Ebenezer was born about 1678. He passed away in 1746.
Notes
From an e-mail by Julie Otto (jotto@@neghs.org) "One of the many problems of dealing with Ebenezer & Elizabeth is the many changes of jurisdiction they lived under. Early in the 18th century, the part of Swansea they lived in was set off as Barrington; its records, save for one page covering six marriages, were lost. Then in around 1747, just as Ebenezer and his wife were in expiration mode, the border between Massachusetts and Rhode Island changed, folding Barrington, Mass. into Warren, Rhode Island for 30 years and then into Barrington, Rhode Island. which it is today. The six marriages of the early 1720s, all that remain of the lost Barrington [then Mass.] VRs, were discovered and published in THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL REGISTER 148 [1995]: 47 -- two of these six marriages being immediately relevant to Tiffany fans: my ancestors James and Elizabeth3 [Tiffany] Adams [she being Ebenezer's daughter], married [by Rev. Samuel Torry] 1 March 1721/2; and of Isaiah3 Tiffany (Thomas2, H1) to Elizabeth Smith [also by Rev. Torry], 29 Aug. 1721).
"But wait," some may say. "Ebenezer's not the oldest! His brother James is treated first in N.O. Tiffany's 1901 genealogy!" Well, N.O.T. was a descendant of James2, and he had the most stuff about people descended from that branch. There are plenty of things he didn't catch about the second-generation Tiffanys, and much of what he did catch got quite mangled. I place Ebenezer Tiffany as the immigrant's eldest son because:
(1) Ebenezer witnessed a Plymouth Colony (not County) deed on 27 March 1682. Before 1752 and the adoption of the Continental calendar, "double-dating" was normally practiced early in the year, but correctly only from 1 January to 25 March; thus I am assuming this was in actual 1682 and not in what we would now call 1683. To witness a deed one would have to be of age, which normally was 21. On 27 March 1682 ET was apparently present as a witness to John Paine's transfer of possession ("twigge & turfe") of land at Phebe's Neck, Swansea, to John Saffin of Boston (who bought land from, or sold it to, a great many people in the Swansea area, including to ET himself in later years). This citation is Plymouth Colony Deeds 5:253-54.
(2) Ebenezer was of age to convey or witness a deed on 27 March 1682; as for James, on 21 Oct. 1680 the Milton, Mass. minister Rev. Peter Thacher wrote in his diary: "I went to Goodman Tiffanys for one of his sons James to live with me. I was to perfect him in reading, and to teach him to write." The sequence Rev. Thacher used in his note on the baptism of Goodman Humphrey Tiffany's children (6 Nov. 1681) is "Ebenezer James & Thomas [b. 1668] & Hezekiah [b. 1670]" (A.K. Teele, THE HISTORY OF MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1640 TO 1887 [1887], pp. 644 [James's schooling], 647 ] (dates for the two younger boys come from their known birth order in Milton VRs, p. 62).
Sources
"Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZDD-J4W : 7 March 2020), Ebenezer Tiffiny in entry for Hezekiah Tiffiny, 1697.
"Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZDD-KQ7 : 7 March 2020), Ebenezer Tiffiny in entry for Ephraim Tiffiny, 1703.
Name: Ebenezer Tiffany, Gender: Male, Birth Date: 1678, Birth Place: Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA, Death Date: 10 Feb 1747, Death Place: Barrington, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA, Spouse: Elizabeth, Children: Katharine Tiffany, Source Information: Heritage Consulting. Millennium File [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2003. Original data: Heritage Consulting. The Millennium File. Salt Lake City, UT, USA: Heritage Consulting.
Death: "Rhode Island, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1630-1945," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F86H-84K : 4 November 2020), Ebenezer Tiffany, 10 Feb 1747; citing Death, Warren, Bristol, Rhode Island, British Colonial America, various city archives, Rhode Island; FHL microfilm 947,767.
WikiTree profile Tiffany-191 created through the import of Lewis-Combs Family Tree.ged on Nov 8, 2012 by Nancy Combs. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Nancy and others.
Thank you to Bobbie Bicknell for creating WikiTree profile Tiffany-231 through the import of ArthurBicknell Ancestor 2.ged on May 29, 2013.
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