Deacon Edward Fobes
Edward Fobes was born in Plymouth Colony about 1651, the year Find a Grave gives. He was a son of John Fobes, who came to Bridgewater from Duxbury as one of the town's original proprietors, and of John's wife Constant, a sister of Experience Mitchell. The immigrant of the family was his father. Edward was born in New England.
His father died about 1661, when Edward was about ten. John Fobes made a nuncupative will, a will spoken aloud before witnesses, in front of William Brett and Arthur Harris. In 1662 his mother married John Briggs of Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The brothers went different ways. John died at George Allen's in Sandwich in 1661. William married Elizabeth Southworth, settled at Little Compton, and served with Captain Church in King Philip's War. Caleb went to Norwich. Joshua was killed in the war in 1676. Edward stayed at Bridgewater.
He married Elizabeth Howard, a daughter of John Howard. They had nine children: Elizabeth 1677, John 1679, Mary 1681, Bethiah 1683, Hannah 1686, Ephraim 1688, Joshua 1689, Benjamin 1692 and William 1698. The town clerk entered two of them as "John, s. Eward, July 1, 1679" and "Bethiah, d. Eward, Oct. 11, 1683".
Three of his daughters married Keiths. Elizabeth married Joseph Keith, Bethiah married Samuel Keith in 1703, and Hannah married Timothy Keith in 1710. Mary never married. His son John married Abigail Robinson in 1704. Ephraim married Martha Snell in 1714. Benjamin married Martha Hunt in 1721 and went to Easton. William married Thankful Dwelly of Scituate in 1725. Joshua married Abigail Dunbar in 1711 and went out to Titicut, on the Taunton River, where a later memorial calls him the first white settler.
Edward was a deacon of the Bridgewater church. A deacon was a lay officer of a New England church, chosen by the members to look after its money and its poor and to serve at communion. Mitchell says only that "Edward the father, d. a. 1732." Find a Grave gives his death as 1731.
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Cite: Heirology, "Deacon Edward Fobes (1651-1732)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/deacon-edward-fobes-1651-1732-f786ae.