Family:Whitney, Shadrach (1770-1832)
Shadrach5 Whitney (Timothy5, Daniel4, Jonathan3, Jonathan2, John1), son of Timothy5 and Katherine (Davenport) Whitney, was born 6 Oct 1770, Shrewsbury, MA, and died 5 Oct 1832, Sutton, MA, aged 62 years.
He married, 5 Nov 1801, Boylston, MA, Sophia (Brigham) Martin,[1] daughter of Samuel Brigham. She was born about 21 Apr 1784, Northborough, MA, and died 18 Aug 1863, Sutton, MA, aged 79 years 3 months 27 days, of dysentery, born in Northboro.[2] She had married firstly, ----- Martin.
Children of Shadrach5 and Sophia (Brigham)(Martin) Whitney:
i. Sophia6 Whitney, b. ca. 1802, Boylston, MA; d. 5 Feb 1864, Marlborough, MA, aged 61 years, of ovarian tumor and ovarian dropsy;[3] m. 17 Jan 1826, Lancaster, MA, Charles Bridge.[4] ii. Betsey Whitney, b. bef. 1810, Boylston, MA. iii. Sally Whitney, b. bef. 1810, Boylston, MA. iv. Catharine Whitney, b. ca. 1810, Boylston, MA; d. 26 Sep 1829, Sutton, MA, aged 19 years. v. Persis Whitney, b. ca. 1813, Boylston, MA; d. 21 Dec 1834, Sutton, MA, aged 21 years. v. (son) Whitney, b. ca. 1816; d. 21 Nov 1826, Lancaster, MA, aged 10 years, of fever.[5]
Notes
The alleged parentage for Sophia (Brigham) Martin as daughter of Samuel and Mary (Ball) Brigham can not be correct since Samuel Brigham and Mary Ball were not married until 17 Feb 1789, and their daughter Sophia was apparently born 22 Nov 1803. That Sophia did marry a Whitney, and she was still alive in 1854.
(Comment 7 May 2008 by User:Ajfranke)
Agreed that Samuel and Mary (Ball) Brigham were not the parents of Sophia (Brigham)(Martin) Whitney. In Sophia's death record, it gives her father's name as Samuel Brigham, but omits the name of her mother. It does state that her father was born in Westborough and her mother in Northborough. There was, indeed, a Samuel Brigham born 6 Dec 1763, Westborough, son of Edmund and Sarah (-----) Brigham, who was old enough to be Sophia's father. He was evidently the Samuel Brigham who married, 5 May 1785, Westborough, MA, Lydia Ball. She was born 4 Feb 1765, Westborough, MA. It may be that her birth occurred in that part of Westborough that became Northborough in 1766, shortly after her birth. However, this couple apparently moved to Maine, and had a daughter Sophia born in 1804, who died in 1830 in Boston.
Thus the question of which Samuel Brigham was the father of Sophia (Brigham)(Martin) Whitney remains a mystery. The fact that a younger Sophia Brigham married a different Whitney in the same area of Massachusetts is a very confusing factor.
Another possibility is suggested by the fact that she married at 17 with the surname Martin. That would be extremely young to be a widow. Instead, she could have been an illegitimate daughter of Samuel Brigham and a Martin woman, raised with the Martin surname. Alternatively, she might have been adopted by a family named Martin.
In any case, her birth is not recorded in the vital records of any town in the area.
(Comment 8 May 2008 by Robert L. Ward)
I have another theory that would seem to explain everything.
First of all, there is no mention in the 1859 Abner Morse genealogy of the Brigham family of a Sophia Brigham as a member of the Dr. Samuel Brigham and Mary Ball family. The birth date that is assigned to her here is also the birth date of an infant, probably named Nahum, that died at the age of four weeks on 12/9/1803 according to Boylston church records. It is hard to explain how Morse would have missed a daughter Sophia since his work is the only surviving source of the birth dates of all the other children and he has all the other children correctly identified.
In her will, Mary (Ball) Brigham lists her children in the order Sophia Whitney, Rowena Whitney, Mary Mahan, Ann Carter and Lydia Whitney which, if Sophia is the oldest child, identifies them in their order of birth.
There is an apparently illegitimate birth of a Sophy to a Mary Ball recorded in the records of Northboro on November 7, 1784 which is accurate to the year though not the day of birth indicated by the death record of Sophia Whitney.
I believe that Sophia Whitney is a child of Mary Ball but probably not of Dr. Samuel Brigham, that the 1784 birth date for Sophia is correct and that the History of the Brigham Family is simply wrong in its description of the her as a member of the Dr. Samuel Brigham family, having erred when it added her and her family to Abner Morse's original work. Morse did not include her since she is not a descendant of Thomas Brigham, merely an adopted daughter.
It is possible that Sophia father was named Martin and that she used that surname at some point.
(comment on May 22, 2008 by Arthur Franke, [email protected])
Census
- 1810, Boylston, Worcester Co., MA: Whitney, Shadrach, 1 male 26-44, 1 female 16-25, and 4 females 0-9.
References
- Shrewsbury Vital Records
- Sutton Vital Records
1.^ "Shadrach [Whitney] and Sophia Martin, [married] Nov. 5, 1801," according to Franklin P. Rice, ed., Vital Records of Boylston, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1850 (1900).
2.^ "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841–1910," from original records held by the Massachusetts Archives. Online database: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004; volume 167, page 283.
3.^ "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841–1910," from original records held by the Massachusetts Archives. Online database: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004; volume 175, page 139.
4.^ "Sophia [Whitney], Miss, and Mr. Charles Bridge, [married] Jan. 17, 1826. T.R.3, p. 235," according to Henry S. Nourse, ed., The Birth, Marriage and Death Register, Church Records and Epitaphs, of Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1643-1850 (Lancaster, MA: 1890), p. 235.
5.^ "______ [Whitney], s. of Shadrach, [died] Nov. 21, 1826. T.R.2," according to Lancaster Vital Records, p. 195. Also "______ [Whitney], s. of Shadrach, [died] Nov. 21, 1826, 10y., fever. C.R.1.2," according to Lancaster Vital Records, p. 363.
Copyright © 2007, 2008, Robert L. Ward and the Whitney Research Group
