♂Noah Blanchard

Noah Blanchard (17 May 1797 – 6 November 1875) was a Massachusetts-born settler of Freeman, in Franklin County, Maine, where he and his wife Polly Knapp raised a large family, and whose eldest son married the daughter of Noah’s own brother Alexander. He was the third great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Joseph Knapp Blanchard (1820–1885).

Early life

Noah was baptized at Weymouth, Massachusetts, in July 1797, the son of Nicholas Blanchard (1766–1849). The town’s records spell the family name Blancher, and the church register enters him only as “Noah, s. Nicholas”, so no record names his mother; Mary Thayer (1770–1827) is given as his mother by the 1923 history of Weymouth, which lists him, born 17 May 1797, among the children of Nicholas and Mary (Thayer) Blanchard, who had married at Weymouth in 1789. He was the fifth of six known children, after Leonard, Belinda, Mary and Matilda, all baptized at Weymouth between 1791 and 1795; his brother Alexander followed in 1799. He bore the name of his father’s younger brother Noah, who had died at Weymouth in September 1791, in his fifteenth year, six years before he was born.

The family was still at Weymouth at the 1800 census and later moved to the Kingfield and Freeman district of Maine, then part of Massachusetts. His father died at Freeman in 1849 and was buried in North Freeman Cemetery. A published town history names “a Mr. Blanchard from Weymouth” as the first settler of Kingfield, about 1806; the man is not named, and the claim has not been tied to this family by any record.

Marriage and family

Noah married Polly Knapp (1798–1863), a daughter of the Revolutionary soldier Joseph Knapp, at Leeds, where her family lived. An index of Maine marriage records dates the wedding 16 March 1817; a Knapp family genealogy, which calls him “of Kingfield” at the time, gives the same day and month in 1816.

The couple settled at Freeman, then in Somerset County, where an index of the 1830 census lists Noah as head of a household. The 1850 census lists him, aged 53 and born in Massachusetts, with Polly and eight of their children, and the 1860 census finds them there still, with their three youngest and a man named Eben Collier, aged 67. They had at least nine children, born between about 1819 and 1843: Martha, Joseph Knapp, Noah, Morris Barnes, Eunice Knapp, Nicholas Hovey, Leonard, Sarah Hovey and Cordelia. A family memorial list names two more daughters, Mary and Lydia.

His eldest son, Joseph Knapp Blanchard, married his first cousin Elizabeth, a daughter of Noah’s brother Alexander. Joseph and Elizabeth’s descendants therefore trace back to Nicholas Blanchard and Mary Thayer through two of their sons.

Later life and death

Polly died at Pittston, in Kennebec County, on 10 September 1863 and was buried at Lewiston. Noah outlived her by twelve years. He died at Lewiston, Androscoggin County, the town where his son Joseph had settled by 1860, on 6 November 1875, and was buried there. His will, made on 11 June 1874, left bequests to his children and names four daughters under married surnames: Mary Brewster, Martha Bangs, Lydia Pottle and Sarah McDonald. Mary and Lydia are the two daughters of the memorial list. Joseph signed the petition to have it proved in December 1875. In 1942 his great-great-grandson Kenneth Blanchard traced his descent from Joseph Knapp through Noah and Polly in an application to the Sons of the American Revolution, which gives the same dates of birth and death.

Notes

The date of the marriage is uncertain by a year. Several indexes of Maine marriage records give 16 March 1817 at Leeds, while the Knapp family genealogy, which calls Noah “of Kingfield”, gives 1816. The town’s own record has not been seen.

Noah’s birth date of 17 May 1797 comes from the 1923 history of Weymouth and agrees with the Sons of the American Revolution application of 1942; the Weymouth register records only the baptism, in July 1797.