Mary Ring

Not the wife of Joseph Eveleth.

Biography

Mary was the oldest daughter of Thomas Bray and Mary Wilson.[1] She married John Ring at Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts on 18 Nov 1664.[2]

Note that a Mary "Bray or Bragge" married a Joseph Eveleth in Gloucester, MA in 1667[3] but this was a different woman, proven by the will of Mary's father Thomas which named her "Ring".

NOTE: Thomas Bray drafted his will well before he died on 20 Nov 1672, which was proved on 28 Mar 1692. (Ancestry.com's digitized date-data is inverted according to OS calendar. – See also Wikitree Thomas Bray.
Lest one thinks Mary remarried after the death of her husband, a digitized death record, awaiting online image-alliance to the data, shows her name as "Mary Bray Ring"..."Widow." — Source: "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001", FamilySearch (Sun Mar 10 10:14:20 UTC 2024)
Therefore, Joseph Eveleth should be detached as a husband she never married.

Her husband's name is sometimes seen as "King" and Pope in "Pioneers of Massachusetts" recorded it that way but his own will[4], with his name written in multiple hands is clearly "Ring". Also, reading the original image of her father's will and comparing it to a "Colonial Handwriting" guide here[5] , it does seem more like "Ring" or "Ringe". Additionally, the first letter of John's first looks like the same "R" as the R in "Robert" on the same page of Ipswich marriages in this image at familysearch.org, but it is a transcription, not the 1664 original writing.

John Ring died 21 Aug 1684 at Ipswich.[6] Although the town record image at familysearch.org has no supplemental text such as "husband of Mary" it was certainly him since his widow Mary was granted administration of his estate as recorded in the September 1684 Essex County Quarterly Court Records[7]

The "Declarative" will of John Ring, given on 20 Aug 1684 simply left all his worldly goods to his wife to maintain their children but none of them were actually named; she was called only "the widow Ring" when attesting to the inventory of John's estate.[4] Familysearch.org has some of these Essex County probate cases but their scanning missed many pages and inserted others in the wrong order. Pages showing the inventory of this John Ring are here and here. The complete probate in proper order including the will is available by subscription at the americanancestors.org link cited previously.[4]

She was listed in her father's 1691 will along with 3 un-named sons. These births were recorded in Ipswich as sons of John Ring):

John Ring born 18 Oct 1665[8] died 21 Oct 1665[9]
Thomas Ring born 29 Jan 1669[10]
David Ring son of Johnborn August 1679[11]
It would seem the couple had at least one more child since the first (John) died as an infant but there were 3 sons alive in 1691 per the will of Mary's father.

She was still alive on 12 May 1712 when, as widow of John Ring, she quitclaimed her rights to her father Thomas' estate along with several of her siblings in favor of brothers John & Nathaniel Bray.[12]

Mary apparently died 17 May 1725 at Gloucester although the familysearch.org record comes from an index of Massachusetts vital records and lists her as "Mary Bray Ring", a somewhat suspicious anachronism which should be verified with primary records if possible.[13] The entry of her death as "Mary (Bray) Ring, a. abt 77 yrs" also appears at americanancestors.org in a book of Gloucester deaths.[14]

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bray-6332

Mary (Bray) Ring (1647 - 1725)

Mary Ring formerly Bray

Born 16 Jan 1647 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Daughter of Thomas Bray and Mary (Wilson) Bray

Sister of Frances (Bray) Crippen [half], Sarah (Bray) Sawyer, John Bray, Nathaniel Bray, Thomas Bray, Hannah (Bray) Roberts and Esther (Bray) Stanwood

Wife of John Ring — married 18 Nov 1664 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

[children unknown]

Died 11 Apr 1725 at age 78 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Bray-6332 created 21 Jul 2022 | Last modified 22 Jul 2022

Sources

↑ The pioneers of Massachusetts, a descriptive list, drawn from records of the colonies, towns and churches and other contemporaneous documents by Pope, Charles Henry, 1841-1918 Publication date 1900 Publisher Boston, C.H. Pope page 66
↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:Q21G-C59F : 19 May 2022), Entry for John Ring and Mary Bray, 18 Nov 1664; citing Marriage, Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007009706.
↑ "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910, 1921-1924", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCHH-859 : 28 July 2021), Mary Braye or Bragge in entry for Joseph Eveleth, 1667.
↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881 Case 23760 $subscription required
↑ Essex Antiquarian, 1 (1897):175-176 at 175; digital images, Hathi Trust
↑ "Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:MDRP-XF9 : 17 January 2020), Entry for John Ring, 1684.
↑ Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County Edited by George Francis Dow Transcribed and Abstracted from the Original Manuscript by Harriet S. Tapley Published and Copyrighted by the Essex Institute Volume 9 p 328
↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:M63H-RJC : 15 January 2020), Entry for John Ring, 1665.
↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:MDRV-LMZ : 20 May 2022), Entry for John Ring, 21 Oct 1665; citing Death, Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007010724.
↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:M63H-YT5 : 15 January 2020), Entry for Thomas Ring, 1669.
↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:Q21G-D7ZF : 20 May 2022), Entry for David Ring, Aug 1679; citing Birth, Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007010724.
↑ "Descendants of Edward Small of New England"- Lora Underhill, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1910- Vol. II, p. 993 citing Essex County Deeds 3:583
↑ "Massachusetts Town Deaths Index, ca. 1640-1961", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:MDRP-9CW : 23 October 2020), Entry for Mary Bray Ring, 1725.
↑ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). $subscription required

GEDCOM Note

From Ancestral File (TM), data as of 2 January 1996.