"I now have definitive proof that Elizabeth Knights was second wife of William Wentworth (not wife of his son Ezekiel)"
Ezekiel Knights named his daughter Elizabeth Wentworth in his will. Elizabeth (Knights) Wentworth was therefore alive on 16 September 1687 (when her father wrote his will) and married to a Wentworth. The only two Wentworths of Cochecho who had a wife named Elizabeth at that time were William and his son Ezekiel.
William Wentworth’s son Timothy Wentworth (born say 1663) stated in a deed that he was grandson of Ezekiel Knights: Abial Hambleton and “Timithy” Wentworth joined in a deed of land sold to John Eldridge in York County [now in Maine, but then part of Massachusetts]. Part of the land deeded included “a parcel of Land & Marsh being in the Township of Wells being our Right which came from Mr Toizer by a Deed to Mr Hamelton & Eliza his Wife[,] the other Part to Timothy Wentworth which came from his Grand Father Ezekiel Knights by a Will from his father to sd Wentworth….” This proves that Timothy Wentworth’s mother was daughter of Ezekiel Knights.
And the baptism of Elizabeth Wentworth (born circa 1653) states that her mother was Elizabeth “Kenaits.” Kenaits is not a surname. Note the final letters “t” and “s”. This is not dissimilar to the marriage record of her cousin Alice Knights of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, who when she married in 1618 in Leiden (the Netherlands), was recorded as Elsgen [the Dutch form of the given name Alice] “Knets”. The surname Knights presents a problem for foreign ears as the “gh” was silent. How would Elizabeth explain the name to a French scribe? She may have spelled it out, “K-n-i-t-s” (sounding to French ears like someone was saying Kay-en-ay-tee-es). It is at the least phonetically equivalent to K-nights. The author of a book on New Englanders carried captive to Canada in that period also concludes that the original baptism proves “that Elizabeth Knight was the wife of Elder William Wentworth and that she—and not Elizabeth Kenny—was the mother of our Elizabeth.”.
The original baptism entry of the adult Elizabeth (Wentworth) Tozer has been rendered from the French as reading:
‘The same day September 8th 1693 was baptized sous condition [on condition] and afterwards confirmed, an English woman of New England, named in her country Elizabeth which name was kept for her. This woman, born in Pescatoué about forty years since, of the marriage of Guillaume [William] Wintworth Elder in the Anglo-Calvinist religion and of Elizabeth Kenaits, both natives of old England[,] and married first to Jaques [James] Sharp, native of Kent in old England and second to Richard Tozer Protestant, was taken the 18th of March of the year 1690 by Monsieur Artel and has lived for two and a half years in the service of Monsieur Boucher, Seigneur of Boucherville. Her godfather was Monsieur Claude de Ramezay Ecuyer Governor of Trois Rivièrs, her godmother Damoiselle Jeanne Crevier wife of Monsueir Boucher[.] [signed:] De Ramezay[,] Jeanne Crevier[,] Elizabeth Tozer’[.]
Baptism of Elizabeth ‘Wentworth] Tozer, 8 September 1693, Montreal, Canada
The original French reads: “Le méme jour huitième de septembre de l’an mil six cens quatre vingts treize [1693] a été batisée sous condition et ensuite confirmée une Angloise de la Nouvelle Angleterre nominee en son pais Elisabeth lequel nom lui a été conservé. Cette femme née a Pescatwé il y a environ quarante ans [40 years] du mariage de Guillaume Wintworth Ancien en la religion Anglocalviniste et d’Elizabeth Kenaits tous deux natifs de la vielle Angleterre [both natives of old England] et mariée en premieres noces a Jaques Sharp natif de Kent en la vieille Angleterreet en secondes noces a Richard Tozer Protestans a été prise le dixhuitieme de Mars de l’an mil six cens quatre vignts dix par Monsieur Artel et demeure depuis deux ans et demi au service de Monsieur Boucher, seigneur de Boucherville. Le parrein a été Monsieur Claude de Ramesai, Ecuyer Gouverneur des Trois-Riviers la marreine Damoiselle Jeanne Crevier espouse de Monsieur Boucher. [signed] Elizabeth Tozer
The original baptisms proves that Tanquay misread the original when he transcribed the surname as “Kenny.” It actually reads Kenaits. The final “t” and “s” are consonants not normally tacked onto words by accident, they represent the original surname. It begins with the letter “K” and there is a letter “n” (but it is easily understandable why the spelling Knights would be foreign to French ears, similar to the rendering of the surname as “Knets” in Dutch).
Elizabeth Knights was therefore mother of Elizabeth Wentworth (born circa 1653) and the younger children (through at least Timothy, and also the youngest children since she was still alive in 1687 when her father made his will). The only remaining question is whether she was also mother of Ezekiel Wentworth. But given that the given name Ezekiel was so important in the Knights family in England, it is reasonable to conclude that Elizabeth was also mother of Ezekiel Wentworth. Whether she might have been mother of any earlier children will depend on whether her baptism or her father’s first marriage can be located in England. But one would expect that she would name her eldest son Ezekiel (not John or Gershom).
Chronology suggests that rather than Elizabeth Knights being daughter of Ezekiel's [second] wife Elizabeth Westgate (married in 1633), Ezekiel had married a first wife circa 1630 (after he got his hands on his inheritance at his father's death), and that your ancestor Elizabeth Knights is daughter by this first wife. Ezekiel Knights was either already married when his father made his will in 1630 or just afterwards (the changed terms in the will seem to indicate that Ezekiel had already received most of his share). Your ancestor Elizabeth Knights would be born circa 1631 (or a year or two earlier). All we know from the will of Ezekiel Knights’ father is that he was born between 1600 and 1609 (so he might have married as early as 1622). Ezekiel Knights was not to inherit his father’s houses and lands in Laxfield and Stradbroke, Suffolk, England, until he was thirty years old—Ezekiel would therefore most likely have stayed in England until he reached age thirty and could dispose of the property. Ezekiel apparently arrived in New England in 1637 (occurring as a new name in the lists of inhabotants where he settled in Salem).
Elizabeth Knights was born in England circa 1631 (or a year or two earlier). Elizabeth married William Wentworth in New England circa 1650 (when William Wentworth was still only 34 and in his prime), and your ancestor Ezekiel Wentworth was born the next year (circa 1651). That matches the fact that in England we have several generations of men named Ezekiel Knights in a row (there was a very strong impetus to name the male heir Ezekiel).
Children of William and Elizabeth (Knights) Wentworth:
(d) Ezekiel Wentworth, b. circa 1651, (*) *. William Wentworth and Elizabeth Knights’ youngest child Benjamin Wentworth, born circa 1670, is documented as a sibling of Ezekiel as he was referred to as uncle in the will of Ezekiel’s son Paul Wentworth in 1748.
