Israel Through Multiple Generations: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Multiple”

 

Fourth Great-Grandfather’s Unusual Name Is a Family Legacy

Israel Hodgdon: 1646-1675 (Maternal Ninth-Great-Grandfather)
Israel Hodgdon: 1671-1739 (Maternal Eighth-Great-Grandfather)
Mary Hodgdon: 1699-1755 (Maternal Seventh-Great-Grandmother)
Miles Randall: 1723-1791 (Maternal Sixth-Great-Grandfather)
Israel Randall: 1743-1829 (Maternal Fifth-Great-Grandfather)
Israel Randall: 1769-1863 (Maternal Fourth-Great-Grandfather)

When I started tracing my Randall family line, I was intrigued by my fourth-great-grandfather’s rather unusual first name: Israel. I quickly discovered that he was named for his father, my fifth-great-grandfather Israel Randall. I wondered whether the name been used earlier than 1743 when that Israel was born. My research took me back another two generations before I found more Israels in my family tree.

I believe that my ninth-great-grandfather, Israel Hodsdon or Hodgdon, is the first of my ancestors to bear the given name “Israel”. So who was Israel Hodsdon? He is described in a family history book about the families of the Allegheny Valley as follows:

“Israel, son of Nicholas Hodsdon was baptized at Hingham, Massachusetts, July 19, 1646. He moved with his father to Boston and later to Kittery, Maine. It would seem as though Israel Hodsdon and his father as well as some of their neighbors favored the Quakers, who were not popular at that time, for on November 12, 1659….Nicholas Hodsdon was ordered to appear at the second session of the general court, to be held at Boston, and answer to the charge of entertaining Quakers. Israel Hodsdon married, about 1670, Ann, daughter of Miles and Ann (Tetherly) Thompson, of Kittery…Children of Mr. and Mrs. Hodsdon: Ann; Israel, mentioned below.”

I question the accuracy of some of that information. The baptism record referred to in the book and cited by trees on Ancestry is actually the baptism record of an Israel Foulsham, who continued to live in the Hingham area.

However, Israel and his father Nicholas definitely existed. Nicholas was made a freeman in Hingham on March 9, 1636-7, and Hingham granted him a house lot and meadowland. There are baptism records for Israel’s numerous siblings in Hingham. Additionally, land records show Nicholas purchased several tracts in the Boston area in 1650.

The Hodsdon family moved to Maine at some point between 1651 and 1655, when Nicholas appears on records in Kittery. Kittery granted him land next to property owned by Miles Thompson. This land, curiously, seems to have actually been located in Berwick, Maine, fifteen miles inland from the town of Kittery. The map below of Berwick, dated 1630-1700, shows the Hodsdon and Thompson properties near the bottom along the Newichawannock River. It appears that all the early 17^th century settlements in that area may have been referred to as Kittery.

Israel married his next-door neighbor Ann Thompson, daughter of Miles Thompson, in Kittery around 1670. Sadly, the marriage was short-lived. The couple had a son, Israel, in 1671, and a daughter Ann around 1674, just before Israel’s death in 1675.

Son Israel, my eighth-great-grandfather, was only four years old at the time of his father’s death. He appears in the Allegheny Valley book as well, described as follows:

“Israel Hodsdon, was born in Kittery, Maine, 1673-74. The supposition is that he resided with an uncle, Jeremiah Hodsdon, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. On April 7, 1696, the town of Dover, New Hampshire, gave him a grant of land, and in several deeds he gave he is called a housewright or carpenter. He married Ann Wingate, sister of John Wingate; she was born in Dover, February 18, 1667 and was living in 1740. Children: Israel,…Moses, Shadrach, Abigail, Mary.”

We can deduce a few things from this information. First, Israel and his sister Ann married siblings. Ann Hodsdon married John Wingate in 1690, and he is identified above as Ann Wingate Hodsdon’s brother. Secondly, Israel may have been raised by his uncle Jeremiah due to his own father’s early death. And finally, looking at the names Israel Hodsdon chose for his children, we can deduce he was quite religious and partial to the Old Testament.

We can also see that the given name “Israel” continued for another generation, as Israel’s oldest son was named for his father. Son Moses also named a son Israel.

However, my family line comes down through daughter Mary, born in New Hampshire in 1699. She married Nathaniel Randall around 1721, and they settled in the Oyster River area and had seven children. None of those children were named Israel. The eldest son was named Miles, probably in honor of Miles Thompson who was Mary’s grandfather.

Miles, born in 1723, was my sixth-great-grandfather. He married Abigail Runnells in the 1740s, and they lived in Strafford County, New Hampshire. 

Miles Randall Headstone

They named their first son Israel Randall. He was born in 1743 and was my fifth-great-grandfather. Israel married Sarah Chesley and they lived in New Hampshire and Vermont. His headstone appears below, and is located in the Bennett Cemetery in Danville, Vermont.

Israel Randall and Sally Chesley Randall headstone

Their first son, born April 3, 1769, was also named Israel Randall. He married Polly Daniels around 1790. Their eldest daughter, Sally Randall, was my 3^rd Great-grandmother. They also had a son born in 1806 named Israel.

Israel Randall grave in New York.

I was thrilled to learn that the first name “Israel” was passed down over seven generations of the Hodsdon/Hodgdon and Randall families. The name was an amazing legacy shared by multiple men over a span of over 150 years, from 1646 to 1806.

Sources:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hodsdon-25, citing Middlesex County Registry of Deeds Vol 1, p 24 and Kittery Town Records, pg 9, and York County Registry of Deeds.

Map of Berwick. https://www.oldberwick.org/history-articles/historic-publications/the-first-permanent-settlement-in-maine-by-everett-s-stackpole-1926.html

Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley Pennsylvania. John W. Jordan, LL.D. Libraries of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Vol. 3, pg. 8-9. Ancestry.com. U.S., Family History Books [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2025.

Will of Israel Hodgdon. 1739. New Hampshire, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1643-1982.

Findagrave website. Source of headstone photos.