♂James Savage

James Savage (died before 13 September 1748) was a farmer of Georgetown, near the mouth of the Kennebec River, in what was then the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was the sixth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Daniel Savage (1729–1795). A deed of 1748 speaks of “the Estate of James Savage of Georgetown aforesaid, lately deceased”, and of “Cristian Savage the widow of the said Deceased”; in it the husbands of his daughters sold their shares of his estate to three younger men of his surname, Isaac, Daniel and Edward Savage.

Georgetown

A history of Augusta published in 1870 records that he carried on a farm for Stephen Minot at Georgetown in 1728, and that in 1745 he bought three hundred acres of land at Nequasset. The same history records that the title to that land was in dispute between the owners of conflicting patents, and the man through whom it came bound himself to pay “all costs and expenses” if the buyer was “disturbed or harrassed by law suits”. A family history of Maine published in 1909, which follows the Augusta history, says he was a tenant on Arrowsic, in Georgetown, before 1729, and calls him a nephew of Ephraim Savage and “son probably of his younger brother, John”; his parents are not otherwise known.

The deed of 1748

By the deed, James Savage, George Boulton and Bryant Robinson of Georgetown, husbandmen, James Grant of Wiscasset, gentleman, and John Reade of Topsham, husbandman, sold to Isaac Savage, Daniel Savage and Edward Savage, “all of Georgetown aforesaid Labourers”, for five hundred pounds, whatever right in the estate came to them “as Desendants” of James Savage or by marrying his daughters, including any part that would fall to them “at the Death of Cristian Savage the widow”. The deed does not say how John Reade was connected to the family.

The deed was acknowledged before a justice of the peace of York County, the first signers appearing on 13 September 1748 and the last, George Boulton and his wife Sarah, on 14 April 1749; it was entered in the Lincoln County land records at Pownalborough only on 26 April 1762, and Lincoln County, formed in 1760, did not exist when it was made. Because it calls James “lately deceased”, he had died before 13 September 1748, the day the first signers acknowledged it.

Family

His wife was Cristian, whose maiden name is not known. The deed names four daughters, “the daughters of the said James Savage”, and their wives released their dower^W: Catharine (written “Catrin”), the wife of James Grant; Jane, the wife of Bryant Robinson; Mary, the wife of James Savage; and Sarah, the wife of George Boulton. His daughter Mary was married to a man with the same name as her father, James Savage; the 1909 family history calls her husband her cousin.

The deed does not call Isaac, Daniel and Edward his sons, but a sale by his daughters’ husbands to three men of his surname implies that they were. The Augusta history gives him and his wife seven children: the four daughters named in the deed and three sons, John, Daniel and Edward. It names no Isaac, and the deed names no John. Daniel later settled up the Kennebec at Hallowell.