Person:Mercy Deming (2)

Mercy, Wife of Joseph Curtis and Joseph Wright

"Hartford, Conn., Probate Files, John Deming will; Conn. Particular Court Records, vol. 3, pp. 126, 133; Wethersfield, Conn., Births, Marriages and Deaths, vol. 1, p. 28, family record of Joseph and Mercy Curtis; in this record the date of death of Joseph Curtis is given as December 31, 1683, the same date being entered on the inventory of his estate, which was sworn to by his widow Mercy.

Hartford, Conn., County Court Records, vol. 4. pp. 85, 86, reverse end, pp. 173-174, and Probate Files, Joseph Curtis estate; Wethersfield, Conn., Births, Marriages and Deaths, vol. 1, p. 63, marriage of Joseph Wright and Mercy _____.

Nathaniel Goodwin in his Genealogy of the Foote Family, p. 270, states that John Stoddard had two daughters, Mary and Mercy, who became the first and second wives respectively of Joseph Wright of Wethersfield.

John Stoddard also had a son, Joshua, who married Bethia _____, and died prior to September 12, 1725 when his will was presented to the Probate Court.

As the will was disallowed by the court the estate was ordered distributed to the heirs of his two brothers and two sisters, John Stoddard, Nathaniel Stoddard, Elizabeth Wright and Mary Wright.

Hartford, Corm,, Probate Records, vol. 10, pp. 100, 121, 133, reverse end, pp. 228-229, and Probate Files, Joshua Stoddard estate.

As no children of Mercy Stoddard were recognized in the decree of the court, she could not have been the Mercy who married Joseph Wright for his second wife, because at this time there were two children of this marriage living; Benjamin and Nathaniel Wright. Wethersfield, Conn., Births, Marriages and Deaths, vol. 1, pp. 2, 63.

John Deming, in his will made June 26, 1690, gave a legacy to "my daughter wright".

Among the debts due September 5, 1709, from the estate of Samuel Deming, who was executor of the will of his father, John Deming, was one of £ 5 to "sister Wright", indicating that she was living at this last date.

As Joseph Wright married his wife Mercy more than four years prior to the date of John Deming's will, and as she was living in February, 1711-12, when Wright made his will, at least two years and five months after the date of the inventory of Samuel Deming's estate, she might easily have been the daughter of John Deming, and Joseph Wright was the only member of the Wright family who could have married a daughter of John Deming.

Therefore; Joseph Wright's wife Mercy must have been the daughter of John Deming and widow of Joseph Curtis."^[3]

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Prindle, Paul W. Honor Treat, Wife of John Deming: Mother of Which of His Children?. American Genealogist (D.L. Jacobus). (Jul 1987)
   62:140.

   The author estimates her birth year as 1658, and her sister Mary's as 1655 (based on an 1888 source). That would make Mary 15 at marriage and Mercy 16, which seems a bit young.

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Wright, Joseph, Wethersfield, in Manwaring, Charles W. A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records. (Hartford, Conn.: R. S. Peck & Co., 1904-06)
   2:344-45.
3. ↑ John Deming, in Starr, Frank Farnsworth. Various Ancestral Lines of James Goodwin and Lucy (Morgan) Goodwin of Hartford, Connecticut. (Hartford, Conn.: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Press, 1915)
   2:243-44.