Capt. Merrill was the son of Caleb and Betsey (Candage) (Day) Merrill, widow of James Day; born May 5, 1804. He was a sea captain, who married Louisa Clough, daughter of Asa and Abigail (Pecker) Clough, August 28, 1831; she was born Sept. 27, 1811; died August 22, 1847 leaving children as follows: Caroline, Juliet, William, Horace, Parris, Mary and Abby.
I find it disappointing in the wonderful manuscript of R. A. F. Candage that he failed to provide any substance on the progenitor of the Carter family in Blue Hill, James Carter, Sr. What we can gather, is James arrived in Blue Hill about 1770 from Edgecomb Maine with his young family and settled at the location known later as the Carter Places. He had at least the following children: James and David. The offspring of both James and David are much more thoroughly on this page.
Upon the very threshold of this historical sketch we find ourselves quite destitute of early public records for Swan’s Island. For over half a century from the settlement of this island until its organization as a plantation no municipal records were kept. But we are fortunate that H. W. Small saw purpose in bringing to light many private family records, old deeds showing what lots were occupied by the pioneer settlers; and written mutual agreements, which seem to have been often the result of arbitration on any disputed point where different claims to land conflicted with one another.
James Candage was the son of James and Elizabeth Candage, who settled upon the Neck in 1766 from Beverly, Mass., born May 9, 1753; married Hannah, daughter of John Roundy, April 13, 1775; she was born at Beverly, August 4, 1753; died March 12, 1851, aged 97 years, 7 months, 8 days; he died Jan. 12, 1819, aged 65 years and 8 months. Their children were: Elizabeth, Samuel, Gideon, Sarah, James, Azor and John.
Edmund Ingalls, son of Robert, was born about 1598 in Skirbeck, Lincolnshire, England. He immigrated in 1628 to Salem, Massachusetts and with his brother, Francis, founded Lynn, Massachusetts in 1629. He married Ann, fathered nine children, and died in 1648.
Edward Sinclair was born June 20, 1760, supposed at Beverly, where he died while on a visit May 19, 1827, aged sixty-seven years. He married Dec. 17, 1789, Mary Carleton, from Andover, a sister of David, Dudley, Edward and Moses Carleton. She was born Sept. 17, 1760, and died Jan. 1, 1841, aged 80 years and 4½ months. The family of Edward Sinclair, Sr. consisted of the following children: Maria, Edward, Nabby, Dudley, Ebenezer and William.
Farther down the road towards the tide mills stands the house built by John Cheever about 1835. Mr. Cheever came from Beverly to Blue Hill village and settled, where he kept a store and began to build a fishing fleet, the first being the schooner “Marion”, built at the village. The father of the writer …
Jedediah Holt was the son of Nicholas Holt, who came from Andover, Mass., to Blue Hill in 1765. Jedediah was born at Andover, March 12, 1754. He married Sarah Thorndike, Feb. 24, 1778. She died Jan. 15, 1836. They had six children as follows: Jedediah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Samuel, Stephen and Sally.
