Person talk:Noah Brooks (1)

Which Dorothy goes where? [2 June 2011]

Source:Merrick, George Byron. Genealogy of the Merrick-Mirick-Myrick Family of Massachusetts, 1636-1902 says "Potter's statement, in his "Old Families of Concord", that she [Noah's wife] was Dorothy Potter, is absurd, and an utterly baseless conjecture." Ha! this turns out to be an utterly baseless conjecture.

A query in Source:NEHGR, p. 39:188, says "Dorothy Potter, born 1650, is mentioned in her father Luke's will, dated 1695, as daughter Dorothy Brooks. Was she not the wife of Noah Brooks, of Lincoln, in place of Dorothy Wright, of Sudbury, as stated by Bond and others?"

Source:Ferris, Mary Walton. Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines, p. 1:685, quotes a deed by the heirs of Edward Wright of Sudbury, including "Sergt Benjamin Moore and Dorothy his wife". Ferris was documenting the Wright line specifically going through Benjamin Moore and Dorothy Wright so obviously she doesn't think Dorothy Wright married Noah Brooks.

Other sources indicate that Savage also gets the wives wrong. An article by Samuel Arthur Bent in Source:Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Publication(S) (Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts), Issue 6, p. 108, points out Dorothy Potter is significantly older than Noah (1650 vs. 1666 - note that Dorothy Wright, b. 1652, would not mitigate this to any degree), but it has been suggested that, since Dorothy is listed last amongst Luke Potter's children in his will, maybe the 1650 Dorothy died young and there was a second daughter Dorothy closer in age to Noah Brooks.

I will be cleaning this up, and putting the Dorothys in their places. --Jrich 20:37, 2 June 2011 (EDT)

The cited article does mention Noah being born in 1666. I am not sure where this comes from, as his age at death calculates to 1656. Born in 1666 presents a serious age issue, born in 1656 not so much. So it kind of emasculates the whole argument of whether there were one or two Dorothys born into the Potter family. Notwithstanding this, the above sources make it clear that Noah Brooks married Dorothy Potter, not Dorothy Wright. --Jrich 00:09, 3 June 2011 (EDT)