"Cemetery" is the Week 17 challenge for #52Ancestors.

Since the passing of my grandparents in 1979 and 1980, I had always accompanied my family on many trips to the Riverside Cemetery in New Castle, New Hampshire, to visit their graves and refresh the flowers kept there. Having not yet delved into my paternal ancestry at that time, I had not known that many of my ancestors were buried there, and I had been walking by them for so many years. 

The following are the grave stones of my direct ancestors which currently stand in Riverside Cemetery. There are other relatives here that do not have stones, nor are their plots known. The amount of cousins buried here number in the hundreds, with the family names of AMAZEEN, LEAR, MELOON, PRIDHAM, and YEATON being a part of this community since the 1600-1700's.  

Nathaniel and Keziah Lear, my 5th Great-Grandparents.  He died on April 5, 1824, Aged 57. She died April 6, 1844, Aged 78. Considering the dates of death, they were likely buried elsewhere, perhaps on their old property, and moved to this cemetery after it was opened.
See also: Nathaniel Lear of New Castle, NH 

My 4th Great-Grandparents:
William A. Meloon, 27 Nov 1795 - 27 Nov 1842
The son of Abraham (Abram) and Elizabeth (Marden) Meloon
Mary (Lear) Meloon, his wife, 25 June 1800 - 28 Feb 1873
The daughter of Nathaniel and Keziah (Amazeen) Lear

Note: ALL of these photos were taken by me, between 2008 and 2012, and I have posted many of the same ones onto "Find a Grave", and also to my Flickr account. Some of them have since found their way onto Ancestry family trees, which is fine, so long as an original source is indicated. So, to my cousins who have found their way here, I say "Hello!"

Update: Since starting this page two weeks ago, I traveled down to New Castle, and revisited the cemetery. Glad to see the Barnabus Yeaton stone is upright again!   

There is a memorial in the seacoast town of New Castle, New Hampshire, erected in the memory of their fishermen who have been lost at sea. It once stood on the grounds of the Congregational Church in the 1850's, was later moved to what became Riverside Cemetery, and now stands on New Castle's Great Island Common. 

The inscription "To the memory of citizens of New Castle lost at sea" has been re-carved into the stone, though the biblical verse fading away below it was left out. It once read:  "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God - and the sea gave up the dead, which were in it. - Rev. 20: 12,13"

Notes:
1. In Brewster's Rambles About Portsmouth (pages 84-85), published in 1857, it mentions the monument (which bears an 1856 date on its base) being in the church yard. John Frost's cemetery transcription of 1955 lists the monument's inscribed names under the "New Castle" (now Riverside) Cemetery, so it seems the monument had been moved there by the 1950's. During the numerous times I have walked that cemetery, I had just assumed I had missed the memorial (until April 2018, when I went looking specifically for it, and lastly tried the Commons while heading back out of town).
2. The Inez sailed from Portsmouth, NH on 13 April 1847, and was likely lost in a gale near Sable Island [NH Gazette, 8 Feb 1848 issue] around the 29th of same month. Robert Martin was the master, his father Edward was also on board. Besides the 7 listed on the monument, also lost was Ira Matthews, aged 20 yrs, from Rye, NH.
3. John Yeaton, a fisherman like his father, was my 3rd Great-Uncle. He was born 20 Sept 1830 in New Castle, the son of John and Dorothy (Amazeen) Yeaton.
​4. John Tarlton was the son of John and Ann (Yeaton) Tarlton, born 29 Sept 1828 (per town recs). His mother Ann was the dau of Barnabus Yeaton, and was my 4th Great-Aunt (John being my 1st cousin, 4x removed).
5. The Balerma was one of hundreds of fishing vessels off of Prince Edward Island when a gale struck on Oct. the 3rd, 1851, destroying dozens of ships and grounding many more. The New Hampshire Gazette, 10/28/1851, reported that Newburyport alone had lost 19, with 2 missing, and some 32 were lost from other ports. The sunken Balerma was in 7 fathoms of water, but another vessel was able to drag her ashore onto Fisherman's Isle. The bodies of Capt Trefethen and four of his crew were still inside the ship, and were buried in the church cemetery at Malpeque. The Portsmouth Journal, issue 11/01/51, listed nine members of the crew (an earlier account said there were 10 on board). Of the 4 listed on the memorial, Benjamin Hunt was the only one not a New Castle native; he was born in Digby, N.S., but was residing in town. The others lost on the Balerma were George Staples and John Hanson of Portsmouth, NH, George Shapley of Rye, NH, Martin Gates of Liverpool, N.S., and A. McKensie of Gut of Canso.
6. Charles Smith is not seen in the 1850 New Castle census, and it is not known who he was at this time. He was NOT the Charles H, age 22, who was stationed at Fort Constitution in that census, as that man was still serving in the army in 1855.
7. Seaman Calvin White was lost overboard near Hogg Island (location not mentioned), per the Boston Courier, 11/30/1854. He was the son of Thomas B. and Julia (Staples) White, born 30 Sept 1833 [New Castle records]
8. Eight men were lost from the Nile, the one not on the monument was a Portsmouth man, Thomas Powell (previously from Nova Scotia). On 11 Nov. 1860, a funeral sermon was read in New Castle, commemorating those townspeople lost from this ship. The Congregational Journal (Concord, NH) newspaper, on 20 Dec 1860, printed an extract, with write-ups on each man lost. Capt Samuel Batson had left a widow and 8 orphaned children, while a widow and 3 youngsters were left to mourn Henry Yeaton [my 3rd Great-Uncle, his brother John would be lost at sea the following year]. The other men were single: Elias Hubley, born in Nova Scotia, came here with his family in 1851 (an older brother was lost at sea in 1855), while Richard Thompson had moved to town in 1857, from Kennebunkport, Maine. Gilman Hilliard left a widowed mother, Meshach B Cousins leaving behind a twice widowed mother and several siblings. John M Meloon was the adopted son of my 3rd Great-Grandfather, Alfred Meloon. Many of these men can be seen in the 1860 New Castle census - though taken in July of that year, the ship had yet to be considered lost, so the families seemed hopeful that their vessel would return.
​9. Horton Oliver Card [b. 9/25/1839, son of John and Deborah (Kinney) Card] was chief mate of the ship Portsmouth, which had sailed for Queenstown, New Zealand in mid-October 1865 (the departure place is unreadable, perhaps "Nevassa"). It may have been lost in the area of Cuba and the Banks about Oct. 21st, when there was a gale in that vicinity [per the Boston Daily Advertiser, 2/07/1866]. Three Portsmouth men were also lost: Capt Robert Boardman, Thomas Yeaton (son of Moses) and Charles A. Weeks (s/o Charles P.) 

​There were many more citizens of New Castle who never returned from their sea voyages, yet their names did not make the monument. I will amend the following list as other names are found:
​
Philip Yeaton, lost at sea before 15 Jan 1802 [my 4th Great-Grandfather]
​William Neal, lost at sea 16 Jan. 1817, aged 31 yrs [s/o Richard and Abigail Neal]
William Amazeen, drowned 15 Oct 1826
Ephraim Amazeen, lost at sea, Jan 1831 
Benjamin B Curtis, lost in the Pacific Ocean, Dec. 26, 1851, aged 31 yrs [s/o Thomas, wife Martha A Lear]
Herbert L. Brown, lost at sea near Montauk Point, Oct. 10, 1874, aged 26 yrs

Week 15 of the #52Ancestors Challenge - "Taxes"

​A database recently added to the Harvard University website was the "1771 Massachusetts Tax Inventory", which includes the information (in searchable form) about the taxable property of individuals living in 152 Massachusetts towns in 1771. Of interest to me is the inclusion of four (District of) Maine towns from York County, Kittery being one where some of my ancestors resided during that time (the other 3 towns were Berwick, Sanford, and York).

There were 594 tax payers listed for Kittery, and I found five of my direct ancestors on that list. 
​

JONATHAN FERNALD [my 6th Great-Grandfather]
1 dwelling house
1 acre, tillage land (10 bushels of grain produced per year)
3 acres of English and Upland mowing land (1 ton of hay per year)
1 cow
1 swine
3 £ - annual worth of whole real estate
​

EBENEZER FERNALD [my 7th Great-Grandfather, 1699-1787]
1 dwelling house
25 acres of pasture
12 barrels of cider per year
7 acres of English/Upland mowing land (6 ton of hay per year)
1 horse
3 cows
6 goats/sheep
1 swine
8 ​£ ann. worth of estate
​

THOMAS BROWN [my 6th Great-Grandfather, 1730-1808]
​- no numbers attributed to him
​

WILLIAM DEARING (DEERING) [my 7th Great-Grandfather, 1706- ]
1 dwelling house
30 acres of pasture
30 acres English/Upland mowing land (22 tons of hay per year)
20 acres of fresh meadow (10 tons of hay per year)
7 cows
7 goats/sheep
2 swine
1 "servant for life"
16 ​£ annual worth of whole real estate
​

JOSEPH CURTIS [my 6th Great-Grandfather, 1721-1772]
1 dwelling house
1 acre of tillage (10 bushels of grain)
4 acres English/Upland mowing land (3 tons of hay per yr)
1 acre fresh meadow (1 ton of hay)
2 cows
5 goats/sheep
1 swine
2 ​£ annual worth in estate
​

NOTE: Page not yet complete, as I would like to add maps to current locations where these properties once stood. This could take awhile!