Person:Consider Atherton (2)

Consider - d. Apr. 26, 1687. Married Dec. 19, 1661 Anna ANNABLE, daughter of John. Son of Consider and Anna ATHERTON: Humphrey married Elizabeth, daughter of Capt. John and Elizabeth (PRESTON) WITHINGTON.

Consider (2 American Gen.), son of Humphrey, married Anne Annably, Dec. 14, 1671. His son Humphrey (3), had a son John (4), who became "deacon," and whose son John (5), married Mary, daughter of Rev. Jedediah Adams, the first settled pastor of Stoughton, where he ministered with great acceptability for many years (see "History of First Parish," on another page). They had nine children, John, Jedediah, Humphrey, Mary, Rachel, Elijah, Samuel, Mary, and Nathan. Samuel (6), born Sept. 19, 1784, was a man much esteemed, possessing good sterling qualities. He was a farmer, owning about eighty acres of the homestead of his father near Stoughton Centre, on which he was born and lived his long life of over ninety-two years. He married Feb. 28, 1811, Abigail, daughter of Ralph and Abigail (Soran) Pope, of Stoughton. She came of an old New England family of repute, the first American ancestor, John Pope, coming about 1633 from the neighborhood of London, England, and settling in 1640 in "Dorchester New Grant," now Stoughton, the line being John (1), John (2), Ralph (3), Ralph (4) (a physician of great kindness and benevolence), Col. Frederick (5) (he was a justice, colonel, serving in 1756 with his regiment on the Canada frontier in the French and Indian war; was State representative from Stoughton. In the Revolution, when the summons came to take the field he was plowing. Taking the harness from his horse he at once made ready, and with his two eldest sons, Ralph and Samuel Ward, joined the army. He served in several campaigns, his sons acting as his aids. His third son, Alexander, then but sixteen, fulfilled faithfully the task of carrying on the farm and supporting the family), Ralph (6) (he was born in Stoughton, 1759, and died 1797. He served through the Revolution; married Abigail, daughter of Maj. Robert and Rachel (Draper) Swan, born 1761, died 1852, aged ninety-one. Their daughter, Abigail (7), who married Samuel Atherton, was born in Stoughton, Mass., Dec. 5, 1785, dying March 19, 1868, aged eighty-two years, three and a half months). Samuel Atherton was of energetic temperament, cheerful disposition, eminently social, enjoying humor, and always ready with some bright remark, pointed with fun. He was honest, straightforward, prudent, saving, and perfectly just in all the relations of life. He had musical tastes, was a great singer, and when prevented sometimes from talking by an impediment (stammering) which afflicted him, he would sing clearly the words he wished to speak. He and his brother Nathan were among the originators of the "Stoughton Musical Society." He was selectman in his younger days, and held other positions of trust. Although a great sufferer from rheumatism in his later years, he continued cheerful even to the time of his death. He was very fond of his brother, Nathan, four years his junior; they lived all their lives a few rods apart; both attained great age, and died within three months of each other; Nathan's death occurring Nov. 13, 1876, at eighty-eight. A short time previous to his death, Nathan walked to and from church for morning service, a distance of two and a quarter miles.

1.   Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton). History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men. (Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Co., 1884)
   Pages 415-417, 1884.
2.   Patrick Hogue (Samples). Transcribed Atherton Text.