Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

of Bedford. In later life he removed to
Billerica where, as already stated, his
death occurred. He married, about 1706,
Mary Lane, a daughter of Colonel John
and Susan (Whipple) Lane, of Billerica,
born May 15, 1686, and died at Billerica,
March 27, 1783.
Their son, Francis Whitmore, was born
at Medford, October 4, 1714, and was engaged
in that place in business on a very
large scale. His name appears on the
records as one of the men who paid
money to the persons who went to New
York in September, 1776, and in the following
month he paid money to persons
to go to Canada. In 1760 he purchased
from the Plymouth Land Company, lot
No. 3, in the town of Plymouth, Maine,
and from that time onward spent most of
his life there. In an account of the early
settlement along the Kennebec river, it is
stated that he was there as early as 1749,
having squatted on the lot which he
afterwards purchased. In an account of
the establishment of Bowdoinham, by
Peter Bowdoin, in 1762, it is further
stated that a man named Whitmore had
settled previously at Reed's Point on the
Kennebec river and traded very largely
with the Indians. He left a record of a
life full of achievement and of the labor
that meant much for the development of
his adopted State. He died in Bowdoinham,
April 27, 1794. Francis Whitmore
married, January 31, 1739, Mary, daugh-
ter of Lieutenant Stephen and Eliza
(Fowle) Hall, born April 17, 1719, and
died October 30, 1791. Their home was
made, in the latter part of their lives, at
Bowdoinham, Maine, and there Francis
Whitmore died, April 27, 1794.
Their son, William Whitmore, was
born at Medford, Massachusetts, Septem-
ber 6, 1746. He married twice. First
wife's maiden name was Davis. Second
wife's maiden name not known. They re-
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
48
sided at Bath, Maine. Their daughter,
Sarah D. Whitmore, the second in a family
of eight children, was born November
2"j, 1794, and died in Corinth, Maine,
March 27, 1868. She married (first) Jonathan
Whitney, who was born in Lisbon,
Maine, June 10, 1788, and died in Dover,
Maine, May 14, 1837. They resided in
the early part of their married life at
Bowdoinham, Maine, where the following
children were born to them : Nancy, Wil-
liam P., Sarah Lancaster, Elizabeth,
James and Lydia. Sarah Lancaster, born
May 31, 1816, died at Garland, Maine,
June 9, 1903. She married William Nelson
Thompson, December 1, 1833.
BRAINERD, Lyman Bushnell,
Insurance President.
Though the scion of one of New England's
oldest families, Mr. Brainerd owed
his success to his own persistent diligence
and to those qualities of character with-
out which no real success can be obtained.
The name Brainerd, like most names of
historic lineage, is variously spelled, but it
is generally conceded that the spelling
used by the late Lyman B. Brainerd and
his progenitors was the original spelling.
The first of the name in this country
was Daniel Brainerd, who, tradition says,
was born about 1641, in Braintree, England,
and was brought to America when
he was about eight years old. An old
manuscript that has been preserved, says
he lived with the Wadsworth family in
Hartford, Connecticut, until 1662, when,
with others, he took up land in the unbroken
wilderness about eight miles from
Middletown, in what is now the town of
Haddam. About 1663 or 1664 he married
Hannah, daughter of Gerrard and Hannah
Spencer, of Lynn, Massachusetts, who
were among the first settlers of Haddam.
She died about 1691. He died April 1,