Hannah Flavel, A Young Mother

Hannah Flavel (c 1835-1864)

Hannah Roach was born around 1835 in St. John’s, Nova Scotia. She married William Flavel on October 6, 1851 in Boston. William had been born in 1831 in England. William was a cabinet maker and became a naturalized U. S. citizen in 1854.

William and Hannah Flavel had eight children: William, John, Mary Elizabeth, Eleanor, Clifton, Lydia, Lucy Ann, and Thomas. Their daughter Mary Elizabeth was born in June of 1856 and died in November 1857 of dysentery in Dorchester. Son Clifton was their first child born in Dedham, in 1859.

Hannah Roach Flavel died on April 22, 1864 of consumption. She was 29 years old and left William with children between the ages of 1 and 12.

In the U.S. Census of 1865, widowed William continued to reside in South Dedham with his children. By 1870, he had remarried, moved to Groton where he was a jig sawyer, and had added a new baby to the family.

Hannah Flavel’s handsome gravestone was made by Bryant & Co.—a signature is cut into the stone. George Washington Bryant had a shop in North Bridgewater (Brockton). Fourteen signed stones engraved by Bryant between 1853 and 1872 have been identified in several cemeteries by gravestone expert James Blachowicz.

At some point in the twentieth century, Flavel’s stone was broken into several pieces by vandals. Old Parish Preservation Volunteers reassembled the pieces in the fall of 2023. It was repaired and reset in 2024.