HISTORICAL NOTE

These papers were generated by the descendents of Zebediah Abbott(4), 1695-1767, great-grandson of George Abbott of Rowley through his son George. Zebediah had, among other children, Nehemiah(5), 1732-1808 and Zebediah(5), 1739-1793. Nehemiah(5) married in succession Hannah Ballard and Lydia Clark. His children, all by his first wife, were Captain Nehemiah, whose widow endowed Abbot Academy, Hannah I, Abiel and Hannah II. Abiel(6), 1760-1828 married Hannah Frye, 1767-1821 and then Chloe Hawley. By his first wife he had two children: Nehemiah(7), b. 1794 and Lydia Clark(7), 1797-1847. Lydia, the author of most of this material, married in 1822 John Flint of Andover. He prospered by involvement in the Boston and Maine Railroad and later in various Andover Banks. He and Lydia had seven daughters and one son.

Lydia's family was well-to-do and she was well educated at Bradford Academy, at Rebecca Eaton's school in Andover and at Pembroke Academy in Pembroke, New Hampshire, where her father's first cousin Anne Abbott Osgood lived. She was a teacher as a pupil; certainly a teacher at Pembroke Academy when she left in 1819. She presumably returned home to nurse her ailing mother, whose death in 1821 released her to marry Mr. Flint.

Lydia's aunt Hannah II Abbott, b. 1765, her father's sister, married in 1788 Samuel Hawley. They had two children, Betsey, b. 1789 and Joseph, b. 1791 who enter into this correspondence.

Another branch of the family descended from Zebediah(5) Abbott, 1739-1793, the younger brother of Nehemiah. Zebediah and his wife Rebecca Ballard had three children: Anna(6), 1767-1826 who married Christopher Osgood of Pembroke, New Hampshire; Zebediah(6) 1769-1836 who married Sarah Farrington and Herman, 1771-1858 who married Lydia Farrington, the sister of the brother's wife. Herman and his wife had six children, including Joshua(7), 1804-1868 who married, in 1843, Judith Wentworth.

The above notes cover all the papers from Lydia's immediate family except one from her nephew Albert. He could not have been an Abbott, but he must have been a Flint.

There were many other Abbotts in Andover, also descended from George of Rowley. George(1) had a son Benjamin whose great-grandson was Jonathan(5), 1740-1821. This Jonathan had two sons, Jonathan(6) 1776-1843 and Stephen(6), 1779-1835. Stephen(6) was living in Bethel, Maine in 1835. Stephen David Abbott, 1815-1885 was the son of this Stephen. He was given the name David at birth, but when his older brother died at the age of nineteen in 1832, the name Stephen was transferred to the younger son.

This genealogical note was compiled from information in Abiel and Ephraim Abbot's Genealogical Register (1847), Major L.A. Abbott, Descendents of George Abbott of Rowley, Mass. and other Abbott Families (2 vols., 1906) and typed notes by Charlotte Helen Abbott.

The collection was given to the Society by Clara Flint Reed in 1947, with much other material which has been scattered through the manuscript collection. At the time it was received it given Accession Number 1947.49.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The material has been divided into six parts by family members. It consists mostly of letters to Lydia Clark Abbott Flint written by her fellow students and teachers at various female academies between 1814 and 1817.

The first section contains a single letter written to Anne Abbott, and older cousin of Lydia's just before her marriage in 1793. The second section contains a letter to Lydia's father, Abiel, written  in 1821 by Edward Russell, a lawyer, condoling him on the death of his wife as well as discussing business.

The third part, Lydia Clark Abbott Flint's own material, is much more extensive. Lydia wrote to her cousin Betsey Hawley of Danville, Vermont in 1814, a letter full of family news. In June 1814, Lydia was not in Andover. Mary Fay, who seems to have lived in the Abbott household, and who has been at school with her in Andover, wrote, describing domestic problems. Lavinia Stafford, Charlotte Hills and Henriett Tenney were at Bradford Academy with Lydia. Lavinia Stafford, who had been her teacher, write five letters between 1814 and 1817. Lavinia studied as well as taught, always looking for opportunities to improve herself. She fully expected that Lydia would lead the same kind of life, teaching long enough to earn money to pay for further study. Henriett Tenney wrote her but one letter, explaining that in 1815 she was much involved in caring for a sick man named James. Charlotte Hills was another correspondent. Charlotte and Lydia had attended Bradford Academy, perhaps boarding in the same house, as Charlotte asked her to do in December 1814. In April 1815 Charlotte wrote her explaining that the James of whom Harriett Tenney wrote had indeed died. He had owned the house in which Lydia boarded. In this same letter, Charlotte announced that she giving up the idea of school teaching and was going to Newburyport to become a milliner. In her last letter, written May 1815, she seems to be making slow progress in learning her new trade, she was lonely and unhappy.

Lydia has done well at Bradford Academy and was chosen to deliver the valedictory address, perhaps in 1814. She preserved it carefully, along with some examples of penmanship. After she left that school she spent at least one term at Miss Rebecca Eaton's school in Andover. (Miss Eaton's receipt for tuition payment has been preserved.) Lydia then went to Pembroke Academy, almost certainly as a teacher. When she left in 1819, the girl students wrote her poems to which they attached locks of their hair.

C. P. Pease, who attended the Andover Theological Seminary, wrote Lydia's family from Longmeadow, Mass. in 1820. His Sister Cynthia, who wrote from Blandford in 1821, gave Lydia news of a religious revival in Longmeadow. Both the letters from the Peases show the evangelical missionary zeal that was strongly felt at the Theological Seminary.

In 1846, Lydia, now long since the wife of John Flint, received a letter from Hannah Russel of North Yarmouth (Maine?), a cheerful spinster who lived with a cat and knitted stockings for a living. In 1849 her nephew Albert sent her some dried flowers from Niagara Falls. Their wrapper has been retained. The family also kept an engagement announcement from Joshua Abbott, the son of Anne Abbott Osgood's brother Herman.

The second Abbott family is represented by a letter from Jonathan Abbott, written in 1835 from Bethel, Maine to his brother Captain Stephen Abbott who had remained behind in Andover. There is also a collection of bills and receipts which belonged to Stephen David, Captain Stephen's son. They date from 1830 to 1853.

Sub-group I. Anne Abbott Osgood
Sub-group II. Abiel Abbott
Sub-group III. Lydia Clark Abbott Flint
Sub-group IV. Joshua Abbott
Sub-group V. Jonathan Abbott
Sub-group VI. Stephen David Abbot.

Processed by Mary F. Morgan, November 1982.