HAND, REV. RICHARD CHARLES. – Nathan Hand, grandfather of Richard C., was born on Long Island in 1747, married Anna, daughter of Isaac and Hannah Barnes, who was born July 18; 1749. He died May 26, 1811, aged sixty-four; she died July 14, 1812, aged sixty-three. They had nine children – five sons and four daughters – of whom Captain Samuel Hand was the eldest. He was born in East Hampton, Long Island, N. Y., October 13, 1769. He married Eliza Sill March 4, 1801, at Granville, Washington county, N. Y. She was born April 22, 1782, in Lyme, Conn. Captain Samuel Hand near the close of the last century settled in the southwest part of Shoreham township, bordering on Lake Champlain, where he built in 1841 the present homestead. He died there September 13, 1845. His wife died July 14, 1859. Nathan and Samuel Hand and their wives are buried in Birchard burying-ground, Shoreham.
Captain Samuel and Eliza Hand had six children, viz: Richard Charles, Augustus C., Nancy Augusta, Susan A., Eliza Ann, and Harriet, all of whom, with the exception of Eliza A., who occupies the homestead, are deceased.
Richard Charles Hand was born in Shoreham January 21, 1802; prepared for college at the Newton Academy, in Shoreham; entered Middlebury College, and was graduated from that institution in 1822; pursued his theological studies for three years at the Andover Theological Seminary, and after receiving license he settled in Gouverneur, N. Y., where he became pastor of the Presbyterian Church. He remained there about seven years. He then became district secretary of A. B. C. F. M., three years in New York and nearly four years in Northern New England.
Pastor of the Danville Congregational Church at Danville, Vt., nearly seven years, and at Bennington for the same period. At this time his health had so failed him that he was obliged to withdraw from the active duties of his profession, and in 1854 moved to Brooklyn, N. Y., where he was a resident at the time of his death, which occurred July, 1870. He married, August 2, 1826, Agnes Hunsdon, who died May 10, 1828; February 13, 1831, married Rhoda Hoyt, of New Haven. The latter died March 31, 1870. Their children were: Lockhart Augustus Charles, born at Gouverneur, N. Y., August 15, 1832, died at New Haven, Vt., March 13, 1834, of brain fever; Agnes Eliza, born at Danville, Vt., July 16, 1845, lived in Brooklyn, N. Y., was educated at Packer Collegiate Institute, graduated 1864; died of heart disease at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., August 7, 1865. The whole family are buried in Birchard Cemetery, Shoreham.