The family of John Whittemore 1714-1778

 John Whittemore, who fought in the French and Indian War and was on the expedition to Crown Point in 1757, deserves to tell more of his story than we know so far.  And again, what we do know is limited and confusing.  Nevertheless, there is enough to follow our line, and so we will take what we can get.

John is the son of John and Elizabeth Lloyd Whittemore, and was born in 1714 in either Charlestown or Boston, Massachusetts.  He married Lydia Clough, the daughter of Benjamin and Faith Hart Clough, in 1742.  Lydia lived only a few more years, dying June 15, 1750.  John is said to have married again, but his second wife is unidentified as of now.  (There are a couple of possibilities in Worcester County but I can't prove or disprove either of those yet.)

John and Lydia had at least three children,  

John was born in 1743 and married Abigail Osborn, the widow Bodge, daughter of Thomas and Abigail Pierce Osborn.  I can find no record of children for them.  John died in 1790 in Charlestown.

William was born in 1745 and died in 1822.  He married Bethiah Collins, daughter of John and Bethiah Mansfield Collins.  They had at least one child, William.  

Josiah was born in late 1748 or early 1749 in Boston.  He married Lucy Snow, the daughter of William and Elizabeth Stevens Snow.  Thier children are William, John, Salmon, Mary, Lucy, Josiah, Levi, Cephas, Otis, and Betsey.  Lucy died in 1794 and Josiah then married Martha Parkhurst, the widow Rider.  She was the daughter of Nathaniel and Eunice Harrington Parkhurst.  This marriage took place in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, which is why I think it might be worthwhile looking at the possibilities mentioned above for John's purported second marriage.) Josiah and Martha had at least four children together: Cephas, Zenas, Martha, and Sylvanus. Josiah died in 1814 and I will follow this family in my next blog post.

There is also a mention of Samuel Whittemore as the child of John and Lydia, but I could find no information about him.  He may have died as an infant, and his mother Lydia may have died as a result of childbirth.  

If John did marry again, he and his second wife may have had a daughter Sarah, born in 1775.  That would have made quite a gap in ages between John's youngest with Lydia and this daughter, but it's not impossible.  I haven't found records for her but maybe I've not looked in the right places.

Once again, this particular branch of the Whittemore family seems to play hide and seek with us.  We can see some faint traces of where some may have hidden, but after so many years, it's hard to be sure because by this time there were too many John Whittemores to count, in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.  We will hold tightly to the ones we know about, and continue to search for more ties to our Whittemore family.