Alden Sears

1739 - 1803  (64 years)

• Name	Alden Sears  [1, 2]
  Alternate birth	1738	Harwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts   [3]
  Birth	24 Feb 1739	Harwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts   [4, 5]
  Baptism	1 Apr 1739	Harwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts   [4]
  Gender	Male
  Death	25 Mar 1803	Bristol, Ontario, New York   [4, 6]
  Person ID	I22677	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	4 Jan 2025

  
  

  Father	Judah Sears,   b. 29 Oct 1699, Harwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts d. Between 5 Feb 1773 and 4 Dec 1775 (Age 73 years)
  Mother	Mary Paddock,   b. 5 Mar 1714, Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts d. Aft 5 Feb 1773 (Age > 59 years)
  Marriage	Nov 1731	Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts   [4, 5]
  Family ID	F13698	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Phoebe Walker,   b. 1748, Dighton, Bristol, Massachusetts d. 23 Oct 1830, Bristol, Ontario, New York (Age 82 years)
  Marriage	29 Dec 1769	Dighton, Bristol, Massachusetts   [4, 7]
  Children	+ 1. Eleanor Sears,   b. 1 May 1780, Dighton, Bristol, Massachusetts d. 7 Oct 1866, Bristol, Ontario, New York (Age 86 years)
  Family ID	F13639	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	15 Jan 2019

  
  

• Notes

  Revolutionary War: Private in Capt. Elijah Walker's company, Col. John Hathaway's regiment which marched to the Tiverton Alarm in 1780. From The Descendants of Richard Sares (Sears) (citation details below): Alden Sears, " yeoman," of Rochester, resided for a time in Nova Scotia, and was one of the grantees of the town of Liverpool in 1761. His wife dying, he returned to the States, living for a time in Pawtucket and Providence, engaged in boat-building and distilling. He had been previously a seaman, and is said to have commanded a whaling vessel before he was of age. Marrying again, he settled in Dighton, Mass., on the old Walker homestead, which, on the death of her father, fell to his wife. The old house is still standing, near 200 years old, and is a good specimen of early colonial times. About the commencement of the Revolutionary War he resumed his voyages, and in returning from the West Indies with a cargo of molasses was captured by the British, lost his vessel and cargo, and was held prisoner several years. An English officer, with whom he made friends, finally procured his release and supplied him with funds for his return. His wife is said to have had full faith during all the years of his absence that he would return, although others had given him up as dead. According to the superstitions of the times, there were many signs convincing to her that he would return. One evening in turning her tea-cup, the peculiar position of the leaves was proof that he was then on his way home. She rose hastily, saying: "Alden will be home to-night, and I must put the house in order, and dress and go to meet him." Upon opening the door, she really saw him in the distance approaching the house. They removed to Bristol, N. Y., in 1792, with others from the vicinity of Dighton. For his land he paid six cents an acre. He was in Capt. Elijah Walker's Co., in Col. John Hathaway's Regiment, and marched on "ye alarm of Aug. 2, 1780, to Tiverton, 18 miles' travel, 7 days' service, wages £1 8 0. Tiverton, 18 miles' travel, 7 days' service, wages £1 8 0." ----- Note on the above: Alden Sears married his second wife, Phebe Walker, the one in the anecdote above, in Dighton, Massachusetts, 29 December 1769. So his first wife, Hannah Bassett, who died in Nova Scotia on an unknown date, has to have died before then. Therefore what he returned to can't have been "the States" as claimed above. No entity called "the States", United States or otherwise, existed in eastern North America in or before 1769. When Alden Sears went from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia and then back to Massachusetts, he no more thought of himself as visiting a foreign land than he would have thought that way of relocating to Connecticut. He probably would have considered Quebec a foreign place, because although it was by then ruled from London it was dominated by French speakers. But Nova Scotia was just another English colony in which most of the inhabitants spoke English.

  
  

• Sources

  [S2853] Find a Grave page for Eleanor Sears Simmons. [S2881] Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume 19, Second Edition, Family of Thomas Rogers originally compiled by Alice Westgate, revised by Ann T. Reeves, 2000. Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2013. [S2880] Daughters of the American Revolution lineage book, volume 47, 1904. [S2095] The Descendants of Richard Sares (Sears) of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, 1638-1888 by Samuel P. May. Albany, New York: Joel Munsell's Sons, 1890. [S637] Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume 16, Part 1, Family of John Alden by Esther Littleford Woodworth-Barnes. Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1999. [S2880] Daughters of the American Revolution lineage book, volume 47, 1904., year and place only. [S2881] Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume 19, Second Edition, Family of Thomas Rogers originally compiled by Alice Westgate, revised by Ann T. Reeves, 2000. Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2013., date only; says 28 Dec 1769.