Edward Stephens
Of Plymouth, where he married Mary Churchill in 1708 and had seven children by her, among them Edward Stephens, who married Phebe Harlow. In 1729, after Mary's death, he married Mercy Holmes; he died in 1756 in his 77th year and lies on Burial Hill.
Life
- c. 1680Bornc. 1680
From his age at death.
documentedprobable - 1708Married Mary Churchill23 Dec 1708, Plymouth, Massachusetts
"Edward STEVENS to Mary CHURCHELL" (Plymouth VR).
documentedproven - 1729Married Mercy Holmes3 Apr 1729
"Edward STEVENS & Marcy SILVESTER both of Plymouth married April 3, 1729" (Plymouth VR).
documentedproven - 1756Died30 July 1756, Plymouth, Massachusetts
"Decd July ye 30th 1756 in the 77th year of his age" (Kingman no. 275).
documentedproven - —Buried
Family
- Parents
- Spouse 1
- Mary Churchilldocumentedproven
- Spouse 2
- Mercy Holmesdocumentedproven
Pedigree
Notes
Of Plymouth; perhaps born at Marshfield (see Open questions). His seven children by Mary Churchill are in the Plymouth records as “The children of Edward Stephens & Mary Stephens his wife” (pp. 82-83): Mary (21 June 1710), Hannah (11 Apr 1712), Sarah (25 May 1715), Lemuel (5 Dec 1716, died 20 June 1718), Elizabeth (30 Apr 1719), Edward (19 Sept 1721) and Eleazer (10 Dec 1723). Mary died six weeks after the last birth.
His second wife, Mercy, was the widow of Joseph Sylvester and a daughter of Elisha Holmes [compiled].
Mollie Pfeiffer’s “Fitz Stephens” pedigree from Normandy, “compiled by George Stephens of Plymouth (authority unknown),” and her link to Col. Thomas Stevens of London, armorer to the Massachusetts Bay Company (typescript pp. 48-51), have no evidence behind them. She herself marks the first “authority unknown,” and nothing connects Edward Stephens of Marshfield to either.
Open questions
- His parents. The master tree heads the Stephens section with Edward Stephens of Marshfield (living 1665), who had children Edward, William, Elizabeth and Patience (m. John Phillips) [C], but does not mark him as an ancestor or state that this Edward was his son. The Holbrook-Low colonial tree does link them: it calls the Marshfield man, “origin unknown,” “probably the father of Edward of Plymouth” [compiled], on the evidence of Davis (Part II p. 252) and the Warren research. That is the same compiled evidence the master tree has, and no record names Edward’s father, so the link is not made here until the family decides.
Mollie's typescript
Mollie's Stephens chart gives his birth in 1680, his death on 30 July 1756, and his marriage in 1708 to Mary Churchill, who died on 25 Jan 1723; both are buried on Burial Hill.
EDWARD STEPHENS (2) Edward 1 ) Born 1680 Died 30 July 1756 Married Mary Churchill 1708 d Jan 25, 1723 (Both on Burial Hill)
p. 49 →
Checked against the records
- PossibleEdward Stephens (b. 1680) was son of Edward of Marshfield
Unproven. An Edward Stephens of Marshfield, living 1665, with children Edward, William, Elizabeth and Patience, is in the compiled genealogies, but no record makes him the father of Edward Stephens of Plymouth (c. 1680-1756), whose parents are unknown.
Read it in the book, p. 49 → - UnlikelyThe Stephens line runs twenty generations from Herard Fitz Stephens
Mollie marks the pedigree "Authority unknown", and on the next page it "breaks off" before reaching America. No record connects Edward Stephens of Plymouth (c. 1680-1756), whose parents are unknown, to the Gloucestershire Stephenses or to any Norman family.
Read it in the book, p. 48 a → - UnlikelyThe family descends from Col. Thomas Stevens, armorer to the Bay Company
Nothing connects him to this family. The earliest known ancestor of the name is Edward Stephens of Plymouth (c. 1680-1756), whose parents are unknown.
Read it in the book, p. 50 →