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Elihu Gunnison was born ABT 1675 in Dover, NH. He is the son of Elihu Gunnison (1650-?) and Martha Trickee. His siblings were unknown Gunnison (c1677-?), Priscilla Gunnison (c1679-?), Mary Gunnison (c1681-?), Joseph Gunnison (1690-1748), Elizabeth Gunnison (1694-1715).
The year of the death of the above Elihu Gunnison is fixed by documents,and the year of his birth by tradition, which says he was about eightyyears of age at his death. Born at Dover, N. H., then the frontier, beforehe was three year old, his parents barely escaped with their lives and his,leaving the baby a victim of savage cruelty. His own mother died beforehe was ten years old, and if he accompanied his father through that longstruggle for existence, and that long period of border warfare with theFrench and Indians at Pemaquid, New Dartmouth, and Falmouth, heexperienced a rougher life than falls to the lot of most boys. When hisfather returned to Kittery, in 1690, he was fifteen years old. He -naturallyadopted his father's occupation. On coming of age he secured a grant ofland on Kittery Fore Side, and established a ship-yard of his own, whilehis father continued to occupy the homestead. The tradition is that theyounger Elihu did an extensive business at ship-building at his yard,employing as many as a hundred workmen the year round, and that hehad on the stocks, sometimes, five or six vessels at once.
I have in my possession a contract made Dec. 25, 1722, between ElihuGunnison, Shipwright, and Philip Hedman, of Boston, Merchant, wherebythe former " sometime in June next ensuing, agrees to set up, build andcompletely finish, a new square sterned ship, with two decks, forecastle,and head,the keel to be sixty-t.iree feet in length, twentytwo feet wide, atthe main beam, eleven feet deep in the hold, four feet betwixt decks,"etc., etc., with full specifications, on the payment by Philip Hedman of£GGo, one third down, half in money and half in goods ; one third at thelaying of the lower deck, and balance when completed. Both partiesbinding themselves in the penal sum of ,£"1320, for faithful performanceof contract.
The tradition is, that he had a Beaufet or Livery Cupboard full of silverware, and among other things a silver punch-bowl that held a gallon. Theleather backed chairs now in my possession, tradition says, wereimported from England by Hugh Gunnison whilst residing in Boston, i. e.,before A. D. 1650. Other two chairs with the same history I have seen atthe old homestead, in Kittery. They came into the hands of RobertGunnison of Newburyport, and he sold them to B. Perley Poore ofNewburyport. The remaining two out of the six that descended to Dea.Jos. Gunnison of Kittery (VI.) in direct line, passed into the possession ofhis daughter, Mrs. Margery Norton. My father remembered distinctly allsix of these chairs in Dea. Jos. Gunnison's best room, at Kittery, as earlyas 1795, and they were then redolent of antiquity. (Vide Appendix.)
The silver spoons now in possession of Mrs. Mary Lincoln Welch (ne'eGunnison) of Newburyport, as heir to William Gunnison (30) and markedEGM for Elihu and Mary Gunnison, belonged to this man. As Mary died in1726, the spoons are over a hundred and fifty years old.
This Elihu Gunnison's ship-yard was at the mouth of Spruce Creek, atKittery Fore Side. The house where he lived was, in 1848, occupied byRobert Fernald, son of Lucy Fernald, daughter of Sarah Weeks, daughterof Joseph Weeks and Mary Gunnison, the daughter of Elihu, the son ofHugh. (Vide p. 29.)
Robert Fernald's wife was a Eunice Brown, a great grand-daughter ofEunice Gunnison, who married Wm. Dearing, and whose daughterDorothea married Thomas Brown, whose son, Capt. Thos. Brown, was herfather (see page 36). She had in 1848, on her mantel piece in a goodstate of preservation two cases of wax-work flowers made by herancestor, Eunice Gunnison, while at school in Boston, 150 years ago.
In public documents and records this Elihu Gunnison is styled variously asJunior, Captain, Esquire, i. e., Justice of the Peace and Judge of CommonPleas, a position held by Hugh, by Elihu his son, and by Elihu his son, andby Elihu his son, i. e., by four successive generations.
Members of the family as they died were buried in the old Gunnisonburying-ground, at Kittery, opposite the meeting-house and adjoining theold Cutts house. Only Gunnisons are buried there. I cannot learn whetherany interments have taken place there since the year 1800 or not. In1848, quite a number of tombstones were in place, with a wall on its foursides and a gateway in front. Now the tombstones have all beendemolished, and the wall on two sides removed, and the materials usedto make a double wall of extra height, and to fill up the gateway so as tobar out all access.
The Vandals who perpetrated this outrage left standing one tombstonewith this inscription :
" Here lyes ye Body
of Mrs. Mary Gunnison,
wife to. Mr. Elihu
Gunnison, aged 42
years dec'1 May y1'
7th, 1726."
The above Mary was a native of Bermuda, a lady of education andrefinement. She aided her husband much in his business by her superioreducation. The Covenant of the Church in the lower parish of Kittery, wassigned November 4, 1714, by Rev. John Newmarch, Elihu Gunnison, andfifteen other male members, and twenty-five female members, includingMary Gunnison.
Nov. 24, 1750, Elihu Gunnison retired from active employment, as onthat day he made distribution of a portion of his property by Trust Deedsto his sons Joseph and John, reserving to himself a life interest therein. Ithink this was his 75th birthday. His death occurred in 1754, and wassudden. One day after riding around his lands, he came to his son John'shouse, dismounted to rest himself, and sat down. Soon after he said tohis son John's wife, " I shall certainly die with this pain !" and immediatelyhis head dropped upon his breast and he was dead. This occurred whenhis wife was on a visit to her sister, Mrs. Weeks, (Mary or Priscilla?) Hewas a very active, energetic man even up to extreme old age.
His second wife who survived him was Margery, sister to Sir Wm.Pepperrell. She was born Sept. 15, 1689, and died in 1769, aged 80years. Her first husband was Capt. Peletiah Whittemore, married Nov. 4,1706. By him she had four children. Her husband was lost at sea not farfrom the Isles of Shoals.
His daughter Mary m. Capt. Thos. Homan of Watertown, an Englishman,Sept. 13, 1740, and had by him two children, Benjamin, of Boston, andGeorge, of Portsmouth. She died before 1769, and after her father, in1754. In the 2d division of her father's estate, made on the death of herstepmother this fact appears. (See Appendix.) Tradition mourns over thefact that her husband treated her unkindly.
His son Benjamin died before his father, and left no family.
His daughter Eunice m. Wm. Dearing, July 22, 1738, d. 1788. She joinedthe church May 14, 1742. Wm. Dearing was born Sept. 17, 1708, andjoined the church June 21, 1730. They had four children.
1. Eunice, m. Noah Parker, Aug. 17, 1763, and had one son, Noah, Jr.,b. Jan. 1765.
2. Margery m. Samuel Norton.
3. William, a captain in the Revolutionary War.
4. Dorothea, m. Capt. Thos. Brown, a brother of Capt. John Brown, whom. Mary Gunnison, the oldest daughter of Elihu, (b. Mar. 8, 1706-7). Herson, Capt. Thomas Brown m. Eunice Fernald, Sept. 3, 1788, whosedaughter Eunice Brown m. Robert Fernald. (Vide p. 33.)