♀Temperance Hull

Temperance Hull (baptised 1625 – died by 1697) was a clergyman’s daughter from Devon who spent her married life at Oyster River, in Dover, in the Province of New Hampshire^W, as the wife of John Bickford. She was the eighth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son John Bickford (died 1715). Her husband left all his movable goods to her, but when she lost her speech her son Thomas took his father’s will from his sister Joanna, promising to give it back, and kept it, with the goods Temperance had left Joanna in a will of her own.

Early life

Temperance was baptized in 1625 at Northleigh, in Devon, England, a daughter of Joseph Hull^W, a clergyman. Her father left for New England in 1635, when she was about ten, and she spent the rest of her life there.

Marriage and family

John Bickford married Temperance Hull, a daughter of the Reverend Joseph Hull; the date of the marriage is not known. They lived at Oyster River, the part of Dover that is now Durham, New Hampshire. Ten children are credited to them: Elizabeth, Joseph, Lydia, Mary, John, Thomas, Hannah, Temperance, Joanna and Benjamin, the last born in 1672.

On 12 February 1685/6 John Bickford, “Senr of Oyster River Yeoman”, gave his “beloved wife Temperance” all his movable goods, outdoors and in, from the cattle, horses, sheep and hogs to the bedding, pots, kettles and pewter, and for her lifetime “the Lower fire roome at the west end of my house”. Out of it his daughter Joanna was to have a feather bed and its bedclothes.

Widowhood and death

John died before September 1697, and his will, the paper of 1685/6, was left in Temperance’s keeping. She made a will of her own, dividing her movable goods among her children and giving Joanna several things, though it named no executor. When, in Joanna’s words, “God was pleased to take away her speech”, about the autumn of 1696, Joanna gave her father’s will to her brother Thomas. Thomas, her husband said, had asked only to look at it and give it back. He kept it, and kept the goods Temperance had left Joanna.

Temperance had died by 1 September 1697, when Joanna’s husband, John Redman Jr. of Hampton, petitioned the president and council of the province to have both wills brought forth and the goods returned “to the right owners”. Joanna, aged about 28, swore to her part on 27 September, and the next day Thomas was summoned to answer for not proving his father’s will. The will was proved on 7 October 1697, and the administration was granted to Thomas, the oldest son consenting.

Notes

Baptism and parentage

Her baptism comes from the bishop’s transcript for Northleigh, in Devon, which names her as a daughter of Joseph Hull. Robert Charles Anderson published it in “Notes on the Reverend Joseph Hull of Weymouth and Barnstable, Massachusetts, and York, Maine”, The American Genealogist 68 (1993), page 149, as summarized in the Great Migration Newsletter, which identifies her as the Temperance who later married John Bickford of Dover; the same note shows her father as curate at Broadway, in Somerset, for the two years before he left for New England in 1635. The Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire by Noyes, Libby and Davis also makes John Bickford’s wife Temperance Hull, the daughter of the Reverend Joseph, but gives her birth as 1626; the baptism of 1625 is followed here. The dictionary is also the source of the list of ten children; of them, only Joanna and Thomas are named as her children in the records of the estates.

The wills

John Bickford’s paper of 1685/6, John Redman’s petition, Joanna’s sworn statement, the summons to Thomas and the proving of the will are printed in the Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, vol. 1 (New Hampshire State Papers, vol. 31), pages 296 to 298. Temperance’s own will is known only from the petition, which says that “through some mistake ther was no Exequetour appointed”.

Her estate

The same volume prints a list of expenses on her estate, of £7 17s 3d, under the year 1694 with a question mark; it mentions “brother Smithe brother burname and brother Bickforde”. Joanna’s statement shows Temperance still living, though without speech, about the autumn of 1696, so the 1694 date cannot be right. The dictionary gives Joseph Smith and Jeremiah Burnham as the husbands of her daughters Elizabeth and Temperance.