Ebenezer Martin and Abigail Wheeler

Ebenezer Martin and Abigail Wheeler

    2       Ebenezer (1685 – 1727)  m. Abigail Wheeler (1690-?) – 5 children

                     a.  Jemimah (1717-?)

                    b.  John (1718-1801) m. Mary Reed

                    c.  Ebenezer (1721-1769) m. Mary Bowen

                    d.  Nathaniel (1722-1803) m. Susannah Kent

             3      e.  Abigail (1725-1814) m1. William Esterbrooks

                                                  m2. Jonathan Cole

Abigail Wheeler was the d/o James and Grizell Squire Wheeler. She was b. in Swansea MA and, after her marriage to Ebenezer, settled on the Martin farm in Barrington RI. When Ebenezer died in 1727, Abigail was left with a young family, the oldest just 10, so in 1728, she married John West (1679-?). Not much has been learned about John West. He and Abigail Wheeler Martin West had at least two daughters, Grizell and Elizabeth.

Ebenezer and Abigail’s oldest daughter, Jemimah, seems to have some conflict in information that I haven’t been able to untangle. I have found two totally different marriages for her and can’t verify either of them. If they are a first and second marriage, then Jemimah had nearly 20 children. But dates don’t hold up under scrutiny so rather than pass on unreliable information, I will leave her for another research project.

For sons, John and Ebenezer, I have not been able to locate names of children and I found three daughters and three sons for Nathaniel.  Abigail Martin first married William Esterbrooks and had three children. When William died, she married Jonathan Cole, her brother-in-law. Jonathan had been married to Abigail’s half sister, Elizabeth West. Jonathan and Elizabeth had two sons, James and Edward. James and Edward returned to the colonies when the fight for independence began. James was captured and held prisoner on a British ship in Boston harbor. He was later awarded land for his service. He died in Niagara Co., NY, in 1828. Edward joined Eddy’s Rebels and was later reported deceased by Jonathan Eddy. James married Jerusha Alverson, a cousin to Jeremiah Alverson in the next paragraph.

It is believed that one of Abigail’s Esterbrooks children died young and the other two, William and Grizell, moved to Sackville, New Brunswick in the 1760’s.  William became well known in the area and Grizell married a man, Jeremiah Alverson, who had also moved to NB from the colonies. Grizell and Jeremiah eventually moved to Poughkeepsie NY.

So the marriage of Abigail Martin Esterbrooks to Jonathan Cole was truly a blended family, his, hers, and then theirs.  Interesting that we are seeing this same trend today and think it’s new. Divorce may be the reason today, but early death of one spouse or the other, in the 1700’s, created the same situation. History does repeat itself.

Jonathan Cole and Abigail Martin Cole are my 4x gt. grandparents. This family has been written about in an earlier blog, so will not present it again. There has been no new information concerning this descent so until something new does come to light, I will leave it as it is.

Representative Men and Old Families of Rhode Island, Beers & Co., 1908,        p. 381

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=82209367

* I had hoped to post a map of the Swansea/Rehoboth/Barrington area to allow some perspective on the proximity of each to the other. However, I was unsuccessful with the download. My apologies.