Person:Mary Sunderland (10)

Watchers
Mary Sunderland
 
m. Abt 1664
  1. Mary Sunderland1665 -
  2. Samuel Sunderland1668 -
Facts and Events
Name Mary Sunderland
Unknown Mercy Sunderland
Gender Female
Birth[1] 15 Jul 1665 Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

[Caveat: most sources only seem interested in John Sunderland as the second husband of Thomasine, widow of Samuel Mayo. Surprisingly few even mention the children born during their marriage. I can find none that detail what happened to several of John's children, including this Mary, and her half sister Hannah, not to mention James, Benjamin and Samuel. This bothers me, as I have not yet identified his "Daughter Gourden" (the bequest to her seems somewhat paltry relative to the daughters of his wife, so perhaps she is not a natural daughter, but on the other hand, it is reported that John fell into poverty (see Savage, and Davis cited below) and perhaps that was all he could bequeath without encroaching on what was "brought" to him by his second wife?) Further reseach may show that the following hypothesis is ignoring key facts. Based on what has been found so far, it seems plausible, even likely.]

The birth record cited[1] clearly names this child Mary. Source:Davis, Horace. Ancestry of John Davis, Governor and U.S. Senator, and Eliza Bancroft, His Wife, Both of Worcester, Massachusetts, p. 94, lists her as "Mary (2d) (or, perhaps, Mercy)", presumably because, among other reasons, both John and Thomasine had still-living daughters named Mary from their respective first marriages. Oddly, this begs the question of why Mercy, when Thomasine is supposed to have also had a daughter Mercy by her first marriage. Or did she? Mercy is not included among the children of Samuel Mayo and Thomasine, in some of the sources covering this family.

Source:Freeman, Frederick. History of Cape Cod : Annals of Thirteen Towns of Barnstable County, p. 377, lists among John Sunderland's children with Thomasine a "Mercy 1665", with no hint that her name was recorded as Mary. Referring to Freeman, Source:May, Samuel Pearce. Descendants of Richard Sares (Sears) of Yarmouth, Mass., 1628-1888, p. 55, then assumes the 1665 given by Freeman is an error for 1663 (the year Thomasine's first husband, Samuel Mayo, died), assuming that Freeman was referring to the Mercy named in John Sunderland's will as "her [his wife's] three daughters ... Mercy Seers ...", i.e., the wife of Samuel Sears.

However, these questions may be highlighting a bad assumption that has been made, namely, that when John Sunderland referred to his wife's three daughters, they were all assumed to be from her first marriage, as opposed to simply being her three surviving daughters from either marriage. After all, there is no birth record for any Mercy born to Samuel Mayo and Thomasine (generally assumed to be posthumous, so born about 1664). But Samuel Sears' wife Mercy's age at death places her birth in 1665, which just happens to match the recorded birth for the Mary born to John Sunderland and Thomasine in 1665. Furthermore, there is no other evidence of Mary Sunderland to confirm that she was a distinct and separate individual. Mary and Mercy were often used interchangeably in colonial times, so it is a natural question to wonder if there actually were two distinct daughters, born about a year apart, the second one having a name conflict with living daughters, or if all this data possibl-y pertains to just one person, a Mercy Sunderland, b. 1665, who married Samuel Sears and d. 1748-9, in her 84th year?

Most sources for Samuel Mayo say his estate was settled 26 Apr 1664, when actually it appears that his father was appointed to administer the estate on that date, and the inventory was taken. So, likely, the settlement followed, perhaps even much later, since he had real estate holdings as far away as Long Island. The actual settlement/distribution of his estate might be a useful document, if it can be found, as it would undoubtedly list all the heirs of Samuel Mayo, proving whether or not he had a daughter Mercy.

References
  1. 1.0 1.1 Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States. Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630-1699 (A Report of the Record Commissioners): Document 130. (Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States: Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, 1883)
    97.

    1665. Town.
    Mary of John & Thomasin Sunderland born July 15.