Sunday, June 28, 2015

William Nye (1733-1806) and Abigail Pope (1747-1829) of Sandwich, Mass.



William Nye was born in Sandwich, Massachusetts on 1 September 1733, the son of Nathan and Dorothy (Bryant) Nye.  William was baptized with his sister Deborah on 22 October 1738, at the First Parish Church, Sandwich. He is my sixth great-grandfather on my grandfather Arthur Washburn Davis’ side of the family.

On 6 February 1766 William Nye and Abigail Pope were married at Sandwich by the Rev. Mr. Williams. Abigail was born in Sandwich on 28 July 1747, the daughter of John and Mercy (Swift) Pope. Abigail was baptized on 23 August 1747.

I have found three children for William and Abigail:
William born June 1765
Elisha born before 22 November 1772 when he was baptized with his brother William
Mary born before 26 January 1777 when she was baptized

I descend from son William who married Ruth Snow.

"Abigail Nye, William's wife" was listed on the Sandwich Church catalog of living members on 18 April 1787.

Abigail Nye is in the 1820 census for Barnstable, household containing two people: 1 free white woman over 45 and one free white woman under 16.

If I have the correct William Nye (there were so many!), William died at Sandwich on 6 July 1806 at age 72 (although church record state he was 74 but a discrepancy like this isn’t uncommon).  Abigail Nye, widow, died on 6 January 1829 at age 81. I have not found their burial locations. I would be surprised if they were buried anywhere other than Sandwich. Perhaps they did not have gravestones or they have not survived.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Thomas Pierce(b. ca 1684) and Naomi Booth (b. 1691) of Middleboro, Massachusetts





Thomas was born about 1684, probably in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, the son of the son of Isaac and Alice (Chartley) Pierce and grandson of Abraham Pierce, the first of the line in Plymouth Colony. His family later left coastal Duxbury for the inland town of Middleborough. Although his birth record is not found, Thomas is mentioned in his father Isaac’s 22 January 1722 will, receiving land Isaac received for his service in the Narragansett War. His last name was often spelled Peirce or Perse but I use to Pierce since I’m an “i before e” kind of girl! Thomas is my 8th great-grandfather on my grandfather Arthur Washburn Davis' side of the family. I also descend from the Pierce family (through Abraham's daughter Mary as well as his daughter Alice) on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins' side of the family. It is often unsettling in how many ways my grandparents were unknowingly blood relatives!

On 16 April 1714, Thomas Pierce married Naomi Booth in Middleborough (Middleborough VR). They were married in a joint wedding with Naomi’s sister Rachel.

Naomi was born 31 July 1691 at Scituate, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, the daughter of Benjamin and Mary (Sutton) Booth. Her name is sometimes spelled Naoma and Naomy.

Their children: (Shadrach, Jonathan, Richard and Hilkiah’s births recorded Middleborough VR):
1. Thomas who married Rebecca Jones
2. Shadrach born 8 July 1717, married Abigail Hoskins
3. Naomi 1 October 1719, married Josiah Jones  
4. Jonathan born 23 March 1721/22
5. Richard born 15 April 1725 who married Mary Simmons and Lois DeMaranville
6. Hilkiah born 19 Oct 1727 who married Hannah Briggs

I’m uncertain of what proof exists that Thomas and Naomi are their children, although they are included in the Pierce genealogy and the names certainly fit. I do need to do more research on the family. I descend from their son Richard and his first wife Mary Simmons.

Thomas was an Anabaptist as early as 1737 in Middleborough. Anabaptists are Christians who believe in delaying baptism until the candidate confesses his or her faith.

William Richard Cutter’s work includes a statement from a family historian on Naomi: “Like the creaking wheel of the fable, Naomi was always complaining; sick, sick, always sick, too feeble to attend to a house-keeper's legitimate cares; too feeble to cook a meal and indeed too feeble to get out of bed till it was cooked and fully prepared for eating. But, though destitute of a proper sense of shame, she lacked nothing in that of smell. And as the savory odor of tempting viands reached her olfactories, a surprising change quickly came over the spirit of her sluggish dreams, when crawling from her bed, she came to the table to astonish all beholders with her surfeit and gluttony. The mulish Isaac Pierce, Jr., was probably as innocent of instituting means which conspired, by and through the assistance of his model wife, to make his life a success, as was his more intelligent brother Thomas incapable of resisting the downward and destructive tendency in his, encumbered and ever discouraged as he was by this burden like a mill-stone about the neck." My goodness! Not sure how information like that would have come down through the generations, but it’s certainly entertaining.

Thomas and Naomi signed a quitclaim deed in April 1746. I have not found their death dates or burial locations so only know they died after that date.  

If anyone has some resources on the family I have missed, I’d very  much appreciate hearing from you.

Sources Not Mentioned Above:
Ebenezer W. Peirce, The Peirce Family, printed in NEHGR in Jan., April, July 1867 and October 1868.

William Richard Cutter, Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Mass., Volume 2, 1910

Malcolm A. Young, The American Genealogist, July 1999, The Two Wives of Benjamin 2 Booth of Early Scituate and Middleborough, Massachusetts