USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The history of Portland, from 1632 to 1864: with a notice of previous settlements, colonial grants, and changes of government in Maine > Part 68
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Boyd Robert and Joseph Coffin. These gentlemen, the first of the name who settled in Portland, were sons of James Boyd
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of Newburyport, and Susannah Coffin, sister of Rev. Paul Cof- fin of Buxton, and daughter of Col. Joseph Coffin of Newbury, who was a descendant from Tristram Coffin, the first of the name who came to this country. Robert and Joseph, with their brothers, Ebenezer and Gen. John Parker Boyd, were destined for mercantile life, and were placed in stores in Boston. Eben- ezer from having become quite a distinguished merchant left commercial pursuits and became a zealous Baptist preacher. And John, tired of the drudgery of business, entered the Ameri- can army, and in 1786 received a commission as ensign. In 1788, not finding sufficient employment on the peace establish- ment for his active mind, he went to India, and entering the military service, he rose by his merits to the command of a regiment in the British army. Returning to this country he was made a brigadier general and served through the war of 1812 with honor to himself and benefit to the country. Robert came to Portland in 1784 and was soon followed by his brother, Joseph C., when they commenced trade. In 1800, Joseph went to France and was absent abroad eighteen months; on his re- turn he left commercial pursuits and engaged in other employ- ments ; at one time as clerk of the courts, as notary, and magis- trate. He was the first treasurer of the State in 1820, and died in 1823 while holding that office, at the age of sixty- three. In 1796 he married Isabella, a daughter of Dr. Robert Southgate of Scarborough, by whom he had a large family of children. One son, Robert, and children of his eldest daugh- ter, Mary, widow of Dr. John Merrill, still reside in town.
Robert Boyd was the eldest brother ; he continued in trade on the corner of Middle and Exchange streets till his death. He succeeded Stephen Deblois, who had purchased that corner and the wooden store upon it, of Deacon Richard Codman in 1788, and after Mr. Deblois' return to Boston in 1794, Mr. Boyd purchased it and erected upon the spot in 1805 the brick block which remains there, the property of some of his children. Mr. Boyd erected about the same time the fine house on the
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corner of High and Pleasant streets, now owned and occupied by Joseph W. Dyer, in which he died in 1827, at the age of sixty-eight; his wife died twenty years later. Margaret, wife of the late Woodbury Storer, and Mrs. William Little of Bos- ton were the sisters of Mr. Boyd.
Robert Boyd married first, Ruth, a daugliter of Capt. David Smith, November 15, 1791, by whom he had all his children, viz : John P., Susan Coffin, William, Robert, a daughter who died in infancy, and Lendall, all of whom are living but the two daughters, three of them in Portland. Mrs. Boyd died in 1805 at the age of thirty-six. His second wife was Hannah Greenleaf of Newburyport, the excellent woman with whom he lived more than twenty years. Mr. Boyd was a gentleman of fine qualities, kind, benevolent, of easy manners, and univer- sally respected.
Butler, John, came here in 1761 from Newbury ; he was originally a jeweler, a partner of Paul Little, but afterward engaged in trade and accumulated a handsome property before the revolutionary war, which was severely impaired by tliat event. He married Aun Codman, a daughter of Capt. John Codman, of Charlestown, and sister of Deacon Richard Cod- man of this town. He was a handsome, gay, and accom- plished man, but his misfortunes by losses of property and children, unthroned reason from her seat, and we remem- ber him for many years as but the ruined semblance of a gen- tleman. He died in Westbrook in December, 1827, aged ninety-five, having been supported some years before his deatlı by that town. He left no issue.
Bradish, David. Major Bradish married Abiah Merrill in 1767, and had several children ; he left two sons, Levi and Da- vid, and daughter Mary married to Henry Wheeler ; descend- ants in the female line now reside in town. See p. 513.
Child, Thomas, was born in Boston in 1731 and came here about 1764 ; he entered government service in the custom- house in 1769, in which he continued until his death, first as
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"land waiter," weigher, and guager, and as naval officer under the government of Massachusetts. He was also postmaster before the revolution, and five years one of the selectmen. In 1772 he married Mary, a daughter of Enoch Freeman, who was born in 1752. By her he had three children, Thomas, Mary, married to David Hale, and Isabella, unmarried, all of whom survived him. He died in December, 1787, and his widow in Boston, 1832. His son Thomas died in Roxbury, Massachusetts, November 28, 1851, aged 69, leaving a family. The latter's son Thomas married a daughter of Joseph Thaxter of this town and is also dead.
Cammett, Paul, the first of the name who came to Portland, was born in 1719 ; he followed his trade as a cooper and pump and block maker before the revolution, and died in 1796, aged seventy-seven. His widow Mary, died in 1798. He had sons Philip, Dudley, Paul, and Thomas. Dudley married Eliza Paine, November 11, 1773 ; he was a lieutenant in the army of the revolution, and lived on Fore street near where the en- gine-house of the Grand Trunk Railway stands. He had a wharf near by on which he carried on his business of pump and block maker, which was purchased by the railway company ; it is now a part of their grounds. He had no sons. Thomas mar- ried Nabby Snow, November 14, 1784, and lived on the east side of India street, where his sons, Capt. William was born in 1785, Stephen, John, and Dudley, the last in 1788. Dudley was a pump and block maker, and died in 1863, aged seventy-five, leaving a family. Capt. William after having followed the sea nearly all his life as seaman and master with success, has re- tired in old age, and now enjoys an office in the Custom-house, well earned by his long ocean service. Both William and Dud- ley are represented by sons who perpetuate the name, and they are the only descendants of the name residing here. Paul, son of Paul, died in Portland unmarried, and John, though married, left no issue. The only male descendants are through Thomas the son of the first Paul.
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Cobham. Early in the last century, a mariner in an English ship which came here to load, fell in love with one of our maid- ens named Mayberry, married her and took her to England. He died there leaving a widow and four daughters born in England. The lone widow sighed for her native land, and sought to join her kindred and friends upon the soil of her birth. Thus she who departed a joyful bride, returned a widow with her daughters to spend the evening of her life among the friends and companions of her youth, and be buried among her kindred. The widow Cobham, for she it was, died De- cember 29, 1767, and the daughters were left to struggle on ; Rebecca died June 19, 1773, aged nineteen ; two others, Sally and Abigail, will be remembered by our old inhabitants as toil- ing, painstaking, and quiet single women ; Sally kept a store on Congress, near Green street, where would be found all the small articles needful for ladies' use. Abigail, or as she was familiarly called, Nabby, kept the house. I well remem- ber these ancient ladies as they moved calmly and patiently along to the end of their life's journey. Sarah died March 17, 1811, and Nabby within the year, January 10, 1812, aged sixty- four, her whole life having been spent by the side of her sister ; when she was stricken down, the fatal blow was given to her own existence. Mary, the eldest sister, married in 1759, for her first husband, Jacob Stickney, son of Capt. David Stickney, by whom she had two children. Stickney was a sea captain and died December 16, 1764, aged twenty-eight ; and in 1767 she married Joseph Noyes, one of the most honored townsmen of the last century. He was nine years one of the selectmen, and nine years a representative to the Provincial Congress. He was son of Josiah Noyes, who owned and occupied the Brack- ett, now Deering farm at Back Cove, was born in 1745 and died in 1795. His children by Mary Cobham, were Jacob born 1768, Anne, married to David Hale, Betsey married to William Lowell, and Josiah. Jacob, by whom alone the Cobham blood is preserved here, married in 1798, Anne, daughter of Pearson
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Jones by Betsey, a daughter of Enoch Ilsley ; by her he had a large family, the eldest of whom is our esteemed fellow-citizen, Joseph Cobham Noyes, born in 1798. Jacob Noyes built and occupied the three-storied brick house on Free street now owned by the late Charles Jones's heirs ; he died in June, 1820, but his widow still lives, sound in intellect and body at the age of eighty-nine years. The Cobhams are a branch of the titled Cobhams of Kent and Cobham counties, England, as the coat of arms preserved in the family indicates, and is thus described :
"Gu, on a Chev, or three fleurs-de-lis az,"
which in plain English means shield red, on a chevron of gold color with three lilies in blue color. The chevron is formed by a bar drawn from each corner of the bottom of the shield, meeting in its center.
Codman, Richard, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1730. He was son of Capt. John and Mrs. Parnell Cod- man. In 1755 his father was poisoned by his three negro domestics, for which two of them were executed and the other transported. Soon after this event, Richard came to this town and engaged in mercantile pursuits. Before the revolution, he kept in a gambrel-roofed wooden store which stood on the corner of Middle and Exchange streets, and was afterward oc- cupied successively by Stephen Deblois and Robert Boyd ; it was moved by the latter to Congress near Green street in 1803, to make room for his brick block which he erected in 1804 and 1805. Mr. Codman was a man of much influence in town; he was twelve years deacon of the first church, two years a select- man. In 1762 he built one of the best houses in town on the corner of Middle and Temple streets, in which he died. This stood back some distance from Middle street, and had a spacious yard before it terraced to the street and surrounded by a stately fence. It was open to the harbor at the time of the revolution, so that balls from Mowatt's fleet shattered the fence and pene- trated the house. On the tenth of July, 1758, he married
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Anne, the youngest daughter of Phineas Jones, by whom he had two children, Richard and Anne ; she died in March, 1761, at the early age of nineteen years. In 1763 he married Sarah, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Mr. Smith, who was the mother of James, William, Sarah, who married Timothy Osgood, Catharine, who married Ebenezer Mayo, and Mary, who married William Swan, and was the last survivor. The daughters by the second marriage had no issue ; descendants from the sons of that marriage now reside here. Richard, the son by the first marriage, married Statira, a daughter of Gen. Preble, and had by her three children, Richard, Edward Preble, and Statira, all dead ; she died August 15, 1796, aged twenty- nine, and he married for his second wife Miss Hitchborn of Boston, by whom he had no children. He died September 9, 1833, aged seventy-five, having survived all his children- James, after a long and faithful service as a sea captain, set- tled in Gorham, where he died in 1840, aged seventy-six, leav- ing two sons, one of whom, Randolph A. L., now deceased, was a prominent lawyer in Portland. The other, Frederick, lived in Baltimore and is dead. William died in 1828, at the age of sixty, leaving a family ; one of his sons now resides in Port- land. Anne, the daughter by the first wife, married James Fosdick in 1781, and died leaving several children ; two of his daughters are living in town, one single, the other, the widow of Edward Burnham. Deacon Codman died September 12, 1793, at the age of sixty-three, and his widow September 10, 1827, at the age of eighty-seven. She was the last survivor of Rev. Mr. Smith's children; her brother Peter having died the year before in his ninety-sixth year.
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Coffin, Dr. Nathaniel, was for many years a celebrated phy- sician, and came from Newburyport, to which place his ances- tor Tristram Coffin, emigrated from Plymouth, England, in 1642. He married Patience Hale in 1739, by whom he had Sarah, Nathaniel, Jeremiah Powell, Francis, Mary, married to Samuel Juie, merchant of Antigua, and Charles Harford for
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her second husband, and Dorcas married to Captain Thomas Coulson of Bristol, England. He lived in India street, where he died in January, 1766. His wife died January 31, 1772, aged fifty-seven. Sarah died unmarried in Portland in 1826; Coulson's wife died in Bristol, England, about 1800, Jeremiah previous to 1800. His son Nathaniel was born April 20, 1744, was sent to England by his father in 1763, and pur- sued his medical studies in Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospitals, London. He returned to his native place in 1765, where lie entered upon a very full and lucrative practice and continued it until a short time previous to his death, which took place October 21, 1826. Soon after he commenced practice, he married Eleanor Foster of Charlestown, amiable and accom- plished like himself, by whom he had eleven children, five sons and six daughters ; all the daughters but one, who died young, were married and two of his sons. None of the family now live in town. Dr. Coffin the younger, and his wife were per- sons of fine manners and personal address. Their children were handsome in person, and the daughters were among the most attractive ladies of their day. Mary married Ebenezer Mayo in 1792, and died the next year. Susanna married William Codman, of Boston, October 27, 1791; he died in 1816, leaving a family. Harriet, born May 14, 1775, married Jesse Sumner of Boston, 1799; their daughter married Nathan Appleton of Boston. Eleanor born in 1779, married John Derby of Salem in 1801, and Martha born 1783, married Rich- ard Derby of Salem in 1800. Thomas and Francis, twins, were born in 1780 ; Thomas went to Russia in early life, mar- ried and died there. Francis died unmarried in 1842. Isaac Foster, born in 1787, graduated at Bowdoin College in 1806, spent several years in South America, and on his return mar- ried Ann Prince of Roxbury, and died there in 1861.
Cotton, William, came from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, about 1731, a young man. He was born 1710, and died De- cember 8, 1768, aged fifty-eight. He was probably descended
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
from William Cotton, who with John Cotton were partners with Gorges and Mason in the Laconia Grant on Piscataqua river. Mason brought them to Portsmouth in 1634. William of Falmouth, came here about 1732. He purchased a large tract of land between Cross and Center streets, through which Cotton street was afterward made, and established upon it a large tannery and erected a dwelling-house in which he lived and died. The tannery was carried on by his descendants until quite recently, and a portion of the property remains in the family. His first purchase was made August 19, 1732, being one acre of upland and one acre of flats, and was part of the old John Skil- lings lot, extending from Congress street to Fore river, which he received in 1683 in exchange from Rev. George Burroughs. The land was a swamp and well suited for a tanyard. In the deed he is called Wm. Cotton, Jr. He was chosen deacon of the first church in 1744 and held the office at the time of his death ; he was selectman of the town thirteen years and was an honored and useful citizen. He was twice married ; his first wife Sarah, by whom he had all his children but one, died May 3, 1753, aged 47 ; in the November following, he married widow Martha Hudson who survived him and died December 10, 1784, aged sixty-five. His children were Sarah, married first to William Thomes in 1763, and to Elisha Turner, her sec- ond husband in 1774; William born October 24, 1739, married Elizabeth Cobb, 1759; John born 1741; Abigail born 1742, married Ebenezer Owen, 1763 ; Mary born 1754, married first Moses Holt, Jr., in 1771, a graduate of Harvard College in 1767, and was keeping the grammar school, he died the next January and she married the Rev. Stephen Hall in 1778, also a gradu- ate of Harvard in 1765. They all had children, but the de- scendants of Sarah and Mrs Owen are the only ones who remain in town. The name is extinct here.
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Crabtree, William. The name was in this country prior to 1639 ; in that year John Crabtree a joiner lived in Boston. The family here does not appear to be connected with him. Three
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brothers, Agreen, William, and Eleazer, came from England before the revolution and settled in Attleborough, Massachu- setts. Agreen moved to Frenchman's Bay, and Eleazer to Fox Islands in the eastern part of Maine. Agreen's sons, William and Eleazer, settled in Portland. William was about forty years old when he came here. His first wife died in 1779, and in 1798 he married Hannah Bagley. His children by his first wife were William, Eleazer, and Agreen ; by the second wife they were Edward, Sarah, Hannah, wife of Reuel Shaw, Jane, wife of Charles S. D.Griffin, Ellen, wife of Wm P. J. Baker, Eliza, wife of Silas W. Merrill. He and his sons, William and Elea zer, were able and enterprising shipmasters; William subse- quently settled as a merchant in Savannah, where he died a few years ago, leaving a widow, Lydia, a daughter of Major Lemuel Weeks. Eleazer died in 1860, without issue. The elder Capt. Crabtree lived many years on Congress, near the head of India street, in the house now owned and occupied by Mr. Swett. He moved to Falmouth where he died. His sister Sarah mar- ried Major Lemuel Weeks in 1780 and had a large family. The name Crabtree does not now exist in town.
Cumming, Thomas, came here from Scotland in 1773, and opened a store in India street in his house, where he carried on a large business. In the destruction of the town he lost his house and store with their contents ; after the war he built a house on the same spot, which is now standing, largely built upon, and is the one fronting Middle street, where he kept store until his death. He died in 1798, aged sixty-three, leaving one daughter, Eleonora, who was married to Charles Bradbury of Boston, a son of Judge Bradbury, in 1810, by whom she had a large family ; he had a son Robert who died at sea in 1791. The name does not exist here now.
There was a Thomas Cummings who lived in town in 1721, in which year or the next he married Deborah, the widow of James Mills, who lived on the adjoining land ; by her he had three daughters, Deborah, Patience, and Lucretia. By a for-
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mer marriage he had two sons, William and Thomas, through one or both of whom his name is transmitted to our day ; he was the ancestor of the late William Cummings, Esq., of West- brook; he was constable of the town at his deatlı, which took place in March, 1724.
Cushing, Col. Ezekiel, was the son of the Rev. Jeremiah Cushing of Scituate, where he was born April 28, 1698. His mother was daughter of Thomas Loring of Hingham. His first wife was Hannah Doane of Plymouth, born in 1703, by whom he had the following children born in Provincetown, viz : Loring, born August 10, 1721, who graduated at Harvard College, 1741, and died in 1778 ; Ezekiel, June 3, 1724; Jere- miah, October 7, 1729 ; Hannah, February 9, 1732 ; Lucia, July 13, 1734 ; Lucia, December 27, 1735 ; Pliebe, April 15, 1738. After which he moved to Cape Elizabeth and occupied the point which has ever since borne his name, and where a portion of his house remains. In 1746 he married the widow Mary Parker of Boston, a daughter of Dominicus Jordan of Cape Elizabeth, by whom he had three children, John, Thomas, and Nathaniel. His second wife had by her first husband, four children, one of whom, Mary, married Loring Cushing above- named. His daughter Lucia, married James Otis of Scituate, and Hannah married Charles Robinson. His descendants are numerous both in the male and female lines. He was one of the most distinguished men in our neighborhood, and lived in high style. He commanded the regiment of the county, then the highest military office in Maine ; was selectman of the town nine years, and filled other important offices. He was largely engaged in the fisheries and the West India trade ; and during his time, there was more commercial business carried on in Simonton's Cove and on the Cape Elizabeth shore, than on the Falmouth side. He died in 1765, aged sixty-seven.
Deering Family. The advent of the Deering family to Fal- mouth, now Portland, of which they have been a prominent element, was caused probably, by the marriage of Deacon
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James Milk with Mrs. Annie Deering, the mother of Nathan- iel, John, etc. Deacon Milk's first wife died in April, 1761, and the next year he married the widow Deering, who brought to him the large dowry of eleven children. She had been the mother of fourteen, three of whom died young. Her maiden name was Dunn. Susannah, the eldest child, born June 1, 1737, was married to Mr. Wormwood. The others followed her to Falmouth or came soon after ; they were Nathaniel, born January 17, 1739, John, November 15, 1740 ; Mary, June 30, 1742, married Deacon Milk's son James in 1763; Ann, born May 3, 1744, married William Fullerton of Portsmouth ; Nich- olas, April 4, 1746 ; Miriam, February 4, 1748, married Mr. Clough ; Joshua, February 14, 1750 ; Samuel, July 16, 1752; Benjamin, May 1, 1754; and Joseph, February 3, 1758, who died unmarried, Dec. 8, 1779. Ann, who married Wm. Fuller- ton, had by him three daughters, and after his death, came to Falmouth with her children and married Capt. Joshua Adams of New Casco, by whom she had one son, Joseph. Her daugh- ters married here, viz., Elizabeth to Elias Merrill, Hannah to Elliot Deering, and Miriam to Daniel Poor. Of Nathaniel Deering, the eldest son, I have spoken in previous pages, he died at the early age of fifty-six, leaving two children by his wife, Dorcas Milk, viz., James, born Aug. 23, 1766, and Mary, born 1770, married to Commodore Edward Preble in 1801; she died May 26, 1851, having had but one child, Edward, who died be- fore her, leaving three children, by one of whom, bearing the name of his father and his renowned grandfather, whose profes- sion he follows, the name and blood are transmitted. The mother of this large family of Deerings died in 1769, at the age of fifty-eight, and Mrs. Deering the widow of Nathaniel died in March, 1835, at the age of eighty-six. James, the son of Nathaniel, married Almira, a daughter of Enoch Ilsley, March 9, 1789, by whom he had a large family, of which one son, our townsman Nathaniel, a graduate of Harvard College in 1810, a lawyer by profession, and four daughters, survive ; two
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
of whom, unmarried, occupy the paternal mansion amidst the broad and beautiful acres which their honored parent many years cultivated and enjoyed. One daughter married our re- spected fellow-citizen, Thomas A. Deblois, another Henry Mer- rill, and the youngest, now deceased, was the wife of Mr. Fessenden, the honored secretary of the treasury of the United States. Mr. Deering died in September, 1850, and his wife a few years later, both at advanced ages.
John Deering the brother of Nathaniel, married Eunice Milk in 1766, by whom he had eight children, five sons and three daughters. Sally, the eldest, died unmarried in 1814; Anna married Elihu Deering and died without issue in 1861, aged ninety-one years ; Eunice died in 1864, at the age of eighty- nine, unmarried ; Joseph died in 1860, at the age of eighty-one; these two aged ladies and the brother, the lingering remnants of the large family lived together in the old house on Exchange street, built by Nathaniel and John before the revolution, until it was partially destroyed by fire in 1853, when it was sold, and the ancient occupants left their native tenement and contin- ued together in their house on High street, until one by one they dropped into the silent shelter of the tomb. Their father died in 1784, November 3, aged forty-four, and their widowed mother in March, 1835, at the age of eighty-six. The only representatives of this branch of the family are the children of John, son of John, born September 28, 1775, married to Ellen Jones of Cape Elizabeth, November 6, 1800, and who died in December, 1832. He was an able shipmaster and a genial companion. Mrs. Poor, widow of Daniel Poor, the last surviv- ing grandchild of the elder Mrs. Deering, daughter of William Fullerton and Ann Deering, died in April, 1864, at the age of ninety-four years and four months, being the fourth member in this family who has died within four years, two over ninety, one eighty-nine, and one eighty-one, a rare instance of lon- gevity in one family.
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