"Ens. Abel Hawley, youngest son of Capt Joseph Hawley, was born in Farmington, Ct., in 1716. He married 1st Mary Gridley 1 July, 1741, by whom he had four children, … viz : Elisha, Ruth, Josiah and Abel, Jr. She died in 1753, and he married 2d, in 1755, Abigail Root, the widow of Ebenezer Rice (or Roice). By her first husband she had five children, one of whom, a son by the name of Samuel, was the father of Abby Rice, afterwards Mrs. Humphrey, who lived in 1854 with Judge D. M. McMaster at Bath, Steuben Co., N. Y. The children of Abigail Rice by her first husband were: I. Hannah, b. Jan 5, 1743, lived to old age; II. Huldah, b. Jan. 16, 1745, died May 10, 1746; III. Olive, or Oliver, b. March 1, 1747, m. and died shortly afterwards; IV. Samuel, b. Oct. 23, 1749, m. Feb. 15, 1776, died Aug. 13, 1834, the father of Mrs. Abby (Rice) Humphrey, who was my informant. Ensign Abel Hawley removed to Meriden, Ct., but at what time has not been learned. He was there in March, 1771, when he with others signed money with which to purchase a burying-ground."
