Unfortunately, not too much at all is known about this family group.

Proof of the lineage can be found in the probate records of Thomas's father, Captain Thomas Martin, who died in 1828 a year after his son Thomas did. He left his son Thomas 1/4 share of his estate to Thomas's children: Mary Adams Martin Brown, Thomas Martin, Peter Arnold Martin, and our direct descendant Martha Martin Harris (married to Joseph Harris).

Thomas (recorded as "Thomas 3rd" in church records) married Elizabeth Adams. Thomas and Elizabeth had seven children, two (the first Martha and the first Peter Arnold) who died in infancy and/or before adulthood.

There is no recording of a date of death for Elizabeth Adams Martin. A Thomas Martin 3rd (the same designation used in the records for the marriage of Thomas Martin to Elizabeth Adams) married Mary Butnam in 1804, and this Thomas had three children with Mary. Curiously, two of this second set of children, Mary and Thomas Jefferson, were given Christian names of two in the first set although both those in the first set were still living at the time the second were born. Of course, we assume that Thomas Jefferson was named for the founding father who lived contemporaneously with this family. The fact that the children of Thomas and Mary who were still surviving when our Thomas Martin died, but were not mentioned in his will, along with the curiosity of the duplicate names given to subsequent children while their namesakes were still surviving indicates that it may have been another Thomas Martin who married Mary Butnam.

Thomas and Elizabeth's eldest surviving daughter Mary Adams married Captain Richard Brown (thus becoming Mary Adams Brown). In what must have been something of a tribute to her older sister, Martha Martin Harris named one of her younger daughters "Mary Adams Brown Harris". Martha Harris was a small child when her mother Elizabeth died, and Mary, being 12 years older, probably cared for her as a second mother after their mother's death and before their father's second marriage. Captain and Mary Adams Brown had six children. He died of "consumption" at 44 in 1827, but his widow lived to die of "old age" at 87.

Thomas and Elizabeth's son Thomas married twice. His first wife, Abigail Bridgeo were married in December 1806. There is a record of the baptism of a daughter Abigail Bridges (sic) Martin on 19 Apr 1807 and a record of the death at the age of 16 years of Thomas' wife Abigail. Thomas married secondly Sarah Vickery Pedrick in 1809, and together they had two children, Sarah Arnold and Thomas Martin in 1811 and 1813.

I haven't been able to definitively find records of a marriage or the death of Thomas and Elizabeth's son Arnold. Since he was not listed in his grandfather's will, I assume he died before his grandfather Captain Martin in 1828.

Two records of marriage exist for a "Peter A. Martin", and I'm guessing this is the Peter Arnold Martin born to our Thomas and Elizabeth. The first marriage was to Elizabeth Stacey in

 

1825. They appear to have had a child of unknown gender who died in infancy. In 1839, Peter A. married Jane H. Bridgeo, and together they had at least four children: Hannah in 1843, Philip Bridgeo in 1844, Peter Arnold in 1845, and an unnamed daughter in 1846. Peter Arnold died at the age of 58 of "canker". An 1867 death record for a Jane H. (Hukins) Martin exists for a woman who died of old age (at either 77 or 97 years of age). If this is the same Jane H. Bridgeo who married Peter, that would indicate that she was the widow of a Bridgeo when she married Peter Arnold Martin.

Martha Martin, our direct descendant, married Joseph Harris, who later became a prominent shoe manufacturer, and together they had at least thirteen children. Her son, the second Thomas Martin Harris, carries the name of his maternal grandfather Captain Thomas Harris, the sea captain. Thomas Martin Harris married Mary Oliver Lemaster, the granddaughter of Arnold Martin, who was also the son of Captain Thomas Martin. (Their daughter, Martha M. (probably Martin) Harris, mother of my grandfather Joseph Harris Henderson, therefore was the great great granddaughter of Captain Thomas Martin and Martha Nicholson Martin on both sides of her family -- on her father's side through Thomas Martin, and on her mother's side through Arnold Martin. Captain Thomas and both his sons were "mariners" or coasters in Marblehead.

The Martins of Marblehead went back to the beginnings of the settlement, and most generations had a large number of children who survived to adulthood. They tended to give their children the same names as the generation above, and often crossed to the names of uncles and aunts, which made matching the children with the correct parents something of a concern. I was relieved to obtain probate copies of the wills of Captain Thomas Martin (wherein the names of his son Thomas's surviving children are mentioned) as well as his son Arnold's, and with these documents, I was able to ascertain that the Martins in these generations were as I had analyzed them to be.

Captain Thomas Martin's will did not mention the names of the three grandchildren of his son Thomas through his second marriage to Mary Butman. Another Ancestry user has indicated that she believes the Thomas Martin who married Mary Butnam was not our Thomas Martin, husband of Elizabeth, but rather Thomas Martin, the son of Richard Martin and Hannah Cruff. The fact that the second child born to this couple was named Richard indicates a good possibility that this is the case.

Mary Butnam Martin had died of consumption several years before our Thomas Martin. No death record exists for Elizabeth Adams Martin, so we are unable to make further conclusions using the date of her death and the date of his possible marriage to Mary Butnam.

 

DOCUMENTS:

The records of the marriages of Thomas Martin to his wives Elizabeth Adams and Mary Butnam:

 

Marblehead Records of the Births/Baptisms of the Children of Thomas and Elizabeth Adams Martin:

 

Marblehead Records of the Births of Thomas and Mary Butnam Martin:

 

Marriage Records of the Children of Thomas Martin:

The newspaper clippings below each mention Thomas Martin. Without further information, it cannot be known precisely which Thomas Martin (father or son) is being referred to. The article about the town meeting took place in 1808, when both Thomas the father and the son were still alive (as was also Arnold Martin). The sale of the Schooner is dated in 1828, after the death of Thomas Martin, the son, and references Thomas Martin. I'm assuming the inquiries were on behalf of the estate of the son and were to be made to the administrators, or Thomas Martin, the father.

 

The death records in Marblehead for some of the family members appear below: