John Noyes

Biography

John Noyes’s life began with an early loss of parental protection. Born in 1720, he was a son of Samuel Noyes and Hannah Poor. The Noyes genealogy records his father’s death in 1729 and the appointment of his uncle Samuel Poor of Rowley, Massachusetts, as guardian in 1736. John was described as being of Haverhill, also in Massachusetts, when he married Abigail Poore of Rowley on June 11, 1741.

He subsequently settled in the Bow and Pembroke area of New Hampshire, near the bend of the Merrimack River known as the Ox Bow. The genealogy records eight sons: Benjamin, John, Samuel, Daniel, Enoch, Aaron, Moses and Nathan. Their births span the 1740s into the 1760s, placing the growth of the household alongside his accumulation of property.

After John’s death in 1770, probate proceedings provide a more tangible picture. Benjamin Noyes was appointed administrator on June 27. The published probate records include an inventory and later proceedings to set off Abigail’s dower. The estate embraced property in Bow and Pembroke, and the family genealogy describes an island in the Merrimack as part of its holdings.

The most vivid surviving detail concerns the home itself. The 1772 dower assignment divided its use, reserving the western part for Abigail but excepting a particular cellar, while preserving shared access to the well and yard. That legal description exposes the practical work of dividing a household after its owner’s death. John’s record thus runs from guardianship and marriage to a landed New Hampshire estate whose rooms, acreage and access rights had to be carefully apportioned.

The published sources disagree on his April birthday: Abington’s vital record gives April 20, 1720, while the Noyes genealogy gives April 7.