The Peters Family

William, Thomas, and Hugh Peters, who were brothers, emigrated from England to Boston, Mass., about the year 1634.

One of these brothers, the Rev. Thomas Peters, soon after their coming to this country was settled in the ministry at Saybrook, Conn., where he patronized an academy, which, as Yale College, was, in 1716 removed to New Haven, an institution which has been increasing in usefulness and honor from its origin to the present day.  Rev. Hugh Peters, a brother of the last named, was settled for about five years at Salem, Mass., then returned to England in 1640, or 1641, where he warmly espoused the cause of Cromwell and the Parliament, in opposition to Charles I, became a man of distinction and influence, and was forward among those who approved of the execution of that ill-fated king. On this account after the elevation of Charles II, son of Charles I, to the throne, the Rev. Hugh Peters, being still in England, was, by royal authority, arrested, tried on charge of high treason, and beheaded, October 16. 1660. Through his trial, and at his execution, he demeaned himself with distinguished composure and dignity, and laid down his life without apparent regret that he had so zealously advocated a cause which he still esteemed just, though unsuccessful. His widow and daughter returned to their friends in this country.

William Peters, Esq., of Boston, brother of the two clergymen above named, had six sons and four daughters.  He lived to a great age, and died at Andover, Mass, much beloved and respected for his charities, piety, and bearing. From him the race bearing the name of Peters, in New England, have mainly descended. His sons were John, Andrew, Thomas, William, Samuel, and Joseph.  William, last named, the fourth son of the emigrant, had six sons, Bernslee, Samuel, John, William, Andrew, Joseph, and two daughters.

This William, the third of the name, and a grandson of the emigrant, was killed in a battle with the Indians in Andover, leaving his widow, Mary Russell, with an infant son, named John, then but eleven days of age. This was in October, 1696.

This John Peters, when of age, removed, in 1717, from Boston to Hebron, in Connecticut, at that time quite a new settlement, and by his wife Mary, a grand daughter of the martyr, General Thomas Harrison, had a large family of sons and daughters. Distinguished among these was the Rev. Samuel Andrew Peters, LL. D., an Episcopal clergyman. He sometimes wrote his name with the middle A, and perhaps more commonly without it. He was a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1757, a classmate with Rev. Dr. Burroughs, afterwards minister of Hanover, N. H. He was a man of ability, quite an interesting letter writer, as his manuscripts show, and during the war of the Revolution a decided loyalist. On this last account he awakened against himself so much displeasure that he found it expedient to leave his native State somewhat in haste, and take a voyage to England, where he remained for several years, and occasionally indulged his feelings and amused the public by writing for the papers ridiculous caricatures of the laws and customs of the Puritans, especially those of Connecticut. He wrote also, while there or afterwards, a biographical account of his relative, Rev. Hugh Peters, who, as we have seen, was executed in England on account of his advocacy of the cause of Cromwell and his Parliament.  After the war of the American Revolution was over, Rev.  Dr. Peters returned to this country, and claimed to be, not only in title but in fact, "Bishop of Vermont," as this new State was by him not inappropriately denominated.  From some of his manuscript letters it would seem that, notwithstanding the course he had taken, he remained on friendly terms with such distinguished men as Judge Niles and General Morey, of Fairlee, the Rev. Dr.  Burroughs, of Hanover, and others in this vicinity.

Margaret Peters, a sister of the Rev. Dr. Samuel, married John Mann, a farmer in Hebron, whose eldest son, John Mann, Esq., married Lydia Porter, of Hebron. The marriage ceremony was performed in the Episcopal church there, by his uncle. Rev. Dr. Peters, then its Rector, February 17, 1765. On the 16th of the following October the enterprising young couple set out on their journey through the wilderness, to Orford, N. H., and arrived on the 24th of the same month. They were persons of honorable distinction among the early settlers of that town, and raised up a highly respectable family of sons and daughters, among whom were Major John Mann, long time a merchant there, and Cyrus and Joel Mann, graduates of Dartmouth, and able ministers of the Gospel of the Congregational denomination.

John Peters, Jr., who was born at Hebron in 1718, was the eldest brother of Samuel and Margaret, above mentioned. His wife, Lydia Phelps, was a direct descendant from John Phelps, Secretary to Oliver Cromwell. They had a family of seven daughters and six sons.  Lydia, one of these daughters, married Benjamin Baldwin, Esq., subsequently one of the influential settlers of Mooretown, now Bradford, Vt. They here raised up a large and respectable family, of whom, more hereafter.  Mary Peters, a sister of Mrs. Baldwin, married Joseph Hosford, Esq., of Thetford. Another sister, Susanna, married Colonel John House, of Norwich.

General Absalom Peters, a brother of the ladies just mentioned, was born at Hebron, Conn., in 1754. He was graduated at Dartmouth College in 1780. He married Mary Rogers, a sister of Mrs. Col. John Barron, of Bradford, and had a family of children of decided ability and moral worth. Among the sons was Rev. Dr. Absalom Peters, of New York, long time Secretary of the American Home Missionary Society, a graduate of Dartmouth in 1816. General Peters and family, for many years, resided on a farm in Wentworth, N. H., where he took an active part in public affairs, remaining as he was during the war of the Revolution, decidedly patriotic. After the decease of his first wife, Mary Rogers, he, at the age of sixty-six, married another highly respectable lady, with whom he had been pleasantly acquainted in youth, the widow of Rev. John Gurley, of Lebanon, Conn., with whom he lived happily nearly twenty years. He died in the city of New York, April, 1840, aged eighty-six years.  He was buried at Hebron, Conn., his native place, being borne to his grave by aged men, companions of his childhood and youth.

We come now to Col. John Peters, a brother of Gen.  Absalom, and the eldest son of John Peters, Jr., of Hebron. He was born there in 1740. He married Ann Barnet, and by her had one daughter and eight sons. He emigrated from Connecticut, in the year 1765, to Thetford, Vermont, and from that place to Mooretown, now Bradford, in or about the year 1771. The first grist-mill in this .town was built by him, in 1772. In the troubles which soon after occurred between this country and England, and during the war of the Revolution, his sympathies were, like those of his uncle, Dr. Samuel Peters, decidedly with the British Government. His brother Absalom and some or all of the sisters were decidedly in favor of the independence of the Colonies. This set the two brothers in strong opposition to each other, and caused an unpleasant division in the family. In consequence of this state of feeling, near the commencement of the war Mr. John Peters, with his family, emigrated to Nova Scotia; and, on account of his zeal and energy as a loyalist, he received a commission as Colonel of a regiment styled the Queen's Rangers, whence his military title: but how much service he rendered as an officer in the British army does not appear. After the war was over, leaving his family at Cape Breton, he went to England, to prosecute his claims on the government, and died there, at Paddington, near London, January 11,1788, in the 48th year of his age. His uncle, Rev. Dr. Peters, was there to assist him, but the result of their appeal does not seem to have been very satisfactory. A letter from this eccentric old clergyman to Mrs. Col. John Peters, informing her of his death, is so interesting that I cannot forbear to insert it here.

" My Dear Anna :-I now commence a correspondence with you as heretofore I have had with your husband.  Col. Peters has often written to you of the bad state of his health, and of the delays of administration, and that he was impatient of these delays and fair promises, as he was anxious of returning to you and his dear, young and tender family. His great concern was about you, and his daily prayers and last wish were for you and your children. This attention to you and your family has. no doubt, secured your love and esteem, and his happiness will, of course, be your greatest worldly comfort.  " I am now the informer of his glorious situation; and you, that have known that death is and will he swallowed up of life, will not complain that the great Eternal has seen fit to bestow one Beatitude on your husband which he has as yet withheld from you; and if you are just to yourself, and children, and friends, and submissive to the good pleasure of God, you will not complain that the preference is given to your husband, for what he first enjoys you shall enjoy, in God's good time. News from a far country is pleasant and truly entertaining; and to comfort you and your children with such news I write this letter.  "St. Paul told his friends and hearers, You shall see my face no more. This grieved them; but they were consoled when they remembered that here we have no continuing city, but are seeking one to come, where the blessed dead shall meet and separate no more-shall see God and one another, face to face, and live forever happy, where time, tears, sorrow and want are never known.  " To that bright world set off Col. John Peters, your fond and tender husband, on January 11, 1788, at seven o'clock in the morning, prepared for his journey, and arrived before the throne of God in the twinkling of an eye !  You may wish to go to him, but he cannot wish to return to you. Consider this, my dear and lovely woman, and you will keep silence before the Judge of all, who gave, and has taken away, him whom thy soul loved. During your husband's last illness, which was the gout and rheumatism in his breast and head, and so continued for a month, everything was done for him which physicians of knowledge could find out, but all proved in vain. His body has been decently interred in the new burying ground belonging to St. George, Hanover Square, and I have paid the expense, and all his debts in this country that I have heard of.

" I have sent every article belonging to him, in two trunks, by ship, to the care of Joseph Peters, postmaster at Halifax. I wish it was in my power to take care of you and your children. 1 will do all for you that I can.  I am sorry for your distressed situation, and that of your family ; but who in this world is free from troubles? The King, Nobles,. Bishops, and Merchants, have less happiness than I, and the beggars of a half a crown a week. I suppose the Rebels will rejoice at the death of Colonel Peters, because they will never see him again; but I rejoice that he is dead in the Lord, and because I shall see him again. His picture, a good likeness of him in life, and in his coffin, was taken before his illness. I cut off a lock of his hair, which I intend to have put into a ring, or locket, for you and your daughter, as you shall direct. I have written to Governor Fanning to take your son Fanning, and bring him up as his Godson, and advise you to consent, if the Governor will do it."

Mrs. Peters, the widow, to whom the above letter was addressed, lived a good many years after her husband's decease, and died at the advanced age of eighty-seven.  Col. John Peters and wife had eight sons and one daughter.

John, born at Hebron, Conn., lived and died in Canada West.

Andrew B. was the next.

William, born at Thetford, Vt., December 21, 1766, was killed by a falling tree, in Mooretown, March 19, 1773.  The following simple epitaph on his little gravestone is quite touching:

" Death took me hence, just as I did begin ;

Thanks he to God  before I grew in sin.*

Samuel was born and died in Thetford.  Henry Moore was born at Piermont, N. H.  Edmund Fanning, born at Mooretown, was named for the Governor of Nova Scotia, William Barnet, the seventh son, born at Mooretown, June 10,1775, became a physician, practiced in Portland, Maine, and died there in the sixty-seventh year of his age. Ann, their sister, was born in Quebec, January 18, 1782; married a Watson, and lived for many years in Nova Scotia.   Probably died there.

Joseph Peters was born at Montreal, November 11, 1779. He subsequently resided for some years with the rest of his mother's family at Cape Breton. When of age he enlisted into the British army: was sent with the forces under Wellington into Spain; was engaged in various battles, and shared with others in the honor of the expulsion of King Joseph Bonaparte and the French from that country. He married in England, and after a long absence returned, with his family, to America. He came to Bradford and lived for a few years near his brother, Andrew B., engaged in agricultural pursuits, having willingly exchanged the weapons of war for the implements of husbandry. But his English wife longed for her native land; and so, taking their children and movables with them, in or near the year 1843 they went back to London, where the old warrior is understood to have died, not long after.

On this, their last voyage, an incident occurred which, for the benefit of young ladies who may happen to fall into like peril, I will here relate.

Mr. Peters and wife had with them a good-looking daughter, in the bloom of womanhood, whose name was Mary Ann. A young man on board the ship became her warm admirer, and earnestly solicited her hand in marriage. He represented himself to be a farmer, in good circumstances; and promised, in case of marriage, that directly on their arrival in port he would take her to a pleasant home. Having obtained the consent both of the girl and her parents, he insisted that the marriage should take place immediately, and that the ceremony might as well be performed by the captain, as by a magistrate or minister on shore. The captain consented, the marriage took place, and during the remainder of the voyage things went on to the satisfaction of all concerned. But on their arrival in England the villain, for such, to her bitter disappointment and the deep mortification of her parents, he proved himself to be, absconded, leaving poor Mary Ann to take care of herself as she could; his pretensions of love, and promises of fidelity and a pleasant home, all having been false and wicked.  

ANDREW B. PETERS, Esq.

We come now to a more full account of our honored fellow townsman, Andrew B. Peters. He was the second son of Colonel John Peters, born at Hebron, Conn., January 29, 1764, and when with his parents he first came to this town, he was about seven years of age. In prospect of the revolutionary struggle, his father, being a loyalist, removed his family from this place to the province of Nova Scotia, and there, as we have said, was commission-ed a colonel in the British army. In consequence of the course pursued by his father, Andrew B. became a subject of the royal government during the whole seven years of war which followed, and was surrounded by influences suited to enlist his youthful ambition and energies on the side which his father, and his father's distinguished uncle, then in London, had so heartily espoused.  It is no wonder then that he should have, early in life, enlisted in the same cause. From his seventeenth to his twentieth year he seems to have been engaged in the king's service, particularly in the naval inland department.   Under date of September 16, 1783, near the close of the war, " Commodore " Shank, then at Quebec, gave him an honorable discharge, saying that from the 27th of June, 1780, he had served for a time in his majesty's ship the Wolf, also aboard of his majesty's armed schooner Mercury, and in the year 1781 was ordered upon Lake Champlain, where he served on board of different vessels, and frequently commanded them, until the 16th of September, 1783. Mr. Peters was then not quite twenty years of age, but the commander speaks highly of his conduct, as an officer and a gentleman, and recommends him to further consideration in his majesty's naval service.

Within a very few years after the permanent restoration of peace, Mr. Peters, having no encouraging prospect of promotion in the British navy, or urgent call for further services under the royal government, concluded to return to Bradford, where his father's family had formerly resided, and here permanently settled down as a loyal and good citizen. His great uncle, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Peters, was still in London, and had all along taken a deep interest in behalf of his promising young relative and correspondent. A few extracts from one or two of bin letters will here be appropriate and interesting.

In a letter to Andrew B. Peters, dated at London, March 24, 1795,he writes: " My dear nephew, years have passed since I saw you in your mother's arms. I am on the wings of Time, bearing up to God, in whose presence is life, light, and joy. Here we have no continuing city.  General Cogswell, of Castleton, near Rutland, will have the goodness to deliver or convey this to you, and will pay you thirty pounds sterling, on your receipt. The above I send you, not knowing how soon I may be with you, or that you might not want it before my arrival. 1 hear you have a wife and children. Heaven prosper you and yours. * The reasons of your residing in Vermont, I doubt not, are the same which will induce all people in the old world to go there. " In another letter, dated at London, April 20, 1797, the doctor writes: "I am glad you received the thirty pounds sterling from that good man, General Cogswell.

You must not mind the conduct of Absalom and John, for they persecuted your father, me, and the prophets, before you. He here, evidently, refers to Andrew's patriotic uncle, General Absalom Peters, but to what John does not so clearly now appear. " Do good to them that despitefully treat you, and love them that hate you.  While we were enemies to God, Christ died for us. Verbum sat" In the same letter he refers to " Commodore," as he styles him, Shank, " with whom," he continues,  you served in the Navy, and I tried to have you made a Lieutenant in the Navy but did not succeed, because you were born in America. The Admiralty treated all American born midshipmen in like manner after the Independence of America. Perhaps it is for the best..  * Would it suit you to be a Justice of the Peace, or to be a military officer? General Allen will be able to assist you with the Governor."

Of Mr. Peters' second wife be pleasantly says: " If I remember well, Mr. Ellis Bliss had a beautiful daughter, whose mother was dead. If she is as good as she looked, or so good as her father and mother, you have great reason to be thankful, and must be happy."

In the year 1798 Andrew B. Peters was chosen Town Clerk of Bradford, and was continued in that office for forty out of the ensuing forty-six years, there being but two interruptions, the first of five, and the other of one year. The early records of the town, while they exist, will be a memorial of his ability and correctness. It is well that the books were kept so long by one faithful man, instead of being bandied about from one place to another. The same year in which Mr. Peters was first chosen Town Clerk he was also elected Representative to the State Legislature, and served the town in that capacity for five years, though not continuously. He also officiated as a Justice of the Peace for many years. For half a century he was occupied in various public services, and in every department gave general satisfaction. 

Esquire Peters was strictly temperate in his habits, both of eating and drinking. He was accustomed to rise, and also to retire, at early hours. He was in his temper, quick and decisive; in his pursuits, active and persevering. And never having broken down his physical constitution by excessive labor, or other abuses, his sight, hearing, memory, and powers generally, both of body and mind, held out admirably. In his old age he stood erect, and walked with a quick and fine step. But a few weeks before his decease, he, with his wife, took a journey to Boston and vicinity, to visit their children there. If men would abstain wholly from the ordinary use of intoxicating liquor, tobacco, opium, and otherwise observe as they should the laws of health, instead of becoming old and broken down at the age of forty-five or fifty, instances of sprightliness and energy at the age of seventy-five or eighty would not be at all uncommon.

In early life Mr. Peters united with the Episcopal church, and, though he seldom had opportunity to enjoy its forms of worship, he retained his membership to the last. He was strict in his observance of the Sabbath, and exemplary in his attendance on public worship, with the Congregational denomination, whose house of worship was long quite near his residence. He was detained at home only for two Sabbaths, during his last illness.  Though fully aware that the time appointed for his departure was close at hand, his mind remained peaceful.  He did not seem to depend on his morality at all, but on Christ, and him alone, for salvation. On Sabbath morning, August 10, 1851, the venerable old man passed quietly away at the age of eighty-seven years, six months and twelve days.

On the following Monday, his funeral was numerously attended by the inhabitants of the town which he had in various capacities so long and .faithfully served, the religious services being performed by his Congregational pastor, assisted by the Methodist brother then officiating in Bradford. His remains rest, with those of his three wives, in the pleasant cemetery near their former residence.

The first wife of Esquire Peters was Anna White, of Newbury. They were married .January 18, 1787, about three years after the close of the Revolutionary war, which shows that he was then resident here. This good lady, in a little over one year after her marriage, died of consumption, at Bradford, in the twenty-fourth year of her age.

December 16, 1790, Mr. A. B. Peters married for his second wife Miss Lydia Bliss, then of Bradford, but a native of Hebron, Conn., a daughter of Mr. Ellis Bliss. They lived happily together for nearly twenty-seven years, when she died at Bradford, March 5, 1816, in the fiftieth year of her age, leaving a large family. The children of Mr. Peters and his second wife were:

1. John Peters, born May 6, 1792. He married Dolly Rowe, and settled in Jay, Vt. Died October 19. 1858. No children.

2. Anna, born November 2, 1793; married Eleazer Smith : settled in Haverhill, N. H.; died in Charlestown, Mass., June 20, 1848, leaving two sons: Charles G., who married Ruth Morse and settled in Haverhill; and William P., who was killed in Sharon, Vt., while driving a stage team of four horses, which went over the bank into White River.

3. Samuel Peters, born April 16, 1797 ; married Margaret Nelson, of Ryegate, Vt., where he settled, and had two sons and six daughters, the most of whom married and settled in different parts of the country.

4. Daniel C. Peters, born April 4th, 1799; married Sally White of Bradford, and settled in Peoria, Illinois. They had five daughters, two of whom are at this date married in that State, and one son, who died young.

5. Hannah, daughter of A. B. Peters, born April 18, 1801, died May 3, 1853.

6. William Peters, born December 14, 1803; married Mary, daughter of Capt. Haynes Johnson, of Bradford, September 2, 1830. She died in Charlestown, Mass., February 7, 1844, in the forty-first year of her age. They had two sons and one daughter. William Francis, at this date residing in Salmon City, Idaho; Charles Edward married Luanda E. Hodgdon, of Piermont, N. H., and is a livery stable keeper in Bradford village. They have one son, Charles Henry, and one daughter, Lillie May. Mary Jane, daughter of Wm. Peters, married Thomas H. Moore, and resides with her husband at Cambridgeport, Mass.  Mr. William Peters, Jan. 19, 1845, married for his second wife Hannah Johnson, a sister of his first wife, and settled in Boston, Mass. Both she and her sister Mary were members of the Congregational church in this their native town. Mrs. Hannah J. Peters died in Boston, February 5, 1872, in her fifty-ninth year. Mr. Peters had by this marriage one son, Alvah Henry Peters, who married Miss Etta Damrell, and settled in Boston ; and one daughter, Martha Nellie Peters, who died April 22, 1869, in her eighteenth year.

7.   Andrew Bliss Peters, born March 14, 1812, married Susan Jones, of Durham, N. H., and settled in Charlestown, Mass.; had one son and a daughter, and died March 9, 1857, aged forty-five years, lacking three days.  Mrs. Lydia Bliss Peters, the mother of this large family, died March, 1816; and on the 15th of September, of the same year, Esquire Peters married, for his third wife, Keziah Howard, a good lady of Tamworth, N. H., born at Bridgewater, Mass., November 25, 1783. On her marriage with Esquire Peters, she moved directly to her Bradford home, where she lived very nearly fifty-six years, and died September 2, 1872, at the age of eighty-eight years, nine months and eight days. She had long been a worthy member of the Congregational church here.

Andrew B. Peters had by his third marriage two sons.

1.   Joseph Howard Peters, born October 7, 1717, married Clarissa Culver Washburn, of Lyme, N. H., Nov. 25, 1841, and settled on the old home farm, where, at this writing, he still resides. Mr. Peters, though mainly devoted to agricultural pursuits, has been called repeatedly to serve his native town in different official capacities; in 1858-9 as lister, and in 1870-1-2 as chairman of the board of selectmen. The children of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Peters are as follows, namely.

Andrew Barnet Peters, born March 10, 1843, married Jennie S. Kessler. May 14, 1872, and settled in Fitchburg, Mass.

Mary Ann, born June 23, 1845, died August 20, 1845.

Mary Ellen, born March 30, 1847, married Charles A. Leavitt, December 25, 1871, and is settled in this village.

Clara Emma, born June 15, 1848, married Andrew G. Tarleton, December 20, 1870, and settled in Woburn, Mass.

Arthur W., born July 31,1851, married Velma L. Jenkins, of this town, November 14, 1871, and remains on the old homestead, with his father.

Minnie S., born June 4, 1855, married Job Clement, of Bradford, March 17, 1872, and remains in her native town.

2. Edmund Fanning, the youngest son of Andrew B. Peters and his third wife, born September 5, 1822, married Mary Ann Slack, of Wilmington, Mass., has had a son and a daughter, and resides in Charlestown, near Boston. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Peters, and their daughters, Mrs. Leavitt and Mrs. Clement, were all members of the Congregational church in Bradford.  Biographie Index

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