Hannah Johnson

   FamilySearch ID: 97F2-PSD. Find a Grave ID: 158657176.

  General Notes:

Despite Brown Thurston's statements that the wife of Moses was Hannah Sewall, it has been determined that she was Hannah Johnson, born on March 31, 1724, the eldest daughter of Zebediah and Hannah Johnson who had eight children at Andover, MA from 1724 to 1747. Hannah Johnson was married to Moses Thurston at Andover on May 29, 1744. Their first three children are recorded at Andover and are the exact dates that Brown Thurston gives for the first three children of Moses Thurston and Hannah. See the marriage notes for more information. There are a number of threads on the Ancestry.com boards from around 2002 discussing these relationships. ¹⁴⁶⁵

  Research Notes:

Steve,

I posted the following on ancestry.com ...

A correspondent, HJS, reports the following church record:

"One other thing that helps tie Moses Thurston and Hannah Johnson is her
record in the "Historical Manual of the South Church in Andover, Mass.,
August, 1859" (Andover: Warren F. Draper, 1859) [FHL fiche 6087365] on
page 133. It shows the following information: Hannah (Johnson) Thurston
(Moses) was received into the church on 11 May 1746 by profession of
faith, and removed on 12 Apr 1752 by discharge to the church in Hollis,
NH."

This would seem to close the mystery of Hannah wife of Moses Thurston.

Best, Eben


See marriage notes as well.

See:http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.thurston/660/mb.ashx

Interesting thread on the Ohio Message board about this family which is what the above comes from. See: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/OHROOTS/2002-02/1014269165

&&&&

Also this in the Sewall Message boards on Ancestry posted by one Eban Graves:

You are correct in surmising that Hannah Sewall wife of Moses Thurston was not of the York, Maine, tribe, nor of any of their cousins. Their family has been much studied and no one is unaccounted for until the sixth generation in the mid 1700s.

In the 1790 census in N.H., (1) Jonathan M. Sewall (1748 - 1808) is in Portsmouth, Rockingham Co. (p. 81), and was of the Salem, Mass., line, cousins of the York, Me., crowd, and (2) Thomas Sewall (1736 to 1755? - ca.1804) of Gilmanton, Strafford Co. (p. 92) has many descendants, but is of unknown origin, although he could be related to the York, Me., tribe (or not). I do not see a Henry Sewall in the 1790 census in the N.H. index and the index entry for Bradbury Sewell in Durham, Strafford Co. (p. 89), is an error for Bradbury Jewell.

The Thurston genealogy published in 1892 says Moses Thurston's second wife was the sister of the minister at Hollis, N.H. and that Moses long lived, died, and was buried there (pp. 44-45). Is there an error in the book and was he really from Exeter?

Hannah Sewall wife of Moses Thurston could be descended from Edward Sewall (say 1640 - 1683 or 1684) of Lynn, Mass., and Exeter, N.H., or related to the Thomas Sewall of Gilmanton mentioned previously, or she could be from a completely different family. Four apparently unrelated Sewall families are known in New England by 1720 (and a poor man from a fifth one who was murdered in 1644) and the name appears in every county in England.

I have plowed through the Rockingham Co. probate and land records, and the Early New Hampshire Town Records films at the state library to no avail. If there is a clue, it is probably in a church record somewhere of even in a family Bible in somebody's closet.

Further from Eben Graves on the 1st of May, 2005:

Steve,

I just posted this on ancestry.com ...

The first wife of Moses Thurston (1721-1800) of Andover, Mass. and Hollis
N.H., is said to have been Hannah Sewall (Brown Thurston, Thurston
Genealogies, 44). This attribution inspired fruitless searches for Hannah
Sewall's family. It is clear that she is not descended from Henry Sewall
of Newbury and Rowley, Mass., nor is it likely that she is from Edward
Sewall of Salem, Mass., and Exeter, N.H.. If she were related to Timothy
Sewall of Mendon, Mass., or Thomas Sewall of Gilmanton (later Gilford),
N.H., it would have to be as a sister, but the parents and siblings of
neither Timothy nor Thomas are known.

No one has been able to explain why Brown Thurston said that Hannah was a
Sewall. The birth records of their first three children at Andover from
1744 to 1748, the birth records of five children at Hollis from 1744 to
1756, including a duplicate for the eldest, and the baptism records of
five children at Pepperrell, Mass., from 1756 to 1765 do not give Hannah's
maiden name (VRs and ChRs, extracted on the IGI). The ten children of
Moses and Hannah Thurston listed by Brown Thurston (45-6) can be assembled
from these three lists.

It seems much more likely that Moses and Hannah were the Moses Thurston
and Hannah Johnson who were married at Andover on May 29, 1744 (VRs, 199).
Hannah would appear to the the eldest daughter, born on March 31, 1724, of
Zebediah and Hannah Johnson, who had eight children at Andover from 1724
to 1747 (VRs, 226-232).

The names of the three children of Moses and Hannah Thurston recorded at
Andover, Hannah, Moses, and Shuah, and their birth dates, are an exact
match for the eldest three children in Brown Thurston, 45. Moreover, the
name and birthdate of the eldest is repeated in the birth records of
Hollis. It would seem that Moses moved to Andover sometime before his
marriage, lived there until about 1749, when he moved to Hollis.

There are only three and one-half months from the Andover Thurston-Sewall
marriage on May 29, 1744 until the birth of Moses's and Hannah's eldest
child Hannah on Sept. 10, 1744. But marriage of necessity would not be a
unique situation.

Does anyone have probate records for Zebediah or Hannah (----) Johnson? Is
anyone aware of another Thurston couple with the names Moses and Hannah at
this time? Does anyone have Thurston land records from either Andover or
Hollis?

Best, Eben W. Graves

See the Vital Records of Andover for the marriage of Moses and Hannah Johnson:
http://www.rays-place.com/town/ma/andover/and-marr-t.htm

See the Vital Records of Andover for the births of the children:
http://www.rays-place.com/town/ma/andover/and-births-t.htm

Hannah married Moses Thurston, son of Abner Thurston and Shuah Gilman, 29 May 1744 in Andover, Essex, MA ²¹⁹.^,220 (Moses Thurston was born in 1721, died 6 May 1800 in Hollis, Hillsborough Co., NH and was buried in Hollis, Hillsborough Co., NH.)

  Marriage Notes:

Despite a great number of web sites and even published sources that say that Hannah was Hannah Sewall the sixth child of Samuel Sewall (1688-1769 of York, Maine) and Lydia Storer, the parentage of Moses' first wife Hannah was never discovered. Evidence from the will of Samuel Sewall that his daughter by Lydia Storer married first Henry Sayward and second Richard Trivett. Hannah Trivett is named in his will. (Pages 65 to 67, Book 12, Probate Records of York County, Maine, Alfred, ME excert by Eben Graves: The will of Samuel Sewall, of York, dated 14 August 1762 and proved at the York County Probate Court 10 July 1769, makes bequests to his three sons Samuel Sewall, John Sewall, and Joseph Sewall, to his son Moses Sewall, to his son David Sewall, to his two sons Dummer Sewall and Henry Sewall, to his daughters Lydia Mitchell and Mary Bragdon, to his daughters Mercy Frost and Hannah Trivett, and to his beloved wife Sarah. Witnesses were Joseph Holt, Jeremiah Bragdon, and William Dunning.)

Hannah (Sewall) Sayward had three children from 1740 to 1745 and with her second husband Richard Trevett had five more from 1750 to 1762. The births of her children overlap the children of Hannah (Sewall) Thurston. ²²⁸