USA > New Hampshire > Genealogical and family history of the state of New Hampshire : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Vol. III > Part 34
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(IV) Jonathan, fourth son and seventh child of John and Sarah (Knight) Kelly, was born in Newbury March 20, 1681. In 1702 his father con- veyed to him twenty-five acres of the homestead upon which he resided until 1726, when he pur- chased for two hundred and twenty pounds of Jeremiah Dow, of Amesbury, forty acres of land in what is now Merrimack, and in the following year he sold his West Newbury property to Abel Merrill, Jr., receiving, according to the deed, which was signed jointly by himself and his wife Hester, the sum of five hundred pounds. About this time
Jonathan and his wife were demitted from the church in West Newbury to that of the Rev. Mr. Wingate, at West Amesbury ( Merrimack), whither they removed and resided for the rest of their lives. March 5. 1754, he settled accounts with his son Timothy Harvey, who had carried on his farm for seven years. He lived to become a nonogenarian, and is described at that period as being "low in statue, thick set and of a ruddy countenance." His marriage took place July 6, 1702, to Hester, daugh- ter of Deacon Benjamin Morse. She bore him these children, namely : Ruth, Esther, Jonathan, Benjamin, Anna, Sarah, Samuel, Martha and Timothy Harvey.
(V) Jonathan, third child and eldest son of Jonathan and Hester ( Morse) Kelly, was born in West Newbury, October 10, 1709. He married Hannah Blaisdell, and for many years resided in the immediate vicinity of the homestead in West Ames- bury. Indications point to the fact that he was a weaver as well as a farmer. April 23, 1778, he sold to one John Kelly his homestead. together with a piece of woodland in Kingston, New Hampshire, and removed to Hampstead, that state, where his death occurred in January. 1780. Ilis children were : Hannah, Esther, Jonathan, John, Mary, Ebenezer, Moses and Richard.
(VI) Jonathan Kelley, third child and eldest son of Jonathan and Hannah ( Blaisdell ) Kelley, was born in West Amesbury, December 24, 1736. With the second military company of Amesbury he responded to the alarm caused by the capture of Fort William and Henry, and he was drafted into the colonial service August 15, 1757. November 22, 1760, he filed in Amesbury his intention to marry Mrs. Sarah Whicher (nee Foot), who died early in or prior to 1778, and on September 12 of that year his intention was published in Amesbury to marry Judith Eastman, of Hopkinton, New Hampshire. For short periods he resided in Rochester, Vermont, and Hopkinton, New Hampshire, and he finally settled in New Chester, New Hampshire, which is now Hill. He was the father of Timothy, Enoch, Abigail and Ebenezer.
(VII) Dr. Timothy, eldest child of Jonathan and Saralı (Foot) ( Whicher) Kelley, was born De- cember 12, 1761. He was led by a spirit of patrio- tism into the continental service during the Revo- lutionary war, and he subsequently became a phy- sician, practicing first in Candia, New Hampshire, whence he removed to Bristol in 1790, and he after- wards located in Hill, where he died February 19, 1845. He was a man of superior intelligence and much natural ability, and these gifts became well developed in spite of his imperfect and irregular educational opportunities. December 28, 1783, he was married in Newbury, Massachusetts, to Joanna Newcomb, who was born on Cape Ann (probably in Gloucester) in June, 1762, and her death occurred in Hill the same year as that of her husband. She was the mother of eight children, namely : Charlotte, Horatio, Clarissa, Drusilla, Launcelot, Alfred, Mary Ann and Joanna.
(VIII) Deacon Alfred, third son and sixth
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child of Dr. Timothy and Joanna ( Newcomb) Kelley, was born in Bristol, November 13, 1795. When a young man he engaged in mercantile busi- ness, keeping a general country store for some time, and after relinquishing trade he purchased a small farm of about forty acres situated some two miles north of Hill village on the Pemigewasset. There he resided for the remainder of his life, which ter- minated September 28. 1845. He took a profound interest in the moral and religious welfare of the community, and was a deacon of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Politically he acted with the Whig party. On June 30, 1829, he married Mary Currier, who was born in Plymouth, New Hamp- shire, August 27, 1805, daughter of Daniel Currier. The children of this union are: Harrict A., born April 19, 1839, married William Foster; Mary E., born August 16, 1832, married Samuel W. Cutter of Carlton; William C., who will be again referred to; and Martha J., born May 22, 1840, died Novem- ber 12. 1858.
(IX) William Currier, second child and only son of Deacon Alfred and Mary (Currier) Kelley, was born in Hill, June 6, 1834. At the age of eleven years he was left by his father's death wholly to the care of his mother, and his. educational oppor- tunities were confined to the primitive public school system then in vogue. When of sufficient age he took the management of the homestead farm. but relinquished it temporarily in 1862 and enlisted as a private in Company D, Twelfth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, for service in the Civil war. He participated in the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, etc., was transferred from the Army of the Potomac to the Department of the Gulf under General Benjamin F. Butler, and at the termination of hostilities was honorably dis- charged and mustered out with his regiment. Re- suming the management of the homestead farm in Hill, he resided there for the succeeding forty years, cultivating it with gratifying success and adding to his property as opportunity permitted until own- ing two hundred and fifty acres. He gives con- siderable attention to the dairy industry, keeping an average of fifteen cows, and is also quite largely interested in the cultivation of apples, raising from seventy-five to one hundred barrels annually. In 1905 he partially relinquished the activities of life, and is now residing with his son, Alfred M. Kelley, in the village, but he still retains a general over- sight of his property. In politics Mr. Kelley is a Republican, and was formerly a leading spirit in local civic affairs, having served as a selectman for a period of seventeen years, twelve years of which he was chairman of the board; was tax collector five years, represented his district in the lower branch of the state legislature in 1877 and has served as inspector of ballots ever since the inan- guration of the Austrahan system of voting. On May 28, 1867, he married Ruth Anna Merrill, born July 9. 1844. and daughter of Clark and Elizabeth (Crowell) Merrill, of Hill. She died February 22, 1905. leaving four children, namely : Alfred M., born
January 29, 1869, married Mabelle Call. and has one Dana; Mina J., born January 4, 1873, who is the wife of Harry F. Prescott, and resides in Lebanon, having three children-Francis, Harry and Roscoe; Elizabeth, born April 20, 1881, is now the wife of George Bucklin, of Bristol, and has one son, Vernal ; and Arthur W., who was killed in a railroad acci- dent January 19. 1901.
The descendants of Walter
WOODWORTH Woodworth, "Scituate, in New England." in the settler of 1635, have had among them many persons of pron- inent worth. In the time of the Colonial wars they were well represented among the fighters. In later years there have appeared among them several who have been made famous by their poetry, notably. Samuel Woodworth, who wrote the exquisite poem "The Old Oaken Bucket ;" Francis Chandler Wood- worth, who wrote the bird song "Chick-a-dee-dee;" and Nancy Adelia Woodworth, who composed the feeling poem entitled "The Old Homestead." Among those of recent generations who are well known in commercial circles are William Wood- worth, inventor of the Woodworth cylinder planing machine: Chauncey C. Woodworth, of Rochester, New York; Artemus B. Woodworth, of Lowell, Massachusetts; Edward B. and Albert B. Wood- worth, of Concord, New Hampshire.
(I) Walter Woodworth came from Kent county. England, to Scituate, Massachusetts, in 1635. He was assigned the third lot on Kent street, which runs along the ocean front, at the corner of Meet- ing House Lane, and there he built a house. In that year he secured other land, a tract on the first Herring Brook, not far below Stockbridge Mill, where afterward stood the residence of the poet Samuel Woodworth, and another tract on Walnut Tree Hill, just west of the present Greenbush or South Scituate railroad station, which was in early times called Walter Woodworth's Hill, and in 1666 he became a purchaser of sixty acres at Weymouth. In 1640 Walter was assessed nine shillings for pub- lic use, and March 2, 1641, became a freeman. June 4, 1645. he was appointed surveyor of high- ways in Scituate, and again in 1646 and 1656. His name appears frequently in the town records of Scituate as juror, etc. In 1654 he was a member of the First Church, which ordained Charles Chauncey as its minister. From a record of his will in the Plymouth county probate office, dated 1685. it ap- pears that he was a man of considerable substance, for in it he disposes of his dwelling house and barn, marshland, upland and commons in Scituate and Seconet, and other property. He died in 1685. His wife, whose name is unknown, seems to have died before him, as she is not mentioned in his will. lle had ten children, six of whom were daughters. and all were alive when his will was made. Their names are: Thomas, born 1636; Sarah, 1637: Ben- jamin, 1638; Elizabeth, 1640; Joseph, 1648; Mary. March 10. 1650, married Aaron Symonds, Deceni- ber 24, 1667; Martha, 1656, married Lieutenant
W.r. Kelly
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Zachary Damon, June. 1670: Isaac, 1650; Mchitable, August 15, 1662: Abigail, 1664
( II) Benjamin, second son and third child of Walter Woodworth, born in Scituate, 1638, died April 22. 1728. In 1703 he bought for two hundred and fifty pounds from Philip Smith a large tract of land in Lebanon, Connecticut, where many Scit- uate people settled. He moved soon after to Leba- non with his family, and was admitted inhabitant December 22, 1704. In deeds of lands at Lebanon he is described as Benjamin Woodworth, of Little Compton. Rhode Island. Benjamin's farm was in the northeast part of the town. In 1714 he was one of twenty-four signers. five of whom were Wood- worths, for a new church. Benjamin's will was executed January 21, 1727. and proved June 20, 1728. Badge's "King Philip's War" describes Ben- jamin of Scituate, Massachusetts, and Benjamin, his son, of Lebanon. Connecticut, as serving in the Co- lonial Wars. Lands were assigned to him in 1676, as he applied to be paid in lands. Benjamin Wood- worth married (first ) Deborah -, by whom he had three children : Elizabeth. Deborah, and Mary. He married (second) llannalı , by whom he had eleven children: Benjamin. Jr., Ichabod, Eben- ezer, Amos. Ezekiel, Caleb, Hannah, Ruth, Judith, Margaret and Priscilla. In all he had fourteen chil- dren.
(III) Ebenezer, son of Benjamin and Hannah Woodworth, was born in Scituate, March 12, 1691. Further particulars of his life are not known.
(IV) Ebenezer (2). son of Ebenezer (1) Wood- worth. was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, Septem- ber 26, 1718.
(V) Sylvanus, son of Ebenezer Woodworth, Jr., was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, January 2, 1748, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He fouglit under General Putnam at Bunker Hill.
(VI) George Woodworth, son of Sylvanus Wood- worth, was born in Dorchester, New Hampshire. October 5. 1793, and died at Hebron, New Hamp- shire, in 1864. He was educated in the public schools of the town, and his occupations were farming and shoemaking. He served the town of Hebron as selectman for some years, and was a justice of the peace and quorum. In politics he was a Whig, and later a Republican from the formation of that party. He was a great reader of the best literature, especi- ally the Bible, Shakespeare and Gibbon's Rome, and was a man of much influence in the town and greatly respected. In religion he was a Congregationalist. and a deacon in the Congregational Church for many year. He married Louisa Hovey, daughter of Ab- ner and Lois (Tucker) Hovey, and granddaughter of the Rev. Samuel llovey. born at Lyme, New Hampshire, May 24. 1800. She was possessed of a fine mind. and was a school teacher for two years before her marriage. The children born to this couple were twelve in number: Leigh Richmond, born August 7. 1826: William Henry, January 14. 1828: Esther Jamesin, December 14. 1829; John Ball. January 25, 1832: George Thornton, August 2, 1834: Sarah Frances, June 2, 1836: Elizabeth Kim-
ball, April 2, 1839: Artemas Brooks, April 15, 1841 ; Albert Bingham, April 7. 1843; Grace Lowella, June 14. 1845: Edward Baker, March 27, 1847; Louise Maria, May 17, 1850.
(VII) Albert Bingham, son of George and Lou- isa (Hovey) Woodworth, was born at Dorchester, New Hampshire, April 7. 1843, and obtained his education in the public schools of Hebron and at Boscawen Academy. When a young man he was employed in a country store at Orford, for four years. Going from that place to Warren he had charge of a store for Asa Thurston, of Lyme for a time, and afterwards engaged in business for him- self. He went to Bristol in 1867. but stayed there only a year, and then removed to Lisbon where he remained five years, carrying on a store of general merchandise including a tailoring department. In 1873 he removed to Concord, and with his brother Edward B., engaged in the retail grocery business, which they conducted for two years, when they pur- chased the wholesale business of Hutchins & Co. and from that to the present time. Mr. Woodworth has been engaged in the wholesale business in Concord, dealing in flour, groceries, feed, lime and cement, and covering the territory between Concord and Canada. The business was incorporated in 1901 as Woodworth & Company. and Mr. Woodworth was made its treasurer. He has been conspicuously suc- cessful in the mercantile line. and has become inter- ested in other enterprises. In 1883 he was one of the incorporators of the Parker & Young Company, of Lisbon, New Hampshire, manufacturers of piano sounding boards, of which he has been a director from the first, and president since 1895. This com- pany has now grown to be the largest manufacturer of sounding boards in the United States. Mr. Wood- worth bas been connected with the corporation of the Moosilauke Mountain Hotel Company, summit of Mt. Moosilauke. from its beginning in 1880.
Ile is a Republican and has been active and conspicuous in local politics. He served as alder- man of the Fifth ward in Concord from 1885 to 1889 : representative in the New Hampshire legislature, 1893-94, and mayor of Concord, 1807-90. He is a member of St. Paul's Church (Episcopal), and has been one of its vestrymen for twelve years. He was president of the board of trustees of the Margaret Pillsbury General Flospital from 1899 to 1904: and has been a trustee of the Holderness School for Boys for several years. and is also trustee of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. In 1872 he was made a Mason, and since that time has been a member of Kane Lodge. No. 65. Free and Accepted Masons, of Lisbon. New Hampshire. He is also a member of the Concord Board of Trade, the Wono- lancet Club, the New Hampshire Club of Boston. the Appalachian Mountain Club of Boston. and the Sons of the American Revolution. Mr. Woodworth is a man of action. His custom of never putting off till tomorrow what he can do today has made his life successful and placed him among the leading citizens of Concord. His fair dealing and active participation in public business and the management
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of public institutions have given him an enviable place among the benevolent and public-spirited citi- zens of the state.
He married, in Lisbon, New Hampshire, Septem- ber 30, 1873, Mary Angeline Parker, daughter of Charles and Amelia E. (Bennett) Parker, born May 3. 1849 (see Parker VII). Mary A. Parker was grad- uated from Vassar College in 1870. She was a miem- ber of the Concord school board for nine years and is an active member of the Woman's Club, having served as its president from 1897 to 1899, and she has twice filled the presidency of the Boston Branch of Vassar alumnæ. She is a prominent member of St. Paul's Church. The children of Albert B. and Mary A. (Parker) Woodworth are: Edward Knowl- ton, born August 25, 1875: Grace, born October 5. 1879; Charles, born July 8, 1885. All were born in Concord. Edward K. was graduated from Concord High School in 1893; from Dartmouth College in 1897, and from Harvard Law School in 1900, and is now connected with the law firm of Streeter & Hol- lis. He married, June 25, 1903, at Claremont, New Hampshire, Clara Farwell, daughter of Hermon and Clara Elizabeth (Farwell) Holt of that town. They reside in Concord. Grace was educated in the Con- cord common and high schools. and the Gilman School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Charles P. was graduated from Concord High School in 1903, and is now a student in Dartmouth College.
The Beckwiths of America trace BECKWITH their ancestry to the valiant old Norman Knight, Sir Hugh de Malehisse (1) who held lands under William the Conqueror, and who in 1066 stood upon the shores of England with his warrior companions and vowed to carve with his good sword an earldom as a narrow resting place which even England could not refuse her valiant invaders.
(II) Sir Hugo de Malebisse. son of Sir Hugh lived in the reign of King Stephen, 1138; he had four sons and one daughter.
(III) Sir Simon de Malebisse, son of Sir Hugo, was Lord of Cowten, in Craven.
(IV) Sir Hercules de Malebisse, son of Sir Si- mon, married, in 1226, Lady Dame Beckwith Bruce, daughter of Sir William Bruce, Lord of Uglebarley, which lordship he had inherited from his ancestor. Sir Robert Bruce, of Skelton Castle, the progenitor of the royal Bruces of Scotland. It is from this marriage the name of Beckwith is first derived. Lady Beckwith Bruce possessed by inheritance an estate called Beckwith (in old Anglo-Saxon, Beckworth). With a view evidently of the perpetuation of the name, she required her husband to assume the name of Beckwith by a marriage contract dated 1226.
(V) Sir Hercules de Beckwith de Clint married the daughter of Sir John Ferrars, of Tamworth Castle, who by marriage into the house of Marmion inherited by terms of the Castle of Tamworth the high office of Champion of England.
(VI) Nicholas Beckwith de Clint.
(V11) Hamon Beckwith, son of Nicholas,
(VIII) William Beckwith, oldest son of Sir Hamon.
(IX) Thomas Beckwith, of Clint.
(X) Adam Beckwith, of Clint, married Eliza- beth de Malebisse, and thus reunited the two branches of the family after a separation of over three hundred years.
(XI) Sir William, oldest son of Adam Beck- with, of Clint.
(XII) Thomas Beckwith, of Clint, died in tenth year of reign of Henry VII.
(XHI) John Beckwith, third son of Thomas of Clint. married the daughter of Thomas Radcliff, of Mulgrave; they had one son Robert.
(XIV) Robert Beckwith succeeded to his father's estate in the eighth year of the reign of Edward IV. (XV) John (2) Beckwith inherited the manor of Clint and Thorp and lived in the eighth year of King Edward IV. He left an only son Robert.
(XVI) Robert (2) Beckwith, of Clint and Thorp, had two children: Robert, died young, and Mar- maduke.
(XVII) Marmaduke, of Dacre and Clint, married twice. By his first wife he had eleven children. Thomas, the eldest, had three sons, one of whom, William, emigrated to America in 1607 with Captain John Smith, and landed at Jamestown. Ile married, in 1616, and had one son. Henry, who settled in Dorchester county, Maryland, and there founded a family, many of whose members have been prom- inent in the political, civil and military history of that country, and where descendants are still living in the old homestead.
(XVIII) Mathew, eleventh son of Marmaduke of Dacre and Clint, was born in Ponterferact, York- shire, England, about 1610. Ile emigrated to New England in 1635, residing a brief time at Saybrook Point, Connecticut. He was one of the first settlers of Hartford, but was in Lyme in 1651. He was of that class known as planters. many of whom were men of means, placing their vessels in charge of competent mariners, who also attended to the mer- cantile transactions. He died by accident, Decent- ber 13, 1681, leaving an estate vaued at £393. Mat- thew Beckwith and his wife Elizabeth had seven children, one of who was Nathaniel.
(XIX) Nathaniel Beckwith was born in New London. Connecticut, in June, 1642.
(XX) Nathaniel (2) Beckwith was born at Lyme, Connecticut, May 28, 1671. He married Sarah -- , born in East Haddam, Connecticut. (XXI) Nathaniel (3) Beckwith was born at Lyme. Connecticut, January 6, 1707. Ile had two sons, Niles and Jabez. Niles was born in Lyme, in 1753. He removed to Lempster, New Hampshire. He was a soldier in the Continental army, and died at Unity, New Hampshire, in 1821.
(XXII) Jahez, second son of Nathaniel (3) Beckwith, was born at East Haddam, Connecticut, 1768. He married Elizabeth Hurd, of East Iladdam, He removed to Gilman, Connecticut, and then to Lempster. The family came on horseback through the wilderness by the old time pathway of blazed
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trees, bringing their bedding and other things for the log cabin. and with them their two year old daughter Sally. They drove their cow along, which furnished an important part of the family suste- nance. Jabez Beckwith was a surveyor, county clerk, state representative from Sullivan county twelve years, and was appointed colonel of militia. Ile died November 10, 1871 ; his wife died November 6, 1849. (XXIII) Nathaniel (4), eldest son of above, was born in Lempster, New Hampshire. He married Eunice Parkhurst. They died within one week of each other, at Unity, New Hampshire, in 1830.
(XXIV) Ransom Parkhurst, son of Nathaniel and Eunice (Parkhurst) Beckwith, was born in Unity, New Hampshire, about 1817, where he resided. He married Emily L. Parker, May 13. 1849. She was born in Lempster, New Hampshire, daughter of Benjamin and Olive ( Nichols) Parker (see Parker, second family, VII). He was a farmer, a man of good education, served in various town offices and as a member of the state legislature. Both Ransom Beckwith and his wife had been school teachers.
(XXV) Walter P., eldest son of Ransom P. and Emily ( Parker) Beckwith, was born in Lempster, . New Hampshire. August 27, 1850. He attended the town schools for two terms each year, and in addi- tion to this was a student at a private school for a year or two until he had attained the age of sixteen years. when he taught his first term in an adjoining town, with a marked degree of success. At the age of eighteen years he attended the high school at Claremount for a short period. He entered Kim- ball Union Academy at Meriden in 1869, and was graduated from this institution at the head of his class in 1871. He was admitted to Tuft's College in the same year, and was graduated from this with the highest honors of his class in 1876. During his attendance at this college he was obliged to devote one year to teaching in order to earn enough to enable him to complete his college course. Upon the completion of his college studies Mr. Beckwith accepted the principalship of the Chickopee (Massa- chusetts) high school, and held this for two years, and was then superintendent of the public schools of Adams, Massachusetts, for a period of more than eighteen years. He was elected principal of the State Normal School in Salem, Massachusetts, June 13, 1896, a position which he held until his death, which occurred October 13, 1905. Mr. Beck- with was a voluminous writer and a forceful lec- turer, mainly upon subjects connected with educa- tional matters. The degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Tuft's College in 1883, and this was followed a few years later by the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He was a man of great vigor of both mind and body, and was of the stern- est integrity. While principal of the State Normal School he gave his best time and energy to the broadening and upbuilding of the school course and his influence in these directions cannot be overes- timated. No higher tribute can be given to the efficiency of his work, than the fact that the many successful graduates of the school turned to their jii-21
alma mater, and to him personally for inspiration and information as to improved methods and ad- vanced ideas. In the death of Dr. Beckwith, Mass- achusetts has lost one of her strongest men and ablest educators. In religion he was a Universalist, and in politics a Democrat. "both by inheritance and disposition." When a boy of fifteen years he printed with his pen a weekly paper, Democratic and liter- ary, whose editorials showed a wonderful grasp of the subjects of the day, and about two years later, he delivered a political address before the citizens of his native town in reply to Mason W. Tappen. at that time one of the leading Republican lawyers of the state. In later years he followed a more lib- eral line in politics, and although always a Demo- crat. he placed loyalty to truth and integrity in prin- ciple before party adherence in both state and nation. Mr. Beckwith married. December 23. 1879, Mary L. Sayles, who was a successful teacher in Adams, Massachusetts. They have had one child: Frances S., graduated from Vassar College, class of 1904.
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