John Cutt
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John Cutt (1613 – April 1, 1681) was the first President of the Province of New Hampshire. John Cutt was born in Wales, emigrated to the colonies in 1646, and became a successful merchant and mill-owner in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He was married to Hannah Starr, daughter of Dr. Comfort Starr of Boston, a founder of Harvard College and a surgeon who emigrated from Ashford, Kent, England.[1] Starr is buried in King's Chapel Burying Ground, Boston.
On January 1, 1680, John Cutt became the first President of the royal Province of New Hampshire, when New Hampshire was first separated from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Cutt was the head of the nine-member royal provincial council. Soon after his appointment he fell ill. On March 1, 1681 the provincial Council and General Assembly designated March 17, 1681, "A day of public fasting and prayer." The Council and Assembly believed Cutt's illness and the recent sighting of a comet were signs of "divine displeasure." The day of fasting and prayer was unsuccessful, as John Cutt died on April 1, 1681.
John Cutt was accompanied from Wales to Portsmouth by two brothers, Richard and Robert.[2] A descendant of brother Robert Cutt was Hon. Hampden Cutts (as the family styled themselves, with the 's' in succeeding generations) of North Hartland, Vermont. Hampden Cutts married Mary Pepperrell Sparhawk Jarvis, daughter of William Jarvis of Weathersfield, Vermont, and the man who introduced merino sheep to America. Cutts's wife Mary Jarvis was herself a descendant of John Cutt through her father.[3][4]
[edit] References
- ^ Harvard Charter of 1650, Harvard University Archives, harvard.edu
- ^ The Cutt Family, Brewster's Rambles about Portsmouth, seacoastnh.com
- ^ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, Boston, 1880
- ^ The Founders: Portraits of Persons Born Abroad Who Came to The Colonies, Charles Knowles Bolton, Boston Athenaeum, Boston, 1919
