Ammi Ruhamah Cutter

"Rev. Ammi Ruhamah Cutter, son of William and Rebecca (Rolfe) Cutter, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 6, 1705, graduated from Harvard College in 1725, and for a time afterward was a surveyor of land. In 1727 he was admitted to communion with the church in Cambridge, and on Sunday, November 10, 1729, as a candidate, he preached his first sermon at North Yarmouth. Maine; and soon afterward became the first settled minister of that town. He continued as spiritual head of the church there until 1735, and then received his letter of dismissal. This was the end of his work in the ministry, but it was not the end of his good works, for his whole life was filled with Christian deeds and acts of moral and physical courage. While living at North Yarmouth he took an active and earnest interest in all public affairs, and performed much clerical work for the inhabitants of the town, writing wills, deeds and other important papers. In 1741 he was appointed town agent at the general court of Massachusetts, and in 1742 was appointed to superintend the Indian trading house on the Saco river, -about nine miles above its mouth. There were three such establishments in Maine at that time, and they who were appointed to superintend them were selected with particular regard to probity, discretion and character; and as none of the Indians in the vicinity of the agency at which Mr. Cutter was "truck-master" spoke the language of those farther west in New England, he "composed a vocabulary, which yet remains." He was captain of a company in Sir William Pepperell's expedition for the reduction of Louisburg, his command being attached to Colonel Jeremiah Moulton's York county regiment. After the fall of that stronghold a detachment of troops was detailed to remain at the fortress, during the following winter, and Captain Cutter was assigned to the position of chief commandant and surgeon. He died at Louisburg in March, 1746, a victim of the general contagion which prevailed throughout the garrison. On October 13, 1745, he wrote : " 'Tis generally a very sickly, dying time through the country, with the usual nervous or slow fever. We have daily tidings of our people dying at Cape Breton, and of many coming home and dying after arrival." Previous to his dismissal from the church at North Yarmouth, Mr. Cutter married Dorothy Bradbury, sister of Moses Bradbury, one of the first settlers at North Yarmouth and formerly of Newburyport, Massachusetts. "She possessed much of her husband's activity and enterprise, and a character so exalted that her memory is held in the highest veneration by her descendants to the present time." She bore her husband four children: 1. Ammi Ruhamah, born North Yarmouth March 15, 1735; graduated from Harvard College in 1752; studied medicine and afterward became a prominent character in the civil and military history of the provinces of Maine and New Hampshire. 2. William, born 1737. 3. Samuel, born North Yarmouth, August 7, 1739, died April 27, 1824. 4. Elizabeth, born 1742, died unmarried, 1792."

Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume 1 p 173

By George Thomas Little, Henry Sweetser Burrage, Albert Roscoe Stubbs

Married Dorothy Bradbury August 14, 1734 in Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts

Rev. Ammi Ruhamah Cutter graduated from Harvard College, was minister of the first church in North Yarmouth from 1729-1735, when his views, liberal for those days, brought about his dismissal. He was captain of a company in the Louisburg expedition, and after capture of that fort, he was detailed to remain as surgeon, but died of dysentery in March 1746. His remains were brought back to North Yarmouth (now Yarmouth) by Corporal Benjamin Morgaridge of Kittery. (from the book, Cumberland, Maine in Four Centuries by Phyllis Sweetser)
Contributor: Birder68 (49277540)* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 12 2022, 1:32:59 UTC