Histories from The Old Cemetery:
The Ancestry of Sarah Elizabeth Linekin

The following extract from a work by Janet Ireland Delorey appears here with her kind permission. It may not be republished or reproduced, in whole or in part, without her express consent.

Histories from The Old Cemetery: The Ancestry of Sarah Elizabeth Linekin

by Janet Ireland Delorey

Third Generation
Zebedee Linnekin

Zebedee, the only avowed Loyalist of the Linnekin family and early settler of Tenants Harbor, was caught in the politics of the American Revolution. His subsequent career provides a poignant case study of a family in the District of Maine caught in the turmoil of revolution. His loyalty to the British Crown would extract a tremendous price - the loss of his property at Tenants Harbor which required the removal of this family to the British fort at Penobscot [now Castine] and their subsequent evacuation, with other Loyalist families, to the area that was to become Charlotte County, New Brunswick.

The fort town of Bagaduce [Castine], itself, was in political turmoil. In the late spring of 1779, a British armada had sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Penobscot Bay where it occupied present day Castine. Its objective was to establish a military base as well as to make the place a haven for refugee American Loyalists who were fleeing from rebel persecution. Ultimately, it was to be the cornerstone of a new British colony whose east-west boundaries were to be the Penobscot and St. Croix rivers. Under the name of New Ireland, it was intended to be a permanent colony.

The establishment of this colony had to be sponsored by men who were well connected with the ruling British Government. Although arguments were presented that included the economic potential as well as its strategic location in the event of another conflict, the sponsors could not prevail as the revolution drew to a close.

John Adams of Massachusetts, one of those elected by the American Congress to treat for peace with Great Britain, refused any effort to compensate people in his country who were “Dishonours and Destroyers.” He also presented evidence to support the claim of Massachusetts to all of Maine, particularly the land east of the Penobscot River.

The unhappy result for those who had considered Castine to be their permanent home was that England gave up Great Britain’s claim to Maine in return for a treaty clause which required Congress to recommend that each of the states indemnify their Loyalists for losses suffered by them in the war. That preliminary treaty, known as the Treaty of Versailles, was signed on 30 November 1782.(125)

On 4 July 1783, the name of Zebedee Linniken with four persons over the age of 10 and 3 under the age of 10, was included on “A List of the Inhabitants with their Familys who propose to remove from Penobscot to Nova Scotia. All these persons mentioned in this list are Loyal Subjects and that many of them have been great sufferers on Account of their loyalty...”(126)

On 3 October 1783, two large transports arrived in St. Andrews bringing forty families from Penobscot.(127) One of those was the family of Zebedee Linnekin.

ZEBEDEE LINNEKIN, was born, perhaps at Jeremysquam, around 1748 [age 75 in 1823](128) and died at St. David’s, Charlotte Co., New Brunswick in 1832.(129) If family tradition is correct, he removed to Moores Mills after he sold his property and is buried in Oak Bay Cemetery with the Hill or Reed family. He was married first by the Rev. John Murray, at Mount Pisqah, Maine on 8 March 1770, to SUSANNA LINNEKIN.(130) She was born on 21 January 1748/9, a daughter of Benjamin and Mary (-) Linnekin (131) and died, probably at St. David’s, Charlotte Co., New Brunswick, between March 1796 when she was mentioned in her father’s will(132) and before 1803 when Zebedee remarried.

He married second, at St. Andrews in 1803, HANNAH HOMANS (133) who died in St. David’s New Brunswick between 1859-1861. In the New Brunswick Census of 1851, Charlotte County, Parish of St. David, she was enumerated in the household of Joseph Hill as age 78, born in the United States, described as “mother in law” and arrived in New Brunswick in 1792.(134) A manuscript in the possession [1984] of Bernard Gardner of Gorham, Maine, a lineal descendant of Zebedee and Hannah Linnekin, which was prepared by his grandmother, states that Hannah’s surname was Homans / Holman and that she was of Marblehead, Massachusetts. With that information, it is possible to identify her as the same Hannah baptized in Marblehead [MA] Second Church on 13 December 1772, daughter of Benjamin and Hannah (Pettiplace) Homan.(135)

Life in the Province of Maine

A British Admiralty chart made in 1776 shows but three families at Tenants Harbor, one of which must have been that of Zebedee Linnekin. (136)

In fact, on 27 April 1776, Clark Linnekin of Tarants Harbor (sic), for the sum of £26.13s.8p., sold to Zebedee Liniken of Boothbay a tract of land in Tarance Harbour containing about 300 acres. (137) Ten years later, in 1786, Zebedee Leneken (sic), of Charlotte County, New Brunswick, with Susanna relinquishing her dower rights, sold 300 acres of land in St. George, for the sum of £73, to John Nicholson of Lincoln County, Maine. (138)

On 4 August 1777, Zebedee, called of Tarance Harbour, yeoman, was involved in what has been called “the great wood snatch” when he was sued by his father-in-law Benjamin Leneken of Boothbay for the value of 130 cord of wood which he, Benjamin, had lost out of his possession and which, on the same day, came into the possession of Zebedee who allegedly knew it belonged to Benjamin. Zebedee declined to dignify the claim and refused to appear in court; thereby, losing the suit by default. (139)

An insight into the personality of Zebedee Linnekin is found in the observation of the late Albert J. Smalley, a student of the history of the St. George area of Maine. “..No road where Route 131 now is from Tenants Harbor to Smalley Town. There was no sign of a village at Tenants Harbor and no road up as far as the turn by the church and Zeb Linekin and Tom Henderson were not in favor of people traipsing around on their property which took in most of the land east of the marsh...”(140)

Another perception is provided by a professional graphoanalyst. (141) Her conclusions, limited only by two signature specimens, were that Zebedee exhibited a very strong trait in the desire to accept responsibility and was basically a proud, conservative man who conducted himself with great pride and dignity. Self reliance and self confidence were also exhibited as well as a definite desire to be noticed. Whether one accepts handwriting analysis as a valid portrayal of personality traits, or not, the conservative picture drawn by the graphoanalyst would be consistent with the Loyalist position of Zebedee Linnekin.

The “Notorious” Tory

At a meeting of the Committee of Safety and Correspondence held in Warren, Maine at the house of Captain Wheaton on 19 September 1775, it was ordered that “Capt. Gregg bring Linneken to Justeas on Friday next.”(142) At the same meeting, it was also ordered that “Capt. Gregg send the party of men that was to be stationed at Wessowesgeeg to Tennas Harbor to Duble the guard there.” (143)

“About three miles from his [Zebedee’s] farm, at what is now Wallston, lived Captain Samuel Watts, a merchant engaged in the East India trade. The British at Castine were informed by one of Watt’s Tory neighbors that Watts had considerable silver concealed in or about his home. With that information, they came up the river in a shaving mill, raided Watts’ house and held him prisoner at Castine for several weeks. Watts had very few neighbors and, of those, Zebedee was the only Tory.” (144)

Although local history provided no clearer identification than “Linnekin” as the local Tory, it has been assumed that all references were to Zebedee Linnekin, the only one of that surname known as a Tory in what is now St. George, then a part of the Lower Town. However, it is unlikely that the reference of 1775 pertains to Zebedee. He was still of Boothbay when he purchased land at Tenants Harbor from Clark Linnekin, of Tenants Harbor, on 27 April 1776. (145) There were, in fact, two by the name of Linnekin who were associated with Tenants Harbor in 1775: Clark, mentioned above, and Daniel, identified as of Tenants Harbor when a suit was brought against him in 1771. (146)

“.....Sometime in July Last our fishing Boats were Chasd into the Harbour by one Liniken who was Drove of by the Melitia who were Musterd with utmost Haste and Persud with all Resoltuion ye sd Linniken in a fishing Schooner Retook one of their Prizes & still Pursud with her till they overtook sd Linikin in a Coasting Vessell where they had got themselves fortifd Boarded & Took him and killd one of his men....Selectmen, Harpswell, Februy ye 5th 1783.” (147)

The report of the Harpswell selectmen described “Linneken [as] the leader of a gang of privateers who used barges or shaving mills(148) to maraud along this [Thomaston] coast. He was a tory well nigh as much feared as Long.(149) The leader [of the privateersmen chasing a sloop], Linneken, after he got possession of the sloop offered to ransom her to Col. Wheaton for $200.00.” Wheaton declined the offer and the destination of the vessel was changed to Halifax. However, they were intercepted by a schooner which had disguised its presence as a fishing smack but was, in fact, well manned and armed. During the ensuing fight, Linniken’s prize vessel was boarded, one of his men killed and, one of the boarding party having recognized Linniken, shouted, “surrender you old Tory” and to even old scores, cuffed, kicked and held him by his long queue of hair as he was beaten with the end of a rope. (150)

Another version dated the episode around 1782, at which time the inhabitants of Great Sebascodigan Island had finally become incensed by maurading English vessels in the Casco Bay waters...Notice was passed around that the “Picaroon” commanded by one Linnacum, a Scotchman, was in the area. It was sighted at sunrise near Sequin Island chasing a coaster bound from Thomaston to Portland. After a battle, the enemy’s vessel was boarded and the prisoners, mostly Tories, were sent to Portland under guard. (151)

There is no question that Zebedee Linnekin was a Tory, and an active Tory, as stated in his own Memorials to the British Crown after his evacuation to New Brunswick. The petition of Zebedee Linekin of Saint David in the County of Charlotte, dated 15 February 1823, stated that “your petitioner is a British Subject and was actively employed during the American Rebellion as a Pilot on board His Majesty’s Ships on that Station from his knowledge of the Coast and Harbors was often engaged in arduous and dangerous service in the Tenders and Launches attached to the Squadron, at one time severely wounded and lost a very considerable sum, both of pure money and pay owing to his Recommendations and Certificates from Commodore Mowatt and other naval commanders having been mislaid or lost by a Gentleman, now dead...” (152)

William Stuart, in support of Zebedee’s claim for losses, swore: “I knew claimant he was always Loyal, he joined the British at Penobscot, he was employed in a tender and frequently in privateering, he was a Pilot to some Men of War.” Zebedee produced copy of orders to the Commander of the armed Schooners escape to show that claimant was Prize Master of a Prize taken by that schooner. (153)

The “Albany,” one of the British vessels that Zebedee claimed to have piloted, was a 16 gun sloop with a complement of 126 officers and men and commanded by the notorious Henry Mowatt who burned Falmouth [Portland], Maine in 1775. By 1782, she was declared unfit for battle and demoted to a prison ship. After discharging prisoners in Boston, she headed toward Penobscot where she was wrecked on the Triangles, a group of dangerous rocks, in Penobscot Bay. For many years, she was still visible at times in low water. (154)

Zebedee, in one of his many memorials stated that previous to the war, he was comfortably settled at St. Georges in the Province of Maine on a farm which contained about 25 improved acres. At the onset of the war, he openly avowed his loyalty which caused him to be taken notice of as an enemy to the states; that he paid a fine of $30.00 rather than to go to the army for which he was drafted and, to avoid the Oath of Fidelity to the States, joined the British at Penobscot in 1781, which he would have done earlier if it would not have involved his family in ruin. On his leaving, his farm was taken possession of by order of the rebel General Wadsworth who commanded his wife and family to quit it altogether. That, after removing his family to Penobscot, he purchased a house for £65, laid out £10 in improvements and was obliged to sell at the evacuation for £10 rather than lose it entirely. During the war he was employed as a Pilot on board several of His Majesty’s ships of war and from his arrival at Penobscot until the Peace he was constantly in arms against the Rebels. (155) In this same Memorial, he asserted that he had sustained losses as follows:

300 acres at St. Georges, Lincoln County	£300
1 yoke oxen-3 cows
1 threeyear old bull	3
3 calves	2
1 two year old steer	1
20 sheep	10.
a fine to avoid going into army	7.10s
a house at Penobscot	65.
improvements	10.16
Total	389.86

In a deposition for a widow’s pension dated 19 March 1842, Hannah Linniken, of St. David’s, stated that Zebedee was “attached to the 74th regiment commanded by Campbell.”(156) The 74th, or Argyle Highlanders, were at the Penobscot garrison and part of them removed to St. Andrews after the main body of the Highland regiment had sailed for England more than two months earlier.(157) In one account of Tory exploits, mention is made of “one Linnacum, a Scotchman.”(158) That description has led many to question if Zebedee was a later arrival and that a Scottish accent caused that description. While this is not entirely discounted, the fact that he was with a Scottish regiment might be the reason for referring to him as “a Scotchman.”

New Brunswick: The Last Hope

Having been dispossessed of their homes at Baggaduce by the peace treaty, the beleagured Loyalists embarked for the promised land at New Brunswick. On 4 July 1783, Zebedee Linniken, with four persons over the age of 10 and 3 under the age of 10, was included on “A List of the Inhabitants with their Familys who propose to remove from Penobscot to Nova Scotia.”(159) His family had arrived at St. Andrews in October of 1783 where he had been given his original grant as a member of the Penobscot Association. The land, promised by the British, was in dispute with the Americans and the ships were warned not to land their passengers, but, nevertheless, they did. The situation was so precarious that it was suggested that the growing settlement be disbanded and the settlers removed from St. Andrews. Fortunately for the settlers, many of whom had dismantled their homes at Penobscot and rebuilt them at St. Andrews, their numbers continued to increase and the settlement had expanded to a township [St. David] at the head of Oak Bay. They were there to stay. (160)

The plan of St. Andrews provided for six parallel streets running from northwest to southeast and thirteen streets cutting them at right angles, thus forming sixty square blocks, besides twelve blocks on the southwest side of the town. Each block was divided into eight lots. (161)

Zebedee was an original grantee of lots in the town of St. Andrews on 31 July 1783; both lots were in the Morris Division. One was a water lot 2 in Block E which is on the southwest side of Water Street, while the other was lot 5, in Block F of Morris Division. He sold both lots to John Long on 26 September 1786 and 10 July 1789, describing himself as a mariner.(162) From a Memorial, dated in 1807, Zebedee, of the parish of St. David, stated that he came to St. Andrews with the early settlers from Penobscot in the year 1783 and in the year following, 1784, removed to his farm lot No. eighty six on Oak Point Bay where he has ever since resided.(163) There was a grant of land in the Parish of St. David, which was just outside and east of St. Stephen, of 100 acres which he sold, with wife Hannah assenting, on 7 May 1824. (164)

Land grants had also been promised to the families of the Penobscot Association but, by February of 1796, Zebedee had presented the first of several memorials seeking redress, particularly for his sons. With several others, the first memorial, seeking a grant for the land agreeable to the original survey, made reference to land allowed to all Loyalists and, more specifically, that those of the Penobscot Association, who had families, should be allowed a certain proportion of Land for each woman and child to be laid out in the rear of the Land given to the Loyalists - and the surveyors did lay out such land, lots were drawn and assigned to each one. However, as the children who have come to maturity desire to occupy and improve it since others, not of the Association, have applied for and obtained licence to occupy a large portion of the lands allotted to the families of the Memorialists. (165)

On 23 June 1801, Zebedee, now of the parish of Saint David, restated that he had settled and improved upon a lot of one hundred acres, “it being the only portion of land hitherto granted to him for his services...” “...He has a numerous family depending upon him for subsistence, for each of whom he was promised, upon settling in this country, that he would receive fifty acres of land, which is included in the back location for the Penobscot Loyalists and was laid out by the Kings Surveyors...” Although some of that tract had since been reserved by the Surveyor General of His Majesty’s woods, “the remainder remians still ungranted.” Zebedee then suggested that he be granted certain lots in that location and attached a plot plan of lots on Oak Point Bay to support his request. (166)

By 21 August 1801, Zebedee, called “Captain Zebedee Linnekin, of the parish of Saint David,” presented another Memorial which pointed out that he had “three sons, whom he is anxiously solicitous to settle near him, lest they should be inclined to quit the country, and settle in the United States, where they have some relations residing. Neither of his sons have received any lands from the government...except one lot which was granted to the eldest of them...” (167)

His last Memorial, dated 15 February 1823 appealed for relief citing his prior service, his “advanced age (being now seventy five years old)” and his lost hopes of a “comfortable and independent subsistence for the remainder of his life...by the total destruction [last summer] of his house, barn, orchard, fences, and in short every thing he possessed of furniture, provisions, clothing from fire from which he narrowly escaped and he has since been obliged to fix up a hovel to shelter himself and family....even the land was much scorched and burned.”(168) In the many articles done on the Loyalist settlements around St. David, there is often mention made of devastating forest fires. From his description of the scorched and burned land, one might assume he was a victim of such a fire.

After his removal to St. David, Zebedee Kinikin was appointed a Parish Officer there at the General Sessions of the Pease (sic) April 1805 and served as a Surveyor of High Ways. (169) In 1808, Zebedee, with his sons William and Benjamin Linkin (sic) were on a list of Jurors for the Parish of Saint David. (170) He appeared on the tax list for 1822 of the parish of St. David, filed 12 July 1823 but was dead by the time the second list was filed on 12 April 1832. (171)

Document ID: lylinkn1

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