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Hugh Gunnison was born ABT 1610. He died AFT 21 SEP 1658.
Hugh Gunnison's wife was Sarah Lynn. They were married 23 MAY 1647 in Boston, MA. They had one known child named Elihu Gunnison (1650-?).
Genealogy Of The Descendants Of Hugh Gunnison,
OF BOSTON, MASS.
COVERING THE PERIOD FROM 1610-1876.
One Hundred And Twenty-seven Families Bearing
The Name Of Gunnison.
One Thousand Five Hundred Of His Descendants In The
United States.
Compiled By
GEORGE W. GUNNISON, A.M.
Tradition informs us that Hugh Gunnison was born in Sweden, but cameto America a single man, with an English Colony composed of fivefamilies, named respectively Scammons, Frost, Bryar and Raynes, two ofthe families bearing the same name. They reached Piscataqua harborbefore there was any house in Portsmouth ; i. e., before 1631, and whenthere were but two small huts on Great Island, now New Castle. He firstsettled at Dover Neck, N. H. My father had this direct from hisgrandfather, who was born in 1713. I have derived the same intelligence,substantially, from other independent sources.
Public Records show that Hugh Gunnison was in Boston in 1634, and howmuch earlier cannot now be ascertained. On the occasion of his admissionto the church that year, he was entitled " Servant to our Bro. RichardBellingham." Now Richard Bellingham came to Boston in New Englandfrom Boston in old Engladd, where he was " Recorder," with his wife andson in 1634. He was subsequently Governor of the Colony ofMassachusetts Bay.
May 25, 1636, Hugh Gunnison was made Freeman and took the usualoath, with sixty-eight others, including Mr. Richard Bellingham, Mr. JohnWinthrop, Sen., Mr. John Humfrey, Mr. Thomas Dudley, Will. Coddington,Simon Bradstreet, Robert Kaine, Thomas Savage, and John Higginson.
Jan. 9, 1637. In the distribution of land to the residents of Boston, therewas allotted to " Brother Hugh Gunnison at the Mount, for three heads,"implying that he had a wife and also a child born before 1637. (VideDrake, p. 233.)
Nov. 30, 1637. With fifty-seven others of the best citizens of Boston, hewas disarmed for the Hutchinson Heresy.
Feb. 28, 1642. He proposed "to keep an Ordinary with a Cooke's Shop."
June 14, 1642. " Hugh Gunnison haveing set up a Cooke's shop is alowedto sell beare to his guestes some at 2d a quart, some at \d a quart,being al ways to have small beare for such as desire it."
May 14, 1645. "Hugh Gunnison and Susan Hudson were denied to drawwine."
Jan. 25, 1646. His first wife, Elizabeth, died in Boston.
May 22, 1646. "At a session of ye General Court the Deputes haveingbene comfortably pvided for and \vth due attendance ye Corte hathvoted y1 Hugh Gunnison shalbe paid w,h ye first, either out of ye customeof wines, or ye wampum from ye Narragansett when those bill wch arecharged thereupon are satisfied and y1 his servants be alowed out of yetreasury 20 S. for their service."
In 1646 he was duly enrolled as a member of the Ancient and HonorableArtillery Company.
Nov. 4, 1646. He was licensed for Boston.
May 23, 1647. For n1s second wife he married Sarah, the widow ofHenry Lynn. (See Drake.)
Dec. 11, 1648. He was again licensed for Boston.
Jan. 29, 1649. "Hugh Gunnison may payle in for 40 S. six foot of groundin width and twelve in length down to his sign post."
The " Book of Possessions" in Boston (see Drake), contains the following :
" Gunnison, Hugh. 1 House and Garden the St. S. E. Geo. Burden, N. E.Wm. Hudson, Jr., N. W., Wm. Ting W'd 10 (4) 1650." (June 10, 1650,probable date of his Deed.) Robert Saltonstall, gr. Hugh G. 50 A, inSalem near Mr. Downing's Farm, late the land of Richd. Walker of Salem :Deed 25 (5) 1647. In pres. of Rich. Stileman, John Bushnell and Wm.Aspinwall."
Oct. 29, 1650. " Hugh Gunnison of Boston granted unto Mr. AnthonyStoddard and Henry Shrimpton all that his dwelling house called by yename of the King's Armes, with all that land, brewhouse, barnes, stables,yards, thereto belonging, with all his furniture therein, as beds, bedding,linnen and woollen, curtains, vallence, pewter, brass, copper, tables,stooles, with his horse, cows and fifteen swine, and all his brewingvessels. And this was for considerable summes to them due. Provided,that if the said considerable summes of money due to them be paid at orbefore the 28th of October, 1650, and then his Deed to be void,otherwise to remain in force. Acknowledged with the consent of his wife,Oct. 29, 1650, before William Hibbins."
April"], 1691, above Mortgage satisfied and ordered to be taken off.(Suffolk Rec., Lib. \.f. 128.)
April "j, 1651. Deed from Hugh Gunnison of Boston in New England,Vintner, and Sarah his wife to John Sampson, Henry Shrimpton, andWilliam Brenton, all of Boston, Merchants, in consideration of ^"600Sterling, for the above property, and the goods specified in an Inventoryannexed in eighteen rooms, halls and closets. On record in SuffolkRecords, Lib. 1, folios 135, 136, and copied here in Appendix.
" The King's Arms Tavern formerly as early as two centuries ago was theprincipal place of entertainment in the town, at the corner of Col.Shrimpton's Lane, now called Exchange St. Afterwards called States ArmsTavern, in State Street, then known as Water St." " The ordinary where themagistrates used to diet, 1653. Owned by Henry Shrimpton, 1666."(Shurtleff, pp. 396, 641.)
Hugh Gunnison must have gone directly from Boston to Kittery, Me., in1651, for in that year, we find him noticed by the Grand Jury at Kittery,as follows :
" We present Hugh Gunnison for neglect of enclosing up his copper orFurnace, after notice given him of the danger, whereby a man fell andwas scalded and died the next day ensuing, by means whereof he wasburied without a coroner's inquest."
He is mentioned in Genealogical Register, VIII., 61, as being in Kittery onSept. 22, 1652.
Nov. 16, 1652. Hugh Gunnison and forty others, including Wm. Hilton,Charles Frost, Nicholas Shapleigh, Humfrey Chadbourne, and ThomasWithers (early settlers of Dover, N. H.), appeared before theCommissioners at Kittery and submitted to the Government ofMassachusetts Bay in New England. (Gen. Reg. III., 192.)
Nov. 20, 1652. The Town Commissioners in Kittery were Hugh Gunnison,Bryan Pendleton, and Thomas Withers. The licensed Innholder orOrdinaries were John Davis of York, and Hugh Gunnison of Kittery. Thelatter was " required to pay only 20 S. the butt for his license to sell wineand Strong water.''
Dec. 16, 1652. " Three Hundred Acres of Land were granted to Mr. HughGunnison."
May 18, 1653. Hugh Gunnison was appointed Judge of Common Pleaswith Brian Pendleton and Thomas Withers. He was also this yearRepresentative to the General Court for Kittery.
Aug. 24, 1653. "Granted to Mr. Hugh Gunnison a little island withinSpruce Creek on the West side, Ram Island, excepting any former grant."(Kittery Town Records.)
In 1654, he was Representative to the General Court for Wells. (Date,May 3, 1654.)
May 3, 1654. " In answer to a petition of Hugh Gunnison, and the caserespecting him and Capt. Shapleigh, and the late Court held at York, it isordered, and hereby declared that all Hugh Gunnison's goods shall bereturned to him, taken away by execution or replevin at Capt. Shapleigh'ssute and the damage and costs shall be made good according to theJudgment of Capt. Richard Walden and Mr. Valentine Hill, and if theycannot agree, they are to choose a third man, and then to determine it,"&c.
Aug. 12, 1656. With others he petitions Oliver Cromwell for relief fromRoyal Exactions.
May 6, 1657. " Hugh Gunnison being returned by the Constable of Kitteryto serve as a Deputy for y' towne upon information against him, wasjudged unmeet for y' service and so dismist ye Court and dischargedfrom what employments he hath had, both in Military and Judiciaryaffayres." (Mass. Col. Records, III., 431.)
Notwithstanding he had been disarmed for Heresy in Boston, and hadbeen driven away by oppression, the tyranny of the " Lords Brethren," itseems, reached Hugh Gunnison even in his retreat at Kittery. Although hehad the popular vote, he was not allowed to discharge the duties of theoffice to which he was elected, or to exercise any office of trust orauthority in the colony.
The inuendo of Bourne in his " History of Wells and Kennebunk," p. 96,that the General Court refused to admit him as a member when electedto that position by the Town of Kittery, on the ground that he was a "licensed rum-seller," is not justified by the facts, and is unworthy a placein serious history.
The latest notice of Hugh Gunnison that I can find, is under date of Sept.21, 1658. ((Sen. Reg.
VIL, 3S4-)
One of Hugh Gunnison's daughters married a man named Tucker. For onNov. 4, 1718, one Richard Tucker took out Letters of Administration,filed his bond, and an Inventory, on the Estate of Hugh Gunnison, late ofKittery, deceased, his Grandfather. (See Probate Records, Alfred, YorkCo., Me.)
His son, Joseph, (b. Mar. 31, 1659) was never married. On the oldGunnison place (granted Dec. 16, 1652), was a Garrison House erectedby Hugh the year previous. One evening in the fall of 1707, while aviolent snow storm was raging, the above Joseph was stationed as asentinel at this house, as hostile Indians were in the neighborhood. Hisinstructions were to hail any person approaching, three times, and if noanswer was returned, to fire. Now it happened that a boatload of personsfrom Portsmouth landed near by, among whom was Grace, the wife ofWilliam YVentworth, who had left a young child at home, and was hurryingon, in advance of the rest of the company, past the Garrison house,muffled up in her cloak, facing the driving snow storm. She was hailed,and not replying, was fired upon by Joseph Gunnison, and mortallywounded. Before she died, she acquitted him of all blame in the matter,but his own conscience refused to pronounce him guiltless. Although hewas put on trial for the homicide and legally aquitted, he was himselfalways under the impression that he was guilty of murder. During the restof his life he was melancholv, and at times deranged.
Tradition by Mrs. Saml. Gunnison (Sally Norton.) The following from theYork County, Me. Records, confirms the tradition :
"Joseph Gunnison tried at Kittery Court for killing Grace, the wife of Wm.Wentworth, on 27th day of Sept. 1707. He was acquitted."
The woman who was killed was one of the children of Nicholas Tucker,who made his Will Jan. 21, 1716—17, Proved April 2, 1717, and willedto his grandson, William Wentworth, his mother's portion of his estate.Richard Tucker, who administered on the estate of his grandfather, HughGunnison, was probably first cousin to the woman who was killed. Thatwould make the woman first cousin to Joseph Gunnison's nephew.
GUNNISON score of years after the planting of the colony at Plymouth in 1620, there came to New England five immigrant families who bore the surnames of Scammon, Frost. Bryar and Raynes, two having the same name.These are said to have been families of English birth and origin, and thatwith them came one of another nationality a Swede, young, strong andof good appearance, whose name was Hugh Gunnison, founder of the first family of that name in New England.
It may be said, however, that early New England records are not quite clear in respect to the date of birth, the year of landing and the events of the early life of Hugh Gunnison, or in respect to the date of his first marriage, the family name of his first wife and the precise number of his children; but the best information drawn from all reliable sources, supplementedwith well preserved family tradition, indicate that he was born about the year 1610, and -came to New England probably in 1630: that the colonists of whose number he was one entered Piscataqua harbor before there was any habitation of man at Portsmouth and when there were only two small huts on Great Island (New Castle). His later movements, so far as the records searched tend to throw light on the matter, cannot be given with any safe degree of accuracy, but generally it may be said that he was firstof Vintner, New Hampshire, then <-f Boston, and later of Kittery, Maine,where he died September 21, 1658.
(I) Hugh Gunnison was in Boston as early as 1634, and on May 25. 1636.with sixty-eight others subscribed to the test oath and was accepted as afreeman. In the distribution of lands to the freemen of Boston on January9, 1637, there was allotted to "Brother Hugh Gunnison at the Mount for three heads," indicating that he then had a wife and one child, although "Records of Boston" says that Sarah Gunnison, daughter of Hugh Gunnison
and Elizabeth his wife, was born December 14, 1637. From the same source it is learned that Elizabeth Gunnison, daughter of Hugh and Elizabeth Gunnison, was born February 25, 1640, and also that their third child.Deborah (immison. was born in August, 1642. It may be well to state in this connection that Sarah was not the first born of Hugh and Elizabeth Gunnison, but that their first child died in extreme infancy. Elizabeth, first wife of Hugh Gunnison, died November 25, 1646 (Records of Boston), andafter her death he married Sarah Lynn, who bore him two sons, Joseph, born January , 1649, and Elihu, born February 12. 1650. In November, 1637, Hugh Gunnison was one of fiftyeight of "the best citizens of Boston" who were charged with complicity in the Hutchinson heresy, and forthat offense were deprived of the privilege of bearing arms. He must have gone from' Boston to Kittery, in Maine, before 1651, for in that year hewas noticed by the grand jury of that town. In 1654 (date of May 3), he was representative of Wells to the general court.
(II) Elihu, sixth child and youngest son of Hugh Gunnison, was born in Boston. February 12, 1650, and died after March 29, 1729. He was a shipwright by business occupation and a man of considerable influence among the townsmen. In 1680 he joined with other inhabitants of York, Kittery and Wells in an address to Charles II, praying to be relieved of the Puritan government of Boston, and in the same year he was acting magistrate. Hisname does not appear in the public records of Kittery before the year 1693, when he was chosen selectman, in which capacity he continued to serve until 1710. On May 9, 1693, he was appointed with others to give instructions to the deputy of the representatives to ' the general court at Boston. From 1699 to 1726 he was moderator of the town. Elihu Gunnison married, first, November 10. 1674, at Dover, New Hampshire, Martha Trickee, who died before November 23, 1765. The Christian name of his second wife was Elizabeth, but her family name is unknown. By his first wifeElihu Gunnison had four children and two by his second wife. Mentioned in the oTder of birth these children were as follows: Elihu, born in Dover,New Hampshire; a child, born in Dover and afterward killed by the Indians; Priscilla, born at Kittery. and married Nicholas Weeks; Mary, married Joseph Weeks; Joseph : Elizabeth, married John Walker.
(III) Joseph, son of Elihu Gunnison and Elizabeth, his wife, was born October 14, 1690, and died September 8, 1748. He was by trade a shipwright, following the occupation of his father; and he was a pious man. uprightin his daily walk, and exercised an influence for good in the community inwhich he lived. He was admitted to the church April 14. 1720, and was elected deacon April 2, 1731. On July 15, 1724, he was made clerk of theparish of Kittery. He married four times: First, Susanna Follett; second, Elizabeth Lewis; third, Margaret Wilson, and fourth. Susanna Ayers. His children, in the order of birth, were: Samuel, John. David, William. Christopher,Benjamin. Margaret, William (the second child so named), Elizabeth and Lydia.
(IV) Samuel, eldest son and child of Joseph Gunnison, of whom mention ismade in the preceding paragraph, and of the fourth generation of the descendants of Hugh Gunnison and Sarah his wife, was born in Kittery, Maine, January 27, 1720-1, and to him is accorded the honor of having founded in New Hampshire that particular branch of the Gunniscn family whoserepresentatives in succeeding generations have been so prominently identified
with the best interests and history of Sullivan county for nearly a century and a half of years. Samuel Gunnison was a carpenter in Kittcry until 1749,when he removed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his wife and the secondof their children died. He afterward returned to Kittery. lived several more years in that town, and in 1765 moved with his second wife and family to the town of Goshen, New Hampshire. He was one of the pioneers of thetown and one of its foremost citizens until the time of his death, May 14,1806. He married, first, February 6, 1745, Jane Fernald, who died January 20, 1750, and married, second. May 3. 1752, Alice Fernald, a sister of his first wife, and who died July 5, 1804. She was born February 21, 1725-26. The children of Samuel Gunnison were Susanna, who married Edmund Wilson; Joseph; Margaret, who married Joseph Chandler, of Goshen; Samuel; Ephraim, who died in infancy; Daniel; Ephraim and Nathaniel, twins, and Alice.
(V) Ephraim Gunnison, son of Samuel and Alice (Fernald) Gunnison, was born in Goshen, New Hampshire, July 16, 1766, and with his twin brotherNathaniel was the first of his surname to be born in that town. He was a farmer by occupation, a thorough, practical, hard-working farmer, and byhis energy and thrift acquired a fair competency for his time. He lived toattain the full age of eightyfive years and for many years was a consistentmember of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics he was a Democrat. Ephraim Gunnison died June, 1851. His wife, whom he married August6, 1787, was Deborah Freeman, born January 24. 1764, died April, 185.3. They had seven children : Eunice, who married Ebenezer Batcheldcr ;Deborah, who married Abner Colby; Lucy, who married James Osgood; Lois, who married John' Stephens; Vina!, who married Eliza Baker and hadeight children; Ebenezer; and Margaret, who became the wife of David Hastings.