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Lucy grew up in the Pride's Crossing area of Beverly, Massachusetts. The family's house was on on the south side of what's now Hale Street, and extended to the sea shore. I haven't found a specific site for their house, the area having been diced up beginning in the mid 1800s for summer homes after properties were already diced up among heirs, leaving a patchwork of bewildering parcels. The house itself was surely close to Hale Street, as were the others in the neighborhood, and it's not surprising that these neighbors married each other. John Thissell and his family were not far to the northeast of the Lovetts on Thissell Street. Being part of her dower, it appears Lucy continued to live in the house after John's death at sea in 1797. I haven't found a likely home for her after the 1820 census, when she is listed with her own household, but it may have been with either of her daughters Betsey Brower or Clarissa Pride.
She didn't have her dower right to the part of the house by the time she died, but it apparently went to Henry and Betsey Brower, who were at least part owners of the
Thissel house after Lucy died. What she did have was a 4 1/2 acre woodland lot, the value of which was divided among her heirs.1 She also had a sixth right to a pew in Beverly's First Church.
Her personal estate inventory gives an idea of how she lived physically:
A mahogany clock, 12 chairs & cushions, 2 birch tables, a dressing table, a lightstand, another clock, 2 mirrors, a trunk, a cheese safe, a featherbed and pillows, a bedstead cord and under bed, a clothes horse, tin ware, pewter, knives and forks, a shovel and tongs, andirons, flatirons, salt morter, a skimmer and ladle, a chopping knife, a bellows cricket and box, 2 brushes, a warming pan, glassware, crockery ware, pictures, 8 silver spooons, a pair of spectacles, 24 pairs of sheets, 12 blankets, wearing apparel, 6 quilts, 32 pairs of pillow cases, 15 towels, 2 tableclothes, woollen yarn, matts, a case & bottles, books, 4 cords of pine wood and a post (?).
Lucy also loaned quite a lot of money in the form of promissory notes, some of which was surely for investment reasons. Some involved relatives and neighbors, but a relatively huge sum for an aged widow in "middle class" Beverly was loaned to John and Nathaniel Safford and Josiah Gould. They were allied in business, but the only thing specific I've found is Nathaniel and Josiah co-owning ships. The sum was $2,8798.00, almost half the value of her entire estate, which was $6244.64. The debts of the estate, some (maybe most or all) of which were accrued after her death, was a relatively tiny $349.54. A readily identifiable expense was to A. & D. Lord of Salem, who made many of the gravestones in the area. Her stone, which includes John's information 37 years after he died, is typical of their style.
children of Lucy Lovett and John Thissel:1
i. John b. 4 August 1773
ii. Hannah b. 24 November 1774
iii. Joseph b. 25 October 1776
iv. Lucy b. 10 October 1778
v. Anna b. 6 July 1780
vi. Peggy/Margaret b. 18 March 1783
vii. Joanna b. 22 June 1786
viii. Ezra b. 21 July 1788
ix. Betsey (Elizabeth) b. 21 February 1791
x. Clarnet/Clarisey (Clarissa) b. 10 July 1794
xi. Zilpah b. 28 July 1796
vital records sources: Lucy's birth, marriage and death dates come from the Beverly vital records: Vital Records of Beverly, Massachusetts to the Year 1849, vol. 1 (Topsfield:1906), 217; ibid, vol. 2 (Topsfield:1907), 198, 572. She was married by Rev. Enos Hitchcock at the "Second Church of Christ" of Beverly, better known as the Second Congregational Church in North Beverly. Her death record cited comes from an account book of Josiah Foster, owned in the early 20th century by Annie F. Lovett. This supposedly says she was 79, but it may actually say she was in her 79th year, making her 78. Her death date is also recorded on a gravestone for her and her husband in the Hale St. section of Central Cemetery, which says she was 78. She was, in fact, 78.
1. Essex County, MA, probate file #27435.