[6] Mr. Webster fixed the date according to the "old style" of
reckoning, which explains the apparent discrepancy between his
statement and the date named in Dr. Lothrop's sermon.
* * * * *
To my cousin the Hon. James D. Green, of Cambridge, Mass., I am
indebted for the following authentic annals from his manuscript volume,
in the library of the New-England Historic, Genealogical Society, in
Boston, relative to his and my father's earliest progenitors.
Dr. Green's earliest ancestor who came from England to this
country, was:
1. JAMES^1 GREEN, yeoman, 24 years. He was an inhabitant of
Charlestown, 1634, and admitted freeman of the colony in 1647,
purchasing lands and settling in "Mystic Fields," since called
Maiden. He died March 29, 1687, aged 77 years, leaving a widow and
two sons, John and James. After a proper provision for his widow
and son James, he willed his "lands and housing thereon" to his son
John.
2. JOHN^2 (_James^1_), the eldest son of James, was born about 1650
and died at the age of 59, leaving a widow, three daughters and one
son, Samuel, to whom, after providing for his widow and daughters,
he by will gave all his lands in Maiden and Charlestown "to him and
his heirs forever."
3. SAMUEL^3 (_John,^2_ _James^1_), who was born in 1679, was a
representative of the town in the general court in 1742. His wife
died at the age of 72, and he died February 21, 1761, at the age of
82, leaving four sons: James, John, Timothy and Ezra, and one
daughter, Mary Daua. To his beloved son Ezra, he by will gave all
the remainder and residue of his real and personal estate, he
paying his debts, funeral expenses and the various bequests to his
other children and granddaughters.
4. EZRA^4 (_Samuel,^3_ _John,^2_ _James^1_), was born in 1714, and
married Sarah Hutchinson, who died July 7, 1741, at the age of 26
years. His second wife, Eunice Burrell, of Lynn, died October 20,
1760, aged 47, leaving two sons, Ezra and Bernard. For his third
wife, he married Mary Vinton, by whom he had one son, Aaron. Said
Ezra Green was deacon of the church in Maiden, selectman and
representative in the general court during the years of 1760, '61
and '62. He died April 28, 1768, at the age of 54 years. By his
will, after providing for his beloved widow Mary, he gave to his
son Ezra twenty acres of land in Chelsea, and about five acres near
"Penny Ferry," apart from what he had paid for his collegiate and
medical education, and the gift of a horse, which he deemed
equivalent to the homestead, real and personal (except what he had
disposed of to his son Aaron, besides his collegiate educational
expenses), which he bequeathed to his son Bernard, making as it did
the fifth generation, and embracing more than two hundred years
since its first purchase by James Green in 1610.
Dr. Green was in his second year's naval service, when, by the Rev.
Jeremy Belknap, he was married to Susanna Hayes in the twentieth
year of her age. She was then reputed to have been quite handsome
and a great favorite with all her acquaintance. She had a delicate
and petite figure, nut-brown hair, shading bright hazel eyes that
lit up her regular cut features with a winning expression, which
played over a soft transparent complexion, lovely as a fresh-blown
rose.
Her father's will, making his estate reversionary in the event of
his daughter's decease without issue, happily placed her and her
husband in no such unpleasant dilemma; for in the brief time of
nineteen years, thirteen children were born to them, viz.:
i. EUNICE, b. July 1, 1780; d. Oct. 7, 1782.
ii. REUBEN HAYES, b. Aug. 20, 1783.
iii. CHARLES, b. March 26, 1785; d. April 5, 1854.
iv. DEBORAH SHACKFORD, b. March 20, 1787; d. May 7, 1860.
v. SARAH, b. Oct. 19, 1788; d. Nov. 2, 1874.
vi. SAMUEL, b. Jan. 4, 1790; d. Jan. 23, 1791.
vii. MARTHA, b. July 13, 1791; d. Nov. 25, 1792.
viii. EUNICE, b. Oct. 8, 1792; d. May 25, 1839.
ix. A DAUGHTER, b. July 15, 1794; still-born.
x. MARTHA, b. June 9, 1795; d. Aug. 3, 1795.
xi. A SON, b. April 27, 1796; still-born.
xii. SAMUEL, b. Oct. 5, 1797; d. Nov. 3, 1823.
xiii. WALTER COOPER, b. July 1, 1799.
My mother's earliest paternal ancestor[7] in America,
1. JOHN^1 HAYES, is said to have emigrated from Scotland
about 1680, and settled in Dover, New-Hampshire. He had a grant of
land in 1693. By his wife Mary Horn, he had seven sons and three
daughters, viz.:
2. i. JOHN, b. 1686.
ii. PETER.
iii. REUBEN.
iv. ICHABOD, b. March 13, 1691-2.
v. SAMUEL, b. March 16, 1694-5.
vi. WILLIAM, b. Sept. 6, 1698.
vii. BENJAMIN, b. ----, 1700.
viii. A DAUGHTER, m. Phipps.
ix. A DAUGHTER, m. Ambrose.
x. A DAUGHTER.
2. JOHN^2 (_John^1_), married Mrs. Tomson, and lived at Tole-End,
four miles from Dover corner. He was a deacon of the First
Congregational Society in Dover. They had eight children, viz.:
i. ANN, b. June 3, 1718.
3. ii. REUBEN, b. May 8, 1720; d. 1762.
iii. JOSEPH, b. March 15, 1722.
iv. BENJAMIN, b. March 6, 1723.
v. MEHITABEL, b. Dec. 11, 1725.
vi. JOHN, went to North Yarmouth, Maine, to reside.
vii. ELIJAH, went to Berwick, Maine.
viii. ICHABOD, went to Berwick, Maine.
3. REUBEN^3 (_John^2_, _John^1_), was born May 8, 1720. He lived at
Tole-End and married Abigail Shackford, by whom he had only one
child, viz.:
i. SUSANNA, b. March 23, 1759.
Reuben Hayes died in 1762, at the early age of 42 years, and by his
will, after a liberal provision for his wife Abigail, he gave all
the residue of his estate, real and personal, to his only child
Susanna Hayes, consisting of his farm of 150 acres at Tole-End,
with this reservation that, in case "his said daughter Susanna, at
her decease, should leave no issue of her body lawfully begotten
surviving, then my will is that, my whole estate that shall then be
remaining, both real and personal, shall revert and be divided
among my four Brethren, namely, Benjamin, John, Ichabod and Elijah
Hayes."
[7] I am mainly indebted for the annals of my mother's paternal
ancestry to John R. Ham, M.D., of Dover, N.H.