Benjamin Evans

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Nov 1743, Somersworth, Strafford, New Hampshire

Notes:

From his Find a Grave page [citation details below]:

He was a private in Captain Wood's Company, Colonel Hubbard's Massachusetts Regiment and was transferred in December 1775 to Captain Gridley's Company, Colonel Gridley's Regiment of Artillery. He served for eight months. He then enlisted in the spring of 1776 in Lyman, ME and served four months as a private in Captain Wells' Company which was in the regiment led by Colonel Francis of Massachusetts. His pension was granted based on this service on 7 Aug. 1832

Benjamin married Elizabeth Ricker on 16 Dec 1771 in Somersworth, Strafford, New Hampshire. Elizabeth (daughter of Ephraim Ricker and Elizabeth Mardin) died on 19 Jun 1776 in Somersworth, Strafford, New Hampshire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Elizabeth "Betsey" Evans was born on 15 Feb 1772; died after 21 Mar 1825.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 29 Oct 1704, Dover, Strafford, New Hampshire

Joseph married Keziah Hall. Keziah (daughter of John Hall and Esther Chesley) was born in 1705 in Greenland, Rockingham, New Hampshire; died in 1808; was buried in Hope Cemetery, Kennebunk, York, Maine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Called "Keziah Wentworth Hall" in many online databases, but we have seen no evidence that she had any middle name at all.

The Chesleys did marry into the Wentworths -- Philip¹'s grandson James Chesley married the immigrant William¹ Wentworth's granddaughter Tamsen Wentworth, a year before Keziah's birth. And because the Wentworths were a family on the rise by 1705, it's possible that Keziah was given Wentworth as a middle name in order to underscore the connection. But generally the smart bet is to assume that eighteenth-century middle names were invented by bad genealogists in later years.

Notes:

He was a cooper. "Called a centenarian at death, the newspapers said he perfectly remembered the revolution against Gov. Andros which occurred in the last yr. of his apprenticeship in Boston." [Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, citation details below]

According to his Wikitree page, the newspaper account mentioned above was in the Portsmouth New Hampshire Gazette, week of 20 Nov 1767, page 3, column 2.

In 1730 he and his wife Dorcas sold the estate of "our father Simon Bussell" in Wells. In 1737 he and Dorcas, evidently both sick, were presented for absence from the Wells meeting. Records of the Madbury parish from 1756 to 1766 include numerous discussions of whether to vote support for him or to send him away. In 1767 the town voted 11 shillings to make his coffin and dig his grave.

Edward married Dorcas Bussell before 1700. Dorcas (daughter of Simon Bussell and Margaret Wormwood) died after 1737. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1736, Somersworth, Strafford, New Hampshire

John married Esther Chesley on 9 Aug 1705 in Dover, Strafford, New Hampshire. Esther (daughter of Philip Chesley and Joanna) was born in 1682 in Dover, Strafford, New Hampshire; died after 1736 in Somersworth, Strafford, New Hampshire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Said to have escaped from the massacre at Oyster River, N. H., in 1694, by jumping from an upper window of her father’s house with an infant in her arms.

The idea that Esther Chesley was conceived when her father was at least 72 is not entirely farfetched, but it does make us wonder whether she might be misplaced in the Chesley line. But running through the other possibilities leaves us concluding that she is most likely placed correctly.

There is a document dated 23 Dec 1713 in which "we Mary Hall [widow of Ralph Hall,] John Hall & Easther Hall" refer to themselves as "only daughters of Philip Chesley, sen., late of Dover."

It is true that by 1713, Philip² Chesley (who died in 1695, ten years after his father Philip¹ Chesley) could have been referred to as "senior" in order to distinguish him from his son Philip³ Chesley who was still alive as late as 1756. Based on the fluidity of "senior" and "junior" identification at the time -- you could be born John Smith, Jr. and die John Smith, Sr., very different from the way the terms are used today -- Mary and Esther could have been referring to Philip² when they wrote "Philip Chesley, sen., late of Dover".

But it is also true that the purpose of this document was to convey certain land to their "couzen Philip Chesley," who, in 1713, can only have been Philip³, son of Philip². Obviously this eliminates the possibility that Esther and Mary were daughters of Philip², since if that were the case, they would have referred to Philip³ as their brother (or half-brother at most).

This leaves the far-fetched possibility that they were in fact both daughters of Philip¹ Chesley's other son Thomas² Chesley, which would make them literally cousins to Philip³.

But this establishes less than one might think, because prior to the mid-1700s, "cousin" was a word used for a broad set of close relationships outside of the immediate family. In the conventional scheme in which Mary and Esther were late-born daughters of Philip¹, Philip³ would have been their half-nephew, a relationship well within the range of those called "cousin" at that time.

Notes:

Torrey gives a date of 3 Jul 1699 for this marriage. So do Noyes, Libby, and Davis, but in their errata this is corrected to 9 Aug 1705, the date also given by The Wentworth Genealogy.

Notes:

"JOHN, Mr., Capt., expert surveyor, of whom we know almost nothing except that he was a useful and highly respected inhab. and was k. by Indians 28 June 1689." [Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, citation details below]

From his surname it is presumed that he came from Wales. He was Dover town clerk from 1686. He was killed in the capture of the Walderne Garrison. Everything known of his children comes from a notebook passed down through the descendants of his son Thomas (d. 1718), plus traditions among the descendants of his daughter Eleanor.

John married Eleanor. Eleanor died before 1702. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She is possibly the "Elinor Evans" who married John Sweeting in Boston, 7 Feb 1694.

Notes:

Also called Simon Bussy. The Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire (citation details below) says "presumably a Channel Islands name."

Simon married Margaret Wormwood in 1758. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"She and her husband Simon Bussy were in court July 4, 1659, for having a child before marriage, and they were sentenced to the brutal punishment of ten lashes each at a public meeting either in Falmouth or Scarborough." [Walter Goodwin Davis, citation details below]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 4 Mar 1706

Notes:

First of record 1 Feb 1686 when his father conveyed to him half the Dover Neck homestead, the other half at his father's death.

Ralph married (Unknown first wife of Ralph Hall). (Unknown died before 26 May 1701. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire (citation details below) says that she was possibly a sister of Esther Philbrook, wife of Joseph Beard, whose son called Ralph Hall "uncle" in 1713.

Notes:

“Philip Chesley, b. 1606-08, ± 77 in Nov. 1683. First ment. Dover Neck wit. 1642; he had a home lot there. At Oyster River by 1648. His and his 2d wife's share of existing records would fill a 'movie,' an alternating current of honor. and impuls. activ. His wife Elizabeth, liv. 1661, was presum. dead when he put everything in his sons' names. Soon his wife was Joanna, app. relation of James and Elizabeth Thomas. Both living 30 Apr. 1685. [...] Ch: Thomas, b. ab. 1644. Philip, b. ab. 1646. By 2d w: Hannah, m. Thomas Ash. Mary, in ct. 1698, found at the house of Thomas Ash in Portsm.; m. 28 May 1701 Ralph Hall; 2d John Foye (3). Esther, m. 3 July 1699 John Hall.” [Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire]

From New Hampshire Court Records 1640-1692, Court Papers 1652-1688, State Papers Series Vol. 40, edited by Otis G. Hammond. New Hampshire: The State of New Hampshire, 1943:

phillip Chesly for givinge out Reprochfull spechis against the worshipfull Captin wiggins Is sentensed by this Courte to make a publiqe acknouledgment three severall publiqe Days the first Day in the head of the train band: the other two Days are to be the next publiqe meetings days in Dover, when oyster River peopell shall be there Present: which is to be Done within fouer months after this Present Day, and in Case he Doth not performe as affore sayd he is to be whipped not exseding ten strips: and to be fined five Pounds to the Contry: ffees for the Court 0-02s-6d. [...]

The Deposioc of Thomas Bradbury Junior Aged Twenty Yeares or there abouts who Testifyeth yt upon the second Day of October (1661) or there abouts Phillip Chesley being att Salisbury and mr Andrew Wiggins with him: Phillip Chesley asked this deponent where Mr. Hall was, or whether he was gone for England, this depont told him that hee was gone to Boston: the said Chesley asked him whether mr Hall had any Cattle or horses [...T]he said Phillip Chesley [...] in the hearing of this depont [said] that mr Sam:Hall was a Knave and that he had Cheated him of Tenn pounds wch was a due debt and further said if he could sight of him hee could lay him fast & further saith not.

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On 24 Jun 1662, Samuel Hall sued Philip Chesley for £500 over Chesley having called him a "knave" who had "cheated him...of a just debt." Chesley was jailed for a time. The torrent of charges and counter-charges can be discerned through the translucent veil of seventeenth-century language here, beginning on page 491.

Philip married Joanna. Joanna died after 30 Apr 1685. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 1684

Notes:

From Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis:

William Wormwood, presumably a fisherman as he is usually associated with them, is first found as a witness to an agreement, made January 10, 1639, between John Lander, a "sealer" (a hunter of seals), and John Billings, fisherman, both of Piscataqua, by which the two men, who had been partners, divided their house, land, shallop and live stock. Wormwood, his wife Catherine and their children lived in a house on four acres of land at Kittery Point which had been given him, two acres each, by Lander and Billings, as Goodwife Thomas, who was Billings's widow, testified in March, 1647. Sometime before that year Wormwood had sold the place to Thomas Crockett who, in turn, sold it to Robert Mendum on September 21, 1644.

When the first General Court of the Province of Maine, at which all of the adult males were supposed to appear, was held in Saco on June 25, 1640, William Wormwood was one of fifteen Piscataqua men absent. After the sale of the Kittery Point house the Wormwoods went to Star Island in the Isles of Shoals, from where the authorities ordered them back to the mainland in 1647 because of their "improper dealings" with sailors which, from later developments, would seem to mean too free a sale of strong drink. At the Shoals, also, they fell in with one William James, a fisherman, who came back to Kittery with them, and in October, 1647, Catherine Wormwood was arrested by John Sealey and Antipas Maverick and ordered to Boston to answer an unspecified charge, probably on suspicion of adultery with James. The charge could not have been proved as she was soon back in Maine where on June 27, 1648, the court ordered that "William James and William Wormwood are for to part household and for to build another house before one yeare be ended."

This remedy did not cure the situation, however. In the court of October 16, 1650, William James and William Wormwood's wife were presented for living suspiciously together, and if James did not "separate" by the next court he was to pay 40s. or have corporal punishment. Wormwood, who, perhaps naturally, had become "a common swearer and a turbulent person," now sought to take his difficult wife back to the Shoals, and the court decreed "that if the Fishermen of the Iles of Sholes will entertaine Wormewood and his wife, they have liberty to sit downe ther provided that they shall not sell neither wine, beare nor Licker." If they went James went too, for a year later on October 14, 1651, the court is still harping on separation. "William James shall hence forward separate himself from Catterne Wormewood & must forthwith pay his Fourty shillings for his breach of the last Court order about his seperation."

There are few other records. In the court of June, 1648, Wormwood sued Mr. Nicholas Browne for debt, asking damages of £10 and having a bull attached as security. Mr. John Sealey walked off with the bull while it was under attachment and was fined £5 for contempt. Wormwood sued Dr. John Reynolds in the New Hampshire court in 1650 for detaining three goats and a sow for three years, and, the doctor having departed the country, won a verdict against Alexander Jones who had been Reynolds' surety. Wormwood had to sue again to enforce the verdict in 1651. Catherine Wormwood testified against Edward Colcord in court at Strawberry Bank in 1650. "Goody Wormod" was listed among the doubtful debtors of Robert Button in January, 1651, the adjective probably quite justified.

William married Catherine. Catherine died after 1651. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Said to have been a brother to Ralph Hall of Exeter, Devon.