Hannah (Washburn) Davis (abt. 1718)

Born about 1718 in Bridgewater, MA

Ancestors

Wife of Thomas Davis — married about 17 Feb 1737 in Bridgewater, MA

Descendants

Died [date unknown] in Middletown, CT

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Sarah Krans [send private message]

Biography

From: Susan Taylor Subject: [GM-L] WASHBURN: Hannah (WASHBURN) DAVIS (c1718 Bridgetown, MA?-bef 1750 Middletown, CT?) Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 17:35:48 -0600

Has there been any newly discovered evidence supporting the belief that Joseph/4 and Hannah (JOHNSON) WASHBURN - md. 1716 Bridgewater, MA - were the parents of Hannah (WASHBURN) DAVIS (c1718 prob. Bridgetown, MA - before 1750 Middletown, CT) who md. 1737 Bridgewater Thomas DAVIS?

About every 5 years I take ol' Hannah out for an airing to see what's the latest condition of her ancestry. A little background.....

No direct evidence has been found like her birth record to prove her as a daughter of Joseph/4 and Hannah (JOHNSON) WASHBURN. Also Joseph's will doesn't mention a daughter Hannah. There is a preponderance of evidence (several "pieces of indirect evidence, and their cumulative force" per Donald Lines Jacobus) to have convinced Jacobus and Charles Thornton Libbey (noted genealogists); author Mary Bates Woods author of Genealogy of Sarai Stow Ellis, A Direct Descendant of John Stowe of Roxbury, Mass; Edward J. Paul author of The Ancestry of Katharine Choate Paul, Now Mrs. William J. Young, Jr. and the Mayflower Society (Mayflower Ancestral Index, Vol. I and Mayflower Index: Revised Edition of the Two Volumes of the Mayflower Index) that she was their daughter.

Indirect evidence per Jacobus, etc...:

1. The marriage of Thomas DAVIS and Hannah WASHBURN, 2 Jun 1737 in Bridgewater, MA was recorded so know her maiden name was WASHBURN and that she was located with the Bridgewater WASHBURNS. [Bates per Jacobus, Libbey] 2. No place for her has been found in other WASHBURN families. [Bates per Jacobus] 3. Joseph/4 wife and mother both were named Hannah. [Bates per Jacobus] 4. "The dates harmonize with the supposition that she was the first child of Joseph Washburn Jr. and Hannah Johnson." There were no recorded births for children born to Joseph/4 and Hannah (JOHNSON) during the 1st 7 years of their marriage except for their son Joseph in 1720. [Bates per Jacobus 5. Land Records: a. "Joseph Washburn bought several parcels of land in 1732, most of which he sold 11 Dec. 1738, the rest being sold by Thomas Davis on 16 Jan. 1738/9. The very fact that the deed from Washburn to Davis was not recorded favors the belief that it was a family transaction. The marriage of Davis having occurred between the date of purchase by Washburn and the date of sale by Washburn and Davis, makes it probably that the part of the land sold by Davis was his wife's portion from her father. It was common thing for daughters to be 'portioned off' at marriage." [Bates per Jacobus - Source of Land records: Paul Genealogy] 2. "two deeds of sale given by Washburn and Davis, although drawn on different dates, were both acknowledged on the same day. 19 May 1738/9." [Bates] 3. Both families "made their early purchases [of land] in Middletown from the same man." [Bates - Source: Middletown Land Records] 6. Both families migrated to Middletown, CT in the same year - 1738. 7. Hannah and Joseph/4 and Hannah (JOHNSON) WASHBURN were admitted to the 1st Cong. Church East Middletown on the same day. [Bates - original church records] 8. Joseph/4 and Hannah (JOHNSON) WASHBURN removed to Leicester, MA in 1745 and in that same year one of the daughters of Hannah (WASHBURN) DAVIS and Thomas moved to Leicester also. This daughter and her husband later moved on to VT - Thomas and Anna (DAVIS) WICKER. They probably were following her grandparents. 9. Family tradition: the grandchildren of Hannah (WASHBURN) DAVIS always claimed their grandmother was sister of Col. Seth WASHBURN of Revolutionary fame. Col. Seth WASHBURN was the 3rd son of Joseph/4 and Hannah (JOHNSON) WASHBURN. [Bates, Jacobus, etc...]

The sources I have personally researched:

1. Mary Wood Bates, comp., Genealogy of Sarai Stow Ellis, A Direct Descendant of John Stowe of Roxbury, Mass(Evanston, IL: s.p., 1935), Repository: NEHGS, pp. 83, 85-95, 96, 129, 130, 132. [Sources on Hannah's parents: The Ancestry of Katharine Choate Paul, pp. 153-6; correspondence with Donald Lines Jacobus; correspondence with Charles Thornton Libbey and his article in Boston Transcript May 1929; Original church records at CT Hist. Library, Hartford, CT; Mayflower Index, II:785].

2. Milton E. Terry, Ph.D. and Anne Borden Harding, comps., Mayflower Ancestral Index, Vol. I (Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1981), p. 660, #36929; p. 661, #36957.

3. Lewis Edwin Neff, comp., ed., Mayflower Index: Revised Edition of the Two Volumes of the Mayflower Index which was compiled by the late William Alexander McAuslan(Boston: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1960), p. 785; Hannah #36,603, Joseph #36,669.

4. Robert M. Sherman & Verle D. Vincent, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Descendants of the Pilgrims Who landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620, Families: James Chilton, Richard Moore, Thomas Rogers, Vol. Two (Chilton section) (Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1978), p. 76, "no evidence was found to substantiate a daughter Hannah proposed in Washburn Desc." and in footnote "*The Mayflower Society has accepted lineages based on a purported daughter Hannah, for whom no substantiating evidence was found."

5. George T. Washburn, Ebenezer Washburn, His Ancestors and Descendants with some Connected Families: A Family Story of 700 Years (Pasumalai, South India: s. pub., 1913), p. 54, does not list her as a child of Joseph and Hannah.

6. Mabel Thacher Rosemary Washburn, Washburn Family Foundations in Normandy, England and America (Greenfield, IN: s.p., 1953), does not list Hannah as a child of Joseph and Hannah.

7. Vital Records of Bridgewater, MA to the year 1850, Vol. I, Births, no birth listed for her.

8. Henry Edwards Scott, Edit., Vital Records of Bridgewater, Massachusetts to the Year 1850: Marriages & Deaths, Vol. II - Marriages & Deaths (Boston: The New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1916), p. 386.

9. "Barbour Collection: Connecticut Vital Records, Middletown, Births-Marriages-Deaths, 1651-1854," compiled in 1923 under the supervision of Lucius Barbour, Connecticut Examiner of Public Records from 1911-1934, original MS collection in custody of the Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT (FHL microfilm 0002983; Salt Lake City: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1949).

10. Robert S. Wakefield, FASG. and Ralph Van Wood, Jr., Mayflower Families in Progress Francis Cook of the Mayflower and His Descendants for Four Generations (3rd Ed.; Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1994).

and sources such as SAVAGE, POPE, etc...

TIA.

--- Susan

My Genealogy Website - sgt http://home.att.net/~SGTAYLOR1/

USGW Mansfield, CT - http://www.rootsweb.com/~ctcmansf/ USGW New London, CT - http://www.rootsweb.com/~ctcnewlo/ USGW Norwich, CT - http://www.rootsweb.com/~ctcnorwi/ USGW Windham, CT - http://www.rootsweb.com/~ctcwindh/ USGW Coordinator Plymouth Co., MA - http://www.rootsweb.com/~maplymou/ USGW Plymouth, MA - http://www.rootsweb.com/~macplymo/

Sources