John& Deborah (Smith)

Story from Pat Twombly Karakashian:

Before 1660 almost all of the early settlers from England had arrived.  Many landed in Massachusetts, but also many landed in Southern New Hampshire.  The area had been explored long before the Pilgrims arrived in 1620 and we had a Seavey ancestor who was on one of the original ships to do this exploration.  The investors in England who financed these ships wanted to know what they were getting into.  They wanted the land, timber, fur and fish and as I have said before , we had an ancestor, through the Hanson line who was in Nantucket in 1616.  When the England came, (and the time period from 1630-1660 is called the Great Migration) they came onboards ships which left in a flotilla.  Most were families.  Beyond the fact that the weather here was much colder than in England, there was always the constant threat of Indian attack.  We had one ancestor, Tobias Hanson, who was eating his dinner in a garrison fortress in Dover, when an Indian came in and cleaved his head, which promptly fell into his supper, poor guy.  They captured his wife Elizabeth and most of his children and marched them into Quebec.  She was returned but some of the children were not.  There is a plaque in Dover which speaks of this. So, with certain, and with the exception of Mary Grant, all ancestors were here before 1660.

CHILDREN

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