USA > New Hampshire > Piscataqua pioneers, 1623-1775; register of members and ancestors > Part 8
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Henry Moulton of Hampton; d. 31 Jan. 1718 .- (5) Susannah, b. Jan., 1633-4; m. Christopher Palmer of Hampton; d. 9 Jan., 1716 .- (6) Charles, b. 1636; no record of him.
Descendants : Lucy E. Gordon; Mrs. Bertha (Palmer) Greene, Mrs. Elizabeth (Palmer) Place, Wal- ter Blake Mckinney, Mrs. Annie (Blake) Mckinney, Mrs. Lucy Gordon Varney, Mrs. Elizabeth A. L. Wood.
HILTON, WILLIAM, 1590-1656, was born in Eng- land ab. 1590; he was son of Mark Hilton and elder brother of Edward, founder of Dover, N. H. He was an educated man, but not a college graduate. He was admitted as member of the great and exclusive Fish- mongers' Guild in London in 1616, to which his brother Edward was admitted in 1621. They became partners in the fishing business at Dover in 1623, and being members of this aristocratic Guild in London were in position to make large profit in the business. William Hilton was married before he came to Plymouth, Mass., where he arrived in the ship "Fortune" 11 Nov., 1621; his wife and two children arrived there in July, 1623. In 1622, Plymouth Colony gave him a grant of one acre of land, "lying to the sea, eastward, etc." and to his wife and two children three acres-abutting against the swamp and reed pond. No use was made of these grants, by them.
William Hilton returned to England in 1622, and made preparation for his wife and children to come over, as they did, in 1623. He also came over again in 1623, but not with his wife; he came with his brother Edward, and arrived at what is now known as Dover Point, in N. H., in May, or April, 1623, and commenced the first permanent settlement in New Hampshire. That this is the fact is proven by a petition of William Hilton, Jr., in 1660 "To the Honored General Court at Boston"-In which he states that he came over to Ply- mouth, Mass., with his mother, arriving there in July,
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1623, and-"in a little tyme following (we) settled up- on the River Pascataqua with Mr. Edw. Hilton, who (Edward and William) were the first English settlers there. They had much intercourse with ye Indians by way of trade and mutual giving and receiving; amongst whom was one Tahanto, Sagamore of Penacooke (who) for diverse kindnesses received from your petitioner's father & himself, did freely give unto ye aforesaid Wil- liam Hilton, Seniour & William Hilton, Juniour, six square miles of land lying on ye River Penneconaquegg, being a rivulett running into ye river Penacooke, to ye eastward, etc., etc."
"The Court having considered ye contents of this petition, judg meet not to grant the same, but consid- ering the petitioners' grounds for the approbation of the Indian's grant, doe judg meet to grant that three hundred acres of the said land bee sett out to the peti- tioners by a committee chosen by this Court, so that it may not prejudice any plantation, and this as a final end of all future claims by virtue of such grant from the Indians."
This historic petition has proved beyond question that the first permanent settlement in New Hampshire was made at Dover Point in 1623 by Edward and Wil- liam Hilton and those who came over with them ; David Thompson settlement at Odiorne's Point was only tem- porary, never permanent; he may have got his house partly built before the Hiltons commenced building dwellings on Dover Point, but he lived there only a little while, and the house remained unused until 1630, when the settlement was commenced at Strawberry Bank by the party sent over by Capt. John Mason.
William Hilton had grants of land from the town of Dover, one of which was at Oyster River, which he sold to Francis Mathes. He received grants from Exeter. He was Representative from Dover in the General Court in 1644. He was appointed Associate Justice for the Dover Court 27 Sept., 1642, and held the
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office three years. Soon after that, 1645 or 1646, he appears to have engaged in keeping an "ordinary" at Warehouse Point, Kittery, and from that time on till his death he was a resident of Kittery and York. He was one of the selectmen of York in 1652, 1653 and 1654. He kept an "ordinary" and ferry at York River. He received grants of land from the town; one was 4 July, 1653, and another 4 June, 1654, of twenty acres each. He appears to have been one of the esteemed citizens of York. He died in 1655. In the course of a year his widow married Richard White. Letters of administration on the estate of William Hilton were granted to Richard White 30 June 1656.
It is an interesting fact that William Hilton was the first white man who planted and raised corn in Old Kittery, on the bank of the Pascataqua River; it was in that part of it now Eliot, and directly across the river from Dover Point, and south of Cammock's Creek sometimes called Shapleigh's Creek. It was an old corn field used by the Indians long before the white men came to these shores to plant corn. When he com- menced to use it is not known, but probably he made some arrangement with the Indians who owned the field by which he came into ownership of it, built a house there, and raised corn there until thrown out of possession by Capt. Walter Neal, who was agent for Capt. John Mason at Portsmouth, and the Laconia Company. It is quite likely that he commenced plant- ing in 1624, in the spring following the beginning of the settlement on Dover Point (Hilton's Point) .
The proof that he had such a corn field is found in the old court records and deeds, which show that 2 June 1633 the Laconia Company granted to Capt. Thomas Cammock a certain tract of land, that was con- firmed to Cammock by a deed from Walter Neal, agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason, 1 May 1634, and described as a piece of land on the east shore of the Pascataqua,-"where William Hilton lately
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planted corne, being bound on the north side with a small creeke known by the name of Cammocks Creeke, and on the south side with a small Rivolett abutting upon the lands allotted to Thomas Wannerton, gent."
That Mr. Hilton was unlawfully dispossessed of his house and corn field is shown by a court record : "25 Oct., 1653, William Hilton recovered judgment in the sum of one hundred and sixty pounds against Ann Mason, executrix of the Will of Capt. John Mason of London, deceased. Of this sum fifty pounds were for the proprietary of his land, which the defendant took from him, and for the vacancy of one year's time, and cutting down his house and for other injuries, ten pounds, and for the interest for the whole 160 pounds for the term of one-and-twenty years, one hundred pounds."-(See Stackpole's History of Old Kittery, pages 111 and 112.)
It will be noticed that twenty-one years previous to 1653 carries us back to 1632, the time when William Hilton was planting corn on the Cammock grant, above mentioned. He had a house there and reason for call- ing the land his own, which the court acknowledged. The reason why he had to wait twenty-one years was that the court in Maine before it came under Massa- chusetts in November 1652 was prejudiced against him, it having been organized by Capt. John Mason's officials at Strawberry Bank.
William Hilton was twice married. The name of his first wife is not known, nor when she died, but it was before '1642, when he had a second wife, whose given name was Frances; her maiden name is not known. After his death in 1655 she married Richard White and Richard became administrator of William's estate in 1657. (See Stackpole's History of Old Kit- tery, page 48.) As near as the editor of this article can make out, from the New England Historic and Genea- logical Register, Vol. 31, and from numerous other reading, assisted by Mr. Charles Thornton Libby,
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Librarian of the Maine Historical Society, William Hil- ton had the following children by his first wife, Frances :
Richard (?) went back to England and lived at Northwich, Cheshire; on the way back had child bap- tized at Watton-under-Edge, Co. Gloucester, 16 Aug. 1636. He may have been younger brother instead of son, but there were apparent family dealings while here. George Walton gave him a draft on a man in England and proposed to balance it against things he had had from Mr. William Hilton, but who took the other view. The court sustained Walton, which indi- cates a close relation, as father and son, between Mr. William and Richard Hilton.
Mary (?) married Foulke Waldron of Coventry, Co. Warwick. Several sons of this couple came to New England and were at Dover, York, Great Island and Boston. Records showing who Mary Waldron was be- fore marriage have not yet been found, but if she was in fact a daughter of Mr. Hilton who never left Eng- land, this explains many close associations between these families, at York, Great Island and Boston.
William, b. about 1615, in England, came to Ply- mouth, Mass., with his mother in the summer of 1623, and they came up to Dover Point soon after arrival at Plymouth, as he testified in court. As a boy and young man he worked with his father at Dover and other places. In 1636 they obtained the grant of land from the Indian Sagamore, Tahanto, at Pennacook. He was at Newbury in 1638, and was married there about that time. He became a resident of that town and was its Deputy in the General Court, and held other offices. He was member of the Church there, from which he was dismissed to the Church in Charlestown. About 1654 he bought a house and land at Charlestown, and appears to have removed to that town about the same year. His wife died in 1657; to them had been born, at Newbury, the following children :
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Mary, b. 1639 ; m. Thomas Sears in 1656 .- Sarah, b. June 16, 1641 .- Charles, b. July 1643 .- Ann, b. 12 Feb. 1648 .- Elizabeth, b. 6 Nov. 1650; m. Timothy Cutler in 1673 .- William, b. 28 June 1653.
He married (2) Mehitable Nowell of Charlestown 16, 7mo. 1659; to them were born: Nowell, b. 1663 .- Edward, b. 1666 .- John, b. 1668 .- Richard, b. 1670 .- Mehitable, b. 1661; m. Lt. John Cutler .- William Hil- ton died 7, 7mo. 1675. He appears, among other occu- pations, to have been a navigator and cartographer.
Alice, born about 1617, came passenger on the Ann & Elizabeth, April 1635, aged 18. Her father was then living at Exeter, where George Walton signed the com- bination 1639. There is no explicit record that Mrs. Alice Walton was Mr. William Hilton's daughter, but there is a long series of circumstances that can be ex- plained in no other way. From Exeter they moved to Dover, and then to the mouth of the Piscataqua river, where Mr. Hilton run the ferry and kept the tavern at the Kittery Point end, while Walton kept the tavern at the Great Island end. Also the movements of the young Waldron brothers contribute to this conclusion, what- ever their exact relation to the two families may have been.
John, b. about 1624; he may have been the baby who gave the parents some trouble to get it baptized at Plymouth, Mass. He appears to have become a good citizen of Dover and commenced to be taxed for land in 1648. He received grants of land from the town and was an annual taxpayer till 1666. Two of the grants were made 4, 10mo. 1656. On 5 Sept. 1721 his nephews and nieces, who had inherited some of the land, sold it to Capt. Thomas Millett, on Dover Neck; it is on the east side of High street, at the south end of the ancient village. This deed is recorded in Liber 12, folio 222.
Magdalene, b. -; m. 1656 or earlier, James Wiggin of Kittery, who was Marshal under the Charles II. Commissioners.
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Manwaring, b. 1646, or earlier; administration granted 1671. His wife was Mary, daughter of Thomas Moulton ; she married (2) Samuel Bragdon, who men- tioned daughter Magdalene in his will. This daughter had children by three husbands, Nathaniel Adams, Elias Weare and John Webber ; and died Feb. 4, 1725-6.
Anne, married Arthur Beal. In 1667, the step- father, Richard White, Arthur Beal and Mannering Hilton joined in a mortgage on Mr. William Hilton's property, which Beal afterwards redeemed. The young William called him his "loving brother," and Beal's son named a son Mannering.
William, b. about 165- is clearly proved to be a second son William by his father's second wife; by an instrument not on record his father made him his sole heir, and he lived on his father's land, on the south side of York river. Wife Anne, apparently connected with the widow Elizabeth Parsons. Mr. William Hil- ton's descendants in the Hilton name trace through this son.
Descendants: Mrs. Annie (Blake) Mckinney, Charles Thornton Libby.
JANVRIN, CAPTAIN JEAN, b. --; d. 1717. He was son of Jean and Elizabeth Couteur Janvrin, and was born at St. Hellears, Isle of Jersey. He was a mariner and sailed his own ship from Lisbon to a South American port in 1696, and came up to Portsmouth, N. H. That may have been his first arrival there. At Portsmouth, on 2 May, 1706, he married Miss Eliza- beth Knight, of that town, and that was his home the rest of his life. His name appears in 1707 on a petition in behalf of Gov. Dudley, that was largely signed by citizens of Portsmouth. His name appears on various other Portsmouth documents. His widow married Rev. Joseph Adams, first minister of Newington, N. H. She was born at Portsmouth, 8 July, 1685; she died at Newington, 10 Feb., 1759.
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Children: John, b. at Portsmouth, 8 July, 1707; m. 9 Oct., 1751, Elizabeth Stickney ; b. 12 Jan., 1722; d. 12 April, 1809.
Descendant: Mrs. Alice Louise (Janvrin) Moore.
JACKSON, JOHN, 1600-1666. He emigrated from Dartmouth, England, about 1645 with his three sons, and his wife Joan. They reached Portsmouth before 1650, as the records show they were there in that year. In 1656 he was one of the Townsmen, or Select- men, and was the owner of Noble's island from 1656 to 1660. He deeded this island to his son Thomas, 25 June, 1660. He died in 1666. An inventory of his property shows that he had three sons, Richard, Thomas and John. The distribution of the property assigns to Richard, eldest son, "house and land £100." This was probably the house now known as "the Jackson house," on Northwest street-the oldest house in Portsmouth; it was built about 1664. It was probably built by John Jackson who gave it to his son Richard; perhaps they both had a hand in building it. The Jacksons were all ship builders. John Jackson, Jr., was born in England in 1635; he died in Portsmouth in 1722. He was a soldier in King William's war, 1695-96. He had two sons, Daniel and Samuel ; the former was born in 1655; died in 1740. The Jacksons of that period were among the wealthiest men in Portsmouth.
Descendants: Rear Admiral Joseph Foster, John Mark Moses.
KIRKE, HENRY. The following is found in the Dover Town Records "26th, 9 mo., 1666. Att a meeting of the sellectmen at Cochechae: Ordered that Thomas Terner Be warned out of the Towne by Ensn John Davis and John Bickford and that he depart a Cording to lawe."
"Ordered that the wife of William Risley be warned out of the Towne By Antony Nutter. Att ye
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same metting henrey Kerk Apoynted to keep Orden- arey at Dover and to stand till next County Courts, Apon his Good behaver."
Mr. Kirke appears to have given satisfaction, as the record of 1667, June 25th, reads-"Goodman Kirke of Dover licensed to keep a house of entertainment." Also at the town meeting that year he was elected "sealer of lether." His name is on the tax list those years, showing he was owner of real estate. Later he removed across the river to what is now Eliot, and fin- ally settled in Portsmouth. At some date, not known, he married Ruth, widow of David Stevens and daughter of Peter Glanfield, and lived in the Stevens house, known as "Kirke the currier's house." Her son Caleb Stevens, on coming of age, sold it in 1692. It stood "near the meeting-house". Administration on his es- tate was granted in 1728 to Capt. John Libby.
Children: (1) Mary, m. Matthew Grover of York .- (2) Eleanor, m. Capt. John Libby of Ports- mouth and Scarboro .- (3) Abigail, m. George Smith of Kittery .- (4) Ruth, m. James Treworgye .- (5) Eliza- beth, m. Daniel Libby of Portsmouth.
Descendant: Charles Thornton Libby.
LANG, JOHN, 1670-1752. He was probably born in County Devon, England, about 1670; he was in Portsmouth as early as 1695; he was mariner, farmer, and town official, from time to time, as was the most convenient. He early acquired a 15-acre lot, bounded east by the road (now Jones avenue) leading from the meeting-house to Sagamore Creek, and south by land of Henry Savage lying on the Creek and subsequently acquired some 200 acres more. He was one of the original proprietors of Barrington, and in 1732 had 126 acres there. He was twice married : (1) in 1694, Grace Brookin, daughter of William and Mary (Wal- ford) Brookin ; she died about 1722; m. (2) Ruth Sher- burne, widow of John (3) Sherburne. He died 22
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May, 1752, leaving Will dated 29 Oct., 1648, and proved 17 June, 1752. His inventory was £3294-5s, very large for that period.
Children, by first wife: (1) Elizabeth, b. 1695; living in 1762; m. 28 July, 1716, John Westcome, of Portsmouth, b. at Tiverton, Co. Devon, Eng .; d. before 1762. They had two children .- (2) Ann, b. -; m. 9 Jan., 1717-8, John Savage, her cousin. They had two children .- (3) Dorothy, b .-; m. John Wills of Ports- mouth, mariner. They had six children. His estate was administered upon 28 Jan., 1740-1 .- (4) Mary, b .-; m. 23 Oct., 1718, William Adams of Portsmouth, mar- iner ; five children .- (5) William, b. -; d. -.- (6) John, b. - d. -.- (7) Thomas, b. 1709 ; bapt. 17 July, 1709; d. 1714 .- (8) Grace, bapt. 16 March, 1711-12 ; m. 8 Sept., 1737, Joseph Grey, his second wife; they had two children .- (9) Hannah, bapt. 7 Aug., 1715 ; m. 5 August, 1734, Luke Mills of Northampton, Va., a mariner ; later he resided at Portsmouth ; he died at sea in 1764, leaving a will dated 20 June, 1764; proved 29 Aug., 1764. They had six children.
As regards William (2) Lang of the above list; he was probably the eldest son, and was born about 1698; m. 7 July, 1721, Susannah Savage, daughter of John Savage. William was mariner, fisherman, and farmer, in which last occupation he lived at the Plains, and was one of the petitioners for a separate parish there. He died in 1759, leaving will dated 5 April, 1759. They had three children, born at Portsmouth.
John (2) Lang of the above list, was born about 1700 ; m. as early as 1724, Sarah Bickford, daughter of Henry and Sarah Bickford; she was b. at Portsmouth in 1703; d. at Greenland, 1799. John Lang was a cordwainer and resided at Greenland, where he had a large farm, about a mile and a half from Greenland village, on the road leading to North Hampton. His Will is dated 5 Sept., 1767 ; proved 27 June, 1774.
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Thomas (2) Lang was b. about 1713; he was a mariner ; m. 17 Nov., 1737, Mary Downs; they had two children.
Descendant : Henry Winthrop Hardon.
LEADER, RICHARD, 1609-1661, was born in England, and came to New England in 1645 and became superintendent of the Iron Works at Lynn ; previous to that he had been engaged in similar business in Ireland, at the mines there. When on a visit to England he deposed, August 8, 1650, that he was a merchant of Boston, New England, and aged forty-one. . (New York Gen. & Biographical Record, Vol. 47, page 113.) In 1651 the town of Kittery granted him and his brother George the mill privilege at Great Works, and com- menced operating a saw-mill that had nineteen saws, and did a big business for a short time, hence the place was called "Great Works." In this enterprise they were the agents of John Beex & Co. of London. After a while they were stopped by prosecution for trespass by the Mason heirs.
Richard Leader went to London in 1652 and entered a protest against Massachusetts, which he claimed was usurping authority over Kittery ; he was back in Kit- tery in 1653 and 1654. In 1652 he owned the "Great House" at Portsmouth, which he sold in 1655 to the Cutts brothers. It is supposed that his wife was a Cutts, as they called him "brother Leader." He died in 1661, and Dec., 27 that year, Robert Jordan was ap- pointed to administer his estate. His wife's name is not known.
Children: (1) Elizabeth, b. about 1647 ; she mar- ried before June 30, 1668 (State Paper 31-110) John Hole of Kittery ; she survived him, but was killed by the Indians May 4, 1705. She left no children .- (2) Ann, born about 1649 ; m. before Feb. 10, 1667 (deeds, 11- 362) Samuel Clarck of Portsmouth; he was a tanner; by his deposition it appears he was born about 1645;
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he died about 1690. His wife was living as late as 1723, being then a member of the Church in Ports- mouth. She deposed, Dec. 10, 1721, that she was then 72 years old. April 6, 1720, she had petitioned to be appointed administratrix of the estates of Richard and George Leader, calling herself the only surviving child of Richard, and an heir of George. (York Co. Prob. Records, Vol. 3, Page 42.)
Samuel and Ann (Leader) Clark had more than three children, but probably only three were living May 11, 1722, viz. : Margaret Swain; Bridget Miller and Sarah Clark. Margaret had previously been married to John Jackson, before June 18, 1668; after Jackson's death she married (2) Philip White. Her third husband was a Swain. Bridget had been the wife of Joseph Miller since 1714. She had a grandchild, Leader Noble. Joseph Nelson of Portsmouth had a son, Leader Nelson, born August 30, 1724. This son had a son called Leader Nelson, born Jan. 9, 1760.
Descendant : John Mark Moses.
LEIGHTON, THOMAS, 1604-1672. He was a son of the distinguished Leighton family of Scotland. He came over with Captain Thomas Wiggin in 1633. When the village was laid out on Dover Neck, he se- lected a lot on High street, on the west side, next south of Dea. John Hall's. He signed the Combination Agreement for good government in 1640. He served as one of the Selectmen several years. He served on the Grand Jury many times. He held various minor offices and was one of the leading business men of the town. He received various grants of land, and bought more. He was a stanch supporter of the Church. His Will is dated 20 Sept., 1671; he mentions his wife as Joanna. He died early in 1672. His widow married, 16 July, 1673, Hon. Job Clement, whose house was just across the street from the Leighton residence. She died 15 Jan., 1704-5. Their son, Thomas Leighton,
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Jr., married Elizabeth Nutter, daughter of Elder Hate- vil Nutter. Their daughter, Mary Leighton, married John Roberts, eldest son of Gov. Thomas Roberts. They lived near the old burial ground, on the east side of it, on the bank of Fore River. Thomas Leighton, Jr., lived on the farm his father bought on Leighton's hill, near the old Pascataqua Bridge. Several genera- tions of the Leighton family lived there. A marble monument marks the burial ground of the family.
At the time of his death, he had a wife named Joanna, as he mentions her in his Will, 20 Sept., 1671; he died in 1672, and 16 July, 1673, she married Job Clement ; she died 16 Jan., 1703-4, having lived thirty years after he (Thomas) died ; so it is fair presumption that she was a second wife, and a comparatively young woman, but not the mother of his children, but we do not know, as we have no record of when his children were born.
Children: (1) Thomas, b. -; m. Elizabeth Nutter, dau. of Elder Hatevil Nutter; she was b. ab. 1634, and the probabilities are that he was b. ab. 1630, in England; it seems that he died before 1677. He is the first Leighton who lived on the Leighton farm, at what is known as "the old pascataqua Bridge" .- (2) Mary, b. -; m. Thomas Roberts, Jr., son of Gov. Thomas Roberts. He was b. ab. 1631; probably she was b. in 1633. They lived where Mr. Willam M. Courser now (1918) resides on the upper end of Dover Neck, but not in that house, which was built in 1725, the original house having been burned that year .- (3) Elizabeth, b. -; m. Philip Cromwell, Jr .- (4) Sarah, b. -; unm. in 1671.
Descendants: Mrs. Annie Wentworth Baer, Edgar Amos Leighton, Mrs. Ellen Tasker Scales.
LEWIS, PETER, 1644-1718. John Lewis appears in Roxbury, Mass., in 1640 ; probably he was there be- fore that date ; he died there in 1647. He had two sons.
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twins, Peter and Andrew, born 11 Sept., 1644. Peter was a fisherman and was at the Isles of Shoals in 1668, having his abode on Smutty Nose Island. At that time there was a large population of men and their families engaged in the fishing business, it being one of the most profitable industries of the province. Peter Lewis sold out his holdings there in 1683, having investments in land in Kittery. His first purchase of land there was in 1670, when he bought of John Phoenix house and land at Spruce Creek. He married Grace Diamond, daughter of John Diamond. Their children were born in Kittery, and their names are mentioned in his Will, which he made in 1712-1716.
Children: (1) Peter, b. 1669; m. Lucy Chad- burne .- (2) Andrew, b. -; m. Mary Hutchins .- (3) William, b. 1683; m. Mary -; (2) Sarah Low .- (4) John, b. -; m. Martha Brooking .- (5) Grace, b. -; m. 28 Oct., 1718, John Bly of Portsmouth .- (6) Morgan, b. -; m. Abigail Lewis ab. 1705; d. be- fore 3 Feb., 1712-3 .- (7) Mary, b. -; m. David Hutchins.
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