Hannah Dodge

Hannah was a daughter of William Dodge, who came in the Lion's Whelp in 1629. Young as she was, she married first Samuel Porter, a mariner with a farm at Wenham. He made his will "being Bound to the Berbadus" in 1658/9, leaving "to my dearly beloved wife Hannah Porter the one halfe of my farme," and he was dead by June 1660, when she was about eighteen (source).

On 2 Dec 1661 she married Thomas Woodbury of Beverly, son of Deacon Humphrey, "by whom she had nine children. They lived on the Capt. Thomas Lowthrop farm" (source). Her eldest Woodbury son, William, was born the next September. When her father settled his lands he gave "To my daughter Hannah Woodberry a parcel of land in the bounds of Beverly about 12 acres; also, during her life, the improvement of one halfe my farme at Wenham which I bought of Mr. John Fisk," with the reversion to her Porter son.

King Philip's War. The war took a brother from each side of her marriage. Josiah Dodge, probably her brother, was killed with Capt. Thomas Lathrop's company at Bloody Brook on 18 Sept 1675, and Peter Woodbury, her husband's brother, fell beside him: both are in the list "At Muddy-Brook bridge ye 18 Sept. 71 men slane," and Treasurer John Hull credited "Josiah Dodge 01 18 06" to his estate on 25 Jan 1675/6 (Soldiers in King Philip's War, pp. 136-138).

Her brother William, probably, rode with the Salem troopers in Capt. Thomas Prentice's troop on the Narragansett campaign: "Troopers belonging to Capt. Curwin ... William Dodge (Jr,)," credited "William Dodg" under Prentice (pp. 82-83). The troop fought at the fort on 19 Dec 1675. A month later, on 21 Jan, Hubbard wrote, "one W. Dodge of Salem, riding in Company with another Friend," met two Indians; the friend was thrown from his horse and about to be killed with a knife, and Dodge "came time enough to rescue his Friend, and dispatch the Indian lying upon him, and yet overtook the first Indian he was pursuing": he "saved the Life of one Friend, and slew two of his Enemies" (Hubbard, 1:163).

She died at Beverly on 2 Jan 1688/9, "a. abt. 45 y." (record).

Research: Woodbury, Rand–Cheever–Ivory and Slater lines behind the Ellingwoods.