Documentation for James Richardson and Rachel Gott


James Richardson, wife Rachel (Gott) Richardson, and their then five children (Rachel, James Jr., Daniel, Jane, and Mary) moved from Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Mount Desert Island between 16 January 1761 (the birthdate of daughter Mary, who was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts) and 16 August 1763 (the birthdate of son George, who was born in Mount Desert).

Birth Data

Rachel Richardson, the first child of James Richardson and Rachel Gott, was born on 24 November 1752 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, according to the Gloucester volume of Early Vital Records of Massachusetts from 1600 to 1850 (page 577). Virginia Somes Sanderson in her 1982 book The Living Past gave the date as 29 March 1752 (page 40).

Census Data

  free white males 16 and upwards free white males under 16 free white females
James Richardson 2 1 4

1790 Mount Desert, Hancock County, Maine.


Below is a working reconstruction of James Richardson’s household in 1790.

free white males 16 and upwards free white males under 16 free white females
James (60) ? Rachel [age = ?]
Isaac (20) Judith (23)
Tamesin (18)
Rhoda (16)