Nathaniel Knapp

We want to continue with Dr. Frank's line so that we can show a filled in tree with collateral families handled as we would like to see. Earlier, we looked at his mother, Marion Wallace Woods. A related line of research is looking at Dr. Frank's two wives.

Nathaniel's daughter, Rebecca, married Simon Stacy Gardner and was an ancestor of Dr. Frank. Also, Nathaniel Knapp was a descendant of Nathaniel Eaton, first head of Harvard. Nathaniel Eaton will be the subject of a lot more study, and discussion.

In his monographs on the Siege of Boston, Dr. Frank mentioned that the officers of the Revolution got their experience fighting for the King in the French-Indian War. One battle was the Siege of Louisbourg that occurred in present day Cape Breton Islands.

Nathaniel Knapp was of Newbury and served in that battle. His diary from the time was published later. It starts on March 27, 1758. It would be interesting to match these entries with other sources. For instance, in late September and early October, as we are now, he mentions Admirals Boscawen, Wolfe, and Hardy.

The Diary goes until July 14th of the next year. On the 13th, he was on his way from Boston where they arrived on the 12th to Newbury and stopped to spend the night with his uncle, John Knapp. They got to Newbury on the 14th and had roast lamb.

Need to go back through this and do a little indexing. He mentions the Isle of Shoals and other landmarks. Some of the activities could bear a closer look.

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The above mentions that Nathaniel spent the night with his uncle, John, so I went looking for that person. That brought up an issue.

Turns out that there is some research to do with this family. With regard to the Eaton pedigree, there was a child named Benoni Eaton Knapp, baptized in 1744, so that is a very early reference to Nathaniel Eaton who was Benoni's father. As well, the mention of Nathaniel Eaton in this book points to Anna Eaton as daughter of Benoni.

But, there are two views to look at further.

• 1896 Book, Ould Newbury: Historical and Biographical Sketches by John James Currier -- this source says that the son of Nathaniel who was Nathaniel, too, was at Louisbourg. 
• 1909 Book, Knapp Family in America by Arthur Mason Knapp -- Nathaniel Knapp on page 13. Has a son Nathaniel (see page 20). The Knapp book says that the elder Nathaniel was at Louisbourg. The elder Nathaniel had a brother, John. But, the elder Nathaniel also had an uncle, John, son of Isaac (page 9). 

I looked, WikiTree doesn't have this information. So, we'll look further. Unfortunately, Dr. Frank does not have much information about this family. Methinks that he didn't want to open the door to Nathaniel Eaton (who was the laughing stock of Harvard and others - at the time - we'll get back to that).

Remarks: Modified: 10/10/2021

10/10/2021 -- The Count features in our history of Harvard (a special project dedicated to Nathaniel Eaton).