Rebecca (Unknown) Disputed Origins

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

Wikitree Puritan Great Migration project states that the conclusions of (the author) Robert Charles Anderson are to be followed, unless more recent information indicates otherwise. Of Edward's wife Rebecca, Anderson has in his Comments for Edward Bangs: "Citing a supposed entry in the Hobart diary, Mary Walton Ferris suggested that Rebecca (Unknown) Bangs (abt.1615-bef.1677) was Rebecca Hobart (1611-), daughter of Edmund Hobart of Hingham, but this entry may not have existed, and the identity of Rebecca (____) Bangs remains unknown."^[1]

The claim that Rebecca (Unknown) Bangs (abt.1615-bef.1677) may have been Rebecca Hobart (1611-?) seems to first be made by Mary Walton Ferris, and rests on the following:

1. An unnamed source supposedly asserted that the diary of Rev. Peter Hobart mentioned a trip to attend the funeral of "sister Bangs" who might have been Rebecca Bangs.
2. Rev. Peter Hobart had a sister, Rebecca Hobart.
3. Edward and Rebecca Bangs had a grandson named Hubbard Bangs which Ferris claimed is "used interchangeably with 'Hobart' ... the possibility that it might have been in memory of his grandmother."

The first claim seems to gather the most attention: in a footnote Ferris states that Rebecca "may have been the daughter of Edmund Hobart" and "the assertion has been made that a diary kept by the Rev. Peter [Hobart] ... referred to a trip of his [to Eastham] to attend the funeral of 'sister Bangs'."^[2]

It should first be noted that Ferris does not claim that she had access to the diary, but rather "the assertion has been made" that such a diary entry existed.^[3] Unfortunately she does not name the source for this assertion and one is left to wonder about the genesis of the anonymous assertion.

The assumed diary entry was from Peter Hobart, the son of Edmund Hobart, and thus the brother of Rebecca Hobart. In volume 121 (January 1967) of New England Historical and Genealogical Register, C. Edward Egan begins publishing Rev. Clarence Edward Egan, Jr.'s transcription of Peter's diary.^[4] Egan notes that "the 'original' diary...appears to be almost entirely in the handwriting of Dea. David Hobart...and hence is probably a copy."^[5]David Hobart was the son of Peter Hobart. Assuming that David faithfully reproduced his father's diary, regarding Ferris' claim that a diary entry showed that Rev. Hobart attended the funeral of "sister Bangs," Egan states that "No such reference is found...[but] this may point to misquotation or it may indicate access to Peter Hobart's original journal and an omission by Dea. David Hobart."^[6]

Regardless of the fact that what we are left with is an anonymous assertion based on what appears to be a fictitious journal entry, or at least one of dubious provenance, the reference to a "sister Bangs" is moot as such an entry could have referred to a "sister" of the Hingham congregation, a common occurrence.

The second claim, that Peter Hobart had a sister named Rebeckah is true. And it may seem comelling that the last known reference to Rebecca Hobart was that she was admitted to Charlestown church on 27 Jun. 1633^[7] After that date there have been no further records found for her.^[8]

One may be tempted to argue that such a disappearance fits in nicely with a narrative that at about 1634 Edward Bangs married Rebecca (Unknown). But if Edward did marry Rebecca Hobart it begs the question, how did they meet? From the time he arrived in New England, Edward seems to have lived and worked from Plymouth, south to Eastham. Edmund Hobart, Rebecca Hobart's father, settled in Boston (about 40 miles north of Plymouth) and later removed to Hingham (25 miles from Plymouth). It does not seem that either Edward's or Edmund's families mingled in the location of the other, and although the distance isn't insurmountable, one still wonders how they would have met.

The third claim could be followed up with further research on the frequency of the forename "Hubbard" or its variants during the time period which may bear Ferris out.

Unfortunately, the argument that Edward's wife Rebecca was Rebecca Hobart, sister of Rev. Peter Hobart, is circumstantial, and, as observed by Anderson, for now her identity remains unknown.

Sources

1. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson"Edward Bangs entry" The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633 Vols. I-III:90, digital images by subscription AmericanAncestors.org.
2. ↑ Mary Walton Ferris Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines (1931) 2:66, digital images available HathiTrust.
3. ↑ Mary Walton Ferris Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines (1931) 2:66, digital images available HathiTrust.
4. ↑ C. Edward Egan, "The Hobart Journal," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-) 121:3-86 digital image available by subscription AmericanAncestors.org.
5. ↑ C. Edward Egan, "The Hobart Journal," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-) 121:5 digital image available by subscription AmericanAncestors.org.
6. ↑ C. Edward Egan, "The Hobart Journal," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-) 121:4 digital image available by subscription AmericanAncestors.org.
7. ↑ Records of the First Church in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1632-1789 (Boston: David Clapp and Son, 1880) 8, digital image available Google Play.
8. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson "Edmund Hobart entry" The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633 Vols. I-III:960, digital images by subscription AmericanAncestors.org.