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Family tree▼ Facts and Events
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References
- ↑ Littleton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. Records of Littleton, Massachusetts. (Littleton, Mass., 1900)
p. 88.
Littleton December ye 8th 1763 then mr John Heald of Sliptown and Rachel Tuttle of Littleton Were joyned in marriage by the Reverend mr Daniel Rogers of Littleton as by a Certificate under his hand.
[Also, p. 268: Intentions of Marriage.
mr John Heald of Sliptwon [sic] so called and mrs Rachel Tuttle of Littleton, April ye 24th 1763.]
- Source:Chandler, Seth. History of the Town of Shirley, Massachusetts has considerable coverage of the family of Deacon John Heald of Shirley, but it is not clear how reliable it is. Speculating, the informant may have been a grandchild, or even more remote descendant, as it appears to contain errors that would not be made by the principals or even their children. Particularly:
*It gives the marriage as Nov 1764 when it is recorded as Dec 1763.
*The first child's birth is given as 25 Nov 1765, when New Hampshire records give it as 29 Oct 1764.
*It gives the wife's name as Mary Tuttle when it is recorded as Rachel Tuttle.
Unfortunately, records for most of the other facts have not been found, forcing reliance on this source.
There appears to only be one Mary Tuttle in Littleton of the right age to marry John Heald, namely the d/o Samuel Tuttle and Martha Shattuck. According to Source:Harwood, Watson H. New England Harwood Genealogy, Vol III, p. 17, and supported by an intention to marry Joseph Harwood in 1768, she "probably" married Joseph Harwood in 1768. So there doesn't appear to be a Mary Tuttle of Littleton available to marry Deacon John Heald in 1764 or about then.
There is a Rachel Tuttle, born in Littleton to Simon Tuttle and Abigail Chase(?), b. 1743. Rachel Tuttle is the name in both the intentions and the marriage record, and is also the name of the mother in the New Hampshire birth record of eldest child Lucy, and is also the name of the mother given in the death record of daughter Eleanor (Heald) Bowers (these records cited on the appropriate pages). Given the multiple discrepant facts presented by the History of Shirley (suggesting it cannot be relied on), it appears that John's wife was Rachel, not Mary, and certainly not Mary Rachel (the solution resorted to by various websites).
Shirley VRs show the death of Mary (Tuttle) Hale, w. Dea. John, in 1812, citing the Bolton Record, "in possession" of the author, who was apparently living in 1918 when the VRs were published (i.e., the records were collected after the fact). The Bolton Record was pulled from various unidentified sources such as "church records, doctors records, diaries, and Bible records". It seems probable, given that the History of Shirley was published in 1883, that Mrs. Bolton may have relied on it in collecting her data, and therefore got the name of the wife wrong. The likely source for this record is the Diary of James Parker, which mentions the "funeral of Deacon Hales wife" on 23 Jul 1812 (NEHGR, p. 70:298), never mentioning the given name of the wife but using the surname Hale just like the death record. It seems unlikely that a death record would give the maiden name of a wife, unless it was inserted by the compiler. Though other explanations are conceivable, including an unknown 2nd marriage by John Heald, or confusion by some unknown diarist with the wife of son John whose wife was named Molly/Polly (i.e., Mary), the most reasonable conclusion seems to be that a wife named Mary is a myth all traceable back to an error in the History of Shirley.
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