Genealogical and Family History
of the
STATE OF MAINE

Volume III

Compiled under the editorial supervision of George Thomas Little, A. M., Litt. D.

LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
New York
1909.

[Please see Index page for full citation.]

[Transcribed by Sandra Boudrou]

[Many families included in these genealogical records had their beginnings in Massachusetts.]

LEAVITT Sir John Leavitt was born in England and probably in Dorsetshire in 1608. He was of the Teutonic race, their language modified by the periods of Anglo-Saxon Old English, Middle English to Modern English usage. His advent in New England was but eight years after the "Mayflower" passengers landed at Plymouth and his first home in America bordered on the Plymouth Colony. He was undisputably the first of the name of Leavitt to make a home in the New World. (I) John Leavitt was about twenty years old when he reached the shores of the New World. He was among the first settlers of the common land known as Mattapan, which plantation, September 7, 1630, was established under the direction of the general court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as the town of Dorchester. John White, the first minister of the church established as the nucleus of the town, and his followers were mostly from Dorsetshire, England, and they gave to the new town the name of the municipal borough and capitol of the shore Dorchester, located eight miles north of the seaport at Weymouth, from which port they probably took ship for New England, and it is safe to presume that John Leavitt was a Dorsetshire man. The settlement at Mattapan antedated the settlement of the town of Charlestown, Watertown, Roxbury and Boston, although the general court established the town government of Charlestown, August 23, 1630, and of Boston, Dorchester and Watertown on September 7, 1630, and of Roxbury, September 28, 1630. In 1633 the town of Dorchester was described as "ye greatest towne in New England." John Leavitt appeared before the general court and took the freeman's oath March 3, 1636, he having removed from Dorchester to that part of the colony which included the common lands known as Borilove, established as the town of Hingham, September 2, 1635. He was deacon of the church for many years; was selectman of the town 1661-63-65-68-72-74 and 1675; was a representative in the general court of Massacusetts Colony 1656-64, and held other offices of trust and honor in the town and colony. He was married about 1636 but the name of his wife is not recorded. She died July 4, 1646, and he married for his second wife Sarah ____, December 16, 1646, died May 26, 1700. Deacon John Leavitt was by trade a "tayler," and died in Hingham, November 20, 1691, aged eighty-three years. The children of Deacon John Leavitt by his first wife were: 1. John, of Hingham, born 1637, married Bathsheba, daughter of Rev. Peter Hobart, June 27, 1664. He died soon after, and his wife married, November 19, 1674, Joseph Turner. 2. Hannah, baptized April 7, 1639, married John Lobdell, of Hull. 3. Samuel, baptized April, 1641, removed to Exeter, New Hampshire. 4. Elizabeth, baptized April 8, 1644, married Samuel Judkins, March 25, 1667. 5. Jennial, baptized March 1, 1645-46, removed to Rochester, Plymouth Colony. Children of John Leavitt and his second wife, Sarah: 6. Israel (q.v.), baptized April 23, 1648. 7. Moses, baptized April 12, 1650, removed to Exeter, New Hampshire. 8. Josiah, May 4, 1653. 9. Nehemiah, January 22, 1655-56. 10. Sarah, February 25, 1658-59, married Nehemiah Clapp, of Dorchester, and as her second husband Samuel Howe. 11. Mary, June 12, 1661, married Benjamin Bates, of New London, Connecticut, October 10, 1682. 12. Hannah (2d), March 20, 1663-64, married Joseph Loring, October 25, 1683. 13. Abigail, December 9, 1667, married, January 20, 1685-86, Isaac Lasell.