Martha (Tompkins) Foster (abt. 1627 - aft. 1688)

Born about 1627 in England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of John Foster Sr — married 1657 in Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts

Wife of Richard Adams — married 16 Nov 1688 in Salem, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died after 1688 after about age 61 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Gayle Foster [send private message], Bennett Rockney [send private message], and Pat Sage [send private message]

Disputed Origins

The various records of Ralph Tompkins and research about him identify no daughter Martha.

Her existence is supported by the following record

"Indenture Richard Adams, yeoman of Salem, and Martha Foster, relict widow of John, lately deceased. 16 Nov 1688, in consideration of a contract and covenant of marriage, etc. gives her his whole estate real personal property, etc providing if she shall have issue by him his estate shall revert to his offspring, otherwise to her children."^[1]

This is the record that Torrey must have used to identify "Martha" as both the first wife of John Foster and then the wife of Richard Adams. But there is no explanation for why Torrey (or others) believe she was a Tompkins, much less daughter of Ralph.

While this 1688 marriage contract exists, there is no marriage record in the published Salem vital records.

William Montgomery Clemens reports Martha's first marriage as: "FOSTER, John and Martha Tompkins, 1648, Salem, Mass."^[2]

A "Martha Foster" also appears in this 1670 record (but relationship to John Foster not specified):

"The deposition of John Foster Sr aged about fifty-two years saith that being with Aron Read a little before he died when Samuel Eborne asked him whether Joseph Small and he did not go forth as two brothers and he answered yea. yea. Samuel Eborne asked him again whether there were at any time any private grudge between Joseph Small and himself, or whether the said Joseph did shoot him willfully or not. he answered with great affection oh no, no, no and these were the last words he spoke. Taken upon oath 11: 9: 70 Signed Wm Hawthorne assistant

John Tompkins Jr ae twenty-five, Samuel Ebourne ae fifty-eight, Robert Pease ae forty-one, Martha Foster, ae about forty-three each deposed in the same manner. Evidently a case of “I didn’t know the gun was loaded.”^[3]

Her age 43 in 1670 calculates to a birth year of 1627. But her relation to John Foster is not given in the 1670 deposition.

We know that Mary Tompkins was baptized in January 1617. We know that there are no Wendover records of an Tompkins after Mary's January 1617 baptism.

We know that Mary Tompkins was age 14 on the 1635, calculating to a 1621 birth. On that 1635 passenger list, there was no child born about 1627, much less named Martha, listed among the children of Ralph Tompkins.

The Miner descent genealogy, referenced above, concludes that Martha must have been a daughter of Ralph's second wife, Hannah Aburne, and therefore, born after 1642, known last date of his first wife Katherine, and that John Foster married first Mary Tompkins, then second, her half sister Martha. BUT, known contemporary documentation places Martha's birth in 1627, while Ralph Tompkins was still married to Katherine.

What's not found (yet) is any evidence that Martha, wife of Richard Adams about 1688, was originally a Tompkins, other than Torrey's supposition. If you find another, solid, source,^[4] please add it here. Thank you.

another, secondary, source: Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Individual Records [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. registers: Name: Martha Tompkins Parents: Ralph Tomkins, Hannah Aborne Birth Place: Plymouth, Bridgewater, MA Birth Date: 1625 Marriage Place: Salem, Essex, MA Marriage Date: 1648 Death Place: Essex, MA Death Date: 1688

Biography

Martha was born in 1635. The passenger list on the Truelove on which the family came to Massachusetts in 1635 has "RALPH TOMKINS, Husb - Ae 50; KAT. TOMKINS vxor, Ae 58; ELIZABETH TOMKINS, Ae 18; SAMVEL TOMKINS Ae 22; MARIE TOMKINS Ae 14". Martha married John Foster in Salem about 1645/7.^[5] She married, second, Richard Adams in 1688. (This is why her death date appears as after 1688.)^[6][7] Birth

based on self reported age in 1670

Marriage

Husband: John Foster

Wife: Martha Tompkins

Marriage:

Date: 1624^[8]

Husband: Ralph Tompkins

Wife: Katherine UNKNOWN

Child: Martha Tompkins

Child: John Tompkins

Marriage:

Date: 06 NOV 1608

Place: Buckinghamshire, England^[9][10]

Sources

1. ↑ John Foster, in Miner Descent (online tree accessed 25 May 2015), citing Essex deed Vol III, p. 715
2. ↑ American Marriage Records Before 1699
3. ↑ Miner Descent, op cit., citing Essex Deed vol iii folio 99
4. ↑ I.e., NOT the Millennium File, not US & International Marriages, not someone's unsourced family tree
5. ↑ Torrey, Vol. 1, p. 567 under FOSTER, John (-1688). Cites: {Randall Anc. 440; Farr Anc. 282; Salem 2:324; Foster 697; Felton 144; Tingley-Meyers 167; Jones (#5) 4; Reg. ; . 87:287; EIHC 41:181; Dedham Hist. Reg. 6:22, 16:97}
6. ↑ Torrey, Vol. 1, p. 10. under ADAMS, Richard & Martha (TOMPKINS) FOSTER, w John; m cont 16 Nov 1688; Salem {Salem 2:324; Dedham Hist. Reg. 10:97; Essex Ant. 3:46; Foster 695}
7. ↑ Source: #S591 Vol, I, p. 426,
8. ↑ Source: #S591 Vol I, p. 426
9. ↑ Source: #S591
10. ↑ Source: #S587 Page: TOMPKINS, Ralph (1585-1666) & 1/wf Katherine FOSTER (1577-); in Eng, 6 Nov 1608; Dorchester/Bridgewater/Salem ; p. 1529

See also:

• Frederick Clifton Pierce, Foster genealogy : being the record of the posterity of Reginald Foster, an early inhabitant of Ipswich, in New England..., Chicago: F.C. Pierce, 1899. This appears to be the primary source used by the Miner Descent web site, referenced above.
• Source: S587 New England Marriages Prior to 1700, by Clarence Almon Torrey (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011)
• Source: S591 A History of Salem Massachusetts, by Sidney Perley (Sidney Perley, Salem, Mass., 1924)
• Source: Clemens, William Montgomery. American Marriage Records Before 1699. Pompton Lakes, NJ, USA: Biblio Co., 1926. Page 92

Acknowledgments

• Thank you to Patricia Sage for creating WikiTree profile Thompkins-33 through the import of SAGE and beyond_2013-02-08.ged on Feb 13, 2013.
• Thank you to Bennett Rockney for creating WikiTree profile Tompkins-633 through the import of Rockney GEDCOM.ged on Feb 16, 2013.