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The issue is who in c. 1700 was the wife of Jonathan Whitcomb Jr. (1669-1715)? Various compilers and authors offer three alternatives: 1. Mary Blood (or Mary Joslyn Blood); 2. Mary Joslyn; or 3. first Mary Joslyn and then Mary Blood. I ignore the various spellings of Joslyn e.g. Joslyn, Joslin, Josllin, Josselyn, Jocelyn etc. The most cited source is the 1903 book by Charotte Whitcomb, who appears to rely for information about Jonathan on the “The Records of Littleton” which in turn contains the “Notes of Samuel Lewis”. Torrey's “Manuscript” seems to repeat the Charotte Whitcomb material but has an additional reference to a “Middlesex County Deed”. I unfortunately do not have access to these Deed records, but I think it is used and abstracted by Lewis.
[Question: Does anyone have a copy of the Torrey Deed reference as given below that they could post?]
I contend in the following that Mary Joslin is mostly likely the only wife of Jonathan Whitcomb Jr. But if Mary Blood were also a wife, the marriage could have taken place only after the time 1699/00 when the Deed was written. I further contend that it is unlikely that Mary Blood was the daughter of James and Ellen Blood who in fact was married to Lt. Simon Davis.
I would appreciated any comments, corrections, additions, other information or contrary arguments.
The records so far as I known follow:
Whitcomb, Charlotte, “The Whitcomb Family in America in America: a Biographical Genealogy with a Chapter on Our English Forbears "by the Name of Whetcombe" (Minneapolis, Minn., 1904), p. 187 writes:
“....JOHNATHAN WHITCOMB.3 (Jonathan,2 John,1) was married (1) to Mary (Blood) Joslin, daughter of Abraham and Mary Blood of Lancaster, somewhere between 1685-1689 (Samuel Smith of Littleton recorded that he was married (1) to Mary Joslin and (2) to Mary Blood, daughter of Joseph Blood of Groton Mass.).(····)”.
I can find no other independent references to “Abraham and Mary Blood of Lancaster”
Her reference to Samuel Smith is likely taken from Sanderson, George W., Harwood, Herbert J., Frost, editors, “Records of Littleton, Massachusetts, Birth and Deaths”, Littleton Massachusetts, The Patriot Press of Concord, 1900.] where starting on page 398 on reads: From the Records of the Late Samuel Smith in the Reuban Hoar Library”and continuing on page 501. of Smith's notes one reads:
“....There are indications that he had three wives. He may have m. 1st Hannah, 2nd Mary. Did he marry Mary Joslyn b. 14-10-1666. dau of Abraham and Beatrice? See witnesses of will of Francis Whitcomb, viz: John Roper, R. Houghton & Roger Sumner. (····).” and
“....Did he m. 2d Mary Blood? Feb. 6 1699-1700 his wife Mary (now so supposed) released him of all debts, etc. The witnesses to this release were Benja. Bellows and John Keyes. (····).” and
“....Did Jonathan Whitcombe m. a Bellows, Keyes or Wilder about 1690. or a Longley, Holden or Sawtell? His last wife was probably Deborah Scripture, for Jonathan Whitcomb and Deborah Scripture, dau. Of Samuel, both of Groton, were m. at Concord September 4 1719. (····).”
Clearly Smith is less than definitive regards Jonathan's marriage partners. His suggestion that he was the husband of Hannah is in error. Hannah was the wife of Jonathan Sr the mother and father of our subject, Jonathan Jr. He was in error on other details.
This appears to have been picked up by Torrey, Clarence A., “New England Marriages Prior to 1700” New England Historical Genealogy Society, Digital Version on CD, 2007—being a CD copy of the manuscript notes made available after his death in 1962 where one finds:
“....WHITCOMB, Jonathan (1669-1715) & Mary/(Hannah in 1699) [BLOOD?/JOSLIN?/FARRAR?, dau John Jr.? (no); by 1690 {Whitcomb 47, 48, 187; Middlesex Co. Deeds}....”. With Torrey references as follows:
“....1. Whitcomb, Charlotte, 'The Whitcomb Family in America in America : a Biographical Genealogy with a Chapter on Our English Forbears ' by the Name of Whetcombe" (Minneapolis, Minn., 1904)
2. Middlesex Co. Deeds Originals at Middlesex County Court House, Cambridge, Mass....”
The proposition of Whitcomb is married to Mary Blood is based on the fact that she released him from debts etc in 1699/1700 and I surmise that Smith's information regards Mary Bloods is derived from the same deed record.
However if this release abstract is correct, then Mary Blood could NOT have been the wife of Whitcomb at the time the deed was executed since wives in Massachusetts had NO rights to sign such a release. All legal authority to sign such a deed lay with her husband if Mary Blood had one at that time. It is unlikely to have been part of a “marriage settlement” because they were not enforceable in colonial Massachusetts at this time due to their not carrying over from England the “Law of Equity”. Another issue is where Mary could have gotten this income producing property? Perhaps she was a widow and inherited by the Will of her former husband. Perhaps she got it by Will from her father. If she was a widow, one needs to seek a qualifying male Blood – the right age and not otherwise encumbered and now dead. The legal situation is summarized in
Joshua William, “Principles of the Law of Real Property” Elibron Classics reprint of 1877 edition p. 142:
“.... First, then, as to the rights of the husband in respect of the lands of his wife. By the act of marriage, the husband and wife became in law one person, so continue during the coverture marriage. The wife is as it were merged in her husband. Accordingly the husband is entitled to the whole of the rents and profits which arise from his wife's lands, and acquires a freehold estate, therein, during the continuance of the coverture; and, in a like manner, all the goods and personal chattels of the wife .... belong solely to her husband. For, by the ancient common law, it is impossible that the wife should have any power of disposition over property of her separate benefit, independently of her husband. In modern times, however, a more liberal doctrine has been established by the Court on Chancery ....” [“Modern times” in England with the development of the Law of Equity being the 1700 and 1800s.]
Marylynn Salmon, “Women and the Law of Property in Early America”, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, (1986) covers the same material, but applying it to the various colonies in America. Most of the colonies more of less followed the English Law, except for Massachusetts and Connecticut. Their Puritan background did not recognize the Law of Equity nor the Court of Chancery that enforced it. The Law of Equity derived from the ancient notion of appeal directly to the King for mercy and justice. Their rejection of the authority of the King and his Law of Equity deprived wives of the rights which they would have had in England or the rest of the colonies well into the 1700s. Thus in these two states, the wife had little or no legal standing. Their only participation was that they had to sign (thus agreeing) with any legal property or contract agreement that their husband undertook which might jeopardize her of her Dowry Rights that guaranteed her with 1/3 to 1/2 of the estate of her husband if he were to die first. This dowry was for her support during her life and at her death passed to their mutual children. In England and in the other colonies the same requirement held except that their agreement had to be made openly in court and the wife be examined in private by the judge. In Massachusetts and Connecticut the signature need only “appear” on the legal documents without witness or questioning. Even blatant forgeries were recognized on the basis that the wife should have complained at the time of the forgery and stopped the transaction. How one might ask? Thus they were open to coercion and intimidation. Without Equity Court and its law it was impossible for wives to have estates separate from their husbands. Trust agreements, common elsewhere, that could hold a wife's separate property during marriage were unenforceable.
Thus I conclude that if Mary Blood were Jonathan Jr.'s wife, the marriage could have taken place only after the signing of the February 1699/1700 release contract deed. To have written such a release after the marriage would have been futile and a waste of lawyer fees.
It has been suggested that Mary Blood, born in 1648 the daughter of James and Ellen Blood, was the wife of Jonathan Whitcomb. But this Mary was the wife of Simon Davis marrying him in 1660. She and Simon had 8 children between 1661 and 1679. Since Simon lived until 1714 for Mary to have been married to Whitcomb after 1700, she must have had been divorced from Simon sometime between 1679 and 1700. Divorce was possible in colonial Massachusetts, but not common; it is unlikely to have happened without notoriety, since Simon was a significant person in the community. I can find no reference to such a divorce. Thus if Mary Blood Davis were the second wife of Whitcomb between 1700 and 1710 when Whitcomb married Deborah Scripture, she would have had three addition children: Martha (abt 1700), Ephraim (April 1702) and Mary (1704) when she, Mary Blood (Davis) Whitcomb, was between 52 and 56 years old. These three additional children would have been in addition to the 8 children she had had with Simon Davis twenty to fourty years previous. I believe that this is unlikely at best. I suggest that to support Mary Blood as the second wife of Jonathan Whitcomb, one needs to identify some other Mary Blood. I have been unable to find another Mary Blood widow or otherwise that seems to qualify as the second wife of Jonathan Whitcomb Jr. All the “Mary Bloods” that I can find were married, some still bearing children with their husband. They likewise would have to have had divorced their first husbands.
I conclude that the simplest explainable is to leave Mary with her husband Simon Davis and identify all of Whitcomb Jr's children with Mary Joslin Whitcomb.
Regards Mary Joslin: The records regards Mary Joslin (Marie Joslyn) are unfortunately sparse: from Nourse [Nourse, Henry S., The Birth and Death Register, Church Records and Epitaphs of Lancaster, Massachusetts 1643-1850, W. J. Coulter, Printer, Clinton, Massachusetts (1890), Kessinger Publishing Legacy Reprint c 2007.] we have on page 10:
“....Joseph sonn of Abram and Beatrix Josllin was borne ye 5/26/1663
Marie daughter of Abram and Beatrix Josllin was borne 10/14/1666....”
From Nourse Nourse, Henry S., “Early Records of Lancaster Massachusetts 1643 -1725”, W. J. Coulter, Printer, Clinton, Massachusetts (1884), Facsimile Reprint Heritage Books, Bowie, Maryland (1993), we have as neighbors (shown in a 1675 map) in a row on the east bank of the North River, Thomas Joslin, Nathaniel Joslin, Steven Gates, John Whitcomb Jr, John Whitcomb Sr.
Jonathan Whitcomb Jr. who married Mary Joslin (or Blood) was John Whitcomb Sr.'s grandson. His father Jonathan Sr. took over his father's property at the John death in 1662 and his brother John's at his death in 1683, Abraham, the father of Marie (Mary) Joslin, and Nathaniel were sons of Thomas Joslin. From Nourse p. 16 we have a death record in the: “The Massacre of July 18, 1692: Sarah [Howe] Joslin, wife of Peter, Peter Joslyn Jr., aged six years, killed in captivity, Three young children of Peter Joslyn, [and] Hannah Whitcomb, widow of Jonathan.” Hannah was the wife of Jonathan, Sr. and Jonathan, Jr.'s mother. After the death of his wife in the massacre, Peter Joslin married Joanna Whitcomb daughter of Joshua Whitcomb who was Jonathan Whitcomb Jr.'s first cousin. Clearly the Joslin and Whitcomb families were close and a marriage between Jonathan Jr. and Mary Joslin would not be surprising.
“NEGHS Register” vol 71 has Abraham and Beatrice with seven children prior to “1663 [when] he had rejoined the rest of the family in Lancaster, which was his residence until is death [at sea in 1670]”. Son Joseph and daughter Mary were born in Lancaster. Since Abraham was a mariner and away from home, perhaps the family lived with their relatives and were thus neighbors as well with the Whitcombs. Beatrice then married Benjamin Bosworth, and they moved to Hull and then to Stow, Massachusetts.
Some compilers have Mary Joslin Whitcomb a being killed along with the Peter Joslin family in 1692, but various 19th century books describing the event and Nourse in several place make in clear that the victim is Hannah Whitcomb -- Jonathan Jr.'s mother.
Unfortunately I can find no other civil or church records appear to exist regards Marie (Mary) Joslin other than her birth.
Byron Edwards
Riverside, CA
November 20, 2007
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