Bimsley Stevens (1735 - 1797)

Born 16 Mar 1735 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts

Ancestors

Descendants

Died Apr 1797 at age 62 in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts, United States

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Biography

BIMSLEY STEVENS,^[1] b. at Andover, Mar 1734 son of John and Elizabeth (Chandler) Stevens; d. at Andover, about Apr 1797^[2] (probate 6 Jun 1797 with Ebenezer Poor, Jr. as administrator); m. REBECCA who has not been identified, b. about 1737; Rebecca d. at Salem, 18 May 1785.^[3] Bimsley m. 2nd at Salem, 9 Oct 1785,^[4] MARY WITHEREL (widow of Edward Lister), baptized at Salem, 6 Jul 1740 daughter of William and Abigail (Fuller) Witherel; Mary d. at Salem 2 Sep 1817.

Bimsley resided in Andover and Salem and kept a public house in Andover.^[5] He was also at one time deputy sheriff of Essex County.

He saw service in the Revolution and marched to Cambridge at the alarm. He was named as adjutant to Gen. Ward in Aprill, 1775 a position he held for about two months. He had a three-year enlistment from 1777 to 1780. Bimsley provided this information in a petition for compensation for services. “Nov. 8, 1775. Petition of Bimsley Stevens begs leave to relate that on the 19th of April last, having come to Cambridge on the alarm occasioned by the Invasion made by the king’s troops, General Ward requested your petitioner to serve to army in capacity of an adjutant General, in which department he consented to subject himself to great labor and peculiar fatigues arising from the unsettled confused state of the Regiments and exerted himself to render the best service in his power. In this station he continued till the 28th of June.”^[6]

On 14 October 1785, Bimsley Stevens, gentleman of Salem, sold two pieces of land in Topsfield to Hon. Michael Farley for payment of £178.15. Bimsley was of Salem on 7 August 1790 when he sold with his wife Mary a tract of land to Enoch Adams innholder of Andover for payment of £90. He was of Andover on 29 July 1794 when he sold two acres to Isaac Osgood. On 4 June 1795, Bimsley sold to Jonathan Stevens of Andover one complete half of a tract of land with dwelling house and one-half of the grist mill with privileges to the same for payment of £37.19. On 20 March 1777, Bimsley Stevens of Andover sold a small tract to Isaac Poor for payment of $22. On 5 April 1797, Bimsley Stevens gentleman of Andover sold to Ebenezer Poor, Jr. in Andover a tract of land excepting a small tract recently sold to Isaac Poor for the sum of $300.^[7]

Bimsley Stevens did not leave a will and his estate entered probate 6 June 1797 with Ebenezer Poor as administrator at the request of widow Mary Stevens. Real estate was $1,472.50 and personal estate was 669.68. The dower was set off to the widow on 3 September 1777. Debts of $2,015.58 exceeded the value of the estate and on 3 November 1798, Ebenezer Poor presented the estate as insolvent and requested to sell the reversion of the widow’s dower along with the other two-thirds of the estate.^[8] On 13 December 1798 and 15 December 1798, Ebenezer Poor, Jr. acting as estate administrator sold portions of the real property including the reversion of the dower.^[9]

Bimsley and Rebecca Stevens were parents of ten children born at Andover.

i MARY STEVENS, b. 17 May 1759; died young

ii BIMSLEY STEVENS, b. 24 Oct 1761

iii ENOCH STEVENS, b. 27 May 1765

iv MARY STEVENS, b. 3 May 1767; died young

v REBECCA STEVENS, b. at Andover, 10 Jan 1769; m. at Salem, 27 Jun 1784, BENJAMIN MOSES, b. at Salem, 1766 son of Benjamin and Sarah (Caryll) Moses.

vi HANNAH STEVENS, b. 29 Sep 1770; m. at Salem, 31 Jan 1788, SAMUEL GARDNER who was a ship master at Salem. Samuel is reported as lost at sea. Hannah and Samuel were parents of children Samuel, Rebecca, and Hannah.^[10]

vii SUSAN STEVENS, b. 29 Jul 1772

viii MARY “MOLLY” STEVENS, b. 26 Jul 1774

ix ELIZABETH “BETSEY” STEVENS, b. 28 Sep 1776; d. at Andover, ME, 9 Nov 1824; m. at Andover, 8 Sep 1794, EBENEZER POOR, baptized at Andover, 3 Nov 1765 son of Ebenezer and Susanna (Varnum) Poor; Ebenezer d. 17 Jan 1837. Ebenezer was second married to Lucy Wasson. Ebenezer Poor was the administrator of the estate of Bimsley Stevens. Betsey and Ebenezer had at least nine children among them Bimsley Stevens Poor, Edward Lister Poor, and Susan Varnum Poor.

x ENOCH STEVENS, b. 27 Feb 1779; m. at Andover, 8 Mar 1801, HANNAH HUBBARD, b. 1776; Hannah d. at Norton, MA, 6 Mar 1866. Prior to her death, Hannah lived with her son Benjamin Moses Stevens in Norton.^[11]

Sources and Footnotes

1. ↑ Family summary taken from Abbott, Patricia A., The Descendants of John and Elizabeth Stevens of Andover Through Six Generations, 2021, In Press
2. ↑ Stevens, Bimsley, innholder and deputy sheriff of Essex County, at Andover. Issue of Apr. 21, 1797. N. R. 9. Record in Salem Vital Records, p 249
3. ↑ Salem Vital Records, p 249
4. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29G-VNMX : 18 February 2020), Bimsly Stephens and Mary Lister, 09 Oct 1785; citing Marriage, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007009571.
5. ↑ Bailey, Sarah Loring. 1880. Historical Sketches of Andover: Comprising the Present Towns of Andover and North Andover. Boston: Houghton. p 406
6. ↑ Bailey, Sarah Loring. 1880. Historical Sketches of Andover: Comprising the Present Towns of Andover and North Andover. Boston: Houghton. pp 304-305
7. ↑ Massachusetts Land Records, Essex County, 144:229, 152:68, 157:226, 160:28, 162:113, 162:131
8. ↑ Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. Case 26289
9. ↑ Massachusetts Land Records, Essex County, 164:246, 165:68
10. ↑ Essex Institute, “Memorials of the Washington Rangers”, Historical Collections, volume 6, p 210; https://archive.org/details/historicalcolle00instgoog/page/n218/mode/2up
11. ↑ Year: 1860; Census Place: Norton, Bristol, Massachusetts; Page: 619; Family History Library Film: 803491