The Famous and Infamous Descendants of my Ancestor Rev. John Lothrop

Have you ever used Google to look up information on your ancestors? I recently searched for my 10th great-grandfather, Reverend John Lothrop [Lathrop] of Barnstable, Massachusetts, and most of the biographical details were things I had already discovered about him.

Photo from Ancestry.com

John was baptized on December 20, 1584, in Etton, East Riding, Yorkshire, England, the son of Thomas Lothrop and Mary Howell. He attended Queen’s College, Cambridge, earning his master’s degree in 1609. Ordained in the Church of England, he later renounced his orders in 1623 to join the “Independents,” who favored congregational control over religious matters rather than political or ecclesiastical interference. The group met privately until they were discovered in 1632, leading to Lothrop and others being arrested and jailed. In 1634, he was offered a pardon if he, his family, and as many of his congregation as possible left for New England. He arrived in Boston, later settling in Scituate, Massachusetts. In 1639, he petitioned Governor Thomas Pence for land for his congregation and was granted the area now known as Barnstable, Massachusetts. A strong advocate for the separation of church and state, he died on November 8, 1653, in Barnstable.

A Google search revealed many famous descendants as well the website "Famous Kin."  He was the ancestor of 6 Presidents of the United States, George H Bush, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George W. Bush, Ulysses S. Grant, James A. Garfield, and Millard Fillmore.

He was the ancestor of 14 Governors and numerous well-known people.  For example, Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The founder of the Morman Church, Joseph Smith 

Actress Sissy Spacek who has won numerous awards for her acting as well as Grammy.

One of my favorite actors, Clint Eastwood from the

films The Outlaw Josey Wales and Pale Rider!

So many other famous people from history and current events

But then there are those more notable relatives for other reasons

Benedict Arnold, who was at one time a hero in the American Revolutionary War and became a Major General, until he defected to the British side in 1780

Another notable relative Tonya Harding whose ex-husband took part in attack on her rial figure skater, Nancy Kerrigan.  Her part in covering up the assault resulted in her being banned from figure skating for life.

Then you have that relative that you wish you had never known about: Jeffrey Dahmer.  

It can be interesting discovering your connections to famous people from history or who made history but be prepared to find that you may be related to someone more infamous.

[all photos taken from Wikipedia]

The Loss of a Royal Ancestral line

 One of my favorite ancestral family lines to trace was my great-grandmother, Edna Southard.  Her ancestry was one of my early successes when I began to really dive into genealogy.  I knew little about genealogy and less about her because my father never knew either of his biological grandmothers, partly because they died so young and my father born so late in parent's life (his mother was 42 when he was born).  My father never really was interested in family history and never asked much about his family besides who the Smith's the cemetery buried in the lot with his grandfather.

Edna Estelle {Southard] Pease

My great-grandmother Edna Estelle Southard was the first person I found who was adopted.  Her maiden name in my dad's bible was Pease, but when I asked more about her, he contacted his aunt by phone.  He learned his grandmother had been adopted and her real surname was Southard from Corinna, Maime.  Over the years, I found her ancestor Constant Southworth was the first settler of the town, he was also my first Revolutionary War ancestor.  Then to find gold at Maine Historical Society in Portland, Maine with the Southworth/Southard Genealogy published in 1903 by Samuel G. Webber completed my ancestry to Plymouth with my first Mayflower ancestors, John Alden and Myles Standish.  

Webber's book also included tracing the family back to England and provided a royal ancestral line tracing back generations of Knights, Lords, Earls, Dukes and Kings from all the early Royal families of Europe and beyond.   For years this family was my connection to being related distantly to the current royal family of England.

However, as genealogy grew popularity and more documentation began to be needed for proof of ancestry. Question from scholars in genealogy began to doubt the Southworth connection.  It had always been a sticking point of proving that Edward Southworth of Leiden, Holland (father of Constant Southworth, the first to settle in America) was the same Edward Southworth of Samlesbury, England whose ancestry could be traced back generations of nobility.  Others in England with the surname Southworth were proposed as the ancestors of Edward Southworth.  Some were discarded and still left open the possibility of the Samlesbury connection, but solid evidence to prove the line has not been found. Even the latest issue of Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants by Boyd Roberts still includes the Southworth line but states it is now unproven and needs more research.

In 2019, Sue Allan published her research "In Search of Separatist Edward Southworth of Leiden."  She details her work on other possible ancestors of Edward being from Clarborough, Nottinghamshire, England.  This Southworth family had several connections to the separatists who fled to Leiden in the early 1600s. There are connections of the Southworth's of Clarborough and Gov. William Bradford's family's marriages with these Southworths  (besides William marrying Alice (Carpenter) Southworth, Edward Southworth's widow).  She also highlights the fact that the Southworths of Samlesbury were strong catholic supporters while the Southworths of Clarborough were protestants aligned with the separatists.  Edward Southworth's father-in-law, Alexander Carpenter was also a protestant and would have sought a marriage for his daughter with Clarborough Southworths over the catholic Southworths.

Sue does add the caveat that the Clarborough Southworths may be descendants of the Southworths from Samlesbury, but further back in the family tree.  I have to admit I hung on to the belief that DNA testing of the Southworth YDNA would also prove the Samlesbury lineage which it has shown that they do share the same YDNA haplogroup.  That does not prove the lineage that Webber's claims in his book as the haplogroup is the most common among European groups.  However, it does not disprove earlier family connections.  Sue mentions that Sir John de Southworth who died in 1415 owned lands in both Nottinghamshire and Lancashire, England which he deposed off before leaving for France.  His son and heir, Sir Thomas de Southworth died in 1432 made no mention of the Nottinghamshire lands, suggesting these lands may have gone to a younger son who could be the founder of the Clarborough line of Southworths.  Recent Ancestry DNA updates on ethnicity currently show my brothers and myself share a percentage of common DNA from the midlands area of England, exactly where the Southworth family of Clarborough were from.

The new ancestral line is the following:

1. Aymond (Edward) Southworth of Welham, Nottinghamshire, England (based on The Visitations of the County of Nottinghamshire in the Years 1569 & 1614)

2. Richard Southworth b before 1513; d. 1545, Clarborough, Nottinghamshire, m. Ellen Levesey.

3. Richard Southworth b 1544, Clarborough; d Feb 1630/1 Clarborough; m. Immyn Ashton.

4. Edward Southworth bp 12 April 1585, Clarborough, Nottinghamshire, England; d 1621, London, England; m. Alice Carpenter in 1611.  Edward moved to Leiden and helped finance the pilgrims trip to the New World and returned to England before he died.  His widow married Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

5. Constant Southworth b 1614 in Leiden, Holland and with his brother Thomas settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1628.  Constant is our Southworth ancestor (my 9th great-grandfather).

Sorry to all cousins who believed in the earlier ancestry of Edward Southworth.  Sue Allan's book can still be purchased online.  

Lovewell's Fight: The Woods Family

 

The Woods Family seems to have had the most family members involved in the fight.  One of them became more famous for his act during the fight than the others. 

The WOODS FAMILY

Nathaniel Woods was born on October 19, 164 in Groton, Massachusetts, son of Nathaniel and Eleanor (Whitney) Woods.  He was the grandson of my 8^th great-grandparents Samuel and Alice (Rushton) Woods of Groton, Massachusetts and nephew of my ancestor Abigail (Woods) Barron, who was an aunt to the mentioned Elias Barron by marriage to Samuel Barron.   In 1725, Nathaniel was 30 years old and unmarried.  He enlisted from Groton and made a sergeant of the company.  When the fort had been erected at Ossipee Pond, he was left in charge.  He and the other survivors from the battle arrived in Dunstable, Massachusetts five days afterwards.  Maybe the fight and loss of his younger brother affected Nathaniel by thinking of marriage and a family soon, that his brother never got a chance to do.  Nathaniel married his first wife, Alice French on 14 September 1725 and would have 6 children and two more wives before his death in 1766 in Pepperell, Massachusetts.

Daniel Woods was born on May 10, 1696, in Groton, Massachusetts and brother to Nathaniel Woods.  In 1725, he was 28 years old and unmarried.  He enlisted with his brother from Groton, Massachusetts.  He was killed in the battle and buried on the field.

Thomas Woods was the first cousin to both Nathaniel and Daniel Woods, son of Thomas Woods and his 2^nd wife, Hannah Whitney.  The same relationship with the others as Nathaniel Woods.  In 1725, Thomas was only 19 years old and youngest in the company.  He also enlisted from Groton.  He was killed in the battle of May 9, 1725, and buried on the field.  Now two of the Woods family members had been lost.

Abigail Woods, sister to the above Thomas Woods, was born 19 August 1692 in Groton, Massachusetts.  She married John Chamberlain on 13 October 1712 in Concord, Massachusetts.  In 1725, Abigial was 32 years old and pregnant with their 4^th child.  John was 33 years old and enlisted from Groton in 1725.  John and his father were farmers and millers in Groton until his father was murdered in 1709.   During the fight, John was wounded but not seriously.  He is given credit as being the one who shot and killed the Abenaki leader Paugus.  Seth Wyman is credited in some sources, but he was said to have killed 2 natives and not Paugus. 

                                An engraving by John Gilmary Shea, 1872, Wikipedia

Pat Higgins wrote about Lovewell’s fight between the two men in his blog “The Maine story” as follows: “As the story goes, Chamberlain's gun became fouled in the course of the fight. He crept down to a small brook to wash it out. As he stepped out onto the bank, a warrior on a similar mission approached from the opposite bank. The two men recognized each other and began furiously to prepare their guns. Reputedly, Paugus said to the ranger, "I shall now very quick kill you." "Perhaps not," answered Chamberlain. He had an ace in the hole; his gun primed itself with just a thump on the ground Chamberlain had time to take careful aim while Paugus was still priming his gun from his horn. In a flash the white man fired and Paugus lay shot through the heart.  Quite interestingly, this tale was not told until after the last ranger died in 1798. With no one to refute the story, it spread like wildfire and was hotly argued by the 19th century historians”

Chamberlain’s descendants claim that he was known as “Paugus John” afterwards adding to their claim it was him and not Wyman.  There was a story that Chamberlain years later killed one of Chief Paugus’ sons who came looking to kill Chamberlain to avenge his father’s death.   So many years later it’s hard to tell the truth from fiction.

John returned home to his wife and family and had six children in total.  His wife, Abigail died on January 20, 1738, whereas John survived until his death in 1758 in Groton, Massachusetts.

The story of Lovewell’s Fight has been remembered in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and both Nathaniel Hathorne and Henry David Thoreau wrote about Lovewell’s Fight.  There is even a YouTube Ballard about the battle.  There are books published on the fight as well.  There is a good podcast by Jim Cornelius with more details on the background history of the towns and Capt. Lovewell leading up to the fight.

Lovewell's Fight: Robbins, Jefts and Barron

Three relatives to my ancestors were killed in the Fight at Fryeburg.

ROBBINS

Jonathan Robbins was the son of my 8^th great-grandfather, George Robbins and his 2^nd wife, Alice Frye.  He was a half-brother to my ancestor, John Robbins, son of George Robbins and his first wife.  Jonathan was born on November 19, 1686 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts and moved to Dunstable about 1710 where he settled.  He married Margaret Lund on January 16, 1711-2 in Concord, Massachusetts.  He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in 1724 and served on 3 expeditions with Capt. John Lovewell.  In 1725, he was 38 years old and married for 14 years with five children.  He set out as one of two Lieutenants under Lovewell in April 1725.  On May 9, 1725, after finding their first Native and returning to get their packs, Lovewell’s company was ambushed and both Jonathan and Lt. Farwell were wounded early in the engagement.  He eventually died from his wounds.  A manuscript of the fight states that Jonathan asked to have pistol left with him.  He said “the Indians will come in the morning to scalp me and I will kill one more of em if I can.”  His widow petitioned for administration of his estate.  She remarried to William Shattuck in 1729.

JEFTS

John Jefts was born in 1696 in Billerica, Massachusetts, son of John and Lydia Jefts and grandson of my 9^th great-grandparents Henry and Hannah (Births) Jefts.  He was a nephew to my ancestor Hannah (Jefts) Spaulding.  In 1725, he was unmarried at 28 years old.  He enlisted from Groton, Massachusetts, but was probably a resident of Billerica.  John was killed instantly early in the battle and buried on the field.

BARRON

Elias Barron was born in 1695 in Groton, Massachusetts, the youngest son of my 8^th Great-grandparents, Ellis and Mary (Sherman) Barron.  He was a brother to my 7^th great-grandfather, Samuel Barron.  He married Priscilla Wilson in 1718 in Concord, Massachusetts.  In 1725, Elias Barron was 32 years old and had three children.  He enlisted from Groton, Massachusetts.  During the fight, he was wounded and said to have crawled away and died near the battlefield.  His widow remarried to Jonathan Mead and died in July 1740.

                                            The monument to the men killed in Lovewell's Fight

                         Dedication of the monument at Fryeburg, Maine in 1904 by the                                                            Massachusetts Society of Colonial Wars

Lovewell's Fight: Fulham-Whitney Families

The more I researched the participants in Lovewell’s company, I realized that this affected not only a direct male ancestor, but a direct female ancestor, Tabitha Whitney. 

FULHAM-WHITNEY FAMILY

Tabitha Whitney was my 7^th Great-grandmother, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah (Hapgood) Whitney.  She was born August 22, 1696, in Watertown, Massachusetts.  She had married her first husband, Jacob Fulham of Watertown, Massachusetts in 1715.  In 1725, she was 28 years old and had been married for 10 years and was the mother of three children with a fourth one due within the year by Jacob.  He was 31 years old and enlisted from Weston, Massachusetts and also yeoman or farmer.  He was made a sergeant in Capt. Lovewell’s company.  Jacob was one the men killed in the battle.  From the Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settler of Watertown, Massachusetts by Henry Bond, [1855] p. 227: “A sergeant named Fulham, and an Indian, distinguished by his dress and activities, singled out each other and both fell, mutually slain by their antagonist weapon.”  

Monument at Fryeburg, Maine

Tabitha gave birth to late husband’s son, Elisha Fulham on June 26, 1725, some two months after his death.  She filed a probate petition for administration of her late husband’s estate on August 10, 1725.  An Inventory taken listed that Jacob owned two Bibles and other small books, showing he was a literate man for the time.   Among the creditors of the estate was George Parkhurst of Weston, Massachusetts.  George married Tabitha (Whitney) Fulham on April 19, 1726.  Jacob’s father, Francis Fulham, petitioned to be guardian of his son’s children.  An agreement between Francis and George Parkhurst, now the husband of Tabitha, allowed George to remain on his son’s estate if he provided for Tabitha and his son’s children.  The final division of Jacob’s estate was made in 1741.  George and Tabitha Parkhurst had five children together with their last child born days before George’s death on March 17, 1734. Their son, Jonathan Parkhurst being my direct ancestor.   She married her 3^rd husband Samuel Hunt on August 10, 1736, whom she remained with until her death on November 2, 1762, in Harvard, Massachusetts.

Isaac Whitney was the brother of Tabitha Whitney.  He was born in 1703 in Watertown and was 22 years old in 1725.  He enlisted from Concord, Massachusetts, but probably was from Watertown or Weston.  Isaac was one of the ten men who were left behind at the fort in Ossipee and survived the battle. He and the other men returned to Massachusetts five days after the Fight in Fryeburg, Maine.  He settled in Concord, Massachusetts where he was a glazer (term for a glass cutter and or pottery maker).  Probate for his estate was in 1744 in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.  The fort at Ossipee was built on what is eferred to as an Indian Mound or burial ground.  Today that area is now a golf course.  The Indian Mound is maintained by the owners of the course.

Lovewell's Fight: The Farrar Family

 
Though I'm from Maine, I was surprised to discover that my ancestor Jacob Farrar died in a Colonial Fryeburg conflict.   I am sure this is taught to local school children from this area, but I had never heard of Lovewell’s Fight in 1725.  When I read that Jacob had been killed in this fight between the Native people and the early colonists from Massachusetts, I had to research what this was about Lovewell’s fight or the Battle of Pequawket (the Abenaki name of the area that is now Fryeburg, Maine).

                                Painting of Lovewell's Fight by John Burton

The more I studied the surnames of the men who were killed or survived, I realized many of them were in my ancestry.  Not only were these men descendants of my ancestors, but were brothers, cousins, and brothers-in-law to each other and my ancestors.  This one small skirmish affected several of my ancestral families which I was never aware of until now, including another female ancestor.

The fight occurred on May 9, 1725, during the war in northern New England. Captain John Lovewell led a privately organized company of scalp hunters, organized into a makeshift ranger company, and Chief Paugus led the Abenaki at Pequawket.  Capt. Lovewell sought to profit from colonial bounties on Native scalps, while Chief Paugus defended his people’s land against encroaching settlers along the Kennebec River in present-day Maine. Capt. Lovewell’s party consisted of 47 men, who were inexperienced with ranging and with a smaller group than had accompanied Lovewell in past expeditions.  They left Dunstable, Massachusetts (now Nashua, New Hampshire) on April 16, 1725.  Their Indian guide and two other men returned to Dunstable unable to continue.  With one of their men falling ill, they built a fort at what is now Ossipee, New Hampshire where they left ten men including a doctor and supplies for their return.  The other 34 men pressed on to Pequawket, some thirty miles away.

That morning of the 9^th while being led in prayer by the chaplain, they spotted a lone Abenaki warrior.  Suspecting he was a decoy and more warriors were ahead, the men tried to hide their packs and pursued the warrior, killing and scalping him.  However, a larger group of Abenaki warriors discovered their packs and proceeded to wait for the men to return.  As the men returned single file, the warriors attacked, killing Capt. Lovewell and his lieutenants instantly.  During the 10-hour battle Chief Paugus was also killed.  The colonists retreated.  Fourteen men were dead with four wounded, three of them died on the return to the Ossipee fort.  Abenaki deserted the area and left for Canada. There are no known number of men the Abenaki lost.

Some sources give the date of the battle as May 8^th because they did not want the fact that the chaplain who had led the prayer that Sunday morning had been the first one to scalp the first Abenaki warrior on the sabbath.  By making the battle the day before, it would preserve the chaplain’s reputation.

A monument dedicated to those who died in the battle was erected in Fryeburg, Maine.  The grave marker for those men who died there.

THE FARRAR FAMILY

Jacob Farrar was my 7^th great-grandfather.  He was born on October 23, 1692, in Concord, Massachusetts, the son of Jacob and Susanna (Reddiat) Farrar.  His family did not have any positive incidents with the native people. His grandfather, also named Jacob Farrar had been killed by Indians during King’s Philip’s War in 1675 in Lancaster, Massachusetts.  In another raid or massacre often referred to in records, his infant uncle, Henry Farrar at age two was killed in 1676.  His uncle John Farrar was later killed in an Indian attack in 1707.   Jacob married Sarah Wood in 1714 and had a family of five children. In 1725, he was 33 years old, and the temptation of the bounty placed on an Indian scalp at 100 pounds would have been hard to resist.  With the hero, Capt. John Lovewell leading them, it must have felt like a sure bet that this would provide more money than he could earn for farming.   Knowing his family’s relationship with native people he must have felt it would be vengeance for his family relatives. He enlisted from Concord and besides his family members who joined him, he probably knew the other men from Concord in the company.   Jacob was wounded in the battle and said to have expired after midnight by the pond (now Lovewell Pond).  His widow, Sarah was named administrix of his estate on June 9, 1725, with her late husband’s uncle George Farrar and her father, Josiah Wood as bondsmen.  Inventory of his estate contained books which prove that Jacob was literate.  She remarried to David Parlin on April 9, 1726, in Concord, Massachusetts, who became the guardian of her children.  The division of the estate between Jacob’s widow, Sarah Parlin and his children, Jacob and Ephraim Farrar, Sarah Conant (my ancestor), Mary Melvin and Hannah Farrar occurred on August 8, 1743. 

Mary Farrar was the sister to Jacob Farrar.  In 1725, she was 30 years old and had married David Melvin in 1715 in Concord, Massachusetts.  Her husband was 34 years old, and they had five children at that time.  David enlisted from Concord, Massachusetts with his brother-in-law and his brother Eleazer Melvin.  David was one of the 20 men who returned home from the battle, probably to the relief of his wife and children, despite the loss of her brother.  David’s brother Eleazer also survived the battle.  However, only 20 years later, both brothers joined the Siege of Louisbourg in 1745 in what is now Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.  David was made a Captain in Col. Willard’s regiment.  David was not so lucky this time as he was wounded and died on November 17, 1745.  However, his brother was also wounded, but survived, dying in 1756.  Mary (Farrar) Melvin remarried to John Edwards in 1749.  She died September 2, 1756, in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Joseph Farrar, son of George and Mary (Howe) Farrar, was the first cousin to Jacob Farrar.  In 1725, he was 33 years old. He had married Mary Hoskins in 1716 and had three children.  It was his father George Farrar who the bondsman for his cousin Jacob’s widow in 1725. Both George and Jacob Farrar were grandsons of my 9^th great-grandparents, Jacob and Hannah (Hayward) Farrar.  Joseph enlisted from Concord and was one of the men who survived the battle and returned home.  Although, it is not known why, but Joseph died before August 13, 1733, when probate records show Nathan Brown was appointed guardian for the children of Joseph Farrar, late of Concord, Massachusetts.

Marriage found in War of 1812 pension

 

When researching my paternal grandmother’s ancestry, I try to keep track of what events occurred during my ancestor’s lifetime.  For example, my 3^rd great-grandfather, Peter J. Skinner (born 17 January 1784 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine and died on 23 July 1874 in Casco, Maine) was born after the Revolutionary War which his father participated in and Peter was too old during the Civil War in which several of his sons served as soldiers in the Union Army.  However, Peter Skinner was just the right age (30 years old) to serve in the War of 1812.  This representing three generations of men serving at a time of conflict.

Despite being called the War of 1812, it was a conflict between Great Britain and the United States which began in 1812 and did not end until 1815 officially.  Some of the basic reasons that began the conflict was due to British restrictions to impede trade by blockades between the States and France which Britian was at war with.  The impressment of American sailors into the British Royal Navy, claiming they were British deserters and Britain’s support of Native American resistance of American expansion further west since the Revolutionary war.  America had only gained its independence from Britian 36 years beforehand.  On June 1, 1812, President James Madison sent a declaration of War to Congress, and the War of 1812 began the day after Madison signed the measure into law on June 19, 1812.

 

President James Madison (Wikipedia)

Maine, then part of Massachusetts, was a base for smuggling and illegal trade between the United States and the British. Until 1813, the region was generally quiet except for privateer actions near the coast. In September 1813, the United States Navy's brig Enterprise fought and captured the Royal Navy brig Boxer off Pemaquid Point. On July 11, 1814, Thomas Masterman Hardy took Eastport, Maine without a shot and the entire American garrison, 65 men of Fort Sullivan peacefully surrendered. The British temporarily renamed the captured fort "Fort Sherbrooke". 

In September 1814, John Coape Sherbrooke led 3,000 British troops from his base in Halifax in the "Penobscot Expedition".  In 26 days, he raided and looted Hampden, Bangor and Machias, Maine while also destroying 17 American ships.  He won the Battle of Hampden with the loss of two men and only one American. The British occupied the town of Castine, Maine for the rest of the war.  The Treaty of Ghent returned the territory the United States. (Source Wikipedia)

 

John C. Sherbrooke (from Wikipedia)

From the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia of the War of 1812, p. 210 we find Peter Skinner’s name as a soldier in Capt. E. Cobb’s Company and Lieut. Col. J. E. Foxcroft’s regiment with service from Sept. 10 to Sept. 24, 1814; raised at Gray, Maine and service at Portland, Maine during this time of the raids occurring further north in Maine by John Sherbrooke.

After the war, Peter married his 1^st wife, Susanna Mitchell, probably a cousin as his mother was Katherine Jordan and Susanna’s mother was Sarah Jordan about 1815.  They had one daughter, Catherine born in 1816 and Susanna died in 1820.  Peter then married Sarah (Sally) Meserve.  No record of Peter’s marriage had been found in the town of Raymond, Maine where he lived or in Cumberland County marriage records.  As his first child was born in 1822, it was reasonable to assume he was married about 1821.  Peter and Sally Skinner had 11 children born in Raymond, Maine where Peter was a farmer.  The area of Raymond which they resided in was annexed to form the town of Casco, Maine which was his residence afterwards.

Vital Records of Raymond, Maine, book 1, p. 64

Fold3 has been a website where Military records for soldiers can be located.  For many years, the only record for Peter Skinner was a card showing his widow, Sally’s pension number for her husband’s service in the War of 1812.  

However, Fold3 has been adding the War of 1812 pension records to its site over the past few years.  Now the Widow’s Pension of Sally Skinner is available. 

Although I knew the dates and company that Peter had served in, it was his date of marriage to his wife, Sally that was the true gem of the record.  Sally had to show that she was Peter’s widow and entitled to a pension by proving she married him and witnesses to state she was his widow and had not remarried after his death.  The Widow’s Pension provided the marriage date of January 27, 1822, in Raymond, Maine, with eight months to spare before their first child was born.

 

The witnesses she provided were her daughter-in-law, Ellen (Gay) Skinner and Ellen’s brother, Albert R. Gay and their mother Mary Gay.  The Gay family had been the closest neighbors to Peter and Sally Skinner.  Her petition for a pension was approved in 1879.  Sally died on 20 October 1889 in Casco, Maine.  Most of the information in the pension was already known from the above published lists of soldiers of the War of 1812.  Sally included that Peter Skinner had married before their marriage in 1822, but no date which would have been another gem to have.  

Both Peter and Sally and several of their children are buried in Murch Cemetery, Casco, Maine.  Peter's first wife and daughter are buried in Skinner Cemetery, Raymond, Maine.