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The marriage of John Fay and Phebe Locke and the names of their seven children are recorded in Orlin, page 232: |
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The same information about John and Phebe is also contained in
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Locke, John Goodwin, Book of the Lockes : a genealogical and historical record of
the descendants of William Locke, of Woburn...; Cambridge: J. Monroe, 1853.
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Phebe was a widow when she and John were married. Phebe's son John G. Whiting was raised with the Fay family.
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When I was first researching the line of John Fay, born 10/18/1785, I wrote the following:
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Orlin starts his reporting on this group on page 231, where he says that John, (4th generation), born 1756, "res[ided] Marlboro & Fitzwilliam, N.Y." On the next page, under daughter Lydia, Orlin says, "Fitzwilliam, rem. to Sullivan, N.Y." This SHOULD be "Fitzwilliam, N.H." and "Sullivan, N.H." The short biography on page 285 gives the correct state: "His first two children were born in Marlboro, from which place he went to Fitzwilliam, N.H., where the rest of his children were born and where he died aged 83 years." This would mean that he would be present in N.H. for the first census in 1790, and would be found there through the census of 1830. And this is exactly what we find; in 1830, he has moved in with his son Benjamin, and it is Benjamin who is "head of house."
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Orlin's data for John (5th generation), born 1785, is both incomplete and inaccurate. While John was indeed married to Betsey Clark and Phebe Locke, he married Phebe FIRST, then later Betsey. The approximate date for his marriage to Phebe is 1810; the date of his marriage to Betsey is established indirectly by the birth of their first child Eliza in 1823. We do not yet know the place of John's marriage to Betsey, or the birth place of their daughter Eliza. [This is the part that had to be revised as I worked through the material; what is in this paragraph is still wrong]
Phebe Locke was a widow. She had been married before in 1808 to John Whiting. John died in 1809, leaving Phebe with an infant son, John G. Whiting, born March 27, 1809. John G. appears in an 1850 census with his second wife Crissana, his 19 year old daughter Harriet by his first wife, and children Lucy F. 6, Phebe A. 4, and Mary A. 2.
All of the children mentioned by Orlin are children of John and Phebe. John and Betsey had two children who are not mentioned by Orlin, namely, Eliza and, in 1830, William Clark Fay, born in Harvard.
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This now turns out to be partly correct and partly incorrect. This John, born 1785, the son of John and Lovinah Brigham, WAS married to Betsey Clark and did have two children, Eliza and William. However, this is NOT the John who married Phebe. In working with this, I did not have the dates of birth for the children of John and Phebe; I did have dates for John and Betsey. Betsey's daughter Eliza was born in 1823, her son William in 1830. In theory, there would have been enough time for Phebe to bear seven children and then die, and for John to have married a second time. However, John and Phebe's son Lucius was actually born in 1823, a fact I learned later. This makes the earlier assumption impossible, and it makes it clear that Orlin has mixed up two families.
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This being said, what evidence is there as to the ancestry of the John who married Phebe? We know that John and Phebe lived in Rockingham, VT; and we know that John or his family came from Mason, NH. Orlin has John and Phebe RESIDING in Mason, but they actually lived in Rockingham; the Locke genealogy has it right: John came from Mason, and married Phebe in Rockingham, where she was living. John was also living there by that time, as evidenced both by the census and by the records of Rockingham. In the records of Rockingham, John's first two marriages and his first child are recorded also.
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From a compilation, by Peck, of Rockingham Records to 1845. |
p. 32 Samuel Whiting m. Mary Goldsbury May 24, 1774; John G. Whiting born August 3, 1785.
p. 95 May 26, 1805, John Fay married Abigail Lovell of Rockingham at Rockingham.
p. 104 April 13, 1807 Religious Record: * John Fay, Oliver Mears
p. 115 Almira Fay, daughter of John Fay and Hannah, b. 12 October 1802 at Chester; Mary Augusta b. 11 March 1812; Albert Locke b. 1813 (Daughter and son of John Fay and Phebe Fay)
p. 114 April 3, 1808 John G. Whiting and Phebe Locke of Rockingham married by Abraham Byington, J.P.
p. 124 January 14, 1811,, John Fay and Phebe Whiting married by David Campbell, J.P.
p. 143 April 15, 1815, Josiah Fay family (Orlin, page 71) warned out of town*
p. 150 April 15, 1815, Josiah C., son of Josiah and Nancy Fay born.
p. 9 NOTE: The inhospitable custom of warning out of town..... was in conformity with state law..... intended to prevent newcomers from obtaining a settlement and becoming charges upon the town. [Good for determining the date a family arrived in town; also listed the names of all the children]
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What we need, therefore, is a John Fay who came from Mason, NH, was living in Rockingham from about 1800 on, and was of an age to have married for the first time about 1801; if he married at 21, that would put his birth around 1780. We don't have to look far to find him, and finding him, we have a good explanation of Orlin's confusion. The John who married Phebe was the son of Jonas, who "res. Mason, N.H." He had a son John mentioned by Orlin: |
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It seems clear that this is the John Fay who married Phebe Locke Whiting. He was a first cousin of the John who married Betsey Clark; both families resided in New Hampshire, although in different towns; and both moved and married, John son of Jonas to Rockingham; and John son of John to Harvard, MA. |
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