Ralph Ellinwood

Ralph II of the book, the eldest surviving son: a soldier of eighteen in King Philip's War, probably at the Great Swamp Fight (below); on 20 Mar 1676/7, "a childe of ye Covenant in this Church," publicly rebuked at Beverly "for stealing meale at mill" (record); married first Katherine, annulled in 1682; then Martha Rowlandson at Marblehead in 1691. Their first child, Return, was born 22 May 1692 and baptized 29 May, twelve days before the first hanging at Salem (record, record). A husbandman of Beverly. His story is Chapter Two of the Ellingwood book (books/ellingwood/ellingwood-ch2.md).

He outlived his son Ralph III by about twelve years. His will of 1741 left half his real estate for life to his daughter Abigail, "Not Able to provide for her Self"; a fifth each to "the Children of my Son Ralph Elinwood Decd", to his sons Ebenezer and Thomas, and to his daughters "Return Wardwell" and "Martha Smith"; and to "my Two Grandsons Israel Elinwood & Ralph Elinwood" the use of "the Barn & Well their father Builded on my Lands" (record).

King Philip's War. In December 1675, at eighteen, Ralph probably marched with the Beverly men of Capt. Joseph Gardner's Salem company to the Great Swamp Fight (History of Beverly, pp. 28-29). Among them was William Bath, who would marry his widowed mother. On 19 December the army stormed the Narragansett fort in the frozen swamp under Maj. Samuel Appleton; Gardner was shot through the head inside it, and his company lost seven killed and ten wounded (Soldiers in King Philip's War, p. 167). Ralph came through. More than fifty years later, when the Province granted townships to the Narragansett soldiers and their heirs, he was one of the few still living to claim his own right: "Ralph Elinwood ... (Alive) (By himself)," at No. 3, later Amherst, New Hampshire (p. 423). His brother John's war came later, in Maine, and cost him the use of his right hand (see John Ellinwood).

When Katherine sought the annulment in 1682, the court ordered "Danil Weld and Richard Knott, chirurgeon" to report on his condition (record, 8:357). Daniel Weld of Salem had been chief surgeon of the Narragansett army (Bodge pp. 180-182).

The 1963 genealogy's third wife, Sarah Woodbury, was in fact his son Ralph's wife, and Israel (1714) was his grandson, as the will shows. His daughter Return married Philip Piles (intentions 1712) and Martha married Nehemiah Smith (source).

Open questions

• His exact death date, and the second page of the will with its date and witnesses (Essex Probate docket 12365).
• Martha (Rowlandson)'s death; she is not named in the will.
• His company in King Philip's War: his own claim in the Narragansett township papers (Mass. Archives vol. 72) may say.