General Notes

Database: Old Dunstable, Maine and New Hampshire Founders    April 14, 2005 1:21 PM


Dea. John Blanchard was one of the foundation members and the first deacon of the church of Dunstable and one of the most active and useful citizens. In the lives of his sons and his grandsons, his example was cherished and his good works were renewed. He died 1694. For his will see Granite Monthly, July, 1906. His widow Hannah. her daughter Elizabeth (Kinsley) Cummings, her son Nathaniel Blanchard with his wife, Lydia Blanchard, and Susannah, a daughter of Nathaniel and Lydia Blanchard, were slain at Dunstable by the Indians, July 3, 1706. There were two children of Dea. John and Elizabeth and nine of Dea. John and Hannah Blanchard.
i. HANNAH. born Charlestown, January 6, 1658-9; married 1679, Thomas Read of Chelmsford, see.
ii. ELIZABETH, married Robert Parris; married second, 1710, Thomas Burrage of Lynn, Massachusetts. See Parris family.
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The settlements were begun along the pleasant margin of Salmon Brook , which afforded fish in abundance and considerable motive-power, and were extended southwards down that stream and along the right bank of the Merrimack River . A garrison house was soon erected; and invited by the rich alluvial soil, the heavy timber growth, and the liberal policy of the proprietors, the tide of emigration set in rapidly to the new and hopeful town. It numbered soon amongst its actual inhabitants John Acres , John, William , and Samuel Beale , John Blanchard , Andrew Cook , Isaac , John , and Thomas Cummings , Henry Farwell , Samuel French , John and Samuel Gould , Joseph Hassell , John , John , Jr., and Joseph Lovewell , Thomas Lund , Robert Parris , Obadiah Perry , Robert Proctor , Christopher Read , John Sollendine ; Christopher Temple , Edward Tyng , Jonathan Tyng , Robert Usher , Daniel and John Waldo , Samuel Warner , Thomas Weld , Joseph Wheeler , and Samuel Whiting , son of the Rev. Samuel Whiting of Billerica . The Indians, who were always less numerous in New England than is commonly supposed, had been greatly reduced by a plague which occurred several years anterior to the arrival of the Pilgrims , and therefore found it expedient to manifest in general a pacific bearing towards the early English settlers.
Dunstable, Massachusetts: Town History 1873
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