THOMAS HANSON

(ca. 1643-1710) - Dover, Strafford co., NH

(Thirteenth Generation - Hanson/de Rastrich Family)

FATHER
MOTHER
THOMAS HANSON
Mary Frances PRITCHARD


BIRTH & DEATH Thomas was born circa 1643 in probably Kittery, ME[5] and died in Dover, NH on 24 February 1710; he was 67.
OCCUPATION Thomas was a planter.
FREEMAN, RESIDENCE & CHURCH MEMBERSHIP He took the Oath of Fidelity on 21 June 1669[2]. Thomas was taxed at Cocheco from 1664 to 1667[1]. Thomas was a Quaker.
ESTATE Thomas' will was dated 24 February 1710 with a codicil written on 6 March 1710 and inventoried 8 November 1711[15]. Names his wife as "Mercy" and mentions all children save John[1,5]. The full text of Thomas' will reads:

"In ye Name of god amen ye 24 day of ye 2 month 17010 I Thomas Hanson of Cochecha in ye Towne of Dover in ye province of Newhampshere planter being sick and weak of bodey

* * *

Item I give and bequeath to Marey my well beloved wife halfe ye purduce of my homesteed to be raised and levyed out of ye Estate

Item I give and bequeath unto my well bloved sun Nathanuall yt trackt or parcall of land lying and being betwene Rainers brooke and ye Indion widgwom broock

Item I give and bequeth unto my well be loved daughter maray a suffishent Maintaince oute of my Etate or homested to gether with her mothers fether bead Duiering her Life time if shee sees scose but if other wise I give unto her twentey powne lawful money to be raised and levyed oute of my homesteede and ye fether bed to be parte of ye twentey pownd

Item I give and bequeth unto my well beloved Elezabeth ye sum of tem powne to be raised and levyed oute of my home steed in lawfull money and to paid by my beloved sun James home I opint my Excutor

Item I give and bequeth unto my well beloved sun James Hanson home I lickewise Constitute make and ordaine my onley an sole Executor of this my laste will an testament all and singuler all ye lands of my home steed onley I macke my wife duering her life time Joyntly Executerecks with him and to have half ye purduse of ye place duiering her life time and After her deces to be ye onley and sole Executor of all my lands of my homested of this my laste will and testament by him freely to be possessed an Injoyd and I doe heare by uterly disallow revok and disannul al an Every other formor testements wills an legacies be fore this time named willed and bequethed ratifuing and Confirming this and no other to be my laste will and testament in witnise whereof I heare unto sete my hand and seale ye daye and eare above writen and furder it is my will yt my sun James shall have a yoake of oxen and all tacklan and geare belongen theare unto an also yt after I and my wifes decese all ye moveabels goods shall be Equaley devided amongst all my Children

signed sealed published pro- Thomas X Hanson [seal]
nounced and Declared by ye sd his mark
Thomas Hanson as his last will
and testament in ye presentce of
us ye subscribrs
Jonathan watson
Richard Scamon
John Bampton"


The full text of Thomas' codicil reads:

"Be it known to all men by these presents yt whereas I Thomas Hanson of Cochecha of ye Towne of Dover and province of Newhapshere planter have made and declared my laste will an testamente in wrighteing bearing date ye 24 day of ye 2th month 1710 I ye sd Thomas Hanson doe by this present Codicil Confirm an ratifie my sd laste will and testement I give and bequeath unto my well beloved suns Thomas and John yt parsall of land yt I purchesed of henerey Nock Comonly Coled an known by ye name of Nocks mash and allso I have gave : ye have allreadey had Ethe of them a yoake of oxen and tacklan and geears beloning thear unto and my will and meaning is yt this Codicil schedule be and be a Judged to be a parte and parcel of my sd last will and testement and yt all things theare in Contained an mentioned be faithfully an truly performed and as fully an amply in my laste respect as if ye same ware soe declared an set down in Every will an testement

and allso I have given unto my well beloved daughters marrey an Abagall and theay have allreadey had Eashe of them a Cowe and a feathear bead a pece this is to put an End to diferance yt may arise after my decese an to sarifi all whome it may Consarne yt these heare mentioned have had theare parts and porshens yt I have gave them with ye reste of my Children in witnes wheare of I have heare unto sete my hand and seale this sixth day of ye 3 month 1710

signed sealed published and
his
declared by ye sd Thomas Han-
Thomas X Hanson [seal]
son as parte of his laste will an
mark
testament in ye presents of us ye
subscribers
John Bampton
Richard Scamon
Jonathn watson
[Proved Dec. 5, 1711.]
[Inventory, Nov. 8, 1711; amount, £250.16.6; signed by John Tuttle and Tristram Heard.]
[Probate Records, vol. 3, p. 193]"[16]

MARRIAGE On 3 June 1669 when Thomas was 26, he married Mary KITCHEN, daughter of John KITCHEN & Elizabeth GRAFTON, in Salem, Essex co., MA[3,17,5,11,18,19]. Mary was born in 1648 in Salem, Essex co., MA and died in 1710; she was 62. Mary was baptized as "Kitchin, Mary" in Salem, Essex co., MA in 23d:2m:1648[20].

CHILDREN 36. i. Thomas HANSON Please see his own page.
37. ii. John HANSON John married Elizabeth [surname not known]. John and his family "lived on the outside of town" [at Knox's Marsh] and suffered the killing of two children in 1724". His wife, a fourteen day old child, two daughters and a son were carried off. He redeemed all but Sarah the next year and died at Crown Point in 1727 whilst on a journey to redeem her[26]. Sarah is referred to as an example of a "white Indian" by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, citing James Axtell. Since she went unredeemed (due to the unfortunate death of her father on a trip to do so), she was adopted by Canadian Indians and eventually married a Frenchman and remained in Canada[35].

His wife Elizabeth is one of the more famous Indian captives of the 17th century. An account of her captivity was published in a 1728 pamphlet entitled God's Mercy surmounting Man's Cruelty Exemplifyed in the Captivity and Redemption of Elizabeth Hanson...In which re inserted, Sundry remarkable Preservations, Deliverances, and Marks of the Care and Kindness of Providence[36]. She was taken by a band of Indians and taken to Canada, where she was sold to the French[39]. She was "blessed" with an imperious, yet kind captor who did not kill her newborn baby, but instead helped her to carry the child -- and assist her -- as they climbed the mountains on the way to Canada[37]. Elizabeth survived in large part because she bonded with the Native women in her band, who then taught her the necessary survival skills for both her and her infant during the trip from the seacoast of New Hampshire to the wilds of Canada[39,40]. In addition, the tenets of her Quaker faith "... patience, long-suffering, and kindness were more powerful than cruelty...[she] simply refused to meet violence with violence...[40]" However, this Quaker faith could also be a partial explanation for the many Hanson family members captured by Indians during the French & Indian Wars: "According to one New Hampshire minister, the Hansons may have been captured only because Elizabeth's husband, a 'stiff Quaker, full of enthusiasm, and ridiculing the military power, would on no account be influenced to come into garrison.'..."[40]

Unlike roughly a third of the white women Indian captives of the time, Elizabeth refused to convert to Catholicism once she reached Canada. Instead, she stuck to her Quaker faith and refused to capitulate to the French[38].

38. iii. Nathaniel HANSON Nathaniel married Martha [surname not known].
39. iv. Marcy HANSON We know nothing more of Marcy.
40. v. Elizabeth HANSON We know nothing more of Elizabeth.
41. vi. James HANSON We know nothing more of James.
42. vii. Abigail HANSON We know nothing more of Abigail.




GENERATION Great-great-great-great-great-great-great (G7) Grandfather
FAMILY NUMBER 900
SOURCES 1. Noyes, Sybil, Charles Thornton Libby and Walter Goodwin David, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, (Portland, ME: Anthosensen Press 1928-1939; rpt Baltimore: Gen. Publ. Co., 1972), [GDMNH], 1821.

2. Nicely, Charlotte, Hanson Relatives, (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1977), [Hanson-Nicely].

3. Torrey, Charles, New England Marriages Prior to 1700., (Boston: New England Historic and Genealogical Society). [Torrey].

4. Scales, John, Colonial Era History of Dover, NH.

5. New England Historic and Genealogical Register. Vols. 1+, (Boston: New England Historic and Genealogical Register, 1845+), [NEHGR], 6:329.

6. Harrison, Metcalf Henry and Hammond Otis Grant, New Hampshire State Papers: Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, [NHStatePapers], 32:85. 7. Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, vol. 1 1635-1717, State Papers Series Vol. 31, Albert Stillman Batchellor, Otis Grant Hammond, Ezra Scollay Stearns, (Concord, NH: Rumford Printing Co., 1907), [NHProbV1], 85-6.

8. Rockingham co., NH Deeds, [RockDeed], 6:242.

9. Ibid.

10. [NEHGR], 6:329; 58:94; 78:427.

11. [GDMNH], 307.

12. Lawrence, Ethel Viola, Tripp Family with Collaterals, ([East Northfield?, Mass.], 1948), [Tripp (1948)], 60.

13. Trask, William Blake, Capt. William Traske and Some of His Descendants, (Boston: D. Clapp & Sons, 1904), [Trask (1904)], 14.

14. Stackpole, Everett S., Old Kittery and Her Families, (Lewiston, ME: Lewiston Journal Press, 1903), [Kittery].

15. [NHStatePapers], 3:191. 16. [NHProbV1], 659-661.

17. Ham, John R., Dover, New Hampshire Marriages, 1623-1823, (Dover, NH., 1880-1902), typescript, [DoverNHMar], 87.

18. Perley, Sidney, The History of Salem, Massachusetts, 3 vols., (Salem: Sidney Perley, 1924), [Salem], 3:32.

19. Salem, Essex co., MA Vital Records. [SalemVR], III:464 [Ct. R.].

20. Ibid. I:496 [C. R. 1].

21. Lynn, Essex co., MA Vital Records, [LynnVR], II:494.

22. Waters, Henry F., The Newhall Family, (Salem: Essex Institute, 1882; repr., Rutland, VT: Tuttle Antiquarian Books), [Newhall(1882)], 55.

23. [NHProbV1], 32:341.

24. ??????, "First Book of Intentions of Marriage in the City of Lynn", Essex Institute Historical Collections, vol. 1+, [EIHC-LynnInt], 16:71ff.

25. [LynnVR], II:169 [C.R. 1].

26. [NEHGR], 6:329-330.

27. Dover, Rockingham co., NH Vital Records, [DoverNHVR].

28. [LynnVR], Flyleaf of book 6.

29. [Newhall(1882)], 102.

30. Essex Institute Historical Collections, vol. 1+, (Salem, Mass., 1859+), [EIHC], Waters Newhall Listings, #112, v. 18, p. 259 & v. 16, p. 259.

31. [LynnVR], II:169.

32. Ibid. C.R. 2.

33. [Newhall(1882)], 55, 52.

34. [EIHC], Waters Newhall Listings, #315, v. 19, p. 52.

35. Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher, Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750. (New York: Vintage Books, 1980, 1982, 1991), 204.

36. Ibid. 179-80.

37. Ibid. 206.

38. Ibid. 212.

39. Ibid. 226-7.

40. Ibid. 230-4.


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