♂Robert McManus

Robert McManus (born 14 July 1764) was a farmer of Brunswick, Maine, who at 85 was living in the household of his married daughter Eleanor at the census of 1850. He was the third great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Eleanor C. McManus (1809–1891).

Early life

A history of Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell published in 1878 gives his birth as 14 July 1764, in a house on the west side of the twelve-rod road a few rods south of the old west meeting-house in Brunswick, and names him as the youngest of five sons of James McManus, a settler from Ireland. The same history says that as a boy he lived for a while with Deacon Robert Dunning and then for five years with Brigadier Thompson. His parents’ intention of marriage, “James macmanus of Brunswick & mary Corragan”, was entered at Brunswick on 17 March 1759. A Merryman family genealogy of 1905 also names them, as James McManus and Mary Corbett. That he was their son rests on those two books, and his birth date on the 1878 history. It agrees with his age of 85 in the 1850 census.

Marriage and family

The vital records of Topsham record his marriage there on 29 April 1794 to Eleanor Coombs, naming him “Robert of Brunswick” and her “Miss Elener Combes” of Topsham. The couple’s two daughters are given as Hannah (1806–1899) and Eleanor (1809–1891). The 1905 genealogy records that the two sisters married two Merryman brothers: Hannah married Captain Enos Merryman, and Eleanor his brother John.

Later life

In 1850 he was living at Brunswick in John and Eleanor Merryman’s household. He is said to have died on 29 April 1858, at the age of 93 years, 9 months and 15 days. A family chart compiled in 1994 places his death at Rocky Hill, in Brunswick, without a date.

Notes

Death

The date of death comes from a 2015 post, “Sins of the father,” on the Cemeteries of Brunswick, Maine site by Barbara A. Desmarais, which quotes the obituary in the Brunswick Telegraph: he “died at age ‘93 years, 9 months and 15 days’ on April 29, 1858.” The post is a compiled source, not the obituary itself. The stated age agrees to the day with his birth on 14 July 1764, which the 1878 history gives.

Other men of the name

The Sons of the American Revolution list no Revolutionary War patriot of his name. A 2001 biography of Jane McManus Storm Cazneau, whose McManus family lived at Albany and Troy, New York, names no one who fits him.