Adam Carson timeline information – taken from town and county records in New Hampshire and Maine – I will be adding footnotes (again) in the near future.
1745 – Adam and William Carson appears on the Tax List of Litchfield, NH.
1746 – Adam Carson marries Alice Alexander in the 1st Church of Nottingham, NH.
1756 – Adam Carson granted lot 22 in Cushnoc, ME – now Augusta
1757 – Adam Carson sells lot 48 New Boston, NH – adjacent landowner William Carson
1771 – Adam Carson is fence viewer in Augusta, ME
1771 – Jennet Carson d. of Adam and Alice files intention to marry John Gray, Augusta, ME (marriage never happens)
1771 – Adam and Alice Carson sell land in Augusta, ME
1772 – Adam and son William Carson appear on Augusta, ME tax list – Adam’s taxable worth is larger than average
1772 – William Carson, s. of Adam and Alice marries Hannah Savage in Augusta, ME
1773 – Alice Carson, d. of Adam and Alice marries Joseph Savage in Augusta, ME
1776 – Adam and Alice Carson sell land in Augusta, ME to Isaac Savage
1778 – Adam Carson listed with militia that went to Fort Halifax (in other records it just says “gone out of town”)
1778 – Adam Carson signs petition – regarding location that would one day become Farmington, ME. He doesn’t appear to have moved to the area.
1781 – Adam Carson appears on tax list of Canaan, ME
1783 – Adam Carson, of Canaan, ME sells land in Augusta, ME – wife Alice is not party to deed and deed mentions family burial place on land
1787 – Adam, William, Ephraim Carson and Joseph Savage provide support to the delegate to the state legislature
1788 – Adam Carson, of Canaan, ME sells land to s. Ephraim Carson of Canaan, ME
1788 – Adam Carson, of Canaan, ME sells part of lot 5 in Canaan, ME to 4 unmarried d. Sarah, Anne, Elizabeth, Jennet
1790 – Adam, Ephraim and William Carson as well as Joseph Savage listed on Canaan, ME census (last name is Castle? for Ephraim and William)
1792 – Adam records grant of lot 5 in Augusta, ME – grant happened much earlier perhaps as early as 1771
1798 – William and Ephraim Carson exempt from ministerial support in Canaan because they are Baptists.
1800 – Adam and Ephraim Carson listed on Canaan, ME census
1800 – William Carson listed on Mt. Vernon, ME census (Mt. Vernon divides into Mt Vernon and Bloomfield)
1810 – Adam Carson not listed on census (deceased according to Mt. Vernon town history)
1828 – Elizabeth Carson dies Canaan, ME age 73
1820 and 1830 – Ephraim Carson listed on Bloomfield, ME census
1832 – Ephraim Carson, age 70 dies in Bloomfield, M – insolvent
Does this timeline support the assumptions in my earlier post – regarding Adams movements and family connections? – yes for the time in Maine, most definitely, although there are clearly updates or amendments. The earlier post suggests Adam deceased before 1800 when in fact he appears in 1800 census. Jennet never actually married John Gray. And there is solid evidence that Adam and Alice were in Maine earlier than I originally thought. Also, Alice’s death date range is established as between 1776 and 1783 (and I would guess actually 1778 when Adam first appears in Canaan records instead of Augusta records.)
But I have been unable to clearly establish link between Adam, William senior and John Carson in New Hampshire. I have however discovered a couple of possible father/uncle/older generation connections in New Hampshire. I will develop timelines and evidence for those in a second post.
I am a relative of Adam Carson- they just released the will of John Carson and they clearly state that they are not related but he gets guardianship of his kids. Fascinating stuff.
Nancy – that is fascinating. When you say “they just released the will of John Carson” what are you referring to? A database?
Sorry for the delayed response. NH and ME released wills recently and you can find it on ancestors. We are having issues finding the connection between John Carson and William. Further it looks like William Carson may have been married twice because there kids born after Hannah Savage died. Please feel free to contact me!
Nancy – sorry for the delay again. 2017 was a very chaotic year for me with the death of a parent and moving my mother in with us. I will hunt for more information on William as part of my next trip to Salt Lake in a few weeks and will share as I get it. There is another researcher on this family who is on Ancestry named Joan Carson. She’s been working on the family for at least 30 years and has a pretty exhaustive tree online for William’s family. I didn’t check her documentation yet.
Nancy;
I spent some time with the Ancestry database and the original microfilm documents and I’m pretty sure that you are not interpreting the information in the record correctly. John does not name William as the guardian of his children. The court does that. And less than 1 year later the oldest son John choses William McQuiston jr. as his guardian probably as soon as he reached 15 or so, which makes sense since William McQuiston jr was quite probably his uncle, John Carson having married Sarah McQuiston in 1750. John and his younger siblings had been under the guardianship of their father’s brother (most likely) and now that John had a choice maybe he wanted to distance himself a bit from his younger siblings so he chose his mother’s brother instead. John Carson names William Carson AND William McQuiston jr. to be his executors. And John doesn’t state any kind of relationship with either of them (or with the 3rd named executor David Lewis.) He just calls them his well beloved friends. That’s pretty normal actually. A specific statement of a relationship between testator and executor is fairly unusual. That doesn’t mean that William and William (and David) are not related to John – the odds are high they are his brother and his brother in law. But I have to put together the evidence to show you and I’m in Salt Lake right now and don’t have all my files. I’ll put something on the blog soon. I don’t know if you realized but the fact that John didn’t name his wife anywhere in his will probably means that Sarah McQuiston Carson had predeceased him. Since their oldest was nearly 14-15 years old and their youngest was probably around 8 years old. And none of this actually connects them to Adam. I’ve got some basic evidence for that but again I need to be home to finalize the blog post.
Hello!
I have just finished reading your updates from 2013 on the Adam Carson name and history. I have gone back to hitting my head against some of these stonewalls and was delighted to be brought up to date. There is so much I want to go over in my own information and pass on what you may not have. Are you familiar with Dorothy Carson Bales and her research on the Carsons? She is deceased now but was raised in Mount Vernon, Maine. She has spent many hours going over research that includes much of what you also have listed. My late husband is the Carson I started with. His name was Paul Carson There is so much in my files that I don’t know where to start when it comes to sharing. Any suggestions? Hope to hear from you. Joan
Joan
How nice to hear from another Carson researcher. Richard Carson has also contributed quite a bit to the research. Please check out the post I did on the Carson research – attempting another approach – in late January. I’ve not familiar with Dorothy’s work but I’d love to know more.
I may have tried to reach you on Ancestry.com recently so if you have an email there is it me :). Feel free to send me anything and everything and I’ll see if I can sort it out. Who was Paul’s direct line ancestor? William, Ephraim, Joseph or one of the NH Carsons?
Regards
Heather
Sorry for the delay
I believe we are missing a William Carson Jr. who is married to an Abigail Chase.
Yes i had a bad copy of the will so I couldn’t quite make out the details. Thanks for the clarity
Joan – I just realized that when we connected on Ancestry recently we forgot we’d had this conversation here. Too many channels for information. I’ll move this conversation over to Ancestry and see what we can share.
This is Richard Carson of Web site of- carsonsfrommaine-”
William Carson Sr Has 5 sons Al Born in Franklin Co, Maine.
William Jr Married Abigail Chase, She was Born 14/ Jan/ 1778 in Clinton, Kennebec Co, Maine.
Still not sure where William Sr was Born..
Richard – good to hear from you again. I think it is pretty clear that at least the three oldest children of Adam and Alice – William, Alice and Jennet were born in New Hampshire. All evidence indicates that Adam and Alice were in New Hampshire until at least the mid-1750s, given that they first appear in Augusta land records in 1756. I suspect they actually didn’t move until 1757 or later given the date of the land sale in NH. Since evidence indicates William was born around 1750 it seems pretty solid to me that he was born in NH.