Family:Benjamin Abell and Hannah Unknown (1)

"Note: Several genealogies have credited Benjamin Abell and his brother Caleb both with a son by the name of Benjamin, and Caleb's son was supposed to have married Lydia Hazen. The early land records of the town of Norwich, Conn., indicate that there were only two Benjamins and show conclusively that Benjamin who married Hannah deeded all his land to his son Benjamin who married Lydia Hazen, and he in turn deeded most of this land to his sons, his two sons Benjamin and Simon receiving the largest parcels. Further records show deeds from Benjamin to his sons, Andrew, Elijah, Oliver, Altheus and Isaiah. The confusion undoubtedly arose from the custom of orphaned children, especially minors, being located in the homes of their next of kin and to all intents becoming members of such families. We therefore find Hannah, probably oldest daughter of Benjamin, in the household of Joshua from the death of her father in 1699 at least until her marriage in 1702 to Ebenezer Metcalf. Similarly, Mary and Benjamin are found attached to the household of their Uncle Caleb. Four other daughters, Lydia, Mehitable, Jemima and Experience, probably youngest members of the family, may have remained with their mother and probably were taken into the household of David Caulkins whom she married."^[2]

1. ↑ Robert Abell, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995)
   1:5.

   "Benjamin (Abell) … m. by 1679 Hannah _____ [Abell Gen 54]."

2. ↑ 9. Benjamin Abell, in Abell, Horace A. (Horace Avery), and Lewis P. (Lewis Parker) Abell. The Abell Family in America: Robert Abell of Rehoboth, Mass., his English Ancestry and his Descendants; Other Abell Families and Immigrants; Abell families in England. (Rutland, Vt. : The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., 1940)
   54-56.

   "Benjamin Abell … married Hannah (_____), probably in 1678, … may have been daughter of John Baldwin. She married 2nd, David Caulkins, Sr., of New London, Conn., before 1717, probably 1700, after the death of his former wife Mary, daughter of Thomas Bliss of Norwich … son of Hugh Caulkins of Norwich."