Samuel was only 19 when he married his 20 year old bride who was the daughter of Deacon James Drew Hale and Mary H. (Leighton) Hale. His father had died in October 1832 when he was 15 and stated in his will that Samuel would inherit 1/2 of the estate if he stayed on the farm and carried on the farm until he turned 21 and the other 1/2 of the estate if his mother remarried. It appears that he stayed on the farm and cared for his family. We also know that his mother married John Sherburn of Durham in May 1836 and probably moved to his home in Durham. From his father's probate records, we learn that the homestead farm consisted of about 70 acres and his father also owned a lot of land called the Woodbury land which consisted of 100 acres. The total value of the estate was about $2500, a large sum at that time.
Samuel B. and Mary S. Hale Shackford had three children:
Onslow James Shackford (1839 - 1858)
Charles Burnham Shackford (1840- 1881) - married Caroline Cartland and
Martha Susan Hale Shackford (1844 - 1909) - married Richard Buswell Thom
We find Martha's gravestone in the Russell Cemetery in Conway, New Hampshire with a death date of May 21, 1845 but have not yet found a death certificate or notice in a newspaper of her death. Samuel who had three young children married Lydia J Pendexter, the daughter of John Pendexter and Susan Eastman on July 18, 1848 and they had two children.
Lucy Marie Shackford (1850-1929) - married Frank Wescott Davis
Mary Alice Shackford (1861 - 1874) - died young
REFERENCES:
Find A Grave, Find A Grave, digital images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 1 August 2014), Martha Susan Hale Shackford, Find A Grave Memorial# 48832281
"New Hampshire, Marriage and Divorce Records, 1659-1947," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 August 2014), Samuel B Shackford m Martha S Hale
"MARRIED.," Dover Gazette & Strafford Advertiser (Dover, New Hampshire), 25 April 1837; digital image, Godfred Memorial (http://godfred.org : accessed 20 August 2013), 19th Century U. S. Newspapers
"MARRIAGES.," New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette (Concord, New Hampshire), 8 May 1837; digital images, Godfrey (http://infoweb.newsbank.com : accessed 2 September 2014), America's Historical Newspapers.
"Marriages," New Hamsphire Statesman and State Journal (Concord, New Hampshire), 25 June 1836; digital images, Godfrey Memorial (http://godfrey.org : accessed 18 February 2014), 19th Century Newspapers
New Hampshire, New Hampshire, County Probate Records, 1660-1973, Samuel Shackford (1817-1881); digital images, FamilySearch, http://www.familysearch.org (: accessed 6 June 2014); Strafford, Probate records 1831-1852 vol 43-44, Image 269-270.
Scott Henry Edwards, Editor, The New England Historical and Genealogical REGISTER 1922 Volume LXXVI (Boston: The Society, 1922), page 38 (Jan.); digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 2 April 2014.