Zerviah Bearse

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Newcomb-142

Zerviah was born in 1698/9. She is the daughter of Andrew Newcomb and Anna Bayes.

Married Nov 2 1716 Josiah Bearse, a native of Barnstable MA, farmer, b. Mar 10 1690, son of Joseph and Martha (Taylor) and grandson of Austin or Augustine Bearse, who left Southampton, England, Apr 24 1638, "in the good shipp the Confidence of London", for NewEngland and settled soon after at Barnstable. Josiah Bearse resided at East Barnstable, but was dismissed from the church there Dec 29 1734 to the church at Greenwich CT, to which place he moved soon after. In 1738 they removed to New Fairfield CT where he d. Aug 31 1753. The inscription on his wife's gravestone reads: "In memory of Zerviah Bearss died Sep 5th in the 91st year of her age 1789". Oct 31 1743 they sold her nephew, Bayes Newcomb, all rights on Martha's Vineyard.[1][2][3]

Children

1. Anna b. July 11 1719;
2. Josiah b. Feb 3 1720/1;
3. Eunice b. Jan 2 1723, d. Apr 6 1727;
4. Jonathan b. Nov 22 1724, d. Dec 2 1731;
5. Lois b. July 17 1726, m. Thomas Knapp;
6. b. Mar 10 1728/9 m. Jan 1 1754 Abigail Pickett of Danbury CT. she d. Feb 7 1756 and he m. 2nd Dec 9 1756 widow Esther (Lyon) Smith of Redding CT, she d. 1797 and he m. 3rd Aug 1801 Miss -- Pickett, who d. Feb 20 1842. he d. Dec 29 1814;
7. Eunice b. Feb 13 1732/3;
8. Joseph b 1734/5;
9. Benjamin b. 1736/7 m. Prudence -- and d. Mar 8. 1802;
10. Martha b. June 26 1738;
11. Mary b. May 8 1741.

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NOTE: Zerviah is implicated in a fraudulent 1935 genealogy which claims she kept a secret diary describing numerous Native American connections to the Bearse family, including a Native American mistress for her own husband, the supossed mother of her own children. See below and this analysis of the fraud. link

Added by E.C. Nickerson about my Ancestor: ote*: Josiah Bearse was 3/8 Wampanoag.1 Burial*: He was buried at New Fairfield, CT.1 Anecdote*: In his early life he followed the sea and traded between Barnstable and M.V.I., where he met Zerviah in 1716. Josiah and Zerviah quarreled. Zerviah did not want to reside at the Cape and he wanted her to. He wanted children and she could not have them. Her family and the whites at M.V.I. did not like him because of his Romany and Indian blood and his religious beliefs (he was a separatist and dissenter and she was orthodox). They separated after only a short time living together, but reunited to raise his children as their stepmother after their mother Mary died. Zerviah wrote "A True Chronical of the Bearse Family" as a supplement to her diary, in which she stated that the mother of all Josiah's children was Mary Sissell, even though she raised some of them for him after their mother died, and she and Josiah reunited. The diary was handed down to James Monroe Bearce. In 1743 she and Josiah moved to Greenwich, CT, and in 1747 to New Fairfield, CT. After Mary's death he had lived in Barnstable, and for some years he lived in Mashpee.1 Marriage*: He married Zerviah Newcomb, daughter of Lieutenant Andrew Newcomb (of Edgartown) and Anna Bayes, at Edgartown, M.V.I; 1st m. for Josiah, never dissolved, s.p.1,2,3 Marriage*: Josiah Bearse married Mary Sissell, daughter of Isaac Sissell , Momenet Sagamore, at Mashpee Cape Cod; 2nd m. for Josiah, a pagan m., and bigamous.1 Birth-Var: Alternatively, Josiah Bearse was born on 10 March 1689 at Barnstable, Barnstable Co., MA.4 Birth*: He was born on 10 March 1690 at Barnstable, Barnstable Co., MA.1,4,2 He was the son of Joseph Bearse and Martha Taylor.1,2 Death*: Josiah Bearse died on 31 August 1753 at New Fairfield, Fairfield Co., CT, at age 63.1,2 ?ECN/ based on

GEDCOM Note

At the first survey and original division of the Indian lands in what is now East Fall River, Isaac Sissell received for his share the 20th lot, containing 6 acres and 128 rods. That assignment was made about the year 1707. At the second survey, made by Zabedee Terry, of Freetown, in 1764, the 20th lot was reported as then being in the possession of Mercy and Mary, daughters of Isaac Sissell. At the date of the second survey, the 19th lot was reported to belong to "Esther Sampson and Sarah Squin," who were called "grandchildren of Benjamin Squamnaway." Doubtless the Benjamin Squamnaway was in fact Benjamin Tuspaquin. At the same time the 22d lot was reported to belong to Comfort and Thankful, grandchildren of "Benjamin Squannamay"; and this latter and Benjamin Squanunaway and Benjamin Tuspaquin I take it was the same person.

www.Massasoit.0catch.com

Mary was the daughter of Mary Tuspaquin and Isaac Sissell, a Praying Momenet Indian Sagamore at Freetown, (now East Fall River) Mass. She was born and raised at Freetown with her two sisters. Bearce describes her, according to tradition, as "very comely and fair to look upon, with finely chiselled features, and endowed with second Sight, an Indian clairvoyant, a spiritualist medium who could tell the future. She was five years younger than Josiah I."

Josiah Bearce I and Mary Sissell had eleven children but she died in childbirth at Mashpee, where she lies buried. Because the legal marriage of Josiah and Zerviah was recorded in the local church at Edgartown, many genealogists have recorded these as the children of Josiah and Zerviah, however Zerviah had no children and recorded in her own diary that she was sterile and she "accepted her lot as an act of providence and the will of God."

- Nebeker Family History, Nebeker, 1987

http://nebekerfamilyhistory.com

Zerviah Newcomb was the first wife of Josiah Bearce I, but not the Mother of his children. She does not appear on the pedigree chart as one of Rebecca Bearce's ancestors but, her life of service to her husband's children and the diary she kept of their ancestry warrant this chapter being included about her. The information on her Father and Grandfather is taken, in large measure, directly from Andrew Newcomb and His Descendants, by Bethuel Merritt Newcomb.

- Nebeker Family History, Lionel Nebeker, 1987

http://nebekerfamilyhistory.com