Mary (Ingersoll) Bowditch (1781 - 1834)

Born 4 Dec 1781 in Danvers, Essex, Massachusetts

Ancestors

Wife of Nathaniel Bowditch — married 28 Oct 1800 in Danvers, Essex, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 17 Apr 1834 at age 52 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts

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Biography

Mary "Polly" Ingersoll was born in Danvers – the former Salem Village – in December of 1781; she was a daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Hodges) Ingersoll, and a direct descendant of Great Migration emigrant John Ingersoll, who arrived at Salem in 1629 with his father Richard aboard the second trans-Atlantic ship to be named the Mayflower. In October of 1800, Polly became the second wife of her cousin, mathematician and navigator Nathaniel Bowditch. The couple lived and raised a family in Salem; one son, Charles Ingersoll Bowditch, died at the age of ten, but his several brothers – Nathaniel, Jonathan, Henry, and William – and sisters – Mary and Elizabeth – lived well into adulthood or old age. Nathaniel and Polly removed to Boston in later life; Polly died there in 1834, while Nathaniel survived her by four years, also dying in the city in 1838.

Both Polly and Nathaniel were buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The inscription reads, "Mary Ingersoll/Born Dec 4 1781/Died April 17 1834;/In life they were loving helpmates./In death they are not separated"^[1].

Sources

1. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80675111/mary-hodges-bowditch; Find A Grave: Memorial #80675111

• Polly Ingersol baptism record, image: Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988; Salem Vital Record Transcripts; Digital Image, Ancestry.com: http://ancstry.me/1oYw5XU (by subscription)

• Christening record, transcript (gives year only): "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQDS-N6J : 10 February 2018), Polly Ingersol, ; citing , ; FHL microfilm 874,031, 874,032, 874,033.

• Birth, marriage, family, and lineage: Genealogical record of the Hodges family of New England: ending December 31, 1894, by Almon D. Hodges, printed for the family by Frank H. Hodges, Boston, Higginson Book Co., 1896, "The Salem Branch", p. 39; https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalrec01unkngoog#page/n47/mode/1up

• Marriage to Nathaniel Bowditch: "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FC8K-B3L : 4 December 2014), Nathaniel Bowditch and Polly Ingersoll, 27 Sep 1800

• Death (NEHGS; as recorded at Cambridge): "Mary Ingersoll, Apr. 17, 1834. G.R.3." -- Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/i/7675/477/140996042 (subscription). Alternate record (Salem): Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988; Salem Vital Record Transcripts; Digital Image, Ancestry.com: ancstry.me/1qSC7VJ

• Birth, family, death, and burial (with image of memorial): Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 11 November 2019), memorial page for Mrs Mary Hodges Ingersoll Bowditch (14 Dec 1781–17 Apr 1834), Find A Grave: Memorial #80675111, citing Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave (contributor 8); https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80675111