William Maynard

Other Events:

• 1830 Census: 1830, Northborough, Worcester Co., MA
• 1850 Census: 3 Sep 1850, Shrewsbury, Worcester Co., MA
• Death Registration: Aft 29 Jul 1852, Shrewsbury, Worcester Co., MA; Vol. 68, p. 145, #12

Notes:

Birth:
Shrewsbury Births
MAYNARD: William, s John and Martha, Sept. 20, 1781.

1830 Census:
p. 83
Taylor Maynard      010 100 010 0000 - 001 000 100 0000
...
Halland Maynard     001 010 010 0000 - 001 000 100 0000
...
Wm Maynard           011 000 200 0000 - 010 002 000 0000
...
Mary Maynard         010 000 000 0000 - 001 000 100 1000
...
Elisabeth Maynard   110 000 000 0000 - 001 000 100 0000
James Maynard       001 000 200 0000 - 020 011 000 0000

1850 Census:
p. 285a
William Maynard    67  M   Farmer  $4000    Mass
William    "        Jr   19  M       "                          "
James     "             17  M       "                          "     school
David Dudley         55  M   Laborer                   "
...
Silas Maynard       60  M   Farmer  $4500    Mass
Hannah      "          65  F                                  "
A L             "         30  F                                   "
Nathan Faulkner   16  M   Laborer                New Brunswick

p. 286
Harrison J. Maynard    41  M   Farmer  $1,600   Mass
Sarah J          "             31  F                                  "
Harrison         "             16  M   Farmer                   "     school
Sarah N          "              1   F                                  "
...
Benja. Maynard         65  M   Farmer  $1980   Mass
Mary B     "                58   F                                "
Emily D     "                17   F                                "         school
Joseph H Richards    19  M   Shoemaker           "
Caleb Dalrimple          15  M   Farmer                  "         school
Hiram C Reed             20  M   Shoe maker          "
Sarah M   "                 21   F                               "
Elizabeth M  "               1   F                                "

Death Registration:
William Maynard, male widowed, age 70 years and 10 months, died July 29 1852 in Shrewsbury of Dropsey in the Chest. He was a Farmer.

William married Betsey Noyes Underwood 23 Oct 1825, Northborough, Worcester Co., MA. Betsey (daughter of Timothy Underwood and Polly Adams) was born 1 Jun 1792, Shrewsbury, Worcester Co., MA; died 10 Aug 1840, Northborough, Worcester Co., MA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Married:
Northborough Marriages
MAYNARD: William and Polly Underwood, Oct. 23, 1825.

1. Martha Ann Maynard was born 24 Jul 1826, Northborough, Worcester Co., MA; died Unknown.
2. William Underwood Maynard was born 29 Jul 1830, Northborough, Worcester Co., MA; died 28 Nov 1911, Shrewsbury, Worcester Co., MA; was buried 1 Dec 1911, Northborough, Worcester Co., MA.
3. James Tyler Maynard was born 12 Apr 1833, Northborough, Worcester Co., MA; died Unknown.

Other Events:

• Alt. Birth: 29 Aug 1743
• Residence: 1772, Shrewsbury, Worcester Co., MA

Notes:

Birth:
Westborough Births
MAYNARD: John, s. Stephen and Thankfull, April 15, 1743.

John married Martha Brigham 14 Jan 1768, Westborough, Worcester Co., MA. Martha (daughter of Jonas Brigham and Persis Baker) was born 1 Nov 1746, Westborough, Worcester Co., MA; died Unknown. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Birth:
Westborough Births
BRIGHAM: Martha, d. Jonas and Persis, Nov. 1, 1746.

Notes:

Married:
Westborough Marriages
MAYNARD: John and Martha Brigham, Jan. 14, 1768.

Other Events:

• Public Service: From 9 Jan 1788 to 8 Feb 1788, Boston, Suffolk Co., MA
• Residence: Abt 1790, Barnard, Windsor Co., VT
• 1790 Census: 1790, Barnard, Windsor Co., VT
• Book Article: 1906, Westborough, Worcester Co., MA; Some old houses in Westborough, Mass. and their occupants, Westborough Historical Society, pp. 3-12

Notes:

Birth:
Westborough Births
MAINARD: Stephen, s. John and Hepzibah, Aug. 29, 1720.

Christened:
Marlborough Births
MAINARD: Stephen, s. John Jr., bap. Nov. 20, 1720. C.R.1.

Public Service:
Capt. Stephen Maynard of Westborough participated in the Convention that had Massachusetts ratify the US Federal Constitution.

Capt. Maynard voted Nay.

Residence:
He lived for a time in Barnard with his sons Jeffrey Amherst and Josiah.Afterwards, he probably joined his son Stephen in Bakersfield.

1790 Census:
P. 4
Maynard, Stephen    3-0-0-0-0

Book Article:
Stephen Maynard and His House.

Stephen Maynard was a man whose character was moulded by circumstance. He inherited without doubt from his Puritan ancestors his share of the New England conscience, but his life was so arranged that his conscience was left untrained. He had so many good traits and there was so little in his life to develop the bad that he had less need of a conscience, if you will pardon the expression, than a less prosperous, less kindly, less upright man would have had.

He had his full allotment of trouble before he had finished his life, but his boyhood was singularly happy. If nobility and breadth of character can be developed by broad expanses of green fields and blue skies, with forests of primeval trees and wooded hills and glimpses of river and lake, he had them all for daily seeing. There was nothing in the fair landscape spread on all sides around his father's home to suggest an unpleasant thought. This home, in itself unpretentious, was situated on the Lyman School Hill and the nearest buildings to it were the little church for which his father had given most of the land and the parsonage where Ebenezer Parkman, a rather young man, was bringing up in the best way his godly desire and conscience suggested, a large family of girls and boys.

Stephen's father and mother were among that class of people known as "the salt of the earth." Mr. Parkman, who surely must have known them as well as it is possible for one friend to know another, wrote a few words descriptive of each. The father he calls "a generous, bountiful friend" and speaks of his special kindness to the poor. Of Hepsibath, the mother, he writes:— "A woman of remarkable diligence and skill in family affairs and very compassionate and bountiful to the poor. A very serviceable person in our neighborhood and gave advice freely to all who sought to her." Perhaps no higher praise could have been written of a woman in the eighteenth century. We would expect that Stephen with the tendencies inherited from generations of godly forefathers would have developed just as he did and would have entirely deserved his father's written word— "my dutiful and well-beloved son Stephen."

Captain John Maynard, the father, was well-to-do; his lands of many acres he held in his right as proprietor of Marlborough, besides he had notes and bonds. Hepsibath Brigham, his wife, was a daugher of Samuel Brigham, the wealthy tanner of Marlborough.and she evidently brought to her husband lands which she had inherited from her father. Stephen was an only child as far as we know, certainly the only one who outlived his parents, and consequently the heir to their whole estate, a fact which in itself must have had a great influence on his character.

An only child is usually selfish, but if Stephen Maynard was selfish, it was not after the manner of the weak who desire all good things for themselves, but after the manner of the strong, who grow masterful and carry their heads high with pride and take pleasure in bestowing of their abundance on others, not so much for the happiness they give as for what they receive in the consciousness of their high desert. His father was John Maynard Gentleman, he too was heir to that title, and it would not have been owing to any craven spirit on the part of his boy-mates or to any disagreeably proud way on his own part had he been acknowledged the leader in all the games and sports of the village. Perhaps it was only a development of this which made him, when still a young man, lieutenant in the King's army and later commander of all the troops in Westborough. Hence his later title of Captain.

His life can be divided into two distinct portions— the first comprising the years when he lived in the little one story cottage still standing on Milk street, where it was moved many years ago; and the second after he built the mansion house by the Elsabeth river. We cannot draw the line by years between these two periods. In 1757 he was living in his father's house and there nine of his children were born, five of whom at least also died in this house as did also his wife, Thankful. At her death, in 1757, he was left with John, Antipas, Hepsibath probably, and Thankful, three days old. His wife Thankful was the daughter of Deacon Josiah Newton. It was a most suitable marriage. "She was a woman," writes Mr. Parkman, 'who feared the Lord and had many excellent qualities." Recording her death Mr. Parkman notes in his diary that it was the seventh death in that house in 13 months. Stephen had lost his father, mother, wife and four of his children in that brief space of time, and the minister quotes, in view of these manifold afflictions a verse from one of the church hymns:—

So teach us God! the uncertain sun
Of our short day to mind,
That to true wisdom all our hearts
May ever be inclined.

Up to the dreadful summer of 1756 when death entered so many homes in Westborough and took away one after another of the children, Stephen Maynard's among them, his life must have been especially free from trouble. His father does not seem to have deeded any property to him or to have given up himself the care of his large farm as was the usual custom of that time. This may have been owing to the very active part that the son took in military affairs. We can picture him to ourselves with his scarlet coat with military trappings, the hat with gold lace and cord, the soldierly bearing and courteous manners, mingled sometimes with that decisiveness which made the minister feel that he was "too short" with him. The young men in Westborough eagerly responded to his many calls for troops. They felt proud to write, as did Constantine Hardy:— "I entered into His Majesty's service to serve my King and Country under Captain Stephen Maynard."

When the captain came home from the many trips to Crown Point and Ticonderoga and Canada which the long French and Indian wars necessitated, he was undoubtedly given a most flattering reception and made to feel that he was a great, if not the greatest man of the town.

At 37 he was probably at the height of his military prestige. Almost immediately after the many deaths in his family, there came the call of his country for his further service, and in less than three months he is getting a company together, with Thomas Parkman as drummer and Billy in the ranks —  two of the minister's boys —  to march against the enemy. He was gone most of the time for a year and apparently his first public appearance in Westborough after his return, was at the wedding of Miss Patty Death in November of 1758. This was on a Wednesday and the next Sunday Mr. Parkman noted that Captain Maynard and sundry others who have returned from the war were at meeting. We can almost see the flutter of the demure maidens, as they greeted the gallant captain on his return and the timid glances of admirption he inspired that November Sunday as he sat in his pew on the broad alley in the old arcade, handsome and confident and the envy perhaps of the younger but less attractive men.

He was quite in the habit of keeping his own counsel and he cared very little at the town's surprise when they heard published ten days later the marriage intentions of Captain Stephen Maynard and Mrs. Anna Brigham of Marlborough. They were married January 23,1759, and drew their own lines as to who should be invited to the wedding, as we know from Mr. Parkman's entry for the next day. He writes; —  "Mr. John Brigham of Sudbury (one-handed man) dind with me. Tells me Capt. Maynard and Mrs. Anne Brigham were married last night. Just before night I went over to Capt. Maynard's as he had desired, to meet him as bridegroom with his bride (his phrase was he then designed to bring home his wife). My wife did not incline to go, her child was very tendful and John was sick. *

* * It was also somewhat odd that our children were not invited to the wedding (as neither were we ourselves) nor were any of them to this entertainment, though many others were not nearer related than they. But it is probable their thoughts were too much engaged to think much of this, so small affair. It was very cold, I walked there and returned o'foot. I left them at nine o'clock, omitting singing rather than run the venture of being too late." After all this self denial, however, he hears it reported a few days later on the street that he was there that night till one o'clock.

In six months Captain Maynard was in the army again and although he realized how very small was his father's little old house, as long as the war lasted, he could take little time to think of personal comfort, either for himself or for them. In 1763, peace was declared and with its declaration began the second period of Captain Maynard's life.

Between the time of his second marriage in January 1759 and the surrender of Canada to Great Britain February 10, 1763, which closed the French and Indian wars, probably several children had been born to them, although none are recorded in the Westborough Records, until 1768,when their daughter Elizabeth was born, His first boy, according to Mr. Parkman's diary, was born December 9, 1759. Benjamin Gott, Robert Breck. Stephen and Jeffrey Amherst, named for his old general, Lord Amherst, were without doubt his sons. Probably also Josiah, The records give no clue as to which was eldest. The marriages of three are recorded, Stephen was married first in 1788, when he would have been 24 had he been the first born, Benjamin Gott was married in 1787 and Jeffrey, under the curious name of Jepry Amhors in 1792. The only one whose death is mentioned is Stephen who died in 1806 but his age is not given.

Captain Maynard at the beginning of this second period in 1763 was 43 years old. Up to this time he had held no important positions in town affairs, his activity in the army had prevented this. He had however earned the honorable position which he now takes as counsellor and advisor. He was to serve the town as selectman and representative, to act on important committees and to be one of the trustees for the Indians. Having done all that he could to save the curse from falling upon his head which his Chaplain had graphically revealed to the army in his sermon from the text:— "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood," he was now enjoying his well-earned rest. It would seem as if for him the stress and tumult of life were over, and he could honestly say to his soul— "Take thine ease, eat, drink and lie merry."

Here however we must pause a moment, to see if we can just what kind of a man the prosperous circumstances of his life had made of him. We cannot read many pages of Mr. Parkman's diary without concluding that he had inherited the gift of generosity which is mentioned as being a distinctive virtue of both his father and his mother. Presents of meat, cases of gin, etc., found their way to the parsonage with great frequency. At one time he undertook to straighten out one of the town roads at his own expense as Mr. Parkman records:— "Capt. Maynard solicits me about moving my walls on ye northwest and straightening the road from the meeting house to ye northward. He promises it shall not be to my damage. He will be at the charge and will
measure the land that I may have equivalent."

He is ready also to do any small favors and we find him good-naturedly packing Billy Parkman's checked shirts in his valise when, in one of the campaigns, the troops have marched a few days before their captain.

His life seems to have engendered in him a desire to meet all expectations. He does not like to disappoint people either in a small way or a large way. In fact he liked to do a little more than was expected of him. When all his neighbors sent a load of wood to the parsonage, he would send three. As the richest man in Westborough, as his large estate made him, he had a certain ideal of living set before him by his townsmen which he wished to attain. He does not seem to have been a man who cared especially for his own comfort, but much for the good opinion of those around him.

He did not apparently take a very active part in the affairs of the church, although his wife Anna was a regular attendant.

It may be of interest to give an approximate idea of the property whicti he owned at the beginning of this second period of his life.

His father's original farm embraced the land on the Lyman School Hill to the Shrewsbury line. The northern bounds of this farm he extended in 1772 by purchase of the Tomlin farm just over the line in Northborough, better known as the Davis place. This farm added about 116 acres to the 400 in the homestead lot. In addition to this he owned 160 acres in Shrewsbury, also a farm near the meeting-house in Westborough which he probably inherited from his mother Hepsibath as it had formerly belonged to her father, Samuel Brigham. This included a part of Memorial Cemetery, Mr. Parkman writes:—  ''March 29, 1759 N. B. A number of men at work in clearing some of Capt. Maynard's land and preparing it for the burying place. For ye fencing it some bring fencing stuff. Some are digging stones. I gave them a few Rodds of addition." This farm seems to have been northwest of Main street and extended from some point back of where the old Arcade stood, through the back line of Memorial cemetery. He also owned some lands in other towns.

Probably one of his first acts in this second period of his life was the beginning of the house on the Northborough road. He was entitled to the best house in town. He not only could afford it, but none other could grace it so well or make it mean so much to his fellow townsmen. We already know from Mr Parkman's remark about the seven deaths in the John Maynard house, that he was living with his father at the time of his wife's death, in 1758. We also know that very soon after this he was called to the war, that his second marriage took place in 1759, in one of his brief vacations at home and that a few months afterwards he was in the field again. Unfortunately, Mr. Parkman's most valuable Diary is lost for the years between 1761 and 1771. I think we may certainly say that the house was not built before 1761, for surely he would nave mentioned it in the very full records he makes of matters much more trivial and which would probably have been of much less interest to him and his family.

The earliest allusion I have found to it in the Registry of Deeds at Worcester is in 1770. This paper is a mortgage for £400 of the certain messuage and tenement of housing where he then dwelt with houses and barns, to Joshua Loring. This mortgage was never discharged. It was perhaps given to defray part of the expense of building the house and was the first financial cloud which cast its shadow over his prosperity. He had previously mortgaged a part of the lot but not the part where the house stood.

According to the family tradition the house was seven years in building, which would be the exact number of years between the establishment of peace in 1763 and the placing of this mortgage when he was living in the house in 1770. The family tradition, which comes as do all the traditions in regard to the house from the descendants of Mrs. Maynard's daughter, Anna Brigham, claims that all the carved oak used in its construction was brought from England, and also that slaves built the stone wall running up the hill east of the house. Captain Maynard certainly owned three slaves at this time, a man with his wife and daughter, possibly others.

Most of you remember this house which stood until 1891, 14 years ago. To those who do not, the picture in the possession of your society represents it accurately. The front door was on the northern side, leaving the eastern side, which was parallel with the Northborough road, for the living room. It may be of interest to many of you who perhaps never went into the house, and it may sometime be of value to the descendants of Stephen Maynard to have a few words of description of its interior. This I asked Mrs. Mabel G. Nourse, daughter of Mr. Bela J. Stone, who lived there during its last years, to write for me, and I will quote her exact words:

"As you opened the front door there were two rooms to the right and left, but no entry to speak of. The parlor was a large room with the large beam going across the ceiling, quite a fancy one. In fact the woodwork in that room was all fancy; in one corner was a very pretty open closet with shelves coming out in a round projection for bric-a-brac, etc., really a great ornament to the room. On the other side of the room were two closets, one quite small, the other larger, more of a clothes closet. The doors, as I remember, were large panels. Another large room used by us as a sitting room was directly back but had nothing remarkable about it aside from the large beam and wooden corners. Two doors led from this room into the dining-room, one through the back hall, the other by the little passage built into the chimney, By the way that chimney made itself very prominent in all the rooms. In the dining-room a large dish closet was built up against it. The rooms were low studded and all had the large beams. The house abounded in closets, in every conceivable place you would find one. The front stairway was paneled very nicely in banisters; at the head of them was a landing and a step each side to the rooms. The back stairs were directly opposite only very plain, closets and all. In the back room towards the street there were two little shelves set in the chimney and the largest of closets, inside of which was a small closet. There were four chambers right above the four lower rooms. Then in the attic were two rooms finished off and a large open space The chimney looked as though at sometime there had been an open fireplace. I believe originally there had been a fence around the roof of the house."

Mrs. Nourse also adds that the hearth stone which used to be in the dining-room is now in front of the barn door. And there was in the kitchen a large square tank where the water ran constantly from a spring on the hill.

Captain Maynard never took the field again after the peace of 1763. He rendered most important services during the Revolution, but it was as counsellor not as soldier. Three of his sons served in the army: John, Stephen, Jr., and Benjamin Gott, John becoming a captain himself. Captain Maynard was at the breaking out of the war a man of 55. From 1768 through 1777 and again from 1785 through 1789 he represented the town in the legislature. He was a member in 1774 of the first and in 1775 of the second and third Provincial congresses. He served on Committees of Correspondence and in 1776 was appointed by special request from the Indians themselves one of the three trustees of the Hassanamisco Indians. Many of these Indians had probably served under him and they loved and trusted him.

Probably with so large a part of his life up to this time passed in camp and field, he had less knowledge of farming than most of his neighbors. Nearly all of them had received when attaining their majority some portion of their father's farms, and taken upon themselves thus early the responsibility of managing it. Stephen Maynard had received his land by inheritance when he was already a lieutenant in the King's army. Possibly farming did not suit his ideas of active life. We only know that he cast about in his mind for some other way of earning money than the farmer's way and decided to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, Samuel Brigham, and become a tanner, or at least to make tanners of his sons.

In order to learn the art, he invited a young tanner from Rutland, Isaac Davis by name, to become a member of his family and impart his knowledge to them.

In 1772 Anna Brigham, the daughter of Mrs. Maynard, married Isaac Davis and they moved, according to family tradition, into the house which was lately owned by Hiram Broaders. Antipas. the captain's second son, a young man of 21, made his home with them.

John, the eldest son. was at this time married and living in Shrewsbury, leaving Antipas, the only remaining son of the captain's first marriage, to help him carry on this new business. Of his younger children, the eldest was now only a boy of 12, and undoubtedly the father was depending principally upon Antipas for developing and managing his share of the enterprise. The records are silent as to the future of this son. but the family tradition again helps us out. According to it he left the Davis home one night, with his clothes tied in a hasty bundle, and for 12 years no word of him came back. Then there came a letter saying that his great desire to travel, for which he could not obtain his father's consent, had led him to leave. He had seen Spain and England and finally settled down to his trade of tanner in the Isle of Guernsey.

A few years ago papers were sent out by Clark University and other institutions of learning, with various questions to be answered by those receiving them. They were sent in very large numbers to all classes of people and were on various subjects. Among others there was one on "Fear," and the question was asked, "What are you most afraid of?" When answered by women there was a variety in the replies. The men however gave almost all the same answer, that the fear which haunted them was the fear of being poor or of losing all they had and the power to get more.

This may have been— probably was—  very far from Stephen Maynard's thoughts when he built his new home. It was built however, just at the beginning of one of the saddest financial conditions which has ever occurred in our country. To understand the calamity which overtook him in these last dozen years of his life it is necessary to look into the conditions then prevailing and the existing laws in regard to debt. During the Revolution, as you all know, the paper currency became greatly depreciated. The price paid for the necessaries and luxuries of life were abnormally high,— $50 for a handkerchief, $150 for a hat, etc. This was the greater burden to those who had to keep up appearances, who were accustomed to spend freely and who were called upon to help others and to finance to a greater or less degree all town and country enterprises, They were all looking for better times. In the meantime, in order to obtain the necessary ready money they contracted heavy debts. At the close of the war, the paper money had become utterly worthless. Prices were again low, lower than they had been for years. The debtors were the one class to suffer severely. The poor man who had spent but little found his small amount of money now went a long ways. But the debtor had no money, his lands were mortgaged, and the forced sales netted almost nothing. Like everything else they were almost valueless. After these sales had stripped a man whose property consisted almost entirely of land of them all and his debts were still unpaid, the sheriff had authority from the courts to seize his body and put it into jail where he was to be kept at the expense of the creditor until he was satisfied. Naturally under these circumstances, the debtor had but few comforts and no luxuries, unless provided by his family.

The records of the jail in Worcester are full of the names of Revolutionary soldiers, who, having served in the army with small pay and perhaps a large family at home to support, were unable to meet the demands of their creditors. Even Colonel Timothy Bigelow, who, throughout the whole war, was a colonel in active service, and who, like Captain Maynard, was a man of unusual wealth in 1775, was imprisoned in the Worcester jail for a rather small debt, from whence, as the quaint record says, he was "discharged by Deth."

There is a letter on file in the City Hall, in Worcester, which gives so pathetic a view of such a case, from one of these soldier's debtors, that I am sure you will pardon my quoting a few lines. This letter was addressed to the Selectmen of Worcester and was written by Nathan Johnson. He says:—  "My disagreeable situation obliges me to take this method to acquaint you that in Consequence of my being taxed in this Town and not able to pay the same I am now confined in Goal where I have nothing to subsist upon only what I receive from my Charitable Friends," He then goes on to state that he is overtaxed and to describe how very fast his estate melted away by the fall of paper money and adds:— "This is herefore to Desire you Gentlemen to see that this Mistake is rectified and to Request your Interposition in Releasing me from my Confinement by setting me at liberty, giving me time to turn myself I will honestly pay every farthing that is due just as soon as I am able, but whilst I remain under Confinement I can pay nothing, I have no chance to turn myself."

This letter is dated April, 1784, and he wrote another similar to it in May, 1784.

It would seem that Nathan Johnson took a very common sense view of the situation, which might have appealed to many a creditor.

It was with this fate staring him in the face that Captain Maynard, hoping and praying for better times and a normal valuation of the financial medium then in use, saw his property gradually diminish in value until even his large estates were utterly insufficient to meet the debts which the exorbitant prices of the previous years had compelled him to contract.

At this time, only four days after Nathan Johnson was writing his second letter in the Worcester jail, Captain Maynard puts a second mortgage on his homestead, for £1283, Other property belonging to him was sold for debt.

This, however, was not all. He was holding, by special request, as we haye seen, with two other trustees, the money which the Grafton Indians had received from the sale of their lands.

We find from the records of the Indian funds that this money he used as his own, expecting, without doubt, to be able to fully repay it. It amounted to over $1300, —  "a desperate debt against Capt. Stephen Maynard," says the record, a debt which has never been paid and which the Indian Commissioner, in 1861, estimated would have been at that time $27,000.

Before judging Captain Maynard harshly for this course, I wish to call your attention once again to one of the laws in regard to debt.

According to the law of that day the Spending of trust funds was not a felony any more than the failing to pay any other debt would have been. The laws usually represent pretty clearly the conscience of the time and, as we have seen, Stephen Maynard had had no experiences which would tend to develop his conscience to any Higher plane than the common law

I do not think you would be especially interested in a list of the various mortgages and foreclosures, which seem so dry to us, and which were so vital to him.

He owed his misfortunes, I am sure you will all admit, to the unfortunate circumstances which prevailed. He had not made himself, as many a poor boy has had to do. He had been made by the fortunate circumstances of his birth. He was now overwhelmed by the unfortunate circumstances of the times.

Sometime in 1789 or 1790, he packed again for a journey, as he had done so many times in his soldier days. He said good-bye, as he had been wont to do, to his home and the dear town where he had always lived, feeling that it might be a last good-bye. He deeded his pews in the meeting-house, which were except from taxation, to his two sons.

It proved to be a last good-bye. As far as we know he never saw his beautiful home by the Elsabeth, nor the hills and meadows of his native town. We find him giving deeds of the little property in which he still had an interest, from a small town in Vermont, Barnard, in the County of Windsor.

His sons. Jeffrey, Amherst and Josiah, were with him, as we know from their being witnesses to papers which were made by him, as was also probably his wife and other members of his family.

I have not been able to learn when Captain Maynard died. His death is not recorded in Barnard. It is possible that he went with his old friend, Joseph Baker, who also left Westborough on account of his heavy debts, to Bakersfield, in Vermont. The town clerk of Barnard writes me that Maynard sold his property in Barnard in 1790, to a son-in-law of Joseph Baker's, an ancestor of his own. He remembers that his mother used to speak of Aunt Maynard who lived in Bakersfield.

He had died before 1796.

The house and homestead farm had been leased by the mortgagees to two men from Weston. Capt. Joseph and Lieut. Fortunatus Nichols before March, 1796 when it was sold to them by a Dr. James Lloyd of Boston A month after this Anna, the widow of Capt. Stephen Maynard, releases for £100 all her right as "dower of widow's thirds" in the farm, and with this act the beautiful home passes entirely out of the hands of the Maynard family.

Nor did Anna herself long survive. She lived in Northborough after her husband's death, and died there July 6, 1799.

The inventory of her property shows pitifully how little she had bought since the beginning of the days of her adversity, how carefully she had mended and made over the old finery which had been the admiration of many of the young women of the town when she sat in her pew in the old church, just opposite Madame Parkman, or stepped into her coach at the church door and rolled down the Northborough road.

She had, according to this inventory, some notes, amounting to a few hundred pounds, three tables and 18 chairs, which were at Mrs. Parkman's, and her apparel.

The most expensive article in the list of apparel was a red quilt (petticoat) worth $1.50 Her bonnet of silk was worth 42 cents; her old velvet coat 33 cents; her silk muff, 50 cents, and so on down a rather short list of things which once were choice and unusual, but now nearly valueless.

For nearly a hundred years after Captain Stephen Maynard stepped from his doorway for the last time, the house stood, an expression of his own character, as is every house which has been thought out carefully by him who is to live therein,— plain, substantial, hospitable, with kindly thought for other's comfort, a little larger, a little better, a little more beautiful than any other in town.

When its end came, it came suddenly. The house did not fall into decay, nor was it left uninhabited to suffer the inroads of old age in sight of every passer-by on the highway. Apparently it was just as solid, just as substantial, on the night of December 10, 1891, when it was entirely burned to the ground, as it had been in its early days.

Harriette M. Forbes.
Worcester, January 16, 1906.

Stephen married Thankful Newton 26 Nov 1741, Westborough, Worcester Co., MA. Thankful (daughter of Deacon Josiah Newton and Elizabeth Woods) was born 1 May 1720, Marlborough, Middlesex Co., MA; died 29 Dec 1757, Westborough, Worcester Co., MA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Birth:
Westborough Births
NEWTON: Thankfull, d. Josiah and Elizabeth, -- -, 1720.

Died:
Westborough Deaths
MAYNARD: Thankfull, w. Capt. Stephen, Dec. 29, 1757.

Notes:

Married:
Westborough Marriages
MAYNARD: Stephen and Thankfull Newton, Nov. 26, 1741. C.R.

Notes:

Birth:
Westborough Births
BRIGHAM: Jonas, s. David and Mary, Feb. 25, (1718).

Christened:
Marlborough Births
BRIGHAM: Jonas, s. David, bap. ____ 19, 1719. C.R.1.

Jonas married Persis Baker 16 Jan 1745/46, Westborough, Worcester Co., MA. Persis was born 8 Nov 1726, Westborough, Worcester Co., MA; died 3 Nov 1784, Westborough, Worcester Co., MA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Married:
Westborough Marriages
BRIGHAM: Jonas and Persis Baker, Jan. 16, 1745-6.

Notes:

Birth:
Marborough Births

Died:
Westborough Deaths
MAYNARD: Capt. John, father of Stephen, Sept. 27, 1756.

John married Hepsibath Brigham 23 Jul 1719. Hepsibath (daughter of Capt. Samuel Brigham and Elizabeth Howe) was born 25 Jan 1685/86, Marlborough, Middlesex Co., MA; died 17 Oct 1757, Westborough, Worcester Co., MA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Birth:
Marlborough Births
BRIGHAM: Hepzibeth, d. Samuel and Elizabeth, Jan. 25, 1686. [Jan. 26, 1686-7, M.R.]

Died:
Westborough Deaths
MAYNARD: Hiphzibath, w. Capt. John, Oct. 17, 1757.

Notes:

Birth:
Marlborough Births
NEWTON: Josiah, s. Moses Sr. and Johannah, Nov. 19, 1688.

Died:
Westborough Deaths
NEWTON: Dea. Josiah, Feb. 9, 1755.

Josiah married Elizabeth Woods 8 Jan 1711/12, Marlborough, Middlesex Co., MA. Elizabeth was born 1 Feb 1687/88, Marlborough, Middlesex Co., MA; died Abt 1730, Westborough, Worcester Co., MA. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Married:
Marlborough Marriages
NEWTON: [J]osiah and Elizebeth Woods, ---, 1716. C.R.1.

Notes:

Birth:
Marlborough Births
BRIGHAM: Dauid, s. Thomas and Mary, April 12, 1678.

David married Mary Newton 21 Oct 1709, Marlborough, Middlesex Co., MA. Mary died Unknown. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Married:
Marlborough Marriages
BRIGHAM: Dauid and Mary Newton, Oct. [Nov. C.R.] 21, 1709.