Born about [location unknown]
Daughter of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Wife of
John Whiting
— married
24 Dec 1688 (to 4 Jan 1728) in Wrentham, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony
Descendants 
Mother of
Nathaniel Whiting, Mary (Whiting) Mann, John Whiting, Jerusha (Whiting) Slack, Jemima (Whiting) Wight, Zebiah (Whiting) Ware, Eliphalet Whiting, Hannah (Whiting) Fisher, Abigail Whiting, Phebe Whiting, Elizabeth Whiting and Jonathan Whiting
Died
at about age 58
in Wrentham, Suffolk, Province of Massachusetts Bay
Profile last modified
| Created 2 Mar 2017
This page has been accessed 958 times.
Contents |
Biography
This profile is part of the Whiting Name Study.
Mary Billings was presumably born in or not long after 1670, based on her 1688 marriage to John Whiting[1]; her parentage has not, to date (March 2023), been firmly established (see "Disputed Parentage" below).
Mary lived in Wrentham, in Norfolk, Massachusetts Bay, when she wed John Whiting – a town to which an Elizabeth Billings, born in 1689 and thought likely to have been a younger sister of Mary's, was released by the church at Stonington, Connecticut in 1701; the assumption is that Elizabeth removed to Wrentham to join a family member already present there[2]. John and Mary married there on the 24th of December, 1688[3][4]. The couple had a son John Whiting, born on 16th January 1694/95, who died 13th February 1755 at Wrentham.
Mary (Billings) Whiting passed away on 24 January 1728, and was buried at Union Street Cemetery, Franklin, Norfolk County, Massachusetts[5].
Disputed Parentage
This profile was previously attached to Roger Billings, shown as Mary's father. This however is not supported by any known record; see the comment thread below: Roger's known daughters named Mary were both born decades before the Mary of this profile: the first was born, and died, in 1643; the second was born in 1645, and would not have been bearing children in the years shown for this Mary's offspring.
For these reasons, Roger (the former Billings-2755, recently merged into Billings-570) has been unlinked from this profile as Mary's father.
Research Notes
This potential birth record was previously put forward:
- "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F7WX-S6N : 3 December 2014), Marcy Or Mary Billings, 27 Oct 1674; citing ; FHL microfilm unknown.
However, this is for Marcy Billings (1674-aft. 1713), who is not the same person (Danforth-870 4/1/23; edited, Childs-1516 4/6/23).
A more likely record is:
- "Connecticut, Births and Baptisms, 1639-1941", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4VP6-6VW2 : 9 June 2020), Mary Billings, 1672.
... which is the 1 September 1672 baptismal record for the Mary Billings of Stonington, Connecticut, noted above, who was an older sister of Marcy, and was probably born at least a year prior to her baptism.
It is an interesting fact that a handwritten transcript (by an unidentified transcriber) of the original, handwritten Wrentham marriage record for John Whiting shows the bride's name as Mary, but leaves the surname blank[6]. A printed town record also omits Mary's surname, placing the entire entry in a separate section headed "UNIDENTIFIED" and noting that the original entry was "[torn]"[7] – and deepening the mystery.
In the light of all this, we must assume that the original entry was, at best, extremely difficult – if not impossible – to decipher. Without seeing that original, it becomes difficult to know whether Mary was indeed a Billings, or possibly of a different family entirely... and raises the obvious question of how the Billings name came into the picture in the first place.
All the above duly noted, it may well be significant that a handwritten transcript of the 1 September 1672 baptismal record for Mary Billings of Stonington, daughter of William and Mary, shows that she was baptized with three of her siblings – William, Joseph, and Lydia (Mary is named third, just before Lydia)[8]. The implication is that she may have been born significantly earlier than her christening date... almost certainly by at least a year, likely by more than that – making her that much more reasonable as a candidate to marry John Whiting in 1688.
Sources
- ↑ Lazell, Theodore S. (1902); Whiting Genealogy. Nathaniel Whiting of Dedham, Mass., 1641, and Five Generations of His Descendants; TR Marvin and Son, Printers; Boston, Massachuettes; PG 15. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/whitinggenealogy01laze/page/15/mode/1up
- ↑ "Roger Billings of Milton, Mass., and Some of His Descendants, by Harold Ward Dana, NEHGR Vol. 92 (1938), p. 263; The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2018.); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB202/i/11625/263/0 (by subscription)
- ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHQB-6TB : 20 May 2022), John Whiting, 24 Dec 1688; citing Marriage, Wrentham, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007010771.
- ↑ "1688, Decr. 24, John Whiting and Mary Billings" -- "Early Records of Wrentham", Vol. 4, p. 85; Vital Records from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Compiled from articles originally published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB522/i/21068/85/1426547774 (by subscription)
- ↑ Find a Grave, database and images ( Find A Grave: Memorial #146606651 mary-whiting: accessed 24 March 2023), memorial page for Mary Billings Whiting (14 Mar 1675–24 Jan 1728), Find A Grave: Memorial #146606651, citing Union Street Cemetery, Franklin, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by James Bianco (contributor 47745493).
- ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L979-WQZL?cc=2061550&wc=Q4D4-16D%3A353350501%2C353606501%2C353612601 : 22 October 2020), Norfolk > Wrentham > Births, marriages, deaths 1681-1807 > image 6 of 506; citing Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston.
- ↑ Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data:Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook); [1] (by subscription)
- ↑ "Connecticut, Births and Baptisms, 1639-1941", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99V3-GS3L?cc=2448938 : 18 July 2022), > image 1 of 1.
- Death 4 Jan. 1727/8 (links to image of handwritten transcript): "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH8H-F9S : 13 July 2016), Mary Whiting, 04 Jan 1727; citing Death, Wrentham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States, , town clerk offices, Massachusetts; FHL microfilm 886,859.
- Death 4 Jan. 1727/8 (image of printed Wrentham record): "WHITING... Mary, w. of John Sr., Jan. 4, 1727–8" -- Wrentham VRs, Vol. 2, "Wrentham Deaths", p. 513; Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/7837/513/142038894 (by subscription)
- Jordan, John W. Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (Lewis Historical Pub. Co., New York, 1915, Vol 1, p. 149
See also (note that online family trees are considered reliable only when specific primary, or highly reliable secondary, sources are cited):
- Unsourced User Tree: Dawn Lawrence Geneology.com https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/l/a/w/Dawn-B-Lawrence/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0527.html
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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Mary:
It may be possible to confirm family relationships. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Mary:
-
~0.78%
Welcome Hill
:
23andMe
+
AncestryDNA
-
~0.39%
Floyd Reed :
23andMe
-
~0.39%
~1.56%
William Baker :
AncestryDNA, GEDmatch A212457 [compare], Ancestry member whbaker44
-
~0.39%
Linda (Wight) Sallinen :
AncestryDNA
Images: 1
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B > Billings | W > Whiting > Mary (Billings) Whiting
Categories: Pre-1700, Whiting Name Study | Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Whiting Name Study | Whiting Name Study
None of the known Dorchester Mary Billingses fit the age requirements for the Mary of this profile: they are either known to have died, or are too old and known to have married other spouses, or are far too young. (And no known candidate exists among the Billingses found in the time period at Concord, Massachusetts.) The Mary baptized at Stonington on 1 September 1672 does fit... just barely, if she was baptized close to the day of her birth. It would make her 16, at least, at the time of her 24 December 1688 marriage to John Whiting.
After studying this family, at intervals, for several years, I would say that this Mary _might_ be given the identity (but marked as "Uncertain") of the Stonington daughter of William and Mary Billings, sister of Elizabeth who removed to Wrentham. As implied in the Research Notes above, however, it may be time to investigate other Marys in or near Wrentham who are _not_ Billingses and who were of the right age to marry John Whiting in 1688.
edited by Christopher Childs
edited by Christopher Childs
A somewhat mysterious, dark-horse candidate might be the daughter Mary of the senior Roger's likenamed son Roger (1657-1718), and his wife Sarah (Paine) Billings. But nothing is known of this daughter beyond a mention in her father's will (see https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/ottawa/billings/p41.htm#i64076)... and since she was named following her sister Sarah (b. 1687/8) in that will, and since children were usually listed in wills by order of birth, this Mary was presumably born much too late to have married John Whiting in 1688.
The idea of a Connecticut origin for Mary, as introduced in the Research Notes above, has a pedigree, though as usual with this family it is difficult to prove with certainty. The second Mary suggested in the Notes above, baptized in 1672, was just barely old enough to marry 23-year-old John Whiting at Wrentham, Massachusetts Bay, in 1688. (The Billings family of Concord in this period had children named Mary, but the ones shown born there – per the NEHGS database – in 1674 and 1680 would be too young.)
edited by Christopher Childs
deleted by Christopher Childs
There is a suggestion https://plus.wikitree.com/function/WTStatus/Status.htm?ErrID=591&UserID1=15382311&UserID2=4536450 That a possible father is William Billings (abt.1631-1713)
That profile lists a daughter Mary, died 1713. She married John Whiting 24 Dec 1688. and has a link to this profile. Shall we connect him as father?
BTW the 1713 death date (actually, "after 1713") shown for one of William's daughters is assigned to Mary's younger sister _Mercy_ (Billings-1508), not to Mary. (Possibly it is Mercy, not Mary as presently shown, who should be connected to a husband surnamed Grant, and to son Noah Grant, but to date I'm not sure any records have been found that would constitute sufficient evidence to justify that connection.)
The PM of Billings-237 would need to make a sourced case for his Mary as a 14-year-old spouse of John Whiting if that profile is to retain Mary (Billings) Whiting's death date. I don't think we have sufficient evidence for that, either. -- To date, as also noted above, the other rather open-ended candidate as Mary (Billings) Whiting remains the daughter Mary (not yet profiled) of the junior Roger Billings (also apparently not yet profiled); again, see https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/ottawa/billings/p41.htm#i64076. If she was named _out of the usual order_ in her father's will, and was _significantly older_ than sister Sarah, she might perhaps have been old enough to marry in 1688. But I regard that as a long shot.
Note also that there is another Mary attached to the same parents who was contemporaneous and lived a full life, married, and had children, all in the New London Connecticut area. I think this profile should be detached from the parents as currently listed, then attached to her true parents.
Finally, there's the issue of this Mary marrying at age 13, then bearing 14 children..... could be true, but needs to be checked.
Mary Billings Whiting http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=146606651 Children: Nathaniel Whiting (1690 - 1779)* John Whiting (1694 - 1755)* Jerusha Whiting Slack (1697 - 1768)* Hannah Whiting Fisher (1706 - 1761)*
Second Generation THE HISTORY OF STONINGTON, CONN., by Richard A. Wheeler, Mary BILLINGS 1.
THE HISTORY OF STONINGTON, CONN., by Richard A. Wheeler, page 236. 5. Mary, b. ___.