Lorena Bell Fuller

LORENA BELL FULLER-LEONARD

HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION PHOTO

PORTLAND HIGH SCHOOL (1936)

(1917-1994)

My Nana, Rena Fuller, was a very kind lady who lived a hard life.  Born in Bangor in 1917 to Arthur Fuller & Lorena Murch, she lived in Portland most of her life.  In high school she enjoyed being a member of the Glee Club, and her senior quote in the yearbook was quite telling of her personality: 

"Dare to do your duty always".

At PHS, she met my grandfather, Thomas Edward Leonard, with whom she was a member of the Glee Club.  Their romance bloomed quickly for a time, as shown from these pictures:

Upon her graduation, in May of 1936, they went to Portsmouth for a quick and easy marriage (Nana was already two months pregnant with my father, who was named after him, Thomas Edward Leonard).  Tom fibbed on the marriage record and claimed to be 21, when he was actually 19. 

Below is a photo of Nana with her mother Lorena, and her brother Harold (and his first wife Virginia), around 1934, just prior to Nana's marriage to Tom.

LORENA BELL FULLER

LORENA HOLLAND MURCH-FULLER

VIRGINIA AUGER-FULLER

HAROLD FULLER

My grandparents' marriage was short-lived (not even 3 years).  In Portland, they lived at 99 Forest Avenue, 21 Spruce Street, and then 94 State Street, where Tom ran a ham radio operation out of his house.  Nana filed for divorce based on desertion in March of 1939, after Tom had joined the Navy, remarrying to another classmate Barbara Connell in 1942.  He and Barbara had been seeing each other all through Tom's marriage to Nana.  

After the divorce, Nana and her three kids moved in with her parents (Lorena and Arthur) to 102 Forest Avenue (1940 Census), and around 1941 she moved into an apartment at 13 West Presumpscot Street (left side second floor in the picture below), where she resided until 1958.

13 WEST PRESUMPSCOT STREET
PORTLAND, MAINE

My dad's sister Charlotte explained to me that an upright piano had to be brought in to the middle floor on the left, at some point in the 40s.  My father had piano lessons on that for years, but he didn't enjoy them.  When my dad's other sister Honey broke her arm, Nana couldn't afford the doctor's bill, so she had to sell it to pay the doctor’s bill and they took the piano out through the window with a crane.  It was a shame because Nana's mother Lorena played piano beautifully and it broke her heart to give it up, but they had no other object of value.  Back at that time the house was painted yellow, and the paint was all peeling.  "The sidewalk was a dirt sidewalk, and there were no pretty bushes out front.  It was called a “cold-water flat”…..  meaning there was no furnace.  There was a coal-burning stove in the LR and a big black cook stove in the kitchen that burned oil, but the BRs were unheated, and they were very cold!  When we lived there, there were porches on the back, but the last time I was home I saw that they had been taken down and the apple tree I used to climb was gone.  Up the street was the abattoir and down the street was the city dump, and when I got older I was ashamed of where I lived.  Our apartment (the rent was $20/mth) was on the left."

In the backyard of the house, you can see below, my Aunt Honey playing in the snow (early 1940s), and the Washington Avenue Methodist Church in the background.  This church is still there, but the steeple on the right was eventually torn down and the church now serves the Korean community in Portland.

Several years after the divorce, in fact, just after Charlotte's graduation from high school in 1956, Nana stopped the car with all three kids inside, right on Tookey's Bridge overlooking Back Cove in Portland, took off her wedding ring, and threw it over the side.  My father was angry at his mother for doing that, as he had his eye on that ring for a potential future bride of his own.

Nana worked as a secretary at Hannaford in their South Portland offices, back when Hannaford was a distribution company and before they bought out the Shop N Save grocery store chain.  She kept her married name all her life.  She raised her three kids (Thomas, Honey & Charlotte-named after her lifetime best friend Charlotte Hall) on Presumpscot Street in Portland, and in 1958 she started moving around quite a bit for the next few years: 89 Sherwood Street,  127 Grant Street, 51 Park Street, and then Neal Street in 1970.

Charlotte Hall also introduced Nana to a gentleman named Clem Pratt, with whom Charlotte worked.  My aunt Charlotte, for whom she was named, reminisces here:

"Clem was a wonderful man that worked with Charlotte Hall at Edwards & Walker near Monument Square, and I guess he would have been willing to marry my mom and take on all 3 of us kids, but that never happened.  He would stay with us so that my mother and grandmother could go to the PTA meetings, and he always came to Sunday dinner after church.  He bought us so many things (bikes, mattresses for our beds, etc.) and whenever he would come back from a trip (always by train) he would bring us each a souvenir.  It was during the War and we, like most people, had a "Victory Garden" at Payson Park.  We grew vegetables (so many things were rationed then, and a family only received just so many coupons for different foods) and Clem would help to plant and weed.  Clem had a car which he left with my mother to use so that she could pick my grandmother up after work at Watkins Cleaners.  For some reason she always parked around the corner to wait for her so that no one my grandmother worked with would see that we had a car.  Clem eventually married a woman he met many years later when he was in a nursing home."

From 1972 to 1982, Nana and her mother Lorena moved to a trailer park in Saco, at 28 Meserve Circle, and this is where I remember visiting them with my father.  They had a golden retriever dog named Ginger who I enjoyed playing with.

In the mid 80s, Nana moved to Gray (145 Yarmouth Road), around the corner from my Aunt Honey's house.

Nana's mother Lorena had moved in with her after Nana's father Arthur passed in 1940.  Nana took care of her for 50 years, until Lorena died in 1990 of dementia.  Nana died four years later in a nursing home on Baxter Boulevard in Portland.  She had caught pneumonia, but also also of a pulmonary blockage caused by choking on her lunch, while strapped to a chair in the hallway.  A very sad ending to a life filled with sacrifice.  RIP Nana, you were cherished by your children and grandchildren for your lively and loving personality and sense of humor.  I can still smell her perfume, and hear her say "Jeekers!"

LORENA & HER MOTHER LORENA

(ABOUT 1950)

Here's a picture of Nana holding me!

Below is the gravesite of Nana:

Below is her pedigree chart.  She was 6% German (through her 2nd Great Grandfather, Daniel Hollien), about 12% Scottish (accumulated royal blood through ancestors Mary Bean, John Jameson, and Jane Bell), less than 2% French (through the Sibley line) and the remainder 82% was English colonial.  Her ancestor Benjamin Burrill was a descendant of Mayflower passengers John Alden, Rebecca Mullins, William Mullins & Alice Atwood. Her ancestor John Fuller was a descendant of Mayflower passengers Edward Fuller and his wife.  Her ancestor Celia Cook was a descendant of Mayflower passengers Francis Cooke, Stephen Hopkins, Elizabeth Fisher and Constance Hopkins.  That's ten Mayflower passengers total for Nana.  Additionally, her ancestor, Susannah Martin, was hanged in the Salem Witch Trials, and accused by Ann Putnam, granddaughter to Thomas Putnam, yet another ancestor of Nana.  Finally, her ancestor John Jameson descended from the renowned Jameson Clan of Scotland, who fought in the Revolution and were among the first settlers of the early Maine towns of Cape Elizabeth, Rockland and Friendship.  This line also connects her to the Leonard Forge of Raynham Massachusetts, family of which are the ancestors of Celia Cook shown below.

Royal English Roots (Fuller/Bean and Murch)

As discussed in another post, The MacBeans of Scotland feature prominently in the ancestry of Samuel Bean Fuller. 

The New Hampshire Bean line connects to the Scottish Sinclair and Sutherland lines as well.  Samuel Bean Fuller's great grandfather was David Bean, Sr. of Brentwood NH (who died in Sandwich NH).  David's mother was Martha Sinkler, whose grandfather, John Sinkler (1630-1700) was an immigrant from Scotland to NH during the English Civil War.

Supposedly, John Sinkler connects directly to John of Gaunt from the Plantagenet line (still looking to confirm this).

This line is well established and connects through several royal lines, from the Anglo-Saxon Kings (from 839-1016 AD), to the Norman Invasion rulers (including William the Conqueror himself and through to 1135), to the Plantagenet Dynasty (ending at 1377 with the reign of Edward III).

For the sake of brevity, here is a list of the rulers that are potentially ancestors to Samuel Bean Fuller, through the Beans, but are definitely confirmed ancestors to my Murch family, through the Taunton Leonard connection:




ANGLO-SAXON WARRIORS
ANGLO-SAXON KINGS:
Aethelwulf of Essex
Aethelred I
Alfred the Great
Edward the Elder
Edmund I
Edgar
Aethelred the Unready
Edmund II




NORMAN INVASION
NORMAN INVASION RULERS:
William the Conqueror
Henry I




PLANTAGENET FAMILY CREST
King Fulk of Jerusalem
his son, Geoffrey (founder of Plantagenet Dynasty)
Queen Matilda
Henry II
John
Henry III
Edward I
Edward II
Edward III
John of Gaunt (protector of his nephew, King Richard II)





WELSH ROYALTY



LLEWELYN THE GREAT
Llewelyn ruled as Prince of Wales from 1200-1240. He ruled during the time of King John of England (another ancestor), and had many skirmishes with him over Welsh lands.






LADY GODIVA
(1040-1080)
Lady Godiva is another famous ancestor of Arthur Fuller.

According to the popular story, Lady Godiva took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband's oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would strip naked and ride through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word and, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should keep within doors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Only one person in the town, a tailor ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism. In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass, and is struck blind. In the end, Godiva's husband keeps his word and abolishes the onerous taxes.

I just hope that none of the crazy Tea Baggers ever follow her example...

Royal English Roots (Murch)

My gram, Lorena Holland Murch had a few royal roots, though not nearly as many as her husband Arthur:


LORD RICHARD RICH
(1496-1567)
Richard Rich, Lord Chancelor of England during Edward IV’s reign, was the great grandson of Richard Rich, Sherriff of London. In the 1966 film, A Man for All Seasons, he was played by John Hurt. The Rich’s are direct ancestors of my great grandmother Lorena Murch Fuller.  Lord Richard Rich is also a 5th generation ancestor to Susannah North Martin, who was hanged during the Salem Witch Trials.

My gram also descends from the Welsh Leonard line from Taunton Massachusetts, who started up the Leonard Forge there.  They descend directly from John of Gaunt, son to Edward III of the Plantagenet line, and more info about this connection can be read here.  

The Hollands of Central Maine

My 4th great grandparents were Daniel Friedrich Holland (born about 1790), a Prussian sailor, and his wife Jane Bell (1789-1873) from Nova Scotia.  According to some researchers, his birth name in Prussia was Hollien, and turned to Holland when he emigrated to Nova Scotia.  Daniel married Jane Bell while living in Canso, Nova Scotia, in 1808.

Daniel and Jane migrated to Monmouth Maine around 1809, where they started their family.  They later moved to Jay, Plymouth, Brunswick, Bangor, Hampden, then Dover.

Below is a brief summary of collected information about each of their children:

1.  Daniel Frederick Holland Jr. (1810-1906) was born in Wales, Maine, January of 1810.  I cannot find any record of this small family of three living in Maine for the census later that year.  Daniel married Mary A. Finson and had six daughters.  He lived most of his life in Hampden Maine, and worked as a farmer and a cooper.  It's also possible that he worked as a seaman like his father (given the mention of two seaman in the family during the 1840 census of Jay).  As for his family: of his 5 surviving children, 4 of them lived with him for each census until his death at the turn of the century.  None of them ever got married.   Just before their parents' deaths they all moved together to Brookline, Massachusetts, on Davis Avenue.  Daniel died of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home on 8 Parkdrive Terrace, Brookline in 1906, and was buried at Riverview Cemetery in Hampden (gravestone below).  On his death record, he states his mother was born in Scotland...

DANIEL FREDERICK HOLLAND JR.
MARY A. FINSON-HOLLAND
CA. 1890

2. Marie Wurttemberg Holland (1812-??) was born in Jay, and her middle name provides evidence of the connection to the Duchy of Wurttemberg, Germany, home of Daniel's mother, and possibly Jane's mother too. I cannot find any records at all on her. The above was oral history provided by a Holland researcher.

3.  John Christopher Holland (1814-1899) was born in Jay and raised in Hampden, and was my 3rd great grandfather.  He was listed as head of household for the 1840 census of Bangor, wherein two members of the family were 'employed in the Navigation of the Ocean', which would be his father, and likely also his brother Daniel.  John married Dorcas Harvey of Atkinson, and had two daughters, Isabel (who died as a baby), and my 2nd great grandmother, Rosa Bell Holland, who married Charles Murch of Rockland and Unity, Maine.  John started out working on the family farm in Hampden, but later worked as a sawmill laborer.  He died in Hampden of heart disease.

4.  Sarah Jane Holland (1816-1883) was born in Jay and raised in Hampden, and married Colonel Oliver Kennard Nason, Civil War patriot from Limington Maine.  They moved to Levant, and later settled in Kenduskeag.  They had six children.

5.  Hannah Holland (1819-??) was born in Jay, raised in Hampden, and married John Griffin in Portland.  They had four children there.  Hannah moved back to Hampden for the 1850 census, and was boarding her brother Moody.  I cannot figure out what happened to her or her four children after that.

6.  Isabel Holland (1819-??) born in Jay, and possible twin sister to Hannah.  No records, so she may have died young.

7.  Margaret Holland (1820-1907) born in Jay, raised in Hampden.  She married her first cousin, Alexander Bell of Dover.  Alexander's father was Henry Bell (brother to Jane).  They had three children, descendants of which are still living in the Dover area today.

8.  Mary Ann Gardner Holland (1825-1895) born in Plymouth.  She was a Civil War nurse who wrote a book called "Our Army Nurses", published in 1895.  In the book she mentions her nephew, William K. Nason, son of Sarah Jane Holland and Oliver K. Nason.  Mary Ann died single in Somerville, Mass of scirrhus cancer at her home on 17 Grove Street, and she's buried at Holy Cross Cemetery.  On her death record it states that her mother's birthplace was Jay, Maine, which was an error.  Mary Ann cared for her mother Jane until Jane's death.  Per Wikipedia, and according to Holland's account, she worked in hospitals for about fourteen months. She would have enlisted earlier, she writes, if she didn't have an aging mother depending upon her.  Ultimately, Holland cared for her mother during the day then worked with the Sanitary Commission on weekday evenings.

9.  Nelson Holland (1825-1826) born in Plymouth, possible twin to Mary Ann.  Died young.

10.  William Moody Holland (1830-1865) born in Plymouth or Brunswick, grew up in Hampden.  He married Sarah Jackson of Rockland, and had one child, George Henry Holland (1860-1939) (who also became a sailor and later moved to Massachusetts and had six children).  William died at sea near St. George, Maine, of yellow fever during the Civil War, so young George was raised by his grandfather, George Jackson in Belfast, Maine (not sure whatever became of Sarah..).  Moody's death record lists his mother as "Mary Jane"...not just Jane.

11.  George Nelson Holland (1833-1923) born in Brunswick, remained in Hampden all his life. He and his wife Lydia had three daughters:  Mabel, Clara and Nellie.  He worked as a gardner, but also fought very briefly in the Army during the end of the Civil War, as part of the 19th Maine Regiment.  He stayed in Togus Hospital for almost a full year from 1919 to 1920, due to hardening of the arteries at age 86, just a few years before his death.

I cannot find the Holland family in the 1810 censuses of either Monmouth or Jay, so it's likely they lived somewhere else just after Daniel Jr. was born.  I did find Daniel's family in Jay for the 1820 Census (under Daniel Holand) and 1830 Census (under "Daniel Hollin").  The 1840 Census shows the whole family living in Bangor, with John being the head of household, but with two elders living with him who were his parents' ages, and two people were listed as being 'employed in the Navigation of the Ocean'.  That would be Daniel Sr., and also Daniel Jr., I believe.  The two of them may have been out to sea at the time of the census, leaving John the head of household, as the eldest son.  I believe Daniel Sr. died sometime afterward in the Bangor area, but the Bangor archives have nothing on his death from 1800-1892.

During the 1850 Census, Jane was living with Daniel Jr. on the farm in Hampden, next door to her son John and his family, and also next door to her daughter Hannah Holland-Griffin's family, who were taking Jane's three youngest children as lodgers (then ages 17-25).  Hannah's children were all born in Portland, but for some reason she moved back to Hampden with the kids (and without her husband John).  

By the 1860 Census, she was head of household at a home in Dover, Maine, along with her daughter, Margaret Holland-Bell and family.

I took a trip to Riverview Cemetery, aka East Hampden Cemetery, in Hampden Maine, and snapped some photos of the gravestones of Daniel Jr., John, and their families:

Below is a pedigree chart for Rosa Bell Holland.  She was 50% colonial English, 25% German, and 25% Scottish.

Other Colonists (Murch)

A few other notable colonists who are ancestors of Charles Murch:



SKETCH OF JAMESTOWN (1608)
John Price (1584-1628)

John Price, a Welshman, arrived in Jamestown on the ship Starr in 1611. His son Matthew followed him on the ship George in 1635. Matthew’s daughter, Sarah, was born in Virginia, but later migrated to Maine, where she met and married William Jameson from Scotland.


John Tisdale (1614-1675)
Sarah Walker Tisdale (1618-1676)

Sarah Walker came over from England on the ship Elizabeth in 1635, as a servant. Four years after she arrived in Massachusetts, she married into the noble Tisdale family. Her husband John was a victim of an assault by Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower (also an ancestor), and later became constable of Taunton. He was killed by Indians in King Phillip’s War. The Indians stole his gun, and when the gun was later recovered, it was used as evidence against the three Indians, who were then sold into slavery and removed from the country.


Richard Higgins (1603-1675)
Nicholas Snow (1599-1676)

Two of Charles Murch’s ancestors, English Richard Higgins & Nicholas Snow, were founding members of the Town of Eastham, Massachusetts in the 1640’s. Eastham is the site of first encounter, where the Mayflower pilgrims first landed and had contact with the Nauset Indians, before deciding to move up the coast to Plymouth to settle. While Richard and Nicholas were not on board the Mayflower, they arrived a couple years afterward on the ship Anne. Richard’s daughter ended up marrying Nicholas’ son. Nicholas married Constance Hopkins, daughter of Stephen Hopkins of the Mayflower. Plaques dedicated to both these Pilgrims are on display as monuments in Eastham Town Hall.


MONUMENT TO FIRST ENCOUNTER
Eastham, Massachusetts

FIRST ENCOUNTER BEACH
Eastham, Massachusetts

Elizabeth Hull (1628-1706)

Another of Charles Murch’s ancestors, English born Elizabeth Hull, who arrived in the New World in 1635, had several personal run-ins with the Indians. One particular story I discovered is where she apparently hid a young Indian in her home (where she and her husband John Heard raised their 15 kids) in Dover, New Hampshire, protecting him from slaughter by her neighbors during the 1676 Massacre, and then aided his escape afterwards. Then in 1688, she ended up a captive of the Indians, and was enabled to escape unharmed by the aid of the same Indian she protected 12 years prior.

Her father, Reverend Joseph Hull (a Cambridge graduate) traveled to the New World with her, and his other children. When they arrived in Boston, they settled in an area that he helped name Weymouth, Massachusetts. In 1639, he and his family moved to the Indian area of “Mattakeese”, and he called the town Barnstable, Massachusetts. He used to preach from a rock to the masses of settlers, many of them armed and ready for battle with the Indians, and also with the Puritans, who didn’t like his style of preaching, as it was too Anglican. The rock is still there, surrounded by the highway. Due to the Civil War in England, there was a dearth of immigration in 1639, and he found himself in a religious minority. He moved north to an Episcopal Colony in what is now York, Maine. But in 1653, Massachusetts took Maine under its jurisdiction, and Hull’s religion was once again under threat. He ended up going back to England for a while, but he eventually came back to York, where he died in 1665.

Mayflower Ancestors (Murch)

THE MAYFLOWER
There are two established Mayflower links to Charles Murch, my father's maternal great grandfather. They are passengers Stephen Hopkins and Francis Cooke.


STEPHEN HOPKINS OF THE MAYFLOWER
Stephen Hopkins (1581-1644) was a “stranger” from the Mayflower, which was a term given to the passengers who were NOT escaping religious persecution, but were heading to the New World for personal reasons. Hopkins and his family were recruited as planters and he was viewed to be a potential governor of the New World. Upon arrival in Plymouth, Hopkins was elected the first Mayor of Plymouth, and an ambassador to Indian relations, due to his experience in Jamestown.


BERMUDA COAT OF ARMS
(containing image of shipwreck)
Hopkins had earlier sailed to Jamestown on the Sea Venture, an ill-fated voyage that wound up shipwrecked on the shore of Bermuda, marking the first English arrival for that island. He was the force behind a mutiny that thought the authority of the Governor ceased when the ship was wrecked. He was sentenced to death, but pardoned. The story of this voyage inspired Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. Hopkins and the other castaways later fashioned two new ships with Bermuda driftwood and the remains of the shipwreck, and sailed to Jamestown, where he lived for two years before returning to England.

While in Plymouth, Hopkins ran afoul of the law several times, for assault, for not properly regulating other people’s alcohol intake, and for overpricing sales of alcohol to others.

Hopkins was respected for his previous experience with Indians and was elected ambassador for native relations. When Squanto arrived in Plymouth he resided with the Hopkins family. In 1621 Hopkins, Edward Winslow and William Bradford were delegated by their associates to treat with the Indians in the Plymouth vicinity on behalf of the Pilgrims and succeeded in winning the friendship of Chief Massasoit (1580-1661), concluding a peace treaty on 22 March 1621 in the Hopkins home. He later served in the Pequot War of 1637.

He died between 6 June 1644, when his will was made, and 17 July 1644, when the inventory of his estate was taken.


REPLICA OF HOPKINS HOME IN PLYMOUTH
Hopkins’ daughter, Constance, through his first wife Mary (who died prior to the Mayflower voyage), married Nicholas Snow. They are one pair of ancestors of Charles Murch.

GRAVE OF CONSTANCE HOPKINS-SNOW
EASTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS

Hopkins’ 2nd wife, Elizabeth Fisher, had many children prior to the voyage, one on the voyage, and several in Plymouth. Their daughter, Damaris Hopkins, who was one of the first children born in Plymouth Colony, married Jacob Cooke (son of Mayflower passenger Francis Cooke), establishing the second Mayflower link to Charles Murch.


LEIDEN SEPARATISTS ON THE SPEEDWELL
Francis Cooke (1583-1663) sailed on the Mayflower like the others, but was one of the English puritans who were living in Leiden, Netherlands to escape religious persecution, before coming back to England on the Speedwell in time to make the Mayflower voyage.  He and his oldest son, John made the voyage together, leaving behind the rest of the family in Leiden until they could be sent for later on the Anne in 1623.

In addition to his work as the first surveyor if Plymouth, Francis was active in Plymouth civil affairs in the 1630s and 40s - committees to lay out land grants and highways, petit jury, grand jury, coroner's jury. He appears on the 1643 Plymouth list of those able to bear arms. At some point in 1638 or afterward, he settled at Rocky Nook on Jones River, within the limits of Kingston, a few miles from Plymouth. He died at age 80. As mentioned above, Jacob married Damaris Hopkins.



PLYMOUTH LAND LAYOUT
Above is an image of how the first land layout was drawn for each settler. Cooke and Hopkins are shown, as well as Snow (who came over on the Anne, and married Hopkins' daughter Constance). Also showing are Fuller and Alden, ancestors of Arthur Fuller.

The Murch Family of Maine

The Murch name appears after the Norman Conquest of England, 1066. It derives from the name March, which was believed to be a name given to those born in that month. It was also a name given to English people that lived on the borders of Wales and Scotland, as in "the Marches".

The furthest back I've been able to trace my family's Murch line is to fisherman Walter Murch (1681-1730) and Deborah Cornish of Devon, England, who emigrated to York Maine around 1714.  

There does appear to be an old record of land transactions (according to Virginia Spiller of the Old York Historical Society), whereby a Walter Murch received a grant of 20 acres clear on Mar. 8, 1715. He received a grant of 10 acres of swamp clear on Mar. 13, 1715 (where the recorder could find it clear of all former grants).  Therefore, Virginia Spiller thinks that Walter Murch evidently came to York ca. 1714, which was the third migration to York. This seems to be the same Walter Murch of Devon.

Walter's son William Murch, in 1747, was captured at his farm by local Indians and brought to Canada, where he was kept for a year.

William Murch married Tabitha Young, and had their own son, named Walter Murch (1740-1794) after his father. 

NOTE:  There are a number of trees on Ancestry which show this Walter (born 1740) to be son of Walter Murch (1696-1760) and Rebecca Garland, and that this Walter was also son to Walter Murch (1681-1730) and Deborah Cornish of Devon, and finally that this elder Walter is son to John Murch born 1650.  None of this is backed up with records, however, yet the trees persist.  We may never learn the parentage of Walter Murch of Devon, but we do know that Walter (born 1740) is the son of William and Tabitha of York Maine (not Walter and Rebecca).

In 1757 Walter and his brother John bought property in Gorham, and relocated there (joined later by other family) and that's where Walter married Jerusha Brown of Biddeford Maine, who was a descendant of the Edward III Plantagenet line.  When Walter was 20 years old, around 1760, he got into an accident and had to have his leg amputated.  He was said to have a wooden leg the rest of his life.  He was unable to serve in the Revolutionary War due to his disability, but he reputedly did serve as a Gorham town official.  Walter and Jerusha sold the Gorham property in 1804 and moved to Unity to live with their son Simeon.  They are reportedly buried somewhere in an apple orchard on Albion Road in Unity, behind a brick house built by Simeon.

Walter's son Ephraim (1778-1848) was my 4th great grandfather, and an early settler of Hampden Maine in 1794.  His wife was Rebecca Cobb.  They moved in the early 1800s to Castine.  They are buried at Castine's Town Cemetery.

Ephraim made the list of people who had letters waiting for them for several months in 1811:

Castine Eagle
Nov 7, 1811

My third great grandfather, James Murch (1817-1851), was a seaman (according to his son George's death record).  James' was born in Castine on October 14, 1817 to Ephraim and Rebecca Murch.  

Marriage Notice
James Murch and Mary Ann Jameson
Portland Daily Advertiser
Feb 9, 1841

In 1841, James married Mary Ann Jameson (daughter to cousins Celia Cook and John Jameson of the Cooke Mayflower line, and herself also a descendant of the Taunton Leonards and Edward III Plantagenet) and settled in Rockland (then part of Thomaston) with much of the Jameson clan of Scotch-Irish background.   A notice of their marriage, which was published in the Thomaston Recorder newspaper on January 28, 1841, reads as follows:

Marriages…In St. George by N. Liscomb, Esq., Mr. James Murch to Miss Mary A. Jameson, daughter of Captain John Jameson of S[t. George].  With the above we received a piece of the bride’s cake.  We are glad to record the names of those under this head, in whose minds the good old fashion of remembering the printer, is not entirely oblite [sic].  May their paths through life be strewed with flowers as sweet as their cake.

(Many thanks to Dana Murch for the assistance in digging for this and other records).

Death Notice
James Murch, age 36 (actually 34)
Portland Daily Advertiser
Dec 23, 1851

By Christmas of 1851, James had died in Montville at the young age of 34, leaving Mary Ann a widow with five kids (aged 1-10) at her home on Tea Street in Rockland, which she had acquired in fee as a widow via Knox County Deed 19/502 recorded April 24, 1868.  I have been unable to find a burial location for James or Mary Ann.  

James and Mary Ann's five children:

1.  Charles A. Murch (1841-1913) - (My 2nd Great Grandfather) - more on him below.

2.  George Washington Murch (1843-1920) - George fought in the 14th Maine Regiment Infantry in the Civil War, married twice, and had one daughter (Georgia Anna).

3. Andrew James Murch (1846-1893) - Andrew fought in the 14th Regiment alongside his brother George, and later moved to Weare, NH with his wife Irene.

4.  Amariah "George" Murch (1847-1882) -  After James died, Mary Ann gave him up for adoption, looks like first to her brother-in-law's brother-in-law, Abiezer Coombs of Isleboro (an island 20 miles northeast of Mary Ann's home in Rockland), per July 4, 1860 Census, and then later that month, for July 29, 1860 Census, he was living with his uncle Lewis Murch like his sister Ruby, and was going by "George A. Murch", son of Lewis.  He married Lottie Pearson, sister to his brother-in-law, George Pearson.  George Amariah Murch reportedly died at sea.

5. Ruby "Annette" Murch-Pearson (1849-1932) - Mary Ann gave her up for adoption to James' brother Lewis Cobb Murch (and his wife, Lois Coombs), to raise as his own.   Charles' obituary makes reference to his sister anyhow.  This tells me that it was not a family secret.

Charles A. Murch, born in Rockland in 1841 (then part of Thomaston).  His middle name is reputed to have been "Arthur", according to family lore, but no records appear to support that.  At the time of his father James's death, Charles went to live and work on the Vickery Farm in Unity, Maine.  He joined the 14th Maine Regiment of the Civil War effort in January of 1862, just as his brothers did (George Washington Murch and Andrew J. Murch).

Charles caught the measles immediately after joining the service, and was discharged three months later.  He battled the side effects of this disease for the rest of his life, losing some of his sight and hearing.

SIGNATURE FROM PENSION RECORD

DECEMBER 7, 1894

Charles married Rosa Bell Holland in 1871.  According to oral history of Joyce Fuller Norton, Charles and Rosa were both from wealthy backgrounds. After marriage, they moved to Salem, Massachusetts for several years, where Charles got a job with the railroad. They happened to be living there during the founding of the Christian Scientist movement in 1879, and became avid followers, and refused to ever see a doctor, as that was a violation of their new religion. They relocated to East Hampden in the late 19th Century, and in 1893 they had two children.  The eldest, Almeda F. Murch, died before her second birthday.  The youngest, my great grandmother, Lorena Holland Murch (born Louisa), who, at 16 years of age, married Arthur Fuller.

ROSA BELL HOLLAND-MURCH

CHARLES ARTHUR MURCH

LORENA HOLLAND MURCH-FULLER

(ca. 1910)

From oral history of Joyce Fuller Norton, Charles and Rosa Murch were the only family in the Hampden/Bangor area that could afford a horse and buggy.

In his later years, Charles worked as a laborer (1900 Census), and a laborer at odd jobs (1910 Census).  In his 1913 death record he was called a mechanic.  His extensive pension file paints a picture of a man who had a lung disease, weak eyes, and other aliments - and we know that he had consistently refused medical treatment for any of it, as per the orders of Christian Science.  According to my father he was also a "horse trader".

The oral history which paints the family as being of some means does conflict a bit with the pension records and lack of work available for Charles, which would indicate that they struggled to some extent.

Obituary of Charles A. Murch
Bangor Daily News
13 Dec 1913

In the late autumn of 1913, at the age of 72, Charles was found dead "sitting on his jigger" as per the above obituary.  Three days after his death, Rosa signed an affidavit as part of her application for a widow's pension, in which she stated that "the soldier was found dead on a lumber wagon in Stearns Lumber Company mill yard in East Hampden Maine."

Another one of Charles Murch's ancestors, Alice Carpenter Southworth, came from England on the ship Anne, in 1623, after her husband died in England. She and her husband were both part of the Puritan movement in Leyden, Holland. Their son, Constant, later moved to Plymouth and is a direct ancestor to Charles Murch. Alice, on the other hand, later in Plymouth, became a second wife to Governor William Bradford of the Mayflower.

Below is grave of Charles, in East Hampden's "Riverview" Cemetery.  Buried with Charles are his wife Rosa Bell, baby daughter Almeda, son-in-law Arthur Fuller (although not named on stone).  Nearby in the same cemetery are buried Rosa Bell's family, The Hollands, including her sister, parents, and uncle Daniel's family (and potentially more unmarked graves)

Below is pedigree chart for Charles.  He was 12.5% Scottish, through the famous Jameson and McLellan lines, and 87.5% colonial English, and descendant of three Mayflower passengers as well.  His ancestor James Cooke was a descendant of Mayflower passengers Francis Cooke, Stephen Hopkins and Elizabeth Fisher.

SOURCES:

Royal Descents of the Murch Family by Dana Paul Murch, 2013.

Oral History by Joyce Fuller Norton, Mark Fuller and Joel Fuller

Ancestry Family Trees

East Hampden Town Records

Maine Death Records

U.S. Pension Records

Genealogy Bank

Susannah Martin, Accused of Witchcraft

MEMORIAL TO SUSANNAH MARTIN Salem, Massachusetts

One of my great grandmother Lorena Murch's ninth generation ancestors was Susannah Martin, who was hanged during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

Born Susannah North was baptized in England in 1621.  Some records claim she was born in Olney, England, in September 1621, but these aren't verified.  Susannah sailed to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1643.  She married George Martin in the summer of 1646, and they had nine children together.

Susannah's father, Richard North, had also emigrated to Salem, and upon his death in 1667, Susannah was involved in a long court battle over his inheritance.  Maybe not so coincidentally, in 1669, Susannah was first accused of witchcraft in Salem.  It was custom of the time for the Commonwealth and the Church to find ways in which to smoothly transfer probatable property to said Commonwealth and Church.  At the time, religious fervor was already at a fever pitch, and lodging an accusation of witchcraft towards Susannah was deemed suitable for that aim, yet ultimately unsuccessful.

When Susannah's husband George died in 1686, the Commonwealth and the Church recalled her former accusation of witchcraft, and used the rampant testimony of the Salem girls (who were accusing most everyone) as evidence against her, in order to secure the land left to her.

Like many of the victims of the Trials, the Commonwealth would have the right to seize the real property upon her own death (or criminal conviction). That motivation by the Commonwealth, along with the tendency of young girls to clamor for attention during their flu-like symptoms (some historians believe ergot poisoning) and implicate various women they didn’t like as “witches”, in order to deflect from their own tendencies to dance in the woods with Tituba the slave woman, led to the eventual arrest, conviction, and hanging of many people, like Susannah, who was one of the oldest executed.

In the courtroom trial for Susannah, it's notable that she laughed heartily at Abigail Williams' manic seizures upon looking at Susannah, and at Abigail's repeated accusations of being hurt by her.  I'm certain that Susannah's clearly feisty nature, coupled with the prior accusation lodged against her 25 years prior over her father's estate, sealed her doom.

This is a very dark, yet fascinating, part of American history. Witch trials were prevalent at the time in England as well as other places.

Susannah had to undergo regular humiliating bodily examinations for “signs of witchcraft”.  Her breasts were checked morning and night to find evidence of Satan's Milk having passed through them, and such evidence was gained by measuring the size and plumpness of her nipples throughout different times of the day.

Can you imagine the humiliation endured by this elderly lady?  Can you do anything but respect and honor her for her sense of humor in the courtroom prior to her hanging in 1692?

Here is a transcript from the Warrant for her arrest:

THE WARRANT

To the Marshall of the County of Essex of his Lawful Deputies or to the Constable of Amesbury:

You are in their Majests names hereby required forthwith or as soon as may be to apprehend and bring (before us) Susanna Mertin of Amsbury in ye county of Essex Widdow at ye house of Lt. Nathaniel Ingersalls in Salem village in order to her examination Relating to high suspicion of sundry acts of Witchcraft donne or committed by her upon ye Bodys of Mary Walcot, Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam and Mercy Lewis of Salem village or farmes whereby great hurt and damage hath beene donne to ye bodys of said persons according to complt of Capt. Jonathan walcot & Serg Thomas putnam in behalf of their Majests this day exhibited before us for themselves and also for several of their neighbors and here you are not to fail at your peril.

Dated Salem Aprill 30th 1692.

John Hathorn, Jonathan Corwin, Assistants

According to this Warrant I have apprehended Susanna Martin Widdow of Amsbury and have brong or caused her to be brought to the place appointed for her examination pr Me.

Salem Village this 2d May 1692, Orlando Bagley, Const of Amsbury



SPINNING WHEEL OF SUSANNAH MARTIN

CRADLE OWNED BY SUSANNAH MARTIN

SKETCH OF SUSANNAH MARTIN

MEMORIAL TO SUSANNAH MARTIN
Amesbury, Massachusetts
Memorial states, "Here stood the house of Susanna Martin. An honest, hardworking, Christian woman. Accused as a witch, tried and executed at Salem, July 19, 1692. A martyr of superstition."  

In January of 2016, the exact location of the hangings was revealed by the Gallows Hill Project as Proctor's Ledge, currently located behind a Walgreen's on Boston Street in Salem, soon to be designated as an historic location.

PROCTOR'S LEDGE
DANBURY, MASS.
HANGING SITE OF SALEM WITCH TRIALS

 

Links for further reading:

History of Massachusetts:  Timeline of the Witch Trials

History Channel Documentary

Where is Gallows Hill Located?  Behind the Danvers Walgreen's?