Seeking information on Francis NEVILLE, b. about 1764, d. 1843 Boston, MA. Francis m. Sopia COLE who d. 31 May 1813 aged 46. Their children were William who went to sea and was never heard of again. Samuel G.,Frank and Sophia, twins and Ann, b. 23 Feb. 1803. Samuel NEVILLE's mother wrote "I have heard my father(Samuel) tell what a lovely woman his mother was but how very cruel his father was to the extent he ran away from home three times, twice to Charleston, S.C. and after a third attempt taken by a Baptist minister to Derry, NH.Francis NEVILLE was married twice and it wasthe step-mother that caused the trouble. Pa's father (Francis) followed him to Charleston and brought him back and he tied him to a post in the cellar and whipped and the neighbors interfered and once he tied both boys to a tree and whipped them severely." These were extracts from a letter from Mrs. Elizabeth Neville Eldridge. This family saga presents several questions. 1. Charleston is a long way from Boston so what took young boy that distance. NEVILLE or COLE relatives? 2. William may not have wanted to return to a cruel father and step-mother. He might be a William NEVILLE who appeared out of nowhere, perhaps in the South. 3. Who was the cruel step-mother? Daughter Ann was taken under the wings of a couple from Trinity Church in Boston and married John Capen HUBBARD who was a very successful furniture maker in Boston. The only clue I have found was a christening of a William NEVILLE in 1800 in London, England, father Francis NEVILLE, mother Sophia. Can anyone give a suggestion for solving this mystery? Francis died in an Almshouse in Boston so there was no will. Jane Kennard Gilman