Family:Isaac Robinson and Mary Unknown (1)

The Identity of Isaac Robinson's Second Wife

"It has often been stated that his second wife was Mary Faunce, one record saying that she was Elizabeth Faunce. The Robinson Genealogy after giving Mary Faunce as the wife adds that she was the daughter of John and Patience (Morton) Faunce and, 'a sister of Edward Faunce who married Lettice, a sister of Margaret Hanford.' John Faunce married Patience Morton in 1634. If his first child were a daughter she could be only 15 at the time of Robinson's second marriage. John Faunce's daughters married as follows: Priscilla married Joseph Warren; Mary married, 15 July 1658, William Harlow; Patience married, 20 Nov. 1661, John Holmes; Sarah married Edward Doty; Mercy married, 27 December 1667, Nathaniel Holmes. Davis in Landmarks of Plymouth states that John's daughter Elizabeth, born 1648, married Isaac Robinson. She would be about two years old. Apparently by 'Edward Faunce' is meant Edward Foster who did marry, 8 April 1635, Lettice Hanford. As he mentions in his will, dated 24 November 1643. his father Richard Sealis, and brother Isaac Robinson, wife Lettice and son Timothy, his wife undoubtedly was the sister of Margaret. In 1643 when Foster refers to 'brother' Isaac Robinson, the latter's wife, Margaret, was still living and hence he was a 'brother' to Edward Foster. Richard Sealis had married the widow, Eglin (Hatherly) Hanford, and hence was step-father-in-law to Edward Foster. Unless there is a record somewhere of a sister of John Faunce having married Isaac Robinson which has not been found in a comprehensive search, it is best to leave the last name of the second wife a blank, and it should be remembered that no proof has been uncovered that her name was even Mary _____. Isaac Robinson had no daughters by his second wife, but his sons were named Isaac (changed from Israel), Jacob, Peter and possibly Thomas; excepting the last, they do not suggest the Faunce family."^[2]

1. ↑ Isaac Robinson, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995)
   3:1592, 93-94.

   Isaac Robinson married "(2) by 1651 Mary _____ [The American Genealogist 56:147], citing PCLR 3:154]. … Some sources include a son Thomas born in March 1657, but there does not seem to be any evidence for this child. This is in part based on the existence of a Thomas Robinson of Guilford, who cannot have been a son of Isaac [TAG 18:47]."

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Holman, Mary Lovering. The Robinson Family. American Genealogist (D.L. Jacobus). (Apr, Jul 1941)
   18:45 [footnote].