Martha Hathaway

Martha died between 1683 and 1692. She has more information here: (click here).

She was married to John Hathaway in 1649 in Taunton, MA. Children were: John Hathaway Jr., Abraham Hathaway, Isaac Hathaway, Ephraim Hathaway, Abigail Hathaway, Rebecca Hathaway.

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The story of John Hathaway is very much tied to the story of Taunton. His father was an original settler, but it was John who really settled there as a young man and became an important player in the development of the community. In 1649 he was in Taunton. We have a record that on 20 October 1649 John Hathaway of Taunton was presented at Plymouth General Court for lending a gun to an Indian. He was cleared with an admonition. That same year twenty year old John married his first wife Martha in nearby Freetown. It is usually reported that she was the same age as John, and was the daughter of John Shepard and Frances Kingston. There is however a question of her ancestry and if her maiden name was really Shepard.

William Shepard was a fellow resident of Taunton. The March 1664 Plymouth Colony Records Archives Book (page 38) contains an entry where Will Shepard of Taunton, shoemaker, empowered "my loving brother John Hathaway of Taunton husbandman to take Care of all that I, William Shepard, have within Taunton or elsewhere in the sovereign King Charles Dominions and to dispose anything that I have for the best advantage of me and my Children." If Shepard should die then Hathaway was to divide all the property equally among Shepard's children, except that his eldest son Samuel should have a double portion of the lands, which was the custom of the time. The document makes no mention of Shepard's wife; the omission suggests though it does not prove, that she had already died.

This document, especially the phrase “my loving brother John Hathaway” is taken by many to indicate that Martha was William Shepard’s sister and therefore a “Shepard”. This is probably not true. It is believed that William Shepard was the son of John Shepard of Towcester England. The will of John Shepard of Towcester refers to his oldest son William as being “now in New England”. It goes on to list seven children, but there is no Martha among them. On April 11, 1936 an article was published in the Boston Transcript concluding from this Martha was not a Shepard. It proposed instead that William Shepard was married to a sister of John Hathaway. Some genealogies have gone so far to list Elizabeth Hathaway as William’s wife. Elizabeth was in fact John’s sister as evidenced by documents in England relative to Nicolas Hathaway, John’s father (see biography of Nicolas Hathaway on our web site.) There is however, no evidence that this Elizabeth ever traveled to the new world.

http://rtreeoflife.com/Biographies/John_Hathaway_1629-1705.pdf

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"Hathaways of America" by E. S. Versailles...shows strong evidence (in one place called "proof") that John's wife, Martha, was not daughter of John Shepherd. The surname was evidently based on a "power of attorney" record made by William Shepherd in which he referred to John Hathaway as "my loving brother". One researcher suggested that perhaps the reason for this was that William Shepherd had married one of John's unknown sisters.

http://www.morrell.ws/NAVWEB/ppl/b/f/b71e92f51fb1c2cc00f0c11edfb.html

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Feb 4 2016, 19:34:12 UTC

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Shepherd-1348