Madam Elizabeth Gent

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-197533

Elizabeth was born around 1620 in Rochester, England. She married John Gent. They had at least 4 children, Elizabeth, Francisci, Thomas and John. She married George Spear(e) of Braintree, Mass. abt. 1679 She died after 8 August 1689.

Elizabeth was called "Madam Elizabeth Gent" in records regarding the settlement at Dyer's Neck in Sheepscott (New Dartmouth), Maine. She purchased land at New Dartmouth in 1665 from two Indian Sagamores, Daniel and Dock Swash.

About August 13, 1678, the settlers on Dyer's Neck abandoned their homesteads to escape an Indian attack. Elizabeth and her son Thomas escaped to Boston. At a meeting in the latter town six years later some of these eastern refugees voted to return to their deserted farms at "New Dartmouth". They proposed to build a fort on Gent's, otherwise known as "The Great Neck," and surround it with homesteads in close formation. The new pioneers, providing livestock and provisions for the undertaking, began the plantation at Sheepscot in 1683. Some of the old settlers had deceased and were represented by children or widows." (Spencer's Pioneers on Maine Rivers)

Shortly after her escape to Boston, Madam Gent married George Spear of Braintree. He returned with her to the New Dartmouth settlement, and submitted a petition to Sir Edmund Andros on May 21st 1688 asking for Elizabeth's first husband's land back[1]. Spear was killed in an Indian attack on August 16, 1689 at New Dartmouth. In In 1689 Elizabeth Speer was listed as a witness against Edmund Andros, accusing him of causing problems with the Native Americans in Maine[2].

Nothing is known of her earlier life. However, the fact that she was referred to as "Madam" indicates that her status in society must have been higher than most. It's also notable that she purchased the land at New Dartmouth in 1665 as it was not commonplace for a woman, at that point a widow, to purchase land. It's unfortunate that the history of her early life is not known as it appears she was a person of a higher class status than her peers.

Family

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~walkersj/genealogy/ElizabethGent.htm

1. JOHN1 GENT1 was of Essex Co., England2, and died 1661 at sea2,3. He married ELIZABETH4.

"John Gent, a fisherman at Salem 1642, trading at Pemaquid 1647, died at sea 1661. Widow Elizabeth bought land east of Mason's Neck 1677, and married George Speare of Boston. They returned to Sheepscot, then called New Dartmouth, 1683.

Children of JOHN GENT and ELIZABETH are:

1. DANIEL2 GENT11, d. Aft. 1682, bef 1715?, of Maine12. August 19, 1682; With the Sheepscot people in Boston, Massachusetts he signed the articles of Association for the Settlement of a Town Upon the Sheepscot River. (Islands of the Mid-Maine Coast - C.B. McLane, Vol. 4)
2. MARY GENT, d. Aft. 1683. She married (1) JOHN MASON. She married (2) JOHN ALLEN September 13, 1683
3. ELIZABETH GENT, b. 1637 - 1641 Maine; d. Aft. 1693, bef 1/1716 - Braintree, Norfolk Co., Massachusetts? who married John, son of James Phipps, and had John, born 1668, Mary (Mason, Allen) and Thomas, born 1642." (Spencer's Pioneers on Maine Rivers)
4. THOMAS GENT, b. 1642; d. December 1717, Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts.
5. JOHN GENT13, d. Aft. 167613. Possible son13. On September 16, 1676, a John Gent was sued in Massachusetts on a note of this date - payable in fish.

Notes

from Newcastle History by Arlene Cole

Madam Gent

John and Elizabeth Gent came to Sheepscot in the late 1600s. They purchased a large tract of land from the Indians. John Gent, apparently, died soon after they arrived, but Elizabeth, with her son Thomas, carried out their dream of land development. Elizabeth was known as Madam Gent.

Her deed from the Indians is lost, but it was for land north and east of John Mason's. According to the Rev. David Quimby Cushman in his The History of Ancient Sheepscot and Newcastle, "her land began at the Sheepscot Falls and followed Mason's boundary, across the cove to a 'parcel of pines' then to another cove up Crumbie's Reach then round the Great Neck - up Mill River to about where the line now divides the towns of Jefferson and Newcastle - thence Westerly near 'Winnisitico Falls' to the Sheepscot River - thence down the river to the first mentioned bound."

Cushman adds that Madam Gent had purchased a beautiful location. The ground was adapted to agriculture and the rivers had many fish. The marshes and meadows produced large quantities of hay for the cattle and the outer lands were heavily forested.

Madam Gent built her garrison on the hill. Alex Johnson in 1877 made a survey of the Sheepscot area, and he wrote, Garrison Hill "rises abruptly from the low, flat land on the west, being steep and rough of ascent on that side, moderate and easy on all the other sides; it is 70 feet above tide level."

The stockades and garrison on its summit, where the church and schoolhouse now stand were, doubtless, more extensive than those of Fort Anne, as the outline remains clearly indicate. (Fort Anne was a later fort built near where the cemetery is now.)

Madam Gent's garrison and stockade, combined, could shelter all of the second occupancy of the farms with their cattle.

The name "Garrison Hill" is the only name that this ridge above the Sheepscot River has ever been known by and there is no question it was named for Madam Gent's garrison. ...

References

• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~walkersj/ElizabethGent.htm
• Descendants of Edward Small of New England, and the allied ..., Volume 3  By Lora Altine Woodbury Underhill. Page 1164. "Thomas Gent, who had lived on Garrison Hill with his mother, Elizabeth Gent, claimed the same land by virtue of Indian deeds. ... Madam Elizabeth Gent (Ghent or Jent) was the widow of John Gent, fisherman, of New Darmouth, in Cornwall County, Maine. She was married second to "George Speere," of Braintree. ..."
• Volume: Volume 2, Page(s): 1419 SPEAR, George & 3/wf Elizabeth (____) GENT/JENT, w John; by 1688; Braintree {Small 1164; Reg. 59:325; GDMNH 256; Spear Anc. 4}
• See also: The history of ancient Sheepscot and Newcastle
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle,_Maine Originally called Sheepscot Plantation, Newcastle was first settled in the 1630s by fishermen and around 50 families. Around 1649-50, John Mason purchased a tract of land from the sachems Chief Robinhood and Chief Jack Pudding. The territory was claimed in 1665 by the Duke of York. Renamed New Dartmouth, the plantation was attacked and destroyed in 1676 during King Philip's War.[5] When the war was over, some of the inhabitants returned. But it was destroyed again in 1689 during King William's War, and the village was not reoccupied for about 40 years. In 1730, Colonel David Dunbar, the superintendent and governor of the Province of Sagadahoc, resettled it as Newcastle, named in honor of the Duke of Newcastle.[6]