Richard Pierce b. 1725 and Mary Simmons b. 1723, of Middleborough and Freetown, Mass.

**Sketch updated July 8, 2024**

Richard Pierce (often Peirce or Pearse) was born 15 April 1725 at Middleborough, Plymouth County, Mass., the son of Thomas and Naomi (Booth) Pierce. [The Mayflower Descendant,“Middleborough Vital Records,” 7:240 (1905)]  I wrote about Thomas and Naomi here.He is my seventh great-grandfather on my grandfather Arthur Washburn Ellis Davis’ side of the family.  

On 12 December 1745 Richard Pierce of Middleborough married Mary Simmons at Freetown, Bristol County, Mass. They were married by Thomas Terrey, Esqr,, of Freetown. [Freetown Vital Records in Ancestry’s “Massachusetts, US Town and Vital Records 1620-1988”] Mary was born 9 October 1723 at Freetown, the daughter of Abraham and Ann (Lee) Simmons.  Her birth record lists father only. [Freetown Vital Records on Ancestry’s “Massachusetts, US Town and Vital Records 1620-1988”]

Richard and Mary had three children, first two births recorded Middleborough Vital Records:

i.Zilphah born 9 June 1746 [MD 16:246]; m. Michael Mosher of Middleborough 30 Oct 1770

ii.Jesse born 12 July 1747; married Ruth Perkins [MD 16:246]

iii.Richard who m. first Lydia Boothe of Middleborough, 29 Aug 1776; 2nd Sarah Boothe of Middleborough, 28 Nov 1789 

I descend through Jesse. I wrote about him here.

The only civic involvement I’ve found for Richard is that he was elected one of the deer wardens at Freetown in 1752.

Richard, as well as his son Richard, served in the Revolutionary War, so it can be hard to differentiate between them in records. Richard the elder was a Sergeant and perhaps a Corporal with short-term service; Richard the younger a private with at least three years service. 

The elder Richard Peirce of Middleborough was a sergeant in Captain Abiel Peirce’s 2nd Middleborough Company of militia, which marched to Marshfield on the 19 April 1775 Lexington Alarm, 2 days service. He may also be the Richard Peirce of Middleborough who was a corporal in Captain Levi Rounsevel's company, Colonel David Brewer's  9th Regiment at Roxbury in summer of 1775, serving for 3 months 4 days.

Richard’s service is accepted by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR Ancestor No. A106171). People have joined through his children Jesse, Zadoc, and Zilpha. 

Apparently Richard left Mary and lived with another woman named Lois. Her maiden name of DeMaranville is from family tradition; I have not found documentation. He did not divorce Mary, so their co-habitating would have been illegal and quite scandalous. Richard and Lois had a large family of nine children (eight boys!) whose births are recorded in Middleborough Vital Records page 1:283-84, each entry specifies son or daughter “of Richard Peirce by Lois his wife.”

i.Abner born 2 April 1778

ii.Naomi born 19 January 1782

iii.Russell born 25 June 1784

iv.Thomas 1 March 1787

v.Eli born 23 Jan 1789 

vi.Levi born 25 May 1792 

vii.Preserved born 14 March 1794

viii.Zadoc born 19 April 1796

ix.Philip born 30 Jan 1798

If all those children are in fact Richard’s, he would have been 73 at the last child’s birth! I have also seen children Lois and Lemuel listed for them but haven’t found a source.

Harvey Cushman Pierce wrote that the Middleborough town authorities, in or before 1815, and the Overseers of the Poor of Lakeville recently (1870) denied that Richard and Lois were ever married, or if they were, asserted the marriage was illegal as Mary, the first wife, was alive, and she and Richard were not divorced while the latter was living with Lois. 

Nothing was done to Richard legally for this breach of order, as people pitied him for the wrongs that he had suffered from the conduct of his wife Mary Simmons. A pauper descendant of this 2d marriage was rejected by Middleborough or Lakeville on the plea that the children of Richard and Lois were all illegitimate. I would be very interesting in discovering what type of trouble Mary was up to!

There is an intention of marriage between Richard Peirce of Middleborough and Gabriel[?/le] Demaranville of Dartmouth 13 May 1775. Is this another first name for Lois and they actually married? [Darmouth Vital Records in Ancestry’s “Massachusetts US Town and Vital Records 1620-1988]

I haven’t found death information on Richard or Mary. I also do not know if Mary married again. The DAR database has Richard dying after 1798.

Sources Not Included Above:

Ebenezer W Peirce, The Peirce Family of The Old Colony, 1870

Ebenezer W. Peirce, The Peirce Family, printed in NEHGR in Jan., April, July 1867 and October 1868

William Richard Cutter, editor, Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to Families of Middlesex County, Mass., Volume 4, 1908,  

Paul Bumpus article on Ruth Perkins in the September 2006 Mayflower Quarterly 

Harvey Cushman Pierce, Seven Pierce Families: A Record of Births, Deaths and Marriages of the First Seven generations of Peirces in America, 1936

Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War, 12:95