Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Mystery #11: William and Mary

William Hincksman resided in Marshfield, Massachusetts during the 1650's. He appears in Town Minutes in 1658, around the same time that an Edmund Hincksman disappears from those minutes. Most Hincksman family researchers have identified this William as the son of Edmund and as the husband of a Mary Philberd.

According to Boston records, a William Hinckesman and a Mary Philberd were married on 20 November 1652. That couple had two known children, born January 1653 and December 1665 in Boston.
[Records relating to the early history of Boston; Boston Registry Department, pp. 39, 41, 51.]

The names and dates of birth of the children of the Marshfield couple were: Hannah (Sept. 1658), Joseph(Feb. 1660), Fortunatus (July 1663), Elizabeth (Oct. 1665), Elnathan (Jan. 1670), and Edmund (Apr. 1670). (Obviously the dates for Elnathan and Edmund are incorrect.)
[Source: Mayflower Descendant: a quarterly magazine of pilgrim genealogy and history, vol. 2; pp. 4, 7, 111, 112, 182. Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants.]

Could this be the same William and Mary? It is quite logical to assume that this is the same couple for at least three reasons: 1) colonial people seemed to move around quite a bit, 2) there were a number of Hincksman individuals living in Boston at the time, and 3) no such marriage is found in old Marshfield records. However, when one notes that the the Marshfield William and Mary had a child born October 1665 and the Boston couple had a child born in December 1665, it certainly would appear that this was two different couples. Unfortunately, the old Marshfield records are of very poor quality and many, including (apparently) the marriage of William and Mary have been lost.

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