The family of Amariah Holbrook 1756-1797

 This post is the beginning of an attempt to trace the family of Amariah Holbrook.  He was born in Bellingham, Massachusetts on June 6, 1756 and died there July 7, 1797.  He was the son of Jesse and Abigail Thayer Holbrook.  Like his father, he was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, and that may or may not have contributed to his early death.  His parents, grandparents, and great grandparents had all lived their lives in the same area, although the earliest of these show Mendon as locations of death.  Bellingham was formed from land originally part of Mendon, so it may well have been the same land.  (Some of the great grandparents had Weymouth roots, which is about 45 miles from Bellingham.)

Amariah married Molly Wright May 13, 1779 in Bellingham.  She was the daughter of Jonathan and Rebecca Wilson Wright.  Their first child, Tryphena, was born January 17, 1779.  She appears to have had a cherished relationship with her parents, and with her grandfather Jesse, despite being born before the marriage.  Amariah made a point in his will of calling her his natural daughter, and Jesse in his will gave her the portion due his own children, perhaps because Amariah was already deceased at that point.  

My first thought was that Tryphena may have had some mental or physical challenge, but she married at about the age she would have been expected to marry, when she was 22,  Her spouse was Levi Rockwood, the son of Levi and Deborah Lazell Rockwood.  We will meet Levi and Deborah in a later paragraph, as they are our ancestors also.  Their known children were John, Amos, Levi, Orrin, and Lyman.  

Abigail was born May 12, 1780, and died June 24, 1780.  Amariah and Molly (seen in many records as Moley) had had an eventful first year of their marriage, with an infant daughter and then the birth and sad death of another daughter within a few weeks of their first anniversary.  

Their first son, Nahum, was born April 2, 1781.  He is our ancestor and I will write more of him in a future post, but he was married to Susannah Rockwood, the daughter of Levi and Deborah Lazell Rockwood.   They had at least seven children-Amariah, Susan, Mary, Nahum, Lucinda, Deborah, and Joseph.  

Next born was Amos, on April 27, 1873.  He married Lucretia Burr, daughter of Elisha and Lucretia Bates Burr.  The Burr line traces back to John and Mary Warren Burr, who are our ancestors on another line.  Their known children were Whitman, Lucretia, Amos Harrison, Almira, and Olive Metcalf.  (I suspect there was a line in Lucretia's tree that may have gone back to our Metcalf ancestors, but I have not traced it.)  

Their son Amariah was born January 23, 1785.  He married Lovina (seen as Vina) Holbrook, the daughter of Timothy and Ruth (unknown) Holbrook.  She was a distant cousin, as her ancestors included Peter and Alice Godfrey Holbrook, whose family I have written of earlier.  She was born in Vermont and I haven't quite figured out how they met, but it happened.  Lovina appears to also have descended from Elder John Strong of Northampton, Massachusetts, who is also our ancestor.    Their children were Amariah Wright, Peter, Martha, and another Amariah.

Joel Holbrook was born February 2, 1787.  He married Fear Stewart, who was likely the daughter of Fear Stewart.  Their known children were Jesse T. and Sally Ann.  Fear died after about 8 years of marriage.

I should pause here to say that several of the children I am briefly sketching here left Bellingham and moved to Hartford, Washington County, New York, mostly in the early 1800s.  I have been unable to locate readily available birth records for that time and place, so it is probable that some of these couples have more children than I have been able to find.  

Abigail Holbrook (the second of that name) was born June 2, 1789.  She married Amos Adams, the son of Amos and Abigail Thayer Adams.  (Abigail Thayer leads us back to Ferdinando and Hulda Hayward Thayer, Samuel and Mehitable Thompson Hayward, Walter and Experience Cook, John and Joanna Ford Rocket or Rockwood, and possibly a Staples line that matches ours.) Abigail and Amos had Tryphenia, Seneca, Samuel, and Emeline.  

Asa Holbrook was born May 18, 1792.  He married twice.  His first wife was Mercy New, not traced, and their children were Abigail, Anna, Asa, Charles, Elethina, and Elnathan.  After Mercy's death, he married Anna Smith, and their children were Willard and Angeline. Most of these children were born in Medway, so Asa had moved just a ways from the Holbrook lands of Bellingham.

Nathan Holbrook was born April 8, 1794.  I found very little about him, but I did find a will for a Nathan (not sure if he is this Nathan or not) who was a yeoman of Bellingham, and who wrote his will June 18, 1828.  It was probated June 16, 1846.  In it, he mentions his wife, Sarah, and children Dennis, Ellie, and Sarah.  I do not know for sure whether he belongs in this sketch or not. There also seems to be record of Nathan who married Ruth Albee and had no children, but I've not found a date for this marriage so I don't know if it could be the same man or not. 

Amariah and Molly's last child was Lyman, born February 26, 1797, just a few months before Amariah's death.  He married Hypsa or Hypsia Freeman, daughter of Ralph and Betty Legg Freeman.  Their known children were Adaline, Nahum, and Sylvia.  

This possibly incomplete list shows at least 38 grandchildren for Amariah and Molly, not including the possibility of the three mentioned in the will of Nathan Holbrook.  Amariah and Molly may well have had more children had his life not been cut short.  They continued a long line of Holbrooks and are two of my favorite ancestors, Amariah because of his long service in the Revolutionary War and Molly because she never remarried, but raised the children on her own, probably with the help of her Holbrook family.  (Her own parents had died prior to Amariah's death.)