Out of the Past

Waldo County, Maine Gen Web Site

EARLY HISTORY OF THE LERMOND FAMILY

By Isabel Morse Maresh [additions by Debbie Wilson]

The life of the elder John Lermond can be pieced together by ancient records. Cyrus Eaton wrote in his ‘Annals of Warren, Maine’, 1861: “LERMOND, the ancestor of this Scotch-Irish family came from Londonderry, Ireland, or vicinity about 1719, removed and died in Milton, Mass. His children: 1. Ann or Nancy, married William Houston or Huston of Bristol, and had son Robert, known as “Squire Huston,“ and other children. 2. John married Miss Giffin and removed to the upper part of Waldoboro from Bristol, where on the banks of the Damariscotta, the family were as early as 1747, and where April 27^th, Mrs. Jane and Mrs. Elizabeth Lermond were, when milking their cows, shot and killed by the Indians. See Johnston‘s History of Bristol, page 294, which also says that “at a very early period a Capt. John Lermond, sailed as master of a ship to the Mediterranean and was captured by an Algerian pirate, who only put a small prize crew on board and allowed Lermond and his mate occasionally, to walk on deck. These, on a pleasant day, by previous concert, seized, each at the same instant, a man of the prize crew, and by desperate effort threw him overboard; they then easily overpowered the others and brought the ship home.”, Page 382. 3. William, came to what is now Warren, but died unmarried. 4. Alexander, born about 1707; married Mary Harkness, of Welsh descent; came with the first settlers in 1735; removed and had mills at Warren, on Oyster River, and died in Dec. 1790.”

The history in Eaton’s “Annals of Warren’ is given chronologically as thus:

1741 - Symptoms of dissatisfaction among the Indians continued to be observed. Amongst other things, Alex Lermond of St. George’s testified that an ox belonging to his brother William, had been killed and his bones and hoof’s found in the camp of the Indians.

1745 - William Lermond died suddenly from heat and exhaustion on a journey to Damariscotta.

1747 - “they suddenly made their appearance at Walpole, killing Mrs. Jane and Mrs. Elizabeth Lermond and several others whose names have not been preserved. A small building had been constructed of granite boulders, there to serve as a place of retreat, in case of an attack, and the women were milking their cows near it when the Indians suddenly rushed upon them. One of them had nearly reached the door of the fort when she was suddenly shot down.” “One account says there were no less than thirteen persons killed in Walpole during this incursion.” [note by Emily Eaton]

The ‘History of Ancient Sheepscot and Newcastle, including Early Pemaquid, Damariscotta, and Other Contiguous Places, From the Earliest Discovery to The Present Time” by Rev. David Quimby Cushman in 1882 gives the following account:

“The Lermond family consisted of the father, the mother and the son’s wife whose Christian name was Betsey. Her husband, Captain Lermond, was at sea. These three left their Stone house in the morning, went across the road and entered the barnyard for the purpose of milking. They had scarcely shut the bars after them, when they entered the yard, before a party of Indians rose up from among the cattle, where they had been lying down and concealed, and made the old man and his wife prisoners. Betsey, the son’s wife, “jumped over the bars like a cat”, and ran up the road, an Indian with his gun pursuing her. She outran the Indian, when he, seeing that he was likely to lose his game, fired and brought her to the ground. She fell and expired on the rising ground between Capt. John Woodward’s and David Huston’s 2d. To Col. Jones who came to her assistance, from the Garrison to which she was hastening, she said, “Get back the best way you can; I am gone.”, and expired. Col Jones turned to go, when another Indian fired at him, but the ball passing between his arm and body, he escaped and fled to the Garrison. Old Mrs. Lermond had her brains beaten out by these savages, and scalped, but Mr. Lermond was taken to Canada.”

“The squaws treated Mr. Lermond with great severity, throwing dust in his eyes, pricking him with sharp sticks, and otherwise insulting and cruelly beating him. But the men treated him better. Especially, when the men would be off on a hunt, the squaws would seize their opportunity to abuse him. At one time, when they were dealing roughly with him, having borne their insults as long as he could, “he doubled up his fist and knocked one of them down.” The act was as quick as thought, and when it was over, he supposed that his last earthly day had come. But a sturdy Indian, instead of condemning him, ran to him, and patted him on the shoulders, exclaiming, “much courage, much courage!” Mr. Lermond lived to return from his captivity to Bristol.”

He was listed in the “Redeemed Captives of 1749” in a Boston newspaper. [From “The Redeemed Captives of 1747”, New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Volume 70, page 263, “John Larmond of Damariscotta” was listed as “taken by the Savages” April 15, 1747.]

The "Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine", Volume II, 1909, page 970, written about the Huston family, according to the article, Hustons, Jones and Lermonds "had been neighbors in Ireland", making the article relevant to Lermond family research:. "This family [Huston] belongs to the good Scotch-Irish stock which has contributed some of the best blood to the amalgamation of races which makes up our American citizenship. The name is not as common in this country as its allied form of Houston. In fact, the only places in America where men spelling their name Huston were living in the eighteenth century were a few towns in Maine and New Hampshire. We find Samuel Huston on the list of the proprietors of Londonderry, New Hampshire, which was incorporated in the year 1719. It may have been one of his descendants, John, born at Dunstable, now Nashua, New Hampshire, in 1773, who moved to Industry, Maine. A Simon Huston, who had a large family and left numerous children and grandchildren, was living at Gorham, Maine, in 1763. It is not known that any of these is related to the family now under consideration. The origin of the patronymic is obscure; possibly it may be connected with the Anglo-Saxon hus, which means house. Among Americans of distinction now bearing the name may be mentioned, Henry A. Huston, an expert chemist of Chicago, connected with various educational institutions, who was born at Damariscotta, Maine, in 1858; also Thos. Huston, born in Indiana in 1846, who is judge of the superior court in the State of Washington.

[1] The progenitor of the line was James [1] Huston, born near the end of the seventeenth century, who about the year 1725, migrated to this country from Londonderry, Ireland, and first settled in Boston, [Mass.]. He must have been a man in middle life when he sought the new world, because he brought with him a wife and several children. If not actually a participant, he was probably familiar with the famous siege of Londonderry, Ireland, which took place in 1689. There is a family tradition that the ancestor of James, a native of Cornwall, accompanied Sir Richard de Huston into Ireland, during the reign of Elizabeth, and received for his services a grant of land near Londonderry, where many of the name are living. After coming to this country, James Huston [John Lermond and Col. Jones] and families, induced probably by the liberal offers of Colonel Dunbar, moved to Pemaquid, Maine, and settled on the banks of the Damariscotta. The place had just then received the name of 'Walpole' from Dunbar. To each family was assigned a city lot of two acres and a farm of forty acres, with a promise of one hundred acres more in due time. The three families of Huston, Jones and Lermond, who had been neighbors in Ireland, were the first settlers in the new territory."

When the pioneers passed up the Damariscotta, they landed on what is now called the Sugar Loaf, a bare rock, but which at that time was a small island about fifty rods from the shore. A sand-bar that connected the island and the mainland was uncovered at low water, and as the settlers walked over this, and saw such evidence of teeming life at their feet [clams were abundant], someone explained, "Call this an inhospitable shore, when a man has only to dig his meat from the ground over which he walks!"

Their first meal was cooked by hanging a pot from the limb of a tree and kindling a fire under it. But if food was plenty, other necessities were not. Before their first rude hut could be finished, a storm came on, and the women and children found protection under the empty hogsheads [barrels] which had contained their scanty supplies of cooking utensils and furniture.

During the French and Indian Wars, beginning in 1745, nearly all the settlements in that region were broken up, and the settlers that remained lived in a garrison. It is not known how many of the Hustons were killed by the Indians, but some of the Lermond women suffered death at the hands of the savages, April 27, 1747. Those who could fled for safety, most of them going to Boston and the neighborhood, but at the close of the war, in 1759, nearly all found their way back to their old homesteads in Walpole.

In 1811, John Huston testified that he was a grandson of the first of the name who came to Walpole, and that he was in Boston in 1748. He learned from his parents that they came to Walpole the next year, and he himself remembered living in a garrison. Before he was born, an aunt and grandmother of his were killed by the Indians* but he does not say whether they belonged to his father’s or his mother’s family. There is every reason to believe that the Hustons suffered all the terrors and hardships of pioneer life, and without doubt, some of their number endured captivity and death.

James Huston married Mary Sloss, children: 1. William, married Nancy Lermond. 2. Robert, married Jane Bell. 3. James [2] whose sketch is given below. 4. Margaret, married William Jones. 5. Jane, married John Stinson. 6. Elizabeth, married a Dodd. One statement says that the Hustons had four daughters, but the name of three only have been preserved. [More on the Hustons is in the above-named book, which is located at the Belfast Free Library, Belfast, Maine, and Maine State Library in Augusta, Maine]

* Mrs. Jane Lermond and her daughter-in-law, Betsy (Huston) Lermond were killed by Indians on 27 Apr. 1747. At that time old John Lermond, husband of Jane, was captured by Indians and taken to Canada. He lived to be ’redeemed’ and brought back to Boston, Mass. [The story is recorded in several other places.] Elizabeth ’Besty’ (Huston) Lermond was a sister to William Huston who married Nancy Lermond. Nancy Lermond was a sister to Captain John Lermond, husband of Betsy (Huston) Lermond. Betsy (Huston) Lermond would have been his aunt.

[*Note by IMM: This, no doubt was, Betsey (Huston) Lermond and her mother-in-law, Jane Lermond. There were also unnamed people killed outside of the garrison that day!]

1749 - [Annals of Warren, Maine] - Among those that now returned to their farms and formed the second settlement of the Upper town, were probably Alexander Lermond amongst the list. Among the absentees, William Lermond. [He had died in the march to Damariscotta, in 1745.]

The settlers continued to get out cordwood and staves during the winter, and gradually extended their clearings and enlarged their agricultural operations. But little was raised, however, except English grain and potatoes. The potatoes were brought to New England in 1719 from Ireland by the emigrants who settled at Londonderry, N. H., and were first cultivated in the garden of Nathaniel Walker of Andover.

The first settlers here, had either brought a knowledge of potatoes from the native country, or obtained it from others here. Potatoes formed one of the first and principal articles cultivated, though it was not until a later period, that they were raised for feeding cattle.

In times of scarcity, when other provisions failed, potatoes and alewives were the main food. Mr. Gregg, when making some purchase of a merchant in Boston, was once inquired of "how the people down east got along, and what they lived on?" "Oh", said Gregg, "we have roast and boiled every day!" "Ah!" said the merchant, "That is better than we fare here, we never think of having both at the same meal. If we can get one we are very willing to dispense with the other." "But we," said Gregg, "boil potatoes and roast alewives at every meal!" [Isabel's note: I remember boiled potatoes twice a day, and in the Spring, smoked alewives that my father caught and smoked. It was good!!!!!!!]

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SCOTTISH-IRISH SETTLERS from ‘History of Bath, Maine’ 1607-1894. by Parker McCobb Reed - 1894, Copied by Isabel Morse Maresh - Belmont, Maine

As a considerable portion of the earliest settlers who came from the Old Country to this section of the New World, were from the north of Ireland, it may be pertinent to illustrate who were their ancestors. By birth, Scots, they were Irish by adoption only, by virtue of having settled in the north of Ireland at some remote period of their history.

The title that has been given to this truly stalwart people, who came to this country at an early date, is not justly applicable, as not a drop of Irish blood coursed in their veins. Their ancestors came from Scotland and settled in the north of Ireland. The first immigration from Scotland to Ireland was chiefly from the Highlands, in 1608, for the purpose of bettering their condition. There had been a rebellion of the Irish-Catholics in the northern section of Ireland, during the reign of Elizabeth, and when it was quelled the estates of the insurgents were confiscated. These lands were the best on the Island and included the province of Ulster. The government of James I held out attractive inducements for its resettlement by a Protestant population, which many Scotchmen accepted. This territory was at the extreme north, within twenty miles of the coast of Scotland. At a later date there was a larger exodus to Ireland from the Lowlands of Scotland, which consisted of a class superior to those of the Highlands. They were Protestants escaping from Papal persecutions. These people never assimilated with the Irish race nor did they intermarry.

The Irish-Catholics were bitter enemies of the Protestants. Their religious rancor may have been intensified by the occupancy of these lands by a people of another nation, who increased in prosperity through their great thrift. The Catholics annoyed these new-comers in every possible way, making raids upon their farms, carrying off their products and stock. This state of continuous belligerency culminated in civil war, which ended in the famous siege of Londonderry and the decisive battle of Boyne, in both of which the Protestant cause triumphed.

Then came the dawn of the New World. Beholding, in the dim distance, the opening of prospective civil and religious liberty in this wilderness land, Scotchmen in Ireland crossed the ocean, preferring to court fortune among the savages in this new country to remaining in a land inhabited by a relentless and hostile race, with whom they could never affiliate. Many came direct from Londonderry and the Boyne to the Kennebec. Large numbers landed in Boston and diffused themselves throughout New England, and their sturdy independence and tenacious Protestantism did more for the country than the much vaunted influence of Plymouth Pilgrims and Massachusetts Puritans. Those of this generation who trace their ancestry back to the Scotch-Irish may well be proud of it. They had to struggle with the hardships of the wilderness; the dangers of the savage foe; the rigor of a sterner climate than that of their native land; the privations of a settler’s life; the alternating neglect and oppression of the mother country; but they struggled successfully with all these disadvantages. To them is due the credit of introducing into New England the cultivation of flax, and utilizing this useful fabric with the hand-card, the foot-wheel, and the loom, enabling whole families to be clothed by their own industry.

Numerous living descendants of the early settlers of Maine, and of the Kennebec valley, can trace their ancestry back to the Scotch-Irish race, whose fruitful blood permeates the veins of untold numbers of the past as well as the present generations. Those who inherit it may well be thankful for the impress it has imparted to their traits of character, raising them above the characteristics of their less-favored contemporaries. Maine owes much to those of the founders of its civilization who came to its shores as Scotch-Irish settlers, and who were as distinct from the Irish race as though their remote ancestors had never left the heaths and mountains of Scotland.

The Lermonds reportedly were Protestants. [In the 1927 ‘A Brief History of Liberty, Maine’, Newell White, Thorndike, Maine, printer, is written by Clara (Lermond) Overlock that Robert Lermond was a large man who carried a bushel of corn from Waldoboro to South Liberty on his back to feed his family. At that time there were no roads and the rail was by spotted trees. In 1800 Robert Lermond was in Waldoboro, now Maine between the ages of 26-45 years. He was listed as a pauper in the home of William Moody, U.S. Census 1850, Liberty. In the list of deaths in the 1860 Census of Liberty, Robert Lermond was said to have ‘died of gangrene in foot‘*. He built a log cabin about a mile North of South Liberty, on the farm which later became the Charles Rhodes farm, on what is now Route 220, below the tower at the ‘pinnacle’. He is said to have been buried in the Moody Cemetery just above his home, on the upper side of the road, with his wives, son Joseph ‘Burns’ Lermond and his family.

*The Courier-Gazette newspaper of Rockland, Maine printed the death of Robert Lermond on 17 Dec. 1860, aged 26 years. IMM feels that this is a misprint, as he was the only Robert Lermond in South Liberty, and he would have been about 86 years of age.]

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Lermonds, Hustons & Jones of Maine:

In “The Huston Family of Bristol and Damariscotta, Maine” by Dr. Henry A. Huston, he records: “James Huston and his wife, Mary (Sloss) Huston, with seven children, three sons and four daughters, came to America from Ballymony, a market town in County Antrim, Ireland, about thirty-five miles east of Londonderry and forty miles north of Belfast, about 1725, and settled in Boston, Mass. A few years later, about 1729, they came to Bristol, probably influenced by Col. Dunbar, agent for the Walpole grants, and settled on land that is still in possession of their descendants. It is supposed that the Jones family from Ballymony, and the Lermond family came at the same time. The Lermond land was north of the Hustons, and the Jones landed on a small island of which the only remaining part is a large rock, called ‘Sugar Loaf’, in the Damariscotta River, about fifty rods from the shore of the land that was owned for many years by the late John Woodward.

The tradition also tells that when they walked along the bar that runs from ‘Sugar Loaf’ to the shore, they found products, in the form of clams, impressed them very favorably; and they cooked their first meal in a pot suspended from the branch of a tree near the shore, and that before a shelter could be erected, a storm came up during which the woman and children found shelter in the empty hogsheads which had contained their household goods…….”

“Col. David Dunbar, by indenture made in 1729, assigned to each family a city lot of two acres, a farm of forty acres, with a promise of one hundred acres more in due time which they seem to have obtained either before or after their stay of two years in Boston following the [1747] Indian attack. When the settlers returned after the war the place was desolate.

At this time, the Hustons, Joneses and Lermonds seem to have taken possession of three or four square miles of land in which were included the lands originally granted to them by Dunbar. [General] Waldo had succeeded in obtaining deeds to their lands because Dunbar claimed that while he intended to furnish them with deeds, he could not do so since the authority to make deeds was vested in the Governor of Annapolis, Nova Scotia. However, such deeds would have been of little, if any, value, since the lands granted by Dunbar had already been granted to the Plymouth Company in 1622, out of which grant grew Pemaquid claims.”

[Lermond notes by Isabel Morse Maresh] *It is recorded that John Lermond was an “old man”, when he was captured by the Indians, as the stories that follow tell. His wife, Jane’s gravestone records that she was aged sixty-five when she was killed by the Indians in 1747, making her born circa 1682/83. Captain John Lermond would have been around her age, if not older. Sixty-five years of age was probably 'old age' at that time. Lifespan could have been much different than today.]

It appears that though the settlers returned to the lands they had acquired in what is now Maine, that the elder Captain John Lermond remained in Massachusetts, dying in Milton, Mass. Perhaps he did not fare well, health wise, after his ordeal with the Indians. If he were an “old man” in 1747*, the Probate records in Lincoln County could not have been his, but most probably those of his son, also Captain John Lermond, as in Rev. David Quimby Cushman’s “The History of Ancient Sheepscot, Newcastle, Including Early Pemaquid, Damariscotta and other Contiguous Places, from the Earliest Discovery to the Present Time”, published in 1882, “The Lermond family consisted of the father, the mother, and the son’s wife, whose Christian name was Betsey. Her husband, Captain Lermond was at sea.” This was probably about the time that the two Lermond women were killed by Indians. [See the deed and map research of Debbie Wilson of N.H. below.]

The History of Union, Maine by John Langdon Sibley, 1851 records: “John Lermond, from Warren; probably belonged to one of the Scotch families which came from Ireland to Londonderry, N.H. While a boy, it is said he was in the fort at Thomaston, when the French and Indians besieged and attempted to burn it. He married July 8, 1771, Elizabeth Lamb, born at Cushing. Thought 1794, he probably did not move here till 1797. He died Feb. 20, 1805. His son John, born Oct. 1, 1772; married Nancy (though baptized Agnes) Bird; came about 1799; died June 5, 1840: had I. George, born Sept. 2, 1797, at Warren; married 1824, his cousin, Lois Lermond of Warren; resided Hope. II. Betsey, born Jan. 8, 1799, at Warren, married Nov. 25, 1821, Abijah Miller, of Whitefield. III. Sally, born March 3, 1801; married Dec. 13, 1825, Theodore Scott, Resided Belfast. IV. Elsie, born Oct. 31, 1803, died July 20, 1834; married Marcus Gillmor. V. Nancy, born July 2, 1805, married William Hilt; and died. VI. Lucinda, born April 27, 1808, Married 1829, Jones Taylor of Hope, died March 15, 1844. VII. John, born Feb. 1, 1810, Married Hannah Hastings, and has 1. Adelbert, born Jan. 9, 1838. 2. John Francis, born Jan. 30, 1840. 3. Eliza Emily, born April 22,1842. 4. Frederic, born July 29, 1845. VIII. Elbridge, born Aug. 24, 1812, married 1833, Huldah, daughter of Ephraim Bowley of Hope, and had 1. Ephraim, born March 16, 1834. 2. Julia, born Feb. 4, 1839. 3. Albert Smith, born March 24, 1840. 4. Elbridge G., born Aug. 23, 1841. 5. Huldah Elizabeth, born Jan. 31, 1845. 6. Frank Justin, born April 13, 1846.”

From the Old Bristol and Nobleboro, Maine records: “Capt John Lermond came to Walpole in 1730 with Jones and Hustons and received grants of land under Dunbar on the East bank of the Damariscotta River. After the close of the Revolutionary War, he was appointed a member of a committee to see that no one ‘having taken refuge under the British during the late war shall be suffered to return any share any of the liberties and privileges that we have purchased at so dear a rate.’ Later removed to Warren, Maine. Alexander Lermond was appointed administrator to the will of John Lermond, late of Bristol, 27 September 1770. Alexander was of St. Georges.

The wife of Captain John Lermond was Jane, maiden name unknown. She was killed 27 April 1747, aged 65 years by Indians with her daughter-in-law Elizabeth ‘Betsey‘ (Huston) Lermond, wife of her son, John. They were killed during an attack on the Fort. Col. William Jones received a wound in the arm, but succeeded in bringing in her body. Jane was killed instantly near the big rock on the O‘Brien property during the surprise attack.”

In the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 44, 1890, page 204 is the following: “John Larmond signed a Petition of the Inhabitants of Kennebec River to Gov. Wm. Shirley, dated 22 April 1755, with about four hundred other names.”

Debbie Wilson of N.H. has done considerable deed and old map research in Lincoln County. On 1 Sept. 2012, she wrote: “Immigrant John was born sometime around 1680, we believe, around Balleymoney, Ireland. He married Jane, surname unknown. His son John, born ca 1720 was married to Elizabeth Huston. [The Hustons, Jones and Lermonds all came to Walpole, near the Damariscotta line from the Boston/Milton area in 1730]. Supposedly the three familes had been friends and neighbors in Northern Ireland. In 1747, Indians killed Jane and Elizabeth and captured [elder] John and took him to Canada. Son John was off sailing at the time. Jane, Elizabeth and Jane’s son, William who had already died in 1743, are buried in the Woodward Cemetery on Bristol Road in Damariscotta near where the women were killed. They have legible stones, and I was there last week. Immigrant John eventually escaped or was released [we know from above that he was released] because he made it back to Boston from Canada. A John Lermond married in 1749 Mercy McCoy in Boston. This may have been our immigrant John or could have been a marriage for his son, John, born ca 1720. Anyway, we see nothing more of her. John [1] died in 1770 [he would have been aged 90 years], supposedly in Milton, Mass. He was called “late of Bristol”, so I am not sure about Milton being where he died. They went back and forth depending upon Indian problems. In 1775, John [born ca 1720]’s wife was Hannah. Now, whether she was Hannah Giffin or Griffin, we do not know. I am presuming she was Hannah Giffin or Griffin [I have seen it both ways and I think the name is interchangeable in records.] In a deed 25 March 1775, Hannah released dower rights. It was to land in Walpole that husband John had possession of through “absolute right of inheritance”. This is the first place we see John [2]’s wife’s name. It is also in one other deed in 1795.

John definitely and presumably Hannah were the parents of at least two children: William born 1766-1774, and Robert in 1775. William died in 1840 in Bremen and Robert in 1860 in Liberty. Their father John, born ca 1720, alive in 1802. The last we had seen of Hannah in records was 1795. About that time John, born ca 1720, removed from Walpole or possibly Pemaquid, further down the Bristol peninsular where he had land also, to North Waldoboro where son Robert had already gone. In 1796, son William followed to North Waldoboro. The three men settled on large, contiguous pieces of land along Little Medomak Pond. I have tramped the whole area and have had tea with the very old lady who lives there now and owns the land.

William, above is my ancestor. His first wife was Judith Upham. His second wife was Ruth Brooks Jones. Just be careful what you read online. I find many, many errors, and then mindless people copy the errors as fact and they are perpetuated. Immigrant John and Jane had at least four children that we know of: Alexander who married Mark Harkness, William who died unmarried, John who married Elizabeth Huston who was killed in 1747 and Ann/Nancy “Agnes” who married William Huston. Alexander was administrator of John’s estate and died in Warren, Maine in 1790. He is responsible for the Warren “Oyster River” Lermonds at that time. Debbie [Wilson]” [IMM note: The above Robert Lermond is my ancestor.]

Wonderfully written by Isabel Morse Maresh Comments are welcome. 7 November 2012