Mary Clarke

Biography

Mary Sherman was a daughter of Samuel Sherman and his wife Grace who immigrated to New England by 1636. She was born about 1633 in England. The date and place of her death are not known. She was living on 7 May 1662 at Marblehead, Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is not certain if she had children. However, a good case is made that Benjamin Clarke, of Plainfield was her son with her husband, Emmanuel Clarke, of Marblehead.

Research notes

Seen as baptized at First Church, Boston, but the source of this information is not identified.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Clarke-4766

From Wood, Michael Johnson. "The Earliest Shermans of Dedham Essex", New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume: 167 (2013), Whole Number 666, Pages 151-155.

Emanuel Clarke was a mariner of Marblehead (Massachusetts). Emanuel Clarke, aged about 45 years, was recorded in Essex County (Massachusetts Bay Colony) court records in November 1666. He appears in the records again in June 1669, when he was a defendant.[1]

He is inferred to be the husband of Mary (Sherman) Clarke, apparently of Marblehead, who filed a petition together with her brothers Samuell Sherman and Nathaniell Sherman, regarding the estate of their father, "Samuell Shearman long since deceased" of Ipswich (Massachusetts), that was accepted by the General Court of Election of the Massachusetts Bay Colony on 7 May 1662. Wood found that Emanuel Clarke was the only Clark(e) man recorded with a wife named Mary in Marblehead before 1700.[1]

The 1681 will of Mary’s uncle, Philip Sherman of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, provided for food and clothing for Benjamin Clarke until he reached age 21. Young Benjamin is inferred to be a relative of Philip Sherman who had been taken in after the death of his parents, and Mary (Sherman) Clarke is the only member of the Sherman family identified as having the name Clarke, so it is likely that she was the child's mother. This Benjamin is further inferred to be the Benjamin Clarke who first appears in records as an adult in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, in 1692. That this Benjamin Clarke gave the relatively unusual name Emmanuel to his second son (after naming his first son Benjamin) is an indication that Em(m)anuel probably was the name of Benjamin's father.[1]

From https://www.geneamusings.com/2014/04/getting-mary-as-right-as-possi...

Apparently, there is no marriage record for Samuel Sherman and Grace --?--, and the article lists their six children, including Mary Sherman, born in 1633. She married a Clarke (probably Emanuel Clarke of Marblehead) before 1662, and Emanuel Clarke died after June 1669 when he was a defendant in an Essex County, Massachusetts Quarterly Court Case. In addition, Mary Clarke, probably of Marblehead, was age 29 in June 1662 (so born in about 1633, probably in England) when her age was given in another Essex County Quarterly Court case. Emanuel and Mary (Sherman) Clarke left no probate records in Essex County, Massachusetts. See page 154 for this discussion.

From comment at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sherman-1635

This man [Samuel Sherman] died by March 1644/5, when his estate was inventoried. The Samuel Sherman who married Naomi Johnson was not him, but rather his son Samuel. The formatting of the 1870 NEHGR article is confusing, but if you read it carefully it becomes clear that the wife Naomi and the children Nathaniel, Samuel, and Samuel are connected with his son Samuel, not with this man. … The 1870 article does identify Naomi Johnson as his second wife, but Wood's analysis of the estate records indicates that (1) he was dead before that family was established and (2) he was survived by a son named Samuel, who joined with sister Mary Clarke in making a claim related to the estate in 1662.

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References

1. Wood, Michael Johnson. "The Earliest Shermans of Dedham Essex", New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume: 167 (2013), Whole Number 666, Pages 151-155.