Ayer (5), was born in Standish, Maine, November 23, 1763. At the age of sixteen he was a soldier in the Revolution, a private in a company sent to reinforce the northern army for six months under Captain Benjamin Warren. He was one of six men sent by the town of Buxton, and during this service attained the rank of corporal. He enlisted July 14, 1780, and was mustered out January 30, 1781. Later he became a Methodist Episcopal minister at Standish and Unity, Maine. He resided also at Falmouth (now Portland) and Freedom, Maine. He died July 29, 1844. He married, April 25, 1785, Rachel Sanborn, of Standish, born July 19, 1762, daughter of John and Lucy (Sanborn) Sanborn. Her father was born at Hampton Falls, January 9. 1723, resided in his native town, and in Falmouth and Standish, Maine. Her mother died. September, 1775. John Sanborn married (second) Mrs. Betty Pierce, who died July, 1812. He died December 6, 1802. Abner Sanborn, father of John, was born at Hampton, April 27, 1694; married, October 31, 1715, Rachel Shaw, daughter of Caleb Shaw, and resided at Hampton Falls where he died. January 18, 1780. John Sanborn, father of Abner Sanborn, was born about 1649, son of the immigrant, John Sanborn or Sambourne; was admitted a freeman April 25, 1678; married, November 19, 1674, Judith Coffin, daughter of Tristram Coffin, of Newbury; she was born December 4, 1653, and died May 17, 1724; John died September 23, 1727. (See sketch of Sanborn family of Somerville.)

Rev. Benjamin and Rachel (Sanborn) Ayer had children: 1. Annis, born February 3, 1786. 2. Lydia, February 5, 1788. 3. Peter, January 22, 1790, died June 6, 1854. 4. Benjamin, Jr., May 18, 1792, died September 24, 1835. 5. Rachel, November 2, 1794, died December 5, 1794. 6. John S., October 29, 1795. 7. Rachel, May 20, 1798. 8. Thomas B., June 3, 1800.

(VII) Peter Ayer, son of Rev. Benjamin (6), and Rachel (Sanborn) Ayer, was born January 22, 1790, and died June 6, 1854. He married, March 2, 1815, Jane Bartlett, born March 7, 1795, died December 29, 1889. She was the daughter of Lemuel and Hannah (Chase) Bartlett, and granddaughter of Joseph Bartlett, a soldier during the Revolution. The Bartlett family migrated from Plymouth, Massachusetts, to Unity, Maine, after the Revolution.

Joseph Bartlett served practically throughout the Revolution. He received an honorary badge for faithful service from December 21, 171 at the close of the war, ranking

as sergeant at that time. He enlisted for the remainder of the war in 1777 in Lieutenant Colonel John Brooks' regiment, the Seventh, and was a corporal in Captain Benjamin Warren's company, Colonel Alden's battalion, at Albany, New York, 1777-78. The state archives give his birthplace and residence as Plymouth, Massachusetts; age fortyfour in 1782; height, five feet, nine inches; complexion, dark; hair dark; occupation, mason. He ranked as sergeant on the pay rolls from June, 1778. rolls from June, 1778. He was at Cherry Valley, New York, May 4, 1779. He was in Captain Benjamin Warren's company, Lieutenant-Colonel John Brooks' regiment, from February 1 to July 1, 1781, and in Captain William Mills' company to February 1, 1782, ranking as sergeant. He had a sixty-day furlough December 16, 1782, and was finally discharged at the close of the war, June 10, 1783.

I.

The children of Peter and Jane (Bartlett) Ayer, all born in Freedom, Maine, were: Rachel Jane, born December 28, 1815, married, March, 1843, Sumner Abbott. 2. Hannah Bartlett, October 25, 1817, married, May 26, 1842, Erasmus Henry Cochran. 3. Nathan Chase, October 17, 1819, married, June, 1844, Lucy P. Wellington. 4. Annis Chase, January 1, 1823, married, March 29, 1849, Benjamin B. Stevens. 5. Peter W., see forward. 6. Rebecca Wheeler, July 25, 1833, married, May 8, 1860, Rev. Charles E. Springer. 7. Mary True, April 18, 1835. married, March 14, 1856, James B. Vickery. 8. Joseph Bartlett, June 26, 1837, married, October, 1861, Mary E. Berry.

(VIII) Peter W. Ayer, son of Peter (7) and Jane (Bartlett) Ayer, was born at Freedom, Maine, November 11, 1826. He married, April 19, 1854, Happy Murch, mentioned above, and had children: above, and had children: 1. James Stanley, born January 15, 1855. He is a merchant in Brewer, Maine. chant in Brewer, Maine. He married, July 16, 1891. Mary Goodwin, and has had children: Frances, Winnifred. Peter, deceased; and Milton. 2. Jennie (Olive Jane), who married Mr. Marden. 3. Laura K., married, June 11, 1890, J. Mason Hammond, and has had children: Frank S. and Dorothy. 4. Josiah M., November 2, 1863. He is a graduate of the University of Maine, and pursued scientific studies at Harvard University. He is now civil engineer on the Boston Elevated Railroad. 5. Lucy E., is a trained nurse. 6. Mary T., is an artist. 7. Rufus Prince, born October 19, 1873, is on the old homestead at Freedom, Maine, which was owned and occu

pied by his grandfather. He took up the land, five hundred acres, June 6, 1904, and it is now one of the most productive farms in the state of Maine. 8. John P., born April 26, 1877, is a graduate of the Bangor Business College, and is now a member of the firm of Talbot, Brooks & Ayer, dealers in hardware, at Portland, Maine.

Samuel Stratton, the immiSTRATTON grant ancestor of the Strattons of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was born in England, in 1592, and married his first wife there, and she probably died soon after her husband, herself and their two sons arrived in America. Samuel Stratton appeared as a surveyor of town lots in Watertown, Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1647,

became a freeman of the town of Watertown, May 27, 1663, and married, March 10, 1659, Elizabeth Traine, and their children were: 1. Elizabeth, bo:n in Watertown, died in infancy, 1659. 2. John, born August 24, 1661. 3. Elizabeth, born July 2, 1664. 4. Joseph, born January 13, 1666. 5. Samuel, born September 18, 1669. 6. Rebecca, born May 16, 1672. 7. Ebenezer, born November 2, 1677, died in infancy. 8. Ebenezer, born October 2, 1678. 9. Jonathan, born March 6, 1679. John Stratton, the father, died in Watertown, April 7, 1691, and his widow died May 7, 1708.

(III) Joseph. second son of John and Elizabeth (Traine) Stratton, was born in Watertown, January 13, 1666, and married Sarah How, November 14, 1695.

(IV) Jonathan, son of Joseph and Sarah

and took the freeman's oath May 18, 1653. He married as his second wife, August 28, 1657, Margaret, widow of William Parker, of Boston. He resided in that part of the town of Watertown subsequently set off to the town of Cambridge, in the neighborhood of the present Lowell Park, and contiguous to land that became the estate of James Russell Lowell. Samuel and Margaret Parker Stratton had three sons: Samuel, John and Richard. Richard, son of Richard last named, settled in Easthampton, Long Island, New York, where both his Uncle John and his father Richard lived for several years. Samuel Stratton, the immigrant, died December 18, 1676, aged eighty-one years.

(II) John, son of Samuel and Margaret (Parker) Stratton, was born in England, in 1633, and settled with his father in Water

town, Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1647. He (How) Stratton, was born in Weston, Massachusetts, 1714, and was married November I, 1738, to Dinah Bemis, of Waltham. He served as a private in Colonel Lamson's company, and marched to Lexington on receiving the alarm, April 19, 1775, and served for three days, when he was discharged.

(V) Jonathan, son of Jonathan and Dinah (Bemis) Stratton, was born in Weston, March 8, 1746, and was married September 20, 1768, to Sarah Childs. He served as a private, according to the muster and pay rolls of Captain Jonathan Fiske, of Weston, in Colonel Brooks' company, called out March 4, 1776, for five days service, and was stationed at Dorchester Heights, and also performed various other military service.

(VI) Shubael C., son of Jonathan and

Sarah (Childs) Stratton, was born in Weston, Massachusetts, December 6, 1768. He married Betsey Cook.

(VII) Ira, son of Shubael C. and Betsey (Cook) Stratton, was born in New Salem, Massachusetts, January 6, 1804. He attended the common school in his native town, leaving it when fourteen years old to go west. At the age of sixteen he returned home and worked in a brush factory in Boston until he had learned the trade. Flavel Coolidge (17751848) operated a brush factory in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, and he made Ira Stratton his foreman as soon as he had completed his apprenticeship in the Boston establishment. Mr. Stratton continued in that position up to the time of the death of his fatherin-law, in 1848, when he became sole owner of the factory. He subsequently opened a brush shop on Exchange street, Boston, in copartnership with Sheriff & Eastham, and the enterprise was very successful, enabling him to acquire a competence. His next business venture was in the manufacture of glass, in partnership with Amory Houghton, the factory being located in Somerville. The business proved to be uncongenial to Mr. Stratton, and he sold out to his partner, and gave the remainder of his life to the care of his estate. He was married November 6, 1835, to Martha Ann, daughter of Flavel and Anna (Wilds) Coolidge, and in this way became owner of the brush factory of Mr. Coolidge. Flavel Coolidge, father of Mrs. Ira Stratton, was the son of Elisha Coolidge, of Ashburnham, Worcester county, Massachusetts, and the youngest of eleven children. He was born in 1775, and in 1786 his father, with his entire family, joined the Shaker community at the time of its establishment at Shirley, Middlesex county.

This remarkable society, inaugurated in America by Ann Lee, who with eight of her followers embarked at Liverpool, England, May 19, 1774, and arrived in New York, August 6th following, purchased land in the woods of Watervliet, New York, in 1776, and while the colonists were engaged in the war of the Revolution, these frugal and industrious people were building up a society that took within its fold the spirits of religious unrest wherever a religious awakening arose. After the society at Watervliet had been successfully planted, there was a religious awakening at New Lebanon, Columbia county, New York, thirty miles distant, and many of the subjects of the revival there visited “Mother Ann," at Watervleit, and became

converts to the new faith. Ann Lee and her elders and friends became missionaries, and after establishing what proved to be their most successful settlement, at New Lebanon, they held forth in Hancock, Tyringham, Howard and Shirley, in Massachusetts, and Enfield, in Connecticut, and societies were planted which gathered many followers, and each became models of industrial communism that attracted the attention of idealists not alone in America, but abroad also. After a little more than two years of missionary work, "Mother Ann" returned to Watervliet, where she received inquirers, and after a ministry of fourteen years she died, September 8, 1784. It was three years after her death before regularly organized communities were established. The society at New Lebanon, New York, was organized in September, 1787, and furnished the model for the others. It grew to six hundred members, and the community owned six thousand acres of land. Watervliet grew to three hundred members; Groveland, Livingston county, New York, to one hundred and fifty: Hancock, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, to two hundred; Tyringham, Berkshire county, to one hundred; Harvard, Worcester county, to two hundred; Shirley, Middlesex county, to one hundred; Enfield, Hartford county, Connecticut, to two hundred; Canterbury, Merrimac county, New Hampshire, to three hundred; Enfield, Grafton county, New Hampshire, to three hundred; Alfred, York county, Maine, to one hundred and fifty; and New Gloucester, York county, Maine, to one hundred and fifty members. These societies were formed between 1787 and 1792, and it was not until 1805 that Ohio and Kentucky were invaded by the disciples of Ann Lee. Like the "Salem Witches," and the Roman Catholics, the Shakers did not escape persecution from the Puritans of New England, and the society at Shirley, when "Mother Ann" was preaching there, was subjected to mob violence not only from the outside world but from dissenting members of the society, notably on March 3, 1802.

Flavel Coolidge left the community after he had learned the trade of brush making and attained his majority, in 1796. He journeyed to Cambridgeport, where he engaged as a carpenter with Josiah and Thomas Mason, and while thus engaged built a house of five rooms for himself, preparatory to his contemplated marriage, and in January, 1806, he married Anna, daughter of Elijah, Jr., and Eunice (Safford) Wilds, and granddaughter of Elijah (1718-1791) and Anna (Hovey).