Barre Groton Lunenburg Rindge Stoddard
first settlers 1720 1655 1718 1738 1752
incorporated 1774 1655 1728 1768 1774
first ancestor 1763 1714 1756- 1738 1861
last ancestor 1816 1737 1872 1785 1873+
# of ancestors 3 12 12 5 3
# of immigrants 0 0 0 0 0
# born in town 0 2 3 1 0
# died in town 2 2 8 1 0
|-Abraham Gibson
Rebecca Gibson-|
|-Esther Fox
The Gibson ancestors came first to Cambridge and then to Stow, where ABRAHAM GIBSON Jr. was born in 1735. Once he grew up he moved to Lunenburg where he was a schoolmaster. A quit claim deed for the parental homestead from his siblings to him in 1756 said "to Abraham Gibson of Lunenburg, laborer". He returned to Stow, married ESTHER FOX of Concord in 1760, moved to Concord after a year, and then on to Fitchburg in 1768. Their first child was born in Stow, the next four in Concord, and the last four in Fitchburg. The family lived on a farm of 150 acres on the eastern slope of Pearl hill. ABRAHAM was one of the 44 Fitchburg minutemen in Col. Asa Whitcomb's regiment who marched on April 19, 1775, serving 5 days. He also enlisted for three months in 1778 under Col. Abijah Stearns. After the war he served as selectman in 1778 and 1779. In 1791 his name disappears from the tax roll of Fitchburg. His daughter, REBECCA, married JOHN PRIEST in 1785 and immediately moved to Rindge, N.H.; ABRAHAM and ESTHER probably moved there to be with the grandchildren because ESTHER died in Rindge in 1803. The Priest family returned to Lunenburg around 1810, where ABRAHAM died in 1813.
In memory of Mrs Esther Gibson wife of Mr. Abraham Gibson who died 30 April 1803 in the 60 year of her age. Friends nor physicians could not save My mortal body from the grave. Nor can the grave confine me here When Christ doth call me to appear.
|-John Prescott Heywood
|-Lincoln Heywood-| |-Noah Ripley
Abigail Heywood-| |-Lydia Ripley-|
|-Rebecca Priest |-Lydia Kent
We first learned of the Ripley family in the chapter on Hingham. NOAH RIPLEY married LYDIA KENT in Hingham on Dec 22, 1743, had two children born in Hingham, but then moved to Woodstock, Connecticut, which is in the northeastern corner of Connecticut. At the time they moved there, probably around 1747, Woodstock was still a part of Massachusetts since it was given to Connecticut in 1749. Joshua Ripley, the brother of our first PETER RIPLEY, had moved near there, and NOAH probably had cousins there. After another 11 children were born (including Dr. Ezra Ripley, famous in the history of Concord, and LYDIA, born in 1757), they moved by 1763 to Barre (pronounced "berry"), Massachusetts, where the last 6 children were born - an astounding 19 children! The last child was born Oct 18, 1772 when LYDIA was 47 years old. She lived another 44 years and when she died June 17, 1816, aged 91, she had 97 grandchildren and 106 great grandchildren!!
In memory of | Here rests in Hope the Body of
Mrs. Lydia Burnett, who | Mr. Noah Ripley. Who Departed
was first Consort of Mr. | this life Sept. ye 28 1778
Noah Ripley | in the 58th Year of his Age
by whom she had 8 sons & 11 | He sleeps in Death in Christ we trust
daughters 17 of them lived to | And sees his Savior face to face
have Families: her descendants | How precious then his moulding dust
at her death were 97 grandchil. | Shall be loosd from death's embrace
dren & 106 great grandchildren | O Reader from this pale monument learn
She died June 17th 1816 aged 91. | wisdom for Eternity- wisdom for thy
------ | Self and be reminded of thy Doom which
Many daughters have done virtuously, | hastens on the Swiftest wings of time
but thou excelest | ... the death which ... the...
---------------------
Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord
Mr. | Mrs.
John P. Heywood, | Lydia Heywood
died Nov. 19, 1827, | relict of
Aged 73. | Mr. John P. Heywood
| died May 21, 1828;
| Aged 71.
DEA. | REBECCA PRIEST
LINCOLN HEYWOOD | wife of
DIED | DEA. LINCOLN HEYWOOD
Oct. 30, 1867 | Died Jan 11, 1872
AEt 76 yrs. 6 ms. | AEt 76 yrs. 8 mos.
|-Richard Holden
|- Justinian Holden-|
Mary Holden -| |-Martha Fosdick
|- Mary
The HOLDEN family is described in the Watertown and Woburn Chapters. They moved from Watertown to Woburn by 1649, and from Woburn to Groton in 1657. RICHARD had 975 acres of land, extending on the west bank of the Nashua river from a point near Beaver Pond to the northward, along the present northern border of the town of Shirley. He was constable in Groton in 1672, and surveyor in 1673. However when Groton was burned in 1676 during King Philips War, the family moved back to Watertown. MARTHA died there in 1681, while RICHARD spent his last years in Groton with his son Stephen, to whom he gave his real estate March 23, 1691. He died in Groton by 1694.
|-John Nutting
Mary Nutting -|
|-Sarah Eggleston
JOHN NUTTING's father may have worked for John Winthrop in England. JOHN came to Massachusetts perhaps as early as 1639, and settled in Woburn where he married SARAH in 1650. SARAH and her sister RUTH and mother ELIZABETH had been living in Roxbury, minus her father who had died at sea on the voyage from England. JOHN and SARAH had three children born in Woburn, including MARY born in January 1654/5. The family then moved to the western part of Chelmsford (now Westford), along with several friends from Woburn. JOHN was admitted to the church in 1656, and their three children were soon baptized. They lived near the modern village of Graniteville, perhaps on Nutting Road. They had two more children born in Chelmsford, but both died in infancy. In 1661, Groton was finally surveyed, and JOHN and two of his friends decided to move to the new town. However before they could move, they had to get the approval of their old church, which in this case did not want to lose three members at the same time. Several meetings were held to discuss the matter, at which time JOHN complained about his "remote accommodations" (his home was far from the site of the First Church at Chelmsford), and finally on December 23, 1661, a vote was taken and letters were granted to them to unite with the church at Groton. A grandson eventually took over his land in Chelmsford, which stayed in the Nutting family for generations. JOHN was a sexton in both Chelmsford and Groton, a Selectman in 1663, 1667, and 1669, and a constable in 1668. Here are some items in the Groton records:
|-Benjamin Priest
|-John Priest-|
Rebecca Priest-| |-Hannah Johnson
|-Rebecca Gibson
BENJAMIN PRIEST lived most of his life in Lancaster or Harvard, and is described more fully in the Lancaster Chapter. At some point BENJAMIN moved to Lunenburg (perhaps to live with his son), where he died in 1817 and is buried in the cemetery (north or south?).
Mrs. | Mr.
Rebecca, | John Priest
wife of | died April 12, 1830
Mr. John Priest | AEt. 69.
died June 30, 1814: |
AEt. 49. |
|-Richard Sawtell
Enoch Sawtell-|
|-Elizabeth Pople
RICHARD SAWTELL, with his wife ELIZABETH and children including son ENOCH moved to Groton from Watertown in 1662. He served as Groton's first town clerk, from 1662 to 1664. His houselot in Groton was on the west side of James's Brook, just below the monument marking the birth-place of Colonel Prescott. He served in Major Appleton's company during King Philip's War, and his house was one of the five garrison houses in Groton, "near a mile distant from the rest" of the garrisons. When Groton was burned by the Indians in 1676, RICHARD and his family must have returned to Watertown, where they died. See more about the SAWTELL family in the Watertown Chapter.
|-Horatio Nelson Welch
Charles Francis Welch-|
|-Abigail Heywood
HORATIO NELSON WELCH was born in July, 1811 in Bolton, and moved with his father THOMAS WELCH to Leominster, where THOMAS' new wife, Betsy Powers, was born and raised. HORATIO was still living in Leominster in 1836 when he married ABIGAIL HEYWOOD of Lunenburg. They had one child, CHARLES FRANCIS WELCH, born in Lunenburg. In 1840 the head of the State Lunatic Hospital in Worcester listed his employees: "Horatio N. Welch; Abigail Welch, his wife; age, from 25 to 30. Have been in the Hospital but a short time. Appear well; are capable, industrious, worthy people. Our impressions of them are very favorable." After this mention, the couple disappear for 20 years, and next show up in the 1860 census in Gardner, the town to the west of Leominster. HORATIO was a farmer with a personal estate of $3,000, and CHARLES was a chair maker (Gardner had 20 chair factories by 1910, and was called "Chair City"). Soon after HORATIO and ABIGAIL moved to Stoddard, N.H. where HORATIO became the proprietor of the Central House (a tavern and hotel). CHARLES, on the other hand, married Mary T. Swan on August 24, 1860 in Princeton, MA. They lived in Princeton four years when Mary died on July 13, 1864 and CHARLES then moved to Stoddard with his parents and joined the army on Sept 13, 1864. He fought in the Civil War in General Meade's Army of the Potomac, and fought in the assault on and fall of Peterburg in the last week of the War. He mustered out June 10, 1865. In 1868 CHARLES headed west, where in 1868 he became a farmer on a farm 2 miles east of Beloit, Kansas. He was also the assistant marshal, and performed the census enumeration of the town in 1870. He was listed as a farmer with a personal estate valued at $1000. In 1873 he married DOROTHY LUCINDA CROWTHER. Sometime in the next decade, HORATIO and ABIGAIL came to Beloit to live with their son and granddaughter MINNIE MAY WELCH, who was born Oct 19, 1874. ABIGAIL died in Beloit in 1879, but HORATIO was still living there in the 1880 census. HORATIO then returned to Massachusetts where he probably lived in Marlborough with his nephew Charles L. Welch. HORATIO's brother, Phineas Welch, had married Patty Stowe from Marlborough and lived in the home of her parents and inherited the house, known as the Stowe-Welch Farm, when the parents died sometime after 1850. Phineas died in 1870, when his son Charles inherited the house. When HORATIO died Nov. 18, 1887, Charles was appointed administrator of his estate. The
inventory
of the estate, filed July 22, 1888, came to $1,260.33 in the bank and $20. of clothing. HORATIO was the last of MINNIE MAY WELCH's ancestors to live in Massachusetts.
