Margaret Wyman

• Benoni Patten
• Posted: 08 May 2012 12:04AM
• Classification: Query
• Edited: 08 May 2012 12:07AMSurnames: Patten, Holmes, Wyman

I have not been able to find out definitively which John Patten in the Vermont/New Hampshire/Massachusetts area was the biological father of Benoni Patten. Lord knows I've tried. There are a bunch of them to choose from. One researcher on this line thinks it was a John Patten who lived in Londonderry, NH and somehow met Margaret and impregnated her there. We assume when she found herself with child she moved to Bedford, NH to live with her parents who had moved there some time previous to 1754. Matthew Patten (no relation) was a Justice of the Peace in Bedford. On 5 Apr 1757 (or over four months after Benoni was born) he recorded in his diary, "was at James Walkers on John Pattens being apprehended by Margret Holms for his Getting her with child for which he agreed with her for 300 [pounds] old Tenor and he pd Charges". Did John Patten live in Bedford? In favor of that argument is the fact that Matthew Patten does not say, "John Patten of such and such a place." Against that argument are the facts that Matthew doesn't mention any other John Patten in his diary except for his own son who was but a child when all this happened. And he mentions practically everybody in town. Also against the argument is it took Margaret four months after the birth of Benoni to find John Patten and have him arrested and dragged to Bedford for this trial.

As for William Wyman, Benoni was over two years old when Wyman and Holmes married. Some undocumented histories say Wyman was from Salem, MA (about 50 miles away from Bedford). We don't know how or where they met or where they were married. William Wyman is not mentioned in Matthew Patten's Diary.

Wyman and Holmes were living in Northfield, MA in 1765, according to one history (Lloyd and Mary E. Wyman, "Ancestry of Lloyd and Mary E (Tisdel) Wyman", (typewritten manuscript, Painesville Ohio, 1920). Maybe they met and married there. Margaret's parents stayed in Bedford at least until 1777, which is the last year William Wyman is mentioned in Matthew Patten's Diary.

Links:

https://www.ancestry.com.au/boards/surnames.patten/174.196.1.1/mb.ashx

http://www.geocities.ws/shefferfamily/genealogy/fgrg29a.htm

From LINEAGE BOOK National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Gr.-gr.-granddaughter of Richard Sinclair and Mary Cilley, his wife; William Wyman and Margaret Holmes, his wife; Nathan Eaton and Phoebe Brooks, his wife; Silas Antisdel and Bethia Curtis, his wife; James Parker and Mary Conant (1742-1829), his first wife, m. 1762.

Link: https://archive.org/stream/lineagebook34daug/lineagebook34daug_djvu...

Reverend William Wyman, Sr., b. Abt 1731, Massachusetts, d. 1814, Onondaga Hill, Onondaga, New York, while visiting his youngest son in NY -- and -- Margaret Holmes, of Scotland, who was left in the forests of Vermont with her three sons, the oldest thirteen years of age, while her husband and two older sons, Henry and William, served in the war. Margaret was born 18 Oct 1736, Londonderry, Rockingham, New Hampshire, d. Abt 1814. Rev. William, Sr. & Margaret Holmes Wyman were married about 1760, Bedford, Hillsborough, New Hampshire.

Link: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/115596158

D. Glenn/ 2017