Person talk:Nathaniel Knight (2)

Missing a generation? [28 January 2011]

I believe the information on this page, that Nathaniel, s/o Nathan, b. 1710, m. 1782 Ruth Elden, has compressed two generations into one.

According to Collections of the Maine Historical Society Nathan's eldest son Nathaniel m. Priscilla Berry. Then there is a Nathaniel b. 1 Aug 1735. It is not very clear, but the only way this makes sense is if the second Nathaniel is son of the first and grandson of Nathan. It is the second Nathaniel who says he will not marry, until in 1782, he marries his cousin Ruth Elden, 29 years younger than himself according to this source, so born about 1764 and age 18 at the time of her marriage.

The above source says Ruth was the daughter of his uncle Elden who married an aunt of Nathaniel's. This is straightened out in Proceedings at the Celebration of the First Centennial of Buxton, p. 149, where John Elden who d. 1746 married (1) Martha Knight and had a son John, Jr., who married 1747 Ruth Sands. Ruth would have been the mother of Ruth Elden, and so technically, Ruth was Nathaniel's second cousin since they shared a great grandparent. The birth of Nathaniel's wife Ruth is recorded in Buxton, "Children Born to Capt John Elden and Ruth his Wife ... Ruth Elden Born December 9 1763", which agrees with the information above. Records of the Proprieters of Buxton includes a letter that family tradition (i.e., a source independent of records already cited) that this Ruth married a man named Knight and moved to Westbrook. --Jrich 11:19, 28 January 2011 (EST)