Joseph Dow

• General Notes
  • Joseph was a sergeant of the militia at a young age and saw considerable Indian fighting. He made a rather brilliant marriage to Mary Challis.
    Left a widower, Joseph could not expect to make a second marriage as brilliantly as his first, for the Quaker colony was then holding very much aloof. Nevertheless, he was in the prime of manhood, of promise, and, as times went, of considerable property. That he sank into obscurity is partly due to the surrender of his own ambition, partly to the Seabrook environment. Seabrook had few records of its own and was becoming forgotten by the rest of the world. Joseph's second marriage and second family were unknown until 1918, although a number of Dow were known, unplaced but near to him. A search of court records in Salem cleared up a mystery which had been the despair of Dow genealogists for forty years. It was learned that Joseph lived in his own home until his death in 1734. His farm was near those of his brothers Jeremiah and Henry, the three being parts of a single property owned by their father. It was he who first spied the Indians in the great raid of August 17, 1703, and ran giving the alarm to the nearest blockhouse. While this raid was engineered by the French government of Canada, it is worthy of note that Joseph's family did not suffer from it. Perhaps this was due to Joseph's Indian wife.
    The second marriage took place between 1698 and 1703. It is a vague tradition that Joseph had disapproved and would not recognize the bride. However, Joseph Jr soon received his full share of inheritance. The bride was Hannah, a child taken from her Indian parents with full permission by a Seabrook Quaker family to be brought up and educated as a Christian. Such were becoming quite customary, and as a rule the girls became valuable members of the community. This, however, is the only recorded mixed marriage in Seabrook. Hannah proved a good wife and mother; as widow Dow she appears on the Hampton Falls tax books, paying on a small piece of real estate until 1751. This date probably marks her death. Vague tradition has it that she had two daughters, besides the known four sons, and that a daughter was first born.