Mary (Unknown) Whitehead (abt. 1626 - aft. 1702)

Born about 1626 in Cape Cod, Barnstable County, Plymouth Colony [uncertain]

Wife of John Yates Sr — married 1649 (to 1651) in Massachusetts

Wife of Richard Higgins — married about Oct 1651 (to about 1675) in Eastham, Barnstable Co; Plymouth Colony

Wife of Isaac Whitehead — married 1689 in Elizabeth, Essex County, New Jersey

Descendants

Died after 2 Dec 1702 after about age 76 in Piscataway, Middlesex County, Province of East Jersey

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Robin Lee [send private message]

Biography

Mary (______) (Yates) (Higgins) (Whitehead) The first recorded fact that we know about Mary _____ is her license to administer the estate of her husband John Yates. Little is known of John Yates other than his death. Estimating from the birth of her children 1650-1673, she was probably born say 1625-1635 in an unknown place.

8 June 1651 at a Grand Inquest at the Plymouth Colony Court: “Lycence is graunted unto Mr Prence to prove the inventory of the estate of John Yates, deceassed, at home at Eastham.” And “Lics [License] of adminestracion graunted unto Mary Yates, to adminester upon the estate of John Yates, deceassed. ^[1]

John, presumably by wife Mary, had one son while they lived in Duxbury, before they moved to Eastham.

• 1. Joh Yats the sonn of John Yats borne in the town of Duxborough in augost in the yeere 1650^[2] and "John Yeates, the son of John Yeates, deceased, which said John Yeates, Junir, is son in law to the said Richard Higgens, was borne att Duxburrow the 15th of August 1650^[3]

“Richard Higgens and Mary Yates was marryed the __ october 1651." ^[4]

The birth of several of their children follow the marriage record:^[4]

• 2. Mary Higgens the daughter of Richard Higgens was borne the 27th of September 1652.
• 3. Eliakim the Sonne of Richard Higgens was borne the 20th of october 1654
• 4. Jadiah the Sonne of Richard Higgens was borne in march 1656 alias 1657
• 5. Zera Higgens the Sonne of Richard Higgens was borne June . 1658
• 6. Thomas Higgens the Sonne of Richard Higgens was borne January 1661
• 7. Lidia Higgens the Daughter of Richard Higgens was borne July 1664

They had three more children whose births were not recorded or the records have been lost.

• 8. Rebecca b. say 1666^[5]
• 9. Ruth b. say 1671^[5]
• 10.Sarah b. say 1673^[5]

Richard Higgins and Mary and Mary’s children moved to Piscataway, New Jersey, about 1669, where Richard died late in 1673 or before 1 June 1675. His widow was called executrix of his estate.^[6] Probably with an eye to seeing her sons settled later, Mary acquired land in the interim between Richard’s death and her next marriage.

8 Mar 1677/8 a record of the survey and assignment of lands to Mrs. Mary Higgins of Piscataway. Some of the adjacent properties were named, in the western part of Piscataway called “Dismall” of “The Dismall Swamp” and in the uplands above it and over the Raritan River; some lots touching the line of Woodbridge; some lots described as containing 254 acres.^[7]

5 June 1677, Mary Higgins , widow of Richard Higgins and Eliakim, son, conveyed to Edward Slater several lots in “Bottle Meadow” in Piscataway.^[8]

Mary Higgins and Samuel Moore Sr of Woodbridge, obtained a license to marry 6 Sep 1678, but they never married. A marginal note says “This license is null, one of the persons recanting the agreement.” This was perhaps Mary, so she wouldn’t lose her property rights.^[9]

In 1682 Mary Higgins, spinster, executed a deed. Then 5 May 1684 Mary Higgins consented to the marriage of her son Eliakim.^[7]

After 1684, Mary married Isaac Whitehead Sr. of Elizabethtown, NJ. Isaac died in 1691, and left one third of his movable estate to his wife Mary.^[7]

The last we know of Mary was in the will of her son. Thomas Higgins, son of Richard, a resident of Piscataway, in his will dated 2 Dec 1702, made provision for his mother: “My will is that my honored mother, Mary Whitehead, shall have and quietly possess the Parlor or Rooms where she now lives and also one-third part of the orchard during her natural life.”^[7][10]

Sources

1. ↑ Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet (ed.). Records of the colony of New Plymouth in New England : printed by order of the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Court Orders. Vol II (1641-1651) (Boston: Press of William White, 1855) (Reprint 1968) p. 170
2. ↑ "Eastham and Orleans Vital Records" The Mayflower Descendant V.5, p.23
3. ↑ Records of the colony of New Plymouth, in New England. By New Plymouth Colony; Massachusetts. General Court; Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet, 1810-1874, ed; Pulsifer, David, 1802-1894, ed. (Boston : Press of W. White, 1855) p. 27
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Eastham and Orleans, Mass., Vital Records. The Mayflower Descendant Vol 8 (Boston : Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1899) p. 13
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Monnette, Orra Eugene. Richard HIggins of Plymouth and Eastham, Mass., and Piscataway, N.J., and Some of his Descendants. New York Genealogical Biographical Record (NYGBR) 46: 394. (1915)
6. ↑ Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633. Volumes I-III, 3 vols. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995.) Vol 2 p 929 citing [Plymouth Colony Land Records 5:139]
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3} Monnette, Orra Eugene "Richard Higgins ... and some of his Descendants." NYGBR 47:21 (1916) p. 21 Cites records of the Surveyor General of the East Jersey Proprietors at Perth Amboy, NJ
8. ↑ NYGBR 47:21 citing East Jersey Patents Book no. 1 reverse
9. ↑ NYGBR 47:21 citing East Jersey Deed Liber 3 p. 149
10. ↑ Calendar of Wills, Administrations, Etc. 1670-1730. Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. (Trenton, NJ: Archives of the State of New Jersey), volume 23, page 227

• Torry, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004.
• Richard Higgins, a Resident and Pioneer Settler at Plymouth and Eastham, Massachusetts, and at Piscataway New Jersey and His Descendants, by Mrs. Katharine Chapin Higgins. Worcester, Massachusetts, 1918.[[1]]
• Clemens, William Montgomery. American Marriage Records Before 1699. Pompton Lakes, NJ, USA: Biblio Co., 1926.
• Fretz, A. J.. A genealogical record of the descendants of Leonard Headley of Elizabethtown, N.J. : together with historical and biographical sketches and illustrated with portraits and other illustrations. Milton N.J.: Joseph W. Headley, 1905. p. 13.
• Town records, 1654-1863 [Eastham, Massachusetts], database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G979-QNYN  : 27 September 2022), , FHL microfilm 007009743, image 330, Eastham, Massachusetts, Volume 2, Transcribed by order of the Town in 1856 by, H. Doane 2d, Town Clerk, Marriages, Births, & Deaths, 1654-1797, Page 2.

Acknowledgments

• Thank you to Kay Martin for creating WikiTree profile Yates-1543 through the import of Martin-Rowe Family Tree.ged on Oct 22, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Kay and others. Thanks to Robin Lee, Eryn Hibbert Josh Foulk.