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.]

BUXTON This name comes from the Saxon boc, meaning beech. Buxton is beech town, and is a village in Derbyshire. The transition of the names of towns to individuals is very common in the history of surnames. This family is scattered throughout New England and New York, and is particularly strong in Vermont. It has produced lawyers, physicians, scholar, educators and divines. In the five wars that have devastated this country since the formation of the Union, the Buxtons had representatives in them all, and did their share of the hard fighting. Today the family is represented in England by the Hon. Sidney C. Buxton, postmaster-general, and Dr. Alfred W. Buxton, consulting anaesthetist at the National Hospital, as well as lecturer on Anaesthetics at University College, with a world-wide reputation as an authority on the subject. (I) Anthony Buxton, with his wife Elizabeth, came from England to Salem, Mass., in 1637. In that year, on the ninth of August, at a town meeting, he was allowed five acres of land, and was an appraiser of the estate of Ann Fuller, March, 1662. His wife was a witness to a nuncupative will of John Leach in April, 1669. Anthony's will was dated March 8, 1684, and to his son John was given thirty acres, which the town of Salem granted Anthony, which lay on the Ipswich river, "and my great bell metal morter which I brought out of England." The witnesses to the will were Nathaniel Felton, Robert Fuller and William Orne. His estate inventoried two hundred and thirty-eight pounds. Children: Anthony, Samuel, James, Thomas, Joseph, Hannah, Rachel, Elizabeth, John, Lydia, Mary and Sarah. (II) John, sixth son of Anthony and Elizabeth Buxton, resided in Salem, Mass. In 1692, with others, he complained of William Hobs and wife Deborah, Mary Esty, Sarah Wild, and others, including a negro, charging them with sundry acts of witchcraft. They were tried, convicted and sent to prison. John married Mary Small, March 30, 1668. Children: Mary, Elizabeth and John. His wife died Nov. 27, 1675, and he married (second) Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph Holton, of Danvers, Aug. 8, 1677. Children: Joseph, Sarah, Anthony, Hannah, Rachel, Ebenezer, Lydia, Benjamin, James, Anna and Jonathan. (III) James, fifth son of John and Elizabeth (Holton) Buxton, was born in Salem, Sept. 28, 1698, and became a pioneer settler in North Yarmouth, Maine, in 1723. He drew a home lot, No. 100, May 18, 1727, and had pew 13 in the old church. James was a farmer, town constable and tax collector. He married Susannah, daughter of William and Hannah Scales. Children: William, Ebenezer, Hannah, Cornelius, Benjamin, James, Susannah, Mary, Samuel, John and Elizabeth. (IV) Cornelius, third son of James and Susannah (Scales) Buxton, was born Nov. 4, 1733, in North Yarmouth, Maine, and died there Jan. 13, 1784. He was a farmer, town constable and tax-collector. He married Lydia, daughter of William and Ann (Pote) Bucknam, of North Yarmouth. She died. Married (second) Abigail, daughter of Nathaniel and Hannah (Shaw) Blanchard, of N. Yarmouth. Children: William, Phebe, Jeremiah, Anna and Reuben. (V) Jeremiah, son of Cornelius and Lydia (Bucknam) Buxton, was born in North Yarmouth, Maine, Aug. 28, 1768, and died there July 19, 1835, He was a farmer and merchant, and married the widow of Andrew Gray, who was a Drinkwater before her first marriage. Children: William, Reuben, Jeremiah, Anna, a son, Jane Drinkwater, Andrew Gray, Jacob Mitchell, a son, Edward Gray, Phebe Mitchell and Susan Drinkwater. (VI) Edward Gray, son of Jeremiah and Jane (Drinkwater) Buxton, was born in North Yarmouth, Jan. 23, 1811, and died in Eastport, Maine, Jan. 5, 1881. He removed to Eastport in 1857, the most easterly city on the North American continent, though Quoddy Head, in Lubec, is said to be the fathermost land to the eastward. Edward G. was a merchant and hotel-keeper. He married Lydia, daughter of Jacob and Lydia (Gookin) Chase. Children: Jeremiah, George Quimby, Francis Chase, Edward S. and Charles Moxcey. (VII) Hon. Charles Moxcey, son of Edward G. and Lydia (Chase) Buxton, was born in North Yarmouth, Maine, Jan. 9, 1852, and came to Eastport as a youngster in 1859. He was a pupil in the Eastport schools, and assisted his father in the hotel business for a time. He was a clerk in the firm of Henry S. Hill & Company, furniture dealeres, Boston, and subsequently the confidential man of Jeremiah Watson, chair dealer, in the same city. He next engaged in the wholesale chair business in Boston on his own account, doing business under the name of C. M. Buxton & Company. Returning to Eastport, he went into business with his brother in a livery and boarding-stable, and in connection with this he carried on the ice business and an auction and commission house. In 1888 he bought out his brother's interest, and has since added an ice and wood-yard. Mr. Buxton is a thorough-going Republican to the backbone, and has been chairman of the board of selectmen, chairman of the board of registration four years, served on the county and town Republican committee, and was elected mayor of Eastport, Maine, for two terms. He was offered the nomination for sheriff of Washington county, but declined the honor. His career as mayor was characterized by civic faithfulness and an imperviousness to outside influences. Mayor Buxton is a member of Eastern Lodge, No. 7, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Eastport; Royal Arch Chapter, St. Bernard's Commandery, Knights Templar, member also of the order of the Eastern Star, an auxiliary of the Masonic order; and a charter member of Anchor Lodge, Knights of Pythias. He was also a charter member of the local lodge of the Improved Order of Red Men, and a charter member of Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mayor Buxton is actively interested in the industrial development of Eastport, and a servicable member of the board of trade. Broad in his religious and philosophical views, he is tolerant of the opinions of others. Mayor Buxton married Catherine, daughter of the Hon. Francis Childs, of Charlestown, Mass., senior partner of the firm of Childs, Crosby and Lane. Children: 1. Horace Childs, manager of a drug business at Fort Farifield, maine, who is married and has one child, Edward Gray. 2. Carrie Porter, married Albert Hanson of South Branch, New Jersey, and has two children, Catherine and Helen. 3. Edward Gray, married Abigail Gardner, and has one child, born July 26, 1908, by name Charles Moxcey. The Hon. William Buxton, great-uncle of Mayor Buxton, was a soldier in the revolution, a member of Capt. Gray's company and Colonel Mitchell's regiment, taking part in the Penobscot expedition. This William was a member of the first convention that framed the constitutioion of Maine, and was repeatedly chosen to the state senate. Another William Buxton, own uncle to Mayor Buxton, was thirteen years in the legislature of Maine and twenty-three years selectman of North Yarmouth, a trustee of North Yarmouth Academy, and a director of the Androscoggin and Kennebec railroad. Further information on the DRINKWATER line will be found in that file. BUXTON As early as 1637 Anthony Buxton settled in Salem, Mass., and two years later Thomas Buxton was of the same town. Clement Buxton was of Stamford in 1650. Descendants of these earlier settlers are scattered over New England, and one branch of the family has long been resident in Maine. The Buxtons of Maine were well represented in the revolutionary armies, and some of them were commissioned officers. William Buxton was born in Albion, Maine, Feb., 1816, died in Gorham, Maine April 1, 1890. He left Albion at the age of fifteen, and went to Cumberland, Maine, where he learned the trade of carpenter, which he folllowed until 1852, when he went to California by a sailing-vessel, and remained in that remote corner of the earth three years, engaged in his trade. He then returned to Maine by the Panama route, and engaged in contracting and building at Gorham. He spent a few years in that business; was then superintendent of the Gorham Powder Works for fifteen years; subsequently was a merchant at White Rock, Maine, for about fifteen years. He married May 14, 1838, Althea, born in Cumberland Feb. 28, 1816, daughter of Levi and Julia (Lane) Lang. She died July 24, 1888. Of their six children, two died in infancy, the others were: 1. Julia L., married James H. Hall and resided in Portland; their only child, Bertha L., married Arthur H. McKeown. 2. George Herbert, mentioned below. 3. Walter S., married Lizzie Bolton; two children: Gertrude L. and Marion A. 4. Francis W., died at age of eight years. George Herbert, eldest son of William and Althea (Lang) Buxton, was born in Cumberland, Sept. 30, 1847, and was educated in the public schools, Gorham Seminary, Bryant, Stratton & Gray's Business College. In 1866 he entered the employ of the wholesale grocery firm of Churchill, Hunt & Melcher, later Churchill & Melcher, then H. S. Melcher & Company, which was incorporated in 1896 as H. S. Melcher Company, H. S. Melcerh, president; George H. Buxton, vice-president and business manager, and A. T. Simpson, treasurer. In 1905 Mr. Melcher died, and Mr. Buxton was made president, and has since held that position. Mr. Buxton is a member of the Chestnut Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he is a trustee. He is a Republican, and was a member of the city council from ward three in 1886-87. He is a member of Atlantic Lodge, No. 81, Free and Accepted Masons, and is its treasurer; member of Mt. Vernon Royal Arch Chapter, No. 1; Portland Counciol, No. 1, Royal and Select Masters; and Portland Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar. He is also a charter member of Unity Lodge, No. 3, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of Eastern Star Encampment, No. 2. George H. Buxton married, at Portland, Jan. 21, 1875, Nellie F. Chamberlin, of Portland, born in Portland March 9, 1852, daughter of Capt. William M. Chamberlin, a master mariner engaged in foreign trade, who was born in Scarboro, Maine, 1814, died in 1856. Capt. Chamberlin married Ellen Bryant, born in Portland Sept. 15, 1818, died Jan. 10, 1899. Children: William Herbert, George Frederick and Alice Mabel. George F., born Feb. 8, 1878, married Mildred McClintock, and has two children, George McClintock and David Everett. Alice M., born Dec. 6, 1880, married Charles Everett Boynton; two children: Annie Ruth and Everett Buxton.