Family:Josiah Whitney and Mary Unknown (1)

It is necessary to sort out the children of this couple because several layers of errors make the situation very confusing and the estimated marriage date of the parents has wildly variant estimates depending on which error one gets tricked by. First, a normally reliable source appears to make an error in this family that would place the marriage in 1686, but it is probably an error, explained below. Confusion in the records could suggest the marriage was prior to 1692, but other views suggest that is incorrect as well. With confidence, one seems to only be able to say they married before 1696 based on the birth of their first known child.

Source:Smith, Dean Crawford. Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton 1878-1908, Vol. 1, p. 540, has coverage of Josiah the father, but does a very poor job with his children. The marriage to Mary is based on a son Josiah "baptized Watertown 21 November 1686 (WVR 4:127)". This is confusing because 1687 baptisms are not on the page specified, but searching by search engine and turning pages does not find this baptism anywhere nor any that appears to be close enough to be turned into this be mistake. (1686 baptisms are found on p. 120 and on 21 Nov no Whitney baptism, the only Josiah has surname Treadaway. Likewise, p. 127 shows baptisms for 1688-89 but none for 21 Nov. No baptism for Josiah Whitney is found in this book.

This source is uninformed by the Wrentham birth records, but even considering the evidence it has, it still mishandles the children. It says Jonathan, Abigail, Mary and Josiah (age 20 about 1718) are named in the division of the father's estate in 1718, but the division gives Josiah a double share, so he is the oldest son, not the youngest as presented here. And if the author had access to the division and Josiah's guardianship, he could have checked the guardianship files of the other children to see their ages were different than he proposed (Suffolk Probate 4007: Abigail is age 9 in 1718 so born about 1709 not 1694; 4008: Jonathan is age 14 in 1718 so born about 1704 not 1690). So, no surprise the birth estimates disagree badly with the Wrentham birth records which give the actual dates. Further, given he did not see the Wrentham records, it is not surprising he missed daughter Hannah.

Both Wrentham birth and death records are confusing. According to Whitney Research Group, the daughter Mary is born 5 Mar 1695/6. There is a birth on that date in the published VRs, but it is listed for Mary d/o Josiah and Mary under "Whitting" (p. 1;222). There is also another birth of Mary Whitting b. 14 Oct 1692 to "Josi[ah] and Mary". Since there is no Josiah and Mary Whiting, assuming these are both Josiah and Mary Whitney, would suggest a marriage by 1692. But there are problems. One is the lack of a death record for the 1692 Mary Whitney. Then, compare to NEHGR, Vol. 4, p. 84, "Early Records of Wrentham, Ms.": the 1695/6 birth is given to Josiah and Mary Whittne, while the 1692 birth is given to John and Mary Whiting. Based on the oldest appearing version found online, the NEHGR article appears correct on both accounts (1692 birth on right side - the Josi-- is actually Joh-- with surname Whiting; 1695/6 birth, right side - the first Whitney is a little ambiguous but the Whittne used in the father's name is clear), and the published VRs are proven incorrect.

There are two incomplete death records that must be matched. A daughter of Josiah and Mary, whose name the published VRs give as "[torn]ill" d. 1710, and another, unnamed, daughter of Josiah died in 1719. Now the division of the the father's estate names the four children, specified above, so we known Hannah died by 1718 since she is not named. The Whitney Research Group suggests the 1710 death is a otherwise unknown daughter with an unrecorded birth named "---ill", but that seems unlikely, and indeed, inspecting the online version, it appears to be Hannah, since the "[torn]ill" found in the published records appears to actually be "[torn]ah" (left side, next to last). The Whitney Research Group also suggests the 1719 death is probably Hannah, which is impossible because she is not mentioned in the division of the estate one year earlier. The 1719 death must apply to Mary, about whom the Whitney Research Group only says "Living in 1718", because Abigail married in 1729 Preserved Hall (Source:Whitney, Henry Austin. Brief Account of the Descendants of John and Elinor Whitney, of Watertown, p. 13; Wrentham VRs, p. 2:312).