Mercy (Clark) Colver (1643 - abt. 1732)

Born 6 Jan 1643 in New London, Connecticut

Wife of John Colver — married 8 Aug 1665 in Connecticut

Descendants

Died about 13 Mar 1732 at about age 89 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts [uncertain]

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Biography

It is said: Mercy Clark was born on 24 May 1646 in New London, Connecticut to parents James Clark and Elinor Wright.

Untrue: James Clark (bef.1605-1674) and Elinor Wright lived in Boston. They did not have children in New London. Their daughter Mercy was born about 1660.

Doubtful: born 24 May 1646. New London was first settled in 1646. It is doubtful if any births were registered.

In addition: James Clark of New Haven was in New Haven.

It is said: She married John Colver 8 Aug 1665 in Groton, Connecticut. :But: Groton did not exist as a place in 1665. John Culver's early children were born in New Haven. There is no such marriage mentioned in the New Haven Records. The births of his children in New Haven do not mention a mother's name

It is said: She died on 13 Mar 1732 in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

There is no record of this death 1731-1733 in Massachusetts or Connecticut for Mary/Mercy Culver/Colver or Mary/Mercy Clark

Children: John, Jabez, Abigail, Sarah, James, Ann, David, Hannah, Mercy. These would be children of John Culver.

Research Notes

Jacobus does not name Mercy as a daughter of James Clarke of New Haven. Parke (Ackley-Bosworth p. 164) does.

There is significant disagreement about the wife of John Colver:

Torrey: COLVER, John (1640-) & Mary/Mercy CLARK (1644-); by 1676, by 1672?, by 8 Aug 1665; New Haven/New London {New London Hist. 310; New Haven Gen. Mag. 465; Sv. 1:483; Colver-Culver 47-8; NYGBR 51:90; McCormick-Hamilton 301, 302; Ackley-Bosworth 164}

• Torrey's sources:
  • From the History of New London: No wife is mentioned. p. 310
  • New Haven gen. Magazine ie. Jacobus; Families of ancient New Haven p. 465, briefly mentions this family. John Culver s/o Edward and Ann (Ellis) of Dedham Mass lived in New Haven a short time had children in New Haven: 1)Abigail b. 13 Nov 1676; 2)James b 13 June 1679; 3 Sarah b. 17 Mar 1681/2; 4) John who res. in Groton in 1725. Jacobus does not name the wife of John.
  • Sv 1:483 (Savage's Gen. Dict.) names wife Mary _____
  • Colver-Culver genealogy: "John Colver was married to Mary, the eldest daughter of Governor John Winthrop of Connecticut" cites American Ancestry Vol 12. p. 21 actuall on 22.^[1]
  • "Registration of Pedigrees" NYGBR 51:9, 91 Says John Culver married Mary Winthrop
  • McCormick Hamilton 301-302; The listing for this doesn't seem to fit [Genealogical tables of the descendants of John Hamilton of "Locust Hill", Lexington, Virginia, born 1789--died 1825 the book]
  • p 164 Ackley Bosworth

Sources

1. ↑ Colver, Frederic Lathrop. Colver-Culver genealogy; descendants of Edward Colver of Boston, Dedham, and Roxbury, Massachusetts, and New London, and Mystic, Connecticut ([New York] F. Allaben genealogical company, 1910) p. 47

• American Genealogical Biographical Index, Vol 38, p 117, Boston Transcript

• US New England Marriages Prior to 1700

• Connecticut Deaths and Burials Index, died at age 89, Connecticut

• The Ancestry of Lorenzo Ackley and his wife Emma Arabella Bosworth by Nathan Grier Parke, 1884, p 164, Mercy daughter of James Clark Sr. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89062958764&view=1up&seq=222

• http://www.geni.com/people/Mary-Mercy-Colver/6000000008115093829

• Wood, W. Herbert. Additions and Corrections to the Colver-Culver Genealogy, The American Genealogist (The American Genealogist, Barrington, RI, 1955) Vol. 31, Page 130-31.