Motherhood - 17th Century Style

Peter Brewer of Haverhill married Elizabeth Lilford on November 25, 1669. They are my 9X great-grandparents. Together they had 14 children in the twenty years from 1670-1690. Of 14 children, only Peter, Elizabeth, Dorothy (2nd), and Hannah lived to adulthood. Only twice was the previous child a year old or older when Elizabeth became pregnant with the next child. I can't imagine the physical and emotional toll this took on Elizabeth.

1. Peter was born on September 15, 1670 and was living at Pemaquid in April 1689. 
2. Elizabeth was born on March 5, 1672 and married John Tompson of Salisbury. Time between pregnancies: 9 months. 
3. Dorothy was born on January 25, 1673 and died the next month on February 20. Time between pregnancies: not quite 2 months. 
4. Thomas was born February 20, 1674 and died on March 6. Time between pregnancies: 4 months.
5. Dorothy, the second child of that name, was born on February 11, 1675 and married William Middleton of Bradford on May 28, 1694. Time between pregnancies: not quite 3 months. 
6. Ann was born on July 12, 1678 and died on February 6 of the next year. Time between pregnancies: 2 years and 7 months. 
7. Richard, a twin, was born and died on December 27, 1679 Time between pregnancies: 8 months.
8. Thomas, a twin, was born and died on December 27, 1679. 
9. Mehitable was born on November 12, 1680 and died on January 19th. Time between pregnancies: not quite 2 months. 
10. Mary was born March 11, 1682 and died on May 1, 1682. Time between pregnancies: 7 months. 
11. Ebenezer was born on March 30, 1683 and died on July 30th. Time between pregnancies: 3 months. 
12. Hannah was born on August 25, 1684 and married Adam Draper on March 6, 1704. Time between pregnancies: 8 months. 
13. Mehitable, the second of that name, was born on February 24, 1686 and died on February 29, 1688. Time between pregnancies: 9 months
14. Samuel was born on March 30, 1690 and died on May 27th. Time between pregnancies: 4 years and 1 month. 

I used the nine months figure to estimate the time between pregnancies because it was easier to do the math. However, I know there is a normal range of pregnancy between 38-42 weeks.

Peter & Elizabeth (Lilford) Brewer
Dorothy Brewer
Susanna Middleton
Mehitable Cheney
Susannah Blaisdell
Stephen Rowe
Charles H. N. Rowe
Anna J. Rowe
Eva D. Hayes
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

Serious Mental Imbalance - 52 Ancestors #44

Mary Shard was married twice. Her first husband was John Gove and they had six children before he died. Mary and John Gove are my 11X great-grandparents. Her second husband was John Mansfield. John Mansfield came from a good family, but he seemed to have conflicts with most of his relatives. He is described in his Great Migration sketch as demonstrating “serious mental imbalance throughout his adult life…” Among other things, he accused his brother-in-law, Robert Keaynes, of cheating him out of his rightful inheritance. John Mansfield had two sisters in Massachusetts. His sister, Elizabeth, was the wife of the Rev. John Wilson and his sister Anne was married twice, first to Capt. Robert Keayne and second to Samuel Cole.

John Mansfield was born about 1601 and died on June 26, 1674. He married Mary (Shard) Gove after her first husband, John Gove, died in January 1648. The family lived in Charlestown. Shortly after their marriage, Mary gave birth to twins, John Jr. and Elizabeth. Mary died on March 4, 1682. John's frequent petitions to the courts document his obsession with obtaining an inheritance from the estate of Robert Keayne. 

However, this obsession is not the only evidence of his "serious mental imbalance," John proved himself incapable of caring for his family.  In the Middlesex Court records, he says of that his home is "all open above and rotten under." Eventually, the two children of John & Mary (Shard) (Gove) Mansfield were removed from the household. They were only eight years old.

John Jr. was placed with his aunt, Anne (Mansfield) Keayne, for a period of ten years. He was to be kept in school for the first three years and then to spend seven years in an honest trade or employment. Elizabeth was placed with the family of Mr. Samuel Whiting, Jr. of Lynn. “John Mansfield, their father, is not capable by reason of misgovernment of himself and wife to educate and bring them up as they ought to be…”

I wonder what was going on in the lives of Mary's children from her first marriage and what they thought of their mother's household. Her son, Edward Gove, my 10th great-grandfather, was getting married about the time his half-siblings were removed from her care. Did the twins have a relationship with their mother after they reached adulthood and after their father died?

John & Mary (Shard) Gove

Edward & Hannah (Partridge) Gove

Joseph & Mary (Gove) Sanborn

Samuel & Mary (Sanborn) Prescott

Jeremiah & Mary (Hayes) Prescott

Elisha & Mary (Marston) Prescott

Thomas & Hannah (Prescott) Edgecomb

Oliver & Mary (Edgecomb) Philbrick

Benjamin P. & Jane (Matthews) Philbrick

Francis Llewellyn & Mary Elizabeth (Philbrick) Cotton

Ray Everett & Annie Florilla (Gibbs) Cotton

Fern Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother

Violating the Sabbath - Elizabeth Eddy

Samuel and Elizabeth (___) Eddy had to put three of their sons out to live and work in other families because they could not afford to bring them up. I wrote about this in 2012: Too Many Mouths To Feed. Here are some other references to the Eddy family.

Samuel Eddy regularly hired one of the cows which were maintained for the town's poor [PTR 1:4, 19, 20, 27, 28]. 

On 7 October 1651 the grand jury presented "Elizabeth Eeddy, Seni[or], of the town of Plym[outh], for laboring, that is to say, for wringing and hanging out clothes, on the Lord's day, in time of public exercise" [PCR2:173]. 

On 1 May 1660, "Elizabeth Eedey was summoned to the Court, and appeared, to make answer for her traveling on the Lord's day from Plymouth to Boston; and affirmed that she was necessitated to go on that day, in regard to Mistris Saffin was very weak and sent for her, with an earnest desire to see her in her weakness, with some other pleas of like nature. The Court considering some circumstances in her answer, although they saw not a sufficient excuse for her fact therein, saw cause to admonish her, and so she was discharged of the Court" [PCR 3:186]. 

Children of Samuel & Elizabeth (___) Eddy include: (There may have been more since both Samuel and Elizabeth are referred to as "senior" but there is no other evidence.)

1. John was born on December 25, 1637. 
2. Zachariah was born about 1639. 
3. Caleb was born about 1643. 
4. Obadiah was born about 1645. 
5. Hannah was born in June 1647. 

Samuel Eddy

John Eddy

Alice Eddy

Giles Leach

Elizabeth Leach

Lucy Shurtleff

Calvin Cole, Sr. 

Calvin Cole, Jr. 

Apphia Cole

George Hayes

Eva D. Hayes

Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

The Odds of Survival - 52 Ancestors #37

James & Mary (Cogan) Glass were my 11th great-grandparents. They never came to America, but their surviving children did make the trip across the ocean. Mary gave birth to twelve children, but only four lived to adulthood, Amy, James, Roger, and Henry. It is hard to imagine the loss of eight children. James and Mary also died relatively young. James was deceased by February 22, 1638 and his wife was also deceased, so his children were left to make their own way in the world.

The boys are listed as servants or apprentices of various Great Migration immigrants. It seems likely that Amy was also a servant to another family when she made the voyage to Massachusetts.

The children of James & Mary (Cogan) Glass.

1. Henry was baptized on August 11, 1614 and likely died before a second Henry was baptized in September 1624. 
2. Mary was baptized on February 2, 1618 and there are no further records - see below. 
3. Amy was baptized on December 10, 1618 and lived to adulthood. 
4. James is tentatively identified as belonging to this family and was probably born about 1620 based on the pattern of births. He lived to adulthood and was listed as a servant to his uncle, Henry Cogan and also a servant of Manasseh Kempton. Manasseh Kempton was my 10th great-granduncle. 
5. Roger was baptized on August 7, 1623 and lived to adulthood.  Roger was apprenticed to John Crocker and later to John Whetcombe. 
6. Henry (the second of that name) was baptized on September 26, 1624 and lived to adulthood.  He was a servant of Henry Phelps and later Nicholas Phelps. 
7. Joan was baptized on January 28, 1627 and buried on July 12, 1627. 
8. Unnamed daughter was buried on October 10, 1628 (possibly Mary above). 
9. Joane (the second of that name) was baptized on April 2, 1629 and buried on May 1, 1640. 
10. Richard was buried on August 24, 1629. 
11. Peter was baptized on August 28, 1631 and buried on August 10, 1637. 
12. Thamazen was baptized on January 26, 1635 and there are no further records.

Burials

July 12, 1627 - Joan #1

October 10, 1628 - Unnamed daughter

August 24, 1629 - Richard

August 10, 1637 - Peter

May 1, 1640 - Joan #2

No records of death for Henry, Mary, Thamazen.




Amy Glass married Richard Willis in Plymouth, Massachusetts on October 11, 1639. Richard died before 1645 and they only had one child, Richard Willis, Jr. He was born between 1641-1642. She married Edward Holman after Richard's death. At the age of 7, Richard Willis, step-son of Edward Holman was apprenticed to Giles Rickard, a weaver. Amy and Edward do not appear to have had any children and she is presumed to have died by 1648 when the apprenticeship was arranged.

James & Mary (Cogan) Glass
Amy (Glass) Willis
Richard Willis, Jr.
Ruhamah (Willis) Rogers
Experience (Rogers) Totman
Deborah (Totman) Barrows
Asa Alden Barrows
Rachel (Barrows) Ellingwood
Asa Freeman Ellingwood
Nina K. (Ellingwood) Gibbs
Annie F. (Gibbs) Cotton
Fern Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother

Sources:
George E. McCracken, "Early Cogans English and American," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 111 (1956), online images, American Ancestors (americanancestors.org : accessed 10 August 2015), 172-173.

Charles Henry Pope, compiler, The Pioneers of Massachusetts: A Descriptive List, Drawn from Records of the Colonies, Towns, and Churches, and other Contemporaneous Documents (Boston, Mass.: self-published, 1900), ; digital images, Open Library, archive.org (https://archive.org : accessed 1 February 2015.