Moses Poor Sells Land in Plasitow/Atkinson, New Hampshire

One of the best things about blogging is the contacts I make in response to a blog post that I have written.  One such contact was a history teacher in New Hampshire who was interested in Moses Poor's family.  She found a cellar hole behind her school and was interested in it and decided to do a little research into whose cellar hole it was. She discovered it was Moses Poor's, who married Hannah Sinkler, cellar hole. I wrote about her comment to my blog here.  

The teacher sent a very nice timeline filled with property records which I will share with my readers, below. All of the following research was conducted by a wonderful Salem, New Hampshire history teacher.

• February 26, 1766: Willett Peterson sells 70 acres in Plaistow to Moses Poor (listed as a cordwainer, or a shoemaker) and Joseph Chandler (listed as a tanner). The deed mentions a dwelling house, a barn, and a saw mill.
• September 3, 1767: Inhabitants of the western side of Plaistow decided to become a separate town. The town name was declared to be “Atkinson.”
• ***November 16, 1770: Moses Poor sells 10 acres of land in Atkinson to Ithamar Emerson.
• ***March 28, 1771: Moses Poor sells 18 acres of land in Atkinson to Daniel Page.
• ***March 28, 1771: Moses Poor sells 6 acres of land and saw mill in Atkinson to Jonathan Poor. The mill is listed as “Poor’s Saw Mill.”
• April, 1771: James Clough sells two parcels of land in Salem to Moses Poor; one parcel containing 2 ½ acres and the other containing 46 acres. Moses is listed as living in Atkinson.
• July, 1771: James Clough sells 5 ½ acres to Moses Poor. Moses is now listed as living in Salem.
• July, 1772: Moses Poor sells 30 acres of land in Hampstead to James Shepaird.
• June 17, 1775: Moses Poor dies at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
• January 15, 1777: A public auction is held at the dwelling house on the Widow Hannah Poor’s property. “Spinster” Hannah Poor (the sister of Moses) with the help of (attorney?) Jonathan Tenney auctions off ⅔ of Widow Poor’s land to Samuel White. The other ⅓ of the land is retained by Widow Poor as part of her right of dower.
• 1796: Widow Hannah Poor and her son George sell the Widow’s remaining “third” (or right of dower) to Timothy Clough. The deed states that both Hannah and George were living in Candia at the time.

Note: ***These three sales occurring between 1770-1771 show that Moses Poor sold exactly half of the 70 acres that he bought jointly in Plaistow with Joseph Chandler in 1766. When the property was purchased, it was recorded as being in Plaistow, but the western section of Plaistow removed itself from the township in 1767 and became the town of Atkinson. When Moses Poor sold the land in 1770-1771,it was recorded as being in Atkinson.