Digging Down East: 52 Ancestors: #19 Susan Morse Marston (1804-?)

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

52 Ancestors: #19 Susan Morse Marston (1804-?)

Susan Morse, my third great grand aunt, was born on this date in 1804, in New Gloucester, Maine, the 4th of 10 children born to Enoch Morse and Eunice Russell, and their first daughter.

As with many of my female colonial ancestors, I know little about Susan. The granddaughter of John Morse, a member of Colonel Edmund Phinney's Regiment of Foot, in the early days of Maine's engagement in the Revolutionary War, she undoubtedly grew up in an environment of anxious anticipation, predicated by the newly formed nation. The towns of Gray and New Gloucester contributed a significant portion of rebellious fervor in those early days, and I imagine she probably met and conversed with many a newly minted patriot.

Photo credit: Serge Melki / Creative Commons

On October 21st, in 1827, Susan and Simeon Marston filed their intention to wed in Gray. Together, they had four children, all born in Gray:

Andrew J., b. 20 October, 1831

John M., b. 17 January 1833

Rebecca, b. 20 January 1835

Samuel M., b. 16 July 1842

After Simeon's death in 1847, Susan married a second time, in 1850, this time to Daniel Leighton of Falmouth. Daniel Leighton was the son of Hatevil Leighton and Lucy Staples, and had been married before, to a Mary Staples.

There exists no evidence as to when Susan died, although it was probably between 1860 and 1870. Her grave is also a mystery.

Photo credit:

Colonial Woman Williamsburg
By Serge Melki from Indianapolis, USA (Colonial Woman Williamsburg Uploaded by russavia) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Sources:

1830 US Census; Census Place: Gray, Cumberland, Maine; Page: 165; Roll Number: 46, Simeon Marston.

1840 US Census; Census Place: Gray Town, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: 139; Page: 547; Image: 1025, Simeon Marston.

1850 US Census; Census Place: Gray, Cumberland, Maine; Page: 219A; Image: 423, Susan Marston.

1860 US Census; Census Place: Falmouth, Cumberland, Maine; Page: 11; Image: 390, Susan Leighton.

Ancestry.com. Maine, Birth Records, 1621-1922 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, Susan Morse.

Black, Howard G., Jr. Vital Records of Gray, Maine to the Year 1930 (Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 2004), p.141.

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.) p. 248.

Maine families in 1790. (Picton Press, 2009), Vol. 10, p.388 viii.

Marriage returns of Cumberland County, Maine, prior to 1892. Maine Genealogical Society Special Publication No. 29. (Picton Press, 1998), p.43.

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This is the 19th in a series, “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks,” coordinated by Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small.