Middlesex County, Massachusetts was created on May 10, 1643. The county originally included Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, Woburn, Medford, Wayland, and Reading.
Bettey Davis Emmons was born on November 16, 1732 in Littleton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Her parents were Simon and Jane Davis.
She married Abel Emmons in 1757. Abel was born in 1732 in Brookfield, Worcester County, Massachusetts. His parents were Robert Emmons and Mary Petty. The History of Chesterfield says that Abel's wife was probably Betty (Elizabeth) daughter of Moses Smith, but that was his brother Benjamin Emmons.
Abel and Bettey's children included:
Olive Emmons (1758, died age 2),
Jonathan Emmons (1761, married Lydia Hoskins),
Robert Emmons (1763, died 6 months),
Solomon Emmons (1764),
Thomas Emmons (1766),
Eunice Emmons (1769), and
Abel Emmons (1771).
Abel Emmons, along with Simon Davis, settled in Chesterfield, Cheshire County, New Hampshire in the spring of 1762.
Abel signed the Association Test in Chesterfield in 1776. According to the Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the AmericanArmy During the Revolutionary War, Abel served in Fletcher's Regiment from Vermont.
In 1780 they moved to Woodstock, Vermont.
Littleton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts was first settled in 1686 by English settlers and was the the location of the Native American village called Nashoba Plantation
The Association Test
“We, the subscribers do hereby solemnly engage and promise that we will, to the utmost of our powers, at the risque of our lives and fortunes, with arms, oppose the hostile proceedings of the British fleets and Armies against the United American Colonies."
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) was between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the 13 colonies which became the newly formed United States.
from the History of Cheshire and Sullivan Counties
Emmons, Abel, may have come from Greenwich, Mass., or vicinity. He settled in Chfd. in the spring of 1762, in the western part of town. His wife was probably (Betty) Elizabeth), dau. of Moses Smith (1), His name disappears before 1787. [Benjamin Emmons married Elizabeth Smith]
Ch.: Olive, b. June 2, 1758
Jonathan, b. Aug. 19, 1761
Robert, b. June 19, 1763, and d. 1764
Solomon, b. June 25, 1764
Thomas b. Aug. 10, 1766
Eunice, b. Mar. 3, 1769
Abel, b. Aug. 4, 1771
Chesterfield, Sullivan County, New Hampshire was incorporated in 1752. It is on the Connecticut River and bounded on the southeast by Swansey and Keene.
In 1790 during the first census, Sullivan County was part of Cheshire County.
Greenwich, Hampshire County, Massachusetts was incorporated in 1749 and dissolved in 1938. It was renamed from Quabbin in 1754 .
New Hampshire was first settled by Europeans in 1623. It was separated from Massachusetts in 1679.
from the History of Chesterfield
At a town-meeting held January 11, 1781, a settlement was made with Nathan Thomas and others for lead furnished for the use of the town on the occasion of a certain "alarm," in October, 1776. The cause of the "alarm" has not been ascertained.
The following is a statement of the amount of lead furnished, together with the names of those who furnished it:
Nathan Thomas, 6 pounds, 6 ounces;
Noah Emmons, 1 pound, 12 ounces;
Abel Emmons, 3 pounds; Jonathan Farr (2d), 9 pounds, 8 ounces; Captain Simon Davis, 9 pounds.
It was voted to allow six Continental dollars per pound for the lead!
The rod or perch or pole is a surveyor's tool equal to 5 1⁄2 yards.
Alcohol played a significant role in the daily lives of colonists; even children. They feared polluted water and believed in alcohol's nourishing and medicinal properties.
from History of Woodstock, Vermont
by Henry Swan Dana
Benjamin Emmons was one of eight brothers who settled in Hinsdale and Chesterfield, N. H. These were all healthy, active men, with large and powerful frames, fitted in a high degree to endure and overcome the hardships of border life.
Several of the brothers served in the provincial army during the French and Indian war, and it is related how one of them, named Dyer, won a bet made between the colonels of an English and a Colonial regiment as to which could bring forward the man superior to all others in muscular strength. To test the matter Dyer Emmons took a cannon weighing eight hundred pounds, carried it six rods, and threw it over a stone wall. The Englishman pitted against him could not do this, and so lost the wager to his colonel, which was a barrel of rum.
Of these eight brothers three came into Vermont. Solomon pitched his tent in Windsor in 1763, and how he lived and what were his fortunes is related elsewhere.
Abel married the sister of Simon Davis, and he and Simon settled in Chesterfield in the spring of 1762. Abel did not come to Woodstock till 1780, but Simon Davis came about the same time with Benjamin Emmons and settled on North Branch, taking up the farm next above Oliver McKenzie's.
Benjamin Emmons was married to Elizabeth Smith in Chesterfield, November 18, 1765. He moved from Chesterfield to Woodstock in April, 1772, "when his daughter Bethany was three months old," and she was born the 3d of January that year. Benjamin Emmons settled on the farm now owned and occupied by Henry E. Vaughan, where he continued to reside the whole period of his stay in Woodstock, including thirty-five years. His land purchase of Oliver Willard, made at the time of his coming into the town, embraced about seven hundred acres in the immediate vicinity where he settled. This covered all the land deeded by Willard to Powers in1768, and much more besides, but the title to the part once held by Powers did not need even a quitclaim from him, and he still looked to Willard for that long-standing balance of account.
The French and Indian War lasted from 1754 to 1763 and was the North American phase of the Seven Years' War.
