Dorcas March

Dorcas BOWMAN 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 was born 1645 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts. She died 22 Nov 1683 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts. Dorcas married Benjamin BLACKLEACH on 1665 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts.

Other marriages: MARCH, Hugh

Notes

vii DORCAS, b. say 1644; m. (1) by 1665 Benoni Blackleech [NEHGR 148:30-33]; m. (2) Newbury 29 May 1676 Hugh March [Abel Lunt Anc 123]. (Great Migration Begins)

From http://home.comcast.net/~ld-artist/March/1600/HughMarch.htm

Hugh's marriage to Dorcas was not a happy one. Her first husband had deserted her, disappeared and was presumed dead. In 1678, two years after their wedding, Hugh, his sons Hugh and John, and his friends Thomas Woodbridge and John Taylor submitted affidavits in an action in the General Court stating that Blackleach was not dead but living in Virginia when Dorcas married Hugh and that she was fully aware of the fact but, concealed it. Dorcas denied the accusation and said that the scandalous report originated from the malice of Hugh's children. The court evidently believed her as the decision was made that Hugh should keep her as his wife.

Obviously this lead to domestic problems. Hugh had a maid, Elizabeth Jago, who complained that Dorcas had slandered her, but the case was withdrawn when Dorcas confessed that she had wronged the girl. On 15 Aug. 1679 Hugh mortgaged his home to Simon Lynde of Boston for £ 110 and on 31 Jan. 1679/0 he gave all his property to his son John reserving for himself only the old parlor and the chamber above it. In 1682 John Edwards Sr. of Ipswich said that he had kissed Dorcas "in the face of the court" and that there was no harm in it.

• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hwbradley/aqwg3288.htm#88295
• http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db...
• page 121 of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 53
• page 178 on of "Ould Newbury": Historical and Biographical Sketches By John James Currier
• (2nd) https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Newbury/aMarriagesB.shtml "(Blackleach) Dorcas, and Hugh March, May 29, 1676."
• https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Newbury/aDeathsM.shtml "(March) Dorcas w. Hugh, sr., Nov. 22, 1683."