"… Mary Goldsmith ('Marah Gooldsmith'). … She was the widow of the recently deceased Richard Goldsmith … Mary was living 3 August 1683 when John Abbey made his will. She was almost certainly the 'old Goodwife Abby' whose death was listed between 'John Knolton' and 'Go[odman] Coeburne (Robert Coburn) on Wenham minister Joseph Gerrish's list of 'persons deceased since I came' [NEHGR 61:338]. Knowlton and Coburn died on 8 October 1684 and 2 May 1685 respectively, so Mary probably died in late 1684 or early 1685."
"… the belief that John Abbey's second wife's maiden surname was Perkins can be found as early as John Jay Putnam's Family History in the Line of Joseph Convers of Bedford, Massachusetts (Worcester Massachusetts, 1897. No support has been seen for this assertion. … She and her previous husband Richard Goldsmith gave a son the unusual name Zaccheus [TEG 26:33], which may be a clue to her origin."
