Saturday, April 30, 2016

My 64 ~ Researching My 4th Great Grandparents : Andrew Leighton and Mary Weymouth



My 4th great grandfather, Andrew Leighton, was born on June 7, 1762, in Falmouth, Maine, the oldest son of the 13 children born to Joseph Leighton and Mercy Hall. His father was a prosperous land owner in Falmouth and North Yarmouth, and was a Quaker.

The 1790 U.S. Census for North Yarmouth (present-day West Cumberland) lists Andrew, with 2 males under 16, 2 males under 16, and 2 females. Andrew had married Mary Weymouth probably sometime between 1780 and 1790. Mary was the daughter of James and Molly Weymouth of Gray, Maine.

According to "A Leighton Genealogy," Andrew, his father and a Richard Loring, divided up a 100-acre lot in "the Gore," present-day Freeport, in 1790. He was also elected Captain in the provincial militia in 1808, and was a Justice of the Peace in 1817.

As well as being a prosperous lumber trader, marketing timber for the ships' masts of the day, he also "laid out" the road from Falmouth to Portland. And, in 1800, he built and operated what was known as Leighton's Tavern*, at West Cumberland on the Gray Road, along the stage route to Lewiston, Maine.


Leighton's Tavern



Andrew and Mary had twelve children. All but one lived into adulthood. Notably, their two sons, Joseph and Andrew, were lost at sea presumably off the Georges Bank, aboard one of the earliest and most successful privateers and blockade runners during the War of 1812, the "Dash." According to one account, the best young sailors of the vicinity were anxious to serve on the "Dash," so that her crew was the pick of the region. A local poetess, Eliza Dennison King (1846-1928), would later write:
...
She was manned by a crew of gallant lads
As ever a vessel's deck had trod,
A score and a hundred of them all -
And their fate is known to none but God.

They all belonged to the towns around,
They were brothers and cousins and comrades, too,
Full armed and equipped they put to sea,
And the skies were never a softer blue

But weeks and months and years sped on,
And hearts grew hopeless and cheeks grew pale,
And eyes are dim that have watched so long
To catch a glimpse of her home bound sail.
...

 Joseph and Andrew were 25 and 24 years old respectively. Another son, Stephen, who had also gone to sea in his youth, was also lost at sea, a mere 15 years old.



Capt. Andrew and Mary Leighton are buried in the Methodist Cemetery in West Cumberland, Maine.

Capt. Andrew Leighton Grave, West Cumberland, Maine


Mary Weymouth Leighton Grave, West Cumberland, Maine



* In 1971, the tavern was moved to Schooner Rocks, Cumberland Foreside, and restored. -- Phyllis Sturdivant Sweetser, ed., Cumberland, Maine, in Four Centuries [the Town, 1976], 164-5).


Sources:

Ancestry.com, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012), Ancestry.com.

Bennett, Thomas C., "Vital Records of Cumberland, Maine 1701-1892" (2014). Cumberland Books. Book 1.

Leighton, Perley M. A Leighton genealogy: descendants of Thomas Leighton of Dover, New Hampshire. Compiled by Perley M. Leighton based in part on data collected by Julia Leighton Cornman. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical  Society, 1989.)

"The Story of DASH : Freeport's Famous Privateer," Freeport (Me.) Historical Society (http://freeporthistoricalsociety.org/the-story-of-dash)




Saturday, April 23, 2016

My 64 ~ Researching My 4th Great Grandparents : Allison Libby and Sarah Dam



My 4th great grandfather, Allison Libby, was born in Gorham, Maine, on April 6, 1755. He was the 3rd great grandson of John Libby, "The Immigrant," who arrived on the eastern shores from England in the 1630's. 

John Libby (1602-1682) Memorial Stone, Scarborough, Maine


He was the 2nd son of Allison Libby and Sarah Skillings, one of 11 children born to them. At the age of 21, Allison enlisted at Scarborough, for a term of 3 years, in the Revolutionary War, with the rank of Private. He served in Captain Samuel Thoms' Company, in the 15th Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Col. Benjamin Tupper.  He was discharged on December 13, 1779.



A little over a year later, on February 15, 1781, in Scarborough, Allison took Sarah Dam as his bride. Sarah was born in Gorham on December 12, 1760, the daughter of John Dam and Abigail Libby. As described in The Libby Family in America,":

"After the war, he became one of the first settlers of the northern part of Gorham. The removal took place in February. There was no road from Scarborough to Gorham Corner, nor to Saccarappa. His only route was by Stroudwater Village. From Stroudwater he went back to Saccarappa, thence by a logging road into Windham, crossed the river on the ice at Horse-beef falls, and then by another logging road, with all his possessions loaded upon an ox-sled, reached his lonely home." 

Together, Allison and Sarah Libby had 13 children, the first three in Scarborough, and the rest in Gorham. Following Allison's death, in 1825, Sarah married for the second time widower Daniel Small, another veteran of the Revolutionary War. He is buried in what is now an apple orchard on the Shaving Hill Road, in Limington, Maine.

Allison and Sarah Libby are buried in the North Street Cemetery, in Gorham, Maine.


Allison Libby's Grave, North Street Cemetery, Gorham, Maine


Sarah Libby's Grave, North Street Cemetery, Gorham, Maine

Most Maine Libby descendants pride themselves on knowing their "Libby number." This number is based on a numbering system devised by the author of "The Libby Family in America," Charles T. Libby. His explanation reads thus:



Following this system, my own number is 10-5-4-2-4-2-5-5-1-1.

John the Immigrant
David - 10th child of John
John - 5th child of David
Allison I - 4th child of John
Allison II - 2nd child of Allison (1733-1813)
Allison III - 4th child of Allison (1755-1816)
Harriet - 2nd child of Allison (1787-1869)
Clarence - 5th child of Harriet
Howard - 5th child of Clarence
Richard - 1st child of Howard
Me - 1st child of Richard

Allison Libby is a Patriot in the DAR's Genealogical Research System (GRS), Ancestor #A070199. Now that I am a Daughter, I plan to add him as one of my supplementals.

Sources:

Ancestry.com, Maine, Birth Records, 1621-1922 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010), Ancestry.com, Maine State Archives; Cultural Building, 84 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0084; Pre 1892 Delayed Returns; Roll #: 66

Ancestry.com, Maine Revolutionary War Bounty Applications, 1835-36 (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000), Ancestry.com.

Ancestry.com, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012), Ancestry.com

Libby, Charles Thornton. The Libby Family in America, 1602-1881 (Portland, B. Thurston and Co., 1881), p. 167.

"Maine, Veterans Cemetery Records, 1676-1918", index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KXQ8-QQZ : accessed 14 Aug 2014), Allison Libby, 1806.

“Revolutionary War Service Records,” database and images, Fold3 (www.fold3.com/image/17719508/ : accessed 13 April 2016); service of Allison Libby (Capt. Samuel Thoms’ Co., in the 15th Battalion of Massachusetts Bay Forces commanded by Col. Benjamin Tupper, Revolutionary War); citing Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, compiled 1894 - ca. 1912, documenting the period 1775 - 1784, Record Group 93, National Archives, Washington, D.C.