RICHARD KELLY, son of John Kelly and Elizabeth Emery, was born at Newbury, MA, 8 Mar 1704. He died at Amesbury, MA, 18 Jun 1774.
He married, at Newbury, MA, 20 Dec 1725, HANNAH BARTLETT, daughter of John Bartlett and Mary Ordway of Newbury. She was born at Newbury, 16 Nov 1704, and died at Amesbury, MA, 6 Apr 1789. She was a first cousin of Josiah Bartlett, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of New Hampshire.
From Joseph Merrill's History of Amesbury, under the year 1774:
Capt. Richard Kelley died June 18th, aged 70 years. He was born at West Newbury March 8th, 1704, and came to Amesbury in April, 1727, having purchased the farm at Birching meadow, on which his descendants now live. His house stood on the spot where the house of the late Joseph B. Kelley now stands. He was captain under the royal governor and long connected with the militia of the town, and held the office of selectman four years. His book of accounts, from the time he became twenty-one years of age to February, 1774, contains much information in regard to the times. He was a constant attendant at church, and had a system of short hand by which he was enabled to take down the sermons for many years. He was a very even-tempered man, and it has been said of him that he was never known to do a rash act. Most of his public acts, as connected with military affairs, were during the French and Indian wars.
In early adulthood, he was a shoemaker. He was later the owner and cultivator of a large farm.
He and his family moved to Amesbury, MA, in April of 1727. He was commander of the Second Foot Company of Militia in Amesbury, commission dated 21 Mar 1757. He was for several terms one of the board of selectmen of the town.
In those years, there were often earthquakes in New England, many of which are described in his journal. In the year he moved to Amesbury, for example:
In ye yeare 1727, October 29, about ten of ye clock, it being Sabath day night, was the Grate earthquake which was extrodenery loud and hard as awaked many out of sleep, the housen did shake & windows ratel and puter and dishes clater on ye shelves & ye tops of many chimneys fell of & maney ware so shatered as that people ware fain to take them down and new build them again.
And again in 1755:
1755 November ye 18, it being Tuesday, about 4 o'clock in the morning was an exceeding shock of ye earthquake which shook nere as much as that in ye yere 1727, October 29, but ye noise was not so loud; it continued a great while, I think the longest that ever I herd in all my life, & just as ye day brake there was another but nothing so hard as ye former, & I have herd it every day since to ye 22d day of sd month.
He and Hannah lost several children to sickness. From his diary:
In 1736 the later end of October and ye beginning of November was a very sorrowful time in my family; for my wife and six children were sick, and Thomas Whitel that lived with me then; which sickness was that which was caled ye canker in the throate, and of which Stephen died.
1749-50, the later end of February and the beginning of March was again a very sorrowful time in my family, occasioned by ye canker or throat distemper, of which Judith was first taken and was exeding bad with it, but throw marcy recovered: but Richard and Moses died, John and Stephen recovered.
His uncle Richard Kelly bequeathed to him a negro slave, Reuben, who remained in his family, in the capacity of a servant, for many years.
Anecdotes about his wife Hannah, from Giles M. Kelly's book:
Hannah, wife of Capt. Richard Kelly, was a woman of ardent temperament, strong will, and almost incredible power of physical endurance. Taking offense at some remark made to her by her pastor, Rev. Mr. Wingate, in censure of her treatment of the slave Reuben, she left his communion, and connected herself with the Presbyterian Church in Newburyport. It is related of her that on Sundays, when the weather was favorable, after performing the ordinary morning duties of her household, she would walk to Newburyport -- a distance of ten miles -- attend two services in Rev. Mr. Parker's church, in each of which the sermon was two hours in length. Then at night watch with some sick person, if she could find one in town, and early on Monday morning walk home and enter upon the usual toilsome task of the day.
On one occasion her husband put up a stone wall at no great distance from the house. This proved to be little to her liking, and she quickly removed a portion of it, two rods in length, with her own hands.
Wearied at length with her frequent journeys to Newburyport, and feeling, perhaps, the infirmities of approaching age, she gave up her connection with the Presbyterians and joined herself to the Baptists -- New Lights, as they were called -- who held their meetings in different houses in her neighborhood. She, however, took care not to share in all the extravagances which marked their first appearance in her neighborhood.
Age as it came upon her brought its soothing influences, and the last years of her life were years of peacefulness and content. The father of the writer [i.e., Giles M. Kelly's father] remembered her as a pleasant, genial old lady, sitting by the fireside with her knitting-work or her Bible in her hand.
In 1780, when the town was trying to borrow enough money to support the 21 soldiers that had been called for from Amesbury, widow Hannah Kelly lent £128.
His will was recorded in Essex County, MA (q.v.).
Children of Richard Kelly and Hannah Bartlett:
1. HANNAH KELLY, b. at Newbury, MA, 23 Oct 1726; d. 1810; m. at Amesbury, 8 Aug 1744, BARTHOLOMEW HEATH of Hampstead, NH.
2. ELIZABETH KELLY, b. at Amesbury, MA, 26 Dec 1728; d. 2 May 1794; m. at Amesbury, MA, 3 Apr 1746, CAPT. JOHN SAWYER of West Amesbury (Merrimac), who d. 6 Jul 1801, age 79. In 1777, during the Revolutionary War, he was selected to be on the committee of correspondence and safety for Amesbury. He served as a selectman many years and in various other offices.
3. MARY KELLY, b. at Amesbury, MA, 19 Nov 1730; d. circa 1801 (will dated 11 Apr 1801); m. first, at Amesbury, 25 Dec 1755, WILLIAM MOULTON, Esq. of West Amesbury (Merrimac); m. second, 27 Nov 1788, DEACON JOHN HOYT of West Amesbury (Merrimac).
4. STEPHEN KELLY, b. at Amesbury, MA, 29 Aug 1732; d. at Amesbury, MA, 10 Nov 1736 "of canker in the throat."
5. RICHARD KELLY, b. at Amesbury, MA, 29 Nov 1734; d. at Amesbury, MA, 14 Mar 1749/50 "of throat distemper."
6. JOHN KELLY, b. at Amesbury, MA, 22 Oct 1736; d. 29 Mar 1821; m. at Amesbury, 5 Jun 1758, ELIZABETH HOYT, who was b. 29 Mar 1739, daughter of Reuben Hoyt of West Amesbury (Merrimac). She d. 21 Feb 1826. He was a farmer, and lived near his father at Birch Meadow. He also owned farms in Newton, NH, and Plaistow, NH, as well as other outlying lands in other towns. He was one of 24 soldiers "in the Second Foot Company in Amesbury who went in the alarm when Fort William Henry was taken." With four others, he was chosen by the town in 1778, a "committee of correspondence, inspection and safety."
7. JUDITH KELLY, b. at Amesbury, MA, 17 Nov 1737; m. at Amesbury, MA, 9 Sep 1756, JOSEPH SAWYER. Upon her marriage, they moved to Darby Hill in Hampstead, NH and later to Warner, NH.
8. STEPHEN KELLY, b. at Amesbury, MA, 4 Nov 1740; d. at Amesbury, MA, 7 Oct 1784; m. at Amesbury, MA, 26 May 1762, LOIS SARGENT, who was b. at Amesbury, MA, 15 Apr 1743; d. at Chichester NH in Jan 1818.
9. ESTHER KELLY, b. at Amesbury, MA, 20 Apr 1743; d. there, 29 Jul 1743.
10. MOSES KELLY, b. at Amesbury, MA, 12 Aug 1748; d. there, 15 Mar 1750 "of canker or throat distemper."
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