Holbrook line: Benoni Clough 1675-1757

 Benoni Clough (pronounced Cluff, probably) was the grandson of immigrant John Clough, and the son of John Clough and Mercy Page.  His grandfather had settled in Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, and his parents lived their entire lives there.  (Well, Mercy had been born in Haverhill but she spent her married life in Salisbury.) Benoni was born at Salisbury on May 23, 1675, and if he had wanted to make this descendant's life a little easier, he would have stayed there his entire life also.  But apparently he wasn't thinking about me!

What Benoni did was to move to New Hampshire.  We have a few, a very few, ancestors who also were to be found in New Hampshire, but this still feels like new territory to me.  I'm not really sure how far he moved.  His father and his grandfather are both listed as buried at the Salisbury Plains burying ground in Amesbury.  Amesbury and Salisbury lie very close together, so likely they lived close to the border of the two Massachusetts towns.  Kensington, New Hampshire, where Benoni lived for many years, is just a few miles north of Amesbury and Salisbury, so he may very well have lived within just a few miles of his birthplace, but it was enough to put him in another state.  

Benoni married Hannah, usually seen as the daughter of Nathaniel and Joanna Kinney Merrill, probably about 1694 as children started arriving in 1695.  Hannah's birth date is given as 1672, so Benoni, at age 19, may have married a woman three or so years older than he was.  All 10 of their children are shown as having been born in Salisbury, with the last being born in 1712.  Hannah was a busy woman!  

Benoni bought land from Caleb Webster in what became Kensington, New Hampshire in 1715, and that may be when the family moved there.  I haven't traced all the children, to see how many moved with him but there were plenty of Cloughs in both Kensington and Salisbury, and the family likely stayed in close touch.  Kensington wasn't actually formed as a town until 1737; up to that time it had been part of Hampton. This entire area is just a few miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, but probably was a farming rather than a maritime economy.  

Based on Benoni's residence and age, it is likely that he served in the militia and very well have been involved in some of the many wars, battles, or skirmishes that took place when he was a young to middle-aged man.  The Britsh (and their colonists) were regularly at war with the French and their native American allies, such as King William's War, Queen Anne's War, and other named conflicts.  It is not likely that the family ever felt entirely safe, even though their area had been (sparsely) settled since the 1630s.

I've not been able to locate a will or inventory for Benoni, nor any other details that would help bring him to life.  He was likely a church member, at least in Salisbury, and he would have been knowledgeable about the arms of the day.  He probably farmed and hunted, but whether he had an additional occupation is not known at this time.  We do know he had children, and one of them became our ancestor.  For that, he earns a place in our family history.

The line of descent is:

Benoni Clough-Hannah probably Merrill

Benjamin Clough-Faith Hart

Lydia Clough-John Whittemore

Josiah Whittemore-Lucy Snow

Josiah Whittemore-Betsy Foster

Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph Holbrook

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants