Family:Josiah Dewey and Hepzibah Lyman (1)

In Source:NEHGR, p. 6:266 (1852)n, "A Record of Marriages, Births and Deaths in Westfield, Mass., Prior to the Year 1700.", lists the children of Josiah born in Westfield from 1672 to 1685 with wife "Experience". The same list of children [except Joseph, see below] is shown again on p. 6:267 with wife unknown.

In an article "The Brothers Jonathan and Nathan Gillett and Son me of Their Descendants", by Alice Lucinda Priest, it notes that then the 1875 Dewey Genealogy contained the error of Josiah's second marriage to Experience about 1671. This was fixed in Source:Dewey, Adelbert Milton. Life of George Dewey, Rear Admiral, U.S.N. and Dewey Family History, published in 1898. The conclusive evidence is the tombstone of Josiah's wife Hephzibah showing that she died in 1732, ruling out any second marriage. Also, the baptism record of daughter Mindwell 19 Dec 1686 at the Westfield Church of Christ naming parents as Josiah & Hephzibah Dewy.

The gravestone is pictured in the Dewey Family History, p. 384ff: "Here lies ye Body of ye Worth Mrs Hephzibah ye Wife of Dc'n Josiah Dewey. She was the Daughter of Mr Richard Lyman of Hartford. She was one that feared ye Lord & Slept in Jesus June ye 4 1732 in ye 89 year of her age."

The Westfield records printed in NEHGR reported on p. 6:266 and p. 6:267 differ in one other detail besides the mother's name. The list on p. 266 shows a son Joseph b. 11 Aug 1674, then a second Joseph, twin with Experience, born 9 Apr 1682, and then Joseph d. June 1682. The list on p. 266 omits the first fact, and only records the birth and death of twin Joseph. There is a death listed in June 1675 for Ebenezer in both copies of the family's records, but the The Dewey Family History, p. 392, applies this to the first Joseph. This is justified by a gravestone for Ebenezer identifying him as Josiah's son and dying in his 38th year in 1711, so born about 1674. So the Dewey Family History appears to have it right.

1. ↑ Northampton (Massachusetts). Town Clerk. Vital records, 1654-1872. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1958)
   p. 95.

   Josiah Dewey And Hephzibah Limon were Married the 6: of Novemb 1662.

2. ↑ Northampton Marriages, in Hatfield (Massachusetts). Town Clerk. Births, marriages, and deaths in four Massachusetts towns, 1655-1844. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1971)
   p. 20 (Image 11).

   "Josiah Dewey & Hephzibah Lyman were married Nov: 6th 1662