Ancestors

Abigail Haywood

Abigail Hayward was baptised at Beverly on 1 September 1695, a daughter of Nehemiah Hayward and his first wife Ruth Clarke. Her mother died while she was a girl and her father moved the household to Salem, which is why the marriage entry calls her of Salem.

She married Edward Dodge of Beverly on 14 March 1716/17. Her brother James married Elisabeth Dodge of Beverly on the same day. The town books enter both weddings on 14 March 1716/17; the Dodge genealogy prints Abigail's a year later, as 14 March 1717/8. Two couples marrying on one day is a fair sign they went up together.

Nine children followed at Beverly over seventeen years, of whom four are thought to have died young. One of the sons was called Nehemiah, after her father.

Her husband died in March 1750/1 and left her half of everything, on the condition that if she married again she would take her dower instead and no more. She did not remarry so far as the record shows. She served as executrix and made oath to the inventory of the estate.

Five years later her father, by then a very old man living in Middlesex County, made his will and put her first in it. "Imprimis: I give to my Daughter Abigail Dodge Sixteen Shills lawful money besides what I gave her before." She was sixty one and widowed, and sixteen shillings was a token beside whatever the earlier gift had been.

If Abigail Haywood is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Abigail Haywood (b. 1695)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/abigail-haywood-1695-238a85.