Henry Dow -- (1634 - May 6, 1707)

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1634 - May 6, 1707

Dictionary of American Biography

Edited by Allen Johnson & Dumas Malone, Vol. V, Page 409

Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1930.

DOW, HENRY (1634-May 6, 1707), New Hampshire soldier and statesman, the second son of Joan and Henry Dow, was born at Ormsby in Norfolkshire. His father migrated with his family to Watertown in the colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1637, and was there admitted freeman on May 2, 1638. He removed to Hampton in 1644. Henry Dow, Jr., was without formal education but became an important and financially prosperous figure in the town of Hampton and the province of New Hampshire. He was chosen selectman in 1661 and several times reelected to that office. He served as town clerk from 1681 to 1707 (Joseph Dow, post, p. 565).

He was admitted and sworn as an attorney in 1686 and thereafter represented the town in litigation. He was ensign of the Hampton militia in 1689, captain in 1692, and took part in the first and second intercolonial wars. Dow was sworn in as deputy marshal of the province of New Hampshire in 1680, captain in 1692, and took part in the first and second intercolonial wars. Dow was sworn in as deputy marshal of the province of New Hampshire in 1680, and was appointed sole marshal of the province at a salary of £5 on Mar. 10, 1681/2 (Provincial Papers, XIX, 661, 663, 684).

He was appointed justice of the court for New Hampshire under the governments of Joseph Dudley and Edmund Andros, justice of the inferior court of common pleas of the province of New Hampshire in 1695, and senior justice in 1699. He repeatedly represented the town of Hampton in the lower house of the legislature of New Hampshire, serving as clerk and speaker pro tempore in 1701 (Ibid., 736). He was treasurer of the province, 1694-95 (Ibid., III, 267, 268), and a member of the Council from 1702 until his death. He was twice married: on June 17, 1659, to Hannah, the daughter of Robert and Lucy Page, and on Nov. 10, 1704, to Mary, the daughter of Capt. Christopher Hussey and widow of Thomas Page and Henry Green. By his first marriage he had four sons.

[R. P. Dow, The Book of Dow (1929); Jos. Dow, Hist. of the Town of Hampton, N.H. (1893); Provincial Papers of N. H., esp. vols. II, III, XII, XIX, XXXI.]

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