William Calef

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WILLIAM CALEF (1706–1784), son of John Calef and Deborah King

LOIS SAWYER (1718–1799), daughter of John Sawyer and Sarah Wells

William, the son of John and Deborah Calef, was born on 17 July 1706 in Newbury, Essex Counry, Massachusetts. [1, 1: 78][2] He died on 5 March 1784. [2] He married first Sarah Cheney on 5 November 1728 in Newbury. [1, 2; 77][2] Sarah, the daughter of Daniel and Hannah (Dustin) was born on 25 January 1709. [2] He married second Lois Sawyer in November 1736. [1, 2; 77][2]

Sarah Cheney was the granddaughter of the famous Indian captive Hannah Dustin. [2]

Lois, the daughter of John and Sarah (Wells) (Sibley) Sawyer of Newbury, was born on 21 July 1718. [1, 1: 465][2] She died in 1799. [2]

William was apprenticed to the cordwainer John Huse of Newbury when he was eleven. At 23 he bought a house, a lot, and a blacksmith shop. He moved to Kingston [in Rockingham County, New Hampshire] and became a prosperous farmer and a large land owner. He gave each of his children a farm upon marriage. [2]

William was a deacon and selectman in Kingston. [2]

The births of William's children are given in Boardman. [2] The first four were born in Newbury; the rest in Kingston.

Children of William Calef and Sarah Cheney:

i. Sarah Calef was born on 19 August 1729 in Newbury. [1, 1: 78] She died by 1749. [2]

ii. Colonel John Calef was born on 14 June 1731. [1, 1: 78, first name missing][2] He died on 28 May 1806 in Kingston. [2] He married Judith Challis on 24 December 1754 in Kingston. [2] Judith, the daughter of Joseph and Mary Challis of Amesbury, Massachusetts, was born on 27 June 1732 and died on 5 May 1821. [2]

John was a cordwainer and tanner. [2]

iii. Hannah Calef was born on 26 March 1733 in Newbury. [1, 1: 78] She died on 5 December 1754. [2] She married Joseph Eastman on 10 March 1751. [2] He died on 2 September 1774. [2]

Children of William Calef and Lois Sawyer:

iv. Lieutenant William Calef was born on 26 October 1737 in Newbury. [1, 1: 78] He died on 10 June 1812 in Salisbury. [2] He married Nancy (Anna) Rowell after 16 November 1759 (intention) in Kingston. [2] Nancy, the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Challis) Rowell of Newton, New Hampshire, was born in February 1736 and died on 22 February 1813. [2]

William Calef, Jr., cordwainer of Kingston, bought land from Nathaniel Fifield on 17 September 1763. [3]

William was a farmer and a shoemaker. He fought in the Battle of Bennington and was in the Expedition to Rhode Island. [2]

v. Lois Calef was born on 4 January 1739. She died on 8 September 1828 in Hempstead, New Hampshire. [2] She married her first cousin Judge John Calef on 23 September 1762. [2] John, the son of her uncle John Calef, was born on 13 June 1741 in Newbury and died on 31 October 1808 in Hempstead. [2]

John was a judge of the court of common pleas, a deacon and a captain in the Revolutionary War. [2]

vi. Samuel Calef was born on 7 February 1741.

vii. Joseph Calef was born on 12 December 1742 in Kingston. He died on 19 May 1832 in Salisbury, New Hampshire. He married first Hannah Pettingill. He married second Sarah Cushing.

viii. Lydia (or Hester) Calef was born on 30 July 1745. She died after 1780. [2] She married Elder Michael Sargent. [2] He died after 1780. [2]

ix. Sarah Calef was born on 15 September 1749. She married her first cousin Colonel James Calef of Dover, New Hampshire. [2] James, the son of her uncle James Calef, was born about 1742 in Haverhill, Massachusetts. [2]

John was a cooper and a merchant. He was a "commissary" in the Revolution and brought 12 yoke of oxen from Dover to the relief of Fort Ticonderoga. [2]

John was a Representative to the General Court from Dover in 1783 and 1784. [2]

x. Mary Calef was born on 20 April 1752. She died on 15 November 1756. [2]

xi. Hannah Calef was born on 29 September 1754. She died on 25 March 1757. [2]

xii. Mary Calef was born on 22 September 1758. She married Charles Chase on 19 October 1779. [2] Charles, the son of Thomas and Mary (Dow) Chase, was born in 1755 and died in 1842. [2]

Charles was a Quaker and a hatter. [2]

xiii. Dorothy "Dolly" Calef was born on 20 June 1762. She died on 7 September 1787. [2] She married Isaac Prince of Nottingham, New Hampshire on 30 May 1786. [2]

Endnotes:

1. Vital Records of Newbury, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849 (Salem: Essex Institute, 1911), vol. 1, vol. 2.

2. Anne Calef Boardman, Robert Calef of Boston and Some of His Descendants (Salem: Newcomb & Gauss, 1940), 16–17, 31, 54–55.

3. Marion C. Reed, "A Fifield Correction," The American Genealogist 25 (1949): 29.

05-Oct-2023 5:29 PM