Archive:Which Rebecca Whitney m. John Whitney

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The Parentage of Rebecca Whitney and Her Husband John Whitney, m. 1724

by Robert L. Ward

On 7 Mar 1998, Virginia Germano wrote:

I'm confused. I have one source saying that Moses Whitney had a son John who married a Rebecca Whitney. Another source says Moses had a daughter Rebecca Whitney who married a John Whitney. Another source lists Moses at not having either a son John or a daughter Rebecca.

... All of the information in Pierce's book on Amaziah Whitney checks out, so why couldn't he be correct in stating that Moses had a son John? Do you have any suggestions on how I could straighten this out?

This is confused in some sources. Isaiah and Sarah (WOODWARD) WHITNEY had a son John, b. 6 Dec 1698, Lexington or Cambridge, MA (Vital Records of both towns), bp. 4 May 1699, Lexington (VRs). This is undoubted the husband of this couple. Rebecca's ancestry is not supported by any primary source that I know, but is very likely, based on a process of elimination.

In January 1997, Jeanne Muse wrote:

In reviewing your previous correspondence on the "puzzlers" regarding Moses Whitney, son of Richard Whitney and Martha Coldam, I found an error in your children listing.

Moses Whitney, b 1 Aug 1655 & married 30 Sep 1686 Sarah Knight, did NOT have a son named John, but rather had a daughter named Rebecca.

Their daughter Rebecca Whitney married John Whitney, son of Isaiah Whitney and Sarah Woodward. My source for this information is the NEHG Register, Vol 11, p118.

I also have a 2nd marriage for the above Moses Whitney. He married Sarah Gray on 20 Nov 1766 (same source).

Jan Whitaker responded:

I am anxious to see the Register and learn of its's sources. John of Lancaster, Harvard, and Shirley, who married Rebeckah of Stow, at Lancaster on May 20, 1724,by John Houghton, JP (listed in both towns VR's) is my ancestor. They produced Sarah, John Jr., Beulah, Ezra and Abner. Abner was my ancestor. Although I have yet to find John's birth location or date, I have evidence of his life and accomplishments and am closing in on his death date and location of burial. I have never seen a daughter Rebeckah listed as a child of Moses and Sarah Knight anywhere. I live close to these towns and have visited their libraries and viewed some of their historical papers. This Thursday Peg Sanborn and I will meet with the curator of the Harvard Historical collection and she is prepared to present all the information on the Whitney's there (their number was considerable, as are the houses). I do hope that I will come closer to the truth.

Jan

Then Jeanne Muse continued:

Basically, the NEHG Register printed in 1857 contributions to the society addendums to Bond's work, signed simply with the initials H.A.W.

On p. 118 under the children of Moses Whitney and Sarah Knight is listed this entry: ? John, of Lancaster; parentage unknown, suppose of this line. married Rebecca Whitney, of Stow, May 20, 1724.

Rebecca is not listed as a child in this source.

John & Rebecca's marriage is printed again in Vol 17 p72 as a recording of the Lancaster marriages by John Houghton, which you referenced above.

I have John Whitney's birthdate as 6 Dec 1698 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, son of Isaiah Whitney and Sarah Woodward. My notes on John's birth information: PIERCE!

I contributed:

H. A. W. was Henry Austin⁸ WHITNEY, b. 6 Aug 1826, Boston, MA, son of Joseph⁷ and Elizabeth (PRATT) WHITNEY [Joseph⁶, Samuel⁵, Benjamin⁴, Thomas³, Thomas², John¹]. His memoir was published in the NEHGR, vol. 45, pp. 175-182, and it mentions on p. 180 that he was author of the article in queston.

Bond does not list any children for Moses³, and for Isaiah³, he lists the following seven: John, Isaiah, John, Nathaniel, Sarah, Elijah, and Jonas, with no dates or further information for any of them. Note two Johns and no Rebecca. I would suggest that Lucius R. Paige's History of Cambridge, Massachusestts, 1630-1877, with a Genealogical Register (1877), and the Supplement and Index to the same by Mary I. Gozzaldi (1930), should be examined. This could be the source of Pierce's statements. I have not seen these sources myself, and would be quite interested to see what it says about any WHITNEY person.

I have not found any source for this date other than PIERCE. It is a plausible date, so may be correct, but there is no evidence for it at present to the best of my knowledge. Moses³ WHITNEY left no probate records in Middlesex Co., MA, as far as I can determine, and the administration of the estate of Isaiah³ WHITNEY mentions no children, only the widow Sarah. Of course this is not unusual for administration records.

It may be that this date is taken from some church records in Cambridge which were not included in the published Cambridge Vital Records.

On 16 Feb 1997, Jan Whitaker wrote:

Dear Cousins--

A few weeks back, just as we were discussing John and Rebeckah of Harvard and Shirley, MA, a lot of my Whitney list mail was lost in the system..So I would like to bring up Rebeckah's origin again and please understand if this looks like a repeat. Jeanne Muse and RLWard have maintained in the past that she is a daughter to Moses (Richard, John). I have searched all the surrounding towns VR's to Stow, Sudbury, Cambridge, Watertown, Pierce, Bond, and Savage, and town histories, without finding documentation of his family other than his marriage in Stow 30 Sept.1687 and birth of d. Sarah 2 July 1687, in Stow. I found no documentation of his birth in Concord Register, either. I have yet to find a Rebeckah Whitney that fits the dates, except for what I believe to be her death in Harvard (Rebeckah, wid., July 27,1780 "of advanced age." Church record). Can Jeanne or R. L. Ward and anyone else give me some info on sources and reasons for your conclusions and cite sources for other children (other than assumptions by way of gravestones etc.). In another message, I will state why I came to agree that John was from Thomas line. I have alot of info to share from John and Rebeckah down, but want to clarify Rebeckah before sending it.

This is not something which is proven, but falls into the category of likely by a proponderance of the evidence.

By the way, the date of marriage of Moses³ WHITNEY and Sarah KNIGHT was 30 Sep 1686, not 1687.

Rebecca WHITNEY "of Stow" married John WHITNEY "of Lancaster", 20 May 1724 in Lancaster. This indicates that Rebecca was living in Stow at the time of the marriage, undoubtedly with family members. I have no record of her birth, nor that of any of the children of Moses³ WHITNEY, except the Sarah⁴ mentioned above. There is, however, a record of the death of Ephraim, son of Moses and Sarah WHITNEY, on 4 May 1723 in Stow [VR]. The birth dates of some other putative children of Moses³ WHITNEY are derived from ages at death from their tombstones: Moses⁴, b. 15 Jun 1689 [Littleton VR]; Abraham⁴, b. 29 May 1692 [Stow VR]; Jonas⁴, b. 1 Feb 1698/99 [Stow VR]; Jason⁴, b. ca. 1704 [Stow VR]; and Lemuel⁴, b. 1 Aug 1706 [Stow VR]. Apparently the births were not recorded in any of the towns in Massachusetts in which the family lived. According to the date of her marriage, the age of her husband, and the dates of birth of her children, it would be reasonable to guess that she might have been born in the 1700-1705 timeframe.

Apparently Moses³ WHITNEY did not leave any probate records in Middlesex County, MA, so we are left without a record of his heirs. Combined with the lack of recording of his children's births, this leaves us in doubt as to which of the young WHITNEY individuals in Stow in the 1710's and 1720's may have been his children.

The printed sources for the children of Moses³ and Sarah (KNIGHT) WHITNEY which I have found and used are: Henry Austin Whitney, "The Descendants of John and Elinor Whitney of Watertown, Mass.," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 11 (1857), p. 118; Henry Bond, Genealogies and History of Watertown, Mass. (1859), vol. 1, p. 644; Frederic Clifton Pierce, Whitney - Descendants of John Whitney, (1895); and William Lebbeus Whitney, Some of the Descendants of John and Elinor Whitney (1890).

H. A. Whitney mentions a deed of Moses³ WHITNEY dated 1725 to son Abraham⁴, mentioning other sons Moses⁴ and Jason⁴, and his brother Richard³ WHITNEY. He lists the children as Sarah⁴, Moses⁴, Abraham⁴, Jonas⁴, Jason⁴, Lemuel⁴ "youngest son" per father's deed, and ??John⁴, of Lancaster, parentage unknown, m. Rebecca WHITNEY of Stow. By the way, W. L. Whitney essentially agrees with Pierce.

Bond gives only the marriage of Moses³ to Sarah KNIGHT, and omits mention of any children. This is because apparently none of them or their descendants lived in Watertown. Pierce lists Abraham⁴, Jonas⁴, Lemuel⁴, John⁴ (who was actually son of Isaiah³). What WHITNEY families lived in Stow in the 1720s? They seem all to have been descendants of either Richard² or Thomas². Richard² had three sons: Moses³ above, Richard³, and Ebenezer³. Richard³ and Elizabeth (SAWTELL) WHITNEY were married in 1691, but had no daughter Rebecca, as is revealed by his will, which talks of "my eight children" and names them. His sons were too young to have been Rebecca's father, so his progeny are thereby eliminated. Ebenezer³ WHITNEY moved from Stow to Canterbury, CT, before 1715, and so he was not living in Stow at the time of Rebecca's marriage, and had not been for some 9 or more years. He, too, was too young to have been Rebecca's grandfather. Thomas² WHITNEY had three sons who married and had children: Thomas³, Eleazer³, and Isaiah³. Thomas³ WHITNEY m. 1678/9 Elizabeth LAWRENCE, and in a deed of 26 Feb 1721/2, mentioned his wife and all his children except Thomas and Benjamin, none of whom was named Rebecca. If she was unmarried at the time, and his daughter, she would have been included. Eleazer³ lived in Sudbury, Concord, and Watertown, but not Stow, and his children's births are well-recorded, including no Rebecca. Isaiah³ is ruled out as father of Rebecca if you believe that her husband John WHITNEY was the son of Isaiah³ born 6 Dec 1698 in Lexington, since she could hardly have married her brother! The only grandson of Thomas² who might have been her father, being old enough, married before 1705, and having resided in Stow, was Thomas⁴ WHITNEY, who m. 26 Jul 1704, Concord, Mary BAKER, the groom being called "of Stow". This analysis leads to one of two conclusions: either Rebecca was a daughter of Moses³ and Sarah (KNIGHT) WHITNEY, or else a daughter of Thomas⁴ and Mary (BAKER) WHITNEY. This leads to the question of the parentage of the other problem WHITNEY girl in the Stow VR: Damaras WHITNEY and Cyprian STEEVENES had their intentions published 12 Mar 1725/6, both of Stow. The same kind of analysis can be applied to this person, although she could have been born as late as 1708. What about onomastics? The names Rebecca and Damaris are quite rare in the early generations of the WHITNEY family. The only other Damaris I find is a daughter of Jason⁴ above, leading to the guess that the younger Damaris⁵ might have been named for the older one, who would most likely have been a sister of Jason⁴. The only other early Rebecca I find is Rebecca³, a sister of Moses³ who died in infancy, when Moses³ was six years old. It would suggest that the Rebecca in question might have been named by Moses³ for his deceased sister, even though forty years later. I also note that it is reported by W. L. Whitney that Jonas⁴ had a daughter Rebecca⁵, who may have been named for the Rebecca in question (although no other source I have found seems to mention such a daughter). I have very little data to go on concerning the family names used in the families of the wives of any of these men, which might shed a different light on this matter. The process of elimination leads us to only two viable theories as to the parentage of Rebecca and Damaris WHITNEY, and of the two, onomastics lead us to believe that one is to be preferred over the other. I conclude that it is likely, although unproved, that both Rebecca and Damaris WHITNEY were daughters of Moses³ and Sarah (KNIGHT) WHITNEY. Another possibility not considered above is that she was a widow at the time of her marriage, and that her maiden name might have been something other than WHITNEY. I can find no record of a wife named Rebecca for any early WHITNEY other than Rebecca BURGE, b. 5 Nov 1683, who m. Joseph³ WHITNEY [Jonathan², John¹] on 27 May 1706. She lived in Chelmsford, and was bearing children to Joseph³ as late as 1726, and is thus eliminated. While I cannot disprove the possibility that she might have been a widow, it has no supporting evidence to render it credible. Further research on this matter is clearly needed. Deeds in Middlesex Co., MA, need to be thoroughly examined, not just for this family, but for all the WHITNEY persons who were grantees or grantors. If town records of Stow can be found, they should be consulted. Probate records of Worcester Co. should also be searched. I note that we do not even know the date of Moses³ WHITNEY's death, although it must have been after the 1725 deed cited by H. A. Whitney. This explains the exact situation as I see it.
On 3 Nov 1997, Tim Doyle added:

When I first learned that my Ezra WHITNEY of Rockingham, Vermont was actually a son of this John-4 and Rebeckah (WHITNEY) WHITNEY, I noted that Ezra's son Moses (bp. 1 Sep 1776, First Church of Rockingham, Rockingham, Windham Co., VT) was probably named after his great-grandfather Moses-3 WHITNEY. At the time, I was not aware that Rebeckah's identification was based on preponderance of the evidence, and didn't think more about it. It wasn't until Jan pointed this all out that we realized that this was an important clue to Rebeckah's placement.

To recap, I believe that the fact that Ezra-5, son of John-4 and Rebeckah (WHITNEY) WHITNEY named a son Moses lends further credibility to the hypothesis that Rebeckah was indeed an unrecorded daughter of Moses-3 and Sarah (KNIGHT) WHITNEY.

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