52 Ancestors: #25, John Kirkpatrick

My 4X great-grandfather, John Kirkpatrick, was born circa 1734 in Scotland (probably in Stirling),¹ the son of William Kirkpatrick and Elizabeth ______. When John was about 19, General Samuel Waldo sought Scottish emigrants to settle on his Muscongus Patent in Maine. The young, single cooper was among those who agreed to work for Waldo for four years, to pay for his passage to New England aboard the brig Dolphin in the summer of 1753. The emigrants arrived at the George's River on the coast of Maine in September, and after wintering with the earlier settlers, selected half-acre lots and built the first small log cabins in a town they named Stirling.²

Around the time John had worked off his passage (largely as a member of the garrison at the fort that protected the settlement), he met Ann Bradbury, who was visiting her uncle, Col. Jabez Bradbury, commander of the garrison.³ He married Ann on 3 Nov 1758, in Falmouth (now Portland), Maine.⁴

John and Ann had eleven children:⁵

1. Elizabeth, b. 1759, never married
2. Ann, b. 1761, married Thomas Starrett 2d
3. William, b. ca 1762, married Elizabeth Libbey
4. Capt. Roland, b. 1764, lost at sea in 1801
5. Thomas, b. 1767, married Margaret Starrett
6. Mary, b. 1769, never married
7. Daniel, b. ca 1771, married ______ Prescott
8. John 2d, b. 1773, married Nancy Starrett
9. Jabez, b. ca 1774, lost at sea
10. Abigail, b. 1775, married Parker Coburn
11. James, b. ca 1776, married Elizabeth "Betsy" Williams

Probable footstone for John Kirkpatrick,
inscribed "J. K. 1785"

In this generation the Kirkpatricks became inextricably intertwined with the Starretts, as three of John and Ann's children married three of the children of Col. Thomas Starrett and Rebecca Lewis.

In 1762, the garrison was closed down, and John turned to farming on a lot on the east side of the river in Upper St. George's (incorporated as Warren, Maine, in 1776), on what became known as Crawford's Point after his closest neighbor (later Andrews Point).⁶ He became a member of the Presbyterian church which was established about 1774.⁷

John Kirkpatrick died in Jun 1785 in Warren,⁸ and was buried in the Old Settlers' Cemetery there. A stone inscribed "J. K. 1785" is thought to be a footstone for John Kirkpatrick.⁹



My descent from John Kirkpatrick:

• John Kirkpatrick and Ann Bradbury
• John Kirkpatrick 2d and Nancy Starrett
• Jabez Bradbury Kirk(patrick) and Abigail Faulkner
• Silas Kirk and Sarah Sukeforth
• Chester F. Kirk and Mary Milliken Hodsdon (my paternal grandparents)

Old Settlers' Cemetery, Warren, Maine; "J. K. 1785" stone at lower right

(Note: This post is in response to Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge at No Story Too Small.)

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SOURCES

1. Cyrus Eaton, Annals of the Town of Warren, in Knox County, Maine, Second Edition (Hallowell [Maine]: Masters & Livermore, 1877), pp. 93 (apparently of Stirling), 566 (year); digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com/books : accessed 11 Dec 2010).
2. Eaton, pp. 92-93.
3. Eaton, pp. 114-115.
4. “Maine, Marriage Records, 1705-1922,” database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search : accessed 12 Jan 2014), John Kilpatrick [sic] and Ann Bradbury, 1758.
5. Eaton, p. 566. 
6. Eaton, p. 132
7. Eaton, pp. 133-134.
8. Eaton, p. 566.
9. Old Settlers' Cemetery (Warren, Knox County, Maine), gravestone inscribed "J. K. 1785," read and photographed by the author, 6 Oct 2013.