Biography

Mary's often-alleged death date of "28 September 1715" is simply the date of her husband's will. In fact, Mary went on to marry Ebenezer Allen whose will, which mentions her and some of her Alderman children, was written in September 1716 and probated that December.^[1]

Having only married thirteen years earlier, she may have lived several years beyond this.

"(Thomas Alderman) went along with friends to East Hampton, in Long Island, and it is there that one important record is found which leads us to conjecture the romance of his life, for there, at the age of nineteen, he married Mary Seagrave, Rev. Nathaniel Huntting officiating."^[1] Note that the "one important record" is not described, but the marriage of Alderman and Seagrave in East Hampton's Presbytarian church is recorded in volume V, page 520, of Records of the town of East-Hampton, Long Island, Suffolk Co., N.Y..^[2]

The only other Seagrave mentioned in the above compilation of town records is the death of Rebecca Seagrave on 5 March 1708 at six in the morning.

Ancestry.com's database New York, Genealogical Records, 1675-1920 returns a "William Segrave" living in Suffolk County in 1683, but no further information is provided.

Thomas Alderman and Mary Seagrave raised their family in Cohansey, Salem County, New Jersey. In nearby Cape May County at the same time lived a William Seagrave, a constituent of a Baptist church founded in 1712. The pastor of the church was Timothy Brooks, theorised relation of Thomas and Mary's daughter-in-law whose mother was Miriam Brooks of adjacent Cumberland County.^[3]

A William Seagraves, Jr., of Deerfield in Cumberland County, situated between Salem and Cape May counties and where Alderman descendants would come to live, died intestate there. His estate administration record is dated 24 June 1749. ^[4]

"The New Jersey Settlement", an article on the Seagraves Family in America website, argues convincingly for William of Suffolk County as the father of Mary Seagrave, citing opinion from the Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey^[5] and some details from Genealogy of Seagraves Sampson and Kindred Lines ^[6] along with other sources, building a case for likely migration together.^[7]

Finally, early Salem County marriage records offer the following Seagraves, which may form an eventual connection to Mary:^[8]

• Mary, married Walker Lounsbury in 1805.
• Rebecca, married William Lawrence in 1829.
• Mary, married Michael Johnson in 1842.
• Matilda, married Anderson Welch in 1847.
• Arabella, married Joseph Richardson in 1851.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Aldermans in America. William Alderman Parker. Published privately by the author in 1957. Digitised versions of this text may be found at FamilySearch.org. Quotation is on page 22. Reference to Mary's second marriage is on page 25.
2. ↑ Ancestry.com. Records of the town of East-Hampton, Long Island, Suffolk Co., N.Y. : with other ancient documents of historic value. Sag-Harbor N.Y.: J.H. Hunt, printer, 1887-1957. This text may be accessed as a database at Ancestry.com https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/23312/ or in OCR form at Archive.org: https://archive.org/stream/recordsoftownofe05east/recordsoftownofe05east_djvu.txt
3. ↑ The history of Cape May County, New Jersey, from the aboriginal times to the present day. Cape May City, N.J.: Lewis T. Stevens, 1897. This text may be accessed as a database at Ancestry.com: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/13812/
4. ↑ Cumberland County, New Jersey genealogical data : records pertaining to persons residing in Cumberland County prior to 1800. Merchantville, N.J.: H. Stanley Craig, 19--? This text may be accessed as a database at Ancestry.com: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/14633/
5. ↑ Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey. Volume 13. Number 4. Page 79 . "Possibly the daughter of William..."
6. ↑ Genealogy of Seagraves Sampson and Kindred Lines. Faye S. Seagraves. Coeur D’ Alene, Idaho, 1969 & 1983. This text is available at FamilySearch.org. Of particular interest is page 6. Mary is briefly mentioned on pages 8-9; unfortunately, the author says that Mary married Thomas Alderman in 1907, not 1702/3, and only wonders aloud how she fits in with other Seagraves.
7. ↑ "The New Jersey Settlement". TheSeagravesFamilyinAmerica.com. Jim Seagraves, Louanna Seagraves. https://www.theseagravesfamilyinamerica.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=105 Accessed 24 October 2020.
8. ↑ Salem County (New Jersey) marriage records. Merchantville, N.J. H. Stanley Craig, 1984. This text may be accessed as a database at Ancestry.com: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/11128/