Watts alias Mercer

Trying to make use of my NEGHS sub, so refocusing on my New England Watts bunch.

Samuel Watts (1716- about 1787) b. Haverhill, Essex Co, Massachusetts married Alice "Elsie" Bean. Moved to Falmouth, Maine and died in Jonesboro, Washington Co, Maine. Progenitor of most of the Watts descendants in Downeast area of Maine. His father was:

Samuel Watts (1691- after 1763) lived in Haverhill, Mass. (My brother says that's pronounced HAY-vrill). Married Abigail Dustin. I was researching him and got sidetracked by his dad:

Samuel Watts (about 1650 - 1721). He is most likely the immigrant ancestor. He died intestate. NEHGS has the probate images of inventory and back and forth between his children for the leavings. He is described as a yeoman. This Samuel Watts married twice. Both wives were named Elizabeth Ayer (or spelling variant) from Haverhill, Mass. I remember seeing in the State Archives that he was elected a member of Legislature or General Court of Massachusetts, as was later his son, Samuel.

Check out this listing:

Legislators of the Massachusetts General Court, 1691-1780
Samuel WATTS (ALIAS MERCER)
Bibliography 1938 Pillsbury g 2:1075-81; Torrey, 786; Haverhill I:299.
Date of event: 1721
Location: Wiltshire, England
Original text: Haverhill HR 1704, 05; M Elizabeth Ayer (1659-1695) in 1684 and Elizabeth (Ayer) Clements (1652-a1717) in 1697, 5/1 ch; farmer.
Record type: Death

Well! This "alias Mercer" business is entirely news to me. Also this listing makes it appear that he died in Wiltshire, but the probate has an expense item for a funeral - presumably in Haverhill. So that's the first question: Is there a record of a death for a Samuel Watts and/or Mercer in 1721 aged 70ish in Wiltshire? Other researchers say he was born in Wilts and died in Haverhill.

I did a NEHGS search on Samuel Mercer and got a reference to him in the probate of Capt. John Evered alias Webb who died at sea in a whaling accident:

Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume II, C-F
In his will, dated 10 February, 1665/6 and attested 13 November, 1668
"Capt. John Evered alias John Web of Drawcutt [farm] upon Mirramacke" in Norfolk County, "late of the town of Boston" merchant, sick and weak of body, bequeathed to...
... "to each of the rest of my servants viz Hugh Stone, Samuel Mercer alias Watts, John Bennett, Peter Rattebough, and Elizabeth Lilbourew, 40s. each; residue to be equally divided by my cousins John Eyres, Robert Eyres, Thomas Eayres, Peter Eayres, and Katherine Eayres of Haverhill, ..."

[note to self: I need to research John Ayers/Eyres on the Great Migration Project.]

Finally, I did a web search for Watts alias Mercer and came up with parish records referring to some folks from Tangley, Hampshire too late to be direct relations.

Whew! Sorry this got so long. I read somewhere that the "alias" is similar to today's hyphenated names. I got lost on FS with all the Watts and Mercer's plus spelling variants. If any of you have too much time on your hands, I'd appreciate some help - especially with the British records. (BTW, Samuel Watts of Chelsea, Mass is not him.)

 

G.Barb, Have you seen a particular tree on Ancestry which has info from,"National sons of The American Revolution" etc. & suggest Samuel Watts b.1659 Haverhill, Essex.
also
Samuell & Elizabeth Clements wid. mar 8 1696-7.

[sorry, we have electrician here working]

 

Wow. what a heap of history there Barb.
I have been busy googling and having loads of fun but totally confused as there is so much on there. I have put the two Elizabeth's into some kind of order in my brain.
Elizabeth the 2nd was married to John Clements. Then she married Samuel Watts as Elizabeth Clements widow March 8 (our anniversary too ) 1696-7.
The first Elizabeth having died in 1695. Is that correct?
Samuel and Elizabeth the 1st had...Elizabeth 1689, Henry 1693-1695, John 1685, Mary 1687, Samuel 1691.
I have forgotten where I found all this. I think it was a BDM site for Haverhill or was it Salem . I'll have to go back and search again. Just love all the history and it looks like you have been busy on there as well.

 

No, Wendy. I don't generally look at other folks' trees on A...

[Samuel Watts, b. 1659 is a son of Samuel Watts and Elsie Bean. He was very active during the Revolution.] oops! twas thinking 1759!

Elizabeth Clements was the 2nd wife of the Samuel Watts (alias Mercer). Clements was her married name. Her maiden name was Ayer.

I've spent this evening looking through Ayer records for clues on Samuel. Nothing new.

 

Snap, Sue! You just answered Wendy's question much better than I did!

 

I am wondering if the occupation of 'mercer' could come into the equation somewhere!!! Say Samuel Watts the 'mercer' if there was another Samuel Watts to confuse I see that somewhere he was known as Lt Samuel Mercer as well as Lt Samuel Wats/Watts

 

You do realise Barb that you have kept me from roaming the streets for the next few days

 

Thanks, Sue. I need to research Lt Mercer and see what comes up... but it's getting late here. Hate to stop, though.

 

I've been scrolling through 'History of Haverhill' a google book looking for anything on Samuel. So far found on page 128 "from the journal of Captain John Hull, Treasurer of the Colony under date of August 24 1676, we copy the following list of soldiers from this town and the sum paid to each".
Second from the bottom Samuel Watts, 00.13.06.
On page 155 he is found under the command of Sergeant John Webster in 1689.
A very interesting read, although too long for my attention span on a screen. I will pick it up again tomorrow to see what else I can glean. So far no sign of the 'Mercer' name

 

Just to satisfy my curiosity. Is Abigail related to the somewhat very brave Hannah Duston who scalped a few natives? Loving this history by the minute.

 

Yes! Hannah (Emerson) Dustin/Dustan/Duston (depending on what time it is) was Abigail's mother. Abigail came along after that time, I think.

Hannah was not the only woman taken captive who later escaped. She was, however, the most notorious. There is a statue to her in Haverhill.

 

re: Lt. Watts - I found a rootsweb tree that has a note explaining how the town had little lookout cabins on the perimeter of the town for defense against the natives, and our Samuel was assigned to one of these posts.

re: two Elizabeth Ayers - I have a long ago downloaded e-book about John Ayers and descendants. His sons, Thomas and Robert both had daughters named Elizabeth. Thomas's daughter was Samuel's first wife. Robert's daughter married John Clements and later Samuel Watts.

Also, another source said that John's Ayers wife, Hannah, was an "Everett alias Webb." but I failed to note which source.

 

I have just read of her capture and how her poor husband had to make the choice. Stay and defend or flee with the other children to safety. He chose to protect his children. His wife had only a few days before given birth to a little girl and so stayed with the nurse and baby. The baby was killed by the savages in front of her and she and the nurse were captured.
Barb mentions that Hannah was the most notorious. Her statue portrays the real story. She is the holding the scalps of her captors.
I am so enthralled in this book.......

 

Today I searched TNA for Watts alias Mercer and Mercer alias Watts. There are a few possible connections to follow - in Tangley, Hants again and Chute, Wiltshire.

Also at Wiltshire and Swindon Archive:

I would love to lay my hands on the "rough genealogical memorandum of the Watts family.

There are more refs, but those are the most promising looking ones so far.

 

Digitised book 'Hampshire Parish Registers'.
It is extremely out of order but in amongst some registrations in 1712 there is in '[ ]' 'The burial of John Watts alias Mercer, occurs in 1680'.
A bit more to search for in your quest. https://archive.org/stream/hampshireparishr02phil/hampshireparishr02phil_djvu.txt
Just in case you have a rainy day.....

 

John Watts alias Mercer of Tangley to Sarah Guyatt of Chute 16/11/1747.
Seems the Mercer thing goes way back in Hampshire. Another marriage I spied was for Alis Watt alias Mercer. They're everywhere......

 

Two interesting finds on Family Search.
Thomas Mercer or Wattes 1603 Andover Hampshire, father John Mercer.
Helin Mercer or Watts married James Poole 1st October 1599, Quarley, Hampshire.

 

Thanks, Sue. I tried searching in FreeReg and FMP (without a sub), but didn't see much... or maybe it was too many.

Rainy day! I've got a reprieve this week from Granny duty . Unfortunately I have a backlog of neglected projects (and friends) that need attending to, so I can't spend all my waking hours on genie stuff. Aw shucks!

 

As a Christmas present, my sister sent a book about Hannah Dustin called "Massacre on the Merrimack" by Jay Atkinson, who grew up near the Hannah Dustin statue. I had a few hours to myself today and got through the first 80 pages or so. He went back to all the original historical sources to construct a very detailed account of the entire story, including all the background on the natives, the town, the family, etc.

No further progress on the Watts alias Mercer track, however.

 

Minor update: I got bored the other nite watching tv and decided to have another look-see and found a ref on NEHGS that led to a listing in a book called
"Ancestry of Charles Stinson Pillsbury and John Sargent Pillsbury", written in 1938, only 100 copies printed. I found it on Internet Archives, uploaded from Boston Public Library. Great! It's only available to one person at a time, you have to sign up for the wait list. Did that. This morning I got the email with the link to check out the book for up to 2 weeks. Hooray! Vol 2, over 600 pages, takes awhile to load on my slow connection. Paging through. About 40 pages in a message pops up: connection broken, their site is down for maintenance!

When I get a chance to actually read the section on Watts alias Mercer, I'll let you know. Watch this space...