Person talk:John Gedney (1)

Rebecca Prince [15 March 2015]

Note: Rebecca Prince was the daughter of John Gedney's second wife Sarah Mary Bartholomew (1610/12-1648), from her first marriage to James Hugh Prince (abt. 1600-1634).

Quoting American Genealogist, Vol. 14, p. 86, in Moriarty's article regarding the Gedneys, Clarkes, and Princes: "The appearance of the name 'James' among the children of both Robert Prince and Rebecca Putnam suggests that their father was a James Prince of Norwich from which town John Gedney also came." This complete speculation is as much support as I can find for the above statement. Looking around on the various related pages I see nothing that looks like credible evidence. Only some Ancestry public tree which is unacessible to non-members, and doubtless, like most of them, not worth the time spent looking at it. The Find A Grave page cited makes Rebecca Prence a daughter of Gov. Thomas Prence even though it is well-known the Governor's daughter Rebecca married Edmund Freeman and she died before 1651 so couldn't have married John Putnam in 1652. The Putnam genealogy says about as much as can be said. John calls Rebecca his daughter-in-law, which probably means she was a daughter of one of his wives, and she would seem to be related to Robert Prince, not his daughter (his will names James, Joseph and Elizabeth), but her age suggesting maybe a sister (she m. 1652, he m. 1662, but apparently is a proprietor (adult) in 1649).

William Clarke had an unknown first wife. It is quite possible his wife Catherine was previously married before she became his second wife. If so, it is quite possible Catherine had children from that marriage, say, Robert and Rebecca Prince. This is one possibility that would explain why they seemed to live with the Gedneys and are mentioned as "servants in the house" (i.e., the tavern) along with Catherine's children by William Clarke (TAG 14:85). Or if it turns out John had three wives, unknowable based on available evidence according to two TAG articles, then it is possible his second wife Mary had children by a previous marriage. From what I know, we can't even pin down which wife, much less who her husband was. If there is something I am missing feel free to provide the evidence, as it is not obvious and would be helpful to all interested parties. --Jrich 03:57, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

New research published in 2020 [3 September 2022]

According to Find A Grave (memorial #126022469), there was an article published about the wives of John Gedney in the Winter 2020 issue of NEHGR (Vol 174). Find A Grave provides a summary, but I believe the article should be consulted (if for no other reason than to confirm the name of the wife he married in 1637, since FAG says she had 2 first names, which seems unusual to me for that time period). I don't plan to do that any time soon, but someone else might want to follow up.--DataAnalyst 22:28, 3 September 2022 (UTC)