Elizabeth (Unknown) Cutter (abt. 1620 - 1662)

Wife of Richard Cutter — married 1644 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay

Descendants

Died 5 Mar 1662 at about age 42 in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Biography

Elizabeth was born about 1620, probably in England. Her origins and family name are not known. About 1644, she married Richard Cutter. According to Marsha Hoffman Rising in a 1999 article in The American Genealogist, the marriage date for Richard and Elizabeth (___) Cutter has not been found, but can be estimated from the record showing that their eldest child Elizabeth was born in Cambridge on 15 July 1645. Women of this time typically married around age 23, making it likely that she was in her mid-twenties, born in about 1619 or 1620, and about the same age as her husband, Richard. ^[1]

Elizabeth died on March 5, 1662, in Cambridge, MIddlesex, Massachusetts.^[2]

Children of Richard Cutter and his wife Elizabeth

1. Elizabeth Cutter
2. Samuel Cutter
3. Thomas Cutter
4. William Cutter
5. Ephraim Cutter
6. Gershom Cutter
7. Mary Cutter

Research Notes

Disputed Identity

This Elizabeth is not the same person as Elizabeth Williams, daughter of Robert Williams of Roxbury. This is a misidentification that has been asserted in print by authors including Richard Anson Wheeler^[3] and William Richard Cutter,^[4] but is contradicted by the available evidence. The Elizabeth who married Richard Cutter was not Elizabeth Williams.

In an article entitled "Enigmas #12" published in The American Genealogist, Marsha Hoffman Rising states "No record has been found for the marriage between Richard Cutter of Cambridge, Massachusetts and his wife, Elizabeth." While we are certain from the gravestones that Cutter did marry a woman named Elizabeth, it would not be Elizabeth Williams, daughter of Robert Williams and Elizabeth Stalham, since she was born about 1629 and would have been 15 years of age at marriage which was an uncommon social practice of the time. The actual wife of Richard Cutter, Elizabeth (Unknown) Cutter, was born about 1618 - 1620. ^[5]

As described by Rising, the accepted chronology of Robert Williams begins with his recorded baptism in 1608, and says that his daughter Elizabeth Williams was born about 1629. If Elizabeth Williams was the wife of Richard Cutter, she would have been about 15 years of age at marriage in 1644, an unusually early age for marriage among women of the time. Rising concluded that Elizabeth, the daughter of Robert Williams, is not an appropriate candidate to be the wife of Richard Cutter.^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ Rising, "Enigmas #12", page 294.
2. ↑ Baldwin, Thomas W., Vital Records of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, Volume 2. Marriages and Deaths (Boston, Mass. 1914) page 520.
3. ↑ Wheeler, Richard Anson. History of the Town of Stonington, County of New London, Connecticut (Day Publishing, Co., New London, Conn., 1900), page 662.
4. ↑ Cutter, William Richard. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and eastern Massachusetts, New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1908, page 283
5. ↑ Rising, Marsha Hoffman. "Enigmas #12," The American Genealogist (New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .)), Vol. 74 (1999), pages 292-298.
6. ↑ Rising, "Enigmas #12", page 296.

• Rising, Marsha Hoffman. "Enigmas #12," The American Genealogist (New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .)), Vol. 74 (1999), pages 292-298.