I have two successive generations of Cromwell men who married women named Lydia. Joshua Cromwell, the son of Philip and Elizabeth (Leighton) Cromwell and grandson of Giles and Alice (Weeks) Cromwell, was born about 1672 and married about 1699 to a woman named Lydia. Their children were: Joshua, John, Joseph, Samuel, Caleb, Elizabeth and Lydia. Lydia is still alive on 19 January 1743/4 when she deeds with her husband (New Hampshire Provincial Deeds 28:228). Both Lydia and Joshua are dead by 1752 when their children exchange deeds for their land (NHPD 45:248, 70:326).
Their son John is even more of a riddle. There is a marriage record for John Cromwell and Mary Ridley on 26 December 1720 at Dover, N.H. Yet Mary never appears thereafter. No children are baptized for this couple. There are no Ridleys at Dover (in the Dover Vital Records, this is the only Ridley entry). Whether this is a clerical error or not is a mystery. If Mary existed she died before 23 May 1735 when John, a tinker, deeds land with his wife Lydia (NHPD 25:140). Certainly as Master Tate notes John's wife was Lydia when they died on the same weekend. John Cromwell had at least three children: Benjamin, Sarah who married Jacob Chadwick, and Keziah who married Abner Coffin (Jr.). These two are the only surviving children and Abner and Keziah Coffin quitclaim to the Widow Sarah Chadwick land that was the late John Cromwell's on 26 March 1794 (Strafford Deeds 17:326).
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