Person:John Kendall (54)

Controversy Over Date of Birth

Woburn Births records the death of John's mother (Vol. 2,p. 104) as: Abigail, wife of Nathaniel, [died] May 16, 1730

Yet John's birth record explicitly tells us he was born after this date and that Abigail was his mother. To quote the Book of Lockes: "One date must be wrong." For the reasons below, it appears to be the birth date that is incorrect. Assuming that, and assuming 30 Dec was the actual day of birth and only the year is wrong, the natural assumption would be that he was born the Dec. 30 preceding his mother's death, i.e., 30 Dec 1729.

The previous sibling born to Abigail was Peter b. 22 Feb 1727. Based on book policy (see p. 1:7), the ordering of the published records, and the 2 year gap since Elizabeth, this is interpreted as 22 Feb 1726/27. Thus a birth in December of 1729 would be 34 months later, and so, 1729 allows for more than a suitable gap between children. In fact, 1730 would make the gap so large, we would begin to wonder if we missed a child. On top of this, the Book of Lockes mentions John Locke alias Kendall buying land 15 Mar 1748 when he would not yet been of age. It is even possible that 1729 is not early enough!

The format of the birth record is strange in that it does not mention the father. One can only conclude from this that it was registered with the town clerk by the grandfather John Locke, presumably having taken on the task of raising John (having no surviving sons of his own). This arrangement probably would not have been made until after the event of his daughter's death, and so the report to the town clerk was probably made after this, as well. It would be very understandable that the town clerk may have inadvertently recorded the current year if the report was delayed until 1730, or that he misunderstood the year or it was misreported, if it was delayed longer than that. This birth record is probably not reliable.

John's father got remarried 11 Feb 1731 (Woburn Births, Vol. 3, p. 152). By typical practice, this would be expected to mean 11 Feb 1730/31 (see page 1:7). But also, he and his new wife had a son John born to them 22 Apr 1732 (presumably reusing the name, having given the first son John over to the grandfather to raise). So, if the marriage was 11 Feb 1731/32 as reported by Cutter (NEHGR, Vol. 39, p. 20,) the new wife was 7 months pregnant at the time of her marriage. Unlikely. So the marriage was probably 11 Feb 1730/31, which means the death date of the first wife was indeed 16 May 1730. Meaning she could not have had a son on the next to last day of 1730, so the birth date for the first son John is wrong.

1. ↑ Johnson, Edward F. Woburn Records of Births, Deaths, and Marriages . (Woburn, Massachusetts: Andrews, Cutler & Co., 1890-1919)
   vol. 1, p. 140.

   KENDALL, John, s. of Abigail Kendall, d. of John Lock, [born] Dec. 30, 1730.
   [Note: probably incorrect. See discussion of this birthdate elsewhere on this page.]

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Locke, John
   p. 47.

   John Locke, alias Kendall, s/o Nathaniel Kendall and Abigail Locke, "prob." b. 30 Dec 1729 [see discussion elsewhere on page], d. bef. 19 Dec 1758 when administration granted on his estate [discussion about whether killed in, or died of wounds from, "the French war"], m. (int.) 12 Aug 1749 Mary Reed. 19 Jun 1739, the House of Representatives granted peititon of John Locke of Woburn that "his daughter Abigail Kendall's son John may take on ye name of Locke". In deeds and other papers he is "always" called John Locke alias Kendall.