Monday, April 5, 2010

Mary Mackewithey, daugher of James *

In my blog of the first generation, I wrote this about 2nd generation  Mary Mackerwithey, daughter of James1 and his first wife, Mary Everett.

"Nothing is known of the oldest daughter Mary2. She was mentioned in 1680 in the will of her grandfather, Richard Everett. At that time she would have been 17 years old, so it is likely that she survived to adulthood and married."

After I wrote that, I went in search of Mary.
  
Could she have been the Mary Carwithy who married John Gill, Dec. 31, 1686, both of Dedham ?? -- this from Early Massachusetts Marriages Prior to 1800( the marriage evidently from Middlesex Co. recrods. )

In Middlesex County (MA) records, under a section titled "Marriages of Persons not of this county by Justices in this County" we find the record: " John Gill and Mary Carwithy both of Dedham were joyned together in marriage December 31, 1686 by Tho. Prentice, Justice of the Peace."

Dedham records show a John Gill on a list of apportionment for the minister's salary in Dedham in 1679, for the year 1677/1678, then not again until he appears on a 1668 tax list. Oct. 1686 the town proprietors give to John Gill 6 acres near Ephraim Ware, he is on subsequent tax lists, in 1697 is elected field driver, and in 1699 receives two more acres of land, he does not appear on the lists for 1703-1705. However Dedham records for these years show the payment for doctor's fee's for John Gill and for wool and food for the family of John Gill.

This marriage is not included in Hanson's transcript of Dedham marriage, but the following births are recorded there, all children of John and Mary Gill:
Mary* b. 1687,
Abigial b. 1691,
John b. 1693
and Israel b. 1696/97.
   *It may be this Mary who's marriage of 1/26/1715/16 to John Sanders is recorded in Dedham records.  Only one birth for this couple is recorded in Dedham records: dau Mary b. 11/8/1716.

These are the only Gill entries in the birth records. The marriages record the 1717 marriage of Benjamin Gill of Dorchester to Abigail Fales and the 1728 marriage of Benjamin Gill of Stoughton to Abigail Fisher.
There is no Gill death recorded.

John Gill first appears on Dedham tax lists 1679, so he must have been born before 1660.
There was a John Gill in Needham; from "Baptisms in First Church of Needham" NEGH Register vol. 57 p. 153 there is this entry " Jan.:18, 1755. I baptiz'd John Gill; privately, because he was sick, & tho't to be near his end: NB. He first laid hold on the Covenant of the Lord"

Then in HEHG REgister vol. 56 p. 267 "Deaths in First Chruch of Needham" Jan. 26, 1755 John Gill died." If this is the same John Gill, then he would have been quite elderly --at least almost 100. More likely it is not, but since James Mackerwithey Jr. died in Needham, we might suppose there might be some connection, and if this not James Mackerwithey's brother -in-law, perhaps a nephew.