Ancestor Birthday - April 1st - Benjamin Jewett 1703 - abt 1766

It was February 25th when I wrote about Dorothy Rogers, who was the wife of Benjamin Jewett. They are my 6th great-grandparents. Again neither of them have much information on their person pages on my website.

Benjamin was born 1 Apr 1703 to Jonathan and Mary (Wicom) Jewett. It is quite interesting to check his birth records on Ancestry.com, since there are six entries, all a little different. It appears that his birth was recorded twice in the original records. This is one of them.

Here is the other.

But there are also two handwritten ones, which are probably transcriptions done in 1884. Again there are two since there are two in the originals.

In 1928 a printed version of the Rowley Vital Records was published. Benjamin's birth is also in that book.

The sixth entry is more mysterious. It is marked on the title as Georgetown Paupers' Records, with Births, Marriages, and Deaths. I looked up Georgetown Massachusetts and discovered that it was formed in 1838 from Rowley, so in the 1700s it would have been Rowley. Also looking at the images themselves the beginning of them says: Register of Births in the Town of Rowley.

They are arranged alphabetically and there are a number of pages for the Jewetts and goes from the 1600s up into the 1800s. And Benjamin is in there born 1 Apr 1703 as a son of Jona and Mary. In the middle of that record are marriages and then at the end there do seem to be records of paupers. The title is misleading, at least for Benjamin's record of birth.

On to his adult life. Benjamin Jewett and Dorothy Rogers were married in Rowley 18 Jan 1724/25. After the birth of one child it is believed they moved to Stratham, New Hampshire. My 5th great-grandfather John Jewett was born in New Hampshire about 1730. The family history compiled by George Anson Jewett published in 1914, states that Benjamin was a tanner but became a "large land proprietor in New Hampshire," with a number of land transactions. He died in Stratham probably in 1766.

Ancestor Birthday - Jonathan Jewett - 11 March 1678/79-1745

One of my Jewett ancestors was my 7th great-grandfather, Jonathan Jewett, who was born in Rowley, Massachusetts 11 Mar 1678/79. He was the oldest of four children to parents Joseph and Rebecca (Law) Jewett.

Jonathan probably knew his grandfather, Maximilian Jewett, who had emigrated from Bradford, England, in 1638. Maximilian died in October 1684 and Jonathan would have been about 5½ years old when his grandfather died. Maximilian's will left the homestead to Joseph, Jonathan's father. I wonder if the family including Jonathan ever lived there.

It was 24 Jan 1699/1700 when Jonathan married Mary Wicom. They had 9 children, who all lived to adulthood and married. Jonathan became a widower 21 Jan 1741/42 when Mary died while visiting in Exeter, New Hampshire. They lacked 3 days of being married 42 years.

It was a little less than a year later, 27 Dec 1742, when Jonathan, at age 63, remarried to a widow, Rebecca (Hale) Poore, from the neighboring town of Newbury. He lived about 2½ years more before he died 26 Jul 1745.

Ancestor Birthday - January 18th - Mary Wicom 1679/80–1741/42

Although I'm posting a blog about Mary today, January 18th probably isn't her birthday, but it was the date of her baptism or christening in 1679/80. Her birthday most likely was within the week before January 18th. I found that 6 of her 9 children have both birth and baptism dates recorded and all the dates are less than a week apart.

In genealogical classes we are taught to research women in the past by looking at the men in their lives: father, husband, brother, or son. Mary is mentioned in the book, Early Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts by George Brainard Blodgette and Amos Everett Jewett on page 172 in the entry for her husband, Jonathan Jewett, who she married 24 Jan 1679/1700. She is also mentioned as a child of her parents, John Wicom and Abigail Kimball, on page 409. Her children are named as a part of Jonathan's entry on page 173.

Going back 300 years to 1717, we could find Mary alive, living on Bradford Street in Rowley with her husband Jonathan, who was a tanner.  By 1717, 7 of her 9 children had been born. Before her death on 21 Jan 1741/42, the 9 children had been born, all living to adulthood and 8 were already married. One son, Jedidiah, had graduated from Harvard College in 1726 and then was ordained in 1729 and became the minister at First Congregational Church in Rowley.  Do you suppose she was more regular in attendance when her son was the minister?

There were at least 20 grandchildren born before her death, so we can imagine she enjoyed those babies and children. Mary died in Exeter, New Hampshire "while there visiting."  It is probable she was visiting her son Moses and family who lived there. Maybe she wanted to see the grandchild who was born in 1740.