DAVID BLANCHARD (1740-1810)

     David Blanchard was born on April 10, 1740, in Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts.  He was the ninth of ten children of Stephen and Deborah Phelps Blanchard.

     Nothing is known about his youth.

     David married Margaret Dolliver of South Marblehead, Massachusetts, on November 11, 1760.  They were wed in Andover.  He was 20 years old and Margaret was 21.  Their first child, also named David, was born in Andover on March 19, 1762.  One source has the David the father’s occupation as “farmer.”

     Sometime later in 1762 or in early 1763 David and Margaret and son David moved north across the Massachusetts state border to Wilton, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire.  This began the migration of this line of Blanchards out of Massachusetts and into New Hampshire and later to western New York State. 

     In his “History of Andover from its Settlement to 1829,” author Abiel Abbot discussed emigration from Andover.  He named some towns in various parts of New England and elsewhere that were settled by people from Andover, and his list included Wilton, New Hampshire.  It is unclear exactly what time frame he was talking about, but he wrote that “not less than sixty males from Andover, who were, or became heads of families, have settled in Wilton.”  It must have been a popular destination for Andoverites.  Abbot’s writing about this emigration was a little melancholy though, because he kind of bemoaned the fact that the young, healthy and robust folks were the ones who sought new settlements while the aged, less healthy and feeble were left behind.  This resulted in an undue rate of poverty in the old towns.

     As far as is known, David and Margaret’s remaining nine, possibly eleven, children were all born in Wilton. 

            David, born on March 19, 1762 (in Andover)

            Nathan, born on September 12, 1763 (in Wilton)

            Peter Dolliver, born on June 16, 1765

            Annis (or Annas), born on May 2, 1767

            Deborah, born on May 30, 1769

            Nathan, born on June 30, 1772

            Nehemiah, born on October 18, 1774

            Chloe, born on October 17, 1776

            Ralph, born on July 6, 1780

            and possibly two additional children, a son and a daughter, born in (ca.? 1784).  Twins?

     David’s father, Stephen, made out his will in 1766 and died in 1769.  He left 13 pounds, 6 shillings 8 pence to David and the same amount to David’s brothers Nathan and Jonathan.  And Stephen also left his clothes to those same three sons.

     David and Margaret’s second son, Nathan, died in 1770 at just under two years of age, and they named their next-born son Nathan as well.  Their last child, Ralph, died in 1782, also at age two.

     In 1776, at the outset of the American Revolution, the New Hampshire Committee of Safety directed that all males over the age of twenty-one sign what was known as the Association Test – a kind of loyalty oath to the Patriot cause.  It called for the signatures of every adult male willing to take up arms against the British.  David, who would have been 36 years old at the time, signed this document and ended up serving for two months when he was mustered for the defense of Portsmouth (Harbor), New Hampshire.  (That should qualify his descendants for membership in the DAR or SAR.)

     Evidently, sometime before 1790 the David Blanchard family moved from Wilton to Bradford, Merrimack County, New Hampshire.  //MAP//

     There are some facts – all well documented  – about David that appeared in a 2004 book entitled “Early Families of Bradford, New Hampshire,” by Sherry (Blanchard) Gould and Kathleen Beals.  Unfortunately, the meanings of some of these statements are unclear and need further clarification.  They mainly confirm where David was at given times.  To wit: 

            “He (David) signed the Association Test in Wilton.” 

            “He first appeared in Bradford Town records in 1790 when his property was mentioned in the laying out of a road.” 

            “He appeared on the tax inventory book from 1794-1810.” 

            “On 20 Apr 1802 David signed a petition for Humphrey Jackman to be commissioned Justice of the Peace.” 

            “He sold property in Bradford to Benjamin Nichols of Bradford in 1809.”

            “Bradford census 1800-1810.”

     David’s wife Margaret died in 1800.  David married again to Mrs. Mary Nichols (that may have been her married name, not her maiden name), in Hillsborough on October 6, 1807.  David was still a resident of Bradford at the time of this marriage.

     His year of death was probably 1810.  As noted above, he had been on the tax books until 1810 and he was noted in Bradford censuses until 1810.  Although he had obviously been living in Bradford, one source says he died in Wilton.  (The same source says that his wife Margaret died in Wilton too.)

     It is unknown where David is buried.

     This event may not be related to David’s death in 1810, but his son Nehemiah moved from New Hampshire to Orleans County, New York, in the same year, 1810.

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