Daniel Green, alias Morgrage

[Biographical summary provided by direct descendant, Robert Hanscom -- 3/11/2015]

Daniel Green, alias Morgrage, was born in Kittery about July 1707, the out-of-wedlock son of Mary Morgrage by Daniel Green, a married man. Shortly after the baby's birth, Mary Morgrage publicly accused Daniel Green of fathering her child. He subsequently admitted paternity and agreed to support the child. [See Noyes-Libby-Davis' "Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire" for more background.]

In his early years, he went by the name "Daniel Green, alias Morgrage". He apparently lived with his mother and stepfather (Rowland Jenkins) for several years, but due to their repeated problems with the law, was largely raised by his Morgrage relatives. In 1717, at age 10, he was apprenticed out by his uncle, John Morgrage (in whose house he was living), to one Edmund Geach, a surveyor in Kittery. Following the death of John Morgrage in 1726, Daniel then lived in the home of another uncle, William Morgrage, in York, Maine. William was about 11 years Daniel's senior, and both enlisted in Capt. Preble's York regiment in 1726.

As an adult, Daniel went to Falmouth, Maine where he dropped the "alias Morgrage" from his name. His occupation was that of surveyor (stemming from his apprenticeship with Edmund Geach). About 1731, he was married to Mary Bloom, who according to family lore, had come to America from England one year previously, at age 16. Following their marriage, they remained in Falmouth where most of their children were born.

In 1744, Daniel Green joined the militia from New England that ultimately was stationed at Fort Louisbourg, Canada. He is seen there in 1745, but died in the Siege of Louisbourg in the summer of that same year. His pregnant widow and children soon returned to Maine, and settled in Georgetown, along the Maine coast. Mary was accompanied by Daniel's first cousin, Benjamin Morgrage, who continued to stay with the family even after Mary's 1746 remarriage -- to widower, Ebenezer Hall, in Georgetown, Maine, 9 May 1746. Benjamin Morgrage was on Matinicus Island with Ebenezer and Mary Hall when it was attacked in June 1757, and he was taken captive with Mary and her children after Ebenezer Hall was killed (10 June 1757). Like Mary's four children, Benjamin Morgrage is also believed to have been killed as he was being marched from Maine to Quebec.

Mary (Bloom) Green Hall survived her captivity, and was eventually ransomed. She returned to Maine in 1760, was reunited with her surviving children, and eventually made her residence in the home of her eldest daughter, Hannah (Green) Cobb (1734-1803), in Gorham, Maine. On 4 July 1765, Mary was married a third time, this time to widower Chipman Cobb (1709-c1796), the father of her son-in-law, Andrew Cobb (1734-1822). Mary is said to have died in Gorham in 1803 at the advanced age of 89.