vital records sources
go to Elizabeth Durfee's page

His brother Jabez, when writing to their brother Jonathan in Connecticut, mentions Nathaniel in a letter of 7 November 1727. NEHGR, vol. 7 (April 1853), 136

Brother, I was Moved to write to you before now, both with in my self & from mother, but I put her off becaus of the sickness...but especially because of ye dangerous condition yt brother Natll lay in for some time. I being greatly desierous that my letters might be ye messengers of Joy & not of sorrow to you. He says that Nathaniel had already written to him about his illness, but that letter apparently wasn't saved. The letter also mentions an earthquake, which was a week yesterday, about ten att night, wihch shook both ye land & water, the Islands & seas, at that degree that several doors were shook of ye Latch in our village, & 'tis said that at Nantuket ye harth stones grated one against another, and , that Car, ye boat biulder, Run out of his house, got in to a boat for fear ye Island should sink. Mother desiered me to acquaint you that she Greatly desires to se you, and so we doe all. My love to all our friend farwell your Brother Jabez Delano.
This was likely why one of Nathaniel and Elizabeth's children, surely a baby, died a month before this letter.
     On 16 April 1766, Nathaniel, called a yoeman, sold Nathaniel, Jr., his co-interest in the homestead where Nathaniel, Jr., lived, leaving him sole owner.9:120 Nathaniel, Sr., then sold his 70 acre homestead in Dartmouth to his son Richard on 7 June 1766. 9:526 Also, an acre of upland and two acres of salt marsh near Naskatucket "Creek," both in Dartmouth. On 6 February 1770 he sold Richard three more parcels. one with no acreage mentioned, another of 5 2/3 acres and a piece of salt marsh. 9:529 Nathaniel acknowledged both deeds on 6 March 1770, a month before he died, suggesting he was sick and was settling affairs. For whatever reason he sold his real estate, it meant no probate of his estate was required. Why the major part of this was done in 1766 isn't apparent. This is interesting given that his wife survived him. He may have had an agreement with Richard to provide for both of them after 1766 and in her widowhood after 1770.

children of Nathaniel Delano and Elizabeth Durfee:

i. Bridget ("Brigget") b. 6 February 1722/23
ii. Sarah b. 18 March 1724/25
iii. Nathaniel b. 23 December 1728
iv. child "not named," (b. Fall 1727, based on birth of Nathaniel and that the child wasn't named and surely a newborn) d. 7 October 1727
v. Peleg b. 11 February 11 1730/31
vi. Richard b. 29 October 1733
vii. Mary b. 16 March 17(35/?)36 (not double-dated in the record)
viii. Elizabeth b. 18 September 1738
ix. Susannah b. 21 November 1741

vital records sources: his birth is in Vital Records of Dartmouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, Vol. 1 (Boston:1929), 78. I haven't found the source for his marriage. Many have included it in publications as being either in Dartmouth or Freetown, MA, but none provide a source citation. It isn't in the vital records of either of those towns. His death is from the Killey Eldredge Bible, age 75, transcribed and published in The New England Historic Genealogical Register, vol. 94 (July 1940) (Boston:New England Historic Genealogical Society), 300.

1. Vital Records of Dartmouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, Vol. 1 (Boston:1929), 76-79.