In the 1650's and 1660's the ready profits from the Isles (Isles of Shoals on the northeastern coast of New Hampshire) fisheries plus the uncertain situation in England persuaded a significant number of the West Country fishermen on the Isles to seek higher economic and social status by relocating in New Hampshire and obtaining larger estates while maintaining fishing businesses on the Isles. Such leading New Hampshire mercantile families as the Cutts, Hunkings, Odiomes, and Langdons and many other lesser families established themselves at Portsmouth in this way. (Footnote 15, p 247 - Another possible cause for their relocation lay in the fact that after 1647 women were forbidden to live on the Isles (Mass. Records, 2:57) For Tobias Langdon see NHPP (Provincial Papers: Documents and Records Relating to the Province of New Hampshire) 40:148. # (David E. Vandeventer, THE EMERGENCE OF PROVINCIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1623-1741 , (Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1976),p 89)
The later years of the war (Queen
Anne's War), after 1709 brought an upturn in Piscataqua (river) trade,
as New Hampshire merchants helped supply the various military
expeditions against the French. These expeditions and the utilization
of paper currency stimulated the New Hampshire economy to such an
extent that a large number of new traders and enterprises appeared.
Although many of these traders represented the second generation of
already-established families, a significant number were newcomers to
the mercantile community. Footnote 125, p. 271. These included Tobias
Langdon, Thomas Phipps, Richard Wibirc .................. (David
E. Vandeventer, THE EMERGENCE OF PROVINCIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1623-1741 ,
(Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1976),p 160)
Dr. Hamilton Hurd gives the following account:
Tobias Langdon, of Keverel in Cornwall England, was commissioned as an
Ensign by King James II and sent to New York. When he came to
Piscataqua (the area around the mouth of the Piscataqua River in NH, we
do not know precisely, but he was living there very early at the time
his son was born (Capt. Tobias in 1660}. Tradition has it that his
remains repose in the sequestered district, a few hundred acres of
which, on the southern side of the creek Sagamore, are still owned by
his descendants. He married Elizabeth Sherburne, daughter of Henry
Sherburne, who come over with Capt. John Mason in 1632.
( Dr. Hamilton Hurd, HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM &STRAFFORD COUNTIES, NEW
HAMPSHIRE (Philadelphia;J.W. Lewis & Co), 1882) pp 100-101 &
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA (1959), Vol 12, p 691)
Logic would leave one to believe that this was not the Tobias Langdon that James II (even when he was the Duke of York) appointed as Ensign. James did not become King of England until 1685. He was appointed Lord High Admiral of the Navy in 1658 when his brother Charles II was restored to the English throne. In March 1664 Charles II made formal claim to land occupied by the Dutch under Peter Stuyvesant, as governor. Charles made James the Lord Proprietor of the New Netherlands lands. James, in turn, named Col. Richard Nicolls as governor in charge of the expedition to conquer these Dutch holdings. Nicolls won the support of the burgomaster of New Amsterdam and other prominent citizens by offering favourable terms, and Stuyvesant was forced into formal surrender without fighting. It seems likely that James , as Lord High Commissioner, probably commissioned a different Tobias Langdon as an Ensign in 1664 to serve in the expedition to conquer New Netherlands. According to the tombstone inscriptions on a Langdon monument , located near Portsmouth, NH., the Tobias who is the ancestor of the New Hampshire Langdons died in 1664. Records also show that he married Elizabeth Sherburne in 1656.
Brewster (Charles W. Brewster,
RAMBLES ABOUT PORTSMOUTH
(Portsmouth, NH : Lewis W. Brewster, 1869, pp 55-60.)
also assumed that a second Tobias was appointed the Ensign. Brewster
goes on to discuss the ancestry of the New Hampshire Langdons. Tobias
was said to be of the ancient house of the Langdons of Keverel in
Cornwall, near Saint German's ; however, this has not been confirmed.
The antiquity of those Langdons is indisputable, whose name ,at the
time of the Norman conquest, was the Cornish one of Lizard. Carew of
Anthony, the poet and scholar, speaks of them as this neighbors of
ancient lineage, which had somewhat deteriated by the time of Elizabeth
I. They may have continued to be papists to a later date, because a
Walter Langdon of Keverel was fined on his estate during the rebellion,
captured for the King, when he and other gentlemen of the county held
out with their wives and children in Pendenis Castle under an Arundel
of Trerice - one of the heroic actions of the civil wars.
KNOWN CHILDREN OF TOBIAS LANGDON & MARY SHERBURNE:
1. +Capt. Tobias L b 1660 d 20 Feb. 1725 m Mary Hubbard of Salisbury,
NH.
2. Elizabeth m William Fernald
3. Honour (Oner) b 30 Apr 1664 m 1686 John Laighton
4. Margaret m Nicholas Morrel
TL1
CAPT. TOBIAS L LANGDON b 1660 d 20 Feb. 1725 s/o Tobias Langdon
& Mary Sherburne m MARY HUBBARD of Salisbury, NH
KNOWN CHILDREN OF CAPT. TOBIAS LANGDON & MARY HUBBARD:
1, Mary b 17 Nov 1687 m George Pierce.
2. Tobias b 11 Oct 1689 m 12 Feb 1714 Sarah Winkley.
3. Martha b 7 Mar 1693 m 7 Jul 1714 Nicholas Shapley.
4. Richard b 14 Apr 1694 d Newton, Long Island m Thankful ___. He lived
and died at Newton on Long Island, and has descendants both in England
and in the U.S.A.. Some of them were royalists and went back to England
. 5.+ Joseph b 28 Feb 1695 d 10 Aug 1767 m Mary L. Banfield d 6
Sep.1700 d/o Capt. Samuel Banfield.
6. +Mark b 15 Sep 1698 d 1776 m-1 Mehitable ___ d 7 Oct 1764.
7. Samuel b 6 Sep 1700 d 2 Dec. 1725 m Hannah Jenness
8. +William b 30 Oct 1702 d 1766.
9. +John b 28 May 1707 d 27 Feb 1780 m Mary Hall d 11 Apr. 1789 d/o
Kinsley Hall of Exeter, NH.
TL15
JOSEPH LANGDON b 28 Feb 1695 d 10 Aug 1767 s/o Capt.
Tobias L. Langdon & Marry Hubbard m MARY L. BANFIELD d 6 Sep.1700
d/o Capt. Samuel Banfield.
Joseph lived near Witch Creek and in 1869 had two or three hundred
descendants, few with the Langdon surname.
THE LANGDON CHILDREN:
1. Samuel b 1721 d 1779 m 29 Sep 1748 Hannah L. Storer, d 8 Sep 1796
d/o John Storer, Esq., Wells, ME.
2. Mary b 1725 d 23 Feb 1807 m Amos Seavey d 19 Feb 1807
3. Hannah m James Whidden
4. Elizabeth d 14 Jul 1804 m James Seavey.
TL151
SAMUEL LANGDON b 1721 d 1779 s/o Joseph Langdon &
Mary L. Banfied m 29 Sep 1748 HANNAH L. STORER d 8 Sep 1796 d/o John
Storer, Esq., Wells, ME.
THE LANGDON CHILDREN:
1. Mary b 1i6 Apr 1751 d 1836 m Joseph White.
2. Maj. Samuel b 9 June 1753 d 5 Jul 1834 m Lydia Brewster d 21 May
1840 d/o Samuel Norris .
3. Anna b 3 Nov 1755 d 24 May 1790 m James Whidden.
4. Rev. Joseph L. b 12 May 1758 d 27 Jul 1824 m 9 Dec 1790 Patience
Pickering d 8 Apr 1846.
5. Elizabeth b 18 Mar 1761 d 1831 m Andrew Sherburne.
6. Hannah b Jun 1766 d 1812 m Edward Gove.
TL16
MARK LANGDON b 15 Sep 1698 d 1776 s/o Capt. Tobias L. Langdon &
Marry Hubbard m-1 MEHITABLE ______d 7 Oct 1764.
Mark was a tanner in the south end of Portsmouth NH.
KNOWN LANGDON CHILDREN:
1, Joseph b 1724 d 30 Oct 1749.
2. Tobias b 1725 d 28 Jan 1727/28 , age 2 yrs.
TL18
WILLIAM LANGDON b 30 Oct 1702 d 1766 s/o Capt. Tobias L. Langdon
& Marry Hubbard m SARAH L.______
William was a tanner in the north end of Portsmouth NH.
KNOWN LANGDON CHILDREN:
1. William b 1748 d 20 Sep 1820 m Mary Pickering d 8 Feb 1802.
2. John b 1748 d 21 May 1789 m Mary Evans d 10 Mar 1825.
3. Mary m Nicholas Pickering.
TL19
JOHN LANGDON b 28 May 1707 d 27 Feb 1780 s/o Capt. Tobias Langdon
& Mary Hubbard m MARY HALL d/o of Kinsley Hall of Exeter, NH.
John lived and died on the homestead. His sons John and Woodbury were
prominent in the affairs of New Hampshire and of the national
government.
THE LANGDON CHILDREN:
1. Mary m-1 __Storer m-2 Hill m-3 McCobb
2. +Woodbury b 1738 d 13 Jan.1805 m Sarah Sherburne
3.+John b Dec 1739 d 19 Sep 1819 m Elizabeth Sherburne.
4. Elizabeth m ____Barrel
5. Abigail m ____Goldthwait
6. Martha m-1 Barrel m-2 Simson m-3 Gov. James Sullivan.
TL192
WOODBURY LANGDON b 1738 d 13 Jan.1805 s/o John Langdon & Mary
Hall m SARAH SHERBOURNE
Woodbury was an eminent Judge in Portsmouth, NH and a brother of John,
signer of the Constitution, etc.
KNOWN LANGDON CHILDREN:
1. Henry Sherborne bapt. 9 Mar 1766
2. Woodbury bapt. 21 Feb 1768
3. Sarah Sherborne bapt. 8 Apr 1770
4. Mary Ann bapt. 5 Apr. 1773
5. America bapt. 26 Sep. 1773
6. Dorothy Wentworth bapt. 19 Dec. 1775.
7, Catherine Whipple m Edmund Roberts. Their third daughter ,Harriet
Langdon Roberts, was the mother of a Mrs. Pruign, who was married in
Albany, NY. Mrs. Pruign was born 28 Mar 1814 in Portsmouth, NH.
TL193
JOHN LANGDON b Dec. 1739( or 25 Jun 1741 Portsmouth
NH d 19 Sep. 1819 Portsmouth, NH s/o John Langdon & Mary Hall m
ELIZABETH SHERBURNE.
Tobias Langdon, of Keverel in Cornwall, was commissioned as an ensign by King James II and sent to New York. When he came to Piscataqua (the areas around the mouth of the Piscataqua River in NH) we do not know precisely, but he was living very early there when his son was born. Tradition has it that his remains repose in the sequestered district, a few hundred acres of which, on the southern side of the creek Sagamore, are still in the hands of his descendants. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Sherburne, who came over with Capt. John Mason in 1632. Capt. Tobias Langdon, their son, owned the garrison-house at the head of the creek, and is buried hard by. Capt. Tobias Langdon married Mary Hubbard of Salisbury, MA. John, the youngest son of Capt. Tobias and Mary Hubbard, married Mary, daughter of Kinsley Hall, of the Exeter combination. This John, the youngest son of Capt. Tobias and Mary Langdon, had two sons, namely Woodbury and John. His upbringing of them, however, was taken from his hands by an ambitious mother.
John Langdon, the subject of this sketch, was sent to the school of the celebrated Major Samuel Hale. His memory was truly uncommon, for we have heard him spout Pope's Homer to children with great spirit when past seventy. Turning from his paternal acres to the counting house of John Moffat, Esq., a merchant in Portsmouth, he so won his confidence that Mr. Moffatt in his later years entrusted to him the conduct of his affairs. He then went to sea in vessels of his own building. Having joined the popular party, he helped to seize, in December 1774, the English military stores in a fort of the Piscataqua. The powder from this seizure was used at the battle of Bunker Hill. In 1775 he was sent as a delegate to the Continental Congress and again in 1776. But his name was not affixed to the Declaration of Independence, owing partly to his being sent home again to act as agent of the secret committee for building vessels of war. The "Ranger" in which John Paul Jones started on his dashing career, was built and fitted out by John Langdon. As an officer of the volunteers, he found time to go to the campaign of Saratoga; and after offering his whole fortune to promote the cause, he personally aided Gen. Stark to gain the victory at Bennington.
In the dark days that succeeded the Revolution Mr. Langdon was always in some office. He was president of New Hampshire in 1785-86 and in 1788-89; a member of the federal constitutional convention in 1787; a member of the state convention which ratified the federal constitution for New Hampshire; a member of the U.S. Senate in 1789-1801, and its president pro-tem , during the first congress and the second session of the second congress; a member of the New Hampshire house of representatives in 1801-05 and its speaker in 1803-05; and governor of the state in 1805-09 and in 1810-12. He refused the naval portfolio in Jefferson's cabinet, and received nine electoral votes for the vice-presidency in 1808.
Late in life he became a member of the Old North Church in Portsmouth, NH. He and Mrs. Langdon had only one daughter, who became the wife of Thomas Elwyn, Esq., of Canterbury, England.
Mr. Langdon lived for many years in the house built by himself and still standing on Pleasant Street, Portsmouth, NH. He died in this house on 18 Sep. 1819. # ( From HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE pp 100-101 & ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA (1959), Vol 12, p 691)
By the early eighteenth century the political positions most sought after were at the province level, particularly the position of governor, lieutenant governor, counselor, judge, secretary, treasurer, and justice of the peace. The main avenues to these positions lay in advantageous trade connections in England and in New Hampshire, election to the House of Representatives and good performance there, marriage alliances or some other kind of economic or political alliance with the leading families in the colony, a residence in Portsmouth at the center of royal government in the colony, or some combination of these. Among leading mercantile families, intermarriage was a particularly significant method of achieving higher social status. The Cutts, Vaughans, Waldrons, Frosts, Gerriches, Westbrooks, Plaisteds, Martyns, Joses, Huskes, Coffins, Russells, Penhallows, Partridges, Belchers, Pepperrells, and Sparhawks had established important family connections through marriage between 1670 and 1740. So did the Gilman, Folsom, and Thing families of Exeter and the Wentworths, Hunkings, Wiggins, Sherburnes, Langdons, Pierces, Ushers, Odiomes, Jaffreys, Jeffries, Atkinsons, Wibirds, and Packers at Portsmouth and Boston. Footnote 76, p. 281 - For the exact relationships among these families see Noyes; Brewster, RAMBLES ABOUT PORTSMOUTH: Bell, HISTORY OF EXETER; Scales, HISTORY OF DOVER; Wentworth, WENTWORTH GENEALOGY; and Charles H. Pope, THE PIONEERS OF MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE (Boston, 1908) ( David E. Vandeventer, THE EMERGENCE OF PROVINCIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1623-1741 , (Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1976),p 213)
Although the most sought-after economic role in New Hampshire by the early eighteenth century was that of the landed, mast-trading merchant, another economic occupation, the law, increased in desirability. The leading Piscataqua men of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century sent their sons to Harvard for an education in the law, rather than in religion, so that they could cope more effectively with the economic and political affairs of their families and of the colony. Such aspiring sons as Benning Wentworth, Richard Waldron, Jr., Samuel Penhallow, Theodore Atkinson, George Jaffrey, Mesech Weare, Richard Wibird, Jr.,...............Samuel Langdon, Samuel Sherburne, (several more, a total of 20 men). Seventeen of these twenty men later obtained significant political and legal posts in New Hampshire and enjoyed the status of gentlemen, attesting to the increased importance assigned to education and legal knowledge in the colony, particularly at Portsmouth. Footnote 82, p.282 - Short but excellent biographies of these individuals are given in Sibley's Harvard Graduates, Vols.4-7. For a few of these individuals, medicine or some other subject provided their Main fare at Harvard. Nineteen of the twenty Harvard graduates from New Hampshire lived in Portsmouth of New Castle. The three who did not obtain significant political posts were Sherburne, Rindge, and Hinches.. (David E. Vandeventer, THE EMERGENCE OF PROVINCIAL NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1623-1741 , (Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1976),p 215)
In the publication NEW HAMPSHIRE (An Illustrated History of the Granite State) . by Ronald and Grace Jaeger (Woodland Hill, CA: Windsor Publications, Inc., 1983), p. 47 there is pictured a map. Under the map is the following narrative: " Governor Benning Wentworth undoubtedly had nothing but the greatest admiration for the cartographic skills of Colonel Joseph Blanchard and the Reverend Samuel Langdon when they completed this map of New Hampshire in 1761."