First wife of Nathaniel Kent
I would like to acknowledge and thank James Bianco for obtaining many documents in the local archives and headstone photographs at the cemeteries in Lanesborough and New Ashford. Without his assistance, we would not know much of what in on this page regarding those towns.
Regarding the birth dates for Abel Kent, my sources for his birth were found in the Connecticut State Library in Hartford. A man or men from Suffield transcribed what was left of the Suffield records in the late 1800s or early 1900s. A copy was written on notepads and another was on index cards. I viewed both. The original records are gone. Without a primary source I was left with secondary sources written by unknown men and subject to human error. The index cards had an entry for a son of Noah and Deliverence named Abel. This Abel was born on 26 September 1742 with no date of death. The notepad listed a son named Abel born on 20 September 1753. Taking into consideration the will of his father which bequeths him his inheritance on the condition he completes the tasks his father requested of him and the early records in Lanesborough I have determined the second Abel never existed and was nothing but a transcription error. Weighing the evidence, the second Abel would have been less than 2 years old when his father died making his request in his father's will not possible. A deed dated 4 October 1762 in Lanesborough would have made the younger Abel just 9 years old when the deed was dated. He was not of legal age to own property yet. The older Abel would have been 20. All actual primary source records point to his date of birth in 1742. We must assume the transcriber made a mistake. There was a single son named Abel Kent born on 26 September 1742.
The life of Abel Kent (Senior) began on 26 September 1742 in Suffield, Connecticut. He was born to Noah and Deliverance (Granger) Kent. The year 1755 was a very bad year for the family. Deliverance Kent was pregnant with her tenth child when on 15 May 1755, her 41 year old husband, Noah Kent died. On the first of December 1755 Deliverance gave birth to her last child, a daughter whom she named Deliverance. Deliverance Granger Kent died on Christmas day a few weeks after the birth of her daughter. At the time of her death, her oldest children were Phebe who was 20 and Noah who was 18. Abel Kent was just 11 years old when his parents died. It is unknown what happened to the 9 Kent children at this time, however, it is possible they remained together in the house for a time with their 20 year old sister Phoebe as their guardian. Eight years later, in July, 1761 Phoebe married Medad Pomeroy Jr. Evidently Phoebe was already pregnant when she married Medad because on January 6, 1762 she gave birth to a son named Phebus. Like her mother before her, she only survived the birth of her son a few weeks and died on 25 January 1762. Before the end of the same year, Abel and his brothers Gideon and Noah left Suffield for a new settlement, Lanesborough currently located in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It is unknown if the 11 year old Nathaniel was with them, however, if he was not, he would join them soon after. You can read more about the Kent siblings on their page HERE .
The first evidence we have of the Kent brothers in Lanesborough can be found on a deed dated October 4, 1762. On this deed we can see the brothers Noah, Gideon and Abel purchased 50 acres on lot 34 from Samuel Martin. The town was a new settlement and at this time was still called New Framingham. On a deed dated June 2, 1764 this same lot was deeded to Noah alone. By that date Noah had married Lois Warren so it is possible this lot became his home for his new family. Noah and Lois would have 11 children together.
In November of 1765, an incident took place in Lanesborough that involved the whole town and brothers Noah and Abel were very involved in it. They were so involved that it resulted in their arrest. You can read more about this on this page. By the day the records of New Ashford began in 1775 Abel's name was in those first records. You can read some of the early Lanesborough records HERE and HERE .
It is unknown when or where Abel married his wife Thankful. The surname of Thankful is unknown currently, however I am still working on it. Many think she was Thankful Horton, however, I found too many issues with this. Although I have seen many family trees list her surname and family, I have found no documents to substantiate their claims. The records bear no mention of their marriage probably because records were not kept yet when the marriage occurred. It is certain however, that Abel and Thankful lived in Lanesborough prior to moving to nearby New Ashford. There are no town vital records of the birth of their children either. The vital records in the towns of Lanesborough and New Ashford had not begun yet. Both towns lost their civil records in a fire around 1850. The only records available prior to that were taken from church records. That may be the reason no transcripts of records exist for Abel's family. It is possible they did not attend church. Since Abel and Thankful's son Abel, Junior was born about 1768, we can assume they were married at least by that year. Their children are listed below. All the children listed are verified by mention in his will filed in Pennsylvania. Based on census records Abel and Thankful had at least 1 more daughter not mentioned in his will. I assume she died before her father.
Abel Jr. married Diadema Horton in New Ashford or Lanesborough (both towns recorded the marriage).
Thankful married William Campbell in New Ashford on 7 March 1790. Thankful and her husband began their family in New Ashford where several of their children's births were recorded in the extractions of vital records. William and Thankful packed up their belongings and made the journey with her parents and the family of Gideon Kent bound for the new settlement in the Susquehanna Valley. William applied for a land grant there and built a home in what was referred to as the "Kent Settlement" at the time. They had several more children born there in their new Pennsylvania homestead, Local newspaper advertisements did not provide an exact date of death but did provide and approximate time frame of their deaths. Thankful died before her husband in 1810, William Campbell's death was documented in an advertisement dated 30 June 1810. It was pubished in The Luzurne County Federalist. The article stated: "Orphan’s Court Sale — To be held Aug. 8th, the real estate of William CAMPBELL, deceased, a tract of land in Clifford Township, bounded by Walter LYON, Abel KENT, containing 116 acres; for such estate and on such conditions as the said CAMPBELL had and held the same at an immediately before his death. Asa DIMOCK, Esq. and Abel KENT, Admin’rs."
Carlton married Lucinda Starkweather on 4 April 1815 and moved to Indiana in 1820.
Elisha appears in the 1800 census with a wife and 4 children. It is unknown (by me) what happened to the other daughters Sally, Mehitable and Mary or sons Samuel and John. Published genealogies offered no clues. Susquehanna County had many, many Kent families living there. So many, in fact, a genealogy was published detailing all the Kents in the area. Unfortunately it was customary for men there to use their first and middle initials only in documents like census and tax records. This made it fairly impossible to figure out who these documents belonged to.
The records of New Ashford show Abigail Kent born about 1782 married Henry Dewey in 1797. Abigail died at age 17 on 1 March 1799. Her parents names were not given in the death records, however, I was able to locate the marriage record which provided no information about her parents. The records also state Henry Dewey married Mary Harmon on 30 October 1799 (after Abigail's death). It is known that this is the same Henry Dewey married to Abigail. Mary Harmon was the daughter of Gaius Harmon and Deliverance Kent Harmon. Deliverence was the youngest sister of Abel. A study of the 1790 and 1800 censuses shows Abel and Thankful probably had another daughter not mentioned in his will.
The New Ashford vital records all burned in a fire around 1850. The New Ashford town records suvive though and begin on June 7, 1775. The first town record mentions the first town meeting occurred on June 7, 1775 and was moderated by Capt. Gideon Kent. The second town meeting on September 4 1775 noted that future meetings would be held at the dwelling house of Abel Kent and at Ensign Fulford's shop. Nathaniel Kent was quite influential in the town and would hold the position of constable there. As you look through the record pages of the town, Nathanial Kent is mentioned on almost every page. The town records show Abel's service to the town included town groundskeeper and town treasurer. More town records involving the Kent brothers ca be viewed on the New Ashford pages . Abel, Gideon and Nathaniel Kent are listed and the first settlers of New Ashford along with their brother in law William Campbell along with 13 other people.
In 1775 Noah Kent, Jr. was still living in Lanesbough. Abel, Gideon, Noah and Nathaniel were all in New Ashford in 1775. This was the year the Revolutionary War began and all 4 brothers participated. The only proof I found of all 4 Kent brothers serving in the American Revolutionary War was provided in the book titled Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War. Since none of the Kent brothers lived long enough to file for a pension, no pension files exist for them. There is some detail of their service in the book though. The entry for Abel Kent states "Kent, Abel.Private, Capt. Amariah Babbit's co., Col. Benjamin Simonds's regt. enlisted Aug. 14, 1777; discharged Aug. 19, 1777 service, 6 days; company marched from New Ashford to Meloomscuyck near Bennington; also, same co. and regt. service, 5 days; company marched Oct. 1, 1780. on an alarm at the Northward; also, Lieut. Dudley Holdridge's detachment from Capt. Amariah Babbitt's co., Col. Symonds's regt. service, 3 days. on an alarm in Oct., 1780 roll endorsed "for Service Oct'r 21 1780." . During the time of his service, Abel was married with young children.
Abel Kent participated in Shays Rebellion and was arrested for that participation. In 1783 Abel and Gideon owned a tavern in New Ashford. The final record we have of Abel in New Ashford is the 1790 Federal Census. On this census Abel Kent Sr. is shown as the head of his household. His household consisted of, 1 person identified as being a male over the age of 16, 3 males under the age of 16 and 3 females for a total of 7 people. One of the three females would have been Thankful his wife and 2 of his other daughters. Of the 3 males under 16, Carlton was one, but since we are not sure of the ages of his other sons, Elisha, Samuel and John, the identities of the other 2 boys is unknown. Abel, Jr. can be seen on a separate entry under the name of his father living with 1 female, presumably his wife Diademia Horton. Abel Kent lived in New Ashford from 1775 until 1791, almost 20 years. Why he chose to leave New Ashford is unknown. Abel Kent was one of the first settlers in a remote area of Bradford County, Pennsylvania now part of Susquehanna County. Nathaniel Kent remained in New Ashford until his death in 1810. He was the only one of the Kent brothers to remain there, however, their sister Deliverance (Kent) Harmon would also remain there until her death in 1814.
I found several newspaper articles and advertisements written about or by Abel Kent. The first published by the Western Star Newspaper of Stockbridge, Massachusetts was an advertisement for a reward for his stolen horse and the thief who took him. The advertisement is reprinted here in it's original text, as written.
"Stolen from subsciber on Tuesday evening, with inft. a
BAY HORSE, no white about him - one of his hind hoofs cracked -
When taken away, the letter X was branded on each of his hoofs
before he is six years old, about 14 hands high, natural
trotter. Whoever will secure the thief and horse, and give
information thereof to the subscriber, shall have TEN DOLLARS
reward - or for the horse alone, FIVE DOLLARS.
ABEL KENT"
New Ashford, March 13, 1793.
The exact same advertisement was published in the same paper on March 18 and 25 the same year.
Abel: The Final Years in Pennsylvanias
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