Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/117

 SL John, N, B.

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��Brunswick, 17G2, judging from his name, was probably a descendant of the Lieut. Francis Peabod}'^ who came to America in 1635 in the ship Planter : the Peabody family was quite numer- ous in New Hampshire when St. John was founded. Jonathan Leavitt seems also a New Hampsliire name ; John and Thomas Leavitt were early set- tlers of Dover, — the first was at that place about 1645, — and Leavitts are named at Chichester, Effingham, and other places. Easterbrook and Esty or Estes were also New Hampshire names. Joseph Easterbrook, of En- field, Middlesex county, England, settled at Concord, N. H., 1660, and the family name occurs at Acworth and Amherst about the time of the Revolution. About the first of the Esty family in this country was Rob- ert, born in Dover, P^ngland, May 28, 1645, and son of Matthew of that town ; Joseph Esty or Estes was at Dover, 1732-'40 ; he married Mary, daughter of Peter Robinson, 1719. Elijah Estes was also at Dover, 1757. James White is named among the Scotch Irish Presbyterians at Londonderry, and the same name is found among the first settlers of New Brunswick. Benjamin Atherton was among the original settlers there, and his is also a well known New Hamp- shire name. Israel Perley was a pioneer in New Brunswick, 1761. Allen Perley, the founder of this family, came from London, 1635, in the ship Planter, and descendants settled at Duubarton, N. H. Barna- bas Barker, named at Scituate, Mass., who married 1719, had descendants who went to New Hampshire, and a Barker was among the pioneers at St. John. Of the others named.

��Palmers, Simonds, Odell, and Smith were common New Hampshire names. Among the pioneers of St. John are named a Coy, a Hartt, and a Nevers. Were these names found in New Hampshire, 1761-'63? There was a Richard Nevers and wife Martha named at Woburn, Mass., 1689. Matthew Coy is named at Boston, 1653, said to have come over 1638. The name 3/cCoy is found in early New Hampshire records, an Alexan- der McCoy, from the Highlands of Scotland, being among the early set- tlers of Londonderry. Hart is a common New Hampsliire name, but the St. John pioneer spelled his name Hartt.

In the long list of names of Loyal- ists, given in Mr. Lawrence's book, to whom town lots were granted in St. John in 1783, are a number fa- miliar in New Hampshire. Included in this list are found the names of some who preceded the Loyalists.

Though a number of the founders of St. John and Maugerville sailed from Newburyport, Mass., yet it is certain that some were from New Hampshire. The writer is not suffi- ciently acquainted with the local his- tories of towns of the state, and gen- ealogies of families named, to express a decided opinion in regard to the majority of these pioneers, but from what has been stated he is inclined to believe that nearly or quite all went from New Hampshire, and from places not far from the Merrimack river. Can any reader of the Granite MonthUj give any information of the persons named?

Last year the descendants of the Loyalists at St. John celebrated the Centennial of the landing of their ancestors, and it awakened an inter- est in descendants of those who pre- ceded the Loyalists in their own ancestry.

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