Fellow geneablogger Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued the
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Basically, we have to post something every
week on a different ancestor, whether a story, picture, or research problem. For
this prompt I've tried to concentrate on ancestors I haven't researched as much
as I have others in my family. This time my subject is 7x great grandfather Abiel
Kelley.
Abiel is another one of those ancestors that does not have as much information
on the internet as some of my other ancestors do, but I did find two entries for
him in genealogies. The first gives mostly the bare facts:
III) Abiel Kelley, son of John and Sarah (Knight), born Dec. 12, 1672, resided in Newbury, West Newbury and Methuen (now Salem, N. H.), in which latter place he
was a large land holder, and he took a prominent and active part in the early church
work of the places in which he resided. He died June 18, 1750. He married Rebecca, daughter of Samuel Davis, of Haverhill, Mass., Jan. 15, 1697, and their children were: Richard, born Oct. 24, 1697; Sarah, born Aug. 14, 1699; Mary, baptized March 29,
1702: Rebecca, born Sept. 20, 1705; Mary, May 2, 1709; Abigail, March 16, 1712; Hannah, March 14, 1714; and Mehitabel and Ruth (twins), Aug. 18, 1716.-p242
-Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts: Containing Historical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families ... (Google eBook) J.H. Beers & Company, 1912 - Barnstable County (Mass.)
The second is a Kelly family genealogy and has a bit more information about Abiel:
Abiel3 [John2, John1] born, December 12, 1672, married Rebecca, daughter of Samuel
Davis of Haverhill, January 15,(5 Cof.) 1697. He was one of twenty-four persons who
in 1796 "wished the second meeting house in Newbury to be located on Pipe Stave Hill,
and not on the plains." He and his wife were members of the second church in Newbury
(first church in West Newbury) at the time of Rev. Mr Tuft's ordination, June 30, 1714.
With his brother, Jonathan, and eight others he received on petition, September 24,
1718, a grant from the town of eighty rods of the flats above Holt's Rocks, as fishing
ground, ''upon condition that they pay yearly one salmon each to Rev. Mr. Tappan and
Rev. Mr. Tufts."
He was resident in Newbury (West) as late as April 17, 1727. This appears from a document of that date bearing his signature. Nine months later he was in Methuen (Salem, N.H.)On January 17, 1728, he, with his son Richard, both of that town,
bought of James Eaton, of Haverhill, eighty acres of land in Methuen, one of the
corner bounds of which was at a point "on the top of Spicket Hill." March 15, 1729,
he bought of John Renwee, joiner, of Methuen, a certain tract of land "situate lying
and being in Haverliill and Methuen, by estimation 200 acres." It is described as "being on the south side of a path leading to Capt. Wainwright's Spicket Meadow,
so called;" and as having on one side the old Spicket path, and on another side
Spicket meadow, "but reserving and leaving suficient way for people to fetch their
hay from out said meadow, joining said land."
He, with his wife, was dismissed from the second church in Newbury (First in West Newbury) in November, 1729, in order to join the church in Methuen. He was one
of a committee appointed to lay out "a burying place" in the North Parish in Methuen (Salem, N. H.) in the year 1736. The parish voted, December 17, 1739, "to Abiel Kelly, for bords, the sum of 1. 3. 0." The boards were for a meeting house which was going up at the time. He was elected parish clerk the year previous.
The date of his death is thus given in the records of Salem: "Abiel Kelly desest on June ye 18, 1750.'
-pp13-14
A Genealogical Account of the Descendants of John Kelly of Newbury, Massachusetts, U.S.A. (Google eBook)
The important part though in all this is Abiel's marriage to Rebecca Davis, the daughter of
Deborah Barnes and granddaughter of William Barnes.
No comments:
Post a Comment