was married, September 14, 1702, in Medford, to Sarah Partridge, who died June 28, 1763. Their children were: Stephen, Sarah, Seth (died young), Seth, Caleb, Ruth, and Mary.

(IV) Seth, third son of Ephraim (2) and Sarah (Partridge) Wight, was born October 9, 1709, in Medfield, and died February, 1780, on the homestead in that town, where he re- sided. He was a selectman in 1754. In 1736 he bought a residence in Dedham, but did not move there. This may have been a real es- tate speculation: He was married March IO, 174I, in Medfield, to Sarah Pratt, who was born August 18, 1718, and died in Medfield, October 12, 1746. He was married (second) March 14, 1751, to Hannah Morse, who was born May 2, 1712. Three children were born of the first wife, and a like number of the sec-

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ond, namely : Joel, Olive, Nahum, Eneas, Seth, and Sarah.

(V) Joel, eldest child of Seth and Sarah (Pratt) Wight, was born December 27, 1741, in Medfield, and learned the trade of shoe- maker. In 1768 he removed to Dublin, New Hampshire, where he was a pioneer settler, and two years later was one of the twenty- three voters in the town. He enlisted as a soldier of the revolution January 1, 1776, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and held a lieu- tenant's commission in Captain Wadkins's company of Colonel Phinney's regiment. At the time of his request for a pension, in April, 1818, he was totally blind, and was then resid- ing in Dublin. His name, written "White," appears on page 16 of the New Hampshire Heads of Families of the First Census of the United States (1790). In 1819 he removed to Gilead, Maine, to reside with his son, Seth Wight, and died there February 19, 1824. He was married, May 30, 1768, to Elizabeth Twitchell, who was born July 27, 1743, in Sherborn, Massachusetts, daughter of Joseph and Deborah (Fairbanks ) Twitchell. She was a member of the Congregational church of Dublin, and is referred to in the annals of that town as a very pious and good woman. She died there April 19, 1800, and he was married (second) May 28, 1801, to Mary, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Kenney) Mower of Jaffray, New Hampshire. Some- time after 1824 she maried Daniel Wight, of Bethel, Maine. Joel Wight's children were: Hannah, Ephraim, Eli (died young), Anna, Olive, Elizabeth, Seth, and Eli.

(VI) Ephraim (3), eldest son of Joel and Elizabeth (Twitchell) Wight, was born May 20, 1771, in Dublin, New Hampshire, and set- tled in Gilead, Maine, about the beginning of the nineteenth century. He was a pioneer set- tler and cleared up the farm there on which he died October 3, 1826. He was married, November 15, 1797, to Susannah Patch. They were the parents of: William, Eliza, Gard- ner, Timothy, Emily, Caleb, Polly Patch, Susannah, Almira, Hannah, and Ephraim.

(VII) Timothy, third son of Ephraim (3) and Susannah (Patch) Wight, was born Jan- uary 13, 1805, in Gilead, and passed most of his life in that town. In the spring of 1833 he removed to Bethel, Maine, and remained there nearly two years, after which he re- turned to his native town, where he died March 13, 1847. He was an enterprising farmer, a man of agreeable social qualities, and as a citizen public-spirited and influential. Frequently in winter he taught district school.

For a short time he was deputy sheriff of Ox- ford county. Both he and his wife were mem- bers of the Methodist church. He was mar- ried in Gilead, May 13, 1828, to Mary Ann Green, who was born January 2, 1810, daugh- ter of Hezekiah and Lydia ( Lombard) Green, of Otisfield, Maine. She was married (sec- ond), October 5, 1852, to Caleb Strong Pea- body of Gorham, New Hampshire, to whom she bore a son, Albert Caleb. Timothy Wight's children were: Laurentia, Selvina, Obando, Wesley, Ephraim, Lydia Green, John Green, Timothy Nason, and Mary Ann.

(VIII) John Green, fourth son of Timothy and Mary Ann (Green) Wight, was born March 2, 1842, in Gilead, and went with his mother to Gorham at the age of ten. There he grew to manhood. While living in Maine he had small opportunity for schooling, but bet- ter facilities were afforded in Gorham. Under the instruction there he made rapid progress, a small part of each year being given to at- tendance in private high schools. Among his instructors were several who afterwards filled places of distinction, one being Henry C. Pea- body, judge of the supreme court of Maine, who awakened in him ambition for a college training. Preparation for this was made at Gould Academy, Bethel, Maine, and at Maine State Seminary in Lewiston, now Bates Col- lege. It is gratefully recorded that his brother Wesley, with rare generosity, gave him finan- cial assistance in obtaining an education. En- tering Bowdoin College, he was graduated in the class of 1864, and thereafter gave several months to the study of law at Lancaster, New Hampshire. His attention was, however, soon turned to teaching, which has been his life work. In the spring of 1865 he became an assistant in Bridgton Academy at North Bridgton, Maine, under Charles E. Hilton, at that time principal. In May of the same year he was made an assistant in Cooperstown Seminary at Cooperstown, New York, George Kerr, LL. D., being the principal. He held the chair of mathematics in that institution for over two years. In the fall of 1867 he was recalled to Bridgton Academy as principal and continued in that position until the spring of 1870, teaching the classics in the meantime. He was then recalled to Cooperstown to be principal of the Union School and Academy in that place. He held this position for more than twenty years. In the summer of 1890 he was elected principal of the Classical High School at Worcester, Massachusetts, at that time the largest mixed high school in New England, and remained there four years. In

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1894 he was made principal of the Girls' High School of Philadelphia, and continued in that position three years. This was one of the largest high schools in the United States, hav- ing eighty teachers and twenty-five hundred students. In 1897, the year of the establish- ment of high schools in New York City, he was made principal of the Wadleigh High School for Girls, at 114th street and 7th ave- nue, which position he still holds. This school has in a single year enrolled more than thirty- five hundred students, and at the time, with its corps of one hundred twenty teachers, was the largest known high school. Dr. Wight received from Bowdoin College the degree of A. B. in 1864, and in 1867 that of A. M. In 1887 he received the degree of Ph. D. from Hamilton College, and that of Litt. D. from his alma mater in 1898. He has held mem- bership and received honors in various asso- ciations, educational and other. In 1883 he was president of the Inter-Academic Literary Union, an organization representing over three hundred secondary schools, public and private, in New York State; he was the first president of the Cooperstown Shakespeare Club; was for one year, while residing in Worcester, president of the Natives of Maine Society ; in 1898 was president of the School- masters' Association of New York City and Vicinity; in 1899 was president of the Asso- ciation of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland; in 1905 was president of the Bowdoin Alumni Asso- ciation of New York City; and in 1907 was president of the Head Masters' Association, in which are represented nearly one hundred leading secondary schools, public and private, essentially college preparatory, and chiefly of the Middle States and New England. Dr. Wight has decided literary tastes and is a student by nature and habit. He has fre- quently read papers before educational and other societies and has contributed to various periodicals. He has edited "The Last of the Mohicans," and "Selections from the Bible." He is identified with the Protestant Episcopal church, and, politically, with the Republican party. He is a member of the Masonic Order and of the Grand Army of the Republic, being eligible to the latter through the service of one year in the navy during the civil war. His college fraternity is Delta Kappa Epsilon. His residence is Marbury Hall, 164 West 74th street, New York City. Dr. Wight was mar- ried, May 13, 1865 to Flora Annetta Stiles, daughter of Valentine Little and Betsy Ad- ams (Burnham) Stiles. She was born in

Shelburne, New Hampshire, September 15, 1844. At the time of her marriage she re- sided at Gorham. She was the second of a family of seven children, five girls and two boys. Both parents were natives of Gilead. Her father, a contractor and builder, and later in life a merchant, was in his day one of the most influential business men in the Upper Androscoggin Valley. Her mother counted among her ancestors on the Burnham side the sister of General Israel Putnam. Two chil- dren, a son and a daughter, are the issue of Dr. Wight's marriage: Percy Loyall, born October 22, 1869, at North Bridgton, Maine, and Sarita Stiles, born December 30, 1873, at Cooperstown, New York.

(IX) Percy L. Wight was prepared for col- lege under his father at Cooperstown, and was graduated from Hamilton College in 1891. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and subse- quently received from the college the degree of A. M. His college fraternity is Delta Kappa Epsilon. After graduating he chose teaching as his profession. For four years he was an instructor in the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, since which time he has been princi- pal of the high school at Clinton, Oneida county, New York. He is a member of the Masonic order, and a warden of St. James's Protestant Episcopal church of Clinton. He was married, June 30, 1897, to Mary Emily Carter of Wayside, New Jersey. Miss Carter was born in Knowlton, Quebec, August 28, 1871, a daughter of Richard Lee Carter, a native of North Shefford, Quebec, and Mary Emma (Knowlton) Carter, born at Knowlton. The children of Percy Loyall and Mary Emily (Carter) Wight are: John Carter, born Sep- tember 18, 1900 (died March 2, 1905), Pris- cilla, born March 15, 1903, and Dorothy, born January 16, 1907.

(IX) Sarita Stiles Wight, the daughter, was married June 23, 1898, to Robert Den- niston, M. D., of Dobbs Ferry, New York, which place has since that time been her home. Dr. Denniston was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, March 19, 1870. He is a graduate of Prince- ton University, and of the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons of New York City. After graduating from the latter college, he studied for about a year in Germany. Dr. Denniston is the son of Admiral Henry M. Denniston, Pay Director in the U. S. Navy, born at Washingtonville, Orange county, New York, and Emma Jane (Dusenberry) Denniston, born in New York City. The Denniston fam- ily has been for several generations distin- guished socially and politically in the history

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of New York State. To Dr. and Mrs. Den- niston three children have been born: Rob- ert, born March 14, 1900; Mary Wight, born March 9, 1901, and Henry Scott, born No- vember 5, 1904.

HASTINGS Freeman, the English his- torian, says there are only five families in England that can really trace their lineage back of the time of Edward III. 1327-77), and that the Hast- ings family is one of those. The name is older than the Norman Conquest, for the castle and seaport of Hastings were held by that family when William the Conqueror came over in 1066. The region of the battle of Hastings was in possession of the family be- fore the Normans had settled in Gaul (91I), for as early as the time of Alfred (871-901) we hear of a Danish pirate by the name of Hastings who struck terror to the Saxons by occupying with his followers a portion of Sus- sex. Many patronymics can be traced to their original derivations from a locality, an occu- pation or a personal characteristic. The fact that no such explanation has been found for Hastings leads us to believe that it has been corrupted from some Danish word.

The first of the family who was elevated to the peerage was Henry, Lord Hastings, son of William de Hastings, steward of Henry II (II54-89). George, third Lord Hastings, was created Earl of Huntington in 1529, and mar- ried the daughter of David, King of Scotland. He attended Henry VIII during the French wars, and at the capture of Thurnay in 1513. The full name of the fourteenth and present Earl of Huntington is Warner Francis John Plantagenet Hastings, whose estate is at Sharavogue, Kings county, Ireland. One of his ancestors, John de Hastings, was seneschal of Aquitaine, and a claimant of the Scottish throne. Sir William, the first Baron Hast- ings, became Master of the Mint under Ed- ward IV., and first coined nobles. He built Ashley Castle, for a time the prison of Mary Queen of Scots. He became very powerful, and was beheaded by Richard of Gloucester.

The full name of the present and twenty- first Baron Hastings is Albert Edward Delaval Hastings, whose estates comprising twenty- one thousand acres lie at Melton Constable, Norfolk, and Seaton Delaval, Northumber- land. The name is quite prominent in army and navy circles in England, where are now living Admiral Alexander Plantagenet Hast- ings, Lieutenant General Francis William Hastings, Major General Francis Eddowes

Hastings and Brigadier General Edward Spence Hastings. The family of Hastings has enjoyed nineteen peerages, but all are now ex- tinct except the two previously mentioned. Despite the number of titles borne by the fam- ily, the member of it who is most widely known to the popular mind is Warren Hast- ings, first governor general of British India, whose famous trial has been immortalized by the genius of Macauley.

(I) Thomas and John Hastings were both Puritans, and were obliged by persecution to leave their homes for the New World. John Hastings arrived in 1638, the year that his mother died. She was the first wife of Sir Henry Hastings, fifth Earl of Huntington, and was Dorothy, daughter and co-heir of Sir Francis Willoughby, of Woolston, county Notts, by whom he had a daughter and five sons, John probably being one of the younger sons. The arms would also indicate as much : "Ermine on a chief azure (blue) two mallets or (gold). Crest: Star or (gold) known by name of Hastings; motto: "In veritate vic- toria" (in truth, victory). The arms of Hast- ings, of which an ancient painting is pre- served, are: First : Argent (white) a manche (sleeve of an ancient robe) sable (black). Second: The arms of France and England quarterly. Third: Or (gold) a lion rampant ; gules (red), being the ancient arms of Scot- land. Fourth: Barry eight martlets (swal- lows of Palestine) gules for Valence. Crest : A bull's head erased (torn off) sable, gorged (crowned) with a ducal coronet or. Motto : "In veritate victoria." (In truth there is vic- tory.) The manche in the Hastings arms was given to his office as hereditary steward to the Kings of England. The arms of France and England denote him as one of the heirs of the Plantagenet by marriage with the Prin- cess Ida. The arms of Scotland were given to him as representing King David the Lion, by the Earl of Huntington, who married David's daughter and was thus co-heir. The arms of Valence signify a service of honorable distinction which the martletts indicate were worn in Palestine (the Holy Land), and were taken from the heirs of the Duke of Valence in France. (Genealogical Dictionary of New England, p. 375.)

John Hastings's children by his first wife were: Walter, born 1631; Samuel, brought from England; John, born on the passage; and Elizabeth, born July 2, 1634. John Hast- ings's first wife died, and he married ( second) the widow of John Means, who had by her first husband a daughter Sarah, who married

...

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Walter Hastings (2) for his first wife. They had eight children : Jonathan, John Sarah, Robert, Samuel, Abigail, Hannah and Su- sanna. Walter Hastings's first wife, Sarah Means, died August 27, 1673, aged thirty- four; he then married a daughter of Deacon Henry Bright, of Watertown, July 23, 1674. She died July 23, 1702, aged fifty-six, and he married Elizabeth, widow of Elder Clark, January 3, 1703. His children were numer- ous. Walter Hastings resided on the estate inherited by his first wife, on the corner of North Avenue and Holmes Place, and after- wards bought lands in Cambridge and moved there, and afterwards to Haverhill, where his son Robert (3) married Elizabeth, daughter of James and Elizabeth (Eaton) Davis, Octo- ber 31, 1676, and their sons Robert and John (4) married sisters Elizabeth and Edna, daughters of Joseph Bailey, of Rowley, who was the son of Richard, who came from Eng- land in 1635 and built the first cloth mill in America.

(V) John (3), son of John (2) and Edna (Bailey) Hastings, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, January 23, 1718. He married Rebecca Bailey (sometimes incorrectly called Kelley), June 29, 1743. Children, recorded in Salem records: I. John, born April II, 1744; a seaman, who was drowned. 2. Rich- ard, October 12, 1745. 3. Rebecca, 1746. 4. Jonas, November 9, 1747. 5. Timothy, April 12, 1750. 6. General Amos; see forward. John Hastings married (second) Mary Amy, March 29, 1759. Children: 7. Levi, born June 6, 1762. 8. Evan, July 12, 1764. 9. Mollie, September 12, 1766. 10. Joshua, June 7, 1768. II. Abigail, August 2, 1770. I2. Ann, March 3, 1772. 13. David, June 17, 1774. John Hastings died at his home in West Haverhill, Massachusetts, November 24, 1794, and his widow went to Fisherfield, now Newbury, New Hampshire, where some of her children had settled and where she died.

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Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume III, Part 40

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry Sweetser, 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe Publication date: 1909 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 818

Author: Little, George Thomas, 1857-1915, ed; Burrage, Henry Sweetser, 1837-1926; Stubbs, Albert Roscoe
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 818