I have a special fondness for this family as they were one of the first I was able to trace back from my grandfather's grandfather, Thomas Martin Harris. This Thomas Martin is our first direct ancestor bearing the name. We have many, many "Thomas Martins" in the family tree, including two direct ancestors,, but interestingly, they are not all sons of a Thomas. This Thomas's son Knott and his wife Sarah had son Thomas who married Martha Nicholson, and they had two of our direct ancestors:

• Thomas Martin who married Elizabeth Adams and had Martha Martin and
• Arnold Martin, who married Mary Oliver and had Mary Oliver Martin.

Martha Martin married Joseph Harris, father of Thomas Martin Harris, and Mary Oliver Martin married George Lemaster, father of Thomas Martin Harris' mother.

Our first Thomas was the son of either John or Robert Martin and Sarah Northey, who was the daughter of John Northey, one of the first settlers of Marblehead and his wife Dorothy Unknown. The will of John Northey Sr. of Marblehead, dated 8 Sep 1688, mentions his children John Northey, Sarah Martin, and Dorothy Picket. He also mentions Sarah's sons John, Peter, Samuel, Robert, and Thomas Martin, and Dorothy's son John Picket. Witnesses Erasmus James, Nathaniel Norden, and William Waters, probate 30 Jun 1691. Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, Volume 5 (1863) Essex Institute, p. 46. Although the name of Sarah Martin's husband is not clear from this will, we do see that Thomas Martin was the grandson of John Northey.

Eleanor Knott was also descended from one of the first settlers in Marblehead, John Devereux, through her mother Hannah Devereux, who married as one of her three husbands Richard Knott, the father of Eleanor. Richard Knott died when Eleanor was a toddler, but she honored him by giving his surname to her first-born son, and there have been generations of subsequent Knotts through today. The names Thomas (for this Thomas Martin), "Hannah" (Hannah Devereux, "Sarah" (Sarah Northey), and Eleanor ("Eleanor Knott") were also common names given to the descendants.

Thomas Martin was described as a "shoreman" in the newspaper advertisement regarding the administration of his estate. Several of

 

 

later generations of Thomas, Knott, and Arnold Martins were designated as "captains". From Perley's Marblehead in 1700, we also know that Thomas and Eleanor were given (or had "conveyed" to them) the home her mother Hannah Swett and her third husband owned.

Thomas and Eleanor had at least six children, the first four of whom were all baptized on the same day, so we do not have their exact dates of birth. Sarah Martin Pederick has a death record which gives her age at death, so I was able to determine that she was born in 1705. Whether or not she and Knott were really twins (which one of the sources below states) cannot be determined since no further records for Knott could be discovered. A newspaper clipping about the longetivity of his own children indicates that he lived to be 88 years old, but no year of death was given. That same article also called him "Dr." Knott Martin, but what the "Dr." designates is unknown.

Daughter Eleanor is the most mysterious of the children. I found a marriage record for an Eleanor Martin to "Gorge Carte", but no records of birth for any children or either of their deaths could be found.

Youngest son Thomas relocated to Bristol, Maine after the births of all the children of his second wife. His later daughters Sarah, Eleanor, Rachel, Nancy, and probably Elizabeth all married men in Maine, so he must have been there by at least 1777 when the first, Sarah was married there.His son Richard by his first wife Mary apparently relocated there n his own old age. Their branch of the Martin family exists there and has been documented.

Knott aided his mother in administering the estate of his father according to an notice posted in a Boston paper in 1756. Eleanor herself died on July 4, 1759 and was buried at Old Burial Hill, where her tombstone can still be found. (The photo is below).

From the records attached below it can be seen that there were various spellings of "Martin" as well as many of the first names.