Subject: NUTTING FAMILY Source: Groton Historical Series by Dr. Samuel A. Green Vol 2 1890 Letter from Mary E. Nutting to Dr. Samuel A. Green continued Part 2, "John Nutting" p.260 His wife was, according to the records, a widow at Woburn in 1676. Perhaps they went there naturally, in their extremity, for Ruth Eggleton, a sister of Sarah (Eggleton) Nutting was the wife of Samuel Blodgett of Woburn. In the Woburn town records is the entry: "To widow Nutting for a wolfe ....00-10-00." Perhaps however, she did not kill the wolf, but one of her wolf-killing sons did. Wolf-killing, together with fighting the Indians, seems to have been the principal diversion in Groton. p.261 Beside John and James who settled in Groton, there were two sons who lived to grow up, Jonathan and Ebenezer Nutting; of these one settled in Cambridge, the other in Medford. Mary Died perhaps unmarried; she is not mentioned in the settlement of her father's estate in 1716. Another daughter, Sarah, married John Stone of Groton; and a daughter Deborah married and lived in Concord. My note: Sarah Nutting m. (1) in 1681 Matthias Farnsworth, Jr. of Groton, MA son of Matthias Farnsworth and wife, Mary Farr. She was the dau of John Nutting an original proprietor of Groton and lived directly north of the place where James's Brook crosses the Groton Main Street, and had one of the most ancient of the garrisons of Groton and not very far from the garrison house of Capt. James Parker on the southerly side of the brook. Matthias Jr. died and she m. (2) John Stone, brother to Deacon Simon Stone (who had married Matthias's sister Sarah Farnsworth) She was m. to John Stone on Dec 16, 1698 - She had seven children by Matthias Farnsworth and Caleb Butler p. 438 says she had two sons by John Stone: John Stone, Jr. b. 1699 and James Stone b. 1701. Source: Farnsworth Memorial. p.261 (continued) John Nutting, the eldest son of the emigrant had five sons, John, Daniel, Ebenezer, Jonathan and Eleazar Nutting. Of these, Jonathan Nutting was the ancestor of the leading Nutting family in Groton. A son of his, William, was father of William Nutting, Esq., still rememb- ered by aged people as old Squire Nutting. There is no descendant of his name in Groton now (1888) unless some one has returned there re- cently. His farm was situated below the Soapstone Quarry, near the Nashua River. He was an ancestor, however, of the late Dr. Isaiah Hall Nutting, whom you remember; of the Professor Rufus Nutting, who "held the even tenor of his way, in an uninterrupted course of classical instruction in the Academy and the College, for more than forty years;" and of Rev. John Keep Nutting. Mary Olivia Nutting, for many years librarian at Mount Holyoke Seminary, is a grand-daughter of this "old Squire Nutting." The scope of this letter will not enable me to enter upon the descend- ants of John Nutting 2nd, as well as John's third and fourth, with a host of others, in Groton and elsewhere. But I will try to give a little information about the Captain John Nutting of whom you were speaking. James Nutting, the 2nd son of the emigrant had two sons, William Nutting who left no children, and James Nutting, who was one of the first settlers of Pepperell. I have not the date of birth of this second James; but as William was born in 1712, after a good number of sisters, there is a presumption that he was born about 1714, or later. James Nutting had three sons in Pepperell, of whom the eldest, John Nutting is described as "an ingenious mechanic, and a captain in the American Revolution." He was with Prescott at the Battle of Bunker Hill (Colonel William Prescott). Pulsifer mentions him, in his "Account of the Battle of Bunker Hill," p.11: "Captain Nutting, with some troops, was ordered into Charlestown, near the ferry, by Colonel Prescott, to guard against the enemy's approach on that side." In the "muster roll of Captain John Nutting's Company of minute men in Colonel William Prescott's Regiment, who marched from Pepperell ye 19th of April 1775," I have found the names of Josiah, Benjamin, Ebenezer and Samuel Nutting, all of Pepperell. p.262 And on a coat-roll, of those "entitled to a coat for 8 mos. service in 1775," beside Captain John, Ebenezer, Corporal, and Samuel, there are Abel, Ezekiel and Ephraim Nutting of Captain Asa Lawrence's company, these last all of Groton. Captain John Nutting afterwards led an expedition into Rhode Island in July, August and September, 1778. I do not know the site of his homestead in Pepperell; but he owned land near some of Colonel Prescott's (land), as I judge by a conveyance to a certain Levi Nutting. This land is described as "in the north part of Pepperell, bounded on the north by Colonel Prescott's land, on the east by Captain John Nutting's land, and on the south and west by the town road,: etc. There is a reference to Captain John Nutting in "The Massachusetts Gazette," August 29, 1786. He was chairman of a committee from Pepper- ell and the neighborhood, who sent a circular letter of remonstrance and appeal to the selectmen of Cambridge and other towns, from whom they received but little sympathy. I have never lighted, to my knowledge, upon any one who claimed that Captain John Nutting was my ancestor, and so cannot judge how green his memory may be among his descendants; and I cannot, with such materials as I have at hand, answer your questions as to dates about him. I wish that I were a better helper, and am Yours sincerely, Mary E. Nutting. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth