USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume III > Part 65
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dreaded to encounter this member of the bar. As the proceedings lasted several days, the young lawyer was put upon his mettle, but he came off triumphant, for his antagonist yielded in the end and complimented him in an un- usual degree. It gave him also an enviable reputation that time only generally affords. He was a good lawyer and gained the con- fidence of those who were associated with him as counsel and client, for ability, integrity and industry-qualities all and each of which are necessary to create and hold the esteem of the bar, upon whose recommendation he was promoted to the bench. He has fine pow- ers of observation and is well informed in other things outside his profession. In this respect he exceeds the average professional man. He is many-sided, and would have suc- ceeded well as a naturalist, bank president or manager and financier for a corporation. He loves a fine horse or a bit of intricate machin- ery. Inventive and ingenious, without me- chanical training, he could both plan and build a house with enough closets and bow windows to satisfy any woman. To these powers add a methodical and critical faculty developed, strengthened and broadened, and you have the qualities of mind which are readily seen in the way he has built his library, both law and miscellaneous. While on the other hand you cannot find there a single useles volume, many of which will gather in lawyers' bookcases. On the other hand, there are rare and original editions and some valuable for their previous ownership, attested by the autographs of Si- mon Greenleaf and others distinguished in the profession. He has a good combined selection of American and English books for every- day use, and his private library has been brought together in the same choice and orderly method. He has good taste in all the details of bookmaking, as will be seen in "Haskell's Reports of Fox's Decisions in the United States District Court for the District of Maine," which he prepared and edited in 1887-88. His tasteful execution of a reporter's work in these two volumes gave him the credit of a connoisseur for skill and ability, and my- self a good excuse, when I began my duties as reporter of decisions of this court, to call upon him for advice and information, which he always accorded in a friendly and helpful way. These two volumes of Haskell's Re- ports, work which he did after he went upon the bench, are not exceeded by any reports that I have seen for aptness and precision in the headnotes. Grasping the salient points of each case, they have the happy medium be-
tween over-conciseness and prolixity that com- mends a value of reports to a busy lawyer, and is thus a vast saving of time. In his pre- fatory note he modestly claims that he has only endeavored to verify the citations and quotations, to guard against all errors of the press, and says : "I only desire that my work may be charitably received and prove valuable to my professional brethren." Following this in the article quoted is a running commentary on opinions rendered by Judge Haskell, as re- ported in the Maine Reports, interesting only to those connected with the courts. In one place he speaks of the judge as follows: "Of his opinions, and only a few cursory glances are attempted here, it may be truly said that they disclose force, diligence, and vivacity. There is nothing feigned in them; on the con- trary, they possess a genuineness of his own, hearty, and sometimes idiomatic way, based on the primary virtue of justice and the cour- age to be just. He has an alert mind. "He is one of the quickest," says a well-known federal judge, "to see a point upon which a case turns." His style reminds one at times of the old English judges, and almost rivalling in brevity his associate, Mr. Justice Walton. His familiarity with decided cases gives him the power of selecting the best material and cases ; and he loves to give credit to attorneys who furnish full and orderly briefs. Without "an almost ignominious love of detail," as Sir Arthur Helps says, he sees all there is in a case, and counsel find it so in their practice before him. A love of order and system, combined with industry, enable him to turn off his judicial labors with ease; and when he returned at night to his home, the cares of office do not follow him. Rather indifferent to fame, he would be among the last to adopt Benvenuto Cellini's advice, "that all men after they have reached forty should write down their own lives"; nor is it difficult for the believer in heredity to see how his favorite judge has become, to use a military phrase, "a chief of staff" of the court in the midst of his varied usefulness on the bench. He received the degree of Master of Arts from Bowdoin College in 1894."
In an obituary notice of Judge Haskell pub- lished in the Eastern Argus, September 25, 1900, it is stated that he was appointed to the supreme bench in 1884, reappointed in 1891, and again in 1898, and served till the time of his death. He was the author of the "Cen- tennial History of New Gloucester," published in 1874. He was a member of Bosworth Post, Grand Army of the Republic, in which he
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was greatly interested, but belonged to no other organization. He was a constant attend- ant of the First Parish Church and served as moderator of the parish meeting for many years. "His special delight was the study of physics and particularly of the steam-engine. He had a workshop fitted up in his house, and was never so happy as when working with his tools of experimenting with fine pieces of mechanism. For this reason his opinions were always sought upon cases involving practical questions of mechanics or similar matters."
Thomas H. Haskell married, in Nashua, New Hampshire, November 27, 1867, Eliza- beth Parsons Whitman, born in Nashua, New Hampshire, March 13, 1842, only daughter of Isaac Parsons and Sarah Elizabeth (Jordan) Whitman, who survives him, and resides in Portland. (See Whitman VIII.)
In the days of the coloniza- WHITMAN tion of New England, before 1680, four men named Whit- man came to New England. Two of them, John, of Weymouth, and Zachariah, were brothers, but are not known to be related to either of the others. John is claimed as the ancestor of a large part of the Whitmans of New England.
(I) Deacon John Whitman came from Eng- land and became one of the earliest settlers of Weymouth, Massachusetts. When he came or how long he had been in Weymouth before he was made freeman there, December, 1638, is not known. In 1645 he was appointed en- sign in the militia and also appointed to end small controversies, a position equivalent to that of justice of the peace at the present time. He was also deacon of the church in Wey- mouth, probably from its first establishment until his death, which occurred November 13, 1692, when he was nearly ninety years old, it is said. His family did not come to this country until 1641, four years or more after his arrival. John Whitman lived upon a farm adjoining the north side of the highway, lead- ing by the north side of the meeting-house of the North Parish in Weymouth, and directly off against it, and extending to Weymouth river; and his dwelling-house was situated near the center of it. The same farm, entire, descended by bequest from father to son until 1806, when the title went into a female line of descendants, who still occupy the place. John Whitman was among those citizens of Weymouth who received allotments of land in 1642, as follows: Twenty-one acres in the west field, fifteen of them upland and six of
salt marsh; four acres and a half on the west- ern neck; eleven acres in Harrisons range, first given to him; sixty acres by the goat- pond first given to Mr. Hull; and four acres of fish-marsh, first given to Mr. Hull. In the list of 1651 Ensign Whitman is given twelve lots of land, and on the list of 1663 he received eighty-one lots, comprising sixty acres. The first deed on record to John Whitman bears date 10, 28, 1649, in which Thomas Jenner, of Charlestown, grants to Elder Bates and John Whitman, of Weymouth, "one dwelling-house at Weymouth (now in possession of John King), two orchards and twenty-one acres ad- joining more or less ; also twelve acres of Ye Western Neck, be it more or less, also half an acre upon Grape Island, be it more or less ; also forty acres, which is his own pp (proper) lot, be it more or less; and eighteen acres which was his father's; also ye round marsh, being four acres more or less, and one acre of fresh marsh adjoining, and six acres of marsh above ye fresh pond and a wood lot on Hingham side." The first deed on record made by John Whitman bears date March 19, 1648, by which he sells to William Hayward about twenty-two acres of land in "Braintry," which he had purchased of James Nash. Those entries show that he must have been one of the most extensive real estate owners in the town. His office of ensign he held till March 16, 1680. At a session of the general court, held May 15, 1664, on the occasion of John Burrell and Richard Wager being sent as messengers to the Indians, John Whitman was allowed four shillings a day "for his paynes" and use of "his horse in ye journey he was employed in for the countrey's service to the Narrowgansetts." From an entry in the Weymouth records, it seems that John Whit- man's wife's name was Ruth, and that she died "8, 17, 1662." He had four sons and five daughters, all but one of whom survived him, and six of whom lived to be over eighty years of age. They were : Thomas, John, Zechariah, Abiah, Sarah, Mary, Elizabeth, Hannah and Judith.
(II) Thomas, the eldest son of John Whit- man, was born in 1629, and was about twelve years old when he came with his mother and some others of the children, about 1641, to settle in this country. In 1653 he was made a freeman in Boston, being then twenty-four years of age, and a church member, of course. He settled first in Weymouth; but in 1662 sold his farm there, as did his father-in-law, Nicholas Bryan, and both removed to Bridge- water, twelve miles south of Weymouth,
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where each settled himself upon a valuable tract of land in the casterly part of the town, thien in a state of nature. That selected by Thomas Whitman was what has since been called Whitman's Neck, containing about two hundred acres, and lying between the rivers Satucket and Matfield, and coming to a point at their junction. A more eligible situation could not have been found. There he resided fifty years, until his decease in 1712, aged eighty years. He built three residences. The first house, built in 1663, was destroyed by the Indians in 1676; the second, erected in 1676, he occupied only a few years ; the third, built in 1680, was occupied by four genera- tions, and was the birthplace of thirty-six children. Thomas Whitman provided for each of his three sons by deeds of conveyance before his decease, and by his will dated 1711, made them, after the decease of their mother, his residuary legatees. The estate he left was valuable and attests his good habits, industry and good judgment. Thomas Whitman mar- ried, November 22, 1656, Abigail, daughter of Ensign Nicholas and Martha (Shaw) Bryan, who probably came over with his father. Abigail survived her husband many years, living to be very aged. They had seven children : John, Ebenezer, Nicholas, Susanna, Mary, Naomi and Hannah.
(III) Nicholas, third son of Thomas and Abigail (Bryan) Whitman, was born in 1675 and died August 6, 1746. He was a man of great vigor, industry and activity. He had his father's homestead and lived with him. His dwelling was near Matfield river. In re- ligious notions he partook, in some measure, of the times and was somewhat pertinacious. It is related of him that having grown up while it was fashionable, owing probably to the open and unfinished state of the meeting houses in early times, for the men to put on their hats during sermon time, he could not readily conform to an innovation even in this particular. This practice had existed during the whole of the ministry (about fifty years) of the first settled minister, after which his successor, a fashionable young man from the metropolis, who was able to persuade all, ex- cept Mr. Whitman, to lay aside the practice, and finding him conscientious, he delivered a discourse on the subject; but before he had finished Mr. Whitman arose and with great gravity, and possibly without intending sar- casm, remarked "That rather than offend a weak brother, he would pull off his hat," and accordingly did so thereafter, as well during the sermon as prayer time. Before his death
he settled portions of liis homestead upon his sons, Thomas and John, and Seth, Eleazer, and Benjamin were settled on his outlands. His other children, except David, who was provided for by his Uncle John, after his de- cease, had between them the residue of the homestead. Nicholas Whitman had the rare felicity of having eleven of his children all set- tled, and well settled, in the same town with himself, where they all spent their lives in good repute. Five of them lived to be of the ages respectively, eighty, eighty-six, eighty- seven, ninety, ninety-seven. The other six died between thirty and seventy years of age. He came to his death on August 6, 1746, at the age of seventy-one, being crushed under the wheels of a cart loaded with hay which he was hauling from the field. He married (first) 1700, Sarah Vining, of Weymouth, by whom he had six children; she died in 1713, and he married (second) Mary, daughter of Francis and Hannah ( Brett) Cary, by whom he had two children ; she died in 1716, and he married (third) the same year, Mary, daugh- ter of William and Mary (Trow) Conant, the great-granddaughter of Roger - Conant; and by this last marriage he had eight children, four of whom died in infancy. Children of Nicholas were: Thomas, John, Josiah (died young), David, Jonathan, Seth, Eleazer, Ben- jamin, Mary, William, Josiah, Sarah, Abigail, Nicholas, Susanna and Ebenezer.
(IV) John (2), second son of Nicholas and Sarah (Vining) Whitman, was born in 1704, and died in 1792. He had a share of his fath- er's estate, including that part on which his grandfather, Thomas, had his dwelling. Judge Whitman says of him: "He was regular in his habits, but not very labori- ous, sufficiently so, however, to maintain his family, and keep his patrimony together, until, in his old age, his son John took charge of it, and of the maintenance of himself and wife." He married (first) 1726, Elizabeth Richard of Plympton, who died in 1727. He married (second) 1729, Elizabeth Cary, born 1700, died 1742, daughter of James Cary. He married (third) 1743, Hannah, widow of Dea- con Isaac Snow and daughter of Joseph Shaw. ried (fourth) September 30, 1765, Hannah, widow of Joseph Mitchell, of Hingham, and daughter of Hearsey, of Abington. She was born 1703, and died 1788. Six chil- dren were born to him: Samuel, Elizabeth, John, James, Daniel and Ezra.
(V) Deacon John (3), second son of John (2) and Elizabeth (Cary) Whitman, was born in Bridgewater, March 17, O. S. or 28 N. S.,
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1735, and died July 26, 1842, aged one hun- dred and seven. On the maternal side he was the fourth in descent from Captain Miles Standish of the "Mayflower," the line of de- scent being as follows: Josiah, son of Miles Standish, of Bridgewater; Mary, daughter of Josiah and wife of James Cary; their daugh- ter. Elizabeth Cary, wife of John (2) Whit- man and mother of John (3). At the age of seventeen John Whitman was apprenticed to Deacon Cary, of North Bridgewater, to learn the trade of "shop joiner," as it was then called : after leaving Deacon Cary he worked for Captain Daniel Noyes, of Abington. Dur- ing the time he was at the latter place he was drafted for service in the French war. His brother Samuel furnished him with means to procure a substitute, and soon afterward he went to New Jersey, where he stayed two years. He then returned home to take charge of his father and sister, settling on his fath- er's homestead. `In the first year after his marriage he and his wife joined the church in East Bridgewater, and endeavored, to quote his own words-"to walk in all the command- ments and ordinances of the Lord blame- lessly." About 1775 he was chosen deacon of the church, an office which he held till his ad- vanced age rendered it fitting that he should retire. At the commencement of the revolu- tionary war he was chosen lieutenant of a company of militia under Captain Alden, which office he held till the close of the war. He was, however, called into service but twice, and only once went into camp, when he was stationed for three months in Rhode Island guarding the coast. After the war he walked from Rhode Island to East Bridgewater. When almost home he was quite discouraged with thinking what a hard time was in store for him, as it was quite late in the season and his crops not planted. When he came to a small "grog shop" he bought a drink of grog to revive his spirits, for which he paid eleven dollars in Continental money. This was the last liquor he ever took, and he lived to be one hundred and seven years old. He was a strong temperance man in a time when temperance was not fashionable. For several years he She was born 1704, and died 1762. He mar- was selectman, overseer of the poor and as- sessor of taxes, but his retiring disposition prevented him from being put forward for offices of distinction. After the death of his wife, he made arrangements with his son Alfred to take charge of the farm, and he boarded with him the remainder of his life. He married (first) October II, 1764, Lydia
Snow, born in 1740, died April 25, 1771, daughter of David and Joanna (Hayward) Snow. He married (second) August 5, 1775, Abigail Whitman, born August 5, 1751, died September 16, 1813, daughter of Josiah and Elizabeth (Smith) Whitman. His children were : Lydia, Elizabeth, James, Catherine, Bathsheba, Josiah, Alfred, Obadiah, Na- thaniel, Hosea, John, Abigail, Bernard and Jason.
(VI) Obadiah, fourth son of Deacon John (3) and Abigail (Whitman) Whitman, was born in 1783, and died January 8, 1862. He removed to New Gloucester, Maine, where he was a farmer and a prominent and exem- plary citizen. He held various town offices and represented the town in the legislature two terms. He shared the deep religious feelings that had been instilled into all his children by Deacon John. He married, May 1, 1805, Susannah Parsons, daughter of Colonel Isaac Parsons, of New Gloucester. She died No- vember 7, 1859. They had six children, all born in New Gloucester: Edwin, Isaac Par- sons, George Washington, Susannah, Rufus Anderson and John.
(VII) Isaac Parsons, second son
of Obadiah and Susannah ( Parsons) Whitman, was born in New Gloucester, October 12, 1809, and died in Portland, February 24, 1888. He was a practical machinist. He resided in Nashua, New Hampshire, many years, and while there he held many local offices and rep- resented the city in the legislature two years. In 1872 he removed to Portland, Maine, where he spent his last years. He married, May 12, 1841, Sarah Elizabeth Jordan, of Biddeford, born in 1814, died in Portland, June 7, 1904, daughter of Ichabod and Betsy ( Nason) Jor- dan, of Biddeford. (See Jordan, VI.) They had two children-Elizabeth Parsons, and Isaac Henry, who died in infancy.
(VIII) Elizabeth Parsons, only daughter of Isaac Parsons and Sarah Elizabeth (Jordan) Whitman, was born in Nashua, New Hamp- shire, March 13, 1842. She was married No- vember 27, 1867, to Thomas Hawes Haskell, of New Gloucester. (See Haskell, V.)
(For preceding generations see Rev. Robert Jordan I.) (IV) Judge Rishworth, eldest JORDAN child of Captain Samuel and Olive (Plaisted) Jordan, was born in Winter Harbor, now Biddeford, York county, Maine, in 1719, and died April 18, 1808, aged eighty-nine years. He lived in the lower part of the town, in a house since occu- pied by his son, Ralph Tristram Jordan, and
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by his grandson, Robert Elliot Jordan. Early in the revolution he was raised to the bench of the court of common pleas, of which he subsequently became chief justice, and was universally esteemed for his able and upright discharge of the duties of his office. For more than fifty years he took an active and prominent part in the affairs of town and church, enjoying the confidence and respect of the inhabitants. From early manhood he was a member of the Congregational church. He was a man of impressive person- ality, of a type which has passed away. He was six feet in height, broad shouldered, of light complexion, and possessed of a very loud, strong voice. His figure was very erect till bowed by age. He wore small clothes, a three-cornered hat and a wig. Judge Jordan married, in Kittery, 1742, Abigail Gerrish. born 1720, died October 25, 1794, daughter of Colonel Timothy Gerrish. (See Gerrish, III.) Their children were: Olive, Abigail, Sarah, Mary, Samuel, Rishworth, Jane, Jo- seph, Elizabeth and Ralph Tristram.
(V) Major Rishworth (2), second son of Judge Rishworth (I) and Abigail (Gerrish) Jordan, was born in Biddeford in 1754, and died there October 23, 1843, aged eighty-nine. His entire life was spent in that town, his homestead being located a mile and a half from Saco Falls. He married (first) Sarah For- syth, who died in 1786, aged thirty-five years ; (second) Sarah (Goodman), widow of Tem- ple Hight, of Berwick. She died February 26, 1825. His children were: Rishworth, Ichabod, Temple and Sarah Goodwin.
(VI) Ichabod, second son of Major Rish- worth (2) and Sarah (Forsyth) Jordan, was born in Biddeford, February 2, 1782, and died August 7, 1874, in the ninety-third year of his age. In early business life he was en- gaged in a country store for some years ; was early identified in town affairs; held various offices of trust ; was representative to the gen- eral court in Boston; was for many years deputy sheriff of York county; was uni- versally known and respected not only in his own town, but throughout the county. He married Betsy Nason, and they were the pa- rents of George F. H., Noah Nason, Sarah Elizabeth, Abigail Hight, Rishworth. Ichabod Goodwin, Andrew S., Daniel S., William G., Ethelbert G. and Annie.
(VII) Sarah Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Ichabod and Betsy (Nason) Jordan, was born in 1814, and died 1904. She married Isaac P. Whitman, of New Gloucester. (See Whit- man, VII.)
In PEASE England the family name Pease has been known for at least four centuries, and as early as 1472 the name John Pease, LL.D., appears in a published book. It is claimed by some antiquarians that the name is of German ori- gin and that families of that name emigrated from Germany to England about the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries. On the other hand it is claimed by reliable authorities that the Eng- lish Pease family comes of an ancient Latin race, and this belief seems to have found sup- port in this country, where we have an account of one of them who dropped his name Pease and in its place adopted that of Pise, which is said to be the Italian equivalent of Pease, and has the same pronunciation, or perhaps more like "Pees." This particular member of the Pease family was a descendant of the Enfield branch of the American family and therefore of kin to the family of whom this narrative is intended to treat. In respect to the origin of the name it may be said that it is supposed to have been in some manner associated with the esculent plant pea. The Pease coat-of- arms granted by Otho II had for its crest an eagle's head, holding in its beak a stalk of Pea-haulm, from which it appears reasonable that the family name was in fact associated with the pea-plant. The branch of the family here considered comes of the English family of the same name and on this side of the At- lantic dates its history from the year 1634, and has for its principal ancestor in the sec- ond generation one John Pease, son of the immigrant. In this connection it may be well to mention that between the years 1635 and 1672 there were no less than six persons in New England who bore the name of John Pease, and on that account some confusion has arisen among their numerous descendants ; and in the family here treated the baptismal name John has been transmitted from sire to son in every generation and in nearly all the families from the time of the immigrant to the present day.
(I) Robert Pease, immigrant, is supposed to have been born in Great Baddow, Essex, England, son of Robert and Margaret Pease, of Great Baddow. He came to America in 1634 in the ship "Francis" from Ipswich, Eng- land, to Boston, New England, with his son John, then four years old, and his brother John. He settled in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and died there in 1644, aged about thirty-seven years. No mention is made of his wife, or of other children than the boy John, and it is presumed that he was a
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