Person:Robert Stetson (6)

As mentioned by Savage^[1], there is some question whether Robert married once, or twice, as various sources pair him with one or both of two Brooks sisters. A record of only one of Robert's children is found, the death of Peleg, "s. Robert and Deborah"^[2]. Deane (1831) says on p. 341 that Robert m. 1670 Joanna Brooks. However, on p. 224 under Brooks, he says Deborah Brooks, m. Robert Stetson jr. and gives no husband to sister Joanna? Meanwhile, Barry's Stetson Genealogy (1847), p. 92, says he m. 1676 Joanna Brooks.

Neither Joanna nor Deborah are explicitly named among the six daughters referred to in father William's will proved 1682/83. (Source:Anderson, Robert Charles. Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, p. 414 (Vol. 1, A-B) tries to argue that Sarah and Deborah are presumably married, since the special treatment of Mary and Hannah seems to indicate only those two are not married. But clearly, if this was William's motivation, there is an age consideration involved, given that the youngest daughter Joanna was of marriageable age but not married. So it seems somewhat questionable, trying to divine this unstated criteria as proof of anybody's marital status, especially given some (unproven but common) claims that Mary might actually have been married.

Joanna seems a little young to marry in 1676, since b. 1659, and Source:Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, in New England, Vol. 8 (Miscellaneous), p. 89, does have the marriage of "John Besbey" and Joanna Brooks 13 Sep 1687 in Marshfield which Anderson [cited above] says is William's daughter Joanna (though they had no son named William among the children listed immediately following the marriage record). Either way, it seems unlikely that Robert m. 1676, or probably at any time, Joanna Brooks.

PCR [cited above], Vol. 5, pp. 181 and 208, show that Robert Stetson Jr. was jailed in Oct 1675 and then charged with the expense of maintaining an illegitimate child fathered by Elizabeth Woodworth, suggesting, at least, that he was unmarried at that time. And while the death record of son Peleg may show a wife named Deborah, who could conceivably be Deborah Brooks, b. 1654, possibly married in 1676 (i.e., the date given above for Joanna's marriage), there appears to be no evidence to support any of this, or to connect Robert specifically with the Brooks family. (Incidentally, like John and Joanna Bisby, Robert Stetson and his wife had no child named William.)

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   4:183.

   Stetson, Robert, Scituate, s. of the preced. [Robert, Scituate 1634, ... by first w. of whose name is no report, he had ... Robert, 29 Jan. bapt. 26 Feb 1654 ...] liv. in that pt. wh. bec. Pembroke, m. 1676 Joanna Brooks, says Barry, the later and higher authy. tho. Deane says Deborah, d. of William, had Isaac, Timothy, Resolved, Sarah, and Nathaniel, but not dates can be found for either by Barry. Yet descend. are very num.

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Foster, F. Apthorp. Vital Records of Scituate, Massachusetts to the Year 1850. (Boston, Mass: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1909)
   1:335.

   Stetson, Robert, s. Robert, Jan. 29, 1653. [Studson, CR2]

3. ↑ "Records of the Second Church of Scituate", in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   57:84.

   1653.
   Robert ye sonne of Robt Studson [baptized] Febr. 26.

4. ↑ Barry, John Stetson. A historical sketch of the town of Hanover, Mass. : with family genealogies. (Boston, Massachusetts: Samuel G. Drake, 1853)
   179.

   [From a table of longevity of town residents]
   1743 Robert Stetson, 90.