Eleanor (Dodge) Langdell (abt. 1744 - aft. 1789)

Born about 1744 in Province of Massachusetts Bay [uncertain]

Wife of Joseph Langdell — married 16 Feb 1773 in Beverly, Essex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay

Descendants

Died after 1789 after about age 45 in New Hampshire, United States [uncertain]

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Biography

Research Notes

The Eleanor Dodge who married Joseph Langdell in Beverly, Province of Massachusetts Bay, in 1773, remains something of a mystery. The clerk at Beverly who recorded her marriage spelled her first name "Eleoner," which may or may not have reflected her own pronunciation or preferences.^[1]

To add to the mystery, the Beverly records included a recorded Intent to marry for the couple which designated Eleanor as "Mrs." There is no birth record at Beverly for an Eleanor (however spelled) Dodge of approximately the correct age to be a widow capable of bearing a child to Joseph in 1788 (born most probably between 1738 and 1748, which would make her no older than 39 and no younger than 23 at the time of the marriage; an unknown source provided a date of 16 Apr 1748 for her birth). Likewise, there seems to be no record at Beverly of a Dodge male marrying a non-Dodge Eleanor within a reasonable period of her marriage of 1773. Nor are there any Dodge males who died ca. 1768-1772, in Beverly to provide a late husband. If she was indeed a widow (if this was not a clerical error), her birth surname might well have been something different, but there is no guarantee she was born or first married in or near Beverly.

There remains a possibility that the wife of Joseph Langdell was, in fact, Eleanor, the daughter of Mark Dodge, Jr., and Lucy Edwards, born 10 Apr 1748, at Beverly, Essex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay.^[2] If further research indicates that the probabilities favor that solution, then this Eleanor Dodge would be the wife of Abner Dodge, who died in 1780 at Beverly.

Sources

1. ↑ Massachusetts Vital Records Project, Beverly - Marriages, p. 90: http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Beverly/Images/Beverly_M090.shtml (accessed 25 Mar 2017)
2. ↑ Citing both town records and those of the Second Congregational Church of Beverly: Massachusetts Vital Records Project, Beverly - Births, p. 106: http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Beverly/Images/Beverly_B106.shtml (accessed 25 Mar 2017)