John Jenness

Brief biography of John Jenness

Added by YankeeDoodleMark on 1 Apr 2008

John Jenness was the firstborn son of Francis Jenness and Hannah Swaine, born 14 June 1678 in Hampton NH. He grew up to become a blacksmith [1, p. 382]. At age 24, he married Hannah Foss on 25 June 1702. Together they had seven children.

After Hannah's death, John remarried on 25 November 1718 Mary Mason of Portsmouth NH [1, p. 382]. Together they had three more children.

John Jenness and brother Richard carried on a dispute with their follow commoners in Hampton NH that had started with their father Francis. The "Jenness dispute" [2, pp. 181-182] centered around whether a portion of land, fenced in by the Jenness family, lawfully belonged to them or to the "common." Both the Jennesses and the commoners agreed to binding arbitration in June 1720. The story then goes as follows [2]:

   After a two days' hearing and a careful examination of all the evidences, and papers relating to the premises, they made their award August 31:  The said John and Richard Jenness, and their heirs and assigns forever to hold unmolested, all the land they had fenced in, on the south side of a certain brook running from Cedar Swamp; and they were to quitclaim all right to any other land in the North Division, on either side of the brook, than that which was fenced in;  and all controversies, lawsuits and differences, relating thereto, was thenceforth to be at an end.

John Jenness' land was rezoned in 1730 from Hampton NH to become part of Rye NH [2, p. 193]. Disputes over land between Hampton and Rye carried forward into at least 1737 [1, pp. 44-46].

REFERENCES

[1] Parsons, Langdon B.. History of the town of Rye, New Hampshire : from its discovery and settlement to December 31, 1903. Concord, N.H.: Rumford Print. Co., 1905. Text online at Ancestry.com.

[2] Dow, Joseph,. History of the town of Hampton, New Hampshire : from its settlement in 1638, to the autumn of 1892. unknown: L.E. Dow, 1893, c1894. Text online at Ancestry.com.

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