Nicholas Austin (1736 - 1821)

Born 1736 in Somersworth, Strafford, New Hampshire

Ancestors

Husband of Phebe (Chesley) Austin — married 1768 in New Hampshire

Descendants

Died 2 Mar 1821 at about age 85 in Bolton, Richelieu, Lower Canada

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Biography

Nicholas Austin I., leader of the Associates, was born in England in 1736 (this probably meant New England). His wife, Phoebe Chesley, was born in 1746.

On Nov 28 1774 ^[1]

Boston’s committee warned laborers and merchants they risked their neighbors denouncing them as enemies should they advance the British cause. Despite this warning, however, not all men bowed to local expectations.

In Rochester, New Hampshire, townsfolk suspected Stephen Wentworth of soliciting artificers to construct barracks at Boston. They immediately alerted the town committee of their suspicions. In response, the committee sent member Nicolas Austin to interrogate Wentworth at his home. Once confronted, Wentworth confessed and felt obliged on his knees” to publicly beg for forgiveness. Newspapers published and republished this exchange, broadcasting the reluctantly repentant Wentworth’s betrayal and atonement (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

He petitioned in Middleton, Strafford, New Hampshire on 28 Oct 1785 asking for a Meeting House so inhabitants can participate in Town Meetings, to disannexed Wolfbourough from Middleton ^[2]

According to the History of Brome County, Quebec, Nicholas petitioned for land sometime between 1782 and 1793 and settled at Potton. He cleared about 95 acres of land at what is now known as Austin's Bay at Gibraltar Point, Lake Memphremagog. A Bolton Monument stands at the location of his first dwelling there. The early settlers of the area were members of the Society of Friends.

Among the early settlers of Potton in addition to the Austin Family were: Perkins, Holbrook, Blanchard, Manson, Traver, Woodbury, Bourn, Bailey, Page, Noyes, Powell, Ruyter, Barnett, Elkins, Wadleigh and Page.

Sources

1. ↑ Excerpt from Citizens during the Coercive Acts Crisis
2. ↑ Petition

• History of Brome County, Quebec available online at: https://archive.org/stream/historyofbromeco01tayluoft#page/241/mode/2up/search/Austin Pages 241-276List of Children

• Wikipedia contributors. "Nicholas Austin." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 6 Dec 2020.

• New Hampshire, U.S., Government Petitions, 1700-1826, New Hampshire Department of State; Concord, New Hampshire; New Hampshire Petitions
• Tate, Joseph. The Diary of Master Joseph Tate of Somersworth, N.H., NEHGR (NEHGS, Boston, 1919) Vol. 73, Page 307.
• Transformation of American Subjects to Citizens during the Coercive Acts Crisis, 1774–1776, by McGhee, Shawn D.   Temple University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  2022