Family:Simon Willard and Mary Unknown (1)

The Identity of Major Simon Willard's Second Wife

"Who was this second wife Mary? Our one solid point of reference remains the provisions made by Henry Dunster in his will for his daughter Elizabeth. She was placed first in the care of Dunster's wife, after which she was to go to "my sister Mrs. Hills of Mauldon," and finally to "my sister Willard of Concord." At the time Henry Dunster made his will, "Mrs. Hills of Mauldon" would have been the third wife of Joseph Hills. She was the widow of Hugh Atkinson of Kendal, Westmoreland, but her maiden name remains unknown [Kempton Anc 4:399, 403-4]. The maiden surname of the second wife, and eventually widow, of Henry Dunster is also unknown.

We suggest the possibility that these three women, the second wife of Simon Willard, the second wife of Henry Dunster and the third wife of Joseph Hills, were sisters. Based on what we know about them in New England, all three would have been born in the late 1620s or early 1630s. Further research on this problem should proceed from our knowledge that the third wife of Joseph Hills was widow of Hugh Atkinson of Kendal, Westmoreland."^[1]

Open Question

The above comments by Anderson are made in Vol. 7 of his Great Migration, 1634-1635, series. This does not represent any new research findings since Vol. 5, p. 283, when he wrote that Joseph Noyes married as his second wife, Simon Willard's widow, "Mary (Dunster) Willard", merely a change of mind. So it would be unwise to throw away all the hypotheses he does not actually disprove.

Source:Willard, Joseph. Willard Memoir, or, Life and Times of Major Simon Willard, p. 338, quotes Rev. John Willard as saying, "The name of the second [wife] was Elizabeth Dunster, sister of the Rev. Henry Dunster, President of Harvard College. She died about half a year after marriage. The name of the third wife was Mary Dunster, cousin of the above Elizabeth..." Joseph Willard provides the following analysis of Rev. John Willard's credibility, namely, "He was great-nephew to the Honorable Secretary Josiah Willard, and a frequent recipient of his favors. From the secretary he derived some genealogical information, and probably this in relation to the Dunsters." Josiah Willard was a grandson of Simon Willard and would undoubtedly have talked about his ancestors with his fathers and aunts and uncles, the children of Simon Willard, and probably even his grandfather's widow, who lived until he was 34. So while this story is clearly family tradition, it is family tradition originating from sources very close to the principals.

In his will, Henry Dunster refers to a sister Willard of Concord. This has undoubtedly predisposed some people to believe that Simon's last wife Mary was Mary Dunster, though Anderson has pointed out a reasonable alternate suggestion. But since the maiden name of all three of the women is unknown, it remains pretty speculative. Another proposal, advanced by Henry Waters (Source:NEHGR, p. 80:93), suggested that Mary Willard may have been considered Henry Dunster's sister because she married Henry's brother[-in-law], continuing the relationship to Simon Willard that was created by the supposed marriage to his sister Elizabeth. This does not explain the reference in the same will to sister Hills, of course, but realizing that both women may qualify as sister in different ways, there are plenty of options existing for her, including that either she or one of her husbands was related to Henry's wife.

Finally, there is the Balehoult letter written to Henry Dunster by his father (Source:Dunster, Samuel. Henry Dunster and His Descendants, p. 2-3), that says "you must not expect them [his sisters] so longe as your mother and I do live", indicating the plan was to send them to New England when his parents died (the father Henry died 1646). He explicitly names a sister Elizabeth. It is not known what happened to this sister, but that means there is nothing contradicting this story.

Anderson points out there is no evidence that indicates Simon Willard ever had a wife named Elizabeth. This may or may not be surprising if the marriage truly lasted only six months. Deaths were frequently not recorded at that time. The four year gap between children in 1649 to 1653 may be long enough to squeeze in such a short marriage, and then yet another marriage to his last wife Mary. It is hard to tell how significant the lack of evidence is.

Simon Willard definitely had two wives named Mary. The first is known from marriage records. The second is named in his will. The children spanned 40 years which is too long to attribute all to one woman. There is no evidence that the last wife had a maiden name of Dunster besides the family tradition. However, Henry Waters in the cited NEHGR article, identified two possibilities in the Dunster family tree to be such a Mary.

Of course, if one decides the second wife Mary wasn't Mary Dunster, how credible is the rest of the story? So, ultimately, Anderson decides the Joseph/Josiah Willard account is of questionable reliability, and rejects the entire Dunster connection. But one can not help noticing how many single facts could have disproven the Willard/Dunster connection, such as showing the Elizabeth Dunster stayed in England, married somebody else, that all the Mary Dunsters are accounted for, or finding maiden names for one or more of the various "sisters", and yet... Anderson did not do any of those. We are really at the same place we were before volume 7 was published.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Simon Willard, in Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 1999-2011)
   VII:421, 424-426.

   (Simon Willard married) (2) by 1653 Mary -----. She married (2) Sudbury 14 July 1680 Joseph Noyes, son of James Noyes {1634, Ipswich} [GM 2:5:282-286].

2. ↑ See TGM Simon Willard sketch VII:424-426 for Anderson's argument that Willard had no wife Elizabeth and that there is no credible evidence that his second wife Mary was a Dunster.