Bethia (Garnzey) King (1754 - 1842)

Born 12 Feb 1754 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts

Ancestors

Wife of Jonathan King — married Jan 1776 in Douglass, Worcester, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 7 May 1842 at age 88 in New London, New London, Connecticut

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Biography

Work in Progress
Birth and death of her father with complications to follow.
Bethia Garnzey was born 12 February 1754, Rehoboth, Bristol county, Massachusetts to parents Seth and Bethiah (Lee) Garnzey. ^[1] She was their only child, Seth and Bethiah having married 3 months before her birth; adding tragedy to the misfortunate timing of her birth, father Seth died unexpectedly one month later. ^{[2] [3]}

Given the strong puritanical leanings of these New England colonial settlements her mothers sudden widowhood was probably overshadowed by the negative social complications brought on by her parents late marriage date which may have been the result of family objections or some other disagreement. Or the fact of her impending birth was simply hidden until it couldn't be anymore.

Seth's mother Hannah (Millard) "Geurnsey" was contentious with widow Bethiah (Lee) Garnzey and withheld property from her during the probate of Seth's Will. ^[4]

At the age of twelve Bethia's mother, Bethiah (Lee) Garnzey married second Ebenezer Smith on 19 October 1766 at Rehoboth, Bristol county, Massachusetts.^[5] She was his second wife. At Bethiah and Ebenezer had two sons while residing in Rehogoth. The Smith family then relocated to Uxbridge, Worcester County, Massachusetts where they remained a few years. Uxbridge is situated quite near the Connecticut border in south western Massachusetts; a small farming community much like every other New England town created from westward expansion. Bethia's half-siblings would later relocate to nearby Douglass where their parents would later join them. Douglass is very near the northern Connecticut border.

About eight miles due east from Uxbridge, Worcester county is the colonial town of Bellingham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. That community was the residence of the Isaac Johnson and Susannah (Thayer) Johnson family. Their youngest child, of eight, being Ezekiel Johnson, born 1750. Ezekiel's father died while he was young and from later events it could be assumed Ezekiel accompanied his older brothers to neighboring Uxbridge and Medford as his older brothers visited town relatives and courted their young women. Ezekiel's mother's family, the Thayer's, lived largely in the Uxbridge area and town records show they dominated Uxbridge town politics and leadership. Today, one can visit the Uxbridge public library and see it's dedication by the Thayer's written in a stone memorial.

Birth of Son
In January 1773, Uxbridge, when Bethia was 18 and unmarried she gave birth to a boy she "named after the father". He was called Ezekiel Johnson. In the Worcester County court archives for Uxbridge there is a record of a “Bethiar Gansee” (Bethia Guernsey) having been "fined five shillings for the sin of fornication with an unnamed male, committed on 31 May 1772 with “a male person being to the said jurors unknown.” The town records from Uxbridge have been searched and in the payments received to the town there is no record of Bethia being required to pay the fine or penalized for not doing so. It is possible that the leveling of a fine was a formality particularly since the Thayer's, the maternal grandmother's family, where socially prominent in Uxbridge town affairs. At the time of Bethia's pregnancy and the birth of her son Ezekiel Johnson, the father Ezekiel Johnson of Bellingham was also visiting Medway a great deal and impregnated young, unwed Rachel Merrifield. Ezekiel and Rachel recorded a marriage intention which was later nullified by the Medway town clerk probably because the news of Bethia's prior claim was received. Rachel Merrifield never married or had other children after this experience. Her child out-of-wedlock, she named Levi Johnson, remained with her in Medfield and also never married. Medfield, Bellingham and Uxbridge are all very close. Ezekiel Johnson (Sr.) had siblings and cousins in all three towns.

For a very long time, until town records could be examined and DNA testing was possible, thousands of descendant family histories told the story that Ezekiel Johnson of Bellingham was killed during the 1776 Revolutionary War battle of Bunker Hill before son Ezekiel Johnson (Jr.). Uxbridge town records include no further entry about Bethia Garnzey and her son Ezekiel Johnson.

When her son Ezekiel Johnson was age three, Bethia Garnzey married Jonathan King. Town records from Douglas, Massachusetts, about 15 southwest from Uxbridge on the Connecticut border reveal that the newly wed couple with "3 year old son Ezekiel Johnson (Jr.)" received a "warning" from the town of Douglass. Bethia's mother and her step-father Bethiah and Ebenezer Smith had relocated their family to Douglass where they settled with their two natural children from this 2nd marriage of Bethiah (Lee) (Garnzey) Smith.

Bethia (Garnsey) King died at the age of eighty-eight and shortly thereafter was laid to rest at Ye Ancientest Burial Grounds in New London, Connecticut.

Sources

1. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1K-Q7F7 : 29 November 2018), Bethiah Garnzey, 12 Feb 1754; citing Birth, Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass., USA, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007578641.
2. ↑ "Vital Records of Rehoboth" pg.826. Reprinted "Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988" Accessed 1 Oct 2020. https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/21651904?h=c17372
3. ↑ Arnold, James N. "Vital Record of Rehoboth, 1642-1896: marriages, intentions, births, deaths..." (Providence, R I: Narragansett Historical Publishing, 1897), p. 826 AmericanAncestors.org.
4. ↑ Eva Garnsey Card, comp. "The Garnsey - Guernsey Genealogy" (Urbana, IL: E. & L. Card, 1963), p. 147, 215 HathiTrust.org.
5. ↑ Dodd, Jordan, Liahona Research, comp. "Massachusetts Marriages 1633-1850" Reprinted FamilySearch.org; Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT, Film # 0562559. Reprinted 2005, Provo, UT.: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Accessed 6 Dec 2020.

See Also

• Thayer, Judith L., ed., comp. "The Garnsey-Guernsey Genealogy: An Account of Thirteen Generations of Descendants from Henry Garnsey who died 1692, Dorchester, Mass. and Joseph Garnsey-Guernsie who died 1688, of Stamford, Conn.", 2nd ed. Published 1979. Originally compiled by Eva Garnsey Card and Howard Abram Guernsey in 1963. Revised with additions and corrections by Judith L. Young-Thayer in 1979. Published for the author by Gateway Press, Inc. Baltimore, MD. Original printing copy 684 out of 810 copies. Purchased directly from Judith L. Young-Thayer in Vermont.