David Hascall

Biography

David Hascall was still a boy when his father arranged his inheritance. In a will dated May 9, 1774, Squire Hascall assigned David a quarter share of the remaining real estate, or its value, after debts and specified legacies were paid. David was to receive it at twenty-one. The provision placed him among the younger sons whose portions were deferred until adulthood.

Born on April 24, 1759, David married Martha Nichols at Thompson, in northeastern Connecticut, on September 5, 1787. Their family record names children born from 1787 to 1810, including Olivia Primrose. The marriage also appears in a much less routine document: a notice of Martha's divorce petition printed in the Norwich Packet in November 1798 and reproduced by the Haskell Family Association. Martha alleged that David had deserted her and withheld support. The notice called on him to answer her petition at a later court session. It preserves her allegation, not a judgment establishing it or a completed divorce.

David was dead by December 3, 1823, when Martha appeared before the probate court and was appointed to administer his estate. The reproduced inventory lists clothing, a scarlet cloak, a coverlet, a table with drawers, a brass kettle, chains and old tools. Its stated total was $16.49. By July 1824, debts presented against the estate amounted to $85.15.

The family chronology lists ten children.

The working family reconstruction identifies his mother as Elizabeth, also recorded under the unresolved Russell and Chandler surname variants.