Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/213

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
Capt. John McClintock.
191

legal business of Concord and Merrimack county. Mr. Martin is well read on a great variety of subjects outside of his profession, and has developed a taste for historical studies which he is cultivating. He is an Odd Fellow, a Past Grand of a Concord Lodge and an officer of the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire. We regret to add that Mr. Martin is still a bachelor, but that is a fault which we hope may be soon corrected, and he need not go outside of Merrimack county to choose a fair bride.




CAPT. JOHN McCLINTOCK.


We cannot but regret the loss of a life in youth and middle age, but when the allotted span of life is fully completed, we bow to the inexorable law of nature and lay our loved ones away with their kindred, shed tears over their graves, and build a monument to perpetuate their memory. A man's life, however, is but a single link in the family history, in the countless generations which have preceded him, and in the generations which will live after him. His acts and his character make an impression on his surroundings; and as his forefathers are in great measure responsible for his personality, so also he impresses and stamps his descendants with qualities and characteristics peculiar to himself. In sketching a man's life, therefore, it is but just to give the meagre details obtainable of his forefathers, their surroundings, their actions, and their character.

The origin of the McClintock family is lost in antiquity. The coat-of-arms of the Irish branch translated means that some member of the family went on several pilgrimages to the Holy Land and was in command of a body of horsemen in two or more of the crusades. The ermine indicates the descent of the family from royalty. The motto is Virtute et Labore. The family is of Scotch origin. In the north of Ireland, where a branch of the family has been settled for over three hundred years, there are six distinct families of the name enumerated with the English gentry. The best known of this branch is Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, the Arctic explorer, who discovered the traces and fate of Sir John Franklin's expedition.

I. William McClintock, the progenitor of the New England branch of the family, was born in Scotland about 1670, migrated at an early age to the north of Ireland, and was engaged in the memorable defense of Londonderry in 1689. He came to America about 1730 and settled in Medford, Mass., before 1732. He was an industrious farmer, busy with Scotch thrift in increasing his property, and not entering into the politics of the day. He was married three times before migrating, and his third wife accompanied him to New England. He was married a fourth time in this country, was the father of nineteen children, and died at the age of ninety, about 1760. He belonged to the Presbyterian church and was the father of the Rev. Samuel McClintock, d.d., of Greenland, N. H., an ancestor of the Rev. John McClintock, d.d., of Philadelphia, and of the New Hampshire branch of the family.

II. William McClintock and his