Nathaniel Leavitt and Lydia Sanborn - From Hingham to Hatley

Nathaniel Leavitt and Lydia Sanborn

From the book "From Hingham to Hatley: a Leavitt family chronicle of five generations"

December 23, two days before Christmas 1727, Joseph and Mary Wadleigh Leavitt had their first child. They named their little boy Nathaniel, a popular name among the families in this society. They were living on their property in Deerfield. 

This was still the frontier, and the forests that clustered around all the towns surrounding Exeter were still infested with wolves. The people were required to be always watchful for wolves and Indians (Bell, page 70). They still struggled among themselves over town boundaries, and while the threat of the Mason claims had diminished, the people chafed under the ongoing acts of oppression imposed by England.

Nathaniel's family, well established in the timber business, would have been acquainted with the particulars in the Mast Tree Riot of 1734, which frightened away the kings henchmen, determined to punish colonists who "poached" trees the king considered his. Conversation in Nathaniel's childhood home would have recounted the chafing of inappropriate taxing by England. He was born at a time and into a home that well prepared young Nathaniel for the militancy that would be part of his youth.

Eight siblings followed in rapid succession. By the time Nathaniel was 15 years of age, Joseph and Mary Leavitt's family numbered 11 people. He would have grown to manhood quickly. He fought in early wars, including the already-mentioned expedition to Fort Duquesne, where he, alongside his father, was among those rescued by the young General George Washington.

The Sanborn family In neighboring Hampton lived Jeremiah Sanborn and his wife, Lydia Dearborn Sanborn. They were contemporaries and associates of Joseph and Mary Wadleigh Leavitt. They were patriots. Jeremiah Sanborn was a deputy to the 2nd Provincial Congress and was a signer of the 1776 Association Test, as was Joseph and his sons in Exeter. The Sanborns and the Dearborns had been prominent in the early settlement.

The Sanborn family is one of those early families which, being prolific and composed of individuals able to take care of themselves and having descended from not one but three original immigrant ancestors, now numbers a multitude. Many of them like their forbears are leaders of men and fill positions of honor, trust and profit, worthy successors of the men who transformed the New England wilderness into one of the richest areas in America. John, William and Stephen were sons of an English Sanborne, probably William of Brampton Berkshire and Anne, daughter of the Rev. Stephen Bachiler. Anne Bachilor's husband died about 1630. The three sons of Anne Sanborne came to America with their grandfather Bachilor, (later spelled Batchelder), a prominent

preacher in New England in 1632. Their mother apparently did not come (Stearns, Vol 1, page 265).

The Dearborn family

The Dearborn family is one of those families who enjoy the distinction of being among the

early colonists and founders of New Hampshire. The Dearborns have always maintained the reputation of being an intelligent, energetic and progressive race, and some of them have been persons of distinction. Godfrey Dearborn, the first of the Dearborns to have come to America, was among the signers of the Wheelwright Compact as they established Exeter I. He did not follow the group into exile, however, and became a prominent and prosperous grantee, active in affairs of the Hampton and surrounding area (Stearns, Vol 1, page 280).

The Dearborn family, grandparents of Lydia Sanborn, were prosperous owners of significant lands, but the inheritance was not divided equally between sons and daughters. The will of John Dearborn grants large parcels of land to his sons. The daughters are remembered, but not so generously:

I give to my Daughter Deborah Marston the sum of three pounds lawful money. I also give my said daughter my Cupboard. I give to my Daughter Elizabeth Garland the sum of thirty-five shillings lawful money . . . also give my said daughter my Bed. I give to my Daughter Esther Norton thirty five shillings in like money—I give to my Daughter Abigail Cram the Sun of five shillings. I give to my Daughter Lydia Sanborn the sum of thirty five Shillings Lawful money (Will of John Dearborn, Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, 1741-1749).

Quite possibly the differing amounts bequeathed to the daughters had something to do with the economic well-being of their husbands.

Wills of the time reveal much about attitudes toward daughters as opposed to sons. One Sanborn will, that of Benjamin Sanborn, is written while his wife is pregnant. The will leaves instruction that when the child is born, if it is a boy, he is to be given a good education and is provided lands and property in the will. If the child is a girl, she is to be cared for until she is of marrying age, then given twelve pounds ten shillings.

In 1752 Nathaniel Leavitt married Lydia Sanborn, the daughter of Jeremiah Sanborn and Lydia Dearborn Sanborn. He was 25; she was 15. He took his bride to Exeter and established their home. Over the next 24 years the young family was perfectly positioned to participate in the eventful birth of a new nation.

One by one, 12 children came, all born at Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire. Each child came into an atmosphere of high drama, for these were dramatic times.

• Joseph Leavitt, born 30 November 1755
• Lydia Leavitt, born 5 December 1757
• Moses Leavitt, born 12 July 1759
• Jeremiah Leavitt, born 10 July 1760
• Nathaniel Leavitt, born 10 July 1764
• Dudley Leavitt, born 25 March 1767
• John Leavitt, born 5 December 1769
• Josiah Leavitt, born 1772
• Jonathan Leavitt, born 1773
• Stephen Leavitt, born 1775
• Hannah Leavitt, born 1776
• Mary Leavitt, born 17 March 1776

The year of their firstborn, Joseph, was the year of the noted Fort Duquesne expedition. For several succeeding years the people were much occupied with the French and Indian wars which demanded a new group of soldiers every season. Lydia was born in the year her father and grandfather marched off with the Crown Point expedition (Bell, page 233).

Moses was born at the height of a great small pox epidemic that decimated much of the population, but seems to have spared this family. Jeremiah was born into times both tense and dynamic. His arrival in 1 760 was at a time when the shipbuilding and timber industries, with which his extended families were deeply involved, were thriving. "As many as twenty-two vessels great and small were said to have been upon the stocks in a single season, and from eight to ten was the usual annual product" (Bell, page 337). Still tensions mounted.

Nathaniel Jr. came into the world in the middle of the furor over the infamous Stamp Act, which continued to burden the people, not being repealed until 1767, the year of Dudley's birth. The oppression of unwarranted taxation continued, fomenting a spirit of resistance, which erupted with the Boston Massacre when John was just three months old. Josiah, Jonathan and Stephen were born during the years leading up to the War for Independence and Hannah and Mary, who may have been twins, were born in 1776.

Just as Nathaniel and his brothers had marched beside their father, Joseph, in the French and Indian Wars, so now he marched into the Revolutionary War with his two eldest sons, Joseph and Moses (D.A.R. Lineage Books, vol. 161).

Jeremiah was just 16 years old. He would have been the eldest son at home and there were dramatic difficulties there. Not only was Lydia preparing to give birth to Hannah and/or Mary, but one year old Stephen died that year, 1776. One can only imagine the pain of that occurrence.

Through these years they somehow managed to shelter, feed and clothe this large family. The political and military upheaval notwithstanding, the family of Nathaniel and Lydia Leavitt had managed to thrive. But by 1784, when the Revolution was finally ended, conditions were very much changed.

The fifteen or twenty years before the Revolution were the golden years of ship building in Exeter. Despite the unrest, their timber-related businesses and the cultivation of their lands to sustain themselves would have provided well for Nathaniel and his family. But the War of the Revolution put a stop to all this activity (Bell, page 337).

For more than a hundred years, lumbering had been their primary means of support and now, at the end of the Revolution, the forests had been stripped of their finest timber. Moreover, the shipping industries were greatly diminished.

The land-granting of the first generation was a thing of the past. The large families had divided the inherited land, for three generations, and held them in the families, until there were no longer significant lands to inherit or purchase. Joseph Leavitt's will divides his holdings among his many children, all of them with large families. Nathaniel, Jonathan and Joseph each received 20 acres in Exeter and five shillings. The day of large inheritances had passed.

It seems reasonable that Nathaniel and Lydia would be prompted by existing circumstances. They were timber people and farmers. Their family was large, and Nathaniel could not have amassed sufficient properties that his children could hope to inherit means. The prudent thing to do was to move on to a place where there were land and timber still available.

The three eldest children were already settled before the move to Grantham. Joseph had married Sarah Cheney in 1781 and settled in Sanbornton. Lydia Leavitt married Samuel Shannon in 1778 and is recorded to have lived at Derry, New Hampshire. Moses married Ruth Leavitt in 1780 and settled in Sanbornton, where they lived the rest of their lives. Moses was elected to the State Senate from that district, later in his life confirming the fact of their continued residence there.

The history of Grantham New Hampshire (Dunbar, L. D., A History of Grantham New Hampshire, from History of Sullivan County New Hampshire), places the arrival in Grantham of Nathaniel Leavitt's large family in 1793. Family records indicate that it was earlier. The first Leavitt child whose birth is recorded in Grantham was Weare Leavitt, the first child of Jeremiah and Sarah Shannon Leavitt. The couple married in 1785 in Exeter. Their son was born in 1786, if records are correct, in Grantham. Though Jeremiah and Sarah Shannon Leavitt stayed in Grantham the shortest time of all the families, they may have been the first to go there.

The first-charter for the town of Grantham was dated 11 July 1761. Some difficulty over noncompliance voided that charter, and a second was granted in 1767. The town was subsequently called New Grantham until 1818, when it returned to the original name. Laid out in a six mile square, it is divided by Croyden Mountain, which ran midway through the town in a northerly southerly direction. The mountain made a natural division into east and west parts, with the center of town on the lop of the mountain. The east side of the mountain was settled later than the west side, the first being the settlement on Dunbar Hill of John Dunbar and Henry Howard.

that were built by the settlers, and an occasional cellar hole, if you are good at spotting them in the heavy growth. Or you may choose the easier way.

For the easier way, retrace your way back to Route 10 North. Turn left onto Route 10 and

travel north approximately four miles to Exit 14 of Interstate 89. DO NOT ENTER, but instead, continue on a road which lakes off Route 10 North just before it makes a right turn to go under Interstate 89. This road comes to a dead end in a short distance. Just before it does, in approximately 500 feet, turn left on the first road. It is a dirt road. Approximately 100 feet from the beginning of the dirt road you come to a gate. If the gate is open, you can drive to Leavitt Pond, and then walk into Leavitt Cemetery. It is best to park at the ridge and not drive all the way to Leavitt Pond if you are going to Leavitt Cemetery.

A trail has been cleared from this parking area to intersect Leavitt Hill Road. Continue walking up the hill on Leavitt Hill Road until you come to a trail that has been cleared on the left. Follow that trail from Leavitt Hill Road to the Leavitt Cemetery, Approximately 150 feet. The cemetery is surrounded by very old stone walls. The hike from the parking will be about 15 minutes of continuous walk.

If the gate at the beginning of the dirt road is locked, you can walk the approximately one mile in about 45 minutes. Our access to this road and the hill is a courtesy granted to us by Mr. Bill Ruger, Jr. of Stearn-Ruger.

Directions to Leavitt Hill Road, Leavitt Pond

and Leavitt Cemetery

The main highway that runs north and south through the map is Interstate 89. The road that runs parallel is Route 10 North. Travel North on Interstate 89 to Exit off-ramp 13, Grantham, New Hampshire. Turn right onto Route 10 North. Continue on Route 10 North for approximately 5 miles. You will come to a sign that reads: "Miller Pond Road." Turn left and the road will take you under the Interstate 89 in just a few hundred feet. After crossing under the interstate, turn right off Miller Pond Road and you are at the beginning of Leavitt Hill Road. Just a little further on the left, mounted on a stone outcropping; a plaque is placed designating Leavitt Hill Road.

To reach Leavitt Pond or Leavitt Cemetery you may hike up Leavitt Hill Road for one and a half to two miles, a moderately taxing hike. On either side of the trail you will see the stone walls Leavitt Hill settlement by Nathaniel Leavitt and his families came next. In 1793 Leavitt Hill was settled by Nathaniel Leavitt, who came from Exeter, New Hampshire. He had eight sons and two daughters; all settled in the same neighborhood.... The Leavitt families were very large, and at one time there were nearly fifty of them who attended the school on Leavitt Hill. Seventeen of the Leavitts were school teachers, three were physicians, and one, William B. a professor of practical astronomy. Almon O. Leavitt was a surgeon in the U.S. Navy during the last war (Civil War), Nathaniel Leavitt died at the age of ninety-three (Dunbar, pages 2-6).

Grantham, at one time, had ten school districts. Families and neighborhoods established their own schools, providing both the students and the teachers themselves. The school on Leavitt Hill was evidently established and staffed by the Leavitt family and their neighbors (Howard, Amah R., Town Of Grantham New Hampshire. Bicentennial Committee 1967).

The first settlers of Grantham were an intelligent, industrious and enterprising class of people, and they left many worthy descendants; the town has ever been noted for the sobriety and morality of its people. The people of the town being noted first for their sobriety and law-abiding character, no lawyer deemed it wise to locate in the town until 1882, when one came and stayed only a few weeks, left, and has not been heard of in these parts since. Sawmills have been numerous and immense quantities have been cut and drawn from town. Much of the soil of the town is good but in parts rough and uneven (Dunbar, page 7).

The Leavitt families would have been part of cutting and drawing out the timber, for they had for generations made their living from the New England forest resources, so appreciated by Chrisopher Levett 200 years earlier, A note in Amah Howard's small history suggests that by 1872 the town had six mills and claimed to saw more lumber than any other town in the county. These six mills had a capital of $15,000. They employed 26 men and had a payroll of $6,000 annually and sawed timber valued at $26,000.

The mills were owned by the family Leavitt, a Mr. Burpee, Cobb and Cheney, Alexander, Clark and Smith (Howard). Gradually, the settlement moved from the mountaintop to the valley, where it is today. But

the Leavitt family lived on Leavitt Hill until long after most people had moved into the valley below.

Today, the year 2000, remnants of their stone walls are still visible on either side of the shadowed trail, as one walks up Leavitt Hill Road. Overgrown cellar holes and some foundations are identifiable by those who know how to spot them. It is easy to imagine Nathaniel and his families, clearing the trees and stones, making the walls and breaking up the rough and uneven ground to plant. In the mind's eye, one sees the cutting of the tall hardwood trees to fashion houses and furnishings, putting into use their lumbering knowledge.

Grantham's first meeting house was built in 1826 on Dunbar Hill. Previous to this time, meetings and church were held in houses, school houses and barns. Although the town was only a few years old at the time of the Revolution, it was called upon to furnish men for the Continental Army and to furnish beef to feed the army.

In the early days when money was scarce, the town voted to pay their selectmen in produce for their services. For two or three years it was voted to raise 50 bushels of wheat to pay town expenses.

Grantham did her share in providing soldiers for the country. She provided eight men for the War of 1812. One of those was Nathaniel and Lydia's son John. For the Civil War Grantham contributed 64 men. Young Charles Leavitt was one of those who died in the Civil War strife (Howard, pages 2-3).

Nathaniel Leavitt died 24 February 1824 in Grantham. He was 97 years old. Lydia Sanborn Leavitt died three years later, 30 October 1827. She was 90. Their lives had spanned almost a century. And what a significant century it had been. They had been colonists and pioneers. They had endured economic challenges and the tribulations of several wars. They were, in every sense, builders of the nation.

Grantham, New Hampshire

Nathaniel II married Abigail Sanborn of Sanbornton in 1788. By 1794, when they came to Grantham, they brought with them five children. Six more were born to them in Grantham. (From Grantham Town Records.) Dudley, who would live out his long life on Leavitt Hill in Grantham, had married Hannah Prescott in 1790, and their first child was born in November, 1791 in Grantham. Subsequently they had nine girls and five boys all living on Leavitt Hill.

John, Nathaniel and Lydia's sixth son and seventh child, who may have been the first to permanently settle in Grantham, had significant trials there. He married Mehitable Ring, and six children were born to them, the last in 1806. In 1807 Mehitable died. John married Susanna Burnham Story, a widow, in 1808 and their five children were born on Leavitt Hill. Susanna died in 1839. In 1840 he married Rachel D. Bliss Martin, also a widow. She died in 1853. John fought in the war of 1812. He died in 1854. 

Josiah, Jonathan, Hannah and Mary were all of marriageable age when the larger family exodus to Grantham occurred. Josiah soon married Alice Batchelder, a Grantham girl. They remained there for the rest of their lives and reared six children. Jonathan married Rebecca Ring, and their first eight children were born in Grantham. They emigrated to Quebec, Canada, and their ninth child was born there. Then, for some reason, their tenth and eleventh children were born in Grantham again. But it was the posterity of Jonathan Leavitt who would remain in Hatley.

Hannah died in Grantham at age 63, never having married. Mary married James Gould Frye, and they reared their ten children all in Deerfield. It is possible they lived on the property left behind when the Nathaniel Leavitt family became pioneers at Grantham.

It is quite certain that sometime before 1793, they were settled there, clearing the timber from the heavily wooded hillsides, defining their cleared fields with the stone walls built from the granite stones that must also be cleared before the plow could break the soil.