Rebecca (Simmons) Soule (abt. 1635 - bef. 1678)

Born about 1635 in Plymouth Colony

Wife of John Soule — married about 1656 in Duxbury, Plymouth Colony [uncertain]

Descendants

Died before 1678 before about age 43 in Duxbury, Plymouth Colony

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Marc Cohen [send private message], Frank Leach [send private message], Marilyn Moss [send private message], and Chris Wilson [send private message]

Biography

Rebecca Simmons, born about 1635 in Plymouth Colony, was the eldest daughter of the Fortune immigrant Moses Simonson (aka Simmons, Simons) and his wife Sarah ______.^[1][2] See research note, below, regarding her mother's last name at birth.

Rebecca married John Soule,^[3] son of Mayflower passenger George Soule. Their marriage is estimated at about 1655/6, based on the estimated birth year of their first child.^[1][4] They probably married at Duxbury, Massachusetts.^[2]

Rebecca and John had the following children:^[5]

1. Rebecca, born about 1656, died 18 November 1732, married Edmund Weston^[2]
2. James, born 4 October 1659, died 27 August 1744, married Lydia Thompson^[2]
3. Sarah, born about 1660, died between 1692-1699, married Adam Wright^[2]
4. Rachel, born about 1663, died 18 September 1727, married John Cobb^[2]
5. Aaron, born about 1664, died after 24 March 1752, married Mary Wadsworth^[2]
6. Benjamin, born about 1666, died 1 December 1729; married Sarah Standish^[2]
7. Zachariah, born about 1669, died before 16 March 1690/1, unmarried^[2]
8. Moses, born about 1672, died before 25 January 1748/9, married first to Mercy Southworth and second to Sarah Chandler^[2]
9. John, born about 1675, died 19 May 1743, married Martha Tinkham^[2]

Rebecca's father, Moses Simmons, in a deed dated 30 December 1674, gave to John and Rebecca all the lands he had purchased at Namaskett (now Middleborough, Massachusetts): "in consideration of a marriage heretofore consummated between John soul of Duxbury and my eldest daughter, Rebecca".^[6][7]

Rebecca was not named in the 1689 will of her father.^[8] She probably died at Duxbury,^[2] between 1675 (approximate date of birth of her last child) and 1678 (when her husband remarried).

John Soule remarried to the widow Esther/Hester (Delano) Sampson and had three more children. He died before 14 November 1707, when his widow was appointed administrator of his estate.^[2]

Research Notes

Mother's LNAB

The last name at birth of Moses Simmons' wife is not known. Some sources identify her as Sarah Chandler, the daughter of Roger Chandler, as his wife, but Sarah Chandler married Solomon Leonard. Edmund Chandler also had a daughter Sarah Chandler.

There is no contemporary record that confirms a marriage between Rebecca's father Moses Simmons and Sarah Chandler. However, the 2015 edition of Mayflower Families states that John and Rebecca's son Moses may have married a Sarah Chandler as a second wife.^[2] A record of this marriage has not been found.

Eldest Daughter

In Mayflower Migration (2020), Anderson says that the eldest known child of Rebecca and John, Rebecca (Soule) Weston, died in Plympton 18 November 1732 at age 76;^[9] in his Great Migration Begins (1995) profile of Moses Simonson, he says their eldest child was Sarah.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633 Boston: NEHGS, 1995, vol. 3, pp. 1681-1683. AmericanAncestors.org($): Moses Simonson.
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13} Soule, John E. and Milton E. Terry, comps. and Louise Walsh Throop, ed. George Soule of the Mayflower and his Descendants for Four Generations. Mayflower Families in Progress. Plymouth: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2015 (7th ed.), pp. 5-7 (John Soule) and pp. 16-23 (John's children). Not available online.
3. ↑ New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, MA: NEHGS, 2015, vol. 2, page 1415. AmericanAncestors.org($).
4. ↑ Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, 1995, vol. 3, pp. 1706-1708. AmericanAncestors.org($): George Soule.
5. ↑ "Mayflower Births and Deaths", database with images, vol. 2, p. 273. Ancestry Sharing Link (free access) - Ancestry Record 3718 #11043($). Children of John Soule, births and deaths.
6. ↑ "Notes by the Editor" in The Mayflower Descendant. Boston: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1917, vol. 19, p. 96. Google Books: cites PC Deeds 4:43.
7. ↑ "Massachusetts Land Records, 1620-1986," images, FamilySearch: Plymouth, Deeds 1651-1681, vol. 2-4, image 464.
8. ↑ "Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch: Probate records 1686-1702 and 1849-1867 vol 1-1F, image 60 of 490.
9. ↑ Anderson, Robert Charles. The Mayflower Migration. Boston: NEHGS, 2020, p. 187. Not available online.

See also:

• Bowman, George Ernest. "The Sons of John Soule as Identified by Deeds of Gift and Probate Records" in The Mayflower Descendant, vol. 8, pp. 184-186. HathiTrust.org.
• Soule, John Edward. "The Soule Family" in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston: NEHGS, Apr 1670, vol. 124, p. 123. AmericanAncestors.org($). List of children.