Nathan Low

Tanner and farmer, major of militia and selectman of Deer Isle (Hosmer pp. 143-144). No commission record has been found.

He grew up at Boxford, where his parents moved in 1767. He married Rebecca Thompson of Deer Isle in 1792; their first two daughters were baptized at East Boxford in 1793 and 1795 and also entered in the Deer Isle register, and the third, Rebekah, was born in June 1797, presumably at Deer Isle, so he moved between 1795 and 1797. Hosmer’s “came here from the county of Worcester” conflicts with everything else and is probably an error.

On 7 July 1803 “Nathan Low of Deer Isle … Gentleman,” with Rebekah releasing her dower, sold Ignatius Haskell 40 acres on “Egemoggin Reach, so called,” bounded by his own land and by land of Thomas Thompson, John Closson, Robert Line and Joshua Staples: the land Hosmer describes, “he became owner of the land laid out to Joshua Staples; he afterward was owner of one of the lots laid out to Mr. Thomas Thompson near Thompson’s Cove.” In 1809, in the hard years of the Embargo, the Deer Isle merchants Towne and Spofford sued “Nathan Low of said Deer Isle yeoman” on a note for $34.36; he “does not appear but makes default,” and they sued his father-in-law Thomas Thompson at the same term. In 1815 he was one of sixteen men named “to assist the tithingmen of the town to enforce the due observance of the Sabbath, and suppression of intemperance.” His brother Jeremiah was also a tanner, at Boxford (Perley, Dwellings of Boxford, p. 48).

Hosmer calls him “probably one of the most skilful farmers that was ever in the town,” and adds: “He was a large, portly man, and as an officer in the militia must have made a fine appearance. I have been told by one who had seen both that he very much resembled the father of Daniel Webster.” “He acquired considerable property and settled his sons upon farms of which he was owner”; Mollie agrees: “Major Low gave each of his three sons a farm.” “A brother of his in Massachusetts lived to be about one hundred years old” (none of the brothers found lived nearly so long). Mollie saw the homestead at Thompson’s Cove as a girl: “Trees surrounded the open place, excepting on the water side. From there was a view of the Reach,” with the “remains of cellars of Major Low’s house,” “the old high gate-post set up by Major Low,” and “the famous Durham Springs.”

In 1850 he was 84, born Massachusetts, at Deer Isle with his second wife Hannah, 43. He died at Deer Isle in May 1859, and his son “Nathan Low Jr” administered his estate. No will was found.

Mollie says Major Nathan named his eldest son for Daniel Webster. It was Capt. Nathan who named his eldest son Daniel Webster, in 1836.

Open questions

• His Hancock County estate file (inventory and division).
• His militia commission (Massachusetts militia records for the District of Maine before 1820; Maine adjutant general after).
• Hannah (Hardy) Low’s death.
• His census entries, 1800-1840.
• The Thompson’s Cove homestead and the Durham Springs on a map.
• The research file of 2 Oct 2026 calls Abigail, wife of Joseph Low of Fitchburg, his sister. The Abigail Low “wife of Joseph Low” in Caleb Low’s will of 1773 was Caleb’s daughter, which would make her his aunt, and no Abigail is among Nathan and Lucy’s recorded children or in his father’s will. Which is meant?