History and Genealogy of the Norcross Family

Home , Brother Jonathan

“Three of his sons and some of his sons-in-law were in the East Newton Company commanded by Jeremiah Wiswall son of Captain Noah and brother of Mary (Wiswall) Norcross. After the company had started for Lexington, he started on foot and alone to follow them saying I wish to see what the boys are doing. Standing with some Americans not far from the field, three British soldiers came into sight, he immediately pointed them out to his companions saying if you aim at the middle one you will hit one of the three, they did so and were successful, the other two fled. As he held out his hand pointing towards the Britons, a musket ball passed through it. He coolly bound up the hand with his handkerchief, picked up the gun of the fallen regular and brought it home as a trophy. He was then 76 years old and his name appears on the roll of the East Newton Co.” Samuel Norcross was the second Norcross settler of Maine (his brother Jonathan being the first) having moved there from Cambridge in 1763 and settled at Gardinerstown (then called Pittston). Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, for whom the town was named, and who was one of the first settlers and owned the whole territory, agreed with Mr. Norcross if he would move there, he would give him and also each of his sons 100 acres of land. He moved there, but his agreement was only a verbal one, and the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, he (Gardiner) espoused the cause of Great Britain and left Boston with the British Army in the evacuation. His estate was confiscated, but this was found by the Attorney General to be illegal and the heirs of Dr. Gardiner learned these facts and regained their property, and thus Mr. Norcross lost the gift of Dr. Gardiner. In 1776, Mr. Norcross bought 100 acres of Captain Nathaniel Berry, a great hunter of that region, who was afterwards one of General Washington’s Light Guards.

Samuel Norcross and his two sons, Samuel and Philip, were among the thirty-one petitioners to be incorporated as the Town of Gardinerstown in 1778.

Three of Samuels’s sons were in service in the Revolutionary War (see pages 202 & 204). Mr. Norcross afterwards removed to Hallowell. Samuel Jr. and Philip were in Hallowell in 1792, and had their lime and earthenware kiln and brick yard just south of the present railroad crossing at the north end of Water Street. Lime in rock was received in vessels arriving at Hallowell and burnt in Norcross’s kiln. The Norcross’s maintained a ferry across the river to Augusta near their home for many years. Samuel had a large family of children, six sons and seven daughters, all of whom lived to be married except one who died in infancy. He died 2 December 1800 aged 71, and his wife died 8 April 1800 and they were both buried at Hallowell.

His descendents are very numerous. Among them may be mentioned Ransford (471) and Philip Norcross (472) of Farmington; Reverend F.V. Norcross (930) of Union, Maine; Reverend S.S. Norcross (932) of North Canary, New Hampshire; Edward K. Norcross (933) of Melrose, Massachusetts; Edmund D. Norcross (895) of Cambridge; John H. (897) of Somerville; Henry (899) of Augusta; Charles S. (878) of Portland; Hiram L. (886) of Boston; David Copeland Norcross (951) and Mathias S. Norcross (952) both of California and many others whose names will appear in Volume I of this history.

Jonathan Norcross (76) of Newton, the fifth child of Philip Norcross (26) was born in Newton in 1735. He married in 1760 Martha Springer of Georgetown, now Bath, Maine.