Tabitha Abdy

Some facts about Tabitha's early life updated based on research published 7.23 in NEHGS, see article attached to sources for her father Robert Reynolds of Boston's profile.

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Biography

“The History and Some of the Descendants of Robert and Mary ..., Volume 1.” Page 41. GoogleBooks

2. TABITHA REYNOLDS (Mrs. Matthew Abdey). Tabitha’, probably the second child of Robert and Mary Reynolds, 1632, of Boston, was born, we estimate, about 1625 in England, the year that King Charles I, ultimately to lose his head to Cromwell, succeeded King James I. “Ta-' bytha,f ye wife of Mathew Abdey deceased,” died in Boston, 1661; though no month is given, her name is listed between other deaths of May 11 and May 30, 1661. We imagine she is buried in King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston. She was mentioned second among the daughters in Robert Reynolds' will proved in 1659.

When the family came to America, probably 1632, Tabitha was about seven, and her girlhood was probably spent in Boston.
When about 21, she married in Boston, 1646, Matthew Abdey (Abda, Abdy or Abbey), who was a Boston fisherman. It was probably upon their marriage that Robert Reynolds gave them a generous lot fronting on Milk Street (45 by 34 feet) out of Robert's original homestead at Washington and Milk Streets. Matthew sold this April 5, 1682, twenty years after Tabitha had died, to Laville Simpson. Next west and south of him was his brother-in-law Captain Nathaniel Reynolds; and next east was Nathaniel's stable lot and the old well. What kind of a house Matthew had there, we do not know.

Tabitha died fifteen years after marriage when her family seems to have been quite small, and Matthew married second, Alices Cox, dau. of Moses Cox of Hampton, May 24, 1662, ceremony by Dep. Gov. Richard Bellingham. Matthew was in Boston Dec. 12, 1681 (tax list), same precinct as Nathl. Reynolds),|| but in later life he may have removed to Cambridge, Mass., where it is certain his son Matthew, Jr., also a fisherman, spent most of his life. We know little of Abdey, but it would seem that he was very poor. He is mentioned Jany. 21, 1650, as owing money to Estate of Robert Button; also 1657-9 to Estate of Marstin Stebbin, victualler. Matthew, Sr., was probably born in 1626, though one record says he was 15 when he came in the ship Abigail, from England. The passenger list dated July 1, 1635, gives him age 15. Mentioned among early settlers of Essex at old Norfolk, June, 1669, aged 40, was a Matthew Abdy. An affidavit he signed May 17, 1654, Boston, says he was then “about 28.”

Serving in King Philip's War, 1676, was a Matthew Abdey, probably Tabitha's son rather than her husband. While in garrisont at Springfield, Mass., July 24, 1676, he assigned £12-2-00 pay to his family in Cambridge; also assigned £5-16-01 to them in Cambridge later. Though the published Boston town records name but three children, it is possible there were others. When Robert's will was written, 1658, it is clear there were only one son and “two daus.”, however. There is no Abda or Abdey genealogy; and the Abbe genealogy of the Connecticut family seems to know nothing of this immigrant.

Abdey Children:

• 16. Mary, b. May 24, † 1648, nothing further known.
• 17. Tabitha, b. Nov. 24, 1652, nothing further known.
• 18. MATTHEW, JR., b. between 1654-58; d. Cambridge, Mass., 1730. hese three children were mentioned in Robert Reynold's will 1658. Though Matthew Jr. m. thrice, no children survived him. In Cambridge, heg m. April 10, 1688, Mrs. Deborah Wilson. He was known as a witty, and odd but goodnatured character about Harvard Square. A considerable account of him is given in Bits of Harvard History by Samuel F. Batchelder, 1924, pp. 273-76. Deborah Stimson, daughter of Andrew & Jane, was b. England, Aug. 1637; m. (1) Robert Wilson, who d. about 1685; (2), Matthew Abdy, previous to 1695, who was b. about 1654, d. Cambridge, about 1730. Matthew had a second wife, named Ruth, who d. Cambridge, Dec. 10, 1762, aged 93. They probably lived on the southwest corner of Mt. Auburn and Holyoke Streets in Cambridge. His wife had three children by a previous marriage, all of whom lived to marry.

References

• http://trees.wmgs.org/getperson.php?personID=I24630&tree=Schirado cites
• [S37] Robert Charles Anderson, (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston,).
• [S352] S. F. Tillman, (Chevy Chase, Md., 1959)