Person talk:Mercy Sumner (2)

death date [14 January 2012]

I removed the death date of 8 MAY 1763 in Lunenburg. That comes from an AFN, apparently MP4R-ZN, since it faithfully renders the peculiar spelling and capitalization of the AFN when naming the location as "Lunenburg, Worchester, Ma". This AFN shows her marrying a Mr. Yates. There are no records of any kind under the surname Yates listed in Source:Davis, Walter A. Early Records of the Town of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, Including That Part Which Is Now Fitchburg, 1719-1764, nor any death of a Mercy in the year 1763. So it is difficult to even know what is meant here. One can only guess...

There is however a page in Torrey's Marriages (p. 315) where Thomas Gold m. Eastham 1700 Mercy/Marcy Yates, and Thomas Gould m. by 1701 "[?Mercy Sumner]". One can only assume somebody was confused by these two entries, which in turn, turn out, to be incorrect conclusions based from superficial name matching, in the typical fashion of Torrey's Marriages.

Savage says Thomas Gould of Topsfield "m. perhaps Mercy, d. of the sec. William Sumner". In Savage's listing of this family, one child, a son named Yates b. 1714 particularly stands out, because it was a common practice of the time to use the wife's maiden name as a given name for one of the sons. And indeed the birth of a son "Yeats" to Thomas and Marsy is recorded in Topsfield. That suggests that the Thomas Gold of Topsfield is the one who married Mercy Yates and both of Torrey's entries refer to the same couple. Thus, all Thomas Goulds having a wife Mercy are accounted for without requiring that Mercy Sumner be dragged out of her grave.

The reason Mercy Sumner's name comes up in Savage's entry for Thomas Gould is because the agreement of heirs of Mercy's father in 1687 was mentions a Thomas Gould. But that was Thomas Gould of Boston who married Mercy's sister Experience (and had a son Thomas in 1689 showing that he is not the same as Thomas Gould of Topsfield who had a son Thomas in 1701). There was no representative of Mercy Sumner signing the agreement of heirs, leading to the conclusion that she had died by then, long before she was old enough to marry. --Jrich 16:40, 14 January 2012 (EST)