My Family Tree

Nathaniel Herman, son of John Herman borne the 13 of ye 1 mon. 1654. Springfield town records. See my file: John 050.

Nathaniel Harmon, son of John and Elizabeth Harmon, was bornat Springfield, Massachusetts, March 13, 1653-54, and died at Suffield, Connecticut May 2, 1712. He and his brothers, Samuel and Joseph, were first settlers of Suffield, connecticut, and were associated with Major Pynchon, son of William Pyncon, who was the founder of Springfield in an extensive fur trade. They accumulated property and upon the death of Samuel, Nathaniel and Joseph became possessors of his Suffield property. Although Nathaniel was not a qualified voter, when the town of Suffield was organized, he constantly held some town office. He had a house on High Street and a farm on Northampton Road. [Dow, Harriet B. Dow, Brown & Allied Families--be careful with this work, full of errors] p. 156-157

(Film 0,879,184) An inventory of the Estate of Nathaniel Harmon, deceased, as it was taken and appraised by us the Subscribers on ye 10th 1712 which inventory was taken as money:

ITEM L S D
Apparrell Books & Armour 4...15..5
Spectacles .....4....
A feather bed 3.........
Rugs, sheets & blankets 6...13..
A bolster & a pair of old curtains ...11...
Three bed spreads with their cords 1...9...6
Two old beds ...10...
A new bed & pillows 1...1...10
An old bolster 1...1...10
Pillow beens ....18....
Two table cloths ...13....
Two napkins ....2....
Lead, flints, bullets, moulds, Sword ...15...4
A little .....ab ....8....
A great brass kettle 3...10...
A little brass kettle 1...10...
A great pott and two pair of pott hooks ...16...
An old skillet & warming pan ....7...6
Pewter Vessels 1....8...6
An Iron enamel & frying pan ...13...
Earthen & tinn vessels with spoons ....8...
A candlestick & a pair of stillyards ....7...2
Smoothing Irons ....2...
Wooden ware viz bowls, dishes & platters ....9...6
A talbe & chairs ...15...6
Two glass bottles, two pair of curds & two pails ...10...
Weaver Loom & tackling 1...10...
Four spinning wheels ...15...
Chest & Case Saddle & furniture 1....7...6
A keeler & pork with the barrel; Lard with tub 1....4...
Soap, beer barrel, meale, Indian corn & rye 3....1...3
Cheese cloth, linsey woolsey cloth, old barrel & cheese kurds ...18...4
A sithe, sickle, baggs, knives, scizers, slice, hammerall ...17...
A beetle, wedges, hoes, axes, hay fork, bridle, bitts, collar 1.........
Ox yoke, cart & caps & plane caps, horse traces, a ring & hooks 1....1...1
Pail bails, cart bands & cart boxes, sheeps wool, sow & slaves all 3....6...2
Plow & irons, an old peck, a meal seive, Indigoe all ...13...9
Part of new sled, cow bell, lithe hacking, cheese fatts, sheep shears ...14...8
A small trunk, a looking glass two in all, cheese fatts ....5...8
An ox, two cows, two calves, one mare, sheep, swine all 16....3...
The house & 17 acres on which it stands 70.........
The meadow & other lands amounting to 63........
The crop on ye land 3.........
TOTAL 200..11..8
Joseph Harmon, James Youngglove, Joseph Winchell

 

 

Hampshire. Sept 3rd. 1712. Mary Harmon & Nathaniel Harmon (Jr) Administrator on the estate of Nathaniel Harmon, deceased, made oath before me under written judge probate of wills for said county that the within inventory is a true one of the estate of deceased so farr as they can as yet come and if more estate hereafter appear, they will readily make discovery of the same from time to time.
Samuel Partridge

Debts Due from Said Estate:
John Elliot of Windsor 9....4...
Doctor Mather 2...12...7
Timothy Thrall 2...10...6
Samuel Strong ....2...6
James King 1..........
John Huxley ....4....
Nathaniel Harmon ...19...
Ebenezer Harmon ....4...
Samuel Copley ....5...

Thomas Kent ....3...
John Austin ....6...4
Mathew Copley ....1...8
David Allin ....5...4
Land Sold 20.........
A calf died, cost 1...........
2 sheep 4/each ....8...
Probates 1.........
TOTAL 40...10...5
Allowance for bringing up of Young Child 10.........

 

Probate Record, 21 May 1713, SLCFHC, Salt Lake City, Utah, 0,879,184.
"As to the settlement of the estate of Nathanile Harmon of Suffield deceased, his inventoried estate amounts free 210.16.3 of which the widow, Mary, relict to the deceased her 3rd of land and housing is 37.13.4 for life and in moveable goods 32.7.10 for her own disposal. To the eldest son Nathanile as his double share and although it is more just I allow it as his in as much as his father in his lifetime and his mother now living deeded the land which is at ... 15... to him and his heirs forever. The remainder of said estate is 95.15.1 is divided to the eight younger children which is to Mary daughter to the deceased 11.19.4; to Elizabeth 11.19.4; to Anne 11.19.4; to Samule 11.19.4; to Sarah 11.19.4; to Ruth 11.19.4; to John 11.19.4 and to Benjamin 11.19.4 The ..(third?) of said widow's share of land to be equally divided; the value thereof to the said eight children: (Nathaniel exempted in this division); viz: to Mary, Elizabeth, Anne, Samuel, Sarah, Ruth, John, and Benjamin. If any of the children now under age die before they are of age to receive their said portions the survivors to enjoy their shares or portions according to law. This is approved and allowed as a settlement of estate this 21 day of May 1713. “
Samuel Partridge, Judge of Probate

In the West Suffield Cemetery there is a Memorial to the Harmon family erected by Israel Harmon 3rd. That memorial gives Nathaniel's death date as 1685. This is wrong. That was the year of his marriage to Mary Skinner.
_______________________________
Film 844,478
pg. 380

Nathaniel Harmon

To All Christian People to whom these presents shall come, I, Nathaniel Harmon send Greeting. Know ye that I, Nathaniel Harmon, of Suffield in the County of Hampshire within the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in England; Weaver, for and in consideration of ye natural ... good will and affection which I have and do bear towards my loving and dutiful son, Nathaniel Harmon; have given, granted and by these presents do freely ... and absolutely give and grant to the said Nathaniel Harmon his heirs, executors, administrators or assigns a certain homestead or houselot within the township of Suffiled ... the contains of six acres be it more or less it being situated on the west side of the tract commonly called High Street, the front built upon said street, the rear or west end bounds upon the Brook called Muddy Brook. The south side bounds upon the home lott that was John ... ... and henceforth together with the appurentances unto the said Nathaniel Harmon, his heirs, executors, administrators or assigns from henceforth as his and their proper estate of inheritance ... infinitely without any manner of condition ... the said Nathaniel Harmon has absolutelly and of my own accord ... ... in further testimony & Mary Harmon, wife of ... said Nathaniel Harmon both by ... positively willingly give, yield up nd surrender all her rights of Domain and Power of this of in and unto ye above described premises unto him, said Nathaniel Harmon, his heirs & assigns.

In witness whereof, I, Nathaniel Harmon and Mary, my wife, have hereunto set our hands and sealed this seventeenth day of December in the eighth year of the reign of our Soverign ... ... of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland defender of the faith in the yar od our Lord God one thousand seven hundred and nine.

Signed, Sealed and delivered in the Nathaniel Harmon & Seal
presence of:
Joseph Hauloy
Joseph Remmington
Freegrace Norton

Dec 20th 1709: Nathaniel Harmon ... personally appeared before me this .... .... and did acknowledge this instrument to be his act and deed. Cor. Joseph Hauloy

On the 27th Day of January 1717/18 this deed was received and was then registered from the original. John Pynchon, Regt.

NATHANIEL HARMON & MARY SKINNER

Nathaniel Harmon, son of John, the Pioneer was born in Springfield, Massachusetts 13 Mar 1653.

Nathaniel and his brother, Joseph, became interested in trading with the Indians, and for many years were the principal partners of that noted trader, Colonel John Pynchon who was the original proprietor of the site of Springfield, Massachusetts.

 

SUFFIELD, CONNECTICUT

Nathaniel's brothers, Samuel and Joseph were the first settlers of Suffield, Connecticut, or Stony Brook, as it was then called. They built the first cabin there in 1670. It was that same year that our ancestor, Nathaniel located at Suffield, which remained a part of Hampshire Co., Massachusetts until 1749. Here he worked with his brothers Joseph and Samuel and also with John Pynchon. They had routes through the forest in all directions and collected large quantities of fur. Their sheds in Suffield being always covered with skins stretched for drying. Their land lay near the brook west of the village, and they also bought land at Warehouse Point, where they established a storage place for furs.

Suffield, Connecticut was just across the river from Springfield, Massachu-setts. It was a dense forest with very heavy timber growing upon her soil. The Stony Brook Plantation of twenty-three thousand acres was purchased for 30 pounds sterling, or less than one cent per acre in 1670 with title granted to Major John Pynchon and others (possibly the Harmon brothers who were his partners) by the General Court of Massachusetts. The two Harmon brothers, Joseph and Samuel settled about one mile west of High Street. Nathaniel followed soon afterward. In 1671, land grants were made to Samuel Harmon, a farmer; Nathaniel Harmon, a weaver; and Joseph Harmon, the town's first constable; and to Zerubabel Fyler and Robert Old. The Harmons served on a committee active in advancing the interests of the plantation.
The outbreak of King Phillip's War in 1675 put a temporary stop to their progress. Those who had taken up grants of land were obliged to remove to places of greater security for about two years. After the war, the old settlers returned to reoccupy their lands. There was a lot of tension over signing an oath to the crown. We do not find these brothers signatures on the oath of allegiance to the crown.

The town of Suffield was organized in 1681 and eighty proprietors were present at the town meeting to choose the municipal officers and discharge the committee who had managed the affairs of the town from the time of the grant in 1670. A board of five selectmen were elected for the new town officers. They were: Anthony Austin (who is Esther Austin's father. Esther marries Nathaniel and Mary Harmon's son, Nathaniel.), Samuel Kent, Thomas Remington, John Barber and Joseph Harmon, the constable. There were about eighty families in the place with a population of four or five hundred. The most numerous settlers in High Street were the Kings, Hanchetts, Remingtons, Grangers, Kents, Nortons, Spencers and Sikes. A road leading east from High Street connected it with Feather Street where lived the Burbanks, Hollydays, Smiths, Trumbulls, and Palmers. In South Street were the Austins, Risings and Millers. On the western road were the Harmons and Copleys, and in Crooked Lane the Taylors, Hitchcocks, and Coopers.

The streets were rude pathways winding among stumps and trees. Along these pathways were scattered the dwellings of the settlers. Their cabins were of the rudest architecture, consisting for the most part but a single room lighted by one or two small windows, warmed by the huge fireplace and furnished with rude stools, tables and shelves. Ricks of meadow grass and stocks of corn were carefully reared adjacent to the still cruder shelters provided for the cattle. Around these abodes lay a few acres of half cleared land with charred stumps yet standing. Beyond this little clearing and surrounding it on every side was the dark, threatening forest. The families had nothing but their strong arms and brave hearts to depend upon.

 

Morals, religion and education from the very beginning of the settlement received their fair share of attention at the town meetings. The Connecticut code of 1650 required all parents to educate their children and every township of fifty householders (later thirty) to have a teacher supported by the men of the families. In 1696, Mr. Anthony Austin (whose daughter would later marry Nathaniel's son, Nathaniel), undertook to become the first school teacher. He received a salary of twenty pounds per year. In 1703, the first school house was erected near the church on the green, and the dimensions were twenty-feet long, sixteen-feet wide and six feet high. Reading, writing and arithmetic made up the curriculum of the pioneer schools.
The established ecclesiastical system was the Congregational Church, of which the Harmons were active participants. The Connecticut code of 1640 taxed all persons for support of the Congregational Church and forbade formation of new churches without the consent of the general court.

Our ancestors helped build the first Church erected in Suffield and worshipped within its walls. It was built about 1680, just ten years after the Harmon's first came to Suffield. At a town meeting on 6 April 1685, the townsmen voted that the town purchase a ladder and a red flag. With the ladder, a man could climb upon the roof of the Church and hang the flag out as a sign to all inhabitants that a meeting was scheduled to be held.

Nathaniel Harmon married Mary Skinner, the daughter of Joseph Skinner and Mary Filley on 19 Nov 1685 at Suffield. I like to think the wedding took place in the little Church that Nathaniel helped build.

Nathaniel and Mary were the parents of ten children as follows:

1. Nathaniel b. 15 Jan 1687 m. Esther Austin, d.1763 2. Ebenezer b. 21 Mar 1688 d. 1689
3. Mary b. 14 Jul 1692 m. James Barlow Jr. d. 1752
4. Elizabeth b. 29 Dec 1694 m. Thomas Dewey
5. Ann b. 23 Mar 1696 m. William Judd d. 1746
6. Samuel b. 15 Aug 1699 m. Deborah Winchell d. 1755
7. Sarah b. 2 Jan 1701 m. Joshua Lyman
8. Ruth b. 24 Nov 1704 m. Elias Alexander
9. John b. 29 Aug 1708 m. Mary Austin d. 1786
10. Benjamin b. 17 May 1711 m. Hannah Jacques d. 1795

Nathaniel Harmon died at Suffield, Hartford, Connecticut on 2 May 1712. His widow, Mary, then married John Hanchett in 1713. Mary had a family of teenagers, a few married children and a two year old baby when she married John. I have not located records of her having any children by John Hanchett. The Hanchett's remained close to the Harmons for the next several generations, with many intermarriages among Harmons and Hanchetts. Keep your eye on this family. They will reappear later on.