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Moses Leavitt (1650–1730) was an early settler of Exeter, New Hampshire, where he worked as a surveyor.〔(History of the Dudley Family, Dean Dudley )〕 Later he became a large landowner, and served as selectman, and as a Deputy and later Moderator of the New Hampshire General Court from Exeter. He was the ancestor of several notable Leavitt descendants, including the well-known Meredith, New Hampshire, teacher and almanac maker Dudley Leavitt. Leavitt was born at Hingham, Massachusetts, on August 12, 1650, the son of John Leavitt, a Puritan tailor who left England and settled in Dorchester (part of today's Boston), before moving on several years later to Hingham, several miles south of Boston, where he married as his second wife Sarah Gilman, daughter of Edward Gilman Sr., a fellow Hingham settler who eventually moved on to Exeter.〔(History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts, Vol. II, Genealogical, Thomas Tracy Bouve, Edward Tracy Bouve, Published by the Town, University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1893 )〕 Although granted land at Exeter, John Leavitt never chose to move north.〔(History of the Town of Exeter, New Hampshire, Charles Henry Bell, Printed by J. E. Farwell & Co., Boston, 1888 )〕 Instead, his son Samuel by his first wife, and son Moses (by his wife Sarah Gilman) eventually moved to Exeter, where they settled as early as 1677,〔Moses Leavitt appears in New Hampshire records as early as 1679, when he signed an Act calling for a General Assembly. Leavitt's signature is recorded on that document as Moses Levet, in the more typical English spelling of the surname.() In many subsequent colonial records, Leavitt's name also appears as Levet () or Levett. ()()()〕 and the two half-brothers first appeared on the town's tax roll in 1680.〔(Colony, Province, State, 1623–1888: History of New Hampshire, John Norris McClintock, Printed by B. B. Russell, Cornhill, Boston, Mass., 1889 )〕 Earlier, both brothers had taken 'ye oath of Allegiance to his majestie & fidelitie to ye contrey" at Exeter on November 30, 1677.〔(The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, New England Historic Genealogical Society, January 1852, Published by the Society, Boston, 1852 )〕 New Hampshire records show that "Moses Levett" and "Samuel Levett" received credit in 1676 in Exeter for their service in King Philip's War.〔(Soldiers in King Philip's War, George Madison Bodge, Rockwell and Churchill Press, Boston, 1896 )〕 Moses Leavitt 〔The New Hampshire Leavitt families history can be confusing, as there were Moses Leavitts in Exeter, and later elsewhere in New Hampshire, who were descendants of John Leavitt of Hingham, Massachusetts. There were also Moses Leavitts living in New Hampshire who were descendants of Thomas Leavitt, who arrived first in Exeter, and who later removed to Hampton, New Hampshire. There is no indication that the two families were related in any immediate sense, nor that the families ever corresponded with each other or had more than a passing acquaintance.〕 was a surveyor by trade, and early became one of Exeter's leading citizens. When he was thirty-one years old, he married Dorothy Dudley,〔Moses Leavitt married Dorothy Dudley, daughter of Rev. Samuel Dudley, whose own son Stephen Dudley married Sarah Gilman, daughter of John Gilman, Moses Gilman's grandfather. Rev. Samuel Dudley's son Lieut. James Dudley married Elizabeth Leavitt, daughter of Moses Leavitt's half-brother Samuel Leavitt. () And Moses Leavitt's brother Samuel's daughter, Sarah, married Moses Leavitt, her uncle's son. Moses's younger brother Nehemiah Leavitt, who also moved to Exeter, married Alice (Cartee) Gilman, the widow of Daniel Gilman. The Leavitts, Dudleys and Gilmans intermarried extensively from the first generation onward.()〕 daughter of Rev. Samuel Dudley, Exeter's minister and the son of Governor Thomas Dudley of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.〔(The Sutton-Dudleys of England and the Dudleys of Massachusetts in New England, George Adlard, Printed by John Russell Smith, London, 1862 )〕 By the time of his marriage on October 26, 1681, Leavitt was already deeply involved in town affairs, and in surveying and purchasing local land. In 1682 Leavitt first served as an Exeter selectman, an office he held several times during his lifetime.〔(New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial, Vol. I, William Richard Cutter, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, 1915 )〕 Leavitt was an early signer of an appeal to the King in England to arbitrate the claims of the Masonian proprietors,〔John Mason, an Englishman who had served as a colonial governor of New Hampshire without having set foot in the province, was an early partner of merchant-adventurer Sir Ferdinando Gorges. After Mason's death, his heirs in England later attempted to assert their ownership claims on New Hampshire lands, enraging settlers who felt they had won their lands by hard-earned labor.〕 who were asserting ownership rights to lands claimed by early settlers.〔(The History of New-Hampshire, Jeremy Belknap, S. C. Stevens and Ela & Wadleigh, Dover, N. H., 1831 )〕〔Leavitt often signed such petitions on behalf of the citizens of New Hampshire, frequently addressing the claims of English proprietors to New Hampshire land, or to the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.()〕 Like many legislators, Leavitt concerned himself with matters big and small. In 1700 delegate Leavitt brought a vote from the House of Representatives to the Council of New Hampshire concerning Richard Hilton's ferry on the Squamscott River and his proposed charges on passengers – both man and horse.〔(Provincial and State Papers, Documents and Records Relating to the Province of New Hampshire from 1692 to 1722, Vol. III, Nathaniel Bouton (ed.), John B. Clarke, State Printer, Manchester, N. H., 1869 )〕 A subsequent communiqué in July 1708, signed by Leavitt – and on file at London's Whitehall – was addressed to Her Majesty the Queen from the "Justices, Officers of the Militia, Merchants, etc. of New Hampshire" and was directed "in favour of Governor Dudley."〔(Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, America and West Indies: 1708–1709, Vol. 24, Cecil Headlam (ed.), Institute of Historical Research, British History Online )〕 Leavitt first served as Deputy to the colony's General Court in 1692, a position he filled several times over subsequent years.〔(History of Newfields, New Hampshire, 1638–1911, James Hill Fitts, The Rumford Press, Concord, N.H., 1912 )〕 For seven years he held the office of Moderator of the province's General Court, and he also served as a State Senator.〔(History of the Town of Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Solomon Lincoln, Jr., Printed by Caleb Gill, Jr., Farmer and Brown, Hingham, 1827 )〕 Leavitt was appointed in 1698 to a committee of Exeter's First Church〔(The New England Historical and Genealogical Register for the Year 1847, Vol. I, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Samuel G. Drake, Boston, 1847 )〕 to handle the vexing question of where congregants should be seated in the sanctuary – seating being determined by social rank. Deacon Leavitt and Kinsley Hall were first given the choice pews, allowing other congregants to then be accommodated.〔(The First Church in Exeter, New Hampshire, John Taylor Perry, The News-letter Press, Exeter, N.H., 1898 )〕 Leavitt and the former Dorothy Dudley had twelve children, including sons John and Dudley, and daughter Dorothy. Two of Moses Leavitt's children married Gilman cousins – daughter Hannah, married twice, both times to Gilmans; and Joseph, married to Sarah Gilman. Moses Leavitt died on June 17, 1730, "being aged and feeble", as he noted in his will.〔(Will of the First Moses Leavitt, History of the Dudley Family )〕 (His half-brother Lieut. Samuel Leavitt predeceased him, having died at Exeter in 1707). Moses's family continued to live in the Exeter area for many subsequent generations; his descendants include the noted New Hampshire almanac maker Dudley Leavitt,〔(Official Report of the Reunion of the Descendants of Governor Thomas Dudley, Salem Observer Book and Job Print, Salem, Mass., 1893 )〕 and the early Salem, Massachusetts, minister Rev. Dudley Leavitt,〔(Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. LI, Published by the Society, Boston, Mass., 1918 )〕 for whom Salem's Leavitt Street was named. Following the death of Rev. Samuel Dudley,〔Leavitt frequently served in public offices with his Dudley relations, as in 1699 when he and his brother-in-law Theophilus Dudley were the two Exeter delegates to the New Hampshire General Assembly.() Moses Leavitt and his brother Samuel also frequently served alongside their Gilman relations in Exeter and New Hampshire elected positions.()〕 the early Exeter minister's third wife lived at the home of her son-in-law Moses Leavitt – a courtesy for which the Dudley family bequeathed Leavitt a plot of land in Exeter.〔(Supplement to the History and Genealogy of the Dudley Family, Dean Dudley, Published by the Author, Wakefield, Mass., 1898 )〕 The 1702 conveyance of Dudley land to Leavitt was the last known mention of Rev. Samuel Dudley's third wife, the former Elizabeth Smith.〔(The First Annual Meeting of the Governor Thomas Dudley Family Association, Boston, Massachusetts, October 17, 1893 )〕 Leavitt's descendants continued to live on the former Dudley family tract for many years, as well as on the extensive grants of land Moses received.〔Moses Leavitt died possessed of hundreds of acres of land in Exeter and its vicinity,() many of which were granted him by the town for his service over the years.() HIs ancestors subsequently built homes on those lands, such as the Leavitt House, built at 91 Winter Street in Brentwood in 1740 and called "a long, rambling mansion with elaborate woodwork" in the WPA Guide to New Hampshire.()()〕 The Leavitt family of Exeter played a prominent role in New Hampshire history for many years following the death of its first two New Hampshire representatives.〔(Provincial Papers: Documents and Records Relating to the Province of New Hampshire, from 1749–1763, Vol. VI, Nathaniel Bouton, Printed by James M. Campbell, State Printer, Manchester, 1872 )〕 Descendants of both Moses and Samuel Leavitt dispersed throughout New Hampshire in subsequent centuries.〔(History of Northfield, New Hampshire, 1780–1905, Part I, Lucy R. H. Cross, Rumford Printing Co., Concord, N. H., 1905 )〕 ==See also== * Thomas Dudley * Dudley Leavitt (publisher) * Dudley Leavitt (minister) * John Leavitt * Samuel Leavitt * Dudley Leavitt Pickman * Dudley Leavitt (Mormon pioneer) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Moses Leavitt」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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