Person:Martha Higgs (1)

Last name is uncertain (Torrey).

Following the death of her husband, Thomas Wilder, in 1634, Martha with her daughter, Mary, moved to the Massachesetts in 1638 on board the ship "Confidence". Three of her other children, Thomas, Edward and Elizabeth, may have moved to Massachusetts before her. Her eldest child, John, died in England.

1. ↑ "The Hobart Journal", in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   121:24.

   1652
   Aprill
   20 widow wilder dyed
   22 buried

2.   Wilder, Moses Hale. Book of the Wilders: A Contribution to the History of the Wilders from 1497 in England to the Emigration of Martha, a Widow, and Her Family to Massachusetts Bay in 1638, and So, through Her Family Down to 1875, with a Genealogical Table Showing, as Far as May Be, Their Relationships and Connections. (New York: Printed by Edward O. Jenkins for the compiler, 1878)
   6-7,10.

   In 1638 the ship Confidence, list of passengers, widow Martha Wilder and her daughter Mary. Grants of land in Hinghham, MA, to Martha and Edward. Edward remained in Hingham until Martha died 1652. 1639 Elizabeth Wilder m. Thomas Ensign of Scituate. 1651 Thomas Wilder made freeman in Charlestown. "It is on all hands conceded that they were all of one family".

3.   Lincoln, Solomon. History of the town of Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. (Hingham Mass.: C. Gill, Jr. and Farmer and Brown, 1990)
   153.

   A widow woman, by the name of Wilder, came out of England, with two boys, her only children ... son Edward, who settled with her in Hingham ... the other boy; some of them supposing that he must have been the Wilder from whom descended the families of that name in Lancaster ... By comparing these names with those of the Lancaster Wilders, it appears to me conclusive, that they had a common ancestor; and I think there can be little doubt that the brother of our first Edward, was Thomas Wilder of Lancaster.
   [Note: this speculation about a relationship between Thomas and Edward has been made suspect by evidence and finally refuted by DNA. See Source:American Ancestors (New England Historic Genealogical Society), Vol. 11.2, p. 46]