family life
Lucy Ann Holbrook married Nathaniel Rodney Torrey when she was 18 years old in Weymouth, MA on November 23, 1845. The 1850 census shows that the newly married couple may have stayed in the same house that Lucy grew up in, as they are listed in the same household as her mother Hannah Holbrook, age 63. (note 1)
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By this date, Lucy and Nathaniel had already suffered the loss of their first child, Nathaniel, at the age of 1 year and three months from dysentery. (note 2) Having her mother with them probably provided Lucy with some support during this difficult time.
Lucy and Nathaniel had six more children after the loss of their first child. I have found some confusing information on two of their daughters, Mary and Lydia. The different records show they were born in the same year, only three months apart.(note 3) The 1860 census lists Lydia, but not Mary. Lucy's mother Hannah is also not listed on the 1860 census, as she died in 1852. In 1870, Lucy is 43 years old and is living with her husband Nathaniel and all of her children, except Mary who again is not listed. The oldest, Nathaniel, is 19 years old, and the youngest, Henry, is 10. Considering the time period, Lucy stopped having children at a fairly young age of 33.
Ancestry.com has two helpful databases which show where Nathaniel and Lucy's house may have been located. The Massachusetts City Directories and the Historic Land Ownership map database. The 1873 directory for Weymouth shows Nathaniel living on Union Street in South Weymouth, near the Abington Line. I do think this is the house that Lucy grew up in, as her mother's death record states that Hannah was born and died on Union Street. The map for Weymouth lists the landowners in 1876. Nathaniel is marked as R Torrey for Rodney Torrey, on Union Street, very close to the Abington line, as the directory also stated.
I experimented with Google Earth a little, using the historical Weymouth map as an overlay to find the location of Nathaniel Rodney Torrey and Lucy's house on Union Street. I did not want to embed the kmz file onto this page, as I thought it would slow down the loading of the webpage. If you would like to see the overlay on Google Earth, just click on this file to open it. The Google Earth program must be on your computer first.
The Weymouth map from 1876 shows that Nathaniel and Lucy lived in an area which later became the Weymouth Naval Air Station. It is still labeled as such on the google map below, but the Air Station has since closed. The marker I have placed is the approximate location of Nathaniel and Lucy's house, using the map as an overlay to pinpoint the location. The old Weymouth map shows Union Street branching off a little bit to the southwest, where the blue marker is. This part of the road no longer exists, probably removed with the houses when the Air Station was built.
Google Map with approximate location of Nathaniel and Lucy Torrey's house 1876
View Nathaniel Torrey and Lucy Ann Holbrook Torrey in a larger map
The 1876 weymouth map also shows that Lucy lived on the same street as some of her relatives, mostly on her father, James Holbrook, side. Her cousin Ann Payne (Aunt Lydia Holbrook's daughter), who married Jeremiah Stoddard, lives across the street from Lucy and Nathaniel. Also, a little up the street I believe is Lucy's sister Hannah who married Alanson Cushing. On the 1870 and 1880 census Hannah and Alanson are enumerated near Lucy's family, so perhaps the L Cushing is Alanson Cushing. A little further up Union Street is Lucy's nephew, George A Holbrook, one of the boys that was probably living with Lucy and her mother in the 1840 census. A couple of houses up the street from George, is Lucy's cousin Minot Holbrook (son of her Uncle Minot Holbrook). Just across the street from Minot is Lucy's Uncle Jeremiah Holbrook and Uncle William Holbrook. (note 4) Judging by all the Holbrook's on Union Street, it seems that Lucy and Nathaniel are living on land from Lucy's father, James Holbrook; who probably had land from his father Abner. Most of the relatives on Union Street are cousins who probably all inhereted land from their parents; which probably came from their grandfather Abner Holbrook also. Even though Lucy's siblings are not living on Union Street; with the exception of Hannah, most of them did stay in Weymouth. One sister, Belinda, did move to Norwell (South Scituate) and one brother, Cornelius, looks to have moved to California for the gold rush.
1876 Weymouth Map
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| From lucy holbrook blog post |
There is a lot of information on this map, including a school right up the street on Union Street, close to Minot's house. There is still a school located in this general area today, not the same building of course, but interesting that the location stayed the same. If Lucy grew up in this area, I am sure this is the school she would have attended.
The History of Weymouth book on ancestry.com also states that Lucy's father, James, lived at 573 Union Street, across from the Elmwood Cemetery; which describes where the marker is on the google map above. I did search zillow.com for this address, but the number of the house does not seem to be present on Union Street; which offers some proof that the house no longer exists and probably was removed when the Naval Air Base was built. The Weymouth book also states that James' brother Abner lived next door, and that house was probably built by their father, Lucy's grandfather, Abner Holbrook (2_933). The 1876 Weymouth map above shows a J. Shores living next to Nathaniel and Lucy, which probably was bought from a Holbrook at some point. (Note 5) I also noted earlier that Lucy's mother Hannah's death record stated that Hannah Bates Holbrook was born and died on Union Street, so the Bates must have also had land in this area.
My next post will focus on Lucy's older years and some of the breakdown of Nathaniel Torrey's land and where his family probably resided.
continued...
notes:
1. US Federal Census : Year: 1850; Census Place: Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts; Roll: M432_329; Page: 230B; Image: 461. ancestry.com
2. U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1885 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Archive Collection: T1204; Archive Roll Number: 9; Census Year: 1850; Census Location: Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts; Page: 861; Line: 4. ancestry.com
3. I did not find a birth record for Lydia in the Massachusetts Birth Records on familysearch.com, but Lydia's marriage record states parents as Lucy and Nathaniel Rodney and the 1900 census shows oct 1857 as her birth. However; there is a birth record for Mary G for Jul 1857, but no census records for her. Did she die before 1860? I could not find a death record in the Massachusetts database. Maybe they changed Mary's name to Lydia, but this would be odd. Lydia is in 1860 census with family. Maybe Lydia's birth year is wrong on the 1900 census.
4. The 1870 census has jeremiah stoddards family enumerated a couple of families above lucy's, and the weymouth map lists a j. stoddard across the street. The rest of the Holbrooks are enumerated on adjacent pages, and listed a little further up the street on Union Street on the Weymouth map.
5. Some quick research using the weymouth vital records and census databases show that the only direct adult ancestor of Lucy's Uncle Abner (James' brother) living in 1876 is Abner's grandson Joseph W. Holbrook. I located him on the 1876 Weymouth map as living in the Lovell's Corner part of Weymouth. Joseph's father Abner married a Lovell, so perhaps he sold his land next to James to live on his wife's land after he married.
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