Mary Whitlock

Mary was married three times. She died c 1725 in Monmouth County, Province of New Jersey: “1724/5.Mary Whitlock, widow, dying left a sum of money to her grandsons, Andrew and Daniel Bray, which with money belonging to Peter Bowne, was lent to Thomas Cox.”

• First Husband Richard Bray -(M 1661) died 1665
• Second Husband Thomas Seabrook-(m 1666) killed by Indians 1675
• Third Husband Thomas Whitlock (m.1676) died 1703

Disputed Origins

• seen as Mary (Maiden Name Compton) (daughter of William Compton, of Gravesend)
• seen as Mary Herbert

https://www.ancestry.com/boards/thread.aspx?o=10&m=6.12.161.162.165...

It is generally been accepted (and we're probably not going to publish until we can confirm) William Compton of Gravesend had at least two children:

• William Compton (who settled in Middletown, Monmouth Countin 1664) and
• Mary Compton who married 1st [SIC: 2nd] Thomas Seabrook and 2nd [SIC: 3rd] Thomas Whitlock. Mary and her second husband ended up living in Shoal Harbor and their house (known as the Whitlock-Seabrook house) is still standing.

Family

Richard Bray and his wife Mary had two children:

• Rev. John Bray b c 1662 m 1) Susanna unknown 2) Anna, widow of Andrew Bowne (she was not Anna Seabrook)
• Mary Bray

From Find A Grave Memorial# 47194165

Thomas Seabrook and his wife Mary had two children:

• Daniel/abt 1667
• Capt James/abt 1674 m. Hannah Grover

Anna Bowne, second wife of her son Rev. John Bray, was not her daughter: see notes.

Notes

FULL NAME MARY (COMPTON-MAIDEN) BRAY-SEABROOK-WHITLOCK

Mary was the widow of Richard Bray and Thomas Seabrook. After his death she married Thomas Whitlock

Another Ancestry Researcher has suggested some information which is circumstantial but does give food for thought. I'm entering it here.

Mary died 1735.

MFL notes (01 JAN 2011): I believe my ancestress Mary ___, mother of Rev. John Bray could be Mary Compton, d/o William Compton who settled ca. 1645 in Gravesend, Long Island (then in New Amsterdam, New Netherlands). This is based on circumstantial evidence. Note that in 1645 Thomas Whitlock, along with William Compton, joined Lady Deborah Moody's Gravesend (Long Island) sanctuary (now the Bronx, New York City), New Netherlands. William Compton (Lot 32) and Thomas Whitlock (Lot 38) knew each other as neighbors holding similar religious beliefs. Mary Compton, after being widowed twice (Richard Bray in 1665 / Thomas Seabrook in 1675) accepted the marriage proposal of her former neighbor Thomas Whitlock, recently widowed by the death of his wife. (More details are given below.) A question yet to answered: How did Mary Compton meet her 1st husband Richard Bray? Many researchers list Mary as the wife of Thomas Seabrook and Thomas Whitlock, but so far I find very few gedcoms (other than mine) listing her first marriage to Richard Bray (Richard and Mary Bray were parents of the well known Rev. John Bray c.1661-1716). A land transaction deed signed 13 AUG 1689 in Middletown, Monmouth Co., NJ by Rev. John Bray and his mother Mary Whitlock proves that Mary was married three times: 1st to Richard Bray (father of Rev. John Bray), 2nd to Thomas Seabrook, 3rd to Thomas Whitlock. More information is sought.
Further research convinces me that Richard Bray's wife Mary = d/o William Compton I, an associate of the well-known Lady Deborah (Dunch) Moody. Lady Moody was a "maverick": a deeply religious person (reared to think for herself) who refused to have her infant son Henry baptised in the Church of England. She sympathized with both Anabaptists and Quaker beliefs without officially joining them.

Mary's first husband Richard Bray was killed by Indians in OCT 1665 in Lynn, Essex Co., MA, leaving Mary a widow with two very young children, John (the future Rev. John Bray) and Mary. Mary (Compton) Bray remarried twice: 2nd ca. 1667 to Thomas Seabrook (killed by Indians in 1675) and 3rd ca. 1676 to Thomas Whitlock (another associate of Lady Moody). Mary's son John Bray - the future Baptist preacher - was about 5 years old at this time. By 1683 Thomas and Mary Whitlock resided in Middletown, Monmouth Co., NJ, when Mary's son John Bray was about 21 years of age. John's stepfather Thomas Whitlock, a pioneer Baptist leader in New Jersey, doubtless influenced his stepson. It makes sense to me that Rev. John Bray, an early Baptist leader in Colonial New Jersey, was reared by parents of like mind.

- William Compton of Monmouth Co., NJ by posted 12 APR 2000 (URL: http://boards.ancestry.myfamily.com/surnames.compton/6.12.161.162/m...): The author lists Mary Compton as wife of 1) Thomas Seabrook and 2) Thomas Whitlock; she was seeking evidence.

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/bray/1103/

Finally, the following record from the Baptist Church records of Middletown was used by Stillwell to support the identification of Ann Bray as the daughter of Thomas and Mary Seabrook:

1724/5.Mary Whitlock, widow, dying left a sum of money to her grandsons, Andrew and Daniel Bray, which with money belonging to Peter Bowne, was lent to Thomas Cox.

It is easy to be misled by this deed of gift, since Mary is leaving money only to Andrew and Daniel, who were Ann's children.From this fact Stillwell wrongly deduced that Ann was Mary Seabrook's daughter.However, in the light of the above evidence, it is clear that Rev. John Bray was Mary Bray/Seabrook/Whitlock's son.Who Ann's real parents are, cannot be said.

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/bray/1103/

From the above documents, the following chronology can be deduced:

• 1657.Richard Bray first appears in NH records.
• c1657-1666 (in all likelihood).John Bray and Mary Bray are born.
• 1666.Richard Bray dies, and wife Mary is named administratrix of his estate.
• c1666-1670.Mary Bray remarries, to Thomas Seabrook, and they remove to Westchester, NY>
• c1670.Daniel Seabrook is born to Thomas and Mary.
• c1675.Thomas Seabrook dies, and Mary Seabrook remarries Thomas Whitlock of Westchester, NY.
• c1683-1686.Thomas and Mary Whitlock first appear in Middletown, NJ.This is also when John Bray first appears in Middletown records.
• bef. 1694.John Bray marries Susanna ?.
• bet. 1707-1713.John Bray marries Anna ?, the widow of Gov. Andrew Bowne.
• c1716.Rev. John Bray dies.
• c1724.Mary Whitlock dies, leaving a legacy to her grandsons Andrew and Daniel Bray.

I have no idea what Mary Bray/Seabrook/Whitlock's maiden name was.The key to that lies in England, in all probability.It is most likely that Richard and Mary emigrated from Southwest England, where the Bray name is concentrated, as others have noticed.But the fact that Richard and John are the two most common names in the Bray families of England doesn't help us any!

The Monmouth County Historical Society has a Seabrook file. It contained information said to be compiled from family records and from a Seabrook grave plot in the Fair View Cemetery, Red Blank NJ.

Thomas Seabrook was killed in an Indian Raid in Westchester NY. He had already purchased land in the Monmouth County, NJ but not moved the family there. Mary Seabrook married a second time to Thomas Whitlock. They moved the family to Shoal Harbor, NJ and built a house that Ann was raised in. It was known as the Seabrook Homestead. Descendants of the Seabrook family lived in the house into the early 1900's. On the material copied at the Monmouth County Historical Society was a note "Spy House". It was probably referring to the Seabrook Homestead. Shoal Harbor was renamed Port Monmouth. The material went on to say that "the house is still standing, though the property between it and the Bay have been washed away."

The property has not washed away. The house is now called Seabrook-Wilson House. It is a learning center and folk museum. It sits on Shoal Harbor in Port Monmouth, and has a few acres with parking lot, picnic tables and kept grounds. The museum reflects the history of the Bayshore farmers of the sea and land.

Among the "Calendar of New Jersey Records" (i.e., "East Jersey Deeds, Etc., Liber E.") appears the entry "1689 Aug. 31. Bond. John Sleeper of Exeter, Hampton Shire, New England, to John Bray of Midletown, for the payment of the purchase-money for a lot bo't of said Bray. 409" (see William Nelson, ed., Patents and Deeds and Other Early Records of New Jersey, 1664-1703. Baltimore, MD: Reprinted for Clearfield Company, Inc., by the Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1997, p. 237). A copy of this actual document (abstracted or synopsized above by Nelson) was obtained by me in 2008 from the Rockingham County, New Hampshire's Registry of Deeds (Book A, Page 80). I have scanned and transcribed it here in its entirety for, from it, we not only have the signatures of John Bray and his mother, we also, (1) confirm "Mary M. Whitlock" was, indeed, John Bray's mother (i.e., Mary Bray-(Thomas) Seabrook-(Thomas) Whitlock); (2) his mother's middle initial was "M."; (3) the "consent" of John's mother was required, reaffirming this property at Exeter was among that involved in the settlement of his father's ("Richard Bray") estate (following his death - recorded as "Richard Brear" - which occurred between 26-28 Oct 1665 at Lynn, MA) in the Massachusetts Bay Colony courts (as "Richard Brey") between Apr 1666 and Oct 1666 (where this estate was awarded by the court for administration at Exeter by "John Gilman, Moses Gilman, and Jonathan Thing" until the children come of age); (4) knowing both the children (John and Mary "Brey" or Bray) were alive as of the court's Oct 1666 record, almost 23 years had passed before John and his mother sold the land at Exeter; (5) the 80 acres ("fourscore acres"), for "twenty pounds currant mony of this Province," exceeded the "30 acres" of record at Exeter that were given to Richard Bray on 10 Oct 1664 (see Charles Henry Bell's History of the Town of Exeter, New Hampshire. Exeter: The Quarter-Millennial Year, 1888, p. 59, 135); (6) John Bray and his mother were in residence at Middletown, Monmouth County, East New Jersey as of 1689; and (7) this 31 Aug 1689 land transaction was acknowledged (signed) 8 months later in the Province of New Hampshire on 14 Apr 1690. x22zero x22zero originally shared this on 29 Mar 2016 digital image

—-

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-539657

Mary (unknown) Whitlock (abt. 1640 - abt. 1724)

Mary Whitlock formerly [surname unknown] aka Bray

Born about 1640 in New York Colony [uncertain]

Daughter of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]

[sibling%28s%29 unknown]

Wife of Richard Bray — married [date unknown] [location unknown]

Wife of Thomas Seabrook — married about 1667 (to 1675) in Dover, New Hampshire

Mother of Mary Bray and John Bray

Died about 1724 at about age 84 in Middletown Township, Monmouth, New Jersey [uncertain]

Unknown-539657 created 21 Dec 2020 | Last modified 22 Apr 2022

Biography

It is unknown when Mary Bray, Seabrook, Whitlock was born or where. I am basing her possible date of birth only on the first document found regarding John Bray (her son) receiving land in Middletown, N.J. in August 1684 which was on the same exact date Thomas Whitlock received land. If John Bray was 21 yrs in 1684 his birth year would be on or about 1663. Subtracting 21 yrs from that estimated Mary Bray's birth year as on or about 1642.

Clarence Torrey questions the possible marriage year of 1645-1650 between Mary __________ and (1) Richard Bray and she married (2)__________Whitlock. It is possible he questions the marriage years based on a Richard Bray marrying Isabella, Rebecca, Rebella, Sabella (he apparently was unable to read the woman's name) He gives the marriage by Feb 1650/1. Under that he wrote "abt. 1646". He may have wondered if this was the same Richard Bray. It is widely known that Clarence Torrey made hand written notes of marriages as he found them over the years. It wasn't until after his death that those notes were organized and alphabetized. In the book of Torrey is also listed Thomas Seabrook m. Mary Bray before 1667. He listed Dover NH as the area they were in. [1]

In 1667 Richard Bray's estate in Exeter N.H. was settled in the Quarterly Court of Hampton with the division of the property between widow Mary Bray and her two children, John and Mary. There was a Thomas Seabrook listed as a jury member in 1666 the same year the widow Mary Bray was settling her husband's estate with the court.

In 1667 Thomas Seabrook and wife Mary, sold land in Oyster River, N.H. which was owned by Richard Bray and not a part of the estate settlement of the house and land located in Exeter, NH. At some point after this Thomas and Mary Seabrook moved to Westchester, L.I. Where he had bought land in 1664. He was killed in Westchester L.I. in 1675.

Sometime before 1684 Mary Seabrook married Thomas Whitlock of Westchester, L.I. They moved to Middletown, N.J.

In 1689 John Bray sold land in Exeter, N.H. with the consent of his mother, Mary (M her mark) Whitlock, both of Middletown, NH.[2]

There has been much debate over many years regarding Mary Bray. It has been said she was a Compton or Herbert by birth. But to this point I don't believe there's documented proof of either, only speculation. What is known by actual viewed documents is: 1) The settlement of the Richard Bray estate located in Exeter, NH naming Mary Bray, children John & Mary Bray in 1667. 2) Thomas Seabrook & wife, Mary, selling land in Oyster River, NH in 1667 that was owned by Richard Bray. 3) The death of Tho. Seabrook in Westchester L.I. in 1675. 4) Tho. Whitlock giving money to the orphan son, Daniel, of Tho. Seabrook by order of decree from the town of Westchester, L.I. in 1692. 5) Proof of the marriage of Tho. Whitlock to the widow Mary Seabrook by documents showing in 1688 Whitlock's settlement of land purchased by Tho. Seabrook but had never paid for by Seabrook. 6) The selling of land in Exeter, NH by John Bray and his mother, Mary Whitlock in 1689. 7) The memorandum found in the back of a Church book dated Nov. 20, 1811 states in 1724 Mary Whitlock left money to her two grandchildren; Andrew and Daniel Bray.

They were the parents of: John Bray and Mary Bray. [3][4] John Bray, who was under 21 in 1667, d 1716, m (1) Susanna ________(2) Anna Seabrook Bowne, widow of Andrew Bowne. The two children of Andrew & Anna Bowne Bray are not listed as grandchildren of Mary Whitlock. [5]

Mary b after1649 and under 18 in 1666.
Research Note

There is no information given by the Salisbury Court regarding the ages of Richard Bray's two children other then to say that John was under the age of 21 years and Mary was under the age of 18.[6]
There is no documentation in the land transaction of 1689 that Thomas was the given name of her husband on that she signed it as Mary Whitlock, mother of John Bray. However, the document states she and John Bray were of Middletown and during that time period there was only one known Mary Whitlock (the wife of Tho. Whitlock). A second Mary Whitlock is listed in church records later. Tho. Whitlock's son, John Whitlock married Mary LNU. In the church records they were listed as Mary Whitlock Sr. and Mary Whitlock Jr.

Sources

↑ Torrey, Clarence Almon. Bentley, Elizabeth F. Ed. New England Prior to 1700. Baltimore. Geneological Publishing Co,, Inc.:1985. Page 94. https://www.google.com/books/edition/New_England_Marriages_Prior_to...
↑ Stackpole, Everett Schermerhorn et al. History of the town of Durham, New Hampshire. Vol. 1. Durham? N.H. Pub. by vote of the town:1913. Page 46. https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofd01stac/page/46
↑ Batchellor, Albert Stillman, Ed. etal. Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire. Vol 1. 1635-1717. Concord. N. H. Rumbord PrintingCo:1907. Pages Pages xxiv, 86. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Probate_Records_of_the_Provinc...
↑ Ellis, Franklin. History of Monmouth county, New Jersey. Philadelphia. R. T. Pecke & Co.:1885, Page 815. https://archive.org/details/historyofmonmout00elli/page/815/mode/1up
↑ Stillwell, John Edwin. Historical and genealogical miscellany; Vol 2. New York. John Edwin Stillwell:1903-32. Page 262 https://archive.org/details/historicalgeneal02stil/page/262/mode/2up
↑ Batchellor, Albert Stillman, Ed. etal. Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire. Vol 1. 1635-1717. Concord. N. H. Rumbord PrintingCo:1907. Pages Pages xxiv, 86. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Probate_Records_of_the_Provinc... hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=will+of+richard+bray+1666&pg=PA86
New England Marriages Prior to 1700; Clarence Almon Torrey
Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Ma. Vol 3,
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044011362167&view=1up&...
https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/Essex/vol3/images/essex298.html pages 297 & 298
Old Times in Old Monmouth book page 106 Edwin Salter
History of Durham, page 45.

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Apr 6 2017, 10:26:17 UTC