Minutes of the Executive Council of the Province of New York: Administration of Francis Lovelace, vol. 1 (1910)

From the research file (research/mcmillan/McMillan_Frost_Master_Research.md, October 2026). Rebecca Wright’s first marriage, to Eleazer Leverich of Huntington, declared void by Governor Lovelace’s council on 22 Oct 1670: “with ye Advice of Chirurgions well skill’d & Sober Matrons who privily Examyned both ye man & woman, they made Report… That ye defect was in ye husband & not in ye wife… ye said Rebh hath likewise free libertye to dispose of her selfe in Lawfull marriage.” They had lived together “seauen yeares & a halfe.” On 24 Feb 1670/1 Eleazer was ordered to pay her “twenty five pounds in living Cattle.” Believed the first divorce granted by that court.

Rebecca’s father named (October 2026, research/mcmillan/Frost_Underhill_Bowne_Feake.md). The papers name her father. Lovelace to Jonas Wood, Fort James, 9 March 1669/70: “I haue rec[eive]d a Peticon from Rebecka ye wife of Eleazer Leveredg of yo[ur] Towne by ye hands of her father Nicholas Wright” (pp. 331-332). The order of 1 April 1670: “Whereas Nicholas Wright of Oyster bay hath on ye behalfe of Rebeckah his daught[er] wife of Eleazer Leveridg of Huntington made Complaint unto me of ye uncomfortable condition wherein his said Daughter hath for diuers yeares past liued w[i]th her said husband” (p. 332). The council minute of the same day: “The Peticon of Nicholas Wright concerning his Daughter & her Husband Eleazer Leveridge” (p. 43). The editor’s note there: Nicholas Wright’s will of 10 April 1674, “which does not mention his daughter Rebecca, states that he was then ‘aged 65 or thereabouts.’ His wife, Ann, was named executrix, and the will was proved December 13, 1682” (citing the New York Historical Society’s Collections, 1892, p. 121).