Deacon John Leavitt (1608–1691) was atailor, public officeholder, and foundingdeacon ofOld Ship Church inHingham,Plymouth County, Massachusetts, the only remaining 17th-centuryPuritanmeeting house inAmerica and the oldest church in continuousecclesiastical use in theUnited States. Hingham's Leavitt Street[1] is named for the early settler, whose descendants have lived in Hingham for centuries.[2]
Leavitt was born in 1608 inEngland, inBeverly, Yorkshire.[3] Leavitt first appears in the annals of theMassachusetts Bay Colony in 1634, when he is shown in records ofDorchester, Massachusetts, as having been granted a house lot.[4] Within two years, the early settler had moved to nearby Hingham, where he was granted land in 1636. In his early history of Hingham, attorney Solomon Lincoln recited the oft-told tale of Leavitt's supposed origins:
"The family tradition concerning John Leavitt is that he was anindentedapprentice in England," wrote Lincoln in 1827, "and that he absconded from his master and came to this country when nineteen years of age.... He received a grant of land in this town in 1636. His homestead was in Leavitt-street, recently so named, on both sides of the river."[5]
In the same year, Leavitt took theFreeman's Oath of theMassachusetts Bay Colony. In records on file atBoston Leavitt is shown on March 3, 1636, as pledging loyalty to theEnglish Crown.[4] In the early Massachusetts record the early English settler is listed as JohnLevett,[6] as the tailor apparently spelled his own name for several decades, until it became corrupted later in life.[7]
After moving to Hingham, Leavitt's first wife Mary died,[8] and he subsequently remarried at Hingham on December 16, 1646, Sarah Gilman, daughter of Edward Gilman Sr.,[9] a fellow Hingham resident who later removed with his family toIpswich, Massachusetts, and thence toExeter, New Hampshire,[10] where the Gilman family became well-known businessmen, statesmen andAmerican patriots.[11] Sarah Gilman's sister Lydia married Daniel Cushing, who became Hingham's town clerk[12] and John Leavitt's lifelong friend and, later, witness to his will.
Leavitt became active in Hingham town affairs, was named aSergeant in themilitia, as well asDeputy to theMassachusetts General Court from 1656–64, aSelectman[13] for the town in 1661 and many subsequent years, and thenDeacon of the church, pastored by Rev. Peter Hobart,[14] whose daughter Bathsheba married John Leavitt's son John Jr.[15][16]
In between his public life and helping raise 13 children, Leavitt embarked on a lifelong pursuit of land, perhaps in recognition of its limited availability in his native England. By 1665, Leavitt and Lieut. John Smith,[17] with whom he frequently collaborated in his real estate dealings, had secured 12 acres (49,000 m2) on the border of Hingham and what is todayCohasset.[18][19] Living nearby Leavitt's house lot in today's Hingham Center, located at some distance from the main village, was his friend Nathaniel Baker,[20] who also often purchased real estate with Leavitt. The two men apparently enjoyed particularly warm relations with the localIndians. Deacon John Leavitt assisted in the burial of a local Indian chief, and Baker was fined 20shillings for "entertaining an Indian or Indians contrary to a Town order."[1]
Nearby Leavitt's home described as 'over the Delaware' (River) was the so-called Great Rock, an enormous boulder subsequently blown up in the nineteenth century for building material. Onto its granite face was incised, by an early settler, a large inscription noting the accomplishments of Hingham's earliest settlers. The inscription read:
"When wild in wood the naked savage ran,
Lazell, Low,Loring, Lane, Lewis, Lincoln,
Hersey, Leavitt, Jacobs, King, Jones and Sprague,
Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age,
And were the first invaders of this country,
From the Island ofGreat Britain, in 1635."[1]
In keeping with the spirit of the inscription, and despite his own warm relations with the local Native American tribe, John Leavitt bought enormous tracts of land[21] from the local Indians, for a meager outlay of cash.[22] Leavitt made several such purchases during his lifetime, most lying in the so-called 'Narragansett country,' in the region south of Hingham near the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border. One such tract, fifteen-miles (24 km)-square, was purchased by Leavitt and his friends Capt. Joshua Hobart[23] (twin brother of Rev. Peter) and Lieut. John Smith. In many such deeds, John Leavitt the settler is called 'John Levet' or sometimes 'John Levett' or even 'John Levit,' but rarely John Leavitt.
By May 3, 1680, when a town meeting was held to decide whether a new meeting house would be built upon the site of the old, John Leavitt was Deacon of the church, and one of the chief proponents for the new building.[24] Leavitt's speeches on the need for a new sanctuary ultimately proved persuasive.[3] TheOld Ship Church, so-called because thehammerbeam roof construction recalled that of an upside-down ship's hull, was completed July 26, 1681, when the townspeople of Hingham gathered on the knoll bordering on Bachelor's Row (now Main Street) to watch the raising of the frame of the new building.[1]
Observing the festivities was Deacon John Leavitt, aged seventy-three, who had argued the need for the new wooden edifice. The Deacon's pew remains set aside today in the building, over 300 years later.[25] Tailor John Leavitt died at Hingham November 20, 1691, at age 83. His voluminous will records the disposition of the extensive lands accumulated during his lifetime, as well as documenting the family and social connections that sustained him in the New World.[26] The executors of Leavitt's estate, named in his will, were his friend and brother-in-law Daniel Cushing Sr., Hingham's longtime town clerk, Capt. John Smith, Capt. John Jacob, Lieut. Matthew Cushing,[5] and Daniel Cushing Jr.[27]
Leavitt's widow, Sarah (Gilman) Leavitt, died in Hingham at the home of her brother-in-law Daniel Cushing on May 26, 1700. Two of John Leavitt's sons,Samuel[28] andMoses, later moved toExeter, New Hampshire. John's son Israel, bearing anotherOld Testament name, married Lydia Jackson[29] of thePlymouth Colony, where her grandfatherNathaniel Morton,[30] the colony'sSecretary and nephew of GovernorWilliam Bradford, was first to publish a list of signers of theMayflower Compact, as well recording the celebration of the firstThanksgiving. Each yearThe Wall Street Journal carries an excerpt from Morton'sNew England's Memorial – printed atCambridge in 1669, the first history book printed in America – limning the details of the first Thanksgiving.[31]
The daughters of John Leavitt similarly left their mark. Hannah Leavitt married as her second husband[32]Capt. Joseph Estabrook ofLexington, Massachusetts.[33][34] John's daughter Sarah married as her second husband[35] Samuel Howe—their descendants established theWayside Inn inSudbury, Massachusetts, celebrated inHenry Wadsworth Longfellow'sTales of a Wayside Inn.
Among the couple's other descendants on the continent they helped pioneer areSalem clipper ship owner, Massachusetts legislator and founder of thePeabody Essex MuseumDudley Leavitt Pickman; formerSupreme Court JusticeSandra Day O'Connor;Philadelphia societyportraitistCecilia Beaux; architectRichard Morris Hunt, painterWilliam Morris Hunt and brotherLeavitt Hunt, attorney and photography pioneer;deafHarvard astronomy wunderkindHenrietta Swan Leavitt; formerAssistant Secretary of Defense during theCuban Missile CrisisRoswell Leavitt Gilpatric; theabolitionist brothersRoger Hooker Leavitt,Joshua Leavitt andHart Leavitt;New Hampshire nativeDudley Leavitt, publisher of Leavitt's Farmers Almanack, the second oldest in the nation; andHartfordMayor and father of theU. S. Dept. of AgricultureHenry Leavitt Ellsworth.
Deacon Leavitt's descendants also include writerStephen King; contemporary sculptorMichael Leavitt (artist); formerUnited States Secretary of Health and Human ServicesMike Leavitt;New York CityfinancierDavid Leavitt, namesake ofChicago's Leavitt Street for his role in rescuing nearly bankruptIllinois and Michigan Canal; Hon.John Leavitt Stevens,U. S. State Dept.Minister to theKingdom of Hawai'i, forced to resign in 1893 when accused of conspiring to overthrowQueen Lili'uokalani;Forest Ranger and laterU.S. CongressmanScott Leavitt ofMontana; and formerUtah governor,U.S. Ambassador to China andSingaporeJon Huntsman, Jr. andMajor League BaseballpitcherRon Darling. Among John Leavitt's English descendants wasAdmiral of the FleetSir Alfred Dudley Pickman Pound,[36] a torpedo expert who mastermindedBritain's victory in theBattle of the Atlantic (1939–1945).[37]
Other descendants of the Deacon becameGerman citizens. David Leavitt Jr., son of the New York banker, moved toDresden, where daughter Louise Walcott Leavitt married Baron Franz Oswald Trützschler von Falkenstein. Her sister Helen Hudson Leavitt married Baron Adolf von Strahlenheim.[38][39] Hugh Toler Leavitt, brother of the Baronesses, became aGerman Army officer.
Deacon Leavitt's direct descendants were among the first settlers in an area known as Leavitt's Head outside of St. George, New Brunswick, Canada. His fourth great-grandsons, Elisha "The Settler" Leavitt and David "The Settler" Leavitt were, according to family legend, shipwrecked on their voyage from Maine to Saint John, New Brunswick and came ashore in Lepreau, New Brunswick. After working in a lumber mill in Lepreau, the brothers made their way to Mascarene, New Brunswick. They worked at McKenzie's Shipyard. Elisha left the shipyard to work for McVicar's Lumber Camp. He was paid in land in the area known as Letang. He rented land to people who cleared land in lieu of paying rent. Elisha farmed and fished. He operated a limekiln and a lobster factory. He also invested in lumber land, purchasing over six hundred acres in 1858, known as the Glebe. He later built a home there, on higher ground. His brother David chose land and farmed and fished in the area that would become known as Leavitt's Head. Both brothers are buried in a family plot on David's land. Their descendants hold reunions regularly at Leavitt's Head.[40]
John Leavitt's descendants[41] have reunited periodically at Hingham throughout the years.[42]