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she had been for many years the widow of Robert Angus.1 She is remembered late in life as a jolly sort of person—portly, with round face and fair hair, of a sanguine temperament, and a great favorite with children, whom she amused with quaint stories.2 From her there ran in the veins of her offspring the emigrant Puritan blood of Palmer, Northend, Hunt, Redding, Stickney, Brocklebank, Wheeler, and other (unnamable) stirpes.
By her, Joseph Garrison became the father of nine children, viz., Hannah (1765-1843),3, Elizabeth (1767– 1815), Joseph (1769-1819), Daniel (1771-1803), Abijah (born 1773), Sarah (born 1776), Nathan (1778-1817), Silas (1780-1849), William (a posthumous child, 1783– 1837). The fifth in order, Abijah, must occupy our attention, to the exclusion of his brothers and sisters.
The exact date of his birth was June 18, 1773, and the place Jemseg.
He was named for his uncle Palmer.
Except the romantic incident of his babyhood, already related, his early history is a blank.
He alone of the family followed the sea. He became eventually a captain, and made many voyages, with his cousin Abijah Palmer as mate.
His hour-glass, sole personal souvenir, is still preserved, with his rudely-cut initials.
He was tall, but well-proportioned, of fine and even handsome appearance, in spite of an extraordinary birth-mark (‘like raw beef,’ ‘sometimes as red as blood’) extending from ear to ear and under the chin, like a muffler.
He had the light hair and fair skin of the Palmers.
He
1 He died in the latter half of the year 1805.
2 As a means of supporting herself and family after Joseph Garrison's death, she appears to have practised the art of a midwife for more than thirty years—‘by night and by day, for they will have her out’ (Ms. Sept. 16, 1815, Sarah Perley).
3 In the church records of the parish of Byfield, Newbury, Mass., this entry is found among the baptisms: ‘Hannah. Daut'r of Joseph Garrison of St. John's River in Nova Scotia but his wife a member of ye Chh here with her Child June 15, 1766.’ The last sentence, if punctuated thus, as it doubtless should be—‘but his wife, a member of the church, here with her child’—is evidence of a visit of Mary Garrison to her old home at the date mentioned.
The Century Company. , 1885-1889.
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