Nathaniel Stedman

Nathaniel Stedman

• Birth: Sep 9 1632 - Biddenden, Kent, England
• Death: Nov 10 1678 - Muddy River (Brookline), Norfolk County, , Massachusetts, Colonial America
• Parents: Isaac Stedman and Elizabeth Winchester
• Wife: 1) Sarah Hammond 2) unknown 3) Temperance Wills

Married twice (or three times)

1. Sarah Hammond about 1655

2. Temperance Willis or Wills

Family

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stedman-242

He married first Sarah Hammond by 1660. Sarah was baptized at Hingham, Massachusetts on September 30, 1640, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Cason) Hammond. [5] [3]

In Sarah's father Thomas Hammond's will, he indicates he had given 100 acres of farm land to his daughter Sarah Stedman and her husband Stedman -'in the time of her life', and that the property should be divided equally between her two daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth Stedman, 'which she left behind'. [6]

He married second, Temperance (___) by about 1665. [1]

Children

by Sarah

1. Sarah. [5]
2. Elizabeth. [5]

by Temperance

1. Nathaniel born c 1665; died at Muddy River on July 27, 1703; married Hannah (___). [5]
2. Hannah born c 1667; died at age 60 at Newton on August 7, 1737; married Robert Murdock at Roxbury on April 28, 1692. [5]
3. Mary born c 1670; married as his second wife, David Stowell on April 7, 1692 at Cambridge. [5]

Nathaniel died on November 9, 1678, aged about 50. [3]

Nathaniel died intestate and was administered on January 27, 1678/9, when his widow Temperance and Thomas Stedman posted bond. [7]

The initial inventory was assessed at L87 7s, but is noted to not include the value of lands, left in his father Isaac's will, not yet divided, as they died just six weeks apart. [7]

In July, 1679, a supplemental inventory included 240 acres of upland and meadow valued at L349; 9 acres of marsh at L 54 and movables at L6. [7]

Notes

From http://johnlisle.us/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I553&tree=sted...

Family of Isaac Stedman, originally of Biddenden, Kent, England who came to America on the Ship Elizabeth in 1636 and settling in Scituate, MA. He arrived with his wife Elizabeth and sons Isaac and Nathaniel.

Nathaniel was baptized in Biddenden on 9 September 1632. We assume that he moved from Scituate to Muddy River (now Brookline) in 1650.

He married Sarah Hammond, daughter of Thomas Hammond and Elizabeth Cason in Hingham, MA, about 1655. They lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, having removed from Muddy River. They had daughters Elizabeth Stedman, born about 1655, and Sarah Stedman born about 1657.

[Note: Elizabeth is not the Elizabeth Stedman who married Thomas Dunk in Saybrook, CT. That was the widow of Lt. John Stedman of Wethersfield, CT, who died in King Philip's war in December 1675. She was his second wife and her maiden name was Elizabeth Blackleach.]

Nathaniel Stedman had three or four additional children: Nathaniel, born between 1665 and 1670, Hannah born 1665-1667 and Mary born about 1669; and maybe a Michael Stedman.

Sarah Hammond died before 1675 (based on her father's will - see below). No record of the exact date of her death has been found.

Nathaniel likely married Temperance Willis (Wills), baptized 13 Feb 1648 in Cambridge, daughter of Michael Willis and Mildred Wells (or maybe Ann Woods). I have seen no evidence to suggest that she was not born near to that time, although some references give 1636 as the date of her birth.

Nathaniel died 10 November 1678 in Muddy River or Boston, leaving a widow Temperance for whom we have no record of her death or re-marriage. And some number of children. He did not leave a will.

The Boyd Patterson Ancestry (1967) ( NEHGS (s-640F/A.123)) by H. Minot Pittman, FASG, and Katherine Patterson Boyd Hunt is a source for the marriage of Nathaniel with a Temperance. The administration of his estate was granted to his widow Temperance in Suffolk county Probate Court, 27 January 1677/78.

Although we have found no proof that Temperance was Temperance Willis, it is likely because the name was uncommon at the time in Boston area.

The commonly ascribed date of her marriage to Nathaniel Stedman is "1664". I have never found a source for that date and believe it to be an estimated date based on the birth dates of the children commonly assigned to her.

A number of Isaac's family died that year. Isaac died 19 Dec 1678; Isaac, Jr. may have died in November 1678; Thomas Hammond, Jr., husband of Isaac's daughter Elizabeth died 20 October 1678. Maybe other family members that cannot be further traced also died at this time.

I can find no record of a marriage or death for Elizabeth or Sarah. Maybe they died in the 1678 diseases? The record of the land they inherited from their grandfather may tell us something.

Mary married David Stowell on 6 April 1692 in Cambridge and died 27 Sept 1724. The record of her descendants is long - and poorly documented; however, she is thought to be an ancestor of Richard King of Maine and Rufus King of New York. I am looking for data on this family.

Her sister Hannah married Robert Murdock on 28 April 1692 in Roxbury. She died about 17 August 1727 in Newton and was the matriarch of a large family that has been well documented.

Her brother Nathaniel seems to have died, unmarried about 1703.

Nothing is known of Michael; however, based on his name, it would seem likely that he was the son of Temperance as Michael was her father's name, and Michael is not an otherwise popular name in the Stedman family. [In fact, among my records, I have only one other Michael Stedman and I believe that he is a subscriber to this list.] He may have died young. One source gives his birth as 1667 or 1669 at Brookline, MA.

References

1. GEDCOM Note. From Ancestral File (TM), data as of 2 January 1996.
2. http://johnlisle.us/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I553&tree=sted...
3. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stedman-242 Cites
   1. Anderson, Robert C. Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VI, R-S, NEHGS, Boston, Massachusetts, 2009 p. 498- 504 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012.)
   2. Stedman: Genealogical Research in England in: The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 66, NEHGS, Boston, Massachusetts, 1912 p. 73: 76-77
   3. Wakefield, Robert S. The Family of Isaac Stedman (1) of Scituate and Muddy River Massachusetts in: The American Genealogist, Volume 69, New Haven, Connecticut, 1994, p. 155-9 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .)
   4. Hotten: James C. The Original Lists of Persons of Quality; Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; Serving Men sold for a term of years; apprentices; children stolen; maidens pressed; and others who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700 : with their ages and the names of the ships in which they embarked, and other interesting particulars; from mss. preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, England, London, England, 1874, p. 50: 68
   5. Wakefield, Robert S. Additional Children of Nathaniel (2) Stedman of Muddy RIver, Massachusetts in: The American Genealogist, Volume 71, New Haven, Connecticut, 1996, p. 85-6 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .)
   6. Case 10251: p. 1-3: Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871, Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized mages provided by FamilySearch.org)
   7. Case 1035: p.1-7: Suffolk County, MA: Probate File Papers. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2017. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized mages provided by FamilySearch.org)