ABC Biography of the Thomas Dill (1755-1839) and Hannah Horton (1761-1796) Family of Massachusetts

Using the ABC method described in Using Artificial Intelligence In the Ancestor Biography Creation (ABC) Process, here is another ancestor couple biography using the Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 AI tool.

1) The genealogical sketch for my 4th great-grandparents, Thomas Dill and Hannah Horton, including family members, record abstracts and sources, is in Genealogical Sketch of the Thomas Dill (1755-1839) and Hannah Horton (1761-1796) Family of Eastham, Massachusetts.

(AI NotebookLM Infographic - Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill Family)

2) For the Claude AI biography, I attached a PDF of the genealogical sketch for the specific ancestors using the plus (+) icon, and then prompted the AI tool with:  "You are an expert genealogist and family historian. Please create a biography based on information in the attached file for the Thomas Dill and Hannah Horton family. Include parents, siblings, spouses and children (with birth and death dates and places). Summarize life events, add historical events as appropriate, but do not add or embellish any extra genealogical details. Use section headings. Expand the information in each section to add more details. The tone should be engaging and suitable for family members."

3)  The Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 biography (lightly edited for accuracy) is: 

The Thomas Dill and Hannah Horton Family of

Eastham, Massachusetts

A Family Biography

Thomas Dill's Early Years

Thomas Dill was born around 1755 in the small coastal town of Eastham, perched on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. He came into the world as the eighth and final child of Thomas Dill (1708-1761) and Mehitable Brown (1714-1758), who had married back in 1733. Being the seventh son must have made for a lively household!

Unfortunately, Thomas's mother Mehitable passed away when he was just a toddler, around 1758. His father followed three years later in 1761, leaving young Thomas an orphan at about six years old. He might have been raised by one of his mother’s siblings. We can only imagine how difficult those early years must have been for him.

The exact date of Thomas's birth remains a bit of a mystery—there are no birth records for him in the Eastham or Wellfleet town records. However, documents from his Revolutionary War pension file give us some clues. In June 1818, he stated he was 62 years old, and by August 1820, he was 64. Census records from 1800 through 1830 consistently place his birth somewhere between 1754 and 1756. So we're pretty confident he was born around 1755, give or take a year.
Thomas's Brothers and Sister

Thomas grew up in quite a family! His parents, Thomas and Mehitable, had eight children together:

• His oldest brother, also named Thomas, was born on October 11, 1734, in Medford, Massachusetts. Sadly, this first Thomas died before age 3, sometime before 1737, also in Medford.
• Samuel came next, born on December 10, 1736, in Medford. He later married Lydia Higgins on March 16, 1762, in Eastham, but his life was cut short—he died before March 3, 1766, in Eastham.
• Another Thomas was born on November 6, 1737, in Medford. This was the second child to be named Thomas, after the first one passed away.
• Aaron was born on July 30, 1739, in Eastham. The family had moved from Medford to Cape Cod by this time.
• James arrived on October 15, 1741, in Eastham. He married Abigail Hickman on March 16, 1762 (the same day his brother Samuel married!), and went on to live a long life, passing away on April 3, 1816, in Wellfleet at the impressive age of 74.
• Moses was born before 1751 in Eastham. Tragically, he died young, before October 31, 1771, in Wellfleet, at only about 20 years old.
• Betty, the only daughter mentioned in the records, was born before 1753 in Eastham. She was Thomas's only sister among all those brothers.
• And finally, our Thomas, the youngest of them all, born around 1755 in Eastham.

Thomas's Service in the Revolutionary War

As a young man of about 20 or 21, Thomas answered the call to fight for independence from Britain. He served his country with distinction during the Revolutionary War, though like many veterans, he didn't receive recognition or compensation until decades later.

From January 1, 1776, to January 1, 1777—a full year—Thomas served as a Private in Captain Naylor Hatch's company, which was part of Colonel Bond's regiment in the Massachusetts Line. For at least part of this service, he was stationed up in the Lakes region of New York, far from his Cape Cod home. Imagine the adventure and hardship of that journey for a young man who'd probably never traveled far from his home near the ocean!

After his year of land service, Thomas signed on for naval duty. From January to August 1777—eight months—he served aboard the brig Sophia Defiance under Captain Salew (spelled "Sallew" in some records). The ship was engaged in vital supply work, transporting flour from Alexandria, Virginia, all the way to Boston for the Continental Army. This wasn't glamorous combat duty, but it was absolutely essential to keeping Washington's troops fed.

In total, Thomas served his country for 20 months during the Revolution—a year and eight months of sacrifice for the cause of independence. He was honorably discharged, though like many veterans of that era, he lost his discharge papers over the years.

Hannah Horton's Early Years

Hannah Horton was born on April 28, 1761, also in Eastham. She was the ninth of ten children born to Nathaniel Horton (1721-1771) and Eunice Snow (1722-1816), who had married in 1742 right there in Eastham.

Hannah's father Nathaniel died in 1771 when she was just 10 years old. Fortunately, her mother Eunice was made of sturdy Cape Cod stock and lived to the remarkable age of 94, passing away in 1816. Eunice would live to see many of her grandchildren grown.

Hannah grew up in a bustling household with nine siblings:

• Elnathan, the eldest, was born on June 11, 1743, in Eastham.
• Nathaniel Jr. was born on February 2, 1746, in Eastham. He married Eunice Brown before 1776.
• Obadiah arrived on October 30, 1747, in Eastham.
• William was born on April 11, 1750, in Eastham.
• Hannah's sister Elizabeth was born on March 1, 1753, in Eastham. She married James Nesbit on February 4, 1777, and lived until April 7, 1813, passing away in Eastham at age 60.
• James was born on November 8, 1755, in Eastham. He married Elizabeth Atwood on April 26, 1774, in Wellfleet.
• Another sister, Eunice (named after her mother), was born on February 24, 1757, in Eastham. She first married Ezekiel Brown on May 14, 1775, and later married Deacon Jonathan Higgins on March 9, 1785. She died on October 11, 1819, in Wellfleet.
• Jabez was born on June 7, 1759, but heartbreakingly died just over a month later on July 19, 1759, still in Eastham.
• Then came our Hannah, born April 28, 1761.
• The youngest sibling was Anne, born on December 28, 1763, in Eastham. She married William Peeks on December 23, 1793.

Thomas and Hannah's Marriage

Thomas Dill and Hannah Horton married on May 18, 1782, in a ceremony that was published in both Wellfleet (where Thomas was living) and Eastham (Hannah's hometown). This was a significant step for both of them. Thomas, now about 27 years old, was a Revolutionary War veteran trying to make his way in the world. Hannah was 21, a young woman from a large, well-established Cape Cod family.

The marriage records tell us that "Thomas Dill of Wellfleet and Miss Hannah Horton of Eastham" were joined together. The couple would settle in Eastham, where they would raise their family and Thomas would spend the rest of his long life.

Their Children

Thomas and Hannah were blessed with nine children over the span of eleven years, though their family life would be marked by both joy and tragedy:

• Ezekiel Dill, their firstborn, arrived on August 6, 1784, in Eastham. He grew up to marry Mary Hickman in December 1808, and they had seven children together. Ezekiel lived a remarkably long life for his era, passing away on January 15, 1872, at the age of 87.
• Obadiah Dill was born on May 19, 1786, in Eastham. Unfortunately, no further records of Obadiah have been found, so we don't know what became of him.
• Seth Dill came along on June 15, 1787, in Eastham. Seth eventually moved to Boston, where he married Betsey Bovey on August 15, 1813. He apparently had no children.
• Isaiah Dill was born on September 13, 1788, in Eastham. Like his brother Obadiah, no further records have been found for Isaiah.
• Jabez H. Dill was born on December 11, 1789, in Eastham. He was named after Hannah's grandfather Jabez Snow and her brother who had died in infancy. Jabez moved to Boston where he married Elizabeth B. Pratt on November 6, 1817. They had five children together. Jabez lived to age 82, dying on September 10, 1872, in Medford, Massachusetts.
• Elizabeth Horton Dill, named after her mother's sister, was born on May 9, 1791, in Eastham. She became a schoolteacher and married Alpheus B. Smith on November 30, 1826, in Dedham, Massachusetts. They had two children. Elizabeth lived to age 78, passing away on November 28, 1869, in Leominster, Massachusetts.
• James Horton Dill, carrying his mother's maiden name, was born on July 20, 1792, in Eastham. He married Ruth Thomas Cushing on March 11, 1819, in Boston, and they had two children. James moved far from his Cape Cod roots, eventually settling in Madison, Morris County, New Jersey, where he died in January 1862 at age 69.
• Daniel Dill was born on October 6, 1793, in Eastham. Unlike several of his siblings who moved away, Daniel stayed on Cape Cod. He married Jerusha Knowles in September 1822 in Eastham, and they had seven children. Daniel died in May 1850 in Eastham at age 56.
• Asa Dill, the youngest, was born on July 17, 1795, in Eastham. No further records have been found for Asa.

Hannah's Passing

Tragically, Hannah Horton Dill died sometime before 1797, perhaps shortly after giving birth to little Asa in July 1795. She was only about 35 years old then. In just over eleven years of marriage, Hannah had given birth to nine children and was raising at least six who survived infancy. The physical toll of so many pregnancies in such a short time, combined with the rudimentary medical care of the era, likely contributed to her early death.

We can only imagine Thomas's grief—a widower at about 41 years old, left to raise six or more children ranging from a toddler to a teenager. Like many widowers of his time with young children at home, Thomas would need to remarry for practical reasons as much as companionship.

Thomas's Later Marriages

On June 8, 1797, Thomas married his second wife, Ruth Linkhornew (sometimes spelled Linkhorn or other variations in the records). The ceremony was performed by Mr. Shaw in Eastham. Ruth would have become stepmother to Thomas's children, who ranged in age from about 2 to 13 years old.

Thomas Dill and Ruth Linkhornew had one child:

• Nancy Dill was born 2 June 1799 in Eastham. She married Lewis Dodge on 15 March 1819 in Pelham, Hampshire, Massachusetts, and they had seven children. Nancy died 23 April 1891 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts at age 91.

Based on census records, Ruth appears to have died sometime between 1800 and 1810. The 1800 census shows a woman over 45 in the household (presumably Ruth), but by the 1810 census, no adult woman appears. So Ruth likely died in her 50s or 60s after about ten to twelve years of marriage to Thomas.

In January 1813, Thomas married for the third time, to Susan (or Susanna) Hatch in Eastham. By this time, Thomas was about 58 years old and most of his children were grown and establishing their own households. Susan would have been primarily a companion to Thomas in his later years.

Family Life in Eastham

The Dill family made their home in Eastham, that narrow strip of land that forms the 'forearm' of Cape Cod. Life on the Cape in the late 1700s and early 1800s centered around fishing, farming, and salt works. The sandy soil wasn't great for farming, but families like the Dills made do with what they had.

We get glimpses of Thomas's property from an 1809 deed when he transferred his homestead to his sons Ezekiel and Seth for $300. The property included six parcels spread across Eastham and Wellfleet: the field where his house stood, a southward field, land north of John Praro's house, a brush lot in Wellfleet, a salt meadow in Wellfleet, and cleared land on a deed from Obed Knowles. This gives us a picture of a man of modest means—some land for farming, some for cutting firewood, and salt marsh for grazing or hay.

The various census records paint a picture of the changing household over the years. In 1790, Thomas and Hannah had at least one young son (probably Ezekiel) and possibly some other family members living with them. By 1800, after Thomas had remarried Ruth, the household included several sons in their teens and younger children. The 1810 census shows the household still full of young men in their late teens and early twenties—likely some of Thomas's sons still at home, perhaps helping with the farm and learning trades before striking out on their own.

Interestingly, several of Thomas's sons eventually left Cape Cod for Boston and other parts of Massachusetts. Seth, Jabez, James, and Elizabeth all ended up in or near Boston, reflecting the migration patterns of the era as young people sought opportunities beyond the Cape's limited economy. Others, like Ezekiel and Daniel, stayed close to home in Eastham, maintaining the family presence there for another generation.

The Revolutionary War Pension

In 1818, more than four decades after his service in the Revolutionary War, Thomas applied for a veteran's pension. This was made possible by a federal law passed on March 18, 1818, that provided pensions to indigent Revolutionary War veterans who had served in the Continental forces.

On June 19, 1818, at age 62, Thomas traveled to Boston to file his application. In his sworn statement, he described his service: a full year from January 1776 to January 1777 as a private in Captain Naylor Hatch's company under Colonel Bond's regiment in the Massachusetts Line, with much of that time spent "in the Lakes" (likely the Lake Champlain region). He also detailed his eight months of naval service aboard the Sophia Defiance transporting flour from Virginia to Boston.

Poignantly, Thomas noted that he had lost his discharge papers over the intervening decades. He stated plainly: "I am now sixty two years old" and "by reason of my reduced circumstances in life, I need the assistance of my Country for support."

On August 9, 1820, Thomas had to file additional paperwork—a property statement required by a new law tightening pension eligibility. At age 64, he declared under oath that he had "No Real estate or personal estate; nor any family. I am old and unable to Labour." By this time, his children were all grown and gone, and he was truly dependent on the pension for survival.

Eventually, his pension was approved, and starting in 1833, Thomas received $8 per month. While this might not sound like much, it was a lifeline for an elderly man in his late 70s and 80s. The pension payments continued faithfully, noted in the ledger every six months: March 1833, September 1833, March 1834, and so on, right through to the first quarter of 1840.

Thomas's Final Years

By the 1820s and 1830s, Thomas was one of Eastham's oldest residents. The 1820 census shows just Thomas and a woman (his wife Susan?) in the household, both over 45. By 1830, they had been joined by a young boy aged 5-10, perhaps a grandson who came to live with them or to help around the house.

Thomas Dill died on September 16, 1839, at the remarkable age of about 84 years. The notation in his pension payment ledger reads simply: "Died 16th Sept. 1839 Paid 1st Qr 1840." He had outlived two wives (Hannah and Ruth) and was probably survived by his third wife, Susan, and at least five of his children: Ezekiel, Jabez, Elizabeth, James, and Nancy. He had lived to see his country win its independence, establish itself as a nation, and grow through its early tumultuous decades.

Thomas witnessed enormous changes during his long life. Born a British colonial subject under King George II, he lived to see the reign of Queen Victoria begin, and the first eight American presidents. He saw his hometown transform from a collection of farms and fishing villages to part of a new nation. He watched his children scatter across Massachusetts, from Cape Cod to Boston to New Jersey, seeking their fortunes in a changing world.

Their Legacy

No gravestone marks Thomas's final resting place, nor those of any of his three wives. This isn't unusual for the era—many Cape Cod graveyards have lost their markers to weather, shifting sands, and time. No probate records were filed for Thomas or his wives, suggesting that whatever modest property he had was likely settled informally among his children.

But the real legacy of Thomas Dill and Hannah Horton isn't found in gravestones or probate records. It's found in their descendants—the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who carried their blood and their stories forward into American history. Through Ezekiel's seven children, Jabez's five, Daniel's seven, Elizabeth's two, James's two, and Nancy’s seven, their family tree branched and grew. Many of these descendants would live to see the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, the turn of the 20th century, and beyond.

Thomas and Hannah's story is, in many ways, the story of early America itself—of hardship and loss, of service and sacrifice, of making a life on the edge of a new nation. They were ordinary people living through extraordinary times, raising their family on Cape Cod while the nation found its footing. And like so many of their generation, they persevered through challenges we can barely imagine today, leaving behind a legacy not of wealth or fame, but of family—and that's a legacy that endures.

Historical Context: Life on Cape Cod

To understand Thomas and Hannah's lives, it helps to picture Cape Cod in the late 1700s. Eastham and Wellfleet were small, isolated communities, cut off from the mainland except by rough roads through woods and marshland. The ocean was both livelihood and threat—fishing provided income, but storms and shipwrecks were constant dangers.

During Thomas's childhood and young adult years, tensions with Britain were rising. The Cape, heavily dependent on maritime trade, was hit hard by British trade restrictions and naval harassment. When war came in 1775, many Cape Cod men, including Thomas, answered the call. The Cape's contribution to the Revolution included not just soldiers but privateers—sanctioned pirates who attacked British shipping.

After the war, life was hard. The new nation struggled economically in the 1780s and 1790s. For a young veteran like Thomas trying to establish a farm and raise a family, every year brought challenges—poor harvests, harsh winters, illnesses that could sweep through a household in days. The fact that he and Hannah raised nine children in these conditions, even though tragedy took Hannah and several children young, speaks to their resilience.

By the time Thomas applied for his pension in 1818, the nation had survived its infancy, weathered the War of 1812, and was entering what would later be called the "Era of Good Feelings." But for elderly veterans like Thomas, times were often anything but good. Many had never received proper compensation for their service, had lost their farms, or were too old to work. The 1818 pension act was a recognition that the nation owed these men something for their sacrifice.

Thomas Dill lived long enough to see the Cape Cod Canal proposed (though it wouldn't be built until the 20th century), to see steamships begin to replace sailing vessels, and to watch his grandchildren grow up in a nation vastly different from the colony of his birth. He was a living link between colonial Massachusetts and Victorian America, between a time when independence was a dream and a time when it was an established fact.

His story reminds us that history isn't just made by generals and presidents—it's made by ordinary people like Thomas and Hannah, who lived their lives with courage and dignity, raised their families, and did their part when their country called. They may not have left grand estates or famous names, but they left something more important: a family, a legacy, and a story worth remembering.

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4) An Audio Overview (essentially a podcast) created by the Google NotebookLM AI tool) describing and celebrating the lives of the Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill family can be heard here (click on "Audio Overview" and wait for it to load).

5)  The Video Overview discussing the lives of  the Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill family   created by the Google NotebookLM AI tool is: 

6)  The narrated video presentation created from the AI Google NotebookLM Slide Deck, Google Slides, and Google Vids is below:

7)  I edited the Claude biography text to correct minor inconsistencies and errors. Every large language model (LLM) AI tool writes descriptive text much better than I can write. I was an aerospace engineer in my former life, and my research reports and genealogical sketches reflect "just the facts gleaned from my research." The AI tools are very perceptive, insightful and create readable text in seconds, including local and national historical events and social history detail when requested.

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Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

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