Voyage: 1849
Ship: Peter Marcy
Hannah Weston was born in Duxbury to John Weston, Sr. and Hannah Soule. Her father was a blacksmith. She married Capt. Alexander Sampson, the son of shipbuilder, Levi Sampson. Alexander was one of a large family of sons, most of whom went to see (including Capt. Erastus Sampson, the husband of Elizabeth Winsor Sampson on this list). In 1849 Hannah set sail aboard the Peter Marcy with her husband on a voyage from New Orleans to Liverpool.
Unlike his brothers, Alexander was not a successful mariner. He was demoted to the rank of mate, perhaps because of excessive drink, and by 1855 had left Duxbury for good. He tried his luck in the California gold mines before venturing to Washington Territory where he was one of the first settlers of Port Angeles. After an absence of two years, Alexander attempted to coax Hannah to join him on the West Coast. She declined, writing she did not want to “resign a certainty for an uncertainty” and that he had caused her “naught but sadness.” She spent the remainder of her life in Boston. She is buried in Mayflower Cemetery in Duxbury.
Source:
MacDonald, Lucile, “Was He Port Angeles’ First White Settler,” The Seattle Times. December 29 1957