"A letter from Rollin T. Cooke of Pittsfield, Mass., in 1897 to Miss Talcott (which 1 have seen among her papers) quotes Guilford town records that James Steele and Bethya Bishop married Oct. 18, 1651. This entry was not found in any Guilford records when I copied the early vital statistics over 25 years ago, nor is it found in the Guilford records compiled by Dr. Alvan Talcott 80 to 100 years ago. One might surmise that the entry was invented by some unscrupulous genealogist and foisted on Mr. Cooke, but if so, he had good knowledge to give the Bishop girl's name as Bethia, and the entry sounds genuine. … Whether the date is genuine or not, there is no doubt of the fact, nor of the wife's name."
