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Feb. 20: Martha Moore is born in Oxford, Massachusetts.                                                      Dec. 19: Martha Moore marries Ephraim Ballard.     Sept. 11: Cyrus Ballard is born to Martha and Ephraim.    Aug. 28: Lucy Ballard is born to Martha and Ephraim.       

Apr. 17: Martha Ballard is born to Martha and Ephraim. The younger Martha will die in the1769 diptheria epidemic.

Jonathan Moore (Martha's brother) graduates 27th in his class at Harvard.

   

Mar. 4: Jonathan Ballard is born to Martha and Ephraim.

 		    Mar. 26: Triphena Ballard is born to Martha and Ephraim. She will die in the 1769 diphtheria epidemic.    

May 17: Dorothy Ballard is born to Martha and Ephraim. Dorothy will die along with two older sisters in the 1769 epidemic.

   

A Diptheria Epidemic claims the lives of three Ballard children this summer: Triphena (June 17), Dorothy (July 1), Martha (July 5)

August 6: Hannah Ballard is born to Martha and Ephraim.

      Sep. 2: Dorothy (Dolly) Ballard is born to Martha and Ephraim.        Ephraim travels up the Kennebec River and leases property at Fort Halifax. Suspected of loyalist sympathies, Ephraim is soon driven out of Fort Halifax by the local Committee of Safety. We do not know exactly why the Ballards left Oxford, Massachusetts. Ephraim manages land and mills in Hallowell, Maine, owned by John Jones, a loyalist who was not welcome in the town. Later, Ephraim will become a surveyor and do much work for the Plymouth Proprietors, a group of investors who claimed land in Maine.  Oct. 14: Martha Ballard joins Ephraim in Hallowell, after traveling from Oxford. 

February: Lucy Ballard marries Ephraim Towne.

July: Martha Ballard midwives for the first time.

Nov. 1: Martha & Ephraim move to the Jones mill at Bowman's Brook.

 Mar. 30: Ephraim Jr. is born to Martha and Ephraim. Ephraim Jr. is their last child.             Ephraim Ballard becomes a selectman, a post he will hold in Hallowell until 1787. Unlike Martha Ballard, whose life passed unrecorded outside her diary, Ephraim Ballard figured prominently in Hallowell's town records.
                   Fielding Ould, an Irish physician, publishes the first description of an episiotomy.                    William Hunter, a Scottish physician, is appointed surgeon-midwife to the British Lying-in hospital. Hunter will consult in the delivery of Queen Charlotte, although a midwife will perform the actual delivery.        William Smellie publishes his Treatise on Midwifery in London. Most births in Europe and British America are still in the hands of female midwives.  James Lind, an Englishman, publishes his findings that lemons and oranges cure scurvy, an idea that was known previously but not believed totally.  Benjamin Pugh publishes his Treatise on Midwifery, in which the English physician discourages lying down during delivery.                  Elizabeth Nihell, an English midwife, publishes A Treatise on Midwifery, arguing sharply against the use of forceps and other instruments favored by male physicians attending childbirths.       William Shippen teaches midwifery classes in America.                             Charles White, an English surgeon, publishes his Treatise on the Management of Pregnant Women, in which he decries the forced bedrest that commonly followed delivery, advocating instead fresh air and cleanliness.   William Hunter publishes his Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus.                                

A scarlet fever epidemic sweeps across New England.

         The Cato Conspiracy—the British Colonies' first slave revolt—takes the lives of 44 blacks and 30 whites in South Carolina.              King George's War—an offshoot of the War of Austrian Succession—breaks out between France and Britain in the Carribean and in North America.                                   The French and Indian War (an offshoot of the Seven Year War in Europe) breaks out in North America.        Sep. 13: British troops defeat France's American army at the Plains of Abraham outside Montreal, establishing British control of Canada.  Oct. 5: George III assumes the English throne.        Feb. 10: The Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War, opening up northern New England lands such as Maine to English settlement.  Apr. 5: The Sugar Act passes British Parliament, lowering duties on sugar imports to the American colonies but mandating their enforcement. Boston lawyer James Otis denounces "taxation without representation" and urges the colonies to resist the new tax. May 15: The Quartering Act passes British Parliament, compelling colonists to quarter soldiers in their houses.     The Townsend Acts pass British Parliament.        March 5: The Boston Massacre leaves 3 protestors dead and the colony inflamed against the British army, which is regarded increasingly as an occupying force.  Hallowell, Maine, is incorporated.  Nov. 2: Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren of Boston establish the first of several "Committees of Correspondence" to circulate anti-British polemics.  Dec. 16: The Boston Tea Party is staged to protest new laws governing tea importation. Boston men disguised as American Indians throw 242 chests of tea into Boston Harbor.  Sept. 5: The first Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia.  Apr 19: The American Revolution begins at the Battle of Lexington and Concord.   July 4: The Declaration of Independence is issued by the Continental Congress. Abigail Adams writes "remember the ladies" to her husband John as he and other statesmen work on a constitution for the 13 former colonies. 

July 7: The battle of Tyconderoga is a discouraging defeat for the colonial militiamen.

Oct. 7: The Battle of Saratoga marks a turning point in the American Revolution, as colonial forces hand the British their first major defeat.

June 2: Molly Pitcher, a water carrier at the Battle of Monmouth, takes over her husband's cannon when he is overcome by heat.

 		       Oct. 19: The British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown, ending the Revolutionary War.     The Treaty of Paris, signed by British and American negotiators, guarantees American sovereignty.