Person:Mary Merriam (8)

Origins

Evidence of both her surname and that she was daughter of Joseph Merriam (early settler of Concord) is limited.

"Genealogical Gleanings in England," in NEHGR 50 (1896):507), transcribes the 10 April 1637 will of Robert Goldston of Tonbridge, Kent, England, brother of Sarah Goldstone who married Joseph Merriam. In it, Robert names "William, Sarah, Joseph, Thomas, Elizabeth and Hanna, the six children of the said Joseph Mirriam by the said Sara his now wife". To the extent that he names these six, Robert seems to be familiar and up to date on the family, and no daughter Mary Merriam by 1637 would make the birth of a first child in 1649/50 problematical. Except for the interesting phrase, "his now wife", which combined with Joseph's death in 1641, raises the question of an earlier wife. If Mary (Merriam) Taylor was the daughter of Joseph, it was likely by an earlier wife.

Joseph Merriam's will in 1640 does not name his children.

The oldest source (found to date) that names her is Lemuel Shattuck in History of Concord (1835; p. 385); he identifies William Taylor's wife as Mary Merriam, but does not identify her parents, as do some other sources (e.g., Cutter in [Gen. and Pers. Mem. of Mass (1:454).

William S. Appleton in "The Merriam Family and Connections" (NEHGR, 22 (1868):160-161; transcribed here) describes the 1681 will of Robert Merriam, Joseph's brother, and the 1688 will of Robert's wife Mary, who don't have any children. Both wills appear to name several, if not all, of Joseph's children, and do not include a Mary Taylor. That said, they also do not name a known Merriam daughter, Sarah.

Ellery Bicknell Crane in Historic Homes and Institutions... (1907) is inconsistent about her:

• He does not list her as a child of Joseph Merriam and Sarah Goldstone (Volume 4, p 19, "Merriam Family")
• But he does identify her as Mary Merriam (vol. 3, p. 242, "David E. Taylor") and
• Calls her a daughter of Joseph Merriam (Vol. 2, p. 8, "Taylor Family").

A John Merriam witnessed the 1696 estate inventory of Mary's husband, William Taylor.

1. ↑ Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States. Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1635-1850. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1891)
   58.

   Mary Taylor relict widow to ye late William Taylor dyed Decembr ye 10th 1699

2. ↑ Crane, Ellery B. Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts: With a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity. (New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1907)
   3:242, 1907.

   "William Taylor ... settled at Concord, Massachusetts, before 1649, and probably before 1640... [He] married Mary Meriam."