Hannah (Hawks) Scott (abt. 1668 - 1744)

Born about 1668 in Hadley, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Ancestors

Wife of Jonathan Scott — married Nov 1694 in Deerfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 7 Apr 1744 at about age 76 in Waterbury, New Haven, Connecticut Colony

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Cheryl Bostrom [send private message]

Biography

Hannah Hawks was born about 1668 in Hadley, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her parents were John and Martha (Baldwin) Hawks. Hannah's birth year and location are based on her parents' marriage on 27 December 1667, in Hadley,^[1] and on her estimated age at death in 1744 of 77 years.^[2] Her parents were married in Hadley, but the marriage was recorded in Hatfield vital records. Hatfield was created from Hadley in 1670, and John's land was in the Hatfield division.

John, son of John and Martha Hawks, died on 6 July 1671, in Hatfield.^[1] They had a second son John, perhaps in 1673.

In 1675 John Hawks moved his family to Deerfield, Hampshire (now Franklin), Massachusetts Bay Colony, but the town was destroyed within months by an Indian attack related to the outbreak of King Philip's War. The Hawks family survived and moved back to Hadley, probably initially moving in with one of their parents.

Hannah's mother Martha died on 7 January 1675/6, in Hadley.^[1] Her father did not remarry until after his only two children, Hanna and John, were both married, in 1694 and 1695.

By about 1683 John Hawks had again moved to Deerfield.

Hannah married Jonathan Scott, of Waterbury, New Haven Connecticut Colony, in November 1694, in Deerfield.^[3][4]

It is not known how Jonathan met Hannah Hawks. He was evidently in Deerfield, as that is where the marriage occurred. It is possible that he was among the militia of forty or fifty men that Connecticut Colony sent to Deerfield in 1693, at the request of the governor of Massachusetts Colony, to bolster the local militia against French and Indian attacks. In any event Jonathan and Hanna returned to Waterbury soon after their marriage.

Jonathan and Hanna had children, all born in Waterbury:^[3][5]

1. infant (born and died Aug 1695)
2. Jonathan (1696), married Mary Hurlburt
3. John (1699), captured by Indians and taken to Canada
4. Martha (1701), married Joseph Hurlburt
5. Gershom (1703), married Mary Fenton
6. Ebenezer (1705)
7. Daniel (1707), married Hannah Way

Hannah and sons Jonathan and John were baptized in the church in Woodbury, Litchfield, Connecticut Colony on 12 November 1699.^[6]

Jonathan and Hanna suffered greatly from Indian attacks, probably more than any other family in Connecticut. In 1704 Deerfield was attacked by French soldiers and their Indian allies, during Queen Anne's War. Hanna's brother with his wife and their three children were killed. Her father's wife and her children were all killed, and Hannah's half-sister Elizabeth, about six years old, was made a captive and perished on the way to Canada.^[7] Hannah's father John was the only Hawks survivor, and he moved to Waterbury to be with Hanna, his sole remaining descendant.

In about 1708, within a few miles of Jonathan and Hanna's home in Waterbury, Jonathan's brother Joseph was ambushed by Indians and tortured to death. In about July 1710 Jonathan was captured by Indians and the thumb of his right hand was cut off to incapacitate him. He was marched to Canada and was held in captivity for two years, returning by October of 1712, when he requested relief from the Court, and received "a release from his country rate, and ten pounds out of the treasury, for the loss of one of his thumbs by the enemy." Jonathan's son John was apparently also captured and taken to Canada. In 1721 Jonathan was again before the court petitioning for support, testifying that "while he was a captive and prisoner at Canada, he was under distressing circumstances, and necessitated to take up money upon credit for his subsistence and relic, and had taken up ten pounds and prudently spent the same." In 1725 Jonathan petitioned "the prayer of Jonathan Scott, setting forth that his son John is now in captivity among the Indians at Canada, and, that he is so reduced, that he cannot get him home."^[8] There is no record of their son John ever returning from Canada.

Hannah died on 7 April 1744, in Waterbury,^[2] and she has a Find A Grave: Memorial #11655201. Jonathan died on 15 May 1745, also in Waterbury.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 Hatfield, v.1 pp.229, 293 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). NEHGS member site
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "Connecticut Deaths and Burials, 1772-1934", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F7KP-G9S : 16 January 2020), Hannah Scott, 1744.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630-1870 Waterbury, pp. 271-275 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928. NEHGS member site
   • Text: Jonathan, s. Edmun, of Farmington, m. Hanna Hawks, d John, of Dearfield, sometime in Nov., 1694
4. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700. Torrey, v.2 p.1341 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015.NEHGS member site
   • Text: SCOTT, Jonathan & Hannah HANKS/HAWKS, Deerfield; Nov 1694; Deerfield/Waterbury, CT/Hadley {Waterbury VR 131, 270; Waterbury App. 61, 121; Hadley 67; TAG 9:26; Baldwin 481}
5. ↑ Savage, James, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, 1862, v.4 p 38 InternetArchive
6. ↑ Records of the First Ecclesiastical Society of the First Congregational Church in Woodbury, Connecticut, v. 1-2, 1770-1908; FHL film #7833819, image 23 FamilySearch
7. ↑ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2018.) NEHGS member site
8. ↑ Pritchard, Sarah, The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, 1896, Joseph Anderson, editor, v.1 p.165, pp.257-263 HathiTrust