Cape Cod Folks: #52 Ancestors - Rebecca Noyes (1651- )

Week # 5 - Rebecca Noyes (1651- )

An ancestor a week for 52 Weeks! #52ancestors

Rebecca Noyes may be our 8th great-grandmother. She was the daughter of Rev. James Noyes and Sarah Browne who migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in "1634 aboard the 'Mary & John' of London, Robert Sayres master, as established by a record which shows that the list of men who took the Oath of Supremecy & Allegiance to pass to New England on that ship included Thomas Parker and James Noyce, who took the oath on March 26, 1634, and Nicholas Noyce, who took the oath on March 24, 1633/4." The link to Wikitree provides great detail about her family. [1] It seems her father, James was a "teacher" at the Newbury Church. James was author of three religious books including "A Catechism For Children."

Newbury was Rebecca's home territory as her father built a house at #7 Parker Street about 1646. Rebecca was born 1 Apr 1651 [2], surely in that very home, the seventh of nine children. This house still stands. [3] It's pretty amazing that you can click the links below to see the handwritten record of Rebecca's birth from the Newbury Town Clerk [middle of left page] and a picture of the house she grew up in?

Her marriage to John Knight in Newbury is recorded in the same Town Clerk's records- married on January 1, 1671/2 [4] [At this link the page is photographed upside down but you can see the marriage recorded in the middle of the left hand page if you flip the image over. Clerks often used the back of book pages to continue recording data as a space/cost saving measure?] This is one of the better documented families in Newbury. In this book by Noreen Pramburg, "Four Generations of the Descendants of John Knight and His Brother, Richard Knight, First Settlers of Newbury, Massachusetts." you can read all about the Knight family. Again it is amazing that you can borrow this 1986 book for an hour from Archives.org [also known as the Wabac Machine].[5] Where would we be without all the folks who came before us photographing, interpreting and preserving these ancient records?

Information about the family continues to abound as we find the Will of Rebecca's husband in the Essex county probate records. [6] Who could ask for a more beautiful handwriting of a three-hundred year old document. Not only does the researcher need to trace cursive writing but also understand archaic characters like the "long s" ſ used where a double "s" would appear as in the county Eſsex.

"John Knights Will Prov: Approv: & Allow: In the Name of God Amen, I John Knight of Newbury in the County of Eſsex, in the Province of the Maſsachusetts Bay in New England being sensible of my Frailty and Mortality yet of Perfect mind and memory thanks be to God / Do make and ordaine this My Last Will and Testament. That is to say Principally and first of all, I give and recomend My Soul into the hands of God &c. and my body to ye Earth to be buried in Decent Christian Burial att the Discretion of My Exec! &c. And as touching such worldly goods and Estate as itt has Pleased God to Bleſs me with in this Life I give Devise & Dispose of the same in the following manner and form. (Imprimies) I give and bequeath to Rebacca My Dearly beloved wife the use and improvement of the one halfe of all my Real Estate During her Natural Life to use and improve as shee Pleases for her benefit, Excepting my Rate Right in ye undivided commons below ye wood Lott on the west side of ye Little River and also I give my said Wife, all my Personall Estate... This ye 7th day of January in the 10th year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France & Ireland King and Defender of the Faith &c."

If you have trouble reading any of this document, get your pencil out and pretend you are writing the text on the screen. Sometimes the act of writing will help you figure out a letter or word. Also look for similar letters and words in the document. In this case I couldn't figure out the word (Imprimies) but just below it is the word Improvement and looking up Imprimis, you find that it means "the beginning of a list." In this case, a list of items bequeathed to heirs.

In the case of Rebecca, when John dies about August 1725, they have seven children: James, Rebecca, John, Sara, Elizabeth, Joseph and Nathaniel born pretty much every two years between 1672 and 1688.

This is where a problem creeps in to our pedigree. Some sources say that Mary and John had a daughter Mary born 1686 and died 1728 who married Stephen Thurston. But John does not list a daughter, Mary Thurston in his will. He does specifically list sons- James, Joseph, Nathaniel and John and "My Daughters (viz Rebacca, Sarah and Elizabeth)"

"Pramberg states that John also had a daughter named Mary who married Stephen Thurston and a daughter named Bethsheba who was born about 1691 and died in 1776. However, no birth records have been found that establish that John had daughters by those names, and the fact that John's will does not mention any daughters by those names strongly suggests that he did not have any daughters by those names who were living when he made his will." So it will probably be some future generation who proves the parentage of Mary Knight who married Stephen Thurston.

My retirement gig is Estate Administrator. Even in this day and time I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for a person to have a will. Without such a document you leave your heirs high and dry and at the mercy of the probate court system- the least of which is, your estate will be tied up for years waiting on judges!