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Mary Oliver (Higgins)

Birthdate:
Birthplace: Eastham, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Bay Colony, British Colonial America
Death: January 23, 1728 (75)
Elzabethtown, Union, New Jersey, British Colonial America
Immediate Family:

Daughter of Richard Higgins and Mary Whitehead
Wife of Samuel Oliver
Mother of David Oliver, Sr.; Mary Moore and John Oliver
Sister of Mary Snow; William Higgins; Jediah Higgins, I; Zeruiah Ezra Higgins; Anne Pridmore and 9 others
Half sister of Jonathan Higgins; Benjamin Higgins and John Yates, Jr.

Managed by: Erica Howton
Last Updated:

About Mary Oliver

This is

not the "Mary Higgins" that married Joseph Snow

in 1670, because that woman lived in Eastham, Cape Cod, Massachusetts Bay province, New England, and had 11 children there between 1671 and 1694, all being sons and daughters of Lt. Joseph Snow. Therefore she could not have been the "Mary Higgins" who married Samuel Oliver in about 1682 in Elizabethtown, Union Co., New Jersey, and had 10 children, all by Samuel Oliver, between 1683 and 1723.

Similarly, she could not be the "Mary Higgins" who married William Looker, Sr., in Piscataway, New Jersey, in 1673 and had their son, William Looker, Jr., there in 1675, because that woman was declared dead in 1682 when her brother and sister posted a bond for her estate, in Piscataway.[1]

The Mary Higgins Oliver of this profile was born in or about July 1657, in Massachusetts, and died in January 1729, in Elizabethtown, Union County, New Jersey. She was the mother of 10 children, all by Samuel Oliver, whom she married around 1682.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Higgins-215

Mary (Higgins) Oliver (1657 - 1729)

Mary Oliver formerly Higgins

Born Jul 1657 in Plymouth Colony, (Massachusetts), New England [uncertain]

Daughter of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]

[sibling%28s%29 unknown]

Wife of Samuel Oliver — married 1682 in Elizabethtown, Middlesex County, New Jersey

Mother of Dorcas (Oliver) Conger Died 23 Jan 1729 in Elizabethtown, Union County, New Jersey

Profile last modified 4 Jan 2021 | Created 14 Sep 2010

This page has been accessed 1,261 times.

Sources

http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/gen/report/rr05/rr05_292.html#P130501 and http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/r/i/c/Stanton-G-Richards.... Note: this last reference has disappeared off-line between 2014-2016. American Marriages Before 1699. Ancestry.com. Orem, UT: MyFamily.com, Inc., 1997. Original data: Clemens, William Montgomery. American Marriage Records Before 1699. Pompton Lakes, NJ: Biblio Co., 1926. : Date: 29 Sep 2005 Find A Grave Memorial# 7342219 Mary Oliver Individuals from Chrisman Pedigree, page 42 - Richard Higgins. States he had a daughter, Mary Higgins, who married Samuel Oliver (no dates - and no source info). Richard Higgins, A Resident and Pioneer Settler at Plymouth and Eastham, Massachusetts, and at Piscataway, New Jersey, and his descendants, Katharine Elizabeth Chapin Higgins. page 54 Acknowledgements

WikiTree profile Higgins-3173 was created by David Sylvester through the import of Snow-Higgins.ged on Jan 15, 2015.


  1. http://archive.org/stream/richardhigginsre00higg#page/40/mode/2up

Name Mary Higgins

Birth 27 Sep 1652, Eastham, Barnstable Co., MA

Death 23 Jan 1728/1729, Elizabethtown, Union Co., NJ

  • Father Richard Higgins (1603-1675)
  • Mother Mary Yates? (~1627-~1680)

Married

  1. about 1682 to Samuel Oliver b: 14 APR 1662 in Stamford, Fairfield, CT,

son of William Oliver b: in England & Mary Ackerly

Children

  1. Sarah Oliver b: 1690 in Elizabethtown, Union, NJ
  2. Samuel Oliver b: ABT 1686 in Elizabethtown, Union, NJ
  3. Mary Oliver b: ABT 1688 in Elizabethtown, Union, NJ
  4. David Oliver b: ABT 1692 in Elizabethtown, Union, NJ
  5. Jonathan Oliver b: ABT 1699 in Elizabethtown, Union, NJ
  6. John Oliver b: in Elizabethtown, Union, NJ
  7. Elizabeth Oliver b: in Elizabethtown, Union, NJ
  8. Mercy Oliver b: in Elizabethtown, Union, NJ
  9. Dorcas Oliver b: in Elizabethtown, Union, NJ
  10. Abigail Oliver b: in Elizabethtown, Union, NJ

Notes: The probate records of Essex County, N. J., state that Thomas Higgins and Samuel Oliver, his uncles, were appointed guardians of Richard Higgins, son of Zerah Higgins. This record is probably the only source of the view, held by the late Professor Wynans, an excellent genealogist, that Mary Higgins married Samuel Oliver. Rev. E. B. Stockton also holds this view, which is adopted in this volume.

Another view is that held by Mr. Orra E. Monnette, who states that Mary Higgins married William Looker of Elizabethtown, had a son William and died after Aug. 20, 1682. He bases his view upon the following, a bond on record at Trenton, N. J., dated Aug. 20, 1682, which recites that "We Mary Higgins Spinster and Eliakim Higgins carpenter, both of the Towne of Piscataway in Ye Province of East Jersey do stand & are firmly bounden & obliged unto Richard Smith, Constable, . . . The condition of this obligation is such That Whereas the within bounden Mary Higgins and Eliakim hath brought unto the sd Towne of Piscataway a Laime and distracted (insane) woman, the wife of one William Looker, late of Elizabeth Towne, Brewer . . ." Later on in the bond she is called Mary Looker. The bond was witnessed by John Gilman and Edward Slater, neighbors of the Higgins family, and was given to relieve the town of Piscataway from responsibility for her support. 

In spite of the usual meaning of the word "spinster," Mr. Monnette has published the opinion that the meaning of this bond is that Mrs. Mary (Yates) Higgins, widow of Richard, and her son Eliakim Higgins were here obliging themselves to support her daughter Mary who had married William Looker and had fallen into physical and mental misfortune. The use of the word "spinster" and the fact that Mrs. Mary (Yates) Higgins seems to have been temporarily at Eastham during this very summer and probably at the very month when the bond was signed seem to us to be fatal to Mr. Monnette's interpretation. So, too, is the absence of any relationship stated in the bond as existing between Mary and Eliakim Higgins and the unfortunate Mary Looker. The correct interpretation seems to be that Mary Higgins, who had not yet become the wife of Samuel Oliver, united with her brother Eliakim Higgins in the charitable care of an unfortunate woman not related to them by blood. (1)

Sources

  1. http://archive.org/stream/richardhigginsre00higg#page/40/mode/2up
  2. Records at Eastham, Mass., and at Trenton, N. J.; Rev. E. B. Stockton in Newark Evening News of May 5, and May 19,1917; Mr. Orra E. Monnette in New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, October, 1916, and January, 1917

Links

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Mary Oliver's Timeline

1652
September 27, 1652
Eastham, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Bay Colony, British Colonial America
1684
1684
Elizabethtown, Essex County, Province of East Jersey
1692
November 12, 1692
Elizabethtown, New Jersey, Colonial America
1703
1703
1728
January 23, 1728
Age 75
Elzabethtown, Union, New Jersey, British Colonial America