NATHAN LORD, b. 13 May 1681, d. before 22 Jan. 1772 when schoolmaster Master
Tate of Somersworth, N.H., noted he was deceased;55 m. MARGARET HEARLE,
b. abt. 1683, daughter of William and Patience (Etherington) Hearle,56 d. Kittery,
22 Jan. 1772. Master Tate noted: “Mrs. Margaret Lord, wife of Mr. Nathan Lord of
Kittery, decd., dy’d on Wed. Jan. 22 1772 in the 89th year of her age whose maiden
name was Margaret Hearle. She had been the mother of 18 living children.”57
In 1733 Nathan’s father, Nathan Lord Sr., bequeathed his son “all my land of the
South Side of the way that leads to York Called the great Field . . . excepting one
Acree [sic] Next to Joseph Hodsdon’s Land by the brook which I reserve for a
burying place . . . and excepting also that the Spring in the Said Field by the highway
Shall be Common to the rest of my Children.”58 Although Master Tate noted
18 living children, only 14 could be identified. On 13 Sept. 1713, Nathan and Margaret
owned the covenant at the Berwick Church and were baptized with five of
their children. After baptizing at least 14 children, on 2 June 1728 Nathan Lord Jr.
and Margaret, his wife, were taken into the Church.59
Both Lord and Stackpole listed 14 children for this couple, but both neglected to
include Margaret,60 who was bp. 13 Sept. 1713 with four other siblings. But they
did include Stephen Lord, bp. 1 Sept. 1734, the son of “Nathan Lord junr & his
wife [who] owned the Covt and their son Stephen was bapd.”61 By 1734 Margaret
was in her fifties. It had been eight years since she and Nathan had last baptized a
child, which they had done faithfully every year or two beginning in 1713. By 1734
Nathan’s father had died, so he would no longer be called Nathan “Jr.” Because of
this and Margaret’s advanced age, it becomes apparent that Stephen was his grandson,
the son of Nathan4 (Nathan3–1), who had married Hannah Shackley.62 On 10
July 1740, the court appointed Hannah, widow of Nathan Lord “Jr.,” late of Berwick,
guardian of her children Stephen, Eunice, Hannah, and Miriam Lord.63 Stephen
is listed first and was likely the same Stephen bp. 1 Sept. 1734 when his parents
owned the covenant.
55 “The Diary of Master Joseph Tate of Somersworth, N.H.,” The New England Historical and
Genealogical Register (NEHGR) 73(1919):304–15, 74(1920):34–50, 124–30, 179–99, at 182 (hereafter
cited as “Master Tate’s Diary”).
56 Gen. Dict. Maine & N.H., 323.
57 “Master Tate’s Diary,” NEHGR 74(1920):182. William Hearle Sr. of Berwick mentioned
his daughter Margaret Lord in his will of 9 Aug. 1718, leaving her 20s. (Sargent, Maine Wills, 312,
citing York Co. Probate 4:74). Lord erred in calling Nathan’s wife Margaret Heard and in assigning
him a 2nd wife named Patience and calling her the mother of Nathan’s children Sarah, Sarah,
Mary, Charles, and Mary and Stephen (Lord, Descendants of Nathan Lord, 85).
58 Sargent, Maine Wills, 340, citing York Co. Probate 4:159.
59 Anderson, Berwick Church Records, 22, 23, 25, 28.
60 She married (int.) Kittery, 31 Aug. 1734, John Nason (Anderson and Thurston, Kittery VRs,
99).
61 Anderson, Berwick Church Records, 36.
62 Following the death of her 1st husband, Nathan Lord, Hannah m. (int.) 16 Aug. 1740 Richard
Kimball of Wells (Hope Moody Shelley, Vital Records of Wells, Maine, 1619–1950 [Rockport,
Maine, 2005], 24 [hereafter cited as Shelley, Wells VRs]). In his will of 6 Aug. 1767, Richard
Shackley of Berwick left his daughter Hannah Kimball household furnishings (Frost, Maine Probate
Abstracts, 13/509, citing York Co. Probate Records, 13:270).
63 Frost, Maine Probate Abstracts, 5/202, citing York Co. Probate Records, 5:186
