The Slovak Yankee

The Lamphere and Newton Conundrum

Over the last few weeks, Randy Seaver has discussed two of his brick walls, one on Thomas J. Newton and the other Devier Lamphere.  Bizarrely, these two surnames are also brick walls for my dear friend and great genealogist, Drew Bartley.  Go figure that one out.  Drew is the author of the English origins and definitive first three generations on the Lampheres. See NEHGR 153:131-40, 159:333-40, 160:47-59, 311 (English origins and three generation study. This is one continuous article despite the six year gap.  Then see NEHGR 160:112-17 (mother’s probable identification and ancestry).  He researched and wrote that article in order to see where his Lampheres fit into the larger family.  He never found the "big" clue.

So Drew can't get his Lampheres out of Vermont and back to Connecticut.  Randy's problem, although not insurmountable, is considerably more difficult in finding the biological parents of an adopted son in the 19th century.  Likewise, the two Newtons are stuck in the 19th century.  Randy's Newton is a Mass/Vermont/Maine mess whereas Drew's is a New York state/New Hampshire enigma.  

Lamphere is one of the worst surnames to research that I've come across because of the variation of spelling between La (n) or (m) (ph) or (f) (ee) or (e) or (ea) r (e).  Newton is one of those names that seem uncommon, but turns out to be more common than you think.  And for some reason, there are no good genealogies on the Newtons of New England.  Even I have two separate Newtons, both of which are 17th century. [Ellen, maiden name unknown Newton, wife of John Adams then Kenelm Winslow ca. 1598-1681 and Rev. Roger Newton ca. 1620-1683].  

Madness Monday: The Wills of Eli Clark, father and son

Wills are generally good things.  Most of our ancestors did not leave wills and those that did, well, they can be hard to find, and hard to interpret.

In my ongoing research into the Clark family of Durham, I certainly have the will of Deliverance Hanson which named one of her brothers as Eli Clark.  I began researching this Eli Clark.  As it turns out his will is rather annoyingly, dare I say, maddeningly, hidden.  Probate for New Hampshire up to 1771 is published and thereafter is done county by county.  However, those estates probated in the year 1771 can be anywhere.  Eli Clark (Jr. as it turns out) wrote a will and died between 11 November 1770 and 30 May 1771.  He lived in Lee in Strafford County, but the will was probated in Rockingham County as all wills had been up to then.  Only it is not part of the provincial probates that got published.  So a Strafford County family winds up in Rockingham County records.

Next, Eli Clark, Jr., together with his brother Benjamin were meant to be the executors of their father Eli Clark Sr.  Whether Sr. or Jr. dies first is a mystery.  However, Benjamin Clark appears and is named executors to both estates and this notice is very important since it does say the wills (plural) of Eli Clark and Eli Clark, Jr.   Digging through the paperwork, one finds the will of Eli Clark, Sr., which is never probated separately.  His will is dated 17 March 1763.  So both Eli Clark wills are under Eli Clark (Jr.) in a neighboring county.

To add to the annoyance, both men are great at naming all their daughters with their married names.  Eli Sr. had Deliverance Burnham, Elizabeth Bickford, and Abigail Glines.  I can only identify the last of these daughters.  I can't find the others for love or money.  I'm floored that no source on the descendants of Robert Burnham of Dover name Deliverance or her husband in such a way that I can identify them.  Eli Jr. had a daughter Hannah Foye.  I think I have her now.  

Madness Monday: The Clarks of Oyster River (Durham), New Hampshire

I descend from a number of early Quakers who lived in what would become Durham, New Hampshire.  The entire area, at the time, was Dover, and then referred to as Oyster River Parish.  This part of the New Hampshire wilderness in the late 17th century was attacked by Native Americans on numerous occasions.  Many people were killed and others were taken to Canada.  Some of the captives sometimes were ransomed back to New England, whereas others, mostly women, remained and married into French Canadian families.  This background is necessary to understand because of the lack of records for this area in that time period.  Some records were destroyed or lost in the attacks.  Some records don't exist because being a Quaker in N.H. at that time, although possible, was still technically illegal because up to 1692 (and for a while thereafter), New Hampshire was ostensibly part of Massachusetts.  In modern terms, the Quakers were on the down low. 

I think there are two Deliverance Clarks I have to untangle.  I descend from John Runnels and his first wife, Hannah Clark.  I wrote about this couple in my article, New Hampshire and Maine Descendants of William Reynolds of Cape Porpoise, New Hampshire Genealogical Record 25 (2008): 145-162.  Deliverance Hanson wrote a will dated 1 July 1766 and proved on 5 April 1773, in which she mentions her "cousin" Remembrance Clark, brothers James and Eli Clark, sister Mary Osborne, children of her sister Sarah Osborne, deceased, and children of her sister Hannah Renels (sic) deceased. This seems to be a complete family picture of this Clark family.  Deliverance notes deceased siblings as well as those alive, so there is no reason to believe she left out anyone.  We have marriage dates for all these siblings which we can use to date this family.  James married 16 January 1718 at Dover [NHGR 2:126] to Sarah Leighton; Eli was married before July 1719 to Elizabeth Huckins [N.H. Provincial Probate 32:95]; Mary married 10 June 1717 at Salem to Samuel Osborne, Jr.  [Salem VRs 4:145]; Sarah married at Salem also on 30 August 1705 to Samuel Osborne [Salem VRs 4:145]; and lastly Hannah married at Durham to John Runnels on 23 December 1718 [NEHGR 23:179].  

Assuming the standard age of men at marriage of 25 and women at 22, birth years would be: James, b. 1693, Eli, b. 1694; Mary b. 1695, Sarah, b. 1683, and Hannah b. 1696.  Deliverance, the writer of the will, seems to be married by 1714, and is probably b. ca. 1690 herself [making her 76 when writing her will and 83 or so when she died].  This fits nicely together.  Here's the problem:  supposedly these are all children of an Abraham Clark who is the [blank] Clark killed in a 1694 raid.  Well, that's not much of a problem.  You can certainly push some of the births back and fit in everyone nicely.

What you can't do is make Deliverance (Clark) Hanson, the wife of Nathaniel Lamos, which The Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire does (pp. 143, 409).  Nathaniel, son of Edward of Ipswich, Massachusetts, was born about 1650.  If you investigate him carefully, he has but two children: Nathaniel, b. ca. 1700 and Elizabeth b. 1698.  Therefore, the mother of these children must be born 1678 or earlier.  Nathaniel is alive in August 1713 when he deposed as being 60 years old, but was dead by 1721.  Deliverance is a Hanson when she witnessed a deed in 1714.  So, the presumption is a girl born say 1678, marries a man, 28 years her senior when but 19, has two children by him, he dies and within a year she remarries.  Then she writes a will when 90 or more mentioning all her siblings, but not her two children, one of which lived nearby?  I don't think so.

A Deliverance Clark is said to have been a creditor to the estate of Thomas Drew in 1694 (again GDMNH, but there is no primary evidence for this in New Hampshire Provincial Probate Papers).  It seems more likely (to me) that the wife of Nathaniel Lamos was also the wife of Abraham Clark who was killed in 1694.  She is born say 1658 and has the six Clark children between 1680 and 1694.  She then marries secondly Nathaniel Lamos and has two more children.  This leaves her daughter Deliverance Clark free to just marry Joseph Hanson and have no children and write the above-referenced will.

There is much going on here.  There are just enough records left to paint a sketchy picture, but not enough to bring the picture into focus.  In addition to the above-named people, we have at least these other unconnected characters:  Abraham Clark, the carpenter who was born about 1679 (deposed aged 59 in 1738) who is connected via land transactions.  He is the right age to be an older sibling of these Clarks, but since not mentioned in the will of Deliverance, doesn't seem to be.  He is possibly a cousin or do I actually have a case where someone was not mentioned in a will?  [It should be noted that her cousin Remembrance is actually her nephew, son of James.  This is proven by a deed dated 13 November 1767].  Also one Mary Clark married Bartholomew Stevenson on 10 October 1680 at Durham.  She would be the same generation as Abraham Clark the 1694 victim.  She names a son Abraham.  

One avenue of research I shall attempt is the Friend's records for Salem, Mass. where the two Clark sisters go to marry the Osborne brothers.  Perhaps upon entering the meeting there they gave some information as to their identities.   

Madness Monday: The Wife of James Quigley 1800-1885, Ireland to Sussex, New Brunswick

In the these three posts, I go over over the the paternal fourth great grandparents I'm missing.  The parents of Katharine Poliak, the mother of Alzbeta Tomecek, and the mother of Alzbeta Valuch. So that's four names missing out of 32 on the paternal half of my ancestry (i.e. 1/8 or 12.5% missing, or more positively, 87.5% done!)

My mother's side is more complete than that.  I'm missing the name (possibly only the surname) of the wife of James Quigley. James¹ QUIGLEY was born about 1800 in Londonderry, Ireland and died 4 Mar 1885, Sussex,[1] age 85.[2]  James immigrated to New Brunswick in 1840[3] with his son Robert².  He received a land grant of 50 acres on 24 Dec 1852 in Sussex and possibly two more 100 acre land grants in Alma, Albert County on 30 Aug 1876 and 9 Mar 1883, respectively, although this may be his son James² QUIGLEY.[4] It is likely that there was a connection, however, to Alma since his grandson John³ (William², James¹) married Agnes Jane SMITH of Alma in 1887.  He married first in Ireland about 1820 a woman whose identity cannot be positively made.  According to Gray (see footnote #1), an Isabella QUIGLEY died 3 Sep 1840 age 3 y (?).  Since I have not read the actual transcription and the reader was unsure of it, there are two explanations.  Either Isabella was James's daughter b. 1837 and d. 1840 age 3 years or she was James's wife b. 1803 and d. 1840 age 37.  Since the name Isabella is used in ensuing generations, I lean toward the latter conclusion.  James married secondly on 30 Jan 1845[5] Elizabeth NORRING or NORRY b.c. 1807, died 26 Jun 1867, Sussex[6].  No probate records for James¹ QUIGLEY is recorded in Kings County.  Both James and his second wife Elizabeth are buried at Kirk Hill Cemetery, Sussex, NB[7]. 

On the other hand, James arrived here with four sons, all of whom name a daughter Margaret. It is possible that the first wife of James Quigley and mother of James, Jr., John, Robert and William T. Quigley died in Ireland between 1827 (birth of William) and 1841 the date of arrival in New Brunswick.

---

[1]         Records of Rev. James Gray, Kings Co. 1857-1898 (hereinafter “Gray’s Records”).

[2]         Johnson, Daniel F. Vital Statistics from New Brunswick Newspapers Volume 62 1884-1885 (the author, St. John, NB, 1995), entry #2848, which gives the date as March 1, 1885, same age and birthplace Londonderry.

[3]        1851 Census for Kings Co., New Brunswick.

[4]        Land Grants for New Brunswick.

[5]        New Brunswick Marriages.

[6]        Vital Statistics from New Brunswick Newspapers.

[7]        Kirk Hill Cemetery Records, Sussex, New Brunswick.

Alžbeta (Valuch) Valuch-Malarik[ova] b. ca. 1830

The second woman is very similar to the first.  Both are named Alžbeta, both had fathers named Jan, and both lived in Vrbovce.  On the baptism record of Anna Valúch-Malarik on 22 January 1849, her parents are given as Jan Valuk and Beta Valuska.  Her godparents were Thomas Marcuk and Anna Matulka.  This agrees with the marriage record of  31 January 1848 of Janos Valúch, son of Janos Valúch nak Valuchoke, 22 cives [years old] and Erzebek, Valúch Janovek u Valuchabany a 18 civis.

So we are looking for an Elisabeth (Alžbeta) born about 1830, daughter of a Jan Valúch who married Jan Valúch-Malarik, ostensibly a cousin.  This couple I couldn't find in the 1869 census in Vrbovce.  The groom gives age 22, which accurately matches the baptism on 9 January 1826 of Joannes son of Joannes Waluch and Anna Skot. A couple born in 1826 and 1830 should be in the 1869 census, but maybe not.

This also shows the use of the Slovak double name.  This was a way of distinguishing families of the same name, especially when the given names of Jan and Pavel were used so often.  So, there must have been so many households with a Jan Valuch, that he adopted Valuch-Malarik.  Malarik was his paternal grandmother's maiden name.  Evidently Valuch-Skok was already taken.  The conseuqences is that we have too many Elisabeths daughters of Jan born in the neighborhood of 1830 to distinguish our specific one.  Another death record is needed.

Alžbeta (Tomeček) Chodur-Janovych Dolinska ca. 1816-1870

The next two women have fathers but can't be properly placed in the correct family.  This is a case where all the names are too common.  

The baptism of Jan (in Latin as Joannes) Chodur-Janowych on 22 September 1838 at Vrbovce shows his parents are Paullus et uxor Elisabetha Tomecsek.  This record agrees with the marriage at the same place on 29 September 1834 [in Latin] of: honestus juvenis paulus, Joannis Chodur coloni in vico Choduri uniquentem filius sponsa virgo Elisabetha, Joannis Tomascek in vivi v Tomscesku filia 18 annorum. Translation: the [male] youth Paul, the only son of John Chodur residing in this city and his spouse, the maiden Elizabeth, daughter of John Tomecek, also a resident, aged 18 years.

So we have an Elizabeth born about 1816, daughter of Jan.  However, there are a number of Elizabeths born to Jans at that time period.  One possibility is the Elizabeth born on 9 February 1820 and who died on 20 August 1870, daughter of Jan Tomeček and Anna Petrakova/Petracka alias Kutalkova.  The last couple were married on 19 July 1807.  This came from a report that the Bratislava Archives did for a cousin of mine who shares this line.  However, 14 is really, really, on the young side for marriage.  I could buy 16, but not 14.  And later, I found out it didn't agree with the census.

The 1869 census in Vrbovce (FHL Film # 2192677) for this couple has the following:

Pavel Janovich Dolinsky, b. 1815, ženatý, rolnik

Manželka, Beta, b. 1809, vydatá [wife]

syn Jan b. 1839, ženatý [son]

manželka Anna, b. 1849, vydatá [his wife]

druty syn Pavel, b. 1842 [second son]

treti syn Jura, b. 1856 [third son]

So, her marriage record says she was 18 (b. ca. 1816), but the census makes her seven years more than that.  His (Paul's) age is closer to the 1817 baptism I have for him.  In any case, we know her father's name.  So she's half way there.

Madness Monday: The English Origins of Rev. Samuel Arnold (c. 1622-1693) of Marshfield, Mass.: A work in progress

There are several good clues I’ve been collecting to provide a springboard for finding the English origins of the Rev. Samuel Arnold, the third minister of Marshfield, Massachusetts.  Samuel Arnold appears first at Sandwich, Mass. in 1643 on the list of men able to bear arms between the ages of 16 and 60. [Shurtleff, Records of Plymouth Colony, p. 192.] He married sometime in 1648 an Elizabeth (---) for the birth of his first child is recorded at Yarmouth on 9 May 1649. [Shurtleff, p. 9] Samuel is recorded as a freeman at Yarmouth [Shurtleff, p. 200], but also at Marshfield as Mr. Samuel Arnold [Shurtleff, p. 201].  These freeman records were recorded well after the fact in 1658. He may have been in Scituate in 1657 when he witnessed a deed for Thomas Byrd on 20 March 1657/8 [Bangs, Scituate Town Records, p. 155].  However, he was in Marshfield shortly thereafter and was its minister until his death [Richards, History of Marshield, Vol. 1, p. 93].  He leads the list of freeman in Marshfield in 1689 [Shurtleff, p. 207].  Samuel died on 1 September 1693 [Marshfield VRs, p. 17].  He left a will, dated 19 August 1693 and proved on 18 October 1693, in which he mentions his wife Elizabeth, sons Samuel and Seth, grandchildren Elizabeth and Isaac Holmes, daughter Elizabeth's children, and gives books to both his son Samuel [who was also a minister] and the Rev. Rowland Cotton. [Plymouth County Probate 1:176]

In July 1680, Samuel Arnold, Senior, aged about 58 years, deposed in a court case between John Cotton of Plymouth and Ralph Powell of Marshfield.  [(SJC docket #1915)].  This gives an approximate birth year of 1622, which works well with the above-cited records.  He was 21 in 1643 and about 26 when he married.  Also, Ichabod Wiswell printed a broadside entitled: Upon the death of that reverend and aged man of God, Mr. Samuel Arnold, Pastor of the church at Marshfield, : who deceased in the 71st year of his age, and of his ministry the 36th, September 1. 1693.  Again, the age at death agrees with his deposition. This elegy which includes Arnold's own memoir type poem, gives no clues to his origins other than "old England," and that he was a fisherman before he was a minister.  I'm not sure that helps.

The second clue is the presence in New England of his brother, John Arnold, a mason who died before 16 May 1661 at Boston, Mass.  This John was in Boston by 1639 and admitted to the church as a single man on 22 February 1643.  He was made a freeman on 16 May 1643.  John’s probate is granted “to Samuel Arnold, his brother” and “said Samuel Arnold of Marshfield in Plymouth jurisdiction,” deposed on the land owned by his brother John on 31 July 1661. [Suffolk County Wills, pp. 192-93, originally abstracted in the NEHGR].  Since John was known to be in New England first (at least in the extant records) and was made a freeman first, it seems he was the elder of the two brothers.

 So, the search is for a Samuel Arnold born about 1622 with an older brother named John.  Using the IGI for parish extractions there are two possibilities.  It should be noted that not all parish records are searchable in the IGI, so these are the only two that readily appear and the true origins may lie elsewhere.  However, at Coventry, Warwickshire at the Church of the Holy Trinity we find a Samuel baptized on 31 May 1622, son of John and a John baptized on 14 June 1614, son of John. [FHL Film #1067410].  The other choice is in Mickleham, Surrey, where a Samuel is baptized on 6 July 1623, son of William and a John is baptized in February 1619/[20?], son of William. 

 Sadly, I cannot locate the definitive marriages of either possible father nor their wills.  Surrey probate is indexed completely in all jurisdictions up to 1650.  No William Arnold appears past the year 1615.  Two William Arnolds marry in Surrey: On 16 June 1614, William Arnold married Audrey Start at Mitcham and  another at Chertsey on 29 July 1619 to Alice Browne.  I’ve yet to hack through Warwickshire probate.  Only one John Arnold appears to marry there in 1600 and is unlikely.  More potential marriages appear in Boyd’s Marriage Index. 

Samuel Arnold has only three known children: Samuel, Elizabeth, and Seth, the first two of which are ostensibly named for their parents.  So onamastics are not helpful here.  Clearly we will need a will that names either Samuel, John or both as being in New England.

Katharina (Poliak) Malek[ova] ca. 1830-after 1869/1878

On the baptism record of Susanna Malek on 23 November 1852 at Myjava, her parents are given as Jann Malek and Kater. Polak, with godparents Daniel Sadlec and Katheryna Ranant.  This baptism is from the Slovak Lutheran (Evangelium) church.  However there is no marriage for this couple at Myjava or Tura Luka.  This couple appears in the 1869 census at Myjava [FHL Film #2187396] as:

Name, Birth Year, Church, Marital Status, Profession 

Jan Malek, born 1801, Ev. Av., ženatý, rolnik. [protestant, married, tenant farmer]

žena, Katherina Polák, born 1814 [wife]

Anna, dcéra, born 1843 [daughter] [cross out in record]

Katerina, dcéra, born 1852, vydatá [married, ostensibly to Daniel]

Daniel Polák, muŕ [??] Katherina, b. 1840, ženatý

Zuzanna, dcéra, born 1853, slobodá [single]

Alžbeta, dcéra, born 1858, slobodá [single]

Now, I don't speak or read Slovak. That was my late grandmother's job.  So, I do everything with a dictionary.  As we can also see, census reports are f**ked up no matter what country you find yourself in.  The birth years of Jan and Katherina seem to be off by a generation.  I have Jan baptized at Myjava on 24 February 1827, son of Jan and Anna (Galik) Malek.  In any case, without a marriage or death record naming her parents, there is no corresponding baptism for Katharina.  It should be noted that Susanna's daughter, Kristina's baptism has as godparents Katherina Malek and Stefan Polak in 1878.  This may well be she again.  I tried trolling through the Myjava death records on microfilm, but the town was much larger than I anticipated and I could hardly get through a few years in several hours.

So, for now, this is the only triple great grandparent for whom I lack both parents.   Of course, if the dates in the census are correct, then I have the wrong parents for Jan and need to rethink this whole part of my ancestry.

Madness Monday: Deborah, Wife of John Barrows and Joseph Buckland, Part II

In Part I, I discussed what is clearly known about Deborah from primary source records.  I have also previously discussed the history of the identification of Deborah as a Doty, which is completely unfounded.  Who was she really?

Deborah named a boy Benajah, which is a rare name.  Using the Great Migration Project [immigrants 1620-1633 and 1634-35, surnames A-S], there are only four families that use that name in New England.  The Titcombs in Ipswich, Mass.; the Holcombes in Windsor, Conn., and the Dunhams and Pratts in Plymouth, Mass.  To put that in perspective, about 40% of the 20,000 immigrants of the Great Migration arrived in or before 1635, or about 8,000 people.  Of those we find the use of Benajah but four times.  I actually emailed Robert C. Anderson and he said that there about 2,200 sketches done so far, of which but four use that name, and he called Benajah a unique and diagnostic name.

The Dunhams and the Pratts were related by marriage.  Benajah Pratt married Persis Dunham at Plymouth on 29 November 1655 [MD 8:17], she the sister of Benajah Dunham.  Benajah Pratt was the son of Joshua and Bathsheba (---) Pratt.  The double use of Joshua and Benajah as names for her eldest and next sons, seems to indicate that Deborah was also a daughter of Joshua and Bathsheba Pratt.

There are no birth records for the children of Joshua Pratt.  He died between 29 June 1652 and 5 October 1656 when administration on his estate was granted.  He left no will.  His four known children are identified by their marriage records in conjuncture with the process of elimination that they weren't children of Phineas Pratt (whose eight children are gleaned by court records showing his heirs [MD 4:138]).  They are (with estimated birth dates): Benajah b. 1630; Hannah b. 1632; Jonathan b. 1637; and Bathsheba b. 1639 [Joshua and Phineas are well profiled in The Great Migration 1620-1633 III:1510-1518].   Since there is no complete listing of his children, there remains a good possibility there were others.  Deborah's estimated birth of ca. 1642 fits well into this list.

The widow Bathsheba (---) Pratt married secondly at Plymouth, John Doggett on 29 August 1667 [MD 8:31]. She moved with him to Martha's Vineyard, where she was still living on 4 June 1673 after his death.  Bathsheba remained a widow from 1656 to 1667.  Why? She was raising her remaining children.  Her two last children to marry would have been Jonathan on 2 November 1664 and presumably Deborah who married about the same time. No probate papers are extant for Bathsheba (--) (Pratt) Doggett.

Not only is using the name Benajah rare, but its timing is indicative of a relationship.  Benajah Barrows died at Attleborough on 5 January 1754 "in his 71st yr." [Attleborough VRs, p. 632]. That means he was born ca. 1682.  Benajah Pratt died 17 March 1682. [Plymouth Church Records, p. 249] The inventory for his estate is dated 6 May 1682 [Plymouth Colony Wills 4:2:12-13].  It seems that Benajah Barrows was named in his honor.

Jonathan Pratt removed to Taunton before 1689/90 and Hannah (Pratt) Spooner removed to Dartmouth, both in Bristol County where Deborah would move with her second husband.  Lastly, Robert Barrows, the eldest son of John Barrows by his first unknown wife, married as his second wife, Lydia Dunham ca. 1684.  She was the niece of Persis (Dunham) Pratt.

Based on the preponderance of this evidence, I find it most compelling to identify Deborah as the daughter of Joshua Pratt.  Perhaps this theory together with the new facts that she died a Buckland will push other researchers to explore this route.

Madness Monday: Deborah, Wife of John Barrows and Joseph Buckland, Part I

Deborah's story seems straightforward to me, so if there's any madness to it, it would be that it's taken 300 years for these records to be put in the right order.  I can't believe I'm the first to see it.  

Deborah as Deborah Barrows appears in three records.  The first is the baptism of her youngest child, Ebenezer. [Plymouth Church Records 1620-1859 Volumes 22 and 23 of the Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts (Boston, the society, 1920), I:257].  This event is undated but falls between two other dated events 29 March and 17 May 1685.  Deborah is mentioned in the will of her husband, John Barrows written on 12 January 1691/2 [Plymouth Co. Probate 1:133].  Then as Deborah Barrows she married Joseph Bucland (sic) on 17 October 1693 at Plymouth.

Deborah's eldest child was Deborah Barrows who married Nathan Fish on 20 December 1687 at Plymouth. [Plymouth VRs, p. 85].  If 22 at marriage she was born about 1665.  That means that John Barrows married Deborah about 1664, and if she were about 22 at marriage, she was born about 1642.  [My use of 22 for female first marriages and 25 for male first marriages is the average used in the Great Migration Project].  That birth date works well since Deborah has children from 1665 to 1685, a normal twenty year span and she would have been about 43 at the birth of her last child.  It would also make her 78 at death.

Joseph Buckland was born about 1633, probably in England, the son of William and Mary (Bosworth) Buckland.  He married first at Rehoboth, Deborah Allen on 5 November 1659 [Rehoboth VRs, p. 65].  Deborah was born about 1639 at Barnstable, daughter of John and Christian (--) Allen.  The Bucklands are in the Great Migration 1634-35 I:454-56.  The Allens (George is the immigrant) is in the same volume pp. 27-35.  Deborah (Allen) Buckland was buried at Rehoboth on 27 November 1690 [Rehoboth VRs, II:805]. The actual record reads " Deborah [blank] of Joseph was buried 27 November 1690.  The word missing is wife.  The daughter of Joseph, Deborah Buckland married Hugh Cole at Rehoboth on 6 May 1681 and died on 7 November 1724.  It cannot be she.  This leaves Joseph and Deborah, widow of John Barrows free to marry in 1693.  They did and moved to Rehoboth.  Joseph died there on 28 March 1718 and "Deborah Buckland widow" died there 1 April 1720. [Rehoboth VRs, II:805].  Neither leaves any probate papers.  In a series of deeds starting in 1691 Joseph gives his sons all his land.  These deeds were recorded en masse after his death.  For those interested, Joseph Buckland's gravestone is still extant and is in the Newman Cemetery in Rumford, Rhode Island. [note that Rehoboth was divided many times and the line establishing the border of Massachusetts and Rhode Island didn't happen until 1747.]

This explains why the younger sons of John and Deborah Barrows all moved to Rehoboth, where Benajah married, and then lived in that part which became Attleborough, Mass. and later became Cumberland, Rhode Island.  It also shows that Benajah married his step-sister Lydia.  Bucklin and Buckland are interchangeable.  Lydia Bucklin was the youngest child of Joseph and Deborah (Allen) Buckland born in Rehoboth on 5 September 1680 [Rehoboth VRs, II:560].  Sadly there are no deeds in Bristol County or Plymouth County from Deborah as a Buckland that illuminates her birth parents precisely.  However, this opens the possibility that a court record in Bristol County might exist.  Whereas the Plymouth County records are all in print (for the 17th century) and have been examined exhaustedly, the Bristol County records have not been so studied.

List of deeds in Bristol County for Joseph Buckland and his sons Joseph, James, and Baruch: 11:453, 462; 12:54, 91-92, 489; 13:358; 14:162.

Part II is here.