Schooner Hawk, Captain Benjamin Brown, Sr., master and owner, on a voyage from Annapolis, dragged from her anchorage in Yarmouth Sound on November 18, 1798, and became a total wreck on Hilton's Head. All hands were lost, including Josiah Porter, son-in-law of the owner.
A tax record in Beverly dated 5 February 1760 provides an interesting clue about his childhood. Capt. Robert Haskell had part of his 1759 taxes abated with the explanation that Nathaniel Haskell had moved to Manchester the previous March. Families paid a poll tax on the adult men in their household, so it is likely that Nathaniel was living with him. However, he was only 19 for the better part of 1759. Circumstantial evidence indicates that Nathaniel's father died about 1746. Capt. Robert was surely Nathaniel's grandfather, who certainly had the financial means to keep his three grandsons. Why Nathaniel was moving back to Manchester (Capt. Robert lived in Beverly) is hard to determine, given that he was only 18 the previous year. No other Nathaniel could fit in this scenario. The record continues to be cryptic in saying that "half of poll of Haskell he being a crippell." Perhaps this is a reference to Robert, who was about 67. This is all the more plausible given that Nathaniel and his brother Benjamin were privates in Capt. Andrew Marsters' company of Minutemen in the Revolution, mustered at Medford, which marched to Concord 19 April 1775 when the alarm of the battle there went out. They were out three days and returned when the British retreated. They probably didn't engage with the enemy, however. He also served for 4 weeks of billeting (perhaps a description of a record of soldiers' quartering) while in Capt. Joseph Whipple's company, raised in defense of the Massachusetts coast. They received payment on 27 September 1775. Andrew Marsters may have been his uncle. Ten years earlier he was chosen to serve on an inferior court jury. He served the Town of Manchester as a hogreave with (his brother?) Benjamin on 7 March 1774, further suggesting he wasn't disabled, but it was possible for men to serve in the Army and to function relatively normally with certain disabilities that would have been considered "crippling" at that time. He and his family apparently moved back to Beverly, MA, between March and September of 1774 since Nathaniel, Jr.'s, birth is recorded in Beverly, while all previous children were recorded at Manchester. Nathaniel, Jr., was baptized in Manchester, suggesting the family hadn't yet transferred their membership yet to the Beverly church. Muster roles for his service in the war don't specify his hometown, but another tax record in Beverly says that he was abated his "soldier tax" for 1777, "he Being in the Continental Army." He had also been overtaxed 12 shillings for his personal estate by mistake. He died of dropsy, which is "an acute condition of fluidal swelling at the connective tissues." He and Elizabeth are buried in Hale St. Cemetery, Beverly. Their stones, carved by the shop of Benjamin Day of Lowell, were ordered at the same time and paid for (cost 27.68 lbs for "two pairs," indicating head and footstones) in January 1818, which is apparently recorded in Nathaniel's probate file.
The above is provided courtesy of Doug Sinclair
Reference to the Website: Doug Sincair's Archive
http://dougsinclairsarchives.com/index.htm
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Nathaniel is shown on receipt dated Manchester, 19 September 1775; Captain J. Whipple's company for advance pay for 1 month, received of Michel Farley, Muster Master and Paymaster of men raised in Manchester for defense of seacoast in Essex County; private in Captain J. Whipple's company, enlisted 13 July and served until 31 December 1776.Nathaniel, of Manchester, was a private in Captain Andrew Marster's company that marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775, to Medford, service 3 days. He is also shown on a receipt dated Manchester, September 7, 1775, signed by said Haskell and other's belonging to Captain Joseph Whipple's company, for 4 weeks billeting, received of Michael Farley, Muster Master and Pay master of men raised in Manchester for defense of seacoast in Essex County.
Reference
The Haskell Family in the Armed Forces, Volume 2
Editor: Peter P. Haskell, 2004
Pages 54, 74
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On Secember 22, 1767, at the Manchester town meeting, "Nathll Haskell" was chosen to serve on the Jury of Trials at the next Inferior Court to be held at Salem. On March 7, 1774, "Nathaniel Harskel and Benja Harskel were chosen for Hog-Reves."Reference
Colonial and Revolutionary Lineages of America
The American Historical Company Inc., New York, 1941
Benjamin, of Manchester, was a private in Captain Andrew Master's company that marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775, to Medford, service, 3 days.Reference
The Haskell Family in the Armed Forces, Volume 2
Editor: Peter P. Haskell, 2004
Page 63
Joseph, of Manchester, was a private in Captain Richard Dodge�s company, Lieutenant Colonel Loammi Baldwin's (late Colonel Samuel Gerrish's) 38th regiment; muster roll dated August 1, 1775; enlisted June 12, 1775; service, 7 weeks 1 day; also in return of the sick in Colonel Gerrish's regiment stationed at Chelsea and Brookline, dated August 3, 1775 and signed by David Jones, Surgeon; Joseph reported as ill of dysentery at Chelsea; also shown as a private, Captain Dodge's (3rd) company, Lieutenant Colonel Baldwin's regiment, return dated Camp at Chelsea, September 1, 1773; also, company return dated Camp at Chelsea, October 2, 1775; muster roll made up from September 1, 1775, to October 31, 1775, 61 days; also, order for bounty coat or its equivalent in money dated Chelsea, December 27, 1771.
Reference
The Haskell Family in the Armed Forces, Volume 2
Editor: Peter P. Haskell, 2004
Page 57
Ira J. Haskell in "Chronicles of the Haskell Family" states that Andrew and Isaac were twins.
Ira J. Haskell in "Chronicles of the Haskell Family" states that Andrew and Isaac were twins.