Mary Millett

Also Mary Millit · Mary Riggs

Wife of Thomas Riggs Sr. of Gloucester, married 7 June 1658, and probably the mother of Thomas Riggs (b. 1666), who married Ann Wheeler. Born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, a daughter of Thomas Millett and probably of Mary Greenaway.

Family tree →Migration map →
01

Life

  1. 1639
    Born
    26 Aug 1639, Dorchester, Massachusetts

    "26th. (6th.) 1639"; the sixth month is August. Another printing has the 27th (see notes).

    documentedproven
    Sources· 2 found
  2. 1658
    Married Thomas Riggs
    7 June 1658, Gloucester, Massachusetts

    "RIGES, Thomas, and Mary Millit, d. Thomas, June 7, 1658."

    documentedproven
    Sources· 1 found
  3. 1694
    Died
    23 Jan 1694/5

    "Mary, w. Thomas, sr., Jan. 23, 1694-5." Mollie Pfeiffer's 1682 belongs to her mother.

    documentedproven
    Sources· 1 found
02

Family

Mother
Mary Greenaway c. 1606–by 1682

"Mary the daughter of Thomas Millet & Mary his wife" (NEHGR 5:244, printing the Dorchester record). Thomas Millett's wife Mary is on record from 1635 to 1650.

documentedprobable
Sources· 2 found
03

Pedigree

documentedcompiledinferred
04

Notes

Wife of Thomas Riggs Sr. of Gloucester, married 7 June 1658: “RIGES, Thomas, and Mary Millit, d. Thomas” (Gloucester VR 2:452).

Two printings of the Dorchester record of her birth disagree by one day. The Record Commissioners (vol. 21, p. 3) have “26th. (6th.) 1639”. NEHGR 5 (1851): 244 has “Mary the daughter of Thomas Millet & Mary his wife was borne 27o (6o) 1639” (quoted in TAG 82:120 n. 2).

Her brothers and sisters were Thomas (b. c. 1633, England), John (1635), Jonathan (1638, d. the same year) and Mehetabel (1641), all born at Dorchester, and Nathaniel (1647). Mehetabel married Isaac Elwell, a shoemaker of Gloucester (Babson pp. 89, 116).

Mollie Pfeiffer (p. 171) gives her death as 1682; the Gloucester VR has 23 Jan 1694/5. The 1682 date probably comes from her mother: Babson says the elder Mary was “deceased, Sept. 27, 1682” (inference).

Open questions

  • Her birthday: 26 August (Record Commissioners) or 27 August (NEHGR 5)? The original Dorchester record would settle it.
Mollie's typescript· 1 passage · 1 claim checked

What Mollie wrote about her in The Holbrook and Low Families, and her claims about her checked against the records.

  1. Mollie's Millett chart gives her birth on 26 Aug 1639, her marriage to Thomas Riggs on 7 June 1658, and her death at Gloucester in 1682 (that date was her mother's; she died in 1694/5).

    MARY MILLETT (3) Thomas 2, Henry 1) Born Aug 26, 1639 Died. Gloucester 1682 Married June 7, 1658 Thomas Riggs(1)
    p. 171 →

Checked against the records

  • Disproven
    Mary (Millett) Riggs died at Gloucester in 1682

    She died on 23 Jan 1694/5: "Mary, w. Thomas, sr." (Gloucester vital records). The 1682 date belongs to her mother, Mary (Greenaway) Millett, who was dead by 27 Sept 1682.

    Read it in the book, p. 171 →
05

Connections

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