FRANCIS GREEN

FRANCIS GREEN


GREEN, BENJAMIN, merchant and officeholder; b. 1 July 1713 at Salem Village (Danvers, Mass.), the son of Reverend Joseph Green and Elizabeth Gerrish; m. November 1737 Margaret Pierce, and they had at least three sons and two daughters; d. 14 Oct. 1772 at Halifax, Nova Scotia. - For the complete biography, including go to Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online: http://www.biographi.ca/en/index.html

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Francis Green (1.Benjamin1) born 21 Aug 1742, Boston, Mass, married (1) 18 Oct 1769, in Boston, Mass., Susanna Green, born 26 Jul 1744, Boston, Mass., (daughter of Joseph Green and Anna Peirce) died 10 Nov 1775, Boston, Mass., married (2) 17 May 1785, in St.Paul's, Halifax, N.S.,[7] Harriet Mathews, (daughter of David Mathews and Sarah Seymour). Francis died 21 Apr 1809, Medford, Mass. [8] Francis Green came to Halifax with his parents in 1749. He entered Harvard College, Cambridge in 1756, but since his father had accepted an Ensigns Commission for him in the 40th. Regiment from his friend General Lawrence, he had to report to his regiment in Halifax in 1757 when war with France had broken out. He participated in the siege of Louisbourg in 1758
and later joined General Murray's army at Quebec. In 1761 the regiment made its way to Staten Island, NY and later that year embarked for Barbados. After participating in battles on the islands of Martinique and St. Lucia, the regiment later defeated the Spanish and captured Cuba. Having "served with credit-but-very-little-promotion" (F.Green 1806), Francis Green sold out of the army in 1766 and returned to Boston as a businessman. On October 10, 1769 he married his cousin Susanna "Sukie" Green, daughter of his uncle Joseph Green Esq., by whom he had five children. Three of these died in infancy. His wife Susanna died "of a puerperile fever" (childbed fever) on November 10, 1775. On the evacuation of Boston in March 1776 he went with his three children to Halifax where he received a commission as a magistrate. In 1777 he went to New York where he had a serious business setback in that five ships (privateers) he owned or had an interest in were lost. He also met with personal tragedy in that his youngest son, Francis Erasmus, nearly four years old, died after his clothes caught on fire. Francis Green went to England in 1780 where he remained for several years. His son Charles had been diagnosed as being deaf and Francis enrolled him at Braidwood's Academy for the deaf and dumb in Edinburgh. Charles remained there for six years and acquired the faculty of speech and a good general education. Francis took a great interest in the training of the deaf and he wrote articles and books on the subject to promote similar instruction in New England after he finally settled there. After the general peace and the acknowledgement of the independence of the American colonies, Francis Green returned from Great Britain in June 1784 to Halifax, NS. In November he was offered the office of High Sherriff which he held for three years. On May 19, 1785 he married Harriet Mathews in Halifax. She was the daughter of the Hon. David Mathews, Mayor of New York before acknowledgement of independence and later President of the Council and Commander in Chief of the Island of Cape Breton. Francis and his wife moved to his farm in Cole Harbour, and later to his other farm at Preston (now Westphal) where he built and improved. After his brother Benjamin Green Jr. died in December 1793, he held for a time the position of Provincial Treasurer. Francis was also appointed a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas; a position carrying no salary. In 1796 the Commissioners of Maroons from Jamaica arrived at Halifax with 600 blacks and purchased Francis Green's lands at Preston, Cole Harbour and Dartmouth to make a settlement for them. His house in Dartmouth was located downtown on the site of Fairley & Stevens automobile dealership "and had many fireplaces"(Martin). The nearby Green Street in Dartmouth is named after Francis Green. Since he did not have adequate income from the fees he received as a judge, he moved with his family to Medford near Boston in 1797. He there wrote (1806) "Genealogical and Biographical Anectodes deduced from the first American Generation for his children's information." He died in Medford in 1809. Harriet: Harriet's father, David Mathews had been Mayor of New York City from 1776 to 1783. In 1779 his property was confiscated by the New York Congress, and he left New York for Nova Scotia in 1783. He became Attorney General and member of the Council in the Colony of Cape Breton where he remained until he died in July 1800. Harriet moved to Charlestown, New Hampshire from Medford, M