James WHIDDEN, *

Abt 1710 - 1790  (80 years)

• Name	James WHIDDEN  [1]
  Suffix	*
  Birth	Abt 1710	Canterbury, Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA
  	Or Greenland, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA
  Birth	1711	Greenland, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States
  Baptism	24 Oct 1713	New Hampshire, USA
  Gender	Male
  Arrival	1720	Truro, Colchester, Nova Scotia, Canada
  	James Whidden was among the first settlers of Truro. He was a Grantee of the township.
  Residence	1761	Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada
  	James Whidden, b. about 1710 in Canterbury, NH (baptized in 1713 at Greenland, NH). By the mid-1740s he was living in nearby Nottingham, NH. He and his family lived there for about 15 years and then in 1761, at the age of about 48, he decided to move to NS
  Residence	2 Aug 1790	Portsmouth, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA   [2]
  Death	13 Dec 1790	Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada
  Name	James Whidden
  Death	13 Dec 1790	Truro, Colchester, Nova Scotia, Canada
  Person ID	I527	Our Genealogy
  Last Modified	12 Sep 2026

  
  

  Father	Samuel WHIDDEN,   b. 1680   d. 1714, New Hampshire, USA (Age 34 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Sarah JONES,   b. 27 Apr 1669, Portsmouth, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States d. 1722, Portsmouth, Rockingham, New Hampshire, British Colony (Age 52 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Marriage	1700	New England, USA   [3, 4]
  Family ID	F217	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Mary GUILD
  Family ID	F161	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	12 Sep 2026

  
  

  Family 2	Abigail Whidden SANBORN,   b. 24 Oct 1715, Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States d. 1756, New Hampshire, United States of America (Age 40 years)
  Marriage	26 Mar 1734	Greenland, New Hampshire, USA   [3, 5]
  Children	1. David WHIDDEN,   b. 7 Dec 1749, Nottingham, Rockingham, New Hampshire, British Colony d. 1 Oct 1825, Maitland, Nova Scotia, Canada (Age 75 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   2. Samuel WHIDDEN,   b. 1752, Nova Scotia, Canada d. 1821, Nova Scotia, Canada (Age 69 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   3. Simeon WHIDDEN,   b. 1754, Nova Scotia, Canada d. 1800, Nova Scotia, Canada (Age 46 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   4. Eleanor WHIDDEN,   b. 1735, Truro, Colchester, Nova Scotia, Canada  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   5. John WHIDDEN,   b. 1736, Truro, Colchester, Nova Scotia, Canada d. 1794 (Age 58 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   6. Martha WHIDDEN,   b. 1743, Truro, Colchester, Nova Scotia, Canada  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
  Family ID	F162	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	12 Sep 2026

  
  

  Family 3
  Marriage	26 Mar 1734	Greenland, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA
  	Married by Rev. William Allen. Or in Hampton, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA
  Married	Aft 1768
  Family ID	F504	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	12 Sep 2026

  
  

• Histories		Whidden Grave
  		list of settlers Cobequid NS 1761,1780 ,COLCHESTER HISTORICAL MUSEUM APR22,2010 Truro Colchester County is celebrating its 250 Anniversary of the arrival of our earlier settlers from New England to Nova Scotia. My Family marked in yellow is James McCabe, Alexander Nelson, Samuel Whidden and James Whidden. This was postdated in the Truro Daily News April 22, 2010
  		Samuel Whidden, Abigail Newcomb, James Whidden, Abigail Sanborn, Elizabeth (Rebecca) Whidden, Richard Pyke
  		Genealogical Record OF THE ANTIGONISH WHIDDENS AND A BRIEF HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF The Province of Nova Scotia AND OF The County

  
  

• Notes

  James Whidden, b. about 1710 in Canterbury, NH (baptized in 1713 at Greenland, NH). By the mid-1740s he was living in nearby Nottingham, NH. He and his family lived there for about 15 years and then in 1761, at the age of about 48, he decided to move to Nova Scotia. Jane Wile (5) speculates that for the sake of his children he wanted to take advantage of the new lands that were opening up in NS and there was also the fact that one of the agents organizing emigration to NS was Jacob Longfellow, the brother-in-law of his son John. After the expulsion of the Acadians, the British government wanted the vacated lands to be colonized by British protestants and strongly promoted immigration from New England. According to Wile (5), the family traveled to Nova Scotia on a ship belonging to the famous John Hancock of Boston, an American founding father, who was a friend of James. A grandson of James (a son of David) would later be named John Hancock Whidden in his honour. James and his son David received land grants at Truro, James receiving a full share of 500 acres. His son John (and Jacob Longfellow) settled at Cornwallis. In Truro, James was a farmer and miller (both sawmill and grist mill). As a farmer, he principally grew flax, for the production of linen. James was the founder of the Whidden line of Colchester County, NS. James married three times. The Miller book had indicated that Mary Lyons [sic] was the mother of his children but this is not the case; Mary Lynds was in fact his third wife. He first married Abigail Sanborn on March 26 1734 in Greenland, NH; she was the mother of his seven children (see following section). She was born October 24, 1715 in Hampton, Rockinham, NH, daughter of Samuel Sanborn and Sarah Philbrick. She died in the late 1750s, possibly in Nottingham, NH, leaving a family of young children. James then married Abigail Tilton before January 30 1759 (date of a legal document in which she delegated to her husband James Whidden of Nottingham the administration of the estate of her late son Jonathan Prescott). She thus must have been previously married to a Prescott. She was born May 20 1706 in Hampton, NH, daughter of Samuel Tilton and Meribah Page. She died before 1774 (date of James's third marriage); it is not clear whether or not she emigrated to NS with her husband in 1761. Source: http://douglasjgraham.net/Whidden.html

  
  

• Sources

  . 32608_234167-00445.jpg [S246] United States Federal Government, 1790 Unites States Federal Census, (National Archives), Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: New Hampshire; WHIDDEN, James. pg.208, line:18780. https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1790 1790 United States Federal Census [S176] Yates Publishing, U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2004;). [S182] Ancestry.com, U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012;). U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 [S193] Ancestry.com, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, 1847-2011, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2011;). 32608_234167-00445.jpg