Ann Brackett

Anne Mitton signed as witness to a deed from her grandfather (Cleeves) to her father (Mitton) in 1651; this seems to suggest she was 21 years old at that time, possibly born about 1630.[1]

Ann, 1st wife of Capt. Anthony Brackett of Falmouth. Married prior to 1668. Had 5 children. Source: Brackett Genealogy, H. I. Brackett, 1907, pps 61&71.

Capt. Anthony, son of Anthony the Immigrant. Husband of 1st Ann Mitton and 2nd Susannah Drake. Source: Brackett Genealogy, H. I. Brackett, 1907, pps 60 thru 71. < Archive.Org >. The story of his life and death are found in pages referred in the Source.

Children by wife, Ann Mitton, not in order of birth.

• 1. Elinor; mar. (1st) her cousin, James Andrews, son of James, Sr. ; (2nd) 6 Dec, 1705, Richard Pulling, a widower, of Boston, b. 1665 ; d. 6 Feb., 1721 ; several times he was licensed to sell liquors; in 1716 occupied the "Exchange Tavern;" at one time kept the noted "Green Dragon ;" upon his death she was granted license ; same year was admitted into First church ; was living in 1731 .
• 2. vSeth, killed by the Indians in May, 1690, at Falmouth.
• 3. Mary, unmar. in 1 7 1 7, and living in Boston; later mar. Nathaniel Witcher of Salisbury.
• 4. Anthony, b. in 1669. See chapter V.
• 5. Kezia; mar. (1st) Patterson; (2nd) in 1 715, Joseph Maylem, a bricklayer of Boston. In 17 19 Zachariah Brackett mortgaged the farm at Back cove to him and Richard Pulling. In will of Kezia, probated in 1732, are named sister Elinor Pulling and sister Mary Witcher of Salisbury.

Notes

From Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Volume 1 (Google eBook) Maine Historical Society The Society, 1865 - Local history.  Page 260.  "Death of Mrs. Harvey"

"In 1682, died Elizabeth Harvey, the only daughter of George Cleeves. She came from England with her father probably in 1637, and was either then or soon after married to Michael Mitton. She was the last survivor of the first settler, and had been through scenes of great suffering and sorrow. She had buried two husbands and three adult children, one of whom, her only son, was killed by the Indians, and the lives of two of her daughters, the wives of the Bracketts, were probably shortened by their captivity. Two daughters only survived her, Elizabeth, the wife of Thaddeus Clark, and Martha, the wife of John Graves,* neither of whom, that we are aware of, has posterity now residing here. The descendants of her daughter Mary, the wife of Thomas Brackett, are numerous among us. Mrs. Harvey had seen the town which on her first visit was an entangled forest, inhabited by wild beasts and savages, become the seat of civilization and prosperity, and holding forth the promises of future greatness."

• "Graves was living in Kittery in 1712, aged about sixty-seven. He moved to Little Compton, R. I., where he died, leaving one son and two daughters."
  

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"Here's a little story from the first Indian war that demonstrates that old adage: A stitch in time saves . . . the whole family. Our story takes place in August 1676, the month King Philip's War ended in Massachusetts but not in Maine. By this summer, Metacomet (aka Philip) and his warriors were dead, and most of the surviving Wampanoags were sold off into slavery. However contagion had spread northward into Maine along with native escapees from Massachusetts. ..."
"Upon the peace the English returned..." Cotton Mather, 1693

Mary, the wife of Thomas Brackett, was carried away to Quebec and died in captivity within the year. Her three children were restored to the English at the time of the treaty signed at Casco on April 12, 1678. They went to Portsmouth area, probably to their Brackett relatives, and never returned to Casco. Upon their escape, the Anthony Brackett family also evacuated to New Hampshire. Ann Mitton Brackett died there the following year,1677, and was buried at Sandy Beach in Rye. At the time of the family's capture, she had five children; the youngest, Kezia, was an infant in arms. Perhaps Ann died in childbirth, which was very common. There is no record of another child. In hardly more than a year, three grandchildren of George Cleeves were dead.

In 1679, Anthony Brackett married Susannah Drake of Hampton by whom he had five more children. At about this time, Brackett returned to Casco to his farm. Relatively few returned unless they had a legal deed to their lands; those who leased land weren't as compelled to take their chances on the frontier. This time the people of Casco planned their protection a little better. Brackett served in the local militia in various capacities, and the town built Fort Loyal in 1680 on the neck near Cleeves original settlement. Before the end of the decade, Casco was again put to the test. On September 21, 1689, Anthony Brackett was killed in another attack. The battle was fought in the orchard on his farm so it is entirely possible that he died in the very door yard where he had escaped death thirteen years before. Ann's oldest son, Anthony, was captured at the fall of Fort Loyal in May of 1690 but escaped during the following September. Her second son, Seth, died either at the fort or in Clarke's battle on the hill just before fort fell. But that is another story.

After the second fall of Casco and for the time being, the Brackett's had had enough of Maine. Anthony Jr. became a rope maker in Boston. His sisters, Ann's daughters, Mary, Elinor and Kezia, all married Massachusetts men and lived in the Boston area as well. Anthony and Susannah's son Zachariah was one of first settlers to return during the resettlement of Falmouth in 1715. Two of Mary and Thomas Brackett's grandchildren (Joshua and Anthony) also eventually came to Falmouth and took up the Clarke's Point land. So Brackett family connections lived on in Portland. Late in the 19th century, another Brackett descendent and Portland native, Thomas Brackett Reed, became one of the most powerful Speakers of the House of Representatives in U.S. history.

Please see more at Ann Mitton Brackett: Needlewoman to the Rescue by Pat Higgins. She cites:

• Sources: Churchill, Edwin Arnold. Too Great a Challenge: The Birth of Falmouth, Maine 1624-1676. Graduate Thesis. Orono, ME: University of Maine, August 1979. Goold, William. Portland in the Past With Historical Notes of Old Falmouth. 1886 edition. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1997. Moulton, Augustus. Portland By the Sea. Augusta, ME: Katahdin Publishing Co., 1926. The Wabanakis of Maine and the Maritimes: A resource book about the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, Micmac and Abenaki Indians. Prepared and published by the Maine Indian Program and the American Society of Friends Service Committee, 1989. Willis, William. The History of Portland. Somersworth, NH: New Hampshire Publishing Co., 1972.

References

• mtDNA Project
• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=selvage1&...
• New England Marriages Prior to 1700 By Clarence Almon Torrey, Elizabeth Petty Bentley. Page 89
• ”Guide Book for Portland and vicinity, to which is appended a summary history” ... By William WILLIS (of Portland, Maine.). Page 61. GoogleBooks