Person:Anna Stark (7)

"Who was this Anna Stark? Elizabeth Haynes (Elizabeth Stark, daughter of Aaron Stark (Senior)) lived at Preston, near Norwich and of course Norwich was ‘in the vicinity of’ New London. No other Stark's were in the state so early, as far as is known. And ‘Aaron’ was an uncommon name there; ours the only one in New London, I'm quite sure, and only one or two mentioned in New London records. It seems certain, then, that this Anna Stark was a daughter of either Aaron Stark 1 (Aaron Stark (Senior) or Aaron Stark 2 (Aaron Stark (Junior)). The latter is possible, but I've placed her as daughter of Aaron 1 perhaps because she had a daughter Sarah, more probably, because apparently there is a better account of the daughters of Aaron 2.

If the widow of Aaron 1 had been in the service of the Mason's and cordial relations had been kept up during the years, may she not have gone to Norwich after her husband's death, since the Mason's had gone there in 1660?

Perhaps she married again there? At any rate, it would not have been very strange for a Norwich man to marry a New London girl. Nowhere does there seem to be any record connecting any of the daughters of Aaron Stark 1 with his sons in any way. But Sarah (Stark) Fish also had a son Aaron, if you remember."

Since we cannot locate another Stark family in this area of Connecticut during this time frame, we presume Anna was either a daughter or granddaughter of Aaron Stark (Senior). We know we can rule out certain other Starks. John Stark had two daughters, Elizabeth and Hannah, and they are identified as the only heirs to John's estate. Likewise, the children of William Stark are well documented, and there is no mention of an Anna Stark or William Reade in William Stark’s will. That leaves us with Aaron Stark (Junior) and his father, Aaron Stark (Senior), both of who were alive during the 1670s when Anna (born during that decade if she was of marrying age in 1699) was born.

Aaron Stark (Junior) married Mehitable Shaw on November 28, 1676. If Anna was born in 1677, she would have been 22 years of age when she married William Reade. Thus Aaron (Junior) is a plausible candidate to be Anna’s father. But if Anna was born before 1677, she had to have been the daughter of Aaron (Senior) and Sarah Stark. Therefore, Anna’s age at her marriage in 1699 is the decisive factor in determining her parentage.

Anna gave birth to her first known child in 1700 and to her last known child in 1720.[85] If we suppose that a woman at that time might have borne children as late as age forty-six, then Anna would have been born by 1674. But if Anna was much younger when she was married – say, only fifteen in 1699, she could have been born as late as 1684. Within this ten-year range, do the surviving records help us any in identifying which Aaron Stark was her father?

The date of marriage of Aaron Stark (Senior) to Sarah is not known with certainty. If we again suppose the upper child-bearing age for Sarah was forty-six, she would have been born in 1638 if she was the mother of a child (Anna) born in 1684; this would make her between sixteen and twenty when we believe Aaron (Senior) married Sarah – between 1653, the year of the first Thomas Minor diary entry, and 1657, the latest probable year of birth of Aaron (Junior). Using the same assumptions, if Sarah was forty-six in 1674, she would have been born in 1628 if she was the mother of a child born in that year; this would make her between twenty-six and thirty when she married Aaron. Thus Sarah certainly could have been the mother of Anna Stark.

This said, we have to observe that it is more probable that Mehitable Shaw was Anna’s mother, since Mehitable was in her prime child-bearing years between 1677 and 1684 whereas Sarah was in her final child-bearing years at that time. If Anna was born before August of 1677, soon after Aaron Stark (Junior) married Mehitable, then we must conclude that she was the daughter of Aaron Stark (Senior) and Sarah.

Although there is no surviving documentation to link Anna to Aaron Stark (Junior) and Mehitable Shaw, mathematical probabilities do favor them as the most likely candidates to have been her parents. However, we note that Anna (Stark) Reade named her oldest daughter Sarah and second daughter Anna – a naming pattern, commonly used then, that suggests the two children were named, in order, first after a grandparent and then after a parent. This could favor Aaron Stark (Senior) and Sarah as the parents of Anna.

For the purpose of providing Anna with an identity within the Stark family, her parents (with considerable reservation) will be presented as Aaron Stark (Junior) and Mehitable Shaw. This is done because mathematical probabilities do favor them as the most likely candidates to have been her parents."^[1]

NOTE The above is somewhat confusing regarding the assignment of parents for this Anna. Elsewhere on the site, Mr. LaFleur provides a Three Generation Descendant Report assigning Anna to Aaron¹ and Sarah (_____) Stark.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Part 2; Chapter 5: The Second Generation, Children of Aaron Stark [1608-1685], in LaFleur, Clovis. Aaron Stark Family Chronicles
   46.
2. ↑ Norwich, New London, Connecticut, United States. Vital Records of Norwich, 1659-1848. (Hartford, Conn.: Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut, 1913)
   1:56.

   "M^rs Anna: Read y^e widow of m^r William Read Died Novem^r 25^th 1748"