Mary Ball (Fox) Meeker (1647 - 1702)

There is no documentation to support the existence of this person. There are no records of a Fox family in Essex County NJ at that time. Anyway, her parents, David Fox and Hannah Ball Fox were from Lancaster County in Virginia. Since Hannah Ball Fox was Mary Ball Washington's aunt, that family is better documented than most, and there is no record of their having a daughter named Mary. And the birth date usually given for so-called Mary Ball Fox Meeker was 12 years later than the youngest of the known children of David and Hannah Fox. While not impossible, it's unlikely. It's true that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but: 1) generations of Meeker researchers had no information about Thomas Meeker's wife; 2) there are geographical and social status divides that were not easily bridged in 1700: a yeoman farmer in New Jersey would generally not expect to marry the daughter of much wealthier planters living 400 miles away in Virginia; 3) Thomas' son, revolutionary hero Timothy Meeker, is an American patriot accepted as a basis for membership in the DAR, as such his lineage was subject to rigorous research which did not turn up information about his mother; and 4) it is difficult to believe that a link to George Washington could have been unknown to Timothy's family, especially in light of the family's support for the revolutionary cause. Ergo, that such a link would surface after many decades makes it highly questionable. I believe that until actual evidence can be furnished, Mary Ball Fox must be removed from the Meeker family tree.