| Notes |
- Supplement to Sprague Families in America", by Dr. WarrenVincent Sprague, 1941, page 188.
Abiel Sprague appears in records also as Abial, Abral andEbial.
1759, Aug 15. Abial Sprague of Harpswell in theCounty of York, Cordwainer, and wife Hannah sold for 72pounds, a certain island in Harpswell, commonly calledGreat Tebascodegan Island, where he had lived for more than20 years past.
1763, May. Sailed with other settlers to Machias onCapt. Buck's vessel.
1765. His name appears on a petition for a grant ofland in Machias, NB.
1767, Aug. 24. Abiel Sprague, Yeoman, of Machias soldto Joseph Thompson about 300 acres in Boothbay.
In 1769, there were about 74 settlers on a large tract ofland called Machias, which they had believed to be CrownLands in NB. They had been here six years makingimprovements. However, this proved to be in theProvince of Massachusetts Bay. A petition waspresented to the General Court of Massachusetts at Bostonto recognize their rights and establish a township. Among those who signed were Abial Sprague and AbialSprague, Jr. The request was granted and 250 acresapiece was given them.
1774, May 20. Abiel Sprague (Jr.) Yeoman of Machias,representing the heirs of Abiel Sprague, late of Machias,deceased, sold the lands containing about 250 acres on thesouth side of Machias River, beginning at a spruce tree,marked A: S: then running by the side of the river,easterly 100 rods, more or less, to a creek * * * * withdwelling house and fences, free of all incumbrances. (QuitClaim Deed, amount of 100 pounds, acknowledged, Sept, 30,1777).
1786, Aug. 9. Abiel Sprague of Passamaquoddy wasappointed administrator of the estate of Abiel Sprague,Sr., late of Machias, Yeoman, deceased. His heirswere not listed. Washington Co., ME was incorporatedJune 25, 1789 and later was formerly the Eastern Districtof Lincoln Co. The latter was established November 6,1784 and comprised all of Lincoln County east of UnionRiver. Washington County was at one time a part ofFrench Acadia.
From Sherie Sprague Winslow.
Abiel Sprague lived 20 years on great Tabascodegan Island,sailed to Machias in May, 1763 on Capt. Buck's first vesselof settlers. Joel Bonney was also on the vessel. In1769, he petitioned for and was granted 250 acres on thesouth side of the Machias River.
"History of Early Baileyville".
There were three Spragues involved in frontier building inWashington County, Maine. Abiel No. 1 (born 1710) came fromScarboro, Maine to Machias in 1763 in Capt. Buck's vesselof first settlers (Joel Bonney was on the same boat). He died there in 1774. Abiel No. 2 was son and afirst settler at Sprague Falls in Baileyville, was born ona proprietor's grant in Casco Bay where Abiel No. 1 wasliving. This was probably in early 1740's. thisgrant was three miles from the center of Brunswick, on aneck of land extending into the bay called Mereconege (nowMeres Neck).
Abiel No. 3, son of Abiel No. 2, was with his father whenhe migrated from Calais to Baileyville in 1795. Hewas born in Machias in 1776. Abiel Sprague No. 3 and hisbrother Capt. Eli Sprague married two sisters of JosephThornton, another pioneer settler of Baileyville. Theylived in Baileyville in the frontier days. The twoSprague brothers came to Calais from Machias in 1782settled at "middle landing" in the vicinity of the presentWare Knitters Factory building. The surroundingcountry was thick with the big white pines so desperatelyneeded for ship masts and for board siding in the growingcommunities in the area. In the 1790's they were partowners in several saw mills on Denny's Stream which flowedinto the Schoodic at St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Inmany of the transactions Isaac T. Bayley, oldest son of theBaileyville pioneer Nathaniel Bayley (1740), was theirpartner. They even kept some of this ownership after theyhad settled in Baileyville. Other area men involvedin these saw mills were Jonas Dyer, Colin Campbell, JohnMcAllister and Robert Crocker.
"A Genealogy of the Spragues of Baileyville, ME: A Revisionof the Spragues in the History of Early Baileyville", byDr. Albert W. Bailey, page 1.
They were first settlers in Machias, Maine, then Calais andthen Sprague Falls. Abial-2 Jr. coming to SpragueFalls in 1794 to take part in the survey crew of SamuelTitcomb, and establishing his family there before1800. They had been members of Logging crews wellbefore that time, traveling the trail made by Col. JohnAllen, Revolutionary hero in charge of Indian affairs inMachias, Maine and the Indian settlement at Peter Dana'sPoint.
From there, the Spragues migrated to Princeton, Maine,Moses Bonney being the first permanent settler in 1806,according to Congregational Church records of that time,Bonney's wife being a Sprague and half sister of Abial-2.
Jonas Dyer, one of the earlier settlers of Calais wasgrandson of Abial-1 no doubt; his mother married Levi Dyerin Scarboro. Before World War II hardly a resident ofPrinceton that didn't have a Sprague connection, the familyhaving disappeared from Baileyville. Now there arefew descendants there. In the late 1800's many wentinto Aroostook County and Waldo. Dr. Edward Sprague,grandson of Nathaniel of Appleton, Maine, lived and isburied in Penobscot, Hancock County, Maine. Many wentwest to California, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Oregon; fewcame back home again. They were a religious family,belonging to many different churches. Mr. McGarvey relatesthat the Spragues were a very affluent family, owning alarge boat that probably transported them from Scarboroughto Machias, Maine in 1763. This boat was used fortransporting lumber and supplies on the rivers and QuoddyBay. Probably form this Eli, oldest child of Abial-2 Jr.,got the title of Captain. Many of his sons served inthe Militia, both Artillery and Infantry at Baring,Maine. I can find no record of his serving in theMilitia, War of 1812 - Volunteers at Eastport. TheSprague men cut the huge timbers marked with the King'sArrow for His Majesty's masts at Maguerrawock Mountain,sawing to the right lengths in their mill and shipping toBoston, Massachusetts for the Columns of the State House.This is recorded at the Capitol and at Boston PublicLibrary. Mr. McGarney stated this branch of the Spraguefamily descended from the old Scottish Kings, includingJames I and William the Conqueror. The maternal line ofBassetts (spelled Bissett in France) from the old FrenchKings.
Abial Sprague, Sr., owned a huge tract of land in Harpswellwhich he sold for a good price, moved to Scarborough, livedfor four or five years then removed to Machias, Maine wherehe died before the Revolution. His son, Abial, Jr.,settled his estate.
I am grateful to the many people who have helped preparethese records; the personnel of the State Archives, Mr.Garney of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, the many townclerks, especially Mrs. Mary Belmore Williams who suppliedmuch information and visited the old Sarah Sprague Fogghomestead and Cemetery in Waite, Maine, also private papersof Bruce Belmore, author of the History of Princeton,Maine, she allowed me to read, Mrs. Mary Pike of Princetonwho did much searching and to the many Sprague descendantswho furnished their own genealogies. My visit withGerald McGarvey was delightful with his many stories andhis ideas of religion, and Mrs. Sarah Allen Moffett,researcher, helping me at the courthouse in Machias. Thisis a far from finished record, especially those of WaldoCounty. Edward-3 Sprague's letter of Palo Alto, California(Nathaniel) was a great surprise and informative. Weall agreed that these pioneer families were not povertystricken nor illiterate as has been portrayed; both Abial-1and Abial-2 Jr., were good writers, as documents in theCourt House at Machias, Maine show, and as early as 1787they were in a school in Calais.
Many of the children were beautiful writers and all the mencould use a square and rule to good advantage. Several early homes can still be seen in Princeton. Judging by dates of their deaths they lived good, longlives and infant mortality was not too high. There isno doubt that at times they battled many elements and greathardships prevailed, but I believe they would not, ifpossible, swap their lives for that of the one we areliving today. They loved the life of roaming andpioneering. They certainly were roamers in everysense of the word, leaving their homes when neighbors gottoo near. We are all quite appreciative of your interest inthis family and we ask only one thing when you revise yourbook: that you do not omit the Junior with Abial-2name. That was the way he was baptized, signeddocuments, and died.
Gertrude Strout Winter, November 25, 1974.
From Franklin S. Hauser, correspondent.
Below is a note from Caleb Johnson, genealogist in responseto my request for a search of the Rochester, MA VitalRecords to try and prove or disprove the parentage of AbielSprague as published in "Supplement to Sprague Families inAmerica", by Dr. Warren Vincent Sprague and as disputed byAlicia C. Williams, Genealogist for the Alden KindredSociety. Despite the following comments, I havespoken to several active participants in the MayflowerSociety and they have indicated to me that the Societywould probably accept Dr. Warren Vincent Sprague'sconnection of Abiel to John Alden. Mr. Johnson's notefollows:
"I have completed your vital records search on the surnameSprague in Rochester.
"The marriage record of Abial to Elizabeth Ashley daughterof Joseph was found (18 June 1730 as you correctlystated). There was no birth record for Abial,however. I suspect since the book you are using didnot give a full date, but just said "about 1710", that theauthor did not ever find a birth record and is eithermaking an educated guess on the birth date (based on themarriage date), or perhaps a death record gave his age atdeath. I took a peek at the Duxbury records but hisbirth was not recorded there either.
"I would tend to agree with Alicia Williams that Abial ismost likely not a son of Samuel and Ruth Sprague. Adisinheritance could only be made "legal" if Samuel Spraguehad made a will and specifically excluded a son fromit. However, as I understand it, he did not make awill, so the court divided his estate upon his death. Whenthe court has to divide an estate there is not such thingas family disinheritance. The last thing the probatecourt wants is to get involved in domestic squabbles, so itsimply divides the estate by a pre-defined formula (widowgets 1/3 of estate, rest is equally split among allchildren with the eldest son getting twice as much as hisother siblings.
"The fact Abial is in Maine would be irrelevant--manypeople moved to Maine during this time period. Whenthey inherited land in Massachusetts from relatives, theysimply arranged for it to be sold and the money from thesale sent to them."
From Robert Mayall, correspondent, note of September 8,2017:
Just one last thought about Abiel and his father, SamuelSprague (according to Dr. W. V. Sprague, who, as you say,did excellent work). I'm not really suggesting thatyou should do anything with the Database about all this,one way or the other. But, I just had to get one morethought off my chest regarding the lack of a will bySamuel. And, it still seems rather significant to methat some active members of the Mayflower Society haveindicated that they would be willing to accept theconnection (according to Franklin Hauser).
I had thought originally that Samuel had left a will andspecifically did not mention Abiel. That certainlywould have been hard evidence on which to reject the factthat Abiel was his son.
However, now it appears (via Caleb Johnson and others) thatSamuel did not leave a will. In that case, of course,Samuel himself did not make any statement, one way or theother, about Abiel or any of his other children. Itwas up to Noah, the older brother and administrator, toinform the court as to who all should share in thedistribution of Samuel's estate. Apparently Abiel wasnot included.
Abiel and his family had moved away from Rochester severalyears before Samuel's death and were living in a veryremote area in Maine. Abiel may have had a fallingout with the family. It seems there could have beenany number of reasons as to why Abiel might not have beenincluded in the administration.
RESPONSE from Dick Weber:
I have no disagreement with you position. However, itseems to boil down to the fact that there is no recordconnecting Abial to Lieut. Samuel as Samuel's son. Without proof there can be no connection. If Lieut.Samuel had a will, Abial would need to be named there orspecifically excluded. Since he did not have a will,he would by law have an inheritance. What we need tosee is a copy of the Probate papers as filed by Noah andhis mother as administrators. I've seen no indicationthat this record has been found.
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From Patricia Bean, correspondent, note of 1 January 2020
I started off by looking to see if possibly there wasanother Sprague family in Rochester. I made a spreadsheetof the Samuel Sprague/Ruth Alden family and put everyonefrom the Rochester Vital Records in. There are few peoplethat didn't belong the Sam/Ruth tree, but they marriedother people in Rochester, and came too late to be Abiel'sparent. So only one Sprague family in the town. I sent thatin a separate email. This attachment is my timeline.
There are some problems with the Rochester Records. Theoriginal town and church records are missing. A compilationwas made before the Vital Records to 1850 book. That wasused to do the 1850 book, and they admit there are errors,but don't say what they were. There were several churchesin Rochester at the time. The Sprague's belonged to the 1stCongregational Church, according to the Vital Record book.According to the book, Samuel is buried in that graveyard,and Abiel was married there.Next, the records were probably originally in chronologicalorder. The compiler would have had to collect all therecords, and sort them alphabetically. When I made myspreadsheet, I had to sort them into family group sheets,and then put them where they belonged chronologically. Lotsof room for errors.
I still have to sort out the Duxbury Sprague's. I knowthere was more than one family. That was going to be mynext step but the reference librarian distracted me andthen the virus hit.
The reference librarian came to our little genealogicalmeeting and showed us the American Ancestors database. Thelibrary was paying for it and she wanted use to use it sothat they would continue getting it. I checked theircourt cases in Plymouth County. Abiel was a cordwainer. Hewas apprenticed and his apprenticeship would have endedwhen he was 21. He was not allowed to get married whilestill in apprenticeship. So presumably when he got marriedin 1730 he was at least 21. He was apparently a badcordwainer, because he got sued a lot. I have been lookingthrough the court cases to find the earliest lawsuit. ThenI subtract 21 from that, hoping to arrive at a potentialbirth range. So far it is this. On 17 June 1728 he andanother man signed a bond to Thomas Turner a RochesterShipwright.Abiel defaulted on the bond and Turner sued him in 1730.Abiel lost and was ordered to pay. He didn't and yearslater Turner's widow sued him again. He was again orderedto pay but didn't. If he was working as cordwainer in 1728,he was at least 21. So my reasoning is that he was born in1707 or before. I don't think you get sued on your firstday of work. I am still looking at cases.
I also have begun to check out probate to see if Samueladopted a child, but don't see anything yet. I have beenreading about warning out. Colonial towns were very carefulnot to become responsible for people if they didn't have tobe. It is too bad the local town records are gone, becausethey would have documented the apprenticeship.
From 1730 to 1740 Abiel seems to split his time betweenRochester and Maine. There are a lot of lawsuits up theretoo.
I have come up with some questions:
Who paid for the apprenticeship? It was long and expensive.
How did Abiel and Elizabeth buy the island in Cumberland?After that there are no lawsuits, so it looks as if hedidn't make boots after 1740.
What happened in Duxbury in the early 1700s? Many peopleleft town, including two Sprague brothers?
Why did Samuel, a big fish in Duxbury, move to Rochester.He became a big fish there too.
NOTE: See the timeline developed by Patricia's researchwhich is attached as a Spreadsheet file (I72226.xlsx.)
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From Patricia Bean, correspondent, note of 3 January 2011
My methodology was a bit old fashioned. The librarywouldn't let me take the Rochester vital records book out,but they were ok with me xeroxing the Sprague marriages,births and deaths. At the time I was wondering if there wassome other Sprague family in Rochester that could have beenAbiel's parents. I started with the marriages and made anindex card for each marriage. Then I moved on to the birthsand started building group sheets but with index cards. Theextra unmatched cards became the strays.
I did not find Micah in the Rochester births. Thatsurprised me because I had read that Alicia Williams (AldenKindred and NEHGS) had said she didn't accept Abiel becausethere was no birth record and that he didn't receive moneyin Samuel's will. Well I didn't find a birth record in theVitals for Micah and Samuel didn't have a will. Samuel diesintestate, Ruth and Noah are appointed executers. With youridentifications, there don't seem to be any Spragues in therelevant time span who could have been his parents. I couldhave saved myself a lot of time by starting with DuxburyVital Records and the lawsuits. I will need to xerox theSprague section in the Duxbury Vital Records book and playthe match game again. For that I need to get into thelibrary or find a copy of the book. I found it much easierthat using the scanned copy that is on Internet Archive.
I think I need to call NEHGS and ask if they have anyadvice on how to manipulate their database. When I searchfor cases, they do not turn up in chronological order. Thatwould be a major improvement. My theory was that Abiel hadto finish his apprenticeship before he got married. So Istarted looking for the earliest lawsuit. The database isonly an index, so I don't know exactly what the suit wasabout. Mostly Abiel loses. I did see in one case he wassued under the name Abiel Sprague and with the alias AbielStetson of Pembroke. He gets sued under Abiel and Abial.There are more hits under Abiel.
Enclosed are the Court cases from Maine. (NOTE: Seethe Media Gallery for this chart.]
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From Richard E. (Dick) Weber, Sprague Project Developer, 7February 2021
A Sprague family mystery (as discussed above) is theidentification of the ancestry of Abial Sprague. Itwas long thought that he was the son of Samuel Sprague andRuth Bassett. As this was discussed above, thatrelationship has been disputed because no proof is found ofsuch a relationship and Abial is not named in Samuel'sprobate record. Since the early days of the SpragueProject I've received a significant number of queries aboutAbial's ancestry. With the advent of DNA research inthe family history field and following the DNA workcompleted by Dr. Child of the Mayflower Society I contactedDr. Child to discuss the possibility of applying DNA studyto proving or disproving the relationship of Abial topossible father Samuel. I asked for volunteers forsuch a study. Two individuals (Mark andDavid Sprague) volunteered to participate. I wouldhave like more but gain has been made to understandingAbial's ancestry. The following is the preliminaryreport from Dr. Child on 28 January 2021:
The 12 marker test is: David Leroy Sprague, Mark and Davidmatch at 12/12 markers [I do not know his lineage, heidentifies his ancestor as Francis Sprague, I assume helikely descends from Abial]
The 111 marker test is Fritz C. Sprague, Mark and Fritzmatch at 35/37 markers
Fritz's father is the Sprague database -http://sprague-database.org/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I210435&tree=SpragueProject – and descends fromAbial's oldest son Abial Sprague Jr. (1742-1817) fromAbial's first marriage, while Mark descends from Abial'ssecond son James Sprague (1746-1799), from Abial's secondmarriage.
This (especially since Abial, Jr. and James werehalf-brothers), make it very clear that the Y-DNA sequenceof Fritz and Mark was that of Abial himself, and that Abialwas not, at least agnately (through all men), related tothe Sprague family of Plymouth Colony.
Abial Sprague (1710-1773) married in Rochester,Massachusetts, 13 June 1730, Elizabeth Ashley, and soonmoved to Maine.
The family of Samuel and Ruth (Alden) Sprague are inRochester by 1714. Their eldest child Noah was born 1695/6,and then Elizabeth in 1699.
In considering if Abial Sprague could have been anillegitimate son of a Sprague woman, I'm just finding itway to tight for such a possibility.
A decent possibility is that this Abial Sprague is notrelate to any earlier Sprague families.
Mark Sprague asked:
I'm not sure I understand completely what is going onhere. I understand the Marker connection to Abiel, but I donot understand the agnate disconnection between Abiel andthe Sprague's in the Plymouth colony? Is it that you havegood Marker data from the contested connection to SamuelSprague family tree, and those do not exist in Abieldescendants? If you could tell me how this works I'dappreciate it.
Second question. Is the data inconclusive at this point,but suggest that Samuel Sprague is not Abiel's Father?
Dr. Child responded:
Agnate means "patrilineal" meaning the kinship between twomen is exclusively through men only [i.e. two mens whosefathers are full brothers have a nearly identical Y-DNAsequence, we are just doing that several more generationsback via two sons of Abiel]. Based on the results, sinceits via two different sons of Abial, this shows that AbialSprague cannot be a son of Samuel Sprague or related to himin any male derived way [father's brother, father'sbrother's son, etc.]. A descendant of Samuel Spraguematched descendants of his brother William and they alsomatched other Massachusetts Sprague families. Your Y-DNAhaplogroup and markers are entirely different.
I think the data is conclusive of Abiel being "his ownSprague," not related (via males) to any of these earlierMassachusetts Sprague families. Who Abiel's parents are isnot known. Basically at this point we know who they cannotbe. In looking through your matches for any other surnamein colonial Massachusetts, I do not find anything standingout. [6]
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- 1773
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