Family:Whitney, Elizabeth (1702-1789)

Elizabeth⁵ Whitney (Nathaniel⁴, Nathaniel³, John², John¹), daughter of Nathaniel⁴ and Mercy (Robinson) Whitney, was born 23 Jul 1702, Watertown, MA,^[1] baptized 17 Jun 1711, Weston, MA, aged 8 years,^[2] and died 1789, Worcester, MA.^[3]

She married, between 3 Sep 1727 and 4 Jan 1728/9, Daniel Bigelow, son of Joshua and Elizabeth (Flagg) Bigelow. He was baptized 29 Aug 1697, Watertown, MA, and died 1789, Worcester, MA, aged 92 years.

She was admitted to the church 3 Sep 1727, Weston, MA. He and wife were dismissed to Worcester where they dwelt 5 Oct 1729.^[4]

Pierce says the following:^[5]

ELIZABETH [WHITNEY], b. July 23, 1702; m. Daniel BIGELOW; bap. Aug 29, 1697; d. 1789; res. Worcester and Ward, Mass. Ch.: Daniel, b. Jan. 4, 1728; m. 1751, Mary BOND (his son, Daniel, Jr., gr. Harvard Coll. 1755, a lawyer and senator of Petersham). Mr. Daniel BIGELOW d. Aug. 29, 1776, in his 48th year of his age. A brother of the distinguished Col. Timothy BIGELOW and father of Daniel BIGELOW 3d, who in 1776 formed connection with William STEARNS, Esq., in the publication of the Worcester Spy, and afterward studied law and practiced in Petersham. Daniel BIGELOW 3d was at different times representative, senator, member of the executive council, and county attorney; David, b. Sept. 19, 1730; m. Sarah EATON; Dea. David BIGELOW d. May 10, 1810; ae. 79. Was a brother of Col. Timothy BIGELOW. Resided in the northeast part of Worcester, on the road now known as Mountain street. Tavern keeper. Married for his first wife, in 1752, Sarah EATON, and his second wife, whom he married in 1764, was Deborah HEYWOOD. Selectman, 1776-77-79-80-83-84. In Sept., 1775, he was chosen a member of a committee to inspect the tories passing between Lancaster and Worcester or any other way. Representative to the General Court, 1777. Was a delegate to a state convention assembled at Concord on the 14th of July, 1779, to adopt measures to relieve the people from the disastrous effects of the great depreciation of the currency, and the high prices of the necessaries of life. With Levi LINCOLN, sen., and Joseph ALLEN, was chosen in 1779 a delegate to a convention for framing a constitution (a son, Tyler, gr. Harvard Coll. 1801, studied law); Nathaniel, d., ae. 2 years; Elijah, b. Mar. 2, 1737, scalded in 1740; Timothy, b. Aug. 2, 1739; m. Anna ANDREWS. Born in Worcester, was son of Daniel BIGELOW and Elizabeth (WHITNEY) BIGELOW, who came to Worcester from Watertown. He was a descendant of John BIGELOW, the emigrant, who was a son of Randall BIGELOW, of Wrentham, county of Suffolk, England. This John was in Watertown as early as 1636, and married, 1642, Mary WARREN, also born in England.

Col. Bigelow was one of the prime movers in the provincial cause in the Revolutionary war, being associated with WARREN, OTIS, and other leading spirits. In March, 1773, he was elected a member of the local Committee of Correspondence, and continued a member until called into active service in April, 1775. He was active in the organization of the American Political Society in Dec., 1773, comprising the leading patriots of the town, and meetings of the society were frequently held at his house. He was an influential member of many revolutionary committees. Was a delegate from this town at the first and second sessions of the Provincial Congress in 1774 and 1775.

In the spring of 1775, Mr. Isaiah THOMAS, the publisher of the Massachusetts Spy, printed in Boston, was placed by the British authorities on the list of suspicious persons, and his paper was proscribed. Joseph WARREN and Timothy BIGELOW advised his removal with his press and types to Worcester. Although an affair of some difficulty and requiring great caution, Capt. BIGELOW undertook the task, and, selecting a dark night, he with others succeeded in conveying the press and types to Barton's Point, and ferrying them to Charlestown, and from thence transporting them to Worcester to the basement of his own house, where the press was set up ready for use.

He organized and commanded the company of minute men which marched from Worcester on the alarm at Lexington, Apr. 19, 1775, and on the organization of the army at Cambridge was appointed major in the regiment of which Jonathan WARD was colonel. He took part in the ill-fated expedition against Quebec in the fall of 1775, was taken prisoner and confined nearly a year, when he was paroled and afterward exchanged, and was soon in active service as Lieut.-Colonel. Feb. 8, 1777, he received a commission as colonel, and was appointed to the command of the 15th Massachusetts regiment in the Continental army then forming principally of men from Worcester county. On the completion of the regimental organization, he marched with his command to join the northern army under Gen. SCHUYLER, arriving in season to assist in the capture of BURGOYNE by Gen. GATES at Saratoga. He was also in service in Rhode Island, Verplanck's Point, Robinson's Farms, N. J., Peekskill, Monmouth, Valley Forge, West Point, and Yorktown. At the close of the war he was stationed for a time at West Point, and afterward assigned to the command of the arsenal at Springfield. On relinquishing his military duties, he returned to Worcester and engaged in his old occupation as a blacksmith. In 1780, he with others obtained a grant of 23,040 acres of land in Vermont, upon which he founded a town, giving it the name of Montpelier, now the capital of the state. He is described as having been a man of fine personal appearance, tall and erect, and possessed of a martial bearing. He married Anna ANDREWS, July 7, 1762. In 1861 the remains of Col. BIGELOW were exhumed, incased in a metallic casket and placed in a receptacle beneath the base of the monument erected by his great-grandson, Col. Timothy Bigelow LAWRENCE, of Boston. (See Lincoln's History of Worcester; Silence, b. Jan. 29, 1742; m. Jonathan GLEASON, of Worcester.)

Children of Daniel and Elizabeth⁵ (Whitney) Bigelow:

i.	Daniel Bigelow, b. 4 Jan 1728/9, Worcester, MA; m.(1) Mary Bond; m.(2) Mary (Robbins) Ballard.
ii.	David Bigelow, b. 19 Sep 1730, Worcester, MA; d. 10 May 1810, Worcester, MA; m.(1) 21 May 1752, Worcester, MA, Sarah Eaton; m.(2) 8 Mar 1764, Worcester, MA, Deborah Heywood. See also Francis7 Whitney.
iii.	Nathaniel Bigelow, b. say 1733; d. aged 2 years.
iv.	Elijah Bigelow, b. 21 Mar 1737, Worcester, MA; d. circa 1740, Worcester, MA, aged 3 years, scalded to death.
v.	Col. Timothy Bigelow, b. 2 Aug 1739, Worcester, MA; d. 31 Mar 1790, Worcester, MA, aged 51, in debtors' prison; m. 1 Jul 1762, Worcester, MA, Anna Andrews, daughter of Samuel and Anna (Rankin) Andrews.
vi.	Silence Bigelow, b. 29 Jan 1742, Worcester, MA; m. 18 Sep 1783, Worcester, MA, Jonathan Gleason.

References

1.^  "Elifabeth Whitny, d. Nathaniel & Mercy Whitny, b. 23 Jul 1702," according to Watertown Records, Comprising the Third Book of Town Proceedings and the Second Book of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, to the End of 1737. Also Plan and Register of Burials in Arlington Street Burying Ground (Watertown, MA: Historical Society, 1900), volume 2, page 21.

2.^  "Elizabeth [Whitney], d. Nathaniel Jr. and Mercy, bap. June 17, 1711, a. 8y.," according to Mary Frances Peirce, Town of Weston. Births, Deaths and Marriages, 1707-1850. 1703--Gravestones--1900. Church Records, 1709-1825. Appendix and Addenda, Cent Society, Gleanings from the Town Files, Bits of Genealogy, Error, Indexes, &c. (Boston, MA: McIncloe Bros., Printers, 1901), page 390.

3.^ 

4.^  "Elizabeth [Whitney], d. Nathaniel Jun., now Bigelow, c.m. Sept. 3, 1727. Dism. to church in Worcester where she dwells, Oct. 5, 1729. [p. 411]," according to Weston Vital Records, page .

5.^  Frederick Clifton Pierce, The Descendants of John Whitney, Who Came from London, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1635 (Chicago, IL: 1895), pp. 41-42.

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