A New Hampshire Patriot

One of the Revolutionary War soldiers from Hampton, New Hampshire, was my ancestor, Captain John Dearborn.  I’ve always seen him referred to as Cap’t. Dearborn to distinguish him from the other John Dearborns from New Hampshire who were related to him (and there were quite a few).  I’ve learned more about him recently.  It appears that he was at first a member of the Coastal Militia which  was charged with setting a watch to keep an eye on the shipping lanes off the coast.  On a couple of occasions, John and others were charged with the safety of Portsmouth Harbor and the Piscataqua River and would spend a few days at a time supplementing the troops there.  

He was a lieutenant when I found the first reference to him in the report of the Committee of Safety.  He was one of the inaugural members…one out of 13 men chosen from the town.  His duties for that body would have been more involved than guarding the coast since the Committee of Safety was established in each town by the State Convention as it was a substitute for the King’s government.  In New Hampshire the committee was given the authority “To take under consideration all matters in which the welfare of the Province in the security of their rights is concerned; and to take the utmost care, that the public sustain no damage.” (Dow History of Hampton NH, Vol 1, p 255)  The committees were made up of local people so the members would have known who was loyal to the crown and who was a patriot.  I hate to think he was watching his neighbors but that’s what committee members did in part along with keeping the peace and managing local affairs as well as furnishing men for Watches and other duties.  

Since he was primarily a member of the Coastal Militia there is only one record of federal service for a month’s duty.  He was paid 3 pennies a mile for the trip to Saratoga, New York, and 2 pennies a mile for the trip back which added up to $12.00 for this service.  The company he was in was probably attached to Col. Moulton’s Regiment, Col. Whipple’s Brigade to support the engagement at Bemis Heights near Saratoga.  After this turn of events for the revolutionaries, he returned to coastal duties for the balance of the war.   He was a citizen-soldier and faced the immediacy of duty on home soil while making a living and raising a family.  

Captain John Dearborn was born 1 July 1740 in Hampton, NH; married about 1762, in Hampton, Zipporah Towle; he died 18 Oct 1794.  She was born 26 May 1744 in Chester, NH; she died in Hampton 11 Nov 1804.  They had 11 children.   One of their sons, also ancestor of mine, Jacob Dearborn, served in the War of 1812 as a captain of a light infantry company stationed near Portsmouth NH.   

I think I'll need to balance out the family scales by next telling you about some Tories in the family tree.  I hope you won't have to wait a long time to hear those tales.  

Île de Ré to Île d'Orléans: Jacques Baudouin

Have you ever come across genealogy information which was surprising, puzzling, and explanatory all at the same time?  I had an ah-hah moment the evening I was prowling around French websites looking for the origins of the family Baudouin.  Jacques Baudouin, my 7^th great-grandfather, was listed as being baptized at the “Temple Calviniste” in La Rochelle, in the former Province of Aunis, France, 4 August 1645.  Did this really mean a Protestant church?   I dug a little deeper and saw that his father, Solon Baudouin, was married at the same place and he was called the Sieur des Marattes.  Solon’s father, the patriarch of the family, another Jacques, was titled “Seneschal”.  What was this? Was my mother right about us being descended from French Aristocracy as she always claimed?  Could this be the explanation of the “Heretics” she and her sister talked about.   So I started to research all of these things. 

Seneschal, I learned, was a title given to administrators of districts in southern France who worked for the King and supervised seigneuries.  I’d heard of seigneuries – they were similar to feudal land holding systems from the Middle Ages.    Very close to La Rochelle, one of the allowed protestant enclaves after the Edict of Nantes, was a large island, the Île de Ré which had been inhabited for a very long time.  The Romans had their salt works on the island and salt is still produced there. The elder Jacques was apparently the Seneschal of the Seigneurie of the Île de Ré.   I started thinking of him as the supervisor of the salt works, a necessary and valuable commodity before the invention of refrigeration.  He was also the landlord to the tenants who lived on the island. 

The Sieur des Marattes, his son Solon,  was the seigneur over an area of former swampland in the environs of La Rochelle but this land had been improved over the ages and was a productive farm and vineyard area.  I’m not sure but I think the family estate and home was also called Marattes.    

My Jacques Baudouin arrived in New France 25 May 1664 as an indentured servant.  He was 19 years old and undoubtedly no longer eligible to inherit his family’s money or rank.  The political climate had been deteriorating in France since Louis XIV ascended the throne in 1643 – his mother was regent then-- but when Cardinal Richelieu died Louis took charge in 1661.  The privileges for Protestants had been reduced and the King actually sent Catholic missionaries to the enclaves to proselytize.  Schools were closed.  Penalties applied.   Ultimately Louis forced the remaining Protestant families out of La Rochelle in 1661.  I knew that no Protestants were allowed to live in New France (but a lot of Protestant merchants did business there), and I also knew that if dissenters wanted to emigrate they had to abjure their faith to embrace Catholicism.  He evidentially did this since he was confirmed in the Church two months after he arrived.  He married Françoise Durand, a Fille du Roi (Daughter of the King) but the actual marriage date is unknown.  The Notary, Paul Vachon, drew up a contract for the couple 24 March 1671.   Peter J. Gagné reports (King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers see note) that neither of them could sign their name.  So he had no inheritance, started his life in New France as a servant, and couldn’t write his name.  Sounds like very reduced circumstances, indeed. 

So the revelations about the Baudouins were initially surprising because I didn’t expect to see former Huguenots relocating to Quebec.  I had learned along the way that the Bowdoin family of Boston had been Baudouin by way of France, Ireland and Maine but I haven’t yet discovered if they are related to Jacques and family.  I also came to the realization that the elder Jacques Baudouin was without a doubt a commoner, successful but not an aristocrat, so I’m not a long-lost claimant to the ancient French throne.  The family was Huguenot, there’s no doubt of that, and were considered heretics to the state religious leaders but these folks weren’t in the immediate memory of my mom or her sister.  Like most people who don’t really know their family history they could only relate knowledge of 2 or 3 generations. They certainly didn’t know about Jacques Baudouin.  When my Aunt Mary insisted we came directly from France I responded, “yes, with a 200 year layover in Quebec”.  The most exciting part of revealing the Huguenot history of this family is that there must still be other “Heretics” out there for me to find.

Jacques Baudouin, son of Solon Baudouin and Anne Gautereau was born in the village of Saint Martin on the Île de Ré, Aunis region,  29 July 1645.  He was baptized at the Protestant church in La Rochelle.  He married Françoise Durand, a Fille du Roi, in Île d’Orléans (Contrat Notaire Vachon). She had been born in 1648 in Braquemont, near Dieppe, Normandy, daughter of Pierre Durand and Noelle Asselin.  He died 6 Feb 1708, Françoise died 15 Sep 1718.  They are both buried at St François, Île d’Orléans, Quebec.

 Children:

1.       Jacques Baudouin, b. 25 July 1672; d.  9 Dec 1758

2.       Joseph Baudouin, b. 4 Apr 1674 d. 8 Apr 1699

3.       Françoise Baudouin,  b. 2 Jun 1676; d.  22 Jul 1746

4.       Louis Baudouin, b. 27 Dec 1678; d. 1 Jan 1723

5.       Marc (?Pierre-Marie) Baudouin, abt 1682

6.       Pierre Baudouin, 29 Feb 1684;  d. 1685

7.       Pierre Baudouin, 31 March 1686

8.       Antoine Baudouin, 12 May 1688;  d.  29 Jun 1714

9.       Marie Baudouin, 29 Oct 1690

Note:  Peter J Gagné  King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers, The Filles du Roi, 1663 – 1673.  In two volumes.  Quintin Publications.  2001.    This is a fabulous reference work for the Filles and for glimpses of life at the time in New France.  

Henry Potts, Immigrant, Citizen, Soldier

Henry Potts was my Dad’s great-great-grandfather on his Mom’s side.   He was born in the environs of Manchester, England in 1824; He married Susan Lucas in 1843 at the Church of St George, Sutton, Chester, England.  He was a mill worker.  His arrival date in the United States can’t be pinned down to a single date.  His naturalization papers say he arrived in the US in 1840.  When he applied for naturalization, he probably wasn’t asked to provide proof of passage but it could be a typographical error.  If that arrival date is true, then he return to England once or many times more since three of his children were presumably conceived and born there.  I did find a ship’s list which contained his name (The Marmion, arrival 6 July 1848, New York) and there was another Potts listed named Robert , 24 years old.  Perhaps that’s his actual arrival date.  His family followed the year after since John Potts, Dad’s Great-grandfather, was born in January 1849 in England.   

By 1850, Henry was living in Fall River, Massachusetts, with his wife, Susan Lucas, 3 children:  Thomas (7 years old), George(4), and John(1); and his brother Robert who had 2 little daughters.  (George isn’t mentioned again. )  By 1860 he was living in Saco, Maine, with his wife Sarah and five children: Thomas (17), John(11), William(9), James(3), and Sarah Elizabeth(one month old).  In 1870, his widow Catherine was living on 18 Foss St, Saco, Maine, with Thomas, William, James(13)and Sarah E(10).  Well that was surprising.  Henry was dead;  Sarah Lucas was out of the family as was John;  and there was another wife, Catherine. 

I wish I could remember what I discovered first.  Early on, because of the publications of the Maine Old Cemetery Association, I was able to see that Henry Potts was a member of Company G, 8^th Maine Infantry and his son Thomas was a member of Company H, 16^th Maine.  I learned a great deal searching wikis and military history sites about the engagements of these units during the Civil War.  Then I learned that Catherine Collington Potts (married to Henry 18 May 1861) applied for a widow’s pension and child support, so Henry died in service or shortly after.  The pension files were the best find to-date.   I got to view them on-line and kept saying to myself “this is great, this is great.” His widow kept petitioning the Pension Board for more money for the upkeep of her husband’s children.

I could re-construct the timeline of Henry’s life by viewing documents included in the pension files.  There were vital records and affidavits; official applications and attestations that the notary public who witnessed all of the widow’s documentation was a credentialed notary.  One record, which I was very interested in, was an affidavit where John Potts swore he was born in England, which was corroborated by his brother Thomas who would have been six years old and could remember when his brother was born.  This was important because in every Census when John Potts was an adult , there was a different birth place reported.  His last enumeration just before his death was noted “born at sea.”  Not helpful to the genealogist in the family since I had tried to track down the corroborating birth certificates for each place mentioned in the various census reports.  I've never found any....he was born in England!

Henry Potts became a naturalized American citizen on 17 April 1858.  Sarah Elizabeth Potts, his last child, was born to Susan Lucas Potts 4 June 1860 in Biddeford, Maine.  Catherine Collington was married to Henry 18 May 1861 in Saco, Maine.  The children at that time were 18 years old, (Thomas), 12 (John); 9 (William) ; 5 (James Robert) and 10 months old (Sarah Elizabeth).  On August 28, 1862, Henry was mustered into service.  He was 38 years old.  I don’t know yet if he was drafted or enlisted for a bonus.  He died of typhoid fever, contracted in the line of duty, in a field hospital near Petersburg, Virginia, June 28, 1864.  This was during the Siege of Petersburg where trench warfare was used and more men died of disease than succumbed to combat injuries. 

According to the documents in the Pension File, Catherine Collington Potts’s request for widow’s pension and child support was received for processing on September 10, 1864.  She was asking for the child support since she had been left with Henry’s children.   Her widow’s pension was $8 per month.   The pension stipend for minor children was $2 per month per child under the age of 16.  Catherine obviously felt this wasn’t enough and started petitioning for more funds March 31, 1865.  In 1868, one of the documents submitted for another increase of funds was rejected and had to be re-written because John was noted as 13 years old when he clearly older than 16.  So the justification was also modified to say that the increase was necessary despite the fact that John was no longer eligible. 

As I read each document I was hoping to read something about his first wife, Susan Lucas.  I suppose the military didn’t care about a legal divorce if there was subsequently a legal marriage.  In an affidavit, two friends of Catherine Collington Potts, who attested that Catherine had no children of her own, emphasized that she was caring for Henry’s children.  They also attested that they saw Susan Lucas ‘around town from time to time’ so she didn’t die -- there should be divorce documents somewhere. 

Thomas Potts, Henry’s eldest, married Sarah Ann Harvey, February 1871.  By August 29^th, 1871, he had sued and won guardianship for his last two siblings who were still under 16 years of age.  He was awarded the $2 per child per month from the Pension Board.  Catherine’s rights to that stipend were severed but she continued to receive her $8 per month widow's benefits until her death in 1881. 

Henry Potts was reinterred in the National Cemetery, City Point, Virginia presumably after it was opened in 1866.  His first burial place was probably at the graveyard of one of the seven military field hospitals in the area.  Thomas or a member of his family honored Henry’s memory by requesting a memorial stone on the family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery, Biddeford, Maine.   There is still a lot to learn about Henry and his family….this is only a beginning but what a stunning first step.