Tag Archives: Samuel How

Visiting Cemeteries to Bring Life

Three years ago, some members of my family gathered in Sudbury Massachusetts to pay homage to ancestors–where they had lived and where they now lie under weathered gray stones. While there, we stayed at the Longfellow’s Wayside Inn–in the building first built by our ancestor David How. Numerous How/Howes, Stones, Bents, and other pioneers in this land were our ancestors and we discovered their names carved in stone again and again as we went visiting cemeteries.

I am terribly behind in the 52 Ancestors challenge from Amy Johnson Crow. Better late than never might not be a really good excuse when we’re talking about visiting cemeteries (Ha, Ha)–but it is the best I can do at the moment.

Sudbury Cemetery

Our little group of relatives visited the Sudbury old cemetery, where we saw a memorial to those who battled during King Philip’s war. Visiting New England cemeteries will teach you the history of the area. If you don’t come from New England, you may not even have heard of King Philip’s war, but here in one of the Puritan villages of New England that was tragically affected, the memories are as fresh as are the battles of the Revolution. Our ancestor Samuel How’s house and barn were burned down and other ancestors lost family members in the battles around Sudbury.

Memorial to those who lost lives in Indian Wars Sudbury Cemetery

The wording of the memorial hints at the devastation.

“This monument is erected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the town of Sudbury in grateful remembrance of the services and sufferings of the founders of the state and especially in honor of Capt. S. Wadsworth of Milton. Capt. Brocklebank of Rowley. Lieut. Sharp of Brookline. and twenty-six others, men of their command, who fell near this spot on the 18th of April 1676, while defending the frontier settlements against the allied Indian forces of Philip of Pokanoket. 1852.”

Monument to Sudbury men who died in King Philips War

Old Burial Ground in Rutland Massachusetts

I later took a side trip to Rutland where I discovered a forest of old gray stones. Here while visiting cemeteries, I found more familiar names and a memorial to those who had given their lives in the French and Indian war or the Revolution, the list included two ancestors, both named Samuel Stone.

Rutland Cemetery with old tree. The stones stretch back into the surrounding woods.

Rutland Cemetery Memorial to those who died in French-Indian War and Revolution.

“Killed or Died in Service. Not All Interred here.

French-Indian War J. Phelps, I. Stone

Revolutionary War R. Forbus Jr., N. Laughton, I Metcalf, W. Moore, A. Phelps, B. Reed, G. Smith, S. [Samuel] Stone, Jr., S.[Samuel] Stone 3rd.”

The final two names are Samuel Stone Jr. and Samuel Stone 3rd.

Lt. Samuel Stone, 3rd , my 1st cousin 6 times removed also had a son who served in the Revolution. There are so many Samuel Stones and so many served in the militia pre-Revolution or during the revolution, that the “Jr.” and numbers are not much help. I have a Samuel Stone Jr. on my tree, but he died in Lexington rather than Rutland, so may fit the description of “not all interred here.” The Samuel Stone Jr. may refer to the son of “the 3rd,” and I have very little information on him.

On the other hand, I am quite familiar with another Samuel Stone Jr. Our 6th great-grandfather, Capt. Samuel Stone lived and died in Lexington, Massachusetts, and is the grandfather of Lt. Samuel Stone 3rd. And you think YOU are confused???

Confusion aside, I did, however, find the gravestone in Rutland for the one designated here as “3rd.”

Lt. Samuel Stone, who died in 1775, probably not in battle, although he fought in the Revolution.

The gravestone reads:

“In memory of Lieut. Samuel Stone who decd December the 10th 1775 in the 40th year of his Age. A Kind husband and Tender Parent. Reader Behold as you pass by, as you are living so [was I], as I am now, so you must be ___________ ____ ____ Death [&] Follow [me].”

Sudbury Revolutionary War Cemetery

One of our family members at the entrance to Sudbury’s Revolutionary War Cemetery.

Our family group visited the Sudbury Revolutionary War cemetery where our family of Howe descendants, including a newly discovered cousin, the director of the Sudbury History Museum, gathered around the grave of our 1st cousin, 6 times removed, Col. Ezekiel Howe.

We felt close to this Ezekiel because he was the son of David Howe, our 6th great-grandfather who built the Howe (later Wayside) Inn where we were staying. Ezekiel took over the Inn when David Howe died. His son Ezekiel Jr., grew up at the Inn. There is a story that Ezekiel Jr. ran the entire distance from Sudbury to Concord when the alarm went up about the battle at Concord Bridge. He was 19 at the time.

Sudbury Historian,and family members visit Ezekiel Howe.

Unfortunately, other than his name, and death year–1796–this stone is unreadable.

My sister and I and our cousin could not resist paying a separate homage to Ezekiel Jr.’s wife Sarah, also known as Sally. We thought about the poet John Milton’s line,”they also serve who only stand and wait,” which applies to so many of the women of these villages of New England during the 1770s.

3 cousins gather with the stone of Sarah (Sally) Howe, wife of Ezekiel Howe Jr.

“Erected in memory of Mrs. Sarah How wife of Mr. Ezekial How who died July 13, 1812 in the 53 year of her age.”

Old North Cemetery, Sudbury, Massachusetts

Expecting to find some of my oldest ancestors, I also visited the Sudbury Old North Cemetery (now located in the town of Wayland). I particularly wanted to visit the grave of (Leut.) Samuel How, my 7th great-grandfather, and the father of David How. Samuel had his fingers in many pies in the development of Sudbury and surrounding communities–you can read about his wheeling and dealing here. Unfortunately, I did not locate his grave, although I have a picture of his stone from Find A Grave.com. Samuel How was one more ancestor who was a soldier in the pre-Revolution days.

Samuel How, Old North Graveyard, Sudbury, MA. Photo by Charles Waid on FindaGrave.

“Here lies the body of Lieutenant Samuel How Aged 70 years Died April Ye 15th 1715.”

Old North Cemetery, Sudbury/Wayland.

Despite the disappointment that sometimes accompanies visiting cemeteries, I found Old North fascinating.The interesting things I discovered included a separate burial ground for Native Americans–not seen in many cemeteries, and stones so old that a tree that grew between them, enfolded them in its trunk.

Old North Cemetery, Sudbury Tree grown into tombstones

I am grateful for the nudge from the 52 Ancestors prompts to look back at my ‘visiting cemetery’ pictures. I realized that I had a treasure trove of photos (there are many, many more than I had room for here) and I had not done anything with them. By “anything” I mean I intend to transcribe the inscriptions, label them properly in my computer files, add them to the gallery of ancestors on my family tree at Ancestry, and check at Find a Grave to see if I have photos or information to add there. For too long, I have been a freeloader at Find a Grave–using it for my research, but rarely making additions to the information. Now I have a chance to add some value.

I have submitted the two memorials–Sudbury’s to those who served in Kind Philip’s War and Rutland’s to those killed in the French-Indian Wars or the Revolution to the Honor Roll Project. Follow that link to see this effort to keep the names alive that are listed on the many memorials in this country and others.

That’s how visiting cemeteries can help you bring life to a cemetery.

Martha Bent, American Born

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Martha Bent 1643-1680

Martha Bent’s Family

When Martha Bent’s parents John and Martha welcomed her into the world on September 5, 1643, they had lived in American only five years. Martha, named for her mother, had five older brothers and one older sister. All but the youngest had been born in Penton-Grafton in Hampshire, England.

Robert Bent, eighteen, named for their paternal grandfather.
William Bent had been born 16 years before Martha, but may have died before Martha was born. The records are unclear, although the family history says “Probably died young.” I have not found any other information on William, except that documents show that the parents, John and Martha, traveled from England with five young children. If the ship’s record is correct, William must have still been alive in 1638.
Peter Bent a 13-year-old. Some records say Martha’s maternal grandmother was named Pierre Jean, which could explain the name Peter.
Agnes Bent, ten years old, named for their paternal grandmother.
John Bent, named for their father, seven years old when Martha was born.
Joseph Bent, the toddler, two years old, the first of the family born in America.

(For a complete guide to all the articles I have written about the Bent family, go here.)

Life in Sudbury, a Puritan Village

Ancient Fyfe and Drum Companie, Sudbury, MA, photo by Joyce Isen

A year earlier, the two Sudbury families had celebrated when Samuel How was born to John Bent’s friend and fellow Sudbury pioneer–John How. John How had been granted land in Sudbury in 1638, as had John Bent. In the small community of Sudbury, people lived on separate lands doled out for the common good, but the life was communal in many ways. They worshipped at the community church. They all took turns at holding public offices to be sure order reigned and taxes were collected. They helped each other build houses and clear land and protect their families against the few remaining indigenous people who were still resisting English settlement.

Although John How moved his family to nearby Marlboro, the two families remained friends. The Bent family no doubt mourned with their friends the Hows when Robert How died in the winter of 1648. The Bent’s oldest son was just 23 years old.

Martha Bent and Samuel Howe

Given their many ties, it is no surprise that 21-year-olds Samuel Howe and Martha Bent, young people whose family had been longtime friends, would marry in June, 1663. Martha’s father, John, gave the young couple a leg up by giving them 44 acres of land in Sudbury. If he wished to keep them close at hand, he succeeded, for despite the fact that the rest of his family had moved to Marlboro, Samuel moved back and stayed in Sudbury the rest of his life.

The Bents were no doubt pleased with the match, as Samuel already had started a career as a carpenter and must have showed signs of the entrepreneur he was to become. I hope that Martha had an adventurous spirit, because her busy husband had many occupations. For instance, he built a bridge over a stream on their land. He built the bridge, not as a community service, but so that he could collect a toll. And soon he also was charging people to use the meadow next to the bridge. He got permission to sell drinks out of their house, bought and sold land, held town offices and was a colonel of the Sudbury militia regiment.

You can read more about the wheeler-dealer Samuel in my earlier portrait of him. Late in his life, Samuel helped their son David build a house which became a tavern and today is Longfellow’s Wayside Inn.

Longfellow’s Wayside Inn Bar in Sudbury MA. The beam across the ceiling may be original from David and Hepzibah’s original home, circa 1702. Photo in public domain from Wikimedia.

Martha Bent How Makes a Family

Martha was kept busy on the domestic front. Their first child, a son named for his grandfathers John, was born 13 months after they married. Following the pattern of most colonial wives, Martha gave birth about every two years–seven children in thirteen years. Unlike most colonial families, Martha and Samuel lost no children in childbirth or infancy.

July 1664: John How, named for his paternal grandfather
March 1666: Mary How [Farrar;Barnes], named for her paternal grandmother.
May 1668: Samuel How, named for his father
October 1669: Martha How [Walker; Whitney], named for his mother
Oct 1672: Daniel How [Died when he was eight years old]
Nov 1674: David How [My ancestor]
Apr 1677: Hannah How [Barnes]

Tragedies Strike

In 1675, when Martha was 32, her youngest brother died. I will relate that tragic story later.

Indian Raid on a Puritan Village

In 1676 the Indian war known as King Phillip’s War raged across Massachusetts, and Samuel and Martha became victims. Not only was one of Samuel’s brothers killed in the fighting, but Martha and Samuel’s house and barn were burned to the ground. In April of 1676 , my 7x great-grandmother, the mother of six children under 13, found herself without a home and probably without many of the animals she depended on for sustenance. The youngest child at that time, my ancestor David How, was a 16-month-old toddler.

No doubt the community pitched in and helped her carpenter husband rebuild. In the mean time, she and her children could stay with the many family members in the area. But think of the quilts to be made, the clothes to be replaced, the cloth to be woven to replace lost yardage. Samuel could make new furniture, but he also had to be making money to replace lost equipment and farm animals. Samuel had to replant burnt fields and he and Martha had to make all the things that today we could run down to Wal-Mart or Home Depot to replace.

Exactly a year after the tragic loss of home and barn, another daughter, Hannah, joined the family in their rebuilt homestead. Life (and death) went on.

Two years later, Martha’s brother Peter died while on a commercial trip to England. Another story to come. Of her six siblings, only two remained–John and Agnes. And then the final blow–in 1679, Martha’s mother, Martha Bent, also passed away.

The Great Comet of 1680

I have not seen a cause of death for Martha Bent How, but since her eight-year-old son died the same year, in the summer, I suspect an epidemic of some sort. Noah Webster’s compendium of disasters and disease, tied to celestial events, does not mention a 1680 epidemic in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. However, a paper on an earlier plague by Mark Laskey, does have this something to say about 1680. The statement by Cotton Mather, sheds light on the belief system of our Puritan ancestors.

Another comet would blaze across the sky in 1680, two years after the catastrophic defeat of King Philip’s native uprising. Reverend Cotton Mather hailed its passing as “a sign in heaven … that the Lord [is prepared] to pour down the Cataracts of his wrath, ere this Generation… is passed away.” It was compared to the comet of 1618, “which appeared above three score years ago, [when] God sent the Plague amongst the Natives of this land [and] cast out the Heathen before this his people, that the way might thereby be prepared unto our more peaceful settlement here.” Mather concluded his sermon with a warning to the Christian faithful, “that we may never provoke [God] to doe unto us, as he hath done unto them.”

I wanted to end with saying that Martha dramatically went out with a comet, but alas, she died at the end of August, 1680 and contemporary viewers report the comet appeared from late autumn through December of 1680. And perhaps that is far too dramatic for this hard-working colonial wife and mother anyway. Perhaps she was simply exhausted from caring for so many children, from worrying about the attacks of the Indians–her home particularly vulnerable since it was located near the bridge that Samuel had built across the river. Perhaps losing her home and having to rebuild from scratch and then having a seventh baby was all just too much.

Martha Bent How died in Sudbury at the age of thirty-seven, joining her eight-year-old son and leaving six children between three and sixteen with Samuel How. Neither Martha’s grave nor the grave of the child, Daniel* has been identified.

*Note: Samuel married a second time and had six children. The second child with his second wife was also named Daniel.

How I Am Related

Vera Marie Kaser Badertscher is the daughter of
Harriette Anderson Kaser, the daughter of
Vera Stout (Anderson),the daughter of
Hattie Morgan (Stout), the daughter of
Mary Bassett (Morgan),the daughter of
Elizabeth Stone (Bassett) the daughter of
Elizabeth Howe (Stone), the daughter of
Israel Howe, the son of
David How, the son of
Martha Bent How.

Notes on Research

In Public Houses: Drink and the Revolution of Authority in Colonial Massachusetts by David W. Conroy, (1995), my personal library
As Ancient Is This Hostelry: The Story of the Wayside Inn, by Curtis F. Garfield and Alison R. Ridley(1988), my personal library
A History of Longfellow’s Wayside Inn by Brian E. Plumb (2011), my personal library
Howe Genealogies by Daniel Wait Howe (1929), New England Historic Genealogical Society, 9 Ashburton Place Boston. 1929. This is said to be the best of the several genealogies of the family. Although I do not have a copy of the entire book, portions of it are available on the Internet at archives.org and at ancestry.com
Middlesex County records found on ,Ancestry.com. Birth, death and marriage.
Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County Massachusetts Vol. 1, ed by Ellery Bicknell Crane (1907) Available as a Google Books e-book.
FindaGrave.com The tombstone picture came from Find a Grave, because although I visited the Sudbury Old North Cemetery, (located in Wayland MA) where Samuel is buried, I was unable to spot his grave.
I also have had assistance from the archivist and a historian at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn and the historian with the Sudbury Historical Society.
Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850, Dodd, Jordan, Liahona Research, comp Sudbury, Middlesex, Samuel How and Martha Bent, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT, Film # 0599521 item 4.
Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Death records: Martha How
The Bent family in America : being mainly a genealogy of the descendants of John Bent : who settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1638 : with notes upon the family in England and elsewhere. in North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 at Ancestry.com, Allen H. Bent, 1900
U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, Place: America; Year: 1638; Page Number: 58, Ancestry.com
U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700, Martha Bent How and Samuel How

The Bent Family-Tugging on a New Family Line

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Sometimes I follow an orderly path through my ancestors, carefully unravelling my mother’s side, or my father’s. I fully intended to get back to my father’s side in the early months of 2017. But sometimes, despite my best intentions, a family line presents itself that contains so many interesting stories, that I cannot resist stopping to visit a while. Honestly, I had not intended to visit the maternal Puritan-era line of the Bent family. After all, in 2014, I had pursued the wonderful early Colonial and Revolutionary period stories of the Howe family in Sudbury Massachusetts. I thought I had “done” New England Puritan villagers. But apparently not.

Holy Trinity Church at Penton Grafton in Hampshire County, England where many Bent family members are buried. Photo by Colin Bates

A Howe relative on Facebook recently mentioned visiting a 14th century churchyard in the village of Penton-Grafton in Hampshire County, England. She saw a gathering of graveyards for the Bent Family. I recalled that although I had spent months poring over the Howes, I had never looked into the family of one of the Howe wives–Martha Bent. And I was off to the races.

When I wrote about Samuel Howe, the first How/Howe to settle in Sudbury Massachusetts, and the first tavern keeper in the family, this is all that I said about his wife:

At the age of 21, Samuel Howe married Martha Bent. Martha’s father was one of the early settlers in Sudbury– a fellow founder and good friend with Samuel’s father, John How. Mr. Bent gave Martha and Samuel 44 acres of his land in Sudbury, incentive for the young couple to settle there.

Perhaps because it is March, Women’s History Month, I felt guided to write about a female ancestor and her roots. Perhaps I just discovered some “low-hanging fruit” in the family history search.

As I started looking for clues to Martha’s family, I found an amazing book. Published in 1900, “The Bent Family in Ameria, Being Mainly a Genealogy of the Desendants of John Bent Who Settled in Sudbury Massachusetts in 1648,” it grabbed my attention. The author, Allen Herbert Bent not only had a flair for telling a story and painting the backdrop of the Bents, he also carefully documented the facts about his (our) family. That careful sorting of truth from legend makes the book stand out among the multitude of family genealogies that were so popular around the turn of the century.

The Bents lived in interesting times–as did the Howes. They escaped a native land in uproar, and arrived to work hard carving farms and civilized towns out of wilderness. John Bent, his wife and the five children who sailed to Boston in 1628, plus the two children who were born in Sudbury, lived through chaos. First the Indian Wars, while they were trying to invent government and organized religion on a new world. Their male grandchildren marched with local militias under the British. Their male great-grand children fought in the Revolution and later fought in the French and Indian War. From the time the family first arrived, members kept moving to new territory in order to have more room for their enterprises.

My 7x Great Grandmother, Martha Bent How, the baby of the family, started life in Sudbury. She gave birth to seven children there after her husband settled on the land gifted by her parents. Among them, David, my ancestor who founded the Howe Tavern (Longfellow’s Wayside Inn) next to youngest, was only six when his mother died.

Longfellow's Wayside Inn

Coming Attractions

After introducing Martha, I intend to talk about each of Martha’s brothers and sisters–as much as I can dig up about them, and then move back to her parents, and sketch the early ancestors from England. Stacks and stacks (virtual and concrete) of fuel the flow of stories.

I have wills to help undertand some of the people.
I’ll rely heavily on the History of the John Bent Family.
New England records provide great material.

A Few of the Stories to Come

There’s the woman who did not quite make it to America–dying on the boat.
There’s the man shot (accidentally) by his brother.
There’s the one who traveled back and forth frequently to England, making a will before one of those dangerous trips.
There are the ones killed by the rebelling Indians in King Phillips War.
There are the ones who went to Nova Scotia to take advantage of available land where Acadians had been forced to leave.
Farther down the line, we could find the first Governor of New Mexico Territory.

Oh yes, I think the Bent Family will keep us entertained for a good while, now.

Update: For a complete guide to all the articles I have written about the Bent family, go here.

Ancestors in Aprons

Food and Family