"John (Merriam) … m (3) 9 Aug 1757 (church record, First Congregational Society, Meriden) Hannah [da. Joseph & Mary (Porter) Royce, wid. John] Ives."
The brackets indicate that Jacobus had record evidence that John Merriam married one Hannah Ives. He considered it probable that she was the widow of John Ives, in which case she was daughter of Joseph and Mary (Porter) Royce.