Martha Hamblin

Biography

Martha Hamblin came from Barnstable to a married life in Eastham, both on Cape Cod in present-day Massachusetts. The Doane genealogy records her birth on February 16, 1672/73, identifies her parents as John Hamblen and Sarah Bearse, and places her marriage to Samuel Doane in 1696. The spelling Hamblen appears in that account.

The couple's children began with Samuel in 1697, followed by Sarah, Dinah, Dorcas, Solomon and Simeon; the genealogy also names Martha and Keturah. Their family eventually stretched beyond Cape Cod. Dinah lived in Durham, Connecticut, Martha in Wallingford, also in Connecticut, and Keturah in the Casco Bay region of Maine, around present-day Portland.

Martha retained a place in her birth family's legal records after her marriage. In 1734 her brother John left her one pound in his will. Her daughter's family also experienced an early loss: Dorcas Smith died in March 1726/27, leaving children who later appeared in Samuel Doane's estate arrangements. When Samuel wrote his own will in 1756, he named the surviving sons and daughters and made provision through Dorcas's children.