EATON Ancestors FROM ENGLAND AND MASSACHUSETTS EMIGRATE TO NOVA SCOTIA
FIRST GENERATION: JOHN EATON AND ANNE Our first confirmed Eaton ancestors John Eaton (b. 12.26.1590/1595, Hatton, Warwickshire, England; d. 10.29.1668, Salisbury, MA) and Anne (b. 1599 in England, d. 2.5.1660 in Haverhill, MA) arrived with six children in Salisbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony, in the winter of 1639 or 1640. The evidence of them coming from Hatton in County Warwick, England is derived from records of baptisms that have been located for four children of John Eaton (1590). Once they reached the colonies, it is likely they initially lived in Watertown, Massachusetts. No record is known about what ship the family sailed on or when they left England.[1] Three of their children died very young before they set sail.
CHILDREN OF JOHN AND ANNE EATON[2] John and Anne had six children born in England born over a period of fourteen years. John Jr. (1619 -1682 married Martha Rowlandson (b. 1645) (daughter of Thomas Rowlandson from England and sister of Rev. Joseph Rowlandson of Ipswich, who graduated from Harvard University as the only member of his graduating class); Ann (1622 to 12.16.1683) married Lieutenant George Brown of Haverhill, MA; Ensign Thomas (1631); Ruth (b. 1628) married Samuel Ingalls of Ipswich, CT; Richard (1628 to 1630) Elizabeth (1.31.1630 to 1.21.1683) married James Davis of Haverhill, MA; Sarah (1632 to 1635) Daniel (1634 to 1635) (H)ester (b. 1634; d. 1649) at sixteen, having never married). Job (1639 to 1668)
SALISBURY and HAVERHILL, MASSACHUSETTS, CAREER, AND LAND OWNERSHIP John Eaton, his wife Anne, and their six children settled in Salisbury (formerly Cholcester), Massachusetts as early as “ye 26th of ye 6th mo, 1640.”[3] “They were granted to him 2 acres, more or less for his house lott, lying between the house lotts of Mr. Samuel Hall and Ralfe Blesdale. Said to be about equally distant from the Atlantic and the Merrimac.” It appears that John Eaton built a house on his “planting lott” which he acquired on 9.7.1640 (12). According to Dr. William Hadley Eaton of Keene, New Hampshire his was house was “near the great neck bridge on the beach road”(12). John had several lots of lands including Brookside Farm which remained in the Eaton family for centuries. The patriarch of our family was a cooper who also farmed the land and sold real-estate. After six years, the family moved about 15 miles up the Merrimack River to Haverhill, Massachusetts: “15 Miles up the river, when he received a deed of land dated Nov. 25, 1646 from Rev. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, for which he gave ‘the full sum of twelve pounds worth of wheat and pipe staves, 6 pounds worth of one- and six-pounds worth of the other.’” “In 1646 he was chosen grand juror, and one of the five prudential men of Salisbury.”[4] Follows is a description of the skills of a cooper: “A cooper was a craftsman who built slatted wooden containers such as barrels and butter churns. Building such containers required a great deal of skill, and traditionally, coopers learned their trade over the course of a long apprenticeship. Coopering was once a vital and widespread profession which, among other purposes, supplied manufacturers with containers in which to store and ship their products.” [5] John Eaton “was a man of strong will power, tempered by a sound practical judgment, who believed in liberty of conscience and tolerance in society”[6] In 1645, John Eaton was listed as one of “thirty-two landholders” (60). In 1646 John Eaton “was chosen grand juror and also one of five Prudential men who manage the affairs of the town.” According to the 1860 History of Haverhill,[7]in 1648, John Eaton is listed with around 40 other men to have property valued as 80 pounds. In 1652, John Eaton acquired 10 more acres of “plough land” (77). Freeholders like the Eatons paid taxes. In 1650 his son’s Thomas Eaton’s land was valued at 40 pounds. In 1667, John Eaton had ten “acres laid out to him” (106).
HAVERHILL’S GEOGRAPHY AND EARLY HISTORY Captain John Smith sang the praises of this verdant land with excellent harbors that he visited in 1614 and where he “acted honorably” to the natives. However, his companion, Hunt, kidnapped natives and sold them as slaves, thus beginning the dichotomy of friendly and adversarial relationships with the native peoples who inhabited New England. According to George Wingate Chase, the author of the History of Haverhill, Massachusetts, from its First Settlement, in 1640, to the year 1860, published in 1861, the town of Haverhill in the county of Essex was located on the north side of the Merrimack River, one of the largest and most beautiful rivers in New England. The name of the Merrimac River comes from the Indian word, “strong currents.” Another possible Indian name meant “A Place of Islands.” Haverhill is eighteen miles from its mouth.
Its proximity to prominent New England towns contributed to its attractiveness to settlers: eighteen miles from Boston, twenty-two from Salem, fourteen from Newburyport, eighteen from Lowell, nine from Lawrence, and thirty from Portsmouth. On the north is Salem, Atkinson, and Plaistow, New Hampshire; on the east is Amesbury, on the west is Methuen, and the northern line of the town is the boundary line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. (History of Haverhill, Introduction)[8] Including about fifteen thousand acres, it is about nine miles long and nine miles wide. Within its boundaries were 1086 tilled acres, 351 acres of fruit trees, 289 acres of upland mowing, 500 acres of meadows, 1147 acres of pasture land, 2349 acres of pasture land, 528 acres of land used for roads, and 1107 acres covered with water. The soil was rich, “easily cultivated, and highly productive” (introduction). Streams abound, and fishing (especially alewives and pickerel) was abundant. Saw mills, grist mills, and corn mills were built early on. The vast forest resources thrived on hilly terrain. This land of plenty attracted hardy emigrants willing to work hard and build a new life. By 1640 [when John and Anne Eaton arrived from England], 20,000 persons or 40,000 families had arrived, bringing with them tools, arms, victuals, cattle, and goats.
Seventeen years later, in 1657, “the plantation of Haverhill was this year incorporated into a town, being the twenty-third town settled in the colony” and forty-ninth in the northeast (29). Over the next years, the town began to grow. The first church was established that year (60). That same year the town voted to build a saw mill. Orchards had been planted, fields cultivated, burial grounds established, and homes built. Boundaries between Salisbury and Haverhill were disputed and eventually agreed upon. Roads were planned. Meeting houses and churches were built, and ministers hired. Eight men including John Eaton entered a seven-year agreement to hire a blacksmith around 1657 (88). By 1661 “there had been recorded nineteen marriages, one hundred and thirty-five births, and thirty deaths” (92). Oxen grazed in common pastures. Townspeople had to grant permission for additional people to settle in Haverhill. A militia group was established as early as 1648. Because wolves killed numerous sheep, a large bounty was put on their heads. Indian settlements were established. There was an effort to convert some Indians, and laws were passed not to sell Indians liquor. A school master was hired in the town for ten pounds a year. Sturgeons were fished from the river. “It is well authenticated that at one time it was nowise uncommon to stipulate in the indentures of apprentices that they should not be obliged to eat salmon oftener than six times a week!” As dams and mills were built and waters defiled by mills and bridges, “the supply of salmon rapidly diminished” (118-119). Shad were so plentiful that they were used as manure. It was easy to catch several hundred at one haul. The town was very careful of its timber, and men could only cut down enough wood for fire wood for the season. Two men applied to be shoemakers. All local towns were accessed taxes to pay for Harvard University[9].
The peaceful relation with the Indians changed in 1675, and measures were taken to protect settlers from the hostile Indians, so a fortification was built around the meeting-house. Militia was provided with fire-arms and ammunitions. As Indian attacks on home and towns began to escalate in Hadley, Deerfield, Northfield, Medford, Weymouth, colonists killed large numbers of Indians. The death of Chief King Phillip placed a severe blow on the Indian strength as did harsh weather and scarcity of resources, and for a while better relationships occurred. However, within two years hostilities recommenced. No attacks happened in Haverhill, but houses were garrisoned and patrols kept day and night, so expectations of attacks kept settlers in a state of anxiety. The entire town of Haverhill were assessed eighteen pounds in taxes to pay for the war with the Indians.[10]
The size of the town kept expanding. Settlers began establishing farms and building cottages. “The better sort of houses one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five years ago were two stories high, with upper story jutting out a foot or so over the lower. The roofs were generally high and steep, and hipped or ‘gambreed.’ The frames were of white oak, and much larger than used in our day [in 1861], and the beams of each finished room were left considerably in sight. The windows were from two and a half to three feet long, one and a half to two wide, with squares like the figures of a diamond, set in lead lines, and from three to four inches long. These windows were sometimes entire and sometimes in halves, and opened outwardly on hinges”[11]
DEATH OF ANNE, SECOND MARRIAGE OF JOHN EATON TO PHOEBE DOW AND DEATH OF JOHN After John Eaton’s first wife Anne from England died on February 5, 1660, John married Mrs. Phoebe (Dow), widow of Thomas Dow of Newbury, Massachusetts on November 20, 1661. At this point John employed himself in the manufacture of staves. In his will John gave to his children and grandchildren separate lots of land. In the fall of 1647, John Sr. transferred his farm to son John Jr. in his will dated September 12, 1647. He retired up the Merrimac River. He died in Salisbury on October 29, 1668, at about seventy-seven years old and is buried in the Pentucket Cemetery in Haverhill, Massachusetts. His widow, Phoebe Dow died November 3, 1672.[12] (
Thomas Eaton, son of John became the head of many descendants called the Haverhill Branch of the Eaton family. Another son, John Jr., settled in Salisbury, Connecticut and became head of the Eaton Salisbury Branch. John Jr. was very wealthy and divided his land among five sons, giving Ephraim “the division of land above the mill being 90 acres.” John Jr., son of John Eaton (born 1646) occupied part of his father’s estate in Salisbury. “He seems to have had a strong passion for real estate, and extended his purchases into Maine, into Winnegance Cove, as far as 25 miles N. E. of Portland. He was one of the men imprest for her Majesty’s Service of July ye 5, 1710: the order read ‘An order to Lt.; or to Serft Bradbury to give notice to ye men to march forthwith with Capt Eaton By Order of Colo Noyes,…’ He did not marry until about 40 years of age; his wife was much younger than himself. He died on January 17, 1717.” (North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, “History: Genealogical and biographical of the Eaton families, p. 372).
A grandson Joseph Eaton was a carpenter, was fond of hunting and trapping, and was promoted to Captain in the militia.
THE WILL OF JOHN EATON OF HAVERHILL (1668)[13] Estate of John Eaton of Haverhill: Essex Probate Docket # 8520 and 8499 In the name of God, Amen. The sixth day of August in yeyeare of Lord God one thousand six hundred sixty & eight I John Eaton of Haverhill in the County of Norfolk in New England, being of whole minde, & in good & pfect remembrance, doe make & ordaine this to be my last wil and testament concerneing my outward estate n manner & forme following; that is to say First I will that all such debts & dutyes as I owe of right or of conscience to any pson or psons, & my funerall expences be paid by my Executors hereafter named without any contradiction or delay. I give unto my present wife the use of my now dwelling house & orchard dureing her naturall life, & such other things according as is exprest in a writeing committed to the keepeing of Henry Palmer & whereas ye deed writeing mentions a Cow which shee is to have after my decease in case that I have not a cow at my death, I will my son Thomas Eaton shall pay unter her five pounds or procure her a good Cow. I give her also six bushells of corne & one of my best swine. I giver herr also the remainder of what is due to me from John Todd being about eighteen shillings I bequeath unto my son John Eaton my biggest silver spoone, a brasse candlestick, & my bible. I give my son John also all my liveing in Salisbury provided that he ever claime any thing for what he paid for me to any person or persons upon the aacct. whatsoever. I give him also my second division of Upland & all my share of meadow in the west meadow wh meadow & upland lyeth in the Towne of Haverhill in Norfolk I give my now dwelling house & orchard after the decease of my present wife.I give him also my shop tooles, with beetle & wedges, long Saw & grindestone, & my part of the plow & cart wth their present furniture. I give to my son Thomas the use of my tillage land yt is now up in my ox-common Lott during ye life of my wife paying to my wife the sum of twelve shillings p annum. I give him also the use of ye sd commmon Lott for the sowing & gathering in of two cropps after the death of my wife. whereas ther is mention of a Cow to be given to my wife at my death, my will is, that in case I have no Cow then my son Thomas upon consideration of what I give to him shall make good said Cow or five pounds as aforesaid otherwise he shall pay as foloweth. To my Daughter Browne forty shillings, To my daughter Davis forty shillings & to my daughter Ingalls forty shilling which assumes shall be paid with n two years after my death. I give my son Thomas also my other silver spoone and my spitt. I give and bequeath to Thomas Eaton the son of my son John Eaton all the land that is in my possesion in ye great plaine & four acres lying without the said plaine fence & my East meadow; & I give him also my Ox- common Lott which he shall have delivered up to him by my son Thomas two yeares after the death of my wife: & he ye gd Thomas my granchild shall in consideration of my plaine Lott pay six shillings yearly to my wife so long as shee live. I leave unto my grandchildren John Davis & John Ingalls all my third division of upland to be equally divided betwixt them. I give to the sd John Davis my grandchild all my share of meadow lying upon my son James Davis" meadow being my third division of meadow I give to ye sd John Ingalls my grandchild my second division of meadow lying upon a branch of spiggott meadow joyneing to mead of my son Thomas. I give to my grandchild Thomas Eaton" son Thomas my little gunn. I give to my son John Eaton the priveledge & rights of one cow-common; I give to my grandchild Thomas Eaton the son of John Eaton ye priviledge & right of two cow-commons; I give to my grandchild John Davis ye rights of one cow-common. I give that calfe that my son James Davis hath of mine to keepe to Hester Davis. I will that the five pounds worth in corne that is in the hands of my son Browne be disposed of as followeth, Viz. twenty shillings; & to my daughter Browne three pounds to my daughter Davis twenty shillings; and to my daughter Ingalls twenty shillings. I give to my son Thomas that halfe of an ox that is between him & me. I give my brasse, peuter, bedding & household stuff ye is not formerly disposed of to my three daughters Ann, Elizabeth and Ruth to be equally devided among them; I will that my executors will pay twenty shillings to my daughter Ruth Ingalls more than what is above mentioned. I give to my son John Eaton my fourth division of upland when it shall be layed out in consideration of what charge so ever he hath bene at upon any occasion of mine. I constitute & appoint my son Thomas Eaton and George Browne to be Executors of this my last Will & Testament. In Witnesse to this writeing as my last will & testament I here unto sett my hand & scale the day, month & yeare first mentioned.
John (his E mark) Eaton (seal) Witness: Nathll Saltonstall James his (mark) Davis, Sr. Henry Palmer
SECOND GENERATION: THOMAS EATON AND EUNICE (SINGLETARY) EATON Thomas Eaton, son of John and Anne Eaton, was born about 1628 or 1631 or possibly on February 19, 1625 in Warwick England and emigrated to Haverhill, Massachusetts before 1640. Thomas married Martha Kent on August 14, 1656 in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Within a year, their marriage was cut short when Martha died on March 1, 1657, leaving a daughter born a few days earlier on February 27, 1657. Tragically, their daughter Martha died at a very young age. Thomas married again on January 6 1658 in Andover, Massachusetts to Eunice Singletary (January 7, 1642 to October 5, 1715).[14] Mr. Bradstreet performed the ceremony.[15] Eunice is buried in the Pentucket Cemetery in Haverhill, Massachusetts near her husband.
Eunice/Unity Singletery was the daughter of Richard Charles Singletery (b. 1599 in England; d. 10.25.1687 in Haverhill at 102 years of age) and his second wife, Susannah Cooke (b. 3.17.1616 in Bayaton, England or St. Mary, Whitechapel, England; d. 4.11.1682 in Haverhill) of Salisbury, Massachusetts. Richard lived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1637, and in 1638, he took the Freeman’s oath in Newbury, Massachusetts. By 1639, he was a proprietor in Haverhill, Massachusetts, a Selectman in 1650, and a landowner. The Haverhill records say he died at the age of one hundred two years.
Richard Charles Singletary’s parents were Francis Dunham Singletary (b. 1599 in Surfleet, Lincolnshire, England; d. 1617 in Lincolnshire, England) and Agnes Cook (b. 1563 in England; d. 1619 in Buckinghamshire, England). Agnes Cook might have been born in Haverhill. Her father might have been Henry Cocke Cook (1537-1617) and her mother might have been Lydia Maiden (b. 1543 in England).
In John Eaton’s will, he bequeathed “unto my Sone Thomas my home Lott after my decease & my now dwelling house & Orchyard after ye decease of my present wife. I give him also all my share upon ye lland lying against Haverhill & all my share of meadow in ye Hawkes meadow & my meadow att ye pond meadow after ye death of my wife. I give him also my shop tools with beetle & wedges long saw & grandiestone & my part of ye plough & cart with their present furniture. I give to my son Thomas ye use of my tillage land that is now up in my Ox common lott durering the life of my wife paying to my wife ye sum of twelve shillings per annum. I give him also ye use of ye said Ox common lott for ye Sowiing and gathering in of two cropps after ye death of my wife; whereas there is mention made of a cowe to bee given to my wife at my death my will is that in case I have no cow then in being my son Thomas upon consideration of what I give him shall make good the said Cowe, or five pounds as aforesaid; otherwise he shall pay as followeth: to my daughter Brown forty shillings, to my daughter Davis forty shillings, & to my daughter Ingalls forty shillings, which sums shall be payd within two years after my death. I give my son Thomas also my other sylver spoone & my Spitl.” Clearly, Thomas, like his brother John, Jr., was gifted generously in his father’s will, and the expectation of caring for family members was expected.
Nine CHILDREN OF THOMSAS AND EUNICE EATON Thomas Jr. (b. March 18, 1660) married Hannah Webster, May 5, 1684 Lydia (b. July 3, 1662 to June 24, 1737 married Jacob Hardy), John (b. March 6, 1664 married Mary Singletery, June 25, 1700), Jonathan (b. April 23, 1668 married Sarah Sanders, March 17, 1695; Ruth Page, January 23, 1669. Job (b. April 22, 1671 married Mary Simons, 1698), Timothy (b. May 19, 1674 married Ruth Chapman), Ebenzer (b. April 5, 1677 died a rich bachelor), Martha (b. March 16, 1680 married Thomas Ruby), Ruth (b. November 23, 1684 to 1750 married Ebenezer Kimball and then Stephen Johnson, a blacksmith). According to The History of Haverhill, Thomas Eaton was a selectman as early as 1675. It is recorded that in 1692 Ensign Thomas Eaton was first Selectman. “He was much interested in Church and town affairs, and was highly esteemed by his fellow citizens. It is recorded in The History of Haverhill that Thomas agreed to help out Hugh Sheratt to help provide to the town for the upkeep of Hugh Sheratt with “18 lb. of meat or corn.” (52). He was a ‘well-to-do’ farmer.[16] “He was the eldest sergeant of the Haverhill Foot Company.” It is recorded that on May 14, 1692, “Ensign Thomas Eaton was appointed Sealer of Weights and Measures.’”[17] After his decease on September or December 15, 1708, the inventory of his estate amounted to 404.55 pounds.[18] Thomas’ will is on record in Salem, Massachusetts. Seven years later, Eunice died October 15, 1715.
THIRD GENERATION: JONATHAN EATON AND SARAH SANDERS Jonathan Eaton, born April 23, 1668, was the fourth son of Thomas Eaton and Eunice Singletary. In 1695 “the town had not been troubled by the Indians for above two years, yet they did not think it prudent to relax their vigilance -- at least , so far as their means of defence were concerned. Their garrisons, and houses of refuge, were kept in complete order for occupation at a moment’s notice, and the parsonage house was repaired and fortified. A large company of soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Saltonstall, were also kept constantly armed and equipped and exercised in the town; and that these soldiers might be better prepared for every emergency, the General Court (June 19, 1710) ordered them to be supplied with snow shoes” (235). John Eaton, Jonathan Eaton, and Job Eaton were among fifty-seven residents of Haverhill that were issued snow shoes to help with protection of the town.
MARRIAGES AND CHILDREN Jonathan married his first wife Sarah Sanders of Haverhill on March 17, 1695, two years before their son James Eaton was born on March 9, 1697. Sarah Sanders was born on August 7, 1674 in Haverhill, Massachusetts.[19]
THE SANDERS FAMILY Sarah Sanders was the daughter of James Sanders Sr. (b. 1643 in Haverhill, MA and died Dec 9 or 12, 1721 in Haverhill) and Sarah Page (b. July 18, 1651 in Haverhill and died March 23, 1686)). James and Sarah married on October 20, 1687 in Newbury, MA and had fourteen children. James was a husbandman. He built a house in Haverhill in 1675. “It was near the site of the Richard Stuart house and, during the Indian Wars, in addition to the old garrison, a garrison was established at the James Sanders house. He was a highway surveyor in 1692. His vote is recorded against the removal of the meeting house in 1699. His will is on record at Salem.”[20]
James Sanders Sr. was born in 1643 in Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts to John (3.26.1613 in Haverhill to 7.1670 in Salem) and Elizabeth Grafton, daughter of Joseph Grafton. He married Sarah Page on January 14, 1669 in Haverhill. Their children were: James (died young), John, Sarah, Elizabeth, James, a son and Avery Page. After the death of Sarah, his wife, in 1685, he married Hannah Tewkesbury October 20, 1687 at Haverhill and their children were: Henry Edward, Jacob, Judith and Nathaniel. James was elected a highway surveyor in 1692, a garrison was ordered to be kept at his house in 1701 as a protection against Indians, he signed a petition for a school house in the northeastern part of the town in 1711, was a representative to the General Court in 1706, 1707 and 1709. He died December 9, 1721 at Haverhill and his will was proved January 10, 1722. He is probably buried in the Haverhill area. Bio by John E. Sherman. See Genealogy of the Corland county, New York, branch of the Sanders family for last will of James Sanders. (pages 120-121) He gave one shilling to his son-in-law Jonathan Eaton. His daughter Sarah died 32 years before he died. He left his wife Hannah one cow, one bed, and two skillets. His bequeathed his land to his heir John and left other sons land or money. Hannah died September 24, 1746.[21]
James Sanders, born after his father John Sanders died in Salem, Massachusetts. John Sanders was born in 1613 in Weeks, Downton Parish, Wiltshire, England. He married either Elizabeth or Priscilla Grafton. His father, also named John was born in 1534 in Wiltshire, England.
“Jonathan Eaton and Sarah (Sanders) Eaton, had one child (son) born the same day (March 9, 1697) with Mrs. Dustin’s child (whose brains were dashed out six days afterwards against an apple tree that stood on Jonathan Eaton’s land). That [Jonathan’s] wife might escape from the attack of the Indians [Sarah] was concealed in a swamp nearby, and from this exposure she took cold, which was the cause of her death, April 23, 1689.”[22]
After Sarah died on April 23, 1698, Jonathan Eaton married Ruth Page (b. 1670) of Haverhill two years later on January 20 or 23, 1698-99[23]. Jonathan worked as a yeoman cultivating a small piece of property deeded to him by his father. Jonathan and Ruth had six children: Thomas Jr., Nathaniel, Sarah, Jonathan, David, and Ruth. “The inventory of Jonathan Eaton’s estate, ‘appraised 38 acres with old house, a new house with boards, nails and bricks and all other materials ready to finish it.’ The cellar, where this new house stood, was all that marked the site in 1888. The dilapidated cellar was found in the West Parish, a little south of the old grave yard. Of their six children, only three lived to be married. Jonathan was a “Snowshoe Man” – a member of the brigades of men that were equipped with snowshoes the better to pursue the Indians.” [24]
DEATH OF JONATHAN EATON AND RUTH PAGE Jonathan died on January 20, 1723 shy of his 54th birthday. His second wife, Ruth, died twenty years later on April 2, 1743.
FOURTH GENERATION: JAMES EATON AND RACHEL KIMBALL INDIAN ATTACK AND MURDER OF SARAH SANDERS James Eaton, born on March 9, 1697, in Haverhill, Massachusetts, had a traumatic near-death experience as an infant that caused the death of his mother, Sarah Sanders, and must have shaken his father, Jonathan, to the core of his being.
Much is told about Hannah Dustin’s capture and captivity by Indians, her escape after revengefully scalping nine of her captors, and of her return to Haverhill, Massachusetts. The day her infant son was savagely murdered is the day that James and his mother survived the brutal Indian attack.
“After the [Indian] attack on [Hannah] Duston’s house [and the murder of her infant son], the Indians dispersed themselves in small parties, and attacked the houses in the vicinity. Nine houses were plundered and reduced to ashes on that eventful day, and in every case their owners were slain while defending them. Twenty-seven persons were slaughtered (fifteen of them children) and thirteen captured.”[25] (Another Eaton, Thomas Eaton was killed by Indians March 15, 1697 on the same day that Mrs. Hannah Dustin was taken prisoner. [I have not determined who Thomas Eaton’s parents were.]
On that terrible day in 1697, “when he was six days old, [James Eaton] was concealed with his mother, Sarah, in a neighboring swamp, and thus escaped the fate of [Hannah] Dustin’s infant of the same age.” Jonathan Eaton’s wife, Sarah, who had kept her baby son Thomas safe while they hid, died from exposure about thirteen months later. After the terrible ordeal when his mother died and when he was hidden in the swamp, James was frail all through his early manhood and known as being “feeble for many years, but finally attained to good powers of body and of mind.” He took possession of the house that had been left unfinished at the time of his father’s death.
Marriage RACHEL KIMBALL AYER AND CHILDREN The return of peace permitted settlers again to begin cultivating the land. James Eaton was a farmer and married on June 13, 1728 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, to Rachel Kimbell. James and his wife, the widow of Samuel Ayer, Jr, of Haverhill, had nine children between 1729 and 1748: David, Timothy (b. July 31, 1731), Sarah (b. August 13, 1733), Rachel (b. March 3, 1736), James, Jr. (b. May 23, 1738), Suzannah (b. September 14, 1740), Nathaniel (b. May 5, 1743), Ebenezer (b. August 10, 1745), and Enoch (born November 6, 1748). All but one married.
Rachel Kimball Rachel Kimball was born in 1703 and first married Samuel Ayer on May 17, 1726. Her parents were Robert Kimball (born 3.6.1675 in Essex, MA and died 2.24.1744 in Essex) and Susannah Atwood (2.1.1687 Malden, MA to 2.24.1737 in Essex, MA) who married before 1707. Less than two years later, her first husband Samuel died on April 2, 1728 at age thirty. With her first husband, she bore one son named Samuel born on 1727. Her second marriage to James Eaton took place two months after her husband Samuel died. THE KIMBALL FAMILY Robert Kimball (March 5, 1675) was son of Benjamin Kimball and Mercy Hazeltine, born in Massachusetts. Mercy’s father, Robert Hazeltine was of Biddeford, Country of Devon, England. “He came to America in the ship ‘John’ of London with the company led by Reverend Ezeiel Rogers. They arrived at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1638 and settled in Rowley the following year. On December 23, 1639, he married, Anne who died July 26, 1684. They were the first couple married in Rowley. He was a freeman in 1640. His will is on record at Salem.” “The name Hazeltine comes from “Hazel Den” meaning a place of trees.”[26]
Benjamin Kimball (b. 1637 and d. June 11, 1696) was the son of Richard Kimball and Ursula Scott. Benjamin was a carpenter and a wheelwright.[27] “He probably lived in Exeter, New Hampshire in 1659 but was a resident of Salisbury, Massachusetts, in 1661-1662 and then moved to Radford where he was an original member of the church, and his wife was one of the first members coming to the Haverhill church. He was Cornet of Salisbury and Bradford Troops and also of Andover under Captain Appleton in 1683-4.[28] The settlement of his estate, administered by his wife, is on record at Salem. Her will is also recorded there. Their gravestones [were] still standing in the Amesbury Burial ground” as of 1914.
Benjamin was son of Richard Kimball (b. abt 1595 and d. June 22, 1675) who “came to New England in 1634 with his wife, Ursula, and seven children and Martha Scott, his wife’s mother. They settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, where he was a proprietor in 1636-7.” His homestead contained six acres. He was made a freeman on May 5, 1635 [and two years later] moved to Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1637, where he was granted a house and forty acres of land. He owned forty-three shares in Plum Island, lying near the coast. He was a wheelwright by trade. He was appointed one of the “Seven Men’ to order the affairs of the town, March 1, 1645-6. December 14, 1648, he agreed to give an annual subscription of three shillings to be paid Major Daniel Dennison, Commander of the Military Forces of Essex and Norfolk counties. [Richard] married in England, about 1612, Ursula, daughter of Henry and Martha (Whatlock) Scott of Rattlesden, Suffolk county, England. He married, second, Margaret widow of Henry Dow of Hampton, New Hampshire, October 23, 1661. His will, dated March 5, 1674-5, and proved, September 28, 1675, is on record at Salem.”[29]
“There were fifty persons of all ages on the ship ‘Elizabeth’ when she left Ipswich, England, in April of 1634 bound for New England. The shipping list records those who took the oath of allegiance and among them were: Richard Kemball 39, Ursula Kemball, his wife, 39, March Scott 60, (widow of Henry Scott and mother of Ursula Kemball. Among those who were under age and not required to take oath were: Children of Richard Kemball: Hemry 15, Elizaeth 13, Richard 11, Mary 9, Marcha 5, John 3, Thomas 1.”[30] The Kimballs lived in Rattlesden, Hitchens and Buxhall, England, since the beginning of the sixteenth century.
ANCESTRY INFO ON ATWOOD FAMILY: COURTESY OF GRIFFIN FAMILY TREE (ANCESTRY.COM) – only partially confirmed but way cool to go back this far. Susannah Atwood’s parents were Captain Philip Atwood (April 13, 1658-1722) and Sarah Tenney (1665-1739). They married on July 23, 1684 in Salem, MA. Sarah was the daughter of John Tenney and Mercy Parrott. He lived for a short time in Worcester, but Indians drove him from there, so he moved to Malden and later, to Bradford. He was appointed to serve on a church committee with Deacon John Tenney, his father-in-law, on November 7, 1707. His will is on record in Salem. “A part of his wealth as given in the inventory consisted of two slaves, Essex and Jabina.” He and his wife are buried in Bradford. The inscriptions on their stones say: “Here lyes Buried ye Body of Captain Philip Atwood who Dyed April ye 13 – 1722 – and in the 64th years of his age. Christ to himself he taketh near His faithful ones who do not fear.” His wife Sarah is buried next to him.[31]
Phillip was the son of Phillip Atwood. Philip and his second wife Rachel Bachiler, born in Malden, Massachusetts. First he married Elizabeth Grover (1624-1638). His second wife was Rachel. The couple traveled to New England on the ship “Planter” in 1635. “He was a surveyor of highways for Mystic Side” (47) He died in Bradford.
Captain Philip Atwood (1615 Chancery Lane, London, England to Feb 1, 1700 Malden, MA) was the son of John Atwood (1569-1643) and Joan Coleson (1570-1654).
John and Joan married July 25, 1612 in ST. Martin-in-the-Field, London, England.
John Atwood’s parents were Nicholas Atwood (1539 in Surrey, England to 1586 in Surrey) and Olive Alice Harman (1548-1603). Nicholas and Olive married on January 30, 1570. Nicholas’s parents were John Hewson Atwood (1490 in Sanderstead, Surrey, England to ST. Martin in the Field, London, England in 1562) and Margaret Grenville (1494-1558).
John Hewson Atwood’s parents were John Atwood (1445-1525) and Denes de Sandeford (1449-1531). They married in 1483 in Sanderstead, Surrey, England.
John Atwood’s parents were Sir John Atte Wode Kight of the Shire (1400-1459) and Isabella Surrey (1404 Sanderstead, Surrey, England to Surrey now, London, England in 1447). Isabella and Sir John Atte Wode Knifht of the Shire married in 1444 in Sanderstead, Surrey, England.
Sir John’s parents were Sir Peter Atte Wode Knight of the Shire (1360-1404) and Petronilla Heyharston (1364-1459). “Peter Atte Wode, Jr was a member of Parliament in 1384; and in 1385, according to church history, built Sanderstead church.” The couple married in 1384 in Sanderstead, Surrey, England. “Inquisition taken at Frome on Saturday after the Feast of St. John before the Latin Gate, 46 Edward 3rd [1372], before Peter atte Wode, lieutenant of John de Foxle, keeper of the King's forest this side of Trent, by the oath of John Wyion and Richard Palmere, foresters” (from the Wiltshire, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records
Peter’s mother was Laurencia Queche (1324/1321-1382/1419). Peter’s father Peter Atte Wode, Sr. was a Bishop Clerk Court who “bought the estates known as Sanderstead and Wodemersthorne and in 1346 made application for a private chapel at lad Wode. It appears that in 1357 he lived at Coulsdon, also that he was associated with William Wickham on the King’s Commission, recorded in Rotalarum, and that he was engaged in building at Windsor.”
Peter, Sr.’s father was Geoffrey Atte Wode who was Sgt at Arms (1295-1346) to Edward III, and Peter’s mother was Anisia (1299-1328).
Geoffrey’s father, Sir William Attwood was a land owner who married Juliana (1274-1302 in Coulsdon, Surrey, England) in 1249 in Woods, Colsdon, England. “In 1318 they bought the estate known as Beckenham Kent, near Coulsdon. He became Sir William Attwood and was a Captain of the King’s Guard. He had two sons named Geoffrey and Peter who were both Sergeants at Arms to the King (Edward II) to the French War in which the French were defeated. Geoffrey lost his life in battle. Immense treasures were taken from the French to England, thereby enriching many of the common soldiers. In this way Peter Attwood obtained such wealth which enabled him on return to England to buy a wide acreage.”
William Atte Wode’s parents were Peter Atte Wode (1245 to 1313) and Alice Atte Forsse (1254 to 1313).
Robert Kimball’s parents were Benjamin Kimball (1637-1696) and Mercy Hazeltine (1642-1707). In 1741, there were twenty-seven severe snow storms. After a foot of snow fell on November 15, it rained for three weeks. “The water rode fifteen feet in this town, and floated off many houses.” That same year a new line was drawn up between Massachusetts and New Hampshire, resulting in one-third of the population and territory being assigned to New Hampshire. Samuel Eaton was suddenly a resident of New Hampshire while Timothy, John, and Moses Eaton remained residents of Haverhill (312). While the colonists were busy establishing a town and creating homes on land they tilled, European countries waged war.[32]
Struggles in Europe between Great Britain and France spilled over into the colonies as the European countries vied for dominance in North America in an effort to control where Indians had been stewards for centuries. “In 1755, Governor Shirley, fearing that the French settlers in Nova Scotia (Acadia) would side with France in any military confrontation, expelled hundreds of them to other British colonies; many of the exiles suffered cruelly. Throughout this period, the British military effort was hampered by lack of interest at home, rivalries among the American colonies, and France’s greater success in winning the support of the Indians. [33]
A struggle between Great Britain and France, called The Seven Years’ War aka the French and Indian War, lasted from 1756 to 1763. In the colonies, numerous Indian tribes who were protecting their lands and trying to oust the English settlers sided with the French while other tribes were recruited by the British fought the French. Many colonial towns suffered atrocious losses during this war, and “the whole frontier was kept in a state of continual fear, anxiety, and watchfulness.”[34] The King William’s War lasted from 1689 to 1698. “Peace being declared between France and England, the governor of Canada informed the Indians that he could no longer support them in their war against the English, and advised them to bury the hatchet, and restore their captives.” A treaty eventually resulted. “During this war, five hundred and sixty-one persons were killed, eighty-one wounded, and one hundred and sixty-one capture by the Indians, in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.”[35]
DEATH AND BURIAL of JAMES EATON AND RACHEL KIMBALL AYER James Eaton passed away on March 18, 1773, at the age of seventy-six. This is “according to the inscription on an old stone, a little inclined with age, in a yard a little north of his living residence, in the West Parish.” The couple had been married for forty-four years. Rachel Kimball died on August 17, 1775, the same year a smallpox epidemic raged through Haverhill, Massachusetts. She was sixty-five years old. Both James Eaton and Rachel are probably buried in the West Parish Cemetery in Haverhill or possibly the Second West Parish or Hilldale Cemetery in Haverhill. [36]
There is a record of Ebenezer Eaton being a private in McClellan’s Regiment out of New London/Hartford, Connecticut. There is no record that proves this Ebenezer is David’s brother, but clearly families must have been divided as some supported the British and some supported the Revolutionary Forces.
FIFTH GENERATION: DAVID EATON AND DEBORAH WHITE DAVID EATON, THE FOUNDER OF THE NOVA SCOTIA EATONS
David Eaton, the first son of James Eaton and Rachel Kimball (Ayer), was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, on April 1, 1729, and he became the founder of the Nova Scotia branch of the Eaton family. He was a loyalist and moved with many other New England residents to Nova Scotia, whose population had “been depopulated in 1755 due to the British expulsion of the French.” David’s first wife was Deborah White of Coventry, Connecticut. David moved from Haverhill, Massachusetts to Tolland, Connecticut where he married Deborah White on October 10, 1751.
David’s younger brother, Timothy, “was a member of the Committee of Correspondence and, later, commanded a Regiment at the siege of Boston.” [37] Another brother, Nathaniel “was a “lieutenant in the Revolutionary War and was at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He is an ancestor of General John Eaton.” Another brother, James Eaton married Abigail Emerson. In 1761, they moved to Goffstown, New Hampshire. He built a farm in Goffstown, which in 1911 was used as Sisters’ House in connection with the nearby College of St. Anslem. James was killed by lightning while sitting near the window reading. His widow died in 1826 at age ninety-three.[38] James and Abigail’s son, “Samuel was in the Revolutionary War and his discharge papers were in the possession of Reverend William Hadley Eaton. Revolutionary War Record of Samuel Eaton:--‘Pay Roll of Capt. Samuel McConnells Co. in Gen Starks Reg. raised out of the Reg. of New Hampshire Mil. Thomas Stickney Col. Marched from Pembroke, July, 1777 joined N. Cont. Army at Bennington & Stillwater. Also Pay Roll of Capt. Jesse Pages’ Co. Col. Abram Drake’s Reg. Northern Cont. Army Sept. 1777.’ Samuel Eaton, Private’.” [39]
ANCESTORS OF DEBORAH WHITE: WIFE OF DAVID EATON Deborah White was born in Coventry, Connecticut. She had twelve siblings and was the great-great granddaughter of: Elder John White (abt 1600 to 12.1683) and Mary Leavitt (-1666/1667) who married December 26, 1622 in England. He sailed on the ship “Lyon” or Lion from England on June 22, 1632 and arrived in Boston on September 16, 1632. According to Ancestry.com, John White’s parents were Robert White (1558 in Shalford, Essex, England to June 17, 1617 and Bridget Allgar (March 11, 1562 in Shalford, Essex, England to June 24, 1585. They married on June 24, 1585 in Shalford. They had six children. Another possible set of parents are Nathaniel and Martha White. (Need to do more research). It would be splendid if one of the portraits below were Robert White, potential ancestor of Elder John White.
“[John White] settled, first, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then removed to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1636 in the company of Reverend Thomas Hooker. In 1659, as a result of squabbling in the church at Hartford following Hooker's death, John White was one of the group that separated to form a new community up river, at Hadley, Massachusetts. He returned to Hartford about 1670, where he died about 1684, having named in his will (1683) four sons and two daughters. “
From Hodge Genealogy from North America Family Historiesand , 1500-2000
Their children were Mary, Nathaniel, Lieutenant Daniel, Jacob, Hixton, John, and Sarah. John White had three quarters acres on ground known as “Cow Yard Row” where the Harvard College library, Gore Hall, now stands. He was made the first selectmen in February, 1635, a representative in the General Assembly. [40]He moved to Hartford, Connecticut with one hundred other settlers. “In February 1671[2] John White paid a modest proportion for the purchase of undivided lands in Hartford. On 30 January 1672[3] John White drew lot # 27 in the lands next to Windsor.”[41] His wife, Mary, died during the winter of 1683. Mary Levit or Leavitt’s parents are Margaret (1577-1628) and William Levit (1575-1626) according to Ancestry.com.
Their eldest son, Captain Nathaniel White (1629-August 27, 1711) married Elizabeth (1625) and was also a public official in the legislature from Middletown, Connecticut. His second wife was Martha (Coit) Mould. “Capt. Nathaniel White was born in England in about 1629, the eldest son of Elder John White and Mary Levett. He came to the new world with his parents when he was just three years old. They sailed on the ship Lyon which arrived at Massachusetts Bay Colony on September 16, 1632, sailed by Captain Peirce. His father moved to Hartford, Connecticut in about 1642 and Nathaniel continued on to Middletown, Connecticut in about 1650 and was one of the first settlers of that town. An amazingly well-respected man, Nathaniel was elected as a representative of Middletown to the General Court eight-five times, being about 81 the last time he was appointed. He married a girl named Elisabeth in about 1651, but nothing is known of her other than her marriage to Nathaniel. She was the mother of his eight children.”[42] Nathaniel
Nathaniel White, Sr. (1629 to 1711 at age 82) and Elizabeth Bunce (1625-1690) had eight children: Nathaniel, Elizabeth, John, Mary, Daniel, Sarah, Jacob, and Joseph. “Nathaniel was pre-eminent in his interest in schools: and “gave one-fourth of his share in the common and undivided land to ‘the schools already agreed upon in the Town of Middletown, forever.” The tomb of Nathaniel and Elizabeth is in the Riverside Cemetery, Middletown.[43] Son JacobWhite married (b. May 10, 1665 to March 29, 1738 when he died at age 72 in Middletown, Connecticut) married Deborah Shepard (1669 to Feb. 8, 1721 who died aged 51) married on February 4, 1692 in Middletown, Connecticut. They had nine children. [Note another Jacob White married Elizabeth Bunce and this is Jacob’s uncle I believe.) His father purchased for him a lot originally given to David Sage and then owned by “Joseph Kirby who sold it to Capt. Nathaniel White.” It remained in the White family for many years. Another son Deacon Nathaniel White of Hadley, Massachusetts (July 7, 1652-February 15, 1742) “served in third Indian War and took part in the Deerfield Meadow Fight, 29th February, 1704.[44] Their headstones are in Old Cromwell Cemetery in Cromwell, Connecticut according to E. E. Freeman who copied headstone inscriptions on November 27, 1934. Their son Thomas White (August 14, 1701 to after 1773 in Coventry, Connecticut) married Sarah Miller (1700 to August 10, 1736) on December 23, 1725 and fathered Deborah White Eaton. On January 6, 1902, the town “Unanimously voted to name [Cromwell’s first fine schoolhouse] ‘The Nathaniel White Public School.’” (715).
Deborah’s father, Thomas White, was “a great grandson of Elder John White, one of the first settlers of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later of Hartford, Connecticut and Hadley Massachusetts.
Note: Deborah’s brother Samuel White was the father of Lemuel White (December 30, 1758 to August 7, 1850) “who assisted in establishing American independence” as a private in the Connecticut militia.[45]
Deborah’s father, Thomas White, was born in Middletown, Upper Houses, Massachusetts on August 14, 1701. He first farmed in East Middletown but in 1731 moved to the north part of Lebanon, Connecticut within the town of Andover. “His farm lay on both sides of the Hop River and was partly in Coventry.” Around 1748, he relocated to Coventry east of the Sungamug River and died around 1773. Thomas married Sarah Miller (born October 15, 1702 in Glastonbury, Connecticut and died August 10, 1736 in Lebanon, Connecticut). Possibly she is the daughter of William Miller of Glastonbury. Thomas White and Sarah Eaton had six children: Sarah, Thomas, Samuel, Deborah, William, and Jacob. When Sarah died at thirty-six, he remarried to Hannah Woodward, and they had seven children: Hannah, Henry, Lemuel, Elizabeth, Silas, Abigail, and Joel. The Whites were a prominent family in Connecticut.[46]
Descendants fought on the side of the Revolutionaries and acquired land in New York that had been forfeited by Tory refugees. Captain Hugh White, great grandson of Nathaniel Eaton, served in the French-Indian War and was a captain in the Rev. Army serving besides three of his sons. A group of soldiers “purchased a 6000-acre tract known as Wallace’s Patent, which had been forfeited to the State of New York by reason of his being a Tory refugee” (721).
The following excerpt shows how land switched ownership and how some Revolutionary soldiers and their families benefited to the detriment of other soldiers or residents who favored the British. Ironically, descendent Deborah White and David Eaton fled Connecticut due to their Tory sympathies and headed to Nova Scotia where they acquired land that had been confiscated from the French who had been ousted.
[47] Revolutionary War (1775-1783) Even before war erupted, Connecticut passed anti-Tory laws. In time, these—and harassment from liberty-minded neighbors—forced many loyal to Britain to flee their homes or suffer imprisonment. When fighting started in 1775, Connecticut patriots earned acclaim, from Benedict Arnold (before he turned traitor) at the seizure of Fort Ticonderoga, to Israel Putnamat Bunker Hill. Largely free from British occupation and major battles (except for raids on Danbury, as well as New London and other coastal towns), Connecticut provided food, cannon, and other goods to the Continental army and became known as the Provision State.[48] These anti-Tory laws and harassments of citizens loyal to Britain account for why Loyalists like David Eaton and his wife Deborah White Eaton with their children left Tolland, Connecticut and migrated to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. The expulsion of the French Acadians must have been a godsend for all those dedicated farmers and their families. Their good fortune came at an appalling cost to French Acadians and their Mi’kmaq allies, many of whom were killed while their homes, farms and villages were burned. “Though these French authorities could not imagine such an inhuman act [as the expulsion of the Acadians], the English could. In early 1755 the Acadian Deputies were summoned to Halifax by Governor Lawrence and ordered to swear an oath of allegiance to the British Crown. They refused, contending, that if they did so the French would set the Indians against them and they would be massacred. On July 28, 1755 Lawrence got the full approval of Nova Scotia's Colonial Council to start dispersing the Acadians among the American Colonies. Colonel Robert Monckton rounded up the Acadians in Chignecto, while Colonel John Winslow ordered those at Minas to assemble at Grand Pré. [Major John Handfield was in charge of Annapolis Royal.] They were loaded into the holds of ships and scattered to the four corners of the world. Hundreds of Acadians were transported to Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Connecticut. Families were separated, never to see one another again, and untold numbers died in transport. This included those who had sworn allegiance to the British Crown, there were no exceptions. The Mi'kmaq faithfully stuck by their Acadian allies to the bitter end. Some of the Acadians tried to escape and were aided and protected by them to the best of their ability. They also joined forces with them to drive back the British. Many Acadians went into hiding among the Mi'kmaq and remained with them until the British and French ended their hostilities in 1763. A group of several hundred were hidden by the Mi'kmaq in the area known today as Kejimkujik National Park.”[49] In 1755 expeditions were planned against the French in Nova Scotia, in Ohio, in Crown Point and against Niagara. A number of Haverhill men participated, and several French forts were surrendered (340). David Eaton entered the service as a private on April 12, 1755 and left the service on December 15, 1755. Both he and Moses Eaton were in the company sent to Albany (341). In the spring 1757, David Eaton and John Eaton were enrolled in the list of the first Company in the Haverhill militia. Benja Eaton, Timothy Eaton, Joseph Eaton, James Eaton, Moses Eaton, and Jonathan Eaton, Jr. were listed in the Second foot Company. Major Richard Saltonshtall was captain. These lists included all men from Haverhill not exempt from military duty. Men were typically conscripted for a number of short periods of time and paid for their services. David Eaton entered April first as a Corporal in Captain Edmund Mooers’ company, in Colonel Bagley’s regiment, for the Redaction of Canada. They had 101 men. David was discharged six-and-one-half months later on November 20, 1759. In 1760, David Eaton was a private in the muster roll of Captain Joseph Smith of Rowley from February 14 to December 9. Nathaniel Eaton was a private from July 10, 1761 to December 7 in Captain Mooers’ Company. It is likely this service in the militia and loyalty to the British that lead to David Eaton and his wife Deborah to abandon their home in Haverhill and emigrate to Nova Scotia. Vast expenses had been incurred when the English fought the French and expelled them. To replenish the English treasury, the English began taxing the colonies, which sparked opposition that lead to the American Revolution. Massachusetts was no longer safe for loyalists.
********** David Eaton and Deborah White Eaton had five children: Susannah (September 26, 1752 in Toland, Connecticut to October 18, 1761), Stephen (January 29, 1754 in Toland, Connecticut), Elisha, (born January 8, 1757 in Tolland, Connecticut), Timothy (born July 17, 1768 in Tolland), and Elijah. The family migrated from Tolland, Connecticut to Nova Scotia. Sadly, Susannah died at nine, Elijah died at one years old, and another son Timothy died before the second Timothy was born. In Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, the couple had six more children: Sarah (b. Feb 13, 1762), Elijah (b. October 16, 1763), David (born July 13, 1765), James (born August 1767), Susannah (born June 24, 1769), Deborah (born January 6, 1771), John (born May 29 1773), Prudence (born October 13, 1774) and Amos (born September 9, 1778 and died April 1784 from a wound received from falling on a butcher knife.)
The dreadful expulsion of the French Normandy peasants from Acadia and the torching of their prosperous village of Grand Pre on September 5, 1875, “left unoccupied large tracts of fertile land about and near the shores of the Basin of Minas, some of it in a high state of cultivation. A proclamation was published that said “these lands consist of upwards of one hundred thousand acres of interval plow land, producing wheat, rye, barley, oats, hemp, flax, etc. These have been cultivated for more than a hundred years past, and never fail of crops, nor need manuring. Also more than one hundred thousand acres of upland, cleared and stocked with English grass, planted with orchards, gardens, etc.”[50] In addition to the fertile land, the adjoining lands were heavily timbered. Any farmer who came was promised plow land, grassland, and timberland. The land was above the Bay of Fundi. 330 signers consisting of 200 families from Connecticut settled a township at Mines near the river Gaspereaux consisting of 100,000 acres. 150 families were settled in the township of Canard with 100,000 acres.
David Eaton, now thirty and his wife, Deborah White Eaton, now twenty-seven, arrived in Nova Scotia before August 15, 1761, probably in 1760, but David officially, received his grant from the government on December 31, 1764, “the fourth year of the reign of King George III” (83.) Richard Bulkeley signed the document. David Eaton was granted 666 acres. He was expected to pay one shilling sterling money for every fifty acres due on Michaelmas Day. He was required to “plant, cultivate, improve, or enclose one-third part of the land granted him, within ten years, one-third within twenty years, and the remaining third within thirty years from the date of his grant, a failure to fulfill this obligation, obliging him to forfeit such lands as should not be under improvement or cultivation.” At least one family had to be settled with proper stock and material by October 31, 1765. The first deed of land given to David Eaton was dated September 7, 1765. This deed is available to be read in Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton’s book.
David Eaton is believed to have been thrifty and enterprising. The land had a lovely view of what was once fertile diked land owned by the French Acadians. David transferred ownership of the lands to sons David, Stephen, and Elisha, who each built houses. Elisha’ son James, grandson Levy, and great grandson Leverette have owned the land continuously. David’s house, rebuilt after a fire, was torn down thirty-six years after Arthur Hamilton Eaton published this research. David Eaton’s will is available to read in the Genealogical and Biographical sketch of the Eaton Families.
In a 1786 Cornwallis, Kings County Census (Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 vol 443 no. 38,) it is recorded that David Eaton owned 9 mares, 4 oxen/bulls, 16 cows, 27 young cattle, 40 sheep, and 19 hogs. His son Stephen owned 2 horses, 4 oxen, 2 cows, 5 young cattle, 20 sheep, and 15 hogs. It also records the livestock that Timothy, Elisha, and Elijah Eaton owned. All seemed to be prosperous farmers.
Deborah White Eaton died May 20, 1790. According to The Nova Scotia Eatons, David Eaton married a second time to Alice Willoughby, widow of Dr. Samuel Willoughby on December 23, 1790. She was English. David Eaton died three years later on July 17, 1803 in Cornwallis in what is now known as Carnard Street. They are buried in an old cemetery known as Hamilton’s corner or “Jaw-bone” corner in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia.[51] Many of their children are also buried there while others are buried at the Baptist Church cemetery at Upper Canard or the burying ground of the Congregational Church below Canning. Deborah became a communicant at the Congregational “church at Horton and Cornwallis.”
“David Eaton is said to have been a man of genial character, good form and feathers, (‘some called him a handsome man,’) and of unusual physical strength.” All that is said of Deborah is she “was of a kindly, motherly nature, hospitable and cheerful and possessed of much native refinement.”
THE SIXTH GENERATION: STEPHEN EATON AND ELIZABETH WOODWORTH Stephen Eaton, the second child and oldest son, received the property from his parents David Eaton and Deborah White Eaton via a transfer. Later, the land was owned by Leander, son of Ward, Stephen’s nephew and son of his younger brother, John. It remained in the family almost continuously for many decades.
EMIGRATION TO NOVA SCOTIA Stephen was born in Tolland, Connecticut, and emigrated to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, in 1765. Stephen, born January 29, 1754, would have been eleven years old, when his family took possession of 666 acres of fertile land tilled by the Acadians until their expulsion.
THE MICMACS AND THE ACADIANS On May 21, 1759, “the two townships of Horton and Cornwallis had been created.” The Micmac Indians had thrived on the land’s and sea’s bounty. The French Arcadians had cultivated it and built an extensive dike system. They also built houses, churches, small forts, and tilled many acres, but the British expelled them over a period of eighty years of conflict in the 1800s. Eighty Acadian families were put on ships and forced from their homes in Cornwallis. In total over 6000 persons had been deported from Nova Scotia, many coming to New England where they were not made welcome; a few fugitive families hid in the forests. Houses and barns were burned.
“Of the fertility of the soil of Horton and Cornwallis too much cannot possibly be said. Besides the present fifty thousand acres of beautiful dyked land which these townships contain, a rich alluvial country in successive epochs reclaimed from the sea, there are perhaps seventy thousand acres of tilled upland, where grains and root crops grow luxuriantly, and where apple, pear, and plum orchards come to magnificent fruitage. Across the South Mountain lies a large area of forest land, and even here there is some good agricultural soil. It is in the so called “Annapolis Valley,” however, between the North and South mountains, that the rich farms and wonderful fruit orchards of this far famed region of the province of Nova Scotia are to be found. An almost magical charm, indeed, lies over this whole valley: its wide-spreading dyke-lands, pink-blossoming orchards, scarlet-maple clad hills, clumps of drooping willows, sturdy groves of oak, the graceful sweeping elms that throw soft shade over the country and town – where else in northern American can such beauty be found!” (5 & 6). In 1759, “in Cornwallis,” the land was distributed “among 150 families.” Families sailed from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Leaving their homes must have been quite daunting. The settlers initially lived in tents and actually brought material on the ships from New England in order to build the first buildings. [52]
CORNWALLIS In Cornwallis, David’s son Stephen received a share in 1764 as did Thomas Woodworth, the father of his Stephen’s future wife (and many other New England Planters. Each share consisted of 666 acres. They were to pay 1shilling sterling at Michaelmas day for every 50 acres. Land was also granted for the building of a school, a church, public buildings, and burial grounds. The town was planned and included roads. 153 farm lots were laid out, which included all the land the French had cultivated.[53]
MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN On November 23, 1775, when he was twenty-one, Stephen married Elizabeth Woodworth, They married in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Elizabeth’s sister Huldah Woodworth married David’s brother, Timothy.
Elizabeth Woodworth the daughter of Thomas Woodworth (1726-1761) and Zerviah Fox (1726 to 1767) of Cornwallis was born on June 2, 1753 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut.
Thomas Woodworth, born on July 17, 1726 and baptized October 23, 1726 in Norwich, Connecticut, married Zerviah Fox on July 29, 1751 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut.[54] There is a record of a Thomas Woodworth who was in Nova Scotia by 1764 and who took a ship from Rhode Island. Not confirmed that it is same man. He may have married two more times to Mary Shaw on January 26, 1769 and to Mary Rand on January 15, 1781 in Falmouth, Nova Scotia. It appears that his parents were Isaac Woodworth and Ruth Douglas.
Stephen Eaton and Elizabeth Woodworth had ten children in nineteen years between 1776 and 1795: Jacob (March 31, 1776-1849), daughter Zerviah (March 31, 1778-1855), daughter Jarvish (March 31, 1779 to 1855), Rebecca (April 21, 1781 to 1827), Olive (January 12, 1782 to August 29, 1784) who died as a two-year-old, Deborah (August 6, 1783 to September 6, 1784), who lived a year and died a week after Olive, Amos (July 28, 1785-1862), born July 28, 1785, Nathan (1787-1868), Elizabeth (1789-1808) who lived eight years, Stephen (1792-1869), and Nancy (1795-1796). The children were born in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia.
DEATH AND BURIAL The elder Stephen died on April 20, 1838 at eighty-four years of age. Elizabeth died a few years later on March 28, 1841. Both were buried near David and Deborah Eaton at Hamilton’s Corner in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia.
THE SEVENTH GENERATION: AMOS EATON AND SARAH HARRIS BIRTH AND MARRIAGE Amos Eaton, the sixth child of Stephen and Elizabeth Woodworth Eaton, was born July 28, 1785 in Kings, Nova Scotia. On January 11, 1810, he married Sarah Harris, daughter of Lebbeus Harris and Margaret Lucilla (De Wolf) who was born on April 2, 1787.
THE HARRIS FAMILY (Sarah Harris) Sarah’s father, Lebbeus Harris, son of James Harris, and grandson of James Harris (born 1640 in England; d. 6.4.1714, New London, CT) and married Sarah Denison of Boston in 1666. James’ parents were John Harris of Sudbury, Suffolk, England and Bridget Angrier of Dedham, MA. James Harris and Sarah Denison had eleven children who were all baptized in the “Old South Meeting House” of Boston, in 1683.”[55] The Harris name is Welsh and means “son of Harry.”[56] Around 1690, they moved to New London in the Colony of Connecticut. In James’ will, he gave his whole estate to his wife Sarah. He died in 1714.
Their son, Lieut. James Harris of New London (b. 4.4.1673 in Boston first married Sarah Rogers (1676 to Nov 13, 1748) in 1696, and they had nine children. She was the daughter of James Rogers. James Harris moved in 1698 from New London to Mohegau and “settled upon a tract of land grant by Owaneco, the Mohegan Sachem,”[57] which had been granted to his wife Sarah next to her father’s lands. James originally designated himself as a weaver, but then substituted “Husbandman” and was also a landowner. “James Harris was admitted an inhabitant of Colchester by vote in town-meeting, Dec. 22, 1718. In 1720-21-22, and perhaps later, he was licensed by the General Court at Hartford as ‘taverner,’ and probably kept the first ‘hotel’ within the present limits of Salem, on the ground where Gilbert Murray” later owned and resided.[58] “In October, 1725, he and his son James and sixteen others petitioned the General Court for a new military company in the parish of New Salem and presented a roll of sixty-four men ready to enlist. Of this number he was chosen and commissioned captain.” (606). He resigned soon after and was later a Selectman of Colchester in 1725.[59] His will in available on page 27. “November 10, 1726, he gave a deed for the benefit of the new parish of a meeting-house lot, burying-ground, and training-field, and upon this lot was erected the first meeting-house and school-house.” The parish of New Salem was constituted from the south part of Colchester, the north part of Lyme. Two years after his wife Sarah died on November 13, 1748, Lieutenant James married Mrs. Sarah Jackson. Lieutenant James died February 10, 1757 at the age of eighty-four.
James had two sons: Jonathan and Lebbeus. Jonathan “built the old family bee-hive in about the year 1740” while his brother Lebbeus “moved to the farm later owned by Alvah Morgan and which was later known as the old Sterling place.”
During the war between England and France in 1758-1760, “a number of families emigrated from Salem to Horton, Kings Co, Nova Scotia, on the Bay of Fundy, known as the land of neutral French.” (606). Lebbeus Harris was one of men who emigrated. Other families stayed in the Colony of Connecticut and during the war of 1812 defended the Union. The Horton Township Partition Book records Lebbeus, Jr. as receiving ½ share. (I WONDER IF LEBBEUS, JR IS SON OF LEBBEUS). “They were in 1761 list. The 1770 Horton Township census showed … Lebbeus, Jr. with two (children ???) (151-152).
Sarah’s grandfather, James Rogers, received valuable “tracts near the river Thames at places called Massapeag and Pamachaug, below present Norwich.” Sarah’s father, Samuel Rogers, was the first white settler upon these lands.” “His good friend Uncas had persuaded him to settle in his neighborhood, and as an inducement, had given him a valuable tract of land upon ‘Oxoboxa Brook,’ and had further promised, in case of inroads by prowling bands of Narragansetts, a troublesome tribe of Indians lying on the east, that would rally at once with his warriors for his protection. Rogers built a house of hewn plank upon this land, surrounded it with a stockade, and mounted a small cannon in front, the firing of which was to be the signal of alarm.”
Sarah Roger’s husband, James, became a favorite of the tribe. “Owaneco and his successors were lavish in their grants of land to James and Sarah Harris, and they soon became large landholders.” (23). For 50 pounds, James Harris and three other men were deeded many thousands of acres from the Sachem who kept only a small amount for his tribe. This gift caused many lawsuits lasting over thirty years by incoming settlers. In 1714, May, James “was commissioned Lieut. Of the North Co. of N. London.” (27). He moved in 1718 to Colchester (now Salem) and by 1720-1722, he was licensed as “a taverner.” He was chosen captain of a new military company in the parish of New Salem with a role of 64 men including two of his sons. James donated land for a new parish, a meeting-house lot, a burying ground, and a training field. (28) Lebbeus was born August 11, 1713 and married Alice Ranson (daughter of Robert Ranson of Salem Parish) on November 20, 1738. Lebbeus was born in Mohegan, settled in Salem Parish on the old Sterling place, then moved to Montville where his father lived with him.
Lebbeus and his family moved to Horton, Kings Co., Nova Scotia, where received he 500 acres in Cornwallis around 1765. His wife was Margaret Lucilla De Wolf. Her brother, Alpheus Harris married Rebecca Eaton, an older sister of Amos.
PUGWASH AND DEWOLF FAMILY OF SARAH HARRIS Early in his life, Amos Eaton moved from Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, to Pugwash, Nova Scotia. He became a Colonel in the militia. Amos and Sarah had ten children between 1811 and 1831: Levi Woodworth, Nathan Harris, Amos, Margaret Lucilla, Stephen, Caroline A, Sarah Eliza, James Edward, Rebecca, and Alpheus. His wife, Sarah (Harris) was the granddaughter of Nathan DeWolf, a graduate of Yale College (MA 1743).
Sarah Harris’s mother was Margaret Lucilla De Wolf, who married Lebbeus Harris.
Margaret Lucilla’s father was Nathan De Wolf who married about 1849, before coming to Nova Scotia in 1761 with his family, including his daughter, Margaret Lucilla. Nathan is listed in the 1770 Nova Scotia Census. Nathan D eWolf (b. 1720 in Saybrooke, CT to 1789) was one of the three DeWolf cousins who came as Planters to Horton in 1761.[60] Along with the two cousins, he is known as having one of the most prosperous farms on the Cornwallis River. He is known as the virtual founder of the town. The name "Wolfville" was created in his honour. His son, grandson, and great grandson are buried here as well."[61]
Nathan married Lydia Kirtland (b. 10.28.1721 in Saybrooke, Connecticut. Lydia was daughter of John Kirtland and Lydia Belden. They came to Horton in 1764 as Planters.
Nathan is buried in the Old Burying Ground in Wolfville, Kings country, Nova Scotia.
Nathan’s father was Josiah De Wolf (11.15.1689 in Lyme, CT to 1757/1767 in Norwich, CT) who married Anne Waterman (who died 12.12.1752, age 63 & buried in Duck River Cemetery in Connecticut).
Nathan’s grandfather was Simon De Wolf (3.16.1648 in Wethersfield, Hartford CT to 9.5.1695 in Lyme, CT) who married Sarah Lay (2.4.1665 in Lyme, CT to 1.25.1711 in Lyme, CT) on November 12, 1682. Simon De Wolf is buried in the Duck River Cemetery in Old Lyme, New London, CT.
Sarah Lay’s father, John Lay, was “a great landowner.”[62]
Nathan’s great-grandfather, Balthazar De Wolf (1620-1695) may have been from Sagan, Prussia, Germany. They were married in 1645. Other sources say Balthazar was born in Connecticut. Another source says his ancestor was French. Balthazar arrived in Connecticut in 1656 according to Meredith Colket’s Founders of Early American Families: Emigrants from Europe, 1607-1657). Balthazar came to Colchester, New London, Connecticut. His wife’s name was Alice Marrus Peck (1625-1685). Balthasar de Wolf,” the first known American Ancestor mentioned in Court Records of Hartford, Conn, March 5, 1656; mentioned in Wethersfield, Conn., 1664; first name in Lyme records, 1668; living in 1695. In 1677, he was chosen “Committee of the town.” “Balthasar de Wolf to Charles d’Wolf of Guadaloupe. Two of Bathazar’s sons (Edward) and Stephen) served as soldiers in King Philip’s War.
Balthazar’s parents were Joseph de Wolf (1590 in Sagar, Germany to 10.4.1719 in Middletown, CT) and Elizabeth Hubard (1600-1719).
His father was Joseph Henry DeWolf (1575-1660) whose father was Maximilan DeWolf (1530-1600) from Germany, Poland or Latvia. He died in Belgium. Maximilan’s father may have been Hans De Wolff (1512 in Sagan, German to 1561). [some info is from ancestry.com and not yet verified.]
“This memorial is dedicated to my ancestor Balthazar DeWolf. He was married to Alice Peck in 1645 in Guilford, Connecticut. Alice was born in 1625 in England, she was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Peck. She died in 1689 in Lyme, New London County, Connecticut.
The first record of Balthazar is at Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1656-64. In 1668 he and his three sons, Edward, Simon and Stephen are recorded as members of the training band at Lyme. There is also a record that one Nicholas Jennings was indicted for witchcraft in "causing the death of the wife of Regnold Marvin and a child of Balthazar de Wolf."
He owned property in Lyme and Saybrook very early in the history of the colony. The first mention of his name is found in the Harford court records in 1656. He was in Wethersfield, CT (probably on a temporary visit) and was arrested for smoking on the street. The court fined him...and as tradition has it...he paid his fine, lit his pipe and went out! He was also a member of the local militia.
1673 Relieved from military 1673 served as Grand Juror 1677 Elected Lyme CT Town Committeeman” from Find a Grave.
Simon De Wolf, Nathan’s grandfather, was in the 3rd Regiment under Col. Eliphalet Dyer and Capt. Joshua Abel in the campaign of 1755 of the French Indian War. Simon enlisted on September 11 and was discharged on December 13.
After the French in 1746-1747 viciously attacked a British Fort, the French were finally expelled in 1755. Many United Empire loyalists migrated to Nova Scotia between 1772 and 1784. Pugwash, despite its good harbour, was undeveloped. Farming opportunities, timber, fishing, ship building may have been what enticed Amos Eaton to leave his family and settle in Pugwash. Amos prospered and was deeply respected.
HOME AND DEATH Five of Amos Eaton's family married four of the children of John Bigelow, Sr. who lived in Pugwash for a time. Amos lived in a house on lighthouse point on the Northumberland Strait, in view of Thinkers Lodge. Amos Eaton died on February 12, 1862, in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. His wife Sarah died on October 17, 1865.
SON of AMOS EATON & SARAH HARRIS; LEVI WOODWORTH EATON AND NEW ZEALAND In 1860, Levi Woodworth Eaton, son of Amos Eaton and Sarah Harris and a ship builer, took his family and many folks from Pugwash to settle in New Zealand. They sailed on the “George Henderson” two years before Amos died. In the 1980s, his home was dismantled and moved to the United States. Sarah Bigelow who died in 1878 married Levi Woodworth Eaton. Levi later remarried. Mary Ann, another daughter of John Bigelow, married pioneer Abraham Seaman. Abraham Seaman and his brother Stephen bought what is probably the Pineo land from three First Nation People, likely of the Micmac tribe: Samuel Ocherem, Peter Markentwain, and Peter Victor on August 17th, 1802 They purchased 500 acres (most of Pugwash) for five pounds. Abraham's grant was on west side of harbour. Abraham in 1806 was first citizen of modern Pugwash. He built a house on the west side of Pugwash Harbour, one of the first. He was not in Pugwash often. In 1807 Stephen and wife (after financial difficulties) moved to Pugwash in 1807. Stephen Seaman built on the East Side of Pugwash Harbour in 1827. [63]"The site was approximately where Eaton Lodge now stands" (Page 12) Stephen added a barn and storehouse. Early photos of Pineo Lodge show other out-buildings. In 1812, his house was foreclosed. That land was sold to David Sampson Pineo, father of Henry Pineo. He moved his family in the Seaman House. (14) His son Henry gave house to his daughter or possibly built her a new one nearby. Henry Pineo's wife, Harriet Sophia Seaman, was one of Abraham's Seaman's daughters. One of their children was Henry G Pineo. Another was Mary Sophia Pineo who married Dr. Edwin Clay (40-41).
It appears that four of Amos Eaton's children (including Levi) married Bigelows as did Abraham Seaman, brother of Stephen Seaman. Therefore, it seems that Pineo Lodge, now called Thinkers Lodge, did belong to an ancestor of Cyrus Eaton via marriage.
THE EIGHTH GENERATION: STEPHEN EATON AND MARY DESIAH (PARKER) Stephen Eaton, the sixth of ten children and fourth son of Amos and Sarah (Harris) Eaton, was born in Cornwallis on June 26, 1819, but moved at a fairly young age to Pugwash in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. When he was twenty-two, he married Mary Desiah Parker on January 5, 1842. She was the daughter of Reverend Maynard Parker of Pugwash (Feb 16, 1825 to Dec 28, 1883) and Catharine M. Spurr.
Mary Desiah Parker (wife of Stephen Eaton) was descended from John Maynard (born around 1618) of Marlborough, Massachusetts, father of Simon Maynard, Sr., who was father of Sergeant Simon Maynard, who was father of Mary D. Maynard who married William Parker of Shrewsbury, Mass, who was great-grandfather of Mary Desiah Parker.
William Parker (born around 1720) of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, who was father of Nathaniel Parker of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts and Annapolis, Nova Scotia, who was father of Reverend Maynard Parker, who was father of Mary Desiah Parker.
Shippy Spurr (born 1754) of Canton, Norfolk, Massachusetts, and A. Van Voories were parents of Catharine Marsden Spurr of Annapolis, Nova Scotia, who was mother of Mary Desiah Parker.
Garrett Church (born 1611 in England) was grandfather of Sarah Church who married Simon Maynard.
THE MAYNARD FAMILY John Maynard of England was “one of the 47 who shared in the division of Sudbury Meadows, 1638,” was a selectman and a petitioner for the grant of Marlborough, 1656; he moved to Marl. soon after the grant, in 1657, where. He m. April 5, 1658, Mary Gates, daughter of Stephen Gates and where his children were born. He and Mary had 11 children.[64] He died Dec. 22, 1711.”
John Maynard’s son was Simon Maynard, Sr who with his wife Sarah Church had three children, including Sergeant Simon. The elder Simon had possession of lot 14 as of January 30, 1729. “This 14th House Lot in Shrewsbury, contains in it 70 acres, and hath a fifty acre right belonging to it.” Page 17 describes the boundaries for those interested. This lot has originally been granted to Hanes, one of the original settlers of Shrewsbury. The elder Simon died in Marlboro on January 19, 1747, and his wife Sarah died on April 5, 1748.[65] Note Shrewsbury was mostly settled by people from Marlboro.
Simon, Sr.’s son Simon Maynard, known as Sergeant Maynard of Marlboro, was born in 1695 and married Sarah Church (baptized 11.6.1689) in Marlboro on November 18, 1718. In 1719 Simon Maynard purchased land from his late teacher James Woods of Marlborough with five others. Simon was listed as a layman. Simon was one of the four first appointed sergeants, “ a title of more regard in those days than of Colonel in the present day of 1847.” (p. 28) Simon was a highway surveyor in 1760 in Shrewsbury as roads and burial grounds were laid out, and he also was involved in church doctrine. He was one of the founders of the Congregational Church. “They were living on house lot #14 in 1729.” Simon died in 1786 around the age of 90. Sarah died in 1781, aged 91.
THE CHURCH FAMILY Sarah’s father was David Church (b. 1657) and her grandfather was Garrett Church, of Watertown, who was born in England, 1611.”
PARKER FAMILY Mary Desiah Parker, daughter of Rev. Maynard Parker, were the descendants of John Parker (b. 1591) and Joane Drake of Essex England (b. 1590) .
Their son Captain Joseph d. Parker (b. 9.1.1622; d. 1690 Chelmsford, MA) and his wife Margaret Barrett/Barker (1625 to 11.19.1683 in Chelmsford, MA), both born in Essex, England, were the parents of Joseph W. Parker who was born on March 30, 1653 in Chelmsford, MA and died in Groton, MA on April 19, 1728. Joseph W and his wife Hannah Blood (3.3.1664 in Lynn, MA to 4.19.1728 in Groton, MA) were parents of Nathaniel Parker (1687 in Groton , MA to 7.6.1716 in Groton, MA). This first Nathaniel Parker was married to Lydia Nutting (b. 6.3.1686 to 5.8.1776 in Worcester, MA. Nathaniel and Lydia married in 1717 and had 6 children.
One of their children, William Parker was born November 14, 1716 in Groton, Mass and died in 1748 in Shrewsbury, Worcester, Massachusetts.
“About the year 1700, or before, lived in Shrewsbury, Mass., a family of Parkers, of whom William is mentioned as marrying, October 23, 1739, Mary D. Maynard (Sergt. Simon, Simon, John, one of the 47 who shared in the division of Sudbury meadows, 1638; selectman, and a petitioner for the grant of Marlboro’, 1656; moved there, where his children were b., and d. 1711. His wife was Mary, daughter of Stephen Gates). Mary D. Maynard was born in 1719, and admitted to the church in Shrewsbury 1742.”[66]
William Parker’s son Nathaniel Parker, born in 1743 in Shrewsbury, was in the British Army from 1759-1763, and he accompanied General Wolfe to the Siege of Quebec, and moved after the siege to Nova Scotia to the eastern section of Annapolis Country. He married Anna Hardy about 1766. They had six children. Anna died about 1778. Then he married Salome Whitman, widow of Major Ezekiel Cleveland of Woburn, Massachusetts. Salome (daughter of John Whitman and Mary Marcy Foster) arrived in Annapolis in 1760. They settled in at Nictaux, Annapolis County. Nathaniel was “an honest, pious farmer “ who died in 1830. Salome died on June 5, 1831 at age 76. Nathaniel was very involved with the laying out and construction of roads. He fathered sixteen children. Originally a Congregationalist, he converted and became a Baptist. “Believing that their baptism in infancy had been a mistake, [Nathaniel and Salome] rode on horseback, the lady on a pillion behind her husband, through rough wilderness roads to the Gaspereau Valley in King’s County to receive adult baptism by immersion from some minister of like views with their own, they being the first persons, it is said, in Annapolis County to take this spectacular step.”
Nathaniel Parker and Salome Whitman had ten children. Maynard Parker (b. 1795 -1860) was the second youngest. Maynard married Catharine M. Spurr (1805-1851) on February 22, 1819 in Nictaux, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia. “The minister of the church in Pugwash was Rev. Maynard Parker. He was pastor at the Pugwash Baptist Church from 1849 to 1844. Reverend Maynard Parker and Catharine Spurr’s daughter Mary Desiah Parker was born in 1825. At 58, Maynard married a second time on March 10, 1853 to Margaret (Miller) Norwell who died in 1860. Rev. Maynard had a total of thirteen children. His daughter Mary Desiah Parker married Stephen Eaton.
THE FOSTER FAMILY Mary Foster, mother of Salome Whitman and daughter of Deacon John Foster, traveled to “Annapolis, Nova Scotia, in the sloop Charming Molly, June, 1760, with 45 others, and settled on a tract of land on Saw Mill Creek, south of Annapolis, that extended to the Wilmot line.”[67]
According to Betty Royan, executive assistant of Cyrus Eaton: “Maynard Parker is descended from famous New Englanders including John Alden and Priscilla. Maynard Parker is also a relative of Theodore Parker. Theodore Parker was a famous New England preacher and orator who played a conspicuous part in the liberation of the slaves. Theodore Parker was one of the founders of Acadia University. (according to letter to Roy Campbell Pastor of Pugwash and Wallace River Baptist Circuit on March 5, 1964: WRHS from Betty Royon and Ray Szabo.” “The Cyrus Eaton who was received into the church membership on August 6, 1876, would be Cyrus Black Eaton, son of Stephen and Mary Parker Eaton, born December 18, 1857. In 1881, he moved to Denver with his family, including his son William Robb Eaton, who represented the First Congressional District of Colorado in the U.S. Congress with distinction for a number of terms starting in 1928.”
Henry Steele Commager wrote a book on the life of Theodore Parker which Mr. Eaton thinks may be in the library at Thinkers Lodg.” (according to Ray Szaybo 7.10.61)
“A letter appears in the Christian Messenger from Albert F. Freeman, of Brookfield, giving a history of the Baptist church in that place. It was started in 1835, Rev. Maynard Parker and Rev. Ezekiel Master officiating. The ministers of the church up to 1847 were Elders Parker, Delong, Taylor, and Stubbert.” The early Parkers were at one time Congregationalists, but when they moved to Nova Scotia they became Baptists. Possibly a present church building dating back to approx. 1849 is where Frank, Gertrude, Parker, and John Eaton, the older siblings of Cyrus Eaton and the children of Joseph Howe Eaton and Mary Adelia MacPherson, are buried?
SPURR FAMILY Catharine Marsden Spurr, the mother of Mary Desiah Parker and wife of Rev. Maynard Parker) was the daughter of Shippy Spurr (1754-1832) and Altje Letitia VanVoorhies (Letitia Vorss) (1770-1855). Catharine was born in Clements, Annapolis, Nova Scotia in 1805 and died on March 12, 1851.
Her father Shippy Spurr was born in 1754 in Canton, Norfolk, Massachusetts, and died on May 11, 1832 in Annapolis, Nova Scotia. Shippy is listed in the Census Returns of Nova Scotia in the township of Clements, Annapolis, in 1791. Another daughter, Harriet, of Nathaniel Parker, Jr. married Shippy Spurr’s son, John Spurr.
Shippy Spurr (This is descendent of originally Shippy Spurr but with same name)
Shippy Spurr’s father was Michael Spurr, who “was one of 45 passengers that embarked from Boston, May 17, 1760, for Annapolis, N.S. on the sloop Charming Molly. Michael married Ann Bird on November 24, 1746 in Stoughton, Norfolk, Massachusetts. He had with him Ann Bird, his wife, and they settled in the township of Annapolis, near Round Hill.”[68] Shippy was the fourth of eight children. Ann Bird died on July 22, 1790/1791 in Round Hill, Annapolis, Nova Scotia.
Another record said: Michael Spurr was born on April 1, 1723 in Stoughton, Norfolk county, Massachusetts and died on April 18, 1774 in Round Hill, Annapolis, Nova Scotia. “The immigrant was probably a ‘Loyalist’ or ‘Tory.’ He purchased a tract of land and settled at ‘Round Hill.’ He was descended from ancestors residing in Dorchester Mass., and one of them was captain in command of a Colonial regiment that fought at Port Royal in 1707, his company being the first to land on the Granville shore at a locality known as “Weatherspoon,” but [formerly] known as ‘Spurrs Point’ from the circumstances of this land to 1770, hence the local name has been known for 50 years before the arrival of the pioneers.”[69] (The resource Nova Scotia Immigrants to 1867. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. 1992, 546p. by Leonard H. Smith, Jr. and Norma H. Smith claims Michael Spurr was married to Jane Shippe and that they arrived in Annapolis in 1760.) This marriage would certainly give a clue to Michael’s son being called Shippy Spurr. (Not clear if Michael was married twice or if there were two Michael Spurrs).
Michael was the son of Thomas Spurr (May 12, 1687 in Stoughton, Massachusetts to October 8, 1767 in Stoughton) and Sarah Spurr according to Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, Dorchester 1620-1988. “Michael Spurr (1.) the founder of the Nova Scotia Spurr family line, having himself descended from Robert Spurr who left England in 1650 bound for Novia Scotia via the Dutch East Indies, (Indonesia). Born in Stoughton,Ma. the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Kingsley) Spurr. Married on November 24, 1746 to Jane (Shippee) Spurr in Stoughton. Michael served a tour of duty in Major Stephen Miller's Company of Stoughton's Militia and Alarm Men. In 1759 at the age of 36 he applied for and received a free grant of 500 acres plus marsh land near Annapolis Royal in one of the areas forcibly vacated by the Arcadians in 1755. Michael moved to Annapolis Royal June 25, 1760. He died there sometime between the dates of April 18, 1774 -- the date he signed his will and June 7, 1774 when the Judge of Probate Court in Annapolis ordered an inventory of his estate. The exact date of death and place of burial remain unknown although it is believed he was buried in Annapolis Royal. The issue of Michael Spurr and Jane Shippe: (1.1)-Eleanor, (1.2)-Abraham, (1.3)-Anne, (1.4)-Shippy, (1.5)-Michael, (1.6)-Abigail, (1.7)-Thomas, (1.8)-Elizabeth, (1.9)-Eleanor, (1.10)-Male.” Other sources say Thomas was married to Elizabeth Kinglsey (September 2, 1689 in Milton, Norfolk, Massachusetts to 1729 in Milton, Norfolk, Massachusetts.Reverend Peter Thacher’s Record of Marriages at Milton, Mass states that Mr. Thomas Spur of Dorchester was married to Mrs. Elizabeth Kingsley of Milton on November 17, 1709. There is a record in the US Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast 1704 to 1930 of an Ensign Thomas Spurr at Stoughton, dying on October 8, 1767 at 80 years.
Father of Ensign Thomas Spurr was Lieutenant Colonel Robert Spurr (April 21, 1661 to January 16, 1738/1739 of Dorchester, Massachusetts and Elizabeth Tilestone (January 29, 1666 to January 27, 1788) also of Dorchester where they married on October 24, 1684. This is last will and testament, October 30, 1738:
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Spurr was son of Robert Spurr (1610 -1703) who was born in Clapton, Gloucestershire, England and died on August 16, 1703. In Dorchester he married in 1642 Anne Merrifield (1620/1624/1629-1712 in Dorchester) who was born in Plymouth, Devon, England. Robert Spurr (Sr. ) sailed on the ship Paul of London, bound for St. Christopher, embarking from Gravesend, England on April 3, 1635. He settled in Dorchester in 1658. (“Info per A history of Otisfield, Cumberland County, Maine from the original grant to the close of the year 1944; It also indicates that Robert, his son Col Robert and his grandson Capt Robert are mentioned in the History of Dorchester.”) Robert Spurr who died on August 16, 1703 age 92-93 was buried in Dorchester, North Burying Ground where his wife Elizabeth is also buried with the inscription on her tombstone: Here Lyes Buried ye Body of Mrs. Elizabeth Spur. Wife of Robert Spur Esq. She Died July 27th. 1738. In her 73rd Year.
Anne Merrifield (wife of Robert Spurr) and her father Henry Merryfield were servants to Thomas Swift who remembered them in his will in 1675. (The Pioneers of Massachusetts).
Here lyes Buried the Body of ROBERT SPUR Esqr. Who Departed this Life Jany. the 16th. Anno: Dom: 1738. In the 78th year of His Age. Referred to in Dorchester records as a distinguished Citizen-Soldier and was a Major at the time of the attack on Port Royal in 1707. He was later promoted to Lt Col and finally by 1722 to a full Colonel.
Robert Spurr’s father was John Spurr (1590 Somerset, England to 1638 Boston, Massachusetts. He married Elilzabeth Bigge in 1608 in England. A John Spur arrived with his brother in Boston in 1638. His father was John Spurr (1562/1567 in Attleborough, Norfolk, England to 1590 in England). This elder John Spurr was the son of Adam Spurre (1538-1596) and Mary Warner (1538-). This information is from Ancestry.com, but I thought it impressive to tentatively go back to 1538. I hope someone after me will confirm this or find other possibilities.
CHILDREN OF STEPHEN EATON AND MARY DESIAH PARKER Stephen and Mary Desiah had ten children over sixteen years between 1842 and 1868: Caroline Mathilda who married David Hamilton, Robert F (August 10, 1844 to 1846--who lived two years), Howe (1846-1847), who lived less than a year, Joseph Howe Eaton, born March 26, 1849 -1932, Emma Sarah (1851) who married Keyes, John Russell (August 18, 1853 to 1878) who married Maggie Ray, Harriet S (1855-1856), who lived a year, Cyrus Black Eaton (December 18,1857-1914) who married Maggie Whidden, Frederick Lane (1864-1933), and Charles Aubrey Eaton, (March 29, 1868-1953) who married Marion Parlin.
FINANCIAL AND HEALTH STRUGGLES OF STEPHEN EATON Because Stephen Eaton struggled financially, suffered the loss of a child, and lost their home to a vicious fire, he tried various means to support his family. After Stephen’s grandson died of diphtheria, his son John injured himself in a weightlifting contest, started hemorrhaging, and died. The youngest son, Charles, devastated that his hero had died, had listened to his father praying by his brother’s bedside. Always eager to help family, young Charles fetched his brother’s widow and daughter Anne to return to the family homestead to live with them[70] (Miller). It was after a devastating fire burned their home to the ground, Stephen and Mary moved to Pugwash. He farmed his land, but terrible weather conditions made crops fail or have meager harvests. Stephen traveled to Colorado to try his luck as a miner only to return to Pugwash when that failed. Soon after he returned from Colorado, he suffered a massive stroke and was an invalid for the rest of his life. Stephen found spiritual sustenance with a Baptist minister who often visited him.
One day, Charles, who helped take care of the farm, had his self-confidence sorely tested when he discovered his father unconscious, his mother desperately ill, and his young niece suffering from a terrible ear infection. At first, he panicked but then resolved to “win this fight, come hell or high water” (Miller 11). He was able to heat up the freezing house, put goose grease in Annie’s ears, hot cloth to relieve his mother’s pain, and still get all the chores done: feeding the horses, milking the cows, and tending the rest of the livestock He recalled, he had “tapped the immeasurable reserve of moral energy, that potent stimulus of the will-to-win which lies hidden deep in the spirit of every normal man. I am convinced that ignorance of or disbelief in existence of the spiritual reserves explains most of the tragic and unnecessary failures in life” (Miller 12).
To supplement their family income, fifteen-year-old Charley found work with the construction crew building a branch of the railroad with a route off the main line through Pugwash. Charley figured out a way to save the workers time by attaching multiple carts together that were piled high with the trees that the construction workers had chopped down. He earned twenty-five cents per cart and felt like a capitalist. Quickly, he was promoted to be in charge of the entire dumping procedure and brought home a much-needed twenty dollars per week to his mother (Miller).
After his father (Stephen Eaton) died, Charlie aspired to attend Acadia College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Because all his work on the farm had put him behind academically, he determined to attend Amherst Academy thirty miles from home to bolster his academic preparations. He took one small trunk with him. Stephen died on December 28, 1883, the day his grandson, Cyrus Stephen Eaton was born to Joseph Howe Eaton. His son Charles bought his mother Mary Desiah (Parker) and a young niece to live with him in Wolfville, Nova Scotia where he attended Acadia University. Charles Aubrey Eaton went on to become a Baptist minister, a US citizen, a New Jersey Congressman, and one of the signers of the United Nation Charter. Mary Desiah Eaton lived thirty years longer than her husband, Stephen, and moved to New Jersey and lived near her son Charles Aubrey Eaton until her death on March 9, 1913. There are grave stones in Pugwash Junction and Scotch Plains, New Jersey, that commemorate her.
THE NINTH GENERATION: JOSEPH HOWE EATON AND MARY ADELIA MCPHERSON
BIRTH, MARRIAGE, CAREER Joseph Howe Eaton was the third of ten children of Stephen Eaton and Mary Desiah Parker, and the older brother of Charles Aubrey Eaton, who was nineteen years younger. Joseph, born on March 26, 1846 in Pugwash, Cumberland County, married Mary Adelia MacPherson on February 11, 1871, when he was 25 and she was 21. Mary Adelia was the daughter of John Wesley MacPherson and Phebe Akerley. Joseph Howe was a prosperous man who diversified his talents, working as a farmer, proprietor of a general store, post master, and landowner of timber in Nova Scotia and western provinces. The family moved from Pugwash River to Pugwash Junction.
MACPHERSON FAMILY The Highland home of the MacPhersons is conjectured to be far north in Scotland, possibly Ross Shire or Sutherlandshire. (The Eatons of Nova Scotia by Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton). Donald MacPherson fathered Lauchlan, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1766. Lauchlan’s mother might have been Mary CAMERON who was born on April 1, 1740, in Lanarkshire, Scotland. She died on November 3, 1830, in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, at the impressive age of ninety.
Lauchlan MacPherson married his wife Elizabeth Urquhart, who was born on August 6, 1767, in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1783 before coming to Nova Scotia four years later in 1787 and settling in Shelburne. (Nova Scotia Immigrants to 1867 by Leonard H Smith, Jr., and Norma H. Smith, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1992. 546p.)
Scottish members of the MacPherson family who had settled in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, picked up stakes and moved to Cumberland, Nova Scotia area due to farming and shipbuilding opportunities as well as the draw of other Loyalist families who had come directly from America. Undoubtedly, similar opportunities and connections were factors that compelled Amos Eaton to leave King’s Country and settle in Pugwash, Cumberland County.
A relative, (and likely son of Lauchlin MacPherson) Captain Donald MacPherson “of the Infantry of the British Legion”… “was in New York 24 July, 1783 memorialized Sir Guy Carleton, K. B., General Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces, in behalf of himself and the corps under his command, showing that in the year 1778 the Hon. Lord Cathcart raised a corps of six troops of cavalry and six companies of infantry, all of which in their subsequent conduct had served His Majesty with the entire approbation of the commanders of the British troops.” (p. 198 of The Eatons of Nova Scotia.). Captain Donald McPherson and his wife had no children but received half pay for life for his service.
Another son, Peter MacPherson, like Captain Donald MacPherson, appears in New York Annals of the Revolution as “Captain in the Guides and Pioneers.”
After moving to Shelburne Country, Lauchlin MacPherson and Elizabeth Urquhart had eight more children after Captain Donald and Peter MacPherson. Lauchlin died on January 8, 1832 in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, and his wife Elizabeth died June 25, 1816. One of their daughters Ann MacPherson (born November 4, 1789 and died on November 14, 1856 in Boston) married Hugh McKay on October 15, 1808. As mentioned earlier, they were the parents of Donald McKay, the builder of Clipper Ships. Lauchlin and Elizabeth’s son Evan MacPherson (probably born in Shelburne) married Eliza Demings (born 1891). Evan McPherson and Eliza had nine children in fourteen years, including John Wesley McPherson. Eliza died on March 20, 1866.
DEMINGS FAMILY Eliza, wife of Evan McPherson and mother of John Wesley McPherson and grandmother of Mary Adelia McPherson, may have been born in Lagan, Inverness, S Scotland to Anthony Demings (born 1776) 24, and Almira Morris, 18 born December 25, 1773 in Halifax and died in 1806 in Shelburne. Elizabeth (Eliza) Demings was the daughter of Anthony Deming II (1767/1766 in Manchester, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony to 1812 in Roseway, Shelburne, Nova Scotia.) of Manchester, Massachusetts, and Hannah Almira Morris (December 26, 1773 in Halifax, Nova Scotia to 1806 perhaps in Port Roseway, Shelburne, Nova Scotia). Anthony Deming and Hannah Almira Morris wed in 1790 in Halifax. Perhaps Anthony married a second time to Susannah Pettit (1779-1865).
Eliza Demings was likely descended from Anthony Demings who lived in Shelburne before the Loyalists came. Antony Demings eventually moved to Pugwash River and probably had seven children.
Anthony Demings’ parents were Anthony Demings (DeMings) (born 1740 from Oporto, Portugal to October 23, 1812 in Shelburne, Nova Scotia) and Elizabeth Tuck (March 16, 1738 in Manchester, Massachusetts Bay Colony to April 13/15, 1829 in Shelburne, Nova Scotia). In his “History of Methodism in the Maritime Provinces,” Dr. Smith claims that Anthony Demings, was by birth or ancestry a Portugese who lived in Amherst, Massachusetts, “but came accidentally to Shelburne long before the arrival of the Loyalists. When the first fleet came from New York bearing these people he acted as its pilot up the harbour, the place then bearing the name Port Roseway (or Wazoir).[71]”
ELIZABETH TUCK, JOHN TUCK, & SARAH ELIZABETH PEARS(E) Elizabeth Tuck’s parents were John Tuck (November 13, 1713 in Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts to 1792 in Beverley) and Sarah Elizabeth Pears(e) (September 21, 1717 to ). She first married Joseph Belcher in 1759 before marrying Anthony W. Demings on February 2, 1766 in Manchester, Massachusetts. John Tuck is listed in the 1790 United States Federal Census. A number of men named John Tuck from Massachusetts are on US Revolutionary War Rolls. John Tuck and Sarah Pears(e) married on June 18, 1734 in Manchester, Mass.
JOSEPH TUCK & SARAH REITH John Tuck’s father was Joseph Tuck (Sept 1676 in Beverly, Massachusetts to March 2, 1718) and Sarah Reith (June 2, 1679 in Beverly to September 25, 1749 in Salem, Massachusetts. They married on October 27, 1698 in Marblehead, Massachusetts. RICHARD PEARSE & SARAH HORSOM/HORSHAM The parents of Sarah Elizabeth Pears were Richard Pearse (June 25, 1698 in Massachusetts Bay Colony -) and Sarah Horsom/Horsham (March 28, 1695 in Manchester, Massachusetts to 1792). Richard and Sarah married on April 14, 1707 or April 4 ,1717.
THE MORRIS FAMILY Hannah Almira Morris, wife of Anthony Demings II and great-great mother of Mary Adelia MacPherson, was the daughter of Alexander Morris (March 21, 1743 in Hopkinton, Middlesex, Massachusetts to January 11, 1784 in Halifax, Nova Scotia) and Hannah Doane (September 3, 1748 in Mansfield, Connecticut to February 12, 1783).
Alexander Morris’s parents were Governor Charles Morris (June 8, 1711, Boston, MA to November 17, 1781 in Windsor, Nova Scotia) and Mary Reed (April 14, 1716 in Redding, Fairfield, Connecticut to March 12, 1782 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.) The couple married in 1730 in Boston, Massachusetts.
REED FAMILY Mary Read was the daughter of Hon. John Read (1680-1749) and Ruth Talcott (1677-1759) who married in Fairfield, Colony of Connecticut about 1699. NOTE: The family history of Reads can be traced further back on Ancestry.com.
Charles Morris from Bios Nova Scotia: History of Nova Scotia http://www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS/1700-63/Morris.htm Cyrus Stephen Eaton, Sr. was the great-great-great-great grandson of Governor Charles Harris on his mother’s side. Charles Morris was son of Charles Morris (1675 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England to November 8, 1730 in Boston, MA) and Esther Rainsthorpe (1676 in London to September 12, 1755 in Boston). They married on September 5, 1700 in Boston, MA. Charles Morris’s father was Charles Morris (1650 in Wales to 1694 in Lenton, Nottinghamshire, England.) [Governor] "Charles Morris was surveyor general of lands for the province for 32 years, a period which saw the founding of Halifax and Lunenburg and the coming of the pre-loyalists, when the colony's foundations were laid." To this I would add, that Charles Morris also played a very important part in the development of the province's justice system, occupying, as he did, a number of important positions on the bench. Charles Morris was born in Boston. His mother was a Rainstorpe. Charles was to marry into one of the high circles at Boston; his bride was Mary, the daughter of the Attorney General, John Read.1Not much is known about his career up to the time Morris first came to Nova Scotia. Apparently he lived on his father's farm and taught school at Hopkinton, Massachusetts. At any rate, in 1746 he was to receive a commission from Governor Shirley. Morris was to raise a regiment and go to Nova Scotia.2In 1746, there was a great deal of concern for the safety of Annapolis Royal, indeed of Boston itself, this, on account of a large French fleet, d'Anville's Armada, which was expected to arrive on the coast. By the time Morris arrived with his 100 New Englanders, the immediate threat had passed. He was ordered by Mascareneto march with his 100 to Minas and wait the arrival, coming by sea, of 400 more under Arthur Noble. He was thus there, in February, 1747, with Noble, during the The Battle of Grand Pre. Morris, unlike his friend Noble, was to survive the battle, so to return to Boston. In order to succeed in holding off the French in Acadia (then officially English territory) it was necessary that the authorities should know more about the territory. What parts were settled? By whom (Acadians)? To what extent? What lands were available for English settlers? Thus Governor Shirley sent Morris up (together with fifty men) from Boston in the spring of 1748 to see if these questions might be answered. He first called upon Mascarene at Annapolis Royal and then proceeded to Minas; after that he moved on to Chignecto. The result of Morris' work in 1748 was a written report with attendant maps (see the one on Annapolis and another on Minas), which, once received by Shirley, was sent over from Boston to the authorities at London. This report and attendant maps constitute very valuable historic documents, depicting, as they do, the location of the French habitations at Chignecto, Annapolis Royal and Minas.3This information was instrumental in the founding of Halifax. Morris was one of the first to come, in 1749, and to greet Cornwallisand was of great assistance to him in the laying out of the new town. Morris was to continue on at Halifax and to become one of its most prominent citizens. Instrumental in the site selection, Morris, also, was to go down with the "Swiss/German" settlers in 1753 and assist in the founding of Lunenburg (he laid out the town and the garden lots). Morris' work in the establishment of Halifax and Lunenburg was recognized, when, late in December of 1755, he was appointed to Council. The final capture of Louisbourg, in 1758, put Acadia firmly in English hands; and, with the French making the last of their stands in Quebec, a more concerted effort in the settlement of Nova Scotia, first started in 1749, began. Up to this point, only at the fortifiable and fortified places of Halifax and Lunenburg had been established as "English" communities. With the defeat of the French, the Indian threat no longer existed; and, with the deportation of the Acadians, the "title problems" in respect to the rich agricultural lands around the Bay of Fundy, were resolved. With these major impediments removed and with the ever-increasing population levels of the English colonies to the south, restricted as they were by the Appalachian range: New Englanders were beginning to see Nova Scotia as the place to come to farm and to live. Thus was to begin one of the great immigration waves4which was to form one of the constituent parts of the eventual population base of Nova Scotia. Morris was to be of great assistance to the location and establishment of the new settlements which were to come into being during 1759-70, among them: Windsor (Piziquid), Truro (Cobequid), Liverpool, and Yarmouth.5 Morris' judicial career began in 1750, when, in December of that year, he was appointed a justice of the peace for the Town of Halifax. In March of 1752, he was made a justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas. Up to 1754, there was no judge in Nova Scotia who had formal legal training, in that year, however, that was to change with the appointment of Jonathan Belcheras the first Chief Justice of Nova Scotia. I am not sure of Morris' role in the judicial system thereafter; but, I do see, that during 1763 Morris was one of two judges appointed to assist Chief Justice Belcher. During May of 1764, Morris was appointed master in the Court of Chancery. With the death of the Chief Justice, in 1776, Morris was to step into his shoes as the acting Chief Justice until the appointment, in April of 1778, of Bryon Finucane. Dying in 1781, Morris, apparently, was buried at Windsor. A son survived him, Charles Morris.” His wife, Mary Reed Morris is buried in Halifax. Her grave says “Here lays Departed the Sacred Remains of Mrs Mary Morris Consort of the late Charles Morris One of his Majesty’s Council Chief Land Surveyor and a Judge of the Supreme Court in Nova Scotia who departed this life.”[72] FOOTNOTES:
[1] See, "The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and Its Judges - 1754-1978" (The Nova Scotian Barristers' Society, 1978). Morris and his wife, Mary, were to have 11 children. Wright, in her work, Planters and Pioneers, Nova Scotia, 1749 to 1775 (Hantsport: Lancelot Press, 1982) at p. 215 was to name nine of them: Charles, John, William, Mary, Alexander, Francis, Samuel, James and Sarah. [2] No matter that Morris was a teacher, all healthy adult men, in colonial times, were in the militia; the upper crust of society formed the upper crust (the officer corps) of the military. [3] See Report of the Work of the Archives Branch for the Year 1912; Arthur G. Doughty, Dominion Archivist, at p. 79 wherein is set forth the Captain Morris' report (at least in part) together with a reproduction of the maps (tipped in at p. 78) (Ottawa: 1913). [4] Of the first three centuries, there were four major immigration waves: the French (Acadians of the Valley), the German/Swiss (Lunenburg), the New England Planters (the Valley), and the Scottish (Pictou and Cape Breton). [5] Historically noteworthy is Morris' report, "Description and State of the New Settlements in Nova Scotia in 1761" as found in, Report Concerning Canadian Archives Branch for the Year 1904(Ottawa: 1905), Appendix 'F'. Morris made maps, facsimiles of which can be found in the same spot. These maps, prepared by Morris, show the structures of the overlapping settlements, of the old (Acadians now having been forced out) and the new (New Englanders taking over).
John Wesley McPherson married Phoebe Ackerley, and in 1871, they lived in Pugwash with eight children. Their origin was Scottish, and their religion was Weslyan Methodist. Mary Adelia was second oldest. In an 1871 census, Adelia McPherson lived with her parents John W. McPherson and Pheby or Phoebe Akerley with siblings Hannah, William, John W, Fletcher, Fletchon, and Ada.
AKERLEY (Ackerley) FAMILY and THE DOHERTY FAMILY Isaac Akerley lived in Bedford, Westchester Country, New York before the the American Revolution devastated the life he had known and propelled him to travel north to Canada where he started a new life in Remsheg, now known as Wallace, Nova Scotia. He joined the Loyalist cause on April 18, 1777 in New York. Twelve months later in June, 1778, he joined Colonel Emerick at King’s Bridge and served with him for two years until December 23, 1779. At this juncture, he joined the command of Colonel James Delancey on January 20, 1780 and served with him until June 5, 1883.
His commanding officer, Colonel James Delancey was the grandson of Etienne (Stephen) Delancey who fled France due to religious persecution and settled in New York in 1686 where he served in the colonial assembly for nearly 30 years and became one of the wealthiest men in American. James’ maternal grandfather was an Edinburg-trained physician, an early American botanist, first colonial representative to the Iroquois Confederacy and governor of New York from 1769 to 1771. James Delancey, once a chief justice of New York, became known as the “outlaw of the Bronx,” and changed his allegiance to support the Loyalists and “raised volunteers from among the Loyalists of Long Island for Delancey’s Brigade. He was appointed captain of an elite ‘Troop of Light Horse’ known as the Westchester Chasseurs. The troop was issued arms and equipment and harassed enemy depots.”
Isaac Akerley, during his six years serving the British army, had grievous losses. His home was burned. Four horses were killed under him or confiscated by the colonists. He was taken prisoner. Like, his renown commander, James Delancey, Isaac made claims for compensation for a total of 212 pounds in New York Currency. Once Delancey received his compensations and moved with other Loyalists to the Annapolis Valley, he was appointed a justice of the peace and elected to the provincial House of Assembly. Isaac Akerley, like many other Loyalists, settled in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.
“After the Expulsion [of the Acadians],[in Nova Scotia by the British], there was no settlement until the land was surveyed in 1783 for the coming of the United Empire Loyalists [fleeing the wrath of the American Revolutionaries]. These lands were known as the Remsheg Grant. These were 109 lots of 200 acres around the Wallace area as well as 3-acre building lots which were situated in North Wallace. In all, 137 Loyalists came to Remsheg. They were promised supplies of flour, pork, beef, butter and salt. Each two families got a plow and a cow to share and every four families received a crosscut saw and a whipsaw. Each family got a hammer, a handsaw, nails and four small panes of glass. Every five families got a musket, gun powder and a supply of lead for making bullets.[73]”
Isaac Akerley made claim “to the Commissioners appointed by Act of Parliament” in which he stated his six years of military service, his devastating personal losses and capture and in the same document proved his residency in Cumberland, Nova Scotia. According to The Eaton Family of Nova Scotia, Isaac’s mother may have been Phebe Howard from Virginia. The Ackerleys and Dohertys were Loyalist families who came from New York and settled in Cumberland County[74]. Isaac Ackerley and “twenty-eight others received 7,450 acres ‘on the River Remsheg,” in Cumberland. Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, pondered several possible ways and differing acreage amounts that the Ackerleys received via land grants.[75] It seems likely that the Ackerleys and Dohertys were neighbors in Remsheg, Nova Scotia.
These United Empire Loyalists confronted a serious challenge “to face the forested land, broken only by the salt marsh lining the bay, or river as it was then called.”[76] Eleven years after the settlement of Wallace Bay, a tax list showed that in 1795 Isaac Akerley, Sr. owned seven cattle, and his son Isaac Akerley, Jr. owed three cattle. “First the trees had to be felled and those not used for building or fuel had to be burned. Then the seed had to be sown among the stumps…The first utensil used for cultivation was made from the crotch of a tree or from a knee at its room. It was hauled by a single ox or by a pair attached to the point of the V to loosen the soil around the stumps.” [Read this history of the Valley of the Remsheg to learn more about the challenges faced and the innovative ways these pioneers tamed the land.) On Akerley Brook was built a mill (18). Many of the early United Empire Loyalist families in Wallace Bay were Anglican in church affiliation.”
Isaac Akerley Sr. (Isaac Akerley’s father) was among the United Empire Loyalist families who settled on the Remsheg Grant in 1783. “Isaac was awarded lot No. 58 of the grant which was surveyed in 1784 for certain officers and privates who fought during the Revolutionary War. His son, Isaac Ackerley Jr.(1797-6.16.1852 in Amherst, Nova Scotia) received lot No. 1.” Isaac Ackerley married Esther Doherty (11.30.1804 to 6.22,1884 in Nova Scotia) and their daughter was PhoebeAckerley (1830 in River Phillip to 1913 in Pugwash, NS) who married John Wesley McPherson.
“The Ramsheg Grant of 20,200 acres was made on the 16th of June in 1785” to 106 grantees, including Isaac Akerley, Jr.
Isaac ‘s wife Esther was the daughter of James Dougherty or Doherty. James Doherty was born in 1758. There is a record in the New York, Genealogical Records, 1675 to 1920 that James Dougherty was baptized about 1759 in New York City. Unclear if this is same person with different spellings of last name.
DOHERTY FAMILY James Doherty was born in 1758. There is a record in the New York, Genealogical Records, 1675 to 1920 that James Dougherty was baptized about 1759 in New York City. Unclear if this is same person with different spellings of last name. It seems likely that Colonel James Doherty, like Isaac Akerley and his son Isaac, fought with Col. James Delancy, but I have not been able to prove that. Certainly, those Loyalist soldier and their families suffered grievous losses. It appears their compensation from the Crown compensated them up extraordinarily well in Nova Scotia. See below for losses of one Loyalist.
Col. James Doherty was long an important resident of Cumberland County, where his name is locally perpetuated. This is some suspicion that he was from Maryland, but of this we cannot now be sure.” [77](The Eaton Family of Nova Scotia, 204). Cyrus Eaton wrote, “Colonel James Doherty, who was said to have been prominent in New York City affairs, left New York at the time of the Revolution and settled on a branch of the Pugwash River which was named after him ‘Doherty Creek.’ James Doherty (or Dougherty) is remembered as being the first settler. Pugwash Junction was originally called Doherty Creek, but the “name was changed with the introduction of the railroad spurt into Pugwash.” James’ gravestone is still visible. He was a farmer. In 1791 and 1792, in the poll tax rolls, he is listed as paying taxes in the district of Remshag. His occupation is listed as “Stock” which suggests he raised cattle. His wife Mary White may have been from Long Island, New York.
Perhaps one of the earliest settlers was a family by the name of Dean, an Englishman who settled near the Bay. He was a friend of James Doherty, one of the first settlers of Doherty Creek, now Pugwash Junction. Mr. Dean had a wife, one son and one daughter. Apparently, he believed he could raise cattle in the forest as moose, deer and other animals. His cattle died and to add to his troubles his daughter died and was buried near the Brown and Wells line. Sometime later, a baby was born, and the mother and baby both died and were buried beside the daughter. After the death of his wife, Dean is said to have taken his son to James Doherty and left him there. He returned to his home and later rowed down the creek and was never heard of after.” (See history of Wallace to get an idea of what life was like for the early settlers and the United Empire Loyalists who settled lands previously farmed and irrigated by Acadians ousted by the British[78]
There is mention of his James Doherty’s will on page 205 in The Eaton Family of Nova Scotia. Their land was at Dougherty’s Creek. Mary lost her husband prematurely. After James Doherty’s death on December 18, 1815 in Pugwash, his widow, Mary White, and children Jane, Barbara, Esther, and Catherine, as his heirs, received 699 acres of crown land at Pugwash Harbour on May 15, 1818. However, his widow fell upon hard time. [79] there is a record in Cumberland County probate records of the Doherty family. In 1849 it was reported that “Mrs. Mary Doherty [was] poor, old, blind and impotent”[80]“After raising her children, she found her circumstances deteriorating until the Court was forced to intervene in 1849. The justices ordered her daughters – Ann, Jane, Ester, Elizabeth, and Mary to contribute equally to their mother’s support.”
One of their daughters, Esther (November 30, 1804 to June 22, 1884), married Isaac Ackerley. According to their headstone, Isaac Akerley died on June 16, 1852 in Amherst, Nova Scotia, and his wife Esther died thirty-two years late on June 22, 1884. Esther and her husband Isaac were buried in Wallace Bay, Nova Scotia. On their tombstone is inscribed: In Memory of Isaac Akerley. Died June 16, 1852 aged 55 years. Also his wife Esther. Died June 25, 1884, Aged 80 years. Inscribed above hands "Asleep in Jesus.”
Esther Doherty and Isaac Ackerley were parents of Phoebe Ackerley who married John Wesley McPherson. As noted above, Phoebe and John were parents of Mary Adelia McPherson. She married Joseph Howe Eaton, father of Cyrus Stephen Eaton.
After Isaac Akerley, Jr. died, his widow, Esther Akerley was living in Pugwash in 1870. Phoebe’s brother Abraham Ackerley (1800-1870) settled outside of Pugwash on a farm where with his wife Zillah Peers raised their seven children. Many of them are buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Wallace Bay. Offsprings had various trades: Willian Henry Ackerley was a ship’s carpenter and jailkeeper, Thomas O’Brien was a shoemaker and tanner, a wife of the local veterinary surgeon, and a blacksmith/woodworker, George, who opened a harness shop, made his home on the corner of Water and King Street. Grandson Irving W (b. 1904) served in the Provincial Legislature as a Progressive Conservative candidate and Minister of Agriculture. Grandson Charles Ackerley (b. June 21, 1876) married Lilla May Mattinson, daughter of Benjamin Mattinson, and worked at Benjamin’s sash factory and lumber mill, ran a tinsmith business and sold Fawcett and Enterprise furnaces and stoves. He died in 1950 and his wife Lilla May Mattison died in 1961. (Note Benjamin Mattison is Thelma Colbourne’s grandfather and builder of the Empress Hotel in Pugwash.) According to Vivian Godfree of the North Cumberland Historical Society, Thelma is also related to the Akerley’s on her mother’s side.
These families, refugees of the American Revolution, showed resiliency in establishing new homes and new livelihoods in a bountiful land hundreds of miles from their home in the colonies.
Isaac Ackerly New Claim
“To the Commissioners appointed by Act of Parliament for enquiring into the ? Services of the American Loyalists.[81]
The Memorial of Isaac Ackerly, Humbly Showeth That your memorialists ? formerly lived in Bedford, West Chester County and Province of New York and beareth witness that he joined the Quarter Master’s Department in New York the 18th day of April 1777 until the 18 October, then joined Colonel Emerick at King’s Bridge in June 1778 and served under him until December the 23rd, 1779. Then joined under the Command of Colonel James Delaney January 20 1780 and served under him in the Troop until the year 1783 June 5th. And this informant ? further saith that he suffered the followed losses on account of his loyalty and the attachment to the British Government. 1 house ? – 30 pounds – burned head Quarters in mo? Set on fire by the enemy valued at 30 pounds, one horse taken by the enemy valued at 52 pounds, one horse killed action at 20 pounds and myself taken prisoner at forty pounds, one horse taken by the ? Army, at thirty pounds, one horse taken by the enemy at forty pounds. See the Accounts summer up in the left-hand side. New York Currency 212 Sworn by before Samuel Kipp Signed Isaac Ackerly
Ramsheg County of Cumberland March the 21st 1786 Isaac Ackerly late of New York but now of Cumberland maketh oath and sayeth that he resides at Cumberland from the fifteenth day of July 1783 to the twenty fifth of March 1784 and this defendant further sayeth that he was utterly incapable of traveling or delivering to the commissioners appointed by Act ? in the Seventy third year of the reign of his ? ? Entitle an Act for Appointing Commisioners ? to Esquire into the ? and services of such personnel who have suffered in their rights to properties and provisions during the late unhappy ? in America in consequence of their loyalty and attachment to the British Government or at their any memorial claim or request for aid or relief on account of this defendant ? ? during the late unhappy ? in American within the time allowed by the said Act for receiving such claims by ? on that this defendant? During all such time ? between the fifteen of July 1783 and the twenty fifth of March 1784 lived or resided at Cumberland, and this Defendant? Further say that in the month of October 1785 or 8 Gilbert Totton?, the then Agent for the west Chester Loyal is to Informed this Defendant that the Loyalists should have some compensation made them by the Government for the losses they have sustained by this late unhappy Di??entions in America and if their Defendant would make out his account and give to him the said agent he would forward it to Colonel James DeLancy who was then in London which this Defendant Sayeth that he did make out said account.
Rogers' officers and raised recruits for the British Army. Col. James Delancy was recruiting a regiment of Light Horse and offered an officer's commission to anyone who would recruit enough men to serve under him. Alexander attempted this but, being unsuccessful, enlisted himself as a private and served until the end of the war. Officers under whom he served included - Major M. Bearmore, Captains Samuel Kipp and Isaac Hatfield ( Note. Because its specialty in foraging beef for the army and also raiding rebel stocks the regiment was known as "Delancy's Cowboys" and hated by the enemy.) Alexander submitted to the Commission the following estimate of his losses in the Revolution:-“ 1 house and seven acres of land 110 0 0 123 tenant acres of Land 110 0 0 Stock, grainhouse and goods 150 0 0 Debts due him 22 0 0 3 horses 120 0 0 3 horses 42 0 0 1 yoke of oxen and one cow 84 0 0 1 watch and greatcoat 10 0
Total New York Currency 639 F 16 Sh 0 P.
Revolutionaries]. These lands were known as the Remsheg Grant.
CHILDREN OF JOSEPH HOWE EATON AND MARY ADELIA MCPHERSON Joseph Howe Eaton and Mary Adelia MacPherson had nine children. Tragically, their first four children died at very early ages. Frank Parker (Dec 27 to Feb 15, 1877) lived five years, Gertrude (Gertie) May, born on June 16, 1873, died a week after Parker when she three and one half. Frank was born on April 2, 1877 and died March 1, 1880, as a three-year-old. John Wilber, born on March 19, also succumbed to diphtheria on September, 1889, while his younger brother Cyrus hovered outside the house peering into the window but not allowed to be near his contagious brother. After Cyrus was born on December 28, 1883, the day his grandfather Stephen died, three more daughters and a son were born: Eva Ruth Eaton (m. Truman Webb), Florence Ada Eaton, Alice Gertrude (m. Frederick Woodworth), and finally Joseph Wilfred Eaton (m. Eleanor Gray) who died in 1929 of tuberculosis in Switzerland.
Mary Adelia was a devout Baptist and encouraged her son, Cyrus, to follow his Uncle Charles Aubrey’s footsteps into the ministry. Mary Adelia reinforced teacher Margaret King’s encouragement to read literature, history, philosophy, and religion. The children helped with chores from an early age, were trusted with responsibility, and expected to help. Their son, Cyrus, was trusted to sell goods in the General Store and run the cash register, manage the post office where he voraciously read all the newspapers, and help with the farm, caring for cattle and driving the wagon to get the grains ground at the mill. Education was a priority. Joseph Howe Eaton was known for being an able businessman and for caring for the welfare of the people in his community. “His home for many years was maintained with elegance and with the most unbounded hospitality.” The Eatons of Pugwash were influential in Cumberland Country. Joseph Howe moved to Toronto, Ontario later in his life. EDMONTON, CANADA According to the 1911 Census, Joseph Howe Eaton, his wife Mary, and son (Joseph) Willard were living in Alberta, Canada. His occupation is listed in real estate. On July 29, 1915, Joseph Howe Eaton received a Homestead Grant in the Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada Homestead Grant Registers in Volume 1862 (1911). The date of application was June or July 24, and the Deed of Grant was July 29, 1915. The application fee was $10. In 1916 Census, they are listed as living on 109, 27, 82 Street in Edmonton. His occupation is listed as Merchant and his religion as Baptist. Joseph was 67 at the time, (Mary) Adelia was 62. They were living with their daughter Alice (25) and her husband Fredrick I Woodworth (30).
2ND MARRIAGE, DEATH, AND BURIAL His first wife, Mary Adelia died, on August 29, 1922. In 1923 Joseph worked near his son, Cyrus Eaton and visited often. In the US City Directories, he was listed as working for Western Southern Life Insurance on East 26th and as President of the Eaton Axle and Spring Company on Devonshire Drive. Joseph Howe Eaton married again to Sarah Reeves on July 23, 1924 in Cleveland, Ohio. Joseph was seventy, and Sarah was sixty-six. Previously, she married first James Reeves and then Charles H Stipes. Sarah Ann Reeves (born August 12, 1854 in Germantown, Kentucky) was the daughter of James Cleave and Mary Ireland and was the sister of Mary Grace Cleve, the wife of Augustus Farlin House. Joseph Eaton died on May 26, 1932 in Toronto, Ontario. Sarah Reeves Eaton died at home on October 29, 1936 four years later in Cleveland. At the time, she was living on 7714 Lexington Street and was eighty-two. She is buried in Lake View Cemetery. Both Joseph Howe Eaton and his first wife Mary Adelia McPherson Eaton are buried in the Northfield, Macedonia Cemetery.
THE TENTH GENERATION: Children of Stephen Howe Eaton and Mary Desiah Parker Parker Eaton (1871) Gertrude May Eaton (1873) Frank Eaton (1877) John Wilbur Eaton (1886) Cyrus S. Eaton (married 1907 and divorced Margaret Pearl House); (married Anne Kinder 1957) – Alice E (Lissy) Jones(1944); (m & d Alfred Heller); (married Hank Gulick 1977) Mark Heller, Eben Gulick, Catherine Gulick Eva Eaton (b. 1885) (married and divorced Truman Webb) Children: Winnifred (m. Mario Brenciaglia), Evelyn, John T, Margaret , Dorothy, Cyrus Alice Gertrude Eaton (1889); (married Frederick Irving Woodworth 1915) Children: Frances,(m. Karl Von Lewinski), Frederick Fr, Joseph Eaton (m. Shirley Rich) Florence Ada Eaton (1888-1932); (married Ian Kaye 1932) Joseph Wilfred Eaton (1897-1929); (married Eleanor Greenwood 1926)
ELEVENTH & TWELFTH GEN: Children & Grandchildren of Cyrus Eaton & Margaret House Margaret (Lee) Eaton (1909-1949) Mary Adelia Eaton (1911-2005); (m. Fay A. LeFevre 1938)) Robert LeFevre (m and d Christina Ford, Robin, m. Mary) (Sons: William & David) David LeFevre (m. and divorced Amy) Elizabeth A. (Betty) Eaton (1913); (m. Lyman Butterfield 1935) C. J. Fox Butterfield (b. 1939); (married Ellen Sarkisian 1964) Hester Butterfield ((1944) (m & d James Wesner 1967 m & d Don M, ?, ?) Anna Eaton (1916) Cyrus Stephens Eaton, Jr. (1918-2011); (m. Mary M Stephens 1942); (m. Joan Cotton 2006) Cyrus Stephens Eaton Wind Dancer (1946); (married Toni Dolan 1972 & divorced) John Stephen Eaton (1948) (married Elizabeth (Beth) Ferree 1979) Catherine Lee Eaton (1950); (m. Michael James Murphy 1977) Elizabeth Farlee Eaton (married 1979 and divorced John Thigpen);(m. and divorced William Ryeherd) Augusta Farlee Eaton (1922) (m & d David Hume 1943) David Hume III (1944); (m & d Louise Dir) Stephen E. Hume (1947) MacPherson Eaton (1925) (m. Cynthia Langille) Mary E Eaton (1948); (married & divorced Don) Peter M. Eaton (1951); (m. Sherri); (sons Ben and Angus) James R. Eaton (1956)
THE THIRTEEN GENERATION: Nathaniel Eaton (partner Sonia Quintero) Charles Eaton, Matthew Eaton (m. Christine Barker), Chris Eaton (partner Leyla Savloff) Colin Eaton Murphy (m. Nicole Cornwell), Devon Eaton Murphy Shantin Lee Thigpen (m & d Ashley Young), Isaiah Thigpen (m Glory Lambert), Sarah Elizabeth Eaton
THE FOURTEENTH GENERATION Lucas Eaton (son of Nathaniel Eaton and Sonia Quintero) Ian and Sasha (sons of Chris Eaton and Leyla Savloff) Tigerlily Thigpen, Django Thigpen (daughter and son of Shantin Thigpen and Ashley Young) Kayden Zen Eaton (son of Sarah Eaton & Tyrone McDonald); Lumen Eyre Reign Jackson (daughter of Sarah Eaton & Chadwick Jackson)
Information is from: Connecticuthistory.org The Eaton Family of Nova Scotia, by Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, 1929, privately printed Genealogical Sketch of the Nova Scotia Eatons by Rev. William Hadley Eaton, D. D. of Keene, New Hampshire. (Compiled by Arthur Wentworth Eaton) https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/readbook/GenealogicalSketchoftheNovaScotiaEatons_10607336#3The Sixth Annual Report of the Eaton Family Association, 1891 History of Haverhill by George Wingate Chase in 1861 History of Kings County by Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton Prophet in the House: A Biography of Charles Aubrey Eaton by J. Ronald Miller, 1993, Community Church Press, Chicago The Eaton Family Association was organized in Boston, Massachusetts on July 25, 1882. The Eaton Families Association (or EFA) is a not-for-profit genealogy association tracing Eaton, Eyton, de Eyton ancestry/descendants from 11th century Shropshire/Cheshire Co., England and Wales through worldwide migrations and more. Objectives: The objectives of this Association include the collection, consolidation and preservation for posterity of genealogical data of our ancestors; the promotion of the principles of freedom and democracy for which our ancestors worked, fought, and died; and the cultivation of mutual acquaintance and friendship among our members.
[1]UNSUBSTANTIATED SUGGESTIONS ABOUT PARENTS OF JOHN EATON AND ANNE CROSS John’s father could have been Thomas Eaton of Dover, Kent, England, and his mother may have been Helen. The Sixth Annual Report of the Eaton Family Association, 1891, details possible information about their ancestors. Ancestry.com has several suggestions who his parents were and where they lived. John’s father could have been Thomas Eaton of Dover, Kent, England, and his mother might have been Helen. John Eaton’s parents may have been Richard Eaton, Vicar of Great Budworth (b. April 1565 Stratford, England to 1.14.1616) and Anne Leverson (1530-1565) according to Keller-Rounds on ancestry.com. The couple married in Ludlow, Shropshire, England on 1.20.1589. Reverend Richard Eaton’s father may have been Reverend Robert Eaton (1539 in Stratford, England to January 7, 1600 in Great Budworth, England, whose parents may have been Thomas Eaton (1520-1538) and Alice Elizabeth Charleton (1520-1607). They married on August 9, 1557 or 1564. There is a faint possibility that John Eaton’s wife was Anne Crossman, the widow of Crossman, late of Ipswich, London. married in Warwickshire, England around 1618 or 12.26.1621 at Paulls Wharf London. Their marriage license is mentioned on page 438 of the Haverhill Eatons. (North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, “History: Genealogical and biographical of the Eaton families, p. 365). Anne Crossman’s father might have been John Crossman (b. 1548 in Tremure, Cornwall, England; d. 11.28.1609 in England). Her mother might have been Alice Courtenay (born about 1550 in Cornwall).
[2] Eaton, Arthur Wentworth Hamilton, The Eaton Family of Nova Scotia, 1929. Privately Published, 12-13. (Based on the work of Rev. Dr. William Hadley Eaton (of Keene, New Hampshire) in the Sixth Annual Report of the Eaton Family Association, 1891 which is available in the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston)
[3] Eaton, Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, The Eaton Family of Nova Scotia, 1929, Privately Published, 11
[4]Genealogical and Family History of Western New York. Vol. 1. Front Matter
[6] Eaton, Rev. William Hadley, D. D. of Keene, New Hampshire, “Introductory Sketch,” Printed at the Moring Herald Office, Halifax, N. S. 1885. (from Genealogical Sketch of The Nova Scotia Eatons compiled by Rev. Arthur Wentworth Eaton, Clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States)
[7] Chase, George Wingate, History of Haverhill, Massachusetts, from its First Settlement, in 1640, to the year 1860, Published by author in 1861. (George Wingate Chase was a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society)
[8] Chase, George Wingate, History of Haverhill, Massachusetts, from its First Settlement, in 1640, to the year 1860, Published by author in 1861. Introduction. (George Wingate Chase was a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society)
[9] Chase, George Wingate, History of Haverhill, Massachusetts, from its First Settlement, in 1640, to the year 1860, Published by author in 1861. (George Wingate Chase was a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society)
[10] Chase, George Wingate, History of Haverhill, Massachusetts, from its First Settlement, in 1640, to the year 1860, Published by author in 1861. (George Wingate Chase was a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society)
[11] Chase, George Wingate, The History of Haverhill, 95
[12]North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, “History: Genealogical and Biographical of the Eaton Families,” p. 368).
[13] Eaton, Arthur Wentworth Hamilton, The Nova Scotia Eatons, Copied from Nova Scotia Eatons
[14]New England Marriages Prior to 1700 Volume. Genealogical Publishing Co.; Baltimore, MD, USA;
[18] Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1998
[19]The New England Histoprical & Genalogical Register, 1847-2001, Volume 008 (1854)
[20]A Genealogical record of the Ancestors and Descendants of Joseph Ferrin and Elizabeth Preston
[21]Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988
[22]North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, “History: Genealogical and biographical of the Eaton Families, p. 377
[23]North American Family Histories, 1500-2000; U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700
[24]A Genealogical Record of the Ancestors and descendants of Joseph Ferrin and Elizabeth Preston
[25] Chase, George Wingate, History of Haverhill, Massachusetts, from its First Settlement, in 1640, to the year 1860, Published by author in 1861, 198.
[26][26] A Genealogical Record of the Ancestors and descendants of Joseph Ferrin and Elizabeth Preston, Cherokee, Iowa,: unknown, 1989.
[34] Chase, George Wingate, History of Haverhill, Massachusetts, from its First Settlement, in 1640, to the year 1860, Published by author in 1861, 201
[51] Eaton, Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, Genealogical Sketch of the Nova Scotia Eaton, 23
[52] Eaton, Arthur Wentworth Hamilton, King’s Country, The Salem Press Co, Salem, MA, 1910
[53] Eaton, Arthur Wentworth Hamilton, King’s Country, 5 to 81
[54]Norwich, Connecticut Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920
[55] Morgan, Nathaniel Harris, A History of James Harris New London, Connecticut, and his descendants) from North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, p. 3
[56] Davison, James D., What Means these Stones, Kentville Museum.
[57] Hurd, Duane Hamilton, History of New London Country, Connecticut: with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, J.W.Lewis & Co, January 1, 1882, 593
[59] Morgan, Nathaniel Harris, A History of James Harris New London, Connecticut, and his descendants) from North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, 27
[60] 1871 Census, Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics. from Kings Country Museum, Kentville, NS.
[69] Ridlon, G. T. Vol. II. Soulis Family in Nova Scotia: A contribution to the history, biography and genealogy of the families named Sole, Solly, Soule, Sowle, Soulis, with other forms of spelling : from the eighth century to the present, with notes on collateral families, both foreign and American. unknown: G.T. Ridlon, 1926
[70] Miller, J. Ronald, Prophet in the House: A Biography of Charles Aubrey Eaton, Community Church Press, Chicago
[71] Smith, Dr History of Methodism in the Maritime Provinces”
[72] Biographies by Peter Laundry under Blupete.com’ Peter Laundry has degrees from St. Mary’s University and Dalhousie University and is a lawyer.
[81] “To the Commissioners appointed by Act of Parliament for enquiring into the Services of the American Loyalists. UK, American Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835 for Isaac Ackerly, Series 1, Piece 023: Evidence, New York, 1786 (American Loyalists Claims, Series II, Piece 011 New Claims, A. B. C., New York, page 3)