Digging Down East: Quakers

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

George Leighton, my fifth great grand uncle, was born on this date in 1727 in Dover, New Hampshire, the fifth of eleven children born to Thomas Leighton and Susannah Chesley, and their third son.elat

George married Dorothy Hall, also of Dover, on August 22, 1753. She was the daughter of Hatevil Hall and Sarah Furbish. Like the Halls, George was a Quaker.

Sometime before 1760, with possibly three young children in tow, George and Dorothy settled in Falmouth, Maine, where George became a successful landowner. Land records from Cumberland County show dozens of George's land transactions. He often purchased the rights to common and undivided land from proprietors or their heirs. Often Dorothy would co-sign, waiving her dower rights. Most holdings were described as north of the Presumpscot River, but some were in Cape Elizabeth.

George is listed in Soldiers, Sailors and Patriots of the Revolutionary War / Maine as George Laten, not as soldier, but as a provider and hauler of timber.

Together, George and Dorothy had eight children, the oldest five born in Falmouth:

Pelatiah, b. c1753

Jedediah, b. 1757

Sarah, b. 1758

Hatevil, b. 1760

Abigail, b. 1762

David, b. 1767

Paul, b. 1770

Silas, b. 1771

It was commonly believed that many members of this particular branch of the Leighton family were laid to rest in a granite tomb off the Hardy Road, near the Blackstrap Road, in what is now West Cumberland, Maine. However, there is also a Jedediah Leighton's Family Cemetery in the area, where this photo was taken. Further research will confirm or deny that this is George Leighton's headstone.

Sources:

Ancestry.com. New Hampshire, Births and Christenings Index, 1714-1904 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

"Public Member Trees," database, Ancestry.com, "Bennet-1," for George Leighton (b. 18 Nov 1727), with linked images.

Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Deaths [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001.

Fisher, Carleton Edward and Sue G. Fisher, Soldiers, sailors and patriots of the Revolutionary War / Maine (National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1982, p.457)

Hall, David Brainerd, The Halls of New England (Albany: Joel Munsell's Sons, 1883), p.165.

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.) pp. 55-56.

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This is the 41st in a series, “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks,” coordinated by Amy Johnson Crow at

No Story Too Small.

52 Ancestors: #5 Hannah Wilson Leighton (1760-1813)

Hannah Wilson, the second wife of my 5th great grandfather Joseph Leighton, was born on this date in 1760, in Kittery, in the Province of Maine, which was then part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Hannah was the 5th child of eight children born to Joseph Wilson and Mary Mansfield, and their 3rd of 4 daughters. The Wilsons were early and prominent settlers in Kittery and neighboring New Hampshire, as far back as 1641.

In 1792, at the age of 32, Hannah married Joseph Leighton on the 13th of December. Joseph's first wife, with whom he had 13 children, had died earlier that year in March. Five of the 13 children were under 20 years of age when Hannah became their step-mother.

All 13 of Hannah's step-children had been born in Falmouth (now Portland), in Maine, and it is to Falmouth that she moved to start her new life. Her new husband was well established in the area, having purchased large tracts of land in Falmouth and North Yarmouth, some of which he had already deeded to his third son, Ezekiel.

Hannah's husband, my 5th great grandfather, was also a Quaker, having married first Mercy Hall, the daughter of Hatevil Hall, founder of the Falmouth, Maine, meeting. This is the first evidence of my Quaker roots.

Falmouth (Quaker) Meeting House
Present site:
Lincoln Park, corner of Federal and Pearl Street

Hannah gave Joseph five more children:

Jeremiah, born 21 May 1793

Jane, born 28 July 1794

Dorcas, born 2 March 1796, who died at 2 yrs. old.

Ann, born 9 August 1797

Dorcas, born 2 October 1801.

Her oldest son, Jeremiah, is buried at Evergreen Cemetery, in Portland. I will be taking a picture of his grave this summer/fall. Perley Leighton has her daughter Ann and husband Henry Huston buried in the Methodist cemetery in West Falmouth, which is now off the Blackstrap Road in Cumberland. It has lots of Wilsons, so I will definitely look for them there. Her youngest daughter Dorcas and husband Ebenezer Cobb Libby lived in Gray and are buried in the Gray Village Cemetery.

Hannah died on August 22, 1813. I do not yet know where she is buried, but I now have quite a few leads.

Sources:

Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 2 Feb 2014), memorial page for Jeremiah Leighton (unknown-1884), Find A Grave Memorial no. 118625868, citing Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, Maine.

Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 2 Feb 2014), memorial page for Dorcas Libby (unknown-1832), Find A Grave Memorial no. 116189050, citing Gray Village Cemetery, Gray, Maine.

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.) pp. 57-58.

Stackpole, Everett Schermerhorn. Old Kittery and Her Families. Lewiston, Me.: Press of Lewiston Journal, 1903, p.783.

Sketch credit:

Portland Freedom Trail. http://www.portlandfreedomtrail.org/

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