Saint Croix Courier, St. Stephen, NB
May 31, 1894
GLIMPSES OF THE PAST
Contributions to the History of Charlotte County and the Border Towns.
CXVIII – THE CAPE ANN ASSOCIATION-Continued.
From an unpublished genealogy of the Moore family1 we learn that the names of Moore, Porter, McAllister, McLaughlan, Todd, Christie and Clendenin were among those of a company of persons in Londonderry, Ireland, who in 1718 formed an association for emigration to America, and whose ancestors, a century before, had migrated from Argyleshire, Scotland. On their arrival in Massachusetts the greater number of these emigrants remained in Boston and the neighboring towns; but one company of sixteen families continued on to Falmouth (now Portland) and thence went early in the following year to the site of the present town of Londonderry, N. H. Here they were soon joined by others of the association, and a charter or grant was received from the crown in 1722.
William Moore, born in Ireland about 1680, though not of the original sixteen, is supposed to have been one of the early settlers of Londonderry. He was the father of William Moore of the Cape Ann Association, who had settled in New Boston, N. H., about 1756, and came from that place to St. David with his large family, probably in 1785. He built the first mill at Moore’s Mills, where his son, Tristram Moore, succeeded him in the business. His wife, Hannah Livingstone, was a remarkable woman, of whom there are many quaint and curious tales.
Jane Christy, a daughter of the William Moore first mentioned, is supposed to be the maternal ancestor of Peter, James and John Christy who settled in this county. Peter Christy, before mentioned2 as the purchaser of several lots at Stillwater (now Milltown) in 1793, was at the head of extensive lumbering operations there; and the place was for many years known as Christy’s Mills.
The children of William Moore who accompanied him to St. David were Robert, Martha (Brown), Mary (Christie) (Hitchings), John, William, Hannah (Connick), Tristram, and Elizabeth (Chase) (Buntin). A younger daughter, Anna, was born in St. David.
David Clindenin also came from New Boston and settled in St. David. He is the ancestor of the Clindenins of Clindenin Ridge.
William Vance, of New Boston, settled first at St. David. He soon afterwards removed to Stillwater, and from there to the western side of the St. Croix, where he founded the village known for a time as Vance’s Mills, now the town of Baring. He owned timber lands at the outlet of Chiputneticook lakes, where now stands the town of Vanceboro. His wife, Jane Clindenin, died in 1800, and her headstone, a beautifully lettered slab of slate, still stands in the little cemetery at ‘Meeting-house corner,’ (near the present residence of J. A. Maxwell,) on St. David Ridge. Vance carried on business at Baring for many years, but finally removed to Augusta, and died there. One of his sons, James P. Vance, afterwards removed to somepart of the western states, where he became a noted preacher. Another son died at Baring some years ago, over one hundred years of age; and another, David Vance, is still living at Cooper, Me. His sister was the wife of Samuel Darling, and one of his daughters the wife of Hon. Lot M. Morrill, formerly governor of Maine.
Family tradition says that Ninian Lindsay was a nephew of the Archbishop of Dublin, and that he came to America to live with a rich uncle in Philadelphia, who was to make him his heir; but, the uncle speaking disrespectfully of the king, Lindsay left him in anger, and eventually joined the Loyalists at St. Andrews. He was a merchant at St. Andrews for a time; and subsequently removed to St. Stephen, where he married a daughter of Captain Marks.
Daniel McAllister and John Mowatt will be mentioned later.
Moses Gerrish and others named in the grant will be found in the list of grantees of St. Andrews; and the occurrence of their names may be taken as evidence that Gerrish or some other resident of Passamaquoddy was working in concert with Francis Norwood in organizing the company, though Norwood’s connection with it clearly gave it the name of Cape Ann Association.
Henry Goldsmith, first named in the second grant, is the Capt. Goldsmith erroneously mentioned among the St. Andrews grantees.3 (We are at present unable to connect him with the Richard Goldsmith of the first grant.) As a mill owner at Waweig, and a militia officer at St. Andrews, he was a prominent man in this county a hundred years ago.
Thomas McLaughlin, whose name stands at the head of the list of grantees of 1810, was a boy at the time of the emigration from Londonderry, Ireland. (It is possible, though not at all probable, that he was the same as the John McLaughlin of the first grant.) He seems to have settled first at Salem, but soon removed to New Boston, where he married. He brought a family of young children with him to St. David.
1Compiled by John E. Moore of Lewiston, Me., and printed for private circulation same ten or twelve years ago.
2Article ciii.
3Article xciii.
Mr. A. F. Stickney, of Gloucester, Mass., writes:-
At the time of the settlement of New England there was a family of Norwoods in the parish of Lechampton, about eight miles from Gloucester, England, where Francis Norwood died in 1682, aged eighty-two.
Francis Norwood, an early settler at Gloucester, Mass., U. S. A., was probably of this family. The family tradition is that he fled from England with his father, at the restoration of Charles II, on account of the trouble in which the father feared they might be involved for the part he had taken in the civil wars of that period.
This Francis Norwood first appears on the Gloucester records at the time of his marriage, Oct. 15, 1663, to Elizabeth Coldom, and his first grant of land in Gloucester is dated March 18, 1664. Subsequently he had other grants, and also became the owner by purchase of several six acre lots. His will, made Jan. 23, 1706, and proved March 21, 1709, shows that he left a handsome estate.
He had ten children, of whom the second, Francis, was born Dec. 9, 1666, and married Mary Stevens, Jan. 24, 1693. He lived a retired life upon his farm, taking no part in public efforts. He had nine children, one of whom, Jonathan, born Jan. 14, 1712, was the father of thirteen children, and died Feb. 21, 1791. ‘The funeral procession which accompanied his body to the grave was stopped by one of his creditors for the execution of a legal process, which the law then permitted, for the recovery of a debt. A son-in-law stepped forward and satisfied the demand, when the funeral train, almost petrified with horror at the rude and unwonted interruption, resumed its solemn march.’
This Jonathan Norwood had a son Francis, born Feb. 9, 1736, who was intending marriage with Anna Lee, of Manchester, Mass., April 20, 1762, and who married Mrs. Mary Tarr, Sept. 15, 1793. The only child recorded to him in Gloucester is a daughter, Lucy, by the first marriage.
Jonathan also had a son Gustavus, born March 6, 1752, died March 6, 1841, leaving issue; also a son Jonathan, born March 28, 1740, who was intending marriage with Elizabeth Davis, March 16, 1776, and who had a son Jonathan, said to have been drowned at sea unmarried; and a son Samuel, of whom I know no more.
James Norwood was a [sic] of William (and Judith Woodbury), brother of Jonathan. He was born May 5, 1745, and died March 11, 1814. He married his cousin Judith (daughter of Jonathan) whose sister is said to have been previously his wife.