In a newspaper article is recorded the story of Ebenezer's death. "Last Tuesday morning as a gundalo, deeply laden, was returning from Plum Island to Salisbury, it was upset by a sudden squall of wind, about three miles above Newbury Port, by which accident Mr. Ebenezer Morrill of Salisbury, and Mr. Thomas Ordway of South Hampton, were drowned. They were worthy members of society, and have left large families to bemoan their loss. There were two other men on the boat, who saved themselves by swimming to shore." [4]

According to his death notice, Benjamin Morrill was a yeoman, or farmer who owns his own land. He is known as Benjamin 3rd in the Salisbury records, not to distinguish him from his father and grandfather, but rather to distinguish him from the many other Benjamin Morrills who lived in that town at the same time.

[1][Anonymous], Vital Records of Salisbury, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849 (Topsfield, MA: Topsfield Historical Society, 1915), 166.

[2]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1], 592. "Drowned."

[3]ibid.

[4]The New Hampshire Recorder (Keene, NH), July 23, 1789, p. 4.

[5]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1], 162.

[6]ibid.

[7]ibid., 176.

[8]ibid.

[9]ibid., 174.

[10]George A. Gordon, South Hampton, N.H. Church Records, NEHGS Register , 53: 164.

[11]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1], 173.

[12]ibid.

[13]ibid., 170.

[14]Cemetery Transcriptions from the NEHGS Manuscript Collections (Electronic database at www.nehgs.org).

[15]David W. Hoyt, Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts (Providence, R.I: Snow & Farnham, 1897), 789.

[16]Columbia Minerva (Dedham, MA), 17 November 1801, p. 3. Drowned.

[17]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1], 164.

[18]Massachusetts Vital Records 1841-1910 Database (Electronic Database: NewEnglandAncestors.org), 1: 28.

[19]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1], 166.

[20]ibid.