WHITNEY-L Archives

Archiver > WHITNEY > 1998-11 > 0911890986


From: <>
Subject: Error discovered: Josiah of Wrentham and Abigail/Mary
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 02:03:06 EST


Dear WRG:

I was working on something else tonight and ran across the two marriages of
Josiah-3 Whitney, son of Jonathan-2 and Lydia (Jones) Whitney. In the last
two databases (W12 & W13) there are four children, born between 1695 and 1708,
that are ascribed to the wife Abigail. This is not possible, as Abigail and
Josiah were not married until 3 Nov 1713 in Dorchester, Suffolk, MA, she being
his second wife. There is no record that I can find of Josiah's marriage to
his first wife, Mary (--?--), but the Vital Records of Wrentham show the birth
of four children to Josiah and Mary, the last one (Hannah) coming 11 Jul 1710,
and Mary's death is recorded there just seven days later on 18 Jul 1710. This
last child has not previously been included in W12/13. The first child listed
in that spot in the database, Mary, b. 5 Mar 1695/96 does NOT appear in the
Wrentham VR's, nor does she appear in any other known Vital Record source.

There is an interesting gap in the births of girls named Mary about this time.
One is recorded in Watertown on 21 Apr 1694 (to Joseph-3 and Martha (Beach)
Whitney), and the next one in Robert Ward's Index to the VR's does not come
along until the Mary born 28 May 1710 in Sherborn to Jonathan-3 and Susanna
(Fairbanks) Whitney. It is interesting to speculate about this time, one of
unsettledness and Indian troubles, but why there were no females named Mary
during this period is probably more a matter of missing records than one of
the sudden unpopularity of the name.

I don't know from what source the original ascription of the four children to
Abigail (whose last name is Martin - further details about her would need to
come from the full Dorchester Vital Records volume) stemmed, but that is
unimportant. The main thing is that the error has been identified and can now
be corrected. If those who are interested in the full details of all the
children of Josiah and Mary, his first wife, will write to me directly, I will
prepare a complete listing of everything I have discovered and the sources and
send it to you in an e-mail.

Happy Hunting to all!

Allan E. Green

This thread: