The family sketch of Samuel Witham and Rebecca Gardner is going to be quite short since they only have three recorded children and only one marriage for those children.

Samuel Witham was born 26 January 1671/72 in Gloucester, Essex, Tassachusetts. He married Rebecca Gardner on 5 December 1705 in Gloucester.

Rebecca was born 15 September 1675, also in Gloucester, the daughter of James Gardner and Elizabeth Vinson.

There are only three children to be found for this couple in the Gloucester town records:

1. Samuel, born 11 July 1707; reportedly died at sea in 1759 off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Canada; married Deborah Stanwood, 3 July 1732, Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts
2. Rebecca, born 11 October 1710; no further record
3. John, born 10 September 1713; died 5 January 1713/14, Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts

I am beginning to think that some of the Gloucester town clerks were as fastidious about recording deaths as they were about births and marriages because this is yet another couple for whom no death dates can be found. This supported by the discovery of a will proved for an elderly Benjamin Witham in February 1815. However, there is no death recorded for him even though he wrote his will as a resident of Gloucester.

If Samuel Witham died soon after 1713, but Rebecca survived him, there is no second marriage for any Rebecca Witham in that time period.

Thus, nothing further is known about this family except that Samuel Jr., born in 1707, married and has descendants.

Since family sketches have been posted in the past about the earlier Witham families, they won’t be repeated in this new series.

Next up is a look at the ancestry of Rebecca (Gardner) Witham.

So begins the trek of pruning and updating the parents and ancestral line of Judith Witham who married Nathan Haskell, whose twists and turns was recently documented.

Unfortunately, not nearly as much is known about the life of the Samuel Witham family as is about the family of his more illustrious relative Daniel Witham.

Samuel Witham was born 11 July 1707 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Witham and Rebecca Gardner. He married Deborah Stanwood, the daughter of John Stanwood and Deborah Robinson on 3 July 1732, also in Gloucester, She, too, was born in the same town on 23 September 1714.

They were the parents of nine children, all born in Gloucester:

1. Samuel, born 16 October 1732; likely died before May 1736 (see Child 3)
2. William, born 26 October 1734; perhaps is the man who married Lydia Hidden, 17 February 1757, Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts; reportedly died at sea with his father off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada in 1759
3. Samuel, baptized 30 May 1736; married Elizabeth Higgins, 23 March 1758, Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts
4. Rebecca, born 19 July 1737; might be any of the three Rebeccas who married Benjamin Card, Abraham Batten and Ambrose Ryan. See commentary below.
5. John, baptized 6 July 1740; no further record
6. Deborah, baptized 12 October 1746; probably the woman who married James Gott, 6 October 1768.
7. Benjamin, baptized 15 October 1749; perhaps is the man who married Sarah Elwell, 10 November 1772.
8. Judith, baptized 15 December 1751; died 29 January 1846, New Gloucester, Cumberland, Maine; married Nathan Haskell, 27 October 1771, Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts
9. Joseph, baptized 7 October 1753; no further record

If you’ve noticed, for a Massachusetts town, there is a distinct lack of dates for most of this family except for Judith.

That’s really unusual, so we’ll go through the clues that have been found so far.

First, John James Babson, the well known Gloucester historian, apparently made a remark about Samuel Witham that was published in a history – The Stanwood Family in America.

Gloucester, Massachusetts has been the home to many generations of fishermen and mariners. Added to the fact that Samuel Witham owned no land in Gloucester, it is easy to believe that he was, indeed, a mariner.

I had to search to discover where the Grand Banks are – it’s a fishing area off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada that is known for its treacherous weather and a place where apparently many Gloucester fishermen headed.

From Pringle’s History of Gloucester:

What I find really odd is that there is no death record for Samuel noted in Gloucester town records nor is there any kind of probate, which I would expect, given his minor children who would still be living at home. I would expect a guardian to be appointed for them.

Next, what happened to Deborah (Stanwood) Witham? There is no certain answer to that question either. I would have expected her to marry again. Gloucester town records show two Deborah Withams of the right age to be marrying in the 1760s – widow Deborah and her daughter, Deborah, born in 1746.

There are two marriage records for Deborahs in that time period. the first if for Deborah Witham and Samuel Hidden, 23 December 1765. The second is for Deborah Witham and James Gott, 6 October 1768.

It seems clear that daughter Deborah is the one who married James Gott, as he was born on 24 July 1746 and Deborah on 12 October 1746. It also aligns with her sister Judith marrying around age 20, perhaps because their father had died.

However, which Deborah married Samuel Hidden in 1765? The answer to that is also murky because there was Samuel Hidden, born 1706 and his son, Samuel, born 18 April 1746.

As with the Witham family, there are no death records for Samuel Dorcas (his wife) or Samuel Jr. to be found in Gloucester or anywhere else.

If Dorcas died by 1765, then it might be Deborah (Stanwood) Witham who married Samuel Sr. as she was born in 1714.

If Dorcas was still living at that time, then it was probably Deborah, the daughter, who married Samuel Hidden, who would have then died between 1765 and 1768. Unfortunately, there are no births for Hidden babies born after 1765 to Samuel, so we’ve hit another roadblock.

Because Judith (Witham) Haskell removed to New Gloucester, Cumberland, Maine, and there is such a dearth of records for these families, it seems likely that some of Samuel’s and Deborah’s children also moved north to Maine and died there.

As for other possible children’s marriages – there aren’t many options and none provable.

There are three marriages that might pertain to Rebecca Witham, born 1737: (1) Benjamin Card, 17 February 1756 (2) Abraham Batting {Batten], 19 January 1768 and (3) Ambrose Ryan, 20 February 1772. The only thing that I can say for certain is that Rebecca who married is not the same Rebecca who married Ambrose Ryan because Rebecca (witham) Batten gave birth to a daughter, Lydia Witham Batten, on 11 June 1772. Aside from that exception, I haven’t found proof of parentage for any of the three Rebeccas.

There are two Rebeccas born in the 1730s – Rebecca, daughter of James and Hepzibah (Stanwood) Witham on on 23 December 1732 and Rebecca, daughter of Samuel Witham and Deborah Stanwood on 19 July 1737.

There is one marriage for a Benjamin Witham, who married Sarah Elwell, 10 November 1772. However, others have placed him as the son of Benjamin Witham and Ruth Ayer, baptized in 1759. although some baptisms happen in young adulthood, from what I’ve encountered in early Gloucester records, most baptisms took place in infancy or young childhood. So, if Benjamin’s and Ruth’s son was born i 1759, I don’t think he married at the age of 13. I think it’s more likely that Samuel’s son married Sarah Elwell.

If anyone can add proof documents to this family, please leave a comment. The lack of Gloucester death, probate and land records for so many of these people is a real hindrance to sorting this family out.