Andrew Grant (abt. 1767 - 1853)

Born about 27 Nov 1767 in Massachusetts Bay Colony

Ancestors

Husband of Zebiah (Walker) Grant — married 26 Dec 1790 in Prospect, Hancock, Massachusetts, United States

Descendants

Died 8 Feb 1853 at about age 85 in Hampden, Penobscot, Maine, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Stuart Bloom [send private message]

Biography

Birth

Andrew Grant was the son of Andrew Grant and Elizabeth (Dunton) Grant.^[1][2] He was probably born at Georgetown, Maine, on 27 Nov 1767; see the Research Note below.

Claimed Revolutionary Service

A manuscript at the Hampden Historical Society claims that from 26 May 1780 to 26 Dec 1780, as a boy of 12, Andrew Grant fought in the American Revolution, serving in Capt. Solomon Walker’s company of Lt. Col. Joseph Paine’s regiment in the forces commanded by Gen. Peleg Wadsworth.^[3] However, no other record of that service has been found; there is no Revolutionary War service record or pension application, and he is not listed by the DAR as a patriot ancestor.

War of 1812 Service

In Hampden, Andrew Grant rose to the position of Lieutenant Colonel of the militia and commanded a regiment at the Battle of Hampden, during the War of 1812 on 3 Sep 1814. The Battle of Hampden was not one of the glorious chapters in the annals of American arms. The main action of the battle consisted of the militia companies running away from the first charge of the British regulars and the subsequent plundering of the town by the British. Lt. Col. Andrew Grant was court-martialed, found to be culpable, and relieved of his command for two years.^[4]

Marriages

1. Andrew Grant and Zebiah Walker published their intention to marry at Prospect, Maine, on 25 Nov 1790, when both were described as "of this town," and they were married there on 26 Dec 1790.^[5] In the record of their marriage at the Maine State Archives, taken from the Hancock County marriage records, both were said to be from Frankfort, Maine.^[6]
2. Andrew Grant married Hannah _____, by the birth of their only known child, at Hampden, Maine, on 8 Sep 1831.^[7]

1850 Census

In the 1850 Census, the household of Andrew Grant of Hampden, Maine, had three residents: Andrew Grant, 83; Hannah Grant, 52; and Andrew E. Grant, 18. All were shown as born in Maine.^[8]

Will

Andrew Grant of Hampden, Maine, made his will on 21 Aug 1846. He names his wife, Hannah, and makes her executrix. He names the children and heirs of his deceased eldest son, Daniel Grant: Joel Thompson Grant, Hannah Johnson, and Zebiah Johnson. He names his youngest son, Andrew E. Grant. He names his daughter, Lucy Reed, wife of William H. Reed. And he names his daughter, Ruth Smith, wife of Daniel Smith. The will was received and filed on 29 Mar 1853 and proved in the April term 1853.^[9] (In her book of abstracts of Penobscot County probate records, Ruth Gray reports that the will calls Lucy (Grant) Reed’s husband William M. Reed,^[10] but an examination of the actual document shows this to be an error.)

Death and Burial

Andrew Grant died at Hampden on 8 Feb 1853 at the reported age of 86 years and 3 months.^[11] A FindAGrave page says he is buried at the Locust Grove Cemetery in Hampden, but provides no photo of the gravestone.^[12]

Research Note

Calculating Andrew Grant's date of birth from the date of death and age at death shown on his gravestone yields a birth date of November 1766, but that cannot be correct.

The elder Andrew Grant, the father of the Andrew Grant who settled at Hampden, Maine, was married twice, first to Patience Gooden and second to Elizabeth Dunton. Patience (Gooden) Grant died in childbirth and was buried at Woolwich, Maine, on 14 Sep 1766,^[13] Patience cannot, therefore, have been the mother of Andrew Grant, and it is exceedingly unlikely that another woman was seven months pregnant with the elder Andrew's child when Patience died in childbirth.

The elder Andrew Grant and his second wife, Elizabeth Dunton, were married either at Woolwich, Maine, on 30 Apr 1767, or at Georgetown, Maine, on 27 Nov 1767; the marriage is recorded at both places (see their profiles for the sources).

The likely explanation would appear to be that Andrew and Elizabeth (Dunton) Grant married at Woolwich in April 1767 when Elizabeth discovered that she was two months pregnant with his child, and that they then moved to Georgetown, where Andrew was born on 27 Nov 1767, with his birth recorded (or later transcribed) incorrectly as the marriage of his parents. That means that Andrew's age at his death is off by a year, a not-uncommon error in those times.

Bloom-1124 15:48, 12 May 2019 (UTC)

Sources

1. ↑ Bushman, Leola Grant, Peter Grant, Scotch Exile, Kittery and Berwick, Maine (n. p., 1971), 4
2. ↑ Meyer, Phyllis V., “A Maine Branch of the Dunton Family,” Downeast Ancestry, 3:2, 14 (1979)
3. ↑ Grant family manuscript, in the files of the Hampden (Maine() Historical Society
4. ↑ Chapman, Harry J., “The Battle of Hampden,” Sprague’s Journal of Maine History</i>, 2:4:185-193 (October 1914), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924106168200;view=1up;seq=207
5. ↑ Williamson, Joseph , “A Record of Publishments and Marriages in the Town of Prospect, 1789 to 1832,” Maine Historical Magazine, 9:168 (1894), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101072332172;view=1up;seq=180
6. ↑ Long, Alice McDonald, Marriage Records of Hancock County, Maine, Prior to 1892 (Camden, Me., 1992), 4, citing the original record on file at the Maine State Archives
7. ↑ Birth record of Andrew Edward Grant in Gills, Arthur Sylvester, and Richard E. Spinney, transcribers and editors, Vital Records of Hampden, Maine, Prior to 1892 (Rockland, Me., 2007), 31
8. ↑ United States Census, 1850, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6V3-QT5 : 12 April 2016), Andrew Grant, Hampden, Penobscot, Maine, United States; citing family 32, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
9. ↑ Penobscot County PR 19:130-131, photocopy in the possession of Stu Bloom.
10. ↑ Gray, Ruth, editor, Abstracts of Penobscot County Maine Probate Records, 1816-1866, Including Abstracts of Probate Records from Hancock County, 1790-1816, Relating to that Part of Hancock County Set Off as Penobscot County in 1816, (Camden, Me., c1990)
11. ↑ Maine Families in 1790 (Waterville, Me., 1990-2016), 2:292, citing his gravestone
12. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #104045335
13. ↑ Records of the Rev. Josiah Winship's church, Woolwich, Maine, copied and typed by Mrs. Nellie Lord and Mrs. Lena C. Ring, Colonol [sic] Dummer Sewall Chapter, Bath, Maine, 1944, Item 9 on Family History Library Film 859053 , p. 34, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSVY-T93J-Z?i=885&cat=254449 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSVY-T932-2?i=864&cat=254449)

• "United States Census, 1800," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHR8-H17 : accessed 14 September 2022), Andrew Grant, Hampden, Hancock, Maine, United States; citing p. 177, NARA microfilm publication M32, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 7; FHL microfilm 218,677.