| Julia Ann Chaffin, a decendant of Robert Chaffin and Abigail Davis, was my Gr Grandmother. The following article is of Robert Chaffin and his family . . . |
History of Robert Chaffin and His Descendants by William L. Chaffin |
FIRST GENERATION 1 The compiler of a most elaborately written genealogy of a distinguised family in England, with distinguised descendants in America, claimed for it a royal lineage, tracing it back through Kings and ancient heroes to Noah, the builder of the Ark! Why, having gone so far back, he should not have filled up the gap between Noah and Adam does not appear. The author of this Chaffin History makes no such claim of royal lineage, or extreme antiquity for his family. On the contrary, after the most painstaking investigation he is obliged to confess his ignorance of the ancestry, parentage, date of birth and date of death of Robert Chaffin, with whom this American family begins. Robert is, in fact, "after the order of Melchisedee, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life." But while the exact date of birth and of death of Robert is not known, there is ground for reasonable conjecture in the time when these important events occurred. He emerges from his obscurity and presents himself first to his descendants when he took his bride, Abigail Davis, not to the alter, but to the lawyer's office, where Justice Minot hears their marriage vows and proclaims them "husband and wife." The date of this union is April 12, 1719, and the place the old and interesting town of Concord, Mass. Abigail was twenty years old at that date, and the probability is that Robert was a little older, and that he was, therefore born about 1695. We can be a little more definite as to the year of his death. The inventory of his estate was ordered on Feb. 13, 1713, so that there is little doubt that he died towards the end of 1711. Of Abigail Davis something more definite is known. She was born in Concord, Mass., January 22, 1699, daughter of Samuel and Abigail (Reed) Davis, and died probably early in 1752, as on Feb. 21, 1752, two of her children, of whom she was the guardian, petitioned to have another guardian appointed and we do not hear of her after this date. The Chaffin family may congratulate themselves in thus inheriting from Abigail some share of the Davis blood, for from it have sprung three governors of Massachusetts, two members of Congress, two presidents of Harvard College, Capt. Isaac Davis killed in the Concord fight, and many others as worthy if not so well known. Honorable John Davis Long, one of the governors alluded to, has kindly furnished a sketch of the Davis family which may be found in the Appendix. For a short time after his marriage Robert Chaffin lived in Stowe, near Concord. This appears from the statement in a deed under date of May 11, 1722, which describes the purchase by Robert from David Russell of Littleton for "sixty pounds in current money," of two parcels of land, meadow and upland, "eighty acres more or less." In this deed Robert is named as "a husband-man" living in Stowe. A few months later he is called "of Concord" in a deed dated Feb. 14, 1723, which describes another purchase of land, "in a place commonly called Nashobe within the village or new grant belonging to the town of concord in the N.W. part of that town." This part was soon called Littleton. There Robert cleared the land, cultivated his farm and raised his family. Shortly after his death, late in 1744, his oldest son, John, was appointed adminstrator of the estate. In the settlement, besides what went to the widow, each child was awarded £6, 8s, 1-5d. Reference has been made to the inventory of the estate. It included even the most trivial objects, such as a little, "puter and brass." Some of these items are given here for the sake of the interesting spelling. "Wearing apperil, bed and beding, table linning, iorn ware one pot and kittle, eartharn ware and other small Housel vessels, a tabel and chars, sider barels, iorn crows, one yoak, and one draft chane, a syner press, a grinston, yearn in the Hous, an old bearn (barn), Rie in the bearn, one Hors, two swine, one acor of orcherding, six acors plow land, one steare, two yearlands, seven bearls of Syder," besides many other articles. About 1746, not very long after the appraisal of the estate, the house caught fire and was consumed, "with a considerable part of the housed Goods"; and the appraisers, Peter Reed, John Powers and Abram Patch issued a statement regarding this misfortune in which they say, "We find that it amounts to fifty- seven pound six shilling it is to be understood that the charity of the people have considered theer lose that there is now lost £47, 6s, 0, old tenor." What is meant my "The charity of the people have considered their lose," etc., is, to say the least, ambiguous. Children of Robert and Abigail: i. John, b. March 5, 1720; d. March 5, 1771 ii. Mary, b. Dec. 7, 1721; d. Aug. 23, 1758, m. abt. 1746 David Keyes, son of Moses Jr., and Susanna (Straton) of Concourd, Mass. Children born in Acton: 1. Samuel, b. Oct. 29, 1747. 2. Mary, b. June 8, 1749, d. Aug. 17, 1758. 3. John, b. Oct. 6, 1753, d. Aug. 17, 1758. 4. David, b. Nov. 29, 1754, d. Aug 10, 1758. iii. Robert, b. Jan 11, 1723, d. the next year. iv. Robert, b. Dec. 20, 1724, d. March 13, 1775. v. Abigail, b. Feb 3, 1727, d. March 13, 1729. vi. Abigail, b. March 13, 1729, d. the same day as her sister. vii. Francis, b. Jan. 25, 1730, d. Jan. 28, 1778. viii. Samuel, b. May 3, 1732, d. Nov. 20, 1811 ix. Timothy, b. March 7, 1734, d. July 25, 1838. x. Phebe, b. March 4, 1737, m. Benjamin Mead. It was probably this family of whom we have the following interesting account. "During the Revolutionary War the old place (where Benjamin Mead and his family lived) was raided by a party of the British. Obediah, son of Benjamin, was then quite a lad. His sisters, Anna and Phebe, who were younger, hid with their mother in the cellar of the old house as the Redcoats marched up the road, and their father and the older girls, Mary and Theodosia, barricaded the doors and windows, while Obediah, the only son, ______ _______ the cattle without, drove them into the farm yard and then beat a hasty retreat to a neighbors barn."
SECOND GENERATION 2 John (Robert 1) b. in Littleton, Mass., March 5, 1720, d. in Acton, Mass., March 5, 1771, the oldest child of the emigrant Robert and the first Chaffin of this line born in America. After the death of his father, in 1745, John lived for a while in Littleton, where his first child was born. Inheriting part of his father's estate, he added to it by the purchase of considerable land in Acton, on the west of the town, joining Littleton. There, in 1749 or 1750, he built his house, which is still standing and is the oldest chaffin house in the country." On March 25, 1747, he m. Ellin Barrett (probte records call her Eleanor), b. in Littleton, June 17, 1723, d. in Hancock, N.H., Jan 2, 1815. In the final settlement of John Chaffin's estate, the oldest son, Jonathan, was awarded two-thirds of the real estate, and the widow one-third, Jonathan to pay for the support of the other children and their mother; the whole estate valued at £322. Children of John and Ellin (Eleanor): i. Ellin, b. in
Littleton, May 24, 1749, m. 1st Oct. 23, 1770 Jacob Gilbert. He must have died soon,
because at the time of the settlement of her father's estate, not very long after his
death in 1771, she is called in the probate records, "the oldest daughter, Eleanor
Matthews," the wife of Paul Matthews. But in 1803 she is again a widow and
(int.) Oct. 7, 1803, she m. 3rd. G. David Poor and in legal papers she is "Elinor
Poor of Winchendon, the wife of David Poor" She was W. as late as July, 1820,
and signes herself Ellin. Five years after the death of her husband, Ellen (int.), aug. 11, 1776, m. Samuel Tenney. He was b. in Bedford, Mass., May 24, 1725. He m. 1st Sarah Tyller, who was b. April 19, 1724, and d. April 6, 1766. He resided in Hancock the latter part of his life and died there, Feb. 11, 1795. His widow Ellen's remains lie beside his own, but she survived him twenty-five years, living with her daughter, Mary, to the good old age of ninety two years. 3 Robert (robert 1) b. in Littleton, Mass., Dec. 20, 1724, d. March 13, 1775, settled in Acton before 1749 near the Littleton line. He did some farming as most of the early settlers in the country did, but he had learned and practiced the trade of carpenter, or "house-wright", as the old records called it. He m. in 1748 Hannah Powers of Littleton, b. Jan. 6, 1730, d. Sept. 11, 1810 daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Whitcomb). She m. 2d, Shippie Townsend of Boston, an author. Children born in Acton: 1. Hannah, b. March 28, 1750, m. Aaron Blodgett. They had two sons, Aaron and Eber. After their birth the parents joined the Shakers of Lebano, N.H. The sons, when they became of age, left the Shakers. Eber settled in Bennington, VT., and became a justice of the peace. Aaron settled in Starksboro, VT., married and had Lucy, b. Sept. 30, 1803; Eleazer, b. Aug. 14, 1805; and Eber, b. Sept. 25, 1807. Eleazer m. Oct. 13, 1831, Unice Thompson. Hannah, his mother, lived with him in her old age and died there. ii.
Robert, b. July 8, 1752, d. Sept. 7, 1828
Francis (Robert 1) b. in Littleton, Mass. Jan 25, 1730, d. at Valley Forge, Jan. 28, 1778. His father died before he was sixteen years old and at 18 years of age, with the consent of his guardian, Henry Hale, he was bout out to his brother John, "a housewright", for 3 years or until he should come of age. He lived in Acton, a farmer. He was on the list of men, April 22, 1757, in Capt. Samuel Davis' Acton Militia Company, and possibly saw service in the French and Indian War, but no record of it appears. He was a Revolutionary soldier, a private in Capt. Asahel Wheeler's Co., Col. John Robinson's regiment. (There is more to the article however I don't have it at this time. I will complete it when I locate a complete copy)
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