♂John Kenniston

John Kenniston (died 16 April 1677) was a settler at Greenland, New Hampshire, who was killed by Indians in April 1677, while King Philip’s War^W was still being fought on the northern frontier of New England. He was the eighth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son George Kenniston (died 1717-18).

Greenland

Where John Kenniston came from, and who his parents were, is not known. A genealogical dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire families, published between 1928 and 1939, finds him at Dover in 1663 and marked “gone” on the tax list of 1664; by 1665, it records, he had settled at Greenland, then part of Portsmouth, a place that bore the name Captain Champernowne had given to his farm there.

The land he worked at Greenland was twice fought over in court. In June 1666 Captain Champernowne sued him for “medling with & Improveing his Land at Greenland with out his Consent”, but withdrew the action, and the court allowed John his costs. A year later, at Dover, he was sworn to the grand jury for the year ahead. In 1669 Nathaniel Fryer, Philip Lewis and Henry Langstar sued him for using a house and lands of theirs at Greenland “Knowne by ye Name of Capt Champernownes farme”, spoiling their timber, keeping the place from them and “disowning theire title”; the jury found for them, but the bench refused to accept the verdict. In 1673, as “John Kenneston of Greenland”, he acknowledged in court a debt of £26, to be paid in cattle.

His wife was Agnes, whose maiden name is not known. The dictionary names six sons of John Kenniston: William, Christopher, John, Alexander, George and James. By its account William was ordered in 1663 to stay with his master, Walter Abbott, as his indentures required, and Alexander drowned in 1671 while crossing on horseback above John Pickering’s mill-dam.

Death

On 16 April 1677 Indians burned the Kenniston house at Greenland and killed John Kenniston. On 1 August 1677 the commissioners of Dover and Portsmouth granted letters of administration^W on John Kenniston’s estate to his widow, Agnes Kenniston. An inventory of the estate of John Kenniston “who was lately slain by ye Indians”, signed by Samuel Haines and Philip Lewis and dated the same day, came to £65 3s 0d, and later that year Agnes swore to it as administratrix in the county court at Dover. According to the dictionary, by 1681 Agnes had married again and was known as Agnes Magoon, and that year she and her son Christopher conveyed land at Greenland to George Huntress, who bought the Kenniston homestead.

Notes

The date of his death and the burning of his house are given by the dictionary, Noyes, Libby and Davis’s Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire (1928–1939); the printed probate records of the province confirm that he had been “lately slain by ye Indians” when his estate was valued in August 1677. The court entries are quoted from the printed New Hampshire Court Records, 1640–1692 (1943), which also hold a jury’s verdict on the “untimely death of Allexsander Kennestone” but name no parent. Neither the court nor the probate records name John’s children; his sons, George among them, are known from the dictionary alone.