As with most of my Nye ancestors, I have quite a few question marks regarding my research on Jabez Nye, but thought writing about him might help me clear things up a bit. Alternative spellings for his first name are Jabesh and Jabus.
There is a Jabez (spelled Jabus in the record) Nye who was born 13 June 1749, in New Braintree, Mass., son of Samuel Nye and Lydia Benson. But this Jabez may have died during the war in 1778. Some of Samuel and Lydia’s older children were born in Rochester, Mass., so there is a connection to the area.
What I do know is "my" Jabez was baptized as an adult on 16 Aug 1772 at Wareham (First Church of Wareham records).
He married first Mary "Molly" Fuller on 18 Feb 1768 in Wareham. Jabez and Molly had at least nine children:
1. Desire baptized 18 April 1773; married 1st David Pierce and 2nd John Gibbs. I descend from Desire and David.
2. Abigail baptized 1 November 1772; married Ephraim Chubbuck.
3. Hannah baptized 1 November 1772; married Charles Churchill.
4. Lucy baptized 28 May 1775; died young.
5. Joannah baptized 30 April 1780; married Richard Pierce.
6. Sylvanus/Silvanus baptized 30 April 1780. Imagine how happy Jabez was when child No. 6 was a boy?! Sadly he died at age 15.
7. Mary baptized 07 February 1782. May have been the Mary Nye who married Nathan Jones.
8. Benjamin baptized 10 October 1791; died as a young man.
9. Lucy born 29 Jan 1788, married George Adams.
Mary “Molly” Fuller Nye died 2 Feb 1802 in Wareham and is buried at Agawam Cemetery. Molly was born 23 November 1748, the daughter of Samuel Fuller and Ann Tinkham. After years of work, Paul Bumpus, Historian General of the Mayflower Society in Plymouth, proved Molly’s lineage so that people who descend from this couple can join the Society as descendants of Samuel Fuller as well as Mayflower Passengers Eaton, Billington and Brown. Paul was incredibly helpful to me when I first started searching my grandfather’s ancestry, as was Richard Griffith who was then of Wareham.