Genealogical and Family History
of the
STATE OF MAINE

Compiled under the editorial supervision of George Thomas Little, A. M., Litt. D.

LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
New York
1909.

[Please see Index page for full citation.]

[Transcribed by Coralynn Brown]

[Many families included in these genealogical records had their beginnings in Massachusetts.]

BARTLETT This family is one of the oldest of the colonial families in America, and has produced numerous representatives who have occupired positions of distinction, not only in New England, but in many of the central and western states. Josiah Bartlett, the second to sign the Declaration of Independence, was one of this family prominent during revolutionary times. There are in this country other families of the name represented, but the family here sketched is accredited with being the earliest and most prominent. The name of Bartlett is frequently spelled Bartlet in the early records of Essex county, Massachusetts, other spelling such as Bartlit and Bartlot being sometimes found. (I) Richard Bartlett, the ancestor of the principal family of that name in America, was probably born in Wiltshire, England about 1575. He came to America in 1635, and settled in Newbury, Mass. He was descended from Adam de Barlot, who with William the Conqueror came over from Normandy and fought at the battle of Hastings, and who received grants of land at Stopham, Sussex. Later in the fiteenth century a castle, coat-of-arms and crest were granted to the family. The estates granted eight hundred years ago have descended in the male line of the Bartlett family to the present (1908) day. Richard Bartlett was a shoemaker, and was one of the earliest settlers of Newbury, where he died May 25, 1647, four days after making his will. In 1612 he purchased a "Breeches Bible," which has been preserved and is in the possession of his descendants. Children: 1. Joan, born Jan. 29, 1610, married William Titcomb before 1640. 2. John, born Nov. 9, 1613, died Feb. 5, 1678. 3. Thomas, born Jan. 22, 1615. 4. Richard, born Oct. 31, 1621, see forward. 5. Christopher, born Feb. 25, 1623, died March 15, 1669. 6. Anne, born Feb. 26, 1625. (II) Richard (2), third son of Richard (1) Bartlett, was born Oct. 31, 1621, probably in England, and died in Newbury, Mass., 1698, his will, dated April 19, 1695, being proved July 18, 1698. He was a shoemaker, cordwainer and yeoman, and lived first at Oldtown in Newbury, removing to Bartlett's Corner near Deer Island, at the Merrimac river. He is said to have been "a facetious and intelligent man"; he subscribed to the oath of allegiance at Newbury in 1678, and was for several years a deputy to the general court. He married Abigail ____, who died March 8, 1686. Children, b. in Newbury: 1. Samuel, born Feb. 20, 1645, died May 15, 1732; married May 23, 1671, Elizabeth Titcomb. 2. Richard, born Feb. 21, 1648, died April 17, 1724; married Nov. 18, 1673, Hannah Emery. 3. Thomas, born Sept. 7, 1650, died April 6, 1689; married Nov. 21, 1685, Tirza Titcomb. 4. Abigail, born March 14, 1653, died in 1723; married May 27, 1700, John Emery, of Newbury. 5. John, born June 22, 1655, see forward. 6. Hannah, born Dec. 18, 1657, died unmarried between 1698 and 1723. 7. Rebecca, born May 23, 1661, ded in 1723; married Sept. 5, 1700, Isaac Bayley, of Newbury. (III) John, fourth son of Richard (2) and Abigail Bartlett, was born in Newbury, Mass., June 22, 1655, died May 24, 1736. He was, like his father, grandfather and brothers, brought up to the trade of tanner, cordwainer and trades akin to the preparation and manufacture of leather. He was also an innholder in Newbury. He took the oath of allegiance at Newbury in 1678, and that of freeman in May, 1674. He married (first) Sept. 29, 1680, Mary Rust, who was living in 1693. Married (second) Nov. 13, 1710, Dorcas Phillips, of Rowley; she died Jan. 18, 1719. Children of 1st wife, b. in Newbury: 1. Mary, born Oct. 17, 1681, died March 29, 1682. 2. John, born Jan. 24, 1682, died in 1752; married (first) Nov. 25, 1701, Prudence Merrill, who died May 5, 1718; (second) Frances Kindrick, intention of marrige published June 18, 1720. 3. Mary, born April 27, 1684, died March 19, 1707; married July, 1700, John Bailey. 4. Nathaniel, born April 18, 1685, lived in Exeter, New Hampshire; married Sept. 22, 1705, Meribah Littlefield, of Kittery. 5. Dorothy, born Aug. 13, 1686, was living in 1733; married June 6, 1707, John Ropes, of Salem. 6. Sarah, born Nov. 27, 1687, died before 1733; married Dec., 1707, Joseph Fowler, of Ipswich. 7. Hannah, born March 13, 1688, married (intention pub. Dec. 15, 1732) Nathaniel Brown, of Wenham. 8. Nathan, born Dec. 23, 1691, see foward. 9. Abigail, born Aug. 12, 1693, was living in 1733; married (intention pub. Sept. 7, 1717) Samuel Goodhue, of Exter. 10, Alice, born March 18, 1694, died before 1733, probably unmarried. 11. Mary, died before 1733, married Jan. 12, 1722, Joseph Jacobs, of Ipswich. 12. Gideon, born about 1703, died Sept., 1793. 13. Seth, died in 1759; married (intention pub. Oct. 5, 1728) Sarah Merrill. 14. Elizabeth, married April 13, 1725, Josiah Bartlett. 15. Rebecca, was living in 1753; married July 15, 1725, Deacon Daniel Coffin, of Newbury. (IV) Captain Nathan, son of John and Mary (Rust) Bartlett, was the original Bartlett to settle in that part of the province of Mass. Bay, now Maine. He was born in Newbury, Dec. 23, 1691, and died in Kittery, Maine, in 1775. In 1713 he moved from Newbury to that part of Kittery now Eliot, where he built a tannery and erected a substantial brick house, making the bricks on his land bordering on Sturgeon creek. This brick house was partially destroyed by an earthquake about 1737, and Capt. Bartlett built about 1740 the oak timbered two and a half story colonial house in which six generations of the Bartlett family have been born and reared, and this house is now (1908) owned and occupied by James W. Bartlett. Capt. Bartlett purchased in 1725 sixty acres of land at Sturgeon creek, of John Wittum, for two hundred and fifty pounds. The following year he bought twenty acres of land of Peter Wittum, paying therefor one hundred pounds. An old deed from John Heard to his son-in-law, Captain Nathan Bartlett, in 1725, gives him a tract of land at Third Hill with one-half part of Stoney brook and one-third part of a sawmill built by James Emery and Major Charles Frost adding this note: "that it is to be understood yt ye above given & granted premises are not to be reconed as any part of my daugher, Shuah's portion." This land and other land which he purchased became the homestead place of his descendants. He married, March 10, 1714, Shuah, born Jan. 15, 1694, daughter of Capt. John and Phoebe (Littlefield) Heard. Capt. Heard was an old Indian fighter and companion in arms with Major Charles Frost. Children: 1. Shuah, born Jan. 1, 1716, married Nov. 15, 1732, Dr. Edmund Coffin, born March 19, 1708, son of Hon. Nathaniel Coffin, of Newbury; he was a practicing physician in Kittery; they had thirteen children. His home adjoined the Bartlett homestead. 2. Mary, born March 1, 1717-18, married (first) Thomas Dennett; (second) ____ Lord. 3. Nathan, born April 30, 1720, died May 7, 1720. 4. Phoebe, born May 8, 1721, married Feb., 1739, John Dennett, of Portsmouth. 5. Abigail, born Dec. 6, 1723, married (first) in 1741, John Shapleigh, son of Major Nicholas Shapleigh; (second) Moses Hanscom; she died June 3, 1800. 6. John Heard, born April 8, 1726, graduate of Harvard, A.B., 1747, A.M., 1750, the first Bartlett to graduate at Harvard, which university in 1900 had forty-seven of the name of Bartlett on its list of graduates; he married three times and was the father of eleven children; he was a school teacher, trial justice, clerk of judicial court, and in 1757 was a lieutenant in Sir William Pepperell's regiment, called "The Blue Troop of Horse." 7. Hannah, born Oct. 29, 1728, married June 9, 1745, Robert Cutts, eldest son of Major Richard Cutts, of Cutts Island. 8. Nathan, born Nov. 3, 1730, died May 21, 1736. 9. James, born May 24, 1732, died Sept. 17, 1738. 10. Sarah, born Dec. 25, 1735, died Jan., 1736. 11. Nathan, born March 31, 1737, see forward. 12. Sarah, born May 26, 1741, married Sept. 17, 1762, Capt. John Wentworth, of Kittery. (V) Nathan, fifth son of eleventh child of Capt. Nathan and Shuah (Heard) Bartlett, was born in Kittery, district of Maine, in the homestead of the family, March 31, 1737, and died June 18, 1775. He was a tanner; he lived in his father's house. He married June 9, 1757, Sarah, daughter of Capt. John and Dorcas (Littlefield) Shapleigh; she died Dec. 17, 1805. Children: 1. Dorcas, born Jan. 9, 1758, married June 30, 1776, Nathan Coffin. 2. James, born Nov. 24, 1759, see forward. 3. Shuah, born Nov. 11, 1761, married March 28, 1782, Stephen Ferguson. 4. Nathan, born Nov. 21, 1763, married Abigail Staples. 5. Alice, born Jan. 22, 1767, married ____ Gile, of Alfred, Maine. 6. Mary, born March 16, 1768, married Nov. 19, 1799, George Libby. 7. Lucretia, born Nov. 4, 1771, married ____ Hodsdon. 8. Sarah, born Jan. 14, 1775, married Feb. 19, 1795, George Frost. (VI) James, eldest son and second child of Nathan and Sarah (Shapleigh) Bartlett, was born at the old homestead in Kittery, Nov. 24, 1759, and died Oct. 30, 1836. He was a tanner by trade. He was a revolutionary soldier, a private in Capt. Richard Rogers' company, Colonel Gerrish's regiment; he was nineteen years of age at the time of service, and was on guard duty at Winter Hill, Somerville, Mass., from July 20 to Dec. 14, 1778. He married, May 30, 1782, Lois, born in Kittery, May 29, 1757, died Oct. 3, 1838, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Ferguson) Hill. They lived in the Bartlett homestead now owned and occupied by James W. Bartlett. 1. Elizabeth, baptized May 6, 1784, married Dec. 28, 1802, Samuel Shapleigh, and moved to Lebanon, Maine; they had seven children. 2. Shuah, baptized June 21, 1784, married Feb. 1, 1810, Andrew Emery and moved to New Portland, Maine; they had four children, among whom was Dr. Hiram A. Emery, the father of Charles G. Emery, of New York City; she died Jan. 30, 1844. 3. James, born June 18, 1787, died in New Portland March 4, 1875; married Nov. 28, 1814, Lucy Knowlton, who bore him three sons and three daughters; they lived in Portsmouth, N. H. 4. John Hill, born Dec. 9, 1789, died Jan.2 1, 1878; married Feb. 7, 1814, Phoebe Burbank, who bore him seven sons and five daughters; they lived in North New Portland. 5. Nathan, born Feb. 2, 1792, see foward. 6. Sarah, born July 16, 1796, died Nov. 24, 1883; married Dec. 24, 1812, Hugh Kennison; they had seven sons and four daughters; they lived in Temple, Maine. 7. William, born Oct. 4, 1797, died March 12, 1882; married March 11, 1824, Abigail Burbank, who bore him three sons and four daughters; they lived in New Portland, Maine. (VII) Nathan, third son and fifth child of James and Lois (Hill) Bartlett, was born in Kittery (now Eliot) Feb. 2, 1792, on the old homestead and died Oct. 15, 1865. He was a farmer, and lived in the Bartlett homestead. He was prominent in town affairs, serving in the capacity of selectman. He married, Dec. 25, 1817, Mehitable, daughter of William and Philomelia (Webber) Emery; she died Sept., 1857. Children: 1. Lucinda, born May 24, 1819, died May 7, 1852. 2. Sylvester, born July 4, 1822, see forward. 3. Elizabeth S., born June 14, 1824, died in Eliot, Jan. 28, 1898; married Nov. 11, 1873, Edwin P. Farley, of Lockport, Illionois. 4. Sarah, born Aug. 30, 1826, died in Lockport, Illinois, Jan. 11, 1875; married March 1, 1860, Hiram W. Emery. 5. James W., born July 1, 1828, married (first) Oct. 24, 1861, Caroline A. Goodwin, who died March 26, 1887; married (second) Oct. 30, 1888, Lydia F. Worster. 6. Justin S., born Sept. 11, 1830, died Jan. 3, 1866; married Jan. 12, 1857, Emily D. Shorey. (VIII) Sylvester, eldest son and second child of Nathan and Mehitable (Emery) Bartlett, was born in the ancestral Bartlett home in Eliot, Maine, July 4, 1822, and died April 24, 1901, after a brief illness. He attended the public schools of Eliot, and subsequently taught school in Eliot and Lebanon, Maine, during the winter months, assisting his father on the farm during the summer season. In 1855, after his marriage, he was actively engaged for several years with his brother, James W., in a large retail meat business. Closing that about 1875 he devoted his time to his farm and other business interests. His home was on the site of the John Heard house and adjoining the old Bartlett homestead. The Heard family and two early generations of Bartletts are buried in an old burying ground in the field opposite the Bartlett Ancestral Home. Sylvester Bartlett was a man of keen intellect, good judgment and had a most retentive memory. He was hospitable and social by nature and had a wide circle of friends. He was a Republican, and was a representative from Eliot to the Maine legislature in 1895-96. He married, Dec. 30, 1855, Clementine, daughter of John and Betsey (Ferguson) Raitt. Children: 1. Elizabeth Mehitable, born Sept. 21, 1857, never married. 2. John Howard, born Oct. 29, 1860, died Feb. 5, 1863. 3. Charles Edward, born Jan. 19, 1863, lives on the homestead place, and was elected to the Maine legislature in 1909-10; he is a Republican. 4. Ralph Sylvester, born April 29, 1868, see forward. 5. Rolla Willis, born Sept. 2, 1869, graduated at Dartmouth College, A.B., 1894, and at Boston University Law School, LL.B., 1897; was admitted to the Suffolk county bar in 1897, and became engaged in the bond business in Boston, where he still resides. 6. Grace Isabel, born Feb. 14, 1871, died April 28, 1874. (IX) Ralph Sylvester, third son and fourth child of Sylvester and Clementine (Raitt) .......[a line cut off the top of the scan of this page]..........Eliot, Maine, April 29, 1868. He attended the district schools of Eliot, after which he prepared for college at Berwick Academy, graduating in 1885, and at once matriculated at Dartmouth College, graduating in 1889 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and receiving therefrom the degree of Master of Arts in 1892. He then pursued a course in law in the Boston Univ. Law School, receiving therefrom the degree of LL.B., in 1892. He also added to his knowlege of law by a course of reading in the law offices of Judge Edmund H. Bennett, dean of the Boston Law School. He was admitted to the Suffolk county bar, July 26, 1892, and admitted to practice in the district and circuit courts of the U.S., Nov. 27, 1895. He was associated with former Governor William E. Russell in the practice of law from 1892 to 1896, and on the death of Gov. Russell in the latter named year continued the practice of his profession with offices in the Exchange Building, 53 State street, Boston, where he has since been located. He was for nine years a member of the First Corps of Cadets, Mass. Volunteer Militia, and served on coast duty during the Spanish-American war. He is a veteran member of the Cadet Corps, Spanish-American War Veterans, and a member of the University Club. His home in Boston is at 139 Beacon street. He is unmarried.