Lt. Moses Leonard

Son of John Leonard and Sarah Chandler. Moses Leonard married three times, with a fourth "intention to marry".

1. Mercy Newton who died in 1715. They had two sons and an infant daughter.
2. in 1716, Hannah (Woods) Witherbee, the widow of Thomas Witherbee. Hannah was born 4 August 1677, the daughter of Deacon John and Lydia Woods of Marlborough, Massachusetts. Together they had two more sons. She died in 1751.
3. Several years later, the records of Rutland show that he “entered his intention of marriage with the widow Hannah Beaman of Westborough on March 8, 1757 – Certificate given March 18, 1757.” She was probably the daughter of Eleazer and Hannah Howe, who married Eleazer Beaman on the 2nd of March or May in 1726, all of Marlborough. This marriage was never consummated, and no one knows why.
4. In November following, he “entered his intention of Marriage with the Widow Sarah Hall of Dudley – Certificate given Nov. 25, 1757”. They soon married and she became Moses’s third wife. Very little is known about her or her first husband, Thomas Hall.

From Find A Grave

• Birth: May 12, 1677 - Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, USA
• Death: Dec. 10, 1775 - Barre, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA

Born to John Leonard and Sarah Chandler.

From the Newton Genealogy (1915): While in Marlborough Moses Leonard lived in that part which became Southborough. In the Indian troubles his family was assigned to No. 25, Jonathan Newton's Garrison—brother of Mercy*. After the death of Mercy, his wife, Moses Leonard bought land in Worcester and removed there in 1717, where he became prominent in the affairs of the town, and Ensign of militia. He was a person of energy and thrift, as the number of conveyances by him would indicate. In these conveyances he is styled farmer, Yeoman, Innholder, Gentleman. He bought in, and removed to, in succession, Brookfield, Hardwick, Leicester, Rutland (and its several "Districts") and last Barre, where he died.

Parents: John Leonard (1645 - 1699)

Children: Moses Leonard (1706 - 1788)

Burial: Lincoln Cemetery, Barre, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA

Moses Leonard (son of John and Sarah) was born in 1688 (not 100% sure of year) in West Bridgewater, Mass. he married Mercy Newton on 5/15/1705. [source?]

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=80787454

BUT, there is another Find A Grave

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=132471058

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MOSES LEONARD was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, probably about 1677.

Moses settled in that part of Marlborough that is now Southborough about the time of his marriage to MERCY NEWTON in 1705.

Mercy was born the 16th of February 1685, the daughter of Moses and Joanna (Larkin) Newton, of Marlborough, Massachusetts.

During most of the time they lived in Marlborough, his family were in constant anxiety on account of the attacks of the Indians. The Hon. Charles Hudson in his history of Marlborough gives a graphic account of what the inhabitants suffered from the savages:

Although this war did not at any time seem to peril the existence of the town, like the Narragansett, or King Philip’s war, yet from the commencement of the century to the peace of 1713, the inhabitants were kept in a constant state of anxiety and alarm. The stealthy incursions of the guileful foe, the secret ambush, the midnight assault, the murder of the laborer in the field, or the mother and her infant in the cabin, the dread of the scalping knife and the fear of a hopeless captivity – evils more to be dreaded than open war – to such as those the inhabitants of Marlborough were constantly exposed during this lingering war.

For the safety of the inhabitants, twenty-six garrisons were established in different parts of the town. These were fortified houses to which people could resort in time of danger, each numbered and named, and every family asssigned to the one nearest or most accessible to them. Moses Leonard, his neighhbor Thomas Witherbee, and three other families, were connected with No. 25, which was the house of his brother-in-law, Jonathan Newton. We have no record of harm coming to him or his family.

He planted, at an early period, one of the orchards for which the town became famous. He was an industrious and thrifty farmer, and had just completed a comfortable and convenient house when his wife, Mercy, died in 1715, shortly after the birth of her daughter, Mercy.

There were already two young sons, eight and three years of age. This had to be a devastating, but all-too common, family crisis. It would have been impossible for Moses Leonard to raise two boys and an infant daughter, all alone. I imagine that between the birth of the baby and her death, Mercy and Moses knew she would not live. Between all concerned, it was arranged that the child was committed to the care of Mercy’s father, Moses Newton, and his new wife, Sarah.

Still with two very young boys at home, it would have been very difficult to manage a farm or profession in those days, and he did remarry, secondly, on 8 August 1716, the next-door neighbor, Mrs. Hannah Witherbee, the widow of Thomas Witherbee. Hannah was born 4 August 1677, the daughter of Deacon John and Lydia Woods of Marlborough, Massachusetts. Together they had two more sons.

From this point on, it appears that Moses and his family moved from place to place. All of the following locations described here are located in what is now Worcester County, Massachusetts.

WORCESTER, MASS.

Moses bought his land in Worcester in 1717 from his uncle Jacob Leonard of Bridgewater, and about that time removed there, leaving his young daughter with her grandfather in Marlborough. Moses became one of the prominent men of Worcester.

After the act of incorporation of the town of Worcester was passed in 1722, Moses was one of the committee of five appointed to “procure a supply of the pulpit.” At the second annual meeting he was chosen moderator and elected one of the assessors. He served his community as Ensign in the militia and selectman as early as 1725.

By deed dated 15 July 1729, for £850, he conveyed to Benjamin Townsend his farm of 180 acres west of Quinsigamog pond (Worcester), including houses, barn, and pew in the meeting house. The records in the Registry of Deeds at Cambridge, and in Worcester, after the new county was formed in 1731, show that he bought and sold a great many tracts of land during his long life.

BROOKFIELD, MASS.

In a deed dated 26 July 1733, for land bought from Benjamin Smith in Lambstown (afterwards Hardwick), he is called “Inholder,” which would seem to show that for a time he kept a public house. In a few deeds of subsequent date, he is called “Yeoman,” in all others “Gentleman.”

LEICESTER, MASS.

In the spring of 1735, for £1300, he conveys 398 acres in Brookfield to Jonas Clark of Boston and for £1000 receives from him lands in Leicester including house, etc., on “Laws Hill,” afterwards known as “Mount Pleasant.” He at once removed to this place, but for some reason remained, but a short time, selling a part or all of the property to Gershom Keyes of Boston.

RUTLAND, MASS.

By deed dated 20 February 1739/40, he calls himself “of Rutland,” and in consideration of £1000 from his son Jonas, sells him 10 acres there, “with houses, barns, orchard,” &c. In all deeds made subsequent to this date he is represented as residing in some part of this town.

On 27 April 1759 as “late of Rutland West Wing Precinct & now Dwelling in said Rutland District,” “Rutland West Wing Precinct” was incorporated as the town of Oakham in 1762; and “Rutland District,” previously known as “Rutland North West Quarter,” was incorporated a town by name of Hutchinson, in 1774 – changed to Barre in 1776.

Hannah, his second wife, of thirty-five years, died on 7 September 1751.

Several years later, the records of Rutland show that he “entered his intention of marriage with the widow Hannah Beaman of Westborough on March 8, 1757 – Certificate given March 18, 1757.” She was probably the daughter of Eleazer and Hannah Howe, who married Eleazer Beaman on the 2nd of March or May in 1726, all of Marlborough. This marriage was never consummated, and no one knows why.

In November following, he “entered his intention of Marriage with the Widow Sarah Hall of Dudley – Certificate given Nov. 25, 1757”. They soon married and she became Moses’s third wife. Very little is known about her or her first husband, Thomas Hall. He had left a will dated Oct. 24, 1756, she being appointed Executrix, said will was proved Feb. 1, 1757. They seem to have had two sons (Samuel and Benajah Hall) and two married daughters (Abigail Dennis and Elizabeth Hinds).

After her marriage with Moses Leonard, Sarah’s name was attached to his deeds of conveyance. The last one that we find recorded bears the date of February 3, 1769; “Moses Lenard Senr of the District of Rutland, Gentleman, in consideration of £120, paid by thy son Moses Lenard Jr of 2d District, yeoman – the southerly 1/2 part of house lott No. 8 – where I now dwell with a Dwelling house thereon bounded Easterly on land of said Moses Lenard Jr. Westerly on house lott No. 9 – Southerly on part of a house lott in possession of Mr. Josiah Dana.”

The above property adjoins the village of Barre, Massachusetts. The last record that can be found for them is a discharge of a mortgage, on the margin of the record in Worcester, February 5, 1770. The mortgage was from Noah Hall to Thomas Hall, both of Dudley, dated November 5, 1756. Discharge by “Moses Lenard of Rutland District, Gentleman, and Sarah Lenard his wife, she being Executrix to the Estate of Mr. Thomas Hall late of Dudley and widow of the said Thomas Hall.” At this time Moses must have been about 95 years of age.

“Lt. Moses Leonard” died at Barre on 10 December 1775, “aged about 98.” During his lifetime in different conveyances, he had been styled farmer, Yeoman, Innholder, Gentleman. He had bought in, and removed to, in succession, Brookfield, Hardwick, Leicester, Rutland (and its several “Districts”) and last, Barre.

CHILDREN BY MERCY (NEWTON) LEONARD

• 1. Moses Leonard Jr., born 1 November 1706. He mar. (1) Harriet Beulah who d. 1780; mar. (2) on 22 September 1782, Mrs. Hannah Gassett Rice. He d. 24 October 1788.
• 2. Ezra Leonard, born 19 September 1711. He mar. 1 June 1737, Olive Smith. He d. 29 June 1798.
• 3. MERCY LEONARD was born 1 December 1714 at Marlborough, Mass. She was raised by her grandfather, Moses Newton. She married Samuel Robinson 29 May 1732.

CHILDREN BY HANNAH (WOODS WITHERBEE) LEONARD

• 1. Jonas Leonard, born 19 October 1717 in Marlborough, Mass. His father deeded him 101 acres of land with dwelling house on it, in Rutland, on 20 February 1739/40, calling him “cordwainer”. He reconveyed it on 3 January 1743, calling himself “husbandman,” still living in Rutland. Later he removed to Boston where he kept the “Lamb Tavern”, said to be the present Adams House. He married first, on 21 February 1745, Mrs. Eunice (-) Barber, the widow of Hezekiah Barber. She died in 1749. He then married Abigail (-). He died 13 October 1757.
• 2. Andrew Leonard, born 20 November 1719 in Worcester, Mass. His father deeded him a tract of land in the south part of Rutland on 9 February 1745, on which he settled at the time of his first married – on 7 March 1744/5, to Dorothy Stevens. His eldest half-brother, Moses Jr., then sold him, on 18 May 1749, a farm probably adjoining, for £1300. At the same date, he mortgaged it to Stephen Gates of Rutland. He fathered sixteen children, all born within the limits of the original town of Rutland. His first wife, Dorothy, died about 1757. He then married secondly, on 13 June 1758, Hannah Pierce of Rutland. Then on 9 September 1760, his father deeded him more land, one-half of the farm of 250 acres on which he had been living in “West Wing” – he now living in Rutland District – and 5-3/4 acres more in West Wing. He probably returned there soon after. His death date and place are unknown.
• 3. MERCY LEONARD, the only daughter of Moses and Mercy (Newton) Leonard, was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts on 1 December 1714.

Some weeks or months after giving birth, in 1715, the mother of this little girl died. Two older brothers, Moses and Ezra, eight and three respectively, were left motherless as well. And so, Mercy Leonard began life under very unfavorable auspices. While the mother was dying, she committed her infant daughter to the care of her own father, Moses Newton.

Mercy spent her childhood and came to womanhood in the home of her grandfather and step-grandmother, Moses and Sarah Newton.