Mary Ann (Rogers) Miller (1736 - 1820)

Born 3 Aug 1736 in Methuen, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

Wife of Hugh Miller — married about 1756 in New Hampshire

Descendants

Died 1820 at about age 83 in Richford, Franklin, Vermont, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Barry Meadows [send private message] and Larry Miller [send private message]

Biography

Mary Ann Rogers was born in 1736 in Methuen, Massachusetts^[1]. She was the daughter of James Rogers and Mary MacPhedran (or McFatridge). A very short time after her birth, her family moved a short distance west to a small farm near the Merrimack River settlement of Dracut, Massachusetts. After only two or three years there i.e. in the spring of 1739 or 1740^[2][3][4],her father along with Joseph Putney and one or two others became the first permanent settlers of Dunbarton (called Starkstown at the time) New Hampshire^[5]. James loaded all the family possessions on oxcarts and moved there (about 35 miles northwest of Dracut) with his entire family including six sons Samuel, Daniel, Robert, Richard, James and John, his wife and several daughters including of course Mary. One of Mary's brothers was the famous Robert Rogers, leader of Rogers' Rangers. Another brother was James, a prominent Loyalist settler in the area of what would one day become Kingston, Ontario.

In the mid-1750s, Mary Ann married Hugh Miller, most likely in Dunbarton, New Hampshire. Hugh and Mary had 10 children that we know about between 1758 and 1773. The oldest 5 or 6 are presumed to have been born in New Hampshire, with the youngest four or five likely born in Vermont:

1. Robert b. abt. 1758, m. Amy Sarah Barnett
2. Samuel Rogers b. abt. 1759, m. Elizabeth Hunkins
3. Mary b. abt 1760, m. Benjamin Barnett
4. James b. abt 1763, m. Jane or Jenny
5. Hannah b. abt. 1771, m. Theophilus Hastings
6. Jacob b. 12 July 1773, Bradford, Vt, m. Saloma Nutting
7. Catherine b. abt. 1774, m. Robert Kennedy
8. Daniel b. bef 1775, m. Anna Powell
9. Amy, and
10. Ruth.

Beginning at some time before 1762, Hugh and Mary lived on a farm in the town of Merrimack, NH which was owned by Mary's brother Major Robert Rogers. An agreement signed by Hugh Miller on Dec. 9th 1762, gave Hugh the right to acquire this property up until April 1, 1763 for a sum of 60 pounds. The property had just been acquired from Major Rogers by Robert Cunningham of Londonderry. Major Rogers had emerged from the Seven Years War quite heavily in debt^[6] and perhaps this liquidation was part of his attempt to recover from this situation. The Cunningham - Miller agreement acknowledges that Hugh Miller had improved the property, so clearly he had been living there for some time. Perhaps this property was part of Robert' Roger's inheritance (being the oldest son) from his and Mary's father James who had perished in 1753 and was known to possess large tracts of land in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, out of which the town of Merrimack was originally formed. The Cunningham - Miller contract document is owned by the New Hampshire Historical Society and is freely viewable on their website^[7].

While it is not known when exactly it happened, we know that sometime in the late 1760s or by 1770 at the latest, Hugh Miller established his family in the still quite new settlement of Bradford, Vermont. This whole area along both sides of the Connecticut River was being opened up to settlement in the early to mid 1760s, following some exploratory excursions north from No. 4 Fort (Charleston, NH) in 1754. Prior to 1760, there were no settlements north of No. 4. Hugh and Mary moved into the extreme northeastern corner of Bradford, an area called Hall's Meadow along the Connecticut River and bordering at the north on the boundary with Newbury^[8].

On March 18, 1771, Hugh Miller was one of 22 signatories (two of the others being his father Samuel and brother Matthew) to the covenant governing the allocation of Mooretown land grants, known as the Royal Charter of Mooretown, Gloucester County, New York (it was only in 1778 that the town was renamed Bradford)^[9]. The first recorded official meeting in that town in 1773 assigned Hugh Miller as "Overseer of the Poor"^[10].

An 1841 book documents the memories of early still-living settlers of the area called "Coos Country"^[11]. On pg. 112, one of the early settlers Richard Wallace recounts having in 1771 personally gone to rescue the family of Hugh Miller in Bradford who had been caught in flooding conditions. Wallace recalled that Mrs. Miller "was the sister of the far-famed Robert Rogers, the hero of Saint-Francois". Just to add credibility to this fact, when he was visiting Dr. Wheelock in 1775, Maj. Robert Rogers mentioned that he was next on his way to visit "his sister at More's Town"^[12].

In 1773 (Jan. 26th), Hugh Miller was one of a long list of Newbury, Vt. signers of a petition to the New York General Assembly to confirm their grants^[13].

Hugh was without doubt a Revolutionary War soldier (DAR Ancestor # A078941)^[14]. Although he lived at the time in Bradford, Vermont, he enlisted across the river with the New Hampshire Bedel Regiment^[15]. In this reference, he is listed as a "Private" in the Bedel's Company of "Colonel Timothy Bedel's Regiment, 1775", as a resident of Newbury, Vermont, along with some familiar names i.e. Robert Miller of Bradford, Vt. (probably his son), and Robert Kenady (future son-in-law), also of Bradford. Col. Bedel's Regiment was in service in Canada, including St. John's and other places, and in 1776 was ordered to join the "Northern Continental Army". They were near Crown Point (southern end of Lake Champlain near Ticonderoga) in Sept 1776.

By 1791, Hugh and Mary's six oldest were grown up and married, which is reflected in the 1790 Bradford Census, which shows Hugh, his wife, plus 2 boys and 2 girls (presumably Jacob, Amy, Ruth and one other)^[16]. Sons Robert and James as well as daughter Mary (Benjamin Barnett) were listed as separate Bradford households on the 1790 census. However, some of their other children had started to move upstate, with Samuel, Daniel and Hannah (Theophilus Hastings) listed on the 1790 Census for Johnson, Vermont, and Robert Kennedy (Catherine) listed for Boulton, Vermont^[17].

It is difficult for us to comprehend what would then prompt a 60 year old man in 1795 to uproot his family from Bradford in the middle of winter (March) and trek through the wilderness to virgin territory in Richford township in the most northerly point of Vermont, in the area of Richford known as "Stevens Mills". Why face the difficulties of a pioneer all over again at that age? Is it possible his children then living in nearby Johnson, Vermont had scouted this new area and were extolling the opportunities? Is it possible the family was being bullied by citizens on account of their past ties to the Loyalist Rogers family, in spite of the military service contributions of Hugh and other members of his family on the side of the Patriots? The family's ordeal of starting a new life has been archived in some detail^[18]. Not only did Hugh and Mary bring their unmarried though adult children, namely Daniel, Jacob, Amy and Ruth, but they were also joined in Richford by Theophilus and Hannah Miller Hastings, Robert and Catherine Miller Kennedy with their five children, Captain Benjamin and Mary Miller Barnet with their five children, and James Miller with his wife and two or three children. The 1800 Census captures the Kennedy, Hastings and Hugh Miller families as separate Richford households^[19]. The pioneering spirit persisted in his children, with James moving across the border in 1799 to become the first settler of Glen Sutton, Lower Canada. And he was joined in Lower Canada later on by his Hastings and Barnett relatives.

Mary was a doctress and midwife and she often travelled long distances, sometimes on snowshoes, to help deliver a baby. In 1797, she was summoned by her neighbour (the Stanhope's) to assist with the birth of Samuel Stanhope. She found her way through the forest by marking trees which later served as a guide for others. In 1802, Bishop Hedding, a pioneer of Methodism, followed the trail of the early emigrants by marked trees and preached the first sermon in the town of Richford at the Miller's house.

Mary lost her husband in 1810, just days after the unexpected death of their son Daniel. It is said the latter event triggered some kind of shock. Hugh was interred on the hill on their own family land. Later on, a commemorative stone was placed in the Richford Troy Street Cemetery^[20]

After her husband's death, Mary lived with one of her children until her death at the age of 84 years. Her funeral was held in a barn and she was laid to rest beside her husband.

Sources

1. ↑ Vital Records of Methuen, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Topsfield Historical Society, Topsfield, Mass., 1909)| Page 109
2. ↑ Pg. 2, Sketch of Dunbarton, NH, by Ella Mills, Manchester Historic Association, 1902
3. ↑ Pg. 11 & 15, History of the Town of Dunbarton, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, by Caleb Stark, Concord, 1860
4. ↑ Pg. 9, James Rogers of Londonderry and James Rogers of Dunbarton, by Hon. Josiah H. Drummond, Manchester, 1897
5. ↑ Where the WInds Blow Free, by Alice M. Hadley, Pg. 11
6. ↑ Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Robert Rogers|Major Robert Rogers
7. ↑ Hugh Miller Papers, Dec. 9th, 1762|New Hampshire Historical Society
8. ↑ Land Records of Bradford, 1790, Pg. 104, LDS Film #0027924
9. ↑ Pg. 29, A History of Bradford, Vermont, by Rev. Silas McKeen, Montpelier Vermont, 1875
10. ↑ Pg. 40, A History of Bradford, Vermont, by Rev. Silas McKeen, Montpelier Vermont, 1875
11. ↑ Historical Sketches of the Discovery, Settlement, and Progress of Events in the Coos Country and Vicinity, principally between 1754 and 1785, by Rev. Grant Powers, Haverhill, 1841
12. ↑ Pg. 234, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, by Lorenzo Sabine, Volume II, Boston, 1864
13. ↑ Pg. 409, History of Newbury, Vermont, by Frederic P. Wells, St. Johnsbury, Vt., 1902
14. ↑ Daughter of the American Revolution, Ancestor # A078941
15. ↑ State of New Hampshire, Manual for the General Court, 1903 (Nbr. 8), Pg. 417
16. ↑ 1790 United States Federal Census, Bradford, Orange County, Vermont, Pg. 180
17. ↑ 1790 United States Federal Census for Chittenden County, Vermont, Pg. 165
18. ↑ Pg. 279, The Vermont Historical Gazetteer, edited by Abby Maria Hemenway, Volume II, Burlington, 1871
19. ↑ 1800 United States Federal Census, State of Vermont, Franklin County, Richford, Page 456, Line 7| 1800 US Census, "Hugh Miller"
20. ↑ FindAGrave, Memorial #130276761, Hugh Miller. Created by Barb Destromp, May 24, 2014.

Acknowledgments

• Thank you to Barry Meadows for creating Rogers-8256 on 22 Nov 13.
• Thank you to Dave Bailey for authoring this detailed profile on Nov 2017.