Mehitable (Rowley) Champion (abt. 1698 - 1775)

Born about 1698 in East Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of Henry Champion — married 16 Jan 1718 in East Haddam, Connecticut

Descendants

Died 5 Oct 1775 at about age 77 in East Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut

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Mehitable (Rowley) Champion was related to a passenger on the Mayflower. Join: Mayflower Project Discuss: mayflower

Biography

From the age given in the original inscription on her gravestone, Mehitable Rowley is believed to have been born in 1698; she was not baptized, however, until December of 1704, at the First Congregational Church of East Haddam, Connecticut. Mehitable was a daughter of Moses Rowley and Mary Unknown^[1]; she was christened along with her father -- by then referred to as "Senr.", suggesting though not proving the passage of his father by that time -- and three of her siblings^[2]. She married Henry Champion in January of 1717/18^[3]; she died at East Haddam in the fall of 1775^[4].

Mehitable's (as "Mahetable") Find A Grave page notes:

Born prob. East Haddam, ca. 1698. Married Lt. Henry Champion, son of Thomas & Hannah (Brockway) Champion, at East Haddam, 16 Jan 1717. Died there 4 Oct 1775 in 78th year. Wife of Henry. Age 78.

Research Notes

A contributor @yahoo.com adds: While doing research into one of her descendants who married into one of my ancestral families, I found a transcription of the inscription on her stone. Because of the lack of a picture of that stone, I suspect it is no longer visible. There were also transcriptions for her husband, Henry, and son, Ebenezer - I've sent those transcriptions to the gentleman who is managing their memorials.

The source information for the transcriptions is Trowbridge, Francis Bacon, The Champion Genealogy: A History of the Descendants of Henry Champion of Saybrook and Lyme, Connecticut, Together with some account of other families of the name, Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, New Haven, Connecticut, 1866, p. 40

The transcription is

Sacred to the Memory of

Mrs. Mahetable Champion

wife of Mr. Henry Champion

who departed this life

Oct. 4, 1775, in ye

78 year of her age.

Sources

1. ↑ MacGunnigle, Bruce Campbell. "Mayflower Families Through Five Generations Descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass, December 1620, Volume Four, Third Edition, Family of Edward Fuller." Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2006, pg 107-8. (Link available by $ubscription to AmericanAncestors.org.)
2. ↑ East Haddam, CT: Records of the First Congregational Church, 1704-1802 (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2018), (Typescript transcription, transcriber unknown. "Records of the First Congregational Church at East Haddam, Connecticut, 1704–1802," no date.); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB2753/i/53931/3/1424273959 (subscription)
3. ↑ "Rowley... Mahittabell, m. Henry Champen, Jan. 16, 1717" -- Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630-1870 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB414/i/13232/152/235043869 (subscription)
4. ↑ "Mehetable, w. of Henry, d. Oct. 5, 1775" -- Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630-1870 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB414/i/13232/41/235039637 (subscription)

• Genealogical and family history of the state of Connecticut: a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume 2, Part 1, by William Richard Cutter, Edward Henry Clement, Samuel Hart, Mary Kingsbury Talcott, Frederick Bostwick, Ezra S. Stearns; Lewis historical publishing company, 1911, p. 605

• Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 03 November 2019), memorial page for Mahetable Rowley Champion (1698–4 Oct 1775), Find A Grave: Memorial #64816078, citing Mount Parnassus Burying Ground, East Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut, USA ; Maintained by Linda Mac (contributor 47062703); http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=64816078

Acknowledgments

• Initial entry of vital data made as first-hand information, as remembered by Gerald Smith, Thursday, April 2, 2015.

• Reference to Fletcher-1 replaced by reference to Fletcher-2877 by Christopher Childs (Childs-1516), Nov. 19, 2016; the Rowley-Fletcher marriage remains in question as it is not documented (the surname "Throop" has also been posited for this wife).

• Reference to Mary Fletcher was replaced with Mary Unknown to match the Mayflower Society's Silver Book Vol 4.

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