The family outline in the History of Weymouth book (3_151) states that the probate record of Hannah's father John Cantebury shows the Canterbury family had 74 acres at the time of John's death at about 1783. (Suffolk Probate records 80:579) This land was passed onto Hannah's brother Jacob after both parents die by 1783 (suffolk probate 83:79). In 1788, Jacob sold some of this land to Reuben Burrell and Thomas Colson, who was the husband of Hannah's sister, Martha. (Suffolk Deeds 162:188,244). I do not know where the land passed on after that, but the 1876 Weymouth map on ancestry.com does not list a Canterbury in the vicinity of the church in the South Precinct. I also do not see a Colson listed in this area. I will have to find Deed records to get a better sense as to where Hannah grew up in South Weymouth.
Hannah was the oldest of 3 sisters and two brothers. She married when she was only 18 years old. In a paper titled Massachusetts Marriage Ways, the average age during the middle 1700s in the town of Hingham (next to Weymouth) was 23 for a woman, so Hannah marrying at age 18 would have been a little young. Hannah had her first child, Hannah, at the age of 20. Unfortunately; her baby died at not even one month old. The records do not show the baby's cause of death, but this must have been devastating for Hannah as a young new mother. A year later Hannah and Jeremiah had another child, a son named Luther. Their third child, another Hannah, was born in 1745, unfortunately dying at the age of 10. Hannah gave birth to a total of 9 children, the last one in 1760 at the age of 38. In 1756, her brother John died at Lake George, NY in the French and Indian War. Her last son, John born in 1760, was probably named after this brother (and her father).
Hannah died at the young age of 44, in Abington on September 12, 1765. Her oldest child, John was only 5 years old, and Jeremiah only 9. Her youngest daughter, Selah, my 5th great grandmother, was 11 years old. I am not sure how Hannah died, but if it was an illness, she must have been frightened to leave her husband and the remaining 7 children behind.
I do not know where Hannah is buried. She had ties to both Abington and South Weymouth. According to the History of Weymouth book, her brother John was buried at Reed Cemetery in Weymouth (1_334). Her other brother Jacob, also seems to be buried at Reed Cemetery according to Findagrave.com. I will first have to look there to see if there is a family plot. Also, if the 1794 death record in Weymouth for Jeremiah White is for her husband, it seems he was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in South Weymouth. It is possible that Hannah is not buried with her husband Jeremiah though, as she died almost thirty years before he did and he also remarried 2 other times. Finding these headstones will prove difficult as they are most likely faded and/or broken.
Notes:
1. The New England Historic Genealogical Society library has the following book : The book of records of the Second Church of Christ in Weymouth, Massachusetts : baptisms and marriages / by John J. Loud. F74.W77 W76 1900
2. There are records at the Massachusetts Historical Society on the First Church of Weymouth (North Precinct from 1724-1839). This does not cover when Hannah would have been a part of this church though. In the above catalog record, it states that births and other vital records before 1724 were recorded in the town meetings. The Family History Center library does hold microfilm for Weymouth Town Meeting, 1636-1860.
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