Ipswich Mary (cont'd)

Here is my present opinion about Ipswich Mary. It is gleaned from my recent research that I am about to let go of, so I want to put everything I know here now, so that I can work on it one step at a time.

First, I believe Mary, John the Younger's full sister, is the mother of William and of our line which descends basically from William (~1727) and William (~1778). From those two there is a clear path to Joseph, Warren, Washington, etc. and to most of the people who might be reading this. The Northern Leveretts.

So this Mary was born in 1674 or earlier to Sarah Payton and Hudson Leverett, and when Sarah died she was raised as a stepdaughter out in Roxbury with Hudson and Elizabeth Gannett. Out there she disappeared, except that there's a Mary who surfaced marrying a Johnathan Moulton in Wenham in 1713, and dying in Wenham 1728. Meanwhile in here is the William (~1698) who married Mary Whiteridge in Boston (1715) and had a daughter Phebee (1716), then dropped out of sight. I believe William (~1698) is Mary's child.

Now my first job is to figure out how this Mary had an out-of-wedlock child, and hid him for fifteen years, when he was a Leverett male and she was the sister of the President of Harvard. How exactly does that work? I have two theories: 1) she brought him up in Roxbury, and 2) she brought him up in Wenham or perhaps Ipswich.

Under theory #1, it makes some sense because the family had a lot of land out there, they could stay under the radar, and family in town could help her. When she did move to Wenham (1713) it would only be for a few years; he would be ~15; he would be unhappy or unwilling to settle up there; he could meet his bride up there (all Whiteridges seemed to be from the Wenham/Salem/Ipswich area); but he would bring her back to town where he could live in the old family plot. Or perhaps straight to Cambridgeport/Chelsea.

He did seem to move to Chelsea at some point. They had Phebee (1716) but possibly a Mary who has been documented as growing up, marrying, moving to New Haven, having a baby, and dying. The interesting thing here is that I have actually seen a record of a Mary being born in Chelsea, in an old Chelsea birth record, but have been unable to find it again; it dropped from sight. Presumably William (~1727) would be his last child as there are no other records of Leveretts in Chelsea.

One advantage of connecting these is that it fits a familiar pattern. Young William grows up in Chelsea and meets the Deacon's daughter, Rachel Watts, and they marry in 17 something I'm not sure. There could be an extra generation in here if you believe strictly in the 16 rule, which is that because of lack of birth control and natural forces the vast majority of families started when kids were sixteen and not later, like say give the guy ten years before he picks a bride. No, William and Rachel are starting at 16 probably, having twins, having a few more, experiencing rough times, ending up out in Needham. During the Revolution.

There's a guy, Spencer Phips, adopted son of William Phips, governor of the colony, who died near 1698. This guy bought land in Cambridgeport, which I believe counts as Chelsea, or at least close. He bought it in 1706 or thereabouts, and, because he was from near Wenham, he traveled a lot and because he had money, he could be responsible for helping William resettle or getting Mary up out of Boston and into Wenham in the first place. I am not clear about ages but I found that there was a connection between the Leveretts and the Phips family that may have been important here. Why else would he move to Chelsea? Someone had to make it possible and even desirable. I might read his biography.

I need to find more information about the Mary who ended up in New Haven.
I need to find that birth notice from ancient Chelsea birth records.
I need to read up on Spencer Phips and Cambridgeport.
I need to figure out why one would move to Wenham or Ipswich in 1698 or later, in 1713. How would one encounter a Johnathan Moulton, landowner and widower with a few too many orphaned kids on his hands?
I need to track down the dates more accurately so I know how old William was, when he married, etc.\

Note: After writing this I made a simple map search, and found that Cambridgeport is not to be confused with Chelsea. They are not near each other and in fact would be a long walk. Much of what I said above still needs to be looked into. He ended up in Chelsea, that's for sure. Lots of family connections and possible land in Cambridgeport, that's true also. But even Malden is a different part of town. People didn't move freely between them those days. If he found that Deacon's daughter he had to be in Chelsea for some reason and I hope to find the reason. It wasn't Spencer Phips.