Disputed Native American Relations
The Myth
According to charlatan Franklyn Bearce:
Josiah Bearce Ist son of Joseph Bearce , Marthe Taylor, born Barnstable 1690, 3/8Blood Wampanoag Indian; Married first at Edgartown M.V.I. Zerviah Newcomb with whom he only lived a short time be fore they seperated, and by Whom He Had No Children see, (Otis papers in Swifts Old Barnstable Families ) and records at the Cape whitch state that his children were born to Josiah Bearse and his wife Mary, not Zerviah;
This is true as Zerviah herself stated in the codgial she wrote in her old age after the going to sleep of Josiah Bearce 1st at New Fairfield Conn, whitch she chose to tittle A True Chronical of The Bearce Family. This documnet was a supplement of Zerviahs Dairy.
Josiah moved in 1743 to Greenwitch Conn, and then in 1747 to New Fairfield Conn where and Zerviah lie sleeping Second he married under pagan Indian rights at Mashpee Cape Cod the mother of his 11 children, Mary Sissell born at Freetown Mass, full blood dau of, Isaac Sissell, Momenet Sagamore, of praying Indian Town; Isaac Sissell was a full blood son of a M.V.I. Sachem, and Mary Tuspuquion, dau of Benjiman Tuspuquion, and his wife Weecome squaw Sachem; Mary Tuspuquion was a grandaughter of the Black Sachem and Amie dau of Massasoit; Mary Sissell was a full blood and my tradition states very comly and fair to look upon, with finely chisseled features, and endowed with second sight, an Indian clairvoint, a spiritualist medium who could tell the future. She was 5 years younger than Josiah Bearce 1st, and lies sleeping at Mashpee Cape Cod where she passed out in child bed, and but for this Manuscript, unknown and forgotten, this dear Indian anscestor of ours;Note Josiah BeArce Ist had II children with Mary Sissell and none with his legal Wife, Zerviah Newcomb. Zerviah was steral as she stated in her supplement, and accepted her lot as an act of providence and the will of God. In his early life Josiah 1st followed the sea and traded between Barnstable and M.V.I. where he met and married Zerviah in I7I6, who lived most of her life at Edgartown; The church dismissed her to the Cape in 1742, Josiah and Zerviah quarreled, Josiah wanted Zerviah who taught school to reside at the Cape, she refused; Josiah wanted children Zerviah could bear none; Zerviah,s kin and the whites at M.V.I. did not like Josiah 1st on account of his Romany and Indian blood and his religeous beliefs; He was a seperatist, and dissenter; Zerviah was orthodox; Josiah was jelous and in a fit of rage he left Zerviah; They consented to separate and live apart; For some years Zerviah continued to reside at M.V.I. where she taught school; She was a fairly well educated woman of her time; Josiah resided for some years at Mashpee, where Mary Sissell passed out in childbirth and lies sleeping;
After Mary Sissell went to sleep at Mashpee, Josiah 1st left with a family of young and half grown children pached up his differences with Zerviah, who consented to live with him again,and be a step-mother to his children; He left the resavation at Mashpee with his family and settled at Barnstable; There was much unfavorable talk at the time by people at the Cape, and in order to escape the scandle and wagging tongues, Josiah and Zerviah desided to migrate. Zerviah orthodox obtained a transfer from the church at the cape, and with their family they removed first to Greenwith Conn, and finally settled at New Fairfield, where under the clever management of Zerviah who was an able woman with a good head for buisness head, the material property holdings of Josiah 1st and Zerviah,s stepchildren increased; Zerviah's Dairy was written on several differant typs of paper some of not very good quality; The codgial supplement was on the same kind of paper and in fairly good condition when Mary Caroline Bearce sister of Iron Face was a girl and lived at Penfield, N.Y. with her brother James Monroe Bearce, at the home of their Grandparents Josiah Bearce 3rd and Freelove Canfield;
The original Dairy and supplement was handed down to James Monroe Bearce after Josiah 3rd his grandfather went to sleep at Penfield N.Y.My great aunt Mary Caroline Bearce Roe married a cousin Elisha Rau, was a dear old squaw when I was a boy, knew the contents of the Dairy and had a fac-simil copy of the supplement A True Chronical of The Bearce Family written in the old shaky hand of Josiah Bearce 3rd at Penfield N.Y. I saw this copy when a boy, and my grandfathers fac-simil copy written by the hand of my grandmother Mary Ellen Tuttle Bearce at Allegan, when I was a young man of 19 years of age and went through and discussed the contents with my grandmother Mary Ellen shortly before she migrated West to Puget Sound country ; Josiah Bearce 2nd and Josiah Bearce 3rd both went to school to Zerviah and received instructions from her at New Fairfield Conn; Zerviah lived to be close to 90 years old. Bearce Newcomb lays great stress on the grave marker at New Fairfield Conn whitch reads July 11, 1719 Ann Bearce dau of Josiah Bearce and his wife Zerviah,; This is true Zerviah was the legal wife of Josiah and the step mother of Ann, but the blood mother of Ann and the rest off Josiah,s children was Mary Sissell; July 11th 1719 was the birth year of Ann Bearce at old Barnstable; Ann Bearce assisted Zerviah in the compiling of Zerviah,s supplement and was of much assistance to her as she herself stated in her Dairy. Bearce is also incorrect on Mary Wilder who with her mother come in the Confidence on the same trip that brought Austine to these Shores , she married an Underwood in I640 the year the first child of Austine and Mary Hyanno was born; See records at the Cape Puritan Church."
