Capt. Anthony Brackett, Jr.

Anthony Brackett

• Birth: 1636 - Strawberry Bank, Rockingham, New Hampshire
• Death: Sep 21 1689 - Falmouth, Cumberland, Maine
• Parents: Anthony Brackett, Eleanor
• Wife: Ann Mitton, Susannah Drake

Anthony of Back Cove, Casco Bay was killed by Indians in 1689. He and all of family captured at Falmouth by Indians 1676, and escaped after capture. Reference: Coleman's New England Captives Vol I page 211. His first wife was Ann Mitton - daughter of Michael - they had 5 children. His second wife, and mother of Zachariah was Susannah Drake, daughter of Abraham Drake.

Capt. Anthony, son of Anthony the Immigrant. Husband of 1st Ann Mitton and 2nd Susannah Drake. Source: Brackett Genealogy, H. I. Brackett, 1907, pps 60 thru 71. < Archive.Org >. The story of his life and death are found in pages referred in the Source.

Family

Children by wife, Ann Mitton, not in order of birth.

• 1. Elinor; mar. (1st) her cousin, James Andrews, son of James, Sr. ; (2nd) 6 Dec, 1705, Richard Pulling, a widower, of Boston, b. 1665 ; d. 6 Feb., 1721 ; several times he was licensed to sell liquors; in 1716 occupied the "Exchange Tavern;" at one time kept the noted "Green Dragon ;" upon his death she was granted license ; same year was admitted into First church ; was living in 1731 .
• 2. vSeth, killed by the Indians in May, 1690, at Falmouth.
• 3. Mary, unmar. in 1 7 1 7, and living in Boston; later mar. Nathaniel Witcher of Salisbury.
• 4. Anthony, b. in 1669. See chapter V.
• 5. Kezia; mar. (1st) Patterson; (2nd) in 1 715, Joseph Maylem, a bricklayer of Boston. In 17 19 Zachariah Brackett mortgaged the farm at Back cove to him and Richard Pulling. In will of Kezia, probated in 1732, are named sister Elinor Pulling and sister Mary Witcher of Salisbury.

By wife, Susannah Drake:

• James, b February 7, 1679. (In Dow, not in Brackett)
• 6. Zipporah, b. 28 Sept., 1680; d. 19 Aug., 1756; mar. 1 Apr., 169-, Caleb Towle, b. 14 May, 1678; d. 20 Sept., 1763; resided in Hampton. Children were : Philip, Elizabeth, Caleb, Anthony, Zach- ariah, Mathias, Jeremiah, Francis, Hannah, Nathaniel, Abraham, Samuel.
• 7. Zachariah, b. 20 Jan., 1682. See chapter VI.
• 8. Jane, b. 7 Feb., 1684. (In Brackett, not in Dow)
• 9. Ann, b. 18 June, 1686; d. 10 Feb., 1748; mar. 20 Feb., 1 717, James Leavitt, b. 10 Nov., 1652; d. 13 Apr., 1760.
• 10. Sarah, b. 16 Mar., 1688; mar. Samuel Proctor; he came to Falmouth about 17 13; was son of John and grandson of John, the immigrant, who lived in Salem, Mass., and there in 1692, lost his life in his efforts to abate prosecutions for witchcraft. She was a member of the church in Falmouth in 1736. Children were John, b. 1715; Benjamin, b. 17 1 7 ; Samuel, Jr., b. 1719; Sarah, b. 1723; mar. John Cox, son of John, and had Josiah, Mary, Kezia and Keren; William, b. 1724; Kezia, b. 1727; Kerenhappuck, b. 1729; mar. (1st) Joseph Hicks; (2nd) Anthony Brackett (see fam. 1, div. 15). (In Brackett, not in Dow)
• 11. Susannah, b. 29 Aug., 1689 ; mar. 30 Jan., 17 18, Jasper Blake ; removed to Falmouth where she united with the First church in 1739

Notes

From http://www.cyberancestors.com/cummins/ps01/ps01_079.htm

Mary, the wife of Thomas Brackett, was carried away to Quebec and died in captivity within the year. Her three children were restored to the English at the time of the treaty signed at Casco on April 12, 1678. They went to Portsmouth area, probably to their Brackett relatives, and never returned to Casco. Upon their escape, the Anthony Brackett family also evacuated to New Hampshire. Ann Mitton Brackett died there the following year,1677, and was buried at Sandy Beach in Rye. At the time of the family's capture, she had five children; the youngest, Kezia, was an infant in arms. Perhaps Ann died in childbirth, which was very common. There is no record of another child. In hardly more than a year, three grandchildren of George Cleeves were dead.

In 1679, Anthony Brackett married Susannah Drake of Hampton by whom he had five more children. At about this time, Brackett returned to Casco to his farm. Relatively few returned unless they had a legal deed to their lands; those who leased land weren't as compelled to take their chances on the frontier. This time the people of Casco planned their protection a little better. Brackett served in the local militia in various capacities, and the town built Fort Loyal in 1680 on the neck near Cleeves original settlement. Before the end of the decade, Casco was again put to the test. On September 21, 1689, Anthony Brackett was killed in another attack. The battle was fought in the orchard on his farm so it is entirely possible that he died in the very door yard where he had escaped death thirteen years before. Ann's oldest son, Anthony, was captured at the fall of Fort Loyal in May of 1690 but escaped during the following September. Her second son, Seth, died either at the fort or in Clarke's battle on the hill just before fort fell. But that is another story.

After the second fall of Casco and for the time being, the Brackett's had had enough of Maine. Anthony Jr. became a rope maker in Boston. His sisters, Ann's daughters, Mary, Elinor and Kezia, all married Massachusetts men and lived in the Boston area as well. Anthony and Susannah's son Zachariah was one of first settlers to return during the resettlement of Falmouth in 1715. Two of Mary and Thomas Brackett's grandchildren (Joshua and Anthony) also eventually came to Falmouth and took up the Clarke's Point land. Late in the 19th century, another Brackett descendent and Portland native, Thomas Brackett Reed, became one of the most powerful Speakers of the House of Representatives in U.S. history.

< Archive.Org >

Major Church did not leave Falmouth to return to Plymouth until November, 1689. On the 13th of that month, shortly prior to his departure, a council of war was held at Falmouth. There were present Captains Davis, William Bassett, Simon Willard and Nathan- iel Hall ; Lieutenants Thaddeus Clark, Elisha Andrews, George Inger- soll and Ambrose Davis ; Messrs. Elihu Gullison, Robert Lawrence, John Palmer and others. Absent, Captain Anthony Brackett of Fal- mouth, but his absence was accounted for. The man capable of suc- cessfully defending Falmouth, was dead.

References

• History of the town of Hampton, New Hampshire, from its settlement in 1638 to the autumn of 1892 by Dow, Joseph, 1807-1889; Dow, Lucy Ellen, ed. Page 614. < Archive.Org >
• http://www.cyberancestors.com/cummins/ps01/ps01_078.htm
• ”Guide Book for Portland and vicinity, to which is appended a summary history” ... By William WILLIS (of Portland, Maine.). Page 61. GoogleBooks
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brackett-12 cites
• Dow, Joseph. History of the Town of Hampton, New Hampshire (Salem, MA, 1893) Vol. 2, Page 614
• Scales, John. Piscataqua Pioneers (C.F. Whitehouse, Dover, N.H., 1919) Page 43
• Sanborn, George Freeman, Jr., and Sanborn, Melinde Lutz.
• Vital records of Hampton, New Hampshire : to the end of the year 1900. Boston, Mass: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1992. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009) p145
• Yates Publishing, U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 (Provo, UT, USA, The Generations Network, Inc., 2004)
• New England Marriages Prior to 1700 By Clarence Almon Torrey, Elizabeth Petty Bentley. Page 89.

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