HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY CARTER - Part 1 - Her Paternal Ancestry

          Hannah's initial life story told a little information about her Libby ancestry.  Most of us know next to nothing about her ancestry, and because a person is a product of their heritage, we will begin Hannah's life by describing in some detail her heritage.  Most all of her ancestors going back 5 or 6 generations were from Maine.  Over time Maine had become the "family home" and her family would have been considered part of the founding fathers of Maine.  Life here was in no way easy - the climate conditions could be severe and Indian problems were serious and often magnified by French alliances with the native population.  Once you see the challenges that Hannah's ancestors had to overcome, it will give us a better appreciation for her and the character traits she exhibited throughout her life.

          Hannah Knight Libby Carter was born October 9, 1786, at Scarborough on the coast of Maine. She was the daughter of Captain Zebulon Libby and Lydia Andrews.  They had 11 children, Hannah being the fourth child.

Hannah's pedigree (Her father and back 4 more generations)

          The paternal side of her family had been in what we know of today as Maine since the early 1600’s.  This side of the family had ancestry split between the two southern most counties of Maine – York and Cumberland.  Life in this part of the new world was only for the hearty and brave. 

The following history of this area is from the web site Maine an Encyclopedia: “The early 1600’s brought business interests and associated settlements. The short-lived St. Croix (French) and Popham (English) colonies demonstrated the difficulties of surviving in the New World. The ill-equipped Pilgrims, arriving in 1620, endured through the graces of the local Native Americans and the supplies and food they obtained from fishermen at Damariscove Island. In 1625 they sailed up the Kennebec River near Fort Western in search of trade with the Indians.

          As the process of carving up the new territory began, Sir Fernando Gorges and John Mason in 1622 received a royal grant for all the land between the Merrimac and Kennebec rivers. In 1629 the Pilgrims received a patent to protect their trading rights with the Indians on the Kennebec River.

Though he was granted exclusive rights to Maine in 1639 by another English King, Gorges authority was eroded so that the growing Massachusetts Bay Colony eventually claimed jurisdiction over Maine in 1647 and purchased proprietary rights from Gorges’ heirs in 1677. Even from these early times, the origins of the name Maine or Mayne have been obscure.

          In 1652 Massachusetts formally asserted authority over Maine, established York County and approved the incorporation of the towns of Kittery and York.

          The succeeding years, however, were marked by a series of wars involving the French and their Indian allies. Specifically these “French and Indian Wars” were King Williams’s War (1689-1697); Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713); King George’s War (1744-1748); and the French and Indian War, known as the Seven Years’ War in Canada and Europe, (1754-1763). Whole towns were obliterated, hostages were taken to Quebec, and substantial settlement in the remote areas was effectively ended.

By the 1720’s the tide began to turn in favor of the English colonists with the bloody victories at Norridgewock in 1724 and at Lovewell’s Pond the following year. The capture of Fort Louisburg on Cape Breton Island in 1745 helped speed the outcome, confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, in which France surrendered all claims in North America.”

          It is important that we place at the background of our story of our Maine ancestors the history of conflict between the English, French and the original inhabitants – the Indians.  This wasn’t really a very hospitable place to live in the 17^th century but was also an area of much political turmoil. 

LIBBY ANCESTORS

Into this land came Hannah’s paternal ancestors:  The Libby family in America dates to John Libby who was born in Plymouth, Devonshire, England in 1611 and settled in Maine in 1659 or 1660.  John Libby's name first appears under the employ of Mr. Trelawny at one of his trading houses on Richmond's Island, a small island on the coast of Cumberland county, Maine.  John’s son, David LIBBY, was born in 1657 in Scarborough, Cumberland, Maine, New England. He died on 24 Dec 1736 in Kittery, York, Maine, New England. He was bur. on Libby Hill, Adlington Rd. in 1736 in Kittery, York, Maine, New England. He married Eleanor on 11 Feb 1681 in Scarboro, Cumberland, ME.  In Scarborough David served on a commission to renew the Falmouth-Scarborough bounds 11 Feb. 1681. He was granted 6 acres in 1682 and 30 acres in 1685. On leaving town he lived about 10 years in Portsmouth until 18 Dec. 1699 when he and his brother-in-law Fogg joined with Joseph Hammond, Esq. and Stephen Tobey in purchasing the "Bay lands" on the river bank now in Eliot. They built their homes on Libby Hill. David was a well to do farmer, the inventory of his estate amounted to £1329/5.  David’s great grandson was Zebulon Libby, Hannah’s father.  He born in Scarborough, about 1757; married, 19 Oct. 1780, Lydia Andrews, daughter of Deacon Amos and Anne (Seavey) Andrews of Scarborough. A year or two after his marriage, he settled on a portion of his father's large purchase which was then in Scarborough, but is now in Saco. There he always lived. He served three years in the Revolution, and was afterward a captain in the militia. He died 6 Dec. 1836. His widow died 9 Dec. 1838. (The above short bios were taken from The Libby Family in America 1602 - 1881 by C. T. Libby)

HANSCOM ANCESTORS

Zebulon’s grandfather, David Libby, married Esther Hanscom about 1720.  Thomas Hanscom, the immigrant, was born in the parish of Sutton, Bedfordshire, England, about 1634, according to a deposition made by him.  Savage says he came to New England in 1649.  He married, May 16, 1664, Ann, he surname not being on record.  Ann Hanscom survived her husband and as his widow married James Tobey, who went to Kittery, Maine, in 1657, and she was living there in 1720.  Thomas (2) Hanscom, eldest child of Thomas (1) and Ann Hanscom, was born in Kittery, Maine, Oct. 17, 1666.  He married as his first wife, Alice, daughter of Richard Rogers, of whose house, known as No. 23, nine other families were assigned for protection in case of Indian attacks threatened in 1720.  She died between 1696 and 1698, and he married (second), Tamsen, daughter of Richard Gowell, who administered her husband's estate Nov. 11, 1713.  In the threatened Indian attacks of 1720, the family of Widow Hanscom were assigned to the house No. 12, owned by David Libby Jr., where the family of James Staples was also ordered to take refuge.  Thomas Hanscom died intestate about 1712.  It was in this family of David Libby that Esther Hanscom found her future husband David Libby.

ROGERS ANCESTORS

Alice Rogers (married Thomas Hanscom in 1689) – her ancestry is not verified at this time beyond her parents Richard Rogers and Sarah Libbey who were of very early Kittery, York, Maine.  It appears that Richard Rogers' father was George Rogers.  In Old Kittery and Her Families- Everett S. Stackpole, pp.95-7, 705 the following is presented:
George Rogers was in the employ of John Winter at Richmond Island in 1639. He was living at Long Reach in 1641 and received a grant of his land there in 1648. He was a juryman in 1650 and is last mentioned in 1654. See page 97.

Since Richard Rogers lived on the homestead of George, he is supposed to have been his son. Richard took the oath of fidelity 9 July 1669. The name of his first wife is not known. He married (2) Sarah, widow of Robert Tidy and daughter of John Libby of Scarborough. His widow married (3) Christopher Banfield. 

(Next - the rest of Hannah's paternal lines.)