Person:Hephzibah Ward (1)

There is a pervasive identification of the wife of Nathan Brigham as Elizabeth (Ward) Snow. This probably comes from Source:Morse, Abner. Genealogical Register of the Descendants of Several Ancient Puritans, and it was repeated in History of the Brigham Family, Vol. 1, p. 97, and possibly other sources. However, the birth records of their children in Southborough and the wife's death record all name her as Hephzibah (various spellings), and so HBF, Vol. 2, p. 49, corrects this error by naming her Hepsibah Ward. Further it adds "She was a widow named Snow when she married Nathan, but research has failed to give the full name of her husband... William, Jr., and Jane Ward have a dau. recorded as 'Hepsibah' b. 'Dec. 30, 1708'. It seems probable that these were her parents." While this may be a reasonable assumption, it is never explained how it is known that her maiden name was Ward, other than throwing out part of a discredited assumption and selectively keeping another part? Source:Ward, Andrew Henshaw. Ward Family shows nothing but a birth date for this Hepsibah, and has no hint of a will belonging to either mother or father (which could possibly provide the link from a maiden name of Ward to Mrs. Brigham without requiring the intermediate knowledge of her first marriage). [Note: The newer Source:Martyn, Charles. William Ward Genealogy, p. 85, says this Hephzibah m. John Taplin. No date is specified, but the only marriage that seems to match is in Southborough 21 Mar 1748/49 between John Taplin and Hephzibah Brigham (not Ward), and since the wife of Nathan Brigham d. the previous fall, this must be their daughter, b. 1732. Which just adds to the confusion, but the variety of answers indicates everybody is working on matching names, not based on hard evidence (like the father's will).] We believe the widow Snow who married Nathan Brigham had a daughter from her first marriage, based on a story told the same Rev. Morse whose proposed name of the wife has proven wrong. The fact that no marriage record to Mr. Snow, no birth (or even name) of the daughter, no death record of the husband, no probate for the husband seems to be known, one has to wonder if any part of the original story can be relied on?

1. ↑ Southborough, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Vital Records of Southborough, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. (Worcester, Massachusetts: Franklin P. Rice, 1903)
   158.

   Brigham, Hepzibah, w. Nathan, Nov. 15, 1748.