Person:Abiel Twitchell (2)

Research Notes

• cos1776 Note: it is generally accepted that Abiel's son Benoni Twitchell was born out of wedlock. See Benoni's page for theories about his father.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Birth Recorded, in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States. Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903)
   p. 100.

   TWICHELL, Abiel, d. Benjamin and Marie, [born] Nov. 1, 1663.

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Death Recorded, in Barbour, Lucius Barnes, and Newton Case Brainard. Vital Records of Woodstock, 1686-1854. (Hartford, Connecticut: The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1914)
   83 p.308.

   (p.83)"Abial Bugbee Wife of John Bugbee Dyed April 14th 1744 In the 82 year of her age"
   (p.308) "Abial Wife of Jn^o Bugbe Dyed April 14^th: 1744 In the 82^d year of her age"

3. ↑ Grave Recorded, in Find A Grave.

   [Includes headstone photo. Inscription: .. HERE LIES Ye BODY ? M? ABIEL BUGBEE, WIFE TO JOHN BUGBEE. DECD. APRIL, Ye 15 1744]
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   [Note: Headstone DOD does not match Barbour's VR.²]

4. ↑ Marriage Recorded, in Barbour, Lucius Barnes, and Newton Case Brainard. Vital Records of Woodstock, 1686-1854. (Hartford, Connecticut: The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1914)
   2.

   [Married by the Rev^d Jofiah Dwight]
   "John Bugbee & [widow] Abigail [Abiel] Corbit July 10th 1696"

5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 Family Recorded, in Bowen, Clarence Winthrop; Donald Lines Jacobus; and William Herbert Wood. The History of Woodstock, Connecticut. (Norwood, Massachusetts: Plimpton Press, 1926-1943)
   3:4 -.

   6 JOHN BUGBEE³
   (John², Edward¹) b. 1665, d. Oct. 5, 1744, in 82nd year,* m. July 10, 1696 Abigail (Abiah),⁺ b. 1663, d. Apr 14, 1744, ⁺⁺ widow of Robert Corbit, who d. Woodstock Sept. 18, 1695. John Bugbee³ and his wife Abigail (Abbie) are buried on Woodstock Hill. ...
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   * W.V.R. ; gravestone, Woodstock Hill, says d. Oct. 6, 1744, age 79.
   ⁺ E. Holmes Bugbee speaks of a family legend relating to this Abiah who having a legacy coming to her rode to Roxbury on horseback, collected the same in Spanish dollars, and in riding back to Woodstock over the Connecticut Path was overtaken by a robber who demanded her money. She parleyed and maneuvered to get the robber's horse and her own headed in the right direction and then in handing her bag of money to the robber purposely dropped the same. When the robber got off his horse to pickup the money, Abiah whipped both horses and the robber's horse followed her own. When she finally came to a cabin by the roadside she found in the saddle bags on the robber's horse more dollars than she had lost and with this money and the robber's horse she returned safely to Woodstock. (Letter dated Putnam, Nov. 30, 1896, from E. Holmes Bugbee⁷, owned by Lucian Willis Bugbee, Jr.¹⁰) ...
   ⁺⁺ W.V.R. ; gravestone, Woodstock Hill, says d. Apr. 15, 1744, age 81.

6. ↑ Pittman, Grace M. O My Son Benoni: A Personal Name as Marker of Family Circumstances, in NEHGS Nexus. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   7:17-21, 1990.

   "... A recent NEXUS (5 (1988):32) ran a query from Henry Twitchell, Jr., of Winchester, Mass., reading in part: “Seeking true ancestry of Benoni Twitchell, b. at Medfield?, Mass. ca. 1682 ... Father may not be Abiel Twitchell of Medfield as per 1929 Twitchell genealogy.”
   
   The published Medfield vital records give the birth of an Abiel Twitchell, daughter of Benjamin and Marie, on 1 November 1663. The birth of Benoni Twitchell is not recorded, but his marriage in 1705 and the births of his children duly appear (Vital Records of Medfield, Mass., to the Year 1850 (1903), pp. 99, 100, 179, 239).
   
   Because of my interest in children named Benoni, I suggested to Mr. Twitchell that he read through the Medfield town meeting records for mention of a female Abiel with an illegitimate child. Some months later Mr. Twitchell wrote that he had acted on the suggestion and found that “For six summer months in 1683 the Medfield town selectmen met to consider one and only one matter: Josiah Rocket was harboring one ‘Abiel Twichel' and her child in his house, who continuing there may have become chargeable to the [constable] to forbid said Josiah Rockett any longer to entertain ye said Abiel and also to warn her out of ye town. Josiah Rockett was fined 20 shillings for not obeying these orders promptly.”
   
   Josiah [Rockett] was the husband of Abiel's sister Mary, which may be why Abiel was living in his house. Although the name and sex of her child were not stated, it is almost certain that the child was Benoni."

7.   THE GENEALOGY OF EDWARD RIGGS OF ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS, REVISITED, by Robert Charles Anderson, F.A.S.G., and Alvy Ray Smith., in American Society of Genealogists. The Genealogist. (New York: Association for the Promotion of Scholarship in Genealogy)
   23:138, 2009.

   ... She [Abiel Twitchell] had a child, probably Benoni ("son of my sorrows") Twitchell, b. just after Feb. 1681/2, out of wedlock with her brother-in-law William Allen.⁶³ ...
   
   ⁶³ Smith and Sanborn, Eva Marie [sic] Kempton [supra note 36], 34-35.
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   [cos1776 Note: Smith and Sanborn refers to Dean Crawford Smith, ed. Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton, 1878-1908, Part III: The Ancestry of Henry Clay Bartlett, 1832-1892 (Boston: NEHGS, 2004, ISBN 0-88082-177-9), 34-38, 424-37.]