Job Hanscom

Job Hanscom, son of Thomas and Ann Hanscom, was born in Kittery, Maine in 1679. His occupation was that of weaver, and he remained in Kittery until the 1740s. On 12 Feb. 1713, Job sold his share of the Hanscom estate to his oldest nephew, Thomas Hanscom III. On 21 April 1713, Job Hanscom was brought into court for "being drunk, for fighting, and for profane swearing". In 1719, his brother Moses sued him and his nephew on the grounds that neither of them were contributing to the support of the family matriarch, Ann Hanscom-Tobey [Job's mother]. In 1724, Job was sued in York County Court by one Samuel Penhallow. In April 1734, he was once again hauled into court for "profane swearing". Adjudged guilty, he was ordered to pay five shillings "to the poor of Kittery".

Job Hanscom was married, probably around December 1705, to Mary Gowell, daughter of Richard Gowell. [Her older sister, Tamsen, had earlier become the second wife of Job's oldest brother, Thomas, in 1697.] On 6 January 1708, Job Hanscom filed a lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas, Portsmouth, NH, alleging that two years earlier (5 December 1705), one John Plaisted had beaten Mary Gowell "in a forcible and violent manner".

In 1730, Job inherited 20 acres from his father-in-law, Richard Gowell. In 1738, Job deeded a portion of his Kittery land to his "well beloved" son Benaiah. Soon afterward, he moved to Pepperellborough [now Saco], Maine where he was to spend the remainder of his life. Apparently mellowed in his old age, he was baptized ["an old man, age 70"] into church on 18 June 1753. He spent his last years in the home of his daughter, Elizabeth Odell, and died there on 3 September 1779 at the venerable age of 100. The cause of his death is given as "purging".