https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-265715
Margaret,[1] widow of Henry Norton, is named in a 1660 court proceeding as the mother-in-law of Sylvester Stover. In his Great Migration profile of Henry Norton,[2] Anderson accepts Margaret as the mother of Elizabeth, but makes the case that Henry was unlikely to have been Elizabeth's biological father:
NOTE: Estimating ages in colonial New England. Usual ages at first marriage in colonial New England were mid-to-late 20s for males and early-to-mid 20s for females.
Common genealogical practice for this time period is to estimate the birth of the first child one year after marriage, and subsequent children two years apart.[3]
Henry Norton's birth is recorded in Stepney on 26 Nov 1618.
At least two of Elizabeth and Sylvester Stover's children were born in or before 1653, suggesting a marriage around 1650-51. They were definitely married by 1655, when they appear in court for a domestic dispute: as Anderson describes the proceedings, "not those of a newlywed couple, but of a couple who had considerable experience of one another."
This makes the distance between Henry's birth and Elizabeth's marriage about 32 years, meaning they would each have been 16 years old at first marriage—unusually young—or one older than 16 and one much younger—even less likely.
Instead, Anderson speculates that Elizabeth was probably Margaret's daughter by a prior (unknown) marriage, and therefore the stepdaughter of Henry Norton. If Anderson's theory is accepted then Elizabeth's birth name is unknown.
—-
Henry Norton Married Margaret Norton
Follow Us
Like Us
