William Woods

This William Wood is a bit of a best guess.

Reasoned as follows:

(1) It is clear from my own family records that I am descended from Jonathan and Annie Barrett.

(2) Going back up the tree (see this fairly responsible site

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~scwhite/barker/barker-slocum.html and perhaps others), I see:

"William Barker, son of James and Elizabeth of Dartmouth, married Amy Wood, daughter of William and Amy late of Middletown, R. I., Jan. 29th, 1756" Friends records of R.I., apparently quoted directly from the Rhode Island Quaker records.

So I went off looking for a William and Amy Woods.

(3) There are a lot of William Woods, but the only one close to this time that I can find that married an Amy (also Amey) is

Name: William WOOD Birth: 1675 in Rhode Island

Father: JOHN WOOD Jr. b: 1620 in England

Mother: MARY PEABODY b: ABT 1641 in Rhode Island

Marriage 1 Amy CLARKE b: ABT 1689 to CLARK, LATHAM WILBUR, HANNAH

some say (http://www.kindredkonnections.com/clarkgenealogy/CLARK-195.html) she was born in 1683, some 1689, some unknown, all say she died in 1726

Married: 13 MAY 1709

(4) This conveniently also happens to be in Rhode Island, as noted in the R.I. Friends records of the 1756 marriage. Per http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rinewpor/JohnWood.html ,

this William Wood was very likely from Middletown, R.I.

(5) The same Quaker record suggests that parents of Amy - or at least her Mom Amy/Amey) - were deceased as of 1756, so it is not impossible that they could have had Amy relatively late in their lives.

(6) 47 years from their marriage to the marriage of their daughter is not impossible. It is not unreasonable to speculate that Amey died giving birth the Amy (baby getting the same name is maybe a slight indicator)

(7) One would think that Amy did not have a previous marriage since she is still referred to by her maiden name in the marriage record.

(8) This mean Amy was 30 and unmarried (and, by the way, pregnant, since their son was born less then 6 months later) at the time of her wedding

(9) So you have Amy Wood, still single at (say) 30, marrying William Barker age approx 40, who had been married to Hannah Wood but a widower for 10 years (if there were intervening wives there is no record).

(10) They then had 4 children (John (our line), Caleb, mar. Sarah Eddy, William, Abraham). Certainly possible for a woman of 30, and the fact that they did not have more could be interpreted as supportive of her age at marriage.

(11) Summary Amey born 1689? married 1709 bears Amy born 1726 (Mom is 37) and married 1756.

(12) Could some of the children have been by Hannah? Need to check this out.