I have to admit that I’ve made myself crazy during the past couple of weeks trying to untangle the Meservey family of Scarborough, Cumberland, Maine and later, of Lincoln County, Maine.
My cousin, Charles, the Meservey descendant who passed on in 2006, would be pleased to see that I made a little bit of documented progress because I uncovered the town record of the family of Joseph Meservey in St. George, today Knox County, Maine.
It also appears – this definitely isn’t a concrete fact – that his wife may have been Hannah VICKERY. It would have helped a lot if Hannah had survived long enough to appear in the 1850 census with Joseph Meservey and the Chadwicks. I have hunted and hunted and can’t find the source of info that first stated his wife was this Hannah.
While hunting for Meservey documents, though, I did come across Vickery connections. First, Joseph Meservey lost 19 acres of his land by court judgement to pay a debt of $109.67 to John Meservey Jr. in 1806. (Lincoln County Deed Book: 59: 266-267, Source: FamilySearch)
The important detail in this document is simply that the land survey described in the deed states that one of the neighbor’s whose property bordered Joseph’s was Nathaniel Vickery.
The second piece of evidence suggesting that Hannah might be a Vickery is the 1800 census of Cushing, Maine (part of Cushing was set off to become the village of St. George in 1804).
Joseph Meservey and Stephen Vickery had but one neighbor in between their homes in 1800. Stephen is over the age of 45 with one female in the same age bracket. Joseph married in the early 1790s and doesn’t appear in the 1790 census as a head of household. However, Stephen does and has several females, one of whom was his daughter Hannah.
So, my last post in this series will cover the family of Stephen Vickery, definitely the father of Hannah Vickery and the somewhat likely father-in-law of Joseph Meservery, of St. George, Maine.
Stephen Vickery was born 18 January 1718, the son of Roger and Hannah (perhaps Hayward) Vickery, in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts. He married (1) Hannah Dennis, 17 January 1742 (2) Christian Boden, 24 September 1754 and (3) Hannah Dodge, 5 June 1759, all in Marblehead.
He had many children by both Hannahs, but apparently none with Christian Boden.
Children with Hannah Dennis, all born in Marblehead:
1. Hannah, born 24 October 1742
2. Stephen, born 11 November 1744
3. Nathaniel, born 26 June 1748
4. Sarah, born 3 November 1751
Marblehead death records seem to be lacking somewhat in the 1700s, as there is only one death recorded for the Vickery family in the 1700s, for Hannah, who died in 1728. It appears that both Hannah, born 1742, and Nathaniel, born 1748, died young.
Children with Hannah Dodge, all in Marblehead:
1. Eunice, baptized 5 April 1760
2. Roger, baptized 7 March 1762; perhaps the man who married Mrs. Sarah Tedder, 5 April 1788, also in Marblehead
3. Nathaniel, baptized 24 June 1764
4. Hannah, baptized 28 March 1767
5. Annis, baptized 4 June 1769
6. Rebecca, baptized 22 March 1772
Stephen was the administrator of his father Roger’s estate in 1761 in Essex County Court.
By 1785, per a land deed filed in Lincoln County, and probably much earlier, Stephen Vickery had left Marblehead and settled in Cushing, Lincoln, Maine. It may be that Marblehead, being on the coast, was a dangerous place to be during the American Revolution, as it would be subject to sea attacks by the British. Maine was not so much in the line of direct fire.
Given that the Vickerys were seafarers, it it probable that they sailed to Cushing, rather than traveling the land route.
Stephen Vickery appears in the 1790 census of Cushing, Lincoln, Maine.
As mentioned above, he also appears in the 1810 census, two doors from Joseph Meservey.
No probate has been found for Stephen Vickery, nor has a land record been found of heirs selling any of his land. Sadly, marriage records have not been found for this family either.
I have to say that this is the first time in 40+ years of researching in New England that I have found so little information about a family.