"Work" is the subject for Week 36 of the "52 Ancestors Challenge"

Many of my ancestors lived on the small island of New Castle, New Hampshire, at the entrance of the Piscataqua River, a community made up primarily of mariners and fishermen.

I found this interesting "memorial" or petition, sent to the United States Congress on 15 February 1839, from the citizens of New Castle [Congressional Serial Set Vol. 340]. At that time, there was a law in place which paid a bounty to vessels engaged in the cod fisheries, the funds paid to help offset the costs of business (including the long periods of time at sea and the costs of the salt needed to preserve the fish). In 1839, Congress had a proposition to repeal this law, which would have greatly affected the livelihood of the local fisherman here. So, the townspeople signed and sent off the following:

​These are the 64 names from the above "memorial", with additional notes added:
​

NOTES:
- According to the 1840 census, there were 742 persons living in New Castle, far less than the "nearly one thousand" as written in the opening paragraph. Of this number, the occupations of the work force were listed as: "navigation of the seas" - 95; "agriculture" - 16; "commerce" - 5; "manufacturers and traders" - 9; "learned professions and engineers" - 1.
​- Absent from the list are any Pridham or Meloon names, both surnames represented in town by direct ancestors of mine (and were mariners).
- The Amazeen and Yeaton families, having been on the island since the 1600's, are all related to me in one way or the other, whether it be a "5th Great-Uncle" or "1st cousin, 5x removed"", etc. Intermarrying with the other early settlers, probably 3/4 of the list are blood relatives and are somewhere in my family tree.   

This post will serve as a record of my direct ancestors who served during the American Revolution. Considering the scarcity of some original sources, verifying the service of many of my relatives proves quite difficult. I'm sure this list will be amended as other names are found.

WILLIAM BLAKE (1740-1825)
Sergeant in Capt David Gilman's 

JOSEPH LEAVITT (1751-1801)
of Exeter and Wakefield, NH
Capt Moody's Company, Col Badger's Reg't
​
COFFIN PAGE (1755-1801)
of North Hill (North Hampton), New Hampshire
Served in the 3rd NH Regiment (Capt. Richard Weare's Co., Col Scammel's Reg't)
Mustered in 7 May 1777, served for 8 months

ISAAC PRIDHAM
Born: 1 Sept 1746, New Castle, NH; Died: 16 Jan 1847, New Castle, NH
Private, Capt Caleb Hodgdon (later Abraham Perkins)'s Company,
Col Pierce Long's Regiment (1st NH Battalion)
enl 9/19/1776, serv 2 mos, 18 das; serv 12/7/76-1/7/77
1/7/77-2/7/77 (part of Capt Perkins Co. fit for march to Ticonderoga)

DANIEL STEWARD
Born: 21 Nov 1734, Salem, MA; Died: 2 June 1802, Fitchburg, MA
Buried: South Street Cemetery, Fitchburg (Find a Grave entry)
Served as private, Capt Aaron Guild's Company, Col Josiah Whitney'd Reg't
13 July 1776 - 5 Dec 1776 (stationed at Hull, MA)

THOMAS WHITCOMB
Born: 4 Oct 1736, Littleton, MA; Died: 21 June 1824, Norridgewock, ME
Served in Capt Hinds Company, Col Timothy Bedel (Beddle)'s Regiment
Enl: 10 Mar 1776, serv 10 mos; Captured at the Cedars in Canada
and held prisoner for about a month

​HENRY WYMAN
1762 - 1837
Buried: Jewett Cemetery, Madison, Maine

RICHARD YEATON​
​

"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

ALFRED A MELOON, the son of William A and Mary (Lear) Meloon, was born on 8 Mar 1819 in New Castle, NH. He died there from heart disease on 26 Jan 1890, aged 70 yrs [NH vr], and is buried in Riverside Cemetery, New Castle, NH.
He was my 3rd Great-Grandfather, and lived his entire life in the seacoast town of New Castle, NH, where he worked as a seaman, shoemaker and laborer. His wife was DOROTHY C YEATON, whom he married in Oct 1841.

His father having died in 1842, the estate was later settled between the heirs, and Alfred's siblings sold him a part of the property in 1855 [Rock Deeds, v.368 p.337]. He and wife Dorothy would sell this home to son William T in 1881. Using maps and Rockingham County deeds, I found that the building still stands, its present address being 24 Wentworth Street.

Children (perhaps incomplete) of Alfred A and Dorothy C (Yeaton) Meloon, all born in New Castle, NH:
i. (adopted) JOHN M MELOON, b. abt 1840; lost at sea on 15 Apr 1860, from the schooner Nile [Congregational Journal, 12/20/1860]
??ii. WILLIAM E (or C) MELOON, age 14 (b.ca.1846), listed w/ family in 1860, perhaps a child, though they also had son Willie (William T) in household, at age 10
iii. LOUISA MEDALA MELOON, b. 24 Jan 1848; d. 12 Sept 1902 in New Castle [NH vr]
iv. WILLIAM M. T. MELOON, b. 30 Aug 1848 (calc) [Aug 1849 on 1900 census prob correct date]; d. 30 July 1913 in New Castle, from an auto accident [NH vr]
v. ALFRED MADISON MELOON, b. 6 May 1852; d. 15 Sept 1909 in New Castle, NH [NH vr]
vi. BENJAMIN JENKINS MELOON, b. abt Mar 1854; d. 13 Sept 1854 in NewCastle [Ports Jrnl, 9/16/54]
vii. BENJAMIN JENKINS MELOON, b. ca 1855 (age 5 in 1860 census; not w/ family in 1870)
viii. ELIZABETH L "Lizzie L.L." MELOON, b. ca 1858; d. 10 Mar 1863, aged 5 yrs, from throat disease [Ports Jrnl, 3/28/63] 

Additional Notes:
Marriage intents of Alfred A and Dorothy C (Yeaton) Meloon (cert issued on 10/04/1841) in New Castle town records, v.3 p.178, p.322. Reported from Portsmouth, NH w/ date of 25 Oct 1841. The Exeter Newsletter, 11/04/41, lists marr, but no date.
1850 New Castle, Rock, NH census: hh 13/22 (brother William A. at 13/21); interesting gap between 1841 marriage and birth of dau Louisa in 1847/48. John M, age 10, was adopted, unknown who Elizabeth is, age 10, b. NY
1857 Rockingham County Map: https://www.loc.gov/item/2012593011/
1860 New Castle, Rockingham, NH census (pg 228): hh 1725/1982
1870 New Castle, NH census (pg 2): Alfred a laborer, house val $500/100
1880 New Castle, NH census (pg 2): hh 14/16