♂James Akin

James Akin (1 August 1706 – 7 January 1804) was a landholder of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, who lived to the age of ninety-seven and fathered children by two wives over thirty years. Henry Worth’s histories of old Dartmouth record that he served on the town’s Committee of 21 during the Revolutionary War, and that British troops burned his house. He was the fifth great-grandfather of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through his daughter Ruth Akin (1731–1821).

Early life and first marriage

James was born at Dartmouth, in Bristol County, on 1 August 1706, a son of John Akin (1663–1746) and his first wife, Mary Briggs (1671–1708). His mother died when he was two, and his father married again, to Hannah Sherman; family trees give that marriage seven children, born between 1712 and 1722. In April 1743, when James was a cordwainer (a shoemaker), his father, styled “Gent” in the deed, gave him a quarter share of a cedar swamp in Dartmouth “for ye Love Good will and affection” he bore “my Loving son James Akin”.

On 31 October 1728, at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, “James, of Dartmouth” married Amy Fish (1705–after 1745) “of Portsmouth”, before William Sanford, a justice of the peace. The couple settled at Dartmouth, where the town register records nine of their children, born between 1729 and 1745: Anne, Ruth, Batcheller, John, Amie, Preserved, William, James and Mary. The register spells the mother’s name “Amie”, and once, at Mary’s birth in 1745, “Almy”.

Second marriage

Amy died at Dartmouth after the birth of her youngest recorded child, Mary, in July 1745, and before March 1762, when her son John married at Dartmouth. On 26 October 1748, James, then forty-two, married Ruth Sanford at Dartmouth, where both were living. She had been born at Portsmouth in 1729, the same town as his first wife, and was two years older than his daughter Ruth. The Dartmouth register records seven children of “James and Ruth” born between 1749 and 1761, three of them sons; the last, Timothy, was born when James was fifty-five.

Later life

Henry Worth, a local historian writing in the early twentieth century, placed James Akin’s estate of fifteen acres at Padanaram, in the south of Dartmouth, with his house on the east side of Elm Street at the north edge of the land. According to Worth, James sat on the Committee of 21 during the Revolution, and his house was burned by the British. Worth does not give the date of the burning.

He was still heading his own household at the age of eighty-four, when the census of 1790 listed him at Dartmouth among seven Akin householders on one page, with his son Richard two households away. James died at Dartmouth on 7 January 1804, aged ninety-seven. A memorial website, following Worth, states that he left an estate of $2,500 to Richard, and that after Richard’s death in 1809 it was sold off in small parcels to settle Richard’s own estate.

James made his will on 9 April 1798, when he was far advanced into years, and it was proved on 1 May 1804. He left the homestead farm, with its salt marsh and buildings, to his son Richard, who was also to pay the debts and legacies. His son William was to have a parcel of land by the wharf if he paid fifty silver dollars to the executors. The other children received small bequests: a silver dollar, a cow, a linen wheel, or clothing.

Notes

The town’s record of his birth is damaged. The printed Dartmouth vital records give the given name as worn and illegible, offer both “John” and “James” as readings, and cite a private family record for James. His marriage record of 1728 names him James without hesitation. The record’s uncertainty explains the many variant names, including John, attached to him in online trees.

Earlier versions of the family record gave the date of his first marriage as 14 October 1728, on no known source; the Portsmouth town record gives 31 October.

His second wife, Ruth Sanford, has been confused with his daughter Ruth in several compilations, and a family record compiled in 1994 names his wife simply as Ruth. Compiled family trees also record a divorce between James and Ruth Sanford, without a date; no record of it has been found.

A memorial website places his grave in the Akin Cemetery at Dartmouth, but states itself that the burial there is not proven and rests on circumstantial evidence.

Which James married Ruth Sanford

The Dartmouth marriage entry reads “James and Ruth Sanford [int. both of D.], Oct. 26, 1748” and does not say which James is meant. Dartmouth had a second James Akin, born 18 October 1728, a son of David and Sarah, so the entry alone could not settle the question. The children do. The register’s seven children of “James and Ruth”, born 1749 to 1761, are named by this James’s will as his own children, six of them by name, and the seventh, Abigal, is recorded in a Friends’ record. The husband of Ruth Sanford was therefore this James.

Amy was living when Mary was born on 11 July 1745, and a Friends’ marriage record of 24 March 1762 calls her son John “s. James and Amy (dec’d)”. The year 1748 once given for her death appears to come from this entry and has no source of its own. She died between July 1745 and March 1762; the date is not known.

His will and his first family

The will of James Akin, dated 9 April 1798 and proved 1 May 1804 before Seth Padelford, Judge of Probate, Bristol County (Bristol County Probate Records, register copy, pp. 396-397), calls him “far advanced into years”. It shows that by 1798 his son John had died, leaving a widow, Peace, and heirs; his daughter Amy, wife of Job Mosher, had died, leaving a daughter, Selina; his daughter Mary was the wife of William Robinson; his daughter Anne was the wife of Moses Allen; and his son William was living. The will names his daughter Ruth as the wife of Henry Shearman, and his daughter Hannah as the wife of Jonathan Howland.

The will gave the homestead farm, with the salt marsh, buildings, a cow and the gun, to Richard. An inventory ordered on 24 January 1804 valued the homestead farm at $2,500, which agrees with the memorial website’s statement that Richard received an estate of $2,500.