Person:Ebenezer Winchester (2)

Here lies the
Body of Cap^tEbenezer Winche[st?]^r
who died August y^e
11^th 1746 in the 54^th
Year of his Age.
[Note: birth about 1692. There is a confusing, and somewhat ridiculous statement on the memorial page: "FACT: EBENEZER WINCHESTER WHO MARRIED MARTHA BUCKMINSTER WAS "BORN ABOUT 1680" — NOT 1692. THE OTHER EBENEZER IS NOT THE SON OF JOHN WINCHESTER." It then quotes a unattributed line, which happens to come from NEHGR, Vol. 78, p. 14, i.e., an article giving one researcher's assumption. There is nothing of a fact in the statement Ebenezer was born about 1680. It is inherently an estimate, no source or justification is given in the article, and it is clearly not based on an actual birth record (no precise date is given). In this case, it is not even based on an age at death since that would give about 1692. What makes this fact? There is no birth record found, no baptism among the Roxbury church records in either 1680 (baptisms not recorded in 1692 which may be consistent with why no baptism is found?), no clear birth order from the father's will, no activity in his biography that suggests he was born before 1692 (purchases land in 1715, so only needs be born by 1694). It is true gravestones can be wrong, especially if erected by descendants, but facts based on records are needed to show that, and one person's opinion does not make something a fact. It is not clear who the "other Ebenezer" was. The only other Ebenezer Winchester found in the records was son of Josiah, b. 1684, died aged 5 months.]

Ebenezer Winchester, s/o John Winchester and Joanna Stevens, m. 13 Feb 1717-18 Martha Buckminster, died about 1744 [-sic-].
[Note: the text claims administration granted to his son 17 Nov 1744, but the documents in the probate file (Middlesex Probate 25225) show wife Martha Winchester declines to administrate 15 Nov 1746, and 17 Nov 1746, the son Ebenezer posted bond to become administrator. Inventory was taken 20 Jan 1746[/47].]