Hello list
I found this on another list. It's long and contains a scant mention of
Martha but I think it gives an interesting viewpoint of life in Mass in
the 1600's.
______________________________
Subject:
No. 100 Birds of Passage Transcribed From C.H. Abbott's The
Townsman- Andover
series
Date:
Sat, 17 Jul 1999 03:27:02 -0400
From:
"Jerry Lovejoy" <bennabre(a)ici.net>
To:
GenMassachusetts-L(a)rootsweb.com
The following article was transcribed faithfully from a Xerox copy of
the
original on 7/16/1999 by Jerry Hersey Lovejoy from:The Townsman Andover
Historical Series by Charlotte Helen Abbott. Interesting Andover
MA Genealogical data to be viewed with some caution. This one covers
bits
of
many Andover, MA families.
No. 100
Birds of Passage
(A.T. 3/2/1900)
It all began with Nicholas Holt at 64, wanting a third wife. Roger
Preston
of Ipswich, who came over about 1639, and, with wife Martha, sold a very
good house, barn, orchard and 2 houselots in Ipswich to Reginald Foster
in
1657-8 for 50 (illegible), leased an inn and farm in Danvers Village
about
1660. We have on record sons Thomas, John, Samuel, Jacob, perhaps
daughters
and a small Levi born in Salem in 1662. This estate seems to be near
Proctor's on the Salem & Lowell R.R., says Charles H. Preston, the
Danvers
genealogist of the family, who has kindly furnished us with many facts
slowly gathered for his family Register now being compiled. Perhaps
Nicholas Holt on his journeys to Salem and old Ipswich Court, used to
stop at the
inn so near the old Andover trail through Middleton past Will's Hill
settlement.
Roger died in January,1666, and in March the widow had declared to let
Thomas Johnson, the son in law of Holt, and the brother Stephen Johnson,
son in law to Rev. Francis Lane, take charge of young Samuel and John,
and she
followed them to Andover in May as the wife of Nicholas Holt. The lease
was out and a new man Proctor had come on, and Thomas, the eldest son,
was
about to marry Rebecca Nourse and settle down over at the Port with the
Nourse
tribe, so Martha was wise perhaps to find a comfortable home for herself
and Levi at Prospect Hill. She was 20 years younger than Nicholas and
there
they lived happily for 20 more long years together and after Nicholas
left
the Andover outlook, widow Martha Holt watched the ships come up to old
Lynn, for 20 more long years alone, dying at the age of 80 in 1703, all
of
which is in favor of a residence in old age on the sunny side of Holt's
Hill. From Bailey "Sketches" pp. 48 to 50, we get in full the tale
taken
from court records, of the apprenticeship of young Jacob Preston to
Thomas
Chandler, then experimenting an iron works at Merrimac, down river. He
sold
Jacob to William Curtis of Salem to finish the blacksmith training and
there he had 7 more long years to serve and to do chores early and late,
all for food, clothes and lodging and the 2 suits to come at 21. He was
homesick a good deal and staid to recover and brace at brother Tom's in
the
village and over on horseback, he came to the Andover hills to "father
Holt's," Miss Bailey gives us his suit against William Curtis who failed
to
redeem his promises and then a paper in Essex Courts of 1680 date gives
the
sequel to the uphill career of one Preston. He appears to have borrowed
money from the Andover brothers, perhaps for an outfit and to have gone
fishing, to the Eastware on a "ketch." After a year's time, nothing
heard
meanwhile of Jacob, his ketch or his mate, the brothers settle the small
estate and that is the end of his venture as far as we hear. Perhaps he
was picked up by a vessel trading along coast from Virginia to England.
Perhaps
he was landed at Barbadoes and got weaned from the rude blasts of New
England, or maybe he turned pirate. Levi at any rate, went to Salem to
live with Thomas and only John (2) and Samuel (2) staid with us a while.
Samuel appears to have picked up somehow from somebody that undesirable
barren bit of loose sand called Preston's Plain, lying between the
Cemetery
section and Ballardvale, where only pine was found early and where later
the treacherous sands swallow up the wells of the first to raise houses
at the
Vale. One farmer who owned a good deal of unproductive bog, mixed his
share of the Plain with it, and raised the best rye of the section.
Samuel
swapped some of it for land further East, near Robert Russell's at Bare
Hill and
John appears to have settled in the North Precinct somewhere at the
start.
Samuel's home was probably near Sunset Rock from the quarrels he had
with
Martha Allen Carrier who is accused of afflicting his cows in the
witchcraft trials of 1692.
Down in Ipswich Village early, Roger Preston had a neighbor William
Goddason (alias Gudderson, Gutason, Guterson and finally Gutterson in
1684) who
owned a bit of Plum Island in 1644, marks his name on a will as witness
in 1646,
with Roger Lanckton and James Chute, when Joseph Morse dies. The Morse
emigration included besides several brothers and families, a large
following of neighbors and hired men or apprentices and I am inclined to
think these
young men were employed by Joseph Morse perhaps as fishermen, or as farm
tenants worked on his lands. William appears on the tax lists and a
Dennison petition about 1648 and very likely became free and was married
near 1650. I cannot ascertain for certainty the name of his wife,
possibly
Elizabeth. One Elizabeth Gutterson married John Coburn in Haverhill in
1670
and may prove to be the widow herself if not an eldest daughter born
possibly about 1652. Susanna Gutterson who came first to Andover was
probably born about 1654. She married our Samuel Preston at the Plain in
Andover in 1672. She had brother William born in Ipswich 1658, died in
1669.
John, born 1662, who came to Andover, and Mary, born 1660, who married
Hanniel Clarke of a down river family. William Goddason died in 1666
and
if the widow married a Coburn of Haverhill, it perhaps brought Susanna
in the
range of Samuel Preston on visits to that section. That was a wild
region
in those days and Indians lived along the river when Susanna made her
bridal
trip if she had not already gained a residence here.
John Gutterson was 26 years old before he married Abigail' Buckmaster in
1688. Her sister Sarah very likely it was, married WiIliam Chandler (3),
the son of the innholder, just to the south of the plain on the old
Billerica
Road through Ballardvale, near the Pillsbury estate so called. Possibly
Gutterson and Buckmaster young people sought service here in our
Chandler
family, or were wards left as orphans under guardians here, from Roxbury
district like those Gerry girls who were allies later on with the
Preston
tribe. Elizabeth Gerry married William Abbott (2) and Sara Gerry took
John
Holt, stepson of the widow Preston In charge. John Preston (2), waited
till
John Holt died and annexed widow Sara (Gerry) Holt and the twins Moses
and
Aaron. This veteran of the Narragansett wars has a fine record in the
early
military company of a dozen credited to Andover at the Swamp fight. John
Preston brought up young Moses Holt who lived to inherit the John Holt
farm, but the Preston half brothers all came to an untimely end, and
left only
the girls. Rebecca (3) who married her cousin Joseph Preston (3) and
after his
death went to Windham with Robert Holt and her Preston infants, Hannah
(3),
with Nathaniel Farnum, and Martha (3) who all went along with parents
John
(2) and Sara Preston to form the new colony in Conn. The older John drew
his lots at the time of the Narragansett New Hampshire allotment in
1732, but
having no son, decided to pass the rights along to his nephew John
Junior
son of brother Samuel of Andover, and whether Amherst ever had any
resident
of the name I cannot determine.
Samuel Preston (2), who married as was told Susanna Gutterson in 1672
lived
here till 85, dying in 1738. Susanna died first, date unknown, and was
succeeded by a widow Mary Blodgett, perhaps kin to a missing link. No
one
in line somehow names a son Roger in memory of the old grandfather of
Salem.
Jacob (3), one of Sam's sons, took the name and trade of the lost uncle,
and with Sarah Wilson and four children, and brother John Preston (3)
and Mary
Haynes (of Haverhill) and Lydia (3) published here to Daniel Holton of a
Salem line and who travelled to Woodstock Ct., to get married, and
Priscilla (3), who married George Holt, all these joined the long
process to Windham
and vicinity. As the Holt boys still held out, Elizabeth Preston (3)
married John Holt (3), son of Sam (2) but died right away and a friendly
Mehitable Wilson mate came after her. Then when Susanne Preston (3) had
grown attractive, there was James Holt (3) waiting for her. They did
manage to get a living here and died residents, but all the children
were so eager
to go off that even Tewksbury and old Boxford seemed desirable in those
days. One of James and Susanna (Preston) Holt's grandsons, Levi (4) of
Marlboro, named for the early Levi, died in camp at 15 in the
Revolution,
and the poor mother riding In haste to visit him, was thrown from her
horse
and carried the marks on her head to death, like other patriots of her
day.
Ruth Preston (3) went off with a "sailor and stranger" says the old town
book as if in disapproval. I wanted this particular Ruth for a
neighbor,
Eliakim Wardwell, one of the witchcraft orphans, about four years after
Ruth's sailor left these parts. Perhaps he came to bring news of Uncle
Jacob, and never came back again, and four years Is a long time in which
the sea could have swallowed Hugh Taylor and secured my Ruth for
Eliakim. Mary
Preston we have at last heard from after 4 generations of Russells, who
had
lost sight of her, had given up all idea of such a find. She married
Benjamin Russell (2) it seems and went to Ashford, Conn., and with a
syndicate of Pearl, Stevens, Abbott and old Norfolk County blood to help
out, introduced the line of Dr. Joseph Sibley whose ancestors went
around
through Sutton from Salem to join our girls In Conn. He was father to
the
Galena Oil Sibley brothers, one of whom, Joseph, is making eloquent
speeches in behalf of expansion in our U.S. senate. Why shouldn't he
advocate
expansion? You see it is in the blood. The brother, E. H. Sibley, in
searching for the parentage of the Ashford Russell,, introduced to us
our
Mary Preston line down there. Joseph Sibley, Roger Preston, William
Goddason, Nicholas Holt and Robert Russell have a strong following of
expansion heirs all over the broad domain from sea to sea and ready to
pull
up old stumps and plant new gardens anywhere the flag goes. Let us hope
something less barren than Preston's Plain will carry the old name. On
the
cradle of Holt's Hill, .Sam (3) staid with Sara Bridges and died in
1717.
He was a good carpenter and he helped plan the old red school houses.
His ten
children expanded as soon as the widow could get quit claims drawn up
and
she too, found a residence with William Price of Ashford, Conn.,
desirable.
Levi (4) went ahead to Killingly and staked his ranch bounds and came
back
for Elizabeth Harnden. Samuel (4) with Mary Bridges and his brother
Isaac
tried Littleton. There was Jemima (4), Elizabeth, Joanna and Sarah, but
no
Holts had kept pace with the demand and they sought new fields of
conquest.
Mary (4) got to Haverhill but Christopher Lovejoy brought her back and
in
her line of Isaac Lovejoy and Ruth Davis we have about all the Preston
blood left here. Ruth Preston (4) married Nathaniel Barnard and the
only
daughter married Isaac Shattuck of the old quaker Salem Stock, and we
have I think
perhaps, the family of Samuel Shattuck.
With these expanding Prestons went half the Gutterson blood. John the
brother sold the farm he owned on the Shawshin in Frye Village, to
Daniel
Poor, and started across river to try how far North he could go. I
found
the latest Gutterson of 1796, on an old blue print map, donated the
cause
of history, and he was just this side the Pelham line in Methuen.
Elizabeth
Gutterson (3), daughter of John (2) and Abigail, married Nathaniel
Messer
and perhaps was kin to one of the line here today.
William Gutterson (3) and Ruth Mosse of the old Ipswich line of 1637,
raised a large family in Methuen. Samuel (4) came across to Andover for
one Lydia
Stevens, either the daughter of Lydia Gray or Annis Phelps who both
married
a John Stevens and had daughters Lydia and Sara of the same age. Old
Lydia
Gray Stevens died with Sara who was wife of Israel Wood, up in Thetford,
Vt.
Jacob and Nathaniel Abbott of Wilton went off with one of the Lydias
and
one of the Sarahs. The.four were closely associated in alliance and
recklessly used Simeon and Abiel, names peculiar to both lines of
Stevens,
and it is now very unlikely unless someone can come forward, with
private
records, that we shall identify the Lydia properly.
Samuel (4) and his Lydia settled in that part of Amherst set off to
Milford, later where we find him with the two eldest sons, John and
Samuel, near the
time of the Revolution. The younger Josiah, born in 1786 in Milford,
married Phebe Buss, daughter of Stephen Buss, and Phebe Keyes of the old
Chelmsford
line. The one best known to us George Gutterson (6) was born up there
in
1821 and probably inherited his love of fine gardening in the town
celebrated for fruit. To him we owe the first careful culture and
successful venture in strawberry market gardening in this town. He died
here after a
painful and lingering illness of years, and his widow and daughter Clara
have a home with the son, George H. in Winchester. He has been with his
wife, Emma Wilder, daughter of a South African missionary, and a
graduate
of Abbot Academy, through the usual long service in India, and is now
Secretary of the American Missionary Board. With his ten children,
two,
Herbert and Wilder bearing the name of Gutterson, he is getting ready to
follow on after the expanding plans of Senator Sibley, the kin of
Susanna
Gutterson, and we may see the grandson of old Andover helping the work
in
South Africa when the air gets clear of friction. Myron Edward of
Andover,
allied to Elizabeth Tyler of the strong old stock of Job the emigrant,
agree with me that 6000 odd does not count all of old Andover today.
The
ancestors are getting in good work everywhere and we are all one, we to
hold in trust what is best to recall their memory, to preserve the
ancient
landmark loyally and they to bring us
(I may have lost the last page here. My apologies. I don't think it
could
have held very much though. If I should stumble across it, or someone
can
supply the ending, I will add it in. Jerry H. Lovejoy)
Jerry Lovejoy
bennabre(a)ici.net
http://home.ici.net/~bennabre/bennabre.html
______________________________
--
Neal F. Carrier
Holland Patent, NY
WAGS #776
Listowner CARRIER-L Mail List
Rootsweb.com Contributor