Barre - Lancaster (Harvard, Bolton, Leominster) - Lunenburg - New Hampshire (Rindge, Stoddard) 

                Barre Lancaster Lunenburg Rindge Stoddard
first settlers  1718    1643      1718     1738    1752
incorporated    1718    1643      1718     1738    1752
first ancestor  1718    1643      1718     1738    1752
last ancestor   1718    1643      1718     1738    1752
# of ancestors    3      31        12        5       3
# of immigrants   0       5         0        0       0
# born in town    0      12         3        1       0
# died in town    2      24         8        1       0
  • GATES family (1654-1658)
  • GIBSON family (1756-1813)
  • HEYWOOD family (1778-1872)
  • HOUGHTON family (1653-1740)
  • JOHNSON family (173x-1761)
  • PRESCOTT family (1644-1681)
  • PRIEST family (1687-1776)
  • WELCH family (1740-1860)

    Lancaster is the oldest town in Worcester County. The idea for a town actually started with the Indians. The sachem of the Nashaways recommended his valley for an English settlement to Thomas King, a trader in Watertown, probably to give the Indians easier access to trade with the English. In 1643 Thomas King found several associates to join him in buying the land from the Indians, including our ancestor JOHN PRESCOTT. King, along with his partner Henry Symonds of Boston, built the first building in Lancaster that same year, a trucking house located on the southeast side of George hill. By the end of 1644, there were two more houses built, and three settlers were living in Lancaster: Richard Linton, his son-in-law Lawrence Waters, and John Ball (brother of NATHANIEL BALL of Concord; his family remained in Watertown). However all of the original associates dropped out or died (Symonds died in 1643 and King in 1644) except for PRESCOTT, who became the first permanent resident of Lancaster. The town grew slowly at first, and was hampered by a lack of freemen: in 1657, only three out of around 30 proprietors were free. The town asked the General Court to fix the problem, and it appointed 3 commissioners (EDWARD JOHNSON of Woburn, Major Simon Willard of Concord, and Thomas Danforth of Cambridge) to chose selectmen and guide the town.

    Of all the towns affected by King Philip's War, Lancaster probably fared the worst. Being on the western edge of the English settlements, with a huge gap between Lancaster and the Connecticut River settlements, the town was easy prey for the Indians. The first attack occurred on Aug 22, 1675, when eight persons were killed. In six months, on Feb 10, 1675/6, came the massacre. There were about 50 families living in Lancaster at this time,with five garrison houses. The Indians attacked three of the garrisons, with the worst outcome at the house of the minister, Mr. Rowlandson, where 42 people fled. After two hours of attack in the early morning, the Indians found a way to set fire to the rear of the house. Only one person escaped; the rest either died or were taken prisoners. In the entire town, 50-55 people were slain. The survivors congregated in two of the remaining garrison houses, and included ancestors JOHN and JONATHAN PRESCOTT and JOHN HOUGHTON. A petition was immediately sent to Boston requesting carts to remove them all to a place of safety. Every white person left, and when they did, the Indians finished the job and burned all of the remaining houses except for the meeting house and one dwelling. Later that spring, most of the captives including Mrs. Rowlandson were ransomed with the help of JOHN HOAR of Concord. But the town of Lancaster was gone, completely empty for a year or two. The return of settlers happened slowly, until 17 or 18 families had returned by 1681. Lancaster was attacked by Indians one more time in its history, during Queen Anne's War in 1704. Four men were killed in that raid.

    No records of Lancaster remain from the War until after 1700. It grew sufficiently that other towns started to be carved from it's territory, including Harvard in 1732, Bolton in 1738, Leominster in 1740, Sterling in 1781, Berlin in 1784, Boylston in 1786, and finally Clinton in 1850. Lunenburg, incorporated in 1728 and Fitchburg, incorporated in 1764, border Lancaster and Leominster on the northwest. Part of Fitchburg was originally in Lunenburg.

    The families below are listed alphabetically, except for the Prescott family, which must be first as the founder of Lancaster.
    The PRESCOTT family (1644-1681) 
                         |-John Prescott
   Jonathan Prescott-|
                     |-Mary Platts
    We have a number of ancestors who are considered the founders of their respective towns, such as Rev PETER BULKELEY of Concord, PETER HOBART of Hingham, EDMUND RICE of Marlborough, and EDWARD JOHNSON of Woburn. These were all powerful leaders during the formative years of their towns, but all of them shared the founding tasks with others, and none of them carried the full weight of the pioneering effort on their shoulders, such as the Crawford family did in the founding of Steamboat Springs. The Crawfords spent five years in Steamboat as the only permanent pioneering family in the area, and had to conquer all of the survival tasks of obtaining food and building shelter and earning a livelihood entirely on their own. The one Massachusetts ancestor who came closest to matching the pioneering experience of James H. Crawford in Steamboat Springs was JOHN PRESCOTT in Lancaster, Massachusetts.

    As with most of our ancestors, we know little more than a few isolated details of his life in Englad. He was born the youngest son of RALPH and ELLEN PRESCOTT of Shevington, Lancashire, England, just northwest of Manchester. He was baptized in 1604-5 and married Mary Platts at Wigan, Lancashire, on January 21, 1629. He owned land in Shevington, but sold it and moved to Sowerby in Yorkshire. The Prescotts had one son and three daughters born in England before they left in 1638 and landed in Barbados, where JOHN owned land and another daughter was born. They only stayed in Barbados two years, before they moved to Watertown. JOHN acquired six lots of 126 acres of land in Watertown, including their home on a 3 acre parcel of land on the southeast corner of what is now Mt. Auburn St. and Arlington Street, across Arlington St. from the Old Burying Ground. One more daughter was born in Watertown. In 1643, JOHN joined with Thomas King and eight other associates to buy land from the Nashaway Indians, far to the west of Concord.

    The Prescott family did not move immediately to Nashaway. With six children under the age of 14, they would have been cautious and wanted to ensure they had shelter and supplies to last the cold New England winters. He sold his Watertown holdings and headed to Nashaway with his family, horses and cattle in June of 1645, the first permanent settlers, and first family in Lancaster. The principle obstacle on their way to their new home was the "Sudbury Swamp". Governor Winthrop in his "History of New England" stated "Prescot another favorer of the Petitioners lost a horse and his loading in Sudbury river, and a week after his wife and children being upon another horse were hardly saved from drowning." JOHN complained to the General Court, which immediately ordered a bridge built, and gave Sudbury 20 pounds to build it.

    JOHN's first lot included the grounds where the Lancaster city hall now stands, but he soon chose to make his log cabin on the southeast side of George Hill, where the original trucking house was located (north corner of the current George Hill Rd and Main St in South Lancaster). He set up his blacksmith shop nearby across George Hill Rd, and a store a few rods northwest of the house (for a while called Prescott Corner). The town grew slowly: by 1647 there were two more permanent settlers, and by 1652 there were nine families. The nine families petitioned the General Court to incorporate the town under the name "Prescott". The Deputies passed the incorporation: "Consideringe that there is already at Nashaway about 9 familyes, & that several, both freeman & others intend to goe & settle there,some whereof are named in theire petition, this Court dothhereby give & graunt them libertyes of atownshipp, &, at the request of the inhabitants, doe order it to be called Prescott." But a year later a few highly influential politicians decided it was an outrage to have a town named after an ordinary person, especially since not even the governor had a town named after him. So they changed the name to Lancaster after the English town in the same county where JOHN was born.

    JOHN PRESCOTT may not have had the education that other leaders of that time had, but he was a man who knew how to get things done and was not afraid of hard work. In addition to his stated profession as a blacksmith, he was a farmer, trader, and hunter. He also became a miller because it became obvious that the town needed a mill for grinding corn. Watertown was too far away to have much corn ground there, and the only other option was to grind the corn by hand. JOHN didn't hesitate to tackle the problem, and on March 23, 1654 he opened his grist-mill, the first within Worcester county, and the beginning of a long history of industrialization in the current town of Clinton. He moved to a new home 25 rods east of his mill, on the southeast corner of the current Water St. and High St. in Clinton. Five years later he completed a saw-mill near his grist-mill, and the Precott mills became a central point for the region (the photo shows one of the mill buildings that replaced the original mills and which is now the Precott Mills Apartments). Finally, in 1667 he contracted to build a corn-mill in Groton, which his son Jonas operated. JOHN also was a surveyor and builder of roads and bridges. In 1648 he made a new path out to Connecticut via Nashua that avoided alot of hills. In 1657 he was on a committee to build bridges "at Billirriky and Misticke" [Billerica] and in 1658 he surveyed a 650 acre farm that became the chief part of West Boylston.


    Mill Pond in current town of Harvard where John Prescott built his corn-mill
    JOHN was physically large and strong, as might be expected of a blacksmith. A biography of him mentions that he brought with him from England a suit of mail and helmet, that he sometimes wore to impress the Indians. One such story follows: "One day some Indians, having taken away a horse of his, he put on his armor, pursued them alone, and soon overtook them. The chief of the party seeing him approach unsupported, advanced menacingly with uplifted tomahawk. Prescott dared him to strike, and was immediately taken at his word, but the rude weapon glanced harmless from the helmet, to the amazement of the red men. Naturally the Indian desired to try upon his own head so wonderful a hat, and the owner obligingly gratified him claiming the privilege, however, of using the tomahawk in return. The helmet proving a scant fit, or its wearer neglecting to bring it down to its proper bearings, Prescott's vengeful blow not only astounded him but left very little cuticle on either side of his head, and nearly deprived him of ears. Prescott was permitted to jog home in peace upon his horse."

    In 1652, JOHN took an oath of fidelity, but he was not a freeman because he had not joined a church. When the town was taken over by a General Court-appointed commission, JOHN was one of five chosen to be selectmen. JOHN remained a selectman at least until 1664 when the commissioners were disbanded and the selectmen were voted by the town. He probably continued long after that, but town records have been lost. JOHN was finally admitted a freeman in 1669, after the laws were changed and freemen no longer needed to belong to a church. He owned 700 acres of land in Lancaster: 100 acres around his original home in South Lancaster; 300 acres around the mills encompasing most of the current densely populated part of Clinton; and 300 acres about Washacum Ponds in the south part of Sterling. He also owned 520 acres around his mill in Groton (now Harvard).

    Two more children were born to the Prescotts in Lancaster, including JONATHAN whose birth about 1646 was one of the first two births in the town. JONATHAN grew up to be a blacksmith, and lived in the original Prescott home with the blacksmith shop close by. He married Dorothy in 1670, and they had twins the following year that died immediately. The next year their son Samuel was born, but Dorothy died shortly after in 1674, and is buried in the Old Settlers Cemetery. JONATHAN was a town constable in 1673. He remarried ELIZABETH HOAR of Concord Dec 23, 1675. There is no record of whether they started living in Lancaster or Concord. Two months later JONATHAN was at his father's garrison home on the day of the massacre. One person died in the house, but the major Indian effort was at the Rowlandson garrison house, and the Prescotts were spared. The petition asking for rescue carts was signed by both JOHN and JONATHAN. From that point on, JONATHAN was definitely a resident of Concord. His father-in-law, JOHN HOAR, played a major role in negotiating for the release of Mrs. Rowlandson. JONATHAN never returned to Lancaster, but his father JOHN PRESCOTT did return by 1681, and died in Lancaster in December of 1681. He is buried in the Old Settlers Cemetery along with several of his children and grandchildren. He had 50 grandchildren in all. His will, written in 1673, gave his home and lands by the mills to son John (three more generations of Prescotts lived there), and his Prescott corner land to son JONATHAN, whose son Samuel ended up living there. His third son Jonas got the corn mill land in Groton, and a grandson got the Washacum Ponds land.
    Old Settlers Cemetery

                                  HERE                              
               WITH HIS CHILDREN ABOUT HIM LIES                 
                          JOHN PRESCOTT                         
             FOUNDER OF LANCASTER AND FIRST SETTLER             
                       OF WORCESTER COUNTY                      
             BORN AT STANDISH, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND              
           DIED AT LANCASTER, MASSACHUSETTS, DEC. 1681          
       INSPIRED BY THE LOVE OF LIBERTY AND THE FEAR OF GOD      
                  THIS STOUT-HEARTED PIONEER                    
            FORSAKING THE PLEASANT VALES OF ENGLAND             
            TOOK UP HIS ABODE IN THE UNBROKEN FOREST            
             AND ENCOUNTERED WILD BEAST AND SAVAGE              
                       TO SECURE FREEDOM                        
                 FOR HIMSELF AND HIS POSTERITY                  
                     HIS FAITH AND VIRTUES                      
            HAVE BEEN INHERITED BY MANY DESCENDANTS             
       WHO IN EVERY GENERATION HAVE WELL SERVED THE STATE       
IN WAR, IN LITERATURE, AT THE BAR, IN THE PULPIT, IN PUBLIC LIFE 
                     AND IN CHRISTIAN HOMES                     

      HERE LIES              JOHN      
 DOROTHY, THE          PRESCOTT    
WIFE OF JONATH          DECASED    
  AN PRESCOT                       
 WHO DECEASED         [footstone]
    The GATES family (1654-1658) 
                     |-Stephen Gates
   Stephen Gates-|
                 |-Ann Hill
    The Gates family had a very nomadic life in Massachusetts. They first settled in Hingham, moved to Cambridge in 1653, Lancaster in 1654, and back to Cambridge where the father died in 1662. The son soon married, lived some in both Boston and Charlestown, and finally moved to Stow. (See the chapters on Hingham, Cambridge, and Sudbury.) On April 3, 1654, STEPHEN GATES signed the covenant agreeing to live in Lancaster and follow the terms of its incorporation. His home was on the road leading northwest (Main St), north of the North branch of the river. He also owned 314 acres of land in the southeast part of the town in what is now Berlin. His land there included a large pond that is still called Gates' Pond. He was the third largest landowner in Lancaster after John White and JOHN PRESCOTT. He bacame a freeman on May 14, 1656 and chosen constable in 1657. However there was a controversy between the Gates family and his neighbors on his south, the Whitcomb families, that deprived STEPHEN of his constable's staff, and he moved back to Cambridge after only three years in Lancaster. When he died, his oldest son, STEPHEN Jr., received his house in Lancaster, but the son never lived there.
    The GIBSON family (1756-1813) 
                      |-Abraham Gibson
   Rebecca Gibson-|
                  |-Esther Fox
    The Gibson ancestors came first to Cambridge and then to Stow, where ABRAHAM GIBSON Jr. was born in 1735. Once he grew up he moved to Lunenburg where he was a schoolmaster. A quit claim deed for the parental homestead from his siblings to him in 1756 said "to Abraham Gibson of Lunenburg, laborer". He returned to Stow, married ESTHER FOX of Concord in 1760, moved to Concord after a year, and then on to Fitchburg in 1768. Their first child was born in Stow, the next four in Concord, and the last four in Fitchburg. The family lived on a farm of 150 acres on the eastern slope of Pearl hill. ABRAHAM was one of the 44 Fitchburg minutemen in Col. Asa Whitcomb's regiment who marched on April 19, 1775, serving 5 days. He also enlisted for three months in 1778 under Col. Abijah Stearns. After the war he served as selectman in 1778 and 1779. In 1791 his name disappears from the tax roll of Fitchburg. His daughter, REBECCA, married JOHN PRIEST in 1785 and immediately moved to Rindge, N.H.; ABRAHAM and ESTHER probably moved there to be with the grandchildren because ESTHER died in Rindge in 1803. The Priest family returned to Lunenburg around 1810, where ABRAHAM died in 1813.
    Rindge, New Hamphire 2nd Meeting House (1796) and Cemetery 
    In memory of
Mrs  Esther Gibson
wife of Mr. Abraham
Gibson who died 30
April 1803 in the
60 year of her age.
Friends nor physicians could not save
My mortal body from the grave.
Nor can the grave confine me here
When Christ doth call me to appear.
    The HEYWOOD family (1778-1872) 
                                         |-John Prescott Heywood
                   |-Lincoln Heywood-|              |-Noah Ripley
   Abigail Heywood-|                 |-Lydia Ripley-|
                   |-Rebecca Priest                 |-Lydia Kent
    We first learned of the Ripley family in the chapter on Hingham. NOAH RIPLEY married LYDIA KENT in Hingham on Dec 22, 1743, had two children born in Hingham, but then moved to Woodstock, Connecticut, which is in the northeastern corner of Connecticut. At the time they moved there, probably around 1747, Woodstock was still a part of Massachusetts since it was given to Connecticut in 1749. Joshua Ripley, the brother of our first PETER RIPLEY, had moved near there, and NOAH probably had cousins there. After another 11 children were born (including Dr. Ezra Ripley, famous in the history of Concord, and LYDIA, born in 1757), they moved by 1763 to Barre (pronounced "berry"), Massachusetts, where the last 6 children were born - an astounding 19 children! The last child was born Oct 18, 1772 when LYDIA was 47 years old. She lived another 44 years and when she died June 17, 1816, aged 91, she had 97 grandchildren and 106 great grandchildren!!

    Barre was first settled in 1720 and called the Northwest District of Rutland, later called just the Rutland District. It was incorporated as the town of Hutchinson on June 14, 1774 after the former royal governor, but the townspeople complained and the name was changed to Barre in June of 1776 to honor Isaac Barre, a British Member of Parliament who was a champion of the American cause and coined the phrase "Sons of Liberty". At this time it had about 750 people. When the Revolution started at the "Lexington Alarm", NOAH RIPLEY, at age 53, marched from Barre in Capt. John Black's company. He later served under Col. Nathan Sparhawk to reinforce the army at Bennington, VT., where the American militia decisively defeated British General Burgoyne in August of 1777. The Seventh Worcester continued to serve until October. NOAH died in Barre the following year. His wife LYDIA, remarried John Burnett and lived another 38 years before also dying in Barre. The     inventory of NOAH's estate was £1955.13.
    South Burial Ground (Buckminster Cemetery) - Ripley tombstones are above and to the left of the sign. There are 7 Ripleys buried here: Lydia and Noah; their daughter Perthenia and son Noah; and son Noah's wife Lucy, son Minott, and son or grandson Arnold

     
              In memory of               |     Here rests in Hope the Body of    
     Mrs. Lydia Burnett, who         |     Mr. Noah Ripley. Who Departed     
     was first Consort of Mr.        |      this life Sept. ye 28 1778       
           Noah Ripley               |      in the 58th Year of his Age      
    by whom she had 8 sons & 11      | He sleeps in Death in Christ we trust 
   daughters 17 of them lived to     |    And sees his Savior face to face   
   have Families: her descendants    |   How precious then his moulding dust 
  at her death were 97 grandchil.    |   Shall be loosd from death's embrace 
   dren & 106 great grandchildren    | O Reader from this pale monument learn
  She died June 17th 1816 aged 91.   |  wisdom for Eternity-  wisdom for thy 
              ------                 | Self and be reminded of thy Doom which
Many daughters have done virtuously, |  hastens on the Swiftest wings of time
         but thou excelest           |     ... the death which ... the...    
       ---------------------                                                  
Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord
    JOHN PRESCOTT HEYWOOD was born Sept 13, 1754 in Concord. He married Elizabeth Wheeler of Concord in 1778, but they immediately moved to Lunenburg where their two children were born. Elizabeth died three weeks after their second child was born, and two years later JOHN married LYDIA RIPLY of Barre. JOHN and LYDIA had five children, all born in Lunenburg. Their son Deacon LINCOLN HEYWOOD was born April 29, 1791, married REBECCA PRIEST on May 26, 1814, was a deacon of the Unitarian Church, and died Oct 30, 1867. REBECCA died five years later. They had nine children including ABIGAIL HEYWOOD born Sept 25, 1816. She married HORATIO NELSON WELCH of Bolton.
    Lunenburg South Cemetery - In photo below Sharon is in front of John and Lydia Heywood graves; the John Priest grave is partially hidden by her head; the Lincoln Heywood family is hidden by the tree.

     
           Mr.           |         Mrs.       
 John P. Heywood,    |    Lydia Heywood   
died Nov. 19, 1827,  |      relict of     
     Aged 73.        | Mr. John P. Heywood
                     |  died May 21, 1828;
                     |       Aged 71.     
          DEA.        |  REBECCA PRIEST     
 LINCOLN HEYWOOD  |    wife of          
      DIED        | DEA. LINCOLN HEYWOOD
  Oct. 30, 1867   | Died Jan 11, 1872   
AEt 76 yrs. 6 ms. |  AEt 76 yrs. 8 mos.
    The HOUGHTON family (1653-1740) 
                                                     |-John Houghton
                                |-Jonas Houghton-|
               |-Jonas Houghton-|                |-Beatrix
Betty Houghton-|                |-Mary Burbeen
               |-Mary Brigham
    Two cousins, Ralph and JOHN HOUGHTON, ended up in Lancaster around the time of its incorporation. There is much confusion as to when they first came. A John Houghton age "4" came on the ship "Abigail" in 1635, but there is no record of any John Houghton in any town in the colony before Dedham in 1651 and Lancaster in 1652. Everyone thinks the age was a typo, and it should have been 24, 34, or 40. We can be sure, however, that JOHN and his wife BEATRIX were both born in England, and that most of their seven children, including JONAS, were born in Lancaster. JOHN signed the Lancaster covenant in 1653, and lived on the north side of Deans Brook [now named Goodridge Brook] on the west side of the mill path [probably Main St]. His cousin Ralph was for many years the town clerk, and is mentioned many times in the records of Lancaster. During King Philip's War, the Houghtons lived in Charlestown or Woburn. When they returned, JOHN and his sons built new homes on the east side of the river, to the south of Bridecake Plain (now called Old Common Rd) opposite what are now the grounds of the State Industrial School. JOHN died in 1684, and his gravestone is the oldest stone in the Old Settlers Cemetery.
    Old Settlers Cemetery
     
              In memory of             
          JOHN HOUGHTON            
        Born Dec. 24,1624,         
        Died Apr. 29,1684          
 One of the founders of Lancaster  
      JOHN HOUGHTON his son        
One of the three men who purchased 
the land per the deed on other side
     Of this memorial tablet       
  Erected 1913 by L. T. HOUGHTON   
    A lineal decendant of JOHN
    JONAS HOUGHTON was born about 1663, and so would have just turned a teenager when the Houghtons fled Lancaster due to the massacre. One source says the Houghtons stayed in Charlestown, and another says Woburn. I favor Woburn, because JONAS probably met his future wife at this time, MARY BURBEAN, who grew up in Woburn. They married in 1681, and settled on his father's land on Vaughn's Hills. Since the Lancaster records during this time were lost, we know nothing about JONAS until the Indian attack on Lancaster in 1704. The list of damages in the town due to the attack includes the item: "JONAS HOUGHTON, one ox". JONAS and his brother John signed a petition requesting that Lancaster be exempt from taxes due to the Indian attack. JONAS is mentioned a few times after that in the records for property descriptions or for fixing property boundary lines. In 1708 he signed the Lancaster Church Covenant; in 1720 he was granted 6 or 7 acres on the top of the southern-most Vans Hill as payment for nine days work in building a bridge; and in 1722 a receipt calls him Constable. He died in 1723, and is buried in the Old Common Burying Ground.

    JONAS HOUGHTON Jr. was the oldest son, born in 1682. We know nothing about him until his marriage with MARY BRIGHAM of Marlborough in 1710. They had nine children born in Lancaster including Betty in 1715/6. On March 2, 1718/9 JONAS was chosen to be a Selectman, and later he also served as Moderator and as Treasurer. He was at one point called "the Lancaster surveyor", and is listed for several surveying tasks, including to reconstruct a road along the north side of Wachusett. The town of Bolton was carved out of Lancaster and incorporated in 1738, and Capt. JONAS HOUGHTON was chosen as one of the five selectmen, along with two of his Houghton relatives. Since the new town clerk was also a Houghton, it is fair to say that the Houghton family controlled the town of Bolton when it incorporated. In 1760 his son, also named Capt. Jonas Houghton, built a house that is still standing at 96 Green Rd, on the land of his father. This house is on the edge of the southern-most Vaughn's Hills, and is on land originally owned by JOHN, then JONAS Sr., and CAPT. JONAS Jr. We don't know when MARY died, but Capt. JONAS died on Aug 15,1739, just one year after Bolton was incorporated. He is buried near his father in the Old Common Burying Ground. His daughter BETTY married PAUL WELCH in 1740, and our Houghton ancestors end.
    Lancaster Old Common Burying Grounds
    Here Lies Buried ye Body of
Capt. Jonas Houghton
Who Departed this Life
August ye 15th A.D. 1739
In ye 57th Year of His Age.

    Here Lyes ye Body
of Mr. Jonas Houghton Who
died Sept 20 1723,
Aged 60 Years & 5 mos.

    Here Lyes the Body of
Mrs. Mary Houghton,
Wife to Mr. Jonas Houghton, Sen'r.
Deceased December 31st 1720
in ye 60th Year of her Age.
    The JOHNSON family (173x-1761) 
                      |-Dole Johnson
   Hannah Johnson-|
                  |-Hannah
    DOLE JOHNSON was born in Woburn, but after his mother died, DOLE and his father WILLIAM JOHNSON moved to Mansfield, Connecticut. Sometime before 1739 DOLE married HANNAH and moved to Harvard. The births of their three children, including HANNAH in 1739 were recorded in the Harvard records, as was DOLE's death in 1745 at the age of 35. It is not all that surprising that he ended up in Harvard, because his ancestor EDWARD JOHNSON of Woburn had acted as a commissioner of Lancaster and had been granted a large tract of land in the southeastern part of Lancaster. Other descendents of EDWARD moved eventually to this land, so DOLE would have had cousins in the town. He lived on the east side of the Penicook (Nashua) River, bounded on the west by the river and on the south by land of Richard Hall. The     inventory of DOLE's estate was £208.14.0 with his widow Hannah Johnson being the executrix. After paying off creditors, £74.8.4 1/2 was left for the children. HANNAH married John Davis in 1752 and had four more children. Her daughter HANNAH married BENJAMIN PRIEST in 1761.
    The PRIEST family (1687-1776) 
                                                               |-John Priest
                                               |-Joseph P.-|
                                   |-Joseph P.-|           |-Rachel Garfield-|
                     |-Benjamin P.-|           |-Mary Miller                 |-Mary Benfield
           |-John P.-|             |-Elizabeth Atkinson
Rebecca P.-|         |-Hannah Johnson
           |-Rebecca Gibson
    JOHN PRIEST was born around 1650, but we are not sure where or who his parents were. One speculation is that his father was John Priest who lived in Charlestown, married Sarah, and sold land on the Reading border in 1680. Another possibility is that his father was James Priest of Dorchester and Weymouth, who emigrated in 1637, married Elizabth, had at least seven children (but none named John!), and recorded his will in 1676. The first definite thing we know about JOHN is that he was impressed into military service from Woburn during King Philip's War, and probably participated in the Great Swamp Fight in December 1675. He married RACHEL GARFIELD of Watertown in 1678, had three children born in Woburn. In 1687 the proprietors of Lancaster offered him 30 acres of land if he would move to Lancaster. They also offered 30 acres to a friend, John Warner, and the two of them moved to a 60 acre parcel on the easterly side of Bare Hill, which is now in Harvard. Four more children were born in Lancaster, including JOSEPH in 1690. JOHN's house was one of the garrison houses used during the Indian attack in 1704 during Queen Anne's War. Ten neighbor men and their families were assigned to his house, including his son John Jr., John Warner, Caleb Sawyer, and James Atherton Sr. and Jr. When JOHN died at the end of 1704, RACHEL continued to live in the house for another 33 years. Her mother MARY (BENFIELD) GARFIELD also lived with her and died in Lancaster in 1709. RACHEL is buried in the Harvard Center Cemetery besides her grandson John Priest and his family. 
          Harvard Center |   HERE LIES     |     MRS    
        Cemetery     |  THE BODY OF    |   RACHIEL  
                         THE WIDOW     |   PRIEST   
                       RACHIEL PRIEST  | (footstone)
                       WHO DIED MAY                
                          17 1737                   
                         IN THE 81                  
                      YEAR OF HER AGE
    In 1711 John Jr. built another house for his family about a mile north of the garrison house. JOSEPH married MARY MILLER of Sudbury in 1715, and built his house on the hillside half way between his brother's house and Bare Hill Pond. All of these homes were in the part of Lancaster that became the town of Harvard in 1732. They had 10 children, including their oldest, JOSEPH Jr., born in 1717. JOSEPH Sr. died in 1738, a year after his youngest son was born, and a year after JOSEPH Jr. married ELIZABETH ATKINSON of Groton. The only other information we have on EIZABETH is that she had ten children and died of cramp in Lancaster at the house of Aaron Johnson in 1798 at the age of 84. JOSEPH Jr. must have lived in his father's house until 1743 when he sold the farm and moved to Lancaster proper. Or maybe he moved to Groton, because a 1749 petition states that he is "of Groton". The petition is requesting relief because his son Eleazer died in 1747 after being captured and taken to Canada. He was released and sent back, but got sick in passage and died in Luisburg, Canada. JOSEPH Jr was paid £8.18.01 for the loss of his son. JOSEPH Jr was a soldier in the French war, at Crown Point and Ticonderoga under Captain Benjamin Hastings. He enlisted April 26, 1756, and was on the muster roll of Captain John Church's company in 1760. He died in 1798 at Barret's house in Lancaster.

    BENJAMIN PRIEST was born in 1738, after the town of Harvard was created. He also was a soldier in the French War as was his father. BENJAMIN was a private in various regiments from March 1758 through 1762. In January of 1761 he married HANNAH JOHNSON of Harvard, sister of Dole Johnson, another soldier in his company. BENJAMIN also served in the Revolutionary War, initially as a private in Captain John Hartwell's company of Colonel Nicholas Dyke's regiment starting in July, 1776, and including a 3-week stint in Colonel Samuel Dennie's regiment in 1779. The family only had three children, all born in Lancaster, so HANNAH might have died by 1770. At some point BENJAMIN moved to Lunenburg (perhaps to live with his son), where he died in 1817 and is buried in the cemetery (north or south?).

    JOHN PRIEST is the 5th and last generation of the Priest family to live in Lancaster, and like three of his ancestors, he also was in the military. He marched with his future father-in-law ABRAHAM GIBSON to Cambridge on April 19th, 1775, under the command of Col. Asa Whitcomb. He was also in Colonel Prescott's regiment during the summer of 1776, and is reported to have received 39 lashes for desertion. He moved to Fitchburg around that time, and there married REBECCA GIBSON in 1785. The family moved to Rindge, New Hampshire, where 11 of their 12 children were born, including REBECCA in 1795. The grandparents ABRAHAM and ESTHER GIBSON must have lived with them in N.H. since they disappear from the Fitchburg tax records after 1791, and ESTHER died in Rindge in 1803. JOHN was the low bidder ($330) to build the steeple of the new meeting house in 1796, although the builder of the rest of the building ended up doing the work (see photo of meeting house in section on ESTHER GIBSON). The family moved back to Lunenburg around 1810, and their last child was born there in 1812. The grandfather ABRAHAM died there in 1813, and wife REBECCA died there in 1814. JOHN promptly married Mrs. Phoebe Sherman, had two more children, and lived until 1830.
    Lunenburg South Cemetery

     
            Mrs.        |         Mr.        
      Rebecca,      |     John Priest    
      wife of       | died April 12, 1830
  Mr. John Priest   |       AEt. 69.     
died June 30, 1814: |                    
      AEt. 49.      |
    The WELCH family (1740-1860) 
                                                      |-Paul Welch
                                    |-Silas Welch-|
                     |-Thomas Welch-|             |-Betty Houghton
Horatio Nelson Welch-|              |-Mary Miriam
                     |-Lovice Hastings
    PAUL WELCH is the first Welch ancestor we know about for sure. He was born in Charlestown about 1713. One source claims his parents were Elkanah Welch and Tryall Trial of Charlestown, but I am skeptical, especially with the name Tryall Trial which looks like just two ways to spell the same name. We do know that PAUL moved to Bolton by 1740 when he married BETTY HOUGHTON. They had six children born in Bolton, and perhaps lived near Welch Pond in the southern part of the town. We don't know when either of them died. Their oldest son was SILAS, born in 1744. SILAS married MARY MIRIAM (the 2nd of our ancestors with that name), and had three children. With our other ancestors ABRAHAM GIBSON and JOHN PRIEST, SILAS marched as a corporal to Cambridge on April 19, 1775 in Colonel John Whitcomb's regiment. He served eight days, and re-enlisted during the summer as a Sargeant for the Siege of Boston. He died on Sept 8, 1775, probably from disease, since there were no known skirmishes in Aug or Sept. He has a military gravestone in the Old South Burying Ground in Bolton. MARY, his wife, remarried twice: Jonathan Atherton in 1786, and Simon Whitney in 1792.
    Old South Burying Ground

     
    SILAS
WELCH
SERG
CONTINENTAL
LINE
REV WAR
NOV 24 1744
SEP 8 1775
    The oldest child of SILAS and MARY was THOMAS WELCH, born 1768. When he was 18 he served a month in the military in an expedition against Shay's Rebellion in western Massachusetts. He then married LOVICE HASTINGS in 1791 and had seven children, all born in Bolton. They became members of the First Congregational Church in Bolton on Oct 11, 1801. LOVICE died in 1821, and the following year THOMAS married Mrs. Betsy Carter, 23 years younger than him, and they had one daughter. Census data show that THOMAS was a farmer and that he lived in BOLTON through 1820, and in Leominster from 1830 to 1850. In 1822 THOMAS and his son Silas sold part of their land to the town of Bolton for $100 to be used for the West Burying Ground. The son Silas and his sister Mary are buried in the cemetery. An 1831 map of Bolton shows THOMAS' house on what is now the corner of Green Rd. and Main St., with the cemetery near by.

    Left: 1831 map showing Thomas Welch's home and the West Burying Ground.
    Right: Welch gravestones - left is Mary and right is Silas, both children of Thomas Welch; beyond the stone wall and trees was Thomas' house and land, where now sits a modern high school.
    HORATIO NELSON WELCH was born in July, 1811 in Bolton. He was living in Leominster in 1836 when he married ABIGAIL HEYWOOD of Lunenburg. They had one child, CHARLES FRANCIS WELCH, born in Lunenburg. In 1840 the head of the State Lunatic Hospital in Worcester listed his employees: "Horatio N. Welch; Abigail Welch, his wife; age, from 25 to 30. Have been in the Hospital but a short time. Appear well; are capable, industrious, worthy people. Our impressions of them are very favorable." After this mention, the couple disappear for 20 years, and next show up in the 1860 census in Gardner, the town to the west of Leominster. HORATIO was a farmer with a personal estate of $3,000, and CHARLES was a chair maker. Soon after they moved to Stoddard, N.H., where HORATIO became the proprietor of the Central House (a tavern and hotel) and CHARLES joined the army on Sept 13, 1864, and fought in the Civil War. He was in General Meade's Army of the Potomac, and fought in the assault on and fall of Peterburg in the last week of the War. He mustered out June 10, 1865. CHARLES soon headed west, where in 1868 he became a farmer on a farm 3 1/2 miles east of Beloit, Kansas. He was also the assistant marshal, and performed the census enumeration of the town in 1870. He was listed as a farmer with a personal estate valued at $1000. In 1873 he married DOROTHY LUCINDA CROWTHER. Sometime in the next decade, HORATIO and ABIGAIL came to Beloit to live with their son and granddaughter MINNIE MAY WELCH, who was born Oct 19, 1874. ABIGAIL died in Beloit in 1879, but HORATIO was still living there in the 1880 census. HORATIO then returned to Massachusetts where he probably lived in Marlborough with his nephew Charles L. Welch. HORATIO's brother, Phineas Welch, had married Patty Stowe from Marlborough and lived in the home of her parents and inherited the house, known as the Stowe-Welch Farm, when the parents died sometime after 1850. Phineas died in 1870, when his son Charles inherited the house. When HORATIO died Nov. 18, 1887, Charles was appointed administrator of his estate. The inventory of the estate, filed July 22, 1888, came to $1,260.33 in the bank and $20. of clothing. HORATIO was the last of MINNIE MAY WELCH's ancestors to live in Massachusetts.

    Left: "1861 Central House, Stoddard, N. H. C. F. Welch Proprietor"
    Right: 1865 photo of Stoddard looking east; on the left are the Congregational Church, the Central House, the Loomis Hadley house, the Morse shop, and the Morse house. All still remain except for Central House. Capt. Jonathan F. Sanderson first built the Loomis Hadley house around 1834, followed by a tavern and hotel next door on the west side, later known as Central House, until it was razed in 1942. The tavern bar of the Central House ended up in the Spouter Tavern at Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT.

    Photos taken in 2009 of the Congregational Church; the inscription on the War Memorial; the Loomis Hadley house and the Morse shop; and the Morse house.
    Bibliography (all of these books can be downloaded and read from Google Books):