COL. TOBIAS LEAR.
��J 3
��Lear, of Sagamore, and came through the foregoing line of ancestry.
At the '• Point of Graves," Ports- mouth, are to be seen three stones, in memory of Captain Tobias Lear, his wife and mother. Captain Lear died Nov. 6, 1 781, aged 45, and on the dark slate stone, in remarkable state of preservation, which marks his grave, is inscribed :
"a wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod ; an honest man 's the noblest work of god."
On his wife's, — "Mary Lear died May 24, 1829, aged 90." Her maiden name was Mary Stilson. The other is in memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Lear, who was the wife of Capt. Tobias, the mother of Capt. Tobias, and the grand- mother of Col. Tobias Lear. She died July 21, 1774, aged 58. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Hall.
Within the grant of territory to Capt. John Mason, of Nov. 3, 1631, which included Newcastle, Rye, and Portsmouth, the Lears resided on land situated on the southerly side of the Sagamore, or Witch creek, as some • times called, easterly from the Lang- don or Ehvyn farm, toward Little Harbor and Newcastle, or Great Is- land, as then known.
Captain Tobias Lear, the father of Col. Lear, signed the " association test," or test oath, in August, 1776. His son at that time was only fourteen years of age
A friend writes that by the will of Capt. Lear, on file in the Register's office, at Exeter, " his large posses- sions at Sagamore Creek, Portsmouth, Rye, and Epping, were bequeathed mainly to his widow, during widow- hood, and to his son and other heirs."
��In the Granite Monthly of April. 1881. is a sketch of iny grand-parents, ('apt. Robert Neal and Margaret Lear Neal. and their descendants, in which I intimated that I might furnish another article relating to the families of Neal and Lear prior to the Revolutionary war.
The foregoing, suggested by my recent visit to the " Congressional Burying
��Ground." covers a portion of the de- ferred items. Want of time prevents further elaboration. I will, however, add that in the preparation of this sketeh considerable data accumulated which may be of interest, and is there- fore given in this supplementary form.
The learned and eccentric John Lang- don Ehvyn, a grandson of ex-Gov. John Langdon, and who died Jan. 31, 1876, wrote, in 1840, a pamphlet entitled •• Some account of John Langdon." in which he said that Tobias Langdon's widow married Tobias Lear; that he and his descendants lived hard by the Langdon farm ; that Col. Tobias Lear was a connection of ex-Gov. Langdon; and that his ancestors had lived on Sag- amore Creek. " immediately adjoining the Langdon's, from the first, and stayed till nearly our day."
Col. Lear's father's mother, Elizabeth Hall Lear, was a sister of ex-Governor Langdon's mother — Mary Hall Lang- don.
A daughter of Elizabeth Hall Lear married .Nathaniel Sherburne. They were the great grand-parents of Mrs. Admiral Storer, nee Mary Lear Blunt, who was the fourth daughter of Capt. Robert W. Blunt. Ramble number 13 relates to the Blunt family.
In one of the town books of Newcastle is this record : Tobias Lear, son of Tobias and Hannah Lear, born March 29, 1706. Among the tax payers in Newcas- tle, in 1727. was Tobias Lear and Tobias Lear, 2d. A Tobias Lear appears as hav- ing a family and living near Sagamore creek in June. 1G78. A petition against a bridge at Newcastle, over the main river, of Little Harbor, to the main land, signed by Tobias Lear and others of Portsmouth and Newcastle, was pre- sented to the general assembly, in ses- sion at Portsmouth, April 24, 1719. In the office of the secretary of state, at Concord, I have seen a petition signed by Tobias Lear, George Walker, et al., in 1693, as residents of Sagamore, ad- dressed to the lieutenant-governor and council, requesting not to be connected with Great Island, now Newcastle.
My grandmother. Margaret Lear, who was born Oct. 13, 1753, married Robert Neal. Feb. 12. 1778. and died Nov 22. 1845, and was a daughter of Walker Lear, who was born at Newcastle, N. H.. Aug. 25, 1719. and was the son of Tobias Lear, who married Elizabeth Walker April 14. 1714, a sister of Capt. George Walker, whose name is inscribed on Atkinson's massive silver waiter, as hav- ing died Dec. 17.1748, aged eighty-six. He was a very prominent citizen of the province, " and left property to his wife
�� �
