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Essex County, Massachusetts Biographies
Jonathan Hart (1710-1790)
(Jonathan, Samuel, Isaac)
(Contributed by Mrs. Carole Dick )
Jonathan was born on November 2, 1710, at Lynnfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Jonathan was the youngest child of Samuel
and Sarah (Endicott) Hart. Jonathan married Mercy Hawkes on March 2, 1735/36. Mercy Hawkes may have had a "Mayflower"
ancestry through the Isaac Allerton line though confirmation of this possibility has not yet been achieved. The
marriage is recorded in Lynnfield VR and in "Mayflower Marriages"
Jonathan died at Maugerville, Sudbury, NB, Canada, around 1790. We think Mercy outlived Jonathan.
Some sources think he settled for a time in Maugerville, Sunbury County, N.B. The first recorded grant is from
Charles Morris Jr., July 11, 1769 in Morrisania (on the east side of the creek later called Mill Creek and extended
along the Saint John, now known as Lincoln). The estate was administered January 1st, 1791, which consisted of
500 acres. In 1792, John Hartt son of Jonathan Hartt sold 2/7 of 500 acres in Lincoln to George Hayward. In 1808
Daniel Smith bought 5/7 of 500 acres in Lincoln from heirs of Jonathan and John Hartt. In 1932 this was still in
the possession of his grandson Beverley Smith.
[Jonathan Hartt, from Hart Historical Notes, March/April 1995, Issue #10 by Clifford M. Carey.]
"In a will proved on 11 February, 1730/31, Thomas Hartt, Jonathan's uncle, left all of his lands in Lynn/Lynnfield,
Mass. to him in trust until he became 21. After their marriage, Jonathan and Mercy lived in this property and raised
their family there about 1763; they and four of their sons joined a group of Essex County, (Mass.) residents headed
for Nova Scotia. Most of this party, including the Hartts, settled along the St. John River, in or near Maugerville,
Sunbury County, NS, later New Brunswick.
Over the next decade as tension grew between the American Colonies and Great Britain, the loyalty of these emigrants
from Mass. was clearly with that "state". Jonathan Hartt became one of the agitators who sought to bring
NS into the Revolutionary War on the side of the colonists. He helped organize meetings and made speeches. One
of these speeches brought him into court on June 20, 1775, charged with swearing and seditious remarks against
the king. The court record attributes these words to Jonathan: "The king is a damned snotty whelp and if I
were near him I would stab him for he is nothing but a R.... B…. The swearing charge drew a fine of two shillings
and, though he was cited by the court for treasonable words against the king, the penalty for this offence was
held in abeyance. The court's final action on this charge is yet to be found.
Like father, like son, Thomas Hartt, son of Jonathan, was involved in the organization of a meeting in Maugerville
on May 14, 1776, that adopted this resolution:
"Resolved that it is our mind and desire to submit ourselves to the government of Massachusetts Bay and that
we are ready with our lives and fortunes to share with them the event of the present struggle for liberty, however
God in his prudence may order it. "
Sources:
1. Tuttle, Marion B. Hart MSS and charts, CB file, Saint John Regional Library, Canada.
2. Recorded at Salem, Mass., 1730, Book 319, pp. 189-92
3. Collections of the NB Historical Society, Vol. I, pp. 63-67
4. Op. cit., pp. 97-98
5. Raymond, W.O. "The River Saint John", p. 218 and Collections of the
NB Historical Society, Vol. 1, pp. 74-75
There's no reference to Jonathan being in the contingent from Maugerville who went to Cumberland. Ernie's book
mentions 24 of them but the remaining 3 can't be verified. They were Samuel Branch, Benjamin Bubar, Edward Burpee,
Amasa Coy, John Dow, David Dow, Elijah Estabrooks Jr., Joseph Haite, Daniel Jewett, Daniel Lovet, William McKeen,
Henry Miller, Jonathan Nevers, Phineas Nevers, Seth Noble (local minister), Stephen Peabody, John Pritchard, Edmund
Price, Hugh Quinton, Zebulon Roe, Zebulon Roe Jr., John Russell, William Turner, and John Whitney. Plus I checked
the index and there's no mention on any Hartts in it! So that's the best I can say. He might just be one of the
other three.
Contributed by Carol Dobson
Also found at PANB hand written legal documents by young Jonathan Hartt.
Jonathan Hartt
Hand written on small notepad sized paper and some on small cut pieces of paper. He wrote most of it himself, but
it is difficult to read.
Supreme Court - Affidavit of Debt
Between Jonathan Hartt, plaintiff, and Richard Holland, defendant. The plaintiff in the above action being duly
sworn______and saith that the above named defendant is Justly indebted to him in the sum of twenty-one pounds and
ten shillings issuing upon a Promisory Note of Hand from the said Defendant to this_____payable on demand for value
received____From the 6th January, 1817.
(Signed) Jonathan Hartt
Also:
On 27th day of June 1819, at Gage Towne within the County of Queens______George Hume sworn to before me this 28th
day of June 1819, Sam H. Clarke, Com., to answer to Jonathan Hartt in a plea of trespass, 22 May_____
Also:
Supreme Court ______57th year of the Reign of King George the III
York County _____Jonathan Hartt complains of David Currier in custody of the Sheriff of a plea of trespass in
the case_____For that where as the said David Currier on the 13th day of November in the year of our Lord, 1816
at Gage Town.
That is to say at Fredericton, in the County of York, made him Certain Note in Writing commonly called a Promisory
Note subscribed with his own proper Hand and Name, bearing date the same day and year aforesaid and then and there
delivered the said note to the said Jonathan Hartt______promised to pay the sum of nineteen pounds and eighteen
shillings together with Interest for the same from the Date of the Said Note until paid____of the Current Money
for divers goods, wares, and Merchandizes (sic) and then being in arrear and unpaid, the said David was then and
there found in arrear and indebted to the said Jonathan in a large sum of money______but contrary and fraudulently
intending craftilyand subtlely to deceive and defraud the said Jonathan _____refused and still refuses to the said_______his
damage of Forty pounds and therefore he brings his suit to_______ Jonathan Hartt puts in his place Samuel D. Street,
his attorney against David Currier in a plea of Trespafs (sic) on the Case.
Also:
Know all men by these presents that Jonathan Hartt of Gage Town in Queens County, within the Province of New Brunswick,
Yeoman, am held and firmly bound to George Spry Esq. of _____in the County of Southampton and Kingdom of Great
Britain, but as present residing and being in the Parish of Fredericton within the County of York_______in the
sum of four hundred and eighteen pounds of current money of New Brunswick, to be paid to the said George Spry_______September
28, 1815.
On reverse side:
Received July 15, 1816, from Jonathan Hartt, forty-one pounds.
November 4, 1816, received twenty-four pounds and fifteen shillings.
Researched by Diana Cowland
Children of Jonathan and Mercy (Hawkes) Hart
Thomas A. 1736-1813, Abigail 1743-1828, Samuel 1745-1814, John 1748-1800, Molly 1750-1825, Jonathan Jr. died 1756,
Aaron died 1795
©2006 K. Torp
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