Balch, ---, wid. Dea. Sam[ue]l, [died] ---, 1745. PR1 [PR1=Records of deaths made by Col Robert Hale]
No sources seem to speculate on the identity of the widow Martha Butman that married Samuel Balch. However, Matthew Butman, who had a wife Martha, appears to be the only likely Butman death in Beverly in the few years just prior to Martha's marriage to Samuel Balch. Matthew Butman had married, as his second wife, in 1713 Martha Herrick. She could either be the widow of George Herrick after 18 years of widowhood, or she could be the 48 year old (apparently unmarried) daughter of Zachariah Herrick (b. 1665). Neither Source:Herrick, Jedediah. Herrick Genealogy, nor Source:Perley, Sidney. History of Salem, Massachusetts (227929), tells what became of widow Herrick or of Zachariah's daughter. George Herrick's birth is about 1658, Matthew Butman's is 1665, and Samuel Balch's is 1651, so the ages of the various husbands doesn't rule out either of the two choices.
