General Notes

Early New England Settlers, 1600's - 1800's
Ancestral Heads of New England Families, Surnames. by  Frank R. Holmes, pg. 228
Duncan Stuart (Stewart), shipwright, brother of Alexander, Newbury, Mass., 1659, removed Rowley, Mass., 1669

The First Settlers of New England, pg. 274
STEWART, DUNCAN, one of the early settlers of Newbury, d. in Rowley, in 1717 a. 100 years
    Captured in battle while in the Scottish Royalist Army by English Parliamentary Army during Civil War and transported to Massachussetts.

    Servant to George Hadley, Ipswich, Essex, MA

    Deposed in 1698 that he was about 75 yrs old.

BIOGRAPHY
Genealogical History of the Duncan Stuart Family in America
Author: Joseph A Stuart
Caxton Press. 1894.
This book contains the history and genealogy of the Duncan Stuart
family of New Hampshire
OUR BRANCH AND ITS CONNECTIONS.
When commencing investigations in the winter of 1891 for tracing our family lineage back to the first settlers in this country the earliest information we had as from the tales of our grandmother, that they came in "the troublous times of King Charles." or about 1650 to 1660. Our Aunt, Ruth Hobson used to think they came earlier, and that they settled Stuartstown, in the extreme northern part of New Hampshire, the original immigrant, named Charles, fleeing from Scotland with a hundred followers. I find, however, that the grant of Stuartstown, N. H. was given to Sir George Cockburn, Sir George Coleman, John Stuart and John Nelson; and as the location must have been a very unsafe one previous to the conquest of Canada in 1760, and the settlement was so weak as to be abandoned after the Revolution broke out, this John could not be the immigrant from whom we descend.  Her version of the traditions, however, lead s me to conclude that our ancestor was in one of the defeated Scotch armies led into England by Charles Stuart, father or son, and fled here for safety. Both promised immunity from religious persecution to the Covenanters, and they flocked to the aid of each in turn. My aunt and sister say our ancestor was a Covenanter, "coming here to escape persecution;" but as the religious persecution of Covenanters did not begin till 1662, any
evidence of presence here befor e that time is evidence that our ancestor was a military refugee for acts in favor of Charles I, in 1646, or Charles II, in 1651.  Our traditions have "There was a Henry about that time, who went up country and was never heard from after;" also a Charles, "who went up north with a large party;" and of a Samuel, "who left for parts unknown."
  The attention of members of our family has been directed to advertisements in New York papers recurring at intervals of twenty years, for the heirs of Archibald Stuart, as being entitled to property left by Charles and Henry Stuart.  Our oldest sister, Sarah W., wrote to other relatives in 1873 that her attention had been directed to a similar one some forty years previously, and that she remembered talking with Aunt Hobson about it at the time, not then knowing the date of this Archibald's immigration. A letter from a claim agent, named Spear, to our brother Robert about the year 1855 set that at rest by giving the date of Archibald's emigration as 1797, and that the Charles and Henry were Surgeons in the British Army during our Revolution, nearly a century after our earliest record.  This earliest record of our grandmother's time was seen in grandmother's desk at Newtown by my sister Ruth as late as 1830. It was a fragment of a deed, dated 1700, giving "to my beloved son, Eben-" (the rest of that name and the name of the donor eaten by mice .) As a family possession, dated the year before the birth, of our great-grand father Robert, this was presumptive evidence that "Eben-" was his father. Of Robert we knew that in youth he was in the personal service of Gov. Dummer, of Massachusetts, then residing at Newbury, near to Rowley, the birth-place of Robert, and a relative of whom this Robert married.  Of Robert's brothers our traditions say little, while of his sisters we knew that two married Websters; o ne married Ezra Clough; and another William Davis, they all settling about him upon parts of his land in Kingston and Newtown. "Squire" Isaac Webster, of Deep Brook came from one of the sisters and "Wildeat" Isaac Webster from the other; but I fail to learn to which each of these is to be credited. I think from the one marrying a Davis came Gilbert and Alfred Davis, the last still a resident of Newtown in 1892, when I visited my birthplace.

Sources:

   1. Title: "Early Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts" - Jewett & Blodgett
   2. Title: "Ancestors and Descendents of Deacon Thomas Stewart" - Arthur W Stewart