F-5-14
John French
John French bought several lots of land in the Northeast Quarter from Breed Batchellor in 1774 and built a two-room log cabin (One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Settlement of Nelson New Hampshire 1767-1917) near here in 1775. He moved to Dublin in 1784 selling the farm to Ezra Sheldon who did not live here. As a habitation of nine years duration, it is likely that the cabin had the cellar hole that is here today as its foundation.
A frame hose was built on the old foundation, probably around 1802 to accommodate John Barrett, the son of Nathaniel and Mercy (F-5-6) and his new wife, Lucy Nichols. John left his pregnant wife and five young children in 1812 and she was forced to apply for town support. This was largely supplied by her neighbors at a nominal cost the town. He father-in-law wrote an affidavit attesting to her situation:
“I Nathaniel Barrett of lawful age do testify and say that my son John Barrett was (as I firmly believe) married to Lucy Nichols some time in the month of April 1802 and that they lived together as husband and wife until the year 1812, That the said John some time in the later part of said year of 1812 did leave his said wife and went to parts unknown and wholly forsaken his wife and family ever since.
Nathaniel Barrett, his mark “
It is probable that she and the children lived in the house for a time, but, in 1818, Nathaniel Barrett JR sold the place with three acres to Ichabod Fletcher, a cordwainer. He was there two years before selling it back to Barrett. In 1826 Barret and two other neighbors sold it to Lucy Nichols Barrett. Undoubtedly the purchase price of $150 was financed by a mortgage. John Barrett and Lucy were finally divorced. When Lucy left Nelson to marry John Barney of Washington a few years later, the property reverted to the Barretts. After Nathaniel JR died in 1847, the family sold the place to Miron Wilson. He as there in 1858. The house stood as late as 1892.
