Jonathan Morse (1771 - 1848)

Born 26 Sep 1771 in Sherborn, Middlesex, Province of Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Husband of Anne (Lovering) Morse — married 11 Apr 1793 in Sherborn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States

Husband of Betty (Welcome) Morse — married 15 Jan 1801 in Poland, Cumberland, Massachusetts, United States

Husband of Abigail (Millet) Morse — married after 9 Nov 1823 in Oxford County, Maine, United States

Descendants

Died 30 Oct 1848 at age 77 in Livermore, Oxford, Maine, United States

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Biography

Note

There were two men named Jonathan Morse living at Livermore, Maine (then in Massachusetts) about 1800. The subject of this profile is not the same man as the Jonathan Morse who married Abigail Hurd, and the two men are not known to have been related. See the third Research Note below.

Birth

Jonathan Morse was born at Sherborn, Massachusetts, on 26 Sep 1771, the son of David Morse and Mary (Church) Morse.^[1]

Residence and Career

Jonathan Morse married at Holliston, Massachusetts, in April 1793. In September 1794, he recorded his first child at Livermore, Maine.^[2] The 1874 history of Livermore says that he was "among the earliest blacksmiths who came to Livermore" and that he "had great celebrity as a shoer of horses and oxen." In 1824, both legs were broken when he was thrown from a wagon.^[3]

Marriages

1. Jonathan Morse married Anne Lovering at Sherborn, Massachusetts, on 11 Apr 1793.^[4] (See the Research Note below.)
2. The marriage intention of Jonathan Morse of Livermore, Maine, and Betsey Welcome of Poland, Maine, (both towns were then in Massachusetts) was published at Livermore on 10 Jan 1801, and they were married at Poland on 15 Jan 1801.^[5]
3. Jonathan Morse of Livermore, Maine, and Abigail Millet of Turner, Maine, published their intention to marry at Turner on 23 Oct 1823^[6] and at Livermore on 9 Nov 1823.^[7] (See the Research Note below.)

Death

Jonathan Morse died at Livermore, Maine, on 30 Oct 1848,^[3][2] and he is buried at the Lakeside Cemetery in Livermore, where a gravestone with his names and the names of his three wives gives his dates as 1771-1848.^[8] Another gravestone for Jonathan was uncovered at the Boothby Cemetery, also in Livermore, in May 2023, with a matching death date and the correct age.^[9]

Research Notes

1. An error occurs in the 1928 history of Livermore, which says that the incident that killed his first wife, Anna, occurred in 1779—obviously a typo for 1799, when it actually occurred,^[10] The 1779 date was picked up by the 2010 history, which uses it to say that Jonathan was at Livermore by 1779.^[11]
2. The gravestone of Jonathan Morse and his three wives at the Lakeside Cemetery in Livermore, Maine,^[8] was placed there at an unknown date, and there is an error on it. The stone gives the birth date of his first wife as 1770. There was an Anne Lovering born at Holliston, Massachusetts, in 1770, the daughter of Thaddeus and Elizabeth Lovering,^[12] but the 1893 Crafts genealogy says that she married Jesse Eames,^[13] and the probate file of Thaddeus Lovering calls her Anna Eames.^[14] The stone has the maiden names of Jonathan's second and third wives, but not Anna's, which implies that whoever placed the stone did not know it. Jonathan's wife Anna was then almost certainly the Anna Lovering born at Holliston five years earlier, on 7 Mar 1765 to Samuel Lovering and Phebe (Smith) Lovering. ^[12]
3. The 1928 history of Livermore gives the name of Jonathan Morse's third wife as Abigail Hurd and says "there is evidently a mistake in the intentions of marriage, as recorded in the old town books, in regard to Mr. Morse." The gravestone of Jonathan and his wives gives her name as Abagail "Willett." The marriage intentions at both Turner^[6] and Livermore^[7] give her name as Abigail Millet, and being contemporary entries are most likely correct. A Jonathan Morse did marry an Abigail Hurd at Livermore on 27 Dec 1800, but he was a different Jonathan Morse; but in his intention of marriage he is called "Jonathan Morse of Number One so called,"^[15] whereas the Jonathan Morse whose intention of marriage to Betsey Wellcome was recorded on 13 Jan 1801 is identified as Jonathan Morse of Livermore.

Sources

1. ↑ Vital Records of Sherborn, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 (Boston, 1911), page 68
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Vital Records of Livermore, Maine; Vital and town records, 1797-1910; "Livermore Vital Records, 1786-1840," page 90; FHL Microfilm 11332, Image 76 of 718
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Israel Washburn, Notes, Historical, Descriptive, and Personal of Livermore, in Androscoggin (Formerly in Oxford) County, Maine (Portland, Me., 1874), page 46
4. ↑ Vital Records of Sherborn, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 (Boston, 1911), page 156
5. ↑ Vital Records of Livermore, Maine; Vital and town records, 1797-1910;"Livermore Vital Records, 1762-1810," unpaginated; FHL Microfilm 11332, Image 288 of 718
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Maine Marriages, 1771-1907, database, FamilySearch, "Intentions of marriage 1804-1891; marriage records 1829-1892; marks of sheep and cattle," page 30, FHL microfilm 12,255
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Vital Records of Livermore, Maine; "Vital and town records, 1797-1910"'; image 352 of 718
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} Photo of gravestone of Jonathan Morse and his wives (Find A Grave: Memorial #192681203)
9. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/253995342/jonathan-morse : accessed 22 May 2023), memorial page for CPT Jonathan Morse (1771–30 Oct 1848), Find a Grave Memorial ID 253995342, citing Boothby Family Cemetery, Livermore, Androscoggin County, Maine, USA; Maintained by samnhowes (contributor 47597020).
10. ↑ Ira Thompson Monroe, History of the Town of Livermore, Androscoggin County Maine; From Its Inception in 1735 and Its Grant of Land in 1772 to Its Organization in 1795 Up to the Present Time 1928 (Lewiston, Me., 1928), page 172
11. ↑ Reginald H. Sturtevant, A History of Livermore, Maine, Second Edition (Trafford Publishing, n.p., 2010), page 82
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} Vital Records of Holliston, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston, 1908), page 101
13. ↑ James M. Crafts and William F, Crafts, The Crafts family. A genealogical and biographical history of the descendants of Griffin and Alice Craft, of Roxbury, Mass. 1630-1890 (Northampton, Mass., 1893), page 61
14. ↑ Probate file of Thaddeus Lovering, in Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871, Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014, case 14380, page 12 (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized images provided by FamilySearch.org)
15. ↑ Vital Records of Livermore, Maine; "Livermore Vital Records, 1762-1810," unpaginated; FHL Microfilm 11332, image 287 of 718 for the intention, image 288 of 718 for the marriage