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Generational List of Direct Ancestors in the Marblehead Branch

Take the quiz about our Marblehead ancestors either before or after you read about them

Family Number Ancestor Name Spouse
0203
Samuel Ruggles Henderson
0306
Mary Oliver Lemaster
0420
Martha Martin
0430
Mary Oliver Martin
0520
Elizabeth Adams
0521
Mary Oliver
0525
Eleanor Girdler
0530
Jane Bessom
0610 Adams, John Mary Pederick
0611
Mary Pedrick
0620
Martha Nicholson
0630
Elizabeth Grant
0640
Rebecca Bassett
0680
Sarah Gale
0710
Jean Merritt
0711
Sarah Martin
0720
Sarah Arnold
0730
Jane Waters
0745
Mary Peach
0765
Susanna Dennis
0770
Ann Stanford
0780
Andrea Mason
0785
Charity Curtis
0790
Margaret Greenfield
0800
Hannah Devereux
0800
Hannah Devereux
0810
Mary Browne
0815
Mary Roundee
0820
Martin, Thomas
Eleanor Knott
0825
Mary Cowes
0830
Sarah Pedrick
0840
Mary Fluent
0845
Deborah
0860
Martha Bartlett
0865
Mary
0870
Elizabeth Ashton
0875
Priscilla Hawkins
0880
Miriam Stacey
0885
Susannah Devereux
0900
Susannah Hartshorne
0902
Emma Devereux
0905
Hannah Peach
0910
Agnes Pederick
0911
Miriam
0915
Ann Bush
0920
Sarah Northey
0930
Grace Parker
0935
Agnes Stilson
0940
Mary Walton
0945
Deliverance Codner
0950
Sarah
0960
Sarah Pitman
0965
Mary Sandin
0970
Susannah Foxwell
0975
Mary Chinn
0985
Grace Stacey
0990
Susannah Coombs
1000
Ann
1005
Elizabeth
1010
Joan Bartoll
1015
Mary Charles
1015
Ursula
1020
Ann Holland
1025
Dorothy
1030
Mary Leman
1035
Margaret
1040
Mary
1045
Elizabeth Cooke
1050
Susanna Bonython
1055
Alice
1060
Mary Ward
1065
Eleanor Pittman
1070
Nichole Pullibanke
1075
Susannah Buck
1080
Elizabeth
1085
Edith Hayward
1095
Sarah
1105
Parnell Hodder
1135
?
1140
Mary Hilliard
1150
Lucretia Leigh
1160
Mary Crocombe
     
     
     
     
     

Marblehead History Relevant to the Descendants of These Direct Ancestors

Following are some excerpts from Wikipedia about the history of Marblehead that relates to our direct ancestors in the Marblehead branch who lived there until Thomas and Mary Oliver Lemaster Harris relocated from Marblehead to Philadelphia in about 1875. (Their daughter, Martha, met and married Samuel Ruggles Henderson of the Philadelphia branch there).

A town with roots in commercial fishing, whaling and yachting, Marblehead was a major shipyard and is often referred to as the birthplace of the American Navy, a title sometimes disputed with nearby Beverly.

Marblehead's first European settler was Joseph Doliber who in 1629 set up on the shore near what is now the end of Bradlee Road. Three years earlier, Isaac Allerton, a Pilgrim from the Mayflower, had arrived in the area and established a fishing village at mid-Marblehead Harbor on the town side, across from Marblehead Neck. This area was set off and incorporated separately in 1649.

Originally called Massebequash after the river which ran between it and Salem, the land was inhabited by the Naumkeag tribe of the Pawtucket confederation under the overall sachem Nanepashemet. But epidemics in 1615–1619 and 1633, believed to be smallpox, devastated the tribe. On September 16, 1684, heirs of Nanepashemet sold their 3,700 acres (15 km2); the deed is preserved today at Abbot Hall in the city.

At times called "Marvell Head", "Marble Harbour" (by Captain John Smith) and "Foy" (by immigrants from Fowey, Cornwall), the town would be named "Marblehead" by settlers who mistook its granite ledges for marble. It began as a fishing village with narrow, crooked streets, and developed inland from the harbor. The shoreline smelled of drying fish, typically cod. These were exported abroad and to Salem.

The town peaked economically just prior to the Revolution, as locally financed privateering vessels sought bounty from large European ships. Much early architecture survives from the era, including the Jeremiah Lee Mansion. A large percentage of residents became involved early in the Revolutionary War, and the sailors of Marblehead are generally recognized by scholars as forerunners of the United States Navy. The first vessel commissioned for the navy, Hannah, was equipped with cannons, rope, provision (including the indigenous molasses/sea water cookie known as "Joe Frogger") — and a crew from Marblehead. With their nautical backgrounds, soldiers from Marblehead under General John Glover were instrumental in the escape of the Continental Army after the Battle of Long Island. Marblehead men ferried George Washington across the Delaware River for his attack on Trenton. Many who set out for war, however, did not return, leaving the town with 459 widows and 865 orphaned children in a population of less than 5,000.

The community lost a substantial portion of its population and economy, although it was still the tenth-largest inhabited location in the United States at the first census, in 1790.