A Quilting Queen: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Homemade”

 

The Extraordinary Life of Mary Abbott Bridge’s Quilt

Mary Abbott Bridges: 1701-1774 (Maternal First Cousin 9x Removed)
 

Sometimes I run across a little story or piece of information that just delights or enlightens me so much that I need to blog about it, even though the ancestor in question is so distantly related to me that the connection seems ridiculous. Frankly, I don’t care. To me, the important thing about genealogy is learning about the past through my ancestors. History is my motivation. So here I am blogging about a first cousin NINE TIMES REMOVED. But this cousin was an artist with needle and thread, and she deserves to be remembered.

Mary Abbott was born March 23, 1701, to parents Nehemiah Abbott and Abigail Lovejoy. Abigail Lovejoy was the sister of Anne Lovejoy, my eighth-great-grandmother. The Abbott and Lovejoy families all lived in Andover, Massachusetts. Mary was one of Nehemiah and Abigail’s three children.

As the only daughter, Mary seems to have taken responsibility for her parents. She didn’t marry while she was a young woman but remained in the family home. On August 31, 1738, she married a widower with five children, James Bridges. She was 37 years old. She and James had three additional children.

During the 1700s, nearly all colonial women were accomplished seamstresses. They needed to make and mend clothing, bedding and any other fabric object needed in their homes. Some were even spinning their own thread and weaving their own fabrics, although during the early 17^th century most fabric was still being imported from England. Mary Abbott was more than just a good seamstress, however. She was a true artist. Around 1738, she finished a large whole-cloth quilt, which has, shockingly, survived for nearly three centuries. As a whole-cloth quilt, the quilt top is a single, solid-color piece of fabric. The artistry comes from the elaborate pattern Mary handstitched in a contrasting thread color to bind the quilt layers together.

The quilt was one of the historic quilts described and recorded as part of the Massachusetts Quilt Project, and the quilt was also included in Lynne Bassett’s book, Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth.  Bassett described Mary’s quilt as “the earliest bed quilt believed to have been made in Massachusetts”. 

The Quilt Index describes the quilt as being made of a “plain-weave” worsted wool fabric with wool batting and backing. The edges were turned in, so no separate binding fabric was used. The color is described variously as brown, green or “greenish brown”, which doesn’t sound very attractive. However, one source I read said that colonists in the early 1700s preferred basic, dark colors such as browns, dark blues, and greys, so Mary’s fabric choice was fairly standard for that era. Mary used a blue worsted thread to sew the pattern.

The Quilt index calls the stitching pattern a “motif design” with “feathering” and the design is described as a “framed center medallion.” The Bassett book provides a richer description, noting that the “elegant quilting pattern” was a “combination of English tradition and New England design innovation…Typical of English framed center-medallion design, a central quatrefoil motif—framed by feathered vines terminating in opposing curves at the corners—is surrounded by closely worked vines blooming in an impossible array of stylized flowers, leaves and fruit. A variety of feathered borders provides structure to this wild arrangement.”

The quilt in its current state is 86.5 x 65 inches. According to the Quilt Index, the quilt is structurally sound although worn. As you can see from the image above, the quilt’s pattern does not seem to be complete. The Quilt Index indicates the quilt was “cut down and patched.” I believe a quarter to one-third of the quilt has been cut off, probably due to some sort of damage, with parts of the lost section used to patch the remainder. You can see below that the pattern of the patch doesn’t match that of the surrounding area The original would have had a symmetrical pattern, with the center rosette complete instead of being cut off. I would guess the original dimensions were likely 86.5 x 90 or possibly 100 inches.

So how did Mary manage to create this piece of fabric art? One source I read suggested that most colonial women bought whole-cloth quilts from England, as they didn’t have time to sew for pleasure or beauty during days filled with cooking, childcare, laundry, gardening, etc. Any sewing would have involved maintaining the family’s clothes. Quilting was a pastime for wealthy women, the source said.

The Abbott family was not wealthy, but Mary would have been richer in terms of time than her contemporaries. She was unmarried during her twenties and early thirties, so had no children or husband to care for. Even so, the quilt must have taken an enormous amount of time to complete. Preparing the pattern would have been a huge task by itself. She may have drawn the pattern directly onto the fabric using charcoal, or she may have used a paper template and used a pin to poke the pattern into the fabric. Given the size of the quilt and the elaborate pattern, coupled with her other household responsibilities, I would estimate the project took her at least two years to complete—two years of squinting in poor light in a room either too hot or too cold.   

The Quilt Index record estimates the completion date of the quilt as 1738, which is the year she married James Bridges. Bassett believes the quilt may have been a trousseau piece, “evidence of her desire to bring elegance to her new home.” There is no way to know for certain when she made the piece.

Bassett also notes that James Bridges was a man of “great influence and considerable wealth” who owned several slaves. While her married life may have been financially comfortable, it ended tragically. Her husband James was a maltster, which involved soaking, germinating and then drying grains to produce malt, which was most often used for brewing beer. The drying process required the use of a large kiln. Apparently, James had some sort of accident involving the kiln, as his headstone states said he was “Being melted to death by extreem heat.” What a horrible fate! He was only fifty years old at the time of his death. Mary was left a widow with three young children, ages 8, 6 and 4, and a teenage stepdaughter and 18-year-old stepson. 

James Bridges' headstone with cause of death at bottom

I have been unable to find information about Mary’s life after her husband’s death. Some records claim she remarried in 1750 to a man named Fiske, and that she died in 1774, but I have not been able to confirm the marriage or death.

The history of the quilt is easier to trace. According to the Bassett book, Mary gave her daughter Chloe the quilt. Chloe married Timothy Osgood in 1765. Bassett wrote:

“At that time, it was still the height of fashion to have a whole-cloth quilt on the most important bed in the house, and certainly Chloe welcomed the gift. The quilt passed next to Chloe and Timothy’s son John Osgood (b. 1773), who married Betsy Fuller. John and Betsy’s daughter Harriot (b. 1812) brought the quilt with her to Canada when she married Ralph Rugg of Quebec in 1836.”

Bassett reported that the quilt was donated to the McCord Museum in Montreal, but the museum no longer lists the quilt as being in their collection. The Quilt Index states that the quilt is now in private hands. It is unclear if the quilt had merely been lent to the museum by Mary’s descendants who then reclaimed it, or whether the museum sold it to a private collector.

The location of Mary Abbott Bridges’ quilt is far less important than the fact that it has survived an amazing 288 years. This was not a piece of artwork carefully packed in an archival storage container. Instead, it was a practical household item, used for decades to keep family members warm on cold Massachusetts nights. I hope Mary’s descendants appreciated both the beauty of the quilt and the hard work and artistry that went into its creation.

Sources:

The Quilt Index. Record 11-37-6786. Mary Abbott Whole Cloth Quilt. https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=11-37-6786

Massachusetts Quilt Documentation Project (MassQuilts). https://www.massquilts.org/MassQuilts_Project.htm

Massachusetts Quilts: Our Common Wealth. Bassett, Lynne Z. University Press of New England. 2009.

The Serious Side to a Funny Incident: 52 Ancestors 2026 Prompt “Changed My Thinking”

 

Anthony Nutter and the Attack on Colonial Tax Officials

Anthony Nutter: 1630-1685 (Maternal 9^th Great-Grandfather)
 

When I first saw the engraving pictured below, I was amused. The man depicted laughing uproariously at the two other men scuffling in the fireplace was my ninth-great-grandfather, Anthony Nutter. The violence depicted looked like a bar brawl to me. I assumed the men had drunk too much and had gotten into a scuffle. The description accompanying the illustration referred to Anthony as a “tall big man” who accompanied his friend Wiggin when they “visited Mason when the latter got his wig burned.” That description trivializes the incident, which was far more serious than I’d surmised. Rather than a scuffle amongst friends, the fight was political—an act of resistance by colonial settlers against British overreach. I had to drastically change my thinking about the meaning of the illustration.

Anthony Nutter was the son of Hatevil Nutter and his wife Ann Ayers Nutter. Anthony was born in England around 1630, and traveled to what is now Stratford County, New Hampshire with his parents and siblings sometime prior to 1640.  In 1662, at the age of 32, he married Sarah Langstaff. They had at least eight children, perhaps more than ten.

Anthony first lived in Dover Neck, New Hampshire, but eventually moved across the Piscataqua River to what is now Newington, New Hampshire, but was then called Welshman’s Cove on Bloody Point. He inherited the property from his father in 1674, and fortified the house into a garrison. Anthony became a freeman in 1662, and was a “corporall” in 1667, and was called a “leftenant” by 1683. These titles probably referred to militia positions—the colonists needed to protect themselves from raids by native tribes and the French. He served as a selectman in 1666 and 1667, as a Representative to the colonial General Court for six years between 1674 and 1684, and was named to the Provincial Council in 1679. He was obviously a respected citizen.

Historical Marker in the Bloody Point area of New Hampshire

So what led him to participate in a brawl with colonial bigwig Robert Mason and the Lieutenant Governor of New Hampshire Walter Barefoot?

In the 1680s, there was conflict in the colonies over the control of land in what is now New Hampshire. The area had originally been part of the Massachusetts Colony, but was eventually separated into a separate entity called a “royal province”. At that time, a man named Rober Mason asserted a claim that his family owned all the land in the province, and he arrived in the area with a warrant from the king and the expectation that all the colonists would begin paying him to lease their lands.  As might be expected, the colonists objected. They believed they had clear title to their lands and refused to pay rents, taxes or any other fees to any government entity connected to Mason.

Mason curried favor with the Provincial Governor, Edward Cranfield, so Cranfield attempted to enforce the lease arrangement. He was unsuccessful; his officers were unable to enforce his orders. Cranfield returned to England, turning over his duties to his Lietuenant Governor, Walter Barefoot.

The book Colonial Life in New Hampshire describes what led to the Nutter/Wiggin incident:

“Barefoot was not an improvement over his predecessor and used every means in his power to annoy the colonists. During his short stay an incident occurred which shows the contempt with which the government was held by the settlers. Thomas Wiggin and Anthony Nutter, who had formerly been members of the assembly, called one day at the house of Barefoot to remonstrate with him concerning the injustice of his proceedings. Mason, who was his guest at the time, was also present. During the discussion, the visitors told Mason very plainly and forcibly that his claim to the land amounted to nothing. This so enraged him that he took hold of Wiggin to force him from the house.

Wiggin, who was a powerful man, seized Mason by the collar and threw him with great violence across the room and into the fireplace, where his clothing and legs were severely burned. Barefoot upon coming to his assistance was treated even more severely. Several of his teeth were knocked out and two of his ribs were broken. Mason meantime called loudly upon his servants to bring his sword, but upon its being brought, Nutter quickly took it from him, and mocked the discomfiture of the highest officer of the state.”

Another description of the incident said that the fight was broken up by neighbors who were alerted by the screams of Barefoot’s maid.

Neither Nutter nor Wiggin faced any criminal charges for their altercation with two powerful men, even though both of those men were left with fairly serious injuries. Nutter and Wiggin had walked into the meeting with confidence, unafraid of Mason and Barefoot. While they were both big, strong men, I believe they felt more emboldened by the support of their fellow colonists. They knew that powerful titles and rank meant little so far from England and the king. The outcome proved them right. Barefoot soon lost his position and was replaced, while Mason was never able to assert his claim of ownership over the province’s land.

The fight at Barefoot’s house seems to have occurred in the early to mid 1680s when Anthony Nutter was in his early fifties. In 1685, he contracted smallpox. The journal of Rev. Pike noted:

“Feb 19. Lt. Anthony Nutter of Welch-Cove deceased of the smal-pox bef: it came out.”

I’m not sure what the reference to “before it came out” means. Before the rash appeared? Anthony Nutter died from the disease at the age of fifty-five. I have been unable to find his probate or burial records.

While I first looked at the story of Anthony Nutter and Thomas Wiggin’s fight with Mason and Barefoot as a humorous incident of drunken machismo, I changed my thinking when I read what led up to the incident. This is an example of the necessity of searching for information that can provide important context. Without context, we can misconstrue our ancestors’ actions and motivations. Where I once saw a drunken brawl, I now see political resistance by colonists against greed and an out-of-touch king.

 

Sources:

New England Historical Society. New Hampshire. “Edward Gove and this One-Man Revolution of 1683”. https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/edward-gove-and-his-one-man-revolution-of-1683/#google_vignette

Colonial Life in New Hampshire. James H. Fassett. Chapter 4. Ginn & Company, Publishers. Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 1899.

Photo of Newington Historical Marker. Wikimedia Commons. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/NewingtonNH_sign.JPG

https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LZ1W-4ND/lt.-anthony-nutter-1630-1685

 

Bickford Garrison Survives Attack Through Trickery: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Earliest Ancestor”

 

Thomas Bickford Convinces Attackers that Multiple Men Inhabited His Garrison

Temperence Hull: 1625-1697 (Maternal 7^th Great-Grandaunt)
Thomas Bickford: 1660-1706 (Maternal First Cousin 8x Removed)
 

Some of my earliest ancestors to arrive in colonial America were the Hull family, including my 7^th Great-Grandaunt, Temperence Hull. She married John Bickford, and they settled in the Oyster River area of what became New Hampshire, and had several children. One of those children, Thomas Bickford, has a claim to fame as a survivor of a 1694 attack on the colonial settlement of Oyster River by members of the Abenaki tribe. The incident came to be known as the Oyster River Massacre. I have already written one post about other ancestors whose home was attacked during the raid.

Thomas Bickford was the oldest son of John and Temperence Bickford, and had taken over the family home on Durham Point in Oyster River. The building had been fortified to serve as a garrison house to protect settlers from attack. Thomas married a woman named Brigit (or Bridget) Furber in 1677. They had several children, four of whom were named in his 1705 will. Three of those children would have already been born by the time of the 1694 attack.

1600s map of Oyster River area. The Bickford Garrison was on a bluff overlooking the rivermouth.

All that is known about Thomas’ actions on July 17, 1694 come from an account written by Cotton Mather in his journal. He provided few details of the massacre other than the story about Thomas’ clever ruse that led to the survival of his house and property. Mather wrote in his Magnalia Christi Americana:

“Several persons remarkably escaped this bloody deluge, but none with more bravery than one Thomas Bickford, who had an house, a little pallisadoed, by the river side, but no man in it besides himself. He dexterously put his wife and mother and children aboard a canoe, and , seinding them down the river, he alone betook himself to the defence of his house, against Indians that made an assault upon him. They first would hav persuaded him with many fair pomises, and then terrified him with as many fierce threatenings, to yield himself; but he flouted and fired at them, daring ‘em to come if they durst. His main stratagem was to change his livery as frequently as he could; appearing sometimes in one coat, sometimes in another, sometimes in an hat and sometimes in a cap; which caused his besiegers to mistake this one for many defendants. In fine, the pitiful wretches, despairing to beat him out of his house, e’en left him in int.; whereas many that opened unto them upon their solemn engagements of giving them life and good quarter, were barbarously butchered by them.”

It is hard to believe that the attackers were taken in by Thomas’ desperate ruse. He must have been quite convincing and quite speedy. His wife, his elderly mother, and his children all successfully escaped by boat, and the Bickford garrison house survived when many of the surrounding homes were burned.

Archeology dig diagram of likely footprint of the Bickford garrison house.

Thomas only lived another decade after the Oyster River attack. He died in 1706, leaving his property to four children and his wife. His son John took over the garrison house after his father’s death. The garrison was eventually torn down, but archeological digs in 2008-2010 uncovered the building’s foundation and unearthed various artifacts including pottery and glassware fragments.

Photo of the garrison house foundation stones uncovered by the archeological dig in 2008.

A descendant of the Bickford family had also erected a historical marker along Durham Point Road at Langley Road in Durham, New Hampshire. The marker was still standing in 2016 when this photo was taken, but it is unclear if it remains.

Bickford Garrison Historic Marker on Durham Road at Langley Rd.

Cotton Mather’s record of Thomas Bickford’s actions that saved his garrison house is probably the earliest story about any of my ancestors. While Thomas was a very, very distant ancestor, I loved learning about him and his garrison house. It helps me understand the difficulties my ancestors faced in colonial America.

Sources:

New Hampshire, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1643-1982. Vol. 31, paged 297-298. Will of John Bickford with complaint by son-in-law against Thomas Bickford. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8996/records/1020001?tid=46986934&pid=322185144223&hid=1039063673246&_phsrc=Acy28097&_phstart=default&usePUBJs=true

“The Oyster River Massacre” The History of the Town of Durham. pg_89-103.

Magnalia Christi Americana. Cotton Mather. Pg 6-7.

“’The Great Massacre of 1694’: Understanding the Destruction of Oyster River Plantation”. Brown, Craig J. Historical New Hampshire. Vol. 53, n. 3-4, pgs. 69-89. Bickford item on pgs. 83-84.

Hard By The Water's Edge: A Preliminary Report of the Darby Field - Bickford Garrison (27-ST-71) Excavations. Brown, Craig J., Greenly, Mark; Sablock, Peter. https://www.academia.edu/28173770/Hard_By_The_Waters_Edge_A_Preliminary_Report_of_the_Darby_Field_Bickford_Garrison_27_ST_71_Excavations

“Summer archaeological dig a 'huge success'”. Jason Howe. Foster’s Daily Democrat. July 21, 2008.

 

Victims of a Massacre in 1694: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Historic Event”

 

The Drew Family and the Oyster River Massacre

Lydia Bickford Drew: 1650-1694 (Maternal First Cousin 8x Removed)
Benjamin Drew: 1685-1694 (Maternal Second Cousin 7x Removed)
Thomas Drew: 1673-1766 1694 (Maternal Second Cousin 7x Removed)

 

I have several ancestors with connections to the Oyster River Plantation, a 17^th century collection of homes and garrisons that lay along the Oyster River in what is now New Hampshire but was then the  frontier of the Massachusetts colony. A series of broken treaties and land grabs by settlers had left native tribes angry and frustrated. On July 17, 1694, Oyster River was attacked by a large group of indigenous warriors egged on by a Frenchman named Villieu, who had orders from Quebec to provoke hostilities. This historic event came to be known as the Oyster River Massacre.

1670 map of Oyster River

About 250 Abenaki men, accompanied by men from the Maliseet tribe, attacked at dawn. The Abenaki overran three garrisons, burned over half the homes in the area, destroyed crops and killed livestock. Around one hundred colonists were killed, including many women and children, comprising nearly one-third of the population of Oyster River. In addition, 27 more colonists were taken prisoner. The survivors were left in serious straits, with minimal shelter, food and livestock to support themselves.

One of the garrisons attacked that July morning was the home of the Francis Drew family. Francis Drew had arrived in the colonies in 1648. He married my first cousin 8x removed, Lydia Bickford, who was the granddaughter of my tenth-great-grandfather Joseph Hull and the daughter of my ninth-great-aunt Temperence Hull. Francis and Lydia had several children, including sons Thomas, John and Benjamin, and daughters Elizabeth and Mary.

The Drew house had been built by Francis’ father, William Drew. It was fortified to serve as a garrison. Following William’s death in 1669, Francis was the head of the household. By 1694, some of Francis’ children were grown. Son Thomas had married and he and wife Tamsen were also living in the household.

New Hampshire houses built in the same period as the Drew garrison

On the date of the attack, Francis Drew apparently heard gunshots and suspected an attack, so he left the garrison house and tried to reach help. He was captured and was promised that he and his family would live if he surrendered the garrison house. He surrendered the garrison, but was killed anyway.

Lydia Bickford Drew and her youngest son Benjamin, along with son Thomas and his wife Tamsen, were all taken prisoner and carried off. Benjamin, who was only nine years old, was forced to run a gauntlet as his captors hacked at him with clubs and axes. He died of his injuries. Lydia became weak from starvation and was abandoned by her captors in the woods where she died.

According to some accounts, son John apparently escaped out of one of the windows of the garrison and survived, only to be killed about ten years later in another Abenaki attack. It is unclear from the written accounts of the massacre where daughters Mary and Elizabeth were that July day. There is no record that they were taken captive, and Mary is mentioned in her father’s probate records so perhaps she was living with her uncle. Mary and Elizabeth seem to have both survived to adulthood and married, although there is some confusion over whether they are actually separate people or one single woman. I hypothesize that they were visiting friends or relatives and escaped the massacre.

Probate records showing Francis' brother John was named administrator

Francis Drew’s brother John was made executor of Francis’ estate in November of 1694. In 1696, the probate court transferred the role of executor to son Thomas, who had been released from captivity and returned to Oyster River. He reunited with his wife Tamsen who had been held captive in a separate location. According to some sources, the Drew garrison house was burned, so Thomas and Tamsen probably had to rebuild their home along with their lives.

Son Thomas Drew named administrator, with notation he had been in captivity, and further down mention of his sister Mary Drew.

The Oyster River Massacre was an important historic event in the early history of what became the state of New Hampshire. It was the result of complicated and contentious relationships between the French and the English settlers in colonial America, and the indigenous people who were being lied to and cheated out of their lands. Sadly, the Oyster River Massacre is now controversial. The use of the word “massacre” to describe the event has become a source of contention. A historic marker that had been erected in Durham decades ago was removed last year. Native people in the region felt the marker told only part of the story, and failed to explain the position of the 17^th century Abenaki people. Despite committees working to develop alternate language for a replacement that was respectful to all parties, the marker apparently will never be re-erected.

Historical Marker that was removed in 2024.

I hope this event, which so greatly impacted my ancestors, is not forgotten as a result. We need to remember that the arrival of colonists in the Americas may be something we like to celebrate, but it was devastating for the indigenous people living here. Remembering and understanding the ugly parts of America’s past is necessary to build a better future.

 

Sources:

https://www.nhhistory.org/object/712853/the-great-massacre-of-1694-understanding-the-destruction-of-the-oyster-river-plantation---craig

Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, Vol. 1. New Hampshire Wills. 1694. Estate of Francis Drew. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7089/images/7089-Volume1-0444?pId=444

History of the Town of Durham, New Hampshire : (Oyster River Plantation) with Genealogical Notes. Stackpole, Everett Schermerhorn; Thompson, Lucien; Meserve, Winthrop Smith. 1913. https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofd02stac/page/136/mode/2up

The Colonial Garrisons of New Hampshire. Published by the New Hampshire Society of Colonial Dames of America. Pg. 23. https://www.ci.durham.nh.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/historic_district/heritage_commission/page/17701/colonial_garrisons.pdf

https://www.northamericanforts.com/East/nh.html

Darby Field’s Peak Adventure: 52 Ancestors 2023 Prompt “The Great Outdoors”

 

Mountaineering in 1642: Darby Field and Native Americans Climb Mount Washington in New Hampshire

Darby Field: 1610-1650.  (Maternal Tenth Great-Grandfather)

 

When we think of mountain climbers, we tend to think about modern mountaineering with top-of-the line, high-tech gear, or we think about Edmund Hillary becoming the first man, along with his guide Tenzing Norgay, to scale Mount Everest in 1953. However, mountains have called to the adventurous long before the twentieth century. I discovered that my tenth-great-grandfather, Darby Field, was a seventeenth century mountaineer, scaling Mount Washington in New Hampshire in 1642! He was the first European immigrant to make the ascent, using the most primitive of equipment and with the help of at least two indigenous men.

Mount Washington in New Hampshire's White Mountains

Darby Field was likely born in 1610 in the Boston Borough, Lincolnshire, England. While some colonists claimed he was an Irishman, it appears his parents were English, tentatively identified as John Amyas Field and Elen Hutchinson Field who were married in Boston, England on August 18, 1609.

Darby Field seems to have arrived in the Massachusetts Colony at some point in the mid-1630s. He signed the Exeter Compact in 1639, although he did not remain in Exeter. He was involved in several land transactions around that time. According to Wikipedia, “he settled in Durham, New Hampshire, by 1638, where he ran a ferry from what is now called Durham Point to the town of Newington, across Little Bay. He was known as an Indian translator.” This area was then called the Oyster River Plantation.

1639 Exeter Compact with Darby Field's signature second from top in middle column

Field married a woman named Agnes Roberts before or around 1631, and they had at least five children, including my ancestor, Mary Field. The other children included sons Joseph and Zachariah Field, and daughters Elizabeth and Sarah Field.

Field’s Indian language skills served him well in his most famous adventure. In 1642, at the age of 32 or 33, he set out to climb a New Hampshire mountain now called Mount Washington. At 6,288 feet, it’s the highest peak in the northeastern United States.

With the help of two Native American men, he reached the summit. Natives had told the colonists that the mountain’s peak had glittering crystals and shiny stones. Field seemed to have hoped the stones were diamonds, so his adventure probably had a financial motive.

Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop wrote about Darby Field’s feat in his journal in 1642:

"One Darby Field, an Irishman, living about Piscataquack, being accompanied with two Indians, went to the top of the white hill. He made his journey in 18 days. His relation at his return was, that it was about one hundred miles from Saco, that after 40 miles travel, he did, for the most part, ascend; and within 12 miles of the top was neither tree nor grass, but low savins [shrubs], which they went upon the top of sometimes, but a continual ascent upon rocks, on a ridge between two valleys filled with snow, out of which came two branches of Saco river, which met at the foot of the hill where was an Indian town of some 200 people. Some of them accompanied him within 8 miles of the top, but durst go no further, telling him that no Indian ever dared to go higher, and that he would die if he went. So they staid there till his return, and his two Indians took courage by his example and went with him. They went divers times through the thick clouds for a good space, and within 4 miles of the top, they had no clouds but very cold. By the way among the rocks, there were two ponds, one a blackish water, and the other reddish [the Lakes of the Clouds]. The top of all was plain about 60 feet square. On the north side was such a precipice [the Great Gulf], as they could scarcely discern to the bottom. They had neither cloud nor wind on the top, and moderate heat. All the country about him seemed a level, except here and there a hill rising above the rest, and far beneath them. He saw to the north, a great water which he judged to be 100 miles broad, but could see no land beyond it."

Unfortunately, the crystals and shiny stones the natives had mentioned turned out to be quartz and sheets of mica, also called Muscovy glass, so Field’s excursion did not leave him wealthy.

Vintage Postcard of Mt. Washington taken from Darby Field, an open area named for him. 

Following his exploration of the White Mountains, Darby Field continued to live in the Oyster River area. He received a license to sell wine in 1644, presumably turning part of his dwelling house at Durham Point into a tavern. Field sold this house to John Bickford in 1645, and the house was later fortified into a garrison house, probably in the 1680s.

Map showing likely location of Darby Smith's house and tavern

Darby Field and his family were still living in the Oyster River settlement until at least 1649. Valentine Hill, another of my ancestors, sold a property in 1649, and the transaction record notes that Darby Field was dwelling on the property. Tragically, not long after that sale, Field seems to have suffered some sort of mental illness, which left him “disordered”. The community of Strawberry Bank was made responsible for his care and support by the colonial court in 1649 or 1650. He died around 1650, and his estate was probated in 1651. Field was only about forty years old at the time of his death.

Darby Field’s amazing accomplishment in the great outdoors has been recognized on a historical marker along New Hampshire Route 16. In addition, Mount Field in the Willey Range of the White Mountains is named in his honor.

Mount Field in the Willey Range, named to honor Darby Field

Several other place names in the Durham area also feature the Field name. The location of his former home along Durham Point has been excavated by a team of archeologists and volunteers. They unearthed some of the foundation stones from the house, along with a variety of seventeenth century artifacts, probably from the period when the Bickford family owned the house.

 

Sources:

The Pioneers of Maine and New Hampshire 1623-1660. Charles Henry Pope. Boston Mass. 1908. Pg. 67-68.

The Ancestry of J. G. Williams and Ursula Miller by Jim Schneider and Holly Rubin. Lulu Press. 2013. Pgs. 144-46. https://books.google.com/books?id=Hgu1BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA145&lpg=PA145&dq=darby+field

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darby_Field

Vital Records from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. John Field marriage in 1609. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Compiled from articles originally published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.)

Vital Records from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Compiled from articles originally published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. https://www.americanancestors.org/DB522/rd/21070/38/1426611978

“Hard by the Water’s Edge: A Preliminary Report of the Darby Field Homestead-Bickford Garrison (27-ST-71 Excavations.” Brown, Craig J.; Greenly, Mark; Lunt, Richard W., and Sablock, Peter. The New Hampshire Archeologist. Vol. 54, 2014, Number 1, pages 14-38. https://www.academia.edu/28173770/Hard_By_The_Waters_Edge_A_Preliminary_Report_of_the_Darby_Field_Bickford_Garrison_27_ST_71_Excavations

Mount Field photo from Wikimedia Commons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Field_%28New_Hampshire%29#/media/File:Mtfieldprofile.jpg

 

Pioneer of Professional Nursing: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Technology”

 

Malinda “Linda” A. J. Richards Builds American Nursing Programs

Malinda Ann Judson Richards: 1841-1930 (Maternal Second Cousin 3x Removed)
 

While the prompt “technology” may not, at first blush, seem to apply to someone who was born in 1841, Amy Johnson Crow noted that there have always been technological breakthroughs—just not the type of tech we think of today. The high-tech breakthroughs of past centuries might have been new designs for shovels or knitting needles, a new way of making shoes or hats, or a new field of study. When I looked at the prompt from that perspective, I thought of Linda A. J. Richards. While she is more my collateral ancestor than a direct ancestor (only a second cousin 3x removed), her technological breakthrough was, in my view, one of the most consequential of the late 19^th century: she helped to create the entire nursing profession in America. And I’m not the only one who recognizes her importance. A simple Google search finds that she is the subject of several biographies and encyclopedia entries, and has been honored by everyone from the Smithsonian, the New York State Senate, the Florence Nightingale Museum, the Women’s Hall of Fame, and a variety of nursing groups.

Malinda Ann Judson Richards was the great-granddaughter of my fourth-great-grandparents Francis Dane and Abiah Burt. She was born July 27, 1841 in Potsdam, New York, to parents Sanford Richards and Betsey Sinclair (Betsey was the daughter of Sarah Dane, and granddaughter of Abiah and Francis Dane). She was the second of their four daughters.

Malinda, or Linda as she came to be called, watched as both her parents succumbed to tuberculosis. Her father died when she was only four years old. Linda, her mother, and her siblings then moved to Vermont to live with her grandfather. She helped to nurse her mother, who died when she was fourteen.

Linda gained a reputation as a “natural nurse” and tried to learn as much as possible from the doctor who treated her mother. At age fifteen, she enrolled in a one-year teaching training program at the St. Johnsbury Academy near her grandfather’s home. She taught school in Newbury, Vermont, and also worked at the Union Straw Works, a hat-making factory, in Foxboro, Massachusetts. She became engaged to a young man named George Poole, but he enlisted to serve in the Civil War before they married. He was seriously injured in the war, and Linda nursed him for several years until his death in 1869.

After his loss, Linda sought out a nursing program, enrolling in a new programs at New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston. Linda described her training in her memoir:

“We rose at 5.30 a.m. and left the wards at 9 p.m. to go to our beds, which were in little rooms between the wards. Each nurse took care of her ward of six patients both day and night. Many a time I got up nine times in the night; often I did not get to sleep before the next call came. We had no evenings out, and no hours for study or recreation. Every second week we were off duty one afternoon from two to five o'clock. No monthly allowance was given for three months.”

She was the first of the students to complete her training in 1873, so was the first officially trained nurse in the United States. She took a position at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, where she created a charting system to keep individual patient records that could be consulted and updated by all the doctors and nurses caring for a patient.

Only a little over a year later, she was named the superintendent of the Boston Training School for Nurses. The school had been in danger of closing due to mismanagement, but her improvements led it to become one of the best nursing programs in the nation.

In 1877, Linda travelled to England to train under Florence Nightingale. When she returned to the United States, she set about incorporating her new knowledge in nursing programs. From 1886 to 1891, she lived in Japan where she served as a missionary and opened the first nursing training school in the country.

Linda in Japan

Linda’s health began to fail after she returned to the United States. She briefly led nursing programs in Philadelphia and Boston, and then turned her energy to developing nursing programs for mental hospitals in Massachusetts and Michigan, and improving the ways mental patients were treated. She also served as the first president of the American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools.

Linda retired from nursing in 1911 at the age of seventy. She went to live on a farm in Lowell, Massachusetts. In 1923, she suffered a stroke and was hospitalized until her death on April 16, 1930 at the age of 88.

Linda A. J. Richards was a true pioneer in the field of nursing, helping to develop it as a profession in the United States and establishing patient charting systems and standards of care for the mentally ill. Her determination, creativity and perseverance are to be admired and remembered.

Sources:

American Association for the History of Nursing. “Linda A. J. Richards.” https://www.aahn.org/richards

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Richards

https://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2006/11/linda-richards.html#google_vignette

https://www.workingnurse.com/articles/linda-richards-1841-1930-the-first-graduate-of-americas-first-nursing-school/

https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/linda-richards/

https://www.si.edu/object/miss-linda-richards-americas-first-trained-nurse%3Anmah_1444535

http://www.potsdampublicmuseum.org/documents/Linda_Richards_text_apr24.pdf

Reminiscences of America's First Trained Nurse. Linda Richards. Boston, Whitcomb & Barrows, 1911.

“Linda Richards at the Kalamazoo State Hospital”. R. C. Gordon. Journal of  Psychosocial Nursing,  Ment Health Serv. 1999 Nov;37(11):35-9. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10572854/

 

 

Spinster No More: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Love and Marriage”

 

May-December Romance? Or Fortune Hunter and Prey? Mary Langstaff Marries a Man Forty Years Younger

Mary Langstaff: 1650-Approx. 1716 (Maternal Ninth-Great-Grandaunt)
Eleazer Coleman: 1685/90-17-- (Husband of Ninth-Great Grandaunt and First Cousin 9x Removed)
Anna Nutter: 1682-17-- (Maternal First Cousin 9x Removed)

 

After 55 years living in her family’s home and caring for her aging father Henry Langstaff (see previous blog post), Mary Langstaff was suddenly independent and alone following Henry’s death. Her father tried to repay her for her long devotion and her lost chances of marriage and motherhood by leaving a large portion of his land and possessions to her; only her brother Henry received a larger bequest. Henry stated that he gave the properties:

“…to my daughter Mary Langster [for] natural love, goodwill, affection, etc., and her carefulness in taking pains to wait and attend upon me upon all occasions in this my great age.”

Henry’s 1705 death left Mary an heiress of sorts, the owner of fifty acres of land in Dover, New Hampshire, land in the “little bay” area of Dover, and half of Henry’s lands and marsh in Greenland, plus half of all his household goods, except for three cows and ten sheep which were to go to her married sister.

There are no records to indicate how Mary dealt with her new properties and responsibilities. Did she employ laborers to work in the fields? Did she rely on her brother Henry or her brother-in-law Anthony Nutter for assistance? Did she work the fields and tend to the livestock on her own? And how did the community react to her newfound status? After all, in the 1600s, women rarely held property independently. Was she suddenly an attractive marriage prospect to every land-hungry widower in town?

All we can prove is that eight years after Henry’s death, Mary gave up spinsterhood at last, marrying Eleazer Coleman. But this marriage was probably even more shocking to her neighbors than Mary being a female landowner: the bride was sixty-three and the groom either twenty-three or twenty-eight years old (records vary). Eleazer was young enough to be Mary’s son—perhaps even young enough to be her grandson.

Why did they marry? How did they know one another? Was it a purely practical, economic arrangement? Was Eleazer an employee on her land? Was there affection between them? Did Mary feel motherly toward Eleazer and wanted to provide for him, and marriage was the only way their culture would accommodate that? Did she have physical conditions that necessitated in-home care, and Eleazer could only provide such personal care if he was her husband? Were there any romantic feelings between them? Was Eleazer just a fortune hunter?

The only indications we have about their relationship come from records cited in the book Landmarks in Ancient Dover (see citation below, pg. 240), where the author references “a curious bit of family history, well worth copying form the County records” regarding the transfer of some parcels of land:

“Mary Langstar of Bloody Point, June 20, 1713, well knowing that a marriage by God’s grace is intended and shortly to be had and solemnized between Eleazar Coleman of said place to the [aforesaid] Mary Langstar, and considering that [said] Mary, being about ye age of 63 years, and the said Eleazar about 28 years, and she may the better be taken care of in case she lives to any great age, and for divers other good and just causes, conveys to him fifty acres of upland called Steven’s Point, otherwise by ye name of Stephen Jether’s point, a little above Bloody Point, right east by Broad Cove. Also land on Little Bay, beginning by a creek in Broad Cove, and Running up ye Little bay as far as Dumplin cove.”

This sounds more like a business arrangement. Mary is trading her land for the promise that Eleazer will care for her as she grows old. Did the “divers other good and just causes” include some sort of affection and friendship if not romance or desire? One hopes so for both their sakes.

A footnote at the bottom of the page in the Landmarks book relates a bit of gossip about the couple:

“There is a story, which the writer is unwilling to believe, that Eleazar Coleman, having been asked if he loved his elderly but well-endowed bride, replied significantly that he loved the very ground she walked on.”

I’m sure the land was certainly the primary inducement for a young man to give up potential opportunities to start a family of his own. Mary could have, after all, been as long-lived as her father, who was well into his nineties when he died. Eleazer risked spending decades tied to a very old woman.

Property records confirm that the marriage took place, for on March 6, 1714, Eleazer Coleman and “Mary his wife” sold the fifty-acre Stephen’s Point property and the Little Bay property to Richard Downing and Thomas Coleman. Thomas Coleman was Eleazer’s older brother.

Plan of Coleman's Farm in Newington, 13 acres. 1853 plan. Were these Colemans descendants of Eleazer or his family?

Luckily for Eleazer, he didn’t have long to wait before he became a widower. Mary died in 1716, just three years after their marriage. His path to inheriting her property wasn’t entirely smooth, however. Apparently, Mary’s brother John and his family had never approved of her marriage. After her death, they filed court claims against the land she had inherited from her father, referring to her in the court documents by her maiden name as if they didn’t recognize Eleazer as her husband. John’s son Henry, a lawyer, finally resigned all claims to lands given to Eleazer by “Mary Langstar, deceased” on November 26, 1716. (Note: this proves Mary died no later than 1716.)

Eleazer married Mary’s great-niece just a few months later, on March 1, 1717. Anna Nutter was the granddaughter of Mary’s sister Sarah Langstaff Nutter and her husband Anthony Nutter. Anna’s father, John Nutter, was Sarah and Anthony’s eldest son. Anna Nutter was born in 1682, so once again Eleazer married an older woman. However, at least this time she was only three to eight years older: Anna was 34 and he was either 26 or 31 years old when they married. Did they meet through her relationship to Eleazer’s first wife, or did they already know one another? Perhaps Mary’s siblings could take comfort in the fact that Mary’s lands were staying in the family so to speak, since now Eleazer’s inheritance was being used to support another Langstaff descendant.

Birth record for Anna and Eleazer's son, Eleazer

This second marriage seems to have been a success. Anna and Eleazer had eight children between 1718 and 1731. They lived in the Greenland/Newington area of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and presumably died there. Their death dates are unconfirmed.

Aerial view of Newington, NH

Love and marriage. They don’t necessarily need to go together. While we can surmise that Eleazer Coleman’s first marriage was more of a business arrangement than a love match, perhaps he chose to marry for love the second time.

 

Sources:

Thompson, Mary P. (Mary Pickering), 1825-1894, "Landmarks in Ancient Dover, New Hampshire. Complete edition." (1892). Local History & Genealogy (Town Histories). 68. Pg. 240.

The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. Robert Charles Anderson. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Boston. 1995. Henry Langstaff entry: pgs 1156-1160. Accessed through NEHGS/American Ancestors. Pg. 1157 and 1158.

New Hampshire: Miscellaneous Censuses and Substitutes, 1640-1890 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2013. From records supplied by Ancestry.com) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB507/rd/13679/3512/242289998

New Hampshire: Births, Deaths and Marriages, 1654-1969. (From microfilmed records. Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014.) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB516/i/13797/28514/246070949

Vital Records from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Compiled from articles originally published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.)

Dame, Timothy, Jr. "Plan of Coleman's Farm in Newington containing 13 acres - 125 rods." Map. Portsmouth, N.H., 1853. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:8k71r164v (accessed January 21, 2024).