Hannah (Unknown) Billings (abt. 1625 - 1662)

Wife of Roger Billings — married about 1655 (to 25 May 1662) in Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 25 May 1662 at about age 37 in Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Christopher Childs [send private message] and Michael Thomas [send private message]

Biography

The maiden surname of Hannah, the second wife of Roger Billings of Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay, is not known; she is thought to have perhaps been born about 1625, an estimate based initially on her likely age at the time of their marriage – placed at about 1644 by Clarence Almon Torrey in his New England Marriages Prior to 1700^[1].

Torrey's estimate was presumably based on the birth records of what he believed to be Roger and Hannah's earliest known children; later analysis, based on the spacing of the children, suggests that the marriage may have been as late as 1655^[2]. A birth about 1625 nonetheless remains plausible given Roger's age. Hannah is assumed to have been admitted to the Dorchester church on the 14th of October, 1655^[3] (though it has been suggested that this Hannah might have been a daughter rather than a wife; the record does not specify whether she was married at the time of her admission); she died at Dorchester in late May of 1662 – just days after giving birth to her last child, daughter Zipporah. Roger survived Hannah by two decades, and remarried.

The Marriages of Roger Billings

1. Roger Billings (1620-1683) probably married his first wife, Mary (maiden surname unknown), about 1640, based on the estimated birth date of the couple's first known child, Joseph, about 1641-42^[2]. No record has been found to date (Apr. 2023) of the date or location of her death.
2. His marriage to the Hannah of this profile, his second wife (maiden surname again not known), could have occurred, as noted above, as early as 1644. It is however thought more likely to have taken place about 1655^[2]. Hannah died on 25 May 1662, at Dorchester^[4].
3. Roger's third marriage, to Elizabeth Pratt (1642-)^[5] was likely within a year or two of the death of Hannah – say, late 1663 – and likely took place at Dorchester ^[6].

Offspring

Waldo Chamberlain Sprague's 2001 analysis of Roger's marriages and offspring assigned the children somewhat differently from earlier estimates: based on Sprague's belief that Hannah and Roger did not marry until about 1655, he believed Hannah to have been the mother of four children^[2]:

1. Ebenezer, bp. 6 Jan. 1655/6 (the second son of that given name, the first having died)
2. Roger, b. 18 Nov. 1657
3. Elizabeth, b. 27 Oct. 1659
4. Zipporah, b. 21 May. 1662 – four days before her mother's death.

Sources

1. ↑ "BILLINGS, Roger1 (-1683, ae 65) & 2/wf Hannah ____ (-25 May 1662); ca 1644?; Dorchester {Deerfield 82; Thayer (1835) 67; Sv. 1:178; Dunham-Boyd 39; Reg. 9:152, 10:78, 92:261} " -- Vol. 1, p. 144, New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1568/i/21174/144/426877079 (by subscription)
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Waldo Chamberlain Sprague, Genealogies of the Families of Braintree, Mass. 1640-1850. CD © Copyright 2001 New England Historic Genealogical Society. Item. 666, 667, 667R, 668. Also available online by subscription to NEHGS [1].
3. ↑ Records of the First Church at Dorchester, in New England, 1636-1734, by First Church at Dorchester, G.H. Ellis: Dorchester (Boston, Mass.), 1891, p. 20 (orig. p. [30]); as Hannah Billinge; https://archive.org/details/recordsoffirstch00firs/page/20/mode/1up
4. ↑ Dorchester Vital Records to 1825, Boston Records Commissioners Reports, Vol. 21, City Document No. 59, p. 26; https://archive.org/details/dorchesterbirths01dorc/page/26/mode/1up
5. ↑ Records of the First Church at Dorchester, as above, p. 155 (orig. p. [174]); https://archive.org/stream/recordsoffirstch00firs#page/155/mode/1up
6. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700, as above, Vol. 1, p. 144; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1568/i/21174/144/426877079 (by subscription)

• Death (as Hannah Billing), at Dorchester, 25 May 1662: Dorchester Vital Records to 1825, Boston Records Commissioners Reports, Vol. 21, City Document No. 59, p. 26; https://archive.org/details/dorchesterbirths01dorc/page/26/mode/1up .

Acknowledgments

• The merged profile Savage-1958 was created 26 Dec 2013 by Michael Thomas.