Ancestors

Desire Manchester

Desire Manchester married William Bennet at Tiverton on 6 December 1722. The Tiverton book enters it under MANCHESTER as "Desire, and William Bennet". Her parents are not known.

She was the wife of William Bennet of Dartmouth, Massachusetts. That the Tiverton bride is the Dartmouth wife is probable rather than proved. The names, the date and the place all fit. Her son William married at the Dartmouth Friends' meeting in 1748 and was recorded as "William, s. William and Desire". Elizabeth Bennett, who married John Taber in 1761, was probably her daughter too.

Her husband died before 1776. When his estate was divided that year her dower was set off to her. Dower was a widow's right to a share of her husband's land, usually a third, for the rest of her life. A letter among the estate papers of 1776 speaks of "a Distresed widow and some fatherless children of my faithfull though deceased friend William Bennet".

She lived on for many years. In 1789 her grandson Bennet Taber sold his share of the land held for her life to his father, John Taber. She was dead by 9 May 1793. That day a committee divided her dower land, describing her as "Desire Bennet the widow of the said deceased who is since deceased".

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Cite: Heirology, "Desire Manchester", https://heirology.com/ancestors/desire-manchester-bb274c.