Ancestor Birthday - June 1st - Rebecca Law 1655-1729

Inscription on her gravemarker at Rowley Burial Ground

HERE LIES Ye BODY
OF MRs REBEKAH JEWET
ye WIFE OF MR
JOSEPH JEWET WHO
DIED DECEMBER Ye 26th
1729 IN Ye 74th
YEAR OF HER AGE

Yesterday (31 May 2017) I wrote about my 8th great-grandfather Joseph Jewett. I did state that he had married Rebecca Law on 2 Mar 1676/77. Since Rebecca was born 1 Jun 1655 she would have been 21 years old when she married him. Rebecca was born in Rowley, Massachusetts, so lived in the same town as Joseph.

Her parents were William and Mary (Cheney) Law. She was their 4th child. They had named their oldest child, born in 1646, Rebecca. That Rebecca and the 2nd child John both died in 1652. The 3rd child, Mary, born in 1650, died in 1653. When their 5th child was born in 1657, they named her Mary. They named their 6th child John (they kept on trying) but he died at a year old. When the 7th child was born in 1662, she was named Priscilla. Apparently some time before 2 May 1666 Rebecca's mother died, because William remarried then to Faith, the widow of John Smith. So the 3 surviving daughters, ages almost 11, 8 and 3, now had a step-mother. In the will of Rebecca's grandfather, John Cheney, written 5 Jun 1666 he gave a bequest to William Lawes 3 daughters: Rebecca, Mary and Priscilla. Each were to receive 40 shillings.

Rebecca had 1 half-brother, Aquila, born in July 1667, but he died before his 2nd birthday. Both Rebecca and Mary lived to be married. I have not found information for Priscilla.

Rebecca and Joseph had 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls, and all lived to be married, before Rebecca died 26 Dec 1729. The church record wrote about her death: "who lay long in a sad disconsolate condition, but was (we hope) lifted into joy."