Person:Elizabeth Newton (32)

According to E. Leonard, in The Newton Genealogy (de Pere, Wisc., 1915), p. 95:

"This is very young to marry. They did in those days."

This statement by Leonard is not generally true and is probably incorrect here as well. This highlights one of the great weaknesses of Leonard's work. While she relies heavily on wills and when she does, her work is excellent, when she must make her own assumptions, they are not only not always right, they are often improbable. Basic searching has yielded no support for or against this marriage, so the following argument is based on generalities, which means it is not proof. Notably there appears to be no will for the father (nor deeds gifting land to daughter and son-in-law). But Newton appears to be grasping for an answer and her argument appears to be based simply on name matching with no regard for whether it makes sense or not.

It is a common misconception that colonial people married young, but that is exactly the opposite of what usually happened. Women were considered adults at 18 and to marry earlier than that, they needed approval of the church, which required approval of their parents and tended to discourage such young marriages unless the girl was pregnant. Since the first child is born 3 years after the marriage, that does not appear to be the case here.

At the time of the marriage, the father appears to have lived in Petersham based on deeds and recorded births. The marriage is recorded in Sutton to a man called "of Uxbridge" and a woman "of Sutton" (p. 338). The names of the wife and the husband both are common names. There is nothing that suggests this record applies to the 14 year old daughter of a man living in Petersham.

1. ↑ Westborough, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Vital records of Westborough, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849. (Worcester, Massachusetts: F.P. Rice, 1903)
   77.

   NEWTON, Elisabeth, d. Alpheus and Elizabeth, [born] Feb. 25, 1754.