Thomas Martin - Elizabeth Adams Family Group

What We Know About This Family

An Overview of Their Lives

Captain Thomas Martin, Jr. came from a long line of Marblehead mariners and an old and established Marblehead family starting with John Martin and his wife Sarah Northey and Hannah Devereux and her second husband Richard Knott. There were many descendants given the first name Knott and carrying the Martin surname. Thomas, Arnold, and Knott were popular first names for the Martins, and that sometimes makes identification of records difficult. This Captain Thomas Martin was the brother of Captain Arnold Martin, who is another of our direct ancestors. Thomas's wife Elizabeth Adams was the daughter of fisherman/store owner John Adams and Mary Pedrick, whose family was also one of the first in Marblehead starting with John and Meriam Pedrick.

Some important dates could not be found, so some events are sketchy. Thomas, Jr. and Elizabeth Martin had seven children, the last born in 1799. Elizabeth's father John Adams died in 1804, and Elizabeth was named as deceased in his probate with her share of his estate going to her heirs. No death record can be found for her. Nor can we find many records for Hannah, the second wife of Thomas Martin. We know of her existence through his probate. He left an estate larger than most I've seen so far. Hannah outlived him by 20 years, and her will names most of his children and grandchildren and their relationships, which is helpful. What we don't know is her surname, or when they were married. Thomas's sister-in-law, Mary Adams Salkins and her husband were clearly close to the family also as the Salkins name appears often in relationship to them. Our direct descendant Martha was the last child born to Elizabeth, so she lost her mother at a very young age.

The designation of the appellation "Captain" when not associated with military status designates a man who captained vessels that he probably owned. Baker's Island is the outermost island on the main shipping channel into Salem Harbor. On 24 Jun 1814, the vessel Arnold Sears owned by Captain Thomas Martin shipwrecked off Baker's Island. All the men escaped, but the ship and its cargo of wood from Maine were lost. If the owner was not this Thomas Martin, it could have been his father or a cousin. An advertisement for a schooner named Success appeared in a Salem paper not long after the Captain's death with inquiries directed to Thomas Martin. I'm assuming the Success belonged to this Captain Martin although I could not find references to schooners in his probate information. His widow's estate inventory, however, did list a schooner.

His widow, Hannah, gave bequests and named the following beneficiaries and their relationships in her will:

1. Mary A. Brown, wife of Peter Brown
2. Martha Harris wife of Joseph Harris
3. Elizabeth Knowland, daughter of Mary A. Brown
4. Ann A Brown, daughter of Mary A, Brown
5. Martha, daughter of Mary A. Brown
6. Elizabeth, Martha, and Mary Ann, children of Joseph and Martha Harris
7. Hannah, Elizabeth, Susan, daughters of Thomas Martin deceased
8. Elizabeth Martin, wife of Peter A. Martin
9. Elizabeth, daughter of Peter A. Martin
10. Mary S., daughter of Peter A. Martin
11. Elizabeth A., Benjamin S., William B., and Mary S children of Peter A. Martin and Elizabeth Martin
12. Thomas A. Martin, son of Peter A. Martin

Mary A. Brown, Martha Harris, Thomas Martin, and Peter Arnold Martin were the children of her deceased husband, Captain Thomas Martin. Excerpts of the probate materials for both the Captain and his widow are in the documents section.

About the Children

• Martha Martin, their eldest child, was named for her paternal grandmother Martha Nicholson. No further records of her can be found, and the birth of a sister named Martha in 1799 tells us she died before then.


• Mary Adams Martin's husband Captain Richard Brown, died of consumption at 44. Her youngest child, Ann Ashton Brown, married John F. Harris, the son of Mary's sister, Martha. Mary and Richard Brown had seven children altogether, losing two boys very young; however, two children survived into their 50's, three achieved at least 80, and two of those survived into the twentieth century, both being in their 90s.


• Captain Thomas Martin, 3rd was the administrator of his father's estate. He died suddenly at age 52 with a bout of dysentery. His wife was Hannah Tucker and their son George Salkins Martin died as a youngster. Their oldest son, William Tucker Martin, died of delirium tremors in his 50's, but five of their children, the last being born in 1828, lived into the 20th century. His step-mother, Hannah, left legacies of $25 to each of his surviving daughters, but no mention of the sons.


• Arnold Martin apparently died before 1827 as he was not named in his father's probate.
  


• Peter Arnold Martin died of "canker" at age 58. Canker in those days was an ulceration usually in the mouth (as it is today). In the presence of malnutrition, debilitation, or immune deficiency, it could spread and cause tissue destruction, gangrene, and an agonizing death. He and his wife Betsey Stacey had six children who all grew to adulthood. His family was the primary beneficiary of his step-mother's will.
  


• Martha Martin married Joseph Harris. They had 13 children together. He started manufacturing shoes in his house, and he built the business into one of the two largest shoe-manufacturing companies in Marblehead employing at least 400 people. They purchased a large mansion where they lived until they died. Unfortunately, their oldest Tson, Thomas Martin Harris, drowned in the harbor and tuberculosis took a toll. Only half their children survived them. Martha died a few years before Joseph, who remarried not too long before his own death, which was precipitated by a fall the previous day. Joseph and Martha Martin Harris are our direct ancestors and have their own family group page.

Proof of Relationship

Proof of the lineage can be found in the probate records of Thomas's father, Captain Thomas Martin, who died in 1828 a year after his son, Thomas, did.  He left his son Thomas's 1/4 share of his estate to Thomas's children: Mary Adams Martin Brown, Thomas Martin, Peter Arnold Martin, and our direct ancestor, Martha Martin Harris (married to Joseph Harris).

What Else We Need to Learn

The goal of this project is to trace every line of ancestry to the arrival of its first immigrant to America. The basic information of each couple is considered complete when we know the dates of birth, marriage, and death for both spouses. their parents' names (or whether they were the immigrant), and the child or children in our ancestry line.

The research on this family is basically complete.