no image
Privacy Level: Open (White)

Mollie (Fay) Maynard (1757 - abt. 1832)

Mollie (Mary) Maynard formerly Fay aka Garfield
Born in Westborough, Worcester, Massachusettsmap
Ancestors ancestors
Daughter of [father unknown] and
[sibling(s) unknown]
Wife of — married 15 Feb 1776 in Westborough, Massachusettsmap
Descendants descendants
Died about at about age 75 in Westborough, Worcester, Massachusetts, United Statesmap
Problems/Questions Profile manager: Cheryl Kotecki private message [send private message]
Profile last modified | Created 6 Jul 2016
This page has been accessed 109 times.

Biography

Mollie's marriage record lists her name as "Mollie Garfield." The Fay Genealogy (Source [1]) speculates that Reuben Maynard was her second husband; however, no earlier marriage record can be found that fits. More telling, Source [1] also relates the following regarding Mollie:

DELIVERANCE, Samuel 3 &2, John 1. She was b. Nov. 15,1727 m. only 1 dau. traced.

1 MARY OR MOLLY, b. Sept. 23 1756, m. in Wesboro, Feb. 15, 1776, Reuben Maynard, b. Shrewsbury, July 16, 1746, d. Feb., 1813. He was probably her 2d husband, as she was then called Molly Garfield. In the settlement of the estate the wid. was called Mary, and a dau. in 1878 said her mother was Molly Fay, a dau of Deliverance Fay. They had 13 chil., b. "all around the lot."

Sources [2] and [3] provide the marriage date of 15 Feb 1776 between Reuben Maynard and Mollie Garfield as listed in the Fay Genealogy. She died either on 25 Nov 1832 or 25 Nov 1823: sources [4] and [5] differ in the year though not the date. Source [5] is a hand written copy of the Marlborough town records. Source [4] is a transcription. The 1832 date found in the hand written copy was used for this record. A factor to note in the hand written version of the death record is that the clerk grouped deaths by family and Mary Maynard, wife of Reuben, is listed with Deliverance Fay's death record.

Although the Fay genealogy states Mollie/Molley (Mary) was born on 23 Sep 1756, the daughter of Deliverance Fay [1], it is more likely she was born in 1757, as postulated by the evidence below.

There is no record of a marriage of Deliverance Fay, and with the comment by her daughter quoted from the Fay genealogy above, it seemed likely that Mary/Mollie was the illegitimate daughter of Deliverance and an unnamed Garfield. Note: Deliverance may have been a prominent figure in the town of Westborough: the Fays were among the town founders.

Many family trees show Mollie's father was Ebenezer Garfield, who had a daughter named Mary. The problem with this attribution is that although Ebenezer Garfield had a daughter named Mary of an appropriate age to be Reuben Maynard's wife, she was listed in Ebenezer Garfield's will as Mary Garfield. By the time of this will, if he were referring to Mary (Garfield) Maynard, the will should have named her as Mary Maynard, not Garfield. It would appear that Ebenezer's daughter Mary never married, so Ebenezer Garfield was likely not Mary Garfield Maynard's father.

A further rationale for the speculation that Mary was the illegitimate daughter of Deliverance Fay is the death record of her daughter Nancy Maynard Bigelow, the image of which is available at Family Search. Nancy died in 1865 in the town of North Brookfield, Worcester County Massachusetts. Her parents were listed by the town clerk as Reuben Maynard and Molly Fay Maynard. See "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-997M-4WQS?cc=2061550&wc=Q4DQ-PT5%3A353349801%2C353468601%2C353468602 : 23 October 2020), Worcester > North Brookfield > Deaths 1865-1898 A-Z > image 2 of 78; citing Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston.

The diary of Reverend Ebenezer Parkman, (1703-1782), provides us with the name of the man who was most probably Molly Fay Garfield's father. Rev. Parkman served as the first minister of Westborough, Massachusetts, from 1724 until his death. His diaries have been transcribed by Professor Ross W. Beales Jr. and have been published in their entirety at The Ebenezer Parkman Project. The following is the entry that concerns Deliverance Fay's child:

1757 July 2 (Saturday). I rode to Shrewsbury. Met Mr. Cushing at Mr. Joseph Knowltons, his Son Nathan being Sick. Called at Mr. Garfields to See him in his low Condition. I prayed at each of these Houses. But what peculiarly affected me was what I met with at Mr. Samuel Fays, his Daughter Dilly being with Child -- she says by Aaron Garfield. A most Sorrowful Providence for he has left her, and denys his being the Father of the Child. I lodged at Mr. Cushings and he here.

Rev. Parkman officiated at the marriage of Molly Garfield and Reuben Maynard, the diary entry providing another glimpse at the type of information he recorded in his diaries:

1776 February 15 (Thursday). Dr. Hawes acquaints me with the very distressed Condition of Mr. Edmund Antwistles Family. I went to See ‘em, and found his Wife and two Children and a Girl (whose name was Grover) Sick -- but especially their sister Submitt Harrington, was exceeding bad. All of them of the Canker. Prayed and discoursed with them as they could bear. N.B. Mr. Benjamin Hicks dined here. Mr. Gale came and delivered me a Brief for a Contribution for his son in Law, Mr. Nichol of Munson, whose House, goods, etc. were burnt last December. N.B. [by?] Moses Brigham I sent to Mr. Cushing Ortons sermon. [At evening?] marryed Mr. Reuben Maynard and Molly Garfield. Two Soldiers came and lodge. They are of Lebanon Crank. One was Mr. Pomroy, the other Basto.

Note: There is one other historical record relating to the birth of Mary Fay Garfield. Source [6] includes a listing of births. Page 41 (image 40 in the digital copy) records:

Mollie, d. Deliverance, July 3, 1763. C.R. (C.R. is for Church Record)

If this were Mary Garfield's birth record, as stated in the source, she would have been only 12.5 years old when she married Reuben Maynard. However, the actual church record book has been digitized and images available. This record is Mollie's baptism, which took place after her mother Deliverance Fay confessed her sin of fornication and was readmitted to the church just two months earlier. See Deliverance Fay's record for this account.

NOTE: I welcome any additional thoughts about the version of Mollie Garfield's parentage I have postulated here. Cheryl Kotecki 3 January 2022.

Sources


[1] Fay Genealogy: John Fay of Marlborough and his Descendants by Orlin Pretiss Fay, p 175. Originally published 1989, republished by Creative Copy and Printing, 1992. Also available at Ancestry.com.

[2] Massachusetts, 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).

[3] Dodd, Jordan, Liahona Research, comp. Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: With some noted exceptions all marriage records in this collection can be found at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and may be available through Family History Centers throughout the United States.

[4] Massachusetts, 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).

[5] Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 p. 63 available at Ancestry.com Publisher Date 2011 Publisher Location Provo, UT, USA

[6] Vital records of Westborough, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849 by Westborough (Mass.); Rice, Franklin P Publication date 1903 Digital copy located at https://archive.org/details/vitalrecordsofwe01west/page/40/mode/2up page Topics Registers of births, etc. -- Massachusetts Westborough Publisher Worcester, Mass., F.P. Rice see image 40 of 258





Is Mary your ancestor? Please don't go away!
 star icon Login to collaborate or comment, or
 star icon contact private message the profile manager, or
 star icon ask our community of genealogists a question.
Sponsored Search by Ancestry.com

DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Mary by comparing test results with other carriers of her mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known mtDNA test-takers in her direct maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Mary:

Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.



Comments

Leave a message for others who see this profile.
There are no comments yet.
Login to post a comment.

F  >  Fay  |  M  >  Maynard  >  Mollie (Fay) Maynard