Nathaniel Rand and Elizabeth Marden of Rye, New Hampshire

Nathaniel Rand was the first son of John and Remembrance Ault Rand.  He was born in 1669 in the Oyster Creek Plantation area of New Hampshire, now known as Durham.  His parents were killed in the Oyster Creek Massacre in July of 1694.  He and his brother John are not mentioned in any account of that day.  His brother Samuel was taken captive and as well as his sister Remembrance.  Samuel was returned but Remembrance was never seen again. Nathaniel is often confused with his uncle of the same name, he was killed at the Brackett's Lane Massacre in 1691. His brother John died a young man in 1697, leaving one child, a son also named John.

In 1701 Nathaniel married Elizabeth Marden at Queen Anne's Chapel in Newbury, MA.   She was pregnant at the time of the marriage and they had to appear in court to explain their full term baby born four months after taking their vows. He wrote his will in 1740 but it was not proved until 1759.  Elizabeth survived him. He names six children in his will, sons: John, Joshua, Amos and Nathaniel and two daughters: Sarah Jordan and Elizabeth Philbrick.

a Cordwainer at work

Amos Rand was born in 1703 in Rye. As an adult he worked as a cordwainer (shoemaker).  He married Hester (Ester) Philbrick in 1726, their first child, Anne, was born 13 August 1727. Their last child, Nathaniel was baptized in August of 1740.  A lot of websites and Ancestry.com trees give the date of death for Amos as 15 September 1740. This date is almost certainly wrong.  His father, Nathaniel, wrote his will on 15 September 1740, and names Amos in the will.  Now if his son dropped dead on the very day he wrote his will, you would think he might change it, but he didn't, which makes me think that people are just jumbling up their dates.  

Like his father before him, not much is written about Amos, the best source I've found is the book; "The History of Rye, New Hampshire" by Landon Brown Parsons. In a town meeting in 1754 the townsmen discussed building a road from Amos Rand's house to Nehemiah Berry's, which leads me to believe that he was still alive at that time. Amos lived at the intersection of West and Washington Roads. In the 1805 map of Rye by Mr. P. Merrill Thomas Rand was living there. Amos also received some of the Glebe Lands (land that had been set aside to fund the minister) in 1750-1760.

In his book Parsons  describes life in Rye in the early 1800's.  He said there "was but little appearance here of any cultivation of any comfortable subsistence, or of any pleasing prosperity.  The inhabitants, few in number, were low, destitute, and miserable .....Where there was nothing then but a waste and dreary wilderness, there are now well fenced and well cultivated fields.  Where there was abject poverty, there now is smiling abundance and wealth.  Where there was wretchedness and misery, there now is pleasing prosperity and happiness...."  Sounds like life was pretty grim back then, of course some of the authors in the early 1900's were not to objective when they wrote some of these 'histories', it had to have been a tough life.

The Children of Amos and Hester (Ester) Rand:
Anna b. 13 Aug 1727 m. Thomas Shannon
Philbrick b. Dec 11 1729
Ester b. May 13 1732
Joseph b. March 1 1734
Elizabeth b. April 12 1736
Sarah b. Feb 12 1738
Nathaniel b. 21 May 1740

There is no will for Amos Rand, his date of death is unknown. There is no will or death date for Ester. 

for my Dad:
Francis Rand - John Rand- Nathaniel Rand - Amos Rand- (Anne Rand + Thomas Shannon) =
(Sarah Shannon + Jeremiah Leavett) = (Sally Leavitt + William Rowell) = (Viola Rowell + Enoch Rowell) = Jennie Clover

Sources:
Probate records of New Hampshire
Birth records of New Hampshire
History of Rye, New Hampshire