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Excerpt from
Military History Books, by Harold A. Skaarup
www.SilverHawkAuthor.com
Ticonderoga Soldier
Elijah Estabrooks Journal, 1758-1760
A Massachusetts Provincial Soldier in the French and Indian War
This is Elijah Estabrook's story. He was a Massachusetts provincial soldier who fought Montcalm at Ticonderoga, a battle in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Elijah Estabrooks kept a journal between 1758 and 1760 covering his military service during the French and Indian War, a period that saw Canada ceded to Britain. Ticonderoga Soldier expands on the details of the people and events he mentions in his Journal....
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Excerpt from
Military History Books, by Harold A. Skaarup
www.SilverHawkAuthor.com
Ticonderoga Soldier
Elijah Estabrooks Journal, 1758-1760
A Massachusetts Provincial Soldier in the French and Indian War
This is Elijah Estabrook's story. He was a Massachusetts provincial soldier who fought Montcalm at Ticonderoga, a battle in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Elijah Estabrooks kept a journal between 1758 and 1760 covering his military service during the French and Indian War, a period that saw Canada ceded to Britain. Ticonderoga Soldier expands on the details of the people and events he mentions in his Journal. He was one of the earliest settlers on the Saint John River, and now lies buried near Jemseg, New Brunswick. This book is a tribute from one of his many descendants.
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Elijah, son of Joseph (the second) and Hannah (leavitt) Loring, was born in Lexington on 25 August 1703. He married Hannah Daniel of Sherburne (born 06 April 1702), in Boston on 01 October 1724. Their place of residence is unknown between 1724 and 1734, and there is a tradition that after their marriage, Elijah and his wife went to England, where their son Elijah (junior) was born. It is said that they returned to America in 1730.
Born about 1727, as a boy before the death of his father, Elijah (junior) must have been in Sherburne [[ Massachusetts ]] with his family between 1734 and 1740. During this time he acquired a good education for his journal is well written. After his father's death, his uncle Joseph Frost or the Daniels probably looked after him. The formal guardianship assumed in 1746 was "probably a surety for him going out into the world."
Elijah soon found his way to Haverhill. His mother was there and there was plenty of work in connection with ship-building. He was admitted to the Second Church (Congregational) at East Salisbury on 04 March 1750. He married Mary Hackett of Salisbury on 14 November 1750, with the wedding ceremony being performed at Haverhill, Massachusetts, although it is recorded in the Second Church at Salisbury.
Elijah Estabrooks [[ married Sarah Hammond, recent widow of James Oakes ]] on 17 December 1778.
Elijah's children:
(By Mary Hackett): Hannah, Mary, Sarah, Elijah, Samuel, Ebenezer, Joseph, and Sarah, Abigail, John, Deborah; (by Sarah Hammond-Oakes): Elizabeth, and Hammond.
His younger daughters were married; Sarah, married John Marsh on 15 July 1790 and lived in Canning; Abigail married William Harper in Canning in 1794 [[ 7 Aug 1794, Waterborough ]]; Deborah married Moses Clarke junior in August 1796 [[ 7 Mar 1793, Hamstead ]]; Elizabeth married Martin Olts, junior on 29 March 1796 [[ Gagetown ]]. They lived at French Lake and then at Nashwaak.
He was buried in the garrison graveyard at Jemseg.
Florence Estabrooks tried to locate the site of Elijah's burial. Fragments of a gravestone with Elijah Estabrooks name had been scattered in the graveyard located on Jefferson Dykeman's farm. The graves were clearly defined but the stones were gone. Elijah's grave was about ten feet straight in front of the entrance. The tombstone had a curved top and the name clearly cut. Florence indicated that the place had grown up in 1951.
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Excerpts from
The Estabrooks Family in Concord, Massachusetts, and on the Saint John River, New Brunswick, Canada, Also in Haverhill, Massachusetts, by Florence C. Estabrooks, 1953
Elijah, son of Joseph (the second) and Hannah (leavitt) Loring, was born in Lexington on 25 August 1703. He married Hannah Daniel of Sherburne (born 06 April 1702), in Boston on 01 October 1724. Their place of residence is unknown between 1724 and 1734, and there is a tradition that after their marriage, Elijah and his wife went to England, where their son Elijah (junior) was born. It is said that they returned to America in 1730.
Born about 1727, as a boy before the death of his father, Elijah (junior) must have been in Sherburne with his family between 1734 and 1740. During this time he acquired a good education for his journal is well written. After his father's death, his uncle Joseph Frost or the Daniels probably looked after him. The formal guardianship assumed in 1746 was "probably a surety for him going out into the world."
Elijah soon found his way to Haverhill. His mother was there and there was plenty of work in connection with ship-building. He was admitted to the Second Church (Congregational) at East Salisbury on 04 March 1750. He married Mary Hackett of Salisbury on 14 November 1750, with the wedding ceremony being performed at Haverhill, Massachusetts, although it is recorded in the Second Church at Salisbury.
The family apparently lived in East Haverhill from 1750 to about 1757 as the baptisms of the first three children are recorded in the Fourth Church (Congregational): Hannah, baptised 25 August 1751; Molly, baptised 18 March 1753, and Elijah, baptised 23 May 1756. Elijah then appears to have moved to Boxford, close to Bradford, about 1727, as baptisms of two of his children appear in the records of the Second Church (Congregational) in Boxford: Samuel, baptised 11 December 1757, and Ebenezer, baptised 09 September 1759.
Elijah's diary records two periods of service, he completed his first tour of duty (after the battle at Ticonderoga) on 07 November 1758 and re-enlisted 06 April 1759. He went by ship to Halifax and during his tour of duty in Nova Scotia he became a Sergeant. His family remained in Boxford. He left Nova Scotia 25 November 1760 and arrived home 15 December.
During the next two and a half years, Elijah made preparations to move his family the Saint John River, an area that was still called Nova Scotia. Governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia was urged by the Lords of Trade and Plantations to re-people the lands vacated by the French with settlers from New England. Colonel McNutt went through the Essex County section of massachusetts urging men to better their fortunes. In the Newbury-Haverhill district, a group organized and decided to examine the situation. In the winter of 1761-1762, the Governor of Massachusetts appointed Israel Perley in charge of 12 men in the pay of Massachusetts to make a snowshoe journey through the wilderness from Maine to the Saint John River. Hugh Quinton was one of this party.
Elijah was also one of this group. They went by boat to Machias and made their way by trails until they descended the Oromocto River. The Township of Maugerville, twelve miles long and twelve miles wide, was laid out in lots early in 1762. On Wednesday, 06 October 1762, the signers of the agreement met at the house of Daniel Ingalls, inn-holder in Andover, at 10 AM to draw their lots.
Early in 1763 Elijah moved his family to Halifax and then to Cornwallis, intending to leave them there until he had prepared for them in Maugerville Township. He crossed the bay and joined Israel Perley's party which was going up the river to occupy the land. It is said that he took his son, Elijah, a boy of seven or eight years, with him to see the country.
When they reached the township Elijah found that his lot near Jemseg was under water. This must have been a great disappointment. He decided not to use the lot and returned to Cornwallis.
During the next two years Elijah was apparently exploring the possibilities of the new land. Tradition says that he paid a visit to Sackville, where Valentine Estabrooks had settled. His heart however, was apparently set on the river. On 18 October 1765, Elijah went to work in the store of Simonds and White at Portland Point. In 1789 he participated in a meeting concerning local improvements, as a member of the Portland Board of Trade executive committee and consulting member.
In the summer of 1769 the Reverend Thomas Wood, a clergyman of the Church of England, visited the Saint John River. At Portland Point he held a Sunday service on 02 July, and baptized John and Abigail, children of Elijah and Mary Estabrooks. Sarah may also have been baptized at that time.
In 1773 Elijah made an agreement with William Hazen and James Simonds to settle in the Township of Conway near the mouth of the river, Hazen and Simonds guaranteeing him a deed of 250 acres of land. An old return or census dated 01 August 1775 shows that he had cleared and improved seven acres of land and built a log house.
The lot granted to Elijah was No. 5, next to the ship-building plant and possibly included the modern Saint John Market Square. The lot next to him, No. 6, was granted to his son-in-law, Zebedee Ring.
Hazen and Simonds ran an extensive business as a fur trading company and fishery, and they were anxious to place settlers on the land because it was in danger of being escheated.
The American Revolution began to have an impact on the Saint John River in the month of August 1775, when a raiding party from Machias, Maine, entered the harbour in a sloop and burned Fort Frederick on the Conway side and captured a brig in the harbour loaded with provisions for the British troops in Boston. The inhabitants of Conway took to the woods to avoid the depredations of the marauders.
This was the first act of aggression in the Bay of Fundy, and it produced a great sensation; but the experience was repeated many times and must have been painfully reminiscent of the Indian raids on Haverhill in the early years of its existence. The privateers were just as rapacious as the Indians in their looting, in spite of the fact that many of the river people sympathized with the American cause.
In 1776 an expedition was sent against the English at Fort Cumberland on the Chignecto Isthmus where Lieutenant Colonel Goreham was in command, but it was beaten off and it returned to the river. Major Studholme's report shows that Elijah Estabrooks (junior) was one of those who accompanied Hugh Quinton on this expedition.
In May 1777, John Allan, one of the most determined of the American sympathizers, set out from Machias with 43 men in four whale boats and several canoes. They arrived at Musquash Cove on 01 June, crossed the river at Indiantown, and then made their way to Portland Point where they took Hazen, Simonds and White prisoners. They spent some time on the river before leaving. After this experience Simonds moved up the river to Sheffield where he bought a section of land between the Maugerville Township and Loder Creek from the Morris grant. He built a log cabin on the bank of the river and lived there for nine years. Elijah left Conway at the same time, and settled on land which was part of the Spry grant at Gagetown on Grimross Neck.
Elijah's family was growing up and leaving home. Hannah married Zebedee Ring in Salisbury in 1772. They settled next to her father in Conway and in 1777 moved to Sheffield. Mary married Samuel Hart of Maugerville in 1773. Elijah (junior) married Mary Whittemore in 1777 and after a brief period in Jemseg settled just below James Simonds on the river. Ebenezer married Maria Fletcher in 1782 and settled near his father on Gagetown Neck. Still at home were Joseph (age 15), Sarah (age 13), Abigail (age 11), John (age 9), and Deborah (age 3).
The rugged life proved to be too much for Elijah's wife, Mary Hackett, and she died in 1778. She was probably buried in the Garrison graveyard as it was the oldest Protestant graveyard in this part of the country, and Elijah himself was later buried there. She had impressed her children as a woman of courage and resource, and "Mary Hackett" is a name found frequently among her descendants.
Elijah Estabrooks [[ married Sarah Hammond, recent widow of James Oakes ]] on 17 December 1778. They had ... two children, Elizabeth (Betsy) born 30 October 1779, and Hammond, born 29 January 1783.
In the year 1765, shortly after the close of the Seven Years War, enormous tracts of land, called Townships, were granted in the Saint John River valley to officers and government officials. The arrival of the Loyalists in 1783 led to most of these grants being escheated excepting where settlers were in actual possession.
Governor Parr decreed that such lots as were occupied by old inhabitants of the country should not be appropriated by Loyalists without paying for improvements. A commission was appointed to assess values:
Report of the Commission to Investigate Pre-Loyalist Settlements:
For Gagetown, 30 June 1783:
Elijah Easterbrook (sic) has a wife and eight children, a log house with two rooms and about twelve acres of land cleared. Came from Cornwallis about 16 years past; settled at the mouth of the river and says he was drove up by rebels.
For the Township of Conway, 08 July 1783:
Elijah Easterbrook settled in consequence of an agreement with Hazen and Simonds. Cleared and improved about seven acres of land and built a log house which is now fallen to decay, said Easterbrook moving up the river on account of the danger of his situation. had lived on it eight years.
Governor Carleton and his Council continued the policy of Governor Parr after the formation of the Province of New Brunswick. Elijah Estabrooks' house was valued at 10 pounds and his improvements at 48 pounds. Walter Chase, the Loyalist on whose grant his land was situated, was unwilling to pay this amount and Elijah was confirmed in possession of his land in 1784. This was Lot No. 5, Grimross Neck. The Loyalists however, were determined to get rid of pre-Loyalists and Elijah found things very unpleasant.
Actual riots took place and some belligerents were put in jail. Elijah applied for a new allotment. He received some compensation in Cambridge, which included one-half of lots 25 and 26. His sons Ebenezer (25) and Joseph (26) received the other halves. Elijah junior was granted one-half of lot 3 at Jemseg, Parish of Waterborough and lot 32 on the interval.
The lots in Cambridge were beautifully situated on a ridge overlooking the Jemseg river at its entrance to Grand Lake. The Garrison graveyard was just over the fence on a slope stretching down to a creek.
Elijah moved with his family and two married sons, Ebenezer and Joseph, to these lots in 1787. Elijah apparently left the management of his lots mainly to his Oakes step-sons and his wife. He himself spent much of his time with his eldest son Elijah Junior, and John his youngest son by Mary Hackett in Canning.
John was seeking to establish himself. He had no love for the water-soaked interval and early in his married life moved across the river to land just above Swan Creek. He built the first frame house in that part of the country.
Elijah Estabrooks thus spent his old age close to all his children. His younger daughters were married; Sarah, married John Marsh on 15 July 1790 and lived in Canning; Abigail married William Harper in Canning in 1794; Deborah married Moses Clarke junior in August 1796; Elizabeth married Martin Olts, junior on 29 March 1796. They lived at French Lake and then at Nashwaak.
Elijah remained hale and hearty to the last. Mrs Abraham Estabrooks, who married his grandson, said that he used to tell tales of old times to his grandchildren. She said there were two things that he used to pray for: one was that he should never be sick and the other was that he should die at his work. He used to pound up grain for chickens in a mortar. One afternoon after working for awhile, he lay back in his chair and covered his face with his hat. His grandchildren, who were playing around, thought that he was asleep; but when they went to wake him for supper, they found that he was dead. He was buried in the garrison graveyard at Jemseg.
Florence Estabrooks tried to locate the site of Elijah's burial. Fragments of a gravestone with Elijah Estabrooks name had been scattered in the graveyard located on Jefferson Dykeman's farm. The graves were clearly defined but the stones were gone. Elijah's grave was about ten feet straight in front of the entrance. The tombstone had a curved top and the name clearly cut. Florence indicated that the place had grown up in 1951.
Elijah's children:
(By Mary Hackett): Hannah, Mary, Sarah, Elijah, Samuel, Ebenezer, Joseph, and Sarah, Abigail, John, Deborah; (by Sarah Hammond-Oakes): Elizabeth, and Hammond.
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