January 23, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes about another of the men who donated a relic from America’s past, a silver tankard gifted to Rev. Samuel Deane in 1775. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I continue with identifying the 21 young men who presented a silver tankard to Rev. Samuel Deane of the First Parish Church and Society in Falmouth, Maine, in 1775.
To recap: The men who presented the silver tankard had their initials engraved on the base along with the maker’s mark: J.COBURN [John Coburn of Boston]. Also engraved on the front: EX DONO JUVENUM ALIQUORUM REV. SAMUEL DEANE PASTORI FIDELISSI MO. 1775. (Translation: FROM THE GIFT OF SOME YOUNG PEOPLE TO THE REVEREND SAMUEL DEANE THE FAITHFUL PASTOR, MARCH 1775.)
So far, I have identified five of the tankard donors: John Frothingham, Ephraim Jones Jr., Pearson Jones, Andrew Philip Titcomb, and Moses Titcomb. (See links at the end of this article.)
Today I identify a sixth tankard donor: Colonel Nathan Hale (1743-1780).
Nathan was the son of Moses Hale and Elizabeth Wheeler and great grandson of Newbury, Massachusetts, settler Thomas Hale.
Apparently, the Hale family had a little domestic scandal early on over their abode.
Who better to tell this saga than S. P. Hale, the old sage and raconteur of Newbury. He spilled the beans in one of his many historical musings published back in the day.
I found this little tidbit in the archives from 1898, and one of the parties in the drama is Thomas Hale Jr. and his wife Sarah Northend, Nathan’s grandparents.
Here is a snippet on the skinny:
Here on this narrow neck of land still stands the house, or rather houses, of Thomas Hale, a glover by trade, the first settler by that name. His house, erected about 1640-50, has an interesting tradition connected with it. Two of the sons of Thomas Hale “betook unto themselves” wives, and father Thomas was going to build a new house for one of them, and the other one he had arranged to live in the house with himself – but the wives quarreled, as sometimes wives will, and so these Hale better halves got to quarreling as to which should have the new house. So what did father Thomas do, but cut the old house in twain and move one half over to what was recently occupied by the late Enoch Plummer. Then he built an addition to each, thus treating each child alike and preserving harmony in the family. Quite a piece of diplomacy on the part of the father Thomas.
Nathan Hale was a Revolutionary War officer who began his illustrious military career by forming his own company of 54 men in Rindge, New Hampshire, who fought at Lexington and Concord.
Nathan died a prisoner of war on a British prison ship in New York in 1780. Here is a photo of his grave.
A Hale family genealogy written by U.S. Congressman Robert Safford Hale, grandson of Nathan, includes this reference from the author:
“Thomas Moore of Chelsea, who was a soldier in his [Col. Hale’s] regiment, told me repeatedly in my boyhood that my grandfather was ‘as brave a man as ever trod shoe-leather,’ and added always that he ‘was the finest-looking man I ever set eyes on.’”
Col. Hale married Abigail Grout (1745-1838), daughter of John Grout and Joanna Boynton.
Abigail was a strong woman who defended her rights, and no doubt inherited some of her courage from her ancestor, Rowley settler and merchant Joseph Jewett.
In 1912 the Jewett Family of America honored Abigail’s ancestor Joseph (and his brother Maximilian) by erecting a memorial in the burial ground on Main Street (Route 1A), Rowley, Massachusetts.
Nathan and Abigail Hale left many descendants. Below are a few of their offshoots:
- Eliphalet Hale married Abigail Waters, leaving descendants.
- Nathan Hale Jr. married three times, leaving descendants.
- Charlotte Hale married Dr. Abraham Lowe, leaving many descendants including great grandson Arthur Hale Woods, who married Helen Morgan Hamilton Burgess, the first wife of Warren Randolph Burgess. She was the daughter of William Pierson Hamilton and Juliet Pierpont Morgan, and granddaughter of J.P. Morgan.
- Henry Hale Jr., a miller who married Phebe Adams, daughter of Captain David Adams and Phebe Spofford and 2nd Lucinda Eddy. A total of 10 children were born. Among them: Robert Safford Hale, John Gardner Hale, William Bainbridge Hale, Laura Charlotte Hale Herrick, Phebe Adams Hale Vincent, Louisa Hale Scott, and Henry Hale III (who married a daughter of Paris Fletcher and Anna Miner, a Miss Mary Elizabeth Fletcher, founder of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Minnesota).
When Henry Hale Jr.’s daughter Abigail Grout Hale died, her obituary listed her surviving siblings in attendance at the service and noted, “It is rare that such a record can be made of a family funeral scene.”
To be continued…
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Note on the header image: a memorial stone and plaque dedicated to brothers Joseph and Maximilian Jewett in Rowley, Massachusetts. Photo taken by Cosmos Mariner. Credit: Historical Marker Database.
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